MAY, 2021
Jeffrey's Trackside Diner
For the MAY Diner our host, Ed will guide the Diner patrons through the beautiful environs of The eastern Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Region. This is sure to be an enjoyable ride!
Please join in and suggest or contribute ideas for locations or trains to ride in your favorite locale.
Our Tour this month will be in remembrance of all the contributions and good cheer brought to us by Randy Rinker born and raised in the heart of "Hard Coal" country.
RDG, Allentown, Pennsylvania, circa 1935 by Center for Railroad Photography & Art, on Flickr
I'm saddened to learn of Robbie's passing, Charlie. I always have to remind myself that our pets are only loaned to us. Life is fragile.
L-V_Mapsm by Edmund, on Flickr
DLnW_System_4-26-36_TT by Edmund, on Flickr
EL, Hankins, New York, 1973 by Center for Railroad Photography & Art, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Good evening diners.
Ed: Thank you for moving the diner and setting up shop for the month of May.
May will be a big month for me. I am going to get my second dose of the Moderna Covid Vaccine and then I will leave on a much needed road trip. I am going to visit these States that I have never been to before.
I am still working very hard in the yard. For the past few days I have been working on the garden by the front door.
Several neighbors have stopped by to ask why I destroyed all my gardens. They all remark that my house had the best landscaping in the neighborhood.
Well, that might have been true 4 years ago. But then I ripped out all the flowering hedges on the North and South side of the house so it could be painted. All the rose bushes and gardenias died while I was travelling so much for work. Now I have cut down and torn up all the area around the sea grapes. Amazingly, all the sea grapes have sprouted from being cut all the way down to a stump for painting.
I have assured everybody that it will all be replanted soon, and the gardens will be back better than ever.
Today I had to cut some huge roots out of the ground where irrigation and border walls will go in for the front gardens. These are the root structure of my beloved Madagascar Deciduous Palm Tree. I really hope I have not hurt it badly by cutting all these roots out.
Time will tell. I sure hope that tree stays healthy.
My Queen Palm has been sickly for a few months, and now my Frangiapani is having problems. Others are in full bloom already, but mine is barely sprouting.
My Loquat Tree is also in trouble. It developed black rot last year and I had to cut about 80% of it away. The part that remains is doing well, and even blossomed with a lot of fruit, but there is no new growth this year so far.
My mango tree is doing amazing. In just a few weeks I will be enjoying sweet delicious fresh mangoes. I hope most of them ripen before I leave on the road trip.
I hope we have a good month remembering Randy's favorite railroad.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Thanks for moving the Diner Ed!
Kevin,
I hate losing trees! We had to take down a mature Mountain Ash last fall because of fire blight. That tree was a magnet for birds and it was beautiful with all the red berries. We replaced it with a Service Berry (Saskatoon Berry) tree which is going gangbusters! It will be in full bloom within a couple of weeks, and hopefully will produce some fruit for the birds.
I look forward to seeing your new gardens.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critterI look forward to seeing your new gardens.
Me too Dave!
This picture is from 2004, after Hurricane Charley. The landscape curbing was brand new, I was setting up the gardens, and looking forward to installing a G scale railroad.
I still have not installed a G scale outdoor garden railroad!
The bordered section closest to the camera is the vegetable garden that already existed prior to the landscape curbing.
Coal country! I love the grime associated with steam power, made even better being in coal country.
Ed, thanks for moving the diner, and David thanks for being a wonderful host through April.
Hung three sets of new window blinds today, got the oil and filter, air filter, and fuel filter changed on the Deere as well. Had an hour on the bike, it called out to me even though this was supposed to be an off day. Felt like a million bucks after and finished off the last splash that was in the bottle of rum.
Had a long video call with the kid, he is down with a bad flu bug, got tested for covid but was negative. He bought his girlfriend a new iPhone for her birthday which is tomorrow, I don't imagine he will be anywhere near well enough to celebrate.
The wife came home with a lemon tree today and plans on getting a couple of orange trees. What're next, bananas? I want a coconut palm out front, there are some other varieties of palms around the area that seem to be thriving so why not a coconut palm?
Time to take our four Goldens out for their bedtime pee, lots of stars out tonight may just lay on the grass and stargaze for a while.
Nighty night.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
BATMANGot tested for covid but was negative.
Oh, I got my test result back yesterday... negative.
SeeYou190Oh, I got my test result back yesterday... negative.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Let's get familiar with the Reading Company:
I like listening to Mike Bednar give the narration.
1923_Reading-Lines by Edmund, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
Good morning Diners. The usual tea and toast, Flo, please.
Thanks for moving the Diner, Ed.
Charlie. Sorry to hear about Robbie.
Everyone. Thank you for the kind comments on the trip around Scotland. I got a great thrill 'traveling once again' over my favorite places.
Kevin Good news on the test.
The Diner is in 'Coal Country'. Nothing 'spick'n' span'. My kind of scenery.
Thoughts & Peace to All who Require.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Good Morning All,
Just a regular to go please Chloe. I was sorry to see Robbie passed Charlie.
Also RRinker was instrumental to many of us solving seemingly intractable problems with wiring. He and another couple of you talked me through issues in the yard of my layout until i finally isolated and fixed the problem.
I have now had both shots for Covid the last three weeks ago and outside of soreness the day after the second, no problems. Finally closed on the new house Thursday last and we're in the middle of 9 races in 7 weeks so it's still a bit nuts.
Thanks for moving the diner Ed. I look forward to touring coal country.
Ciao, J.R.
Good morning
Happy May Day
Thanks for opening the May Diner based on the Reading Railroad in Randy's Honor Ed. He will be missed and always remembered here.
Sorry to hear about your friend Charlie. Our pets are our kids too and important members of the family. I understand how you feel as it was so hard for me to let my Nellie go. I raised her from a puppy and took her everywhere I went, even to my outside jobs. She was too hard to say goodbye to.
Good to hear from ya J.R. I would imagine your shop has been keeping you busy.
Make it a good day everyone
TF
SeeYou190Well, that might have been true 4 years ago. But then I ripped out all the flowering hedges on the North and South side of the house so it could be painted. All the rose bushes and gardenias died while I was travelling so much for work. Now I have cut down and torn up all the area around the sea grapes. Amazingly, all the sea grapes have sprouted from being cut all the way down to a stump for painting. I have assured everybody that it will all be replanted soon, and the gardens will be back better than ever.
But why to you have irrigation so close to the house, in a few years you will have brown rust spots all up and down your siding.
Better to put the pipes next to the house and aim them away from the house. (I Think)
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
BroadwayLionBut why to you have irrigation so close to the house, in a few years you will have brown rust spots all up and down your siding. Better to put the pipes next to the house and aim them away from the house. (I Think)
The previous irrigation system for the shrubs was close to the house and sprayed away. This made maintenance on the irrigation system difficult.
Once the the plants all grow in, the spray should not hit the house, but the greenery, I hope.
Time will tell if this was a mistake.
Our building manager does not like plants or pipes that close to the structures. He wants a 1' clearanceso that he can get to the building.
I just went into the kitchen to make another cup of coffee. The coffee pot was not on the coffee maker.
It was in the refrigerator! I guess I figured that is where it should be.
Whoops.
Good morning. Coffee please, Flo.
Another beautiful day outside. It's too bad these beautiful spring days only last about a week or two in our area. We generally go from very cold to very hot in a short time.
We had our first Orioles this year checking out the feeder yesterday. You would have thought my wife won the lottery -- she was that excited to see them back.
Outside, I got the lights finished at the garage door. It was not fun running the wires there.
This morning, I got another crossing signal installed on the layout. Once everything was installed and wired, I hooked up the laptop to the chip and got the lighting exactly correct so that the signal don't come on unless a train is directly over the photo sensors. It seems to work well right now. A test will come tonight when the room is a little darker.
Today, if there's time, I will try to clean the wheels of my passenger cars. I noticed several of the car lights were flickering. I love the passenger cars.
Lion, I never did make it up to North Dakota yet. I still want to hike some of the trails at Teddy Roosevelt National Park. Maybe this fall sometime. My wife won't go, so I will be hiking alone.
Charlie, condolences for your dog. I know how close we get to our dogs.
I know almost nothing about the Reading Railroad other than it's a Monopoly railroad. This will be a good chance to learn more.
David, thanks for the Scotland tour. It's definitely become a place to which I would like to travel. My daughters and families went two years ago, and loved it.
Everyone in the diner, I hope you have a great Saturday.
York1 John
Track fiddlerHappy May Day
When I was young, I always equated May Day with Russia. It was not until I was older that I found out that May Day was actually an European tradition, and that the Russian celebration of Labour Workers Victory just fell on the same day.
Good morning from a sunny warm West Coast. I have been out twice with the dogs already and will be looking for outside work today as it is perfect.
John, you need to hike with a dog, I found they were much better company than most people I went into the backcountry with. Plus they would growl and keep the critters away from getting too close to the tent. I use to carry their food, what's another ten pounds. I had a backpack for the dog but it would ruin their fun of running through the forest as they would get hung up with it, so I rarely used it.
We put soaker hoses and/or drip lines for irrigation in the beds right next to the house. Cover them with just enough dirt to make them invisible. Way less water lost to evaporation as well.
My wife got vaccinated yesterday so I am happy about that. She will remain ruthless about not letting people come to the house until this thing is over as she should be. Normally our house is always full of people coming and going, usually all related to the doggy crowd.
We usually have the same Amazon driver that comes all the time. He is a new Canadian and such a nice guy. Yesterday, he asked my wife if he could take her picture with his phone. His wife is a huge Meryl Streep fan and he was telling his wife he was always delivering to Meryl Streep's house. He said, his wife loves that movie Mamma Mia and has had sing-a-long parties at their house before the pandemic. The wife let him as he is such a funny, full of life guy and it made his day that he had the photo to show his wife. I wonder if he will tell her she is not really Meryl Streep. The wife is 13 years younger than Meryl but ya, she is her doppelganger of what Meryl looked like in Mamma Mia.
All the best to all.
SeeYou190 Track fiddler Happy May Day When I was young, I always equated May Day with Russia. It was not until I was older that I found out that May Day was actually an European tradition, and that the Russian celebration of Labour Workers Victory just fell on the same day. -Kevin
Track fiddler Happy May Day
SeeYou190When I was young, I always equated May Day with Russia. It was not until I was older that I found out that May Day was actually an European tradition, and that the Russian celebration of Labour Workers Victory just fell on the same day.
Your post just jogged a memory probably better forgotten.
When I was very young, our neighborhood had the tradition of "May baskets". We would have a small basket, put candy in it, lay it on the porch of neighborhood girl, ring the doorbell, and run. The girl was supposed to come out, see the basket, chase the person running, and if she caught him, give him a kiss.
Of course, the boys hated this (and probably the girls hated it, too), but our mothers thought it was wonderful. By the time I was about six, I absolutely refused to do it. My mother was disappointed.
Happy May Day, everybody .
First of all ...... Does anybody have contact information for Ken ? .... If so, please reach out to him and find out if he is okay.
David .... Thanks again for the photos and videos of Scotland. I need to go back to the April Diner to see the ones I missed.
Ed .... Thank you for starting the May Diner. It looks like it will be an interesting month.
Everybody ..... Have a good day.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
The wife just got a call from the Animal Emergency Hospital. Don't know what's up but she was out the door in a hurry. She gets calls all the time for opinions on all things animal even though she retired eight years ago. The Hospital is about a half-hour away so I will hang inside with more coffee just in case they need blood. There have been times when I have loaded all our dogs up in a hurry and taken them in to be emergency blood donors.
I remember waking up in the night sometimes and she would be gone, she would often go to the hospital in the middle of the night just to check on serious cases and come home and slip back into bed.
Of course, she would be the on-call surgeon as well sometimes and the phone would ring at three in the morning, and if it was something really serious like a police dog injured in the line of duty I would get a hard elbow in the ribs as she would say let's go!
SeeYou190 I just went into the kitchen to make another cup of coffee. The coffee pot was not on the coffee maker. It was in the refrigerator! I guess I figured that is where it should be. Whoops.
At least that one is reversible.
After some beers on a weekend night I've been known to have a midnight snack and throw the tub of ice cream in the refrigerator
The emoji is the look on my face the next morning when I find out I have peppermint bon bon sauce in the fridge. I have found out it's really good over chocolate ice cream the next night though
Track fiddlerI've been known to have a midnight snack and throw the tub of ice cream in the refrigerator
My wife has done that a couple of times!
She gets so mad at herself, and I just try not to laugh.
Track fiddlerThe emoji is the look on my face the next morning when I find out I have peppermint bon bon sauce in the fridge. I have found out it's really good over chocolate ice cream the next night though
Thought you were going to tell us you put it on your eggs the next morning.
The hotdogs were found in the cutlery drawer one morning, not sure how that happened. The dogs got a treat.
Hot dogs in the drawer eh?
My worst one was Saturday morning many years ago when my buddies wanted to meet down at the VFW for brunch. I had already been getting my cleanest dirty shirt out of the pile on the floor and was hungover that morning. I had enough time to cram in a quick load of laundry.
When I ended up setting the laundry basket on the floor and opened the refrigerator, it didn't take me too long to realize I went to the wrong place and was having the worst brain fart ever
BATMANWe put soaker hoses and/or drip lines for irrigation in the beds right next to the house. Cover them with just enough dirt to make them invisible. Way less water lost to evaporation as well.
As I explained before, we have a wonderful reclaimed irrigation watering system in this city.
They discourage soaker and drip systems. When these have breaks, the breaks are hard to find and make significant loss.
I am following recommendations and using schedule 40 PVC underground with targetted shrubbery nozzles in full view.
The previous irrigation system was in place since 2004, and had no issues except for occassional broken nozzles. Then I added a whole bunch of new planting areas, but never added to the irrigation system. That is why the roses and gardenias died while I was travelling. Also, the lawn never was part of the watering system. This upgrade will be nice when completed... finally.
I currently have 150 feet of soaker hoses for the Areca Palms I had installed last year, but these will be deleted when rainy season begins.
SeeYou190As I explained before, we have a wonderful reclaimed irrigation watering system in this city.
They have that in Vancouver as well but not out here in the sticks. When I go into town to the hockey rinks the toilets have signs over them to not drink the reclaimed water. I don't care how thirsty a hockey player gets, I just can't see him doing that.
BATMANWhen I go into town to the hockey rinks the toilets have signs over them to not drink the reclaimed water.
Interesting.
It is a code violation down here to run reclaimed water indoors for any reason.