I know it is early, but a storm is coming... have a brew...
A nice dark Krombacher should do the trick.
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
Good morning everyone
Yesterday the news declared that in five days we will be flattened by a hurricane.
Historically speaking, the absolute safest place to be when a storm is coming is dead-center in the target cone when it is five days away. So, we should be just fine. They are always off by at leat 100 miles this far out. I have not watched the news today yet, so I don't know af any new updates.
When the storm is three days away these things get much more accurate.
There is craziness in the streets and near panic down here already.
We are dealing with hundreds of new year-round residents this year, mostly Canadian transplants, and they are in a state of complete terror. This is exactly what the weather forecasters have been dreaming about.
I went out last night for some potatoes, and there were lines all around the gas stations. Stores are cleared out of nearly everything, except potatoes (thank goodness).
None of these people have any idea how to prepare for a hurricane, so they are getting ready for the Zombie Apocolypse instead. I guess in Canada the Zombie Apocolypse is something they are really afraid of. Too funny.
As usual, all the canned goods, dried rice and beans are cleared out. Who wants to eat rice and beans after a storm?
I strolled over and bought a bunch of charcoal and steaks. Me and my neighbors will be eating delicious meats from the grill while the transplants are sucking on dry kidney beans. I hope they don't get too jealous.
I filled the freezer with ziplock bags of water, In a couple days (if it is still coming this direction) I will fill 8 five gallon pails with toilet water, and check the Cat-5 storm windows. All OK... I am ready.
Let the Canadian Zombie Apocolypse, I mean hurricane, begin!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Funny stuff, Kevin!
York1 John
Good afternoon from the sunny Pacific Rim.
No storms here but the kid of our good friends is sitting through the worst of the Typhoon hitting Japan.
My cousins in Nova Scotia had a big pre-hurricane barbecue yesterday. If or when we ever get another Typhoon I'll be sure to have a pre-storm barbecue.
Talking to my cousin(s) on the East coast and they say the damage is extensive, not because of Fionna's windspeed but because the storm stalled and has gone on for 10 hours longer than an average hurricane goes on, so they are quite battered. They have a small apple orchard with about a hundred trees. They had not harvested them yet and these things can become real projectiles. About twenty years ago they got hit with all the apples still on the trees and the side of the barn had six inches of apple sauce on it.
I am feeling really beat up today, wife is at a dog show for three days so I am taking it easy. She left two mutts at home, I sure enjoy their company.
Ed, I can never see enough pics of your caboose. How long did it take to build? Is that paneling on the inside walls or individual boards?
My son woke up to a wet floor yesterday morning so I got a mayday call. Stopping at HD for plumbing bits was a pain as the store was full of people taking inventory. Customers were noticeably not happy, usually, they do inventory at night when the store is closed said one supervisor, she didn't know why it was being done during the day this time.
Son has made an insurance claim as the water damage to the floors may really add up. I got the plumbing repaired to get them operational again. Those drives into Vancouver seem longer as the years go by. Maybe it was because I had to take the old truck instead of the Toyota that more or less drives itself.
I stopped at the booze store and bought some Glenfiddich 14 and a bottle of the Captain. I think it will be me, the two dogs, and my guitars out on the patio tonight. Good thing the neighbours are way too far away to hear me.
The wife also left me a huge rib steak for the barbie. Is there a hurricane on the horizon?????
My sliding into fall song. I love the seasons.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Restless....... Nice!
Thanks Brent, I needed that!
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Busy day here in the Finger Lakes for me... Mostly getting stuff done I have been putting off for way too long. Nice cool day (mid 60's) so got a lot done outside... Mowed lawn, did some trimming and cleaning up of the property. Last spring I hung a Jellow Jacket trap on a hook on my deck. Last year it nearly filled with the critters. They were all over. This year I haven't seen but one or two all summer. Today when I mowed the lawn back of the house I noticed a couple by the foundation of the house.... Then I noticed a bunch more!
Got a very large ground nesting bunch right along the foundation of the house and in the blocks where the concrete has cracked away. Hmmmmm......
Waited untill almost dark when I figured most would be back in the nest and sprayed foaming wasp/jellow jacket killer there. There was at least a dozen that showed up after I sprayed.... Hopefully they will decide they need to get in the nest and be done in... Will check the next few days and buy some more spray.
Always something needing to be done!
Have a good'un folks!
I thought that Batman and his young fellow might have come for a visit yesterday, but now see that a water leak was occupying their time. I hope not too much damage has occurred! Challenger 300 by Bear, on Flickr Cheers, the Bear.
Challenger 300 by Bear, on Flickr
Ah yes, the mighty Challenger. It is the Government jet of choice. I have been on many, just never in the air. Got to sit in the cockpit many times while waiting for the important people in the back to finish with what I brought them. Usually carrying the Minister of Defense or Foreign affairs and a few times I hand-delivered directly to a Prime Minister.
Before the days of the internet (remember way back when) if a Government big wig was on the West Coast they would send vital documents out in one of these, The docs were the only reason for the flight. I would take them off and hand-deliver them to the Minister or other equally important person that was somewhere out here for some reason. If they were skiing at Whistler that made for a very long drive.
Now if it was the movies, the documents would be in a Suburban with armed guards, however, I was dressed in dirty coveralls and would just throw these highly sensitive docs on the front seat of my dirty pickup truck. Nothing is better than hiding in plain sight.
A couple of times when speed was of the essence I met an F-18, The pilot would climb out, open a small compartment and hand me the pouch. I often thought about what would happen if that little door popped open in flight.
The Challenger in the photo is registered to a company in Ontario and given I cannot look up its recent travels has me wondering.
If I was wealthy enough to own my own jet, it would be a Challenger.
New Zealand is a long trip for that plane. Lots of gas station stops along the way.
A film by Stephen Low, the same guy that did The Rocky Mountain Express.
Good Morning,
Just passing thru and the mention of "hurricane" caused me to stop in for a bite of breakfast......
Having lived just north of Houston for the past 42 years, I've witnessed more hurricanes and severe tropical storms and their effects on people and property than I care to remember.
Have to second Kevin's post, for it is definitely "right on".
My most vivid experience was Hurricane Alicia ('83?) which was my first, and the eye pretty much followed up I-45 towards Dallas. The eye passed within 2 miles of my house, and it was an amazing sight and experience - but it was also pretty scary too.
Take care, and give "Mother Nature" the respect she deserves!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
BATMANStopping at HD for plumbing bits was a pain as the store was full of people taking inventory. Customers were noticeably not happy, usually, they do inventory at night when the store is closed said one supervisor, she didn't know why it was being done during the day this time.
Same thing at our local HD. It is a pain in the back side, and these inventory checkers know nothing about the store, and can't help anybody.
Have a good Sunday!
Mike.
My You Tube
Thje Canucks are having a time qwith thie fiona storm:...
Keep your head above water!
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Yesterday was a very hard day a work.
Everyone was getting ready for the storm. Management made sure we had plenty of plywood, bottled water, chainsaws, and generators. We sold material all day. Five new trucks came in resupplying the store. We normally get eight trucks a week.
There was the usual assortmemt of idiots that are too funny, but something else happened I was not prepared for.
I have never dealt with the general public before a storm. I had no idea how genuinely scared the elderly would be, and they cannot perform preparations themselves. Talking with eldery customers was constantly heart breaking, and I was not prepared for it.
That was very difficult.
I used to live in Massachusetts, and my profile says I still do, but that's the site software's fault. Massachusetts gets the remnants of a hurricane every few years. Many years and quite a few girlfriends back, they predicted a bad hurricane. We stocked up on what we might need. When the storm really never arrived, we turned out the lights and had a picnic, complete with a basket and a blanket, in the unfinished attic.
My former in-laws were in Stuart, FL, when two hurricanes in a row came ashore basically where they lived. They went to an inland shelter for the first one, but hated the experience so much they decided to ride out the storm at home for the second one. They stocked up on water and ice so they could make cocktails. Their condo was pretty well protected and suffered little damage, but nearby places weren't as lucky. Papa noticed the flagpole at the end of the dock survived, so he ran the American flag up as a sign of triumph.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
A nice, rainy Sunday here. A good day to browse the information superhighway — And play with trains!
I've seen stills of this event but getting the scene on film is worth the price of admission.
"Here is a locomotive —
here are some girls" All the introduction I need...
If you have time it is worthwhile to watch the whole video (film, in my day)
Cheers, Ed
Ed, those girls not only moved the train, but it kind of looked like they did it in high heels!
Good afternoon from the beautiful West Coast.
Got up and sat on the patio for three giant mugs of coffee. As hard as I tried I could not hear any human-caused sound. The giant maple leaves seem to make a horrendous noise as they fell from on high bouncing off the lower branches on the way down. I then grabbed my guitar and it was back out on the patio for another couple of hours to serenade the wildlife.
Then I decided I better go get the mail which is a nice walk past some farms and acreages. On the way back, I hear my name being shouted and it is one of the local farmers that leases out his land because he has retired but has a very large vegetable garden. He loaded me up on a giant cardboard flat with a vast assortment of veggies like broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and these giant Chehalis onions which I just love and he gives me some on a regular basis. I start home and Helen is coming down her long driveway to the road with two dozen eggs and puts them on top of my pile of veggies. I carried this mound of freshness about half a km home. Even the dogs recognize a good score when it happens.
So I decided to take my fresh eggs, and fresh onions and go out back and pick four tomatoes off the vine. I then grab the mozzarella out of the fridge fresh from the deli and grate a pile off. I then slice two big thick slices of bacon off the slab we got when we bought the cheese and chopped it up into little pieces and made the best omelet I have ever had.
Next is a romp through the forest with the two dogs the wife left home. The old one is thirteen so we will do the short 6km jaunt. She still handles that fine.
The last real rain we had was June 9th, since that day we have had a grand total of 28.6mm, just over an inch. I usually turn the furnace on Oct 1, but I think we will be well into October before it happens this year.
Ed, I loved the girls pulling the big steam. Every year at the airport they would get teams together and see who could pull a 747 a 100 metres in the shortest amount of time. Good fun, and great prizes.
The bar is stocked, hockey starts tonight and I have a model railroad that puts a smile on my face.
Life is good.
Once upon a time.
All the best to all.
It's Sunday afternoon, and it has not been a good day for me sports-wise. First, the Kansas City Chiefs lost in the last minute, and then the Kansas City Royals let Seattle score 8 runs in the fifth inning. It's not really over yet, but it's probably over anyway.
Talking about food and storms reminds me of my brother. In 1980, his small town was hit by seven (!) separate tornadoes in one night. Their power was out for many days. He told me that when you went outside in his neighborhood, it was an amazing smell of meat cooked on the grills. With the power out so long, all the people were cleaning out their freezers before the food spoiled, and were cooking on their outdoor grills.
In Wichita, Kansas, there's a shortline called the Kansas & Oklahoma RR. (Strangely enough, the company operates in Kansas and Colorado, with no operations in Oklahoma.)
For a time, their logo had a wheat design.
Have a good Sunday evening, diners.
Welllllll!!!!
I wrote the last post too early. The Kansas City Royals just scored eleven (!) runs in the bottom of the sixth. They now lead 13-11.
Unbelievable. My wife is going nuts!
York1The Kansas City Royals just scored eleven (!) runs in the bottom of the sixth. They now lead 13-11.
BOOOOOOO!!!!
Vancouver and Seattle have an unwritten agreement that we cheer for each other when we're not playing each other. Like in hockey or soccer.
We were without power for days in 2008 when we had a big blow. The generator kept the freezer froze and the hockey on.
Good morning, diners. No breakfast this morning. I'm off to the dentist. Out here, that means 50 miles one-way.
Wichita State University, Kansas, has althletic teams known as the Shockers. For a long time, I knew of their good baseball teams, but I didn't know where the name Shockers came from.
I found out that in the early days, the university students, to earn money, would work "shocking" wheat for area famers. A newspaper started referring to them as the wheatshockers, and the name "Shockers" got to be the nickname.
Have a good Monday, everyone.
Good morning everyone.
I checked the 11:00 advisory on Hurricane Ian from NOAA and the National Hurricane Center. Fort Myers/Cape Coral are outside the cone of probability, but we are now officially under a Tropical Storm Watch.
Just now, I watched the lead story on the noon news, They lead with Ian, and the news was WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!
I do not want to go to work today.
SeeYou190 Just now, I watched the lead story on the noon news, They lead with Ian, and the news was WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE! -Kevin
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Welcome back, David!
That fellow Murphy has visited me twice in the past week!
First, after burying the conduit in the area that will be paved over in my driveway, the crew came by on friday to prep and tamp the sub-base. Well. just wouldn't 'ya know, they snagged my telephone/DSL line and ripped it out of the ground
Side note, for a fleeting moment I thought about burying a second piece of conduit in the same trench I dug a few days earlier.
So, back to trenching and messing up the nice, compacted surface they had made for the asphalt. At least the outfit I have for phone/internet, Windstream, was really responsive and helpful. The service guy gave me his number to text him when I was ready to pull the new line in.
Then, last night, Murphy struck again! The power knocked out around 8 PM. Seems like more often, whatever switchgear they use it seems to "try" to reengage every minute or so. Yesterday it made about ten attempts to "reset" or whatever before completely dying for about an hour.
There was light rain so I guess you can't depend on electric service when the wires get wet!
Later when power was restored I got around to restarting the four PCs I have around the house. The one dedicated to security cameras seemed to want to start, then kaput!
That's the second PC power supply toasted in the past two months (the time in July was due to power reset/surge, too) Thing is, for my Dell the power supply was about $35. The PC the cameras are on is a Gateway (Acer) and the best price I could find was $90! Nearly identical supplies but one has an extra pair of wires that plug into the motherboard.
Harumph! Well, the original PS was made in April of 2012, so I figure that's about 87,648 hours of continuous duty.
Yes, all the PCs are on battery UPS units but that's no guarantee of any real protection.
Splitting the semaphores...
BNSF SD-70M at Springer N.M April 2003 , by Mark LLanuza, on Flickr
Some BN action to lure TF out of hiding —
C'est la vie...
Ed
Ed, I had the same idea when we had a large concrete porch/sidewalk poured. I stuck plastic conduit under it before it was worked on. There's nothing in it, but I know where the ends are in case I ever want power out in the yard on that side of the house.
I have to compliment our power company. We have a lot of windstorms and snowstorms out here. We very seldom have a power failure. A lot of our area now has buried lines, which I'm sure helps. I think they also do a great job of cutting back any trees before there's a problem. (This doesn't mean that people who have their trees trimmed don't complain about it!)
I've seen trees in my daughters' neighborhoods that have large old branches over the lines, just waiting for a good wind to knock out power.
Good morning from the stunning West Coast of America, the Canadian part.
Our usual routine in the morning is to go downstairs open up the kitchen and patio doors and just leave them open all day. I think we may make the end of the week doing that but fall is in the air today.
Ed, when Murphy visits us it is always in threes. You should go buy a lottery ticket, my wife does that when a string of bad luck hits and it is amazing the number of times she has won a few hundred or the odd thousand doing that. She generally does not buy lottery tickets though as she understands the odds all too well.
David, glad you enjoyed your cruise to the Baltics. My older cousin commanded frigates in the Royal Navy and one of his best friends was also an RN ships Commander, when he retired his friend became a cruise ship Captian. Once retired my cousin would go on many cruises on his friends' ship. He would take dinner most nights with his friend the Captain and one night my cousin did not show up for dinner. They found him dead in his cabin and put him ashore at a tiny place in the White sea. I was given some memorable tours of the Portsmouth Navel yard by my cousin, ships, and a couple of submarines over the years. It is an interesting experience walking around a Navy facility with a very senior officer.
Went to Costco with the wife this morning as she is tired from the three-day dog show she was at. They had 12' inflatable Santas, I am tempted and the wife wanted me to buy it. We usually have in excess of twenty for Christmas day/dinner and having missed the last two because of covid everyone can't wait for the big get-together this year. Christmas is measured by total wattage at my house. When I bought the house I had the power upgraded to 200amp service as there were no LED lights back then.
I enjoyed yesterday's omelet so much I am going to do it again today for lunch. Then I will take our big male who is home from the show and do the 10km loop.
Life is a train and you don't know where it is going. Do you climb aboard or live it at the station?
mobilman44 Good Morning, Just passing thru and the mention of "hurricane" caused me to stop in for a bite of breakfast...... Having lived just north of Houston for the past 42 years, I've witnessed more hurricanes and severe tropical storms and their effects on people and property than I care to remember. Have to second Kevin's post, for it is definitely "right on". My most vivid experience was Hurricane Alicia ('83?) which was my first, and the eye pretty much followed up I-45 towards Dallas. The eye passed within 2 miles of my house, and it was an amazing sight and experience - but it was also pretty scary too. Take care, and give "Mother Nature" the respect she deserves!
I lived south of Houston for most of my growing up. Alicia in 83 Was my first hurricane. TS Claudette in 79 was the first TS I can remeber.
The Eye of Alicia came right over my house. It was weird. The one thing you remember about a hurricane is the wind does not stop. It howls all night.
We flooded in Claudette, Alvin has world record of rainfall in a 24 hour peroid. (49 inches) We lived in Pearland.
Alicia did not flood us as the wind pushed most of the water away.
However the yard flooded and every single fire ant in neigbhorhood floated to our yard.
Dianne and I got back from our trip to Sault St. Marie earlier this evening. The highlight of the trip was the Agawa Tour Train. I promised lots of pictures and I did take a lot of videos, but my system is playing funny with the video formats so until I figure that out you will have to be satisfied with a few still shots. The coach windows were in pretty rough shape. The glass was heavily scratched (from going through the washing rack I believe), and some of the sealed units were fogged up.
The engines at the end of the tour:
Partial view of the train stopped in the Agawa Canyon:
A small portion of the canyon:
This is the back of the roundhouse in the SOO yard. If I heard the commentary correctly, the 'roundhouse' is not round. It is square! The turntable is inside the roundhouse.
The front of the roundhouse. I don't know which track feeds the turntable:
Parked in the SOO yard:
I'll try to re-format the videos tonight. I also have to get a couple of pics off of Dianne's phone.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Okay, I figured out the video problem, so here are some videos. I apologise for the poor quality.
The first one shows the train on a typical curve. There actually were tighter curves but the dense trackside bush made videos impossible. However, if you feel that the curves on your layout are too tight, just model the Agawa Canyon Train Tour and things will suddenly become very prototypical! Once the train is a few miles out of the SOO, there is very little straight track. The terrain is very hilly, and when the track was originally laid in the early 1900s, they chose to go around the obstacles rather than through them:
Remember to click on "Watch on Youtube".
There are a couple of large trestles on the route, including this curved one:
This is going towards the canyon:
This is the return trip:
The waterfall just before the train stops in the canyon:
The rest of the videos didn't turn out because the windows ruined the shots. When I do my review of the trip I'm going to suggest that they replace the badly scratched windows. However, I won't hold my breath because CN, the owner of the Agawa Tour Train, apparently won't put anything but the bare minimum $ into it, and the track shows that quite well. It was a real rock and roll ride!
Cheers!!