Tinplate ToddlerKevin - What does get me is the shortness of the days up north.
.
Absolutely!
I have never been any further North than Tennessee in the Winter time before.
The sun going down before 4:00 PM was shocking for me. We are getting almost 11 hours of daylight right now in Florida, that is OK.
HEY! Top of page 13 on a Sunday morning. Everyone have a tall glass of whole milk on me. Great way to start the day.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
gmpullmanThese were shrines to the gods of steam!
I couldn't agree more!
Thanks for the videos Ed.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
SeeYou190I have never been any further North than Tennessee in the Winter time before.
We are on about the same latitude as Cariboo, BC
That´s quite a way north of Tennessee.
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
SeeYou190How do you people that live up north deal with it? Everyone walking around bundled up like Eskimos for months at a time. Crazy.
It's what you are used too. You are used to the heat. I don't like heat. Warm, okay but 90s no thanks.
Dianne and I regularly sit on the deck in the winter even when it is well below freezing (but not too windy). We BBQ all year long too. The hot tub gets far more use in the winter than in the summer. Just don't stand around on the deck in your bathing suit before getting in! Coming out is fine. Your body is so toasty from the heat in the tub that you don't really feel the cold for a few minutes.
The only part of winter that I really don't like is freezing rain. I think we can all agree on that.
Good morning, everybody !
Kevin .... There is no perfect place to live. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Florida may be warm, but it has lots of insects much of the time. .... Here, it is sunny and 45 F, and it will be 55 F this afternoon. Not bad. .... Much of my life, I lived in Michigan and northern Illinois. All one needs to do is wear appropriate clothing, and they will be fine. .... That said, we just had a great trip to Florida. We visited family in Tampa area where it was cooler than normal. On the way, we saw family in Alabama. ... We spent 2 nights in Destin; 3 nights in Clearwater, and two more nights in Destin.
Everybody .... Have a good Sunday.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
JaBearFollowing Kevins Chicago sojourn made me appreciate the temperature differences between the north and south even more, though swanning around in the photos in a shirt whilst claiming it was cold, wasn’t that convincing!
Oh, it was COLD! You can trust me on that. My wife and I wanted a picture by the "Bean", but it was too far for us to attempt that one. 120 seconds outside was my limit.
I did make it back home and survived without even putting on long sleeves. The only thing I own with long sleeves are my suits. I refuse to buy "winter" clothing.
Heartland Division CB&QKevin .... There is no perfect place to live.
Absolutely true.
Lots of times I think Atlanta would be the perfect place to live. I could hop on a plane any time I want and get a non-stop flight to almost anywhere I want to go. There are some super-cute newly renovated neighborhoods very close to the airport. Traffic is not as bad as everyone says it is. The food is so good in the restaurants, the local food scene in Atlanta is fantastic. However, it is cold in the winter time and taxes are crazy high.
No place else really tugs on my strings. I know I will stay in Florida. The bugs, rain, snakes, tourists, hurricanes, and traffic I have all become used to. Tampa is the best party-city I know of. Miami has world class shopping, and we all know Orlando is the most fun place on earth. I am three hours from nearly anything I want to do.
Many new residents to my part of Florida complain loudly about the slow pace of life and all the elderly people. I have been a life long resident here in "God's waiting room", so I am also used to that. However, old people are no where near as adorable as they used to be. This new generation of octagenarians is really testing my patience some times.
I am fortunate enough to be able to travel anywhere I feel the urge to go, so no need to relocate, and my taxes are almost nothing. That is hard to beat.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
That is a beautiful, arboreal scene, Mr. LION
hon30critterThanks for the videos Ed.
Glad you enjoyed them, Dave. I'll have to file those away as a reason for a visit to Jolly 'Ol England.
Santa knows which train to ride . And in one of the Century's lovely observation cars (The Santa Creek, perhaps?)
NYC_Century_xmas_lo by Edmund, on Flickr
Enjoy the day, Folks!
Ed
gmpullman I'll have to file those away as a reason for a visit to Jolly 'Ol England.
I was thinking exactly the same thing when I was watching them.
If a Christmas tree falls over in the living room and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound?
Yep, that was a first. Nine and a half feet dropped like a mighty fir. Only had the lights on it at that point so it was easy to deal with. About fifteen years ago we were given a well over a hundred years old cast iron tree stand that must weigh at least forty pounds. The threads that held the bolts finally rusted out and away she went. It is a piece of art that you don't see any more. I will get new holes tapped through and new "I-bolts" as I think the ones in it are the originals.
Bear your drawings are so good, I bet you do stunning backdrop work for the layout.
Congrats to your Daughter going for her Masters. When these little darlings land in our laps for the first time you just hope you do a good job and they are happy and successful in life. I think we done goooood.
The kid has two more exams and he will hop right on the plane after his last one, can't wait to see him. Yesterday he signed up for an extra Law course for next term. He was at maximum course load already however the University gave him a variance to do another. You are right when you say it is hard work that gets him his grades. He surrounds himself with like-minded kids and they mentor each other.
I am glad he seems to have figured out what he wants to do down the road. To think it all started when I made good on my threat to sign him up to be a movie star if he didn't get his butt in gear to be productive over the Summer after grade 11. A Law degree in business/entertainment Law and economics degree will put him in good stead to be a movie mogul.
Talkin hot/cold weather and where we live. I will take the bitter cold any day over hot humid weather. I remember bitterly cold nights on the airport at 0300hrs with snow dancing everywhere in the gentle breeze. There would be periods of time in the night when it would be so quiet with no planes arriving or departing. I would grab a coffee and sit out back of the Air Canada hanger in -10c and just take in the silence.
In the Summer the heat could be brutal. We would wear coveralls with nothing on underneath and I mean nothing, the breeze would flow through all the openings and cool us down. When the young ladies started showing up in the crew it wasn't long before they were doing the same thing. It was quite distracting I'll tell ya. Always had pallets of water in my truck for the guys.
Vancouver airport is right on the Pacific and always had a breeze, so if it was below freezing with a 30-knot wind it was cold. We would wear long underwear and Government supplied wool pants and shirts, down vest then coveralls with a parka on top of that. I will give the Feds top marks for the clothing they supplied us, it was the best.
The West coast is pretty moderate most of the time and sometimes we have years where the temp never hits freezing. We don't have bugs flying around and we don't have anything poisonous to worry about. Black bears don't bother you unless you are an idiot and Grizzly bears are to the Northeast. Vancouvers murder rate is just over one a month and 99% of those are gangsters, so if you are not a slimeball you will never be murdered.
Skiing was my life growing up as well as golf, sailing and mountain biking. You can do them all on the same day if you wish. There are three moderate ski hills within a half hour of the city and we were on them by1600hrs every day after school until 2200hrs. The view was pretty good. I can not think of a place that offers more to an outdoorsy sports nut.
I grew up in heaven and was determined to maintain the lifestyle.
All the best to all.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Today is the ONLY day I will have at home over a four week span! Wow. I leave on Monday for another week out of town.
I have been working my backside off today... so much to do.
I am lucky that I was home when the Madagascar Palm bloomed! The flowers only stay on this tree for a couple of days. I thought I was going to miss it.
I decided to put up the Christmas tree. I was not going to because I will only be home for four days prior to Christmas this year. I am glad I put it up. It looks so nice.
I even put on the 100% Authentic Genuine German Traditional Christmas Pickle in honor of Ulrich.
BATMANI grew up in heaven and was determined to maintain the lifestyle.
Brent, you forgot to mention the rain! Dianne just arrived in Vancouver to be with her sister and she took a pair of rubber boots with her, I believe for good reason.
Kevin, you're working too hard!
Nice tree!
hon30critter BATMAN I grew up in heaven and was determined to maintain the lifestyle. Brent, you forgot to mention the rain! Dianne just arrived in Vancouver to be with her sister and she took a pair of rubber boots with her, I believe for good reason. Dave
BATMAN I grew up in heaven and was determined to maintain the lifestyle.
Dave, you just don't notice it after you lived here for a while. It keeps everything so really clean and you don't have to shovel it. Want to compare heating bills or water bills.
hon30critterNice tree!
Thanks Dave.
It is an artificial tree we have had for at least 25 years. We bought a very high end premium tree, and it has been worth every penney we spent.
I hope it lasts the rest of my life.
BATMANWant to compare heating bills or water bills
I'll compare both of these with anybody!
SeeYou190 BATMAN Want to compare heating bills or water bills . I'll compare both of these with anybody! . . -Kevin .
BATMAN Want to compare heating bills or water bills
Do you even have a furnace?
Okay, I had to go look.
4000 SQFT house plus a 1200 SQFT garage.
Heat and hot water (natural gas) $103.00 a month (equal payment plan)That's about $70.00 U.S. We don't have or need A/C.
Water bill includes filling a 60,000 ltr pool every Summer $117.00 a year. About $85.00 U.S.
Electricity $108.00 a month (equal payment plan) We use electricity to heat garage often and the pool pump also adds a lot to the bill.
Kevin, how much do you spend on A/C?
It has only just stopped raining that started Friday night. Woke up this morning and it felt like my back had rusted.
We had friends stay over Friday night, on their way to catch the auto-train out of Virginia, back to their home in Florida. The are both smokers and every hour or two they went out to the porch to light one up. I helped them bring in their bags and as soon as they opened the car door, I could smell the smoke.
They and some other friends were telling us about the virutes of CBD salve, and oil. CBD is a cannabis extract with out the psychogenic compounds.
It's expensive $20 for 2 ounces of salve and somewhere around $26 for 100 mg. A recent study showed that 70% of the products have less or more than the advertised amount of CBD. Since they sell by the total milligrams, and most are usually less than advertised, it is a ripoff.
The "dose" maybe 20-40 mg so 100 mg isn't that much. It seems ripe for having a lot of placebo effect. Like buying a $160 track cleaning car. It would be hard to admit that a masonite car does just as good a job.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BATMANDave, you just don't notice it after you lived here for a while. It keeps everything so really clean and you don't have to shovel it. Want to compare heating bills or water bills.
Okay, okay, rub it in!
My gas and hydro bills average about $120.00 per month and the water is about $80.00. I don't think those are too bad considering that we are either heating or cooling the place for most of the year. Mind you our house is less than half the size of Brent's.
What is costing us now are lawn cutting and snow removal. I can't do either without experiencing a lot of back pain so now we pay about $265.00 per month. I'm not complaining. They do a great job.
BATMANDo you even have a furnace?
Yes, and that really ticks me off. I have needed to replace the HVAC system in the house twice, in 1990 and 2016. Code requires a heating system, I guess it is not a furnace, but it is built into the air handling unit.
I never turn it on, and I have been required to buy it twice.
BATMANKevin, how much do you spend on A/C?
This is not an easy question to answer because my electric bill is artificially low. I spend so much time away from home, and I do not run the A/C much when I am away. It only turns on during nighttime hours, and only cools the house to 80 degrees when I am away. I also do not own a washer or dryer, and those are electric hogs. We do not have a gas utility, so everything is electric.
Anyway, my electric bill is about $30.00 in the Winter and $75.00 in the Summer.
My monthly water bill is the minimum charge because I use so little (no washing machine). $25.00 a month for water/sewer, and $30.00 for irrigation water. Everyone pays the same for irrigation water, $30.00 per month. I am sure I use 10 times the irrigation water compared to drinking water, but it is not metered.
When all three girls were at home I would spend $300.00 a month in electricity, but you cannot imagine how much electricity kids use until the last one moves away.
hon30critter Mind you our house is less than half the size of Brent's.
Mine is probably even smaller. I have just a tad over 1,300 square feet under HVAC.
Afternoon folks,
Here in Louisiana the power bill is never below 250, and at the beginning of summer the bill will shoot up to 325ish, it's not due to the weather change either because its 80°+ by mid April and the jump happens late May.
Water is cheaper though, under 50 bucks a month.
We don't have natural gas.
Internet is next to impossible out where we live, you have to get satellite and to get enough data to lasts more than three google searches before becoming dial up costs at least 200+ so I have to get by on my phone, I don't have a laptop, well I do but it doesn't exactly work, boots in Safe Mode so I shelved it, it was like 7 years old?!?!
That'll be my next investment is a laptop for college.
When I get a better job in February, theres a lot of well paying places hiring 18 y/o around here, I'm going to go see an investment broker to start investing in stocks.
Well that's all from me right now.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
Good evening all.
Chloe - A slice of that yummy looking apple pie, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream please. Thanks.
Kevin - As one of them thar' northerners, I like the cold much better than hot and humid. Yes, negative degrees will bug the asthma some, but hot and humid will every time, so I dislike it more.
Ray - You mean you dislike saving money? That means less trains. (Sorry, I could not resist the urge to tease just a bit...) I also prefer using cash when I can.
Dave - Hope the situation is rectified soon, and that all will be well again.
Brent - Hope those west coast storms aren't too bad your way.
W*^k - Must have been idiot day both Friday and Saturday... First one was a jerk who called in with a complaint. He was formerly a assistant manager for a competitor to where I w*^k (not the best opening line on the planet when you want us to do a favor, but I've heard worse.) and, he had purchased a snowblower from us last year, and used it 5 times, then gave it to his parents, as he was moving to NC. (This competitor did sell this same brand, before they closed the store. According to him, he was over that dept. Makes more sense to lead with that now.)
The snowblower will not start this year. (Sounds exactly like a dirty carb, not covered under manufacturer's warranty, something he should know, if he really managed that dept.) And, he wanted me or my boss, to drive to his parents house to fix it. (Neither of us are service tech's.)
Now, where I w*^k, we offer a in-home service protection as a optional purchase, which he declined. The manufacturer does not cover fuel issues, nor do they send tech's to your house. (Again, he should know this due to the fact he was manager of that dept.) You must bring the snowblower to the local authorized service center (not where I w*^k, but somewhere else in the same town.) for any warranty service repairs. (They will charge you for non-warranty covered repairs, such as fuel issues.)
Now, when I began to explain the warranty procedure (after asking if he purchased the in-home service protection, which he said no, as they are "a waste of money") he then demanded to speak instead with my boss. (Who happened to be with a different customer in-store.) I explained that he was busy with another customer, and that he could either leave his name and number for a return call, or wait on hold.
He then stated, that, he was not waiting, and that either I could go pick up the snowblower in question, or give my boss the phone now, or hear from his lawyer. (With about 2-3 curse words in each option.)
My response was, do not swear at me again, or I will hang up this phone.
He replied that I would be hearing from his (blankety-blank) lawyer, to which I replied "that's just fine. Have a great day" and hung up. (Don't swear at me and I won't hang up on you.)
Then this online complaint yesterday, which takes the cake.
"I bought packaging tape in your store. There are no instructions on how to use it, so thanks for nothing."
Yep... Idiot day.....
Hopefully the second customer never needs a band-aid, as they don't come with instructions on how to use them either... And they are very tape-like.
Weather - Up and down temps... I dislike that this time of year.
Health front - Still not where I would like the asthma to be, but is somewhat better on the new meds.
Grandpa health front - They have run numerous tests, and all have been clear. So, they still have zero clue why he is ill, but some treatment has resumed and is helping. It is still a serious issue, but is no longer life-threatening under most circumstances.
EDIT: Steven SWP - Safe mode every time? Sounds like something is off with the OS then. Do you have a OS rescue disk? Safe mode is there to allow you to fix issues without destroying things, and will sometimes occur for little things, like a power interruption. So, it might still be very usable.
Hope all are well, and all enjoy the evening!
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.
Eveing Diners
Flo, the gang and I will have a please.
Train Front Had a little time today to speed match The Mighty 233 B&O F7's to the Mighty 235 B&O F7A. Well I all most got to! Only CV I got to change on the 235 was CV 2 and changed that to 1. When I went to change CV 5 the enter button on my DT 400 stopped working? Having warmed up the engines I took a guess at CV 6 and CV 5 and used decoder pro to change the cv's.
The mighty loud 235 B&O does not like running backwards but is starting to get a little quiter. I am running them as a ABA consist and they are sure pretty!
Far as ulitys bills. Boy I wish I was getting off a cheap as you folks! 1515 SQ ranch gas is on leverlised plan, $110.00. Water $25.00 a month and Electric? Before my wife killed the centeral A/C and pool was open $450.00 in the summer. Now that the central A/C is dead and we use widow A/C in the rooms we use summer max has been $235.00. I do miss using the inground pool, but I just could not afford the bills.
Later, Ken
I hate Rust
Water averages $40 a month, although some of my neighbors who tried to keep grass alive in summer in our sandy soil have spent $200/mo. Gas and Electric averages $180 a month with a high in February of $280 and a low last month, very warm no AC and not much heat at $110.
The house is just over 20 years old, but the builder cheaped out on the insulation and windows. MidAtlantic area.
Rick, it booted in safe mode so I took it to a shop to get repaired, the guy "fixed" it, I had a lot of malware, and said I needed to download security updates when I get internet access, so about a week and a half after getting it back I did the updates, computer worked fine till I shut it off (did it right), when I powered it back up it started in safe mode.
It has no battery so it relies on a cord, I tried replacing the battery but it didn't work.
Evenin' folks!
Monthly utility bills being discussed? Well I can't give you my average here unless I did some major math averaging and such. I pay my bill every month for what I used that month... That way it reminds me that there is a cost to using energy (several kinds of costs actually). I can tell you that my Natural Gas and Electric bill at it's highest during the last year was $237 and at the lowest was $68. Of course you have to consider that I make the majority of the electric I use on the roof of my house. Before I bought the Volt there was 3 or 4 months where the utility owed me money.... I found it was smartest to do the settle up month later in the year when I owed them money as they paid only 3¢ a Kwh when they bought it from me and it was about 14¢ a kilowatt when I buy it from them.... LOL Don't forget that most of my miles of use with the car are figured into the amount of electric as well. So that cost also includes most of my vehicle operating costs as well.
But.... I can drive the Volt on electric about 40 miles for $1.28. Or... I can use a gallon of gasoline to drive the same 40 miles... Let's see a gallon of gas costs.........???? Hmm.....
Personally I like living where we have 4 seasons. Around here they are "Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Road Repair". But we survive and I love being at the age where if the roads are really bad, I can just stay home....
I know I got some people upset when I posted this one a couple months ago, but it has been nice enough outside that I shoveled off the deck and fired up the grill a few times this week.
Oh and now one of you really did it!!!! (It may have been Ken.)
Have a good one and stay safe and warm (but not too warm) wherever you are!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
I made a Die Hard Christmas ornament.
howmusPersonally I like living where we have 4 seasons.
We have four seasons in South Florida.
10 months of Summer
1 month of Autumn
1 day of Winter
1 Month of Spring
Repeat.
Personally, I love Winter. It is one of my ten favorite days of the year.
ricktrains4824Dave - Hope the situation is rectified soon, and that all will be well again.
Thanks Ricky.