Pat, congratulations on your 50th. We are celebrating our 50th in November. We are very fortunate. In todays world, it's lucky if a marriage last 50 minutes. Hope you all have a wonderful celebration and many more years together.
Ray
SPMan
Fifedog + anjdevil2 GOOD POINTS. High rent + tourists + mountains = a miserable commute.
Now this would be a fun commute!
Pat
RFD-TV --- Rural America's most important network!
SPManPat, congratulations on your 50th. We are celebrating our 50th in November. We are very fortunate. In todays world, it's lucky if a marriage last 50 minutes. Hope you all have a wonderful celebration and many more years together. Ray
Thanks Ray.
I wander haw many of us there are in the 50+ club on this thread? We have two things in common, Trains and a very understanding wife!
Pat made 50 in March, I found out the marriage license has no expiration date.
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
sir james IPat made 50 in March, I found out the marriage license has no expiration date.
Lucky for me the license is irrevocable! (Right?)
Break from Town stuff. Mowed grass. Redress and do ribbon cutting.
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
Good evening. Pat and Ray, you are inspirations on those of us without so many years under our belts. Wife and I are only married 9 years this month. Have quite a ways to go.
Well, finished the day relatively early today. Got home before the kids, so had a little time with the bride. We had violin lessons tonight. Kids really can pick it up so fast. I still have to look at the music, they play by memory. I learned to play "Amazing Grace" tonight. Have to put some practice into that one. Neat thing was the instructor had me use her violin....it sounds beautiful! I asked her how much it would cost to buy one of that quality. $5000.00, if you can find one. Think I'll wait.
After the lessons, went to Cracker Barrel for some grub. I like the food there. Hope that everyone has a great night.
Dennis
TCA#09-63805
I guess it's about time I check in and see what is happening around the pot. It's been about a week I think. Congrats to the 50 year guys. Only 42 here as I was 28 when we married. Haven't run trains for a while, but will have to get back at it as two cars arrived from Brent today.
Some cooler weather has arrived, along with a little rain.
Rainy and high 70's. Really weird, as the weather is coming in from the east instead of the west. TV weather was saying something about a 'blocking high pressure' somewhere east of us.
Black unmarked helicopters in Chief's territory. Hmmmmm. When I was living in Kentucky, I heard rumors about those things. Went something like they were being operated by a secret arm of the UN who's function was to implement world government. Hmmmmmm.
My box of goodies from Train Tender arrived today. Got my recent e-bay aquired 6650 IRBM launcher back together and operational. By the sounds of it, just in time to help protect the Katy Central from those black helocopters.
Later all.
Good Evening
A stuffy 70s today.
My daughter and I watch the movie Get Smart while granny and the boys went to Awanas. Funny movie. Banilla is ready also got some Breyers Peach today. Brutus fire up the thingy.
S.J.
Worked on my friend's Marx 666 again tonight. Found a bad solder joint on the smoke unit. When I took it up to the layout along with my 6650 for some test runs, I found that my O scale operating stealth bomber was back! Yup, Mr. Batsin D. Belfrey himself was patroling over the layout.
Lights, smoke, noise - he chose the window I opened for an escape route.
Pat - love the cartoon!
8nT - Duck! You didn't do it right - you are supposed to put on coats, hats, gloves and grab baseball bats and tennis rackets and sally forth like in The Great Outdoors
Got a shipment from Charlie Ro today - my Hogwarts add-on cars and Graveyard car I had preordered. The Halloween Gateman is backordered, which is strange since I preordered it?
Lots of great posts today, just too much for comments - TTIRSHWG (The Tardis is Ready so here we GO!)
RIP Chewy - best dog I ever had.
Wow. Must have been tired. Reclinerized around 9 PM. Just woke up. Off to bed. Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite.
Dennis, I think it is a very nice thing that you and your family do together playing the violin. I envy anyone who can play an instrument. I took violin in grade school for about a year but the school had no music program to advance one and besides, our teacher took off on a maternity leave and we did'nt like the substitute so that was the end of my violin career. I tried trumpet in high school and that did'nt work out either. I can't even whistle anymore because my lips have dried up with age or something. I've been thinking about taking up the harmonica or some kind of simple whistle from the music store. I love music but it is very frustrating not being able to play anything. I fooled around too much during my productive years when I could have been taking lessons or something. I always wanted to arrive at a destination without taking the trip. It does'nt work! Take it from the voice of experience. Good luck with your music and stick with it.
Had an interesting evening. Went over to "Bob's" house. (He's the guy who lives nearby, and is a member of the train club, that had all the problems with his DCS a couple of weeks ago. Ended up with a bad TIU unit.) He got a new TIU & Remote last week, and got it all hooked up. So I was to go over and run trains. Actually, I told him I would come over and help with the wiring, but havn't been able too. So got there tonight, and he met me at the door and said the whole system is down. And been down all day. So started to troubleshoot. Ended up removing ALL wiring and connected it directly to the ZW. Problem was wouldn't load or find an engine. After going through everything found out the IR board in the remote is loose. Noticed that the case of the unit wasn't snapped completly together. Tried the new Remote and it worked perfectly. Forgot to mention he had the top of the ZW, he was going to change the setup so that one hande controlled all the channels. Suggested he set it up so that he had independent control and reidentified the channels. Then put the case on and the xformer would NOT come up to power. After a half hour trying to figure that out, found a heatsink that was loose on the inside of the xfmr, that would move when the screws for the case were tightened. This aluminum plate was also providing a ground for a power transistor, causing the transistor not to work. Tightened it all work and it is fine, case installed and all. Comment: Sure is discouraging, these transformers run $400, and they can't afford to put a locking washer on the nut and screw securing the transistors. Really NOT very impressive how these things are built. Probably less than $50 total material cost inside.
I can't believe how much bad luck Bob has, but it would be a full time job keeping all his stuff running. Enjoyed the time, though.
Later
Don
Another couple days here on the mountain. We pull the subreflector on Monday, hopefully w/o one of our engineers in attendance. Hopefully he will continue to be distracted by the other telescope. About to order over $2K worth of bearings for this thing and have 'em made and shipped out of Japan.
Doing pretty good w/ the health stuff. Got the first diabetic education class this weekend. Ran out of the Prilosec for a couple days and boy did I notice though.
dennis - blazer is getting fixed. We have about 3 of our cars that are in what I call "the race to the finish". The fleet is fairly old and high mileage, but we were just blessed w/ a new one. We'll see which of the 3 makes it to retirement first. I've heard the violin is one of the more difficult instruments to play. I'm impressed:)
8ntruck - had a good chuckle over the 0 scale stealth bomber
Pat - Congrats!
Have to find something to eat and off to bed. Night all.
Bob
Tucson, AZ (aka the Ol' Pueblo)
Home of the Mt. Graham & Arizona Eastern Boiler Shops
HI GYZ,
Damp here at 59. Had the dreaded Open House here at school last nite. Had lots o former students, now I'm teaching their kids. I must be getting OLD? Good nite but feels like I never left.
HAPPY FRIDAY EVE!!!!!
Maybe GOLF after school with BRO if no rain? Deffinitly WINGS and YUENGs at WAYNES tonite.
Stay Frosty,
laz57
Oh yes, I got my badges for YORK!!!
Pretty PINK ones to boot. Wife loves em.
SF,
Mornin' boys. Partly sunny & 63 here in the Mid-Atlantic region. Contacted TCA-Eastern yesterday; hadn't heard from them about layout tours...stay tuned.
laz - Got my YORK badge too...may have to make custom modifications...
SPMan - I used to play the organ.
What...?
8ntruck - Too bad he couldn't stick around til Halloween...that would've been cool.
jefelectric - Feel free to fire me off one of them cars mid-month.
Good morning all,
IIABSDISEI with temps in the 80s. The boys lost 1-0, but at least it was close. Both boys and girls play tonight. Did wieghts and some treadmill work at YMCA after game. I had the regular fare on the dining car for breakfast before sending it to "Points East". TBIL, but it will have to be a late pickup. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Morning. Getting ready to go to Wilmington to see Grandsons. All you Yanks behave while I'm gone. Dennis, keep an eye on them. Especially that one that is a spy hiding in Columbia SC. Have a good one.
Aloha all. Beautiful day here. Back from meeting the son's high school teachers this morn as part of his 'accomodations' - everyone nice and friendly. We'll see how his year goes. Nice to have that 50 year target to shoot for - only married 20 this year. Nice to hear about musical instruments. I played the flute in high school. Can still pick things out. Want to learn the uke someday. :)
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
A late Good Morning
70s today, should be nice. No plans just some small stuff around he house. Sounds like Doug M. sure caught island fever.(uke) Sausage gravy and biscuits this morning. Grannys fixing spaggitti sauce for supper, smells good already.
One more work day so hang in there...S.J.
Brutus;
The Halloween Gateman is scheduled for shipment in October, I think!
Mel Hazen; Jax, FL Ride Amtrak. It's the only way to fly!!!
Don, At least Bob has a friend like you to help him out. Can be very frustrating if you are in such a situation without one.
Doug, isn't it mandatory for you to live in Hawaii to play the uke?
Regarding the violin, it is a hard instrument, but with the suzuki method (as recommended by Jon), it is much easier. Once you get the hang of it, it really has a beautiful, rewarding sound.
Chief, not to worry, we will keep the enemy at bay. Placed some pitch in the slings and ready to fire when they cross the line...the mason dixon line that is.
Anyway, case was a tough one, but did well. Now to do the paperwork and hope to get home before too long so I can work on the layout.
Bob, yeah, you will know it if you skip any doses of Prilosec or Nexium. It does sound as if you are feeling better and hope that that has fixed things. If you haven't see if you can purchase your meds in 90 day prescriptions verses monthly. That will make it less likely that you run out.
God Bless,Dennis
My morning started just like last Thursday, but went south after class. As I pulled away from my parking spot, I noticed a growl and a bit of vibration coming from the front of the Sunfire. It feels like something is holding the car back a bit as well. I pulled into another lot and shifted into to neutral. I pressed the gas pedal until it hit the rev limiter, and something just doesn't sound right to me. I was initially thinking that it may be a wheel bearing, but now I've got the feeling that it may be an ATX problem. I need to check it out this weekend, but I'll have to drive the PGT in the mean time. If rain is in the forecast, I don't want to take it, as I do not want it exposed to water. I might check on the payoff figure on the Sunfire and look at my options. I am tired of problem after problem. I would like to get rid of it and get a Ford Fusion or a Mazda3.
So Buckeye returned home after a failed attempt at invading Roseyville and couldn't sit down. Chief, do you all dole out punishment with a paddle? How about that spy in SC, can he sit down yet?
Dennis - Nine years will become 50 before you know it. Enjoy getting there. It "sounds" like you are ( pun intended).
jefelectric - Those 8 years will be gone before you know it. I am one of those rare birds that got married as a teenager and it lasted!
cnw1995 - Targets can be reached!
Ray - It's never to late to learn to play music. I too tried the violin in grade school, but we called it a fiddle. I would like to learn to play the steel guitar. Don't have one yet, but I have plunked on one a few times. It will happen.
Don - With all of Bob's train problems, I would say he has a real love for our hobby.
fifdog - I think I will leave your musical comments alone without comment.
SJ - This is for you:
Available from Miller Engineering (it is supposed to blink on and off).
Another morning here on the hill. Still having fun w/ the bearings. We need to make sure they are exact replacements. Since they will have to make 'em no returns and I like to spend our scarce funds wisely.
Really enjoying the narrow gauge issue of Trains. Some interesting stuff in there.
Dennis - once we get settled on what exactly I will stay on I will look into mail order. It will save time and money, but right now I'm on the OTC version of Prilosec so I really didn't have an excuse for that one. It's good to be feeling on the mend and in the end my diet will be much better. One of the parishoners at my church growing up used to play a violin at the services on occasion. Found it in an uncles attic and thought he'd take it up. Took it to a music store for new strings and what not, came back in a few weeks and found out it was a Stratovarius.
Jim - bummer on the Sunfire. Can get you a great deal on a 93 PGT in Colorado. Been sitting for a while (only has like 90K). Been meaning to ask you about it. My brother has kind of given up on it and I imagine it's a simple fix, just what exactly is the issue. Not my favorite car to work on, but it is fun to drive. It inspired me to get the MGB-GT.
Need to go check out whats on the dining car. Later all.
Bob,
Now you are speaking my language! 90,000 miles is nothing for the Mazda KLDE V6 that Ford put in the 93-97 Probe GT. My 97 GT has 189,550 on it, and it runs great. I have heard of a KLDE with over 500,000 miles and no mechanical issues. What is the problem with your brother's 93 PGT? If I can't help, I know of a ton of people who could offer more assistance. Don't let your brother scrap it, because the 93 GT's are the most desirable of the GT's built from 1993-97. Have you had to change the timing belt? That is a ton of fun due to the space you have to work in.
Pat, my grandpa played the fiddle and I don't think he could read a note but it did'nt hurt him any. He could play all that ho down and country stuff as well as jigs and reels. I used to like wind instruments but you have to have strong teeth to play brass instruments and mine are store bought. Guitar might be nice but I like the sound of a banjo better. It might be harder to play though. My son just picked up a CD recently with banjo tunes recorded by the comedian Steve Martin. I was surprised that he plays it so well. He has been playing a long time though according to an interview I saw him on. Earl Scruggs was his hero he said. He said he used to play 78 records on slow speed to learn the banjo tunes. My favorite country fiddle player is John Gimble. I think he played with the Texas Playboys at one time. He said Bob Will's used to say "Join the Texas Playboys and see the world (through a windshield)" I guess they were on the road a lot.
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