Depot Diner & Coffee Shop

[Mookie]

Tree - wondered last nite where you were hangin' out....

Glad you checked in - cross that off my list of wonderings....

Mook

[CShaveRR]

If I go a little earlier, I might get there in time for Mook to catch me. (Sounds like I'm doing my mouse impression!) That would have to be by 4:00 ET.

Royal blue shirt, green shorts. Don't know what Pat's wearing today, but she'll be there, too.

Gee, I've been in the media before (mostly in print), but I think this is probably the first time I've ever rated a batch of popcorn!

[adrianspeeder]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

I'll just sneak around behind the counter for a refill on the soup. Will have to dash in for supper - off to a class.

Ahhh, class. I know the feeling...

Adrianspeeder

[JoeKoh]

Matt and I will be waving to you Carl.matt would like some popcorn please.
stay safe
Joe

[cherokee woman]

Saw Carl on the webcam. Way to go Carl. Mutt and I waved: did you see us
waving?!?!

[CSXrules4eva]

CW and Mutt I was able to see you two waving so if I could see you guys then Carl most certainly should of saw you guys. lol[:D]

Well thankx CW for re making some pop corn, it was really entertaining eating pop corn and watching Carl on t.v. today with his blue shirt and green shorts.

Trainfreak congrats on the newest cute addition to your family.

[CopCarSS]

And a tip top of the day to you all.

My goodness...48 degrees and rainy! Yessssir....after an interminably long summer with more than our fair share of 90 degree days, and a few new records, it is oh so nice to know that Autumn shall be here, just as advertised!

In celebration, I stopped at a produce stand on the way home, and picked up some sweet corn and big red delicious apples for all my friends at the diner. Enjoy!

TTFN!

Chris

[CShaveRR]

You guys were kind of hard to see in that lens on top of the roof.

Purpose of the trip: The Rochelle Railroad has built 9000 feet of new line to the south of the Cold Storage plant. It crosses the road, then parallels it just this side of the BNSF tracks. They've closed the road to the south (before the I-88 underpass) so we couldn't follow it all the way down, but it looks like it crosses the road again at just about the underpass location.

We then went to the railroad park. Just as we got there, a television crew from WTTW shows up (that's Chicago's PBS station). Turns out they were shooting a segment for a new series of "Wild Chicago", to air next spring. I gave them a byte or two, and they have a modern-day "hobo" playing her guitar and singing. I think the host and the cameraman were quite impressed with the location, the people, and the trains (and the cat-in-residence, who will probably give birth to kittens on premises someday soon).

We know that they always shoot lots of footage, and most of it gets edited out. But no matter what we see (or don't see) from this, Pat and I will have some good memories about some of the outtakes! The cameraman was circloing the hobo folksinger as she was singing and playing her guitar, catching everyone in the shelter watching her attentively (I hope they didn't catch me rolling my eyes at the "will there be any box cars in Heaven" lyrics!). The best part was when her song was interrupted by the horn of a westbound freight (forget which railroad--we had a bunch of 'em!). I don't know if the cameraman caught almost the entire "congregation" turning their attention away from the singer and toward the tracks!

The show will air sometime next spring. In the past, "Wild Chicago" has been an hour-long show with three short segments inside, but we heard the crew say that they had material here for a longer bit of time. We'll be watching for the show, of course!

Headed home from Rochelle, we came across four westbound freights between there and DeKalb (all moving), and passed a couple of eastbounds. Looks like the new third track was in place and ready to go at Elburn and LaFox, but I haven't seen anything about a cutover date. Found a Chinese restaurant in Wheaton with a view of the tracks. It's small, it's been there forever, but this is the first time we tried it--I always thought it was just a carryout place.

[railfan619]

Hey good eveing everyone well. I just got home from work a little bit ago and I am really tired and I really dont have much to say tonight so. I shall be going now and I will be talkin to you all tomorrow

[jeaton]

Carl-I should have given you my cell number or something so you could remind me to look at the web cam. Got too busy with the odds and ends from the kitchen/family room work and I forgot I had a good excuse to take a break. I must really be getting serious memory problems.

Certainly a better than average good day at Rochelle.

Jay

[Anonymous]

Can one still get a Rootbeer here?

Sorry I've been gone, very busy at work and at home. The hurricane has left us very busy at work. FEMA & US Customs are some of our best customers.

[locomutt]

Tom,of course you can get a rootbeer here;and anything else also.
Glad to see that you had some time to pop in and say Hi,several of
us have been wondering where you were. Guess that much is
explained now,try not to stay away so long.[:)]

[CShaveRR]

It's okay, Jay--It didn't look like much, and there's no way anybody could have recognized me without prior warning. By the time we got home from our trip, I was in the very last of the available archived shots (that's how busy the webcam was--took less than three hours to go through the archives), and I wouldn't have known that that was I looking at the camera (instead of the train), were it not for the conspicuous blue shirt I was wearing.

[cherokee woman]

Chris, thank you for the sweet corn and apples.

We'll have some fried apples for breakfast this morning, along with the
regular breakfast menu items. Whatever you want to eat for breakfast,
I'll fix it for you.

For lunch today, we'll have Chris' corn on the cob he brought in, along
with pork chop abracadabra. (if we run out of the corn Chris brought in,
I have frozen some corn, and I'll get that out, and put in water to boil.)

Tom, welcome back to the fold! We've certainly missed you around here.

[Mookie]

Tom - you are accounted for along with Tree. Another name off my list. Still looking for Zardoz. And Dan.....and like Jay - my memory fails me. But glad you are back!

Chris - check the overnight temps - that is how you know fall is close. The day may be warm, but the night temps really tell the tale. And my eyes....now watery red....

BC - I am so jealous! But Mom always did like you best! [8D]

Had breakfast earlier, so time for...............@

Mo...

[JoeKoh]

stopped at the store for a couple thing this morning for home and the diner.can someone please teach cashiers how to make change?
stay safe
joe

[JDV5th]

Well, I teach math to 5th graders. I guess I can. Actually, I have taught that to them. You mean they've forgotten how? No way!
Just stopped into the diner for the first time. Nice place.

[Mookie]

JDV - welcome to the diner! There is actually a whole population out there that seems to have "forgotten" how to make change. I learned in the 2nd grade. Wonder if they skipped that grade. Shut the electricty off and none of them can make change. Can't add either!

Mook

[JDV5th]

I'll work on that. Gotta fix them kids.
I'll have a coke.

[locomutt]

JDV5th,Welcome to the Diner........Always nice to have 'new faces' in here.

Joe, I know what you mean about that......their "machines" do it for them.[:(][:(]

Mookie, If you shut the electricity off to some of these 'younger ones',
they fail to function in any way.......Let alone make change !!

[tree68]

Let's see - item, item, item, subtotal, OK slide your card. Do you want cash back? Here's your receipt!

Or - item, item, item, subtotal, amount tendered, your change is, "Darn, I gotta break that roll of dimes! Would you mind a couple of nickels instead?"

No wonder they don't know how to make change. I have to admit that I fall into that trap from time to time. Not that I spend a lot of time on a cash register.

I still like the story about the clerk who tried to scan the divider you put between your stuff and the other guy's stuff on the belt. She was about to call for a price check when the shopper told her to never mind - she wouldn't be wanting that today...

[jeaton]

JDV5th. Welcome! I worked at the local grehound race track taking bets and making payoffs to the winners. "Amount Tendered" was not a feature available for cash handling, and many of all ages quickly left the job when they found they couldn't handle making change.

Keep up the good work.

Jay

[JDV5th]

Well, I just had one 11 year old show me he could to it. Hooray! There's at least one!

[CShaveRR]

You can tell the pros--even though the cash register figures out how mich change is due, they'll count it out to you in the proper order--coins, small bills, then larger ones.

But you have to admit that without the modern electronic stuff, this diner would be nowhere!

Cher, today I feel like breakfast for lunch--can we still get some fried apples here?

Mookie's BC--has to go to work, but really wants to @ instead!

[CShaveRR]

Hmm! No wonder I'm feeling a little heavier today. Somewhere I passed P2K, and have a full load of stars.

[Mookie]

Congrats BC! The air is a little thinner up here, but aside from that - not much else will be different. Someday a bunch of us will find out if the Trains counter will go past 4 digits...

Heading for the hammock - too bad you have to work....[}:)]

SJ

[cherokee woman]

Carl, congratulations on your 2,000th post. Mutt has been trying to watch your
post count: but you snuck the1999th and 2000th posts in on us!!

Let us all take a moment and give a [bow] to Our Man Carl[^][:D]

And yes, Carl, you can have breakfast any time of the day you want!!
I will serve breakfast anytime of the day for our patrons.

[rvos1979]

Hi all, sorry I haven't been in here for a while, it's been busy in my life, as well as noisy.

Worked on a trailer for Dollar General the other day, apparently the person delivering the trailer got down to Tennessee and promptly sideswiped a tree-had to change out eight side sheets. Lots of air hammers working that night.....

Apparently you can't give your kids cough drops to take to school anymore.... Heard a story yesterday about it, teacher smelled alcohol on a kids breath, cops called, she blew .001 BAC, they gave her a ticket for underage drinking and the school suspended her for five days. All this just for cough drops.....

Sounds like I get to go back to Burlington this weekend, my parents e-mailed me this morning needing extra help on the farm. The silage bagger came yesterday, and with the corn drying down so fast, we need it in and out ASAP. So, seeing as I'll have corn coming out of my ears both figuratively and literally, I'll pass on the sweet corn.

Any outside chance the Diner can do delivery out to us in the field? If not, I'm sure I can find someone to run in and pick up food for all of us working out there.

Randy

[JDV5th]

Ok, you guys are dwarfing me. I just got my 1st star today. Wahoo. At what levels do you get the 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc...?

[cherokee woman]

I remember the second star comes at the 100th post. Should have it all memorized
by now, but that just goes to show you how much I pay attention to them!!