Good morning! A bit cloudy here in Massachusetts, with comfortably cool temperatures.
Thanks to all for the anniversary greetings. As predicted, we had a low-key evening watching our recording of the Tour de France from earlier in the day. I made a big garden salad topped with grilled sirloin tips. Delicious, low carbs and you don't feel stuffed afterwards. I've left the recipe in the kitchen at the Diner.
Jeffrey, I've found that the USPS tracking web site can be days behind the actual progress of the package. I've had the package in my hand while USPS was saying it had just left the distribution center in California. Better than the other way around, though.
Johnboy, we took a ski trip to Montana (Big Sky) a few years back, and we loved it. We talked a lot with the locals riding the chairlifts, and I was surprised at the number of former airline pilots we met. These are guys who have seen the whole country and much of the rest of the world, and they chose to live in Montana. I think that says something. Looking into it, though, we found it not particularly tax-friendly for retirees, which is what we plan to be soon.
Ah, I love Saturdays without an agenda. Here it is 11 AM and I'm just getting my second cup of coffee...
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Mornin'!
Zoe, I'll have a bowl of Vanilla Walnut Granola Cereal with blueberries on top, and a few cups of dark roast coffee to get me awake this morning...
Just stopping in to say hi..
Hi!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Well I got the new Apple IIe power supply this morning. It's now installed and has been tested in use and passed. So of the three Apple IIe's I'm working on #1 is complete and is in service. #2 just got a new power supply and still needs a CP/M card. #3 just got a rebuilt power supply and a set of RAM chips for 64k, a processor and a ROM chip. It just passed a power-on test and an initial drive control test using the drive controller from #2. It still needs an 80 column/64k RAM expander card, a CP/M card, a Disk II controller card and two A2M0003 (20-pin) Disk II disk drives. Also need a 20-pin Disk II drive cable. I've been looking for it on Ebay but it's like looking for hens teeth. I'll probably have to buy a junk drive and strip the cable from it.
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
Afternoon guys
Well now that I replaced the couplers on the Rapido cars to Kadee #5s, they don't work very well on the club layout.. Most notably on my lounge car. When I got home pulled the stock plastic scale-head couplers out and compared them to the #5. They are just a touch longer, but that might be enough. I grabbed the only set of scale-head kadees and they are just a touch longer (the back of the coupler face is a little thinner) as well. I also looked at the diaphragms and noticed they were stuck all the way out or wouldn't go back in. I took the car apart and cleaned out a lot of flash from the diaphragm and it moves around now. It also could be that the #5s are hitting the bottoms of the diaphragms... So for now 1 car has scale kadees, 2 have the stock couplers (again), the rest (including the lounge) have #5s. I'll find out on Tuesday what worked. Hopefully by then, my Kato F40PH will be here.
Garry, When I was searching for help on rapido cars, I noticed you said you had some. What radii are you using, and did you just use #5s, or go to long-shanks and/or scale heads?
Mr. B & Galaxy, happy belated anniversary
Johnboy, It's just I've kinda gotten a girlfriend now. I say kinda because she is crazy for me, but It's a bit early for me to feel the same...
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
Good evening everyone, I will have a Guinness please!! Not much going on here tonight. It looks like we have some rain coming this way, it should cool things down. Gonna sit on the sofa and watch a few zombie flicks tonight. I am exhausted , it has been a long never ending work week. Have a wonderful evening everyone!!!
John
HelloWe are just setting up for another evening of sonic mayhem...Hopefully things will work tonight.we had a few 'issues' with things not doing what they were supposed to be doing.
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Evenin' folks!
Janie just a cup of decaf for me right now. Just want to unwind a bit before I "Hit the Hay".
Finished mowing the lawn today, then drove over to a small Green House place to see what they might have left for annuals. i was hoping for petunias to plant in the rock garden in the front yard. They were sold out of petunias and almost all the annuals, but had a small flower called Millions Plant that looks like a small petunia in round pots. Only had 4 of them left. The round pots were all 5 for $5 so I found another round pot with a white flower and got 5. Planted them late this afternoon. They do make the rock garden look a bit more finished. Next year I will plant strawberries in there. I also moved a half dozen more wheelbarrows full of topsoil to the 3rd. Raised Garden out back. Opened up the last bag of "Moo Poo" ™ and spread that out. The box is now half full. By Monday I hope to get it finished.
Been thinking I haven't seen Ken in here in a while. Anyone heard for him? Hope he is OK!
Hey Barry, my sister sent me definition of a Musician.. Musician; A person who puts $5,000 of equipment in a $500 car to drive 100 miles for a $50 Gig. I told her, "Yeah, So?"
Great to see some of the old regulars back posting!
Have a great night and know you all are in my prayers!
howmus Hey Barry, my sister sent me definition of a Musician.. Musician; A person who puts $5,000 of equipment in a $500 car to drive 100 miles for a $50 Gig. I told her, "Yeah, So?"
Said Ray, holding no bars....... Is everyone taking notes?
I've been wonderabout Ken, also.
Ken .... Where are you?
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Not much happened happened today. I got IIe #2 up and running with a new power supply, IIe #3 has a good rebuilt power supply. I played another game of Starfleet1. After two games I'm doing rather well. I've only come up against a few cloaked ships though. They can hit from anywhere and are very hard to target. I did defeat them though and even captured one and towed it to the nearest starbase. Now that I'm feeling good about it I'll probably get my clock cleaned in the next game and get my butt handed to me on a platter made from part of the Galactica. My father is having a room in his home cleared for me. Getting in and out of my trailer on one leg would be hard to say the least and until I get a prosthesis and learn how to use it I'll be needing a place to stay. Other family members homes are out because they have steps/stairs and weren't laid out with the handicapped in mind.Well it's getting late and it's past time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.
Packer Garry, When I was searching for help on rapido cars, I noticed you said you had some. What radii are you using, and did you just use #5s, or go to long-shanks and/or scale heads?
Vincent ....... On Rapido passenger cars, I have 3 of them coupled together in one passenger train with other cars. I have a Kadee #5 at one end of the Rapidos, and I have a Kadee long shank at the other end. This solved a p[roblem which was the cars would derail while being pushed through an S-curve. The diaphragms rubbed together, and the cars would derail. (The cars were running fine while being pulled with a #5 at bothe ends.) My curves are either 30" or 32" on the main line.
Johnboy ... Glad to hear about your grandson. Feel free to tell much more. .... Sounds like you are making progress on the layout.
Our Cincinnati grand daughters are home now. We met their Mom and Dad in Louisville instead of half way (Elizabethtown). .... We drove 200 miles each way to and from Louisville. Son and DIL drove only 100 miles each way from Cincinnati to Louyisville. .... Once again, Grandpa and Grandma do most of the driving.
Everybody ... Good to see all of you!
Yoohoo! Anybody here?
Kind of empty in here, lately! Lots of MIA´s. I wonder where they are?
Good Morning!
I went on a trip up north yesterday, to take a look at a fire truck. The beast turned out to be exactly what we are looking for, is in good order and the price seems to be right. It´s got a 375 cu. air-cooled, direct-injection Diesel engine, with not much hp, but lots of torque. It has a 5-speed manual gear box, but you only need 2 of the speeds, plus reverse, of course I have not driven a beast like this one for at least 35 years, so the test drive was a real trial, not for the truck, but for me
That´s me behind the wheel ...
Now I need to "persuade" my colleagues to agree to the deal and get our finance manager to cash out the required funds. I can already picture me driving it on a medieval market place, the blue lights flashing... It´ll be fun!
Have a good one!
Heartland Division CB&Q howmus Hey Barry, my sister sent me definition of a Musician.. Musician; A person who puts $5,000 of equipment in a $500 car to drive 100 miles for a $50 Gig. I told her, "Yeah, So?" Said Ray, holding no bars....... Is everyone taking notes? I've been wonderabout Ken, also. Ken .... Where are you?
Well....we did have a few flat ones here....
Ken: Where are you?!?!?!?!?!?
Morning Coffee in the diner...
GOOD SUNDAY MORNING!!!
Today is Sunday, July 14th, 2013!!!
I will light the prayer candles after morning services for those in need...
MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!!
Ever think "{I/he/she} have/hasn't got a clue?"
{But do you have a ball of string?}
Meaning:
Without any knowledge or understanding
Origin:
This little phrase, which is often given as 'I don't have a clue', at first sight doesn't appear to be idiomatic at all and hardly deserving of investigation. After all, a clue is an insight or idea that points us towards a solution. To be without a clue is simply to be ignorant, and ignorance can be bliss. However, a clue (also spelled clew) previously had a different meaning - a globular ball formed from coiling up worms or the like or, more specifically, a ball of thread, string, twine. Clew has been used with that meaning for at least a thousand years and citations of it in Old English date back to 897AD, when no less an author than Aelfred, King of Wessex used it in his West-Saxon translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care. Shakespeare also used the word with the 'thread' meaning, for example, in All's Well that Ends Well, 1602:
"If it be so, you have wound a goodly clewe."
That seems a long way from crossword clues or Sherlock Holmes' stories. How did we get from a ball of thread to the current meaning of clue?
Go back to Greek myth and recall the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur. Theseus entered the labyrinth to kill the half-man, half-bull Minotaur. He did so but was only able to find his way out by retracing his path, marked by the string given to him by Ariadne. So, Theseus 'had a clew' about the safe route out of the maze and was able to escape.
Geoffrey Chaucer recorded this story in The Legend of Ariadne, Part VI of The Legend of Good Women, 1385:
Therto have I a remedie in my thoght, By a clewe of twyn as he hath gon, The same weye he may returne a-non, ffolwynge alwey the thred as he hath come.
So, don't be clueless - all you need is some string!!
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
I Do believe KEN {CudaKen} Is MIA due to working on his FIRST LOVE, his 40 year old Car!
He has gotten it out of "moth balls" so to speak and I think trains/us/ have gone on the back burner. He even mentioned taking down his trains to get the grage back to a car-working-on state! Perish the thought!
He is probably spending time on MOPAR blog/thread/sites.
If you ARe lurking, Ken, POST us an Update!
Good Morning!!!
Coffee and the Sunday Breakfast buffet please. Thanks.
Mostly sunny, with a high near 85.
Welp, Gotta mow the yard and then going to Peoria today. Brenda wants to go to a place called the Burger Barge ( http://www.urbanspoon.com/cities/257/restaurants/1169141/menu_photos/12883 ). I think I’m going for the Tavern Burger, frings, and an order of breaded oysters. It all sounds great except for one thing…..it’s near the casino boat. I hope this isn’t another “surprise”.
Ya’ll have a good day, ya hear!!!!
Todd
Central Illinoyz
In order to keep my position as Master and Supreme Ruler of the House, I don't argue with my wife.
I'm a small town boy. A product of two people from even smaller towns. I don’t talk on topic….. I just talk.
Good morning. It's 70° with 89% humidity. The high will be 92°.Not much going on here. Cable internet was down this morning so I fired up the Apple and played another round of Starfleet1. I won but toward the end there it was turning into a nail biter. I only had to get one more ship. I had already disabled it and was attempting to capture it. Four capture attempts had failed, an enemy agent was on board the Galactica committing sabotage, a cloaked ship was zipping around the quadrant taking pot shots at me and my marines were taking a royal beating. One screen from that is displayed below. I eventually stopped the enemy agent, outsmarted the cloaked vessel and captured the disabled vessel thereby winning the battle and getting one mission closer to promotion. I've been a captain for 20+ years, it's time for a change.Plans for today. At this point there are none but that's always subject to change. I might be making a run to the bank later but that depends on how cooperative my van wants to be.
Good MorningWe are going up to 86F in the sunshine, feeling more like 102F later on...right now it is a cool 60FHaving a day of rest after the shows we put on...
Morning All,
Currently it is 61 with an expected high of 94 under sunny skies.
I did get quite a lot accomplished yesterday, went grocery shopping, and picked up a few DVD's at Red box I had reserved. I was able to finish weathering the rest of the track except for two sidings that have not been permanently installed yet. Ran a few trains, and glued a combination or 63 or so doors and windows, most with "glass" that had to be glued in place also, in a Walthers kit. I also made spaghetti sauce and watched the two cd's I rented.
Today I am invited to go out on my daughter's father-I-law's boat at Lake Tahoe. The temps will not be so high up at the lake, and I can use the sun and a good swim. Should be a nice day.
Ulrich - Nice fire truck, I hope you can purchase it.
Prayers to all in need.
Paul
Living in Fernley Nevada, about 30 miles east of Reno, also lived in Oregon and California, but born In Brooklyn NY and raised on Long Island NY
Realized after I posted that today is Sunday. No bank run. In other news, I struggled through another Starfleet1 mission and got myself promoted the Commodore and was awarded the Alliance Defense Medal. I've made it to level seven! I'm so getting my butt kicked next time!
We have had a nice weekend and hope you have too. Yesterday we went to a Greenberg Train Show on the other side of town. We try to go to them even though the vendors are mostly "O" gauge. Most of the "HO" stuff, which I'm interested in, is mostly what I call old junk. So I don't go expecting to find much. However, I did find a display case in which the 2 "0" locomotives I have will fit. So I picked that up. An expense I hadn't counted on. The show was well attended, but I didn't see a lot of buying when I was there.
Went railfanning again today with somewhat lackluster results. Only 4 trains in 2 hours. Norfolk Southern is doing track maintainance on the Fort wayne Line, so maybe that's the reason for a lack of traffic. The temperature and the Sun were kind of brutal, but there was a nice stiff breeze which made it bearable to sit outside in our folding chairs. The wife is looking a little red though.
A good dinner tonight of a chuck roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, whole kernel corn and a bottle of Riesling from Seneca Lake. Life is good. It looks like tomorrow is going to be a busy day, what with grocery shopping and about a dozen different errands to run. Everybody take care and stay safe.
Tom
Pittsburgh, PA
Geez, again it's been a while. However, that time was well spent.
Got some detail paint on the B-17 and starting to add the accents to it, mainly the red on the tail, stabilizers and wingtips. Also got the props and engines on the bomber, and solved a problem with the B-25J. Overall, I feel like I got quite a bit done with them today. The bomber looks really good now, and expect it to get better.
Also went to an airshow yesterday. There was supposed to be a Mosquito there, but the owner was unable to show. However, it's absence didn't ruin the show, for there was also a Lancaster bomber, a Spitfire, a Hurricane, two P-51Ds, a P-40,a Soviet L-39 jet trainer, a C-47, a C-46, a Yak-18, several AT-6 Texans, a Corsair, an Avenger, two B-25s (a J and a H model) and a Zero and Val replica.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Route of the Black Diamond Express, John Wilkes and Maple Leaf.
-Jake, modeling the Barclay, Towanda & Susquehanna.
Janie, I could sure use a tall cold glass of Lemonade tonight... Was a hot one around here today. currently 77°F but was 89° earlier this afternoon. The big bright yellow thing was out also and the humidity was high. The inside of the display cars, particularly the reefer which doesn't have any ventilation, was stifling!
I got out there early to meet with a boy scout who wanted me to OK his work on the RR Merit Badge. Scout had everything in order and after meeting with him for about a half hour to check out each requirement, I singed off on it and he and his father headed out to get the kid to work on time... There were supposed to two of us handling all the Museum Guide stuff today, but 4 people showed. Made for a much easier day for us. Had a good crowd for the day.
Got home and just relaxed for a while, and then moved a couple more wheelbarrow loads of topsoil over to the garden. Hopefully tomorrow I will get it all moved. It will be another hot day, but I will do a couple loads and come back into the air conditioning for a bit.
Tom, you have particularly good tastes, my friend! Especially in your choice of beverages...
Jeffrey, that is good your dad is making room for you during the recuperation period. I was wondering how you would make out living alone and with the steps in your trailer....
Have a great night everyone!
Got promoted to Commodore in my Starfleet1 game today and things got much harder. Just when I figured I had it easy I found myself in a quadrant with five enemy ships. I was just starting to get the upper hand when a cloaked enemy ship showed up and life got much more interesting. I won but it was very close.Went out to dinner at KFC with my father and step-mother this afternoon. Everything went well.Time for me to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.
Good Evening...Got to 88F here..and, of course, with 75% humidity felt more like 100F...back to heat and stick...yuck.We just spent the day indoors under the A/C. No sense going out with everything that needed done already done earlier in the week...Have a good one!!
Couldn't get to sleep so I played a bit of pinball. I almost caught up to my high score. 29,842,000. I was only 160,000 shy. Starfleet1 is next. More strategy required there.
Morning coffee in then diner...
GOOD MONDAY MORNING!!!
Today is Monday, July 15th, 2013!!!
Half way through July already! Where DOES time go?
I wil llight the prayer candles at 9 AM for those in need...
MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!!!
Lick into shape:
To transform a faulty object or venture into something that works effectively
The Short Version:
The phrase means to make something presentable; or, to take a problem and make it do-able. The origin comes from bears. When bear cubs are born they apparently have 'no shape'. So the mother and father lick the newborns into shape with their tongues. This is the supposed source of the saying
The LONGER, more truthful version:
You don't need to watch many 1950s B-feature westerns before you come across some hapless cowpoke getting a 'licking'. That use of 'lick', i.e. 'thrash in a fight', is pretty much restricted to the USA, although it did actually originate in England in the 1500s. Beating someone into shape sounds as though it might be the source of 'lick into shape' but it is in fact the common use of 'lick', i.e. 'pass the tongue over', a meaning that dates from a few centuries earlier, that the phrase alludes to.
The first example I can find of the figurative use of the phrase is in Gilbert Burnet's An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, 1699:
"Men did not know how to mould and frame it; but at last it was licked into shape."
'Lick into shape' sprang from the belief held in mediaeval Europe that bear cubs were born shapeless and had to be made into ursine form by their mother's licking. This belief is recorded in a translation of Guillaume de Deguileville's The Pylgremage of the Sowle. The fact that we have a printed recorded of this expression is something of a close call as de Deguileville's text was one of the very first books printed, by William Caxton, around 1480. Caxton's print suggests that the translation was made in 1413.
"Beres ben brought forthe al fowle and transformyd and after that by lyckynge of the fader and the moder they ben brought in to theyr kyndely shap." [Bears are born misshapen and are subsequently formed into their natural shape by the licking of their father and mother.]
"Beres ben brought forthe al fowle and transformyd and after that by lyckynge of the fader and the moder they ben brought in to theyr kyndely shap."
[Bears are born misshapen and are subsequently formed into their natural shape by the licking of their father and mother.]
That belief seems rather naive to us now, but it isn't all that surprising in the context of the Middle Ages. The general populace were uneducated and belief in supernatural forces of all sorts was rife. The credence of stories of fabulous animals was strengthened by the printing of bestiaries. These were books that showed pictures of both real and imaginary creatures, so that the common people would know what they looked like. One such bestiary was the Aberdeen Manuscript, circa 1542, which was made in order to:
"improve the minds of ordinary people, in such a way that the soul will at least perceive physically things which it has difficulty grasping mentally: that what they have difficulty comprehending with their ears, they will perceive with their eyes."
However, the writers of the books had little more knowledge than their audience. To them, a zebra was no more real than a unicorn. The authors merely lifted their pictures and explanations from earlier works without checking the facts.
The belief about bears wasn't limited to England. In France, the same phrase is used, their version being a reference to an uncouth or badly brought up person - 'un ours mal léché', that is, 'a bear badly licked'..
EDIT: I GOT TOP, Now If I can Bear the bare responsibility, I will pay up for all you gents, with a lick and a promise as I lick this place into shape!
Good morning! Already 78 degrees in Massachusetts at oh-seven-hundred. That's about the same as it was last night at 11 PM when we got home.
Bears? As in Bruins?
Very little on trains, but my daughter the neuroscientist was a volunteer at a charity hockey game, so we drove up to Maine for that. There were a number of former NHL players, and mostly college players. I waited in line and got autographs from former Boston Bruin Ray Borque, one of my all-time favorite hockey players, and his two sons Chris and Ryan who also played briefly in the NHL. We got to sit in the front row, right at the blue line, so we had a great time watching a game where everyone had a good time.
It was an all-around good day. We ate lunch in Portland, Maine, at a fish-and-chips place on the docks, went for a ride in Annie's boss's boat, and finished up at another outdoor cafe on the Saco River. Warm, but not uncomfortable since we were by the water or in a hockey rink all day.
Coffee and a stack of pancakes please. Ummm, buttermilk I guess and some maple syrup thank you.
A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 88.
Boy that burger was awesome. Just awesome. We’ll be going back to try some more.
Mosquito’s!!! Jake went to see the Mosquito’s!!?? I remember them. Great band! I know all their names. See, there’s Bingo, Bango, Bongo and Irving. Irving, he’s the drummer.
Well I guess if you gotta get beamed to the wrong place….
Welp, yesterday got the yard mowed, one wall in the living room painted. 2 actually. One side I guess is more accurate. The other three sides will be painted a lighter brownish color. Aaaaand what else…. I know I did get about a 45 minute nap after the trip to Peoria and the plate, I mean tray of food that I got there at the Burger Barge. I know I did something else…..hmmmm. Can’t remember. Oh well. Today is back to the grindstone.
Good MorningWe be going up to 87F feeling like 106F later on..oh joy...oh bliss...good thing we have the A/C going here....Today, however I need to get some hay cutting, I mean grass mowing done...again. I swear I can even hear the dang stuff growing at night....sheesh. So, better be off and do this...Have a good one!!