Our Victorian road projects just eat football ovals…
Needs some gators swimming around in there.
And "Florida Man" fishing off of the edge
I tried some vegemite as a kid, once.
And only once.
I believe the phrase is "Unaquirable taste." ![]()
Several years ago (early 1990’s) I met a professional colleague who sponsored me to lecture at a seminar in Florida. He graciously invited me to his beautiful home on the inter-coastal for dinner and drinks with his wife during which time he constantly encouraged me to move to Florida (no state income tax, a nice business environment, a large house on the inter-coastal waterway with a dock and boat for the price of my beachside condo in SoCal, and no earthquakes . . . geez was he was really obsessed with and afraid of earthquakes). A week later almost his entire backyard and corner of his home fell into an enormous sink hole (too much lime/shale and underground water in Florida)
. Two months later they lost their home to Andrew
. Yikes! (I still live in SoCal
)

My ship did part of the cleanup after Andrew and provided water to Miami/Dade for several months. That was a nasty one.
@tray_e , thank you for your service. To be clear, I had no intention to make light of Andrew, of course, just the irony of the timing. Many new friends and acquaintances I made at the surgical/reconstructive lecture I gave lost everything (homes, memories, and especially for those in private practices, even the means to make a living). What a terrible tragedy. At least (in large part due to people like you) back then, 1992 IIRC, our disaster response was much more timely and organized compared to some of our most recent natural disasters.
1: Thank you for your support
2: There is ABSOLUTELY no reason to feel the need to even hint at an apology. By definition, squids are thick skinned and just pretty much non-offendable (unless you question our integrity or a few other specific issues). And in any case, I did not even read it as making light of Andrew.
3: I was acknowledging your (very valid) reasons for having issues with Florida. Andrew was NASTY and the mess it left behind was just nuts.
4: On the other hand.... I was also stationed in So Cal when that big quake hit San Fran, just a few years before .... I remember the day well as I was walking across I5 on the bridge from the wet side to the dry side of the base in San Diego. I was literally overtop of the interstate when the bridge began to shake (not nearly as bad as the bridge in San Fran..... but still, not something I would prefer to experience again) Was not sure which direction to run..... Your buddy's issue with quakes is also valid..... just sayin
P.S. I was also in DC when the "big quake" hit here. Literally sounded (and felt) like a train had derailed and hit our building (active tracks right behind the building I worked in at the time)... I am starting to see a pattern.....
It's all your fault, you are a disaster magnet! Thank the lord I live in Australia! ![]()
In all seriousness, Im glad we have folk like you to rescue us from disasters, you guy's are awesome. ![]()
Re: @dJOS “I’m starting to see a pattern…”
. I feel for you! My son was assigned as teaching cadre 3 years ago at Ft. Knox right after he earned his commission and was out supervising a FTX just when all the storms and devastating flooding occurred in Kentucky. They were stuck out in the field for several days at the height of the storms and ended up helping those caught in the flooding. Right afterwards, when he was in ABOLC at Ft. Benning (Moore), home of the Rangers, there was a storm (I forget which hurricane it was) that was so bad that the whole base was shut down and they brought all the Rangers who were out on a week long FTX back to base for safety reasons. My son’s ABOLC class however, spent the next week out in the storms which even closed down public schools including UGA. When they returned, he told me that they were surprised that the whole base had ceased operations so he guessed that they had just forgotten that his armor class was still out in the field doing land nav even though they recalled all the SF guys with the Rangers
! A tree came down and nearly killed the 1SGT and some others who had just been sleeping where the tree came down during the storm. My son said he had had enough of heavy weather and then was deployed to Estonia last year as a Abrams tank platoon commander just as those Russian fighters had invaded Estonian air space (and flew over the shared NATO/US base). After serving as a PL, he was promoted to XO of a light armor recon company just as Trump stated that he was not against sending boots on the ground to Iran this week. He had spent the last 3 weeks training with NATO infantry and SF in the Estonian winter snow (got down to -9 F) in a Combined Arms Live Fire Field Training Exercise (CALFX). Hopefully, ground troops won’t be necessary as Recon and SF are usually one of the first to go. Anyway, my son says “stuff just seems to follow me around” ![]()
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. That being said, I tip my hat and have a special place in my heart to all those like @tray_e (and my son) who run towards danger to help others when most are running in the opposite direction.
I'm afraid I would just stand there and stare at the danger, mouth open, fear in my eyes, and in need of new underpants.
Im an IT Major Incident / Crisis manager, so I'm used to pressure, but I get to do it from a desk far away from any physical danger. ![]()






