Mornin' boys. Mornin' English. Pretty day here in the Mid-Atlantic region. Made it through my first shift last night, although halfway through I was questioning my wisdom to return. Gets tough when your body starts fighting against you.
88 - I loathe bureaucrats.
Bakeer - Sounds like your problems on the mother isle are a precursor of things to come here in the New World. Hope I will have hung up my gun-belt before then.
laz/SPMan - I remember the boiler explosion on the Gettysburg. A lot of steam programs started reevaluating after that.
anjdevil - Looking forward to teaming up at YORK. Boat ride in order if you and your princess get down my way.
Aloha - a beauty of a day here in Chicago. Jim, Marx from that era is wonderful. And the tinplate is 'bullet-proof' - enjoy! Francis Chan is a great guy, Dennis. I've read that book. Hope the family can get the other girl. Congrats on 1.6K Rich. Cabin fever is definitely part of infant-hood, Brent- at least you can spell each other - go out for a walk. That's what we did for five weeks in Peru. In fact, I'm off to pick up that daughter tomorrow at Cedar Point. Laz, a friend of mine with the FRA says they track and inspect each steamer regularly. Not sure where the Lokie fits in that.
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
Hi GUYZ,
Ran a 2 miler this morning already now have a dentist appointment. Then more pointing of stone veneer.
SPMAN, RAY the tubes should be replaced every 7-9 years. We are on year 11, total cost to replace all 79 tubes is 10G. They are only gonna replace the ones that are bad. Oh well?
laz57
Good Morning from Blueberryhill....
It is a cooler 65 degrees. Going up to 78 today with sunshine.
Today is a busy day. The usual chores and an errand to run. I have to finish this project and mail it out. Maybe a nap later.
Dining car is here with Cheerios for breakfast.
Y'all have a great Wednesday.
Chuck
Prayers for Pat's knee, healing for Ray and Doug, adoptions, loved ones and intentions. Brent, hang in there. That cabin fever is normal and will be with you even when you get home for a while yet. After a few months, as you are both able to get out more with your baby, it will become a lot better. That was our experience. It's got to be worse, though; since you are isolated and away from your home and all your stuff, which makes you more comfy.
Today I went to work to EARN for Chief (et al) and had a nice lunch with my sister and our friend Fran. Picked up PAUL on bluray, hope it's a good one. That Pegg guy makes some really funny movies. My new niece Sophie is staying with my Mom and Dad (Nana and Papaw) for a week. My sister is helping out and we'll go over and visit on the weekend. I imagine Mom and Dad will be feeling a little of that "baby lockdown" that Brent and Suzie are into right now!
TARDIS is ready and we have chocolate chip cookie dough icecream as well as Famous Banilla!
RIP Chewy - best dog I ever had.
The heat wave seems to have broken. Back to 'normal' summer temperatures - for now.
Went another round with the string trimmer tonight. Back to where I started. It starts, runs, but does not shut off. gotta be a bad switch or a broken wire.
LAZ - good thing you found the leaking tubes in the stare up procedure. Otherwise, it could have been an exciting day with the Lokie.
All for now.
Good Evening, Guys..
Just got home form Line & Exec Officers meeting...which more like a gab fest than a constructive meeting..
Work was productive and profitable for a change..
Big time rain at 1 PM today lasting until 5...gully washer type, now cooler and very humid.
Brent & Q - for quickness of the paperwork.... and a quick return home.
According to my daughter's Facebook page, this is her last day in Florida...
Off to bed, tomorrow is another day.
Rich
PS This is post #1600....never thought I'd get there....
I am the monster in your head...And I thought you'd learn by now, It seems you haven't yet.I am the venom in your skin --- Breaking Benjamin
Good evening everyone. Work was good, but it was good to get out of there. I have been working on the layout a little at a time lately and hope to have some serious work done this weekend. We had a bunch of errands to tackle this afternoon. When we were shopping for some friends who are on mission to West Africa, the bottom fell out and you could hear the heavy rains on the roof of the store. We were able to dodge most of the heavy rain as we loaded up the van and headed out to dinner.
Brent, I hear you about the adoption paper work. It can be daunting. We are getting the initial stuff together for another round. We are doing "special needs" this time and the agency will try to help and make it as smooth as possible. Still, it is more work than buying a house....guess that is the way it is supposed to be.
Doug, my wife was reading a blog from a friend of hers. They had adopted a 9yo girl from China and when they got her home, she continually cried. They were finally able to get a interpreter to ask what the problem was. Turns out she has a twin sister in the orphanage who is blind and the other kids take her food and clothes. This girl was taking care of her sister and when she was adopted, she had to leave her behind....the family is trying to get the other sister. On another note, have you read "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan? I am in the middle of it...some powerful stuff.
Well, it is bed time. We are working on getting the kids to bed earlier as school starts Friday.God Bless,Dennis
TCA#09-63805
Evening all
Been away from the pot for a few days. As usual lots going on. I'm coaching the line on Gabriel's football team of 3rd and 4th graders. It is so much fun, but really eats away at time.
My daughter Anna bought me a late 40's early 50's Marx Tin plate set. It is really cool. I'll get some pictures to post. The loco took right off after a little oil, and the cars are really neat. Greg (Northwods Flyer) lured me to tinplate for some time now and I have fallen!
Brent - Prayers that all goes well.
Need to do some reading and work on this weekend's homily
Good night and may God bless
Jim
Good Evening
73 now. An unexpected quickie storm dump a lot of rain and some small hail this afternoon. No damage that I know of. Granny's scheduled for right knee replacement Sept. 12. The doctor looked at her x-rays and just shook his head. We both knew it was coming. Banilla is waiting..S.J.
"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
Brent, Good luck on the paperwork.
Spent the day at the RR Museum of PA. Started out in the yard, but got rained out as it rained from about 10:30 on with short breaks. I then opened up the E-44 and was busy with visitors the rest of the day. Quite often had a line of 10-15 people waiting to come on board. Very unusual for a week day. Guess the rain drove them inside to the Museum instead of other activities.
Tomorrow is Toy Train Museum day for me so I will be working in the Library cataloging photographs. On Monday evening they had the Picnic for volunteers and employees. Nice event with great food and Jean even won a door prize.
Evening Fellas.RT - we have to do an ICPC adoption since we live in MD and Christina was born in FL. So we have to wait for FL's ICPC to approve the adoption, then we have to wait for MD's ICPC to approve it. It can take up to 10 days per state. So we are now on day 3 for FL. With any kind of luck we'll get FL tomorrow and MD won't drag their feet and we could still be home this weekend, but we aren't counting on it. I really think if this goes past Friday then we'll be flying home, even if we have so ship stuff UPS.I didn't think this would be this bad, but I'm starting to feel like I have cabin fever. I have never had it before, but this is simply nuts. We do go out every now and again, but we can't go many places because Christina hasn't had her first immunization shot.
Brent don't understand the thing with the states Is there more than one state involved? if so how many? I hope if its more than one its just FL. and MD. not every state your driving thru. Still best wishes.
Not much going on tonight so just relaxing.
checking out some auctions but not really buying if I bid i want to be sure I want it so asking lots of questions lol.
Trying to figure where to and how I want to put up a display shelf for the PA-1's & PB-1's and what cars I put behind them.
Hope all having a good week.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Laz, wow! that sounds like a pretty serious problem with the lokie. A boiler is a boiler, no mater what the size so it sounds like you might have had a boiler explosion if you ran out of water. If you put cold water on a hot crown sheet wouldn't that create too much steam expansion too fast for the safety valve to take off? Reminds me of a boiler explosion on the Gettysburg Railroad which fortunately was designed to blow out of the bottom and the boiler did not separate from the chasis. However the crew was seriously injured. Does the FRA have to sign off on boiler inspections for an engine the size of yours? How often do they require tube replacement? Anyway, glad you are safe. I went on the Durango and Silverton narrow gauge in 1996 and the same thing happened while we were running on the way to Silverton. They were losing water through the tubes and had to stop at every water tank enroute but couldn't keep up. They finally gave up and sent out a relief engine to pull us in. The water was dousing the fire in the firebox.
Ray
SPMan
It's Tuesday and I usually am up at the Pioneer Tunnel running the LOKIE. Today went to fire it up and before we fire it up I blow it down. When I did that this morning just water came out and very little steam, odd. We opened up the firebox to start a new fire and discovered 4-5 tubes have leaks in them. NOT GOOD. These tubes got to be replaced. Thursday is when the boiler maker is coming up to pull tubes, put new ones in then reweld them,and then it has to be brought back up slowly so maybe by Saturday it will be running again? We were going to do track work but rain is falling and no use getting soaked, so I went home. Good thing this happened during the night and not out on the tracks. We would of had to flood the crown plate and then drown the fire then tow it back to the barn. Hopefully it will be a running next week?
Got all my rocks on the wall so this afternoon I will start pointing.
Stay frosty,
Good morning all,
The 1y/o and I went for a walk this morning and then I did some pushups and sit-ups while he helped. I am going to work late this morning; the wife and two older kids are at the dentist for check-ups and cleanings. I stayed home with the 1y/o and family. I will work for a few hours and then we all might have some fun at the bowling alley. Last night, my father and I watched the Sox - Twins game on ESPN. The Sox pulled it out at the end, and my father actually hates to see the Sox win more than I do.
Brent - I hope the paperwork gets completed soon.
Doug - I'm looking to buy some Thomas items for the kids. I need to do it quickly since the moving company comes next week.
Good day,
Joe
Aloha from a beauty of a day in Chicago. Success yesterday! Got the special doll with only a 40 block walk and lugged it to the train and home without getting it wet in all the rain. Sent the rain on to Sir J. Dennis, Kelly and i looked into special needs as well, since she's a nurse. We're a bit ... old for them now though. This particular girl was not trained because she was so profoundly deaf though tentatively, there may be some medical possibilities here. She also turns out to be very near-sighted - never had glasses. Brent, been there on the adoption paperwork. Rich, your home reminds me of a few Cubs-Sox relationships I know of... Missed out on a Percy last eve. Was looking at a burro crane - I think Sodor could use one.
Good Morning
66 degrees and the air is completely still, the flags not moving at all. We got a good rain overnight, glad I cut the grass yesterday. I will be taking granny to the knee doctor this AM and I do not expect to hear any good news. She has put off surgery for way too long. We are losing daylight faster now so enjoy what we have left of August..S.J.
Jack - Our rain was not to little to late but close.
I am sure you know term limits is just a dream, since it is the very ones we want to replace that has to vote on it. They do some dumb things but they no better than vote themselves out of a job, free health insurance and lucrative retirement plan.
Pat
RFD-TV --- Rural America's most important network!
It is a cloudy 68 degrees. Rained last night. Going up to 78 today with more rain.
Today is a busy day. I have the usual chores to do and an errand to run. Then, a project I'm working on.
Y'all have a great Tuesday.
Some more rain may be on the way in SE Indiana with a cool down to follow. Got a good rain shower last night. Work will be busy today. One nice thing about going to the tracks other than Indy is that the drivers are much more accessible to the fans. You have to be respectful of course, but most are willing to accommodate a brief conversation or signing opportunity. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Mike - sounds like a nice vacation!
Brent - cute baby pic!
SPMAN - prayers for Bill's family. RIP.
Mowed the lawn tonight - it was so tall despite the heat we've had! When it's really hot, I get this thin weedy grass that tries to take over. It took me about 3 hours to mow and that was mostly the back yard with the push mower. I did the front and sides in about 1/2 hour. I did get in a spot next to the patio where the mower would not turn uphill. I got out, fiddled with the brakes, and was able to turn it around by hand after a little bit. I need to fiddle with it a bit - I have noticed that one side has about 10 percent more power than the other side? I'm not sure that is correct. I'll call and see if there is a service guy around here that I can question about it. I've got about 5 hours total mow time on it so far, so I don't think it's anything I've done. Oh well, we shall see.
TARDIS is ready and SJ took the keys. I'll be in the lounge area watching some Thomas episodes over a few root beers
Good evening all,
It is rainy and cooler in SE Indiana. Great pic of a beautiful baby, Brent. Hope all the paperwork goes smoothly. Quick post as it is late. Wife and I had a great trip to Mid-Ohio. Westfield Inn was great as always. Mid-Ohio was beautiful as always. Team Red won....as always. Vitor got a top ten for AJ, which was good. Got to talk to some of his crew, and Simona's and SFR. Got some awesome autographs.... Swiss Miss and Special Ed. Ate well, shopped well, lived well for three days. Made me forget about everything else. I hope everyone has a good day.
Cooled off with the occasional thunderstorm rolling through the last couple of days.
Went three rounds with the string trimmer this weekend. Lost all three. Something is wonky in the electrical system. Initial disassembly was because it would not shut off. Cleaned terminals, started up, shut off - great can trim the lawn now. Only thing is, it would not shut off when I was done. Disassembly #2 - tract the wires again, check the switch, re-clean the terminals - OK on bench. No fire this time. Disassembly #3, rather partial disassembly. Got to the switch, checked it again, all is fine. Pulled the plug, & checked for spark - still OK on the bench. Outside, tried to start - fired twice, then act like no fire. Bought a can of starter fluid and a new plug today - still no fire. Going in for disassembly #4 to remove wires and switch - remove all of the suspect items and see if it runs.
77 now.
Cut the grass, waiting with the banilla.
Brent I have no idea what kind of paperwork still has to be done but I hope your on your way home soon...S.J.
Evening Fellas.SPRay - for your friend BillStill no word from State #1. Seems this process can get strung out for up to 3 days per state... if that is the case we'll be here through this coming weekend and maybe through Monday next week... at that point we are considering flying home. FL is nice, but not THAT nice.Yesterday the lightening storms caused a brush fire close enough to us that I could smell it when unloading the car! I'm thinking when we get home Christina and I are going to have to spend some quality time in the trainroom for a couple hours!!!
Well, here's the deal on my sports allegiances:
The Yankees were always on in the house, whether it was Granpa M's place or home. Dad's parents were from the Bronx, then Brooklyn then Jersey. Mom's parents weren't really into sports. My Mom, however, is a Yankee hater and a Phillie Fan. Dad is in the living room with the Yanks and Mom is in the 4 season room with the Phils...
The NY Football Giants were an acquired taste in the early '70's and have been a fan since.
My Beloved New Jersey Devils were cast out from Kansas City and Denver before coming here. Any team that sports the NJ on their chest, well I'm a Jersey guy. Been a BIG fan of them since the beginning in 1982. And they are the ONLY sports team to win a Professional Sports Championship with the NJ (state) in the name.
Long day at work today, really tired.
Have to dig up something quick for dinner then sleep.
High Humidity today in the hi 80's today.
RaySP for your friend Bill...sorry I missed that before...
Check back later!
Well lets look at it like this RI & Rich if it is Philly's and Yankee's my bet is with the Yankee's I grew up right outside Philly and I know they will choke before its all over so I have to bet on the Yankee's. And I really don't follow sports just from what I have seen over the years.
My preferred team is stinking I just looked to see had no idea they have lost there last 10 games yeah the team on the other side of the state from Philly lol
Waiting for engines to show up I think I'm last stop on his route lol ups is always late delivering to us.
Good Afternoon Ya'll from Unsettled Taxachusetts,
At long last, some rain. Not enough, but it's a start. Temps here hit the 80s yesterday and today while the humidity was higher than that at times. We did get in the Red Sox/Yankees game last night, much to the chagrin of the Yankee fans here on the pot. Another victorious series against the arch rival and back in first place where we belong. Not even CC "I Eat Too Much" could prevail. .
The stock market reflects the level of confidence in our leadership, and their effectiveness at tackling the problems. Pick a challenge, and they have failed at them all.. If this bunch were running the country during WWII we'd all be speaking two languages, neither of them English. Term limits, boys. None of this bunch represents us any more than our worst enemies.
Brent........hope your trip home finally gets started if it has not already done so. What a cutie!!!! But you are probably looking a bit haggard. No worries. Babies usually sleep somewhat through the night sooner or later. Word of advice: Don't leave dirty diapers under the car seat, especially in the heat.
RaySP.....continued prayers this back thing clears up. You need a blonde Swedish masseuse. One may not make your back feel any better but it will take your mind off of it. Sorry to hear your friend Bill did not make it. It sure sounds like he had a full life and had many friends and respecting acquaintances.
Roy........I can't bear to watch the Texas weather stories any more. You live in a blast furnace. I'll bet the armadillos and the rattlesnakes have been migrating Northward to escape the heat. I belong to an automotive forum, and some of the guys are saying their car A/C untits are having a hard time keeping up!
DougM......my FIL informed me that some areas in your neck of the woods have experienced record July rainfall totals. Hope your basement is holding out.
Pat........glad to hear you got some rain. Too little too late? I hope not.
DJ..........adopt me. Your little ones are lucky you have a keen eye on gifts that keep giving.
Rich.......why on earth would you be a Yankees fan? Switch to Philadelphia. Then we can bet on the Series.
Gotta run. Later gang.
Jack
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
Good afternoon everyone. House is painted (Thank God I didn't have to do it...it's hot out there), but now it looks like more rain heading our way. Waiting for wife and kids to arrive so we can figure out dinner plans.
Ray, sorry to hear about your friend. Guys of his experience are going, I pray that their stories get told. All too often, I see them coming for surgery and like to talk to them about what their life was like back when. May his family find peace at this time of sorrow.
Brent, Looking forward to hear when you three get home. It is the end of a long process that has brought you and Susie Q so much pleasure. She is precious!
Doug, Kim and I have been looking at photos of "special needs" kids. Any over 6 years are considered special needs because their chance of adoption goes way down. Most orphanages will train them in a trade so that they have some kind of way of making an income when they leave. Congratulations to your friends.
I had better get going, plenty of honey dos to get to.God Bless,Dennis
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