Don't feel like Lone Eagle Mookie. If it weren't for a kind friend, none of my trousers would have buttons. Eye? Where's the needle? Typical helpless male.
Norm
Domestic Goddess I am not, here: Made a discovery while sewing a hem in a pair of the Driver's pants.
If you are at work in an office, on a locomotive engine waiting for a signal, waiting for the diesel to finishing filling - and a button pops off your shirt or your pants split, you can whip out your handy little sewing kit and get ready to sew. Hardest part is threading that silly needle with the eye that always blinks.
I have a pincushion with a strawberry attached to it (for sharpening the needle - which I am sure you already knew). I spent many minutes before sewing trying to get that needle threaded until I discovered you can push the threadless needle thru the strawberry and stick it in the pincushion. This elevates the needle eye, holds it firmly and you can push your cleanly cut thread through the smallest of eyes - the first try!
Hope this helps and remember to keep your stitches small!
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
You two are just too helpful!
I looked at the idea of Xeroscaping - has some possibilities. Maybe could pick out some things to show him. Cactus would be perfect, if they can survive our harsh winters. Have seen hen and chickens here and I don't think they had a problem for year round.
Otherwise he will have to put up with peanuts shells and sunflower shells. Almost as good as wood chips.
Asparagus
Seriously:http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07230.html
Mookie Murphy - I love your idea. Did I mention, he wants to keep it - shall we say - cheap? He's thinking pea gravel, but I think that will still be more $$$ than just a live ground cover. He has been putting wood chips there, but they keep disappearing. Driver doesn't have the heart to tell him that they decompose.
Murphy - I love your idea. Did I mention, he wants to keep it - shall we say - cheap?
He's thinking pea gravel, but I think that will still be more $$$ than just a live ground cover. He has been putting wood chips there, but they keep disappearing. Driver doesn't have the heart to tell him that they decompose.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Good Morning
Thanks for the well wishes...this, too, will be overcome....
Our group proceeds apace as well...we have a show coming up next weekend with a couple of fellows yours truly played with back in the 70's...this oughta be fun..
Weather here be warm and sunny...for the nonce...going up to 65 later on.....
Mookie: Xeroscaping could be done on the cheap ... river pebbles and such with maybe a few perriwinkles around....doesn't require much work after initial placement...
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
BOC - after all you have been thru - I hope this bypass will help your heart.
I think about all you have missed is all the complaints about winter weather. And I don't think we are totally out of winter, yet!
Had a visit with our landlord - in the sun - it was nice. Anyway, he has some "yard" next to the duplex on east side about 8 feet wide and whatever a standard size lot is long. It is under ugly 2-3 story evergreen trees and 4-5 story locust trees. Some sun next to parking lot in back - part next to duplex gets no sun.
Anyone out there know of a good ground cover that could be planted in clay soil, drought resistant and easy to clean all the neighbors dead leaves out of it? I suggested myrtle, which spreads out and sedum. I know these two items will grow here in clay and dry. Any other suggestions. Myrtle is practically indestructible, which is necessary. Help?
Hello...how be all of you?
My heart issues continue apace here...spent the last few days...yea..unto even weeks in the hospital...they now did a double bypass to deal with it.
No blockage mind...just...occlusions....
Ma Nature continues to toy with us. We're looking forward to a nice weekend, and Monday is supposed to be in the mid 70's.
Tuesday, however, has a forecast high of +40F...
At least the snow in my yard is finally gone...
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...
afternoon
nice outside.no coat required.getting stuff around for tomorrow.Going to help at Dad's for spring cleaning. Might peek at RJ Corman while we are down there.Better get back at it.
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").
Concerning bill boxes, depots had them too. At least those that weren't open continuously. The agent could place the waybills and any switch lists in it for trains that were due after he went home. The conductor could do the same for any work done while the agent was off duty.
Other than unmanned interchange points, usually the waybills would be left at an open office. (Open in the sense that there was an agent assigned there, not actual office hours. That office may or may not have been at the station where the car was left/picked up.) The waybill that travelled with the car was for car movement only. The revenue waybill copy would be mailed to the destination agent. I don't think a customer would handle that portion of the paper work. That being said, many large customers did, and still do, have boxes where they leave switch lists or spotting instructions.
Speaking of weather. I'm in Fremont, just called to go home. The high is expected to be 75 out here, and about the same at home. Last trip I went home with the window open. I think today might be another open window trip. Than for Sunday (I think) there is a chance of snow! At least it won't be much or last very long.
Jeff
Randy Vos
"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings
"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV
I thought of it and then had to do research to make sure I knew what I thought I knew.
At any rate, Randy keeps me on my toes and keeps things from getting too dull.
....."Peck's bad boy".....haven't heard that saying for many moons....It was in the east too.
Quentin
Randy is our resident Peck's Bad Boy. His charm comes from you never know what he will do/say.
evening
nice outside.some rain on the way.Ns was working uptown when we left.People are complaining about CSX blocking crossings here locally.need to go get Matt.Tomorrow is Friday.
Joe
MookieRandy!
YES!
I'm glad this tradition carried over from the Flat Wheel Cafe. It's just not the same if we all have to say it under our breaths after one of Randy's posts.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Mookie Randy!
Randy!
We arrived in New Orleans a little late this afternoon, and I rented a car, and drove up here to spend the night before going on to Chattanooga tomorrow.placarded cars--in several groupings that were separated by non-hazardous cargo.
I saw several CN freights today, and one had quite an assortment of placarded cars in several groupings that were well separated by non-hazardous cargo.
Oh, yes. Except for my trip last year, which started on the same day of the week as this year's trip, when I have left Chicago for Memphis and points south, the train is backed out of the station until it reaches a point at which it can proceed on the St. Charles Air Line to the connection with the IC (now CN) mainline. Last year and yesterday, we headed out to some point at which we backed for a distance and then headed over on the St. Charles Air Line. I could not determine what the points were, for it was dark. I wonder if having the Pullman cars (Chebanse and Adirondack Club) on the rear, so these people who have paid a high fare will not have to walk to the south end of the train to board (I, and all the other sleeper passengers had to walk almost to the south end since the sleeper is ahead of the diner which is ahead of the lounge which is ahead of the coaches--and when I arrived in Chicago yesterday, I had to walk almost the full length of the train to get to the station--Waanh!).
Johnny
(One of our field surveyors has had the repeated bad luck of finding dead skunks in monument boxes - why the dumb critters get in there after the box lid gets pulled off is unknown. - In the meantime, he has acquired the company nickname of "Pepe' Le Topo" (paraphrasing a certain Looney Tunes character))
I found my camera - If I can, I'll climb back up there and take a picture.
(This thing was not built by a terminal carpenter, it was built by a welder with too much Idle time - bulletproof!)
Speaking of bulletproof:
Today was the first time I ever got a sandwich at a Subway shop and had to build the sandwich and pay for it from the other side of a bulletproof glass wall. Either that is a new style sneeze shield or it is a tough neighborhood.
One of the old RRers (now retired) that I worked with told the story of when he used to hang around the railyard as a little kid. They'd see the conductor dump a bunch of neat paper slips in the box, and run over and grab them after he started to pull away.
They never understood why he'd scream and curse at them...
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
I remember these too.. one night we caught a possum and locked it in the box knowing that the CNW crew would be along shortly....
Randy
very nice outside.keep it coming.Ns had a freight parked in the siding when I left work.Toimorrow is another day.
CShaveRRSo the conductor puts the bills in this box (it may or may not have been locked with a switch lock or two), where they sit until the IHB comes along and picks up the cars.
I remember this!
Only the one I saw was used in a situation where there were elevators but no manned station. The elevator agent put the waybills in the box when he finished loading the cars and the conductor would take them out when he lifted the cars. The one I saw was mounted on a post and had two locked doors. One door used a padlock supplied by the elevator agent and the RR door used a standard switch lock. It was painted that standard mineral brown colour and was about the size of a birdhouse.
That is how I remember it, a birdhouse without any holes, but for the life of me I cannot remember where I saw it. When I was very young we would go on drives and we would often end up visiting friends of my parents who also lived in stations, but I don't know which one.
Carl, thank you for helping me recall that lost data file!
I hope you took a picture, MC, so people 200 years from now can see how long ago it was around.SJ, picture the operation: the PRR comes along with a bunch of cars to hand off to the IHB here. The conductor, in the caboose, has the waybills for all of these cars. There's no yard here, just a track or two connecting the two railroads. No yard = no clerk to give the bills to. So the conductor puts the bills in this box (it may or may not have been locked with a switch lock or two), where they sit until the IHB comes along and picks up the cars. The IHB conductor knows about the box, too, so he retrieves the bills and takes them with his train to its destination.I think waybilling has largely gone paperless now, so this box might have been an artifact even if the tracks were still here.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
What's a "waybill" box? Have anything to do with what usually was in a caboose?
In our crashing thru the trees, we encountered a waybill box for the interchange between IHB and PRR (the track connection was gone). That thing was so overbuilt that it will still be there 200 years from now. Weird to see that just appear out of the weeds.
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