Updated Life - Updated Fishroom

[Larry Bugg]

Thought I would kill two birds with one stone and give an update on what is happening with me and an updated video of my fishroom. I haven't been very active here for the last 6 months or so. I've worked for UPS for 35 years. I grew up in a era where the average person worked for the same Company for most of their lives. I think it is one of the things that helped make America great and it saddens me to see it change. I worked 6 years part time and 29 years in F/T management. For two thirds of my time at UPS the Company was management owned. Because we were the stockholders we took great pride in what we did and what happened with the Company. UPS went public and this all started to change. Over the last 6 months the hours and stress have taken their toll. The Company that used to care so much about the well being of the individual is disappearing. I reached retirement age/length of service about 4 years ago but haven't been ready to stop working but my family (and hobby) had started suffering because of my job situation. About 6 weeks ago I came home from work around 10 PM after a 14 hour day stressed to the max and my wife told me to go in the next day and turn in my retirement paperwork. I did just that. Last week was my last week of vacation and my retirement has now started. I'm not ready to stop working but I am looking forward to a new era. I will be looking for a job that is less hours, less stress and I enjoy again. I'm really looking forward to enjoying the Thanksgiving/Christmas Holiday which I haven't been able to do for the last 35 years..........

Oh yeah, I should also mention that my days (and nights) for the last 4 weeks have been consumed by the newest member of our Family. Ella is a rambunctious 11 week old Yellow Lab. While the whole family loves her, since I am home all day for now, she has been my constant companion. One of my goals upon retirement is to lose some weight so Ella and I have started a great walking routine. Truly mans best friend. We just have to get past the biting/chewing stage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxSy...ature=youtu.be

And now the fishroom. 31 tanks ranging from 20 gallons to 125 gallons. All the tanks except for the center isle are drilled and plumbed for draining. Two 330 gallon storage totes for water changes using pond pumps to fill the tanks back up. Half the tanks are for discus and the other half are for breeding Rams, Apistos, and Angels along with other occasional Cichlids. My local club (Atlanta Area Aquarium Association) runs a Breeders Award Program where we get points for each species we breed to give us a ranking. In the 125's I'm currently growing out some Severums and Heronia (from Ryan)to get pairs and earn some more points.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCIe...ature=youtu.be

[roclement]

Congrats on the new phase of your life Larry! Enjoy your family, and hobby, you earned it!

Rodrigo

[Second Hand Pat]

Larry, you have a smart spouse. Enjoy your new era.

[troysdiiscus]

Hey Larry, great looking tanks, very clean and beautiful. Love it.
Love the litlle lab, I have a 3 year old chocolate and love him, enjoy your new life and keep the updates coming, hope to see all the discus with fry....they would be very nice and a great grab to get....

[Chicago Discus]

Just as cute as she could be your poor wife has her hands full..Tell her I said hello ....Josie

[Chicago Discus]

Very nice and clean Love it. But you know that I have always said that your fish-room is one of my favorites....Josie

[Trier20]

Enjoy the next stage of life Larry!

[8ftbed]

Congratulations and welcome to the pool!

IMO, part of your state of the mind at the end was simply burnout. I totally agree with you on how today's workforce is generally transient and temporary. Always trying to move up but I also feel the new generation doesn't have the stones to stick with something. They're always running towards allegedly greener grass on the other side.
I did 20 in the Navy and was going to stay for 30. One day I realized I'd had my fill and was becoming a mean cuss and retired. I followed that with 14 in corporate world. Again, all the fun I had getting paid for computer skills that began as a hobby became muted by the crap and increasing amount of plagiarizing contractor pukes. I fit a loophole which allowed retirement, although the company did not have 'early retirement', so I took the ball and ran at 53.
I'm approaching 1 year of retirement on a fixed budget. Every day is Saturday and it beats the hell out working.
Make staying free your new job and enjoy the freedom!

The fish rom and dog ROCKS!

Blaine

[DonMD]

Larry, thanks for posting this. I'm sorry to learn about UPS, we've always felt that they were a good, decent company but from what you say, that may be changing.

Ella looks like she has SHARP teeth!

A couple questions on your fish room. In the tank with the leopards, you've got some strange looking plastic bottle with white media of some type in it. What is that thing?

Then, I notice that you've got heaters in your tanks, making me think you don't heat your whole fish room like many advanced hobbyists do. Any reason for that? And how do you manage to adjust temps in all those tanks?

I enjoyed meeting you at the NADA show in Atlanta, and you're making me look forward to my own retirement, maybe sooner than I planned, too.

[Discus-n00b]

Congrats Larry!

[Larry Bugg]

Just as cute as she could be your poor wife has her hands full..Tell her I said hello ....Josie

LOL, thanks Josie. Amanda just finished her course work for Phlebotomy. She started her 5 week internship at a local hospital yesterday. After that she takes the State board test and will then be job hunting. Since she is so much younger than me it has always been our plan that I would retire and she would go to work. So, she won't be putting up with me under foot all day long, lol.

[cupido]

Enjoy some freedom for yourself! Always like your vids.

[Larry Bugg]

A couple questions on your fish room. In the tank with the leopards, you've got some strange looking plastic bottle with white media of some type in it. What is that thing?

Then, I notice that you've got heaters in your tanks, making me think you don't heat your whole fish room like many advanced hobbyists do. Any reason for that? And how do you manage to adjust temps in all those tanks?

I enjoyed meeting you at the NADA show in Atlanta, and you're making me look forward to my own retirement, maybe sooner than I planned, too.

Hey Don, the bottles are K1 media. I have them in all my tanks now. You can find out more about it here. Josie sells the K1.
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...-Crystal-Clear

My fishroom is in my unfinished basement. It is a really big basement that is studded but no wallboard so it is virtually all open space. The ceilings are about 11' high. All this means that trying to heat the fishroom vs the tanks would be difficult.

Enjoyed meeting you at NADA Atlanta also. Did you realize that NADA Austin is less than 1 year away!!

[BOBT00LS]

Enjoy your well deserved retirement Larry.


Bob

[Skip]

Did you realize that NADA Austin is less than 1 year away!!

WHAT??!?