Good evening .....
Mr. B. .... your tribute to your father was well written and very heartwarming. It gave me goose bumps. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Jeff ..... Your photo of the old car in the weeds is quite good. It also reminds me; where is Ken?
Trip to Nashville went well. My heart condition is in a holding pattern where it neither improves nor worsens. ... Shelley was with me in the waiting room. Also, in the waiting room, was our neighbor and his wife. He is recovering from a heart transplant and is doing well. .....Visited with some of Shelley's Nshville family in the afternoon.
No mrr'ing to report today.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
MMMMMMMM,,,Wow, new digs,,,,,Looks nice,,,,,,smells nice,,or is that Cloe's perfume??? But,,,where are we....I don't think were in Michigan any more! This is what i get for dozing off in a booth for 2 days huh??
Nothing much happening here. Put a little excess equipment on ebay today. Stuff that either I have duplicates of, or doesn't fit my modeling scheme.
I also had a chat with the local John Deere dealer. The Model 40 is just too big to keep horsing around the yard, and the Cub Cadet is,,,,well,,,its a Cub. It can only do so much. We came to the determination that an X300 or x320 with a 42 or 48 inch deck will be a lot easier to manage, plus also has plenty of power for a snow blower attachment. For what I can sell the 2 tractors for on the open market, I can buy the new Deere with the deck and blower. The added bonus is by getting rid of the Cub and the 40, I can have back the half of the garage that the 40 takes up!
Well, time to turn in SWMBO is having a yard sale Saturday, so she's only working a half day, then her, he Mother and Aunt are all going to be here, unpacking stuff, pricing stuff and generally making a mess of the garage. I'll be on the roof replacing a few storm damaged shingles. (its safer up there)
L8ters
One of the ebay pieces,,,,,yes, the headlights are that bright!
Karl
NCE über alles!
morning coffee in the diner..
GOOD FRIDAY MORNING!!!
Today is August 2nd, 2013!!!
MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!!
Sometimes, people say things have "gone to pot", SO:
Meaning:
Become ruined
One way to look at it:
When something is said to "go to pot" it means it is declining or going downhill, maybe even rotting. The phrase originated with roasts back in 15th century England. Squires ate much more than was on the roasts (beef, pork, lamb) and the leftovers (lesser good cuts of meat) were put in a pot for stew
Here's another way to look at it {read the whole thing through}:
When hippies took to smoking cannabis in the 1960/70s, one of the more common of the myriad terms for the drug was 'pot'. The derivation of that term is disputed. It was stated in American Speech, as early as 1936, that the word derives from the Spanish word for marijuana - potiguaya. Others have questioned that, saying that there is no such word in Spanish. That aside, journalists of the day couldn't resist the 'gone to pot' label; for example, this piece by John Brewer, in the California newspaper The Independent, June 1970:
"I can get marijuana faster than I can get a text at the bookstore," says a UCLA graduate student. College students, it seems, have gone to pot.
Of course, people had been going to pot long before then. That was in the sense of 'going to (the) pot', that is, being chopped up and boiled for food. That usage dates back at least as far as the 16th century; for example, in William Tindale's An answere vnto Sir Thomas Mores dialoge, 1530:
Then goeth a part of ye little flocke to pot, and the rest scatter.
The colloquial, metaphorical usage of 'ruin; destruction' is fairly old too and was in common use by the 17th century. Edmund Hickeringill used the term in The History of Whiggism, 1682:
Poor Thorp, Lord Chief Justice, went to Pot, in plain English, he was Hang'd.
That meaning alludes to the fact that the journey of an animal or ingredient to the pot was a one-way trip, with a very short future ahead.
-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!!!
Coffee and a short stack of buttermilk flapjacks with maple syrup please. Oh and could I get couple eggs scrambled loose? Thank you.
Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 83.
Mr B- Very touching conversation with your Father.
Floor layers came back yesterday to “fix” the vinyl flooring. That stopped me from doing much due to where they were located. In the end, they left the floor no better, in fact worse, than when they arrived and only succeeded in holding me up. So, needless to say….still not done. I still have to relocate the cable and install a ceiling light. Then…...Oh who am I kidding. I’m beginning to think through a series of events, this place will never be done. Never.
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, and happy Friday to those for whom it makes a difference. This morning New England is rainy, and, well, just dark. I've noticed over the past week or so that the sun is lower in the sky during the morning ride to work, requiring judicious use of the sun visor, but with the cloud cover the house was downright dark as I got dressed and poured my coffee into the thermos. And, with cooler temperatures forecast for the next week or so, perhaps the unpleasant summer heat is gone for another year.
I hope to actually get some layout work in over the weekend. The weather should be nice for spraying outdoors. I've got the walls for 2 of the tannery buildings built up, painted and mortared. I think I'll decal on some signs before I put them together. I've got 2 more buidlings plus a water tower to go for the complex, and 3 freight cars that will be associated with it, too.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Why not a tour of my home country? Perhaps the diner has crossed the Pacific...
James, Brisbane Australia
Modelling AT&SF in the 90s
Good MorningI am typing this with one hand...Spring is all cuddled on the other one, lol!!!We are a little warmer this morning, but that will not last long as we will be back under those ol' t'underin'boomers this afternoon...76 today...70 tomorrow...As I finished the filework yesterday my office work will be a lot lighter ...and I am off next week...heeheehee...
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/
Mornin' diners!
Zoe, I'll have the #2 special over easy eggs, bacon, home fries, and a double order of the sour dough toast this morning. Oh, don't forget a mug of dark roast coffee to wash it all down with. Thank you Ma'am!
Been looking outside and saw some shadows.... Interesting. The shadows disappear now and then just to shut down the little wheel in the basement I think. Currently 72°F outside with a high of 75°F or 78° F depending on which prediction you look at on the weather channel site.... Since it is already 76°F inside the house with the fans going and the windows open and I think it may rain in the dining room where I am, I think I may give up and run the air conditioner.
Later!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Morning All,
Currently it is 58 with an expected high of 87. It was very pleasant yesterday, slept with the upstairs windows open and no fan or ac.
Another w**k day with not much else happening.
Mister B - Great tribute to you day, very touching.
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
james saunders Why not a tour of my home country? Perhaps the diner has crossed the Pacific...
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
Good morning. It's 86° with 67% humidity. It feels like 96° outside right now. The high will be 98° but will feel like 109°. Glad I did my outdoor stuff yesterday.Well I spent a couple of hours this morning moving the main board of my mothers Apple IIe to an actual IIe case. The case it came in was one of the very early IIe cases. To make it more up to date with the later models I put it in a 1984 case. There are structural differences in the two designs that make interchanging case parts difficult if not near impossible. These later cases are somewhat easier to remove should the need arise, things like changing out a keyboard or power supply or changing out some of the chips. I put the main board of my IIe in the same type case when I changed out the power supply last month. Good thing I took the time to collect all these parts over the years.Now as for what to do with the rest of the day, guess I'll start with cleaning up this mess I made working on the computer. After that I'll just see what happens.
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 morning!
Hope to get back to working on my layout extension soon. There's too much other stuff going on.
Remember: Be happy, and everybody is wlecome in the DIner!
I was actually thinking that.
Why don't you "lead the way'??
You can do the research for us.
Take the engineer conductor by the horn, blow it and SHOW us what is around your fair country in the way of trains...!!
Thank you.
Now on to other things.
Went to the pharmacy and the CU so the AM errands are done. Never know when i have to those two things. Got the laundry caught up yesterday ,s o that is done. Only a few dishes to be done and so a nap is in order, I guess. Headache {yes, i still have it} has eased some so maybe a good sign?
later...
Afternon All...Its cloudy and 75 here..weather guesser on TV says rain this weekend...I'll have a double RBF please...Thank You..Not much going on here...I have been donating some of Sallie's clothing to the Thrift Shop here in town..hope someone can use them..
I got my IC reefer train running...must be hauling Southern Illinos strawberrys north..
THis week did some work on Mattoon yard..
You All have a good week end...Jerry
I finished with the Apple I was working on this morning. I hooked it up to a disk drive and an old trash 80 9" monitor and powered it up with a PRODOS system disk in the drive. I put it through the tests and it works perfectly. The case had quite a few big scuffs on it so I sanded them out as best I could. It still didn't look good enough for me so I painted it shiny basic black and applied a little Clear Flat. Now it looks quite a bit like the old Bell & Howell 'Darth Vader' Apple II+they put out in the 80's except the keys are the wrong color and it very definitely says 'Apple IIe' on the case. I also painted one of the Franklin disk drives to match. Here's a couple of photos.
I'll gladly show you around!
We'll start in my home city, Brisbane (pronounced Brizben) and the temporary home of the USS George Washington, which leaves today. We've arrived at Brisbane international airport. before setting off around Queensland.
Brisbane - affectionately known by it's residents as the river city.
Brisbane is named after the river on which it sits, which in turn was named after Scotsman Sir Thomas Brisbane, the Governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825. The first European settlement in Queensland was a penal colony at Redcliffe, 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of the Brisbane central business district, in 1824. That settlement was soon abandoned and moved to North Quay in 1825. Free settlers were permitted from 1842. Brisbane was chosen as the capital when Queensland was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales in 1859. Brisbane is one of the largest cities in the world for land coverage as there is only one city council in the Brisbane city. Brisbanes population is around 2.1 million.
Brisbane is famous for being the head quarters of General Macarthur during WW2. McArthur square in Brisbane is a shopping area named in his honour. There is also a museum including the Generals office in the McArthur building.
Queenslands railways are built to 1067mm (3' 6") gauge, a decision made in the late 1800's to save costs and the thought that standard gauge would never benefit the state. We do now have extensive coal railways which haul huge tonnages.
Brisbane has an extensive commuter railway network running north to the regional town of Gympie North (160km away) South to the Gold Coast and west to Rosewood, near Ipswich. It was near ipswich that the first section railway was opened 1865.
Brisbane and the surrounding region have many railway related attractions - arguably more than most other cities in Australia.
Run by Queensland Rail monthly is steam train sunday, it goes to a different destination on the suburban network every month.
One of my favourite destinations is the Workshops rail museum at Ipswich - a working railway workshop with much of the dis-used area converted into a museum with many old locomotives, rollingstock on display. There is also a large layout based on various Queensland scenes. It hosts an annual model train show.
We also have the Rosewood railway, Downsteam and later we will travel north to ride the Savannahlander.''
After a busy day of railfanning at the museums and heritage railways, why not retire to one of the many fine restaurants in Brisbane, although I prefer have a meal at one of the many pubs that overlook the rail lines around Brisbane.
We will continue tomorrow with a look around other parts of our great country.
Cheers
holy smokes, that's beautiful!
Great tour James!
*
Well computer wise it's been a productive day. I got a lot of work done on not one but two IIe's. I also got some scratches and a minor cut. Time to call it a night. See y'all tomorrow.
Evenin' folks!
Janie, just my cup of decaf tonight.....
James, Beautiful city you got there. Thanks for hosting the diner. I know we will all enjoy the tour this month!
I didn't get a whole lot done today. Think I just needed a day to rest up. I did get some more done on the Tomar kit of a Packard Stake bed truck. Never did turn on the air conditioner as we got a downpour of rain mid afternoon that brought the temp back down into the high 60's here. The fans and open windows were good to keep the house from getting too bad.
I did some grocery shopping for a few items I forgot to get when I was there a couple days ago and swung around to the local Sweet Corn stand around the corner from where I live. About 3 miles of driving total and only used about 2.5 miles worth of EV millage according to the car. I have enough gas to get to and from the museum on Sunday and to get me over to the Computer place and home when I pick up the iMac early next week. Then I should be able to get around on EV only until the following weekend. Depending on how many miles I rack up in EV I could make my first 1000 mile tank of gas before I have to fill up before going to the Museum for the Picnic and then Diesel Days on the 17th. and 18th. I already have enough points from the grocery store to get a $1.10 discount on the next tank of fossil crud. By the time I have to fill up I may have $1.40 off per gallon. Even if I get down to the flashing light on the dashboard I will only have room for 8.5 gallons or so. Since I bought the car last December I have averaged 70 miles per gallon with it.
Best be heading out to catch some ... Prayers for all in need!
Good Early MorningWe did get dumped on again tonight...a li'l ol' flashkaboomer gave us about 3/4" of rain in 10 minutes here...they come, dump on our'n heads and leave just as quick...Was pretty quiet at the office today...got home about 7 and went out for a coffee...mmmm...some coffee that turned out to be...took until just about 30 minutes ago!! lol!Anyhoooo...have a good night's sleep or whatever!!
Brisbane!! Oh My!! Love the photos!!
Gidday All, Ockerstraliasville eh? Then make mine a cold "Victorian Bitter" please and one for anyone else who would like to avail themselves of one( or two) .
My only time in Queensland was two nights in Cairns and just over month w**king and living on Horn Island off the top of Cape York. The Horn Island Airport was built in 1941 as an advanced operational airfield and then was a staging base for Allied aircraft moving between Australia and New Guinea. It was bombed by the Japanese 8 times in 1942, 43. Now it is the gateway to the Torres Strait and Australia's northern most resort island of Thursday Island. No trains up there of course.
Thursday Island.
Horn Island Airport,"The Freedom Bird", Sunstate DHC Dash 7.
Great Barrier Reef, south of Cape York, taken from "The Freedom Bird".
Looking forward to the rest of the tour OzJim.
Thoughts and Best Wishes to All those who need them.
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Thanks James for stepping up to the plate and being our Host this month.
Some great pictures there. Tell us about that blue locomotive, there has to be a story there.
Always wanted to get down your way and into N.Z. as well. I have some distant relatives there that I have never met. Don't know if I ever will.
Anyway, thanks again.... The Bear rules....................
Johnboy out ..............................to ZZZZzzzzland, work in the morning, next three days, then one off and three more work.
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
Cool photos Bear!
Modelling HO Scale with a focus on the West and Midwest USA
morning coffee in the diner...
GOOD SATURDAY MORNING!!!
Today is Saturday, August 3rd, 2013!!!
Make it a GREAT DAY!!!
Many times we have said, or been told to 'Keep a Stiff Upper Lip':
Remain resolute and unemotional in the face of adversity, or even tragedy.
The short version:
This phrase means to show no emotion in times of great emotional distress, or to have a lot of self-control. The origin is fairly simple. It refers to British soldiers and their mustaches. Even when trimmed and waxed, moustaches sort of moved when standing at attention. This was considered undisciplined! So, a soldier was ordered to control his mustache's movements and keep a stiff upper lip!
The in-depth version:
This is such a clichéd expression that it is difficult to imagine doing anything else with a stiff upper lip apart from 'keeping' it. It is similar to 'keep a straight face', 'keep your chin up', and, to the amusement of many Americans, 'keep your pecker up'.
The phrase has become symbolic of the British, and particularly of the products of the English public school system during the age of the British Empire. In those schools the 'play up and play the game' ethos was inculcated into the boys who went on to rule the Empire. That 'do your duty and show no emotion' feeling was expressed in Alfred, Lord Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade:
"Forward, the Light Brigade!" Was there a man dismay'd? Not tho' the soldier knew Someone had blunder'd: Their's not to make reply, Their's not to reason why, Their's but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.
In more recent years British heroes have been able to show more emotion. Footballers now cry when they lose and the public doesn't turn away, which that would have been unthinkable before WWII. The national outpouring of grief at the death of Princess Diana, although intensified by a media frenzy, began a trend toward accidental deaths being commemorated with garlands of flowers laid by the public.
As recently as 1963 P. G. Wodehouse published a novel called 'Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves', and you can't get much more English than that. It is strange then that a phrase so strongly associated with the UK should have originated in America. The first printed reference to it is in the Massachusetts Spy, June 1815:
"I kept a stiff upper lip, and bought license to sell my goods."
That citation, although it doesn't explicitly refer to keeping one's emotions in check, is similar to several US references from the 19th century which do make the meaning unambiguous; for example, from the Huron Reflector, 1830:
"I acknowledge I felt somehow *** about the bows; but I kept a stiff upper lip, and when my turn came, and the Commodore of the P'lice axed [sic] me how I come to be in such company... I felt a little better."
Thanks for the compliments on the images. The river snakes it way through the city a blessing and also a burden as many have seen in recent years with the devastating floods. I believe Brisbane is one of the best cities in the world.
The blue locomotive is an English Electric 1250 class. They were first introduced into traffic in 1959. They were fitted with an 1390hp engine initially with later units fitted with a 1540hp engina and MU capability.
In the early years they were used on ore trains in the north before moving to general freight system wide. The very last was withdrawn from use in November 1987 with a spectacular 28 year career for Queensland Railways.
The workshops is home to Queensland Rails heritage operations, where they have many heritage loco's, rollingstock and rail motors tucked away "out back" as well as whats on show.
Here we see a QR Garratt.
It is also rumoured to be the location of the short lived Great Southern Pacific Express rollingstock.
There is hundreds of examples of withdrawn freight cars and prototypes hidden in the yard out the back of the workshops as you can see from the google maps image.
For more you can check out their website
http://www.theworkshops.qm.qld.gov.au/
Will be back in with more of a tour later!
TTFN
Partly sunny, with a high near 81.
Coffee and biscuits and gravy please, Thanks
Well James, thanks for the tour of Brisbane. Very good. I’m looking forward to others.
Not much different to report here. Was told yesterday of new purchases by a couple people that may result in more repair/remodel wo*k. We’ll see. I need yard stuff done bad. Brenda ran the mower yesterday cause I was well, busy waiting for them to clear out of the stairway so I could get back up to wo*k. Needless to say….I’m going back today to finish up.
I hope.
Good Morning! Or, since we seem to be in the land down under, G'day. Given the time shift, it must be almost beer-thirty, so I'll go with an Adelaide Lager.
For some reason, decades ago a local liquor store (we call them "package stores" here) got a shipment of Adelaide Lager. I tried a six-pack, then a case. No one else seemed to be buying it, and it wouldn't surprise me if I eventually bought half the shipment. The only other time I've had it was in an Aussie bar in Aspen, Colorado, where they had it on tap.
Our microwave died. It's got a bad control panel. I googled around, and someone said this is a bad enough problem with these that they may fix it for free. Unfortunately, Customer Relations is closed for the weekend, but I'll call back Monday and see what can be done.
Cloudy and 70 right now. The map looks like we'll be on the borderline of a fast-moving rain system today. Oh, well, lots to do inside.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/4309
MisterBeasley Good Morning! Or, since we seem to be in the land down under, G'day. Given the time shift, it must be almost beer-thirty, so I'll go with an Adelaide Lager. For some reason, decades ago a local liquor store (we call them "package stores" here) got a shipment of Adelaide Lager. I tried a six-pack, then a case. No one else seemed to be buying it, and it wouldn't surprise me if I eventually bought half the shipment. The only other time I've had it was in an Aussie bar in Aspen, Colorado, where they had it on tap. Our microwave died. It's got a bad control panel. I googled around, and someone said this is a bad enough problem with these that they may fix it for free. Unfortunately, Customer Relations is closed for the weekend, but I'll call back Monday and see what can be done. Cloudy and 70 right now. The map looks like we'll be on the borderline of a fast-moving rain system today. Oh, well, lots to do inside.
Mornin' everyone!
Zoe, I'll have a big bowl of Pumpkin Seed Flax Granola with some Blueberries on top and a cup of Dark Roast Coffee to start the day.
So far the big yellow thing is up in the sky and trees and other things are casting something called shadows. Won't last I bet.... Today appears to be lawn mowing day in the neighborhood as several of the nieghbors are taking advantage of the cool weather this morning to get it done. Currently 70°F here in the Finger Lakes with a high this afternoon of 75°. I have the fan in the bedroom window and windows open so far today. May get another day of not running the air conditioner today.
Tomorrow when I am out to the Museum the temperature is not even supposed to reach 70°. Talking about scattered thunderboomers as well. I'll take a light jacket with me. So far I seem to be the only Docent signed up to work... Hope at least one other person shows up out there. If we get any kind of crowd two guides are really needed to handle it. I can't be everywhere at the same time....
Best get myself moving. Lots of stuff to do. Later!
[edit] Looks like lunch is on me today! Eat hearty...