The Rooster

Yeah dude. You won't be happy until you've cut off his light saber hand and zapped him with some finger lightning.

I believe you're right. I'm a contractor also but I let my CPA handle all this now so I'm not real sure anymore. In regards to the estimated quarterly payments, when I first started contracting I had no idea about this so I didn't pay any that first year. It was no big deal, when I filed taxes at the end of the year I just paid what I owed all at once and there was no trouble over it so you could go that road and say you didn't know. I think quarterly payments are required now but at the time I started I saw it as mostly a convenience thing so you weren't blindsided all at once at the end of the year with a large amount owed since you would have paid in as you went and had part of it already covered.I'm getting hit hard this year, even with quarterly payments. Made too much. Now gotta pay the piper.

Greenup, Kentucky

I'll post this here since I'm not sure where else it would be appropriate. I've been wanting to do this for a while now. Today I made a fishing rod rack to hold all my combos so I don't have to just pile them in the corner like I have been for years now. Here's the pics. I put rolling casters on it so I could wheel it out away from the wall to get to the rods in the back. It holds 12 combos. I fish with the 6 in the front and the others are loaners and my wife's little rod that she hardly ever uses. I didn't do a lot of fancy joinery. I wanted to but I was in a hurry to get it built so I just opted for simple butt joinery and brad nails and glue to assemble it. I just made it from white pine 1x6's I had laying here. I even had the casters here already so I spent no money on it other than the initial cost of buying the wood which I had done some time ago already. Later on, I will stain it and coat it with Varathane that I also already have here. That stuff is very durable so it will make a nice finish for this. I will also wood fill all the marks made from the brad nailer. I did sand everything to 120 with my ROS. That's good enough for this. Sorry the pics are so large. I've tried resizing them on photobucket but even though their site shows all of then resized, it will only let one show here in the new size.

6'6" Shimano Compre mh/f with Curado E7. This rod does so many things well that I almost never go fishing without it. If I leave it behind it's because I'm going river fishing where I can just sling a bait out and bring it back with any rod and catch fish. It's too rocky there to lay the rod down and not get it tore up so I just take Ugly Stiks when I go there.

Mine is not so much a fishing rod or reel. It's a trolling motor. I bought a Minn Kota power drive 55 I wish I had passed on. First, the pedal went bad and I had to have it repaired. Then the motor went bad and I bought a new armature for it that didn't fix it. I've had it a few years but it hasn't been used that much really since I haven't had the time to fish like I wanted. It's now dead, I don't know what to do for it so it's just leaning in the corner downstairs and I replaced it with something else. I have an awful lot of money in it for it not to work. What's worse is when it did work it wasn't all that great. I was warned here on the forum not to buy it but I did anyway. It was too slow to respond for me to use it like I needed. So, that was my worst fishing related mistake.

On the 512th flush, the power assist toilet seat finally........."crapped out".

How sad. Went through that once. Once was enough. I feel for ya buddy.My resolution is to fish more. I said that last year but I barely went in 2012. I really want to learn jigging. Had some success but not enough. Probably should lose some weight, too.

I can't stand all the facial piercings I see on people. Every time I see someone like that I want to reach for a really strong magnet. Either just suck them all out or let go of the magnet and smack them in the face with it. Also, what about the holes in their ears so large I can fit my thumb through them? Looks like the bottom guide on my spinning rod. Seriously, one day they are going to regret that, it looks so nasty with or without the ring in (and painful too, doesn't that hurt?). And the whole feministic male look, that's just disgusting. Some people say they don't look down on others for this kind of stuff, but I do. Have some self respect. Bodily mutilation is not cool. Gender confusion isn't either. And I agree with every word of Scrutch's post.

Small TV? How small, 50 inches? Cause that's as small as I'd be going!

This year I asked for only woodworking items since that is my new favorite hobby. Aside from a bunch of that kind of stuff, I ended up getting two $25 BPS gift cards and one $25 Cabela's gift card. I guess everybody figured I needed some fishing gear after all.

PM sent. I'd ask for management or the sporting goods department manager if you want to arrange a deal to have them shipped to you. The employees wont be able to do much. Their tendency is to say it can't be done to try to get out of it and avoid the hassle of dealing with something that is not normal day to day procedures. If you get a hold of some guy who says they don't have them or doesn't know what they are, tell them they are locked in the glass case behind the counter, where the long guns are. They are in green boxes, and at least one of them has a red label on it with the price of $200. I think it says Curado DSV on it. Last time I was there it looked like they had several, and I think one might have been a Citica but I can't remember now. It's been at least a month or more since I was at that one. Call during the day to get the dept. manager. Before 3 p.m. After that time it gets harder because it's just employees and assistant managers. Even assistant managers have been known to act like it's someone else's job to do this if it's an out of the ordinary request.

Yesterday....... Breakfast - McDonald's large biscuit and gravy, hash brown, and Hi-C fruit drink. Lunch - 2 Little Debbie cinnamon rolls and a 20 oz. Mountain Dew Dinner - Wife made some potato soup with bacon and onions in it, 2 grilled cheese sandwiches.....mmmmm! Midnight snack - Totinos pizza rolls with shredded cheese that I added. Today.......remains to be seen, but probably not much better for the first two meals.

Stay off the pop. Sugar is baaaaaad for causing stones.

It is a little complicated but doing stuff like this does get easier after you've done it a time or two. My wife says I think too complex anyway. Funny thing is I was asleep when the idea came to me. I wasn't thinking at all, more like dreaming.

Really, cause I could make one of these in about an hour? I guess it's because woodworking has become my other favorite pastime besides fishing. I figured this would be the major drawback here. I'm up to 4 now, myself.

This idea might be crazy and there might be a reason it won't work that I haven't thought of. If so, revise it, or dump it completely. Anyway, I've read where some use a PVC pipe with glued on end caps and a screw off lid to ship rods in. Sometimes these can be bent or crushed and cause damage to the rods inside. Also, by time you buy the parts, how expensive is it to make one of these tubes? My idea is to use two 2x4's instead. They're cheap, under $6 for both. Get the lightest ones you can find since the obvious drawback will be weight. You can feel their weight and tell some are lighter than others sometimes. Saw them to the shortest length needed to reduce as much weight as possible. Now put the rod on top of one laying flat and draw its outline on the surface. Draw it fairly close fitting but still loose around the rod. Now use a plunge router with a round nosed bit to hollow out the inside of the outline. You might get it deep enough on one board only, but if not then you'll need to make a mirror image of it on the other board. Now put the rod inside it, wrapped up in some padding maybe, and tape the boards together, spiral wrapped around it all. Maybe even put a few screws along each edge to hold the two halves together, maybe to keep anyone from easily tampering with the rod before it gets to its destination. This migh cost more to ship due to weight, but the making of it should cost less than the PVC version so that might offset the cost some. This also isn't what you'd do for an average rod to ship it but if you had a really expensive one that absolutely can't get broken, this could make a case strong enough to protect it against breakage from just about anything. A 2 piece rod could make for 1/2 the weight with just 2 short boards needed so cost is reduced to only one board and cut it in half to make both sides. The rod halves should still fit side by side on the board. Maybe this will give somebody an idea to take a little further, or save an expensive rod from breakage, or an heirloom old rod. Don't know why I thought of it. I was half asleep at the time and it just came to me. Had to write it down before forgetting it so this was as good a place as any.

The Walmart near me has several of the Curado D reels still boxed brand new, and still marked $200. Been there for years.

LOL! If you change tackle too often, however, you could be changing wives before too long as well.

I like making my own combos so I get it exactly like I want it, but I have bought combos pre matched in the past. The Pflueger President combo is a nice one. I looked at it while there last time. I don't need one but it caught by eye. I noticed it because it was so nice compared to its price.

There are two different Lew's reels that wear the name Tournament. One, the Lew's Tournament MG, is magnetic braking only. The other, the Lew's Tournament Speed Spool, is dual centrifugal and magnetic braking. Then you have the Tournament Pro, which is also dual.

You probably won't get back the money out of those rods that they costed you to buy them new by just selling them to the next guy. I understand the feeling you are having though. I've bought stuff that I thought was too much at times. My Shimano reels for example. Sometimes I think for what I'm using them for that they costed too much money and there's the impulse to sell them and go with cheaper reels, but then I remember that used they are worth far less so all I would be doing is getting what I could for them and then spending that whole amount, or more, on lesser reels. Also, there are times when I'm using them that I realize how well suited they are to the particular task I'm doing at the time as well, and then I'm glad I kept them. Whatever you decide to do, just remember these won't be the last rods you ever buy and next time you will know how much use you got from these so you can choose then to either continue with buying rods like them, or step down some based on what you have learned from this experience. In the mean time, since you have them, I'd fish them and see if they are better than the others you've had before. The only way I'd do otherwise is if they were still brand new, unused, and could be returned for a refund or exchange. You might get lucky and sell them for a very modest discount over what you paid but I think most guys buying rods from someone instead of from a store are looking for a deal so they won't pay retail prices or even close to that.

It was a great movie. Went to see it Friday night. There was one story in it that Lincoln told that was absolutely hilarious. Whole audience was laughing. Can't tell you though, it would spoil it. We didn't bother with the Lincoln vampire thing though. Never saw it and had no desire. Wonder if there will be a sequel with all those dead civil war soldiers coming back as zombies and the (now) president Lincoln having to fight them off? Why not, everybody else has went zombie crazy? I did notice that the line for the new Twilight movie was out the door and had at least an hour wait to be seated after tickets were bought. I walked right by it and was seated immediately, thinking the whole time I got the better deal on a movie.

In the story, he said the line had a burr on it. This would reduce its breaking strength. Not to mention a fish can exert more pull than it actually weighs.

I was never here. If you say I was, I'll deny it!