Another award And "5" To Pass The Torch To

*Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

*Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

*Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.  http://scholastic-scribe.blogspot.com/2008/10/200-this-blings-for-you.html

*Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

*Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Thanks to Mike, and his Cats
at http://hbmike2000.blogspot.com/
for this most coveted award
Thank you Melisa
for creating it.
now the hard part
which 5 deserving bloggers
to pass it on to.
I love so many.

Betty at "cut and dry"
http://cutand-dry.blogspot.com/

Alice at  "Alice In Wonderland"
http://thewondersofalice.blogspot.com/

Hunter at "Time Crook"
http://timecrook.blogspot.com/

Charlene at "The Balance Beam"
http://www.beamingbalance.com/

Sandra at "Real Math In A Minute"
http://realmathinaminute.blogspot.com/

These are just a few of my favorites, the others, and I won't name them all
already have the award.

CONGRATS to all
BIG BIG
HUGS

And all credit for this Beautiful award goes to

Melissa B.

"The Original"

Happy Halloween, And Read The Extras I've Included Too

Ever Halloween, after I git all the Christmas stuff out, and checked, I try to do a little trickery, for the Halloween

goblins.

I put all the candy and treat in this ole worn out wash tub, man, I get all kinds of candy for this event. I dress up like an ole scarecrow, with a straw hat and ever thin.

I gat all them big ole spider webs up, all down the side walk, comming to the porch. I hang all them flyin ghost from the trees, build a little pumpkin patch area with bales of hay.

We have them little stick scarecrows all over the yard, and them fake headstones with the R.I.P. on em.

Ever thing looks really funny, spooky, eerie just good ole fashioned Halloeenish.

I always love the faces of them little ones, and their costumes, but when they git that big ole handful of candy, now they are just so damn funny. They say "trick or treat" in the sweetest ways, some are just so shy and scared, I try not to scare them littlest ones, but them that is a little older, well, I git em. LOL.

Me an Clem, built this hide-a-way hole, grave, Clem, gits inside, and when them smarty kind of older kids come up, they git their candy, look around a little, they get ready to leave. Clem, comes up real fast outta thet grave, man, I can't help but laff, them younguns, are so spooked, most of em just flat out run outta here.

It's one of the funniest sites you ever saw.

Now if you wantta read some reall spooky stuff you gotta check these out:

http://cutand-dry.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-live-with-ghost.html

http://iwonderwye.blogspot.com/2009/10/ghost-2.html

Both of these posts are just too cool for Halloween to not pass along.

HAPPY SPOOKING TO ALL,  AND TO ALL,  BOO!

LOL.    Love and BIG HUGS ALL

CHRISTMAS DISPLAYS READY BY HALLOWEEN ! ! FROM SANTA AND RUDOLPH

  MERRY CHRISTMAS AT HALLOWEEN

FROM

SANTA & RUDOLPH

Every year around Halloween, when every one is still doing the ghoul thing, I go out to my shop and start checking out the Christmas lights, take an inventory, figger out how many lights I'm gonna need, to spruce up this years, Christmas display.

This year is a little differnt, cause a whut happened last year.

I had done made all these here decorations and such, you know, them angels, deers, snowmen and all. I made this really big thing to go on the roof. Had Santa, all the reindeers, the sleigh, complete with all the goodies. Hell, even had a light up red nose, on ole Rudolph.

Was sittin on the front porch, readin the paper, wavin at all the people, on their way to werk, I do this most ever day. Just sittin here waitin on Clem, the mailman, and good buddy to drive up, with the mail, an gossip. Today, I was a thinkin bout them Christmas decorations, an whut I could do to liven em up. Bout this time Clem, showed up.

Now, Clem, always gives me some good ideeas, sos, I aksed him for some input. He said, hell, with all them little motors, an all that you got layin round, you outta make em move around and all. Man whut a good, gall danged ideea. Yep, and I can put them movinn lights and such to just give em some added action and all thet there.

I even got an old sound system thing, I can have it playing Chistmas songs. like "Rudolph the red nose reindeer", "here comes Santa Claus", and then have Santa yelling out  "ho ho ho".

I got one of them big red blinkin lights and put it on Rudolphs' nose, an ever thin.

Hell, this is gonna be one big, ole Christmas scene, I'll even mount it on the roof, sos, ever one can see it as they drive by.

So, I go out to the shop and git started on the Christmas projeck. I cut out all the snowmen, find a pattern for the reindeer, includin Rudolph. A great ole big Santa, carryin a toy bag an all, a sleigh with bells on it, even the roof mountin hardwares.

Make em all, git up on the roof, run all the wires, git it all in place. The motor for Santa, is too small to give it the right motion, but the one for Rudoplh, is perfeck. Rudolph, rocks back an forth an the light on his nose blinks an ever thin, how cool, I think.

Hook up the sound system with a recorder an all, have this big ole speaker, sos, you can hear it all real good.

I go back to the shop, look for a bigger motor, for the Santa movement, found one right off. A one horse power motor with a pulley an ever thin, now I can make Santa look like he's gittin in an outta the sleigh. Perfeck.

About two weeks after Thanks givin, all is workin perfeck. People are drivin by and enjoyin the sight. Whut with the musix,  the motion, the lights an all, this is the best display, ole Mr. Bob's, ever put on.

Ever body smiles, waves, and all the first night , that I light it all up. This goes on for about a week, I am so proud of my self, whut with seein all the happy faces an all, esspecially them little kids enjoyin it all, laughin and gigglin.

We always have a warm spell, followed by a cold spell, this time a year, in these parts, this year was no ception. This big ole storm was commin our way, sos, I went out and covered all the motors, all the lights, then unplugged it all. You can never be too careful, for these storms an all, you never know whuts gonna happen.

After the storm, I went out, uncovered ever thin, plugged it all back in, and waited to see if ever body would still drive by and see,  my, beautofully wonderment of a display.

That night, man i had a purty big group of folks, whut drove by, lookin at this wonderful display. Hell, they was all wavin, and smillin, and just lovin it. I was too. I would hold up my coffee mug, take a bow, wave at the crowds as they drove by an all.

Felt so proud, went in the house, an had a beer.

Next night, seemed to me the crowd was bigger than usual, man I really was proud now, went in the house, and had two beers, happier than a kid with a new bike.

Next night, the crowds were really huge, ever one laffin and pointin and havin a wonderful time. Held my coffee mug high, took a really big bow, cept stead of goin in the house,  thought, I would go out and mingle, with some of these folks, man, I am so proud they all love it an all. I go out there, fist thing I hear is the Christmas songs, "Rudolph the red nose reindeer," Santa Claus is commin to town," and Santa yellin "ho ho ho". Ever one, laffin, pointin, an just havin a good ole time.

I yell out real loud, howdy folks, and merry Christmas, an ever one cheers real loud.

I turn around to admire my creation thet I had done for all these here folks.......

Remember thet christmas story.....

And To My Surprise, What Shoud  Appear...

On the roof top, I guess thet storm had done smthin, to thet displa.

There was Santa, yellin, ho ho ho, Rudolphs nose, just a blinkin, cept Rudold, insteada leapin in the air, like takin to flight, was rockin back and forth, along with Santa. Man here I had Santa, humpin Rudolph, with lights a blinkin, ho ho ho, and Rudolph the red nose reindeer, all the while Santa is commin to town.

I gotta admit, it was funny an all, but this year, I'm a gonna check ever thin twice.

Goin Back Home and The Mushroom Lesson / Final Stop

About all I can think of about this trip so far, is what is gonna happin next. This has been more fun than I have ever had in my life. Travelin the  country, meetin people, gettin stoned, learnin new stuff, and experiencing way too much.We got on the road agin, headed for Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Man I knew it would be a big city and all, what with it being, the home of ole Vince Lombardi and all, but, didn't even think about all the cheese and cheese stuff. Man, I saw more cheese stuff than I could believe.

Saw this great big ole red barn, and felt more at home, then found out it was a restaurant, put a whole new thinkin bout, "what you think you was born in  a barn". Guess these cheese people never heard that one afore. cause they just looked at me in a blank stare. Till I said, man I love cheese, then they all hugged me and all. So we smoked a doob and made friends.

Genes' sister and brother-in-law, let us crash at their house, for a couple of weeks while we checked out the sites.  They got these light houses that are so cool there with a funny name, canna island, door county,

kinda sounded like a door way to a bunch a lilies, man was I wrong. Thet has to be one of the purtiest place on earth.

We went just about ever where, even to this lake named after a kangaroo, at first I thought maybe, Captain Kangaroo, lived there, along with Mr.Green Jeans, but nope just a real purty lake, with these real big white trees, never seen the such, we only got them ole pine trees, back home.

We really didn't have a whole lotta money to go and do a whole lot, but we had a bunch of fun, got drunk, got stoned some more, then decided we better head home.

We decided to take the scenic route back home, thought maybe it would be fun to travel long side the ole Mississippi River, coming back.

First stop was in, St. Louis, saw that big ole arch, and an ole paddle boat. Made me wanna be an ole time river gambler, but you gotta have money for that and I had NONE.

Next stop was in one of these road side camp thingys. We met some other young folks , kinda like us, just out havin a good time and all.
They asked us if we wanted to share some of their mushrooms, now, I had never ate no mushrooms before and I was really hungry, I had seen em before, in the restaurants, and they really looked good.
These folks weren't even cookin em though, they said you just eat em raw, should known right then these folks is a little crazy. Stoopid me ate em any way.

Very soon like, I was sicker than a dog, and ever thin was blurry, slowed down, and just plain ole weird. Found out, these damn things, were some kinda halucegeenine thing.  Now, I didn't mind gitten stoned, mind you, but this, trippin thing, weren't for me. I guess, once a hippie hick, always a hippie hick, no full blown offical, hippie here. If that is what, trippin, was all about, I was goin back to sippin moon shine, least that way I could sleep it off. This shi.. seemed to go on and on, you couldn't just lay down and go to sleep neither. It finally wore off, and I was happy to git outta thet place, whew.

I, decided, No more stops, I just wanted to git back home, sleep in my own bed, and just plainole git back to normal doins. My hippie hick days was commin to an end.

Sos, after whut was spose to be a four day weekend, startin on Memorial day, and endin the week after, turned into a cross country trip, we finally got home in time for the Labor Day festivities. Never mind that, I slept right through it, in my own comfortable bed, back on campus. I went and cut my hair all off, shaved my beard, quit smokin, and becane just another student, and I never looked back.

TILL NOW,   LOL, I guess them were, magic mushrooms, after all.

Part Two of Three In The Hippie Hick Road Trip

After paying the fines and towing charges for the bogus tow, we went and stayed on this really big farm. We pitched at tent out on the edge of the field, in a small clearing next to the wooded area and creek.

We discovered that the creek was full of crawfish, man like stirken gold, and these boys had no idee, whut we were all excited about. So we says we will make them a crawfish boil, if they bring plenty of beer. So we had this big ole crawsfish boil, these folks never heard of such, but they ate all them crawfish up, like they were candied apples.

The next mornin, we decided we better try and git a hold of the boys, thet wanted us to build the concert stage. We still had no idee whut was goin on, with this here concert. At this point, we were damn near broke, been in jail, in an alien state, we were just plain ole wore out, and needed money.

Finally,made contact by phone with these fellers, they said the concert site had to be moved, and for us to git headed towards Cumberland Gap. We said no problem, cept, we ain't got no money, and damn near outta gas, can they help us out. Far out, they are gonna send us five hundered  dollars, as expense money, so cool.

Now we git on the road to Cumberland Gap, whever the hell thet is. Ever body in these parts knew eggsactly where it was, and more than happy to give us directions.

I still think they was just, a wantin to git rid of the damn hippies, whut was campin on their farm.

There were so many long haired, half nude, stoned, people, wanderin aroun this Cumberland Gap area, lookin for the same concert site, that we were spose to know the whereabouts of. Hell, we just startin followin the crowds. No boby, knew nuthin, least of all me and Gene. Hell, we set up shop and startin sellin all this stuff outta the U_Haul trailer.

In just a few hours we had sold almost all the papers, bongs, and pipes. Made some more money from some candles too.

Now, we had to figger out, whut we gonna do, can't git a hold of them concert boys. Ever one just wanderin all around these campsites, we're just gettin stoned and meetin people. Ever one makin fun of our accents and all, just wanna hear us talk, man, I couldn't stop laffin.

I didn't know if I was laffin cause I was stoned, or if it was cause of all this stoopid stuff, we done and got our self into. We just give up on the concert thing, and decide just to see some country.

We head north, don't know where we're goin, just gonna figger it out as we go. Ever one is hitchin rides to go back home, and so we decide we will just pick some one up and give em a ride.

We saw this one feller, he had a big suit case, a guitar, and really looked tired. So we stopped and ask him where he was headed. He said, Paw Paw, Michigan. Hell, never heard of it, git in, we'll take you there.

Come to find out, this feller was a leather crafts guy. He had headed out for the concert, whut never happened, to sell some of his leather stuff, now, like us, he's got all this shi... and is headed home.

We all start singin, git stoned some more and head for Paw Paw, man, folks back home ain't never gonna believe this shi........

My car is about wore out now, whut with towin that U-Haul trailer and all, but we make it to Paw Paw.

First we head out to this campsite whut has a waterfall and all.Now I don't know if eny of you ever been under a waterfall afore or not, but man whut a trip.

The water just comes straight down and your hair squeeks real loud, and cold as hell. The chicks were taking shower and man did these hippie hicks git an eye full. We had never seen such afore, this has gotta be the life.

Joe, the leather guy, invites us to crash at his pad for a while, so we stay there and git stoned and learn to make leather shi... for about a week.

Gene, start thinkin bout his sister, livin in Wisconsin, an he says, hey we're so close, how a bout we go there next. Cool, but my tires are all wore out, and I don't think I got enuff money to buy none.

Joes' buddies say, no problem, we know where some are real cheap, we'll go git em for you, cool.

Gene and I start mappin out the trip to Green Bay, to see his sister, git it done,and crash early so we can git on the road in the mornin. We wake around five, Joes' buddies say come check out your new wheels. We go out side to the car, wow man, far out, brand new wheels and tires for the trip, on the car now. So we pack up and head out.

On our way outta town, Gene's given me directions and all, then he just gets real quiet. He's lookin over at a new car lot, an he says slow down a minute. We look over there, and there is a car just like mine, cept for one thing.

It's sitiin on blocks, no wheels an no tires, I look at Gene, an say, You a thinkin, whut I'm a thinkin, he says , yep.

Man, them tires whut them boys put on my car, are hot. Holy shi.... we ain't been gone but three weeks, been in jail, camped out on sum farm, showered in a waterfall, got too stoned. Now we got hot wheels.

Whut else can happen.

Week One of The Hippie Hick Road Trip / Part One

Gene Headroom, my close friend at the time, owned and ran a small head shop. For those that do not know, a head shop sold, candles, incense, pipes, bongs, papers, rolling papers, black lights, posters, etc. This head shop also sold concert tickets, and got advanced information, about cool events.

Gene was contacted by some ole boys, outa Tennessee, they needed help to set up an outdoor stage, and do the roady gig, for this thing, they were a throwin. Told him it would be somethin like Wood Stock. Ever one at this time was tryin to reinvent Wood Stock. These boys owned they own land, had all the Bands signed, but needed the stage built by Memorial day. They needed all the outside sound system built and installed, and ready to go. There was only two weeks to git this done.

When I went into Genes' store, he asked me could I build a stage, for a outside concert. Well, I wasn't sure, sos I aked him whut this was all about. He splained whut was goin on, these boys in Tennessee, and all. Hell, I woulda told him, I could build the Empire State building, right then, when the biggest thing I had ever built was an ole barn. Eny ways, he was convinced and deecided, I could go and help.

We would load up a trailer with stuff from the head shop, and set up a small booth to sell this stuff, sos we could have some extra money. They, would have all the materials on the site when we got there. We would be paid when we got there, and could make more money from sellin them candles and such


These ole boys gave us directions over the phone, said it was the quickest most direct route, to git to the ole farm house site. Now these days you didn't have no gps, or google map stuff, and the maps you did git never had no updates. Hell, some of em barely had the highways marked. They told us not to bring no pot, as there would be plenty on site, and they didn't want us to git busted if we got stopped. Maybe we should of figgered sumthin was up, after thet  little talk.

We got all loaded up and headed out early Friday mornin, had the little U-Haul trailer hooked up, stuffed to the hilt. We was all excited to go and do this, man we were real members of a historic happenin. The hippie hick, the head shop owner, were on the road to success.


Gene was about five feet and five inches tall, dressed like a Hari Krishna, his head got shaved by a group of bikers, not too long ago, cause she was hangin with him at his head shop. Me, I was five feet eleven inches tall, had waist long strawberry blond hair and a red beard, then. We looked kinda strange to folks I guess, but thet was the way it was then.


We had been driven all day, and it was startin to git dark, we saw the exit thet we had to take, and got off. Now you know how us guys are, we needed to relieve the pressure that had built up in our bladder, yes, we needed to take a leak. Sos, I take the first little gravel road I come to, go down about a quarter mile, we git ou,t stretch out, and start relievin our selves.


Man, these real bright lights come on, red flashin lights outta no where, commin from both directions.Mustta been ten of them old timey cop cars, with the spot lights, and ever thin. These cops, said, whut  you boys up to, ya'll here to set up thet concert?  Not knowin whut was goin on we said yessir, an was real polite and all. Man they arrested us right then and there, told us to lean against the vehichle, spread em out. Then they patted us down, like we had uzis or sumthin. Put handcuffs on us and told us to get in thet there cop- car, then took us to this little jail house.


When we got to this jail house we asked whut we were bein arrested for. They said, for public drunkedness, we ain't had nuthin to drink. Transportation of untaxed alcohol, I only had a pint of Southern comfort. Indecent expossure, hell, weren't nuthin out there cept maybe an owl. Resistin arrest, man you gotta be kiddin, there musta been thrity cops, and were stunned, froze in our tracks.
Then they said for disturbin the peace, man, thet must've been a really loud leak we was takin.


They took my keys, took my belt, no phone call could be made till we see the court guy. Yeah, court guy he said, I was thinkin, we are in sum deep shi.. here. They put us in this cell with sbout six other guys, that had no shoes or socks on, and had little ropes for belts. One of em came up and qasked did we have a smoke he could have, he had only ine toothe and his ears was so big I started laffin. Then I gave the ole boy a smoke, he squated on the floor and smoked it like it was a joint.


We got to lookin around and all the cells were full, we saw all kind of  people here, but almost all of em had real long hair. We asked em why they were in here.They said ain't you heard? Heard what? I asked.These here people, don't want a bunch of hippies settin up no concert in these here parts. It's all on the news and ever thin, how they have deputized ever one thet wants to wear a badge, and keep all these hippies outa their county.


Man, this is gonna be a long, two days till we see a judge, or "court guy", I'm thinkin.
We make friends with some of the guys, one of em lives on a farm real close to where the concert is suppose to be. He invites us a stay at his place, after we see the "court guy" Monday and get released.Says we can camp there.


Monday, we git called to go and see the "court guy", hell, just some little skinny, Barney Fife lookin guy. I start laffin. He says order in the court, I can't stop laffin. Then says real stern like, how do you plead?


I say, plead to whut.
You charges, he said.
I said not guilty, you honerable court guy sir.
Fine is onehundered and twenty dollars he said, cool as a cucumber.
Not guilty I said.
Fine the circuit judge comes in three weeks, you can stay in jail till he comes, he said.
I got onehundered and twenty dollars in my pocket, I said.When can I git outa here.


So far we ain't been gone a week, and we're out twohundred  forty dolars for jail and fines, and another onehundred and fifty dollars for them drivin my car and trailer to the jail, then chargin a towing fee.
So what else can happen on this here trip, we head out agin tomorrow after campin out and broke now.more to follow .
Sorry about the look of this blog, computer is actin  up thank you cable company, will post the rest of the story tomorrow.

A Hippie Hick Is Born

Fourteen years old, discovering music and girls for the first time, kind of seems really outdated now a days. These kids catch on to much more now. The Beatles were the rage, long hair was becoming the style of choice, peace signs, happy faces (smilies now), flowers, and of course Andy Hoffman, and Tim O'Leary.

I was still a little too young and naive at this point to really catch on to the whole concept of the time, what with pimples and all, voice getting deeper, girls becoming attractive, this was all a little much for me. Give me two years to catch up, and I am ready to roll.

My first concert, yes a really big deal. The headline group was the Turtles, you can laugh now. Any way the back up group was Chicago Transit Authority, a relatively unknown band, better known now as just plain ole "Chicago". Chicago, blew us all away, we kept calling them back over, and over, finally The Turtles, took the stage, what a let down. This is when I realized my music preference had arrived.

A "hippie hick" is born.

Over night I now listened to, Jimmy Hendrix, The Doors, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters, BB King,

none of that Beach boy stuff for me, oh no. Then I found Santana, The Grateful Dead, Led Zeplin, and Mick Jager.

I had my own magical  music tour, going from one concert to another, I had friends that started bands, so I got to see many groups well before they became famous. Then of course Wood Stock, man, I missed that whole scene, and was so sad about it.

When this opportunity arose to go to Benton Tennessee, and help set up a concert, I jumped at the chance.

This story in and of it self deserves a full blog post all of it's own, so I am going to stop here and post the story on it's own merits, with the normal Mr. Bob twist and spin.

Sorry to leave you hanging come by tomorrow and I will have it all together, it will be worth the time because it will be a funny and entertaining read, I promise.

BIG BIG HUGS

Ok For Those That Have Asked And Wanted To Know - In It's Entirety

THIS COULD ALSO BE TITLED, WHY I HATE HURRICANES

released may 2010 for face book friends

Many of you that follow me now are unaware of my days at sea, why I started blogging. A few of you have asked, and some are wondering. Since Bess will be doing most of the blogging this week, on the other site,http://plainolebob2.blogspot.com/

I have gone back into my archives and edited it just a little, so that it would all publish.  So here we go, "the accident that changed it all" I might  note here, this is a true story, that really happened to me.
Thank-you for reading this, god bless, and Big HUGS.

I hate hurricane season, I know many of you do not live in hurricane prone areas, unfortunately I do. I have been through in recent years Katrina, Rita and Gustaf, and these are the ones that I went through on land. My biggest reason that I hate them is because what one did to me offshore.

I can't even remember its name nor if it made it to shore only what it did to me.

I may have related this to one or two of you before but today it has really been on my mind, and I had a nightmare about it again last night, so I figure what the hell, get it out of my system and go on about the day.

It was an unusually cool and breezy afternoon, when we left the dock headed to a rig 124 miles out ,in the gulf of Mexico. We had been watching the weather reports before leaving and knew there was a storm brewing and that we probably would not be out there for too long. I was riding as 1st mate so it was my responsibility to take over the wheel at the sea buoy to the rig. this was a 180ft supply vessel, the trucker on the gulf, if you will. We had a crew of seven for the vessel and passengers for the rig. As we were headed out you couldn't help but notice, how the seas were growing and getting rougher, in fact just before we got to the rig we were radioed to keep our passengers on board and that we would be picking up about 30 more people.

We would be doing a hurricane evacuation from the rig transporting these people back to shore for safety.

At this point I had been at the wheel for around 14hrs already, the turn around trip would be another 10hrs, plus the time it would take to load and off load passengers from our vessel.

This is a NORMAL procedure, but not normal weather, the loading of passengers took twice as long as normal and these guys are more used to riding helicopters to and from the rig, so they are not happy with the accomadations afforded by a supply vessel, their normal ride to the rig is about an hour by air and they would be on a vessel on the sea for over 8hrs. Most of them had no sea legs or the stomach for the ride they were getting ready to take. enough for now

So now we have our vessel loaded down with the hands off the rig, our main crew, and a few company men. The trip back to port is extremely rough which the sea hands can handle, but all the others are having a hard time to deal with. Imagine if you will sitting on one of those mechanical bulls for eight hours, that is our ride. The vessel is thrown from side to side the seas are now raising to the 15-20ft level so we are up and down like a roller coaster. I handle the wheel,  as I have been through this before, on a tug boat towing the shuttle crafts fuel tank to cape Canaveral (that's another story maybe later).

After riding the waves for ten solid wrecking hours, we reach the sea buoy, now I can catch a 40min. nap.

We arrive at the dock, tie up and unload a boatload of seasick travelers, clean up their mess and start securing the vessel for the incoming storm.

We are now ready to settle in, yay, I can get some sleep, but oh no not to be.

Over the radio we get the call, two guys are on a platform in the delta and are going to need water. They have elected to ride out the storm on this small platform. Well needless to say no one was thrilled at this prospect. We were all tired, hungry and sleepy at this juncture and we relayed this back to the people at the home office, that we thought this would be ridiculous and unsafe. These guys were only wanting 700gal. of water, our pump pumps that in a minute.

So we would be making this trip in these conditions for a 10min. service call.

Over every ones protests we were over voted by the home office this was a must happen operation.

Maybe I will get another 30-40min. nap.

The vessel we are on is made to take a large amount of supplies to the rigs both for their daily activities and the job that are doing, so it is not a small boat.

On the way out everyone on the incoming vessels, are radioing and asking what the hell we're doing going out into this storm. We radio back, what and why, all they can do is wish us well.

The seas are rushing into the channel at the sea buoy, we are not going that far only about 20mi or so, but you would think that we were 120mi. out at the size of the seas.

We make it to the platform 2 men are on watch there and waiting for us, we get in place for this 10min. operation, of transferring water to them. Then they inform us they do not have a crane to raise our water hose for transfer.

Whole different operation now.

They must manually lower their water line to us, we must find a way to secure the vessel to them so that we may stay in place to transfer.

We find one cleat that is good enough to tie up on, so we do.

The vessel must be maneuvered below their tag line holding the water line. For those of you that do not know, a tag line is a small rope to attach, the much larger cable to. Kind of like throwing some one a safety rope.

The engineer and I position ourselves at the Stern, port side bit, to retrieve their line, the captain will position the vessel below the tag line, we get the line, transfer the water and outta here.

Did not happen.

We are in position now,tag line being lowered, I reach out with the boat hook, to catch tag line. Out of no where, a rogue wave, lifts the vessel up on the port side and dips violently on the starboard side, the three inch line holding the vessel, snaps up from the bull works (side of the boat), catches me under my shoulder pit on my left side, heaves me in the air , across the vessel to the starboard side, like a rag doll.

I am slammed into the starboard side stacks (engine exhaust cover). The engineer is caught across the chest and neck and slammed into the stern. He starts screaming and crying, the captain is trying to take control of the vessel, people running from everywhere, the whole crew is now on the back deck.

The captain radios for a medic helicopter, 2 men down on the back deck. I just lay there in a kinda of daze knowing what happened but not knowing if it was real.

The captain, yells at the crew, to not move us, that the medics were on the way. Scared, wet, cold,

dazed, thinking is this it, I die at sea.Wake up at the sound of a helicopter, on a stretcher now being loaded up for the ride in right.

Did not happen.

The helicopter, is not prepared for a two man lift, and can not fit any stretchers inside, that helicopter leaves, one medic stays. Two hours another helicopter arrives, this time we are loaded for the 2hour ride, to the hospital in New Orleans.

At the hospital I am x-rayed, but they x-ray the wrong side of where I got hurt. Our home office guy, is outside the x-ray room waiting. He tells me the engineer has died, seems his spline was crushed and it took so long to get in that he bled to death.

I break down and cry, hurting from the injury, but more so in grief, he had two little boys and I am no youngster.

They release me to return to work, but the company guy wants me checked out by another doctor. I get checked out. All of the ribs on my left side are broken, my ankle is broken, my right wrist is broken, the meniscus in both knees are torn, the muscles in my neck are torn, concussion, and I have broke my back in 4 places. What a miracle to just be alive I am told, I breakdown and cry, BS BS BS BS, why did I live, and  not that poor kid with babies, his family needed him much more than mine needed me.

Sorry I still cry, I don't feel like any miracle happened, I just think of that kid screaming on the back deck.

Any way I recover, go back to work two years later, have a massive heart attack, they missed the bruised heart, have a quad bypass, and still live.

All I can do now, is try and forget the accident, in my dreams, and pray that those little boys don't hate me for living instead of their daddy.