Morning from a very wet southern Ontario
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Welcome back @pwaka88!
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Welcome back from a rainy South Boston!
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Stopping in for the first time. Espresso for me. Bit of a wet morning in Kansas, but man, it feels great outside.
May’s setting up to be a huge month. On the train side, I am nearly done with laying the foam hills on my 4x8, so I might start painting soon. On the personal side, I’m wrapping up my second year of grad school (biochemistry) and will be getting married at the end of the month!
Hope y’all have a wonderful Friday and a relaxing weekend! Cheers!
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Nimbus, congratulations on the upcoming wedding. My fiance and I get married in July. Hopefully you’re much further along the planning process then we are!
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Good morning, everyone. I’ll have bacon, eggs, and coffee, please.
It’s good to hear that Dawn is doing better. She has certainly struggled with health issues through the years.
I’ve had bad news here – yesterday I had to cut the grass. I’ve put it off as long as I could in the hopes the grass would shrink, but it didn’t work.
Attuvian John and Charley and others, I saw an unusual bird for our area, a white egret. I know they are around here, but we don’t see them much since we have almost no ponds, lakes, or rivers. I envy you guys a little in being able to identify and remember the kinds and numbers of birds.
Besides grain elevators along railroads in our area of the plains, about the only sidings for loading or unloading involve chemicals and ethanol.
Have a good Friday, everyone.
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York- I hate when the grass doesn’t shrink. Ive got the same problem here 
We get some white egrets here, but great blue herons are definitely the more common wading birds here.
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Welcome back on board, pwaka88
David
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York John,
There are five white herons/egrets. We can probably throw out two right off the bat, the Great White Heron (he’s a whopper - but not a Whooper 
), a morph of the Great Blue and pretty rare. There’s also the immature Little Blue Heron with greyish/greenish bill and legs. But this time of year he’d alread be showing at least some darker mottling of wings and back. That leaves three. The little guy (if he doesn’t have any rust highlights) is an immature Cattle Egret. Kind of chunky, generally not loners and hardly partial to water features. I’m sure you’ve seen them before. So that leaves us with two: the larger is the Common or Great Egret (c. 36+", beak tip to tail). Flesh-colored beak, dark legs and feet. Two-thirds his size is the Snowy Egret, with all-black bill, dark legs and yellow feet. I’d suspect that either of the latter two are en-route vagrants in the fields of Kansas and Nebraska. Great sighting nonetheless. Big birds are always majestic.
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Just a quick story to read over a coffee. Not railway related, hence here.
SAM
The past couple of months or so have been surreal. How can I explain? It is said ‘start at the beginning’.
Well, I don’t exactly know when it began, but he was there. Always there. In the restaurant. On the train. In the public bar. Always there. I did not know his name obviously, but for the story I’ll call him Sam. Wherever I was, he was there also. Was Sam stalking me? He never looked at me. He certainly never spoke to me. Was he actually following me? I was becoming paranoid. Ridiculous I know
‘Snap out of it,’ I told myself, ‘You’re a grown woman for Christ’s sake.’
Then it happened.
I was in the supermarket. Collected the trolley and started shopping. Just a few groceries. Just enough to the weekend. (I was to visit my brother and sister-in-law and Alex, my nephew.) Some grapes in the trolley. Milk. I needed some milk. Just a small carton would do. Then I saw Sam. He had a few items in a hand basket. He never looked at me as he reached for a tub of cream.
I purposely kept a good distance behind him as I shopped. Suddenly the aisle was busy with shoppers and I lost sight of Sam. Never mind, he is in front of me, I told myself.
Suddenly the alarm went off. A fire in the building. I, along with other shoppers abandoned our trolleys and headed for the exit. Seconds later I was shoved to the floor and a body pressed heavily on my back.
I heard a huge explosion. The sound of things crashing to the floor. I felt something hit my back, but not actually touch me. Dust and debris. I could hardly breathe. I tried to move, but the weight on my back was too much.
It was some time later; how long I do not know, but help arrived. I could see firefighters and medics. I called out. The weight was removed from my back and as I was being helped up I saw Sam. He was dead; his back broken.
“He saved your life,” a paramedic said.
Only a few people turned up for Sam’s funeral. To be honest nobody knew who he really was. He had no identification and nobody came to claim him. I was there though. Thank you Sam.
Leaving the cemetery I began to make my way home. I didn’t see Sam follow another woman into a public bar.
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Good day eh, from the sunny Pacific Rim where it is 18c.
David your story reminded me of the time I had gone to a computer show at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. I was looking at a computer and pounding away on the keyboard trying it out and the guy next to me started talking to me and without looking at him we had a lengthy conversation about that particular computer. After a while I stopped playing with it and turned to the guy I had been talking to and it was Robin Williams. He stuck out his hand and said Robin as I shook it and I said Brent back. We chatted for a few more minutes and then moved on. The next day I was back at the convention centre in the lounge for a meeting with my stock broker and as I was going up the escalator, Robin was coming down and said Hi Brent and I said, we have to stop meeting like this and he laughed. Day three, I took a single Mom friend and her two very young daughters to Science World and who did we bump into? Robin again. The movie Mrs. Doubtfire had just come out and the kid’s were over the Moon that they were talking to Mrs. Doubtfire. He was so great with them and we chatted for quite a while.
I had a similar experience with Michael Buble. Micheal is a huge Vancouver Canucks fan and he would be in the next box from the one I was in and we would chat back and forth. I ran into him out with his family the day after a game and stopped to have a chat, on the third day in a place East of Vancouver called Fort Langley I was in my truck he was standing at the crosswalk waiting to cross and so I stopped and as he crossed I yelled out the window “are you following me”? He turned and saw who it was and came over to ask what I was doing in Fort Langley and I said following you of course. We had a good laugh and he kept going.
I only got 2-1/2 hours sleep last night so I am not to motivated today, however, I think I will go take the pressure washer to my truck for its once a year post winter blast.
All the best to all.
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Afternoon all.
Back at work after two days off… busy weekenf for me- my division is having their Jamboree this weekend. Ill be opening my layout for tours on sunday.
Btw, im pretty happy with how this design of mine turned out
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Great stories, Brent. Seeing famous people is a blast. We see Robson Green (well known television actor and presenter here in the U.K.) often. Generally we see him in our local grocery store. Well we would as he lives three miles away from us.
In 1998 I was an extra in the film ‘Elizabeth’. During a break in filming Richard Attenborough came across, sat next to me and we chatted. We talked about how a film was made. A very interesting three quarters of an hour.
Another neighbour we used to see was Jonny Wilkinson (Ex-England Rugby Union player). We usually exchanged pleasantries. Now he lives elsewhere.
I completely forgot to contribute to the thread theme… The rail served industry(on my layout) is Spoonwood brewery, located in Longview PA. The prototype
While it isn’t rail served in the real world, my layout has it receiving a boxcar or three for packing materials(boxes and cardboard for example). The prototype also has a very unique rail related location- it is built on the former Montour railroad grade located here!
There was actually a bridge located here, with a MASSIVE fill that was removed for both building the brewery and removing a road underpass here.
See link for more information on the prototype bridge and fill
I was able to add the bridge abutment to my layout, which I think adds to a feel of the location
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Evening all. Sitting in a basketball arena for my oldest daughter’s college graduation. Having a big Proud Dad moment. Hope everyone’s night is as wonderful as mine is shaping up to be.
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Gidday Chloe and Diners, been a bit busy lately at work, the flying school managed to cause some serious hanger rash to the elevator of their C172, they thought I might be able to fix it with a few well-judged taps with my large hammer but no! So much for being semi-retired.
Managed clean my chimney today, so I’m now ready for winter.
Read your post containing the advice to the over 60s David. It’s all very nice and well but I ‘ve worked hard to become an old curmudgeon whose aim is to grow old disgracefully!
I know that I’ve linked this before, and think it fits with this months topic, but watching these monsters at work is fascinating!
Thoughts and Best Wishes to All that need them. Kia Kaha.
Cheers, the Bear. 
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Morning.coffee please Flo, got do shopping today.Need to get new soldering iron and some adjustable feet from home depot
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Morning Yall! Currently making the trek to Framingham, MA with my stepdad to see some MBTA and CSX action. Also nicked my knuckle with an an exacto knife last night and sent an interesting string of words via discord 
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David, we lived in Crawcrook, Co Durham for a few years before emigrating to Canada. My aunt lived in Ponteland, and visits there were a treat. The Northumberland moors have a savage beauty, do they not?
Thanks for your ‘after 60’ advice post. I have found mmr to be intelectually stimulating, and a good outlet for artistic creativity; as well as keeping manual dexterity sharp.
Right now I am in full N Scale trees making mode. ‘Full’ must be modified by strained back muscles from standing while making the trees. 3 days past, and still sore. Will take a seat when production recommences!
Keep posting, always enjoy your insights.
The castle (my excuse, a tourist destination) is Caernarvon, modified to accommodate a N30n track using Z flextrack.
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They do prosthetics?