Good morning. It’s 49° with 95% humidity. The high will be 67° and feel like 71°. with
I might need some help. Anybody here know how the rebuild a Franklin Ace10 BVI floppy disk drive? Just kidding. The day I can’t rebuild one of those things with my eyes closed and one hand behind my back is a bad day. I had to take my old Franklin disk drive out of the stack this morning because it was showing verification errors on diskettes that have no errors, mostly in the higher tracks. Electronically there’s nothing wrong. It’s problem is strictly mechanical. In the bottom of the drive there’s a stepper motor. Forget it, it’s too large for most model railroad applications. On top of this is what I term the tracking disk. This is a flat platform with a spiral groove in it going from the outer edge to the central shaft. On this is mounted a metal apparatus that has a small ball bearing that rides in the groove. As the tracking disk rotates back and forth (yes it’s bi-directional) it causes the apparatus with it’s bearing to move back and forth and thus move the read/write head back and forth. When all this can happen smoothly things go very well. The problem is the groove is quite worn and is allowing the ball bearing to wiggle. This causes the metal apparatus to wiggle or shake and effects the alignment of the read/write head and can and often does skew data. This can be fixed by replacing the grooved disk. Problem is I don’t have a parts drive at this time. I used the parts from it to rebuild a Mitac drive to take the place in the stack that the Franklin drive had occupied.
Today I hope to get started on the initial stage of Oliver’s train adventure. I’m also watching for the mail delivery. My Happy Potter Deathly Hallows 2 DVD is coming today. In my spare time today I’m
Glad I decided to take the Franklin drive apart before tossing it. The problem was easier to fix than I thought. In fact it wasn’t being caused by what I thought it was. Well not quite. A reinforcing ring (looks like a large thin washer) from a diskette had worked it’s way up under the tracking disk and was partially wrapped around the stepper motor shaft. I removed it and now the drive functions normally again. It cuts up a bit with CP/M but it always did that.
Gary D.- Just remember, if it wasn’t for the bad, we wouldn’t know what good is… We were never told life would be easy, but we would have a smooth landing. Read this foruim and see what others go through.
Lee- Hey man, not everyone has an indoor swimming pool. Heck, you could give swimming lessons, scuba instructions, Raise KOI or bait fish. Make enough money to build a Train House.
Galaxy- Dreck equates to “Schmata” .From garment center N.Y.
Anyone have a Subway restaurant near them?? Please go in and look at the walls. The four near me have the N.Y. subway map on the walls.
Anyone interested in W.W.2 pictures? Marines on the Islands, Army in Europe and bunch from DEC.7,'41 ,Pearl Harbor…
See my new thread “Christmas trains for a 5 year old…suggestions?” If you care to comment.
Two married-together grandpas- friends of mine have a near-to-be 5 yr they would like to get into electric trains. They have let me/us run with the snowball and I am looking for suggestions.
BAck is KILLING me today. I cannot wait fo r the 19th…I get my next set of injections then! I tried laying down was actually worse than sitting up so I gotup. Hope I can sleep tonight!
Janie, just a cup of decaf, dark roast if you have it, some half & Half, and a packet of stevia please.
Been a nice day around here. My sister and I spent all morning sitting at the kitchen table just talking about all kinds of things. We had a bit of lunch (left over Beef Stew from last night) and then I took her over to my son’s house so the two of them could have some quality time together. He lived at his aunt’s house for about a half a year when he was between jobs many years ago, so she is almost a surrogate mom to him. I dropped my sister off and came back home to get some things finished. Around 4:30 I headed back over to join everyone for dinner.
My sister (the Reverend) and I have a very similar outlook on life, value system, and beliefs so we enjoy each others company very much! Tomorrow morning I will be taking her to the airport for her flight back to Orlando, FL. Please do keep her in your prayers and thoughts that her tumors will continue to shrink and will have a long time to still enjoy her family and ours…
Next week I need to finish some outside w*rk around here and get to finishing the Blacksmith’s shop.
Paul … I meant to comment yesterday. The Ferris wheel is quite something. We don’t have any big stores in our little town here. The nearest WalMart is 30 to 40 miles away.
Ray … It’s good you have a good family relationship with sisters. I think I am similarly blessed. Looking forward to seeing more progress with the blacksmith shop.
Gary BN24 … I like the E7 and coach in your photo.
I have another project underway in my car shop as I await an order with decals for the suburban coaches. I am assembling a kit for a Burlington baggage car.
Rosetta Cody, from a family of cryptologists Wed Stanley Stone, from a long line of archaeologists. After she wed, her name She changed, and it became Rosetta Stone, famous to cryptologists, archeologists and Egyptologists.
Coffe and the Sunday breakfast buffet please. Thanks.
I hope I can remember Sternutation….I think that one can come in handy! Best write it down and hope I don’t lose it or forget I’ve written it down.
Ray- Glad you enjoyed your sisters’ visit and I do pray she continues the progress and you all have many, many more visits like this!
Welp, the Cub Cadet is gone. 36 years went down the road yesterday. I have mixed feelings about it. I mean it’s been a part of the family for soooo long it almost seemed like…, wrong to get rid of it[sigh]. Oh well, gave it to a friend of mine who plans to use it for who knows how long. Better there than sitting around here. Besides, I have no room inside anything for it so it has been sitting out along the shed since April. But she started! Oh I had to get in there and touch the points with some sand paper, but she fired up after that and ran like a top. Now watch, the Deere won’t start next time and I’ll kick myself.
Gonna try and stay off foot as much as possible today. We’ll see how that goes.
Good morning gang! Hope all is well. Prayers to those in need. Sorry no new news on my layout. I do have my contractor working on things here at my house, the main priority is a complete gut and remodel of my main bathroom. I had originally asked the guy to install an exhaust fan in the ceiling as I had noticed mold starting to grow in the corners. Well, before long, we discovered no insulation in either of the 2 exterior walls, and a lot of mold on the backside of the drywall that was behind the shower surround. So I told him to gut it and start from the studs and remodel. So I’m upgrading all plumbing and electrical in that bathroom, exterior walls have been insulated, a new Jacuzzi Whirlpool tub is in place, the walls around the tub/shower will be polished black granite with a mosaic in a diamond pattern. The floor will be white ceramic tiles with a marble mosaic and in-floor heat. The rest of the walls will be painted some shade of grey. It will look sharp.
Once that is done, I’m going to have him start in the train room, rip out the 2 exterior walls and install all new electrical and insulation, then drywall and paint. From there, prolly the computer room, my bedroom, familyroom, livingroom, kitchen and finally the garage.
So, that means no trains for about another 3-4 months while the bedrooms are remodeled.
Anyways, I’d like to say Thank you to all the vets - those that have come and gone before me, have served with me, and are still serving!
Currently it is 33 with an expected high of 68 under sunny skies.
Another w**k day for me.
Veteran’s day is tomorrow, and some how I think they have it all wrong. When I was in school we had the day off. A lot of people that w**k at banks and for the government, have the day off. In my case and many others that I know of, we, as veterans, have to work on Veteran’s day. Just does not seem right. USN, SeaBees Can Do. “The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.”
I have been out on the road for the last couple of days - party “business” took me to Berlin. We are faced with some ugly and nasty things, so are couple of the “good ones” got together to see how we can facilitate a good clean-up of the mess the “big ones” have created. The world does not need another party which is just as bad as all the others - not in my country!
This is my last attempt to straighten things out, before I start to concentrate all my resources (not money!) on leaving Germany and Europe.
Things are turning really bad over here - spare me the details, as I see Vinnie waking up!
Chloe, just a refill for my dark roast coffee right now.
Got my sister to the airport and she is now on her way to Atlanta where she connects with another flight to Orlando, FL. Sure was great to see her again and get to chat for a while. Her time was split about 4 ways during her visit. She stayed one night with my other sister, then Came to my house for 3 nights, but was spending most of the days with either some old friends (Her maid of honor at her first wedding) and then yesterday I took her over to my son’s house so they could have some quality time (without dad hanging around). So, really I had about the same amount of time with her as my other sister did. At least that will be my claim when she starts telling me how little time she got to have with her…
Sun appears to be in hiding today but does come out from behind some dark gray clouds every once in a while. Current temperature is 44°F and the low tonight will be 33°F here in the Finger Lakes. I need to get some outdoor stuff done, like mowing the lawn one more time before bringing the battery packs in the house for the winter. Also need to pack up the now dead plants from the garden to be hauled away when the city makes the next seep of leaves and such. Unfortunately I don’t have a composting unit at the moment so the city will do that for me…
Will be heading out to my son’s house late this afternoon to celebrate my DIL birthday. We will be ordering in Chinese for the occasion I guess. Since i have a blood draw on Tuesday, I shall only have a bit of cake and ice cream… Had way too much desert yesterday out there and my blood sugar told me so both last night and this morning. Will be dreading my doctor appointment a week away!
Somewhere around here I have an address and phone # for Barry. Been looking and I can’t locate it. will keep
with 
