Good morning. Cold, but a beautiful morning for walking on the trail. Even the blue heron standing in the creek looked cold.
Ken, I wish I had something encouraging to say. I don't know what the answer is other than to keep on keeping on.
Nothing planned today except more church construction. My limited skills are having issues with laser-cut windows. They look great on the cut sheet, but getting them off the sheet and onto the walls is not going well. Is this what is called learning?
York1 John
Track fiddlerIt Snowed Today
I know... this season is making it a lot colder. We are only getting up to 81 today.
At least we are not dipping down into the 60s at night right now.
The weather here is perfect. The paradise months are just a few weeks away.
The seasonal residents will be here soon.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
York1 Nothing planned today except more church construction. My limited skills are having issues with laser-cut windows. They look great on the cut sheet, but getting them off the sheet and onto the walls is not going well. Is this what is called learning?
Hey John-
Stand by for PM regarding your church windows.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
Just got off the phone with the General Contractor again about my front window.
I have a new promised completion date of next Friday, with a start date of either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Hoping... I really want this done.
My experience lately is than GC's tend to fit small jobs in between their higher priority big jobs, so if those big jobs set backs, our small jobs fall in line.
If he was doing a $35,000 kitchen remodel, your job would push out the others.
BTW, went to lunch today. Traffic was unbeleivable, stacked up at the lights. A far cry from the easiness with which traffic flowed during our April lock down for Covid.
If local traffic can be used as an anecdotal measure of our economy, we are back to a pre-covid pace around here.
- Douglas
Doughless If local traffic can be used as an anecdotal measure of our economy, we are back to a pre-covid pace around here.
That is better news than what we are listening here. Because of the sharp rise in Covid 19 cases here (mainly students?) our area could go into total lockdown by next Monday. People are stockpiling food already.
The model railway items I have been waiting for since February are further delayed.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Track fiddlerDer John, ... You're a Post-Hog! and so are you Dave!
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
Nice to know that the Algoma Central has been annexed by Michigan, no more delays at the Canadian border. See last picture's caption.
Greetings and salutations brothers of the scale rail,
ok, that's laying it on a bit thick, but how is everyone?
My wife and I just returned home from AZ and SoCal. It was hot! A week of over 105F! I think I fell victim to dehydration or heat or both. Been very weak. Normally, I can pretty much take the heat, but not this trip. Didn't feel any relief until we got back down into the basin near LAX. It was 20 degrees cooler there than on the desert. Then after we got back to Chicago it was only 40F. That's a 60 degree temp change. I'm still not 100% yet.
One side trip we did,which wasn't originally planned was we drove up to Tehachapi and saw the Tehachapi Loop. If you're an SP fan, it's a must see. I hope to share some pics in a later post. I'm told they run 40 trains/day through the loop. We saw two. Saw some activity days later in Cajon Pass, but no pictures.
On the way to Tehachapi, we drove by Edwards AFB, of Chuck Yeager and the X-15 fame. It's really small for an airbase. Without the road signs to tell you the exit, you almost wouldn't know it was there.
MC5: "If you aren't part of the solution, you're part of the problem!" Or at least so they said. Somehow, I always thought Patti Smith was from New York, not Detroit (or Ann Arbor).
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Terry and Ken: Prayers and good thoughts for healing for your daughters.
My niece got married in Denver last weekend. We did not go, did not want to risk exposure to covid, as there would be extreme consequences at work for my wife and I if we were even exposed. We have been chastised somewhat, but with relatives gathering from Texas and Wisconsin; I don't think it was a good idea. I am probably wrong, but I think this is a perfect application of better safe than sorry.
up831Somehow, I always thought Patti Smith was from New York, not Detroit (or Ann Arbor).
I am pretty sure Patti Smith and MC5 were from the New York mid 1970s scene.
The band I posted, Sonic's Rendezvous Band had one former member of MC5, Patti Smith's husband on guitar, and they are from the Ann Arbor scene. I have no idea how they got there from there.
Since they only pressed one record, and it was the same song on both sides, I doubt they ever went too far. However, that record was the crown-jewel of my collection in the 1980s.
Now anyone can download the song for 99 cents from iTunes, or listen to it for free on YouTube.
And if getting unsolicited pre-approved junk mail offers from credit card companies is another indicator, we're in good shape on that economic front as well.
SeeYou190Just got off the phone with the General Contractor again about my front window. I have a new promised completion date of next Friday, with a start date of either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Are you sure he didn't say, "two weeks"?
ROBERT PETRICKAnd if getting unsolicited pre-approved junk mail offers from credit card companies is another indicator, we're in good shape on that economic front as well.
Those, and all the junk mail I am getting from eye doctors and dentists for some reason.
What I really need to buy is health insurance.
York1Are you sure he didn't say, "two weeks"?
Actually, I was promised "two weeks" after the new window and door were delivered. That was several months ago.
Dianne and I are really happy with our new front door. It was long overdue:
You will either love the colour or hate it! Our wonderful next door neighbour Robert asked Dianne if that was the final colour. When she said yes, he responded that "you can always paint it".
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
A nice looking door, Dave. I had better not let Mrs NorthBrit see it. It might give her ideas.
Got to get out today and go to the store before total lockdown that is talked about.
Then disappear in the 'train room'.
Good morning. I had to change clothes when I got back from the morning trail walk. It is raining. That will slow harvest a little.
Nothing else today except a long day to stay inside and run trains. One of my Atlas locomotives quit running. I guess the first step will be to reset the decoder and hope for the best.
good morning all, not much going on here.
just another day at work.
still cleaning on basement.
hope all is good with all.
hon30critterYou will either love the colour or hate it! Our wonderful next door neighbour Robert asked Dianne if that was the final colour. When she said yes, he responded that "you can always paint it".
My wife is dead-set on a bright red front door when I paint the exterior of the house.
Good Morning,
We are still in a cool trend here, not much over 35F which is 10 degrees below normal. I managed to get the fish out of the pond on Tuesday just before some white stuff came. Wow that water sure was cold! There was some ice on the pond but the flow from the waterfall prevented a complete ice cover. I have now completed all of the yard tasks before winter.
Nice door Dave. We still have our original front door which is now 60 years old. It still fits fine and is in good shape. I cringe to think about ever replacing it as it isn't a standard size. It is 2" taller than standard. When we did the back doors it cost us a bundle as we had to get custom wood ones done.
Nothing new on the RR front. I did reset the sound levels on the Pacific as they were too high. It is really beautiful little engine.
Ken, hope things work out for you. You do have my sympathy as my wife isn't coping well with the covid thing. She is always very anxious so there is a lot tension in our house.
Well have a good day everyone,
CN Charlie
hon30critterYou will either love the colour or hate it! Our wonderful next door neighbour Robert asked Dianne if that was the final colour. When she said yes, he responded that "you can always paint it"
We watch quite a bit of HGTV and DIY. We also get the HGTV magazine.
Front doors have become a real "statement" for houses. They have bright yellow, lime green, and even purple front doors.
I personally think your door looks great.
I guess our white front door is kind of boring. The house is grey with white trim. Originally the front door was turqoise so perhaps we should revert back to that colour to keep up with the times.
Sitting here waiting for Fedex to deliver a parcel. If I don't recieve it personally I will have to pick it up at their store which means going into the store and my wife won't be happy about that. It is supposed to be delivered by noon so I have another hour to wait. Good luck with that I can hear you say.
Today I don't have much on the agenda. I have to change the furnace filter and pick up dog food. I think I will run the Pacific a bit and put together a short train for it. Passenger cars are most likely. I do like passenger trains and if I had the space I would love to have a model railroad that featured passenger trains. As it is I make do with my Athearn shorty heavyweights. I should have bought more of the ConCor short passenger cars when they came out but they were quite expensive for what you got. I only have one that I use on the tail end of an express reefer train.
Well time for another coffee.
I like your door, Dave!
Why be "stuffy"? Go for bold!
doors_color by Edmund, on Flickr
Shortly after I moved in to my present house I painted my door "Santa Fe" red. A few years ago I replaced the door and it is presently painted "War Bonnet" Yellow. And I'm not even a Santa Fe fan
I think in the spring I'll go back to red, or maybe "Signal Green"?
Cheers, Ed
I don't mind a "stand out" door as long as it is done such that it doesn't clash with the rest of the house. Dave, I like your door! My house is light gray with white trim, so we painted the front doors black. Highly contrasting, but complimentary. My sister-in-laws old house was light blue with white trim and black shutters. She painted her door a bright purple. Looked terrible IMO. It wasn't so much that it was purple as the shade of it.
Speaking of colors, we've already seen fall photos of Michigan so how about some on the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Found on the shore of Lake Superior in the center of the Upper Peninsula, they are truly beautiful and worth a visit.
Cheers guys!
EDIT: Top of the page! Since I signed off with cheers, belly up to the bar for one of Michigan's craft beers from Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, one of the many great ones in Michigan.
Mike
I heartily agree on the bold door.
I also like the asymmetry of it. Different.
Ed: I really like all those doors and the windows overhead are really interesting. Definitely East and probably South.
How about ACL purple, which is pretty much lavender. If not, Signal Green is just fine.
Water Level RouteTop of the page! Since I signed off with cheers, belly up to the bar for one of Michigan's craft beers from Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, one of the many great ones in Michigan.
Thank you! I have had Bell's Oberon before. They must have had it in Total Wine once.
Good afternoon from the warm and sunny as usual West Coast.
Mike, those are very cool pics of Lake Gichegumee, I bet it would be cool to dive along those cliffs.
Dave, I like the door. We just had the house painted and the wife wanted something exciting done to the door, however, she will have to do it herself as she could not make up her mind when the painters were here.
Dave, I see you are only 35 minutes from Rapido! Lucky guy.
I see the container with the RDCs has arrived, so I should be able to pick mine up next week. Then it is the F7Bs next month.
Charlie, my sister has an old oddball door and her husband is putting a pattern on it using moulding and man what an improvement. It was going to be too expensive to upgrade because of how old it is.
So I cut the moulding for the longest bathroom reno in history. I ran an airline into the bathroom and the job was done in about 3 minutes with my pin nailer. The wife comes in and says the TV cable is out in the family room. So I start troubleshooting and eventually swapped out the cable box and still nothing. Then it dawned on me that maybe I hit the HDMI wire with a pin nail. The wire runs verticle in the wall and I put 4 pin nails in a four-foot strip, what are the odds?
I have been putting 24 gauge HDMI cable through the house as I have been doing upgrades and this was a 40' cable that I had to go down to the crawlspace to pull out of the wall hoping there was enough slack to investigate. Long story short there was a hole in the cable. Two steps forward, one step back.
Our house is slowly becoming a smart house and I actually like it. I scoffed at first but once you remember you have it, you use it and I do quite a bit.
The pups have their eyes open and are starting to walk. The wife post FB videos and I am not sure if I can or how to post those here.
Kevin, your seasonal visitors from Canada will be greatly reduced this year with the border being closed. Enjoy the peace and quiet. I have had very good luck with the few contractors I have had over the years, I still like to do things myself though as I am fussy and think I do a better job than most.
Ken, sorry to hear about the issues on the home front, this covid thing can be hard on some. Neither my wife, kids or myself have been the least bit stressed by it. Other than in class University not happening we don't notice much difference in our semi-rural lifestyle. One thing we noticed is how much less money we spend having taken no trips and not eating out a lot. The gas bill for the cars has been cut a huge amount.
If things got real bad, we have water and can hunt and fish until the grocery stores replenish, although there have been no shortages of anything where we are. I would be uneasy if I wasn't self-sufficient. There are lots of groceries that walk through the yard every day.
I was on the phone with the IRS for an hour or so yesterday, had a great knowledgeable person that answered the phone on the second ring. They had asked me to call as this estate I am looking after still has a few bumps in the road to deal with. She said to me "are all Canadians as smart as you"? I said I am one of the dumber ones. She said it was the easiest conversation she has had in years not having to explain even the simplest of things. I just got lucky as my eyes usually glaze over on such subjects.
Well, the wife ordered a new HDMI cable and Amazon will deliver it tomorrow so it will be back down to the crawl space. It isn't that bad as it is warm, dry, has lights and a concrete floor. I just hope I don't get incinerated by all that foam on the walls.
Someone brought me a bottle of rum and crown royal on Sunday, I will use the Kracken to drown my HDMI sorrows.
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."
CNCharlieWe still have our original front door which is now 60 years old. It still fits fine and is in good shape. I cringe to think about ever replacing it as it isn't a standard size. It is 2" taller than standard. When we did the back doors it cost us a bundle as we had to get custom wood ones done.
Hi CN Charlie,
Our old door frame was 84" tall, which I thought was about 2" taller than a standard door. I envisaged having to get out the drywall compound to fill a gap at the top of the new door. I was very pleasantly surprised when the new door fit the space almost exactly. The top of the frame was about 1" lower than the original. That was easy to hide by using 3 5/8" trim. The other difference was that the sill is about 1" taller than the old one was. We have a very small strip of drywall above the trim that needs to be painted, but that is it.
Thank you everyone for all the compliments on our new front door!
We got a reality check this morning. It rained last night and the new red door shows where every drop of muddy water that splashed up from the stone front step landed on the door. The old door had a beige storm door in front of it so the water drops never showed. The new door is going to require constant cleaning! I reminded Dianne to not use Windex to clean the painted surfaces because it might damage the paint. Don't some modellers use Windex to strip paint and clean air brushes?
There is the most wonderous cloud formation in the sky right now, but it is barely visible due to the low light.
I tried to take a picture, but it is just too dark for anything to show up. It looks like two giant crossed feathers.