Tom’s World – 17JUL2024 – Gulf of Mexico Oil Field Work Boats

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I’ve lived near Pensacola, Fl since I early retired and fled the traffic in my native north Atlanta metro. Though the local traffic seems to be building rapidly due to intense and rapid development, even the worst traffic here is almost laughable compared to the 24/7 nightmare of Atlanta.

One aspect of Pensacola in that it is on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and has an excellent deepwater harbor. It’s deep enough that, up until the early 90’s, aircraft carriers were commonly based out of NAS Pensacola. The civilian Port of Pensacola has a marine refit and repair facility that attracts a fair amount of business repairing and refitting highly specialized vessels that support the many hundreds of oil and gas platforms throughout the Gulf. We see some seriously weird vessels that are tied up for as much as a year while they are being reworked.

The vessels are extremely specialized, some are pipe line layers, some heavy lift with huge cranes used to build or remove oil platforms, some made for carrying pipeline materials, some are supply boats, some are floating hotels. There was one boat owned by Jeff Bezos which had all superstructure was cut off and removed in preparation for landing spacecraft on its deck. I call these vessels boats but not as diminutive, some of them a huge, 800 or more feet in length.

I shot most of the boats in port but on occasion I would be off shore in my 24’ fishing boat and see one on the way in.

Another ship that I’ll later do a post on is the sailing vessel Juan Sebastian De Alcino. Pensacola has a strong Spanish heritage and was ceded to the US by the Spanish in 1822. The JS De Elcano is owned and operated by the Spanish equivalent of the US Naval Academy and is used as a training ship for the midshipmen. Each summer,  the largest sailing ship currently in operation in the world goes on a world cruise, hitting ports on the way. It stops in Pensacola for a couple of days once ever 3-4 years. I spent a few hours climbing around on it a few years ago. That will be a future post.

Below, I’ll post a few pictures of some Gulf work boats.

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2024 Summer Movie Talk – Part 7

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Fantasy

This category is a shambles.  I have arbitrarily excluded superhero movies, monster movies and animated films like Disney’s Pinocchio without any rationale other than I intend to make separate lists for those.  Also, these films run the gamut from children’s movies to adult fare.  And one movie; “Big Fish,” may not even qualify as a fantasy at all.

So, I apologize in advance for the idiosyncratic and incomplete nature of the list.  I’ve emboldened my personal favorites.

  1. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
  2. THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1940)
  3. THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957)
  4. JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963)
  5. MARY POPPINS (1964)
  6. WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)
  7. TIME BANDITS (1981)
  8. CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981)
  9. EXCALIBUR (1981)
  10. CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982)
  11. THE NEVERENDING STORY (1984)
  12. HIGHLANDER (1986)
  13. THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987)
  14. THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN (1989)
  15. SLEEPY HOLLOW (1999)
  16. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001)
  17. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (2002)
  18. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003)
  19. BIG FISH (2003)
  20. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (2005)
  21. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN (2008)
  22. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY (2012)
  23. THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (2013)

If I left out one of your favorites or if you detest one of my listed films, feel free to speak up and make your opinions known in the comments below.

Focusing on the Foreground

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All of us have to do a myriad of things to keep the plates spinning.  Hopefully 95% of this stuff goes right.  But 5% goes wrong and we need to clean up the mess and take our lumps and move on.  And while all of this is going on in the foreground, in the background evil lunatics are working ceaselessly to put an end to the America that provides the space in which we can hustle along to give our families the slightest taste of the good life.  We can have a week’s vacation at the beach.  We send our kids to the best college we can afford.  We own a home in a town where gangbangers don’t hunt down our kids in the streets.

So, this week we witness the Democrat party melting down because they can’t force their brain-dead figurehead to leave the presidential race.  And when that sideshow act gets stale, they try to eliminate his competition the old-fashioned way, with a “lone wolf” spotted an eight-shot head start at point blank range by the secret service.  And of course, once they fail, the Left declares it time to lower the temperature.  At least for today.

Today, Donald Trump picked J D Vance as his running mate.  Of the favorites listed I guess he’s probably the best choice.  The kabuki theater that is the Republican Convention will drone on until, I think Thursday when Trump gives his acceptance speech.  From what he’s said Trump has had a revelation.  Being spared death has convinced him that his message will be that he wants to unite the country.  Well, I don’t know how that can happen.  I think almost half the country wanted the shooter to succeed.  I mean, it’s admirable to want to unite America but I don’t think it’s one country anymore.  It’s not even two countries that tolerate each other.  It’s diametrically opposed enemies looking to get a permanent advantage in order to conquer the other.

So, while we struggle to keep the balls in the air, out of the corner of our eye we see this absurd pantomime that claims it’s “our democracy.”  Today they kept Morning Shmoe of the air.  He and his demented bride couldn’t be trusted not to start calling for Donald Trump’s blood on the day that Joe Biden was “brining down the temperature” by postponing the release of campaign commercials that probably feature Trump dressed up as Hitler.  Of course, Scarborough is hardly the only or even the most unhinged of the left-wing pundits.  Over the last couple of weeks Joy Reid at times has appeared to be close to an epileptic fit.  I have to assume if they’re allowing her on the air, she must be dosed with Thorazine or something stronger.

Well, as we slouch toward Election Day we are sure to see a lot of crazy things.  Will any of them be worse than the last couple of weeks?  I’d like to say no but I’d be a fool to do it.  If Biden’s numbers slip much lower, I wouldn’t be surprised by any crazy thing, up to and including a nuclear attack.  Joe Biden is demented and the people who pull his strings are various types of maniacs.  I want to believe that behind the scenes there are a few sane individuals that can keep the crazy people in check.  But I’m far from convinced of that.

I’ll tell you.  When I think about the biggest personal challenges I’m facing, and some of them are kind of daunting, I’m glad that I have them to keep me from thinking about this other stuff 24/7.  Because this is bedlam.

2024 Summer Movie Talk – Part 6

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Film Noir (Crime)

So once again there is some chicanery going on here.  Because of my previous list I have to leave out all of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies that should be in this category.  “Strangers on a Train,” “Dial M for Murder,” “Rope” and whole bunch of his stuff is right near the top of this genre.  But consistency was never my strength.  Laziness is.

I have emboldened the movies I particularly like.  Take that as personal preference.

I’ve reviewed some of these movies separately if you want my detailed opinion on them search the site.  So here’s a list of what I think is some pretty good noir.

  1. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
  2. HIGH SIERRA (1941)
  3. MURDER, MY SWEET (1944)
  4. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
  5. THE BIG SLEEP (1946)
  6. THE STRANGER (1946)
  7. THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946)
  8. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946)
  9. GILDA (1946)
  10. OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
  11. ODD MAN OUT (1947)
  12. DARK PASSAGE (1947)
  13. THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948)
  14. KEY LARGO (1948)
  15. SORRY, WRONG NUMBER (1948)
  16. THE NAKED CITY (1948)
  17. WHITE HEAT (1949)
  18. THE THIRD MAN (1949)
  19. ALL THE KING’S MEN (1949)
  20. D.O.A. (1949)
  21. THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)
  22. IN A LONELY PLACE (1950)
  23. KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952)
  24. THE BLUE GARDENIA (1953)
  25. THE BIG HEAT (1953)
  26. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957)
  27. TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)

If I left out one of your favorites or if you detest one of my listed films, feel free to speak up and make your opinions known in the comments below.