It is sunny today with temps in the 30s in SE Indiana. Buckeye, welcome back to the homeland! I hope you enjoy your stay. Watch out for the construction on I-70 on the eastside of Indy if your travels take you that way. Chief, welcome home as well. John Bakeer, don’t worry too much about “Americanisms” as we still struggle with the differences between North and South as you can tell. “Desperate Housewives” was a little different last night with a different narrator. If Lucas does not eat all the bran muffins this morning, there may be some on the dining car before it heads to “Points East”. Jim, it is good to hear that Julia had a good evening. I hope everyone has a good day.
I forgot to mention that I am now running Windows Vista on a new computer. (My old computer was at least nine years old with major screen burnout problems and I still would not recommend an upgrade to Vista. John, I finally got a flat screen like yours. [:)]) Needless to say one big advantage is that I can have multiple websites open and running at one time making it easier to see the things the Chief said four pages ago and then writing my truthful response to him on another “tabbed” web page. Cut and paste from Shutterfly became much easier, too.
It is 27 degees and cloudy. Going up to 34 today with a mostly cloudy day. Maybe a few snow flurries.
Today is a typical Monday. Have a bunch of chores to do around the house. Wife has a routine Doctor appt. this afternoon. I will stay home and run trains. I got a lot cleaned up and put away, in the train room. Getting all my scenery material together. Finding it is a job.
Dining Car is here on time. Breakfast is served. Later.
Buckeye,
My external drive crashed last night… didn’t lose any data, but it is no longer portable! [V][banghead][soapbox] That’s three in two years! I think I have figured out what I did wrong… the drives were all USB 2.0 and I accidentally inserted a USB 1.1 cable [V][banghead][sigh]
Anyhoo… I haven’t ventured down the dark frightful path of a Vista Upgrade. I need to buy another computer before I do that! I have IE 7 installed at both work and home, and yes it does make responding easier… but not when you accidentally hit Ctrl-W (close tab) when you meant to hit Ctrl-C!!! It’s the big fingers! [;)]
I like work more though because I have two monitors connected to one PC! I can have the boards open on screen and my work on the other… my focus tends to stay on the board screen though… wonder why?
Good morning from the sunny (and thankfully calm) south.
It’s been an eventful weekend for the Johnston family. On Saturday morning, my son was driving home from school in Birmingham when an 18 wheeler forced him off of I-65. He did the smart thing and got off road rather than have the trailer crush him, but his Jeep Wrangler got sideways and fishtailed, he ended up crossing back over two lanes of traffic facing the direction from which he came, he almost held it, but the Jeep went over on its left side. Thankfully, the roll bar worked as it was supposed to. He got out without a scratch. Some guys helped him set it back upright and it cranked right up! If two tires weren’t off the rims, he could have driven on. Thank the good Lord and the designers of the Jeep. He’ll have to get a new canvas top as his was ripped pretty good. Also lost mirror, driver side running board and dinged up left rear fender. All stuff that can be easily fixed. Ryan could have easily been killed. Yes, he was wearing his seatbelt. God was certainly watching him that day!. He’s not even sore! He’s driving my old '90 Blazer back to school until the Jeep is fixed. Oh! And a plug for HP laptop computers - his was thrown 20 feet out of the Jeep and it still works fine!
Later that day, my 81 year old mother fell (she has Alzheimers) and banged up her face and shoulder. Again, no broken bones and cuts were shallow. My wife (an RN) fixed her up and she’s doing fine. Again, God was watching out for us.
Then, to top it off, my older daughter’s boyfriend called that evening to see if he could come by and talk to me. Uh-oh, I think I know where this is going. He came by Sunday afternoon and, sure enought, asked permission to marry Dana. We like Joel a lot, and (after letting him sweat a bit [}:)] ) gave our blessing. They’ve been dating for almost 6 years. He’s a good kid, works for Hyundai as a mechanic. Dana graduates from Samford University in a year and they
Dr. John, you are indeed fortunate that your weekend did not turn out as bad as it could have. I hope your mom and son are ok. And congratulations on your daughter’s engagement!
Be wary of the prices advertised in Charles Ro Supply ads. I ordered an item last week out of the March CTT at $79.99 only to be called and told the price had increased to $89.99. This is after they accepted the order, by phone, and even though it is in the March issue. It did not matter to them. As a matter of principle I cancelled the order. I doubt I will order from them agian.
Dr. John - glad that all worked out well in the end. I guess all the time you spend talking with the Lord and doing His work does pay off.
Dr. John, Wow, what a memorable weekend! Congrats on the engagement, and thank god about your son and Mom, that accident could have been real nasty. Life is just so fragile!
Good morning from a grey but warmish (30s) Chicago where potholes are sprouting everywhere and after serious negotiations with the bride, I have finally banished the cats from being in the basement overnight - they’re just too curious about the layout (and destructive). We start the new regime tonight. Wish me luck.
Dr. John, I sure am glad Ryan is OK. Hopefully, in about a decade, I’ll be asked the same way your daughter’s beau asked you. My 15 year old daughter has a Really Serious boyfriend for the past 6 months and I’m still not used to it - nor him - don’t want to be too welcoming if you know what I mean.
Jim A, glad Julia is healthy and you had fun at that dance - I remember a few – that window of time sure goes by quickly. How heavy is the aquarium charcoal ? I have two hoppers filled with real gravel and they certainly test coupler strength.
Mitch, hope you’re feeling better today.
John, I missed your original description of your beautiful hopper and gon loads - is it all brass tubing? How did you paint them?
It’s currently 36 on it’s way to around 60 in the Mile High City. Ran my train a bit yesterday. I really need to get some more track and other accessories. I may try to start my benchwork this weekend. I want to get the track I have now up off the floor and I know the layout won’t start taking shape until a portion of the benchwork is done. I just need to design how I want the benchwork to initially take shape and start it. Just do it man!!!
Well it sounds like prayers are working overtime around here! Glad Julia doing better, and John it does sound like it was a weekend to remember! Blessings abound.
Beautiful in Southern Ohio. River still above flood stage, looks like chocolate milk it is so muddy. Cool and windy. Easy morning, reading for class and taking a break now. I’ve got a 312 loco that started running higher than usual amps, so I’ll dig into it later. Check back in later.
Gosh looks like evryone had an eventful weekend! I read back a little and hope all that have friends with health issues are feeling better. Hope you don’t mind I’ll put everyone in my collective thoughts. Glad your son is OK Doc.
Here is a doctored photo I played with last night…
and the original…
Hope everyone is having a great week. Heading out to Sacramento tomorrow!
Marty, hope you get BIG seats. Dr. John, sure is a great report as all turned out OK and getting a new son too. Reports done and emailed. Now time for food. [dinner] Then off to the eye Dr. for checkup. Been three years so I know he will say you need stronger lenses. That is why I don’t go that often. They will increase the strength each year and make you dependant on them. I can take them off and not wear them for hours and begin to see just as good without them.
Marty, great job on doctoring photo. Looks like the “real” thing. Later.
Doug,
The charcoal I use is by Black Diamond. It’s very light, but even so, I don’t fill the entire hopper. A styrofoam floor a 1/2" or so from the top is painted black, and the charcoal is then glued on top of that. Sometimes we make 2 mounds of coal, other cars have a single large mound. It looks incredibly realistic. I use a 50/50 mix of white glue and water to glue everything down.
Chief,
I’ve worn the same glasses for the past 15 years. Only now am I starting to see a loss significant enough to warrant a stronger prescription. I wear them as infrequently as possible. Eyes, like any other body part, become stronger through use.
