Eveing Diners
Flo, give the gang and I a please and Dirk and Robbie a dog treat.
Henry All most ! Has far as out living our dogs and it or then going too a shelter? No much as of a worry long as my daughter is a live. She is a sucker for dogs and has loved all our dogs, even after she moved out.
I would love to have another Irish Wolfhound before I go to Rainbow Bridge.
Well I am beat so later, Ken and Dirk asked "Daddy, what is a wolf hound"? It is smaller than me right Woof, Woof.
I hate Rust
Good Evening,
Happy Birthday Henry! Mine is a week today but number 73 for me.
Another quiet day. I did do some dusting of the layout today mostly building roofs and roads. I am thinking I'll change the turnout to the harbour siding. The new Pacific derails on the frog sometimes as do other locos. The problem is the turnout is on a curve and that model of Unitrak has a large gap in the frog. I plan on changing it and putting it on the straight.
Have a nice evening,
CN Charlie
For all my fellow birders, Dianne and I are missing our usual crowds of gold finches. Ever since we removed our dead mountain ash we have only had one or two gold finches at a time. We used to have 15-20 birds on the feeder regularly, and we were going through 7 lbs. of nyger seed in four or five days. The feeder has only gone down by a couple of inches in three weeks! We are at the point where we are going to throw what is currently in the feeder away and fill it with fresh seed even there is no sign of mold. However I suspect that is not the problem.
On the plus side, we have several nuthatches hanging around all the time, both white breasted and red breasted. One of them is very fussy about what sunflower seeds it will accept. It will throw a dozen or more seeds on the ground before choosing one to fly away with. The squirrels are happy with him though!
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Hi gang!
Where do you want to take the Diner in November? (Geeze, it's November already! I hate November!!). I would love to go someplace warm but I haven't got any firm ideas. Have we been to Australia or South Africa before?
Any suggestions?
moelarrycurly4 That the Same I-10 expansion that took the MKT line from Eureaka Yard west?
That the Same I-10 expansion that took the MKT line from Eureaka Yard west?
This was as it was being built east of San Antonio, near Boerne; in the 1950s.
I get to go to dinner myself on Wednesday, so I'm going to the place with the trains for Mexican food. Unfortunately, I just checked the menu, and no enchiladas. So, probably burritos. I'm going to have to make them myself, I guess. Colder weather is coming. The butcher shop where I get my chicken is open all year. This will be fun!
I hope I can get some train info on Wednesday, too. Honestly, I think finding out more about how those trains got there would be a good story for the local paper, giving a boost to the old restaurant which is leaving the trains behind and whatever new eatery takes over. Win-win, guys. Heck, I'm retired, and if the need someone to write the story, I'm available. But, burritos first.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Afternoon
Thanks tin can. I would place my bet your Mom's enchiladas are way better than mine! Mom's home cooking is always better. And sorry to hear about that eminent domain thing. Happened to a lot of good people that I have seen through the years.
Kevin, The quarantine thing.
If I played by the rules I should be in quarantine 24/7 all the time. Judy goes to work at that germ infested hotel and brings home whatever germs she's exposed to every day she works and it makes us really nervous. She plays by all the rules with the mask, the hand sanitizer and any thing she can do to be careful. But statistically that's not always enough and makes us really nervous.
Things are changing as her work is slowing down and she's going down to one day a week. I guess it's good they extended the unemployment for 13 weeks. Some of the hotels up here are shutting down.
Now, she as I do will have all this extra time on her hands with not a lot to do and nowhere to do it
We are very positive people though and are hanging in there holding on for the ride
TF
Hang in there Kevin. Finished my post Virginia and Georgia quarantine and tested negative so there can be light at the end of the tunnel. J.R.
This is day seven on my 15 day post-Orlando quarantine. Almost half way there!
No symptoms yet... fingers crossed.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Texas has been under a mask order more or less since March. Compliance in Bryan / College Station has been pretty good. A majority of our new cases are college aged people because, well, they are college aged people...
I found out this morning that one of our retirees has passed from the covid; he is the first person to do so that I actually knew. He was a great guy; late 60s, and he had a very short period where he actually got to enjoy his retirement (less than 3 years).
Brent, I loved your comment to the non-mask wearer; I may steal that as well.
We discovered early on in our trips to watch our kids play college sports that renting a car was much smarter than racking up miles on our cars; so we did that. We had several 3,000 mile trips in a 4 day weekend.
Had to deal with a plugged main sewer line this weekend. I could not snake out the line; had to have a plumber come this morning. So, no showers, no washing, etc. Not fun, but he has already come and gone and everything is running normally.
Track fiddler I can't quite say post hog now can I? But I can say good scenery is still in the running. We are a little goofy over here and sometimes cook off bigger chunks than we can chew. Goofy because a 10:00 at night dinner is not at all unusual here. Chicken enchiladas just came out of the oven and take 15 minutes to cool to eating temperature. It takes what it takes, care to join me? You can see no round waves on top because the tortillas they're making these days crack and don't work. I got sick of fighting it so I layer it like lasagna Still good though, same recipe the tortillas are flat in between instead of round around the circumference And 2 pounds of cheese It's okay, I already have my Will filed No matter no matter TF
I can't quite say post hog now can I?
But I can say good scenery is still in the running.
We are a little goofy over here and sometimes cook off bigger chunks than we can chew. Goofy because a 10:00 at night dinner is not at all unusual here.
Chicken enchiladas just came out of the oven and take 15 minutes to cool to eating temperature. It takes what it takes, care to join me?
You can see no round waves on top because the tortillas they're making these days crack and don't work. I got sick of fighting it so I layer it like lasagna
Still good though, same recipe the tortillas are flat in between instead of round around the circumference And 2 pounds of cheese It's okay, I already have my Will filed
No matter no matter
My mom learned to cook Tex Mex in her families' restaurant / truck stop as a young woman. Unfortunately, IH10 eminent domain took their property, and they had to move (highway ultimately was re-aligned, and their property was spared, after the fact). HOWEVER, she knows how to make the best enchiladas. She always softens corn tortillas by frying them in hot oil for about ten seconds. That was my job when I was home. Nowadays, I do the same thing, but I use wrap them in a wet paper towell, and steam them in the microwave. Same effect; no oil. She will layer the enchiladas like you do when she doesn't have a volunteer to roll them. Yours looked delicious!
gmpullman we had to put down one of our cats yesterday. "Baby Kitty" somehow developed something like encephalitis
Hi Ed,
I'm very sorry for your loss.
Mornin'......
York1I have my 69th in about a month
Looks like we have a bunch of young folks here in the diner... LOL One month from today I will be 74 years young! I can't die yet as I have to much to get done before I leave!
Today I am hosting a "socially distant, masked meeting" to help a couple old teachers I worked with be able to find out about the new plans for our health insurance. We were lucky to have it in our contract that we would be kept on the district insusurance plan for the rest of our lives at no cost.... Of course we were also the lowest payed teachers in the county, but...... It is good to not have to worry anout our health insurance at this point in our lives. If we live long enough we should break even on our pay... LOL One of the ladies is now 86 years young, still driving and still the one "IN CHARGE!!!" Her first name is Mabel and we have always affectionately called her "Ma".
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
York1What does bother me in our house is my wife's inability to get rid of things
My wife will get rid of things, but not certain things.
She has an unbreakable attachment to anything that was given to us by someone who has since passed on. If someone gives us a gift, then dies, that item is now sacred to my wife... period.
We have two hideous end tables in our bedroom that were given to us by a family friend named Patty. Patty passed away three years ago.
I will not have those end tables in the new bedroom, but she is determined to keep them because Patty gave them to us. They do not even have drawers or match one another.
They are not even in good shape.
I tried to "accidentally" destroy one of them by stacking two three foot high piles of magazines on it. It held up. The magazines went to the recycle center.
I have sat my 300 pound self on one of them while I put on shoes and even wiggled around on it. It will not break.
When the new bedroom is done, I think this will be the biggest fight of the remodel.
Happy birthday, Henry. I have my 69th in about a month, so you are older than me for a little while.
Good luck with the new doctors and dentist.
York1 John
I didn't mean to imply there was anything new going on with my heart. I see my new cardiologist in a few weeks and it's time for another echocardiogram. Getting all new doctors and a dentist is a pain. I think I've only had 3 other dentists my entire life.
Today is my 69th. The wife and I are planning on eating outside at a winery just down the road, if the weather clears up. Right now it's foggy as heck.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Howdy.... Well the computer is fixed, but I'm not doing well . I've been sick for several days. I want to share more pictures here, but not yet. I hope to be back to normal sooon.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Good morning, everyone.
To all of you who have health issues, I am hoping you get some relief and healing.
I am at the point in home ownership where things are about finished. I'm too old to start serious new projects.
When I was younger, we would visit older people and see how their house looked like it was designed and decorated decades ago, and I thought they should renew and update things. Now that I'm that age, old and decades out-of-date stuff doesn't bother me anymore.
What does bother me in our house is my wife's inability to get rid of things. We have a basement crammed full of "stuff". None of it means anything to me, but it sure does to her.
More work on the layout church today. I am still having issues with windows and with the steeple roof. When I get what I want, I step back and it just doesn't look right. More work. I'm supposed to enjoy this hobby, right?
Have a good day, everyone. It's time for bacon, eggs, and coffee.
Brent. The film War Horse highlighted the dangers and in cases the suffering the animals went through in the Great War. After the film was released all the horses that were involved in the War (on both sides) received the Dickin Medal. The Dickin Medal is the highest military award for any animal.
We have had new roofs put on our house. I covered the layout just in case any dust or whatever got on the track etc. Fortunately all was okay. I was rather clumsy on removing the sheeting and slightly damaged a few items.
Now in the process of doing minor repairs before normal services can be resumed.
Sweet & Sour Chicken with peppers etc. for dinner tonight.
Have a good day and keep safe.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
I have had the A/C system replaced in this house twice.
I am replacing a few register boxes, because I have the ceilings down, and they are 30 years old. I am following all of the instructions from the manufacturers, and I am amazed at how wrong so much of the installation is for the A/C flexible ductwork and air return system.
I think I will be replacing a lot more than I intended.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, I get up this morning thinking I'll whip in the new HDMI cable and spend the day in the train room. WRONG! One of the porcelain tiles in the kitchen cracked and then nine more cracked as I walked around, water started oozing out. Down to the crawl space and sure enough, it is under the dishwasher. I run the dishwasher long enough to see the leak underneath and out to the back patio it goes. The next project was supposed to be the master bathroom, not any more.
Kitchen/family room is about 800 square feet and it will be gutted and made brand new once the puppies are gone. I may just contract this one out but knowing me, not likely. Progress on the layout will never be made. A new gas fireplace is also in the works for that room as well as all new appliances including a double oven that the wife has wanted for twenty-five years. We put the recommended $1.25 per square foot in the bank every year to cover the cost of owning a house and it has been just about right as far as what we have had to spend on the joint so we are good on that front.
Kitchen issues are nothing compared to what Henry may be facing. I have friends and family that have had some pretty amazing things done in the cardiac ward and had a lot of years afterwards. We are all pulling for you, please try and keep us in the loop as you proceed with your care.
TF, many hands make light work. I am glad you have such a good building manager. Nothing drives me crazier than hearing someone say "not my job".
Ed, sorry to hear about your cat. Being married to a Vet has found me involved often when a family has had to say goodbye to a cherished member of the family. It is not easy.
I always load the dishwasher, that way all the dishes come out clean, not just half of them.
My wife's Dad was an executive Chef and my wife is a chip off the old block. She is an amazing cook thus requiring a lot of time on the bike.
Rob, good to hear from you, I do think about you when we haven't heard from you in a while, keep up the good fight. Wish we were closer, so we could give you a hand on the trackwork.
John looks like a fun day at the pumpkin patch, I miss those days with the kids. Use to take my own as well as a few others, but that is another story.
I ate a 5000 calorie pizza for dinner tonight along with a few glasses of red wine, I see some serious bike time this week. Cost of doin business.
The daughter and I went for a 2 1/2 hour driving lesson today, she is doing really well and it is the most relaxing instruction I have ever done. I use to train people at work and all I can say is some people just should not drive. My sister is not a good driver, yet at 70 she has never had an accident. I think it is because other drivers must give her a wide birth.
David, that photo of the plough reminded me of my cousins in England. Their farm was used for the movie "War Horse" and they all had cameos as the farmhands.
The kid got called for a movie yesterday that was $30,000.00 for nine days of video capture animation for a new superhero movie. He had to say no as he is already past the breaking point with two jobs and full-time University. He has made the Deans List every year but is worried it might not happen this year as his UN work on the covid crises is somewhat overwhelming.
He is fully involved with what is going on, on the international level in the battle and has his own staff. I still think of him as my little boy that I took to hockey three times a week. Someone pinch me.
I think I will be hitting the rack soon as I have an hour on the bike first thing tomorrow to pay for my gluttony, then a new dishwasher will be picked up and installed. I have the dehumidifier in the crawlspace to dry things out but that won't fix all the cracked tiles so we are in the deep end now.
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."
Busy night in the Diner! I like that
Thanks to all for the kind words on the loss of Baby Kitty. Every weekday night she would get in my lap and stare at the big TV while the 11 o'clock news was on. Then we would watch Steven Colbert and, like clockwork, when the first commercial would come on, off she would go to sleep. Tomorrow won't be the same.
Henry, I had a girl friend once who had meniere's disease. She wasn't from around here and she mentioned she might have to have surgery. I said you're in luck, you can go to the Cleveland Clinic just a few miles away. She said, kind of testy "I'm not going to some clinic! I want a REAL hospital"! Former girlfriend.
Dee Ann and I share meals and cooking duty about four nights a week. The other nights are "orts" night (crossword puzzle word) and we just grab whatever we want. I always clean up as I go but she stacks and gathers and after dinner there's a mountain of pots and dishes. I don't mind, I usually wash, she dries. Haven't used the dishwasher in years. I run it about every other month or so just to keep the piston rings oiled.
Our washer and dryer are right next to the ore dock and staging yard. Start a load, run the local and make a few setouts. Clothes into the dryer and run the Capitol Limited a few laps.
Dee Ann does all the folding and putting away. She can fold fitted sheets perfectly. I make a tangled lump out of them.
My thoughts are with you, Rob.
Stay Safe, everyone!
Arnold had more valve jobs than that Cadillac!
WB_29_cle by Edmund, on Flickr
Thanks again, Ed
I've always done most of the cooking. The ex-wife never could cook. The GF now can cook, but prefers not to.
When I retired, the ex-wife told me I had to do my own laundry. No problem. So, now I do my laundry and the GF does hers. I won't do any special instructions laundry. Everything goes in the washer with soap, then everything goes in the dryer.
The animals all belong to the GF, and family history and my ailments say that I go first by quite a few years. If that turns out not to be the case, I would still care for the cats, but find somewhere else, preferably someone else for the dog. Our local paper has a little ad every week with a picture of one cat and one dog up for adoption. They're usually older animals, and I feel sorry for them.
You have been added to our nightly prayer list. I don't understand the half of the heart stuff you were talking about. But I always take that kind of thing very seriously
That 32 Cadillac is a gem! What an awesome job on the fenders. The more classic they get, the more I like
So about two weeks ago the manager of the condo complex here gives me a call. He's just the greatest guy you'd ever want to meet and feeds me jobs throughout the building here.
He tells me a commercial HVAC company is coming to change out the exhaust recirculation blower in the garage. My Stang is parked right in front to the left a little bit.
He says I would never wish to see anything happen to your car because I know it's your baby. Switch parking spaces with me because I can move my car the morning I know they are coming. So I did but like I said it's been about two weeks and they haven't came yet.
I called him a few days ago and told him my security system on my car will drain the battery to nothing if I don't plug it in every two weeks because there's no access to a receptacle on that parking level.
Tonight I get a call from him and he tells me John I went to the garage and Strung extension cords and there's a cord hanging down right in front of your car.
I go down there and these cords are neatly wrapped around the plumbing drain pipes and brackets a long distance through the garage to a receptacle. By the way his name is John too.
I plugged the trickle charger into my battery and just had a gut feeling because it snowed and sleeted a little bit today. He might be outside salt sanding the walks. He was and I grabbed a bucket out of my truck and got some salt sand and helped him finish salt sanding the common areas. It was the least I could do!
There is still really good people in the world! I gotta tell ya!
SeeYou190My wife is convinced that if I load the dishwasher the dishes will not get clean. Fine. I just let her do it.
Absolutely true. There is some sort of precise placement required that men cannot see.
When I cook, I clean up as I go along, my wife creates a huge mess then says I'll clean that up later.
Ken I don't know if I will have another dog or not. Toby is 10 and I am 68. I know of cases where dogs are in shelters because their owners died. I'd hate to leave a dog to a shelter.I have a friend that is a serial restorer. For years it was BMW motocycles, then he moved to sail boats. Lately he restored a Mini and built a playhouse for his grandkids out of pallet wood, but made it look like it came from nice lumber.
He helped a friend attach fenders to a 1932 cadillac. That has been a 10 year project.
Arnold Scharznegger had another heart valve replacement. In 97 they replaced his bicuspid aortic valve (congenital defect that he and I shared) with his pulmonary valve and replaced that with a cadaver valve. In 2018 they had to replace the cadaver valve and now they replaced the aortic valve again at the Cleveland Clinic.
Judging by his picture on Twitter, it wasn't one they inserted through the femoral artery. I was warned that mine might not be able to replace that way either.
I don't understand that procedure at all. I know they put a balloon in the old valve and expand it to spread out the valve. That means at some point the aorta is completely obstructed, followed by no aortic valve at all, until they put in the new one. Doesn't sound possible but apparently it is.
We saw Arnold at Sun Valley ID. He is about 5' 10" and my ex cut him off in the lift line.
SeeYou190I have always done all the laundry.
My ex decided that the 80 hours a week I worked wasn't enough contribution to the household and had me do the laundry. I shrunk a very nice wool sweater I bought for her down to the size that would fit a 5 year old.
That ended that experiment.
SeeYou190 I think my wife might actually starve to death if I did not make us dinner everyday.
I think my wife might actually starve to death if I did not make us dinner everyday.
Now that one struck me Funny! Sometimes you can be a card Kevin
That arrangement you and your wife have sounds interesting John. If the arrangement comes with cleaning your own dishes up after yourself, I may just have to be scheduling a meeting with Judy here real soon
Daisy sounds like such a great companion John God I Miss My Dogs Especially Nellie, She would talk to me with her eyes and I always knew what she was saying
I use corn tortillas for my tacos and flour tortillas for enchiladas. Works best for me. But, I wish they would understand that we really want beef tacos with chili sauce, not fish tacos with vegetables and mayonnaise. It's supposed to be a meal, not a salad.
Ed, sorry about your cat. Our older cat is Emily, at 14 years old. She has to be carefully fed, but is mostly OK. Snowflake is only a year, but we have to watch her food so she doesn't become a fat cat. We thought she had back leg problems, but after we got rid of the final intestinal parasites she was fine.
York1 If I want something, I make it, and she does the same.
cudakenTonight while I was sitting outside with Dirk I did wonder what I would do with out him. Funny how a dog I did not want has became so much of my life.
Same here, Ken. I didn't want a dog, but my wife just had to get Daisy. Now Daisy sits with me, sleeps beside me, walks outside with me, and watches out the front window waiting for me to get home. She sits in my chair watching me closely while I work on the layout.