Well, everything seems to be cutting into my hobby anymore.
Last year I adopted two cats. The first has heart problems and is on medicine twice a day and has been going to the local animal hospital several times for echocardiograms to see how he's progressing. Fortunately, his medicine is cheap, and the new medicine that he started this past weekend should be making things better since his original medicine basically stabilized things. My other cat started getting sick a week after I got him home, and that took a couple medicines and special food to clear up.
This past March, my Jeep was rearended at a red light on my way to work because some idiot decided that talking on his cell phone was more important than watching the road. About three weeks after that, some local kids playing on a dirt pile across the drive from my townhouse shattered the back window of my Jeep with a rock.
Anymore, I'm just living paycheck to paycheck, paying attention to what bills and expenses that I have coming up and planning around that. While gas prices are a factor in my spending, it's not everything.
Last fall was the last trip to the hobby store that I've made. Right now, I can't afford to get more of what I need to get to do all of the scenery on my layout. What I have been doing is focusing on smaller projects that I can do to at least be getting some work done. Plus, I have trains going and have been working on the operations side of the layout and getting that planned out.
As far as railfanning goes, I haven't gone out railfanning since 2004 since it always seems like something comes up, the weather doesn't cooperate, etc. Hopefully, I'll be able to take a Saturday or two this summer to go to Marion, Fostoria, or even Bellevue.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
kenkal wrote:Hope this post stops the e-mail replies. I'm getting buried with these things.
No, you have to click the "Notify" button at the top of the thread to turn off notification.
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
ArtOfRuin wrote: I've been cutting down on my trips to the not-so-local hobby stores. It's about a 30-minute drive to the two closest, when the infamous Boston traffic is not in effect. They were close to where I worked, so I would occasionally head down to either Hobby Emporium or Maine Trains after work (maybe 2 times a month). I also had to budget trains against my car budget: I've been upgrading my Subaru Impreza little-by-little to make it better at autocross racing and to prepare it for an eventual STi engine swap. Unfortunatly, I won't be spending any money on either for the time being- I lost my job yesterday. Company wouldn't pick up my contract. If the temp agency can't find me something comparable tomorrow, well, I won't be modeling or racing anytime soon; just job-hunting.
I've been cutting down on my trips to the not-so-local hobby stores. It's about a 30-minute drive to the two closest, when the infamous Boston traffic is not in effect. They were close to where I worked, so I would occasionally head down to either Hobby Emporium or Maine Trains after work (maybe 2 times a month). I also had to budget trains against my car budget: I've been upgrading my Subaru Impreza little-by-little to make it better at autocross racing and to prepare it for an eventual STi engine swap.
Unfortunatly, I won't be spending any money on either for the time being- I lost my job yesterday. Company wouldn't pick up my contract. If the temp agency can't find me something comparable tomorrow, well, I won't be modeling or racing anytime soon; just job-hunting.
Sorry to hear that, man.
-G
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Last Chance wrote: How is everyone doing with thier gas accessories? Are you letting your land grow? Or cutting it?
How is everyone doing with thier gas accessories? Are you letting your land grow? Or cutting it?
No fertilizer or water anymore, and cutting it shorter than normal.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Actually, in some ways, it may be adding to hobby time for me. Instead of doing several little trips here and there, I plan to do all my errands in one trip, leaving me some time at home to work on the layout. NIcest thing is that the layout is in my cool, dry cellar and its 90 outside at the moment - what am I doing at the computer?
My folks used to run a small general store in a small southern VT town, sold gas for $0.199/gal, that's about 25 gallons for $5.00, those were the days.
Looks like a storm brewing, Sox game off the dish due to interference, wife just came in, thunder in distance coming this way. Time to go to the cellar, turn on the radio and work on the layout in the COOLNESS down there.
Later,
andrechapelon wrote:[/i]So gas/petrol is that cheap in the US. Gas in Australia has just gone up to approximately US$6.90 per gallon.My car does 45mpg and it still hurts! [/i]You are aware that the US gallon is smaller than the Imperial gallon, aren't you?The Imperial gallon is 1.2 US gallons.We should all convert to the metric system. A liter is a liter anywhere. A US gallon = 3.785 liters.An Imperial gallon = 4.546 liters.Andre
[/i]So gas/petrol is that cheap in the US. Gas in Australia has just gone up to approximately US$6.90 per gallon.
My car does 45mpg and it still hurts! [/i]
You are aware that the US gallon is smaller than the Imperial gallon, aren't you?
The Imperial gallon is 1.2 US gallons.
We should all convert to the metric system. A liter is a liter anywhere.
A US gallon = 3.785 liters.
An Imperial gallon = 4.546 liters.
Andre
Gas around here is $6.08 a gallon. In Canada, the metric system is costing the consumer money: when first adopted, the containers for goods remained the same, with the capacity expressed in litres. When all of the old Imperial-sized containers were used-up, we got metric-sized containers. An Imperial gallon of paint became first 4.54 litres of paint, then 4 litres of paint. With the advent of the so-called "free trade" pact (NAFTA), that 4 litre container mysteriously became a 3.785 litre container. All the while, the price of the commodity continued to increase as it would have had the container remained unchanged. In other words, no drop in price to reflect the smaller quantity of product. The shift to the so-called "world standard" of metric measurement has left us with measurements expressed in fractions of metric units, but equivalent to American measurements. What a step forward!
Wayne
I purchased a 20 horse lawn tractor the other day and finished the acre in about 40 minutes. The gas used was less than 1/4 gallon and probably less than that used by two push mowers on the same job. Ive enough gas in that two gallon tank for 3-4 more cuttings over the next two months or more depending on weather.
Hmmm most of those in other countries complain about the high price of gas in terms of the taxes they pay on that gallon. Taxes don't really count- complain to your governments about the taxes.
Here according to the newspaper article, on a $3.50 gallon, only 18% is federal, state and local taxes.
One third of that $3.50 is refining and sales, on which the oil companies here are making around 40 billion dollars a year in profits.
Gas is already at $4.00+ here and will increase as summer goes on. I do believe them when they say gas could be $6.00/ gal by years end.
We will have gone from about $3.00 to $6.00 in about a year!
smile and grit your teeth and buy stock in oil companies if you can afford it!
Johnnny_reb Once a word is spoken it can not be unspoken!
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Pasadena Sub wrote: On Friday there ws a huge spike (around 8%) in the price of a barrel of oil. I have been trying to research every time this happens, and it seems this past "spike" can be described like this: "The price of oil spiked on Friday because investors were worried the price of oil could go higher over the summer." So, to me this translates to, "the price of oil wen't up because the price of oil was going to go up." It is very hard to determin a cause-and-effect pattern in all of this.
On Friday there ws a huge spike (around 8%) in the price of a barrel of oil. I have been trying to research every time this happens, and it seems this past "spike" can be described like this: "The price of oil spiked on Friday because investors were worried the price of oil could go higher over the summer." So, to me this translates to, "the price of oil wen't up because the price of oil was going to go up." It is very hard to determin a cause-and-effect pattern in all of this.
In fact, Friday's "spike" was a reaction by speculators to the downright dismal jobs market report that came out and the further economic downturns in the auto industry. The speculators view oil as the one commodity that is increasing in value by leaps and bounds, so that's the place to invest. Each bit of further bad economic news is going to fuel this problem until it becomes totally out of control. As of last evening, the supposed economic experts on CNN were forecasting oil to reach at least $160 a barrel before the summer is out, with gasoline passing the $6 mark in the same time interval (I paid $4.30 a gallon yesterday).
CNJ831
Gas prices have affected my hobby the way they have affected everything else our family does: now we think whether we REALLY want to drive to the mall, store, park, etc. or just stay at home and do some work around the house. Have never thought of gas prices before now, but that seeems like ancient history. Am still planning my CSX former Clinchfield tour in a few weeks, although I am happy a friend is coming along so we can each share expenses and make things less costly for each other.
grayfox1119 wrote: ... And to make matters worse, we have investors called "Speculators" who buy oil on the Futures Market. What does this do? It runs the price of a barrel up and up and up. In simple terms, if I have one apple to sell, and 3 people want to buy this one apple, they will bid the price up ( you know like EBay? ) And now the Speculators come along with their money and they bid the price up even higher as they purchase barrels of oil, or apples in this simple example. ...
... And to make matters worse, we have investors called "Speculators" who buy oil on the Futures Market. What does this do? It runs the price of a barrel up and up and up. In simple terms, if I have one apple to sell, and 3 people want to buy this one apple, they will bid the price up ( you know like EBay? ) And now the Speculators come along with their money and they bid the price up even higher as they purchase barrels of oil, or apples in this simple example. ...
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PASMITH wrote: Daniel1975 wrote:It hasn't affected me at all since I always use the train to go to work/shop/trips...etc. I don't even have a car and that money I save I spend on a lot of other things.Of course we have a pretty good Public Transportation system in Switzerland so no need for a car really. :) Do you still have all of the cool graffiti along the right of way?Peter Smith Memphis
Daniel1975 wrote:It hasn't affected me at all since I always use the train to go to work/shop/trips...etc. I don't even have a car and that money I save I spend on a lot of other things.Of course we have a pretty good Public Transportation system in Switzerland so no need for a car really. :)
It hasn't affected me at all since I always use the train to go to work/shop/trips...etc. I don't even have a car and that money I save I spend on a lot of other things.
Of course we have a pretty good Public Transportation system in Switzerland so no need for a car really. :)
I don't know whether I'd consider them cool but they're still there. Of course what's the point removing them when you rush past them so quickly plus they are colorful vs. the lame concrete-grey.
So gas/petrol is that cheap in the US. Gas in Australia has just gone up to approximately US$6.90 per gallon.
My car does 45mpg and it still hurts!
Daniel1975 wrote: It hasn't affected me at all since I always use the train to go to work/shop/trips...etc. I don't even have a car and that money I save I spend on a lot of other things.Of course we have a pretty good Public Transportation system in Switzerland so no need for a car really. :)
I was in Zurich a couple of years ago and enjoyed the frequent, comfortable, clean, and on-time service on the trams and trains (and boats). We used them extensively the several days we were there. I can't think of a city with any better rail transportation than Zurich. The train to Baden Baden, Germany was nice too. I always take public transportation in Europe because I was in the major cities. I only rented a car once. That was in Germany and one reason was to drive on the Autobahn. Besides, parking in the major cities is rough. Spent five days in Rome and I only remember seeing two vacant parking spots on the street in the five-block radius of our hotel. Seems like some people never drive their car after finding a parking spot. Also, since most of the roads in towns aren't laid out in a grid pattern but wander around, navigating by car isn't easy if you aren't familiar with the streets.
Mark
8500HPGASTURBINE wrote: Geared Steam wrote:8 mpg?? They would have to pay me to take that gas pig off their hands. I paid almost 50 for it and got a deal. Right now I would get squat for it if I decided to trade it. NOBODY would want it. The sticker did say 9/12 MPG. I live 1 mile from work and 2 miles from anything I could need. I don't drive it a lot ( basically it's a toy). The local hobby shop is also very close. But the local hobby shops still are holding prices low, really haven't noticed a differance yet. Mike
Geared Steam wrote:8 mpg?? They would have to pay me to take that gas pig off their hands.
I paid almost 50 for it and got a deal. Right now I would get squat for it if I decided to trade it. NOBODY would want it. The sticker did say 9/12 MPG. I live 1 mile from work and 2 miles from anything I could need. I don't drive it a lot ( basically it's a toy). The local hobby shop is also very close. But the local hobby shops still are holding prices low, really haven't noticed a differance yet.
Mike
Now I know why
6.1L SRT HEMI® V8 engine
It's definately not your basic Jeep
I guess it's all relative, I get 18 mpg and drive 18 miles to work 1 way.
I had a 1969 427CI Corvette that got better gas mileage than that.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
steinjr wrote: And of course it does help quite a bit that I don't live too far out in the boonies - I can walk to the RR station in my small town of maybe 4000 people and take an EMU to within two blocks of where I work in the city.
And of course it does help quite a bit that I don't live too far out in the boonies - I can walk to the RR station in my small town of maybe 4000 people and take an EMU to within two blocks of where I work in the city.
I live in the opposite way. To the university I got 120 km back and forth. To a decent grocery store 80 km back and forth. So no such luck for me. To take my kids to school and kindergarten 15 km.
Magnus
Lillen wrote:Your gas is cheap guys. Come to Sweden and pay 8,83 dollars per gallon of regular gas.
Your gas is cheap guys. Come to Sweden and pay 8,83 dollars per gallon of regular gas.
Mmm - gas is a bit cheaper in Sweden, I see. We pay about $9.50 a gallon these days over here in Norway. Up about 1.2 times relative to a couple of years ago.
A mild annoyance, to be sure, but still far less of a shock for the wallet than having gas increase in price four-fold within five years without having your income increase four-fold as well.
The 30 miles or so takes me 37 reasonably civilized minutes on the train, spent reading, snoozing or chatting with neighbours. Or trainspotting
While those of my neighbours that swear by commuting by car arrive at work all stressed out after fighting their way through the morning rush hour traffic on the roads.
My local hobby store is also by the RR line, about halfway between work and home. We get by with maybe one full tank of gas every 14 days or so - car is mainly used by the wife to haul groceries home from the store.
No worries, mate!
Grin, Stein
Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.
Daniel G.