Coffee Pot #9 SEPTEMBER 2012 SIX years [April 1 is Anniv.] and going strong and its for all to chat. Plenty of coffee and sweet ice tea for all. Come and join us and chat. GRITS for the Yankees

[Anonymous]

Kev,

           No problem.  I am just glad I could get it to someone who will get more enjoyment from it than I did with it living in my closet for 11 years. for Katie.

Bob,

         Reply sent.

Brent,

           for Christina. 

 

[KRM]

green97probe

Kev,

         Did the crane show up yet?

  

Jimmy T,

The crane made it here today in fact just now. It is cool I like it.   Now to spring it on the wife

 Thanks a bunch. 

 Chief, I sent you a PM on that gate crossing and how to wire one with 5 wires to an insulated track.

Fife, Did you ever get that tank set on your layout?

Layout wise for today.

 Well I moved two lights on the layout and added three more. Now to figure out where I want the Gantry Crane.

 I am still on call to help out the sick daughter. She tried to eat last night with no luck but was going to give it a shot today and call me back. She said she would call me later so I guess I will just wait.

The wife said a lot of call offs at school today because of stomach flu.

[LawsonFarmsRR]

FIFE - Did you know the University of Virginia Med Center is located in FIFEVILLE Va just outside Charlottesville?

Pat

[Anonymous]

Fife - our work function is over night so I won't be home Thursday night and won't be able to take Christina to Daycare on Friday... so most likely will not be going to York at all in October (have not fully discussed with TheQ yet) but will let you know.

[fifedog]

jonadel - Welcome home.  Lots of good news there.  Happy 40th!

88 - let me know if you wanna go Saturday to YORK.

KRM - no one <, or > here...  1-2-3,1-2-3...

[ChiefEagles]

Afternoon.  Back from lake house and mowing.  Took pontoon boat out as water is dropping fast.  Army Corps????   Getting ready to go to Wake Med [one of our big hospitals] for Mayors' Assoc. dinner [yes, free meal].

First of all, welcome back to the over the hill retired horn blower from Ioway.  Glad your trip was good.  God bless you for your Patriot Guard service.  Keep us posted on the "new train engineer" thing.

RT, Labelle grease is at your local train store.  It is made for model trains. 

Heard from Dennis W.  Busy with 2 year olds from China.  Bless him and Wifey for their loving challenged kids.

Doug M, bless you and your Wifey for your adoptions too.  Means some kids got a great life that they would not have had.

Later.

PS: Old minds forget what they just read.  Jack, the "Eagles Klan" is jealous of Maximus.

[SPMan]

Good morning all,

Temps only in the 90's this week.  Pretty quiet day so far.  Got appointment with dental hygentist tomorrow.  Other than that, not much on schedule.  I have discovered a few more TV channels on Verizon FIOS this weekend that I didn't know I had.  Getting HBO and Cinemax.  Don't know if this is a promotional thing or what but I have seen a few movies on it this weekend.

Talked to my oldest sister in Florida this weekend.  We just compared ailments mainly.  Not too exciting but at least we're still here.

Decided not to go to the music concert in the park yesterday.  It was just too hot.  Went out to dinner instead with friends and had prime rib.  It was very good.

Space shuttle Endeavor about to make it's voyage to California this week from Cape Kennedy.  Delayed one day by weather in Florida but due here by Thursday.  They plan on moving it through city streets from the L.A. Airport to California Science Center at Exposition Park in Los Angeles.  They have cut down a lot of trees and stuff along the route to make way for it.  Maybe I will get to see it after it is set up.  The new rapid transit red line subway goes right by it now.

Jack, congas for Maximus handling of the Great Dane jerk.  Those things are pretty big.  Must cost a lot to feed them.

Happy trails,

Ray

[Anonymous]

for Maximus!!

RI - re: Christina and colds... as I was sitting here today working on resolving issue after issue, I have felt my energy level dropping by the minute... I have felt like leaving multiple times today only to remind myself that Christina just 'plays through it'... guess I can tough it out.

[cnw1995]

Hurray for Maximus! 

[RockIsland52]

Good Mornin' Y'all From Crystal Clear and Fall-Like Taxachusetts,

It got down to 45 last night and the in-house temps dipped to 68.  So at the crack of dawn I turned on the second floor heat before the wifey awakened and started to complain she was freezing to death.  She has a + or- two degree comfort zone. Low to mid 70s forecast here near the A Pond.  Plus an inch of rain tomorrow night and into Wednesday.  I keep reading RaySP, DonB, DougDG, and V8 Dennis' tales of 100+ temperatures on the Left Coast, a mere 60 degrees higher than our lows.  I think the devil has taken up residence in California, must have relatives there that belong to a toy train forum 

Yesterday we travelled about 90 miles North to Scarborough ME to help out with an outdoor day-long "meet the breed" public education event on dogs and dog safety.  The open-to-the-public event was held at the Tractor Supply Company's parking lot, but I didn't see Pat, Banks, KEV, Jeffrey, or the Chief there.  Folks were encouraged to bring their leashed and socially civil dogs to the affair.  But "leashed and socially civil" means different things to different people.  And they sometimes use events such as this as a social experiment with you and I potential victims and collateral damage. 

A female geat dane took a cheap shot at Maximus as we were walking around, no contact made because we walk with a safety margin (space) and are used to people who make irresponsible choices when it comes to their preference in dogs and how they mishandle them in public, don't train them, pick ineffective, incorrect, or dangerous training tools (halty collars, harnesses, retractable flexi leashes that can take your finger(s) off, or cut/slice your leg right to the bone) then act surprised when bad things happen.  

The dane was literally dragging the screaming young woman across the asphalt parking lot on her belly like a scarecrow, trying to get at Maximus.  Order was quickly restored, however, when a confident Maximus spun around and confronted the offending "pup" who stopped dead in her tracks and piped right down.  Maximus then turned back to us and obediently sat next to me, ignoring the offending dog. 

Dogs don't necessarily see the other dog's size as a deterrent to doing something stupid.  They respond to attitude, demeanor, and presence.  A lot of folks who witnessed the cheap shot and aftermath came up to my wife and I to compliment us on how well Maximus handled the altercation and how he seemed so non-plussed, calm, and relaxed ex post facto by the offending dog over twice his size.  Since it was a public education event on dog safety, we then went back over to the woman and her dog (without Maximus) to make sure she was OK (no worse for wear other than abrasions, torn jeans, and a heart attack), to chat with her, and to help give her some advice.  "She never did that before" was the woman's refrain.  I hear that one almost weekly.          

I turned on the national news this morning just after 7am to get caught up on the important world news since we were running flat out this past weekend and got behind on current events.  What I heard was shocking.  A panda was born at the National Zoo.  In the next piece I was treated to more of the Royal's filing both criminal and civil charges against the posters of racy photos.  That was followed by the story and video of an idiot  a guy who let his 17 month old child play with gorillas several years ago.  So I turned off the news and flipped to ESPN for the more important stuff in life.  

Jon........welcome back to civilization (the POT).   Happy belated 40th anniversary.   I hope on your trip that you and the wifey found Alaska both exceptionally beautiful and as fascinating as I do.  We live in a beautiful country that many don't ever take the time to see.  Road trips are highly under rated.

JoeyD.......you may want to take down all of your Yankee paraphanalia prior to the big inspection.  You wouldn't want to give the brass the wrong impression about you.

KEV........hope your daughter is feeling better.  It was good to hear that the first string, Granny and Grandpa, are available and coming off the bench to hold down the fort with Lexi.  It has occured to me that grandparents should charge by the hour as "domestic consultants."   Re the light bulbs escapades over the weekend, yours have been "out" for quite some time.  

Brent.....had to laugh at your parental observations with Christina feeling under the weather.  The telltale rosey cheeks, subdued demeanor here and there, and a temperature that pops up and down every other hour.  Hope the little one recovers quickly.  It won't be too long until she is "spreading the wealth" to you and Susan every other week from stuff Christina picks up.  And just think, down the road a piece, your grandchildren will do the same. 

BOC........you may need to get some hungry cats.  Pat says they are the only effective weapon against burrowing varmints, and I believe him!!!

Bob......I see that you are turning in your leather and colors (sayonara Honda).  Re the living arrangements, I hope that things smooth out for you.  A buddy of mine is going through a similar thing right now except his landlord is getting weird; and he wants out to escape the trumped up  "drama."  One room mate in the house is the cause for all of the commotion.  Re the Corvair malfunction, it could have been worse, happening when you were far from home at the BBQ, and requiring a tow.

RaySP, DougDG, DonB, and V8........think of all the money you are saving on propane with the extreme CA temps..  You don't even have to turn on the grill gas when you cook!  And Don, hope the A/C repair cost didn't approach what Jeffrey's Dad's did.

LAZ........up in my neck of the woods our dog friends have to contend with their pups getting skunked,  perforated with porcupine quills, or become lunch for a pack of coyotes out there in the wild.

Rich.........how goes the car search?  Snow ain't too far off, when the HD isn't going to cut it even with snow tires.   Who would have thunk a couple of years ago that this same Harley would become your most dependable mode of transportation?  Didn't it turn out to be a simple ignition problem?

Jeffrey........your 'to do' list seems to be growing:  finding a riding mower replacement for your Dad  you and getting your Mom's power chair back in working order.  Hope your foot is on the mend after you performed surgery on yourself.

RT.......I see that your floor project and hence your layout plans have suffered serious setbacks, all wife-induced.

Fife.......on the meds front, I hope your new ones are working OK and you are feeling back to normal.  My wife dodged the cholesterol-lowering drug bullet.  Last week she was informed her "bad one" reading came down 11 points in the past six months and her good C level is good.  And she lost 10 pounds, though she won't divulge to me the before and after weigh-in statistics.  I wasn't stupid enough to ask but did think quickly enough to remark how beautiful she looked and still looked.  And she got the thumbs up for substantial progress with calcium absorption and vitamin D levels.

DougM.........you are dating yourself with the Knotts Berry Farm comment.  I have not been there for about 33 years, when you were probably still a preteen.

Jack

[laz 57]

Hi GUYZ,

  Got the PT done this morning.  Now gotta go to lumber yard and order vinyl fence.  Gonna get 30 feet of it and put up to get away from neighbor.  Have forsynthias rest of way, his not mine, and I have to rip out my last three forsynthias to get this fence up.  I like the forsynthias in the spring but the rest of year trimming them is a pain.  They grow like weeds and I just don't want all that trimming to do.  Then gottta do some caulking around house then a bike ride tis after.

JON, sounded like a awesome trip to ALASKA.  Did you see BIGFOOT?

Stya frosty,

laz57

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 69° with 98% humidity. There's a high chance of rain and isolated thunderstorms. The high will be 82°.


Weather this morning is running moderate to heavy on rain and thunderstorms moving NNW across all of Louisiana increasing to heavy to severe by afternoon. Looks like the weather for southern Arkansas may be interesting to say the least. Link to current radar.

Woke up at midnight in the middle of a full-blown sugar crash. Blood sugar reading was 31, high heart rate, blood pressure almost non-existent. Concentration was totally out the window. Even trying to concentrate was confusing. A quick meal of chili with beans got my blood sugar reading back up in the 110-120 range and well out of danger. Spent the next couple of hours watching 'Unstoppable' and monitoring my vital signs. Hope I don't have a repeat of that in the near future.

This morning I've already replaced the couplers on an Athearn PS 2003 2-bay covered hopper (ATSF 87263 patched to L&A). It had McHenry shelf couplers which are shelf couplers in name only. They don't actually work as such. I changed them out with Kadee #119 scale head shelf couplers which work like the real thing and lock the couplers together. The McHenry's had a penchant for uncoupling and being a constant source or irritation. They look good but are good for little else.

Plans for today: I have none other than staying in, running trains and watching movies. I just watched a thirty unit freight pass by in front of me.

[cnw1995]

Aloha. . It's a nice sunny day. Maybe storms later. It was a busy Sunday: I started lopping off a few dead branches and ended up clearing the brush from one side of the house. My back is a bit sore from picking it all up, but I feel good about it. Great to hear from Jon. What a trip!  I always like to hear about DonB's adventures in railroading. Was just thinking the last time I was at Knots Berry Farm was 29 years ago. Yikes! Prayers for Brent's Christina and Kev's DiL's quick recoveries. Kev, that jeep sounds like quite a ride!  The Sox and Tigers play a rare make-up game at 1:30 today. 

[KRM]

Good morning from a sunny and cool North Central IL.

Not much planned for today.

My friend came over yesterday afternoon with the 1946 Willys  Jeep he has been restoring to give it her first trip out of town run. His place to mine and back is about 90 miles and It did well, What a fun little toy. Safety what is that?  No seat belts,doors or sides for that matter, no flashers, no turn signals and no roll bar. That is box stock for a 1946. It can get to about 60mph before it runs out of steam even with 12 speeds forward. He has it in drab green. It is the one we went up north and got the frame for this spring. Nice ride.

Joe, I sen't you a PM on Dan. Thanks for asking.

Jimmy T, I will be watching for the mail lady and let you know.

Have a good day

 

[Anonymous]

Mornin' Fellas

I won't be making it to York next month. My work decided that Thursday and Friday was the best time to have out off-site training... I've worked here for 4 years and they know the 3rd Friday in April and October I go to York... I asked them to reimburse me for the admission fee... but NO!!! Said I should have checked with them before I got the pass...

Spent Saturday with my BiL, we were up early and on the road to State College by 7:15am... got home at 10:30pm. Good time! Beautiful weather for Football both Saturday and Sunday... and the results were much better, but baseball results took a nose dive! Guess you just can't win them all.

Munchkin wasn't feeling well this past weekend - but you would never have known it. We can tell because she likes to be held more and her cheeks get all rosie colored. She was feeling a bit better this morning... hope no calls from Daycare.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

submmbob

Oh, and while I was taking from friend home w/ the VW bus (which I still need to sell), the headlights went out. Checked out the fuses at my friends house and it wasn't that. Think it may be the headlight switch. So drove home on a quiet side street w/ the hazards on.

Had that happen in the late 80's with an 83 Ford Escort. Headlight switch went out. Taillights/parking lights worked but no headlights. Replaced headlight switch and all was good.

[Demay]

Konbanwa,

I had a nice five-mile run this morning.  It sprinkled off and on while I was running so that made the humidity a bit more bearable.  I was busy at work today as it was the last day of preparation before our inspection starts tomorrow.  The inspectors are on the ground and the next three days should be fun. 

Laz – No Dancing with the Stars for me.  Unfortunately, the ball was not as formal as I hoped it would be.  I spent some time prior to the ball teaching my wife how to properly Waltz and Fox Trot; however, that was pointless as the band did not play any music for those dances.  They did sing some disco tunes we could shake it to, but once the DJ took over and the hip hop and techno music started, we were out of there. 

Kev – The night shots you posted look great.  I hope your daughter is feeling better.  Oh, did everything work out okay at work for Dan? 

Jon – I’m glad you enjoyed that awesome trip.  Congratulations on the forthcoming arrival, and the quilt looks great.

Sayonara,

Joe

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning

Weather be sunny and a little milder today....high of 75F expected. Tomorrow will be rainy and a high of 62F....

Having some people over to go over some figures today for a proposed business I'm looking into. This oughta be fun....

Also going to see what the beeeeep caused the hole in the garden yesterday...setting trap outside the hole to see what comes out....

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill RR....

It is a cold 45 degrees. Going up to 77 today with sunshine.

Today is a busy day. Wife will be gone most of today. I have some chores to do and a project to work on. Busy until lunch. Then, I will take a nap. Need a choo-choo quilt for my naps.

Dining car is here with Cheerios for breakfast.

Y'all have a great Monday.

Chuck

[submmbob]

Hello all

Interesting day.

Went to pick up a friend who is taking that little Honda motorcycle off my hands. Got the electrical system back together (I had replaced the ignition switch). No spark, but we found the coil and condenser were bad.

Went to get a couple bolts at the hardware store and the car quit about fifty feet from the house. Got it back to the house w/ very little power. Fuel pump was leaking a bit. Replaced it w/ a used one I had which leaked even worse. Went for a third, but still not much power in drive. Put an electric pump on it to give it a boost and still no change. Hmmmmm. Found a bad vacuum line on the modulator and replaced that. Still no change. Seems to idle well. May due a compression check in the morning just for fun. Other than that I may have to call in the experts from the Corvair club.

Oh, and while I was taking from friend home w/ the VW bus (which I still need to sell), the headlights went out. Checked out the fuses at my friends house and it wasn't that. Think it may be the headlight switch. So drove home on a quiet side street w/ the hazards on.

Sigh.

Bob

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.

[rtraincollector]

dougdagrump

RT, Suggest you reread Buckeye's post, he did a cost/value comparison using FleaBay.

I read first part missed last part sorry

[KRM]

green97probe

Kev,

         Did the crane show up yet?

 

Jim, No, maybe tomorrow. I should of gave you the $.85 I will let you know.

[Anonymous]

Kev,

         Did the crane show up yet?

Bob,

          Just saw your PM earlier. Reply sent.

Interesting weekend here PC wise.  My laptop went down with a virus Friday night, and system restore was rendered useless.  Thinking I couldn't do anything with it, I headed to Staples Saturday to look at desktops.  I came away with a very nice HP desktop.

After thinking about the laptop issues more, I used some of what I learned for the A+ cert and recovered the laptop with a different approach.   So, my HP desktop from 2002 will likely be scrapped since it is so outdated.

[KRM]

Nice stuff RT and Pat the projects look great,

 Jon, good to see you back and congrats on the new soon to be grandson. You need to color in Alaska.

 Been having a bad bulb week. I got 2 # 65 sets of yard lights and 2 bulbs were bad, then My truck blinker has been going nuts and that tells me there is a bulb problem. So I check it and every time all are working fine. Well last night when we went to get the Carry out food I could see that there was no light on the right front working , but when we got back all were working. Anyway I replaced all 3 right turn and park signal lights on the right front. I also found out that my rear upper brake light was out too.  I got it fixed at a much better price than RI Jack did on his top rear brake light..   $4.50 and 30 min. A savings of about $440.00   I have never replaced a bulb on this truck in 11 and 1/2 years so I guess that is very good.

 Anyway on to the rest of the story,  last night I almost had the granddaughter asleep when the oil derrick light started to boil when she looked up and said Bubbles!! As soon as she said that the light blew out.   So add that to the  # 65 yard lights this week that were bad and as luck would have it a bad week for lights.  Order is in with Jeff at The Train Tender.

 Go figure?

 Something has happened to our daughter since last night,  she has been pucking since 6:00 AM today and spent some time in the hospital on a drip to get fluid into her. No one else got sick so it is not the food but we will see how things go tomorrow?? I may have to pick up Lexi and watch her.

 Have a good one. Good night.

 

[dougdagrump]

RT, Suggest you reread Buckeye's post, he did a cost/value comparison using FleaBay.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Buckeye Riveter

Found a Lionel Woody Woodpecker Box Car at a flea market for $6.00.  Offered $5.00 and they took it.

Good find! I've seen a few of those over the years and folks selling them almost always thought they had a gold mine judging by the prices.

[rtraincollector]

Doug he said flea market not flea bay lol anyhow guess I'm just use to it as it seems the same to me. Now there rules I don't like a lot of that have come in the past couple of years. like I as a seller cannot give a bad feedback to a rotten buyer. anyway did okay on there tonight thou I won 26 pieces of 37" gar-graves track used for displaying trains for like $4.08 1/2 each ( little over $106 ) so thats not bad I also won a Bachmann G gauge circus train set for a steel as they had it listed in O gauge Will probably re-list it as a flip item to make some $$ off of it.

 

Not much else going on time to relax and go to bed as early up in the morning.

[dougdagrump]

Afternoon All.

Break out the longjohns we're havin' a cold wave, only 103* today.

Went to Sandy Eggo this morning, the munchkin is playing "Fall Ball" so Grampa & Grandma were there for the noon first pitch.  So far they are 2 and 0.

With this heat it is very difficult to get excited about football.  

Jeff & John, Thoughts and prayers going out for your Moms. 

On the way home from the ball game we tried a new B-B-Q joint here in town. Needless to say it was our first & last visit.

Gotta run, catch y'all later.

Funny that Buckeye should mention flea-bay, their new format stinks.  

[Buckeye Riveter]

Great relaxing weekend.  Found a Lionel Woody Woodpecker Box Car at a flea market for $6.00.  Offered $5.00 and they took it.  Ebay says it is worth a little more.  In fact, I have never found a Lionel car in decent condition less than $15.

Everyone have a good week.