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Post by 9idrr on Jul 23, 2019 17:56:01 GMT -6
Well, sir, it's been over a half an hour, and we're still waitin'...
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Post by texican on Jul 23, 2019 22:33:35 GMT -6
Well, sir, it's been over a half an hour, and we're still waitin'... 9, A little impetuous are we.... Texican....
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Post by willc453 on Jul 23, 2019 22:54:53 GMT -6
Just remember that I run on a different time schedule than everyone else. And if it makes you feel any better, 42 is now (I think) 12 pages which means somewhere in it, I'll EVENTUALLY have to do some cuttin' and pastin' to put in 43. Once I'm sure I've got more added and 43 goin', I'll post 42.
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Post by 9idrr on Jul 24, 2019 17:48:08 GMT -6
Well, sir, it's been over a half an hour, and we're still waitin'... 9, A little impetuous are we.... Texican.... Can't see any reason not to be, if it works...
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Post by 9idrr on Jul 24, 2019 17:49:42 GMT -6
Just remember that I run on a different time schedule than everyone else. And if it makes you feel any better, 42 is now (I think) 12 pages which means somewhere in it, I'll EVENTUALLY have to do some cuttin' and pastin' to put in 43. Once I'm sure I've got more added and 43 goin', I'll post 42. Okay, no problem. I won't whine again' 'til it's been 24 and 1/2 hours.
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Post by texican on Jul 25, 2019 23:28:07 GMT -6
Just remember that I run on a different time schedule than everyone else. And if it makes you feel any better, 42 is now (I think) 12 pages which means somewhere in it, I'll EVENTUALLY have to do some cuttin' and pastin' to put in 43. Once I'm sure I've got more added and 43 goin', I'll post 42. Okay, no problem. I won't whine again' 'til it's been 24 and 1/2 hours. 9, Give WillC a break he is old and reading what he types is tiring.... And.... WillC does run on a different time frame, besides being old.... Texican....
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Post by willc453 on Jul 26, 2019 11:15:27 GMT -6
Yep, that's me....REALLY, REALLY old. Why I remember having to fight off packs of veloraptors while walking 100 miles (one way of course) to school....with snow almost up to my chin! And golly, my memories' not like it used to be..... Like what boys were doing in Texas and Oklahoma. Or how they reacted to a large group of people unexpectedly showing up at their place while the girls are there. OH MY GOD! Somebody call the President....I'm all out of Geritol! But I think I can hang on to life a little bit longer as I got another 12 cup pot of coffee going in the kitchen and 4 cartons of cigarettes in the cupboard. But as OLD as I am, I, of course, haven't forgotten my prepper skills, which is why I don't use matches or a lighter....that's what ferro rods were made for.
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Post by texican on Jul 26, 2019 12:28:21 GMT -6
Yep, that's me....REALLY, REALLY old. Why I remember having to fight off packs of veloraptors while walking 100 miles (one way of course) to school....with snow almost up to my chin! And golly, my memories' not like it used to be..... Like what boys were doing in Texas and Oklahoma. Or how they reacted to a large group of people unexpectedly showing up at their place while the girls are there. OH MY GOD! Somebody call the President....I'm all out of Geritol! But I think I can hang on to life a little bit longer as I got another 12 cup pot of coffee going in the kitchen and 4 cartons of cigarettes in the cupboard. But as OLD as I am, I, of course, haven't forgotten my prepper skills, which is why I don't use matches or a lighter....that's what ferro rods were made for. WillC, A supply of coffee and cigs should have you pumping out or is that puffing out another chapter in no time.... Now just how much of that cig is left after you strike that ferro rod ten or twenty times to light each cig?.?.?.? Inquiring minds want to know.... Texican.... For the uninformed....
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Post by 9idrr on Jul 26, 2019 19:56:12 GMT -6
Yep, that's me....REALLY, REALLY old. Why I remember having to fight off packs of veloraptors while walking 100 miles (one way of course) to school....with snow almost up to my chin! And golly, my memories' not like it used to be..... Like what boys were doing in Texas and Oklahoma. Or how they reacted to a large group of people unexpectedly showing up at their place while the girls are there. OH MY GOD! Somebody call the President....I'm all out of Geritol! But I think I can hang on to life a little bit longer as I got another 12 cup pot of coffee going in the kitchen and 4 cartons of cigarettes in the cupboard. But as OLD as I am, I, of course, haven't forgotten my prepper skills, which is why I don't use matches or a lighter....that's what ferro rods were made for. Jeeze, as young as you are you shouldn't be smokin', it'll stunt your growth. Then again, over there in NV you ain't gotta pay all the silly taxes we do over here to the west of you.
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Post by gipsy on Jul 26, 2019 22:29:45 GMT -6
Yep, that's me....REALLY, REALLY old. Why I remember having to fight off packs of veloraptors while walking 100 miles (one way of course) to school....with snow almost up to my chin! And golly, my memories' not like it used to be..... Like what boys were doing in Texas and Oklahoma. Or how they reacted to a large group of people unexpectedly showing up at their place while the girls are there. OH MY GOD! Somebody call the President....I'm all out of Geritol! But I think I can hang on to life a little bit longer as I got another 12 cup pot of coffee going in the kitchen and 4 cartons of cigarettes in the cupboard. But as OLD as I am, I, of course, haven't forgotten my prepper skills, which is why I don't use matches or a lighter....that's what ferro rods were made for. What is this Ferro rod stuff. I use flint for sparks myself. These youngsters have it easy these days. I have you by 14 years so have some respect for your elders.
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Post by texican on Jul 26, 2019 23:10:39 GMT -6
Yep, that's me....REALLY, REALLY old. Why I remember having to fight off packs of veloraptors while walking 100 miles (one way of course) to school....with snow almost up to my chin! And golly, my memories' not like it used to be..... Like what boys were doing in Texas and Oklahoma. Or how they reacted to a large group of people unexpectedly showing up at their place while the girls are there. OH MY GOD! Somebody call the President....I'm all out of Geritol! But I think I can hang on to life a little bit longer as I got another 12 cup pot of coffee going in the kitchen and 4 cartons of cigarettes in the cupboard. But as OLD as I am, I, of course, haven't forgotten my prepper skills, which is why I don't use matches or a lighter....that's what ferro rods were made for. What is this Ferro rod stuff. I use flint for sparks myself. These youngsters have it easy these days. I have you by 14 years so have some respect for your elders. Gypsy,
Just how much of your cigs do you have after striking your cigs with the flint before they light?
When you get skilled enough like us really old ones do, you can rub two sticks together to light your cigs...
But since I don't smoke cigs, but chew cigars and spit, use the stick to start fires and burn trash....
The wife will not let me burn trash in the house anymore due to the smoke so have to go outside to rub sticks together to fire up the trash....
Now I have gotten mad enough at democraps, yankees and their ilk to reach out and start fires, but the doc told me not to do that any more for he wasn't going to treat the burns on my hands anymore....
Now I tried spitting fire, but the burn on the tongue just wasn't agreeablle....
Texican...
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Post by willc453 on Jul 27, 2019 11:19:29 GMT -6
The Affected: The Shadow Chapter 42 Some may have wondered about the “energy” drain that's happened to us all too many times when we first started finding out about our abilities. Thing is, we think we finally figured out WHY it hits us. Or at least, times it has. We think that it was because we were together when we got changed. If I'm working the nothingness by myself, there's an “energy” drain but nothing big. But when we work together in the nothingness or light, there can be a REALLY big “energy” drain on both of us depending on what we're doing in them. The good thing about it was that our abilities were amplified. Now this one wasn't bad, but we knew we needed something to eat REAL soon. So we went to a Las Vegas casino where the buffet was open 24/7. They lost money with us eating there that day. Well, we were tired, so went back home. We forgot we were to see the girls that day, we were that tired and slept most of the day. When we got up, check our phones and saw the girls had called us several times and wanted to know what happened. Uh oh. Well, we weighed ourselves and found we'd lost eight pounds each and the girls had weighed us just two days ago. The Hamburg, Germany and London, England vendors were closed, so hello Thailand. Now we felt better, so we call the girls back and of course, they wanted to see us. They are SO suspicious. We get there and right off the bat, they got their scale ready for us to be weighed. With what we ate in Thailand, we'd only lost two pounds. We told them they had to remember we've been busy helping out at those camps in south and central American countries. They wanted us to eat, but since we already had.... Well, we thought we got away with this one, but..... What neither of us had thought about was those hospital floors which overlooked the helicopter pad! Yeah, several people saw those Arabs flying out of the nothingness and quickly grabbed their phones and started recording everything! Of course, the military being what it is, tried classifying everything super duper top secret. But days later, when the videos hit Facebook and Youtube.... What made it worse was because we were so busy helping everyone down south along with those girls and women from New York City, we didn't have a chance to see them. Not that we were Facebook kind of guys and as far as news went, not really interested. A few days later, the girls “casually” ask us if we'd been watching the news or checking out Youtube. We said no and of course, they played the videos and then waited. We're looking at each other and I said hey look, it's gotta be that guy who was helping those Marines in Saudi Arabia or where ever. They both looked at me, saying oh, really? That's when Aaron spoke up, saying take a look at the video....it looks like those Arab people are suddenly appearing in the air just like those Arabs were not long ago when those Marines needed help in that one city. And that's when I added that maybe I wasn't the only one who could use the nothingness or something like it.... remember those cartoons where Wile E. Coyote would paint a black disc on the road or side of some mountain. And would end up falling thru it to go splat somewhere? Besides, doesn't that area they're shooting out from look like it's ABOVE the asphalt? Aaron chimes with, why yes it does when you really look at it. Then of course, still being suspicious, asked if we'd ever been to Hamburg and we told the truth: yes, we had as they had some really good food street vendors there. Which was true, though we only ate in that city that one time. Also, we've gone to a lot of different places to eat that we haven't taken you girls to because you were either working or before we met you. They bought it! Mess with experienced DM's would they? Yeah, we were really ignorant about girls and women thru out school and beginning our college years, but we were learning! Maybe some of you have seen the news and Youtube videos about the homeless and tent cities in California, specifically San Francisco and the Los Angeles area the past few years? The girls wanted to see Disneyland so we took them, staying at the hotel there and later on, that one at Disneyworld along with the other amusement park hotels in Florida. We thought the monorail ride was THE coolest thing ever. Thing is, we were shocked and sickened while rubbernecking in San Francisco to see a man actually squatting while defecating OPENLY in public AND doing this in front of a small cafe! I didn't even think about it....dropped him into the nothingness, where he went down a tunnel of it, then coming out of Diane Pelosi's interior house wall, landing his bare behind on her really nice carpeting. And if wondering, there are photos of where she lives and what it looks like inside, though this took me about an hour to find via the internet, with the defecator going round and round in the nothingness. We couldn't believe the amount of trash and filth these people were creating and also, the number of needles the drug users were openly using and casually discarding on the city streets. Now we'd heard how liberals and the Democrats ran California and it took us some time (several days on the internet and Youtube) to actually believe and understand everything that was said about them was true. Well, the girls didn't understand our ignorance about California and said they hoped what they called The Big One would hit California, making it an island, completely separate from the continental U.S. We replied that was a bit harsh, but when they saw the gleam in our eyes, they said two words: sic 'em. We did. Suddenly both mayors offices, along with other elected officials, find their offices filled with human waste, needles, garbage, etc. along with it also dropping from the ceilings of their homes. And we're talking TONS of this stuff. Think we took more stuff off the street than all the cow poo we'd taken from those cattle ranches in Texas, it was that bad. Then there were the abandoned buildings filled with trash and rats. BIG ONES. Looked up EVERY high elected Democrat official in that state who suddenly found not only their offices filled with this “debris” and rats, but in some cases, their homes and vehicles. Suddenly, the homeless and drug users became a PERSONAL and IMMEDIATE crisis for them to deal with. Then the Democrats started having “visitors” in their offices after everyone there was gone or finding when they opened the doors to their offices, garbage, feces, etc. came POURING out. The news people reported that security was now given the job to open these doors and more than once, with disastrous results. Then there were all those chairs those people sat on at the state and Washington D.C. capitals. Democrats were quickly and easily identified by the garbage surrounding and sometimes, covering their chair. Thing is, the streets did get cleaner, but some people are just slobs. We started making vocal house calls on the drug addicts for example, telling them to get help or face the consequences as they were detrimental to society. Those that didn't, suddenly found themselves falling from under a bridge in some south American country with their few possessions. No idea what happened to them, nor did we check up on them as our time was limited in helping those who not only needed it, but were happy to get it so they could get themselves out of the quagmire they found themselves in life. It was shortly after this, that we found out about mini homes. I mean, they'd be ten by twelve feet in diameter, more like a shed than a home, but at least they had a lockable door and a window to look out of. So we spent money on having a bunch built, but that didn't work out too well because many (but not all) people had no EMOTIONAL investment in them. And of course, we had forgotten about the garbage people generate in day to day living. As for empty land, a few vocal calls from under the various representatives tables, chairs, etc., suddenly found city land available which was usually under some freeway. Maybe not the best location, but one hundred percent better than what the homeless did have. And the cities kicked in dumpsters and port a potties with the potties being emptied every 3 days max. Then they got running water via faucets which got installed which was followed by showers even though it was cold water that the homeless got. We figured better something than nothing. Of course, there are those slobs who once again, which simply disappeared to another country. We had the government agencies post what was and was NOT permissible. We NEVER gave those kind of people a second chance, but just spread the word why they were no longer there. Pretty soon, the homeless were policing themselves and doing a great job at it. Now we were also busy helping those former girl and lady prostitutes. Now some of the girls went back home, with some having a hard time returning to what we would call a “normal” life. Not knowing what to do, we called Bill and Ted, explaining our dilemma. The younger ones found themselves going to private schools in Texas and a couple of other states, with us not only paying full tuition in advance, but all their clothes, some spending money, etc. However, if they wanted to go places like Paris, that was a once a year thing and of course, they had to make at least C's. And to make things easier for us, we had them do it as separate groups at separate times to make it easier on us to check up on them. We used the girls as their chaperons some times during those three days of a mini vacation if you will, when possible. They also showed them to properly dress, wearing a minimum of makeup. Told them that less is better. And we would drop them different gifts when they did really well, such as Navajo pieces of jewelry. And of course, the girls and women kept in contact with each other via our phones. As to the other ladies, they had no interest in becoming maids, waitress, etc., not that we blamed them. Yeah they were jobs, but dead end jobs with no chance of actually bettering themselves. They never thought of being truck drivers, welders, plumbers, mechanics, electricians, etc. Once again, Ted and Bill with their contacts, found apprentice jobs for them, with us kicking in their union dues, their rent for a full year, along required fees, tools, along with money not only for food, but a car and spending money during their first year learning a new, useful and NEEDED skill. Now none of this was done overnight, but took several YEARS. Now with the older women keeping in contact with the younger girls, the girls got feedback from them along with how thing were going with them. Now what does what I've written have to do with the homeless? We explained to those learning carpentry, etc. what we had been doing and could use some help on the weekends. They were quick to jump in with what little knowledge they had while working with others who were professionals, with both sets of people showing the homeless how to build their own places. Those that would continue living like pigs got sent out of the country. Word got passed among the homeless REALLY quick because our ladies would pass the word to them about us, you know, the Metronomes. Which meant we ended up helping the homeless in finding jobs, new skills, money for food, small Coleman stoves to cook the food on, etc. Aaron and I have NO idea how many millions we spent doing this. To our shame, the worse thing about all of this was being unable to help all the homeless. But with representatives finding garbage, etc. in THEIR places and homes, things got better for everyone. Or a bit better than what they were. Now in Silicon Valley, there were a bunch of abandoned trailers and motorhomes that were trashed but for some reason, were not hauled from the city streets. We had them rebuilt over a period of time also by those ladies and some of the girls. No fancy interiors, but everything was water tight and worked. Some of the homeless had cars and found they could take their vehicles to places where a trailer hitch would be mounted, then told where to go next, with the trailer having a new title and insured for one year. Or getting new tires, oil change, etc. Many left California to find jobs in Colorado, Texas, etc. The mass exodus of tax paying citizens numbered so much, that California was not only losing businesses due to their high taxes and regulations, but what American citizens there would have been paying in city, county and state taxes. For the first time in California history, there was a DECREASE in its AMERICAN population. Another was illegal aliens suddenly showing up INSIDE the liberals and Democrats homes. And we'd have them in their homes around two-three am. Suddenly A LOT of police are getting panicky calls. The so called sanctuary cities? They suddenly disappeared, with ICE not only being called on those illegal aliens, but the mayors and others in those cities got arrested and charged with aiding those illegal aliens. Nothing like ICE having videos of these people attempting and planning on ignoring immigration laws. This included more than one priest. Suddenly the rich and famous, along with those actors and actresses who wanted open borders, shut up because we also sent a bunch of the illegals to suddenly appear inside those multi million dollar homes, once again, in the wee hours of the morning. Nothing like getting the owners attention with their various alarms going off inside their homes, waking them up from a sound sleep. In Milwaukee, there's a big Somali population and they were doing their best to have their Sharia law as the law of the land. Again, we didn't believe this at first, but when we found out many of the stories were true, those people and their families suddenly found themselves back in different parts of Somalia! The majority of people we returned were single males, along with some of their Muslim preachers or whatever they call themselves. Neither of us ever had any trouble with someone's religion, though to be honest, some sounded REALLY stupid. Like those people who handle poisonous snakes. You're welcome to your religious beliefs, but not to the point you shove it down our throats, telling us we HAVE TO observe Sharia law for example or eat only certain kinds of food. Such as NO pork chops, lobsters, crawdads, etc.? And the girls know we love how they do those pork chops for us. Which brought up a problem between the four of us when they'd cook for us and sometimes when we were out eating somewhere. They wanted to talk? They FINALLY understood that for us (and other guys?), eating was a serious business even when The Hunger hadn't hit us. Once we were fed, THEN we'd be happy to talk with them. Now we still hit Hooters when we could because the girls were still working there at the time and of course, the wings were so good. And let's not forget the extra free ranch dressings we always got. We ended up as one of the regulars there if you will, with Rick Blaine the manager and others remembering how we played for them that one time, including Dave Brent with his guitar. So more than once we ended up bringing at least one instrument to play, then others started bringing theirs and we'd start jamming and playing outside in the covered patio area. And Rick was REAL happy when we did this as word would get passed around kind of quick and suddenly the place was not only filled with customers ordering food and drink, many times there'd be two dozen or so of them outside on the patio. It was one of those nights for us....you know, where we really didn't feel like playing but the customers kept asking. So we talked it over and told everyone we weren't going to play that night, with groans from everyone. But then Aaron said we thought we'd sing you something and there was more than one groan from some of the customers who had heard us sing quite awhile ago. I said however, we need everyone to clap when we tell you to and just keep clapping, okay? Then we looked at our girls and said by the way, you'll KNOW the part you're suppose to play in this song. They looked confused, but said okay. They (and the customers) looked confused when the two of us laid on the floor shortly after we started singing, but suddenly when we came to the girls part in the song, they KNEW what they were to do. Then later, when we stood up and finished the song, EVERYONE roared with appreciation and applause. And yes, some great smooches from the girls. And no, we didn't wake up with blue ribbons either later on. Now the girls weren't always working there like they should of, but Rick cut them some slack because we came to his place on a more or less regular basis when they were working that night, his sales went thru the roof. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ35SOU9HTMNow if you're wondering, we ALWAYS felt bad when we killed people and still have nightmares at times. But when we did, we talked it over between us before doing this. Most of those people we dealt with just suddenly found themselves in other countries with just the clothes on their backs...no money, I.D., etc. Which meant it'd take them awhile to get back to the U.S. because they'd have to find a U.S. Embassy to start the process of getting back home. Some didn't make it back because they found themselves being preyed upon and used by those citizens of some country. Like North Korea. Now some were REALLY stupid when they got back home, returning to their old ways. Sorry, we gave you ONE chance to change your life. They didn't get a second chance and word got quickly spread around how so and so WAS here and now he's gone again? Then it got to where we didn't spend as much time with the girls as we wanted to and that was only part of our problem. Now we had paid Mrs. Hernandez (our landlady) a years rent in advance which made her happy, along with no longer having bad tenants and the neighborhood actually starting to look nice with lawns, freshly painted homes and apartments with no graffiti spray painted everywhere, etc. Yes, there was crime but nothing like it was a few years earlier. So Aaron and I are sitting on the same couch we got from Mrs. Hernandez years ago and he sighs. The kind that tells me he wants to say something, but not sure how to say it. Thing is, his sigh was contagious with me doing the same. We looked at each other, then with me losing our rock, scissors paper bet, I started talking. Told him that while I didn't know about how he felt, but I was getting a little tired of all of this, waving my hands around. He said, you're not talking about our apartment are you? It's more than that, isn't it? I nodded yes and that's when he said it's not only about our lifestyle, but the way it's stopped our dreams, isn't it? I said yeah, I mean we're REALLY lucky in having the girls and their families in our lives and they're the second best thing that ever happened to us. He looks at me and I said think about it... if we hadn't been changed, there's NO WAY we'd of ever met them. So us getting changed is the best thing that ever happened to us, right? He agreed. And what would of happened to us if we had caved in to Annabelle and Gingers demands to become musicians? And what if they found out about the music we've been sending to Hector? No doubt they'd want a cut of HIS royalties that he and the others worked so hard for. We both shuddered at that thought. I said, how about we take a vacation with just the two of us? No girls, no helping those down south because they're pretty much set up and acting on their own. Also, no FBI or stuff like that, okay? Aaron said it was a good idea, but we would keep in contact with everyone, right? I said of course and besides, when was the last time we even worked on our modules? He said I was right...that slowly we were turning into round pegs to fit the round holes of life. We both shuddered at that thought. But being experienced DM's, we got smart....we first called the girls dads, explaining what we wanted to do and why. They wanted to know why we were calling them instead of the girls. Aaron explained and they said they'd call their girls for us but we declined. Said this was our problem, but we just wanted to make sure we weren't being self centered or anything like that. They understood and if any of them needed us in an emergency, we'd be there for them. Then we called our dads and they laughed at us?! This was when we found out that guys need their alone time too and not only that, be with other guys. Kind of like a ritual or bonding if you will. Which was when they told us that while women aren't happy with their guys doing whatever they may never find out about, guys just need to put their foot down. Why do you think you boys and us would take so many fishing trips? WE just wanted out of the house and away from all those d*amn honey do lists that women seem to ALWAYS have an endless supply of. While we love your moms, there are times we've had enough and it's time to go fishing. Which is why your moms took care of the girls and we took care of you boys during those times. Besides, after you've been gone even for just a few days, you're glad to see each other again. Well, we called the girls and we thought they'd raise heck especially when we told them we didn't know how long we'd be gone and unless it was an emergency, we didn't want them calling us. Well, they didn't and that should of made us suspicious, but we got to thinking and talking it over later that maybe their dads had called them after all. Suddenly, there was no pressure to find bad, evil, wicked people. Things down south were going well, with those there now handling everything. For the first week or so, we didn't do anything except watch rented movies from Red Box, check out Youtube and of course, work on our modules, getting better at CAD and printing more fantasy figures and monsters that would go with our modules. And went back to our old eating habits, in this case, running off to London, Italy, New York, etc. Then it was going to Panama to see the canal, then taking the train from the Atlantic to the Pacific side. Really neat seeing they used a wood burning locomotive, much like the ones used in the old westerns. As to the jungle in that country, it was scary in a kind of a way. Of course, we bought some things for our girls, moms, brothers and sisters which we planned on giving them when we got relaxed if you will. Now we were down in New Zealand doing some camping and catching some really big trout. Nothing like cooking up a couple of fish you just caught, along with some aluminum foil covered potatoes that had been baking in the coals, then soaking said potatoes in butter and sour cream. And guzzling our tea. We also got to see where some of the Lord of The Ring movies were made. We talked it over and decided we'd like to have a home built like those, but full human size of course. It was near the end of our second week when Tammy called Aaron, saying to get here NOW! We got. Showed up in their bathroom, but they're not there?! Yeah, we were thinking FBI, Homeland Security, etc. was making a “house visit”. So look for them in the nothingness and both girls are at Tammy's folks home and looking around, seeing all the ranch hands running around doing stuff. I mean, whatever it was, it was bad. Aaron talked to Tammy from under the kitchen table, with her and Kathleen going for the bathroom upstairs. Find out a whole bunch of tornadoes were raising havoc thru out Texas. Not only that, it looked like one was headed for that town where Aaron and I had bought our instruments, but another was MAYBE five miles from Tammy folks ranch! I looked at him and asked if it was possible and he replied maybe, but if we don't do SOMETHING......... We told Tammy to get the keys to one of the SUV's and drive away from this place where we'd join her and Kathleen. Well, they drove about five miles from her place and once they got out, we came out from under the seats. Thing is, they wanted to go with us!? We said H*LL NO and drove off and accidentally throwing a bunch of dust on them in our hast to get away from them. Oh boy. Thing is, Aaron was driving because he said he remembered the last time we had gone driving together in that ATV. We only drove maybe fifteen minutes and we could see both tornadoes, with the one closer to town than Tammy's place. Hit the nothingness and this time, my work was cut out for me as the shadow in the tornado kept changing. I'd have it one minute, then lose it the next. Took me six tries before I “captured” in it's own bit of nothingness. Then go looking for the one near Tammy's ranch, but this time it took a little bit longer, but I got it done. I was starting to feel the strain, but after leaving the nothingness, Aaron brought us back to the girls, with us going to Japan and its street vendor food. Ate as fast and as much as we could, with Aaron taking twelve of those egg sandwiches with us back to the girls. Told the girls what we had done, but I was dying of thirst, so back to the nothingness where the girls and Aaron loaded up on tea and several bottles of green olives from a Walmart. It was helping, but not quite enough. Besides, there were other tornadoes running amuck in Texas and some in Oklahoma. Finding a tornado is the easy part. It's finding and holding onto a shadow within it that makes it REALLY hard. No way we could go to either ranch to catch the news on where the other tornadoes were at, so back to the girls apartment and while we watched the news and weather channel, we ate and drank all that we could. We weren't even breaking even on energy expended. The girls had to return to the ranches as there was no way they could explain how they got back to their apartment. There were three in Oklahoma and two more in Texas, so after seeing where they were at, back into the nothingness, but this time we took all the food we could with us. We only caught four of the five and we HAD TO give up. As it was, I passed out in the nothingness, but Aaron got us back to the girls apartment via the small mirror he always carried. With that, he dragged me to and thru their bathroom mirror, then he too, passed out. This was when we found out that even if I passed out, the nothingness remained. We layed there for almost 2 days, at which point Aaron was the first to wake up. After getting something to eat, he woke me up, giving me a glass of sugar water, which gave me enough energy if you will, to eat, with both of us trying to eat some of the things he had brought from the girls fridge before we both passed out again. It was the afternoon(?) of the second day when the girls came home and found us and the food from their fridge in the bathroom. Did you know they not only slapped us in trying to get us awake, but also pinched our earlobes with their nails?! That part HURT! We had enough trouble just staying awake, but the girls wouldn't quit, doing their best to feed us. Three days of constantly hurting us so we'd wake up for up five minutes and quite honestly, we weren't really there mentally. We'd take a couple of bites that were FORCED into our mouths and after swallowing, fall back asleep. Took us both almost a week before we could actually stay awake and eat. And those few times we had to use the bathroom, the girls not only helped us get to it, but drop our pants and underwear while helping us sit on the toilet. And more than once, we simply fell asleep on that “throne”, so the two of them would work to wipe us, pull everything up and basically drag us back to bed where we continued to sleep. When we did finally start staying awake for longer periods of time, we did nothing but eat...and eat and eat and eat and eat even more. Between us, think we spent something like a thousand dollars on food, most of it from fast food places and restaurants that had take out available simply because the girls couldn't make it fast enough. Didn't matter to us whether it was hot or cold either, they stuffed us as much as possible. Pies, cakes, milk....we gobbled it all down and they never said a word when we drank milk and Arizona ice tea jugs directly from the jugs. The girls said they couldn't believe what we had done as they actually saw the one tornado simply disappear near Tammy's place. Their folks and ranch hands no idea what happened to it either and the girls were not about to give any suggestions on how or why this might of occurred. But they were curious....what did we do with them once they were in the nothingness? Told them the truth: they were still there, but no idea what had happened after we passed out. After we were feeling a bit better, we went to take a look see and when the girls asked if they could go with us, we said okay. Well, Aaron and I learned a lesson about the nothingness that day and fortunately, I was the only one hurt. Did you know there's a lot of air pressure in those things? Like there's photos of a piece of straw impaled in a telephone pole for example. I opened one of the bits of nothing-ness to see what was inside and all we could see was debris, but something told me NOT to simply open access to it. So I opened a small, golf ball size hole between both parts of nothingness and got slammed backwards about twenty feet into the wall of our nothing-ness. Fortunately, I wasn't knocked out, so quickly shut the access between them. The three of them asked if I was okay and I said yes, but let's NOT do this again. Aaron said we'd have to be careful releasing them because it was possible all that pressure might start another tornado.....then he looked upwards and said how about? I knew what he was talking about....releasing all that pressure on the dark side of the moon where it couldn't do any harm. ---------------- Unlike those west of us in Nevada, we don't need the government's permission or approval to buy ammo. It also explains why the parking lot at Cabela's is ALWAYS full of cars from California on the weekends. We Nevadans appreciate you spending your money here instead of your home state. I also wrote the California governor about this law that was to be enacted as I wanted to know if I, as a Nevadan, could buy ammo there without this permit. Never heard from him or his office. So much for being a man of the people. 43 is 6 pages and again, no idea when it'll get posted. As to using 2 rocks to generate a spark, got tired of banging my knuckles and why I went "high tech" in using a ferro rod.
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Post by 9idrr on Jul 27, 2019 20:29:58 GMT -6
Thanks for another great chapter. Sounds as though the boys have found the right pair of girls to help 'em get through life. As for livin' in the Golden State, taxes are high, especially on smokes and fuel. Ammo? Pfft, I ain't gotta worry about that as long as brass, lead, powder and primers are available, and that'd only be used after all the ready-rolled runs out. :^)
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Post by texican on Jul 27, 2019 22:05:40 GMT -6
WillC, 43 is 6 pages and again, no idea when it'll get posted.Now, the Moar Hounds, especially 9, will be howling in a few for moar, don't you know.... As to using 2 rocks to generate a spark, got tired of banging my knuckles and why I went "high tech" in using a ferro rod.You know that they still make matches.... and cig lighters.... Thanks WillC for the chapter.... Texican....
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Post by willc453 on Aug 12, 2019 21:16:44 GMT -6
The Affected: The Shadow Chapter 43
Of course, the girls had no idea what we were talking about and I said if we do it there, that's a lot of air being wasted. Maybe there's some caves, you know under all that moon dust. Oh boy.....did the girls go off on that one. Them: you've been on the moon?!YOU'VE BEEN ON THE MOON?! Aaron said no, we haven't been on the moon okay? I mean, not technically, but we did use it as a dumping ground for some airplanes and.... other things. They tried staring us down, but they lost on this one. I said that's a good idea, but how about Mars? I mean, NASA's talking about sending a bunch of people to visit and explore there. Maybe we can find people who could tell us what it would take to terraform it, starting with air from our planet. I mean, after all, we're producing air on our planet all the time. So what little we put in a cave or a couple of them won't be missed, right? Aaron said a SEALED cave, right and I said of course, do I look like an NPC? He said it was possible as there was that time I was going to leap off my roof with one of Moms GOOD bath towels like I was Superman. I replied yeah, but it's amazing that you seemed to have forgotten how you were going to be right behind me as Batman with Moms other bath towel. We bumped fists remembering the good ol' days of childhood.
Now the girls didn't say anything, but stood there with mouths wide open for a few seconds. Then wanted to know how I could do this and I said, if there's a shadow, we can go there but not in or on it if you know what I mean, unless we will access to it. And that's what we did, though it took us a few days as we REALLY had to check out those caves because more than once, what we thought was sealed, actually led to the outside. But we did find a bunch of them, including some we think has frozen water in them! We did some checking and Mars has some MAJOR wind storms, so we tried and succeeded in catching some of them, putting them in other empty, sealed caves. Remember those cow and pigs farms we got stuff from time to time? And did you know mushrooms also produce oxygen? Then it was finding mushroom farms, something we hadn't thought about until we happened to catch a Youtube video about how they're commercially raised. Now as to all that pressure from those tornado's, first I had to grab a shadow at the base of it and not only open a bit of nothingness to drop it in to, but I needed to have it sucked into the nothingness if you will. Now a high pressure will go to a low pressure area, so I opened a bit of the nothingness in the Himalayas, with did the trick. Once the tornado was sucked into the first nothingness, I quickly closed off both ends and started compressing the long nothingness into a much shorter bit of nothingness. Which is why there was that pressure.
Now we contacted NASA via email, requesting information on how to terraform a planet, let's say Mars. We got some printouts and pamphlets, but honestly, they were talking about using all sort of high tech stuff, you know, like growing different grasses, vines, etc. with no fertilizer. Well there was fertilizer, but it was mixed in with water so there was no soil being used. They would also be using fish, feeding them and of course, the fish have to go number two if you will, which would fertilize the plants. This is why we went the simple route of mushrooms and free fertilizer. We paid something like just over five hundred thousand dollars for our mushrooms which we took directly from those farms. We told them we had our own delivery service and on a weekend, we were really busy getting everything from Earth to Mars. Now with so much poo, we figured nightcrawlers would be a good thing and I can tell you twenty-five thousand dollars buys you A LOT of worms. Then the girls came up with a great idea: food scraps. Now Hooters and other companies do their best not to have any waste, but it happens. Besides, Hooters and Amarillo Slims throw away a lot of food that's not eaten by the customer. The one thing we couldn't use was plastic bottles, straws, etc. Believe me, it was NOT fun picking all this stuff out of a dumpster we had dropped into the nothing-ness. Last thing we wanted to do was start littering Mars with actual garbage.
Each cave we used for mushroom farming got a little air from earth and we had a air pressure monitor in that cave we could check from our side of the nothingness. So here would come a bunch of cow and pig poo, followed by uneaten food, then ready to go mushrooms. Then later, we found out about cereal plants...you know the ones that make Wheaties, Fruit Loops, Corn Flakes, etc. They have a lot of waste because the mixture doesn't pass their food inspections. Most of this is either sold or given to pig farmers. No idea how many TONS of this stuff we dumped in the caves which was used as nightcrawler food. And with lighter gravity, our mushrooms got BIG! As in six inches in height, sometimes almost a foot. The problem we were scared of was germs, you know alien (Martian) microbes. Hello NASA. We also decided to put mushrooms, etc. in a couple of those cave tunnels that lead to the surface of Mars just to see what might happen. So we now had air not only being produced inside Mars, but also drifting out onto Mars. Later, we got to thinking if we could grow something bigger than mush-rooms. The problem was, no light to help these green things grow. Hello Youtube. But with those big sandstorms on the surface, we had a wind source, so why not a windmill or three? Get a belt driven generator via the windmill, hook up a bunch of grow lights, then put them not far from the entrance of one of the caves that opened to the surface. Believe me, it wasn't easy for us to get everything more or less on even ground without something tipping over. We also were smart enough to put a remote on the generator and windmill in case the wind was too much so we could always stop the equipment from being damaged.
Many months after we helped Slim and his buddies, we were kicking back on our sofa working on a module for one of our future games at our place when the doorbell rings. I went to answer it, with Aaron asking me to grab some snacks and I replied, what, do you think I'm your maid or something? He says no....that I'm just too darn ugly. I wasn't thinking about anything when I opened the door, but hoped it wasn't those Latter Day Saints or Mormons or whatever they're called. You know, the ones in suits who want to preach the gospel. Now they were polite and what we did was send them to Mrs. Hernandez's apartment as she was Catholic and figured she might like talking with them though of course, she'd NEVER convert to their beliefs. She fed them snacks while visiting, which may explain why I was thinking we were going to have a second visit from them and this time telling no more please. What I didn't expect to see was Al and his buddies on our doorstep! Boy, talk about being shocked. Next thing I know, he's inside, pushing me backwards, then grabbing to hug me while saying, boys, this here is double ugly and somewhere is his brother short round. REALLY surprised when the others also go to grabbing, hugging me, then thanking me....that is until they saw Aaron. Well, he also recognized Al and the others, saying oh cow pies! I finally broke free of Al's and the others hugs by saying hey, we got girlfriends and in case you didn't know, we're NOT those kind of guys. Aaron got his guys to back off when he said if you don't mind, give me some breathing room because I feel I'm a halfling trapped in a forest of giant Sequoia's. Yeah, they ALL kind of loomed over him.
Go to the livingroom where Al and his friends want to thank us for what we did and we said it was no problem. We simply didn't expect this kind of gratitude for those packages we've been sending, but we're glad you liked them so much. That's when all of them turned to face me, with Al saying, no, it's NOT about the packages you sent. But they were a God send and great moral booster to tell the truth. We're here to thank you for saving our lives?! This is NOT what either of us wanted to hear, so I replied I thought he and the others were over doing it about our packages. This is when Al said, no, it's about getting us off that hillside where we were going to be wiped out....and DON'T deny it either, because not only did I recognize your voice, you and short round are the only two who knew my gamer tag AND telling me to get my mean and nasty halfling behind to get inside with you?! And you two have NEVER cursed. Aaron tried to defuse this situation by saying he'd read somewhere where people who find themselves in life and death situations have hallucinations, you know, flashbacks and probably you had one of those. Well, Al says if so, how'd we end up in a military hospital in Hamburg, Germany? I came up with you guys probably were in some sort of shell shock after being combat and just don't remember being evacuated to Germany. Al says that's the story you're going with eh? Aaron says what we said is the ONLY thing that makes any sense, you just have to understand. That's when I added don't forget that old guy that was doing what everyone was calling a Muslim on a stick not long ago. Do we LOOK like superhero's? I mean, if you want, you can check our bedroom closets for a secret passageway to the Batcave or maybe there's a false panel where we have our superhero costumes stashed. I mean after all, isn't it REQUIRED that superhero's wear costumes? Well, they're muttering among themselves with Al saying they've been checking us out while they could on their vacation time and with what he now THOUGHT he heard and the things that had happened back home (JT's Dad and his house), then here in town, the college sorority house.... I added, we've seen some of the videos of those Arab guys come flying out of the dark and remember that skeletal hand that waved bye bye to everyone? Do we look like we have skeletal hands? That's when I said, okay we are superhero's and started off with singing Underdogs theme song, with Aaron joining in. They all groaned, which was exactly what we wanted.
That's when we heard the girls calling out to us from outside, saying they had the pizzas. Yeah, they all stared at our girls when they came inside, at which point we said if you want, you're welcome to stay for pizza. And even have some beer in the fridge. They decided to stay. Now we had the girls buy us eight of those pan pizza's from Little Ceaser's because we felt a little bit of The Hunger coming on, though it didn't feel like a bad one. While we helped the girls put the pizza's on the kitchen table, we introduced Al and his friends, with me saying they were porpoises and Aaron correcting me, saying no, they're dolphins.....you know, part of the Army's Delta Force. They were ALL quick to quickly correct us and telling the girls who and what they really were while giving us some really dirty looks. It was at this point we grabbed four boxes (total) and using our coffee table, started gobbling them down. We learned it was a lot more efficient if we put two pieces on top of each other to eat. The girls were used to our eating like this, but the others weren't. Told them we had that rare disease where we found we had a really high metabolism that kicked in from time to time. Now the girls being naturally suspicious, said they were always happy to meet their boyfriends friends and wondered how long they'd be in town and what brought them out. They said they wouldn't be here that long, with Al saying they wanted to stop by to personally thank us for those packages we'd been sending them. Of course, the girls gave us THAT LOOK, with Aaron said to remember, we don't tell you ALL of our secrets. That's when I told her about Hacker, Al mentioning how he missed some things and so we started sending Al what we found out were called care packages. That's when Al and the others said that's NOT the full story and proceeded to tell the girls how they ALL got care packages and not just Al. Aaron said we were just trying to support the troops or in this case, one of which we knew and then of course, we figured the others might feel bad in getting stuff on a regular basis, so..... The girls said we were sssooo sweet in doing this and got a good smooch from them. LOTS of woofs from those guys. Then they asked Al and his friends knew anyone else in their unit would be interested in getting a care package as they were sure the other girls would be interested in helping out on something like this. This is when Al and a couple of his friends said other girls? Kathleen says yes, why we work at Hooters which was quickly followed by many yeses by those guys and even more and more vocal woofs.
Al asked what we'd been doing since graduating and we were none committal other than saying we were between jobs right now. But we had been working on our modules, then showed them our bedroom where we each had our 3D resin printers set up, along with the others in the livingroom. This was when Al started telling his friends about D&D, then our games he played with us. He said these two (looking at us) put the sneak in sneaky and you wouldn't believe the number of times they had everyone hoodwinked. You'd be thinking one thing, but in reality....that's when he paused and REALLY looked at us. And you know what, when he did this, ALL his friends started looking at us the same way. Kind of like one dog has found a scent and the other dogs know this and they're going to find more scent. Then I got the brilliant idea of bringing up the Metronomes. How they've been doing things all over this planet and that got them to talking among themselves WHY they were saved, not that they were ungrateful. You've heard of being saved by the bell? In this case, we were saved by an air horn going off outside and only ONE person we knew used that music. So we ALL go outside and yep, it's Hector and his band! And that got them all off the scent of us having helped them.
Now Al and Hector knew each other of course, but the girls and Al's friends didn't, so there was a lot of introductions going around. Seems Hector and his band were on their way to San Antonio for another concert. Now thing is, Hector knew the girls he had met the last time were not the girls we were with and gave us the eye about this. Aaron went back to our place, grabbing the rest of the pizza's with the two of us eating another box, when the girls asked if we were okay as they knew what we were going thru. We asked if they could make everyone sammiches and when they went to do this, all the guys just kind of stared at us. Al and his friends basically said the same thing: wow, not only are they beautiful, work at Hooters, but make sammiches on demand? Oh, and by the way, do they have any sisters? Well, everyone ended up having a quick barbeque as Hector and his people pulled out their small barbecues and pretty soon, the smell of cooking chicken started floating thru the air. Which was about this time, Mrs. Hernandez (our landlady) came out as she'd heared Hectors air horn going off. Kind of surprised she was big fan of Hectors and his band. Well, the girls and a couple of Hector girls took off for the supermarket to buy more chickens to barbeque, along with steaks to make steak kabobs, veggies for a big salad and chips. We brought out our barbeque, with Mrs. Hernandez going to her kitchen to make a bunch of quick and easy deserts.
Well, Officer Flannigan came cruising by and stopped to see what was happening. We introduced him to everyone and he didn't mind partaking a beer or two. Had to make a quick trip to Germany to pick up a couple of cases which I explained that because we didn't have much storage room, I had taken them out of the closet and put them in the fridge so they'd get nice and cold. Well, Aaron and I ate three legs and thighs each, along with some salad and two gallons of cold water. When the girls looked at us, we gave them a thumbs up and they knew everything was okay with us now. Well, some of Mrs. Hernandez's other tenants came out, so the girls made another trip to the supermarket not only for groceries, but coals for the barbecues. What started as a simple visit by Al and his friends, ended up with about twenty-five or thirty people total at this impromptu barbeque. Then Hector pulled out his guitar, looks at us and we said okay which led to an impromptu jam session. Well, eventually Hector and his group had to take off, but before they did, Aaron came out with a large yellow envelope about three inches thick. He said would you believe it, your younger brother is interested in playing D&D now? When Hector heard the words “would you believe it”, his eyes got kind of big and Aaron just nodded. Well, we both got hugs and we told him remember, mi casa, su casa. So don't be a stranger. And me telling him his sister was right....those girls weren't what we thought they were and he says the way we look at each other is the way things should be in life.
Shortly after Hector and everyone left, it came time for Al and his buds to take off. Thing is, Al said he was sorry but for some reason, he couldn't get it out of his mind that I had helped them out of that ambush. I said why don't you guys come upstairs and we'll explain how there's NO WAY I could of helped you. Besides, there's still a few cold ones left in the fridge. Well, we got lucky as the girls and Mrs. Hernandez were busy cleaning up everything. I said first off, do Aaron or I look like superhero's? I mean, you guys look more like superhero's than us. If you want, you can ask our girls if they've ever seen us flying around with a cape like Superman or a fancy costume like The Flash. Aaron said we're all aware of two things now: people that have been changed and those aliens that call themselves Metronomes. I added we had a college professor here in town a few years ago that disappeared in front of everyone while being chased by the FBI and Homeland Security. Look it up on Youtube, Facebook or other social media. And the government seems to be terrified of those people, calling them mutant terrorists. Not only that, it's been coming out in the news not only the government, but corporations have been kidnapping people they SUSPECT of being changed, with NO regards to their constitutional or bill of rights. With others having been TORTURED by said government and corporations. And let's not forget those foreign governments which have SOLD their people to the U.S. and who knows to what other countries. Aaron said don't forget the Metronomes as no doubt, governments all over the world are probably going in their pants at the idea of aliens now on our planet and from another dimension? Or those that were killed by ignorant people in other countries? I mean, killing a child who ears could get REALLY large upon command is an offspring of the devil? So maybe you guys got lucky in being rescued by the Metronomes or......and Al took the bait like he always did when playing D&D, by saying or what?
I looked at Aaron and he knew where I was going with this thought, with him saying, Al, WHAT IF you were one of those changed and have been keeping it secret from your friends? Oh boy, they did NOT like that idea, then I added it doesn't have to be Al, I mean, it could be any one of you guys that got changed. And just where you guys when all of this stuff started happening in the beginning. You know, with the solar flare and floating by that galactic dust cloud. Well, come to find out they were all on a military plane that day, going somewhere to do something. I said, so think about this now: maybe one or more of you got changed, but have been keeping it secret or what if it wasn't until you were in some life or death situation that you discovered you or maybe several of you found out you had some sort of ability? Maybe each of you have an ability or maybe it only works when you're together, ESPECIALLY in a life and death kind of situation? Then Aaron got really sneaky by asking them when was the last time they had been on a mission or what ever it's called? Well, they hadn't been out on any operation as they called it since finding themselves in Hamburg. He said have you guys thought about WHY you haven't gone out on one since then? They had, as usually they'd be deployed right back into what they called the field. That's when I said, maybe the government or military is watching you guys, you know, thinking you've been changed, but don't know who or how many of you guys have been changed. They didn't like that thought at all. Well, the girls came back after cleaning up everything outside, then got everyone's name and addresses so they could pass them out to the other Hooter girls. What started with just helping Al, then to his buds ended up with the other Hooter girls writing to and sending care packages to over one hundred men and women stationed at Al's fort or whatever they're called.
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Post by texican on Aug 12, 2019 23:13:35 GMT -6
WillC,
Now the boys can spin a tale to keep their secrets....
Thanks for the chapter....
Texican....
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Post by willc453 on Aug 12, 2019 23:48:31 GMT -6
Yeah, the boys can really put a spin on something when they have to. Remember, they are experienced DM's. And only the girls know what they can do and even they think those 2 need to work as a team. Now the boys trust them, but there's that thought in the back of their heads: what they don't know, they can't be forced to talk about. The horse riding lessons is maybe 1/4 page and just kind of stuck on where/how I want to go with it. But going to be writing up them applying to Gold Coast to get them D&D modules printed. Also thinking of bringing "their" FBI agents back into the story. Just don't know when the next chapter will be posted. However, I have been working on my Pinocchio & Snow White fairy tale stories, along with The Hoarders...you know, about 2 old geezers who are wanna be inventors. Also, a Men In Black kind of story, along with 3 (or 4) old farts who used to do those western serials back in the 50's. Also have 3 The 2nd American Revolution stories to finish and another Conservative vs Liberal story which has a bit of TWAWKI in it.
On a personal note, anyone got a Nikon P900 digital camera? Happened to start watching YouTube videos on it. Then on Nikon's P1000 digital camera. Checked Ebay and they're not as expensive as I thought they would be. What sold me on buying the P900 was some English guy who used it for macro photography, in this case, a British postage stamp. You could see INDIVIDUAL swirls on the stamp from the printing process. I, of course, don't need no instructions on how to use it, right? Oh boy...famous last words. Read enough to set date/time, then started using it and recording photos. Still need to read rest of the short manual, but downloaded the full manual and something else from Nikon's website. Got a lot of reading ahead of me to make sure I use ALL the bells and whistles on this thing. Maybe use it in one of The 2nd American Revolution stories? As to the P1000, how about seeing people on a ridge line FOUR miles away? Kind of over kill for me and what I plan on using the P900 for.
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Post by texican on Aug 13, 2019 11:08:20 GMT -6
WillC, Staying busy I see. How do you find the time to do juggle all of this? As to cameras: Nikon COOLPIX P900 Digital Camera: with 83x Optical Zoom and Built-in Wi-Fi(Black) + 64GB 1200X SDXC Card + 2 EN-EL23 Batteries + Case + Flexible Tripod + Pro Bundle: International Version 4.7 out of 5 stars 29 $517.96 Nice Camera WillC. I have two Kodak PIXPRO A401 for project work and they are ok. I did use a high end Nikon camera until I dropped it one final time with warranty long ago expired. I then switched to less expensive cameras with two year warranty which generally gets used before the two years is over.
$149.00
This camera body style is used by multiple camera companies. The difference is the lens and electronics and you can tell the difference in the photos especially close ups.
Take care. Texican....
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Post by willc453 on Aug 13, 2019 11:50:32 GMT -6
I have 2 separate (now 3) and different types of cameras. Like 4 (total) 35mm Canon FTB & AE-1 35mm cameras. The FTB was bought in Panama back in '73. Then bought a HP Photosmart M425 digital camera when I ran from Reno to Long Beach. That one I got from Walmart at the time (2002?) as it was being discontinued by Walmart. Made a world of difference as I could see what I had shot vs waiting a week or even a few days for my film to be developed. This was back when Walmart developed film inside the store. Glad I had it when I got to tour that Russian diesel sub in Long Beach. Nothing like seeing an inert sub marked/painted as having a nuclear warhead on it. And no, never went aboard the Queen Mary. I got it for two reasons: one it was the cheapest/best bang for the buck, the other, this was the last one being sold by this store on Ebay. Yeah, could of saved $50 or so like the one your photo shows, but I got a whole lot more for the difference. Mine was $500 w/free shipping. One thing about it, is the camera is a bit heavier than I expected, bulkier and a bunch of buttons with me needing to learn what they do. In slowly going thru the manual, this thing has wifi ability and able to record 30 second videos? Attachments:
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Post by texican on Aug 13, 2019 19:20:43 GMT -6
WillC,
I bought a Cannon 35mm back in the 70's and still have it, but with the advent of digital cameras and instant review of the photo was just what was needed....
Waiting for film to be developed to see if you got all of the shots was worrisome....
Did make one mistake with the Cannon and did not get the day date function....
Later,
Texican....
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Post by papaof2 on Aug 13, 2019 19:37:55 GMT -6
Got an inexpensive 35mm SLR camera when the first daughter turned out to be so cute (curly blonde hair). I also shot a lot of black and white (mostly Tri-X that I processed and printed myself). Later upgraded to a consumer grade Nikon with an aftermarket smart flash when I was following the highschool band around for a couple of years. Did have one parent ask to borrow a negative to make get some photo cards for Christmas so I apparently did decent work for an unpaid photographer ;-) Life with a film camera is all about seeing the big picture and the details - and timing. The seeing is not something you do as well when you reach the point of progressive bifocals :-( A few samples: film www.jecarter.us/images/ferris.jpg 1982 World's Fair www.jecarter.us/images/ashton.jpg Note where the sun is and that her face is illuminated. digital www.jecarter.us/images/s3200010.jpg university campus at night www.jecarter.us/images/malsmall.jpg A friend's daughter who now has a daughter who's not quite that age.
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Post by 9idrr on Aug 13, 2019 20:30:29 GMT -6
What a site! Here we get good stories, better humor and photography advice. Thanks, guys.
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Post by willc453 on Aug 13, 2019 22:02:26 GMT -6
Well, going back time wise, my first camera was a Polaroid I bought at Tinker AFB, Okla. PX. Didn't use it much because film was kind of expensive. Then shortly after getting stationed in Panama (Albrook AFB), bought a Petri 35mm from my supervisor for $35, with it coming with a separate light meter. Still have the light meter. Since I didn't know what I was doing, shot Kodak B&W film and somehow, that roll got tossed in my dresser where it remained for a few months. Which was a good thing. Started shooting more film and with the instructions given to you by Kodak, very few photos turned out bad as in being too dark or light. When I found that first roll and had it developed, EVERY ONE of those photos were sh*t! Too dark, light, out of focus, etc. Think if I had seen them in the beginning, I'd of never got into photography. Now my Canon ftb cost me (I think) somewhere around $300 and used my IRS refund to buy it. Stateside, it was going for $600 or more. And don't even ask about their F-1. A friend of mine bought TWO F-1's....one for him, the other for his girlfriend back in the states. And unless things have changed down there, you do NOT pay the listed price. Me and the owner of the store must of haggled for a good 20-30 minutes on price before agreeing. He also kicked in a leather camera bag & flash, which I still have both. Stateside, bought some screw on magnifying lenses to shoot my built models. And yes, still have them too.
When I came home, found myself as family photographer. Any time we got together, had my camera with me. Like my sisters and youngest brothers in high school. Youngest brother graduating from boot camp in Dago. No idea how many thousands of photos I have and was for awhile, scanning them on my computer, then putting everything first on CD's, then later thumb drives. And because I got into modeling late '73, started photographing military aircraft. With me being in the Air Force, no trouble getting access to the flight line. Must have 10-25K worth of slides. Think the only planes I shot that are still being used are C-130's & KC-135's. Everything else, to the boneyard to eventually be scrapped.
Younger sister used to live next to me for about a year before getting married and moving out. Asked her one time if she'd like to see my time machine. She thought I was pulling her leg, but she came over anyway. This was when I brought out a bunch of albums, including when she was in high school. So that's the way I look at camera's: they are time machines and when I used to shoot 35mm, I figured film was cheap as you'd never know when the opportunity would be there to take photos of people or places.
This got proven when youngest sister got married and of course, I did all the wedding photos, then there was the reception to do. Husband's friend & wife offered their place for that. Took a sh*t load of photos, even though I didn't know any of them except the new husband and a friend of his from work. Sister got the photos she wanted, I got what was left, including the negatives as she had no interest in them. About 3 months down the road, a BAD thing happened. New husband and his friend went to friends place and no answer from wife who was 8 months pregnant. They found her dead, bloody body in the bedroom. The 3 guys were caught and still doing time in Nevada's prison. So went to sisters husband, showing him the left over photos sister didn't want. I had taken the last known photo of the guys wife before she was killed. Mom's brother came down to visit her in her nursing home. She had Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and was pretty bad that way, but she recognized her brother though she couldn't speak. A month later, she was dead. Last photo taken of her. I have photos of every dog I've had except one and we're going back to '74. Bought 2 of those big poster holder things from Walmart. One's got various photos of my dogs, the other of family starting back in the 50's.
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Post by texican on Aug 13, 2019 22:50:37 GMT -6
WillC,
Condolence for the lost of your sister....
Lost mine sister to a rare throat cancer over ten years ago.... Still miss her....
You have a great collection of photos....
Also had a Polaroid camera, but as you said very expensive for the film....
Have a great night....
God bless.
Texican....
Texican....
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Post by willc453 on Aug 13, 2019 22:58:44 GMT -6
Wasn't my sister who died. It was her husbands best friend wife. Sorry for confusion and loss of your sister. This is why you can never take enough photos.
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