Yesterday, I was determined to start work on my layout’s newest bridge. I didn’t. Lately, it seems like the days are busy. Something always comes up and I don’t get to spend time in the layout room.
Tin Can, I hope you enjoy the Purdue-Nebraska game. People around here hope that Nebraska will get beat by only two touchdowns. For us, that’s a victory.
This time of year, farm trucks loaded with corn are heading from the fields to the elevators. The trucks are often driven by young, inexperienced farmhands.
Union Pacific had a message for these young truck drivers:
Good afternoon from the drought-stricken West Coast. It has been sunny for five months with no change in sight, fortunately, we still have lots of water.
Heading up to Squamish tomorrow as there is a small MRR show at the Railway Museum of British Columbia. I will probably stay at Whistler after as the Brother-in-law has a magnificent home there. We can enjoy the view with some good Scotch.
Just talking to my kid, he and his GF hopped on a plane last minute to Ottawa, yesterday for a few days to hang with his University Buds that decided to get together this weekend at the last minute. He has a really nice suite at the Marriot and has been sending pics of the fall colours.
My daughter is into all these Comicon/fan expo things and has two friends coming from Australia to attend one in February. They sent a long list of filming locations they want to visit and my daughter asked me to mark them all on a map which is easy enough to do. I find that when you take people to these places they are often disappointed as they don’t look anything like they do in the show, especially if it involves structures. They take their selfies and move to the next location.[(-D] Apparently, they are huge Supernatural and X-File fans. I thought they would be a little young for the X-Files.
Took the wife to Vancouver for a procedure on Wednesday, it’s a good thing these ailing wives have hearty railroad men to take care of them.[(-D]
The wife wants to breed a dog with semen from the Czech Republic, it is interesting logistics getting that sent at the appointed hour.[(-D] I see myself going to the airport in the wee hours as it rarely arrives at a civilized time. [^o)]
Ed, the farmer up the road was getting a diesel delivery to the farm and I asked the driver about the marked fuels and he said they are exactly the same quality as the non-marked stuff. I also noticed the farmers filling their pick-ups wit
I believe that to be true. My take on the bad stuff was what probably happened was the only place in town that sells off-road diesel is a small mom & pop oil dealer so I’ll bet their volume of off road diesel is pretty low. I’m guessing, too, there aren’t as many farmers buying the off road stuff for use in the field.
Diesel really gets gooey when it sits around too long so I might have bought it when the tank was low or the moisture level high.
Lately I’ve been buying my diesel from a high volume place that gets a lot of heavy truck traffic so the fuel is probably a little “fresher”.
As of the early 2010s, if I recall correctly, 2012, when Tier IV Interum off road emission rules went into effect, that was the end of “Off Road Diesel” or “Farm Fuel” as an available alternative fuel.
The current “Dyed, Non-Taxed” diesel fuel is the same Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel as any other engine is allowed to run on. It is dyed to reflect its tax status, not the contents of the fuel blend. Previously, “Off Road Diesel” had a higher sulfur and wax content.
Many vehicles like School Buses, Fire Apparatus, Electrical Coop Service Trucks, Certain Farm Equipment, and Military vehicles are allowed to run on-highway with Non-Taxed dyed fuels.
Non-Commercial Pick-Up trucks are a gray area. They are eligible for a tax-refund on Federal Highway Taxes on non-dyed fuel purchases, so some people say it is OK to run No-Tax fuel in these. I am doubtful it is purely legal.
Ya, I see a lot of brand-new shiny pick-ups filling at the marked fuel pumps when I am at the station. They are far too clean to have been running around the farm, a trip to Costco maybe.[(-D]
Ohio used to have farm vehicle licence plates. You would sure see a lot of shiny-clean pickups and cars with them. Why risk it is my opinion. Even the non-tax fuel. In my case I probably buy about 50 gallons a year. At 28¢ a gallon the $14/yr. isn’t worth missing sleep over especially compared to other tax I pay.
Speaking of plates, I used to drive a 1964 Fleetwood with 1964 licence plates. One day a constable decided to question me over having “non-compliant” plates on my car. I carried with me a copy of the Ohio M.V. code explaining that “model-year” plates are legal on a historic vehicle as long as I had the original state issued plates somewhere in the car.
This guy insisted on making an issue over it. Thankfully, a State Highway Patrol car also pulled up and the trooper WAS familiar with the law and cleared me to leave and, perhaps, read the law to the other law man?
In Florida, we do not have front license plates. It was customary that when someone retired to Florida, they would display the plate from their home state on the front of the car, and the Florida plate on the rear.
This stopped being a common site about twenty years ago.
I am not sure if it was legislated away, or if it just fell out of popularity. A much smaller percentage of our population is retirees now.
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One of the unfortunate things that happens in bad Hurricanes is pets getting displaced from their owners.
Today, my neice had goats in her backyard.
She put a notification out on Facebook, and the thankful owner came and retrieved the animals.
My daughter’s first recognizeable word was “Buh,” her interpretation of Bear.
I remember being in college in 1967, when the World’s Fair was held in Montreal. At the time, that province also had just a rear plate, and many citizens proudly displayed EXPO67 plates on the front. I noticed one Canadian car parked illegally. The officer had read the front plate and wrote EXPO67 on the ticket.
Lots of Bears around I see… Hmmmm. That reminds me of this old story!
A Russian scientist and a Czechoslovakian scientist had spent their whole lives studying the majestic grizzly bear. Each year they petitioned their respective governments to allow them to go to Yellowstone to study these wondrous beasts.
Finally, their request was granted and they immediately flew to New York and then on west to Yellowstone. They reported to the local ranger station and were told that it was the grizzly mating season and it was much too dangerous to go out and study the animals.
They pleaded that this was their only chance. Finally the ranger relented. The Russian and the Czech were given cell phones and told to report in each and every day.
For several days they called in, and then nothing was heard from the two scientists. The rangers mounted a search party and found the scientists’ camp completely