Welcome to Jeffrey´s Trackside Diner , this month located “Down Under” to beat the Winter frost!
We begin our visit to this continent in Belgrave, Victoria, home of the Puffing Billy Railway.
This place is open to all forum members! For those joining “the regulars” for the first time - Jeffrey´s Trackside Diner is a place to gather, a place without an agenda or a topic. It’s free to all, to read, to join in, or just to enjoy some virtual food. Our gracious hosts ask only that we avoid certain hot-button topics like politics and religion that sometimes raise tempers.
The place is managed by Vinnie - under the watchful eye of Steven Otte, who represents the owner. Waiting staff are Flo, the twins Chloe and Zoe, Janie and Brunhilda - friendly, no nonsense folks!
So come on in, enjoy the delicious virtual food and share your day with us!
I hardly slept at all last night, so I got up in time to move the diner to its February location. Following Steven´s suggestion, I moved it into a warmer climate…
I´ll be off to our hospital for further tests. I don´t know when I will be back, as it will take some time.
Went to the club (which shall remain unnamed to protect the guilty) Tuesday night and got treated to two heated arguments.
One was about trying to keep ourselves from destroying the newly repaired parts of out travelling layout. The new repairs are on the outside edges of the layout where constant leaning on the surfaces had pretty much destroyed the scenery. Somebody said we should be able to lean on the layout if we want to. The guy who just spent several hours repairing the damage disagreed. (Can you blame him). That took the better part of 45 minutes to sort out before everybody calmed down. I thought at one point there was going to be fisticuffs!
The other was about whether or not we could fit an 18" x 18" cash dispenser into our floor plan for the upcoming sale. We have 10,000 sq. ft. of floor space. The person who had spent hours trying to fit all the vendors and displays into the available space was adamant (rather loudly I might add) that there was no more space! He is a rather senior citizen. We decided to not stress his heart anymore. We decided to defer to his opinion and see if we can fit the cash dispencer in next year.
Once the dust had settled, several of us got down to the job of replacing some rather lousy ballast. We pounded and scraped away at it for about an hour before I remembered that the easiest way to remove old ballast was to soak it first with a water/alcohol/soap solution. (Thanks to the forums for that suggestion). Once we did that the old ballast came up easily. What took us an hour to do poorly we could have done much better in ten minutes if we had soaked it first![banghead]
Zoe - Welcome back, glad to see you are feeling better. I will take a apple danish, and a large OJ please. Thanks.
Der & Howmus - Nice looking work, really good progress.
Ken - Well, sounds like we both had a “fun” day yesterday… I pulled muscles (almost every one) in my left leg trying to unload a trio refridgerator in the snow… Slipped on the wetness on the trailer deck plate. Not something you want to do when trying to move a large (400lbs plus, easily) fridge! Luckily, I didn’t have it, or me, tumble off the trailer. (That could have ended really bad!) Hoping for (both) you (and me) to be able to move around better soon! (I’m just a little gimpy, but can handle it.)
Speaking of Snow - Lake effect today… Yay! (Not really…[|(]) 6-12" today, more tonight… Already lots of incidents due to the weather… Going to be a “fun” day.
And, speaking of w**k - The new DM came last week, but bumped up his visit to a day early due to Leo, to Wednesday. He was very nice, and liked what we were doing, for the most part. We will be remodeling this month and next, moving around departments, and repainting the store.
Most likely going to pass the “opportunity” at the other location, as someithing just doesn’t sit right with me on it.
Hope all are well, and will check in later. Enjoy the day!
EDIT: Corrected a auto-correct fail… Stupid tablet thinks it’s smarter than me and found out it wasn’t… [(-D]
Not so many lawyers down there. Maybe they do not take cases on whatever… maybe they can see that there is no point in litigating for the benefit of a dope doomed to loose.
Those donuts look good but as we are Down Under, I better have a brew and toast with Vegimite. No brew doesn’t mean a beer, it is strong tea. That is the extent of my knowledge of local lingo.
Sure is hot here, but I shouldn’t be surprised as it is summer. Mind you 35C is a big change from -20C.
There is a great Australian TV series called Sea Patrol that ran on a channel up here for some time. I watched all the episodes. You might be able to view it on Youtube.
I’m off for another class this afternoon. Yoga is on the agenda but I won’t be able to participate yet. Think I will just do some laps on the track.
Another day in paradise ! Overcast, temps in the low 50s…no snow or rain. Still 6 feet up, so it must be a good day !
Steve - Thank you for the donuts ! I love jelly filled and boston cream pie donuts [dinner]
Ken - Hope your knee is okay ?
Ulrich - I agree with Henry “you do not have permission to leave us” !!! Hope your doc visit goes well !
Ed - LOL First trip was the lawyers [(-D]. I looked at the trestle and frankly I do not think I would ride across that thing. I have seen way to many failures where, the wood is bolted to the face of another timber and it failed. I want to see it notched in and bolted ! Glue wouldnt hurt either !!!
Dave - Dont you hate it when one misses the obvious ! Like forgetting to soak the ballast. Sound like a few members need anger management !
Ricky W - How in the world do you sell in the middle of a remodel ?
Henry - I am with you on the Ulrich comment ! He just simply cant do that !
I am back from my day in our hospital. They did a number of test, which, if done one after another, would have taken not more than, say, two hours. I should have brought something to read with me, but as I didn´t I had to spend the time counting the tiles on the wall of the hallway. GRRR!!!
No results, yet - I have to show up for that on Friday!
Steven, thanks for bringing the box of donuts. I am going to wolf `em down - didn´t get anything to eat all day long!
That´d be quite boring, wouldn´t it? Oh, btw, American railroads alo have three different gauges, IIRC.
I hope you folks are happy with my choice of location for the month.
Today´s video does not only take us back to Japan, but also back to Winter. Enjoy today´s feature of steam and snow!
Austrialian summer sounds good especially around here. We had a snowstorm here in the last few days and it has made the roads to the west a nightmare. A part of I-90 is closed due to three accidents in short distance. Pulling out my shorts and muscle shirts (or as I call them “ink shirts” to show my two tats off) sounds very good. [:)]
A very good day to one and all: G’Day, even, though I fancy that could get old fairly soon. Toast and Vegemite, Yum! Autolysed yeast extract is healthier than the hydrolyzed (less salt) so, better in that regard than Marmite, IIHO; but the colour lacks the satisfying depth of Marmite…Oh well! Steve:
Ah, who knew? [:$] The trouble is that I’ve only got a small Kodak point and shoot – and I delete the originals once I’ve edited and “resized-for-the-web” in MS Office Picture Manager, the down and dirty edit program I’ve used for years. The focus, for instance, is whatever the green frame in “Auto” or Close-up yields. There are no f stop adjustments available other than the general “type of picture” wheel
Evening all. Well I live down under, but might as well be up over because we have had a pretty poor summer. Lot of rain and few hot days. Even had the fire going in January! Unbelievable!
