Toy train operating and collecting

Happy 4th to all!  Took son #2 to Metrolink station this morning and saw him off on a trip to Salinas on the Coast Starlight (Amtrak). for car races near Monterey. Wife and I thought we would have a quiet weekend.  Wrong!!!  Son #1 invited himself and his family to come over for 4th festivities.  That means we have to cook so went to the store and got all the stuff for cookout plus a watermelon.  No fireworks this year.  Neighbor town where they had them discontinued last year account most people viewed from outside ball park and did not pay to get in.  Our town has no fireworks account fire danger.  There will probably be enough illegal fireworks to watch anyway.  Trains running pretty good on layout with no major malfunctions.  Switch repair seems to be working OK.  Z4000 fixed voltage puts out 14 volts for switch machines.  I think 15 or 16 would be better.  They seem to misfire sometimes unless you push the button squarely.  Hauled out and rediscovered a lot of my old music tapes this afternoon so I'm listening to them on walkman while doing this.  I bought a new flag for the 4th but we have lost it somewhere in the house.  I put up a little one I found in the closet.  I'll probably find the new one by Christmas.  Prayers for all the walking wounded on the Forum.  Get well soon!

Now go watch Yankee Doodle!

Ray

Oh boy food galore, had a planned meal with friends, got home and the neighbor had a yard full of people and handed two big plates of food over the fence. Sooooo no banilla tonite, but those of you who want some may dig in...S.J.

Happy 4th Guys... Hope everyone had a great day!!!!!!!!!!

Beautiful day today in Northern Michigan...... 

Just a quick "flyby" - neat stories, thanks for sharing guys!  Well, after the storms ended around noon, my son and I did the shopping and didn't get home until about time to go to a party at my brother's house.  Wife lasted a couple hours before we had to come home.  I picked up some wire, shrink-tubing, and a new soldering iron today too :)  Also some thin plywood strips and some aquarium gravel.  I will try and wire up Thomas and S C Ruffy tomorrow evening with a tether.  What would be a good "wire nut" to keep the tether from pulling through?  Maybe just a tiedown pulled really tight on the inside of the holes?

TARDIS is ready, cloaking device is working and ready to fly - see you guys in a few minutes

Good Morning everyone.  Was a nice 4th here as we went to some friends who have children our kids age.  They are from the same church and he is with Uncle Sam's Misguided Children.  Just kidding for all the Marines out there.  Anyway, it was a nice day with plenty of swimming and some good food, topped off with good company.  Got home last night and everyone crashed.

Today, I am on Camera 1 which is the main one for the service.  Then, tonight, we have the "Freedom Fest" at the sports park.  That is the place that was built with proceeds from the movies and from extra giving from the church membership.  It is a park open to the community and has soccer, baseball, football, tennis, equestrian, ect.  Today, it is being opened up for a full fledged celebration of the blessings we have in this great country.  Plenty of military presence as well as fireworks, etc.  They are looking at about 10000 people to come join the fun.  The weather is supposed to cooperate, so it should be a good crowd.

Bob, sounds like you need a good endocrinologist to straighten out the diabetes.  Can be hard to nail down.  Things as mundane as Orange juice can have a big impact on your triglycerides and sugars.  Good luck with it.

Have a blessed day and week ahead,
Dennis.

dwiemer:

Bob, sounds like you need a good endocrinologist to straighten out the diabetes.  Can be hard to nail down.  Things as mundane as Orange juice can have a big impact on your triglycerides and sugars.  Good luck with it.

Don't be surprised--if you start checking your own bloodsugar that certain foods do funny things to it--I've had 1 chocolate bar do zilch to the bloodsugar yet a tiny orange make the bloodsugar fly into the next galaxy. Bananas tend to do the same dang thing.

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Set up some more fireworks with the neighbour last night. Ended up with about 100+ people show up for it---more $$$ for the neighbourhood youth group----anyhooo--

Got sunshine this morning----and a high of 24C. Getting cloudier tonight and tomorrow back to a 70% chance of rain-----we seem to be also looking at a few days of this ---again

Going to get mor weeding done in the Veggie patch. Then a privet bush needs more trimming and then some floor work in the basement------

Have a good one people-----

Aloha all. On way to church - bride is in a drama and I am on camera one too. She's not feeling too well. Hope she makes it through. Just one service today. Brutus, why don't you try Annie or Clarabell instead of S.C. Ruffy - roof comes off - lots of room. Maybe you don't have them.

Rained most of yesterday but cleared in the eve. Beautiful today for the daughter's party - and parade and fireworks - don't know why the town does them on Sunday but this year it works out.
Finished re-setting up the layout last night - just in time. Hope to trouble-shoot things later before guests arrive. I noticed a wire had ripped out of the bottom of my modern semaphore. Hope I can open 'er up. Happy Fifth!
 

Mornin' boys.  Mornin' English.  Overcast & 68 here in the Mid-Atlantic region.  Nothing planned for today, which is just what the doctor ordered.  Things ran smooth last night, even though our fire department insisted on running baws to the wall on a shed fire, right through the most congested area...

Good Morning from Blueberryhill....

It's a cloudy 65 degrees. Going up to 75 today with rain most of the day.

I am taking it easy today. Ballgame this afternoon and I will watch it in the train room.  Need to do some dusting. Other than that, not much is new here.

Great Nascar race last night. Tony won in the last lap. That will go down in history, as a video.

Dining car was here and we had the usual for breakfast.

Y'all have a great Sunday.

Chuck

Good Morning

Sun and 70s today. I waved the diner train right through the station this morning, Still feel full from yesterday. I did not eat a lot of any one thing, just a little of most everything. Groan. The house still smells like gunpowder from all of last nites illegal fireworks. But I did notice there seemed to be less than past years so I think the economy had a lot to do with that. Well everyone rest today tomorrow is monday again...S.J.

sir james I:

The house still smells like gunpowder from all of last nites illegal fireworks. But I did notice there seemed to be less than past years so I think the economy had a lot to do with that. S.J.

Around here there were more "home fireworks" than I can remember in previous years.  At one point it seemed like a couple neighbors were engaging in a little "dueling fireworks."  Watched the North Canton fireworks from neighbors porch.  Trees are getting too  big to watch from the deck. 

Going to go to family reunion today, need to get on the road, couple hour drive each way.

I made it to the party and we were able to catch the fireworks as well. My legs actually did pretty good, but I'm still avoiding stairs. I tell you this is a heck of a time to start dating someone, but at least she is a surgeon, so she understands a lot of this. And no, I didn't pick her up when I was in the hospital, this was already in the works.

After getting home last night I was feeling fairly tired, maybe the blood sugar is going the other way now. I haven't started testing my own yet, but I think that's in the cards. The small amounts of carbs that seem to have set me off are surprising to me, but I guess this is not so unusual. Until we can do more tests next week, I'm staying on the doctor's diet as that does seem to work for the most part. 

Clear but hot and humid today. We are in full swing monsoons for the beginning of the season.  If any of you guys got the dream-plan-build DVD it's worth checking out. Some very basic stuff regarding tips and such, but the layouts are awesome. Really enjoyed the interview with the guy who set up an O-gauge Norfolk & Southern layout, and actually rode a Y6B as a kid. The stuff legends are made of.

Well of to church. Everyone have a good weekend!

Bob

Bob, best wishes on getting your blood sugar etc. under control.  I have recently been diagnosed with high triglycerides (500) and the doc has put me on meds plus diet and exercise.  I have been sticking with it for about a month and a half now.  Hope it is doing some good.  4th of July food sort of wrecked my diet but I'm back on it today.

Ray

 Busy couple of days here.  Had Friday off,so I got an early start on the normal weekend chores and project. 

Spent Saturday enjoying the holiday festivities.  Started with a trip to the farmer's market, then a stop at the coffee shop, then walked down to the courthouse and claimed a section of curb to watch the parade drink the coffee and eat the goodies from the farmer's market.  A little light rain started with the parade, but nobody seemed too upset by it.  Went to the art show after the parade, out ot lunch, car show at the fairgrounds (behaved myself - didn't enter mom's minivan in the burnout contest!), home to string trim and edge the sidewalks.  Fired the grill up for dinner, then got a call from friends about going to the dirt track races.  Shut the grill off and off to the dirt track.  Good program, even if I had to pick bits of track off of my chili dog.  Next time we spectate there, we're going to sit in the bleachers on the pit side of the track - they are cleaner, as they are on the entrance into turn four instead of the exit of turn one where the bleachers on the spectator side of the track are.

Noticed my wife and I made the picutre on the front page of today's paper - we can be seen on the curb in the background behind the Model A that is the subject of the picture.

No train activity.  Just waiting on a package of bits & pieces from Train Tender.

A belated happy 4TH.

 Prayers for those in need.

Back to work tomorrow.  Got to keep Social Security solvent, ya' know. 

Hello

Got the trimming, weeding, cutting, refinishing and cleaning done. Now we are preparing stuff for tonights fireworks display. There are already people out at the sports field where we did last nights display!

gotta rush off and get things done------have a good evenin'!!