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Fishing Megathread: Looking For Big Girls Who swallow
Spaulding Smails replied to Mac8111's topic in Hobbies
Saw this elsewhere. So freakin' cool. How amazing would that be to hook into that big girl with downtown as your backdrop!?!? Also, someone said he looks just like Bob from Bob's Burgers. -
Winter Weather 2025 - Arctic Blasts or Sweaty Ass?
Spaulding Smails replied to NorthLoop's topic in Daily Texan
Tell me about it! To make matters worse, canceling golf made me want a massage instead. I had to call my private masseuse on short notice to fit me in which caused me to have to push back my dinner reservations at Uchiba. That, in turn, made me stay out later than I planned. So I overslept this morning and had to push back the departure on my private jet to Aspen this morning. The entire day was REALLY rough and spilled over to today. Utter chaos. -
Winter Weather 2025 - Arctic Blasts or Sweaty Ass?
Spaulding Smails replied to NorthLoop's topic in Daily Texan
I had plans to walk 9 holes after work yesterday. I was expecting upper 70s, so I threw a pair of shorts and a golf shirt into the truck in the morning. Needless to say, this weather miss derailed those plans. Haven't seen a whiff this big on a forecast in ages. -
I previously owned a little cabinet / millwork shop as part of my general contracting business. I had it for roughly five years, the last three of which it operated on it's own income statement as a division of the larger business, but not as an independent entity. It was always about break-even, but filled a niche for our business, so I kept it around. In late 2023, we started to get pretty slow. So, I sold it to my employees (two brothers) as an asset sale 1/1/24. They bought the fabrication equipment, and a few other assets and took over the rent. No A/R, no liabilities, no nothing. Just an easy transactional sale. It ended up being the greatest thing ever for BOTH parties. I wasn't focused on it, and it was at a remote location away from our HQ, so it was a rudderless ship and never destined to grow with me continuing to be involved. On their side of the fence, their productivity was lousy and we had some quality issues at the end as well. They were paid a great salary (above market), and had good benefits, but I felt like they weren't profitable, so it was hard to bonus off that to drive better performance. And they never saw any incentive to work harder, so they admittedly were doing a half-assed job. So, it was a catch-22. They were also burdened by the overhead of my company, so they didn't feel like they could market / sell to other companies because my target margins were too high to cover those expenses. I saw them last week. They were down YOY compared to 2023 revenue, but they BOTH made way more money. They have their own website and are selling to other contractors and homeowners. I couldn't be happier for them. They don't need/want the benefits we offer. They're now more efficient, produce better quality, and were operating with an independent contractor mindset rather than the perspective of being a cog in a much bigger wheel where they can fly under the radar, and do just enough to keep a paycheck. They're getting after it and cranking out work instead of trying to do things that we needed for our company, but don't necessarily benefit them directly. They're operating a simpler business that's making more money. And, I'm benefitting from it because their prices to me (with their profit built-in), are now MUCH lower than my cost was with them in-house. It's an absolute win-win. Sometimes, we all get complacent. Both employers and employees. I admittedly failed as a leader with my cabinet shop. And they admittedly didn't perform like they should have when they worked for me. It sucks for the people that do work hard and contribute but are faced with losing their jobs. And, I do worry that we'll see the pendulum swing too far the other direction which may lead to disruptions in federal services or worse. But, I think the end result is a net positive. We may be adding more people to the workforce, but hopefully that lifts the bar for productivity and output. Go kick ass in your job, make money (or save money) for your company (or the US taxpayer), and work your hardest to be underpaid every day so you can justify that promotion or raise. Or have the balls to go out on your own and do it yourself. That mindset should be the same in both the public and private sector, and I'm optimistic this is at least a representation of that mindset.
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Add this to the long list of failures for both privately and publicly funded infrastructure improvements and development opportunities for the Coastal Bend. Corpus Christi and Nueces County have over a century of corruption and bureaucratic entanglement that have kept my hometown as a laughing stock. Home Port. The Packery Channel "resort" and development. Schlitterbahn. The new Harbor Bridge engineering fiasco. The Desal Plant. The list goes on and on....
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220-221. Whatever it takes. You are correct. Griddle is the correct term.
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In my last house, I had a bad ass 48" Viking range with an integrated cast iron skillet in between the 4 burners. It was an early 90s model that I got, along with a SubZero fridge/freezer off a demo job in Tarrytown that the customer didn't want, so we did some horse trading on the price and I got the appliances. She was a former chef and upgrading to a 60" Le Corneu. That Viking range had been meticulously maintained. My wife is an amazing cook and took great care of it as well. It was PERFECTLY seasoned. When we sold the house, I hired a cleaning crew to do a deep clean after we got all of our stuff out. I walked in at the end of the day, and they had pretty much done this exact same thing to the cast iron skillet on that Viking range. It had been completely stripped down to bare metal. My jaw hit the floor. Luckily, the guy that bought the house didn't give two shits about cooking, so he probably didn't even notice.
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Winter Weather 2025 - Arctic Blasts or Sweaty Ass?
Spaulding Smails replied to NorthLoop's topic in Daily Texan
Minimal risk to shutting off the water. If you have concerns about pipes busting, then shut it off ahead of time, but make sure to open hose bibs to get any residual water out. Only real concern arises when you turn the water back on. If your pipes / fixtures are older, the sudden increase in pressure can cause issues. Just turn it back on very slowly. -
Woke up last Friday with a sore right calf. Did some squats, lunges and deadlifts the night before, so I assumed it was a strained muscle. Pain came and went throughout the weekend while I was duck hunting and wade fishing down at the coast, but nothing major. It got worse Sunday overnight and kind of culminated with very acute pain Monday morning, then subsided. I elevated it, iced it, and took some Ibuprofen, then went to work. I was thinking maybe gout, but wasn't sure since it was more in the muscle than a joint. The pain ebbed and flowed throughout the week, and it was a little swollen and slightly warm to the touch, so I made a doctor's appointment this morning. The doctor said he thought it was a muscle strain and “a less than 1% chance it’s a clot, but let’s do blood work to rule it out.” Guess I’m the lucky 1%. They ordered a stat ultrasound, and I was able to get one at 4 PM today. For the record, I just turned 45. I'm very active and never sick. Work out 3-4 times per week including running 10-15 miles per week. No traumatic injuries. No surgery. A tad overweight, and probably drink more than I should, but normal BP, don't smoke, and eat pretty clean. BUT, I had what I think was covid in late December. That's the only thing I can think of that may have caused it. It's hell getting old.
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Winter Weather 2025 - Arctic Blasts or Sweaty Ass?
Spaulding Smails replied to NorthLoop's topic in Daily Texan
Man, I had to sneak booze at 24 that Christmas! My wife's aunt has a great house on a cool farm, so they always hosted Christmas. But she strictly forebode drinking because her husband was a recovering alcoholic. At least my wife warned me before we got married. She said "just keep a bottle in your truck and bring a styrofoam cup so they can't see it." Of course, I was the only one drinking so it was way less fun. Found out about a decade later that the same husband had a nice little grove of the devil's lettuce in the back 40. He was (and still is) California sober. -
Winter Weather 2025 - Arctic Blasts or Sweaty Ass?
Spaulding Smails replied to NorthLoop's topic in Daily Texan
I grew up in Corpus Christi. I'd never been to the mountains and had never seen snow. First time I saw snow was a trip to Colorado when in 2007 when I was 27. I got married in June of 2003. Spent Christmas that year in Corpus with my family. Spent Christmas 2024 in East Texas with my wife's family. This was pre iPhone, so I was getting call after call from my parents, sister, aunts, uncles and drunk cousins saying how amazing it was to have a White Christmas. In Corpus Christi. Meanwhile, I was sitting in the living room with no snow, no TV, no music, and no entertainment with my wife's teetotaling family. 20 years later, and I'm still pissed about it. -
Hunting 24/25: big bucks and a lot of ducks!
Spaulding Smails replied to markstanco's topic in Hobbies
At first I thought it was just his hock right above the grass line and the leg beneath it. Then, I thought it was two frames merged together or something. But, I zoomed in, and now I truly think that leg is gone just below the joint. Holy crap. Had a doe like that around the corner from my house a few years ago. Looked totally healthy otherwise, but right leg gone below the joint. -
Hunting 24/25: big bucks and a lot of ducks!
Spaulding Smails replied to markstanco's topic in Hobbies
We had a LONG conversation on the drive home about exactly that. Enjoying the moment. Appreciating what you're surrounded by. And, the fact that they call it hunting not killing and fishing not catching for a reason. Slow weekends like we had makes it much sweeter when you do have success. I've been getting my ass kicked at work for the last 18 months. But, that all fades far into the background when you're hip deep in the Lower Laguna Madre carefully steering a redfish into your dip net. I swear I got him on the stringer and just kind of stood there for a few minutes taking it all in. And, I'd trade a limit of trout or reds caught soaking bait from the boat for just one nice fish like that red on artificials while wading. -
Hunting 24/25: big bucks and a lot of ducks!
Spaulding Smails replied to markstanco's topic in Hobbies
Well, my cold streak continues. Did a cast-n-blast with my son and his buddies this weekend in Port Mansfield. Two ducks and three fish between six of us. First duck hunt for my son and he didn't even get to pull the trigger. Bill the bird dog was disappointed and was givin the boys the what for on the ride back. Fished our asses off Saturday afternoon with minimal success as well. If anyone is on a hot streak and wants to be completely disappointed, give me a shout... because I'm your guy. My son is usually so even-keeled, but he started to show some signs of frustration on the drive home yesterday. He's had zero luck this year. Struck out turkey hunting. Two fishing trips to the coast put up goose eggs. Went all deer season and didn't see a shooter buck. Went last weekend on a doe mission and didn't see a single doe. Seems like every hunting / fishing trip we've had has been a dud. And these aren't speculative areas. Proven spots with history of great results. Our timing just sucks. Only silver lining was that I did hook a really nice 24" red wade fishing Saturday afternoon. Fun little tussle and good eating last night. And, the weather was awesome. -
Hunting 24/25: big bucks and a lot of ducks!
Spaulding Smails replied to markstanco's topic in Hobbies
My buddy has a ranch about half way between Goliad and Refugio just east of 183. He said it's been a good but not great year.
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