~Twine me up Scotty!~

So One Time Ago,

 I’m walking out of a major Hardware store with 4 long pieces of 1 inch wood molding and a bag of small items in my hands that I just purchased with money I work so hard for each week!

Right outside the exit they have a cart with a few things to help you tie down your purchases to the roof of your vehicle or truck bed, such as a roll of nylon twine,

a cutter and red plastic squares to put on the end of your material if it sticks out the back of your vehicle, so you can alert vehicles on the road behind you that you have something sticking out the back of your vehicle.

 I was in a hurry and also my hands were full and I had about 3 fingers free to reach into my pocket for my handy retractable razor knife while holding onto everything.

Of course the 4 long pieces of molding separated and spread eagled at each end while I clutched them in the middle and of course I had to twist my head down and back 90 degree’s to my right to see what I was doing with the razor knife.  I’m so talented; I was able to hold onto all my stuff and pull out about 6 feet of twine and cut it without dropping anything or cutting my finger!  Walla! I scrunch up the twine and away I go.

I get to my vehicle and place the molding and bag of stuff on the ground... Now let’s see……. I need to tie the….Huh???

Out of the corner of my eye, I see this long string of twine extending past my vehicle and the one next to mine.  As I’m looking further down the parking lot I see this same long strand of Twine continuing all the way back to the exit door ... still attached to the roll of twine.  "Wow? that’s a long ways!" I say to myself.

 How did I?.... Dam? …….That’s a lot of twine?

I embarrassingly look around the parking lot and notice a few customers nearby giving me strange looks?

Then someone walks by me from another direction and kind of smirks and I stammer trying to explain what must have happened but he was already out of hearing range.  Next I see an elderly couple getting out of their car, stop at the supersized long strand of twine next to where they parked and the elderly woman hops over it, then looks down at it again and then towards my direction, the couple then both look at each other shaking their heads and continue towards the store,

That’s a lot of twine! I tell myself for the third or fourth time now.

 Frankly 600 feet of twine wasn’t too hard to roll back up into a big ball and place back onto the cart. I’m sure this has happened to other customer’s right? And just in case, that’s why they have that 10,000-ft roll of twine, Right?  

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A True Love Story!

A True Love Story

Many years ago there was this very big Magnificent Oak tree on the side of a two lane rural road.

Directly on the other side of the road was a very young and beautiful Pine tree. 

The Oak tree was much older than the Pine tree as it stood over 30 feet tall and just as wide. One of the big Oak trees branches stretched halfway across the two lane road as the younger Pine trees branches barely reached the edge on its side of the road.

Throughout the years, they developed a friendship for one another and eventually they both fell in love and so to, a yearning to touch and entwine each other’s branches in true matrimony.  But because they were trees, they were solidly attached to that one spot on the earth’s surface that Mother Nature chose for them to grow in. The only way possible for the two tree’s to truly be together was to grow inch by inch, each agonizing year, waiting, wanting, yearning, longing for the day there branches would finally touch each other in the gentle breeze of a warm autumn sun, caress each other in the blossoming showers of Springtime. Oh how much they yearn to feel their branches sway together as one. The Magnificent Oak tree and the Beautiful Pine tree stood oh so close but yet… so far away…. Sniff (Tissue please) Sniff!

Someday my love… The Big Oak tree claimed; we will be able to express our love for one another as we have never done before. The Big Oak trees large branch that hovered over the road, inched ever so slowly towards his precious love. 

The beautiful Pine tree swayed and leaned towards the same center of the road as their Love grew closer and closer together like no other love could! Inch by inch, the years went by, the sun rose and set each day, making them want each other more and more.

Then finally one day, the two trees realized after waiting for so long that they were within a fraction of an inch of touching for the first time and knew that it wouldn’t be long before their branches would finally meet and their Love for one another would then be impassioned more than ever before!

Suddenly The Pine trees love for the Big Oak tree grew feverishly stronger at that moment and it couldn’t wait any longer. Passionately it began with all its might, stretching and leaning towards its one and only true love!

The Big Oak tree, sensing the Pine trees efforts, began swaying up and down with each gust of wind that mysteriously rushed by as if it too sensed what was happening at that moment trying also to help them with the seemingly impossible. Their stretched out branches were now one last brisk gust of wind away from the moment they’ve waited so long for!  At last my Love… we will yearn no more! The Oak tree said softly to the Pine tree! Oh my love, I have waited so long for this moment to arrive… the Pine tree lovingly said.

Suddenly, The Beautiful Pine trees roots started to loosen in the soil that held it so solidly in the ground all those decades and began surfacing up through the ground.

All The many years of waning, wanting, yearning, and leaning, towards its one true Love across the road had weakened the soil around it. NOooooooooo” The Oak tree cries out as it see’s the Pine trees roots uprooting. The pine tree is leaning more and more as its roots surface from the depths higher and higher. Oh No! The Pine tree exclaims!  I’m-I’m Fa-l-l-i-n-g!!

Sadly the Beautiful pine tree falls down across the very road that separated it from the Oak tree, with an earth shattering thud! And lands a few feet from the one its heart yearned for all those years.

As the Pine tree lay there on the road motionless, the Oak tree wept and then a road crew came and cut it all up and hauled it away.  The End.

 were you expecting a happy ending or what?

The Moral of the story?

Heck I don’t know?

OK, OK, here’s one:

Love is just like a tree, try too hard and you fall down?

Or how about this one;

Know where you stand in a relationship, or you fall down?

When in Love, Don’t fall too hard?

Or how about;

If you have to work that hard in a relationship, you’re heading for a fall.

You figure it out and get back to me alright?

Jeez, I just write this stuff; I’m not a philosopher okay?

Written by

Yours truly,

Captain HighTide

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The Truckster and two Boys

THE CHASE

Okay so, One Time Ago…

When me and my twin brother Todd and older brother Jody were about 9 &10 Our father worked for Cushman Golf Cart company in San Leandro, California and we got to help with transporting and servicing 3 and 4 wheeled gas and electric motorized golf carts.  We occasionally went on trips to prestigious and well known Golf courses throughout California, such as Pebble beach to deliver a semi truck load of Golf Carts for tournaments.  Our father would brag about how he taught us boys how to drive in a 1957 Chevy station wagon three speed on the column at the age of 7 & 8.

We learned how to drive in a car that had a clutch and manual transmission and one time when I hopped into a car with an automatic transmission, I didn’t know what to do to get it to move?  One time our father let us race around a walnut tree orchard in Vacaville with a 1960 something Buick because he, my uncle, and their buddies were drunk and our father wanted to show off how well his boys could drive a car at the ripe age of 7?  I had a blast!  I was getting sideways and flinging dirt up in the air and everything!  I had trouble seeing over the dashboard but managed to keep from hitting the trees. More and more Dust was flying with each lap I made and then the car started sputtering and the engine quit and then I noticed white smoke coming out of the hood, so I pop it open and the carburetor is on fire.  Dad and his buddies were laughing and too far away to notice what was happening until the fire got bigger and then before one of the inebriated adults could stagger over with a fire extinguisher, I had it already put out with my quick thinking 7 year old brain. Yep I threw as many handfuls of dirt as fast as I could on that burning carburetor until it finally went out, much to the dismay of the car owner. Hey it worked?

So fast forward a year. We three boys are now veterans at driving anything with wheels and sometimes we would help unload the Golf carts from a double decker semi trailer.

Semi Trailer in background

It had this hydraulic lift gate that was very steep when positioned to the top deck at an angle all the way to the ground level. So once again when dad wasn’t around we found a way to make it more entertaining as well! Like coming down the ramp backwards as fast as we dared and then slamming on the brakes!  That 3 wheeled golf cart would stand almost straight up in the air!!  You had to see it? We were Pro’s I tell ya!

One time I accidently did it when my father was nearby and let’s just say that I didn’t do that for a long time afterwards. “Honest dad, I accidently slammed on the brakes!”

  But one of the funnest things we did that our father had his suspicion about but never caught us doing, was we got to RACE err drive the fleet of golf carts for our trusting father to other buildings and park them in neat little rows.  So after a few black rubber tire marking laps (inside the building) on our make shift race track around other strategically positioned carts, Me and Todd decided to venture outside with… the- TRUCKSTER!

  It’s a three wheeled vehicle and was used by Golf course maintenance personnel to maintain the turf and also by city meter maids back in the day. It’s like a truck but smaller hence the name Truckster. It had a 3 speed on the column with a clutch on the floor and only one seat barely big enough for our fathers, Big Butt. 

Hey? There's our father coming up a Richmond, CA. hill in one

Cushman moved from San leandro to San Ramon or Dublin around 1970? and this was all new territory for us two adventerous boys and we just had to explore!  So here's me and Todd both sitting on this one seat, driving the… Truckster.  I’m on the left and Todd’s on the right and it’s my turn driving while he waits patiently for his turn or so I thought. Heck to be honest, I don’t think it crossed my mind whatsoever while I drove around the parking lot. Well I guess he felt I was taking too long of a turn and sense we both didn’t have watches or any specific type of apparatus to keep track of time, Todd decided that it was time for his turn, and of course I knew it wasn’t his turn yet. I just knew.  He wasn’t buying.

Todd

Tom

A tug-of-war match ensued between the two of us with the one steering wheel. Todd was tugging in one direction and me the other, all the while hitting each other with our free hand. -Now I’m not an expert about twins but as far as being one I have some pretty good insight about these special amazing abilities we twins possess, like being able to perform a tug of war with the steering wheel with one hand and hitting each other with the other, and also dodging the vehicle parking stops that were everywhere. It takes a special skill in an ambidextrous sort of way that only twins can perform as we compensated for each other’s tugs on the wheel and hits to the shoulder masterfully maneuvering the Truckster to avoid obstacles. Which was getting us... well?  Nowhere… It was obvious that neither one of us was going to win the first round.

DING! Round two…

So there we were, fighting over the steering wheel, racing in between the parking stops, barely missing them as we passed each one within inches, just like in an action packed thriller movie. Thank God the parking lot was empty and you will soon understand why!

 I kept my foot on the throttle, maybe it was because he was trying to keep his foot on the brake!  Anyways we were moving at a good pace when all of a sudden I must have lapsed for a second or got out of sync with our telepathic abilities to read each other’s mind or maybe it was that last hit to my shoulder? That one hurt? Ya that was it, and it made me a millisecond slower with the same idea (I’m telling ya it’s a gift we twins have) anyways all of a sudden Todd decided to stop hitting me and tugs the steering wheel with both hands so hard that the TRUCKSTER veer’s sharply to the right and I fly out of the TRUCKSTER on the left and land on the ground, and did I mention that this TRUCKSTER is a three wheeler? Yep the back wheel runs over my legs and bumps over me.  My Brother is Scared that I’m seriously hurt so he jumps out of the moving vehicle, does a body roll and is up on his feet and running towards me within a half a second to see if I was alright. Bottom line is, no matter what, that’s the type of guy he is.

We both look at the Truckster at the same time and also we both realized at the same time that the TRUCKSTER is still going… …..yep straight towards a brick building!... I’m telling ya, it’s a gift we twins have, it’s pretty amazing stuff. I’m also real sure that we had the exact same thought at the exact same time, of how our father is going to beat us to a pulp if that TRUCKSTER SMASHES INTO THAT BRICK BUILDING!

SO I’m on the ground and in pain and I’m waving him off and yelling “GO! Get the TRUCKSTER!!!!  So Todd takes off running!  There is no way he’s going to catch it  The Truckster had about a 75 foot lead on him and was going about 10-15 miles per hour.  SHIT!  I said out loud.  While still on the ground and in pain, I’m watching and anticipating the collision in 10-9-8-7-6-…

(Cut to the chase)

So there’s my brother, bless his soul trying to chase it down.  I’m watching and waiting for the obvious outcome. Just then the front tire hits one of those parking cement stops and the front of the three wheeler goes into one of those jet airplane take off stances and wheelies for about 20 feet then lands with a big thud which jerks the wheel to the right and the vehicle turns and is going in another direction now. HOLY COW! I can’t believe my eyes,  talk about luck! With 5 seconds left before impact, THE TRUCKSTER turns away from the brick wall and my brother was able to head it off like linebackers do to running backs in a football game.  GOoooo TODDY!!  Todd jumped into that seat like a professional stunt man and stopped it from exiting the parking lot and into the street!  Todd drove back to the warehouse and I hid my limp when we went into our father’s office.  

I was alright after a few days. As a matter of fact I think I saw a beam of light shine down from the heavens that day just before the Truckster hit the Parking bumper. I guess we used up our quota of miracles for that month because a few weeks later, nothing stopped us from hitting and knocking down a stop sign next to the railroad tracks, but that’s another One Time Ago story.

in the Middle of a Horse race track/ Golf Course in Vallejo, CA.

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Salmon Fishing

November 2010

COME ON… LETS GO!

One time Ago… in the 1980's I went fishing with my twin brother Todd for Salmon at the American River, Nimbus Dam to be exact. 

 it was late in the season and several gates were open which caused the water to rise past the normal areas to fish, which made it hard to find a good spot on the riverbank to fish from.  We finally found a spot in between some small tree’s.

I like to catch fish especially big Salmon, and I don’t like to sit there all day or even more than 1 hour without even a nibble.  I drift a small orange bead at the end of a 6 foot leader with just enough weight to bounce off the bottom of the riverbed as the current takes my set up downstream.  You do this repeatedly over and over and over waiting for a hit or hook-up. That’s fisherman Slang for hooking a fish.  Also when you hook a Salmon on the banks of the river you yell Fish-On! To alert others that they better reel–in their lines and get the heck out of the way because the next thing you will hear is, COMING DOWN! Which means the fish is coming down river and sometimes way faster than the fisherman can maneuver across slippery moss rocks in about 4 feet of water. 1 out of 5 fisher persons fall down and if they have waiters on, it can be dangerous in fast moving water but for the most part its dam cold and shrivels things up might quick if you know what I mean.

Me and my two brothers grew up fishing, starting at the age of 4 years old. Our father was an avid fisherman in Southern California and was involved in surf fishing clubs for many years.

When we moved to Northern California in 1969/70? He took me Salmon fishing at the American River and I have been fishing for Salmon and Steelhead ever since.

 Well anyways on this particular day, there wasn’t another fisher person anywhere in sight, which is a sure sign that the fish are gone. Salmon spawn (lay their eggs) and die off.

 There might be a few stragglers’ but not very many. Steelheads start making their way to this area shortly after the Salmon so you never know?  Well we found a narrow 10 feet of open space in between the small tree’s to try and cast out into strong enough current and hopefully hook a Salmon if there are any?  After awhile and getting colder by the minute, I’m getting a little impatient which turns into frustration which turns into me and my brother arguing about stuff.  Like whether we should go or not, whether we should stay or not, or maybe we should go to another spot a few miles down the road…or not? 

Anyways I don’t remember what was more frustrating; the snagging of my line every other cast or my brothers constant badgering to go somewhere else and get skunked just the same. My brother is into one of his Come on let’s go! Every 30 seconds rants while I’m snagged at the bottom of the river for the umpteenth time. This time my line was stuck at the bottom with no give whatsoever, I mean you could hear the line stretched to the max, with that twanging sound it makes right before it snaps!

I’m tugging on what seems like a big solid rock or a root from a nearby tree at the bottom of the river and there’s no give and take whatsoever. So while all this is going on, my brother is fishing right beside me and while I’m cursing under my breath out of frustration …WACK!

Son-of-A- what the hell did you do that for? I scream!  Sorry he blurts out. (On his last cast his sinker hits me in the back of my head?!!!!) I could tell also that he’s trying to keep from laughing out loud.  “Oh you think it’s funny? So now I’m slightly bleeding and feeling the back of my head for a hook or something,  I’m Bleeding! -You (Bleep %@#!)” I yell. While all this is going on, I’m holding my fishing pole in my right hand while my line is still snagged at the bottom of the river! Arrrrgh! I sneer as I grit my teeth. Now I’m even more frustrated!

“THAT’S IT!  L-E-T’S --GO!” I shout and I give my pole a hard tug at the same time and then hold the tip up in the air waiting for my line or pole to break. At this point I didn’t care what broke. The line was so tight that it sounded like the devils own Choir singing way, way off key. The devil went down to Georgia or something like that? I couldn’t quite make out the words because I’m now focused on purposely trying to get the fishing line to break so I can then go over and smack my brother up side his head. (I know he didn’t mean to do it and he is a nice guy and everything but we are brothers Twin brothers to be exact and hey? I can’t speak for other twins but that’s what we do?)

  Todd (Same Me)                               Tom (Same Him)

Suddenly the end of my pole starts tugging back several times.  HEY?  … Hey Todd?  I think I have a fish? I yell.  “Ya right… Come on lets go and stop clowning around” he yells  from a now safe distance. No, seriously? I think it’s a fish?   NO-WAY? Todd says but then starts walking cautiously over to where I’m at because he is probably thinking I’m trying to lure him closer for the payback. Suddenly! I feel that familiar head shake at the tip of my pole and then all at once my reel starts singing and my line is now taking off out of the spool at warp speed, and the tip of my pole is bending into a “U” shape!

Picture of me at the Port of Oakland pier catching a 4-1/2 ft leopard shark

And then this huge dark reddish colored fish leaps out of the water about 10 feet in front of me! and I yell to Todd “Its a FISH!!” Right then my line breaks with a loud SNAP! I just stood there in disbelief as Todd is now beside me.

 “DID YOU SEE THAT! -IT WAS A BIG SALMON!” I shouted and my brother Todd says “heck ya!” and we both started laughing at what just transpired. It all happened so fast. One second I’m pissed off and my head is bleeding and the next we we're both laughing so hard, it took a few minutes to compose ourselves only to start laughing some more.  We laughed about it all the way home. We tell that One-Time-Ago story to each other once in a while reminiscing about our funny moments we shared together.

Tom S.

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Mr. Carter's Egg Farm, Motocross racing and Seeing a man about a dog

Mr. CARTER’S EGG FARM

 Motocross Racing

 &

Seeing a man about a Dog

Mr. Carter our neighbor owned an egg farm, right next door to where I lived during my teen years in Northern California.  Every so often, he needed help cleaning out the chicken poop off the Barn floor.  Yep there I was shoveling chicken poop into a wheel barrel and it was the heaviest, slimiest, and smelliest stuff on earth. I had to push this wheel barrel full of chicken poop down the narrow rows of chicken coops to outside and dump it into a much bigger slimiest, smelliest pile of oozing poop this side of the continent.  Believe me when I say it was the worst smell ever and imagine living next door to that let alone shoveling it?  Mr. Carter gave me $20.00 dollars to clean one side of each row of chicken POOP! And cleaning out a half row took me… all day.  

Getting the smell off me took 2 days and lots of showers. I would try to time it where the third day was a Friday, so my girlfriend would be ok with riding in the same vehicle as me.

 Egg laying chickens… are well?... chickens, but I felt sad for them because, they were in a cage 24/7 and all they did was poop and lay one or two eggs in the morning, oh and eat so they could poop the rest of the day.

Mr. and Mrs. Carter were the nicest people you ever wanted to meet.  I believe they said they were originally from West Virginia?  As their accent sounded like they were from those parts as well as their nice hospitality.  I can remember some of the words he spoke like it were just yesterday. He would say things like, DAD GUMIT! And “That’s just plain Dad-Gum stupid ta do something like gat” and oh ya whenever he really, really got upset about something he would say, “Shit Fire and save the matches” in such a huff that I knew something was really bothering him. Most of the time if he was upset, it was about something his son did or didn’t do. You see he didn’t like to shovel chicken poop and loved to go partying on the weekends. One weekend his son wreck the car his father bought him; and how was I suppose to know that he told his dad he left his car at a friend’s house overnight and well when I asked how his son was doing the day after his car accident Mr. Carter gave me this one eye lowered look, and I knew right away that something was up?  “STEVEN!  Get yur butt over here nouw boy!”

The truth never fails to surface sooner or later, and in this case it was way ahead of schedule via a little unbeknownst help from Umwa.

 Mrs. Carter would serve up the best Dinner / Breakfast most people only hear about every morning and I had the pleasure of getting invited every now and then. You see, Breakfast was the biggest meal of the day because you worked from sun-up to sundown and you needed the big feast in the morning to make it through the longest part of the day. I think their secret though was the sugar in their ice tea? They put four spoons of sugar per glass, which was about 3-1/2 spoonfuls way too much for me?

Hey?  Looky here, that’s me in the picture serving up some fertilizer from Carter’s Egg Farm, mighty fine stuff thar yes indeed.  

My Father wrote on the back of this picture:

“That’s Tommy- poop don’t bother him”

Mr. Carter needed help cutting down trees on acreage he owned up in the hills near Georgetown above Cool, (That’s an actual name of a town, pretty Cool huh?) Anyways the road to Cool wasn’t. (Made me Nauseous every time) 

(This is where I explain the correlation of Mr. Carter’s Egg Farm to the highlight of my Motocross racing career)

 He needed the help and I needed the money to go Motocross racing every Sunday.  So here I am using the same wheel barrel that I used to haul Chicken Sh---er poop in, but now hauling logs from the fallen trees, up the side of the mountain, and loading into the truck.   I was now also building up some serious muscle tone and strength I never knew existed in my 125lbs average size but now very stout body. 

TIMBER!  Another tree falls and lands with a big thud as Mr. Carter shuts off his Chain saw. I walk over to where he’s at and Mr. Carter tells me he needs to go see a man about a dog.  I say “what? You’re getting another dog? What’s wrong with the one you have? Mr. Carter repeats what he just said once again but with a different softer tone and a sorta funny expression on his face.

Like - (Boy… Don’t yeuw know wu-aht I’m a-talkin bout?)

Then I asked him, “So what kind of a dog is it?”  Mr. Carter is looking at me with this blank stare now, and then says indomitably, Uh I’m going behind that tree over yonder there to pull my britches down and take a crap…

Oooohhhh-kaaay… I get it now?  Hey I don’t think we brought any toilet paper? Are ya gonna use a leaf or sumpin?

Nauw I got a roll right here in my jacket pocket,

 Alright! Way to go Mr. Cartier!

(You see, saying that you got to go see a man about a dog is the West Virginian polite way of saying it.) “Hey watch out for Bears!”- Mr. Carter” I yell as he walks away.

So about 3 weeks of cutting down trees and hauling logs up the side of a hill, and getting some well toned up muscles as well, I was ready to go Motocross Racin! I had made enough money to fix the RM 125 and hit the track.

Guess WHAT? -I WON! My Division two weekends in a row!  4 straight wins,  in the Novice division. 

Picture below is of the actual 1st Moto win! Checkered flag and ALL!

This is the Actual Prairie City Hangtown MX track back in 1977

 

 

 

1981 photos of me practicing

 

Sacramento Raceway Arena 1977

I would place 1^st -1^st - 2nd or sometimes 3rd -1^st -1^st, for the overall win each night, but whose bragging?  Also that type of race isn’t the same as the Sunday Motocross racing.

Unfortunately, or maybe not? (Because it’s a dangerous sport) I had to quit because of finances, starting a new career, oh and getting married and oh I don’t know? Having your wife tell you that she’s pregnant doesn’t help much either!

I remember those Motocross racing days vividly well as they were probably the best times in my life, the late 70’s early 80’s. Winning at something you love doing was peachy keen TOO!

 

Ahhhhh… the early days of my short lived Moto Cross Career.

1976

1976-77?

Prairie City OHV 1977

Gene's Suzuki Jersey

My Twin Brother Todd was always there to help and cheer me on! He was a big help.

We both shared with yellow flag corner work at the track to earn money for gas to get back home

or to get something to eat in the early years at the age of 17. We pretty much had to support ourselves growing up and I had a passion to race back then and did everything I could to continue racing as long as I could afford to. THANKS BRO!

My Brother Todd on the left with Brad Lackey (MX WORLD CHAMPION! 1987)

and a friend of Brads on the right

 JODY    TODD   TOM (the cool one in shades)- Uncle Tink (Starter)

AND THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN!

Mr. Carter sold the Egg Farm that year and moved away, and then he got it back and moved back in and built a new house at the other end of the acreage and then sold the Egg farm again and had to help the new owner so much that he just as well bought it back again.  Anyways Mr. Carter eventually moved away and I never saw him again after that.  I often tell people about the time he went to go see a man about a dog.  I will never forget how strong I got from working up in the hills cutting down pine trees. I should have wrote a how-to training Manual for Motocross, I would have made enough to race a few more months or maybe more?  

 

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