Aloha. Cold and clear with a nice sunrise. Still waiting for this illness to clear. Looks like a nice day.
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
Mornin' FellasFife - Get the Santa Flyer. It is the same engine as the Potter engine and already in Christmas detail (Santa is the engineer).Chuck - Go with GMail. Best email service around.Last day of the work week for me! Tomorrow TheQ and I are taking The Princess to DE to do our Christmas shopping! Also hope to find Santa for a picture op. The Princess went to the Pediatrician yesterday for her 4 month checkup. She is growing lengthwise faster than she is gaining weight, not a bad thing. Hopefully she will be tall (like her father) and thin (like her mother). She wasn't too happy last night or today, think she is having issues with the immunizations. She was like that 2 months ago for about 2 days, so hopefully she'll be better tomorrow. We have also been given the green light to start introducing fruits and veggies to her diet, as well as juice. So now I'm looking for a juicer because I am NOT giving her store bought juice (too high in sugar and preservatives).On the Train front... Lionel has FINALLY shipped the Legacy Hotel. Only been 2+ years since it was first announced, then dropped due to that silly building related lawsuit, and then reintroduced in the last catalog. Also getting ready to order an ERR Upgrade kit for the MTH C&O Yellowbelly. Can't wait to see the C&O Special running on the upper level!
Cold and damp 25 degrees not going to get much better today.
Well getting off to a good start. Got up saw the cat at the door so I let him in. He went to finish his food in the laundry room. I got my cheerios and sat down at the PC to read the pot.
Cat jumped up in front of the screen and did several Meows and gave me a small head butt. Guess he was trying to tell something. I figured he wanted my milk so when I got done with the cheerios I gave him the milk. He finished it off and sat in the hallway and gave me another Meow. I went to take the bowel to the sink and what is in the hallway? Yeah Cat puke!
Man I am glad we have wood floors.
Have a good everybody,
Kev
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
Good Morning Fellow CTT Fans!
It's 26F today as I arrive at work. Last night I got another 2 hours of video uploaded of past trips. This time it's Alaska and it was great watching the Alaska RR ride section I have not seen in years!
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
Good morning
30 degrees with bright sun.
Had a nice chat with Charlie and Kevin last night, Brutus was a no show, probably found the Tardis keys in that blocked toilet. Fried egg and spam sandwich for breakfast. It works for me...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
Konbanwa,
It was much colder today as the temps were in the low 40s. It was also raining which made it worse for some people. I took the older son (8 y/o) to a dental appointment on my lunch break today. It was a simple filling on a baby tooth that didn't even require anesthetic. He did well and he didn't even want me to be in the room. Our office played a friendly game of volleyball today. We had two teams: an over-35 team and an under-35 team. I was on the over-35 (not by much) team and we won all six games. I think the young guys try too hard.
I just posted some schoolwork online and now I am ready for some sleep.
Dennis - I will post my dilemma in the forum tomorrow and hopefully get some ideas. I'm hoping Bob Nelson can provide some insight.
RT - Nope, that wasn't us. We military folks are told where to live.
Brutus - It's amazing how inanimate objects are capable of breaking themselves or somehow go missing.
Fife - I know you may be waiting until York, but there is one eBay seller I frequent who has those items at great prices.
Kev - I'm glad your gas issues are resolved.
Stourbridge - I can't wait until we hit 26 degrees.
Chief - I sent you a PM.
Sayonara,
Joe
Joe it was just wierd as he works for the airforce as a cilvian engineer I guess and he came from where you did and went to japan like you did. His name is Alan Pugh I heard it again at the end also they didn't have any kids.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
Joe,
I will be watching your post. I have a RailSounds box car that likes to blow the horn whenever it wants to as well. It is running with a RW
The wife and I are glad the gas issue is solved, all is good today.
Brutus, Guess I would rather clean up cat puke that have a plugged toliet to deal with.
Been working on making a speaker baffle out of a pvc sink drain pipe for one of the MRC sound boards I got. Looks like it may work. Going to put it in my DT&I 8111
Time to get back at it,
Later,
rtraincollector Jack I'm not younger ones here but I don't understand why you can't handle a child and fix a simple light set. Hmmmm wonder if it might have something to do with I never had kids but do understand where your coming from with the 3rd response. I usually get we need to get someone to do such and such.
Jack I'm not younger ones here but I don't understand why you can't handle a child and fix a simple light set. Hmmmm wonder if it might have something to do with I never had kids
but do understand where your coming from with the 3rd response. I usually get we need to get someone to do such and such.
I understand fully, RT, no problem. I didn't understand this stuff either. Several of us can help you with this query. I'll drop the kiddies off for an afternoon for your indoctrination. Here is what you will learn in just one hour and what you need to prepare for the visit, when you are left home alone to watch the kiddies..
You had better go out and buy a DVR for starters. While watching my kiddies, you will never have the opportunity to watch more than 5% of what you intended to watch. Less if they throw a shoe or a ball through the TV screen. And you will remember only half of the 5% you do get to watch because you were doing so under heavy distraction. This fact will become more evident as you read on.
Plan ahead......in the room you plan to incarcerate confine the children, remove anything that can be moved, items that you don't want to have to degrease, clean, scrub, polish, repair, reassemble, replace, or put back in place. Just bite the bullet, pack it up, and put it away in a locked/secure area. Remember, the children cannot destroy or contamminate what they cannot touch, or hit with a ball, toy, or a shoe.. And never ever let the cows out of the barn.
Usually but not always the affected stuff is only the stuff that is at a predetermined height or lower. Measure the tallest child head down to the ground and add 2 feet for the extended arm/hand/finger reach to determine the items that apply. Exception to the rule: children love to climb on tables, chairs, and sofas to get at the stuff they can't reach from the floor. So anything they can reach from that elevated height is also in jeopardy. Remove all proximate pictures from the walls and ceiling fans they can reach.
Things to remove from the room? These include tables, lamps, cordless phones, your entire audio/video library, all floor plants, your subwoofer, magazines and newspapers, framed pictures and knick knacks from tables, floor-standing pole mounted surround sound speakers (center and rear channels), fireplace tools, decorative storage chests (especially ones that can be opened and emptied out onto the floor), throw rugs, and everything breakable.
Avoid the costly replacement of necessary devices. Collect all remote controls and place them somewhere at a height of six feet or higher. I once made the mistake of leaving a cordless phone (didn't have the paging option) within our children's reach. It was never found and had to be replaced.. My young daughter blamed my even younger son for the disappearance. My son in turn blamed my daughter. While the unit was still charged, I phoned the home phone from my cell and walked around the entire house and yard hoping to hear the cordless unit ringing, without success. Another time my universal A/V remote came up missing. No one "knew" what happened to it. I had to buy another. I subsequently found my missing universal A/V remote in a box in the basement, a couple of months after I had bought another. No one knew how it got there.
Check your inventory of any and all cleaning tools and products. The purpose is to make sure you have them on hand to mitigate the evidence of as much of the collateral damage as possible, or outright hide as much of it as you can before the wife returns. Post visit, you will need all of this stuff anyway, and you don't want to run out of it. Don't forget garbage bags. All child visits will require two hours of mitigation and cleanup work post visit.
For the larger furniture, you are stuck. Duck tape all doors and drawers firmly shut. Have Goo-Gone at the ready to remove the duck tape adhesive residue from the furniture, Murphy's oil soap to remove the Goo-Gone residue, and a high quality furniture wax or polish to bring back (optimistically) 80% of the wood finish. I find on our furniture the child damage to the furniture can take on the appearance of modern art, permanently.
Buy matching replacement nobs and handles for all of said heavy, immovable furniture while the handles and nobs are still available from the manufacturer, and buy a lot of super glue to put back on the ones that got the threads stripped. Inevitably, some of this hardware will just magically disappear or snap off when the kids start climbing; so what can't be found, reattached or repaired can be replaced.
Furniture engineers didn't take children into consideration when they designed this stuff, or they simply underestimate the sheer strength and durability requirements of households with children. Otherwise, granite would be a standard feature in living room furniture, not wood. See below on the other disadvantages of wood for furniture. Plastic patio furniture would be a better choice for you/us.
Don't give the children anything liquid unless you police them drinking it while sitting at the kitchen table or incarcerated in a high chair. Anything liquid left in a child's hands is attracted to wood tabletops like a magnet or an irrefutable force of nature. Liquids take the finish right off wood furniture. That leaves your place's furniture with the appearance of what one might find in a crack house. That being said, water does less damage to the furniture than juice and soda in the 30 seconds you will have to respond to any spillage.
Trust me when I say that lightly damaged furniture will trigger an immediate obsessive/compulsive response in the wife to start looking for new furniture. "I am ashamed to have anyone over to the house. Our furniture looks deplorable. We needed a new coffee table anyway. Our stuff is (old, ugly, out of style, the wrong color, fill-in-the-blank)." And if you protest? "The damage is your fault. If you hadn't left (fill-in-the-blank) where (fill-in-the-blank) could reach it, this never wiuld have happened." Then "We need new draperies and curtains."
If you are any good at refinishing furniture and want to avoid the wife's conspicuous consumption inclinations, and you want to avoid the new furniture expenses, start buying your sanders, wood stripper, stains, and eurathane products as soon as you find them on sale. Don't forget the application and cleanup products.
Go out and buy baby gates to cordon off the rooms where you choose to incarcerate confine the children. Assume there will be collateral damage to all that remains in the room. Get the gates with the hardware that screw into door frames. Don't rely on the included wood screws that come with the gates. They are too short for the application. Buy ones that are case hardened, about 3 inchers will due. The kids learn early on the the pressure-mounted ones can be easily defeated. The younger kiddies just hang on them like monkeys until the gate gives way. And the older ones soon learn they can just push them over with a few moments of patience and effort. They also learn about physics and the advantages of weight and momentum. Another advantage of the permanent baby gates, when properly installed, is that they withstand the direct frontal impact of those various children's vehicles the women insist they have to play with indoors.
Set down the "no balls in the house" law with the wife. yes, I repeat, no balls allowed in the house. Buy sheets of plywood to board up the broken windows until you can get them replaced after the wife ignores the law. Also, start watching the sale flyers for your next television while you are at it. They are not ball-proof.
Go out and buy a steam spot remover, only the ones that vacuum up the "residue" as well. These are handy for cleaning up drool, the occasional "spit-up, or the inevitable regurgitation and deposit of that peanut butter and jelly sandwhich you just fed the children for lunch. The latter occurs when, ex post facto, you discover under the couch the now-empty family size potato chip bag, the missing contents of which didn't sit so well in their tummies along with the PB&J.
The spot cleaner is also particularly useful for anything that either accidentally escapes from the diaper (more on the safe care and handling of diapers later) or was deliberately removed from said diaper and discarded on the rug and cloth furniture. Expect strange brown streaks on your walls and all painted woodwork
While you are out buying the steamer, you'll need to pick up some some Fabreeze, Resolve, and Carpet Fresh to finish the cloth furniture and carpet cleanup jobs and mask the odor before the wife gets home. Also buy some DSP to clean the walls, while you are at the store buying the other stuff. I recommend Resolve Pet Stain and Odor formula. You'll really need it when the child learns how fun and entertaining it is to relieve themselves while you are in the midst of changing a diaper.
If you didn't plan ahead and paint the walls with a washable, oil-based paint, you are in trouble and should start repainting the walls and painted woodwork right now with some paint that is washable. Otherwise, in a very short period of time, and after hours of futilely washing walls and woodwork, the wife will decide she wants the whole inside of the house repainted. See expected wife comments concerning the furniture. After you get done repainting, she'll then want to replace all of the draperies and curtains. Again, see expected wife comments on furniture.
If you did think ahead and paint the walls and woodwork ahead of time, you are still not out of the woods. At some point you will inevitably and/or accidentally leave the children unattended for 15-30 seconds. During that time frame they will find a pen, crayons, or permanent markers laying around and decorate the walls. So you may just as well buy some more of the better paint while you are out buying the other products listed above, when the stuff is on sale. Pick up some brushes, rollers, paint roller pans, stirrers, masking tape, dropcloths, and paint remover while you are at it.
Accept the fact that you will screw up and that the pen that fell out of your shirt pocket while you were reclinerizing WILL be found by the children under the sofa cushions and Will be used where you least want it used and when you are not looking.
Take the children with you when you go to the bathroom. Every second you are not watching them is an opporttunity they will take to mess things up.
Make sure you always encourage the wife to have an ample supply of scented candles on hand. The odors that the Fabreeze, Carpet Fresh, and the Resolve don't mask in all cloth surfaces and carpeting, the scented candles will. In addition, the candles help mask the smoke smell from the food you left cooking and then burning on the kitchen stove or in the oven.
Accidents like this happen. All it takes is the sound of an unexplained thud of a falling child (who coincidentally hit their head on a table edge on the way down). Or the sound of breaking glass (front window mentioned previously) coming from around the corner 15 feet away in the next room, the room you just left for a second, just moments before. Or the sudden shrieking and crying. These things will distract you from your cooking and have you take off running to the rescue like an Olympic sprinter blasting off the starting line in the finals. You will find that old quickness and speed we all once had. It's still in there somewhere..
If you insist on using your oven and/or cooktop, invest in a backup set of pots and pans like SJ and hide them in the basement. You will need to hide the evidence that there was a house fire in the wife's absence. Just throw out the damaged cookware and immediately tap your inventory for replacement. And make sure to hide the ruined pieces outside in a solid colored plastic bag you can't see through, and place it in the garbage can. Make sure the evidence bag is triple secured with twist ties so it cannot be easily reopened.
For your own sake, take advantage of your wife's weaknesses. If the wife unexpectedly returns while you are in the process of throwing out the incrimminating evidence, throw the bag out the back door and off to the side, or down the stairs into the basement, until you can safely retrieve it later and hide it properly. Wait until she is asleep or otherwise engaged with the children. My wife seldom goes down into the basement or looks out the back door to the sides. I also find that my wife doesn't hear much of what I say when she is engaged with the grandchildren. I could be standing there 6 feet away informing her the house is on fire or I was having a heart attack and it would go in one ear and out the other. Should the wife discover there was a house fire, I can always tell her that I told her but she wasn't listening as usual.
Use the microwave to cook whenever it is possible or practical to do so while you are watching the kiddies. The smoke and fire damage can usually be confined to inside of the microwave. You will need to buy those quick clean microwave products to hide the evidence. Buy a backup microwave and keep it next to the new pots and pans you hid in the basement. If you can't eliminate the evidence of a microwave fire with the aforementioned products, just swap the old one for the new one before the wife gets home. Then from the basement, take out the old one in the new box on trash day......she'll never look in the box curbside. Seal the box with packing tape just to be sure. My wife has not taken the trash out for the past 30 years.
While we are on the discussion of smoke and fire, familiarize yourself with how to quickly turn off or disable your smoke detectors' high pitched high volume alarm. Buy several step stools to place near the detectors so you can reach them quickly while you are watching the children, or trying to. The children have sensitive ears and will start to cry from the alarm sound in short order. Murphy's Law says that any time you are left alone and in charge, and the children start crying, about 60 seconds later the wife will march through the door and think you must have done something stupid to cause it, you have been goofing off, or you callously ignored the chikdren and they have been crying the whole time she was gone.
Buy a dog, a breed with exceptional hearing and smell that barks when they hear the sound of the wife's approaching car from 100 yards off. It will at least buy you precious seconds to make sure that diaper that has remained unchanged since she left is being changed when she walks in the door.
Make a house rule in your wife's presence, and let her see you living the rule: all dirty diapers will be deposited immediately into a small plastic supermarket bag and then taken directly outside to the garbage can. She will never check the outside garbage can to count how many diapers you changed in her absence, so it will appear you were on top of things while she was gone when you weren't.
RT........this is just chapter one of your education. I figure the total initial financial outlay to get you started preparing (products and tools) for the inevitable should not exceed $3,500, tops.
In Brent's case, he was smart. My bet is he must have skipped Christina's scheduled nap while watching a ball game or playing around on th PC, and also overfed her. So by the time he wanted to go work on the Christmas lights, he would have the edge: a child ripe and ready to fall dead asleep and stay that way while he worked. Brent is a quick study, he picks up these things pretty quickly.
Jack
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
Jack. Best. Post. Ever.
Thanks, Dennis!
jeffrey-wimberly For today's plans. I'll be going to my parents place for breakfast. Spicy hot link sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, home fries, biscuits. No way am I passing that up.
For today's plans. I'll be going to my parents place for breakfast. Spicy hot link sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs, home fries, biscuits. No way am I passing that up.
David Parks I am the terror that flaps in the night!
Yes, it was a big breakfast. I also got some laundry done and went to town to get a few things.
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
Whew!!!, Jack, you could write a book on child rearing. I had forgotten all those joys of having a herd of little pattering feet around you. Your post brought it all back.
Christmas tree is all done now except for putting a train on the track around the bottom. Think I will use the Lionel General set (one of the newer ones) which is more colorful. I have some pristine original Lionel manual 027 switches from the 50's but can't use them with Fastrack. Don't feel like buying Fastrack switches for just around the tree. So I will just stick with a simple loop. It's better than no train at all.
Good luck on the oil and gas rights, whoever has any.
Buckeye, glad your stones are quiet now.
R.I.P. Harry Morgan (Col. Potter)
later,
Ray
SPMan
Jack, good advice. That covers babysitting 101. And then come's the teen years where things get Worse.
cnw1995 Jack. Best. Post. Ever. Thanks, Dennis!
Jack: Your rendition on childcare 101 had me laughing as I was listening to it. It reminded me of the times many years ago when I was minding my older sisters two terrors.
Good afternoon everyone. Using the iPad to read the forum, so I will read Jack's post with due diligence later. I did want to warn Brent that most babies do not take well to the fat guy in the red coat! Would try it, but don't be frustrated if a smile is an exercise of futility.
Been a long day with plenty of work to go around. Had to get a crown put on my tooth, so we delayed surgery schedule a touch. Then, we had several big cases to do. Also had some friends who were being operated on, so I tried to check on them in between cases. Speaking of surgery, the surgery of our exec. Pastor's grandson went very well. He should be off the vent and breathing on his own.
I had better get going. Take care, Dennis
TCA#09-63805
Jack no I don't need to worry as I keep my doors to the house locked and if I see the slightest hint of a kid I don't answer the doors. Like I told my brother if I ever wanted kids all I had to do was ask one of my friends but the great thing about that is when I'm tired of them I can return them from where they came bet you can't do that.
just had conversation with wife.
wife " did you hear about the man that got hit by csx train"
Me "no I didn't"
Wife "well I bet he was walking down the tracks"
Me " no way I bet the train jumped the track and chased the man down the road. "
WOW!!! Jack you have been there but…….RT, I can make your child-rearing lesson a lot easier, as it was for my parents. No need to follow all of the rules Jack posted. All of that is WAY overrated Just learn to spank their little butts. But make sure the family police don't catch wind. Now on to what S.J. had to say, Teens: that is where things get sticky. Kev
WOW!!! Jack you have been there but…….RT, I can make your child-rearing lesson a lot easier, as it was for my parents. No need to follow all of the rules Jack posted. All of that is WAY overrated
Just learn to spank their little butts. But make sure the family police don't catch wind.
Now on to what S.J. had to say, Teens: that is where things get sticky.
Well I had a good heavy breakfast this morning, got some laundry done, went to town to get some supplies, watched The Price Is Right with my father then came back home. On the layout front I pulled the cheap McHenry couplers off the Husky Stack and replaced them with Kadee #119 SE couplers. Other than that nothing for today.
Evening all. Turned cold. Meetings all morning. Met with mobile home mover this afternoon. Now if SIL will clean it out, he is ready to go. Me too.
Jack,
Buckeye, glad things are better.
Off deer hunting early tomorrow.
New Boone and Crockett .30-06 is in. Leupold B&C scope is too. Maybe shoot in Sunday afternoon. Hunting again Saturday. Making up for lost time.
Hope everyone is doing OK.
Japan, replied. Good luck.
Sleep tight.
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
Brent,
Is there any way I can get rid of Internet Fail 9 and go back to IE8? You know; the version that actually works.
Fife,
Get any Christmas set other than the MTH 4-6-0 set. That set is I do know where you could get one cheap though...
I tried to post yesterday, but IE9 saw to it that it wouldn't be possible. Tried to post three separate times. I upgraded so that Windows Update would stop pestering me. Running Firefox right now.
I got all five loops down on the Christmas layout yesterday and found some cars that should look good behind the Decapod. I've been eyeing the Turbine in the 2011 MTH catalog, but I know I probably shouldn't even think about that right now.
Good Evening
32 now, stayed sunny all day but chilly. We had a good dinner from the slow cooker and then some TV. I also had some home baked Christmas butter cookies for dessert. banilla is ready so come this-a-way....S.J.
Probe - Yes Google it and there are step by step instructions. I think you go into Windows Update, view the Updates that you applied and uninstall it from there. When you uninstall 9 it automatically reinstalls 8.
Time for me to hit the sack. Gotta go to see the doc in the morning about some paperwork. See y'all later.
Alright, finally home and had the chance to read Jacks fantastic post on watching the kids. I would like to add that it is a good idea to have some fast dry wall. Filler. Elmer's makes one that goes on pink and dries white. You can then sand it and paint over it to conceal the inevitable holes in the wall. Also, remember Benadryl, it's not just for allergies....give them a dose and let them sleep! I would also like to shine a light on the fatal flaw to Jack's otherwise great plan. You know you are going to get yelled at for something, and fault has no bearing on blame. If you follow the plan and have SWMBO thinking you did such a good job of watching the kids, she may be more inclined to have you do it more often!
But on a serious note, went to visit one of the folks I mentioned who had surgery today. This is the same guy who had. MY son and I down for hunting. I told him about what my son said when we left, "I had a great day Dad, and what was best was just being with you". When I told him that, it was like he realized how important that was and I think he just wanted to go get his own son.
Hope to check in tomorrow. Take care and may God bless each of you.
Dennis
Cold in Saint Louis today and a 30 percent chance of snow tonight, but nothing major. Kids might be off tomorrow, but it's pretty iffy. Work was stressful - helped people all day, then called to ask someone something and got chewed out. Not sure where that came from. Oh well, some people.....
TARDIS is still out somewhere, but I've got the porch lights on tonight.
RIP Chewy - best dog I ever had.
lionroar88 Probe - Yes Google it and there are step by step instructions. I think you go into Windows Update, view the Updates that you applied and uninstall it from there. When you uninstall 9 it automatically reinstalls 8.
Thanks Brent. I went back into Windows Update and IE9 is now history for me.
Evening all!
Long day today. Worked until 10 pm cranking out documentation for the team. Sunny and hit 52 today and then 33 tonight. The concrete guys have been cut off twice by the rain last weekend and then the heavy freeze night before last. The big jobs get priorityafter there is a weather delay or shutdown (freezing weather). They are pretty sure they can get the walk poured tomorrow. Need it done. We are dealing with mud in the house and it may possibly rain this weekend.
RT - you are right - it was Jeffrey. Gettin older and when we are running 3+ pages of posts per day it is hard to remember who said what.
Doug M - sent you a PM. Get well!
Kev - the Marx old timer is pretty cool!
Jack, Jack, Jack - my view now is after getting them to live long enough to be teenagers I would not have been as careful when they were younger
Chuck - good to hear you are not so gassy after all!
Getting used to the permanent crown I got installed on one of my back molars this morning. Got it in gold. Dentist tried to talk me into going with a silver/gold to save a few $$, but I told him the crowns next to the new one are gold and I wanted them to all match. Told him and my wife as we work towards the front teeth I will finally have a gold Grill!
Have a great evening all!
Regards, Roy
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