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winter doldrums

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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, November 2, 2006 8:24 PM

By rights we should not have this leaf problem here in Australia as all our native trees are evergreens, mainly eucalypts no less.

Interesting enough we have about 2500 tropical islands here in Queensland and mostly uninhabited and none of them have palm trees except that have been planted there.

Rgds Ian 

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 10:35 PM
I'm with Mark.  I can barely keep up with the leaves.  I don't blow 'em---they just keep coming back. I use the shop-vac.  Four times I've sucked 'em up so  far.  The trees are all bare, and yet more leaves keep appearing as if by magic.  This is my first year in garden railroading.  I've got the railroading part down pretty good.  The garden part I'm not too sure about yet.  Smile [:)]
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Posted by tangerine-jack on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 8:17 PM

 markn wrote:
The clock changing always reminds me of the "politically incorrect"quip by someone like Churchill or Will Rogers that Daylight saving time was like the old Indian chief that wanted a longer blanket, so he cut a foot off the top and sewed it on the bottom..I guess we could get up an hour earlier...naw! It's dark by 5:30, the leaves are falling faster than I can rake them off the tracks, but the weather is perfect here in Virginia- it's always something.  The really bad part about all this is the political ads this time of year but if I understand them, they say if we vote out the damn Reporkicans and vote in the damn Demoncats, they will fix everything including this winter doldrum problem and pay me a subsidy to not rake my leaves-or did I get that wrong?

 

No, you got it right.  But remember Kerry voted for winter before he voted against it.

The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"

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Posted by markn on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 8:08 PM
The clock changing always reminds me of the "politically incorrect"quip by someone like Churchill or Will Rogers that Daylight saving time was like the old Indian chief that wanted a longer blanket, so he cut a foot off the top and sewed it on the bottom..I guess we could get up an hour earlier...naw! It's dark by 5:30, the leaves are falling faster than I can rake them off the tracks, but the weather is perfect here in Virginia- it's always something.  The really bad part about all this is the political ads this time of year but if I understand them, they say if we vote out the damn Reporkicans and vote in the damn Demoncats, they will fix everything including this winter doldrum problem and pay me a subsidy to not rake my leaves-or did I get that wrong?
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Posted by GP-9_Man11786 on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 5:39 PM
Well here's my list of winter projects:

1. Finish my New York City R-26 Subway car.
2. Start building a Metro-North steeple-cab electric locomotive
3. Give my locomotives a tune-up (wheel cleaning, lubrication, cleaning, etc).
4. Find a job in South Florida, where winter exists in memory only.

Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 5:21 PM

I don't agree with Nic on much but i have had the same experience he had in North America. I have been there 4 or 5 times, once for 3 months and i have visited 20 cities in 12 states and i didn't even see a crime or even hear of one. Even the supposedly arraogeant darker type americans in Nan Francisco were pretty pleasant to me.

Rgds Ian 

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Posted by Tom The Brat on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 4:52 PM

As for the earlier comments re crime in australia - its a bit like watching American Sitcoms - the telly here shows all the death and gore holliwood can produce, and the news shows all the murders etc etc so one could believe if you don't get mugged murdered and or raped when stateside, you ain't been. yet I managed a month in North America, drove the freeways of LA, and did not get mugged, raped or murdered or even experience road rage. Rather, I met some great people!

Sorry, we'll try harder next timeMischief [:-,]

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 4:30 PM
I also subscribe to a list on speeders/put-puts, but the Cabin fever material usually starts just after Christmas. Heres GR talking about the pillage of Gnomes!

Heres some info on Neville Bonner.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/features/obits/bonner/bonner_bio.htm

The term "Neville" for garden ornaments in the appearance of an indigenous warrior was made very popular by an Australian Sit-com that was very politically incorrect "Kingswood Country".

The show centred around a racist (in todays values anyway) bloke, Ted Bullpitt (yep, there are lots of ways that can be spun into a line) who drove a Kingswood (built by GM's (subsidised by my governments) Australian Brand, Holden). He had such a statue in his garden!

all sorts of terrible things happened to Neville!

heres a link for more on Kingswood country http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingswood_Country

As for the earlier comments re crime in australia - its a bit like watching American Sitcoms - the telly here shows all the death and gore holliwood can produce, and the news shows all the murders etc etc so one could believe if you don't get mugged murdered and or raped when stateside, you ain't been. yet I managed a month in North America, drove the freeways of LA, and did not get mugged, raped or murdered or even experience road rage. Rather, I met some great people!

reminds me of the old statistics/lies quote - same can be said for the media!
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Posted by vsmith on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 12:17 PM
 tangerine-jack wrote:
What happens if I get offended by that last lawn jockey? 
 
That you lost a wad of cash at the racetrack last weekend?

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Posted by Rastun on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 12:16 PM
 tangerine-jack wrote:
What happens if I get offended by that last lawn jockey? 



TJ you're not allowed to be offended.
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Posted by tangerine-jack on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 11:55 AM
What happens if I get offended by that last lawn jockey? 

The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"

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Posted by vsmith on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 11:25 AM
Dont feel bad Eric, I'll be rebuilding my layout this winter and I'm sticking to R1, its what I'm used to and keeps me from making anything to big that would dwarf  my layout. I'm afraid a Neville up here would be very politically incorrect due to the inherent racial issues something like that is likely to stir up. Up here they're called Lawn Jockeys, although originally they were ment to represent a slave servant who would hold the horse for his master in antebellum days. They were popular in that form from the 19th century right up to the 1970's then they started morphining into little horse racing "jockies", same figure, different colored paint schemes, but there's still alot being sold with black facial coloring. What I dont get is that if your African American the you can have something like that without any fuss at all, but if a tightie whitie like me puts one out its akin to a racial slur even if they have the same figure in their yard, huh? Even my black friends can't figure out that logic. Oh Well, welcome to America 2006. Anyway at least I dont have to worry about it, no protesting gnomes showing up at my house demanding I remove my pink flamingoes, or maybe I can be more racially diverse and get some blue flamingoes before the manufacturer closes shop.Wink [;)]Laugh [(-D]
 
Found this very ineteresting connection between lawn jockeys and the Underground Railroad.
 
A sample of a particularly offensive Lawn Jockey
 
These have morphed into this:

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Posted by Rastun on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 10:06 AM
This winter I'll be trying to finish up:
1. An Irish Railbus
2. An Aristocraft C-16 conversion into a Baldwin Mogul
3. the retired boxcar from GR plans
4. A drovers caboose project from GR plans
Then I also need to start on:
1. Building trestle bents
2. Building a bridge
3. Making more citizens for Avalanche Creek
I think that's it should carry me to next winter rather easy.
There is those three other locomotive projects also.
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 9:33 PM
One more curve to go and I'm all converted to 5'  turns.  Torby, I wish I could, but five is the best I can do in the limited area my layout occupies.  It's a 20' x 7'  (approx,)  irregulary shaped planting area surrounded by sidewalk, thus no expansion possibilities.  Well...I guess I could go up.Smile [:)]
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 7:03 PM
Well this year I have lost 10 acres, my shop, the net, and this was all when I was going to get started kitbashing. Man it is screwed up!
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 7:02 PM

Yeah Kim I think the name was derived from Senator Neville Bonner an aborigine ploitician.

Ian

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Posted by FJ and G on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 10:42 AM
I'm REALLY in the doldrums now. When I got home yesterday, it was too dark to work on the garden RR. Blame it on the end of daylight savings time! Why can't DST be year-round? Would create more light in the gloomy winter!!!! In the summer we don't need all that light and heat.

Baaah Humbug!
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Posted by kimbrit on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 9:22 AM

Haven't you got somebody like a Neville in the White House then? Or is he more like a gnome? I bet Bush would go down well in the bush, outback - so to speak. Nevillles, I love it, wouldn't like to fall on one of them with his spear after a few beers.

KimSmile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

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Posted by Tom The Brat on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 7:52 AM
A criminal underground down underShock [:O]
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, October 30, 2006 5:59 PM

Torby you are right and this was a pretty large one at that; but of course there is a more serious crime here in Australia nad that is stealing "Nevilles"; They are like garden gnomes but more in the image of Australian aborigines, usually with a spear and sometimes standing on one leg.

Rgds Ian 

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Posted by Tom The Brat on Monday, October 30, 2006 8:29 AM
I dunno, Ian. Kidnapping gnomes is pretty severeEvil [}:)]
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Posted by FJ and G on Monday, October 30, 2006 6:05 AM
Got outside this weekend and layed 30 feet of truss bridge for my new 7/8n2; and started work on the concrete bridge for the 7/8n18





BB the beagle watches from nearby brambles



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Posted by tangerine-jack on Sunday, October 29, 2006 7:07 PM
No Ian, I wish it were true, but that is from your own local newspaper.  Truth be told, that is not too bad all things considered.  I don't think there is anywhere in the world you can go and have a zero crime rate.

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 29, 2006 5:38 PM

Jack mate; i can hardly bellieve what you have reported, this must be adifferent Sunshine Coast to where i live. I have been to that Kings Tavern or more exactly to Christmas Carols in the park acrross the road. Here on Kawana Island we have only ever had one crime; some one had too much to drink and stole someone elses garden gnome, i don't think we have even had a traffic accident.

Rgds Ian

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Posted by Tom The Brat on Sunday, October 29, 2006 3:06 PM
Only 5'? See if you can work in 8 or more.
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Posted by tangerine-jack on Sunday, October 29, 2006 1:57 PM

Real trains run year round, so do I.  If the weather is too nasty to be outside, then I have a million other projects to work on as well.  Marty is correct, this is the time of year you can do the heavy grunt work on the railroad without sweating to death or getting carried away by mosquitos.

Daylight savings time makes no difference to me, if it's dark then I will turn the lights on.Smile [:)]

 

Ian, what part of the Sunshine Coast do you live in??? Here is an exerpt from your  own newspaper (yes, some of us Americans can and do read news from other places).  You may not have guns, but crime and murder seem to have a home.

"What’s behind the terrifying new trend finding its way onto Sunshine Coast streets


02.09.2006

By CANDICE HOLZNAGEL MORE Australians are murdered from knife attacks than gun shot wounds and the trend is beginning to show itself on the streets of the Sunshine Coast.

Two knife attacks – one resulting in death – have sent shockwaves through quiet coastal communities in the past week.

Last Sunday Sunrise Beach teenager Sonny Baker was found stabbed to death in front of his home. Deon Paul Langworthy faced court on Monday charged with his murder and was then transferred to Princess Alexandra Hospital for surgery on knife wounds to his own hands.

On Monday night a 37-year-old man was stabbed several times in the stomach and his back at the Kings Beach Tavern. "

The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 29, 2006 4:48 AM
Winter?

Whats that - Little old Adelaide, whilst progressive enough to have daylight savings, has just concluded its driest winter on Record - adding even more relevance to the Company Name - the Dust Bowl and Dirt Cheap Railway.

I'd dearly love it to rain, and rain, and rain. My big water tanks are empty, the house is starting to crack, and it is bearly Spring.

Winter Doldrums - Nuh Uh - Please send your big fat juicy rain clouds via express courier to me!

anyways - summer is an excuse for the missus to send me outside to fix things.........

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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, October 28, 2006 9:26 PM
I'll be converting all my 4' curves to 5'.   More landscaping,  structures etc.  Till the first snow, that is.
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, October 28, 2006 6:16 PM

Well of course this is all an argument for living here on the Sunshine Coast, it was 38 Deg C at a train running down in Brisbane yesterday and bright sunshine but of course it was only 30 Deg here on "The Coast". It only ever rains here of a night time and we have no pollution, traffic problems, guns, or even poverty.

It is in fact springtime and we are recovering from a particularly harsh winter it actually got down to 15 degrees one night or two nights.  

However we do have a controversy about daylight saving every onther state bt Queensland went on to daylight saving last night or is going onto it but us and it is hurting us in many ways.

Rgds Ian

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