up831 . Alas, such was not the case. Not knocking the Dupage show, it's really quite good, but the grandkids want to see trains run.
. Alas, such was not the case. Not knocking the Dupage show, it's really quite good, but the grandkids want to see trains run.
I know what you mean. The last show I took my younger granddaughter to a train show she took a shine to a particular layout. The two operators were chatting to themselves not running trains.
The granddaughter, not backward at coming forward asked them, "Why is there no trains running?"
The 'look' they gave my granddaughter as if to say 'How dare you interrupt us?'
Not getting an answer my granddaughter said "They are not nice people are they Papa?" as we walked away.
The sausage rolls (sausage parcels really) I baked earlier were a success.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Hi Everyone,
Brunhilda, coffee with cream, please.
watched ppart of the world series game last night. I wasn't rooting for either team, but it was a good game. Good to see Dusty Baker get a ring as a manager. I can remember when he played for the Dodgers, many moon ago. I don't know when it all changed, but it used to be that they wanted to win the pennant, now they win rings. Maybe they get both, but they never mention the pennant part of it.
This month we're in Italy. Never been there and no burning desire to go; however, I'll happily read about other diner's adventures and information about it. Since I went gluten free about nine years ago Italian food isn't even an attraction, although I do miss pizza. Every once in awhile I can get a decent gluten free crust, but I don't have pizza much at all anymore. Train Fest is next weekend. If I'm off work I'd sure like to go. I made the mistake of convincing the family to go to the Dupage train show last winter based on pre-COVID memories of layouts for my grandchildren to see. Alas, such was not the case. Not knocking the Dupage show, it's really quite good, but the grandkids want to see trains run. If the wife and I can go to Train Fest, we'll bring back a report to hopefully have the family put it on next year's calendar. I know they would enjoy the trains running.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Good morning from the wet West Coast where it is snowing big wet flakes. A perfect day to hit the trail with the mutts as we are unlikely to see anyone else.
MisterBeasley BATMAN So Michael J. Fox is alive and well. It was a hoax that he had died, the local classic rock station that I was listening to today was saying he died. This is good news to be sure. Yes, good news indeed. I looked it up yesterday and found nothing, so it's good to hear it was a hoax.
BATMAN So Michael J. Fox is alive and well. It was a hoax that he had died, the local classic rock station that I was listening to today was saying he died. This is good news to be sure.
So Michael J. Fox is alive and well. It was a hoax that he had died, the local classic rock station that I was listening to today was saying he died.
This is good news to be sure.
Yes, good news indeed. I looked it up yesterday and found nothing, so it's good to hear it was a hoax.
I had the radio on while painting yesterday and they went on and on about him as he is a local boy. Makes you wonder how miserable these people's lives are that perpetrate misinformation for kicks. My son said there was also stuff on Youtube and FB about it as well.
I just removed all the hardware and washed the walls in the next room to be painted and it is not even 0900hrs yet so we are off to a productive day. The room had huge shelving units in the closet that had to come out.
We changed the clocks as well, however, the dogs don't know the difference, they get up when we show up in the kitchen.
A little guitar, 7 to 10 km with the mutts, and then back to painting.
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."
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Good afternoon Italy. A glass of Italian Merlot please, Janie.
Our son is a good cook and today he is trying a 'new Christmas Dinner recipe' in preparation for the big day. We shall be joining in.
Meanwhile Dawn has asked me to do some sausage rolls. They are now in the oven.
Sicily to Naples in daytime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8k0AQPKsOQ&ab_channel=NonstopEurotrip
Good morning, diners. Donut Day!
We changed our clocks last night, but our dog didn't get the message. Since she is the boss of the house, I had to get up with her.
It's an exciting day today -- I'm going to start painting my new layout bridge. It doesn't take too much to excite me.
Mister Beasley, we have an Amish settlement not far from us. They generally stay off the highway since we have a good system of county gravel roads.
Not much else going on here other than the daily leaf pick up. Hope everyone has a great day.
What a great-looking train! How about a ride on the Nebraska Zephyr?
York1 John
Good morning Italy. Some meats and cheese with breads and a large cappuccino please, Brunhilda.
We put our clocks back last week, so up and about earlier today than the folks over the pond.
Rome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DcA4BePBdA&ab_channel=DiversifiedDiversions
Rome to Palermo by train.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14Tm5M9OMVo&ab_channel=KeepGoingPlaces
BATMANI just heard Michael J. Fox died.
York1 I would like to go back to standard time all year.
I would like to go back to standard time all year.
You ain't the only one, John.
Attuvian 1 John
Good evening, everyone. Houston just won the World Series. I really didn't mind either team winning; it was a fun series to watch.
Even though we get an extra hour of sleep tonight, I hate these time changes. Today the sun came up after 8:00 a.m., meaning the school day was starting before dawn. I know this is normal for the friends north of us, but for me, I hate it. I would like to go back to standard time all year.
Have a good evening.
It was a beautiful day today but I spent it inside doing renovations.
I just heard Michael J. Fox died. He was a big Canucks fan. When he was in town he would sit in Michael Buble's suite and there was only a half wall between them and us. We had a lot of good times chatting back and forth over the years. Sometimes they would come over to the suite we were in and hang out. A sad day for us.
Over on WPF Ed mentioned painting his antimacassars (that is quite a word) Washing all those things must be a big pain in the.... I then got to thinking about when we would host a hockey tournament, we would provide the jerseys for all the teams. The jerseys would be provided through sponsors like Tim Hortons or another sponsor. We were always awash in cash from all the donations and could put on a good show for the visiting kids. At the end of the tournament, there would be 200 to 300 hockey jerseys to wash, they would literally fill the back of my pick-up right up. I would back into the garage and unload these stinky things into a big pile on the floor and start the washing machine, it would take days. Hockey jerseys are not exactly small and you cannot get a lot of them in, even in our extra-large washer. We would buy a lot of laundry detergent at Costco at times.
If I was washing them, I would pull them out of the dryer and stuff them into hockey bags. If my wife was doing the loads all the jerseys would be neatly folded and perfectly placed back into the hockey bags. I still miss Saturdays at the rink with the kids, it was better than doing renovations.
Time for a shower, a pour of Glen Fiddage, and the Canucks.
Today I drove out to pick up out beef and chicken orders. We got 4 whole chickens and a quarter side of beef from natural farmers to the north a bit. That basically filled the whole vertical freezer in the garage.
I was surprised to see that both farms were Amish. Delaware doesn't have a large Amish population, but sure enough, I got stuck behind a horse and buggy on the way home. I'm sure they were having more fun than me.
Good morning
Some Italian freight over coffee.
https://youtu.be/CCEWH32O7Fg
Never seen canvas wrapped box cars before. Kinda like a wagon train
TF
Good morning Italy. A large cappuccino please and some breads and cheese, Chloe.
Sit with a coffee. Relax and enjoy the scenery around Cortina D'Ampezzo.
Seeing Cortina was my first time in Italy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0afjoKpPAU&ab_channel=MindTravels
Venice Santa Lucia Train Station
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bU6wvCpvJM&ab_channel=NomadCitello
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
SeeYou190My younger sister is a Biology Teacher, and she explained owl pellets to me.
Dianne and I were sitting on the side of a road several years ago watching a Great Gray owl that was only about 20' away. It had been sitting still for a long time but then it started to act like it was choking on something. Sure enough, after a number of convulsions, it coughed up a pellet! Our kids were still young enough to be into gross stuff so we retrieved the pellet and took it home. After letting it dry for a few days we took it apart (Dianne had decided to not participate - just retrieving the pellet was enough for her!). It contained the expected collection of tiny bones and globs of fur, but it was interesting none the less.
The things we do for our kids!!
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
The World Is A Beautiful Place
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
York1The owls ate small animals whole, with the soft nutritious part being digested, while the bones, fur, feathers, etc., were formed into pellets and regurgitated. These pellets are found on the ground below where the owls roost.
My younger sister is a Biology Teacher, and she explained owl pellets to me.
She said it was one of her student's favorite lab days.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Certainly like when they spin their head around to see something.
https://youtu.be/qJ09rYFm57w
Did you know that to acheive their sharp vision, the owls eyes are elongated, rather than round. They cannot move their eyes from side to side as can other animals, thus they must turn their heads. This is why they can turn their heads faster than the blink of an eye.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I usually went through each year's budget at the school pretty closely.
When things were ordered, the companies sent invoices that the school board approved each month.
Each year a teacher ordered owl pellets. I had no idea what that line item of the invoice was -- owl pellets?
I finally visited that classroom and found out the students would dissect the owl pellets to find what foods the owls had been eating. The students knew what they were doing -- the teacher had to explain to me what it was all about.
The owls ate small animals whole, with the soft nutritious part being digested, while the bones, fur, feathers, etc., were formed into pellets and regurgitated. These pellets are found on the ground below where the owls roost.
I had no idea.
We do not rake leaves, not that we have many leaves, we just let them blow into Minnesota.
As soon as Mom and Dad moved to PA, they hired a man with a truck aand plow to clear the driveway. It was rather long.
Here we have several powered machines to take care of snow. A tractor with a snow blower to clean the roads, and a skid streer to clear the sidewalks. We even hired a contractor to widen a sidewalk so that the skid steer could ride on it better.
We do have a great distance of roads, parking lots and sidewalks, but we do not clear the church parking lot. The parish is responsible for the parking lots and the sidewalks around the Church.
As for myself and my stuffed animals, we stay inside where it is warm, and watch the world go by.
Evening
We have a really cool great horned owl that hangs out around here quite a bit.
Bush Lake is only several blocks over to the west and Nine Mile Creek comes in behind our place so there's quite a bit of wildlife around for being so close to the city.
I was watching that owl in the back by the pond reservoir one evening as he turned his head from the 12:00 position, to darn near all the way around to the 9:00 position. It's really neat when they do that. He had heard something and was quite enthralled for a while as I watched.
I had forgotten which way his head had turned from before and for a second thought it kept going around when he turned his head back Of course I knew better than that but it kind of freaked me out for a split second there.
I really like his baritone Who and sometimes he who's back staring at me with those big beady eyes after I who him.
Owls are definitely an interesting bird of prey.
https://youtu.be/5ZtbCOpx8Sk
BATMANThe owl that lives in that tree is stunning,
Down here all we have are burrowing owls, and I hate them.
They attack people at night, make terrifying noises, and they poop out axle grease.
They are nothing but yellow eyed flying demonic horrors.
Last page I offered up a delicious Florida brew. Now for something that is competely the opposite. Black Cherry Flavor Hard Mountain Dew Zero Sugar. This stuff is just entirely so wrong:
If you are feeling brave, try a can. You will be shocked at just how bad it is.
Sorry.
Back to work on the master bedroom...
BATMAN Owl was having Winnie, Rabbit, Kanga, and Piglet in for tea... Hunney1 by Bear, on Flickr
BATMAN Owl was having Winnie, Rabbit, Kanga, and Piglet in for tea...
Hunney1 by Bear, on Flickr
I'm sure the mangy mutts would love some hunney. After all, they love watching trains through the door for hours on end.
The owl that lives in that tree is stunning, if we go by early in the morning or late in the day he is out flying around. He has lived there a long time. The dogs always stop, look up and wag their tails hopping he sticks his head out for a look which he sometimes does.
It is seriously wet today, we have eight downspouts and they are all looking like this right now.
I think a day playing in a certain room is called for after another cuppa.
Our Toyota Highlander Hybrid came with the first six oil changes included. As it spends a lot of its time running on batteries it is 16000km between oil changes.If we get a new pick-up it will be a Hybrid. My current 7.3litr diesel requires a lot of oil and changing it is expensive.
We were going to rip up our carpet in the living/dining room and put hardwood down. I wasn't going to get it done by Christmas so I shampooed the carpet instead. It still looks pretty good but is dated. The thought of being on my hands and knees laying 540sqft of hardwood is not very appealing anymore, I must be getting old.
To the trainroom!
Gettin'er done over the Stoney Creek Bridge.
howmusI told him "no thanks" and that I am trading in the Volt on a Tesla Model 3.
We are getting closer to an electric car. I really like the KIA EV-6. It has enough room for me to be able to drive it. That is very important, and difficult to find, in an electric car.
I don't know when it will be. Both the Colorado and the Impala are past the point where they have any good trade-in value. Now the plan is to pull the last piece of tape off of those rolls before getting another vehicle. They both run well, so it might be a long while.
I am still a strong believe in renting a car for any long-distance out of state trips.
Good morning, everyone. I think for a change, I'll have bacon, eggs, and black coffee, Flo.
It was a cold morning for my walk. There is snow west of us, and snow east of us, but just cold for us. My wife is disappointed since she loves snow. Of course, she doesn't clean the driveway -- she watches through the window from the warm house while I freeze.
I cleaned the entire yard of leaves yesterday. This morning, one cannot tell that I even did anything. And the worst is that the large oak trees haven't started to drop their leaves yet. I foresee weeks of more work each day.
Our little town does not allow leaves to be burned. I miss that distinctive Autumn smell of leaves being burned in the neighborhood.
I get up very early each day, so these days of watching the World Series from the east coast means I don't get to bed real early. But ... I still get up at the same time, which means I am tired all day. Even though it's still morning here, I feel like I need an afternoon nap -- right now.
Have a great Friday, everyone.
Good Morning,
A cool day here with a high of about 38F but it is sunny.
I had an oil change at the dealership this past summer and it cost $190, about $145 US. It did include 8 litres of Castrol synthetic and a very complete inspection. The price has nearly doubled in the last 5 or 6 years. I only drove 3k miles so wonder if it really needed a change.
Had cedar planked salmon last night for supper. It was very good. It was my birthday dinner, as I turned 75 yesterday.
I am slowly getting the pots cleaned out but will have to blitz it tomorrow as the weather is supposed to turn on Sunday.
No train stuff lately but have a few projects for later.
CN Charlie
Track fiddlerJust after the economic crunch I went in for my scheduled oil change and found out it was $85.00 before the add-ons. Of course I had them do that one, not to look like a cheapskate but that was where I drew the line as they downgraded the oil for twice the price.
LOL!!! Now, I don't mean any offence to anyone, I just have to tell a true story from 3 years ago. I had taken my Volt in for some recall items and to be checked over before I traded it in for the Tesla. While I was waiting I walked around the showroom and was checking out a big 3/4 ton Foe-wheel draaaahhhve Pick-em-up truck when an old (think about 80 maybe) salesman comes up to me and say's. "Hey there young feller, we can get you into the seat of that real quick like"!
I told him "no thanks" and that I am trading in the Volt on a Tesla Model 3. He gave me a digusted look and said, "Where ya gunna git the oil changed?!" I repeated I was buying a Tesla! He yells back at me, Ya still gots ta git the oil changed!!!! I repeated I was getting a Tesla! He never did figure it out. Real bright guy selling cars I think. All you need is to memorize the sales pitch and you got it made! LOL, LOL, LOL!
I went back into Service Dept. and told the ladies at the desk what happened. I didn't think either of them were ever going to catch their breath.....
73, 44 ;)
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
York1 I haven't changed my own oil since I retired.
I haven't changed my own oil since I retired.
I was riding on that same boat and was agreeable 100% for years John. As Kevin stated, as cheap as it is (WAS) at the dealer, why wouldn't you.
Used to be cheaper than purchasing the oil and the filter at just over $30.00 some years ago. It crept up 5 bucks a pop till just over $50.00 but I was still OK with that until I found out they were no longer using 50/50 synthetic blend but we're using straight conventional oil.
Just after the economic crunch I went in for my scheduled oil change and found out it was $85.00 before the add-ons. Of course I had them do that one, not to look like a cheapskate but that was where I drew the line as they downgraded the oil for twice the price.
I can get seven quarts of full synthetic and oil filter at Menards for $44.00 after the 11% rebate. With full synthetic I can change my oil every 10,000 miles instead of every 5,000 miles and I'm getting an average of 3 MPG better gas mileage. That's the way the oil thing has been up here anyway.
Well, ... I'm back to crawling around under my truck again...
Whenever I come across little blue, I have to post him.
Have a great day gentlemen
Good morning Diners. A large cappuccino with some breads and cheese please, Zoe.
TF. Thanks. Much appreciated. A better day for Dawn today.
Milan
Milan Central Station.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgvcgMp41gI&ab_channel=MichaelJiroch
20 things to do in Milan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5v1_xpcEjw&ab_channel=SamuelandAudrey-TravelandFoodVideos