Morning all from a hot and very humid Chicago where I was complaining about the cold this time last week. Took one of the kid’s scooters to work this morning - or rather used it to zip from the station through the Loop - you remember those weird two-wheel scooters that were all the rage a few years ago -now gathering dust in our garage. Got some looks from my fellow commuters - then after settling in here with my first cuppa joe, I’m realizing why did I want to zip to work? I’ll try it out in the park later -maybe I can scoot over to visit the lakefront.
Very windy today too - but after a day of storms yesterday - we’ve supposedly dodged Jon’s tornados. Brutus, the UP’s freights were pretty rare here anyway - the commuter scoots far outnumber them. I just liked occasionally the super-large SUV carriers with all the RR markings - Nat de Mex, MKT, etc.
I see my Sox (the real ones - White) picked up a 2nd baseman / SS in the draft - good thing instead of a pitcher. We need hitting.
Remember D-Day! I have a series of spooky radio (in NYC - NBC Blue Network) tapes of the first unofficial flashes through the morning of the first day of the invasion -
I agree. What happened to the good old days when the pols were smart enough to not get caught.
I just got news from my sister that my very first house (all brick) and detached 2+ car garage (Chicago’s NW side), just got bulldozed…new owners going to build a MacMansion, though on a lot 37 feet wide and 125 feet deep I don’t see how that is feasible unless they are going to get the square footage by building up to 3 stories. Many of the existing homes in the area have been expanded both up and out, while many more just bulldozed and a new home built. My (RIP) house was built in 1917, and somewhere I have an airial photo of the area showing just 3 houses in a square half mile, dirt roads, forest, and the North Branch of the Chicago River.
A great time for purchasing a home or doing rennovations for those not caught in the terrible real estate or job market squeeze. Interest rates are great, skilled craftsmen competing for work with the dead construction market, a depressed market price-wise, and an inventory of both new and existing homes for sale not seen for decades…
Prayers for those caught on the wrong end of this. Fortunately, a change of presidents will fix all of
Yet I can’t find a contractor in the Pittsburgh area that is willing to install new gutters on a rental property! [:-^]
Not much going on other than DirecTV is coming out AGAIN to see if they can figure out why my standard def receivers keep loosing satellite signal. This is the third time this week. [banghead]
I think there is something wrong at the dish (maybe a leek that is permitting water to get in) or something… all I know is this is driving me nuts. Watching TV… lose signal. Turn on TV… searching for signal. And the HD boxes are the ones this is supposed to happen to and I have no problems with mine. [%-)] Susie-Q is home today studying for her ASQ exam tomorrow so she gets to deal with the DirecTV techs… hehe… I feel sorry for those poor saps!
A little cooler here today - 93! Get the sweaters out!
Sir James - 0’s are good for you!
Chief and LA - Crawdads, Etoufee, and GRITS! [yeah] Have a safe trip!
Doug - ya wearin’ a helmet right? [banghead]
Jack - Hot Dogs an’ GRITS - think you got something there! If folks will eat dogs with sourkraut on them - GRITS are a natural! Maybe we could roll the dog up in a GRITS pancake, slice it up, and call it sunthern suchi!
Well - the construction saga continues - $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$[oX)]$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ - walls ready to be primered and painted. Flooring is in and is acclimating itself to my house (i.e. sitting in boxes - no joke - needs to sit for a while to dehumidify prior to installation). Furniture piled everywhere and this even after we donated the sofa and love seat since we’re going to get new ones (to match the floor - natch!). Going to change the dining room we used twice a year into a TV room for the kiddos and their friends to hang out in.
Jim - don’t need to call anyone here - throw any metal on the front curb and it disappears within hours.
Chuck - I’m bummed. Fox’s NASCAR gig is up for this season - don’t have cable. I prefer the Fox commentators to ESPN’s (boring).
Hey, Sir James! It sounds like our wives are related. That might make us in-laws of sorts.
Last night my wife said she was warm and in the mood for ice cream. Checked freezer. Doug Murphy’s law…son had devoured all of it except 2 spoonfuls and put the empty container back in the freezer, sound familiar? So I ran out and got wife some ice cream DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE RED SOX GAME WAS ON, fights and all.
Good to go? Not quite. 30 minutes later when the Lakers/Celtics game was in full swing, she complained that the ice cream made her cold, so I bolted upstairs to grab a sweater for her. Sat down.
Good to go? Not quite. She was still cold, so I got her a blanket.
Why was I so accomodating? Because I was afraid of what I KNEW was going to be the next request…no, not what you guys are thinking. She’d want me to turn on the freakin heat, in June! [banghead]
Yes, Roy, in answer to your question a couple of days back, I have a wife. And she too has a comfort zone that is measured in minutes, not degrees.
Noon from Charlotte International. Got almost an hour before my boarding. Killed an hour walking slow from other terminal and sitting in Starbucks drinking a vinilla bean. Now to bug the Yanks. [:-^] Lets see. AH, maybe a shipment of GRITS to the MA Yank. He looks too thin and needs nurishment. Well, time to read emails. Later
Talking about not biting the hand that feeds you! Well it happened to me yesterday. We were giving dog treats to a friend of mine’s pit bull and the sucker bit me on the hand. Never did trust that breed of dog anyhow. Why do I think of feeding alligators while doing this? Anyhow after a two hour wait in the doctor’s office, I got a tetnus shot and some antibiotics. Moral of the story, let sleeping (or other people’s dogs lie). The whole operation was supposed to get the dog used to us so he could leave her outside with us while we ran trains on his outdoor O gauge railroad. I thought the dog knew me, but she was just coming off of surgery two weeks ago and probably was not herself. Ray
I was reading through here and an old fact came to mind,women have born traits, too hot- too cold, go to the freezer, go to the store, get me a sweater, they train us a little at a time so we don’t realize what has happened till its too late. We are goners. Big parade in Detroit for the Red Wings today,so far no one has been shot, but its still lite out. We are going to the coney island for lunch, I will never learn, actually I have but I go anyway. S.J.
Prayers and a heartfelt thank you to the veterans and their families that sacrificed so much 64 years ago today on the beaches of Normandy. We will never forget.
Chief…I never eat anything my dogs won’t eat.
Dennis…read your post about the “bad” employee. Too often these types are left to their own devices until the damage they do to others or the organization is serious or, worse, irreparable. I never could figure out why “managers” shy away from taking corrective measures early and often with problem employees. I have found that most of them are salvageable if not otherwise valuable employees when the expectations are clear and the repercussions swift.
Roy…I’d be curious about the energy savings you expect your house r&r to deliver. Way up “nawth,” we “yanks” have two temperature extremes to contend with, though we tend to spend a disproportionate amount of attention on holding heating costs down. Illinois has a residential pilot program for electric that charges an hour-by-hour sliding scale on KW usage, based on time of day and day of the week. The hourly usage prices range from $.02 to $.14 or higher per kilowatt hour and change daily. You can view the daily hour-by-hour price forecast on-line or get it over the telephone, but you never know the actual price charged until after the fact: could be higher or lower.
In short, the program is attempting to move residential customers to running high energy draw stuff like laundry applianc
Jack,
We’ve had 2 24 hour + outages in less than 6 months. Given that one occured in the dead of winter and the other during the hotest (so far) week of the year, and Susie-Q has mega nasty allergies, we are highly considering it.
I take back all the nice things I have said about DirecTV, they are almost beyond belief. We started losing signal last weekend sporadically and on Tuesday night the whole thing goes south (one receiver, the other one was fine). I call Tues. night and they schedule repair from 4-8 yesterday and in my nicest voice I ask if there’s anyway if I could be scheduled earlier in the day–nope, not a chance. So I go for an extended ride yesterday and get home about 2:30 and there’s 3 messages from the tech wanting to stop by, first message was at 12:30 PM, etc. I call his cell and he shows up about 4:00, forgot to read the ticket! I swear this guy was from NC, actually he is from Suthrn IA which bares strong likeness to NC, he was a story teller with limited vocabulary… I guess I shouldn’t stereotype the whole state of NC like that, I only know 3 adults from NC and two of them are absolutely first class.
First thing he does is takes one of the spliced cable outputs from the receiver and puts it on his tongue and gets shocked, lightly. I’m now laughing out loud and he says “musta been some water in that cable” OK, thanks Bubba you OK? I had actually checked that cable earlier in the day and found that it was loose and had fixed it myself (it’s outside) but I wanted them to come out anyway as I had some other questions. I really want to go Hi Def in August or September and since we have so many trees I’m concerned about getting a good signal, Bubba wasn’t much help but he did make me laugh.
On the weather front, we received over 4" of rain last night but no tornados here, I have never seen it rain that hard in such a short period of time. We live on the top of a hill so we are fine but there were emergency evacuations during the night in several areas.
Everyone, have a great weekend! Brent–good luck with DirecTV
Talking about Directv, all I have to say is that they at least show up and listen unlike Concast! I may be going back to DirecTV in sept. as I don’t think I can afford Concast after then, they are going up to almost $100.00 for just a little more than basic cable! Comcast equals con-artists in my book!!
Worked on my trains a little today, fixed a problem with the trolley and Super Street set up, left a center pin out of one place.
Dennis, I have to hand it to you; when it comes to hyperbole, you are without peer. The publishers of the New York Times as Nazi sympathizers… UNBELIEVABLE!
Look, I get it that you have a visceral dislike of all things “liberal”. But, surely, even you don’t think that the proper role of a free press in a democratic society is to be a rah-rah cheerleader for the government.
Ironically, I myself have been critical of the NYT in recent years, but for entirely different reasons. As the Times has admitted, they, like most other media outlets, failed the American people by not providing a more critical evaluation of government claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Had our free press, both liberal and conservative, done a better job, perhaps 4,000 young American heroes would be alive today.
I’zz here. Just drove through the swamp!!! Should have given it back to the gaters after the hurricane. [:-^] Going to the Gro [Brent, that is Southern for Grocery Store [:P]] and get my Coke Zeros for the frig [Brent, do I need to explain that one?[(-D]]. already got my microwave popcorn. Nice seafood restaurant now part of the hotel [wasn’t here when I was here earlier last year]. Later
You can never have too much pitching. Look at the Red Sox. However, Beckham (not the soccer player) looks like a real good ballplayer. The ChiSox sorely need some more offense.
I NOT going to get into this, but I will back Dennis 1000%. Yes a free press is 1 of the founding freedoms, but I DO take offence when said freedoms are used at the expense of those who keep us free. Some may not like the current war in Iraq, and that is your right. Faulty intelligence sourced from the gutting of the CIA & FBI by those liberals prior to the current presidency. Some of you may think Mr. Bush is at fault for all of this, including 9/11. We, the USA, are the lone bastion of FREEDOM in this world, and those freedoms are being eroded by the likes of the Clintons and the Obamas (who would take private corporation funds and use them for their own “visions”: also known as socialism), keep us from accessing 98% of our OWN petroleum sources, and feed us lies a
Jack - most of the R&R work is just that - 30 year old house is just worn out in some areas and I ran out of energy to do it myself. Galls me to pay 3x my costs - but it is getting done and that makes the other half happy - so I am working on getting happy myself. The big value item was replacing our west facing windows. It gets into the 100’s here a lot and I went with low-e and double pane thermal barrier windows. My home office is in one of the front facing rooms and the window is roughly 6 x 8 ft. The heat loading difference is absolutely incredible. I expect a big difference in the winter too (but not like up north) as during the replacement, they were able to do a lot more sealing of the window frames to the structure than was done on the old windows when the house was built.
I’ve done it again. Was on vacation last week and the rain/cooler temps set in this week after we got back…translation, I didn’t get the lawn cut and it is now a jungle. The good news, it will be clearing tonight and I’ll be able to mow the lawn tomorrow in the 90 degree heat and humidity like I left behind at Disney. Oh joy. [banghead]
Jim/Brutus…we get nailed $25 per item by the city and trash hauler for appliance pick-up now. So folks just drive around at 3 in the morning and dump the stuff everywhere and anywhere. The pols in my city call it a fee which is Massachussetts speak for another tax. If I had a truck, I’d dump my washer on the front lawn of the guy who keeps letting his dog crap all over my front lawn.
DougM…the “real” Sox? I’m torn because I’m from Chicago and now live in Red Sox Nation. Now that you are a biker, do you have leathers and tattoos?
Sir James…I also remember the days when school was out by June 1. We didn’t have a/c in the schools or screens on the windows. Bees in the classrooms were a bigger issue than kids with weapons. Snow days? We had none. I do remember once school was closed down because the temps got down to -15 degrees and they were having trouble with the boilers.
RT…I am beginning to worry about you. While we are all very happy that everything worked out excellently on your house and job front, there is curiously no mention from you of what became of your newly acquired train room. Say it isn’t so. Please say wifey hasn’
