On 7/18/15 4:52 PM, philo wrote:
On 07/17/2015 06:11 PM, J Burns wrote:
On 7/17/15 2:48 PM, philo wrote:

I made sure the ladder was firmly anchored so it would not slip...Friend
came out to take a break and saw me up on the ladder.
I told him not to tell my wife I was up there as she would not like it

Later when the three of us were in the kitchen having coffee...he asks
me ...with wife listening of course...
So, when can I tell her...in 20 years?

66 years old, both knees replaced 3 yrs ago

At one time, I loved going aloft on a swaying ship. I would have jumped
at the chance to go aloft in a storm. In my late 30s, I suddenly became
uneasy on roofs. My balance seemed fine on the ground, but I didn't
trust it on a roof.




Some sailor I'd be/// got seasick crossing the English Channel

Seasickness seems to come from conflicting balance signals. When your
brain says, "To hell with it!" you've got sea legs. Ignorance is bliss.

My boat was built on the Great Lakes to maintain buoys and break ice,
but admirals have a strange sense of humor. They'd kept her on the
North Atlantic since 1943. In fair weather, we'd roll 30 degrees, like a
7-in-12 roof. For days on end, we'd roll 45 degrees. We wouldn't get any
sleep. You might find a way to strap yourself into your bunk, but as
soon as you drifted off, your head would start flopping.

Trying to balance was a waste of effort. Passageways had to be at least
4 feet wide. If they'd been narrower, we would have dragged along the
sides when we tried to walk. They were wide enough to give us a good
bounce when our shoulders hit the bulkheads. We'd carom down the hall
not caring which way was up.

Before hitting port, we usually had a couple of days of placid water
where the ship stayed pretty much upright so we could, like babies,
learn to walk before going ashore. Once at St. Johns, the sea was fairly
rough right up to the harbor entrance. I went to Woolworths. Out of the
corner of my eye, I kept seeing merchandise falling and turning just in
time to grab it. I felt like a bull in a china shop. Popeye didn't have
his land legs yet.

When they wrote the song, "What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor,"
maybe that sailor hadn't had a drink in weeks.