Elliot's Trackside Diner, DECEMBER, 2012!

[galaxy]

Monring coffee with friends in the Diner

GOOD MORNING!!!

Today is Sunday, December 2, 2012

{Only 20 more days left til the end of the world according to the Mayans}

Ever feel like a nincompoop??

The word "nincompoop" has certainly earned its ranking as one of the most enjoyable words to pronounce in the English language, regardless of the fact that no one quite knows how or when it was coined.  Essentially, a word describes a fool, a stupid person whose incompetence or naïveté is quite apparent. It is often used to describe people of a much lower social ranking, although some may describe an unpopular or incompetent leader as an "utter nincompoop."  For others, the word could be used interchangeably with other pejoratives such as "nimrod," "ninny" or "numb skull."  In military circles, an incompetent non-commissioned officer may be called a "noncompoop".

The origin of this word is a matter of speculation, although there are a few interesting theories.  One of the earliest literary uses of "nincompoop" occurred in a 1676 play called The Plain Dealer, written by British playwright William Wycherley.  One character scolds another, calling him a "senseless, impertinent, quibbling, drivelling, feeble, paralytic, impotent, fumbling, frigid nincompoop."  Even earlier references contain the variant spellings "nicompoop" and "nickumpoop."

Some have speculated that the word is a nonsense word that combines elements of other words implying ignorance or stupidity.  The word "ninny," for example, was a corruption of "innocent," meaning a naïve or gullible person.  In Dutch, the word poop was often used to describe a fool. It is conceivable that the originator of "nincompoop" was seeking to combine several unsophisticated words into one nonsensical but descriptive word.

The prayer candles will be lit as long as we are home

Have a great day!!!

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

Sunday December 2, 2012

TIPTON

[Anonymous]

" Would I know the world to end tomorrow, I´d plant an apple tree today" Martin Luther

Good Morning!

Another drab day here at this end of the Big Pond. No specific plans for the day, maybe my friend Lothar will come over for a cup of coffee and a chat. He´ll be off from work starting December 19th and we  have plans to use some of the time to start assembly of that loco kit of mine. I know I´ll need his help on this one

Have a nice day!

Edit: Jeff - I am sorry to hear your Mom´s fallen into a coma again. Petra´s and my prayers for her!

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning...

Dull and rainy here...temperature about 40F going up to 48F later...in the rain.

Having some friends show up to run some trains around and kibitz for awhile...then of to the diner to see the gang...of course with the ever loving umbrella attached to us'uns...

Jeff:   for your mother...

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Good morning ...

Jeff ..... Sorry to hear about your Mom. Prayers for your Mom, your Dad, You, and other members of your family.

JR .... Happy late b'day and anniversary, but from your post I could not tell when the dates were. Was it while your were globe-trotting?

Ray .... I enjoyed being in the school band very much. I practiced a lot, and tried as hard as I could, but I never was able to overcome a total lack of anything resembling a natural musical talent. So, I admire musicians very much, but I must be realistic be cause for whatever reason I'm not good at music. I sometimes joke about myself and my lack of talent. I was looking forward to seeing my fellow tuba player at my recent 50th class reunion, but sadly he passed away last year. .... I'm glad you are a "singest", and I encourage you to continue. 

Ulrich ..... Upon reading Galaxy's post, I was reminded that you are not qualified to be an elected official. All politicians must be nincompoops. You are not one of those. 

Tropical fish? .... I have done some of that in past years. I still like looking at other people's tropical fish. Now, I try to focus mostly on the train layout with my recreation time. I don't want to be "Jack of all trades and master of none". .... (another phrase for Galaxy to research if he wants). 

Layout progress.  Not a lot, but I am clearing the area for my next section of the layout to be built. 

Have a great Sunday! 

[Anonymous]

Garry - thanks for "upgrading" me into a non-incompoop. Does that qualify me for the role of a king´s jester?

[blownout cylinder]

My mother and myself were involved in a scenario wherein we would discover hoards of Guppies and Neon Tetras whenever we went to clean the aquariums...it was nuts...

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 64° with dense fog and 100% humidity. This morning is mostly cloudy. Later it'll be partly cloudy and 78°.


My plan for today is to do more work on the layout. I need to clean up those those bits of clutter here and there that make it look like a big mess. A pen here, a small brush there, a measuring tape over here, a magnifying glass there, etc.

[Curt Webb]

Morning All,

I did some staring at the layout last night and decided to modify my plan a little but I will probably start on it this coming Friday since I have nothing planned for the day and MOH will be out of town. All my supplies should be in by then. I think we are decorating the tree today.

Ray- The car is at the Roanoke Transportation Museum. Great layout progress and  it is looking great.

Jeff- Interesting roof on the coaling tower. I have been wondering about the new Domino's Pizza, so I will have to give it a try.

Darryl- We had salt water fish in HI. The salt in the mist on top, from the water recirculating caused the painted plasterboard behind the tank to be eaten away. That was pretty much the end of that. I have always liked Cardinal Tetras more than Neon's, but they seem to be harder to find.

JR- Happy belated birthday

Hope everyone has a good day and prayers for those in need.

[Anonymous]

Good Afternoon Gang!

A slow and dull day is slowly coming to an end. It´s been pretty miserable outside. Petra and I went for a short walk, but with temperatures at 32 F and a light drizzle, we did not stay outside for long.

J.R. - a belated to you!

Jeff - I see a crew of experts has started to spread ballast on the tracks. I did not know you were following Soviet prototype - a lot of by-standers, overlooking the work of few

TTFN!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Curt Webb

Jeff- Interesting roof on the coaling tower.

That was fairly easy to make. It's just pieces of aluminum foil cut to appropriate size and pressed against a piece of plastic corrugated roof from a kit then painted a rust color. The colors I used are rusty metal primer, red primer and rusty rail. The first two are Krylon if memory serves. The third is latex house paint.

[howmus]

Afternoon folks!

Chloe, I'll have the turkey club sandwich and a cup of hot chocolate for lunch pleas...

Communion Sunday and Advent Sunday at church this morning.  Last official Communion Service for our retiring pastor.  (We celebrate Communion once a month, usually the first Sunday of the month.)  Handbell Choir played the anthem this morning and did a beautiful job, I might add.  The Offertory was done by our Men's Gospel Quartet...  They always remind me of, "Gloom, Despair, Agony on Me..."  They do have fun, just not my cup of tea I guess.

Barry, duh!  I misspoke yesterday.  It was Cardinal Tetras I was one of the first to breed in captivity.  They are still difficult to breed in captivity.  back then they were all caught in the wild and imported.  Did a lot of depletion of the wild stock, and only a small percentage survived the trip to the US from what I have read.  I have a 55 gallon tank sitting in my living room just waiting for me to get the urge (and $$$) to put back in operation.  I have a 20 gal tank that has just two old fish in it now.  One is a Clown Loach, and the other a Corydoras Catfish. 

Thanks Curt!

Speaking of Gloomy...  Dark, and gloomy outside today with light rain falling from time to time.  Temperature is 50°F so it is a bit warm to fire up the wood stove.  Guess I will spend a bit of time cleaning the house, then head down cellar to do the wash and play with trains...

73

[galaxy]

Did I miss a B'Day or anniversary? SORRY!

who had em!!!

 

 

Sir Madog

 

Jeff - I see a crew of experts has started to spread ballast on the tracks. I did not know you were following Soviet prototype - a lot of by-standers, overlooking the work of few

Well, then, the USA Major construction workers have been following the "soviet Model" for years then!!!

How many men does it take to replace 2 ties and some ballast? 16!!! One to dig out the tie, one to pull it, one to put in new one, and 3 managers,  3 Supervisors, 3 Inspectors to watch, and 4 nicompoops who are on break!!!!

 

Tropical fish...at one time i had about 12 fish tanks going and was "growing" them for a local dealer...until I got wise and tired of it...it wasn't supporting itself enough. It was a nice hobby while it lasted, but trains are better!

 

Have a migraine as a stgrom system moved through with rain! Warm out thogh, and the furnace isn't running its heart out..speaking of which I have a  service call in for for tomorrow it as it doens't run right now. More $$ out the door!

 

[blownout cylinder]

Good Afternoon...

So, did we get rained on? Oh yes.....and fogged on as well...

And, we managed three hours of running time with no derailments, turnouts not turning out or anything!! yay!!

The trip to the diner was fun...you could actually see the fog rolling in from south of us..and now the town is completely fogged in for the evening...funny...the weather network has us as partly cloudy...hhhmmmnn...

Oh well...from fogged in Londontown...have a good evening!!

[Burlington Northern #24]

let's see, come up with a short op, name my BN hockey stick passenger train, finish my service station, gle the broken house back together, make a list of coupler conversions needed, think of a topic for my next video, finish putting the artificial grass down, clean the track, etc. 

the only thing I have done is moved my layout back to my bedroom and place it next to my bed, that's the only thing done.  times running.

[Curt Webb]

Evening All,

Well I ended  up working on my layout today for about 4 hours doing the tedious take apart items when making a major change. I probably cleared of about 70% of what I need to do. I figure there will be 4 different projects this time to get it done. (1. Yard, 2. Outside Main, 3. Inside Main, 4. Lower end of reverse loop).

 

1. Center crossover goes away.

2. Inside Main loop widens to the right track of the crossover.

3. Outside Main loop widens to furthest left track of the yard.

4. Next yard lead to the right connects to the TT lead in bottom of picture.

 

1. Bottom left track joins turnout which connects to the track on the left side of tower (outside main).

2. Track on right side of tower connects with lower right track (inside main).

 

Hope I didn't bore everyone. Hope everyone has a good night and prayers for those in need.

 

[cudaken]

 Just a quick Hello, to tired to type.

 Ken

[kbkchooch]

Good evening diners and dinettes!

Was a beeeeeeuiiitiful day outside today. Temp was just shy of 60, making building the bench work for the Grandsons 1st layout comfortable!  Had to build a traditional 4x8 platform in 2 4x4 sections. Their father doesn't think a 4x8 will make the turns needed to go down in their basement. Whatever!

Also got leaves chopped, and some Christmas decorations up. I'll hang some more tomorrow, and start decorating the boys 1st layout tomorrow, after I make a morning appointment in downtown Baltimore (yech) Gonna take the Metro downtown, I like my car too much to drive there!!

Tomorrow is supposed to be in the low 60's, then even warmer Tuesday! Hmm, I still have a few vacation days coming. Maybe i wont go back til Thursday

SWMBO calling,,,gotta run! 

[GMTRacing]

Good Evening All,

  Thanks for the birthday wishes..  For the record, my birthday and anniversary are Dec 1. Pretty clever eh? Can't forget the anniversary that way. I can't claim credit for the idea though. My fathers birthday and anniversary were also December 1st.

   Today must have been a good day for layout work. You've  got some ambitious plans Curt. Jeff the  cleaned up stuff is looking good. I can relate to the clutter that just happpens.

    For my part I got the Prodigy Advance 2 up and a train to run around the outer tracks on the upper level. In both directions and backing up. Not a golden spike moment but a step forward none the less. I ran the New Haven I-5 and a pair of pullman passanger cars one 6 axel heavyweight and one 4 axel streamlined. Even with  curve radiai as large as possible, the Walthers cars are still a tight fit. but they all made it around without derailing or whacking anything so I was happy. The plan is to prove the bottom main line next after installing the drops for the buss there then install and prove the sidings. The yard and turntable will be last. With my schedule this is taking forever but at least I'm making some progress. 

    With all this talk of aquariums and fish tanks, I must confess I'm happier catching or eating fish than raising them . I never saw the attraction of fish as pets. On the other hand I bet your fish didn't continually bnip at you like my first dog (a Cocker Spaniel) did. Cats suited us for a long time afte that until I met the CFO who came with a Husky/Shepard mix who hti it off with me right away. Debs was my constant companion after that going to work with me every day. Guess I made my peace with the canine world as we've mostly had dogs since then.

   So much for my day. I need to get some sleep as tomorrow starts early.  CUL, J.R. 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

My father and I went to KFC for dinner tonight. Going through New Llano we were behind a 4x4 truck. We didn't need to see the name on it to know it was a Dodge. A 318 has a very distinctive sound.

My mother has been transferred to St Francis Cabrini hospital in Alexandria. She's still in a coma but now there's a new wrinkle. She's going through seizures. She's been an epileptic all her life but hasn't had a seizure for about fifty years. The cause? I think it's because she hasn't been getting enough liquids.

Got some more of the clutter off the layout today. There's still some there but the layout looks a lot better.

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

[howmus]

Evenin' folks!

Janie, just a decaf for me at the moment.

Got a bit of stuff done today in the train room.  Mostly getting ready to tackle the next building items (terrain and scenery) in the same area i have been doing.  I have changed my mind several times on how to best develop the area...  Still not completely sure what I will do.  The clothes got washed and are hanging up drying down there. 

Jeffrey, that doesn't sound good with your mom.  I would think they would be monitoring fluids and electrolytes on her constantly...  My prayers for her and all of your family!

Tomorrow i will be delivering the "holiday" wreath to my sister, help her put away her lawn  mower for the winter, give her the forms I printed for her for her Visa Application to go to Ghana in January, and play with her cat for a bit.  I will then mosey on over to the Toyota dealer and see what kind of deal they will make me on a Prius Plug in Hybred.  Not holding my breath that it will be doable, but just want to see how badly they want to get a car off their lot before the end of the year.

Prayers for all in need!

73

[wetidlerjr]

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It's Monday December 3, 2012

TIPTON

[galaxy]

Morning Coffee in the Diner with friends

GOOD MORNING!!!

Todya is Monday, December 3rd, 2012!!!

A nincompoop may make "NO BONES ABOUT IT"...SO:

Meaning:

To state a fact in a way that allows no doubt. To have no objection to

Origin:

This is another of those ancient phrases that we accept with our mother's milk as an idiom but which seem quite strange when we later give it some thought. When we are trying to convey that we acknowledge or have no objection to something, why bring bones into it?

It has been suggested that the bones were dice, which were previously made from bone and are still called bones in gambling circles. That explanation doesn't stand up to scrutiny - 'to make no dice about it' makes little sense. Also, in a 1542 translation of Erasmus's Paraphrase of Luke he discussed the command given to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and wrote that 'he made no bones about it but went to offer up his son.' Erasmus wasn't noted for his visits to the gaming tables and would hardly have used betting terminology to discuss a biblical text.

The actual source of this phrase is closer to home and hearth. In 15th century England, if someone wanted to express their dissatisfaction with something, they didn't 'make bones about it', they used the original form of the phrase and 'found bones in it'. This is a reference to the unwelcome discovery of bones in soup - bones = bad, no bones = good. If you found 'no bones' in your meal you were able to swallow it without any difficulty or objection.

The earliest citation of the phrase in print comes from the Paston Letters, which include a collection of texts from 1459 relating to a dispute between Paston and the family of the Norfolk soldier Sir John Fastolf (Fastolf was, incidentally, the source of the character Sir John Falstaff in Shakespeare's Henry IV). In the Paston Letters, the context of which is that the litigants are finally accepting a verdict with no objection, Paston includes the line:

"And fond that tyme no bonys in the matere." [and found that time no bones in the matter]

'Making bones' is usually expressed in the negative. There are rare occurrences of people being described as 'making bones' about this or that, and an early example comes from Richard Simpson's The School of Shakspere, 1878:

"Elizabeth was thus making huge bones of sending some £7000 over for the general purposes of the government in Ireland."

'Make no bones about it' is now rather archaic and heard less often than before. It did return briefly during the 1980s, as an example of the 'waiter, I'll have a crocodile sandwich, and make it snappy' form of joke. 'Waiter, I'll have tomato soup and make no bones about it' linked neatly back to the phrase's culinary origin.

 

The prayer Candles will be lit all day 

 

[GMTRacing]

Good Morning All,

    41F and foggy today with a high in the 50's. Back in the shop and catching up on projects.

Jeff - hope the change in venues helps your mom. Sounds like asRay said, they weren't monitoring things well enough where she was. 

    I'll just have a regular to go Zoe and out the door I go. Catch y'll later,   J.R.

[LSWrr]

Good Morning all,

 

I spent all day Saturday reloading the home computer.  I picked up the FBI Malware Virus Thursday night so I bought a malware cleaner on Friday and thought I had everything fixed.  The Malware was sending out a ping on every port trying to contact the outside world and finally found an opportunity to reinstall itself.  So Saturday I pulled the C:\ drive and inserted a new one and started from scratch.  Tonight I’ll scrub the original drive and disk image it for a back-up.

 

Jeff, thoughts and prayers for all of you, hopefully the doctor’s can help out.

 

JR, happy belated Birthday!

 

I have red velvet sword tails for sale: Free sounds like a good price!

 

I’ve had the 55 gallon fresh water tank set up in my den for 12 years now.  I had marble angel fish, tiger barbs, neon tetras, and weather loaches.   The last batch of fish I bought was 4 female red velvet sword tails (after the angel, tiger, and neon’s died).  No males, but the females were pregnant (insert surprised look) when I bought them home.  That was about 4 years ago and now I have about 30 – 40 red velvet sword tails at any one time.  Stop by with a bucket and net and help yourself.  Dorothy and I have been thinking if times get tough about 25 would make a good fish sandwich, LOL.

[blownout cylinder]

Good Morning

Fog still here in Fogville. 37F going up to 55F later on...just in time for more rain be falling on our'n heads...

Off to the doctor's this morning  to pick up a wonderful little 'smear' package then off to the diner to see the gang...then home desperate.....

Have a good day!!!

[TMarsh]

Good Morning!!!

Happy late Birthday J…..R. Boy he was in and out in a hurry wasn’t he.

California. Great.  You know Ray he can’t find anything to eat here.

Only time (othern last time we were “here”) was when they sent me to Ft Irwin where you don’t pick up the native wildlife. They’ll pee and die. Big trouble.

Coffee and an order of lasagna please. Thank y... WAIT!! Regular Italian type with beef and mozzarella and Ricotta cheese. Nothing wild and California-ish. Oh and a salad with western dressing would be nice too thank you.  WAIT!!! Just a regular salad with iceberg lettuce and regular, bottled for the rest of the country, Western dressing.

Ziva?! Where’s Ziva?   oh

OK. That’s it. I’m getting a new mouse today. This is getting silly. When I run the scroll wheel down it now goes up almost as much as down. Scrolling up it does just fine. But down it’s almost dizzying.

Ulrich- People think just waltzing into office with good ideas and honest intentions will suddenly make this big difference. Unfortunatley there needs to be a biiiig house cleaning before that happens. If you want something of yours to get through you have to give into some cock-a-maimy thing they want. If you don’t all your good things won’t fly. Then, come election time, the other party just berates you for voting against your convictions and calling you all sorts of silly names and claiming you to be dishonest so elect another one of our cronies that you can suuuuurely trust. Nincompoops.

Democracy. Still the best system around, but you have to admit. In a dictatorship, you know which one to….um…get rid of    to get some change.

Jeff- Your Mother’s still in my prayers.

Lee- I got the FBI thing a little while back. I just restored the computer to the last saved point. Which, luckily was at midnight the night before. I mean that morning. I mean like 7 hours before. Good thing I remembered I could do that too. I was about ready to go down to the Walmart and get one of those envelopes, stuff it with cash like they said, then send it off to the FBI so I could get back on my computer. Boy was I lucky I tell you what.

Today….. I will spend some time (hopefully) in my office here and clean it up. Then I will go down to Toddland (of which I am king) and begin cleaning it up to get in. I have given up on the house. Brenda just keeps following me around like a puppy and piling CRAP! everywhere I have been. The kitchen counter is full again except for enough room to make a half a sandwich, and the dining room table is once again full. The living room tables have regained their usual pile of stuff and in the bedroom, her pile of clothes has almost matched the size of the bed (slight exaggeration, but not much) .....again. At least I’ll have two places I can go where I can relax and get away from this clutter stuff. Don't get me wrong, I'm not demanding perfectiona nad I am by no means anal about being tidy. But there is a limit to lived in and piled on. There's no excuses this time. No kids to blame, no issues with the death of parents and the sudden infux of stuff to go through before you can decide what to do with it, nothing. Just pure come in, drop it and leave it.I don’t get it. I give up.

Ya’ll have a good day, ya hear!!!!

[TMarsh]

OK so I just scrolled up and it didn't do anything for two spins then shot down half a page.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning. It's 64° with 98% humidity. It'll be mostly cloudy with a small chance of rain. The high will be 78°.


I have $52 with which to do the remainder of the grocery shopping, so I'll be doing that sometime this morning. I may get some layout work in later. I need to get back to work on the grain elevator project. I have to get some glue to seat the silos on a good base that's big enough for the main structure as well.

[galaxy]

Well,

Here I sit

and sit

and sit

waiting for the furnace man/boy to come. I say man/boy because it could be a man {ages 35 and over} or a boy {ages 35 down to 18}!!! The big 5-0 has made me jaded on the fact that many repair man/medical persons now look like they are not old enough to drive, let alone be allowed to fix anything!!!

I will get into some trouble counting out cans/bottles for return of 6.5 cents each, and maybe attack the panty tor try organize it some more.

I can't do anything that makes a lot of noise as I won't then hear the man/boy at the door.

He {or maybe a she???} should be here about 1 pm, but never know when they show up.

 

MOH went to Inlaws to clea a room that FIL siad is full of MOh's schtuff. MOH disagrees...so they will find out who is telling the truth. Problem is, regardless of who's schtuff it is, FIL just dumps/drops everything on the floor and leaves it!!! He does that everywhere and expects others to pick up after him! Now he has the paid NURSE who is supposed to NURSE MIL cleaning up the odd room to which I refer. The NURSE should be NURSING not cleaning house!!! Problem is FIL always had MIL to clean up after him and now she isn't able to of course, and he just makes mess after mess....

Oh well... The house is now, except for this room, clean and HED BETTER MAINTAIN IT, or else he won;'t get paid NURSIG help to help him do the THINGS NURSES are to do!!!

So, of I go to the pantry to count out bottles and cans...