Elliot's Trackside Diner, November 2012

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
861

Morning Folks!

Flo, Die Dew if you would.

Gary and Ray and others, thanks for the comments about the toe healing. With some luck and the proper treatment maybe I get this behind me this coming year.

Jeffery and Ulrich Seems you have gotten back your chest full of metals back! [Y]

Job Hunt Found around 6 jobs that where worth sending in a resume for. None of them real close, but is they pay halfway good, it would be worth the drive.

Will be getting ready for work shortly, yuck! I close the next 2 days and I am to the point I hate closing, but someone has to. Tyler is being pretty fair about it, we all close 2 days a week so I cannot complain, still don’t like but what can you do?

See you all later.

Ken

862

Mornin’ everyone! (yep still morning here, but not for long.)

Zoe, just need a refill of the Dark Roast Coffee if you would be so kind…

The meeting with the new superintendent of schools went very well, and she recommended some items that would help both the school system and the committee to accomplish our goals.

No sooner got home than the repair company called and said they will be here this afternoon to replace the support posts on the back porch. One more item off the check list for the year.

Catch up to you all later!

73

863

Good Evening!

Just a mug of dark roast, please, Chloe, dear, I just had tea. It was an egg sandwich and FOP, freshly brewed. I´ll be joining Ray.

Goodness gracious, what happened? I made it from a small contributor to an ultimate contributor just in a big poof! Good to have all those medals back!

From now on, I am Ulrich von Jebrammen, DSO, VC, KFC, McD and BK. That´s what those medals stand for. For the non-British, that´s the Distinguished Service Order, Victoria Cross, Kentucky Fried Chicken, MacDonald´s and Burger King.

No MRRing today. I spent the better part of the day writing a political comment for our local weekly paper, but I doubt that they will publish it. You cannot comment on the Euro politics of our government without being sarcastic to a degree. Zoe, you don´t have to get the soapbox out, I´ll stop here.

Ken - keep your chin up with that toe. I have had a wound which too over two years to heal to a degree I was not bothered anymore.

Lots of MIA´s again on the list. Chris has not been in lately.

Blessings to all!

864

Looks like rain could start any moment. I’m going to get in my daily walk as soon as I get off the computer. When I walk I have been watching the construction of Townhouses and yesterday the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power men were working on the electricty for these new buildings. 7 guys standing around and one guy working I wanted to remark that you sure don’t see that in private industry but these guys were big and young. DWP workers here make much more than comparable jobs in private industry plus unbelievable pensions and health care. You have won the lottery if you can get a job which has a public employee union in Calif.

I read in the paper that there going to make a luxurious party train from Fullerton CA. to Las Vegas. Starting New Years 2013. There a Amtrak and commuter station in Fullerton (Los Angeles ares) and they will build a station in Vegas. Cost $99 each way and take 5 hours on Union Pacific track. I doubt ther will be enough riders. No train service now to Vegas, Greyhound bus just started a bus to Vegas. I’m way to cheap to gamble the only thing in Vegas that intrests me is low cost buffets. This train will run on weekends.

865

ok come on friday, I can’t wait. learned how to change the oil on my explorer, no class friday and it’s payday. not a bad week.

866

Slowly calling it a day for today. Petra and I settled down comfortably and aimed at watching the idiot box, only to find out the we get the 15th rerun of some stupid soap opera - not for us, please. I´ll be going to bed and read a book before closing my eyes in sleep!

CU tomorrow!

867

[:D] Where’s Ziva!!! [:slight_smile:] Oh… Darn.

Gotta Church meeting at either 6 or 7. Guess I’ll go find out. Probably drive halfway across town to find out it’s 7. Oh well.

868

Evening gang!

Funny thing. After years of faithful service, my Binks Wren airbrush broke. The air valve plunger broke off. So I located what part I needed. I called Binks to try and buy it from them. No dice, you have to go to a distributor. So I locate the nearest distributor, 22 miles away. I order the part ($19.95, its actually only available as part of a rebuild kit) last Tuesday. The guy I spoke to told me he would have it in 48 hours, then ship it directly out. A week goes by, and I call for a status report on this Tuesday. The guy I spoke to was off Deer hunting, so the young lady checking on my order stated that they were on backorder, and they have some coming, due this Friday, then they would send it out. Disappointed, I thanked her and felt like I was being told the truth, even though it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. [^o)]

Today, Wednesday, it arrived[%-)] it looks right, but it was sent in a 9 inch square box with a lot of brown paper stuffed inside. It would have easily fit in a small padded envelope, after all, were talking about a repair kit smaller than a cassette tape! The worst part? The previously undiscussed shipping charge of $20.00!!![:O] More than the cost of the kit!! I could have driven there for less, but that would have meant time off from work!![8o|]

Fear not, for tomorrow I am calling them back! [8o|]

Hope everybody else has a wonderful evening, I’m havin a [B] or [B][B]

869

Evening guys

I soldered up the trucks on that P2K SD7. It’s kind of a trick to solder to the Kato pick-up strips, which are attached to BLI sideframes and P2K trucks. Not a whole lot of room, I used a rough file to file a groove into the pick-up strips on both sides, wrapped wire around it, and soldered it. I was about to stick in a TCS A4X, until I tried to strip the motor wire. It came off and I wasn’t a happy camper. I put it back on the shelf for tomorrow. I managed to pick up the needed styrene sheets (even got them in black) to fix up the 3 MDC thrall gondola kits I have. I’m putting them together now.

I’m off tomorrow, so I figure I’ll finish off that SD7 (aside from redoing the step wells for GN’s extra step. Maybe also get my early Soundtraxx for an EMD 645 installed in my kato SD40 or my Bicentennial U30C. If you’re wondering why I’d put the EMD decoder in a GE, I have a set of weights that were milled for a speaker, and it’ll be bracketed by an SD40-2 and an SDP40 (whenever I build it). If anyone wonders why I have milled weights and an old soundtraxx decoder, it came with a U30C I bought (and later sold to Jeff). A friend showed me a trick to get the old soundtraxx decoders to have a quiet motor drive, as evidenced by the same type of decoder in his OMI F45.

My sister turned 16 on Monday. She got her first car today. A gray 2010 Ford Fusion. My father claims he didn’t want to mess with another car (more on that in a bit) and he knew she wouldn’t have the desire me or my brother have to work on cars. So he got something newer and nicer for her. Her bestfriend got a 2012 Accord for her 16th. My first 2 cars were projects and I had to put them together. My brother’s first was somewhere in between, it was dealer maintained but it was older. I wonder how long they will last with my sister and her friend? I got 4 years out of my first car, my brother got 2 (wasn’t his fault). I give her about 2-3 years before it’s wrecked.<

870

Twice times at least!

Got my day torpedoed before it even started! Got out everything I needed to start work on a project when my father calls. Needs me to look after my mother for a little while so he can go get a few things done. Sure, no problem. That was about 11:30 am. Here it is almost 9:00 pm at their place! I just her to bed a little while ago. Now I have to get the kitchen straight and finish some laundry. What happened to my father? He didn’t there was a twelve hour work shift involved! He gets off at 11:15 tonight. I’ve already told him he owes me $80. If I’m going to work as a nurse I’m darn well gonna get paid for it!! My time is worth something! This also means I’ll be out of commission tomorrow. I’m already hurting bad and tomorrow I’ll be worse.

Time to call it a day. I may be on again tomorrow.

871

Another head-scratcher of a day. Work good, kids nuts, wife bothering me to turn the computer off. Whoever came up with the idea of closing the store late in the evening and bringing the closing employee back to open early in the morning needs to give their head a shake. Haven’t been able to even turn the set on in two days. So what the heck am I doing in front of the computer?

…

Um…er…bye!!

872

Evening Dinners!

Flo, [B] Pleases

Work Front Man this makes for a late night! Got home at 10:00 PM, did a few things like change the dressing on my toe, took some med’s and did a small amount of book keeping and now I hit the dinner at 11:03 PM?

Out Of The Frying Pan And In To The Fire! When I got to work today Tyler was there but off duty. He asked me to go with him to his offices. First he tried to take care of the $60.00 worth of commission that was stolen from me, did not work! [banghead] So either he has to tell Dave (area supervisor) that his Services Manager and a Counter Person ripped me off, or pony up $60.00! I wonder which he will choose? [:-^] My guess is $60.00!

I thought he was done with me, but he was not! Took me to where the schedule his posted and changed my days off! I was off Monday and Tuesday, but that has been changed to Monday and Wednesday, reason you ask? Seems I have a MANGER MEETING I NEED TO GO TOO! [:D] Then he handed me a post-it with the website I need to go to and password so I can take the test!

I have mixed emotions, I really don’t like working here! But, if you are stuck in a job you don’t like, might as well make a fair living at it! If I get the slot, I am going to buy myself a Bachmann Yellow Stone! [:P] I have been wanting for all most a year now!

Vince’s Sorry it has been taking so long to answer! I have not forgotten!

Now where is Ziva! [:-^]

Ken

873

Good Morning! from Tipton IN.

It’s Thursday, November 29, 2012

TIPTON

874

Dang Bill, when do you sleep?

875

I take a lot of naps. [swg]

876

Morning coffee in the Diner

GOOD MORNING!!!

When dealing in trading locos, we usually want Quid Pro Quo, SO:

Quid Pro Quo

Meaning: Something given in return for a item of equivalent value - like ti t for tat

Origin:

A Latin term meaning ‘something for something’ or ‘this for that’. The idea is more commonly expressed in English as ‘one good turn deserves another’. This has been in the language since at least 1654, as here in H. L’Estrange’s The Reign of King Charles:

“One good turn deserves another.”

‘Quid pro quo’ is in use in colloquial English but is also a legal concept in the area of trade or exchange of goods or services. A contract is said to be binding if it is quid pro quo, i.e. if it involves an exchange of goods or services for som

877

Lunchtime!

Janie, just coffee, please - Petra and I just shared a pizza.

There is snow in the air. This morning, temperatures dropped to just below freezing and there is sufficient humidity to bring us the first snow in the season. Quite early this year.

I had a strange phone call this morning. Well, with almost nothing better to at the moment, I enlisted at a political platform against the European Stability Mechanism our government so recklessly joined, which is most likely to end up in an additional debt of more than 730 billion €. Now they want me as a candidate for the 2013 general elections! Me, a politician? Can hardly see myself in that role.

Well, I´ll be going for a nap now. Seems, as if a share Bill´s fate - hardly any sleep during the night, but a series of naps during the day.

Have a nice day!

Lunchtime!

Janie, just coffee, please - Petra and I just shared a pizza.

There is snow in the air. This morning, temperatures dropped to just below freezing and there is sufficient humidity to bring us the first snow in the season. Quite early this year.

I had a strange phone call this morning. Well, with almost nothing better to at the moment, I enlisted at a political platform against the European Stability Mechanism our government so recklessly joined, which is most likely to end up in an additional debt of more than 730 billion €. Now they want me as a candidate for the 2013 general elections! Me, a politician? Can hardly see myself in that role.

Well, I´ll be going for a nap now. Seems, as if a share Bill´s fate - hardly any sleep during the night, but a series of naps during the day.

Have a nice day!

878

Ulrich: pppfffft. Join the nap club…I’ve been doing that since these dang cancer treatments…[:^)] As for running…why not?[:D]

Good Morning…

Going to be cold and dull as per usual today…high of 36F expected…right now we are sitting at 26F…

Got some doctor appointments to deal with today as well as the ICD clinic…yay…a day of doctor appointments…who said getting old was easy?[|(][:-,]

879

Barry - getting old is not for the fainthearted!

No nap, yet, but in a few moments. I have just typed up a summary of my political points of view. Can´t picture myself in that role. I guess I am just to outspoken for that type of job.

880

Getting old is for the birds and youth is wasted on the young.