GOOD MORNING!!!
Today is Sunday, September 18th, 2011!!!
Huh? wha? What am I doing up so early? I'm playing the insomniac's role tonight. Usually I just get up to go and get online quickly to say good morning. TOnight I slept for 2 hours...
Curfews, Boil water advisories, Water conservation measures, looting laws all still in effect.
The waste transfer station in Barton NY is closed indeterminant due to the flood.
All household waste and hazardous waste MUST be separated from flood waste.
Flood waste in Broome county is being collected separately in a park to be removed and paid for by FEMA. Seems the county landfill is really full to capacity already, even with heavy recycling measures in place reducing what was being sent to the landfill by 75% over the last 15 years or so that recycling and bottle bill laws have been in effect here.
Unknown where Tioga COunty's Flood waste will go as almost the entire County seat of Owego was flooded. Owego was voted as "best small town in America"...was it last year or year before? FEMA is sure to help. There was a new member on this site here from Owego who PM'd me a few times...don't recall screenname, wonder how he fared? Mayor Ed Arrington said {paraphrased} "the worst part was getting the flood debris OUT of the buildings and once beautifull and stately grand Victorian mansions" lining Front and Main streets. Our former Real Estate Agent {when we were looking} lived in a large old house in Owego, wonder how she fared as well? We DO hope the entire village of Owego will not be "wiped off the map" by this flood.
Sunday Paper. ALl my usual spots to purchase the sunday edition are closed or were flooded out. Don't know where, other than Wally world that I will get a copy. Last Sunday's paper with flood photos, was passed on to us as it was delivered in withteh Fri-Sun delivery package all at once a neighbor recieves.
It is currently 46* here. I agree with Ray's sentiments earlier about it being a wee bit chilly here now. About 10* below average for this time of year.
APPLE HARVEST expected to be a bumper crop this year as most apple orchards are on the hillsides, and not in the flood plain where other crops were lost. The temps, rain and drought times did not affect bearing of fruit.
MOH declined to go work in the Owego store hanging shelf tags as sinuses have been acting up since the flood waters have receeded and "stuff" in the air stirred up..including human waste particulates. We both are sufferers of allergies and rely on things like psuedoephedrine to clear our sinus passages.
Well, now I go watch some TV, MOH will be up in 2 hours to start getting ready for work adn I shall probably then be going back to bed sleeping some out of exhaustion.
-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.
Good Morning!
A gray and wet day again. I finished my w*rk on the station module and shot a few pictures this morning.
Too bad my package did not arrive by yesterday. I could have finished the far left side by adding two more of those tiny Japanese houses, added road vehicles to the streets and populated the platforms with passengers and railroad personnel Next week ...
Ken - your trees look super! I am glad I have some more left for the other "end of the line".
Flo, just coffee for me this morning, please.
CUL!
Good morning all...Well I think that when I get home from w--k today I,ll finish the TT bridge so I can prime it for painting on Monday. Also I,ll try to start on the pit walls. Oh I should mention that the place where I ordered the one TT isn,t at my LHS. I have nothing bad to say about them. The place I ordered it from is way east of Ohio
L&N.....Gone but not forgotten
Morning early risers.
Flo, yep coffee and I will take a sweet roll as well.
Got up at 5:00 AM today and been poking around the site.
Getting ready to hook up the PR 3, read some CV's and speed match some engines. Need to start doing the train stuff in the morning before Sue gets up.
Ulrich, I all most forgot I sent you that type of tree. Are you going to straighten out the bent post on the train station?
Ken
I hate Rust
Good Morning!! Sunday Breakfast Buffet please. Yes some coffee. Thanks. Occasional showers and thunderstorms. High near 73. Southeast wind between 8 and 11 mph, with gusts as high as 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Good Morning!! Sunday Breakfast Buffet please. Yes some coffee. Thanks.
Occasional showers and thunderstorms. High near 73. Southeast wind between 8 and 11 mph, with gusts as high as 16 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
Brenda is off today. They decided to not open the Elevator due to the rain. It's not raining. I’ve never seen them decide to close because it is supposed to rain. Usually they say IF it rains we will close early. Odd.
Spent most the day out at Mom’s yesterday. Haven’t done anything all week out there except empty the dehumidifier. At least that I remember now.
Rob- I hope the starting issue gets w**ked out. All had good advice. J.R. is right (even though he addressed it to me, I’m pretty sure he meant you. We are getting old you know. ) and he’ll tell you the same thing I will. Any help you get without looking is just suggestions. I w**ked the last year I was w**king for Uncle Sam, in the Fuel and Electrics section rebuilding Injector pumps, alternators, generators ( the gas powered AC kind you power tents and entire companies with) air conditioners and starters etc, etc, etc. That kind of stuff. Actually a pretty nice last year for a guy who was really starting to have trouble crawling in and out and up and under vehicles every day. I could have gotten used to "benchwork" like that. ANYwho, I will add, I have seen starters lock up and they will also give you symptoms of a bad battery because of the lack of starter movement. Usually you can pick this up when testing the battery while using the starter based on how the needle reacts. It usually will not bury itself quite like a bad battery will, but may pull lower than a good battery would or should. But, not guaranteed. I’ve seen one or two that pulled the tester down like it was a dead short without a peep from the starter. Weird, you’d thought it would have made the tell tale BUZZZZZ! Complete with the nasal filling smell of ozone. That didn’t happen much though. Shorts yes but like that one no. Just threw that in there to make it sound way worse than it probably is.
My job now is to make people appreciate their local mechanic and all he has to go through just to make the customer happy. ( “ I can’t believe he charged that much just to replace my alternator. That should have been easy…” buried up behind the engine where you can barely reach it for all the stuff the factory installed after the alternator was installed and the engine mounted in the car complete with hoses and huuuuge wiring harness bundles cut to EXACT length so they will not budge one centimeter to allow access to the liiiittle nut you need to get to because the guy who designed it will never have to work on it “…I replaced one when I was a teenager on my 1969 six cylinder Nova and it only took like ten minutes!” )
Flo! Set J.R. up with an extra large cup of that fancy expensive coffee he likes for all he does…..on the TOP of course.
Ya’ll have a Great Day!!!
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.
Well, I went to my usual place for the Sunday paper.
Although the county health dept. has clarified that the Town of Owego, the Villages of Owego and Nichols are under boil water order, we MUST be out of it on our end by now {we are TOWN of Owego}. WHY? because the Kwik Fill/Red Apple convenience store was OPEN and serving their breakfast sandwhiches, which, unless they go through the hassle of boiling and sterilization AND the approval of the Health Dept. to re-open and serve food, our AREA MUST be OUT of the boil water advisory now. It is amazing they kept it this long, because Binghamton, which had oh, about 60% flooded had good clean water restored quickly.
Of course, then again, the grocery store where MOH works, had to follow and use sterile juice to wash hands and etc. until the order was lifted...
I cannot wait til tomorrow to call the county health dept. and see if we are still under boil water advisory.
We will be glad it is over!!!
Reading more flood news in teh papers this AM. Sad. For the people who lost much or everything in the flood. WE were just heavily inconvenienced, but some are still without a good place to live.
Did see an article about the Atty. Gen's office having price gouging laws in effect for the area. that is good.
Was looking for the link to the photo published int eh Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin that had the arial shot of total floodiong in Owego, but it is archived now in words only. Darn. Was hoping to share it with anyone who wanted a look-see.
Got the free pennysaver press which is Owego's only in-county newspaper was out today even thought he offices had flooded quite deep. They obviously missed last week's edition as iot comes out on Sunday and is delivered across much of the county.
LOL. Lowe's had hoped to make a killing on their generators, but people who bought them and the power came back on returned them. We will keep ours as this is not the first time the power has been out for days while we high and dry.
Apparently according to rumors, Home Depot here will not reopen. They were kinda stupid to begin with in building a new store in a known flood plain area to begin with. If I remember correctly they survived barely the 2006 "500 year flood".
Gander Mountain Sporting goods store I guess will also not reopen. They got totally flooded out in 2006's "500 year flood" just after opening!
PETA wants Petco to close the J.C. store permanently as over 100 animals, mostly small rodents, reptiles and fish were killed whenthe store flooded. There is the blame-game-argument that J,C. did not notify them of flooding to come and so they could evac pets. JC says they notified as well as being built in a known flood plain area it's Petco's management's fault. WE have the same story in Owego with the nursing home. Emergency services says they called several times about evac-ing patients, but the nursing home declined. Nursing home says they asked Emergency services for help before the Nat Guard had to show up to evac 61 of 70 patients up to Ithaca. The blame game will continue....
Also, although high and dry here, there are quite a few houses nearby who obviously had water in their basements. Dunno if those houses also had sumppumps that failed to work when power went out or not, but the have lots fo flood debris out curbside.One or two of the houses we THOUGHT about buying, but won't consider now....
Well that's all for now, enough depressing news.
Talk at you all later.
Good morning ....
I'll have an Illinois farmers breakfast, please.
Galaxy ... Sounds like a huge mess. I recall after the ice storm here, the local super market donated a huge truckload of gallon bottle of water. One of the churches helped by allowing people to pick up their water at their building. The churces cooperated by having volunteers to handout the water. The Red Cross set up shelters and provided meals.
JimCG ... Thanks for the remarks. There are no double slip switches. Most are regular turnouts, but there is a double crossover, a three-way switch, and a curved switch.
I started laying track for the street car line, and I have 15 feet in place so far.
The thread for CP and CN fans has a link to a great website. Glancing through it, a saw many interesting photos. Can you imagine the CN with the Santa Fe warbonnet scheme on some of its locomotives? I saw pictures of some GE units that were acquired from BNSF in Santa Fe colors with a the CN wet noodle patched over it.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Good Morning All,
Round about 60F with a light overcast this morning. Galaxys' heater hasn't stirred the breeze off the water here yet so it's calm. Rain predicted for tomorrow. Could be a good day to do some chores here at Moms'.
Todd - I had to go back and check and sure enough what I meant to address to Rob was directed to you instead. Sorry about that - I know you need no coaching on starter diagnosis. And thanks for the coffee. I do prefer that exorbitantly expensive Maxwell House stuff - you imported and all here in N.S.
Ulrich - love the station module. Will you end up stringing catenary wires as well? Can't wait to see it in with the rest of the layout.
Sounds like Galaxy is in for a long haul back to normality. After cruising through the remnants on the way home from Watkins Glen, I'm not surprised. There really was a lot of damage to the area. It looked like the HD he mentions had a high water mark half way up the wall and they were using a Bobcat to move mud out when we passed by. At some point government just has to step up and say "no you can't get permits to build in flood plains". I can sympathize to an extent, but people rebuilding multiple times in the same place and expecting a different result is just nuts.
The CFO and I are off to a park for another hike so I'll check in later. J.R.
Ken - it´s just the wide angle setting of the lens that makes the post look as if it is bent.
I am happy to have those trees on the module "built by Ken"!
Afternoon all.
Just a brief stop in while I'm taking a break from homew**k.
Yesterday was the last day of w**k for me. We shut the restaurant down for the season, so I'm officially "on vacation" until may. My boss is trying to sell the place we we'll see what happens with THAT. He was showing it to this guy yesterday and he seemed really interested in it. He would keep it exactly the same, but he would add breakfast. We'll just have to see what happens unilt next year.
Well, better get back to the homew**k. I'm trying to get it mostly done before we head back up north in an hour.
Hopefully I'll be able to stop back in tonight.
Till next time, peace out,
-Joe
My Model Railroad: Tri State RailMy Photos on Flickr: FlickrMy Videos on Youtube: YoutubeMy Photos on RRPA: RR Picture Archives
J.R.- Oh no problemo. Only reason I even brought it up at all was in case Rob didn't read it because it was addressed to me. Some people don't. I, myself, am nosey so if you don't want me to read it....P.M. them
Good afternoon. It's 63° and cloudy. For the high it will be 71° and mostly cloudy.So far today has been no bed of roses. I had a bad night due to gall stones. Got only a few hours of sleep. This morning my virus protection program detected a threat and took out the file it was in. My Windows XP didn't like that and promptly crashed. I tried repairing it but there was to be no raising of the dead on this Sunday. I had to reinstall Windows. Of course that knocked out many programs that I need including Firefox (main browser) and Opera (backup browser). Internet Explorer was there of course but it's a last resort. I reinstalled Firefox from a CD and spent the rest of the morning making those little changes and tweaks to make everything function as it did (or nearly so) before the crash. Now that I'm done with all that my mind is about wiped. I think I'll use the rest of this day of rest to get some rest.
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
A Double Breve Latte, please.
Exhausted today and a bit dizzy, so making this a day of rest.
***Todd, I did catch/read those posts. If you lived closer, I'd put you to work on at several vehicles (Polaris Ranger, Pickup & the tractor).
Have a good day all. Rob
GMTRacing Sounds like Galaxy is in for a long haul back to normality. After cruising through the remnants on the way home from Watkins Glen, I'm not surprised. There really was a lot of damage to the area. It looked like the HD he mentions had a high water mark half way up the wall and they were using a Bobcat to move mud out when we passed by. At some point government just has to step up and say "no you can't get permits to build in flood plains". I can sympathize to an extent, but people rebuilding multiple times in the same place and expecting a different result is just nuts.
I will premis this with: I didn't know I was gonna write a book-post!!!
Yes, Home Depot {we call it "Home DEE-pot"{with a FRENCH accent} , NOT "Home DEE POE"} was built as I said on the flood plains area. The dikes that "protect it" havent protected anything built there in all the years of my life in teh area when it floods here. But then again, we have never had flooding like 2006 and 2011!!!
ALSO, GMT, You couldn't have gotten down Rt 17/ new I86 for a few days as the road was flooded over {both directions} to get from Watkins Glen home.
It IS a huge mess around here. Problem is that MOST of the area is built on the BANKS of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers and their confluence. The banks equate to a LOT of lower lying areas. The fact that there are a LOT of dikes {visible from SRT 17/ new I86} around here should ring alarm bells too. The problem is the dikes have "loose ends" that allow water to seep AROUND THem, as well as be breached OVER or THROUGH them.
Something like 60% of the city of Binghamton and 75-80% of the Village of Owego had flood waters. Flood walls in Bingo didn't hold the waters back. Owego had none to start with, but had homes that have ben there on Front street since the mid 1800's that had never flooded before!
The Town of Conklin NY {where the CP rail yard is, and an old foundation to a once thriving working Steam Loco Roundhouse}, at the south east corner of Binghamton, had FEMA come in, buy up some properties to forever become "green space", AKA parks and rec areas in 2007 afrter the 2006 flood... Now, at Conklin, the flood stage is at like 10 feet or some rediculously low number. During the 2006 flood, the Town of Conklin SUpervisor, Debbie Preston was out there on boats checking out people, helping emergency crews with evacs and such. SHe was a part-time Town Supervisor, but they temporarily approved a tax hike to make her full time as she dealt with the crisis in 2006 and 2007. Ms. Preston lost HER house again this time in Conklin and WAS going to run for Broome COunty Executive. Because of her well publicized records in dealing with the flood aftermath, I'd say she stands a good change of winning. COnklin is quickly being "wiped off the map".
I had said wednesday before the flood that iff'n y'all didn't hear from me for awhile, It was due to flooding and/or no power for days on end. At the time, the flood stage in Vestal was at {remembering} 18 feet, and the river was currently at 24 feet {already flooding} and was expected to crest at 34 feet! ALmost DOUBLE the flood stage!
Other areas around here also had sewage system backups causing flooding in areas that didn't flood in 2006. Human waste was also flooded out raw into the SUsquehanna and more was just pumped out raw to help avoid the sewage backups that occured. That is because the Binghamton- Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant can't handle such a thing and is itself nestled along the river directly. It also recently had a blowout on one of the treatment containment wall systems damaging the plant. While the authorities argued over who's fault it was and looked to place blame and who was gonna pay for what, Rome fell, so to speak. The Susquehanna River Basin Authority and the Chessapeake Bay Authority {where the Susquehanna ultimately ends up} don't like it very much naturally that raw human sewage got pumped into the river, but it happens when flooding occurs here..
Binghamton University is directly across from the B-JC JSTP, and allows for a LOT of extra waste being inthe system, when really BU should have it's own treatment or pre-treatment plant of it's own for all its dormitories and restrooms. They recently built a whole new lot of student housing apartments to house growing student population. Areas of the downtown regions of the City of Binghamton were ALSO recently being remodled or built to house students. One new under construction building was flooded well, as well as a major remodel. Like many cities, Binghamton's downtown is trying to be "revitalized" and "saved", and they thought a new student center {flooded as well I think as classes were moved to main campus} and more student housing was the answer. Bingo is becoming a College city and fast.
AS I understand it, they DID a decade ago start to separate the raw sewage from the roadside rain water systems which require a lot less treatment, to help alleviate the problems. But the plant cannot still take on more than it can reasonably process. And to build on or build a new additional plant takes a LOT of $$$$$$$$$$$ that no one has.
The village of Owego had it's own problems with its waste water systems and I think the sewage and water useage bills doubled on residents there. Flooding there reached over the banks by quite a large margin.
The area is generally stable, but these "100 year" and these "500 year" floods are now coming every 5 years!!!
We can sympathize And DID sympathize with those along the Mighty Mississippi when they flooded this spring, as we DO know what major flooding can do.
Upper Mid-State NY got a lot of flooding and damage from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, WE got it from Tropical Storm Lee, close on Irene's heals.There were two other major bullets we dodged. There were two more MAJOR storm cells {large ones at that} that went to the east-north of us and SPARED us further flooding, or else WE may have had higher waters where I am.
When we WERE looking at houses recently, we abandoned any hope for a house protected bythe dikes, or in the flooded areas of '06. Good thing: 1} we fell out of the housing market and 2} we DIDN'T buy one in those areas!!! We also ignored the "picturesque views of the Susquehanna" houses that were on the banks of the river.There are a LOT of houses we will not even consider when we DO go back to house hunting with a purpose!!!
The real estate market here will PLUNGE I think. People will not be able to sell houses that flooded this time around at high rates, nor will people buy them. The market is now stalled though I had to laugh when a "cute little 2 Br 1 ba bungalo" in Vestal Twin orchards went on the market at $62K, reduced to $59 k, then to 55K, then to $49k, then relisted for $52,500 Popped back up on the overnight new/changed lisiting POST FLOOD...and it was ON TV as a Flooded by sewage/water house!!! It didn't sell the first time and we passed on it because it had a about 1910's tiny kitchen and had asbestos siding on it. ANd Old Vestal Road is a busy thoroughfare to try to back out on.
Oh, well. I should be happy wiht our 'high and dry" trailer, though we really would like to get out of the park!
Talk at you later.
EDIT: I got top honors for sharing all this with you all. But after a new furnace, new roof and a generator to pay for, not to mention the new dehumidifier and cordless phone replacements, I can ONLY AFFORD TO BUY YOU COFFEE...with my AARP discount!!
Good afternoon folks:
Ray:
"A defunct research satellite is falling from space back to earth. It is expected to reenter the atmosphere late Sep or early Oct. NASA predicts it will land somewhere between Canada and South America. And you thought our hurricane landfall forecasts needed work! The debris is expected to have a footprint of 500 miles, but the risk to safety/property is very small."
JR:
Went hiking on more rail trails. The CFO is looking at ones near Fergie and mentioned she'd found a place called Georges' Trains and maybe we could go there... Love this woman.
Todd:
(IIRC - it's back a bit) turned the furnace on as it got down to 67 degrees
Ulrich: Love the station, where was the highway bridge solution going to be; or am I totally on a different module?
Must get this out while it might be of some use to JR. Wasp nest was taken out successfully, and with zero resistance, last evening in a combined op (Kris and I both with spray cans. The critters didn't swarm out when I took the door cover off (4 screw toggles, and lift up and out - but we had covered the hand hole they were using as their major flight path with duct tape)
This morning no activity in thisand the "angry end" was impressive - well to me anyway
Cheers, John.
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
Evening Fellow Railroaders!
Flo, beer please.
Well for not doing anything important today was a pretty good day!
Train Front Finally sat down and did some speed matching done. Got the BB F7 A and B plying well with each other. They where a bite of a chore, thanks to the helpful folks in the DCC section I am slowly learning the in and outs of CV's. I all so found my PK1000 Eire's speed match was off, that is now fixed. I all so added a consist, my Santa Fe Dash 9 to my UP Dash 9.
I was all ready to check out the amps the PA BB pulls and hard wire a decoder if amp's where low enough when The Wife Reminded me I had to BBQ.
Rob Did you by chances change the battery? Hate to see you have it towed if it is just the battery.
Well time to pull the food off, I might drop by later.
JohnDer: Yikes!! That would be a no-go for sure!! Those hives can get pretty big!!
Galaxy: mmmm..that situation that you have does not bode well for that region..at least real estate wise for the next little while....but I am sure someone will attempt to take it on anyhow. And, well, yeah, development along riverbanks has always been done at one point or another through our history...anyone remember Venice, Italy?
Good Evening
I have not been on much since we had relatives come from Germany to see us..and to deposit another cousin at the University..a few days late..but they got here ...
Today has been a gorgeous day...70F and sunny..until now..when it will dull right back up for another rainy kinda day tomorrow...
Today..I spent doing some basic housecleaning and straightening out some closets..so we have more space in them than junk...at least until more junk arrives for our closet stuffing pleasure
Oh...we are also in the midst of election fever here as well...oh frabjious joy...even more junk mail showing up at our doorstep....
Oh well...no Chloe...no 'ing from me tonight....
I'll have a beefsteak sammich with a bucket of fries and gravy as well as a coffee please..I'll be at the RC for a bit....no...nothing about elections will be said..I'll behave...yes ma'am, no ma'am....
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 decaf, I had supper earlier...
Spent all day at the museum. Had excellent ridership today including a den of Webelo Scouts. I rode the Erie Caboose all day except for a half hour lunch brake at which time I worked with the conductor's Grandson on his RR Merit badge. Great young man! He had all the needed information and documentation done and in a notebook he brought with him. Took about 25 minutes to go through a certify each item, signed his blue card, and gave him the Buy Scout Handshake! His Grandfather is a Master Model Railroader so the kid has been around trains his whole life. Easy MB for him.
I'll be doing at least 2 more Sundays on the train and 2 as a museum Docent. I enjoy both jobs. Probably won't get out the last couple of weekends we will be open this year. Not sure yet.
Galaxy, sure sounds like there is going to be some major clean up and a lot of loss down your way.......
Der (John), that looks to be a really nasty hornets nest! glad you got it with no harm to you or your wife!
Barry, yes it IS THAT time off year when the lawns appear to be growing signs doesn't it? We got 'em around here too......
Hope you all have a great night!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Good Evening All,
Der - thanks for the tip. The farthest back towards Halifax we've gotten was to Kejimkujek (or some close set of similar vowels) where we went hiking. Oddly enough I don't have any particular desire to visit hobby shops when I have so much track and turnout stuff to do and pieces on hand to do it. Keji is a park wrapped around some lakes scooped out by glaciers during the last ice age. It's just gorgeous unspoiled woods and some rudimentary trails with a variety of distances so we can pick and chose easy segments (better for us city folk who don't hike much on a regular basis).
Todd - I'm not much for IM's unless it's for info we don't want posted like addresses and such. You're not nosey, just inquisitive.
Galaxy - we were in fact stranded at Watkins Glen after the rains came. We were resigned to heading north on Rt 14 to 79 around Bingo when we got a call from one of our guys that 17 had just reopened so we took a chance. A friend had left the night before and was turned back on 17. We must have been some of the first few trucks through the reopened road. As I had posted, we saw a lot of areas still under water especially just east of you but it wasn't near the level of the highway anymore. We saw where some of the high water marks were the same height as the truck cabs. We're just glad you and yours are ok after all the mess.
Time to plan what we'll do tomorrow with contingincies if it rains. CUL, J.R.
Morning Folks,
Got a little bit of layout work done yesterday. Went to the LHS and picked up a bag of buff coloured ballast to do some gravel carparks for my grain elevator. Just need to get a few houses and businesses and some of that BLMA chain fence to fence off the grain elevator etc from the crazy 'public'.
I bought a piece of board 600 wide to cut in half for the staging extension I may start next week... "Maybe."
Hey Galaxy I know how you're feeling about flooding etc. With my town here recently being severely flooded back in January it's not a nice thing to go through. Whilst my home wasn't affected, Many people I know where, and due to the flooding where I work was inaccessible for about 4 days. On these days off thousands of people went into affected areas and helped clean up. 9 months on there is hardly a trace of the damage in Brisbane itself. It's a different story west of Brisbane where they have decided to move the entire town of Grantham to the top of the hill about 3 miles northwest of the original town.
Will check in again tonight,
TTFN
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s
Good evening ....
Ulrich .... I really like your station module. Keep up the great work.
James in "Oz" .... I recall seeing videos of flash floods down under several months ago. Was that your town?
Galaxy .... Keep us posted on the drying out and cleaning up in your town.
Paul ... Any rain there yet? Hope so. There are many of us who would gladly share some rain.
Der John ... Don't "bug me" with those hornets.
On the layout .... I have 24 feet of my streetcar track laid now, and that is about half of the track for it. . Today, was my "first run" on the streetcar line. Next, I will lay track across four bridges to get the streetcar line to the downtown area of my city under construction.
Garry: The Flash flooding was to the west of Brisbane, small towns of a few hundred people such as Grantham, Murphys Creek, Gatton, Laidley etc. Grantham was the worst hit, about 100 residents I think from memory 18 people died there, including many entire families of 2-3 generations. The Flash Flooding is a major cause of what Flooded Brisbane, including the 650mm of rain we had over the catchment area in 24 hours.
Our dam (Wivenhoe) normally holds 1,495,000 megalitres of water but can hold a total of 2,900,000 megalitres effectively doubling it's capacity during flood, during the 2011 event the dam got to 194% full and was approximately 0.5m from topping the emergency relief gates which are just plugs in the dam wall which are designed to blow if the dam is at danger of over topping which would have meant our flood would have been atleast 2-3m or more higher if this happened. It only got to 4.5m in the city reaches but was around 20m high 50km west of the CBD.
Anyway enough about that!
Today is Monday, September 19th, 2011!!!
Good Morning...
We are supposed to get up to 66F under the dull rainy skies today....right now we are at 51F...
I'm going to get some more w**k done at w**k later on today..then it is orff to get some evening classes done...
Ray: Sign...sign...everywhere a sign...no, Flo, I'll zipper my lips...no for me....
Flo, I'll have a coffee and a breakfast bagel for now please...no...not the 25lb one...the regular sized on ...sheeesh...oh no..nothing nothing.......I'll be at the RC for now.....
Good morning.
44*. This is what now, the fourth or fifth morning of blowing the new furnace to "take the chill of the trailer"??? Glad we had it put in...glad it was BEFORE the flood as the heating/ac guys will be BUSY the next few months getting new ones into houses that flooded, but were easy to clean up. Pretty soon MOH will wnat to tape the plastic over the windows...I feel suffocated until temps drop down to where it is cold continuously outside. I like to open the windows let some cool air in when it gets to hot in here. By endof Nov. we will take out the A/c in master br. and cover/insulate inside teh A/c in LR.
MOH gets chilled easily and is a skinny minnie. I have a few pounds to be lost, LOL. I say put on yuor robe, but *sigh* my words often fall on deaf ears.
I call the Health Dept. to find out if boil water advisory over. MCD's down the road and the nearby Dunkin donuts were NOT open yesterday AM as I drove by. Dunkind DOnuts has had its...like 3rd or 4th flood now..I don't know if they reopen or not, they were hauling damaged stuff out. McD's....well they may have escaped flood as the attached Sunoco gasstation/convenience store was open, but McD's may nto yet have been certified to reopen. All restaurants have to be re-certified to reopen. McDs an Sunoco on Higher ground than Dunkin...who shoulda built ground up before building buiding!!!
Well, will go now...supposed to be near 70, if not low 70s today...will be nice change from chill we've had.
Stop over to my thread "Layout time: now that Labor Day is over & kids back in school..." to tell us when/if you get more time in the train room and what you will work on next! Tell us about it in my new thread! It only has one reply now...lets add more to it!
Talk at you all later...
mmmmm..interesting...someone just dragged the original coffeehouse thread up from wherever and posted on it...I thought it was locked?
Good Morning!! Happy Monday, September 19, 2011. Cards are in the mail, so be expecting them.
Coffee and the fruit platter please. Thanks.
Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 74. Local guesser says rain and T-storms. Any bets on who’s right?
Didn’t do much yesterday, I’m feelin a bit guilty. Been doing a lot of that here lately. I did go into town with Brenda to Sam’s Club so she could pick up more snacks for the farmers. She does that during harvest. Gives them something to munch on.
DerJohn- Below 70 inside is a bit chilly for me. If I’m up and doing something, no it’s fine, but when I’m sitting in my chair of an evening (hope to get to do that this winter), it’s a bit chilly and I like to be comfortable in my home when I relax. Not bundled up to stay warm, so we usually keep the winter temp to about 72. Sock weather. We tried the lowering the temp a few, several now I guess, years ago to see about saving a few bucks on the heating and compared to year before usage. Taking all things in consideration, temps, fuel prices etc, I could see no real difference in the cost of heating our home. I know that I was not that accurate in comparing temps and prices corresponding to usage, so I could be off a bit either way, but the savings was really nothing. IN OUR CASE. Others, of course, may be different. Whatever it was, we decided it was not worth it and better to nix the blankets and sweaters to watch Tv and raise the temp a bit.
The way I figure it, and this is my uneducated guess as I haven’t researched it, but if my thermostat works on a 2 degree cycle, the furnace would run as long raising the temp from 67 to 69 degrees (or whatever it’s breaks are), as it would from 71 to 73. I don’t see how that could save any money. May be why I saw no savings. Again, this is my experience in MY situation.
Galaxy- We do not live on a river nor in a flood zone, but the State of Illinois, with the blessing of Uncle Sam allowed me to spend over a month on the Sny levy district along the Mississippi back in ’93. I am quite familiar with what water can do and I was there when the unfortunate folks in the town of Hull lost their homes. Many have returned and because it was a small town they did not have the large scale losses like in the larger towns around you. It is still sad none the less when you see a persons eyes who has just lost their home and everything they own except what would fit in a car or truck bed. Actually, I didn’t have to stay as long as I did…, but I did.
Inquisitive…...yes, inquisitive is good. I like that.
Wow. That is odd Barry. I just posted out of curiousity because it did show the little lock and said it was locked. But, it took my post. What’s weirder is after I posted, the little lock went away. Looks like a job for….ULRICH!! Oh well, at least I can say I was in the Original Coffee Shop Thread. YES!
Morning Folks
Diet Dew Flo, and thank you.
Got a few things to do today. Most pressing thing is to get the VCR hooked up for Sue. So as you can see not a lot to do.
Today is the second day in a row that we are getting rain. If he grass does not come around this time it dead.
Ulrich Thanks for clearing up the bent station house post. I did not think you would leave a bent post like that!
Jeffery Glad you got the computer reformatted. Something I should do, this one just has way to much junk on it.
Galaxy I grew up along the banks of White River in Carmel Ind so I know about flooding. Our house was 20 feet above the river. While I lived at home, river never made it into the house. But, got into the basement many times. When the river went down, I would find dead fish in the basement. Guess who got to clean them out?
Good morning, Chloe. I slept past my alarm this morning, so just a quick coffee before I take off.
Looks like everyone had a busy weekend. We went to my office picnic on Saturday in Portland at Oaks Park. We rode the rides most of the day. My favorite was the 360 degree roller coaster. Larry's was the Screaming Eagle. I don't remember staggering as much after the ride when I was a kid. Oh well.
The clinic Friday evening was on resin casting. It was good information.
Later, Sue
EDIT: I buy. Coffee & Cinnamon rolls for everyone, Chloe.
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Thanks, Sue, for the cinnamon roll and the coffee - just what I need now to keep me going after a boring day in the STALAG.
Good Afternoon Folks,
Checked my emails and there it was, the notification that my waterfall module has made first place in this year´s summer project party. It received 75% of all the votes. That made me really proud of my achievement. Never before have I won anything - except Petra, who is the biggest win I could ever take home (hope she is not reading this, now that she knows how to run this dang PC).
The prize is a set of 12 Japanese style buildings, which I can make good use of. Had I known that a little earlier I would not have ordered the houses, which have not yet arrived. In any case, I´ll have a few more modules left to build before the layout is finished. I don´t think that much will happen this year, though, I have pretty much depleted all my available funds for lumber, glue and all the bric a´brac you need for constructing a layout.
Galaxy - I´ll bet that Dunkin´ Donuts now hands out their soggy donuts for free . I hope you´ll return to "normality" soon. The last big flood we had in our neck of woofs was in 1962, costing 315 lives.
Authorities have learned their lesson since.
John - for the time being, I have dumped the idea of employing a highway overpass as a kind of view block and to add some drama to the module. I might revisit the issue at a later date though, but I´d rather spend th little $$ I have on building more modules instead of investing $ 60 into the Rix products highway overpass.
Ken - actually, there is a slight bend in the mast, but it the other way around. I might replace those flimsy looking catenary mast that came with the station building kit with more rrugged once I already have.
James - I have seen some awful pictures of those flash floods on youtube, clearing a parking lot of its cars within minutes
Barry - now did I get something wrong when you talk about relations from Germany and clearing out junk
J.R. - I am not sure whether I´ll be stringing wire. I might use E-Z line for that, if I find a source in Germany. I have seen working N scale catenary on German prototype layouts, but the cost is forbidding.
Well, you all have a good one!