Allan (AKA Trim Tab)
Allan "WINDIZ" or sometimes "DOC". How did he get these names you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. Al works in the replacement window industry. I can't tell you how many times I have heard him say on the boat (his cell phone), or on his answering machine, or from his office: "Alz Windiz" Maybe it's me, but you'd think he'd get that one right. But what he did get right is fishing and family. Al has brought aboard his 2 youngest kids. Michael & Lee. Michael fished with us for about 3 years before he grew out of it. Now Lee is an occasional partner. Good boys and good fishermen. OK, what about Al. It's hard to say. His equipment looks like it's been dragged from every garbage truck on Long Island. If we ever run out of bait, we can always just squeeze the juice from his rod grips. And, always the wrong equipment for the job. Still, he catches fish. Don't ask me how. I don't even watch him half of the time, but he's always screaming for the net of gaff (except that day he put a piece of salami on the hook, but we wont go there now). He's the ultimate fishing paradox. Oh, why Doc? Well, a few years ago, Al & I were mackerel fishing and doing a job on them. My technique to unhook macks quickly is to just shake them off. Well, one shake didn't work and a hook from the tree went fully into my hand. It seems I have pretty tough skin and no matter what we did, the hook wouldn't punch through the other side (so we could cut off the barb). So, after about 15 minutes and a bunch of pain & even pressing the hook so hard that we bent it, Allan said, & I quote: "OK, get me a knife" To make a long story short, he never got the knife & I got the hook out, but to this day, I can't believe he was going to cut my skin open to remove that hook.
FLASH! UPDATE! Soon, Allan will be know as the man with many names. He has a new one. Trim Tab. And I think this one will stick. Why Trim Tab? Well, let me tell you first, he is no Doctor! It would be wrong to insult the entire profession by calling this guy Doc. OK, how about Windiz? Well, there are many words Allan mispronounces. Many indeed (click here for a partial Allan vocabulary list) and you'd think that being he is in the window business, he'd at least know how to say "windows". But one day while running along at about 20 knots, Allan got busy rigging up his rods. So, he went port and the boat took on a terrible list to port. I compensated. He went Starboard, the boat listed to starboard and again I compensated. Port again, starboard again... over and over until I had to yell at him to sit still before I burned out the MegaByte trim tabs. So, Allan will be known from now on as "Trim Tab", a fitting name indeed!