Good morning. It's 77° with 91% humidity. The high will be 92°.I have nothing scheduled for today. I'm still a bit sore from the archeological expedition into the closet yesterday. I found things I didn't know I still had. I even found my old high school diploma. Much of today will be used for watching movies, working on computers (old and new) and I may work on the layout later.
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
Good MorningKinda dull and muggy out here this morning...going for a high of 83 feeling like 98 later on...welcome to summer 2013!!Well, here I be in front of laptop and who decides right then to come up and start schmoozing? The little Spring of course!! lol! So I be typing this chicken wing style! It is going to be a resting weekend here after all the battles with the lair of doom...there still is a full complement of yuckiness to contend with in there so come Monday I'll be back to arguing with that place...I'm even thinking of putting up a sign over the door...Hic qui in vobis spes relinquatur....abandon all hope ye who enter here.
for those who lost loved ones and those undergoing the weather extreme out in Alberta...
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/
Morning guys,
Scary situation out west in Calgary. Hope all you guys out there stay safe and dry. Looks like a lot of people took the advice and evacuated.
Weather here is going to get quite warm and humid today, 81 but feeling like 97 and a good chance of storms later in the day with the day time heating, and the heat and humidity will stay around until at least Tuesday. I managed to do all the yard work yesterday knowing that it will be uncomfortable over the next few days. Does anybody know how to get rid of little brown ants? I have them at the side of the house, I keep spraying but they come back?? I haven't had any in the house but don't want to have to keep spraying everyday. Anybody have any tips?
Well, going to grab a cup of coffee and do the vacuuming and work on the layout. Might turn the A/C a notch lower to cool it down a bit more before the sun starts cooking the house
Be back later on.
Morning coffee in the diner...
GOOD SAtURDAY MORNING!!!
Today is Saturday, June 22nd, 2013!!!
I will light the prayer candles at 9 am for those in need...
MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!!!
DEAD AS A DOORNAIL:
Meaning:
Dead, devoid of life (when applied to people, plants or animals). Finished with, unusable (when applied to inanimate objects).
Origin:
The simple versions:
Before the days of the electric or mechanical doorbells, anyone coming to the house was to pound on a metal knocker that was nailed to the front door. Sometimes it took a lot of heavy whacks to get attention. This meant that the nails holding the metal plate on the door got a lot of wear, eventually having the life pounded out of them and they would fall out. Today anything that is totally withered or a failed project or a situation that is hopeless is considered to be as 'dead as a doornail'.
Alternate origin: Nails were in short supply and high demand in colonial times. People would go out at night and steal the nails from their neighbor's doors. To prevent this from happening, the ends of the nails on the inside were bent and hammered down to prevent them from being pulled out from the outside. The nail was said to be dead and the act was called 'deadening the nail'. It could not be removed and all other uses of that nail were eliminated....i.e. the nail was 'dead'.
The REAL reason:
This is old - at least 14th century. There's a reference to it in print in 1350, in a translation by William Langland of the French poem Guillaume de Palerne:
"For but ich haue bote of mi bale I am ded as dorenayl."
Langland also used the expression in the much more famous poem The Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman, circa 1362:
Fey withouten fait is febelore þen nouȝt, And ded as a dore-nayl. [Faith without works is feebler than nothing, and dead as a doornail.]
The expression was in widespread colloquial use in England by the 16th century, when Shakespeare gave these lines to the rebel leader Jack Cade in King Henry VI, Part 2, 1592:
Look on me well: I have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more. There are several 'as dead as...' idioms, amongst the most notable examples being 'dead as a dodo' and 'as dead as mutton'. Dodos and mutton are unquestionably dead, but why doornails are cited as a particular example of deadness isn't so obvious. Doornails are the large-headed studs that were used in earlier times for strength and more recently as decoration. The practice was to hammer the nail through and then bend the protruding end over to secure it. This process, similar to riveting, was called clenching. This may be the source of the 'deadness', as such a nail would be unusable afterwards. Dickens was among the celebrated authors who liked the phrase and made a point of musing on it in A Christmas Carol Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind that we should say that we don't know, of our personal own knowledge, what there is particularly 'dead' about a door-nail. We might be inclined, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and our hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. We shall therefore use the phrase we are all familiar with, that 'Marley was as dead as a door-nail'. Doornails have been top of the 'as dead as' pops since the 1300s. Perhaps it's time for a 21st century upgrade? Given the of communications, perhaps in the future our 'phone' converstaions will be recorded through indwelling bio-software, so we'll put out an early bid for 'as dead as a smart phone'. Perhaps in time our generation will be remembered for coining that phrase. Mind you, the children will ask 'what is a smart phone?'.
Look on me well: I have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more.
There are several 'as dead as...' idioms, amongst the most notable examples being 'dead as a dodo' and 'as dead as mutton'. Dodos and mutton are unquestionably dead, but why doornails are cited as a particular example of deadness isn't so obvious.
Doornails are the large-headed studs that were used in earlier times for strength and more recently as decoration. The practice was to hammer the nail through and then bend the protruding end over to secure it. This process, similar to riveting, was called clenching. This may be the source of the 'deadness', as such a nail would be unusable afterwards.
Dickens was among the celebrated authors who liked the phrase and made a point of musing on it in A Christmas Carol
Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind that we should say that we don't know, of our personal own knowledge, what there is particularly 'dead' about a door-nail. We might be inclined, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and our hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. We shall therefore use the phrase we are all familiar with, that 'Marley was as dead as a door-nail'. Doornails have been top of the 'as dead as' pops since the 1300s. Perhaps it's time for a 21st century upgrade? Given the of communications, perhaps in the future our 'phone' converstaions will be recorded through indwelling bio-software, so we'll put out an early bid for 'as dead as a smart phone'. Perhaps in time our generation will be remembered for coining that phrase. Mind you, the children will ask 'what is a smart phone?'.
Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Mind that we should say that we don't know, of our personal own knowledge, what there is particularly 'dead' about a door-nail. We might be inclined, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and our hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. We shall therefore use the phrase we are all familiar with, that 'Marley was as dead as a door-nail'.
Doornails have been top of the 'as dead as' pops since the 1300s. Perhaps it's time for a 21st century upgrade? Given the of communications, perhaps in the future our 'phone' converstaions will be recorded through indwelling bio-software, so we'll put out an early bid for 'as dead as a smart phone'. Perhaps in time our generation will be remembered for coining that phrase. Mind you, the children will ask 'what is a smart phone?'.
EDIT: Whoops, I got top for this, Eat up guys, and so Daisy, here is my credit card, I assure you it is good, and not 'dead as a doornail'.
-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 evening!
SP Ray ... Good to see you here in the DIner!
V8 Dennis .... We did not know anybody in KY when we moved here several years ago. It's very friendly here, and we had no troubles finding friendships including model railroaders.
Mr. B. .... I like New England, and I think you will do well in NH or Maine. You should be able to ski several places including NH.
Cdn Dennis .... Sounds like you are near Red Deer. ... I looked at the link to the Calgary flood. Reminds me of the 2010 Nashville Flood. We are down river (Cumberland River) from Nashville and the water's edge came within only about 12 feet of the corner of our house. That was disturbing because that was too close to my layout.
This photo was taken in Lebanon, TN east of Nashville in 2010.
Here is corner of the house in 2010. Water got closer next couple of days. JimCG was here to see the layout when the storms were in the area a few days before this photo was taken. I was hoping to find Elvis' guitar which floated away from a Nashville museum display during the storms. No such lick. The Chapel Car will be coupled to the DIner. Prayers for Calgary flood victims.
Here is corner of the house in 2010. Water got closer next couple of days.
JimCG was here to see the layout when the storms were in the area a few days before this photo was taken. I was hoping to find Elvis' guitar which floated away from a Nashville museum display during the storms. No such lick. The Chapel Car will be coupled to the DIner. Prayers for Calgary flood victims.
JimCG was here to see the layout when the storms were in the area a few days before this photo was taken. I was hoping to find Elvis' guitar which floated away from a Nashville museum display during the storms. No such lick.
The Chapel Car will be coupled to the DIner. Prayers for Calgary flood victims.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Well it's been a busy day. Watched a couple of movies then unpacked the closet and reorganized it. I threw out some of the torn up track from the layout. Can't make much use of it when the rails are ripped off it. Did a little work on the old Apple computer. I've been using a speaker wire for the video wire to the monitor. Today I found the proper video wire and installed it. The video image is a little crisper now.
V8Vega Have any of you ever moved to a town where you knew absolutely no one? With no relatives or friends nearby? Especially if your retired with no interaction with people at work how do you get to know people? You can't live in isolation. I go to church so that is a obvious place for me to meet people. Whats your experience? I see I got the top so buy the most expensive thing on the menu and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
Have any of you ever moved to a town where you knew absolutely no one? With no relatives or friends nearby? Especially if your retired with no interaction with people at work how do you get to know people? You can't live in isolation. I go to church so that is a obvious place for me to meet people. Whats your experience?
I see I got the top so buy the most expensive thing on the menu and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
SP Ray
SPMan
Heartland Division CB&QMr. B .... Where do you think you might end up if you leave Taxachussetts?
We're thinking New Hampshire or Maine. The skiing will be important for a few more years, we hope. New Hampshire is great for low taxes, but we love Maine for the skiing and the coastline. Neither of us cares for the hot-weather regions very much.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Evenin' folks....
Aaaaaahhhhhh, Janie I'll have a cup of decaf please and a seat in the back booth to relax a bit.
Dennis looks like Calgary has had a bit of wetness..... Hope things get back to normal soon. Wow!
It has been a busy day here... I vacuumed the kitchen and bathroom, mopped the floor and cleaned the bathroom from top to bottom, started up the old snow blower on the porch, killed a couple wasp nests that were built in it, then ran it down off the porch where I will offer it for sale tomorrow. Got out the rest of my tables to use for the yard sale and set them up, finished mowing the lawn and used the string trimmer in all the appropriate places. Had to go get my allergy shot, then stop at Tops to buy a couple birthday cards, then came home and got out several more boxes of junk for the sale. Somewhere in the midst of all this I made a potato salad for the birthday party for Granddaughter #1 tomorrow afternoon.
My son from Chicago is in town for several days on vacation. He stopped ion tonight and we went out to dinner. Both sons will be helping me tomorrow for the lawn sale.
Have a great night. My prayers for all in need.
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Evening Dinners
Flo, Beer Pleases.
Sorry I have missed of late. With being on the Mopar site, and the long drive home I have not kept up with the dinner news.
Few things happening in my life.
Work Front Seems I have gotten a $189.00 a week raise while I am working in St Charles Mo. I don't know if it is just while I am in St Charlies or if I get to keep it where ever I go. But it does make the hour drive worth while. I will believe the rises when I see it on my pay-stub I will add!
Road Runner Front. While I really would like to keep her, one of the folks on the Mopar site has offered me $8,000.00 for her. That is a lot of money! But the big thing is do I have one more car left in me! Plus with the trains taking up the garage it is a big pain working on her in the summer heat!
I am off Saturday, so I will try to catch up on what is going on.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
As some of you know I live about 100 miles north of Calgary Alberta, Canada's 5th largest city of well over 1 million people. The whole south 1/3 of the province has been experiencing extremely heavy rain up into the mountains to the west. The snow pack has not melted because of a very cold spring. Here is a picture of the downtown core of the City of Calgary.
images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTDejxuPgg6JukFwhSFKhkUnmDO1 kit4jf7twOzByXGaKQ9ICc
They have close to 100,000 people evacuated.
The Canadian Pacific RR main line to the west coast is closed indefinably due to washouts, mud slides etc.
The Trans Canada Highway to the west of Calgary is also totally closed for a 200 mile stretch as well.
Not a pretty sight.
Dennis
CDN Dennis
Modeling the HO scale something or other RR in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies Alberta, Canada
well'
I am one more tooth-less.
Half the tooth came out OK, the other half took about 35- 45 mins to get out. SO...
I have great bone structure {ask my dentist} but bad teeth. One parent still has good teeth, but the other had rotted-out teeth so I am in the middle, I get my teeth for half my life, the rest i have falsies...
I am tired, no beat is the word the spinal nerve injections yesterday the tooth today..yep beat and beat up a little...
well, MOH will be very late for dinner as FIL had a company picnic to go to, so MOH has to sit with MIL...much to my other half's chagrin, needless to say after a long day at work.I have dinner..soft stuff for me waiting for MOH...
well off to bed early I think...real early...
Italian Roast coffee in a DAYLIGHT mug, please.
***Jerry, well Howdy! Hpe you are doing well these days and don't be a stranger. Nice pic.
***Ray, Chloe aught to be flattered we notice her.
Time for me to add a second coat of sheetrock mud to the wall patches in the Train Room.
Have a good day all.
Cheers! Rob
Howdy ..
It's first day of summmer. How about some Bait Shop Pizza for dinner? Yum!
Mr. B .... Where do you think you might end up of you leave Taxachussetts?
We ended up retired in Land Between the Lakes area in western KY. It's sort of in the middle of relatives scattered over a wide area in MI, OH, TN, KY, NC, AL, and AZ. ("Flyover country") ... I have sometimes thought I would like to be in Wyoming because of a good tax situation, great scenery, and trains to watch (UP and BNSF)., but that won't happen. ..... Western KY is a terrific place, but no trains. I can watch barge tows and river freighters instead while hoping they don't break a highway bridge again.
Dennis -- We will also be retiring, probably next year. My wife has already left her salaried teaching job, and will be doing her after-school art program for the Rec Department for another year. I figure I'll work another year. I don't have to leave, but I'll be 67 and I'm tired of getting up that early every morning.
We'll be moving out of state, too, to get away from the high taxes in Massachusetts. I plan to join a train club. We're both still avid skiers, and I hope to do more bicycling, too, so those are both ways to meet people. When we got married, we joined a local gourmet group - food and friends, what could be better?
Morning All,
Currently it is 57 with an expected high of 79 under sunny skies.
The area I live in is starting up a new Neighborhood Watch program, since we had a few murders here a few weeks ago. I hate to be skeptical, but the perp lived in the area, and so I do not know if it would have made a difference.
May wire a few of the toggle switches for the turnouts today, maybe not. Depends on what else I need to actually get accomplished.
Jerry - Welcome back.
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
I did that TWICE.
Once to take opportunity of jobs available and once tot get out of there when the economy there tanked.
Both times when I got there, I worked 2 jobs to makeup on old bills so as to not be behind or bankrupt so I had little time to get to know anyone but my coworkers. But in time, I met people and moved on with life.
MOH and are planning hopefully to retire to another state...and will know no one there either and most likely won't be working.
Join groups besides church. LOOK for Senior centers and senior groups. Join BINGO. Look in the local papers under "happenings" and GO. Chat up your neighbors! DO anything but sit in the house and mope!
Good morning. It's 76° with 81% humidity. The heat index is 90°. The high today will be 92°.There's no layout work scheduled for today. This will be mostly a day of rest for me. There are several movies on the DVR that I want to watch. 'White hunter, black heart' is one of them. Directed and produced by and starring Clint Eastwood. It's a thinly disguised account of a writers experiences working with John Huston while he made the film The African Queen, which was shot on location in Africa at a time when location shoots outside of the United States for American films were very rare. I may sort out some things in the closet later. It needs a good rummaging through as there's probably a lot of junk in there I don't need. I don't want to end up with Fibber McGee's closet.
Judging by the time you made that post JeremyB, she had already passed. My family lost an American Fox Hound just a few months back, and it's likely she died from cancer since she showed symptoms. Spunky didn't.
Anyway, good morning.
Don't have any planes for today. May get some work done on the Mustang and Spitfire.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Route of the Black Diamond Express, John Wilkes and Maple Leaf.
-Jake, modeling the Barclay, Towanda & Susquehanna.
jeffrey-wimberlyThat would be true if I were to get married. Since I haven't I have no mother-in-law. I have a step mother
More coffee for me, please. Lots more coffee.
MisterBeasleyJeffrey - congratulations on the new mother-in-law.
Happy first day of summer!
How about some Redneck Pancakes? .... I'll Barry-size them if you prefer.
Mr. B .... The caboose was a thoughtful gift. Thanks for showing. Jerry .... Nice GM&O loco and caboose. I like the GM&O red and while paint scheme. Have a great day!
Mr. B .... The caboose was a thoughtful gift. Thanks for showing.
Jerry .... Nice GM&O loco and caboose. I like the GM&O red and while paint scheme.
Have a great day!
Good Morning
Today is going to be another sunny day...high 77F feeling like 88F...
Today is another day of cleaning up the lair of doom...this time with a respirator...too many pieces of my lungs went out of me last night....
Have a good'un!!
Good Morning!!!
Coffee and the breakfast pile please, thanks.
Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 92. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Jerry- Good to see you again. Layout looks great.
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! My daughter made me this for Fathers' Day. She took a ceramics class in her last semester at college, and thought this would be a fun thing to make. (She did "serious" projects, too.)
Lovely weather the next few days, with a chance of thundershowers. Even that would be lovely, as I won't have to water the lawn, and there's still plenty of time to do outdoor stuff earlier in the day. I need to buy a replacement air conditioner, and a #6 left turnout and some beer and wine, so I'll be visiting a variety of purveyors tomorrow.
Jeffrey - congratulations on the new mother-in-law.
My computer project is my daughter's old laptop, a Hewlett-Packard that's about 6 or 7 years old. It came with Vista, and over the years it's just gotten slower and slower. I removed all the junk last night, but then got back to an old problem - Vista machines don't like to "see" XP machines on home networks. So, I'm thinking of putting XP on the laptop. I've got an old copy of XP from a machine I de-commissioned last year, so it's even going to be "street legal."
Morning Coffee in the diner..
GOOD FRIDAY MORNING!!!
Today is Friday, June 21st, 2013!!!
I wil light the prayer candles at 9 AM for those in need...Haven't been having too many requests lately, they must be working!
GO OFF AT HALF-COCK or GO OFF HALF COCKED:
Speak or act prematurely
ORIGIN:
Flintlock firearms have a 'cock', or striker mechanism, which is held in a raised, sprung position ready to discharge and make a flint spark to 'fire' the gun. These can be set at half-cock, when the gun is in a safe state, or at full-cock, when it is ready to be fired. A gun would only 'go off at half-cock' by mistake.
The term half-cock is as old as flintlock guns and appears in print from the mid 18th century; for example, in John Desaguliers' A course of experimental philosophy 1734–44:
"The gun being at Half-Cock, the Spring acts upon the Tumbler with more Advantage."
The earliest known citation of the phrase 'going off at half-cock' comes from London and Its Environs Described, 1761:
"Some arms taken at Bath in the year 1715, distinguished from all others in the Tower, by having what is called dog locks; that is, a kind of lock with a catch to prevent their going off at half-cock."
We now commonly use 'go off at half-cock' or, in America, 'go off half-cocked', to mean 'speak or act impulsively and without proper preparation'. This clearly alludes to the sudden discharge of a firearm. Despite that, the first figurative use of the phrase had a completely different meaning. When the 'half-cocked' imagery was first appropriated it was to mean tipsy, or half-drunk. This was the meaning intended in John Shebbeare's novel Lydia, 1786:
"Who should enter unto the company, but young Captain Firebrace, half-cocked... come hither to finish his evening's potation."
There doesn't appear to be any particular link between the mechanics of firearms and drunkenness. Several other 'half' phrases were also used in the 18th century to mean 'half-drunk'. 'Half-seas-over' was a nautical term that is listed in the first slang dictionary BE's Dictionary of the Canting Crew, circa 1700, with the meaning 'almost drunk'. Another example is 'half-and-half', which, in addition to being the name of a mixture of equal parts ale and porter, was also listed as a term meaning 'tipsy'.
This meaning of 'half-cocked' was taken up with particular enthusiasm in Australia. Clearly, they felt they hadn't enough terms for drunkenness and wanted to expand their repertoire. Fergus Hume's Madame Midas: a story of Australian mining life, 1888, explained the term:
"This last drink reduced Mr. Villiers to that mixed state which is known in colonial phrase as half-cocked."
By 1888, the rest of the English-speaking world had opted for the current meaning of 'half-cock' and 'half-cocked'; for example, in To-day in Ireland, 1825:
"Master Dillon - never let an insult go off half-cock."
Across the Atlantic, The Register of Debates in Congress, 1833, recorded the opinions of Dutee Pearce of Rhode Island:
"I regret that the gentleman from Maryland has gone off half cocked."
Good Evening...
The lair of doom has kinda been beaten back...well...sort of...we found a slew of unidentifiable...ermm...things in there that must have been in there from before we even bought the place......old archival boxes with what appear to be old ledger books and some odd manuals...from a PDP810....mmmmm...so...tomorrow will be another day of working out what exactly lurks in that doom-ridden lair....
Lehigh Valley 2089Also think Spunky has had it. Doesn't seem to be breathing or moving at all now, nor is she responding.
Spunky isn't very spunky, is she?
Our Tillie is 18 years old, and that is old for a cat. When she passes, we will bury her in the orchard next to Baer and Butterscotch.
But she survived the winter, and is now scampering about the yard, but mostly lying in the sun, or if it is hot, in the shade.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Well we had a very nice back yard wedding. It was a very good turnout. I had intended to get some photos for myself but that was not to be. My father had me busy taking photos with his Wal-Mart throw away specials. We had a very good reception and dinner afterward. My sister and I were busy witnessing the documents for a while but that was finally done.In other news I did some work on the Apple today. I started it up with my Z80 disk but it wasn't going to start up in CP/M. I had to pull the Z80 chip and cleaned the legs and sockets then put it back in and did the startup again and now it works. I have a bunch of CP/M programs somewhere. That gotta be in the closet someplace.Well I'm tired and it's time to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.
Lehigh Valley 2089 Well, ended up not doing anything today other than resting. Don't regret it, would be able to focus better in the morning anyway. Also think Spunky has had it. Doesn't seem to be breathing or moving at all now, nor is she responding.
Well, ended up not doing anything today other than resting. Don't regret it, would be able to focus better in the morning anyway.
Also think Spunky has had it. Doesn't seem to be breathing or moving at all now, nor is she responding.
Its always a sad time when your pet is at the end. Can you take him to a vet to see what they say?