It is so nice to be home!
I know retirees enjoy traveling - bless them. I cannot be a member of that club.
Had to take a short trip away from home Friday and stay overnite and come back today.
We stayed at a more upscale place rather than the usual xpress, etc. You know - the one that lists $9.50 for a club sandwich....$30. for a steak....suite of rooms, which means you just have to walk farther for everything and lots more room to lose all your personal items.
It was extremely clean. The bed was so beautiful - had a bolster pillow - my first - and 3 pillows fluffed and arranged so they looked like giant donut holes dusted in pure white sugar.
A queen bed for each of us - pure bliss!
Long story short - the beds are pyramids - point goes right down the middle and downhill on either side. Pillows became donut crumbs inside starched hankies. Within an hour they were like sleeping on window envelopes.
And queen beds with.....king sheets? Luxurious until I got a 4 am cramp in my foot..... Was like trying to get out of a collapsed tent. When I finally got untangled, didn't have the cramp anymore, but was definitely awake!
Black-out curtains - perfect, since rooms always face well-lit parking lots. Problem is - you can't find the bed, the floor, thebathroom, nothing except that chair you inadvertanly left out an inch too far. Mag-lite under pillow was perfect, but light-sensitive Driver yells out of a sound sleep - "wassamatter?" when I turned it on to find my way to the sandbox. Good thing he is a quiet sleeper - an elbow to the ribs could have cost me a broken leg in getting to him. Guess I could toss the mag-lite. My aim - I would have broken the tv in the next room.
Comp breakfast started at 7 am in the real world. 7:15 for the help serving it. Good food, but got cold waiting for tongs to pick up items. Yes, I was tempted, but there was a big crowd and I didn't think I could get away with smiling and saying that the scrambled eggs were finger food....Wanted to hug the small person in front of me - she had her whole hand in the cantaloupe pieces while Mom stroked out.
Well, I guess we are just not cut out to be travelers, but if we ever do lose our minds and try it again - going back to the el-cheapo motel - maybe take my own pillows/sheets/towels, just to be safe. Sure won't have to worry about blackout curtains. You just close your eyes!
Did I say it is so nice to be home?
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Mookie, glad you are back home. That sounds like some experience you had there. Skies are clouding up here, guess it won't be too long before that first round comes in. Weather radio went off about 15 minutes ago, severe T-storm warning for Dubois County, IND.
Pizza Fest menu for tonight:
1. Anchovie
2. Canadian bacon
3. Cheese
4. Chicago style
5. Goetta
6. Ham & green pepper
7. Hawaiian
8. Italian sausage
9. Pepperoni/mushroom
10. Supreme
Desserts:
Fudge cake (leftover from Tom's bday yesterday)
Strawberry shortcake
Peach cobbler
Ice cream
Mookie, it sounds as though you spent the night in minus-one star hotel which had not had an inspection for several years. I am sorry that you had such an experience on what (from what you wrote) was a rare trip for you and Driver. We have been unhappy with an occasional hotel, but our usual experience, even in the lower-rated ones, has been good.
May you find a much better hotel on your next trip.
Johnny
....Just had a red line of radar...weather pass over us. Not bad. Some sharp thunder and lightning, but got away with it pretty good. A little rain. That we still need.
A warm day today, and increasing humidity again.
Did finish up going around edges with edger / trimmer and finished that job early evening. Cooler to do it then. And now, since the red line passed...It dropped about 10 degrees.
When Hotels are bad Jen, they can get really bad and unnerving.
Use to seek out Holiday Inn's {years ago}, when traveling, but not anymore. They for the most part are aged.
When we go back to our home area, as we just did....we use the same hotel each time. A very nice one. Just about my only complain is the "modern" bed covering....Fluffly {which I don't like}, and pillows too soft. And this hotel is not that old, and was just refurbished throughout.
Otherwise just fine. A chain, but a more up to date one than the "older" H I's. Mgr. and staff know us and that makes it more "homey"....
Used the same Hotel chain when we were traveling back and forth to Florida for Wintering....Had good luck with them too.
Quentin
Quentin - that might have been part of the same system that came through the Detroit area about 6 or 7. I was kicking back with some old friends at an adult beverage establishment, watching the crowd passing by (Milford Memories - big crowd, too). A thunderstorm (complete with severe warning) really dampened things (literally and figuratively) and in no time the crowd was gone, except those who could hang around the food establishment tents.
It's been a nice visit though.
On the way back to the hotel I stopped by my old high school - which sure has grown. I've been inside it before, and it was all closed up anyhow, but I did notice that the gate to the athletic field was open, so I took a walk in. As I walked around the track and reached the finish line, I decided to jog a bit around the track, as I did for many miles during track in HS.
It was at once exhilarating and depressing - exhilarating because it brought back those days 40+ years ago, and depressing because it was 40+ years ago.
Visiting a sick friend tomorrow (no, really), then headed for Deshler.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
....Larry, we lucked out just fine. Brisk wind ahead of the front coming thru and then more subdued wind and some rain. Didn't get any really rough stuff.
Similar experience on our recent trip back to the home area....
Visited with a class mate in the hospital for over an hour and a half...We had a good visit and was able to discuss where everyone is ...etc...Only 19 in our H S class....60 plus years ago.
And....visited another "couple" in the same hospital. The husband was in my class as well, and he was getting out that afternoon. But it too was bitter / sweet....He has serious health problems.
But It was satisfying to do our visiting. Felt good about it.
Good Sunday morning everyone. Unless it was a very quiet storm (that didn't wake me up, or set off the NWS radio), I slept like a baby last night, never heard a thing. And the street in front of the house is dry this morning, so guess the other half of the storm never made it to us overnight.
Coffee, juices and other morning beverages are fresh and ready to go. Breakfast is ready also, and on the serving station.
Larry, it's been 40 years since I graduated HS. Been back once, a year or two after I graduated. Maybe one of these days, I'll go back and go through the halls once more. Glad you are enjoying Milford Memories, but sorry about the event being dampened last evening.
Everyone have a good day, take care going to Church, work, railfanning, or whatever else you have scheduled for today. See you all later this afternoon.
....Well...it turns out, the weather front that hit us at about 9:20 last night was a bit more severe than I thought. Sometimes it's not easy to hear wind in this house.
I did hear it blast briefly before the actual {red on radar}, hit us and passed on....But learning now this morning, we had initial blasts of 65 mph plus wind here.
But as many of you know by now....that same Front hit the Indiana State Fair a short time before and collapsed the extensive structure set up for a concert in front of the grandstand....And...Terrible....with the wind taking the structure down...killing at least 4 people and sent over 40 to the hospitals....
The State Fair is closed for today. It normally would run to about the 1st. of Sept.
Reportedly, they had blasts of wind there over over 70 mph that took down that structure and trapping many under it, and of course some fatally.
This is the same location that had a tragedy in the State Fair Coliseum way back about 1962 when an explosion blasted inside the State Fair Coliseum...{A vendor area under the seating area}, killed in the area of 70 some if I remember correctly. That building was repaired and is in use today. But that was really a terrible accident. {I seem to remember a figure of 81 killed...but}...It was tragic. Believe it was over Halloween.
Indiana weather can produce instant severe blasts of wind even when no tornado is present....
Edit: Total fatalities now upped to 5
good morning
Modelcar that front produced quite a light show on our way home from Celina along 127 last night.We saw it building as we brought my Dad back home from Indianapolis.On the way down we saw a train near Redkey on the ns new castle secordary.Went to Indy and gave our hugs.On the way back we stopped at Albany Indiana for a shake.Mamma has taken Matt to the store for school clothes.I am in the train room making more room for trains.I am going to need to go to the outlet store and get some more shelves later.Cw thanks for breakfast.Back to work tonight.
stay safe
joe
Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").
Did I tell you it is good to be home?
It was so nice to sleep in a decent bed with just enough room light to see my way down the hall after the neighbors slammed a door and woke me @ 2am. Ah well, some motel noises I am used to.....
Q - that's the winds we have here. No tornados - just really high winds. Had a lot of tree damage with the 1st one about a week ago. Toppled a cottonwood by our watch site that had to be at least 100 years old. It was huge, but snapped very close to the ground and fortunately fell into the street and not the 100 year old house behind it. It was hollow on the inside.
Off to play domestic goddess. Would rather help change oil in Millie, but domestic is calling and Millie is fine. I know - it is what it is....
Can't wait till August 22nd why Kids go back to SCHOOL. Yeah I know but called I get my house back except for my almost 2 year old. Right now hard for me to railfan out the windows with Corn 9 feeet HIgh but I manage to hear them. Harvest is in a couple months then I will see them again. Hard to beileive for me in 2 years it will be 20 years since I graduated High School myself. Man I can not beileive it myself. Where has the time gone. I looked at my classes website and out of 229 20 are already dead.
......Know what you mean Ed....My H S class was so small, and now 30% have passed on.
Everything is quiet here at home. Been a nice afternoon. Mookie, did a couple of domestic chores myself earlier. Thinking/planning on doing laundry tomorrow.
Fired up the grills, and here is what is on the serving station for our Sunday Dinner:
Roast, steaks, chicken, pork chops, brats, hot dogs, burgers, 'baked' taters, along with baked beans, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, slaw, tater salad, green beans.
For Dessert: chocolate cake, strawberry cheesecake, blackberry pie and watermelon.
Everyone enjoy what's left of your afternoon, your evening and take care.
Sitting here under the canopy at Deshler, watching the trains rumble by. Four eastbounds so far and it looks like a westbound should be coming through in a bit.
Raining a bit - seems to be training out of the north. The same system is bringing rain back home, too, and rained a bit on Milford Memories, as well.
Looks like another train lined through westbound, so more action here shortly.
Now if the rain would quit...
Good Monday morning everyone. Currently 67 degrees here in Louisville, going for a high of about 84 degrees today.
Today was supposed to be the first day of school here in Jefferson County. But, with the storm that rolled through Saturday, there are lots of trees and power lines down, and quite a few schools are without power. So, today is a "snow day", which will have to be made up somewhere along the line during the year. Needless to say, the kids are glad to be extending their summer vacation one more day.
Coffee, juices and other morning beverages are fresh and ready to go. Breakfast is on the serving station.
Larry, glad to hear you're enjoying the trains/scenery around Deshler!
Everyone have a good morning, take care and see you all later.
cherokee woman So, today is a "snow day"
So, today is a "snow day"
I was out Saturday afternoon and saw evidence that we had too many "snow day's" this past winter. I was walking along a pedestrian/bike path to a public park west of me that just happens to parallel the CPR mainline west. I have been doing this a couple of times each summer for the past 15 years or so. There is an underground spring that flows across the path each spring, that generally dries up around the end of May or early June. I have seen it once still flowing during Stampede week in early July.
It was still flowing on Saturday the 13th of August. We haven't had a great summer here, but the last couple of weeks have been mostly dry with highs around 70 or so. It has been flowing slowly, but steadily, for so long there was standing water further downgrade from the outlet than I have ever seen before. It is going to get interesting in a couple of weeks or so when the risk of frost transitions from the theoretical back to the expected. If that flowing water freezes and cracks the surrounding rocks, we may see new geologic formations in the making.
Getting back to my post about Greyhound for a moment, it has been really interesting following the reactions to this story. There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth by mayors and other important persons in the towns affected by the route cancellations. For the most part the people doing the wailing, and the media types covering the story, are all to young to remember the exact same things being said when the railways closed their stations and discontinued passenger and mixed train service in the sixties.
Hope everyone has a good day.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Everybody must be out and about, enjoying the cooler temps? Our current temp at 1:37 is in the low to mid 70s. Wondering if we'll even see 84 degrees today. Sure is nice outside, though.
Here is our menu for the rest of the day:
1. Beef stew w/baked cornbread and tossed salad
2. Vegetable beef soup w/cornbread and tossed salad
Everyone enjoy your afternoon, whatever it is you are doing, take care and see you all later.
Starting school in the middle of August! When I was growing up, in South Carolina, school always started no earlier than the last week that had a couple or more days ion August, and some years it started in September.
The year that I started to school , my mother took my youngest brother and me up to Virginia to visit relatives--a week with one of her aunts, a week with her oldest brother, and back to the aunt for another week. We were taken on day trips to see other relatives, including her uncle for whom I am named (on one of these trips, I had my first ferry ride--across the Rappahannock, at Weems (where my father and mother met). Two years ago, we drove across the Rappahannock on the bridge that replaced the ferry some time after 1948, and Ricki was really impressed by the width of the river there.
The day after we got back home, started to school, walking about a block and half to the grammar school, which was just north of the high school. When I was in the seventh grade, the three of us moved in with my mother's parents because her father was not doing well, and we stayed there after he died; I then had to walk (gasp!) two blocks to get to school.
I cannot go back and visit the school, for all the buildings are now gone. The high school was consolidated, in 1969, with two other schools--one of which was a bitter rival in sports (when I was senior, after we defeated the school in football, one of its students yelled, "Just wait until basketball!--for their basketball teams were better than ours). I wonder how the high school students got along together for the first few years. I do not know just what became of the grammar school.
evening
Tree is fine in Deshler.Wish we could have camped out but vacations were full at work.Cw thanks for supper tonight.
Joe
New air mattress. Should sleep better tonight.
Fostoria is interesting - took a few minutes to get my bearings (the planned rail park should help), and there wasn't much traffic, but I can see where it would be a good place to watch.
Thanks to Joe and Matt for the visit, and the tour of the refurbished Deshler museum. Quite the place!
CSX is a mess right now. Trains hung up all over the place. The DS held a westbound manifest and an eastbound ethanol train to get a stacker out. They're all underway now. Really big manifest made the turn north - blocked up local traffic for a while. Another eastbound is coming into town right now - a stacker with BNSF orange on the point.
Just another exciting evening at Deshler!
....A very nice day here in our Muncie area. Sunshine and not much humidity.
Finally got my tractor lubricated...and then waited until early evening to do another mowing. The inch of rain we had over the weekend is helping the lawn recover from such a long dry spell.
Looked up the time and location the space station passes over here this evening. Happens to be 10:20. but it only gets 28 degrees above the horizon and enters our vision from the west, and leaves towards the north northeast.....Not much length of the sky to try to find it. Supposed to be visible for 5 min.
The sky is nice and clear though....
Edit...........Success. Witnessed the space station passing over here 12 min. ago. Brighter than I thought it would be.
WHOOPIE # 1 with iced tea and peach pie. Nice and sticky hot here in the mountains to night.
Y6bs evergreen in my mind
Good Tuesday morning everyone. Calm this morning, with a temp of 65 degrees, going for a high again in the mid 80s. Should be another really nice day. Well, the kiddos will have to wait until tomorrow for their first day of the new school year. Quite a few schools and the 5 bus compounds are without phone and internet service. Figures we'd have these kinds of problems with a brand new school superintendent. She's really getting an introduction to her new job!
Coffee, juices and other morning beverages are fresh and ready to go. Breakfast is also ready and on the serving station.
Hopefully, Sarah is able to dodge rain up in Philly and enjoy her vacation. Although, it sure is quiet around the house!
Wish it had been a little brighter a little while ago: I was sitting here at the computer, waiting for it to boot up. Trapper was looking out the front door, and lo and behold, Mama Kitty was on the outside of the door, pawing at Trapper, through the glass! Wish I could have gotten a picture of that sight!!
Well, guess I'll be back this afternoon, after I get through with my "regular" Tuesday job: Produce Truck and Bread/Pastry Truck sign in. Everyone have a very good morning, take care and see you this afternoon.
Wow, looks like business is booming this morning.... 81 and clear in Carolina.
Things continue apace here, with not much to report. I hope each of you are managing to cope with the heat. Here, the A/C plus the ceiling fans running full blast has made things tolerable.
Peace be with you
Tom
COAST LINE FOREVER
It is better to dwell in the corner of a roof than to share a house with a contentious woman! (Solomon)
A contentious woman is like a constant dripping! (Solomon)
Good afternoon. Things went well this morning with Produce and the Bread/Pastry trucks. Ordered enough food for 60 people, had 54 people, and still ran out of potatoes and watermelons. No white bread on the bread truck today; several people prefer the white bread. I will get a loaf of the potato bread, when we have it delivered. Unfortuantely, we haven't had any potato bread delivered in for a month now.
The menu for the rest of the day: Tuesday Night Mexican Fiesta:
Burritos, tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, fajitas, chimichangas, Mesquite grilled steak, chops and chicken; Spanish rice.
Guess our temp is right about 80; supposed to get to about 86 for a high today. So, we're not having it too bad, yet. Tomorrow and Saturday are supposed to be 90 degree days for us, with rain showers tomorrow.
Everyone have a good afternoon, take care and see you all later.
afternoon
catching up on chores.work is busy too.Cw thanks for supper tonight.
Joe - heard that furniture and cars are both doing well in US. Maybe you might be getting a new car lot next door to work?
Had my south window open yesterday. It was wonderful. Cloudy all day today, but not too bad - around 85. Very muggy, tho.
Still "resting" from - well, nothing. But resting is always good!
Mookie
Tree can verify there was alot of lumber eastbound on q 380 and 382 yesterday.We have dealerships offering to buy back a car we just got a year ago.Which reminds me we need to set up an oil change for it.Need to run errands into town.need some more couplers for model car repairs but we are in good shape now in the train room.Matt has been busy testing the new cars and engines.yes naps are good.going to get one before work tonight.
JoeKohTree can verify there was alot of lumber eastbound on q 380 and 382 yesterday.
There certainly was - and I saw more this morning before I left Deshler.
One thousand, four hundred and fifteen (and nine tenths) miles after pulling out of my driveway, the truck is back in the garage.
It was tougher on the way home - sleep doesn't always come easy at Crossroads park, since railroads run 24/7. The pounding of the wheels crossing the diamond is bad enough, but I think what's worse is the squealing of the wheels as trains go around the wye tracks...
At least the truck knows its way home from Syracuse...
Since the return trip from Deshler takes me through Cleveland, I decided to take the time to check out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. It's quite the place - if I'd been more awake, and willing to spend more time, I certainly would have - there's a lot there to look at and read, not to mention all the video presentations on a multitude of monitors throughout the displays.
Got t-shirts there for the grandkids, and a hat and travel mug for myself. Also picked up a cute miniature acoustic guitar (with case). I don't think my fingers will fit on the frets, though.
Tomorrow is recovery day - laundry and cleaning out the truck (a sizeable task in and of itself).
I did stock up on Vernors while I was in MI - hopefully it'll last for a while. It's too tempting to have 2 or 3 a day, and I really should be laying off the soda.
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