Johnboy: good to see you again!
Sorry, I changed the month, sometimes the old month get stuck in my head! Sometimes I do It just to see who is paying attention! Obviously Ulrich wasn't!
I get up so early as that is when i wake up to use the fcilities for the second time during the night and usually cannot get back to sleep!Of course, I go to bed around 9pm too! Plus after about 4-5.5 hours, i usually wake up anyway, but never fear, I usually get a nap of about 2 hours + somewhere during the day or evening unless i am in a "non-sleeping mode", in which case it doesn't matter as I won't sleep much or at all regardless of what I do. Around the solstices that happens! I DO take a med to help me sleep! It doesn't always work!
SOunds like you have a full house! and yes. I understand little kids/grandkids can be a handfull...parents seem to forget how rambunctious their own little ones were by the time they get to grandkids, plus they are {sad to say} oldER!
Johnboy, it IS May, not summer, yet, so we have to still think of cooler days. We seem to forget the middle temps when we are exhausted from the cold and cannot wait till the warm months get here! The furnace was running this early AM, and later I MAY have the AC on, its just that way this time of year. I went out at 6:15 to get the local free paper with store inserts, and to go to Wally WOrld to get a few items {$125 later!}, and had to warm up the vehicle to clear the windows! I am very thankful we DID NOT get the snow the N mid-west got, the wildfires out west, OR the rains down south got! I am sure we will have our share of weather disappointments coming! Let us be thankful if they are managable!
good luck and healing with everything you have going! I have you and your neighbor on the list! Johnboy, I thought of you a LOT recently as I was so sick, eating was not possible, and when it was it was hard to choke something down once a day. And then my sytem rejected solid foods so I had nearly a week of not eating. I thought of you and swallowing and eating and not being able too, that helped me get through what i was dealing with. I knew I could recover fairly quickly, but you would still have a long row to hoe. GOod luck relearning how to do that again.
have a GREAT day everyone!
-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.
I placed an order for some model railroad stuff this morning- a weathering pastel kit, a fishbelly kit(Data only-owned by the fuel company on my eventual layout), some more couplers (Why does it seem like they always go first?), and some decal paper/spray. I may get my consolidation tomorrow and strip off the WM lettering on it for my freelanced railroad. I'll say that micromark is really cheap for their stuff and I like it. I also decidedI think I am going to build a diorama to use for photographing my stuff. Oh yeah, I don't have a layout anymore, I have to take down my first 4X8 layout
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
Jimmy Braum: It gets easier as you take down a layout! I assume you have been TOLD to do so? Or are you doing it to build something better in its place?
I tore my 3.5x5.1 HO layout down to expand it, a lofty goal, but really found we DON'T have the room for it! I tore it down to the tracks. I didn't want to do it, but....in building it i had torn down two others before it that had lofty high grade percentages that did not work in reality.
My FIRST layout- O/O-27 is STILL up at my father's, though he is figuring to clear it off down to the basic table to use it as a flat horizontal surface..which he will promptly fill up with meaningless goobledy-gook like every other flat horizontal surface he has! For a small while, he was playing with the trains, and even re-routed the tackage to suit him, but lost interest in it again.
I have toyed with converting the HO to N and even toyed with building a Z scale layout so I can get A LOT in the small space! I would do it in an under-bed container, if not in the space I had for the HO.
So, buck up, and take some pictures to remember it by, and salvage what ever you reasonably can!
The next pleasure will be in building something new!
I was told I had to take it down, and I don't have the space to build a home layout right now (Long story, it was in a space I will no longer have access to). So yeah right now, I just have the club layout. I hope your right about it getting easier, I should be able to salvage most of the track, all the buildings and such.
last mountain & eastern hoggerJeff, how long do they think you will be saddled with that wound Vac??
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Hey Johnnyboy, we've got 3 inches and it's still comming down. I put the sn*w shovels away when I was getting the yard cleaned up. Should have known better. Supposed to get down to -6 tonignt. I think it just may be too early to plant the sweet peas.
Around here, bedding plants don''t get put out till the end of May or early June because we are bound to get frost. You know about that too living in Regina.
Sounds like you are starting to get better bit by bit. Glad to hear it.
Dennis
CDN Dennis
Modeling the HO scale something or other RR in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies Alberta, Canada
Good morning. It's 71° with 53% humidity. The high will be 88° with some clouds.Nothing much planned for today. I'll probably be going to town later to do some grocery shopping. Other than that I'll just take it as it comes.
Good morning
We returned from southern Arizona late last night. It's very good to see all the Diners again. I'll read your recent posts later. Scanning through the May DIner I saw Jerry posted again, and was happy to se him with everybody elese.
Here is a picture from our hotel window in Casa Granda, AZ in the Sonoran Desert. The UP double track main line is about a block away. I used a cell phone for the pictures and quality was not good.
Numerous stack trains pass thorough town daily along with other freight trains. It is hard to photograph them as the trains are moving at about 60 mph, and buildings are in the way. I also saw the Amtrak train.
Here is a westbound stack train.
The stack train power was usually 2 to 4 units pulling and 0 to 2 units pushing. GE and EMD units were intermixed. Engines were dirty.
I'll post more photos. We followed the line going west of otwn for several miles, and I have Some to share.
One of the photos is of an old California Zephyr observation care on display in Maricopa, AZ adjacent to the UP line. You can see a stack train passing through behind it. I am not sure why decision makers decided to have a CZ car parked in the Sonoran Desert, because the CZ operated elsewhere.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Back again!
Cutting those lengths of stripwood into 500+ pieces of various shapes and sizes was done in no time at all. It sure adds to the fun when you can w*rk with proper tools. The job wasn´t messy at all, as I could connect the vac to it. Tomorrow will be assembly day
What else did I do today? Marked the texture of the stonework onto the foundation, using a felt tip pen. Engraving it is going to be an awkward and messy job, for which I will have to select a day when Petra is not around
I missed to say hello to Jerry - good to see you, now and then!
Hi everybody. I hope you all had a nice weekend. I sure did. We went railfanning as usual and I got a good chance to try out my new camera. All I can say is I am more than pleased. In fact I'm happy as all get out with it. There's still a lot about this camera that I have to learn, so a class somewhere is definately in order. But I got somewhat comfortable with the basics. Even tried out the 55-300 mm zoom lens. Definately need a tripod for that one though.
We caught 7 trains in 2 hours on Saturday, and 15 trains in 3 hours today. 1 denatured alcohol, 6 intermodal, 4 mixed freight, 2 crude oil, 1 string of empty gons, and 1 coal train. I had a nice surprise on the very 1st train we saw today. A nice set of locomotives with the New York Central Heritage unit leading, followed by a BNSF & a CSX.
There were numerous meets today which are always nice to watch. If fact, a couple of times today all 3 tracks of the main line were occupied. It sounded on the scanner that Conway Yard was sort of busy. I think everyone there was earning their pay today.
We didn't get over to the other side of town this morning to catch any CSX traffic, as a lot of the streets I would use to get there were closed for the running of the Pittsburgh Marathon. I had no interest in fighting all the closures and traffic jams. We just had a nice Sunday dinner and finished off a bottle of Reisling, so I think it may be nap time. Take care and have a great week.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
Well I got the grocery shopping done. As I don't trust my van to get me there and back especially where perishables are concerned I called my sister and asked her if she was going shopping today. That's like asking a frog if it hops. There's always something she wants to go shopping for. Turns out she and her daughter were going to Wal-Mart so we made a threesome of it. As an added benefit they brought my groceries to my door. Very nice of them.This morning I stripped some junk computer boards of any usable parts and I took three repowered Varney F3B's off the layout and cleaned and serviced them whether they needed it or not then put them right back where I got them on the layout. One has an Athearn/Stewart/Kato drive, another has a Proto 2000/Athearn/A-Line drive and the third has a Bowser frame with a junk box special drive made of whatever parts I could make or scrounge up. All three are DCC with Digitrax decoders. Other than that I haven't gotten anything else done today.
Evening guys,
Nice out today, sunny but with a cool wind. Spent most of the morning do maintenance on my monuain bike as I am planning a ride for Tuesday morning ( usually set out about 5:45am ) cleaned out my hydration pack and got it ready to go, all I have to do is fill the water bladder on Tuesday morning. Got the bike all ready to go also with a chain cleaning and lubing as well as cleaning and lubing of cables and derailleuers. I put the bike away clean so its just a qucik go over before the riding season.
Watch the Jays game before going over to my parenst for dinner and may sneak a quick game of strat o matic in while watching the sunday night game.
Iiiiiiiiiii'mmmmm Baaaaaaaaaaacccck!
Great weekend, great Convention. I'll tell a bit about it tomorrow!
I'm just catching up on my reading for the moment, and will need to get a good nights sleep toninght!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Watched a movie today. Nothing major, something called 'Josie and The Pussycats'. In my opinion mildly entertaining so not a complete waste of time. It also gave me a chance to pull my Atlas H24-66 and Atlas SD27J off the display rack and give them much needed attention. The SD27J was badly damaged in the tree mishap. It's back together now but still looks like it's been through the mill. The H24-66 took hardly any damage. It just required a cleaning. It's a dual decoder loco. A Bachmann decoder for motor control and a Digitrax DZ125 (burned out motor circuit) for lighting.Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.
morning coffee in the diner..
Quotable Quote:
Cut these words and they would bleed; they are vascular and alive; they walk and run. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)
Good evening folks,
spent some time tonight painting the foam. It is nice to not be looking at yellow foam any more, at least for the most part
With paint I'm a little bit happier with some of the shapes and land forms, although I'm still going to sculptamold some parts to contour it a bit more.
Shoved some trees in to green it up a bit I'm just happy as this is the most I've accomplished in about the last 2 years...
Cheers,
OzJim
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s
galaxy typed: Sorry, I changed the month, sometimes the old month get stuck in my head!
Sorry, I changed the month, sometimes the old month get stuck in my head!
That's OK. April Fools is a dish best served cold.
All of my women are out of the country. My wife and sister are in Ireland, and my daughter is in the Dominican Republic at one of those all-inclusive resorts.
So, I'm home alone with ... Gigi the new GG-1. I had her taking my old Mantua streamliners around, and I even did a little test video using our digital camera. It came out pretty well, but the dining car and observation car both have broken wires from the trucks, so their lights are out. I decided to fix them, and then I thought it was time to take the cars apart and add that burgundy stripe I've always wanted. So, the newly-painted shells are sitting on the table, awaiting decals including names of illustrious people. The dining car will be Alferd Packer, after the only American ever convicted of cannibalism, and the observation car will be William Le Petomane, after the Governor in Blazing Saddles. One of the coaches will be Hillary Rodham Manson, but I'm still looking for a name for the other coach. Homer J. Simpson, Samuel Adams and James T. Kirk currently top the list, but other suggestions are welcome.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Ok. NEW question for those who know {and expect me to be thick headed aobut it} We are old school when it comes to technology.
We had a 2 year contract on cable that gave us the hard wired internet, internet phone that can call anywhere USA free and Mexico{we hardly ever use}, and I don't know, some 250-odd channels of TV. We are addicted to TV around here. the TV goes on first thing when we get up or when we come in the door and is last thing to go off for the day or we go out. The 2 year contract ended at $75/month {too rich for some of you I know} it was a relative bargain. Now the new price for what we have on another 1 year plan is now going to cost $100/month, that is STILL better than the full price for what we have which woudl be about $200/month. I have seen/heard about 16 different ways to "cut the cord" on cable..by buying this or that gizmo, hooking to you computer and watching streaming TV.
I don't know a thing about them. Just watched a youtube vid about an Amazon one and it includes a gaming device..we are NOT gamers and don't intend to ever be! I am still not sure I understood it though it was a "tutorial on getting it and connecting it up". that is supposed to cost about $100/year IF you have Amazon Prime {we don't and that is another $100/yr now}.
We have a newer flat screen TV with a few different connections back there, but had to call the cable company to connect it for us to get it right as it made no sense to us. We were trying to use the wrong cable to hook it up to the cable box!
We NEED some kind of internet connection as MOH's "homework" for work relies on the computer input. How do we get internet if we don't have reliable cavble internet? DSL IS available from our landline phone comany {we are the only ones with working phone after a power outage or a few days without power!} Bit I understand DSL to not be as good as cable.
WiFI is not available around here except McDonalds and Starbucks. I f we go paid wifi, the only option I know of is the cable company again..and wifi through them is not cheap!
We DO NOT have a "smart phone" yet either and don't want a phone that must be connected to the Tv all the time to view TV either. WE have looked at them and don not know which one to get and want to stick with verizon for service, but the phones are not cheap and the service to have one for the limited use we give it is rediculous! We know we will have to ditch our pre-paid flip phones sooner than later, but the costs of a smart phone seem redicualous to us too.There are so many phones and options we don't know what to choose! we feel like dinosaurs!
WE are NOT so much into watching endless movies either. once in awhile maybe but not alll the time.
Anybody in the park who has gone to satellite, goes back to cable as soon as they can so that is not an option.
I found a "free TV antenna" site that listed only 4 local stations broadcast here and needing two different antennas to get the whole 4 stations as they are accepetd only on certain antennas apparently. Reminds of me of when I was a kid..it was the same 4 channels only!
so..the question is WHat are the options, how much do they cost and where do we get them? can a google chrome thingy be plugged into one of those holes on the back of the TV or must we connect some kind of computer to it?
i uderstand some of the "cable-less" streaming video TV options only cost like $10/year to have, but how many do you need to get adequate TV coverage?
Will we get local new statations? that is all the complaints about the satellite too...no local news!
How can we get about the same thing we have for less?
Thnaks for all answers...
Good morning, everybody!
Ulrich ... You are making great progress with the layout.
Oz James .... The sky looks very good.
PA Tom ..... I like your photos. You must have a real camera.
Here are a few more cell phone photos (poor quality) from Arizona.
A local train serving industries near Casa Grande with a pair of old GP40's. Those who like to weather locomotives might be inspired.
Next is the lead locomotive for an eastbound train of containiers.
A large steam era water tank is still standing. It might last forever.
Ulrich: Great work on the layout scenery.
OzJim: The sky looks good. Layout rates good too.
*
Good morning. It's 69° with 79% humidity and patchy fog. The high will be 88° with some clouds.Nothing planned for today. The Home Health nurse will be around sometime. She always calls about a half hour before. The party I worked a deal out with for an Apple ImageWriter II printer should be bringing it today. I hope it works as well as he says it does. If not I'm not out much. I think I have everything I need to repair a CP/m card that's been taking up space in the junk box.Other than that there's nothing going on.Click image to play video.
Mornin' everyone!
Zoe, I'll have a bowl of Organic Vanilla Almond Granola, and a cup (probably 3) of dark roast coffee in my R&GV RR mug please. Huh? Yes, I was out of town for a couple days, I thought you knew...
I haven't had time to download all the photos I took of the layout tours on Sun day yet. Hopefully later this evening I will post some shots of the convention. They had close to 120 people attend the convention and one record was broken at this one. There were more ladies there than ever before. I think the count was 23 women. The one wife from our division who attended was delighted to be part of setting the new record. She is the lady who you see in the NCE ads in MR and other Hobby Magazines. I went around with them Saturday afternoon to do the layout tour. We got talking and she mentioned she has a book on the many women who, way back when, worked for the railroads, and wondered why the NMRA doesn't do anything to get folks to know of the many contributions of women on Railroads. She then offered to present a clinic next year on the subject and will call the clinic, "She's been working on the Railroad...". I told told her I loved the idea, so I announced that at the banquet when I did my speech. My speech (little tiny 15 minute one) went well. I guess it went over well to the group as I was told again and again by Canadian members that they expected to come South of the border next year to be at our convention.
Did get to see some great model Railroads and attend several fine clinics over the weekend. The clinics I attended were all very informative. I attended "Designing a Narrow Guage Railway for Operations", a Prototype slide show of the local RR "Toronto Hamilton, and Buffalo Sub", "Open Loads", "Niagara Escarpment Scenery and Rock Formations using Foam" (I will be giving this a try on my layout soon...), and "Snow Plow Service (another Prototype Slide Show). All were well done.
I have to get moving. Need to get over to my son's house to watch the Granddaughter for a short while while my son attends a Parent Teacher Conference on the little one.
Catch you all later!
Good Afternoon!
It´s already more like evening in my neck of the woods.
Things never turn out the way one had planned them - today´s schedule was "interrupted" by the fact, that I had to take over Petra´s part of the household chores. She has a bad pain in the back, so it was my turn to do the Monday grocery run, do the house cleaning etc. It wasn´t before noon when I finally was able to start building the dock - only to find out that the super glue I intended to use does not work with wood - although it is written on that package it does! So another run to our home improvement store to get my old fashioned wood glue, that´s not white glue...
I think I achieved quite a lot this afternoon - here are some pics:
Of course, the dock is far from being finished, there are tons of more parts to be added, then I will send the surface, clean the whole thing with my Dremel (substitute), weather the wood with my magic formula of 2 tablespoons of india ink to a pint of alcohol, paint it, add nut-and-bolt-and washer-detail, and, and, and...Will there ever be an end to this task. Right now I am not feeling up to doing any more on it - my fingers are covered with glue, my nose is dry from the fumes of that glue, my eyers are watery.
Taking a break now - have a good one!
PATom - congrats on the new camera!
well, I have accomplished finishing off the dishes and a load of laundry. I will get out the little vacuum as the long haired cat left tufts in the hall racing up and down last night at breakneck speed.
Still as confused as ever about the TV thing. guess for now we are stuck with cable. Actually we are for the next year, anyway. You'd think since apparently people are leaving in droves, they'd have more value-priced pacakges instead of increases every chance they get...
I'd like to look for options to replace the cable in said year. apparently no one has any info for me yet.
Took my diuretic so I can't do much that takes me away from the facilites for more than about 10 minutes! At least me feet will feel warm again.
later.
I think I may spend today drawing up plans for a completely scratchbuilt wooden engine shed for my shortline.
galaxy - Unfortunately, the cable companies will give you an "introductory" rate for a year or two, and then raise it by a whole bunch if you want to continue. We ended up getting rid of the superfluous stuff like HBO, which we didn't watch much. But, we are still paying a lot more than we did originally. Until recently, we were stuck with only one cable provider in our neighborhood, although other parts of town had a choice. If you have two or three options, I'd imagine that you could switch providers and get the good price from the new one for a year or two.
I had satellite for a few years, but I found they kept raising prices and dropping channels.
The mistake I made was establishing my e-mail address with Comcast. So, if I went to Verizon, I would have to tell everyone I know that I've changed. Proably not a big deal, but I should switch over to G-Mail so that switching providers wouldn't be such a pain.
Mr. Beasley: thanks for your reply on cable and TV.
Unfortunately, Time Warner cable is the only game in town, and soon to be merged with/bought out by/sold to Comcast, which many on here have had nothing good to say about.
We also do not have ANY seperate pay channes and NEVER use "pay on demand" services, $14.95 for a movie is TOO MUCH!
We also don't have Verizon as a landline phone source, though the surrounding area does. We are the token market that Verizon DOESN'T have so no can claim they are a "monopoly" in this area!
WE have Frontier phone which does offer a DSL link, but I guess not as good as high speed cable.
Our cable rate for the internet and the 100 channles we had for $60/m was fine for a long time-until they suddenly wanted "fullprice" of $125! WE took in the box to turn it in for the lowly 16 base channels and internet 2 years ago. a guy pulled us out of line with box in hand and asked if we going to turn it in, we said yes. He offered us a deal- for $69 we would get the 250 some channels we get now, the internet, and the phone for 2 years. Of course, over the 2 years that crept up to $85 with new fees, and increased fees, etc. Now, naturally they want us to go to full price at some $250! we balked and were prepared to turn in this box {DVR we never did figure out how to use} again to the lower base 16 channels, and were given the year more of what we have with no changes for the $100 rate. Next May we face the same problem!
WE are, in short tired of cable games and have NO IDEA how the Comcast thing is going to affect us or our channels/service etc. They claim "no changes or interruptions of service". Pish posh I bet.
we only watch about the lower channels to about 180, and even then a lot of time there is nothing on! There is really no other channels we are interested in, being that we are so glued to the TV all the time. For some people it is the radio, for us, TV! We are lost when the power goes out for days on end and have NO TV! We also watch a lot of the NEws channels..at least 2 if not 3 hours of news of all kinds at night alone, and 3-4 hours all morning.
So, we are now seeking an alternative to giving them $1,200 a year for so-so coverage at certain times of the year when nothing but repeats ad nauseum is on. like now.
I guess we will spend the year searching.
I DO agree wiht you on one thing: an independent email addy is a necessity. I have one on Yahoo, nad should I guess go gmail too. Why? we are also considering droppin the high-priced, low-service now greatly compromised AOL, another service we have paid for for years and who keeps jacking up the price to rediculous rates to $225/year! I HAD to have AOL as my boss required it when I was working. Now? don't need it, though it IS easy to use. Searching for a replacement isn't turining out to be easy either. You'd think these companies would WANT to keep good paying customners, but instead they punish us with high prices to offset the losses of those who left their high-priced ways!
We do intend to CUT THE CORD , we just don't want to cut off our nose to spite our face!
Maybe a smart phone is a cheap bargain by comparison....but how to write and print a letter?...
MisterBeasleyUnfortunately, the cable companies will give you an "introductory" rate for a year or two, and then raise it by a whole bunch if you want to continue. We ended up getting rid of the superfluous stuff like HBO, which we didn't watch much. But, we are still paying a lot more than we did originally. Until recently, we were stuck with only one cable provider in our neighborhood, although other parts of town had a choice. If you have two or three options, I'd imagine that you could switch providers and get the good price from the new one for a year or two. I had satellite for a few years, but I found they kept raising prices and dropping channels.
Well my friend 'Andy' brought me the printer this afternoon. It works in a self-test. question is will it work when connected to a computer. None of the 'extras' alluded to when I bought it were included. I've found I do have a manual but no extra ribbon cartridge. I'm holding off on getting any ribbons until I confirm that this beast actually works. A power cord and printer cable for this type have been packed away in my closet for about twenty years so I don't have to get them. I can get a pack of six ribbon cartridges for under twenty bucks, so I know where part of next months fun fund is going (if this thing works). I'd forgotten how heavy these old printers are. My friend set it down then I picked it up and had to make sure my arms hadn't stretched! It's only fifteen or twenty pounds but if you're not expecting it you're in trouble. Bulky is the operative word here.
Good evening. Not much went on today. Got my wound vac dressing changed as is usual for Monday. Got my ImageWriter II printer. It works for the self-test. Don't know about full operations yet. I was looking around online and found a word processor that was written for the Apple II series and the Commodore 64. It's one I've looking for and it was going for cheap so I grabbed it. Other than that I've been watching TV. Got a call from mt father. He said they were in Lancaster Pennsylvania waiting on my younger sister. She's meeting them there tomorrow. He said they'll probably be back here some time this month. I told him he better be. He only left enough food for the dog for three weeks.Didn't make any headway on the CP/m card I mentioned this morning. As you can see below it's missing several chips and the processor. Maybe I can complete it tomorrow.Well, nothing else going on here so I'm calling it a night. See y'all tomorrow.
I had something really touching happen tonight at work. An older woman on government assisstence, didn't have enough money for her groceries. She was about ready to take it all back, when the man behind her line said he would pay her the amount she was short. He then refused to have her pay him back someday.