Saw a mirror image today on deadliest catch

Tonight is the last night of this season of deadliest catch. Luckily i am tied off tonight so i am going to try to watch it.

I saw the tribute episode and all the other episodes leading up to tonight for this season.

Oddly enough, i can not stand to watch this show while i am home. But watching it out here is almost like having someone to identify with.

We may not deal with the same stressors but we both deal with the same kind of stress.

They work much longer hours and harder than we do but they get a better pay off.

Regardless what we have in common the most is the living hard and having fun on our off time.

I have met very few personalites on workboats that did not have some kind of vice when they got off the boat. Drinkin, drugin, spendin too much money on stupid stuff, ect.

I had a captain a lot like Captain Phil. He was a great guy and fair.

RIP Captain Kevin McKenzie

Anyway he liked his crown royal and couldn’t put down those damn cancer sticks.

He had heart problems and one morning he was late for watch. He was found dead in his state room on his boat the Rebecca Lynn Andrie.

I smoke. I don’t smoke at home. I take a day or two to quit when i am home but i try not to smoke in front of my kids.
By day 3 or so it ain’t worth walkin out to the garage.

As soon as i get in the car to go to the airport the first thing i do is light up.

On a good watch i smoke a half pack. On a rough watch i smoke a pack.

I drink too much caffine and i am overweight. i spend extended periods of time sitting just asking to pass a clot from my legs to my brain.

the only advantage i have over phil is i am 20 years younger.

my cholesterol and all that stuff was good last time i got checked out.

I have started going to the Y with my kids while they are taking swimming lessons.

Funny stuff. Instead of “Fat guy in a little coat” it is fat guy working out in the freeweight room next to Adonis.

I am going to bring some tennis shoes for walking next trip and if we tie up at a dock i am going to start walking.

I think i will take time out on my off time to walk also.
Sometimes we don’t touch land a whole trip. Never been much for the treadmill. Makes me feel like a hampster and we don’t have room on my boat for one.

Phil lead a good life and at least he got his boys off on their feet before he left this world. It may be a shaky start for them but they will do well because of their ol man’s legecy.

If i can get my kids at least in college and pointed in the right direction before Death comes for me I will have felt like i have lived a full life.

I will try to set things up now so i don’t have to worry about the wife and kids after i am gone.

I wil die with peace in my heart knowing these things.

I never expected to make it to 21 when i was a teen. When i was in my 20’s i never thought i’d see 30. Now i am mid 30’s and I am living and dying with the choices i have made.

I am making sure my kids don’t pick up on my bad habits. Trying to at least. They spend more time with their mother so hopefully they will model her more than me.

It would break my heart to see my son start smokin, drinkin, druggin, gettin sleaved out, and ridin a workboat.

I hope he goes far and does great things all at the expense of his ol man who is just a roughneck sailor tryin to make a livnin.

Now i live for my kids. Like i said that is my mission in life. If i get them on their feet i have succeded no matter what shortfalls i have made in my life.

To leave a legecy behind and a role model so that after your gone you still are there with them in their hearts. You are the voice of reason to them.

To all the captains, pilots, longhaul truckers, and anyone else that spends their life away from home making a better life for their families and sacrificing their own in the process i want to thank you and dedicate this thread to you.