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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, December 1, 2014 10:08 PM

Mookie

Bruce:  no one listens today.  There is no comprehension a lot of the time.  I have a quote here on my puter screen:  "Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply"

Ergo - newspapers wrong, fast food orders wrong; prescriptions wrong; grocery orders wrong; even tv crawls - wrong & misspelled!

 

 What'd you say?  I must have been distracted.  Look!  Squirrel!

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Posted by mudchicken on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 1:35 AM

HmmHmmHmmWatched several kids try to read cursive notes lately (wasn't even doctor's scrawl). They all wound up asking for an "adult" to translate for them. I fell out of my chair in disbelief.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
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Posted by Deggesty on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 7:25 AM

mudchicken

HmmHmmHmmWatched several kids try to read cursive notes lately (wasn't even doctor's scrawl). They all wound up asking for an "adult" to translate for them. I fell out of my chair in disbelief.

 

Well, what else can we expect when everybody else uses a keyboard and not a pen?

People have complained about my handwriting for many years.

Johnny

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 7:40 AM

mudchicken

HmmHmmHmmWatched several kids try to read cursive notes lately (wasn't even doctor's scrawl). They all wound up asking for an "adult" to translate for them. I fell out of my chair in disbelief.

 

   My wife is a teacher's aid in a Catholic school.  Cursive writing is taught in the 4th grade in the Catholic schools here.  It's not taught at all in the public schools.  In the future, there will be a thin slice of our society that will be able to freely send secret notes among ourselves that the general public can't decipher. Mischief

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 10:02 AM

With my scrawl, even somebody who can read cursive writing is going to have problems. Laugh

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by CShaveRR on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 3:55 PM

We learned cursive in second grade.  True story:  after trying very hard to work with me on cursive, the teacher told my mother to just get me a typewriter!  It doesn't stay legible for very long when I'm writing.  

My granddaughters have both learned cursive (and couldn't wait to do it!).  I don't know how much they actually use it.

Carl

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 4:44 PM

I gave up on cursive by junior high school.  Only had one teacher ever challenge me on not using it.

I just don't have the hand for it.  I can't paint like Da Vinci, either.  My signature isn't exactly legible, either.

I know of folks who have beautiful cursive handwriting.  I envy them, but I don't lose any sleep over it.

On the other hand, look at some old train orders - many were written in an almost flowery script.

As Carl notes, if I'm writing something of any length, it'll be on the computer (my accuracy isn't all that good on a typewriter, either - thank goodness for the backspace key).

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Norm48327 on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 5:14 PM

My handwriting has never been great either. Nowdays, my signature is somewhat of a scribble but the bank passes my checks. That's all that counts. Wink

Norm


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Posted by zugmann on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 5:21 PM

CShaveRR

We learned cursive in second grade.  True story:  after trying very hard to work with me on cursive, the teacher told my mother to just get me a typewriter!  It doesn't stay legible for very long when I'm writing.  

My granddaughters have both learned cursive (and couldn't wait to do it!).  I don't know how much they actually use it.

 

 

2nd grade here as well.  Then we were required to write only cursive in 3rd - 5th grade.  In 6th grade it was our choice, so naturally being kids, we almost all chose to write in print again.

 

If I write something down real quick, it resembles a mix of cursive and print.  And it is barely legible.

 

I mainly stick to print.

 

(yes, despite what some here may think - I can actually write more than my own name).

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

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Posted by edblysard on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 6:22 PM
My wife Aimee writes in Palmer Script, nice, beautiful flowing letters perfectly spaced and uniform in height, anyone can read it…she is the product of a country/rural school system that still made its students learn that.
I on the other hand, have a hard time printing, much less cursive.
I was so glad when I inherited my Dad’s old Underwood, and my teachers were too, now they could read my homework!

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 6:26 PM

edblysard
My wife Aimee writes in Palmer Script, nice, beautiful flowing letters perfectly spaced and uniform in height, anyone can read it…she is the product of a country/rural school system that still made its students learn that.
I on the other hand, have a hard time printing, much less cursive.
I was so glad when I inherited my Dad’s old Underwood, and my teachers were too, now they could read my homework!
 

Want to find out how bad a typist you have become?  Fire up the Underwood!

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by tree68 on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 6:35 PM

I deal with a woman who appears to write (in cursive) using a ruler as her base.Cursive Script

Kinda cool, actually.  And really retro.

LarryWhistling
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Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you
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Posted by JoeKoh on Tuesday, December 2, 2014 7:12 PM

handwriting=chickenscratch

looks like ns has an empty well car train in the siding.work is very busy.Need to get a shower.

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").

 

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Posted by edblysard on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 5:48 AM

BaltACD
 
edblysard
My wife Aimee writes in Palmer Script, nice, beautiful flowing letters perfectly spaced and uniform in height, anyone can read it…she is the product of a country/rural school system that still made its students learn that.
I on the other hand, have a hard time printing, much less cursive.
I was so glad when I inherited my Dad’s old Underwood, and my teachers were too, now they could read my homework!
 

 

 

Want to find out how bad a typist you have become?  Fire up the Underwood!

 

Oh no no no…it doesn’t have spell check, and I can’t find ribbons anymore.

 

I have it, and an old White Compact boxed up, one day they may be worth something, if only to show kids what came before cell phones.

 

About a year or so before we bought our first home computer and printer, my wife got an IBM Selectric with the changeable ball, the one where you changed fonts by swapping out the typing head ball.

 

That is a nice typewriter, you can even adjust the amount of pressure needed on the keys.

 

Of course, once the computer was up and running, the typewriter was history.

 

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Posted by Norm48327 on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 8:01 AM

Those IBM Selectrics turned out a page that looked like it had been printed rather than typed. Each letter had it's own unique spacing; quite something back then.

Norm


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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 9:08 AM

     We put up our Christmas tree Sunday but haven't had time to decorate it yet.  I guess I should say we installed it.  The darned thing is so heavy, that it took 2 grown men to heave-ho it into the house.  My wife brought it home tied to the top of her Prius.  I wonder if it made the car squat on the springs?

     If you have a 2 ton Christmas tree that's almost three feet accross when it's cold and tied up, you will have a 6 foot diameter tree when it it warms up and the branches drop.  Picture the big plant  in Little Shop of Horrors.  "Feed me Seymore!".  We may have to decorate with garlands and steel support cables, as it's starting to twist away from the corner it's sitting in.Surprise

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Posted by jeffhergert on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 9:40 AM

Smile, Wink & GrinI still have a couple of typewriters.  One is a Royal and the other is a portable, the name of which I can't remember.  I still use the portable, the Royal is missing a piece that locks the ribbon spool in place, down in the basement.  I use it to type train orders for my model RR.  Ribbons can be found on the internet, havent been able to find them local for a long time.

I got to recrew a long pool stack train because of a derailment yesterday.  (Loaded ethanol train derailed a wheel and drug it over concrete ties for a mile or so on the single track Blair Subdiv is what we heard.)  I was looking through the emergency response info, all 20 pages of it.  One of the info was for "Perfumery Products."  The info says to "Avoid breathing the vapors.  Keep upwind. Avoid bodily contact with the material.  Wear appropriate chemical protective gloves, boots and goggles.  In case of contact with material, immediately flush skin or eyes with running water for at least 20 minutes."

And I used to buy this stuff for my wife on her birthday and at Christmas!  Well, I won't do that again. Smile, Wink & Grin

(Reminds me of the side effect warnings on prescription drugs.  It will cure you if it doesn't kill you first.)

Jeff

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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 10:16 AM

As to medical properties, I was told that when my twin brothers were quite young, they would play that they were doctors. One was "Dr. Faver, Life Saver" (his middle name was Faver, after our family doctor, H.M. Faver, who brought all of us children into the world); the other was "Dr. Dunn, Kill All, Cure None."

And, this reminds me of a story about a miser, in my French book. The miser's wife was sick, and needed a doctor. The doctor was reluctant to come, knowing the miser, until the miser promised to pay whether the doctor cured or killed his wife. However, the wife died, despite the ministrations of the doctor. When he pressed the miser for payment, he was asked, "Did you cure her?" The doctor said, "No." Then the question, "Did you kill her?" "Oh, No!" The result--no payment.

As to typewriters, I had a good one (and I, at the moment, do not remember the maker) that had an extra-wide carriage that I used in cutting the stencils for church bulletins (no cut and paste needed to make a two page-wide bulletin stencil). I had not used it for several years, yet still did not want to let it go, but I knew that when I moved last year I would have no room for it. I hope somebody pounced upon it when he saw it.

Johnny

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Posted by samfp1943 on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 10:19 AM

jeffhergert wrote: [snipped]"...And I used to buy this stuff for my wife on her birthday and at Christmas!  Well, I won't do that again. Smile, Wink & Grin

(Reminds me of the side effect warnings on prescription drugs.  It will cure you if it doesn't kill you first.).."

Jeff:

Some of that stuff will scare you, when you start reading about the Haz-Mat precautions and literature... One of my first experiences was with a load of Scope Mouth Wash...from Mississippi to Minnesota...Placcarded as 'Flamable'; had to stop at every scale house for' show and tell'. Stuff you never seem to consider  as dengerous...Then you go up to a Wal*Mart, and see the MSDS warning diamond on the outside of the building.

Murphy Siding:  Merry Christmas! and welcome to one of the most dangerous job times of the year!    Working on those Christmas decorating 'Honey-Dos'!Grumpy  Working to put up decorations on places that it hard to reach with ladders, and hanging lights on gutters and eaves, all kinds of traps there ! Slips and falls can be ruinous to the holidays.Crying

 I am beginning to feel a certain level of empathy for those folks who decorate with their lights once, and never take them down after the holiday. Hmm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

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Posted by Deggesty on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 10:36 AM

Yes, Sam, I used to wonder somewhat about the folks who left their lights up year-round. I never went way up, except to hang a star on the front of the upper story, and that involved placing the ladder in one spot.

However, a year ago, when Katie was putting lights up along the eaves of the house that we bought soon after Christmas two years ago, she forbade me to do the high work. From the east end of the house to just past the front stoop, there is practically no slope--but west of the stoop the slope is such that when you get to the end of the huse, it is almost level as you go around to the back yard, and then go into my door in the step-father apartment. The lights have not been taken down--but many of them have been blown into the gutter and need to be brought out. Because of the slope Katie needed outside help to get the lights up west of the stoop (my ladder's legs are both the same length) --maybe she will be able to lift them out by herself; I don't think that she plans to get on the roof, which is shingled.

Johnny

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 11:12 AM

jeffhergert
"Perfumery Products."  The info says to "Avoid breathing the vapors.  Keep upwind. Avoid bodily contact with the material.  Wear appropriate chemical protective gloves, boots and goggles.  In case of contact with material, immediately flush skin or eyes with running water for at least 20 minutes."

And I used to buy this stuff for my wife on her birthday and at Christmas!  Well, I won't do that again. Smile, Wink & Grin

Jeff

 

     Now just a cotten pickin' minute!  I'm paying big bucks for a little bottle of perfume, and you tell me the stuff ships by the carload? Mischief

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 11:20 AM

      Sam-  Three years ago, when we moved into our current house, I put up a string of lights from the house to the top of my flagpole.  Our street is rather dark, and the lights made it easier for friends to find our new house.

     Soon after we moved in, we got an anonymous letter from "a concerned neighbor" telling us how awful it was to have lights up at the wrong time of the year.  In honor of our "concerned neighbor", we keep that sting of lights lit all year long.Whistling

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 2:33 PM

Back in the sixties, the Detroit Free Press ran a column on the front page called "Action Line."  People wrote in with complaints or questions and the paper checked them out and published the outcome or answer.

One fellow wrote in that each morning around Christmastime he and his fellow car-poolers went by a house with Christmas lights lit.  It was still dark at that time of the morning.

As they returned home each afternoon (now in daylight), they noted that the lights were nowhere to be seen.

The paper checked it out and found that the homeowner had enclosed his lights in a translucent plastic channel.  Thus when the lights were on, they could be easily seen, but during the day they "disappeared."  

Ingenuity at its best!

LarryWhistling
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Posted by JoeKoh on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 7:25 PM

evening

have done lights along the roof and in trees. This year they are along the railing on the front porch.Inside I set up the tree and put the lights on.Matt and Mamma do the ornaments.Work still busy.Ns still had a well train in the siding.Work comes early. Need to get to bed.

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").

 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 7:40 PM

tree68

Back in the sixties, the Detroit Free Press ran a column on the front page called "Action Line."  People wrote in with complaints or questions and the paper checked them out and published the outcome or answer.

One fellow wrote in that each morning around Christmastime he and his fellow car-poolers went by a house with Christmas lights lit.  It was still dark at that time of the morning.

As they returned home each afternoon (now in daylight), they noted that the lights were nowhere to be seen.

The paper checked it out and found that the homeowner had enclosed his lights in a translucent plastic channel.  Thus when the lights were on, they could be easily seen, but during the day they "disappeared."  

Ingenuity at its best!

 

 Think I could put my concerned neighbor in a translucent plastic channel? Mischief

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Posted by CShaveRR on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 10:38 PM

My IBM Selectric is still downstairs, and gets a workout about once a year or so, when I'm typing out forms (but now that we have a tax preparer, even that use is no longer necessary).

Not all Selectrics had that proportional spacing for different-width letters.  Mine didn't, but I did find a nice ten-pitch element that I used on a 12-pitch setting, which made my stuff look a little more sophisticated (I also worked at justifying the right edge, but that was something I had to figure out).


As for Christmas lights, we're very Grinchy.  We have not, and probably will not, decorate our house this year.  There will be some little (and not-so-little) knicknacks around inside the house, but no tree.  We aren't here for Christmas most of the time, so we don't bother with it. 

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)

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 10:54 PM

Since the kids are gone, I don't bother with the inside decorations, aside from the candlesticks in the windows.  I put up lights on the big pine tree in the front yard today, and will have a few other lights outside as well.  The "candles" will probably go in tomorrow.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by samfp1943 on Thursday, December 4, 2014 7:44 AM

Happy Thursday everyone!    Weather around here is in the high thirties this morning (38deg). Very light wind, and not a bad morning for walking.         The dog, and I went down to the cemetery about 6 this morning for our morning constitutional, his, and my walk.  Not a lot moving at that early hour. The early JBH  stacker WB  was sliding by over on the BNSF...light toots, and a moderate speed. 

It is getting into the Christmas spirit around here. Carla went to 'Sam's' and bought her supplies for Fudge, Peanut butter balls, and cookies.  So it is really starting around here.  The decorating is her deal, I just do the' tote'n'.Huh?

Several years back, Johnny, I took care of that 'climbing' stuff. I gave her a 32' extension ladder, and a 14' step ladder for her birthday. I had found out a number of year ago, my wingspan is way too short for my fuselage.  She's in charge of the things that require a ' higher calling'.Bow 

 

 

 


 

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Thursday, December 4, 2014 12:50 PM

Weather here in middle Georgia great.  Lows at night near 50 right now 74 at 1330.  Hope the weather on the plains is allowing for unhindered operations of RRs.  BNSF must still be short locos.  For the first time the BNSF intermodal haulage trains are operating with all 4 locos operating. ( usually one idling ) Starting from a start all locos are only in a run 4 (?) power.  once at higher speeds the full power shows up in much quicker acceleration to MAS.

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Posted by Norm48327 on Thursday, December 4, 2014 1:11 PM

samfp1943

Happy Thursday everyone!    Weather around here is in the high thirties this morning (38deg). Very light wind, and not a bad morning for walking.         The dog, and I went down to the cemetery about 6 this morning for our morning constitutional, his, and my walk.  Not a lot moving at that early hour. The early JBH  stacker WB  was sliding by over on the BNSF...light toots, and a moderate speed. 

It is getting into the Christmas spirit around here. Carla went to 'Sam's' and bought her supplies for Fudge, Peanut butter balls, and cookies.  So it is really starting around here.  The decorating is her deal, I just do the' tote'n'.Huh?

Several years back, Johnny, I took care of that 'climbing' stuff. I gave her a 32' extension ladder, and a 14' step ladder for her birthday. I had found out a number of year ago, my wingspan is way too short for my fuselage.  She's in charge of the things that require a ' higher calling'.Bow 

 

 

SAM! YOU DIDN"T!

Ya gotta read between the lines. Wink Devil

Norm


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