This 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.
You’ll get to know the friendly staff just by listening. It’s a place to share your day, your concerns, your joys and sorrows. Welcome aboard.
It’s nearly noon on the west coast and still no November diner, so here you go. Hopefully everyone will enjoy the visit to New Mexico. Picking Belen, NM is paying homage to Mrs. ROR who grew up just north of Belen, and whose mother stayed at the Belen Harvey House while serving as a WAF.
Today I have officially been diagnosed as being old–I have arthritis in my neck. I am pretty sure the onset is a result of riding my bicycle headfirst into the back of a car. I had Xrays taken today and am starting physical therapy in a couple of days. Wahoo.
Hm, I guess Maine was September, not last month, hm? That’s the problem with working on a magazine four months ahead. You lose track of time. We’re starting on March’s issue now.
Anyway, who’s coming to Trainfest this year? We’re open for tours any time during regular business hours.
Richard, thanks for getting November on the rails. I guess Halloween must have worn everybody out. We had 238 kids last night. Great costumes & everybody seem to be having a lot of fun. But the street was deserted around 8:00 pm. Lots of parents were in costume taking the little ones around. That was neat.
Had a good weekend railfanning with 10 trains on Saturday, & 10 more on Sunday. I suppose they have been around for sometime, but I saw a boxcar lettered for “Operation Lifesaver” on Saturday. Anybody know if any HO models were ever produced lettered like this? I couldn’t find any.
I don’t weather any of my locomotives or cars, mainly because I have absolutely no artistic talent what so ever. I also tend to think that most guys who do weather their rolling stock tend to go a little overboard. But then, what do I know. And to prove that, this beauty shows up. It’s an SD70 & could use a little touch up.
In the first time in years we passed out candy for Halloween. It’s a good way to freshen up your people/communication skills. I saw some good costumes and some wearing their own clothes.
I mostly enjoy handing out candy on Halloween. We live a little nicer neighborhood and many of the kids that come by are not from the neighborhood. That used to bother me, but now I feel if I can help them to have a safe, fun evening, it’s all good. However, when the “kids” are old enough to be sporting a full beard (real, not fake) I am a little disappointed.
Rather than candy, the wife and I give out trinkets and toys, like Halloween-themed pencils, spooky stickers, plastic vampire teeth, bendy rubber skeleton figures, glow-in-the dark spiders, ghost-shaped erasers, etc. Kids seem to like them, especially since they get to pick two or three items from a variety.
Which state has the best Mexican food, New Mexico or Arizona? Here in Maryland I think we get the Guatemalan or Honduaran impression of what Mexican is like. Everywhere from Texas and west has better Mexican food than we do. In what used to be family run restaurants, the South American contingent has seem to take over kitchens in Italian and Greek restaurants.
Toys? Steven I’ll be over to paper your house. I liked Halloween as a kid, but now the idea of kids, who are mostly overweight, begging for candy seems weird.
Been in Tennessee for 15 years, three counties and briefly a fourth, but not on Halloween. Have gotten ready for Halloween twice, but have never had even one kid show up. This is my first Halloween in this county and didn’t do anything to prepare. Called it right. Nobody came by. Oh well, always too far out in the boonies, I guess. [|)]
Yawn…!!! Been a busy weekend. A happy “All Saints” to all of you and a happy “All Souls Day” tomorrow! Janie I’ll have one of those chili type cheeseburgers and a cup of decaf please. Oh, Please leave off the tomato… and the chili too… Don’t think my superfluety would take to any of them chili peppers on my food… It would be obnoxous to my superfluety I guess.
We got my son’s 50th. B-day all taken care of properly. The whole shebang went on for 4 days. Had dinner with my youngest son (who just turned 47) on Thursday evening, then a bunch of us played Eucher at the birthday bioys house until the wee hours of the morning on Friday. I slept in Saturday morning, but got to babysit the granddaughters for a couple hours on Saturday night while the sons and a bunch of cousins went to Chili (near rochester) in a limo to hear his cousin’s husbands bad play (and do some serious drinking I guess, hence the limo). Then the usual family on his wife’s side along with me showed up to celebrate on Sunday evening.
Yesterday I got ready for ALL HALLOS EVE (aka Halloween). The first little monsters to show up at my house (15 minutes early) were my granddaughters… They were cute as always (have a few photos I took but haven’t processed yet). The rest of the evening was a trickle of kids. Probably around 15 total. No where near what I used to get back when I was teaching and they found my house… [:-^] One of the groups had a very cute little girl, about 5th. or 6th. grade I think who had on a good costume but no mask… As per my usual whako sense of humor I looked at her and said, “Wow! That is an awfully scary mask you have there!!!” The girl thought for a second and started to laugh with a great big grin on her face. At that moment appearing out of the darkness her
Zoe - I will have a slice of apple pie, and a nice Mexican hot chocolate please. (In NM, so, close, right?)
Weather - Hit 72 today! Wow! That is hot for November in NW PA! Expected to be near that tomorrow, before rain showers and maybe even some [li] expected…
W**k - 2nd day, and already hit a decent bonus today. So, it could turn out to be a good job. Manager seems nice, and most* customers are nice. (*Save for a few grumpy ones… Get that working retail though.) Got told by the boss tonight that I am doing better than she expected, so… All seems to be going good.
Trains - Hit a snag on the SD40-2 project… Ain’t that always how it goes? For some reason, while the LED’s fit perfectly in the front headlights, the rear lights do not fit… Not even close! So, doing some work on that portion… Then will come front and rear ditchlights. Have the parts, and the chip style SMD lights on hand, so, hoping that goes easier.
Baseball - Cubbies got to Tomlin early, and added a grand slam, but now Cleveland is starting to try to come back… Very slowly though. To keep from going to game 7, they need to rattle Arrieta though. Hoping they get some runs in, just to make it interesting.
I was the last poster on the Oct. Diner this morning, then I went to edit it and while typing my edit it got locked only I didn’t know that. So it woulden’t post my edit and I thought it was some kind of weird computer problem so I tried again typing twice. I wasen’t pleased.
What I was going to suggest is sometime we have the Southern Pacific Horseshoe Curve as our location. The Coast Starlight go’s up it and down it daily, actually there are a couple of places where the engineer can see the whole train and you as a passenger can see the engine. Its a very scenic trip, at times you look way way down into canyons. I used to go to Oregon and back on the train at Christmas.
At the beginning of the curve you cross a steel trestle that was brought here on a ship from the east at the beginning of the century. You get good views of the trestle as you climb up.
The curve is the beginning of the Cusio grade where the track climbs 1,000 ft. in 11 miles
Henry, I grew up in NM and my NMSU Livestock judging coach use to tell us that the farther you get from the Rio Grande, the worse the Mexican food is. Therefore, NM food has to be better than AZ.
Work Front High light of the day was Ronda (GM’s wife) sent me some home made chile from there Halloween party. She a great cook and I like talking with her.
Rick Do you like the job? That is the most important part if you ask me. I love my job, I just hate the paychecks! [banghead] Main reason I stay is becase of my feet problem. Should stand no more than 3 hours a day total. [sigh]
Feet Front Not looking good with either the new shoes or the old ones now! Left big toe has gotten a blood blister and I was wearing the old shoes for a few weeks. Get new inserts for the new shoes this coming Friday, sure hope they can get them right this time. This will be the 6th visit to get the new shoes right.
Train Front Well it has sort of stunk tonight. Mess with the POS PK 2000 E-7 with QSI sound. Dang thing will still not move! [banghead] THen I lost the Mighty B&O F’s that Ed sent. Well, I know where they are. [:-^] One of them started making a nasty clicking sound, and like Ed said in a PM it sounds like a drive shaft. Just seems odd that I did not hear the sound (Cannot be missed) for 200 hours of run time? Guess I will be opening them up, unless the sound goes away after a rest! Might just be tired. [swg]
