Spring arrives tomorrow.It’s also Mamma’s birthday.It’s also Friday!!!
ns was clear when I left work.Went in town at home.CSX had an oil train waiting to go eats at FC.ND&W were switching cars in their yard.When we came back home saw a surprise on the ND&W tracks under clinton st.Looks like they came and put new ballast along the line.That hasn’t happened since just before NS spun off the line.Chores to do.Need to watch my bracket break.
stay safe
joe
Happy B’d to Mamma!
They tell me Kentucky will win the whole shootin’ match. I don’t know - I barely know what a basketball is.
Spring? Spring? What Spring Willis?
2 or 3 inches of white stuff overnight.
guessers are saying maybe some stuff in the morning.Back in 1984 it snowed on my sisters birthday which is May 15th.
stay safe
Joe
Hey! Same as my daughter!
My Amateur Radio call sign has been posted on the FCC website, so now I’m an official “ham.” Now all I need is a radio to talk on (which I’m working on).
Don’t think it’s going to snow here tonight, but what snow is still here is taking its sweet time melting…
[bow]Congratulations, Larry![bow]
Are you building your own radio? That used to be the way many amateur operators got their equipment, particularly their transmitters. There used to be two magazines, CQ and QST, which had quite a bit about what the operators were doing. I do not remember which one had the amusing column by Hashafisti Scratchi (his older brother was Hashafistic Itchi) which presented a running account of his trials and tribulations.
More than sixty years ago, I was intrigued with the idea of becoming an operator, but I never applied myself to learning the International Code, which was a basic requirement for any license. I do have pleasant memories of my electronics working (I say that I still have vacuum tube technology).
Not for the moment. I’ll get up and running on 2 meter and 70cm so I can learn the ropes. Later on I might get into more depth.
The technician class test was fairly easy for me. General is more of a challenge - less because of the technical (electronics) side, more because of the rules and regs and accepted practices. I can test up to general free within a year, even though the pittance the examiner charges was hardly enough to break the bank.
afternoon
waiting for Matt to get home.He is going to G+G’s house.Taking Mamma out for her birthday.Then going to look for a new celing fan.Ns had some empties uptown when I left work.
stay safe
Joe
Spring has sprung,
The grass has riz,
The leaves have come upon the triz.
I wonder where the flowers is?
Around here, they’re still under a fair amount of snow. In fact, it snowed here in the early afternoon. Not enough to stick, but it snowed… We’re at a balmy +38F right now.
I got a blender from my ex for my birthday many years ago. I got rid of both. I like your idea much better.
We got a blender for a wedding gift that showed signs of being used. Things that make you go hhhhhhmmmm…
My mother told me that if I ever gave my wife a pan for a gift, to expect a flat spot on my forehead. How do women know these things, and why do men need to be told these things anyway?
I got the blender, electric knife, a vacuum cleaner and a few other household items.
But the Driver gave me a plaque he had made that says “Jenny - Best friend and fishing companion” that I treasure.
I never thought of a plaque. When our first son was born, I did give Lisa an altered bowling trophy with an inscription that read “World’s best Mom 89 & under”. [:P]
Pat’s birthday and mine are close enough together that we often go on a trip, or see a concert or something.
Our wedding anniversaries are even closer together…
This week we expect to get up into Kalmbach country or beyond. Pat’s taking a class in curved paper-piecing (she loves curves, dislikes paper piecing…we’ll see what comes of this!). This is quilting stuff, by the way. I will probably find a place to plant myself for a couple of hours.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to cobble together a sightings/research report of the stuff I’ve sighted/researched over the past month. I didn’t do too badly overall, but most of what I have was aided and abetted by my “contacts”. I hope I can get it out someday soon!
A beated (for this site) happy birthday, Stacey!
Had one of those off-the-wall, yet fascinating ideas pop into my head overnight. Something I’ll never have the model layout to pull off, but just the concept is interesting.
The idea? Model the 1000 Islands on a layout. Not to scale, obviously - there are several islands that would take up a very large room by themselves.
No, the concept would be to model a meandering stream, but lay out the little “islands” within that stream on the 1000 Islands. The smaller islands would be little more than a rock sticking out of the water with a few weeds around it. Even the larger islands would be not much more than weedy stepping stones.
To pull this off in recognizable form would require a larger home or club layout - I could see it running several feet along the edge of a layout, or in the background. One often sees drawings of layouts with significant stretches of just “scenery,” not buildings and the like. There’s no room for it on my current layout.
I’m sure there are other such formations that could be duplicated as “hidden” features. This one is just close to home for me.
This would be better over on the MR forum, but I rarely go over there.
As trivia - there are actually 1,864 islands (
Will each island have a little tree?
If I were good at scenicking stuff, I’d offer to help by supplying some Thousand Island dressing.
(Took a boat tour out of Ganonoque about 52 years ago.)
In other news, it’s getting close to the completion of the grade separation between the Canadian Pacific and Illinois Highway 19 in Bensenville. Roadbed appears to be in, with some ties and rail down. There are signals up there, too–from their placement there may be some crossovers at the south end of the new trackage (not present on the existing tracks).
I’m still not sure how this is going to work for them–the curve from the existing north-south line to the east-west orientation of the yard was sharp enough to cause at least one string-line derailment (for which I saw cleanup in progress), yet the new alignment is inside the existing curve…thus presumably even sharper. The Google satellite view of the area is evidently too old to show any signs of the new alignment yet.
“I’d offer to help by supplying some Thousand Island dressing.”
Good one Carl. [bow]
Thousand Island Dressing, invented by (or for) George Boldt at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel (which he owned). A major landmark in the Thousand Islands is his unfinished Rhineland castle - left unfinished due to the death of his wife (unless you believe the rumor that she ran off on him). I’m sure Carl paid it a visit during his tour boat ride.
Tongue-in-cheek aside, I’d use grass and weeds in place of trees, so yes, most of the “islands” would get “trees,” even if it was one stalk of weeds.
Drove down along the lake (Ontario) this morning on the way to a meeting near Oswego. Would have been a nice drive, but Ma Nature decided some slush would be a nice way to celebrate the beginning of spring. Yukkk! At least most of it had melted off by the time I came home.
The meeting was at a fellow SPAAMFAA member’s home, so we could inspect the 1936 American LaFrance pumper he is donating to the group. It needs a lot of work, but we accepted the gift. It’ll keep us busy for several years.
At least with fire trucks, we can move them around pretty much at will (given a truck or trailer big enough to move them - the ALF weighs in at almost 10,000 lbs) - but we can store them in places you’d never get that caboose.
We actually are working on getting a building donated, built on property that we’ll get for $1 a ye
morning
church and Sunday school.We are going to meet up with Sis and cousin Bryce in Hicksville afterwards.Something about a magic /Juggling show at the Huber opera house.Maybe they can help CSX trains dissappear into Garrett faster.
stay safe
joe