The stuff of nightmares

Today's Fullbore Friday is dedicated to Halloween, and all the little things that scare us.

Before I get to the videos, I had my own little nightmare already, just this morning. Imagine if you will another place. Norfolk, Virginia. An unsuspecting Dockyard. An unsuspecting Commissioner. Going out to start his vehicle, everything goes normally. That is, until backing out into the middle of the street. Dun dun DUUUUUN! The engine sickly conks out. In full uniform, ready for another exciting day at US Fleet Forces Command, our commissioner is suddenly filled with fear and anxiety.

After several minutes heaving and hawing to get my car out of the middle of the street, I went inside to call AAA. Then.... NOOOOOO! Even you, American Automobile Association - even you have farmed out consumer services to... PAKISTAN! Argh.

Yeah, read your mail from the manufacturer. If you had, you'd know your fuel guage had been recalled and you wouldn't be waiting all morning for a tow to a Nissan dealership for your fuel pump to be replaced.

BT

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, primarily because it is the only holiday that draws on all of our irrational fears and sugar-coats them in a generic 'dress up your kids and hand out candy' sort-of atmosphere. Just remember, that under that frivilous exterior, there lurks a canker-worm which is slowly but surely eating its way into your very heart.

Side note: that might be my first ever non-movie entertainment quote.

But seriously. When was the last time you sat down and pondered the things that REALLY scare you. I do, almost every day. In the Navy we call it ORM, but I call it "visualizing the worst case scenario, and my court-martial." That's because I'm continually plagued by this nagging notion of things in my professional life gone horribly wrong. Extend that to things like ghost ships - those found adrift at sea without a soul onboard - and even routine ship breakers, where ships themselves go to die. And worse yet, what happens when things at the shipbreakers go awry. Yes, I know its lame but these things scare and creep me out on a deep, internal level.

Now, my colleague on the other hand, he scares to much more conventional things. Some of my other colleagues and I have enjoyed scaring the crap out of him with early stop-motion animation. We just enjoy the crazy responses we get from him. Happy Halloween Facebook bomb, Wayne!

And then there's the category of the just plain wierd. I won't go so far as to subscribe to this, but the recently uncovered footage from the premiere of Charle Chaplin's "The Circus" in 1928 and what appears to be a woman talking on a cell phone - that's right, a cell phone in 1928! At least that's what it looks like. Of course, it was probably something perfectly mundane but this has even me puzzled. There are just some who wierd themselves out with crazy theories.

So go forth and enjoy yon scarring and frighting, and have a Happy Halloween!

BT

This weekend we will continue the process of taking lines off Monomoys No. 2 and 3 in preparation for stem and sternpost removal and replacement. In another strange Halloween scare of sorts, we recently found out that all of them are misshapen in one way or another, and oh yeah, those curved scarphs that connect the stem and sternposts to the keel - yeah - they're curved. In the words of one trusted authority who's been helping me out "good luck with those".

Be afraid.

NNNN