hon30critterWe had a new family move into the house next door last year. It quickly became apparent that they only spoke Spanish which we don't. Thanks to the wonders of the modern age I was able to quickly download a Spanish/English translation program onto my phone. We have not had any long conversations, but we have been able to converse quite reasonably. They are excellent neighbours to say the least. They are quiet and they are maintaining the property quite nicely (contrary to the previous tenants).
I have had three new families move into vacant houses in the past month.
All seem like excellent people. All are much better (so far) than the previous people that occupied each residence.
This has been quite a relief.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
York1 Being a school principal, I could tell you about some very unusual names of students I encountered over the years. The worst were the ones that were pronounced completely differently than they were spelled. The school secretaries loved stuff like that.
Being a school principal, I could tell you about some very unusual names of students I encountered over the years. The worst were the ones that were pronounced completely differently than they were spelled. The school secretaries loved stuff like that.
I ran across someone once whose name was spelled Tiffani and she insisted it was pronounced Ti-FAH-nee. No, your name is TIF-a-nee, get over yourself.
-Photograph by Kevin Parson
Good morning everyone, happy Saturday! Chloe, one big bagel with a bunch of cream cheese please.
Last night I heard a weird noise outside. I opened the rear door and realized it was the marching band at North Fort Myers High School, they were having a home game. It has been years since I heard the band from a football game. Two years of Covid lockdown, and then hurricane Ian just ended it all.
They were playing a terrible rendition of "You Give Love A Bad Name" by Bon Jovi, but I still enjoyed it, and it put a smile on my face.
Good morning, diners. Flo, I'll have bacon, eggs, and black coffee, please.
At my annual physical, I told the doctor about the amount of bacon and eggs I eat. He said don't worry about it. I like my doctor even more now.
SeeYou190 maxman It is illegal in New Zealand to name your twins Fish and Chips. Also not legal in Iceland.-Kevin
maxman It is illegal in New Zealand to name your twins Fish and Chips.
Also not legal in Iceland.-Kevin
Being a school principal, I could tell you about some very unusual names of students I encountered over the years. The worst were the ones that were pronounced completely differently than they were spelled. The school secretaries loved stuff like that. I never had a Fish or Chips, though, in 43 years.
My layout is suffering from neglect. I guess once the cold weather hits, I can get back to my hobby.
Have a great Saturday, everyone.
090517 bike ride seattle-1 by iurikothe, on Flickr
York1 John
Good morning
Oops!, change of plans. Our going up to Knife Lake to visit Dave had to be put off. It was one of those things put together on a whim anyway.
There was a post-it note on the freezer, as a reminder of my favorite Train Show today. Judy wasn't real happy about it, but understands my priorities
Just full of enthusiasm today!
SeeYou190 maxman It is illegal in New Zealand to name your twins Fish and Chips. Also not legal in Iceland. -Kevin
Also not legal in Iceland.
Haven't the foggiest notion how the originator came up with this one, but I'll bite
Have a great Saturday
TF
maxmanIt is illegal in New Zealand to name your twins Fish and Chips.
Wife opened a bottle of Snapple today.
Under the lid it stated that it is illegal in New Zealand to name your twins Fish and Chips.
Who knew?
Rain is on the way! While I love rain, this time it will be even more welcome. I can't paint in the rain! I will have to take a break and watch some daytime TV. There are some good old movies on this afternoon.
Bear, thanks for the info on the planes. Very neat!
This is a BNSF train with the Narrows bridge in the background, outside Tacoma, Washington. This site is most famous for "Galopin' Gertie", the suspension bridge that collapsed.
Narrows Bridges with freight train, Tacoma, Washington by Don Briggs, on Flickr
Have a great day, everyone.
BroadwayLion
I remember when I looked that fit (if not quite that fast). It was long ago and far away.
John (of Attu)
Been busy between the condo rehab down the hall, and keeping Ju-Ju entertained on the weekends, so I've been missing a few things.
It's nice that the rehab is on the first floor right next to the sidewalk. The railing on the patio was removed to get the boat load of junk out of the living room, and filled the ten yard dumpster in the back lot.
I'm leaving that railing loose for the Winter, as the new kitchen cabinets are coming soon, and plenty more stuff after that.
John got me busy with a few more columns, restoring decks and railings again. Switching gears was welcomed though. Much more enjoyable out in the beautiful Fall weather.
The site was quite glitchy, and freeze framing this morning. It took over an hour to post a reply in the old train song thread early this morning Besides problems placing text, the first video started to play towards the end of the song, and had to be re-posted. Oh well, a better version was found anyway.
Has anyone had those ads that surround your post, leaving you not able to do anything? ...
"getting and stacking all next winter's firewood" Can you send it over here?
Well, it seems to me, two seasons Flip-Flop twice a year here. Winter is on it's way over here, while someone else is preparing to emerge from his cave into the Spring sunshine over there.
Dratz!, ...Six months ago was much better...
Images courtesy of Shutterstock
Well, off to Knife Lake to soak up the sights, and visit Sheriff Dave. Can't seem to remember if the Knife River flows into, or out of that lake.
Have a great weekend gentlemen
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
York1Bear, those three 'industrial arts' planes looked great. I could not tell how large they were. I was guessing the size based on what I thought was a towel the three were sitting on? Great work! How long did it take to build those?
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
SeeYou190I am one of the dumb Floridians that never learned Spanish,
Hi Kevin,
We had a new family move into the house next door last year. It quickly became apparent that they only spoke Spanish which we don't. Thanks to the wonders of the modern age I was able to quickly download a Spanish/English translation program onto my phone. We have not had any long conversations, but we have been able to converse quite reasonably. They are excellent neighbours to say the least. They are quiet and they are maintaining the property quite nicely (contrary to the previous tenants). We have given them some annuals and perenials and a few gardening supplies which they greatly appreciated. They have had a few backyard parties but there was no excess noise or boisterous behaviour. In fact, it was entertaining listening to their Spanish music.
When we first moved into our current home in 1988 we had terrible, terrible neighbours! The police visited them regularly and they were obviously dealing drugs. The new neighbours are fantastic.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
While I was outside pruning the Areca Palms in the back yard today...
The new family that lives South of my house came home from a day out fishing. The father and son went to cleaning a beautiful snapper in their back yard. Their neighbors behind them and to their South came over, and they all started talking.
Now, I am one of the dumb Floridians that never learned Spanish, so I could not understand a word that was being said, but I could tell by laughs and hand gestures that "fish stories" were being exchanged.
Fish stories... the universal language of American back-yards!
The folks across from us have been clearing land to use as a horse pasture. They have an Amish crew doing some logging:
Logging in team by Edmund, on Flickr
Who's watchin' who?
Logging in eye-team by Edmund, on Flickr
These guys and another pair worked all day with no rest. Now I see why GE kept pushing us to do 'TeamWork!"
Logging in A- team by Edmund, on Flickr
After a few days' work my road looked like this:
Logging in north by Edmund, on Flickr
Some of the photos were taken on the eleventh:
Logging in 911 by Edmund, on Flickr
Now It's my turn to go in there and harvest all the firewood I want I get a warm feeling all over about free firewood!
Wenatchee River crossing by Mike Danneman, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
It doesn't look like the recent update has fixed the page five fun.
Richard
Steven OtteThough I don't expect that fixed any of the broken functions everyone's always clamoring for.
Steve, is there anything that can be done to remove the last two additional pop-up ad placements? The one at the bottom, and the non-scrolling ad on the right side.
These make the forum almost unusable. Several long time contributors have taken converstions into email exchanges to avoid these, and they are running off potential new users. This hurts forum activity, and reduces traffic to the Kalmbach websites.
I need to write posts, like this one, in a seperate document and paste them into the forum.
Good morning, all. Just thought I'd drop in and say "hi" by way of checking that the Forum is working all right. They upgraded the server last night and wanted me to check it. Though I don't expect that fixed any of the broken functions everyone's always clamoring for, it will probably prevent the unable-to-reply bug that came up a couple weeks ago from recurring. Here's hoping. Have a great day, and happy railroading!
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
York1When Nebraska joined the Big 10, my goal was to attend a game at each university. I didn't make it.
Mike
Good morning, everyone. I'll just have coffee this morning so I can quickly get out to my favorite activity. My extension ladder and I are now good close friends.
Looking at my calendar, I was happy that next week there was not a single thing scheduled. Then I found out we are hosting out-of-town company for several days. I will enjoy the company, and maybe I will find another free week sometime soon.
Water Level RouteMy older brother scored free tickets to the University of Michigan football game this weekend and gave them to my oldest brother and I.
Mike, that should be a great time. When Nebraska joined the Big 10, my goal was to attend a game at each university. I didn't make it. Now it will be even harder when the west coast teams join. It's still a goal, but at my age, probably not realistic.
When traveling in Colorado, the 14,000 foot high mountains are viewed from an altitude of five or six thousand feet. Since 14,000 foot Mount Rainier in Washington is so close to the coast, it is amazingly impressive because you're viewing it from sea level.
Amtrak Cascades and Mt Rainier by Mike Armstrong, on Flickr
Meanwhile, a few States over.
Old King Coal had a Merry Ol' Sole, and carry all the coal did he
Humpty Dumpty sat on the rails, Humpty Dumpty dumped all the pails. (Bathtub Gons.)
All the Kings Iron Horses with all the King's Men, disconnected more brake lines, to dump them again
Do you suppose they have MTL decouplers too?
Have a great day gentleman
PS Those wrenched ribs can be a tough act to follow Mike. I've been there a few times too many.
Maybe prepare some slow smoked ribs this weekend Those might take your mind off your other ones, and make ya feel somewhat better
Have a good time at the game.
Good Morning Diners. Chloe, black coffee and a slice of coffee cake please. I see the diner has been slow. I'll tip well. I'd hate to see any of the staff have to panhandle at the station stops.
My ribs are still sore, but feeling slightly better this morning. Hope this heals soon. It's not fun and I have work to do around the house.
Got a great surprise this week. My older brother scored free tickets to the University of Michigan football game this weekend and gave them to my oldest brother and I. There are four tickets total, so we each get to take someone. I'm bringing one of my nephews and he is beyond excited. My brother is taking a friend who has never been, which is always fun seeing someone experience it for the first time. Only bummer is it is a night game so once it gets over and we make the long drive home, it will be about 3:30 in the morning before I'm crawling into bed. Sunday is going to suck.
Have a great day everyone!
Good morning everyone. Chloe, I will take a turkey club sandwich and a side of freshly made potato chips.
John: I will not be taking you up on the offer to come help paint your house. The paint for the exterior of my houise was over $1,000.00 from Sherwin Williams. It had better last!
Lion: I remember when I was young, occassionally Friday the 13th would fall on the ides of certain months, and that was supposed to be a worse omen.
It is the IDES of SEPTEMBER... and ewe thought that only March had ides.
The IDES was on the 15th of March and then on alternate months until October, but then you must remember that Augustus had not been emperor yet and so August was stuck in after July which broke the alternate month sequence.
Good morning, diners. Bacon and eggs, again.
My life has been pretty boring lately. Get up, eat, paint, go to bed, get up, eat, paint, ...
Since I painted the house over ten years ago, I found that the price of paint has doubled since then. Not upsetting, just surprising.
Mount Ranier in Washington is one of my favorite places. If you visit, be sure to see Paradise Inn on the mountain slopes. It is one of the great old national park lodges.
The offer still stands. If any of you are traveling near central Nebraska, stop by and grab a paint brush. I'll furnish the beer.
MisterBeasleyNeither the carfloat apron nor the carfloat were available anywhere except for absurd prices. But then, by some miracle, Walthers started making them again.
Same sort of situation for me.
I bought a carfloat and apron for my layout, but later decided to build my own apron to a design I liked better.
I also decided I needed a second carfloat kit to make a modified version to meet my desired arrangement.
My apron sold on eBay for a very high price, more than three times what I paid for it. It looked like I would have tp pay a similar high price for the second carfloat. Then amazingly, the carfloat went back into production, and I bought the second one from M. B. Klein for a reasonable price.
The extra money I got from the sale of the apron at the right time was more than the cost of the two carfloats, so the whole thing was effectively free!
SeeYou190 Somebody REALLY wanted this kit. -Kevin
Somebody REALLY wanted this kit.
I ran into that situation when I was looking to put in a carfloat terminal with a carfloat. Walthers had stopped production long enough ago that neither the carfloat apron nor the carfloat were available anywhere except for absurd prices. But then, by some miracle, Walthers started making them again. I found them at Trainworld for significantly less than MSRP.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
maxman Track fiddler The maintenance guy was talked into giving me a tour. This was my first time in the cab of a diesel locomotive. That thing was Mint inside and out. Did you mention to them that they spelled "mint" incorrectly?
Track fiddler The maintenance guy was talked into giving me a tour. This was my first time in the cab of a diesel locomotive. That thing was Mint inside and out.
The maintenance guy was talked into giving me a tour. This was my first time in the cab of a diesel locomotive. That thing was Mint inside and out.
Did you mention to them that they spelled "mint" incorrectly?
You happened to catch that one Dick Yep, they forgot the eye