"how to prioritize my life, and finish things that I start. Something Pete does not know how to do. He keeps saying that life gets in the way of this tank. That's a cop out if I have ever heard one."
I've been a away for a while...But, I have to agree with fishbum.... This is a hobby site so the level of efficacy and functioning of the participants is going to be wildly divergent. Priority setting, (viable) project estimation/planning, AND EXECUTION are skills that are hard learned... and generally have to be specifically sought out and learned.
Drawing up plans for a billion gallon tank and running the numbers on psi ratings on the walls and the viewing portals and how to filter this enormous amount of water and blah blah bla... that's the fun stuff to most of us... that's something we enjoy. Putting on the accountants hat and figuring out how much tank you can actually afford to build and how much you can maintain and putting together a realistic timeline to do the build in..that's not nearly as fun. But it's obviously every bit as important.
I've known people who lived in houses that they were building and they lived in them with bare boards showing for 10+ years... This is one of those things... It's ok if that's what Pete and his wife want. When he does work on it he does it well and gets stuff done. Again, this is Pete's home and his project.
That said, maybe fishbum's post will help Pete in some way. Maybe Pete will see something about himself that needs to be worked on. Maybe he'll take it as a critique that can be used to improve himself and his functioning instead of a critisism and judging of who he is as a person. Maybe. I hope so. That's TWO major projects started within the same window of time and neither was able to reach a conclusion. I don't think fishbum has said anything that Pete hasn't already said to himself.
Pete opened a window into his life, his mind, and his person by documenting all this progress for us. By our comments on this thread we are indeed commenting on a reflection of Pete's soul. With the exception of a few disinterested trolls, everyone here wants that reflection to be the best it can be and we only hope that Pete shows us how great it can be.
It will be easy to take fishbums (and possibly my) post and react defensivly. I hope that Pete doesn't do that.