Coffee Pot #1 January 2013 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

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Well the computer is up to snuff again. I didn't have to replace anything, just reset some things. Shut down, removed CMOS battery, put board in test mode, reset CMOS to defaults, reset the circuit breakers for the USB ports (they stayed open for some odd reason), replaced the CMOS battery, reconfigured CMOS, reset board to operations mode and restarted the system. Everything is working. It's 10 for 10. I guess all that technical garbage I studied from my college courses finally came in handy. Now I can put the spare main board away. And I don't fix computers for others. The only ones I fix are mine and those that belong to family members.

[Anonymous]

KRM

BTW, my thoughts on the gun topic is it is not a political issue. There gun haters and gun lovers in all of the political parties so it may well be a controversial issue but as I see it, it is not a left or right political issue. So bring it on. JMHO but then what do I know. 

Kev,
I got into a heated debate with a family member over this topic. I don't own guns, but TheQ does. The family member kept saying 'there is no need to ever own a gun'. I then told her why TheQ owns 3. Her response, 'still no need to own a gun, that is what police are for', my response 'The police can't be everywhere all the time. There comes a time when you have to protect and defend yourself and take responsibility for that. We will never prevent criminals from getting guns and if we prevent the average law-abiding citizen from doing so it will be open season on us all for the criminal element. Also what are we going to do to defend ourselves from a tyranical government like the one we fought for our independance from?'

This went back and forth for about 30 minutes. Finally I said 'Look I'll risk my life, family, and my property with my life and guns, are you prepared to risk your life trying to take my guns away?'

end of debate

There are far too many people in this country who don't want to take responsibility for their actions, or their vote. They would rather just sit back and let someone else do their dirty work. Not me.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning...again...

Wherein we are seeing 44F going to 48F later on...on the rain...tomorrow will be partly sunny and a high near 55F....

Got most of the reports done..and Powerpointing right along here

Question...which side of the MD line did Jamestown fall?

[RockIsland52]

Good Mornin' Ya'll from Overcast Taxachusetts,

The world this morning has at least one group that can be counted on through thick and thin.......the weather misforecasters.  A few days ago I reported that we would be enjoying warmer than normal temperatures for New England and no precipitation in the extended forecast.  They got the first thing right and the second one dead wrong as rain is moving in for the weekend from Jeffrey and points South.  Too warm to snow!!  I'll take it!!!

Jeffrey.....you have my continued prayers for your Mom as she continues to struggle.  And for you and your Dad as the two of you contend with so much uncertainty day to day.

 

 

A couple of days ago my granddaughter was asked by her grammar school music teacher to sing the national anthem acapella at the school's basketball games scheduled for yesterday.  She accepted, but the sheer terror of performing in front of a crowd (turned out about 150-200) overwhelmed her as yesterday approached.  She also kept asking if any family members would be there (for moral support I presume)......so the adults put the world on hold and put our attendance on the top of the stack.

You guessed it.  She froze a couple of times, the mike failed for a time, but she continued with the crowd picking her up by joining in.  She got through it.  Then she burst into tears, realizing she could have done better.  The hugs of the music director and principal amidst the crowd applause didn't help much, nor did the hugs of her parents.  The tears continued to stream down her face. 

She didn't need as much consolation as she got.  She needed nurturing reassurance that what she did was brave and patriotic, that what she did few others in the audience would dare to do----face their fears, put themselves out there, and do their best.  

I scooped her up and danced around like she had just won Olympic gold, whispered in her ear how brave she was and how proud everyone in the audience was of her performance, how very proud I was of her.  "Didn't you hear all of the cheers?!  We are so proud of you!!!"  Then I joked that she would never would want to hear me sing, that I sound like a dying cow!!!  Her tears quickly subsided, her smile returned, she laughed at my singing comment, and then I said "Let's hit the concession stand for a pizza celebration in your honor!!!" 

It seems we have created a society where we have muddled our priorities for our children.  We have created unrealistic and false extremes. 

On the one hand we seem compelled to over-reward all of the children's actions (every child wins in everything every time) to the point where they cannot differentiate between mediocrity and the exceptional.  We water down the greater importance of effort and "doing your best."  What we get is mediocrity and (my grandchild's) false expectations for the future and the real world. 

In the converse, society places a disproportionate emphasis on the Lombardi dictum "winning is the only thing."  Our kids are brainwished (by the 24/7 media crush) into believing that only the statistical winner by score or reality show judge is king/queen, that all of the rest are "losers" and failures, doomed to be followers instead of leaders for the rest of their lives.  That results are more important than effort.  It's all or none. That when one falls flat on their face, the game is over for them.

Both of these dangerous influential extremes were not nearly so prevalent 5-6 decades ago.  The kids were not all rewarded for just showing up.  Positive parental influence was far easier.  Media was a very small part of the day.  We had nuclear families where children could be guided, encouraged, or disciplined far more easily and effectively, without outside/incorrect influence.  My daughter and SIL, both working, need in their absence far more help with childrearing than my folks needed from my grandparents.  The "two working parents" scenario satisfies the financial aspects of present day life but can can fall short significantly when it comes to delivering for the child's greater needs.

My Dad (RIP) predicted 3 decades ago that America would one day reach a tipping point on the money side of things and that we would begin to witness a retrenching of sorts, back to what it used to be here in America, what was a growing trend in Europe.....where extended family would consolidate back and retrench under one roof, one home, with more available on duty family caregivers and more contributors to the financial security of the whole.  He also observed that the reality of medical economics would be another key driver, where the cost of providing for our elderly would demand family help. 

I think we are just about there.

Later, gang.

Jack

[KRM]

Good morning,

 We got some rain last night, but again not as much as others like DougM. At this point we will take anything we can get. Cloudy and warm, Reb weather.

Joe. You had better jump on those depressed flat cars. 2 for $19.95, you can't beat that. As for the brushes, they can wait. BTW I have not told the wife I ordered the cars.

V8Dennis. I was in the middle of typing a long post yesterday in MSWord when the power went out for like 10 sec. Poof all gone. Divine intervention maybe. 

BTW, my thoughts on the gun topic is it is not a political issue. There are gun haters and gun lovers in all of the political parties so it may well be a controversial issue but as I see it, it is not a left or right political issue. So bring it on. JMHO but then what do I know. 

Golly, to listen to Chief, one would think the only Americans are all the stump jumpers from RoseyvilleNC Is that where the Mayflower landed???

Nice short ride on the Tardis last night till the Twilight Zone came on.

 MikeC, TBIL, thanks.

Roy, good to know you are on the mend like Chief,,, and Jeffery, prayers for your mother.

Time for some food. and to watch Perry Mason

 

 

[laz 57]

HI GUYZ,

  38 tis morning whilst taking MINNIE for her walk.  Not bad but getting rain this afternoon so No hunting today.  Yesterday had a nice afternoon to sit in the woods, unfortunatly so did the deer.  Only saw turkey again.  Saturday is still up in the air, promised WIFE to go with her to SILs. 

JEFFERY, prayers for MOM.

ROY hack it out and don't forget to take a shot before you go to bed.  Rock and Rye works for me.

CHUCK & BUCKEYE, TGIF!!!!

Stay frosty my friends,

laz57

[sir james I]

40 degrees and it rained all night. Nice chat with the guys.

Thanks Joe.....S.J.

[cheapclassics]

Good morning all,

It is rainy and mild in SE Indiana with temps near 60.  For a refresher course in acronyms and for the newbies as well, TBIL stands for The Beacon is Lit, which is a reference to the Tardis (think Dr. Who) which flies around the country and picks up some of the people on the Coffeepot.  IIABSDISEI stands for It Is Another Beautiful Sunny Day In South Eastern Indiana.  Joe makes some good points about Soccer and the South.  However, soccer is an all American sport, to be enjoyed and played by both Yanks and Rebs, uniting this great country in ways unimaginable by any other sport (strains of "America the Beautiful" can be heard playing in the background at this point in the speech).  While the South does have an inherent advantage in having weather more optimal for outside playing for a longer period of time, people in more Northen climes can use the advice of my Norwegian soccer friend (another country with a fine soccer tradition) and remember "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing".

In other sporting news, AJ Foyt announced the signing of Takuma Sato for the 2013 season.  I predict it will be an interesting season for the team and hopefully they will land in Victory Lane.  It was a quiet night on the home front last night and a good day at work.  TBIL and I can drive.  Brent, good luck with the adoption process.  Sounds like a win win for all concerned.  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[cnw1995]

Aloha. A nice soaking rain last night and it's 50 at 8 am! Is it spring?! Nice ride on the TARDIS last night.   SJ, hope you are healing! Jeffrey, prayers for your mom and family. Chief, so glad to find out you are a fan of the real football, footie, what Americans call soccer - the world game.  

Off to take the youngest to school and the van in for its 'major surgery'

[wrconstruction]

assuming I am feeling up to it, I informed the "upper management" at home that I WILL be getting some basement time tonight, and it was approved. The options were that or that I was going to go sit at the legion  all night which would mean nothing getting done on Saturday, and honestly, I am about as tired as she is of the house being in disarry with the painting going on.   So gotta be a good boy tonight

 

Ryan

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill RR....

It is a nice 50 degrees. Going up to 60 today with rain.

Today is an easy day. I have a few chores to do and a little paperwork. Then, I can relax and enjoy a train project. I will work on it until lunchtime and then take a nice nap.

Buckeye & LAZ...... TGIF

Dining car is here with Cheerios for breakfast.

Y'all have a great Friday.

Chuck

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all.  Raining.  Just back from the workout center and personal trainer.  Yes, I'm going to do that early in the mornings for a while.  Suppose to warm up more and 70's through the weekend and into next week.

Joe, no soccer here until the Yankee implants came down.  Just like hockey.  Never had it here until the Yanks invaded.   BASEBALL, FOOTBALL and BASKETBALL.   Remember, true American = Mama, Baseball, Apple pie and Chevrolet.

Off to a meeting at 11.

Raleigh Mayor's Dad's funeral is at 3 tomorrow.  Prayers for her and her family.

Have a good one.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 46° with 100% humidity and patchy fog. It'll be cloudy with a high of 72°.


It's still wet here in the Sportsman's Paradise but at least it's not raining. It's cool enough to make it a little chilly in here so I have the heater turned up a bit. Shouldn't take long for that little smaller than a shoebox heater to warm it up from 58° to 70°.

No plans for today. I'm thinking I may have to drag out the spare parts for the computer. I don't know how long it's going to keep going. Last night something caused a heck of a big power drain in this area. From the lights I'd say the incoming power was cut by half and there was a strong scent of ozone in the air. The computer was affected. How bad I don't exactly know. I don't have my test equipment anymore. Most of the USB ports on the back of it aren't working anymore. They still come up on the system hardware check as good but they won't respond to anything being plugged into them. The ports on an add-on USB board are still working and that's what's keeping my modem going as well as the phone, secondary hard drive and flash drives on the powered front hub. All the USB ports on the main board are dead. The main hard drive and DVD drive seem to be unaffected.

I may get some layout work in later.

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

Good morning.

Supposed to get some rain later today, followed up by high temps during the weekend (I'm talking 50s here). 

I am hoping to just get some rest at home today again. Maybe do some work on the layout.

[Demay]

Konbanwa,

It was fantastically cold this morning; the windshields were nicely iced over.  I enjoyed my three-mile run in the frigid air this morning.  As predicted, I had a busy day at work due to it being Friday.  The wife made homemade Stromboli for dinner tonight: one had pepperoni and cheese and other had pepperoni, sausage, and cheese.   She also made marinara sauce for dipping. 

Jeffrey – Your mom and your family are in my prayers.

Jack – Well, Trainworld never even emailed us.  We’ll have to stay awake late tonight to call them when they open for business.  I have a feeling we’ll be asking for a refund. 

Kev – Don’t forget the brushes as well.    I have exercised some serious restraint regarding those RMT deals.  I am very close to buying more USAF depressed flatcars with missiles.  I have two, but if I buy more I would consider changing the road numbers on some of them to have different numbers.  I think a 10-car consist of those cars would look cool. 

Chief – Don’t blame soccer on us Yanks.  We know how un-American it is.  I’m pretty certain more soccer is played in the southern US due to its climate.  Soccer is not meant to be played in cold, northern climates.  And as Mike C. pointed out UNC won the NCAA Division 1 championship in 2011; that championship list overwhelmingly contains southern schools, specifically ACC teams.

Fife – I can’t use your reason, but I’ve always like the Christmas items.  Perhaps it has to do with my sentimentalism and Christmas being my favorite holiday. 

SJ – I’ll save the face comments for the Chief.  I hope the biopsies come back normal.

Sayonara,

Joe

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning, I guess...

To me, this is still the middle of the night, but, what the hey, Good Morning anyways...

Have a bunch of Powerpoint things to accomplish today..then it is orff 'til Tuesday....

I had a productive day just getting through all the paperwork and getting the reports put together...worked on them until late in the afternoon...lots of fun to be had here...oh...I even managed an incident, accident free operating session!!...yay!!

Anyhow who....have a good day!!

[wrmcclellan]

Evening all!

Jeffrey - for your mother.

Long day today. Just knocked off about an hour ago. Feeling a little bit better today. I had hoped for more dramatic improvement but I guess this is one of those longer than a week deals. Came down with this last Friday. Have only been out of the house to grab the newspaper off the front lawn in the past 7 days.

Tired so calling it a night.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Kev: You is a bad boy! Sounds like a good price on those cars.

*

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

KCS 682, SD40-3. This was taken four or five years ago in Leesville (Museum of West Louisiana). At that time it was one of just a few KCS SD40 type locos still in the white ghost paint.

[KRM]

green97probe

KRM

Well I am a BAD BOY,

 I just ordered up 4 sets yes that is 8 ore cars from RMT for $99.00 and that is with the shipping. Come on HOW cheap is that??? Don't tell the wife.

 Well the son and kids are on their way over to do Christmas, about time, so I had better go.

 Later

Kev,

        I hope you don't get buyer's remorse like I do.  It felt great to finally get a nice 726 and 2426W to go with it, until I realized I spent $472 before shipping.  Then I remember as I slid on ice this morning that I need tires.  At least I know my priorities are right.

Fife,

        I am not going to need to do a , am I? LOL at "the change" comment.

JimmyT and Ryan, I don't think I am going to get  buyer's remorse at 8 ore cars delivered to my door NIB for $99.05. You could not do that good on the Bay. For that kind of money you could do repaints or anything else and not feel bad. LV. you can get them just go on the site and get them. They even have some LV cars on sale.   Oh and BTW Jim, no tires will work on ice.

The son and his crew just left. His kids are not near as nice with the trains as the daughter's. Maybe because they are never here and don't know the rules. Good thing I was keeping an eye out. I caught the grand daughter Madyson seeing how fast she could make my CSX Dash 8 40C go. I caught it just before it flew off of the table. Still it was good to see them. Not like I never launched any trains in my younger days.

[Anonymous]

KRM

Well I am a BAD BOY,

 I just ordered up 4 sets yes that is 8 ore cars from RMT for $99.00 and that is with the shipping. Come on HOW cheap is that??? Don't tell the wife.

 Well the son and kids are on their way over to do Christmas, about time, so I had better go.

 Later

Kev,

        I hope you don't get buyer's remorse like I do.  It felt great to finally get a nice 726 and 2426W to go with it, until I realized I spent $472 before shipping.  Then I remember as I slid on ice this morning that I need tires.  At least I know my priorities are right.

Fife,

        I am not going to need to do a , am I? LOL at "the change" comment.

[wrconstruction]

ok, I feel better, they are sold out couldn't get em if i could

[wrconstruction]

wow Kev, thats a good price.  I wanted some more  of the AEC ore cars, but some deushbag  slacker client   owes me a ton of money and I really gotta watch the cash till he pays up.....

gggrrrgrgrgggrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgr

Ryan

[Lehigh Valley 2089]

KRM

Well I am a BAD BOY,

 I just ordered up 4 sets yes that is 8 ore cars from RMT for $99.00 and that is with the shipping. Come on HOW cheap is that??? Don't tell the wife.

Me be jealous. I wish that I could get a set of freight cars for that cheap. 

[sir james I]

40 degrees with rain expected

The doc took a couple biopsy's off me face this morning. No it didn't help, I still look the same. A few chores around the house today and some blueberry pie with banilla for supper...S.J.

[KRM]

Well I am a BAD BOY,

 I just ordered up 4 sets yes that is 8 ore cars from RMT for $99.00 and that is with the shipping. Come on HOW cheap is that??? Don't tell the wife.

 Well the son and kids are on their way over to do Christmas, about time, so I had better go.

 Later

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Went to town with my father today. First we had a late lunch at Los Mayas Mexican restaurant (formerly El Giros) then we went to Wal-Mart to pick up some essential items. From there we went to the nursing home to check on my mother. I wish I could say she's doing better but that's not the case. All they can do is try to maintain a status qua. She's so bad now the only thing keeping her going is the drugs. She's steadily slipping away. The docs say it could be any time. They don't think she'll make it to summer and frankly neither do I.

[fifedog]

Evenin' boys.  Evenin' English.  A pleasant 52 here in the Mid-Atlantic region.  Washed all our cars after work.  Still haven't found the short on the layout, but I really haven't looked the past several days either.

Demay - I too have been purchasing the Christmas stuff.  Can't explain it, must be "the change"...

[KRM]

lionroar88

KRM

Wow Brent,, things are on the fast track for you guys. Best of luck.  

 

Fast Track... LOL!!!!

More like we're on the TGV Express Route! 4 weeks and counting!

 Yeah Brent,   I was on one of those high speed trains  when I was in China so I know your haulling donkey. 

[Anonymous]

green97probe

Brent,

           Glad to hear everything went well.  I apologize if I bothered you with the message yesterday.  I forgot that you and TheQ had a lot going on yesterday. I remembered late last night after I sent the message.   I did get the address though.  Keeping the going for your family.

 

No bother. I didn't get your email till we were in the airport and I couldn't forward the info to you as I don't know how to do that on my phone.

[Anonymous]

KRM

Wow Brent,, things are on the fast track for you guys. Best of luck.  

 

Fast Track... LOL!!!!

More like we're on the TGV Express Route! 4 weeks and counting!