Ed, I'm wishful my friend's doing well.
Bob Seger had a song, can't remember exactly how it goes, Feel like a number, I'm not a number
TF
Good morning!
Indiana Rail Road SD9043MAC 9011 at Indianapolis, IN on 4 June 2022 (Joe Ferguson photo)
Bill Tidler Jr.
Near a cornfield in Indiana...
Good morning
It's warm out. Some Thunder while it's raining. Kinda weird for February.
Better then snow though.
Good Ol' Bob.
Good morning from the sunny Pacific Rim.
Wife wants to go to the home show in Vancouver, so that is what we will do. I will suggest we go to Caderos for a late lunch afterward. It's a nice seafood joint right on the waterfront. She managed 5km yesterday with the dogs, it was slow-going but very relaxing. My heart rate maxed out at 78 so when we got back home, I had a cup of coffee and went out for a much more energetic 10.27 km which took the same amount of time as the 5km with my wife. The dog was happy for the doubleheader.
Time for some bacon and eggs, a few tunes on the guitar and it will be a nice drive to Vancouver with the Sun shining.
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."
I've had a busy morning and it's already lunchtime. Luckily for me, the diner serves breakfast 24 hours a day. I'll have bacon, eggs, and coffee, please.
We've had several days of above average temps, but tonight we slide back into the cold air. The layout gets lots of attention in this weather.
Happy days (for me) are ahead -- I've just about convinced my wife she needs a new car. That means I can get rid of the old Durango and I will get to drive her Expedition as 'my' car. I'm hoping to get her something that gets more than 3 miles to the gallon like the Expedition.
Ed, those Empire Builder ads are great. I wish I could have ridden those trains during their glory years. I would love to get on the Empire Builder, get an adult drink in the lounge, and relax for the next two days crossing the country. Although we can now make the trip in three hours, it's about as far from relaxing as you can get.
The little kid in this photo could have been me, bow tie and all, with my mother on UP's City of Portland. I remember very little about the beds, but I loved the trip.
Have a great day, everyone.
York1 John
York1Ed, those Empire Builder ads are great. I wish I could have ridden those trains during their glory years. I would love to get on the Empire Builder, get an adult drink in the lounge, and relax for the next two days crossing the country.
I was on the other side of that 'relaxing adult beverage' back in my 'Porter' days. Here I am in my get-up serving beverages (I'm probably fifteen in this photo but, hey, Private Car rules are made to be broken):
C&O_3_1974_edited-1 by Edmund, on Flickr
This car was home-away-from-home for me back in 1974. A five-week trip from coast-to-coast.
C&O_3_1974C by Edmund, on Flickr
Track fiddlerEd, I'm wishful my friend's doing well.
Thanks TF! I'm hangin' tough. Treatments are OK but dealing with the usual screw-ups can be trying. EVERY day this week it has been one delay or another.
Oops, there goes another decoder!
240204_14_juniata by akmyers83, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
gmpullmanOops, there goes another decoder!
Trying by Bear, on Flickr
Good Morning, Bill.
Morning coffee by Bear, on Flickr
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Rick M - Railroadfan.com Indiana Northeastern Railroad locomotive no. 2230. EMD GP30. Ex-Pennsylvania Railroad. Built April 1963
Good morning, diners. Chloe, I'll have bacon, eggs, and coffee, please. Lots of coffee.
Today is income tax day. I finally received all the income info, and I can put everything together. Taxes after retirement are much easier to do than before. Even in the complicated years, I always did my own taxes. I have some friends who just turn everything over to the accountants. It sounds great, but for some reason I've always just done them myself.
Once that is done, I can then fill out my state's homestead exemption forms. Based on the value of the house, our savings, and our income, our property tax in retirement can be lowered. Even reducing it a few dollars is worth the time.
Yesterday I went to a church friend's house. He is a Lionel train collector. He has a layout with about eight separate tracks, so he can run quite a few trains at the same time. He wanted to show me his new Big Boy. The large scale makes it a beautiful model. He also has a large collection of old Lionel. He has run out of wall space to display it all.
For those undergoing health issues and everyone else, have a great Friday.
UP's "City of St. Louis":
Good Morning,
Our long spell of warm weather is now over. A front went through yesterday that gave us about 2" of snow and -11C temps which is normal this time of year.
Looked outside a few minutes ago and a piliated woodpecker was on the suet log. She has been coming nearly every day lately.
Ed, glad to hear the treatments are going ok.
A friend of mine from high school days restores old Corvettes as a hobby. He has been at it for 45 years and is working on a '63 coupe right now. Sure would like to buy it. He is doing it to driver quality. He is also doing a '65 coupe he has owned for many years but to show quality. His stumbling block now is that he can't find anyone who will do laquer paint which was used originally. Says he may do it himself. It is a labourious process as each coat has to be sanded by hand. I can't go help as he lives on Vancouver Is.
More coffee is in order.
CN Charlie
Good morning from the West Coast where it is 0c and sunny.
We had a good day at the home show yesterday, I have never been a big fan of those, but the wife wanted to go, so we went. There are a lot of new products out there, so I found it a little more interesting this year. They were filming a movie outside where we parked and one of the guys said they had over a thousand extras on site.
Taxes, I needed to have an accountant when I was young and ambitious, but then I streamlined everything into things that did not require much of my attention when the kids came along so I could spend lots of time with them. The wife uses Turbo tax and does our income tax online. Refunds or the amount owing go right in or out of our bank account shortly after she hits send.
When the kids were born we started each of them with a RESP (Registered Educational Savings Plan) Tax deductible and the Government matches your annual contribution up to a certain amount (free money!). We gave my daughter the last $16000.00 out of that in December. She does not have plans to stop going to University any time soon and will likely have two Ph. D.s when she is done. My daughter has been working for the Government while going to University so lives like a Queen. My son worked in the movie Industry through the last two years of high school and University and lived like a King. He was able to rent a nice house in Ottawa while studying.
We walked 4.8km at the home show including the walk from and to the car yesterday but I will go do a quick 10km of lard-burning and come home to a mountain of bacon and eggs.
Which one should I take?
Hey Brent! Beautiful puppies you got there!
I went for a run today! Eye surgeon gave the OK for me to get back to my routine late yesterday, so I got in 16+ laps over there at the Fieldhouse. That totals just over 3 miles, so I think that is about 5k(?). Felt good!
The cataract surgery has left me with a very common side effect in that vision in that eye is like looking at things through wax paper. It is getting better and should be back to "normal" soon. Colors are allready more vibrant and will be brighter as well when the vision gets back to "normal".
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Hi Ray
Good to hear the old eyeball is on the mend. I just looked and in the last year, I did 3,230,207 steps 2653.5km. Being the dummy that I am I could not figure out why sometimes my Garmin would measure 1350 steps as a km and another time it would measure 1500 steps as a km. Finally, it dawned on me. It depends on the route I take, on the flat I cover a km with fewer steps, however, once I get into steep terrain the step count goes way up with a shorter distance covered. Sometimes, when the dog and I want to get really muddy we go really steep and I need all fours as well to get up the hill. That is when the wife hoses me off at the dog bath, I am glad I put in hot water for her out there.
About a year ago a new person moved into a nearby property and I stopped to chat with him, it turned out he had owned the property for years and had just been renting it out. He has had quite a few cars moved onto the property and it turns out he provides cars for the movie industry. He has about 15 Plymouth Barracudas like this one in various colours and condition in the building and it is for an upcoming production where they want to have lots of spares on hand. He has to make them all the same colour and camera-ready. I was there for an hour and a half while he told me about his years in the movie industry, very interesting.
He also has a good selection other other vehicles he rents to the movie/TV industry.
Time for a shower and steak and eggs then it is dinner in two hours.
I think the scotch will go down well tonight.
BATMAN I think the scotch will go down well tonight.
Rich
Alton Junction
Rich, I have some Glenlivet 15 single malt and a Glenfiddich 18. I never buy the stuff. People are always bringing me gifts for favours. I prefer the Glenlivet. Queen Elizabeth drank Glenfiddich and reading stories she would often have several after a long day.
When she died I had a toast with her.
This is also good.
Someone bought me these when I suggested they were making a big financial blunder and they went to see an accountant as I suggested.
Scotch has no carbs and fits with healthy eating.
BATMAN Rich, I have some Glenlivet 15 single malt and a Glenfiddich 18. I never buy the stuff. People are always bringing me gifts for favours. I prefer the Glenlivet. Queen Elizabeth drank Glenfiddich and reading stories she would often have several after a long day. When she died I had a toast with her. This is also good. Someone bought me these when I suggested they were making a big financial blunder and they went to see an accountant as I suggested. Scotch has no carbs and fits with healthy eating.
My choice of single malt is Glenlivet 12. But my every day go-to is Chivas Regal 12 which I mix with Drambuie (3:1) to make a Rusty Nail. It has replaced a Crown Royal Old Fashioned as my favorite drink.
richhotrainYou are drinking quality stuff, Brent.
It is amazing how your palate can tell crap from the good stuff. After having the good stuff you can never go back.
I never drank at all until I was in my 30s. As I started enjoying the results of my hard work and started eating at finer restaurants, the bottles of wine started and then I was introduced to better qualities of everything.
My cousin was very high in rank in the Royal Navy and when I would go to England he would take me to where the senior ranks would imbibe, now that was educational as far as being introduced to the hoity-toity world of drink. Once he was on a world tour in command of three new RN frigates and they stopped in Victoria for a few days so he came over to see me for a few days and brought three bottles of high-end Port and told me to save them for thirty years, so I did. When the time came to pop the cork on them I looked them up on the Port buy, sell, or trade site and they were going for North of $500.00 a bottle. I enjoyed them all and that is the most expensive booze I have had.
When I was working, sometimes I would have to transport secure documents from an aircraft to the consulates of allied countries. There was one mansion that I would go to in a very high-end part of town and they had a huge wine room. The guy there would give me whole cases of really expensive wines they had on hand. It was another introduction to the good stuff.
I doubt I have ever paid over $50.00ca for anything but I have had some pricey bottles of everything on the bar at times. I have been fortunate and spoiled.
Connoissours by Bear, on Flickr
I like Laphroig.
“Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.”
-Terry Pratchett
Indiana Eastern Railroad Photograph
Good morning, diners. Bacon, eggs, and black coffee, Flo.
Bear, thanks for the menu photos! That was a few years before I rode that train, but even more, I don't remember my mother letting me order from the menu. I think she wrote down whatever she thought I should eat.
I'm afraid I know as much about Scotch as I know about wine. If I were to sit with you guys and drink with you, you could tell me this scotch is so much better than that brand, and I probably would not be able to tell any difference. My alcohol is cheap lite beer, and generally it all tastes the same to me. I have one can of beer each day about 4:00 p.m., and that's about it.
Cookie the dog needs walking, so I will bundle up and get her to the trail. She could easily keep up with Brent on his outings, but I would have to watch from the bottom of the hills.
The City of New Orleans. I rode this in 1989, but it didn't look like this then:
Amtrak City of New Orleans AMTK 69 (P42DC) by Terry Redeker, on Flickr
Good morning from the sunny West.
#1 son called and said I need some Dad time, can we come out and stay the night? So they are on their way. The Canucks are on at 1000hrs as they are in Detroit and then tonight we will go to a WHL game which are usually really good because these kids are a step away from the NHL and give it their all every game.
The wife is not good at all, she was not good yesterday but wanted to go to our favourite Greek joint in White Rock. So we drove there, it's a ways to go and she ate very little and they boxed up dessert and we brought that home. Having the kids here will make her happy.
Bear, that juicy chunk of meat is right up my alley. Looks like you brought enough for all of us.
90 minutes to the Canucks game. I hate when the games are early because I end up drinking coffee instead of.......
In the meantime, I'll go glue a couple of pieces onto the coaling tower and play a few tunes. No scoot til Monday, so my old bones tell me.
Passenger service to Northern BC from North Vancouver, a long trip.
C C came over with my niece Rachel. Don't know where it came from, but she insisted to go down and see my car.
She was told she'll get a ride in the Spring. She'll sit on my lap and drive that thing
Good morning, diners. Just coffee this morning. It's Sunday -- that means church donuts!
Income taxes are nearly done, but I found that I still have to wait to file -- the IRS has an update to a form I need and it's not ready yet. I'm waiting on the government -- fun!
Super Bowl Sunday! When we were younger, we attended Super Bowl parties. Lots of food, adult drinks, betting squares, noise, etc. Now I'm old. I probably will have the game on in the background while I work on the layout. I can't stand all the commercials -- everyone else loves them -- I think most of them are silly.
One of the great named trains at the Issac Walton hotel at Glacier Park, the Empire Builder. Two days and nights crossing the country from Chicago to Seattle. I would have loved this train.
Photo by Jim Pearson
Howdy diners! Chloe, a grilled ham and cheese please.
So glad to be back home. Overall the trip was fine, but leaving turned into an adventure. I got to the airport really early as work stuff had gotten done and I had nothing else to do. Well, five gate changes across three different terminals and two delays later, I was finally on a plane. What a mess.
Brent, sorry to hear about your lovely lady. Hopefully the time with your son went well (other than my Red Wings beating your Canucks ).
John, I still buy squares for the Super Bowl every year. A couple guys at work put it together. It's fun unless someone I don't care for wins a square. We'll be having plenty of snacks and drinks tonight with family. Hopefully the game is good. Go Chiefs!
Mike
York1that means church donuts!
Are church donuts holier than regular donuts?
A heavy rain day today on the edge of the Pacific which means lots of snow in the mountains. The snowpack is really low for this time of year and a low snowpack makes for a bad fire season.
Had a great night at the hockey game with the kid last night. He went to buy us a couple of those 20oz- $20.00 beers and they wouldn't take his money. He knew the camera guy and he zoomed in on him and showed him/us on the scoreboard screen a half dozen times and this brought a lot of people over to visit throughout the night. The kid is on the board of directors for an organization associated with Hockey Canada. It is a volunteer position and he does this along with his high-pressure job and has also gone back to school part-time to work towards his Ph.D.. There were about a dozen of us that hung around to yap after the game and the staff eventually told us we had to leave because they wanted to go home. The benefit of staying so long was, the Toyota was the last vehicle in the lot and easy to find and there were no massive lines to get out.
The Canucks are in Washington today and the game is another early start at 1030hrs so the coffee is on. The kid is still sleeping, likely from exhaustion, he has an hour before game time. If he is not awake by then I will sick six Golden Retrievers on him.
There will be train time later.
The PGE/BCR ran passenger service from North Vancouver to Northern B.C. The train would lose its size as it went North with maybe two RDCs remaining North of Prince George. I traveled on this train once when I was nine. I remember the train being a lot longer when I got off than when I got on but had not been aware of them adding cars along the way. It was December 27th and a raging blizzard the whole way and I remember the train stopping in the middle of nowhere. A couple of indigenous hunters had flagged the train down and were trackside with a couple of deer they had shot. The deer were hoisted into the baggage RDC, they threw their rifles up and climbed aboard. They got off at the next settlement.
All the best to all