Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
A cold tap, Joe....
We're at 18 above with a clear sky so far. But...Just 250 miles to the South of here (S. of the Metro and closer to the Iowa boarder) the forecast is for up to 8" of snow! Nothing here. Darn!
It's been a long day with being at the county courthouse at 0800 this morning and just now getting home from the pool.....Being on jury duty until 12/29, I've requested vacation up until after 1/1/07. Just can't do it all.
Needless to say, I didn't get to the Trainroom today...So yes, I can identify!
Mike, here are the pics you had wanted: First I have a shot of a 300 (give or take a few) year old White Pine with it's top "flocked" with frost and lit by the early morning sun! This tree stands almost 1/4 mile to the West of the house, so you can imagine it's size. Two people, holding hands, can't put their arms around the trunk....She's a real monster!
And...Here is the Eagle. There are actually two in the tree, but one is mostly hidden (go ahead, see if you can find it). The Eagle that is front and center isn't very clear either, having to zoom with the camera and then zooming again in Photoshop, but I hope that you can at least pick it out.
Morning all, Joe set me up here with a hot coffee and a tall stack of pan cakes. Thanks
colvin, thanks for the pics, the tree must be amazing in person, can you imangin what stories it could tell if it could? 300 years ago... 1707 A lot has changed singe it was a sapling. I am glad to see it is still around. Around here the vandels would have killed it by now because "I can".
I read a newspaper artical a few years back about a Red Cedar that was the oldest in Okla. it told how old and big it was but I don't remember. Then a couple of days later the same paper ran another artical about how someone had cut it down and left it lay. Made me feel sad.
The eagle is nice also but can't tell much about him, What kind is he? Thanks for the pics. Mike
Sorry all, I have been off line for a while. Last week we had two wind storms that knocked out the power in most of western Washington. Ours went out on Thursday, and luckily, was only out for 40 hours. Both dentists that I work for still do not have power yet. If the numbers are acurate, only 100,000 homes remain without power. Lots of CO illnesses are jamming the ER's. A cold snap hit after the power went out. Can you imagine putting a barbeque in your bedroom to stay warm?
Once the power came on, we lost internet. I think that was worse than no power. Beer was not enough, so pass a scotch, please.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
gear-jammer wrote: Both dentists that I work for still do not have power yet. Sue
So, they're back to using vise-grip pliers and whiskey, like in the old days?
Low 50's here in Massachusetts. Gonna be at least mid 40's, some days 50's, for as far as weather-dot-com is willing to predict. Lows just barely below freezing. It'll be a bit cooler up in Maine where we're going to be skiing all week. But, I suspect this will be remembered as the first Winter that Wasn't here in New England. By this time last year, we'd already had frozen pipes in the basement.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Thanks for the cold one Ibeam... Joe I'll have some scrambled eggs and some bisquits and coffee. Thanks.
Well I didn't get any cleaning done in the trainroom yesterday, I had to go to Altus to Wally World and spend some money
I did get in the trainroom and was going to vacuum the carpet but I got interested in running some trains. I have had a little 3 axle Bachmann switcher that was running rather noisy so I decided I would try putting it on the oval and let it run awhile ( It was never really broke in proper) It got to running rather nice for a cheepy. Had it pulling 8 cars up my 2.5% grade real nice. It actually ran better going down hill than my P2K's Well it is more fun to run the trains than clean anyway. Maybe I can clean today, as we are due to start having company arrive tomarrow for the holidays.
Merry Christmas to you all. Mike
Here I am on top once again. Joe hows my credit? Set up drinks or breakfast for the croud.
Good morning...Just a coffee Joe, thanks.
No jury duty today, but I am on call....through the 29th. of Dec.! Oh well, I've also taken vacation, so I hope to spend some time in the Trainroom.
We got just a dusting of snow over night, so now we will at least have a White Christmas....Still not enough to ski on though!
Mike, regarding the Eagle: It's a Bald Eagle (white head and tail) but yes, very hard to make out in my pic. First, it was a very gray day. Second, that snag is almost 200 yds. away. Third, my digital camera is NOTHING real fancy. So with a 4 megapixel, zoomed 3x and then zoomed to the point of still "just having" some resolution in PhotoShop....It's a pretty "crap" picture. I'll keep trying for a better one. Maybe I need to fire up my old Cannon SLR with the 300 mm telephoto on it.
And BTW, I see your email regarding my woodsplitter. It still isn't running right...I'll email you. I hope you will be able to trouble-shoot in cyberspace! Ha!
Lunch time here. I'll have a Harpoon, thanks.
How does Jury Duty work in Minnesota? In Massachusetts, we have a "One day or one trial" system. You go in for one day, and if you're not chosen, or if your trial finishes in a day, then you're done. If the trial lasts more than a day, you're stuck for the duration. Your employer is required to pay you for the first 3 days, after that it's up to them. The "pay" from the state for jury duty barely covers the cost of parking. After you've done your service, they can't call you again for another 3 years. When you get the original summons, it has a date on it. You can return the card and accept that date, or specify any other working day within a year. Pretty flexible of them, actually. Of course, I know one person who picks a day before a Jewish holiday, so they can't make her come back the next day because of her religion. They assign you to a particular court, too, and say that you can't change that without a good reason. (Long driving distance is not a good enough reason, but once I requested a change "so I could go back to work if I were released early." They bought that one, which kind of surprised me.)
Merry Christmas all, Joe, set up the house, I am feeling good tonight. I got the train room cleaned and am all ready for company so I can ''Show Off'' a little, do any of you ever do that or am I the Lone Ranger here?
I sure hope old man Murphy will be at your place this weekend and not at mine. I have the feeling he is like Santa Claus, He is everywhere all the time. Later Mike
Well....Mr. B, I'm not really sure! It's my first time and I'm learning. I will most definitely look into the employer pays for my lost work though!!
As far as I know the "jury pool" is put together for a specific period of time (in my case, for two weeks with the end of the year looming) and even though I didn't get on the first case, non the less spending the day in court, I can and will be called for other cases that may / will need a jury until the end of the year. Yes, the state pays $20 and mileage, but as you say, that doesn't even cover driving to town and parking!
Got out to the Trainroom for a bit today and did some mudding....I'll do the landscaping tomorrow and will post a picture of the new spur at Sawbill Junction when I have it looking like "something".
Yeah, but not on Jury Duty. As I recall, here in Massachusetts they give you about $12 a day. Used to be, I actually had to fork that over to my employer, but they suddenly realized that the administrative cost of recovering that $12 was more than $12, so now we get to keep it.
Best get-out-of-jury-duty trick I ever heard was walking into the courtroom, right up to the first court officer in uniform, and asking where you should check your handgun. I heard about a guy doing that, who said something like, "I know I can't take it into the court, so where do I check it?" Perfectly reasonable request, of course, and since they had no good answer, he was officially excused.
Just a glass of white wine tonight, Joe. I'm making up some Pad Thai with shrimp, which is pretty light and just needs something bright. Maybe a cheap French Bordeaux?
Mike, I clean up my layout every so often, and I make a point of it when company is coming over. It's in the family room anyway, so the rest of the mess isn't mine, but I take all the glue, knives, Woodland Scenics turf bottles, chunks of pink foam, etc., off the top of the layout. I'm happy to say that I have less and less space to put junk, now that there's more scenery complete. Pretty soon it will stay neat all the time, all by itself.
Hey, it's time to go, and I'm not sure if I'll be back before we head up to Maine for a week of skiing. I'll be home before New Years, but if you don't hear from me again before, have a Merry Christmas and I'll see you 'round the other side of the tree! And to all, a good night!
Yea Right Mister B. No Offence but, What have you been smoking? LOL LOL LOL Mike
MisterBeasley wrote: gear-jammer wrote: Both dentists that I work for still do not have power yet. Sue So, they're back to using vise-grip pliers and whiskey, like in the old days?Low 50's here in Massachusetts. Gonna be at least mid 40's, some days 50's, for as far as weather-dot-com is willing to predict. Lows just barely below freezing. It'll be a bit cooler up in Maine where we're going to be skiing all week. But, I suspect this will be remembered as the first Winter that Wasn't here in New England. By this time last year, we'd already had frozen pipes in the basement.
Just a coffee this morning, please. Raeanne and I need to head out for a little shopping today....So, we'll catch something to eat later.
Ya...$20 a day! No it doesn't off set the lose, but it is a civil duty. Our courthouse has signs on every entrance warning about No Weapons allowed. We were even warned about carrying a pocket knife, and I always have one....
Mike, no your not alone on the clean up thing. Whenever I have somebody come over (family get together, or other MRRer's) I tend to go a little nuts with making sure things will run well and that always includes a major cleaning. I seem to always "explode" when working on the projects.
Speaking of projects...I hope to spend a lot of time doing Trainroom stuff today!
Merry Christmas all
Morning all, Joe I'll have a cup o' coffee with fried eggs and some bacon. Thanks
I was running my trains last night to be sure everything was running right. All the train gremlins and old man Murphy must be waiting to pay me a visit when there are some visitors around. The trains ran perfectly all night at about 40 mph or so.
I figure the gremlins and Mr. Murphy must like large gatherings, that when they show up un-invited. Merry Christmas to all. Mike
Back in 1979 I paid $750 for my first VCR. It was a VHS, and it only supported 2 and 4 hour mode. Back then, $750 was serious cash. (Today, if you've been reading other threads, you'll see that $750 will buy you an HO scale container loader.) At that point, I realized that I had too much free cash, so I moved out of my apartment and bought a house, taking the subsequent oath of poverty for 30 years at a mortgage rate of 13.5%. Thanks, Jimmy Carter. Remember those days? (Refinanced once to 10.25, then again to 6 and 3/8, and now the house is mine.)
I met my future wife bicycling in front of that house, so I guess you could say that my life would have been a lot different if it weren't for that VCR!
On a more recent "bargain" note, a pair of Kadees, some Dremel-time and glue, and my $3 caboose from the show a few weeks back is now bringing up the rear on short freights.
Good afternoon, everybody. Kirin for me, Joe, and see who else needs a top-off.
Just read the jury duty comments made since my last visit. Here in Sin City it appears that the jury lists are made up from the DMV's list of registered vehicle owners. Happens that the family rides are both registered in my wife's name, so the Ole Sarge has been flying below the radar. When my wife was called, we learned that Clark County can't use her - she's an A-card carrying subject of Imperial Japan...
Just finished the final full size track design for the nine train staging yard at Takada. Once again, reality was at variance with the small scale sketch. The original idea was that there would be twelve simple turnouts. After squeezing, shifting and adjusting to maximize the lengths of the back-in storage tracks I now have three simple turnouts and four three-ways. Good thing I build my own specialwork. I seriously doubt that anything similar can be had on the market - the three-ways have both diverging routes curving left!
Mister B - I liked your post about your co-worker's reaction to St Anne Street as a screen saver. I had a very similar reaction to your subway video when you posted it. In the real world, I have been aboard subway trains which were longer than the distance between sequential platforms! Of course, no one took the subway between adjacent stations. They were either headed for or arriving from someplace in another Borough (or another Prefecture.)
Just in case I don't make it back sooner, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good afternoon.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
A tall, cold one, please Joe...And set the house too, on my tab...Ho, Ho, Ho...
It's been a fun day shopping and playing in the Trainroom (pics to follow) getting all the errands and chores done! Got some landscaping done at Sawbill Junction and some cork down at Cascade. "MORE TRACK" can't be too far behind!!
Only downfall of the day is the guy that is supposed to pick up the slack when I am gone (from work that is) who is certified, but has absolutely NO CLUE! Problem being that; he thinks he is "God's Gift" and isn't open to suggestions, learning or any critiquing. On top of that, as mentioned he has no idea what to do, regarding when to do it, or how to do it!
Sorry....I need to vent a bit. Yes, it is the season and I should be forgiving, but this guy has screwed up so much; made my life a "catch-up, fix up, put out the fire" way too any times! And, he's the foreman of the building I work in....!
Ok, I'm done now, and I'll have another tall one Joe! BTW, is that fresh popcorn?
Tom, moving everything around to make a better fit is a MAJOR part of the hobby, as it seems to me! I'm always changing things around....Even after I've done that on paper a zillion times! Now I get to the point of actually laying track and I'm changing the plan again....I'm going to call it "creativity". Some may think of it as a lack of planning.....But, I've planned and planned and planned...........It just doesn't always work out the way the mind saw it.
Joe, I'll have another...and another round for the house too. Is that a pizza you brought in from the kitchen? I could do one of those too. Anybody else hungry? Pizza on me tonight! And to all a good night!
Oppsss!
Tom / Chuck..........I got confused. Sorry!
Morning all and a Merry Christmas Eve to all of you. Joe I will have a black coffee and some pancakes this moening. Thanks.
We had some of our Christmas yeserday. Any one care to joine me in a beer? Jeffrey you ought to like thes one.
These are new to me, I have never seen ALUMINUM bottles. I will save the bottles on a shelf and the beer in my belly.
I also got some wreckers to go with my wrecker and recovery busisness. I am thinking I am going to get another train set for Christmas today If I do it will be N scale and probley a steamer I am just going by what people have said. I will let you know this evening when I stop in for my daily alcohol fix. Mike
Happy day after Christmas, everybody. Joe, a round for the house and a Sam Adams for me.
Hope the fat cat in the red suit brought everyone the things they really needed. I got the sweatshirt I was expecting - but it didn't have the PRR keystone on it . Would you believe - U.S.A. Gymnastics! (I love the sport, but no way will I be mistaken for a player.)
It's actually cloudy in Sin City this morning. Calm at the moment, but the weather weenie is promising a full scale gale and (maybe) some precip. Good day to work on the layout, so I'm off to the (attached) garage...
Good morning...I'll have a coffee and one of those "Big Breakfasts" Joe.
Haven't done anything in the Trainroom for the past few days, having too much fun celebrating the season with family! And cutting a little firewood too, also a family affair yesterday with my Dad out to help! Even at 85 years of age...He's always looking for something to do and loves to help with any outdoor chores. Hope that I'm even alive at 85, let alone helping "put up" firewood!
BTW, yesterday that darn splitter ran like a million bucks....at least when it was running at about 2/3's throttle. If it runs slower, it will start "hunting" and eventually die! Go figure??!!??
Today I have a huge invitational swim meet (twelve teams invited) to officiate. Also being the pool operator, that will take care of the day!! And, I've got to get going, with diving starting at 1000.
Catch you all later, for a few cold ones! Have a good one!