BATMANOn the subject of divorce, as a child, it was impressed upon me that you stuck it out through thick and thin and I saw a lot of miserable people as a result. It did not take me long as I grew into adulthood that the reality is, people, change as they age and I know many couples that have divorced and have much fuller happier lives as a result.
Yes, I'm figuring that will be the case with me and the girlfriend, too. The wife and I grew further and further apart as the years went by, and we were really only bound to each other by having a child. As soon as she was gone and her college was paid off, I started to realize that I would be, and could be, happier either by myself or with someone else.
BATMANI worked at Vancouver International Airport for years and had my own parking spot at the terminal. I would always have my passport and when the end of the day came, I could sit in our office and see what flights had room and would go get on one.
When I was in college, I had a long-time home-town friend whose father was a long-time TWA employee, so my friend got to fly standby for free. He wanted a suit, so he flew to Hong Kong to have one made. He wanted a watch so he flew to Switzerland for it. It stopped working, so he took it back. He frequently flew to Los Angeles just to see the movie. He joined the Air Force and surprised everyone by turning down fighter planes and opted instead for tankers, thus avoiding being stationed in Vietnam and at the same time getting a big-plane, 4-engine rating. He's just finished a long career with Fed-Ex doing what he's always loved - flying.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Mornin'......
Janie, just another pot of coffee... Marrakesh Express would do nicely!
BATMANRay, good to see you are racking up the miles walking, it is much easier chasing the girls when in shape and being in shape makes it even better after you have caught them.Whistling
Very true! The one I would like to chase is, ah, how should I say, in VERY good shape!!!!! Every once in a while she even acts like she might be flirting with me. However, I don't want to ask her out when we are in the midst of a whole large group of people. That is when I see her.... as she is my..... OK, not ready to tell anyone who quite yet. I may after I get courageous and ask her out. If she says no I will just go into hiding for a while.... At the last lenten Breakfast she did come over and check out what I was having for breakfast. I told her it was both breakfast and lunch (Some scrambled eggs, a couple sausage,and some fruit, with one small pancake. She knows I want to lose another 25 to 30 lbs). She had only fruit and some eggs. She told me she needs to watch her weight. I stepped back, did a quick "overview" and said, "No you don't..." She gave me a big grin, she did! Hope springs eternal they say.
Changed to a better quality cat litter that doesn't stick to the boys legs if they walk in it. Also can be flushed down the toilet. Made from corn, actually. I am also cleaning the box twice a day to keep it better for them. Time will tell if this stops crap from being caked on poor old Blackie's back legs. They are a mess from the old litter still.
Need to do some major house cleaning still, so I best get dressed and get at it. I am also putting the finishing touches on an industrial building for the layout. Photos soon!
"At my age flowers scare me." - George Burns
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
THE MODEL TRAIN SHOW
.
That is actually the name of the train show at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, Georgia that is sponsored by the Piedmont Division of the NMRA.
I had nothing to do Friday, so we drove to Atlanta for the train show today. It was worth it. I found TONS of great deals on stuff for the future layout... AND... I saw six layouts at the show I had never seen before.
Between frantic shopping I took over 100 pictures of the layouts. I have quite a library built up for Show Me Something now!
We drove back as far as Valdosta tonight. I will drive the rest of the way home tomorrow morning and return the rental car.
I just totalled up my purchases, and it looks like I did about $500.00 worth of purchasing. The most expensive thing I bought was $35.00. It took three trips back to the car to load it all up.
I doubt I will ever go back to this show. As great as it was, parking at the Atlanta Cobb Galleria was a nightmare. Leaving was also a terrible experience. This is a venue I will avoid in the future.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Good evening, everybody ....
Since we are still in CA, does anybody have any CA phtos to share ?
Kevin ... Sounds like a good show in Atlanta.
I have been running trains in recent days including the Empire Builder in the photo I posted in WPF.
Cheers !
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Eveing Diners
Flo, give the gang and I green , Rick and Steven what they like, Corn Beef for everyone and leave a plate and stein outside for Ulrich.
Work Front Good news I was Nancy Free! Down side was the first 3 cusomers where nut's! Did finish up with a fair day, Ok good by this year standreds with $2100.00 in sales.
Bad Part was when I got home and answered the phone. Seems my daughter had to put down one of her dogs. Archie was a Terrier with a lot of health problems. He was 14 years old. What did him in was a tumer in his lungs that could not be removed. He all so had Cushing Diease and was costing my daughter some where around $200.00 in meds. He will be missed, he loved to lick my beard.
Thundering Tennies Ball Front. I did another rest after cleaned the Gold Plated Bannana Clip from the Amp to the speakers. Changed the input side from left to the right side. Gave it a try with the engine with in 8 feet of the reciver, still nothing.
Read the Manual I down loaded. Ok, I understand CV's. But when they start talking about bits! They have lost me big time!
Strang Train Front Problem. I went inside to use the restroom and left the trains running. While I was inside my wife said Sparkie has to go out now! So I turned off the Digitrax DB 150 to stop the layout. Went to start the layout up again and the Bessemer BLI SD 7 would not start up? Shut down Decoder Pro, and rebooted, still nothing?
Well darn I had coal to haul! So I lashed up the PK 2000 Pen SD 9 Ed leased me. Darn nices Engine Ed! Hard to believe it was a racket maker the first few hours I ran it!
Later Ken
I hate Rust
Hello diners from the Lone Star State, Hill Country to be precise.
Just got to the hotel, saw a Southern Pacific Sunset Limited car turned diner up the street, I'm going to check it out in the morning.
Just looked on Google Street view and it appears there are not one but three passenger cars AND two station buildings AND trackside industry!
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
Well, It's mid March, now. I still don't have my sleeper because it got pushed back to June :/
Oh well.
I just finished up my first 4 hours of apprenticeship at the PMRRC. Only 76 hours (or 19 weeks) left! I'm helping with rewiring the switches. There are quite a lot of them. There is a port on the layout, and it has 20! So, that should keep me busy for a little while.
On the school front, I have a field trip at the very end of the month. I have a special class that discusses nuclear non-proliferation. I won't get into it (it's long, boring, and generally dry), but we have a summit in Monterey the few days before Easter, so that's fun.
Made it back home from the train show.
Had a great time antiquing with my wife on the way back from Atlanta.
I am worn completely out and I am going to try to get some sleep. Take care everyone.
Flo, Wake Up! That better. I will take a and if the gang shows up give them what they want.
Sort Of Work Front. Guess I did Ok, with making a extra $70.00 or so, but has whole not a good day. Big News In the Company, Nacy fell and got 12 stitch's a cross the bridge of her nose. At her age of 74 falling can be a big deal. Glas she is Ok.
Train Front, they are being a pain in the Caboose! Good news is I got the Mighty Bessmer SD 7 going again! Still no Thundering Tennis Balls after a reset. Going to hook the compuer up to the sub woffer again to make sure it is not the Sub not working.
After that? Been up and down all night trying to get things running right! Feel like I am doing grass drill's again like when I was in the Army!
Does it not seem strange that a Train can run around the layout 3 to 8 times then decides to derail?
Later, Ken
Evening diners,
Went to the passenger car I saw, it's a SP Coffee Shop/Lounge, in Silver and Red Stripe paint for the Sunset Limited there's also a T&NO RPO car in the same paint as the Coffee Shop/Lounge, then three cars from the Texas Zephyr, two Coaches and an Observation then two boxcars, three Texaco trackside buildings, and two Santa Fe stations. I figure it was at one time a rail museum.
cudakenOk, I understand CV's. But when they start talking about bits! They have lost me big time!
Ken, just think of bits as eight toggle switches lined up together. Each switch is either on (a "1") or off (a "0"). Next, and this is the trickier part, think of labeling the switches like this (from left to right) 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1. Each switch has a function that you can turn on or off. For each one that is turned on, take the number (128 or 64 or ... down to 1) of each switch that is turned on, add them together, and bingo, you have the value to enter. (If there are only four options instead of eigth, use 8 4 2 1 as your labels.) Hopefully that a) makes sense, and b) helps.
Yesterday was a bit of an emotionally charged day for us. My 30-year-old daughter has joined the National Guard and is currently in basic training at Fort Jackson. (She initally joined the Guard as a way to help pay for her college tuition but is not thinking about going active when she graduates.) She is a relatively small woman, 5'4" and 115 lbs, and the experience has taken its toll on her. They moved to the blue phase this week and she was allowed to call home. She sounded broken. This coming week is the ruck march and she doesn't know if she is going to be able to survive. A 60lb pack on a 180-pound 18-year-old guy is one thing. The same thing on her small frame is an entirely different matter. I know she will not give up unless it destroys her. I just hope it doesn't come to that. We will be heading out there in a couple of weeks for her graduation.
Richard
Richard:
Congratulations to your daughter for choosing to serve her country!
Basic training is tough for sure! One of my instructors when I was a Royal Canadian Air Cadet was an ex-Marine Corp Drill Sergeant. He explained that part of the goal in basic training was to break the recruits down and then teach them how you wanted them to think. The process is extremely harsh and many do not survive, but those who do will know how to cover each others' backs regardless of the circumstances. Your daughter can't pick and choose who she has to carry out of a field of battle (I hope she never has to face that situation) so she has to be able to do the job.
I wish her all the best! Please pass on my admiration for her choice to choose the hard road!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Good morning ..... Coffee and a donut, please. I hope each of you had a good weekend.
Richard .... Congrats on your daughter serving. Sounds like it may be a bit too much however.
Richard: My youngest daughter is about the same size. I can't imagine her ever carrying 60 pounds of anything. Good luck to your daughter. I hope the first weeks of basic have prepared her for this.
Kitchen Remodel: I have countertops finally. Now it is onto sink and dishwasher installation. Then miscellaneous small things to finish it all up.
Kevin wanna come finish my kitchen too?
Wifey wants me to (finish the) tile the kitchen backsplash, get the new sheetrock up over the terrible popcorn ceiling, and get the new lighting finished....
....and I'm too busy to do any of it
This space reserved for SpaceMouse's future presidential candidacy advertisements
Howdy diners,
Today I am typing from a computer.
Called the guest services desk to get the wifi name, the guy told me the name and that I need to visit a website rarely visited, he suggested Hobby Lobby because he thinks people rarely visit it, I almost fell out of my chair, and I didn't start laughing out loud till after I hung up not wanting the guy to think I was crazy.
Afternoon Diners
Flo, give the gang and I a and Steven and Rick what they like. Yes leave a Stein outside for Ulrich.
RideOnRoaden, just think of bits as eight toggle switches lined up together. Each switch is either on (a "1") or off (a "0"). Next, and this is the trickier part, think of labeling the switches like this (from left to right) 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1. Each switch has a function that you can turn on or off. For each one that is turned on, take the number (128 or 64 or ... down to 1) of each switch that is turned on, add them together, and bingo, you have the value to ente
Richard Ok, I get it to a point! I know computers work with 0 or 1's in Dos program. So I have to take the bites and do the math to figuer out the math to change the CV's?
Far as your daughter, she will not be the woman now when she went in! If she really wants it the Army will let her do it again and again. For the Military Occupational Specialty or MOS I wanted I had to beable to do 25 pull ups and the over head parallel bars twices. While I past the Pt test to be in the Army I did not want to be in the motor pool, cooking or being a clerk! I did not have to take bacis training over, but it did take me a extra week to do the 25 pull ups and the over head parallel bars twices to get the job I wanted.
Spent the day with Charter repair man. Been a on going problem with On Demand. They sort of made a mess, or in My Wife Case made me move a mess! Only part that Ash Pit me off was when a teck was running new cable into the Train / Garage room. Like most of the folks here I have stacks and stacks of train boxes. The Teck was trying to run cable behide a stack of boxes. I kept saying " let me move the boxes for you". But no, he did not need them moved. He finllay dumped about 50 boxes, some fell in the Beer Can Trash Can and on the floor. Luckly he did not dump some of the boxes that have engine projects stored in them or Steven Box. Then I would have been
Train Front Got a old BB F7B speed matched to a Bachmann Sound Vaule F7A today. I did it while a Charter Teck was in the Train Room. I kept getting distracted by him droping things. I was surprised by how much faster the BB F7b was than the Bachmann. I think I had to turn down CV 5 to 150 or in that range. It is a old BB with no flywheels, no idea to the age?
Ed Seems you did not change CV 6 to 50 on the Mighty Bessmer SD 7. Seems that is bli default setting? Even staring to like the Stupid Horn! Sound's like a English Tax Cab.
Good evening, everybody .
Norfolk Southern had a bad head on collsion in Georgetown, KY (near Lexington) last night. 4 injured. Thankfully, no fatalities reported.
Morning aftermath. Eight locomotive units piled up.
Garry,
Ouch! I had not heard about that one.
Evening All!
Dad Front: Supposedly finally moved to the Rehab wing this afternoon. Creatinine is down to 3.6.
Hobby Front: Finally bought the lumber and almost all the needed hardware for the expansion! The lumber will be delivered tomorrow afternoon. I will need to make a quick trip back to the lumber yard in the morning to get the wing nuts. (I ended up getting the hardware in a few different places. The bolts, washers and some shorter screws for the curve section top were cheaper in one place as they were sold in bulk. However, the wing nuts are cheaper back at the lumber yard.) The frameworks probably won't be actually assembled until next week at least. (It will take awhile to get all the pieces cut. Seventy-two feet of 1x4 is going to take some time to navigate and cut. Four 16' pieces and one 8'. The 2x2 for the legs will be easier but it will still take some work.)
Also decided to buy a couple more model pickups. (As I have said, you can't model Eastern Montana without lots of pickups.)
Evenin' folks!
Janie, I could use a refil for my decaf, please....
cudakenStill no Thundering Tennis Balls after a reset.
OK, Ken, ah, what on earth are you talking about?????
I have had a major busy day today. Was able to get over to the Fieldhouse by around 11:30AM for my 1.5 mile walk. Did take a 5 minute break after getting a mile done, but kept up a good pace while walking. Tonight I am in pain once again.... I guess that shows I am getting a good workout???? Had a telephone call from the surgery center where my eye surgery will be done. That took about 20 minutes. One of the questions they now ask is about depression, anxiousness, and if I have ever wanted to "injure" myself or anyone else. I told her not since I retired as a Middle School Teacher... She paused for a bit and then started to roar. I then told her that was my sense of humor talking and that you didn't teach music to that age human without having a weird sense of humor!
After lunch I headed to Canandaigua to drop off some checks for the MLK Scholarship fund to the bank and then drop off the signed legal papers to the Eye Care Center there. From there I headed to Victor to the Men's Wearhouse to pick up two new pairs of casual slacks that were ready, and then took the NYS Thruway back home. Got home to see a phone message from a clerk at the Eye Care Center that They were lacking one of the legal (you will not sue no matter what the doctor screws up) forms... She just had me take it over to the Eye Care Center here in Geneva about 1000' away from where I live. Oh, had to stop and buy cat food at the vets for the "boys".
No Model work for me today....
"Just remember, golf is flog spelled backwards." - Milton Berle
cudakenOk, I get it to a point! I know computers work with 0 or 1's in Dos program. So I have to take the bites and do the math to figuer out the math to change the CV's?
Yup, that's the trick.
As for my daughter, her MOS will be 25Q, multichannel transmission systems operator-maintainer. She scored a 99 on her ASVAB so she pretty much had her pick of available postings. There weren't too many choices given she is joining the National Guard (vs. regular Army) in Arizona, and she wanted an MOS that had tuition benefits. (She is a micro-biology major in college.) She was incredibly fit before she left and beat every other female (mind you she is 30 yo) in the initial run, and beat about 1/3 of the guys. She had never shot a gun before going to BCT and ended up one point shy of a sharp-shooter classification. Her only real problem is her diminutive size, particularly as it relates to carrying a full load. She will either do it or die trying. As a teenager she started taking banjo lessons. After her first lesson she practiced so much her fingers were bleeding. The next day she was right back at it.
Good evening all.
Zoe - A RBF please. Thanks.
Garry - Ouch! Hadn't heard about that one yet. Odd, how they just lifted the body shell off the 1:1 scale Athearn unit...
Ray - The "Thundering Tennis Balls" is, I believe, the new(er) BLI Rolling Thunder speaker system.
Weather - Cool, but sunny.
Erie Pa Snow record front - Erie is now 7 inches behind Buffalo for #1 all time snowfall for a single season. As a interesting note, this year, Erie has gotten about 60" more snow than Ancorage Alaska's record for a year! As Burt Reynolds would say, "Holy Loads of Snow Batman!"
W*^k - Still not sure how I feel about it, but they keep forgetting to tell me things... I wouldn't mind quite so much if it wasn't stuff I needed to know so that I could do them. Or, in this case, follow the rules they neglected to mention before....
Trains - Caught a NS local Friday night, with a SD40-2 running LHF. Also worked on a boxcar on Sunday while watching NASCAR. (For those wondering, the boxcar was more interesting than the race....) Still not doing a lot layout wise, as still unsure if a move will be occurring soon....
Hope all are well, and all enjoy the night!
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Posting from my phone again the computer is acting funky again I probably need to get it fully copied to the TB drive and get a new computer.
Watched the news there's a so called "serial bomber" here is Austin, although the most recent bombing had a change in the motis operandi, I think they might be dealing with a copy cat, hopefully they catch the perpetrator(s).
Me and my dad were going to take a campus tour of UT Austin but he got out of the conference too late and tomorrow will be worse, so when he did get out we did a bit of a self guided tour of sorts, I'm thinking of majoring in criminal psychology and/or criminal investigation/criminology, I have a nack for mystery/problem solving, this is all very early though nothing set in stone I'm not going at least for another year if not one and a half or two.
Perhaps if I do go here I can start a UT Austin model railroad club.
Another Nor'easter. In Maryland we missed most of the action on the last 2. Now they are calling for 4". The morning TV news will be starting at 4:30 am. I just walked the dog and I can hear frogs in our wetlands for the first time this spring.
Saw my accountant today. He is my age and had a radical prostatectomy a year ago. His PSA should be 0 but it's creeping up 0 then .03, .05, and now .1. He told me that a former colleague of mine, who's probably not yet 60 has stage 4 colon cancer.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Hello...............? Hellooooooooo.......? Anybody here????????
Guess not. Almost all the lights are off too... Last post was 17 hours ago. Hmmmmmmmmm?????
I'll be back later if anyone else shows up, maybe.... Guess everyone is out enjoying Spring!
Ray. ... maybe the Diner needs a new cook . That might bring more customers .
Ricky .. an Athearn shell ... LOL
MLC ... The derailment was in the news but only briefly. Looked like major damage to locomotives.
Everybody. ... come on in. If we make enough noise, we might wake up Duke.
spring? , someone tunred on the snow. Not cold enough to stick but cold enough to have white out condition for a bit. No mention in yest forecast.
I fought all day with a Kadee 450 for my Stewart F3. There is a top cover, a spring that fits around a hollow post with the screw hole, with two arms that extend through the middle layer and the coupler goes in between the middle layer and the bottom cover.
The top cover snaps on, unless there is a spring in the way trying to creep over the top of the post. But if it happens to snap on, it explodes off as you try to insert it in the coupler pocket and either the spring or the cover vanishes of 15-20 minutes. The bottom cover isn't held on by anything until it's screwed down, meaning it falls off every chance it gets.
I left out the part where the spring turns upside down when you position it or falls out as you try to position the top cover. I bent 2 out of the 3 springs.
Good afternoon from the sunny but cool West Coast, it is 10c.
Kevin, the kitchen looks great, I hope my wife doesn't see it. I think we are looking at big bucks when we get around to it. I'll quietly add that it does need it, we will see. Developers are trolling the area big time and I wouldn't want to redo everything only to have the house knocked down. It isn't that old, however, the condo takeover is coming at us at an alarming rate. They knocked two houses down a few blocks away and put up 8000SQFT monsters. They were only twenty years old. Ours was built in 1988.
Richard, your Daughter sounds like one tough gal. My Daughter is off the chart smart, however, is the farthest thing from athletic you'll see. She does do a lot of equestrian though. Otherwise two left feet. Went to a train show on the weekend that was more vendors than layouts. There were two "estate" vendors that have become regulars at all the train shows in the last couple of years. Man one of them had a wack of brass piled high that some guy had. Many copies of lots of brass engines and rolling stock. Most were still sealed in the boxes. While I was looking a guy came up to the table and said he knew the guy that had died. He said he always bought multiple copies of everything and would usually only open one for the layout. I think brass is losing its appeal as the prices seemed pretty decent. I am not sure about all the work to get them DCC ready anyway. There was also a ton of blue box kits and a lot of other older wood kits, however, the name has slipped my tiny brain at the moment. There were a lot of gold coloured boxes and red and white boxes. There were also piles of plastic locomotive kits in bags, not sure what those were all about. The dirt pile is almost gone. I don't think I'll be doing that again without a Bobcat to move it, the pain price is just too high. That is one nasty train crash, I hope all recover from it. I wonder what the environmental impact of vegetable oil is anyway. There is stuff on You-Tube about it but surprisingly (maybe not) nothing on the TV news. I am finding I have to go region by region to see what is going on around the world and if you don't already have at least a little knowledge of happenings it would be hard to filter out the hyperbole. My kid and I talk quite a bit about global affairs and always have, I find that refreshing. Daughter is on spring break for two weeks and I need to pick her up at the movie theatre so best get going. Happy first day of Spring to all.
Richard, your Daughter sounds like one tough gal. My Daughter is off the chart smart, however, is the farthest thing from athletic you'll see. She does do a lot of equestrian though. Otherwise two left feet.
Went to a train show on the weekend that was more vendors than layouts. There were two "estate" vendors that have become regulars at all the train shows in the last couple of years. Man one of them had a wack of brass piled high that some guy had. Many copies of lots of brass engines and rolling stock. Most were still sealed in the boxes. While I was looking a guy came up to the table and said he knew the guy that had died. He said he always bought multiple copies of everything and would usually only open one for the layout. I think brass is losing its appeal as the prices seemed pretty decent. I am not sure about all the work to get them DCC ready anyway. There was also a ton of blue box kits and a lot of other older wood kits, however, the name has slipped my tiny brain at the moment. There were a lot of gold coloured boxes and red and white boxes. There were also piles of plastic locomotive kits in bags, not sure what those were all about.
The dirt pile is almost gone. I don't think I'll be doing that again without a Bobcat to move it, the pain price is just too high.
That is one nasty train crash, I hope all recover from it. I wonder what the environmental impact of vegetable oil is anyway. There is stuff on You-Tube about it but surprisingly (maybe not) nothing on the TV news.
I am finding I have to go region by region to see what is going on around the world and if you don't already have at least a little knowledge of happenings it would be hard to filter out the hyperbole. My kid and I talk quite a bit about global affairs and always have, I find that refreshing.
Daughter is on spring break for two weeks and I need to pick her up at the movie theatre so best get going.
Happy first day of Spring to all.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."