Good afternoon Diners. A double whisky please, Zoe, no ice.
York1John. Your journey sounds really fascinating. We shall have to go back to Italy.
Skagen Station, Denmark. I do like the place.
People can lock their bicycles in the lock-up on the left. Then collect them on return.
IMG_2770 by David Harrison, on Flickr
The line to Skagen Docks must be little used what with the overgrown grasses. Must keep the turnouts in good condition. lol
IMG_2769 by David Harrison, on Flickr
Workshop on the Aln Valley Railway, Alnwick.
IMG_2437 by David Harrison, on Flickr
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Hey Janie, can I get a chicken biscuit to go please?
This will be my second biscuit today. The first one I got at a Scottish-named restaurant that specializes in prompt service. Their chicken biscuits cost $3.64 I gave the eighteen-dollars-an-hour guy behind the counter four dollars, one dime, and four pennies. He looked at the money in his hand, then looked at me, then at his hand again. He looked at the coins for a long time (probably about 10 seconds, which is not really a long time, but in this instance it seemed like an eternity). He then gave me back the coins and punched "four dollars" into the computer cash register. He opened the drawer and pulled out $0.36 and handed me my change, then turned and went to refill somebody's coffee cup. Not a big deal, just another day in paradise.
LINK to SNSR Blog
Good morning, diners. I've got a great day ahead -- not a single thing scheduled!
I'm putting off painting the house until fall. It's just too hot already early in the day for the paint to flow right. I've also got to get on the extension ladder and repair some wood around the top of the fireplace chimney. I'm not looking forward to that. It doesn't look high until you're up there on the ladder -- then it looks like you're on a ten-story building.
JaBearYork1John, IMO the Diner is the appropriate place to post your vacation photos, not only do I find them interesting but your family look to be a fine bunch, besides I find it nice that they want Dad/Grandad to be a part of their adventures!
It was interesting that I met several people on the trip who assumed that since I was old, I must be rich and was taking the family on the trip. I had to tell them the opposite was true. The daughters plan these trips and I just tag along. My expense was my plane ticket.
Water Level RouteWe rode the train from Pisa to Florence, and from Florence to Rome. Watching the countryside on the journey, I was amazed at how seemingly every house had a grapevine. Wine is Italy.
Wine was a major part of the trip. The sons-in-law all had quite a few different wines sent home. I'm not part of that experience. I could not tell the difference between a $5 bottle of wine and a $150 bottle.
MisterBeasleyYork1 John, we took a train from Florence to Venice in Italy. I suppose the have a different station for the fast express trains. Our station was enclosed and the trains made American air travel look shabby by comparison.
We took several of the high speed trains. Venice to Florence, Florence to Rome, and back and forth between Rome and Pompeii (Naples station). On one of those legs, the daughters bought tickets for the business class car. It was probably not worth it -- an airline-type lunch was the only perk. Here's lunch:
That's enough about my trip.
gmpullmanHere's my old place on Arms Ave. off of E. 222nd St.. Have you looked at your wife's house on Google street view? It will give you a pretty good idea of the present-day surroundings. Euclid ain't what it used to be...
My wife's house was on 208th street, about a block from the lake. Back then, it was a great location. Her street block of houses owned a lot at the end of the street on the lake and anyone in the neighborhood could use the waterfront. She has heard the neighborhood has changed a lot. I think that may be why she is not anxious to go back.
gmpullmanNot much interest in railroad shops it seems.
I don't really have too much to offer this month. This is the UP's diesel shop in Hermiston, Oregon. Quite a difference between the old shops and the modern ones:
Have a great day, everyone.
York1 John
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
gmpullmanHave you looked at your wife's house on Google street view? It will give you a pretty good idea of the present-day surroundings. Euclid ain't what it used to be...
This is the house where my wife grew up in Gary, Indiana.
I guess you could say that Gary isn't what it used to be, but it was already a disaster when my wife was growing up there.
It is one of the worst places I have ever seen.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Good evening
It's been one heck of a Summer. Just checking in to say Hi Kids.
TF
And now for something completely different...
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Good morning Diners.
York1Mike, it's pretty neat that you also rode a train from the same station in Europe. It was a busy place. With the crowds, we had to try to keep the family together to get to the right trains.
Much to do to get ready for the weekend. Hope everyone has a great Friday.
Mike
Not much interest in railroad shops it seems.
Here's a couple old views from the Pennsylvania Railroad:
Pressing and gauging GG1 wheels by Edmund, on Flickr
Wonder how that guy from the engineering office keeps his boater so clean in that shop?
PRR Altoona Turntable 1934 by Edmund, on Flickr
Sometimes they just wear out and have to be replaced:
York1Ed, my wife wants to take a trip to Ohio to see her old house in Euclid. Not sure if we'll make it this year or not. Every time I plan it, she changes her mind.
Arms-Ave by Edmund, on Flickr
Here's my old place on Arms Ave. off of E. 222nd St.. Have you looked at your wife's house on Google street view? It will give you a pretty good idea of the present-day surroundings. Euclid ain't what it used to be...
There are some places I have childhood memories of that I really wouldn't want to revisit. I'd much prefer to remember them as they were — then.
Cheers, Ed
York1 John, we took a train from Florence to Venice in Italy. I suppose the have a different station for the fast express trains. Our station was enclosed and the trains made American air travel look shabby by comparison.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
York1Douglas, if you make it back to Grand Island this year, I guarantee you will see how much the town has changed. Last week they had a drive-by shooting -- two cars firing at each other on 4th Street. I don't think we ever guessed something like that would happen in our town.
John. I had a summer job with the city street department in the summer of 1980, I think. We would report to work at 7am in order to be done before the late afternoon heat set in. We would take our morning breaks by eating breakfast at the Stockman's Cafe on 4th street. IIRC, that part of town was a bit sketchier than most of GI, N and E across the BN tracks from the old BN depot. I never ventured much into that part of town when I grew up there. Just had no reason to. I had a couple of friends on the far NE side of town, but had no real reason to be in that near NE side. I might stop and see if the SC is still there. I think it was open for years after I left, but might be closed now. Not trying to be mean, but when you say the shooting happened on 4th street, that's probably where I figure it would happen. I hope the rest of GI isn't falling that way.
Enjoying your vacation pics, and I too think posting them here is just fine.
- Douglas
Good afternoon, diners. It's a relaxing afternoon after a morning of yard work.
Mike, it's pretty neat that you also rode a train from the same station in Europe. It was a busy place. With the crowds, we had to try to keep the family together to get to the right trains.
Kevin, that's good news that your daughter is safely at her destination. If you go to visit her, it doesn't look like you'll be able to stay at her place. I've been interested in those tiny homes -- HGTV has had quite a few programs on them. I think I like them because there's no room for the junk we have in our present home. Your house looks great. Your paint job on the game piece is nice -- my son-in-law does some of that, too. He goes to a gaming convention every-so-often.
David, that looks like a nice Baltic vacation. I agree with Mike -- that ship designer probably had to get out of town after the ship's launch.
Richard, I have a retired friend who lives in Gilbert. On our weekly phone visit, he tells me about the temperature, and how he copes by laying around in his pool. Next year he is trading in his home and pool to move to a retirement community. He will use the community's pool without worrying about the pool upkeep.
Little Timmy, in my college years fifty years ago, my geology classes sent us on a tour of the copper mine in Douglas and other geology sites of the Southwest. We stayed in an old hotel in Bisbee -- if I remember, it was called the Copper Queen. We had fun times on that trip.
Ed, my wife wants to take a trip to Ohio to see her old house in Euclid. Not sure if we'll make it this year or not. Every time I plan it, she changes her mind.
Dave, I'm enjoying catching up on your snowplow posts.
Douglas, if you make it back to Grand Island this year, I guarantee you will see how much the town has changed. Last week they had a drive-by shooting -- two cars firing at each other on 4th Street. I don't think we ever guessed something like that would happen in our town.
For everyone not mentioned, I hope everything is going well with you.
Nothing much else to report from the plains. It's hot and humid. I'm still recovering from jet lag.
The family on one of the Italian trains. I don't remember the details of where or when -- all I remember is I was thankful we weren't hiking this time.
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
Good morning everyone. Chloe, I want a glass of milk and berries in a bowl, whatever you have. Thank you.
Water Level RouteKevin, the figurine looks good but I have to agree on a brown bow.
Thank you. I was really happy with the face. I was surprised I could do so well without my wet pallette or my good brushes.
Good morning all.
Weird and Wonderful.
https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/daddy-long-legs-a-weird-and-wonderful-railway/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUzV1jt0aRQ&ab_channel=JagoHazzard
Good Morning Diners. Janie, coffee and a piece of coffee cake please.
NorthBritVisited Vasa Museum in Stockholm.
Kevin, the figurine looks good but I have to agree on a brown bow.
I finally got the decoders installed in my latest roster additions but forgot to grab pictures to share. I have to spend some time with the Erie Built A unit. It has a pick-up problem. Wheels were clean, tracks were clean, struggled to keep running. While I was installing the decoder I figured I would grease the worm gears since they were right there in front of me. When I squeezed my little tube of grease a bunch of "oil" came out and ran down the inside of the gear tower. Must have separated out in the tube. I'm thinking that oil made it to the wipers and is my conductivity culprit.
The Alco paint shop in Dunkirk, NY.
A half-hour well spent here:
In keeping with our July Diner theme there are some shop scenes in the film.
I only used six colours of paint and was working under poor conditions, but it turned out OK. I cannot get to my ground turf, so I painted the base to resemble flagstone.
I do not like her bow in gray. I need to repaint it brown.
Yea, it's only 106 here at the Demon's Hollow... the kids are fighting over who will get the most space on the freezer block.
Rust...... It's a good thing !
Flo, I will have a large lemonade, as cold as you can get it.
I am not going to say it is hot here in Phoenix, but I just cleaned up the aftermath of a can of soda that exploded in the garage. (Not enough damage to file a homeowners claim. )
Richard
Good morning everyone. Chloe, how about a scrambled egg bowl with lots of patty sausage and shredded cheese? I will also need a tall glass of unsweetened iced tea. Thank you.
up831Kevin: When wife and I were on our 25th, we stayed at a B&B in Hilo. A lot of the houses there have metal roofs and for good reason. That night it rained to beat the band. We were obviously well protected, but the metal roof was LOUD! Hilo gets a lot of rainfall.
I have added sound dampening insulation in the master bedroom on the underside of the roof trusses. I am hoping that will help.
The noise is a known factor in the decision.
DoughlessKevin, the house looks really good, especially with the landscaping green and lush. The hard work (and money, LOL) shows.
Thank you. We are still discussing what to do with the driveway. My wife wants to remove it and replace it with pavers. That just sounds like more maintenance for me. I want it resurfaced to look like freshly poured concrete; just enough to remove the aged look.
DoughlessDropping HOI is an interesting idea. The insurance companies use all sorts of stats and data to keep raising rates. Well, you just showed them that your house, and others in the area, can withstand near CAT 5 conditions with only a few shingles gone...and no storm surge affected the house.
That is the frustration in a nutshell. There are hundreds of houses that have survived Ian with minimal damage, and what was damaged on mine is receiving serioulsy overbuilt upgrades. I can get a policy that does not cover storm damage for much lower expense than what my rates will be raised to.
My entire house payment is currently a little less than $500.00 per month. That is principal, interest, escrow for taxes, and insurance. More than 50% of the payment is insurance. Next year my insurance rates are expected to triple, bringing the house payment to nearly $1,000.00 per month.
Total damages from Ian were only about $15,000.00, so it is easy to see how little I am getting for what I am spending.
DoughlessThey make Floridians install hurricane proof doors, windows, tie straps, roofing; all in the name of holding down premiums. But in the process, they make you build your house so that it hardly even needs catastrophic storm insurance anymore.
I need to be careful here not to hit politics... Florida is run by a bunch of people that do not care about Floridians. That should be obvious to everyone in other states even if most Floridians don't see it.
The insurance companies cried that the lower rates they get from houses that qualify for wind mitigation discounts cause them to lose money. They need to charge higher premiums to the houses with Cat V Dade County roofs, doors, and windows to make up for what they pay out to poorly built properties.
The mandated discounts are pretty much going away, and the list of things that must be covered is getting much smaller.
I am glad I can pay off my house anytime I want and live by my own rules if I choose to.
DoughlessWhat disaster can your house not handle now? A fire I suppose.
A couple of years ago a house burned down in my neighborhood. The insurance claim was denied because the fire started in the garage. The cause was a teenager's car with an improperly installed amplifier in the trunk. The system caught the car on fire and the house burned down.
I wonder what would happen if the fire started in the train room?
up831I really like the "world is a beautiful place" pics. Would be nice to know where they were taken, but no matter, I still enjoy them.
I hope this explanation is not too boring...
I have a hard time figuring out where and when the Beautiful Place pictures were taken. Because... I change the name of the images when they are added to my screen saver slide show file.
The original high-resolution versions of these pictures are stored in a well organized set of files. The names of the photos give when and where they were taken. File names might be something like "Taos New Mexico 08JUN2021 A12".
When these photos were cropped and edited into my screen saver, they just received a number for a file name. So the name of the picture I share in Beautiful Place will just be 3752 or 11574 or some other number.
When someone asks for a specific picture, I go back into the original files to find it, crop it what they want, and post it. Since I work from the original I know where and when it was taken.
Using the already cropped and reduced pictures from my screen saver file for Beautiful Place saves these steps and prevents me from posting the same picture twice. The downside is that unless it is obvious, I do not know where the picture is from.
SeeYou190 The house looks kind of neat with the white rolled fiberglass self adhesive roofing material up there. -Photograph by Kevin Parson It better! I am seriously considering dropping my homeowner's insurance next year.
The house looks kind of neat with the white rolled fiberglass self adhesive roofing material up there.
It better! I am seriously considering dropping my homeowner's insurance next year.
Kevin, the house looks really good, especially with the landscaping green and lush. The hard work (and money, LOL) shows.
Dropping HOI is an interesting idea. The insurance companies use all sorts of stats and data to keep rasining rates. Well, you just showed them that your house, and others in the area, can withstand near CAT 5 conditions with only a few shingles gone...and no storm surge affected the house. What disaster can your house not handle now? A fire I suppose.
They make Floridians install hurricane proof doors, windows, tie straps, roofing; all in the name of holding down premiums. But in the process, they make you build your house so that it hardly even needs catastrophic storm insurance anymore.
Good afternoon Diners. A large coffee with cream please, Janie.
Back from our cruise in the Baltic.
Visited Vasa Museum in Stockholm.
The Vasa built in 1628. She was top heavy and sank after travelling 1400 yards on her maiden voyage.
https://www.vasamuseet.se/en/explore/vasa-history
IMG_2756 by David Harrison, on Flickr
Model of the ship
IMG_2757 by David Harrison, on Flickr
IMG_2758 by David Harrison, on Flickr
Parts of the restoration of the rear of the ship
IMG_2760 by David Harrison, on Flickr
Baby/Baby is safe at her new tiny-home in Washington.
Her cross country adventure was amazing.
Now she needs a job!
maxmanWhat sort of error stuff are you getting?
Hmmmm... I think it was something like a 501??? Came back here tonight and obviously I can oast again. So it was something temporary with the site when I tried to get in and leave a message.
York1I know the diner is not a forum for vacation photos, but here goes.
Good to have you back!
Hi John,
Who said that? Your pictures are wonderful and they even include a train. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Oh my, I did not know this. I have posted oh-so-many vacation photos in the Diner!
It looks like that was a wonderful vacation. Thanks for sharing!
M
howmusHello, hello? I'm getting error stuff. Just checking to see if I can post again.
What sort of error stuff are you getting?
Any sort of message such as "the website has crashed"?
Or “a problem repeatedly occurred”?
Good afternoon, diners! I hope the waitresses kept some bacon and eggs for me -- I haven't had bacon and eggs in over three weeks.
I hope everyone is doing well. I haven't had time to look at all the diner's posts -- it might take me a while.
I know the diner is not a forum for vacation photos, but here goes.
Over the past three weeks I've put more miles on my hiking shoes than there's mileage on my Ford. I also got my first ride on a high speed train -- at one point we reached 294 km/h (180 mph?). Not real smooth, but it was fast. That speed lasted only several minutes. The rest of the high speed was about 240 km/h.
The other trains we rode were all locals. They were quite a bit slower but got us where we needed to be.
A great time in Germany, Italy, and Austria. Hiked a lot, saw a lot, ate a lot. One of the best hikes was along the side of the mountains in the Italian Riviera. The grandkids did great walking on the safe side of the trails away from the sheer cliffs that fell to the rocky shore of the sea.
The grandkids and I waiting in the Florence train station:
My daughters and I relaxing at Vernazzo on the Italian Riviera:
The whole family on the floor of the Colosseum:
I hope this finds everyone in good health and having a good summer (or winter for Bear). I'll try to post once I get back on a normal schedule. I believe jet lag must get worse for old people, or maybe it's just me.
Good morning everyone. Chloe, could you please bring me just a large mug of black coffee and some brown sugar?
The electrical contractor just finished up replacing the electrical service entrance into the house.
The building inspector made three inspections in one trip! He inspected the service entrance, the roof dry-in, and the wiring in the new master bedroom all today. I don't know which one he was actually here for, but now that they are all done I am free to continue with projects.