The pot of coffee is always on [even after 2 years have passed]. Come on in. Sweet ice tea too.

[Dr. John]

Buckeye,

Tire fires can be very dangerous - extremely difficult to extinguish and they burn very hot. I spoke to the retired state fire marshall who is a member of our church. He said we were very lucky not to have lost an entire city block yesterday. The building floors and wall studs were all heart pine. They are highly flammable. He said if the brick walls had collapsed, the fire would have certainly spread to the adjacent buildings which are equally old.

Dave, yeah, it's a combination of pine and oak pollen. We're surrounded by trees down here. Dogwoods are in full bloom too. I usually don't react this severely.

Heading to my son's academic banquet at his high school this evening. He's third out of a class of over 600. He already won the scholar athlete award earlier this year. If I sound a bit proud, it's because I am. He heads to the University of Alabama - Birmingham this fall on a full academic scholarship to major in accounting.

[Brutus]

Dr. John - congratulations to your son! Sounds like you have a right to be proud!

Here in Jefferson County, they had a place that bulldozed tons and tons of mulched trees etc under dirt. I think they eventually piled like 3 feet of dirt on it. This was just a couple years ago. The mulch, degrading, created heat, and whereever there was a bit of air leaking through, the ground started to smoke - about like the surface of the moon on fire! They kept putting water on it, but the dirt protected the smoldering stuff and the process of "fermentation" wasn't over! About a day or two later, it would burst through again. It kind of reminded my of the movie with Dan Akroyd, where the coal mine is on fire under the town (Nothing But Trouble?).

I have constant allergies and my wife, who never had any before, developed allergies in the past 10 years.

Gotta go - expecting another bad storm tonight. TTFN

[Anonymous]

Hello All in the Pot[:D][:D].
weather was right nice this week looks like a rain coming for Friday and Saturday.
work went well and we are starting another siding monday.
everyone pleased with the outcome. Going to the Holston Valley Club meeting this saturday.
I plan to take the HO Climax and some flats. Last week I bought a Barnhart Loader.
always wanted one and found this one for 10.00[:)][:)].
Good to see every one and hope to jump in more this weekend.

Have a Safe Day to All.

NIce General spanky.
Hey CSXT-30.
get the Blueflag off Track 4 we need to install ties in it[:o)][:o)].

Nstrackman
MP N-369

[tschmidt]

Dr John,
Congratulations on your son's accomplishments. You must be very proud.

Jim - how did they ever put that fire out? Did they have to dig it up?

TomS

[Anonymous]

Good evening everyone, quite a busy day I had today! I did 5 more stops today out of 11 (plus the two I did yesterday and still have four more to go. I gotten quite a workout today, delivering plants on roller racks to Walmart stores today. Was easy for the most part but the long part was waiting for them to unload the racks and then reload them on the truck. And moving those racks around are quite heavy too, being on rollers and then having to position them on the end of the trailer so the hilo driver could take it off.

Spent the night in Virginia Beach....very nice area with lots of tunnels all about and lots of water. Nice to be on the far east coast of the country! And I never heard so many naval jet planes flying overhead...one was coming every few seconds and boy they were loud!

@Cheif, I will be in NC tomorrow morning, but dont think I will be near your area though...I will be in Roanoke Rapids and Ahoskie, which are both near the VA line. Then its back to VA for the final drop and then its back home to MI.

Gonna be a long trip getting back of course. Probably may not get back home until late Friday night or early Saturday morning. Depends on how long I can drive (max time per DOT regulations is 11 hours before mandated 10 hour break).

But its ok though, I will be making good money from this run, plus $20 per stop times 11 and .34 cents per mile for an 1,880 mile roundtrip (Colin theres a math problem for ya heh).

It's all cool though; this will be the only week I will be doing this, so may as well enjoy it while I can, since next week I will be on a regular schedule.

Gonna get rested, have a good evening everyone!

Chris

[Brutus]

TomS - I guess it eventually burned out = I asked my wife and we remember it was popping up in the news, re-igniting, for weeks though. I think it was in 2003, but maybe 2004?

Storm headed north and mostly missed us this time :)

Nstrackman - is that a Spectrum ON30 Climax or HO gauge? I'd like to get a shay, but right now the MTH and Lionel ones are a little pricey for me.

[Jumijo]

Allergies can be rough. I had them pretty severe when I was a kid. August till the first killing frost in October were horrific for me. More than once, I had to go to the hospital's emergency room in the middle of the night for a shot of eppinefren so I could breath. They gradually got better as I got older. Not that big a deal anymore.

Ran more trains last night. The boys joined me while the gals got their hair cut. Lots of fun.

Buckeye, sorry to hear that you're moving to NC. You do know that they steal fishing boats and shoot beavers there, don't you?!

Jim

[Buckeye Riveter]

Dr. John, you should be mighty proud of your son and you son should be congratulated for his accomplishment. [bow]

The Great Raid into the South is on. I should be heading south in about two hours after I post this. [:D] Can't wait to flush.

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,
45 and rain here to get to 62?

TGIF.

BUCKEYE have a good trip and FLU***WICE.

JELECTRIC, I won't be going down to BARRYs today got to take the wife shopping in Camp Hill.

All have a good one.
laz57

[cheapclassics]

Good morning all,

It is rainy and warm in SE Indiana this morning with temps headed to the 70s today and crashing to the 30s tonight. Dr. John, congrats on your son's accomplishments. The money sure helps ease the college bill worries. I played soccer again last night. Not quite as sore. It will help me get ready for this summer. I hope to run some trains this weekend. I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[Roger Bielen]

Dr. John - kudos to your son.

Fellow REBS, I'm planning a recon mission into yankee land next month. I'll be stopping in MD for my last chance of semi-southern culture and then proceeding into the heart of yankee land, Clifton, NJ, 11 mi. from Manhattan. I'll be getting together with a few others from southern climes. We were all raised in yankee land as moles so that we would fit in easier when needed. I was one of the lucky ones, I was allowed to move south sooner than the others.

Anyone have instructions on how to drop the trucks on K-line E8's? Thought I'd try Lionel's web site to see if there'se any similarity, but all I get when I try to open a pdf file is a blank page. I've used it before for assembly drawings with no problem. I have Adobe & Acrobat Readers installed. Would a firewall be the cause?

[tschmidt]

Yippppeeeee! ...it's Friday!

What is this world coming to? We have Buckeyes heading south and southerners heading north. This is getting confusing.

Jim- We had a very large tire dump burn for weeks about 10 to 15 years ago. It really made a mess. They are just getting around to getting rid of the dump now. They are shredding all the tires.

I was in a middle school teacher's classroom yesterday. He does a lot in restoring real trains and is part of a group in Hamburg, NY that have some real nice pieces in their collection. His classroom has a ton of railroad equipment that includes full sized signal and crossing signs. When his phone rings the crossing signal lights go on and the bell rings.

Have a great day and weekend everyone.
TomS

[spankybird]

Good Morning All from NE Ohio

where the temp is 52 and going up to 62 with rain and tonight falling to 38 deg with maybe more snow !

Train Show this Sunday, April 9, Medina Fairgrounds

NMRA Div 5 Meeting this Friday, April 7, All OTTS members are invited to this meeting.

Next OTTS meeting Friday, April 14 Note date change

Roy – I have asked the board of directors to review Buckeye’s new status.

Jaabat – Jim – you better believe I am !

Nstrackman – Did you try the factory reset that I emailed you [?]

T G I F

Pick of the Day


All be safe
Tom

[Blueberryhill RR]

[code]Good Morning from Blueberryhill [/code] 54 degrees, and bad thunderstorms. Going up to
72 today with storms letting up.
Well, nothing new on the health front. Have to go back up to Brunswick, next Wednesday,
for further tests. Answers. I hate the wait. May be serious.
Well, I will go for now...........
Y'all have a great day.
Chuck

[tmcc man]

Good morning everyone
Staying home again today.
Chuck, I hate the to wait for the results, they take so long, but the wait I have is probably like no wait you have been through. Your's are probably wayyyyyy longer than mine. I had more blood drawn yesterday, waiting for those results.

[Roger Bielen]

Chuck and Colin, if you had committed a crime and they needed blood work results to nab you, you could bet it'd be done withing hours. There realy is no excuss since most analysis are processed by machine/computer with interpretation needed by a doctor.

Both of you, summer is coming, get well quick.

[laz 57]

CHUCK and COLIN,
Hope all fairs well for YUZ GIZ.
You got a prayer from me.
laz57

[thor]

Good morning gents. Well I finally had enough of the floor and grumping about my knees etc and trying to run the trains via the 3 yr old. We found a discarded 8 x 4 sheet of that funny board made from wood shavings, about 1/4" thick and put it onto one of those folding card tables and set the track up 'permanently' by sticking it down with duck tape! I couldnt get screws to hold and didnt want to hot glue my FasTrack, so though it looks pretty ugly, it works.

We have a loop of FasTrack and a left hand remote switch feeding out onto a long siding of tubular track that cant be an oval because (a) I need more track and (b) it wont fit as the boards not quite wide enough.

The idea was to make it quick and easy to get the trains up and running and put away before everyone else gets home from work and trips over it. Also Asherah (the 3 yr old) is a bit clumsy and over enthusiastic so it was unhealthy for the trains to be on the floor.

You're probably all having hysterics but hey, this is our first 0 gauge layout and it works great! I am definitely in love with Lionel - that old tubular track sounds just like real rails, when the train is running the noise is wonderful. I quickly discovered the advantage of being able to pull pins to create isolated sections and the advantage of the direction reset button so we can run two trains at once, one on the siding shuttling back and forth and the other on the main line doing strange things!

I'm running the can motored on the mainline and the AC motor on the siding. This works out very well because the can motored one is much better behaved and runs on a whisper of juice, so by jockeying the controller you can actually get quite a reasonable show.

Sitting in a chair beats sitting on the floor and for her its now at eye level which makes it much more impressive as she immediately said "Mike, the train looks real!" 3yrs old, remember!

She LOVES the remote control switch and whistling tender, we spent all day yesterday well into the evening and her parents couldnt believe it! Short attention span my foot! Try four hours of undivided attention. Dont tell ME trains are irrelevant to modern kids.

I didnt post any pictures, to spare you all the horror! Scale doesnt even come into it. If its an 'operating accessory' it belongs on the baseboard. Large earth movers dwarf the trains, the station building is HO, the platform is a line of Mega Blox and the tunnel is an inverted cardboard box. I took the baby rattles and stuff of her old crib pacifier mechanism, a revolving motor driven mobile crossarm and hung some Duco tinplate planes of the arms.

The K-line gondola is loaded either by hand or my home made Lego conveyor belt. Its all a lot of fun, I had a great day with her and today looks like its going to rain - hooray!

Funny thing is that last night her parents instead of being grumpy about "the mess on the floor" (must have had horrible childhoods!) got all misty eyed and nostalgic about Lionel and "We must have tons of that stuff somewhere in mums house" so maybe the pike will get a much needed infusion of track, at least.

Dad's so impressed he has sort of promised to let Uncle Mike have some basement to "set it up properly" so hey, things may be looking up!

[cnw1995]

A grey and soggy morning here in Chicago. Great job Thor - my 3 year old loves the trains. I never had allergies as a kid - now the change of seasons brings them on. Thank goodness for generic Claritin. Congratulations, Dr. John, on your son's impressive accomplishment. Hang in there, Chuck. The waiting is the hardest part (with apologies to Tom Petty). Colin, I'm enjoying browsing the video site you shared with us. Lots under 'model railroad' - have to actually work now.

[dbaker48]

Thor
You have captured the true meaining and purpose of toy trains!!!! I applaud you !!! You have really "created memories" for the 3 year old. She truly may retain. I can sense your enthusiasm in your post. To bad you can't capture some of the event on video tape for your family in the future.

GREAT JOB !!!![:D]

[johnandjulie13]

Good Morning All:

As Doug said, it is a little soggy in the Chicagoland area today. I like Thor's creative use of the materials he had at hand! As I previously mentioned, I am also planning an outdoor layout this year. However, in the meantime, I have a big loop of LGB track on the floor of my basement. Inside that loop is a smaller loop of O gauge track. While my two year old loves watching the trains, it does get tiring having to crouch down on the floor to keep moving/adding trains to the line to satisfy the insatiable enthusiasm of a little boy. I am also trying to come up with a creative solution for the near term. Wish me luck

Regards,

JO

[tmcc man]

Roger, I bet you that is true.
Laz, thanks for the prayer.

I hate the new DSL line we have. I always have to reset it, and after the first post this morning, it went down, and I have been trying to reset it since then.

My mom is going to look at another dog today, a Teacup Yorkshire Terrier. I told her I do not want another one, and my dad does not either.

By the way, My dad is in the Great State of Ohio right now, meeting with his old boss who has offered him a new job at her new company. If we move anywhere, I hope it would be Ohio. He also got a job offer in Florida, Ft. Lauderdale I believe is where it would have been. He declined that offer, he doesn't want to move right now.

[Dr. John]

Good morning, all!

Thanks for the kind words about my son's academic success. Hope he remembers to take care of his old man when I get up in age!

Looks like we'll be getting some of the heavy weather moving into central Alabama this evening. Hopefully no tornadoes materialize.

Buckeye, better remember your passport as you head to NC. Security is tight as we REBS screen south-bound Yankees!

Have a good day, everyone!

[wrmcclellan]

Morning all!

Buckeye - hope you don;t resemble a beaver when you visit NC!

Tom - great photo of the OTTS tinplate layout!

Dr. John - congrats on your son!

Thor - don't change anything. Her imagination does all the work. Layouts for kids need to be easily changable. We always enjoyed building Lego accesories for my son when he was younger.

Chuck - our thoughts and prayers are with you. Get well soon.

Colin - get well soon.

Sunny here. Will get to 80's and then cools to 70's for the weekend.

Have soccer and school district Robotics tounament tomorrow.

Have a great one all!
Roy

[FJ and G]

Today is the final day in the Golan Heights area of northern Israel, but there are still many more places to visit in the central and south part of the country.

Pictured here is (this 1st photo was shown before) Mt. Hermon (9,232 feet above sea level at summit), which actually is a range of mountains separating Israel from Lebanon and Syria and going north.

The mountain range is the source of the Jordan River, which in turn is the primary source of the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, as well as most of the water used by Israel and Jordan.

In the last 2 visits, we saw the Dan River, a source of the Jordan. Here, we see the Hermon River, another source of the Jordan, named for the mountain range.

The water literally gushes out of the foot of Mt. Hermon, seen here close up. This spring is one of the largest in the Middle East. Thus, the otherwise desert area of Israel is supplied by water, mostly from melting snow which emerge from beneath the mountain range at this spring.

I also included a shot of an Biblical-era irrigation stone ditch.

The entire area in the photos (except for the 1st photo, which is a distance shot of Mt. Hermon from the Galilea area) is called Caesarea Philippi, as some of you know from reading the New Testament. The Israelis call the area: Nahal Hermon Nature Reserve.

Of particular interest to Christians, this is the probable local of the Transfiguration, where Jesus revealed his true nature to his apostles. Additionally, this area and the caves in the mountain (which contain springs and the entrance which can be seen in one of my photos) were localities where idol worship occurred; especially the Baal and Pan worship.



















There are dozens of more stops will be making. If you’ve not been following this series, here are the Coffee Post pages to find the previous ones:

Tel Aviv 622

Caesarea 624

Armegeddon 645

Nazareth 661

Galilee 673

Mount of Beatitudes 675

Capernaeum 677

Dan Part I 688

Dan Part II 792

[Anonymous]

http://www.davidbessler.com/pulldown/pipecleaner_dance.html

[wrmcclellan]

Dave - Very nice. Thanks for taking the significant time to show this to us.

Steve - funny! You must be feeling a little bit better!

[FJ and G]

Thanks, Roy,

On Monday, I'll put up photos of the Jordan River and our Baptist Paster from Florida who nearly froze to death in the chilly December waters while performing some baptisms.[:D]

[dbaker48]

Just finished with the taxes [B)]

I'm sure that sciologists have evaluated societys and cultures based upon the method of tax collection and the activities that are determined taxable.

I have been using Turbo Tax and can't help but wonder about two questions that come up on the California State portion... regarding adjustments to income.....

Did you realize any income from recyling plastic bottles?

Did you realize any income from being unjustly incarcerated?

Sure says a lot for our local society..


[(-D][(-D]

[FJ and G]

Don,

I think that prisoners should be working and generating income for our economy to reduce the federal deficit and taxes. Elect me and I'll ensure that happens! [:D]

Different topic:

Did you ever notice that the most inefficiently run companies have the most (and longest) number of meetings? [:D][:D][:D]