Good Morning to all. I think I will just have a bowl of oatmeal this morning.
Yesterday I received a modified reefer car with a track cleaner underneath. We shall see how well it works.
I got a call late yesterday about w**k and I am headed to Saint Louis today, home tomorrow. The good news is that I use the per diem from these trips to fund my MRR addiction.
Finally, I recent finished reading Nothing Like It in the World, by Stephen Ambrose. It is the story of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. It was a good read. It is amazing such a good thing can come out of so much corruption. It is also amazing it was completed with such archaic surveying techniques. The book is worth the read, if you have the time.
Edit: It looks like I am the first post on the page. Breakfast is on me–Enjoy!
Zoe, I’ll have a couple eggs over easy, bacon, and a couple slices of sour dough bread toast this morning. What? Yes, the blood sugar was 115 this morning. Much better! Thank you. I’ve been buying too much snack food lately to get the discount on Dinosaur Gunk for the PiP… Lucky they stopped doing that this week, so the temptation won’t be there.
Karl, just think, you will still have something much better in your collection because YOU made it! For me that is where the fun is!
Speaking of making stuff, I never did get down to the train rooms last night. Hope to today at some point. Won’t be able to do much outside as it is precipitating out there and will all day.
Good morning. It’s 70° with 95% humidity. The high will be 75° and will feel like 78°. with a
Looks like today may be a wet one. I’ve worked out a subchart for the motel and park in Native Fury. So far the motel is a single floor. I’ll add a second floor later. For now the motel and park is a twenty-two block assignment and that’s going to be a long programming session. It starts at line 3500 and goes to line 6000 before it finishes. Maybe I can work a model railroad layout into the lobby. Something with the motel’s name in it. I’m calling the motel ‘The Empire Inn’. There shouldn’t be anybody in it as it’s been abandoned for years. The real motel (different name) I’m basing it on burned down shortly after I came here from El Paso. Anyway, the games character (as yet unnamed) enters the motel lobby from the north then can proceed south out the back to explore the park behind the motel or he can go east down the hall which runs east and west. There are eight rooms, four to the north and four to the south that open onto the hall. The character can access the park from the lobby and the east end of the hall. The park runs north-south along the east end of the motel and east-west along the entire south side. The charts below will give a rough idea of the layout. The first photo is of the original flowchart from my initial plan. The area indicated in red is the area I’m working on now. The second is the subchart I drew up last night. The numbers are the starting line numbers of each block. The red lines indicate the path the character will take when exploring the motel.
Currently it is 32 with an expected high of 68 under sunny skies.
Day off today, so I already have one load of laundry going and will start another as soon as I am done with this. Need to do a little grocery shopping, then model railroad w**k
Had yesterday off too, but spent it in the ER, with what was diagnosed as Angioedeme, it means I had an allergic reaction to my blood pressure meds that I have been taking for the past 10 years. My face got all swollen in different areas. Doc said I was lucky, some people have their tongue and throat swell up so bad they can not breathe. He said throw out the Enalapril and he gave me another med. I need to call my cardiologist today and get a new prescription. I am now allergic to any ACE / ARB inhibitors. So once I get my new prescription, I need to get a new medic alert bracelet.
That is pretty scary stuff. The meds that are supposed to help just about take you out ! Geez !! Careful there.
Another crazy day at w**k. We have another “mansion” settling this week and on the last inspection the county LOST the paperwork ! If you think that bad you should have seen all of the drama yesterday surrounding a retaining wall inspection, engineers , wall builder, building inspector, zoning , login, etc…my head is still spinning. Feels like I was run over by the “Big boy” followed by a couple of F units. Phew glad that excitement is over !
Jeff - Well you may have not painted that bus but you do some really neat stuff and I would have believed you could have painted that. Your Halloween car made me LOL !! Loved it. What a hoot.
Galaxy - Amen on picking battles. Some are just not worth fighting.
Jeremy - shhhhh its w**k. Was that Vinnie starting to rumble over in the corner ?
Richard - now that is funny “per diem funding your MRR addiction” it is an EXPENSIVE addiction is it not ?
Good afternoon, all. I’ve got a cold, so I took the day off. We have “Paid Time Off” at work, which covers sick time and vacation. I took Monday off, and felt well enough to go in Tuesday. The cold is a double-whammy one, though, and by later in the day it was back with a vengeance. So, another day off. If I’d had standard “sick time,” I would have just taken 3 days off. Hope I didn’t give it to anyone work.
I bought a new car about a month ago, and traded in the old one. I couldn’t find the title. Maybe I never had it, or maybe it came to me in an unrecognized envelope and got discarded, but anyway I had to apply for a duplicate. Since I originally financed the car, I needed a certificate from the lien holder, which I got, and mailed in the form with the fee. The check came back, but no title, so I called the Registry. They had sent the title to the finance company instead of to me. I specifically asked them if I’d checked the wrong box on the form or something, but no, I did everything right. So, now they’re going to send another one.
Still working on my tannery. I’m starting to detail the buildings now. I got the boiler house done, but now I’ve got to wing it a bit more, having no real knowledge of tannery operations.
Been busy on the other computer with Native Fury. I have more than half of the motel done. Still have to program in the rooms on the south side of the hall. I also worked a train into the mix. There’s an old HO 4x8 layout in one corner of the motel lobby. It doesn’t work though. Part of the track is torn up and the locos wouldn’t run anyway. Their rubber bands are all rotted away. Mention is made of the layout again when a room is being searched. The character finds a picture of the layout when it was working and the motel owner is at the controls. Mention is also made of the possible object of interest of the game. Indian artifacts can be seen hanging on one of the walls, most notably a ceremonial headdress. Once I finish the motel only the park is left and that’s going to be a headache in and of itself. The game now takes up fifty-seven sectors of diskette space. I’m also keeping a duplicate file on a diskette in drive two.
No model railroad action here as I have no active projects to work on. I have to wait until I can get parts for them.
Well I finally finished programming in the motel. What a workout! I am wiped. What happened to the days when programming was a lot easier? Oh yeah. I could see better then. Well after today’s programming marathon I pulled up another program I wrote many years ago called ‘Hell House’. It’s about a character who’s searching for a particularly valuable bond and he has to go through many perils to do it. It’s so complex with so many things that have to be collected and so many perils to dodge that it’s nearly unwinnable. I’ve only won it twice and I wrote the thing. Despite it’s complexity it was written in very simple code, similar to what I’m using for Native Fury.
Here’s a couple of sample shots of parts of the program listing. It was written to run in 80-columns but I’m showing it listed in 40-columns so it’s easier to see. The program is so large it’s stored on the diskette in seven segments, the largest being seventy diskette sectors. It was written on an AMI-ONE, a 48k Apple II+ clone.
This first one is from the segment concerning a Civil War era silver mine.
This second one is part of the listing from the ancient manor house.
Had a busy day today. Programmed thirteen or fourteen blocks into Native Fury. That was the motel by itself, not including the tie-ins with the forest and dunes modules. Tomorrow I’ll be programming the park behind the motel. That’s another nine to eleven blocks. Almost a full day counting breaks and I’m taking my time on this. When I wrote ‘Hell House’ back in 97-98 I was programming almost thirty blocks a day. After ten hours of that kind of fast typing your eyes feel like biscuits that were left in the oven too long and there’s so much code running through your head your dreams even come up looking like Fortran, C and C++. In my younger days I could almost speak assembly language. Taking apart a program and rearranging it with a sector editor or a nibbler was child’s play. Now it’s difficult because I haven’t done it much since 1990. It’s true what they say about use it or lose it. What I’m doing with Native Fury is nothing. I’m playing with it. An eight year old could do it if you gave him/her the proper instruction in the use of Basic code, C++ and VBasic. Kids used to learn this stuff in the third grade. I gave both my nieces and my nephew their first two semesters of computer instruction. Didn’t take with my nephew. He’s a gear head. Give him a computer and he’s lost. But give him a car or truck engine and he can tear it down and rebuild it in his sleep, under water and blindfolded. My two nieces, they’re a different story. The one that lives here, she’s always having to show her husband how to program the phones and troubleshoot problems on any of their computers. The niece in Virginia already has her six year old son checked out on Visual Basic and he can already do more things with Windows than I thought was possible. I’d love to see that kids IQ score. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s higher than mine.
Well enough with the program talk and techno babble. It’s time for me to call it a night. See y’all to
{My fancy cheap watch tells me “Thurs”, and"17", so It Must Be So}
MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!
Today’s fun limericks:
I really liked you’re delightful page which brought memories back to this sage For I once was in Crewe with nothing to do except watch trains as to Scotland they flew {in anno domini of MCMLII!!}
Scattered showers, mainly before 10am. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 63.
Friend of mine who just bought the house is having a furnace installed and removing the boiler. Called yesterday to see if I could come over to cut the floor vents out for him and of course I said sure. He has wood floors and his wife would stand over me [^o)], well, not “stand over” me, she’s like 4’10” soooo……, more like hang around the room I was in with the vacuum cleaner in tow and as soon as I was done, she’d ask if I was done. When I said yes, she’d fire up the vacuum cleaner and suck up all the sawdust. Then, I found out I cut all the holes 1/4” too small (don’t know what I was thinking. Murphy musta come with me) so had to go back and make mess again[|(]. This time she waited until I was done with all. Not sure how happy she was about that, But she said it was ok she just wanted heat. I apologized again anyway, because I am not familiar with just how long it takes a Vietnamese woman to go from happy to launching whatever is closest to her directly at your head, and begged my leave.
Just kinda piddle with laundry today er this morning anyway and have last nights supper dishes to attend to because I ate so much I just didn’t feel like washing them up. Don’t tell anyone though[:#]. I have to take Brenda to her checkup at the heart doctors today. She is doing well, real well, and her echogram (?) they said looked real good. So our fingers crossed that the doctor says the same and all is as good as it seems. THEN, we probably stop off and eat at the Chinese buffet on our way back. I drop her off at wok and I take a nap[:-^]. That’s the plan anyway, then wok at 5.
Good morning. It’s 61° with 100% humidity. The high will be 75 in the morning becoming in the afternoon.
So far the only plan today is to get the park programmed into Native Fury then set up the subroutine that will record the variables set during the game (items picked up, etc) so they can be read by the next segment of the game.
Currently it is 33 with an expected high of 67 under sunny skies.
Back to wk today for me. But I did get a lot accomplished yesterday. I finished the Hardwood Furniture kit, but with so many windows I will have to do some kind of interior detailing, measured twice and moved a spur track to put the kit in place. After the track and roadbed were secure I put the building in place, and no matter how hard I tried it did not fit. So I had to put it someplace else. I think it will wk where it is now. Need to do some operating sessions to really see.
Todd - Great job on being smoke free. Hope Brenda’s doc appointment went well.
Went and did the grocery shopping. That about wiped out my back.
OH went to see the FIL last night, they had a good talk, reviewed MIL’s will {FIL gets everything}, noted to FIL that all prof. finacial advisors, psychiatrists, psychologists, etc recommend one not make any major moves financial or otherwise for a year after a major loss like a death. FIL agreed. FIL has his own ideas of what he wants to do, but we will encourage him to wait. He wants to most liekly sellthe house, is too big and 6 levels of things and stuff in it. A roll off dumpster will help. All those stairs are getting to be a pain for him, too. We don’t want the house at all, so selling is not a bad thing. But we will encourage him to wait that year.Insuarnce policy will cover MIL’s funeral. GOOD to know.If we can ever work it into the budget, MOH and I will need to get some on us for that.
Will go see FIL today too. He seems “lost”
Gased up and Had the minivan washed to look “pretty” for the funeral procession {all of hearse and us} tomorrow. Early day tomorrow. MOH usually drives on longer trips, and when we go in the KIA, but I will probably drive home as MOH will be unstable? Dunno we will see.
Back is killing me as are my hips from my outing. Or is that ouTTing? Dunno. THAT word is too Simple for me! I like complicated outdated funny words!
well, I have some laundry to finish and some dishes to do.
Have a GREAT day!
[8-|]
LATER EDIT: I got tippy- TOP! Eat up fellas, put on my tab, Daisy! DOn’t forget a tip for yourself! A $100 tip should be fine?
Lunch Time … I’ll have a Ruben sandwich with a Coke, please…
Galaxy … That is good advice for your FIL. If you don’t mind, I’ll say some words of caution to you and anyone with elderly parents living alone. There are scoundrels who prey on elderly people, and they are highly skilled at talking the elderly out of money. These people get away with it, because the elderly agree to give away their money. There is no law against giving away money… I’m talking from experience because this did happen with my mother. She lived alone before we moved her into a senior living apartment with security. She was talked out of a substantial amount of money. My sisters and I filed a police report, and we provided a lot of of evidence, but they could do nothing to recover the money and to prosecute the person. After that we got a power of attorney and got my mother to agree to have us handle all of her finances. This was a very difficult time for us.
On the model railroading front, it is good to hear about progress being done by some of you.
Paul is making a furniture factory. Ray is making a black smith shop. JimCG has his Co-op building project. Mr. B has his tannery. I am glad to hear about these projects.
Well I finished with the park and lake front and the tie-ins with the motel and the dunes. I added a back door and a porch to the motel lobby so the character can enter/exit there. I also made it possible to enter one of the rooms on the back side of the motel via a window. But beware, in the room there could be a nasty surprise! Some little touches in the park are a nasty little troll and an overly friendly pigeon. If he character looks in the right place he’ll find a note with a clue to the artifacts location. It ain’t in part one. To wrap it up I programmed in the variable handling subroutine that’ll record all the item variables into a text file that can be read by a read subroutine at the beginning of part two. That’s the end of the trail for part one. I’ll get started on part two after I work out a tentative flow chart for it. The final size of forest (file name for part one) is seventy-seven diskette sectors. At that size it takes about twenty seconds for the file to load.
Well, Garry, Thanks for the imput. MOH technically HAS POA for FIL already, in case FIL becomes incapacitated. FIL already turned the papers over now to us a few years ago for that. MOH is NOT good with money and so I handle all our {meager} finances. FIL and My Father also know NOT to fall the “grandchild scams” as neither have any grandchildren, Though my only sibling sometimes claims to have a natural child he never told us about…but we {my father and I don’t believe it}. SO unless FIL goes senile, in which case we will handle everything, FIL won’t fall for that. Hopefully, since MOH is not good with finances, I will handle FIL’s as well with MOH’s approval.
Not much worth wanting, that is what MOH likes. Just some few items of childhood rememberance and some furniture.
I think FIL will jump the gun a little quicker than a year…but not right now. I think he will want to change environs sooner than later. The house really IS inconvenient, hence why MOH and I don’
Galaxy, I think you’re getting good advice. My own Mom waited a few years to move after my Dad passed away, but she was happier once she left the old house and moved into a retirement community. There’s no reason that “wait a year” can’t be simply “wait a while.”
My own in-laws are stubbornly holding on to living independently, even though Papa can barely make it down the steps (no elevator) and Nana has to be carried whenever she needs to leave the place. At 96 and 92 years of age, who can tell them they’re doing something wrong? After all, making the decisions they have is what got them to where they are.
We had a strange meeting at work today. Our deparment manager read this odd announcement that said something like, “While we are not soliciting applicants for voluntary layoffs at this time, if you would like to be considered, these are the people you should contact.” It would appear that our staffing levels are higher than our work levels are projected to be, so we may have to reduce staff. But, the whole thing was just so, well, surreal. No numbers. And, we were told that the “package” for volunteering would be the same as for any other layoff. Since I’m close to retirement, this could be something I’d be interested in, but I’m not quite ready yet. If it happened 6 months from now, maybe, and a year from now for sure, but not today, thanks.
with a 
in the morning becoming 
in the afternoon.
