May the siderods of our friendship never turn rusty - Irish proverb
If you’re enough lucky to be Irish… You’re lucky enough! [B]
Good morning all,
True enough what both of you said.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
Thanks Fifey for getting March started. Had a line come through and turned dark. Outside lights came on. Poured but got only .13" of rain. 59 degrees and suppose to drop all day.
Dr.'s appointment this afternoon. Miss Daisy says I am to drive her around afterwards.
Have a good one.
Don’t forget, April 1 will be 17 years old.
March Already. Another trip around the sun wraps up this month. Hopefully I get a few more.
Hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy. I’ve been up at 3 in the morning lately. It’s getting old.
Not a lot of train activity the last few weeks.
Still waiting on my turn for the vaccine. Again when I get it, I get it. Take care of those who really need it first.
Stay safe my friends!
I saw a 80’s El Camino like you guys have. Real cherry a entheuasts car. Had a bit of a lope to it so he must know someone to pass smog.
Southern Calif. the hot bed of hot rods, smog controls have killed hot rods here. The only ones you see anymore are driven by a old man going to a show and that’s very rare.
Don’t know if they are still doing it. Dougsagrump took me to one South of his place in a town. They close the street each week and have a car show. Some prime stuff there.
Smog controls may have but a damper on hot rods, but, times have changed.
Young people are more interested (nowadays) in computers and being on social mendacity.
(If they are interested in anything at all! [sacrcasm]) and the old hotrodders are literally dying off. So the young aren’t so much interested in modifying (evil, anti-green) cars.
And the old Ford Flathead V8s are also fading away too, it is harder to get people in hot rodding one of those when a stock Honda engine puts out more HP (oh, I guess they call it KW nowadays). Not accounting for inflation, but the prices mentioned for a good Flathead 20 or so years ago, are now being asked for seized blocks.
And there is the “it’s what I grew up with” sentimentality regarding fixing up old cars. The Datsuns and Toyotas that were the young folks cars when I was young rusted away decades ago.
It was nice to watch Velocity, now Motor Trend channel shows where Chip Foose, or, Fantom Works, or Kindig fixed up the old cars, but when I took a tour of Kindig’s a few years ago, he mentioned that it generally takes $100,000 to “get his attention”, and if you show up with $1M, he’ll invite you into his office. (I cut the cable this past year, so I haven’t watched those shows lately)
Anyway I got laid off on Friday, was called into the Boss’s office shortly before closing time on Friday to be told that.
Well, the job was not a good fit for me anyway…
Marty - [bday]
Sorry to hear about your lay-off Snip. It’s happened to me several times and it’s no fun, especially when it’s due to matters you had nothing to do with. I suspect it’s happened to most of us here at one time or another.
Sunny but will only hit 34 today, slowing the thaw down some.
Ship, sorry about the layoff. I have been laid off, locked out and on strike many times. Of my 36+ years at Caterpillar over six were lost to layoffs. I had some neat jobs in the gaps and a great mid life retirement at age 30 during the 1980s trickledown economics years. I always told everyone that Caterpillar taught me how to live without Caterpillar. [swg]
We went and got supplies today, pension payday.
Those smocks that installed the RO system a week ago have never came back to finish the job or even called? Thought they would of by now, I have not even got a bill and it will be just over 1K if they ever show up to finish??
Happy Birthday Marty! [B] [^] [G]
Afternoon/morning all!
Been dealing with a lot lately. BIL (Wife’s side), 77, ended up in the hospital Friday night. We drove to Denton Sat to pick up his dog. No Medical Power of Attorney, his wife passed 11 yrs ago, so his daughter’s (who put off the attorney stuff) cannot make any decisions for him even though he is very impaired. And he is in a ward where they have COVID patients so not easy for anyone to visit him. Wife did get in for a short visit Sat while son and I retrieved the dog.
Snip - sorry about the job. Hope you bounce back quickly!
Marty [bday]
It is a new month so Buckeye [bday]
If you guys watch these hot rod shows - Texas requires a license/registration windshield sticker. You cannot get the sticker without proof of insurance and a state safety/emissions inspection. You cannot pass inspection without having proof of insurance and all emissions gear operating (or if over 25 years old - present, does not have to operate). None of the Texas hot rod shows have cars with the window sticker. Certainly one can find places that will pass the inspection - but significant fines ($25K?) if caught. This is why so many of the shows focus on mid 60’s and earlier vehicles (prior to some emissions controls). My '68 Vette had an AIR pump, PCV, and a mechanical EFE valve in the passenger side exhaust manifold. Trucks were allowed to go for several years past autos before emissions stuff required which is why trucks are so popular. In Texas the chassis year determines the year of the vehicle which is why you can stick any engine you want without any emissions controls in early years hot rods.
RO?
Reverse Osmosis (water softener)?
I bought some professional water hardness test strips (Hach.com) a week ago, they arrived Saturday (FedEx).
Tested out the incoming well water yesterday, it maxxed out.
So, I tested the water after the softener; it maxxed out!
So, I doubled the grain setting, and programmed a recharge overnight.
We’ll see…
Thanks for all commiserating the recent layoff. I’ve checked a couple of job boards, so far it doesn’t seem encouraging, but I’ll keep looking.
Hey, March 1st…time MARCHes on…lol
Snip, sorry about your employ - something will come up - it usually does…
Happy Birthday, MartyE!!
Hmmmm - hot rodders…OK I’ll bite…
I drive a muscle car - well, 2 actually…my 1970 road runner convert is always a cool ride, rowing the 4 speed to RPMs untold and when the weather sucks (like it has the last 3 months) we jump into the Hemi Magnum R/T wagon. When we need fuel economy, since January 20th, we use Dad’s Fiesta (not preferred, but gets the job done…) Looking forward to more car and train shows this year. Oh, yeah, I work on my own rides, with or without computer control, I work on them all.
Nice weekend with the future in laws, prime rib was the bribe…lol. I installed a new bathroom fan, which took me about an hour.
Brought home a TYCO HO race set from the in laws and set that up on Sunday. That was a blast. Dinner was leftover Prime Rib and I made Risotto to compliment the mashed potatoes and Prime Rib.
Ended the night with laundry and Agony and the Ecstacy. A Heston Classic!
Alas, no train attic this weekend. Meetings Tomorrow night, Wednesday and drill on Thursday, then circle back to Friday and not sure what is on tap at ths point.
I might run out a get Jenni her N Scale CSX Caboose, need to connect with the seller, so we’ll see what transpires
Unfortunately “Cruising Grand” has not been happening since the Wuhan Flu outbreak. If, and that is a very big if, the virus slows down sufficiently they will restart this late spring early summer.
cruisin grand escondido ca - Bing video
Snip, yes RO = Reverse Osmosis. Our water here is 75 to 104 grain of hard depending on when you test it. Hard water is 10 grain of hard. So our 40,000 grain softener is set to 85% (the max) just to get the water down to 10 grain of hard. That makes it full of salt and you can taste it in the water so we got the RO drinking water system to remove the salt and clean up the water for drinking. It is also sent to the fridg ice maker and water. No more water cooler 5 gallon jugs and plastic water bottles. [Y] Hope that helps. I know the water up in your area is also very hard but ours beats all of our neighbors around and a few water people said NO WAY till they tested it. [(-D]
Only got to about 34 today, should be better tomorrow.
Good evening all,
Been in your shoes…twice, Snip. It is no fun. Second time I was a bit smarter (and maybe luckier) in that I had a job lined up before the axe fell. Good news, bad news day. Good news is that I got MR, Trains and the Lion Roars all on the same day. Bad news is that the Mini will be virtual again this year. That really creates a vacuum. Still get the bling and shirt, but no kissing the bricks and all the entertainment along the route. Also, this does not bode well for the race. I hope everyone has a good day.
Keep on training,
Mike C. from Indiana
45 degrees and SUNNY. Beautiful day. Love it. Animals do too. They have ben cooped up too much with all the rain.
Off to take the Caddy to the dealer to replace the radio. [the screen with all the gadgets and info.] What should have been done 4 trips ago. GM had to give permission to the dealer to do it.
Going on second week after second shot. Feels like being set free.
Hope all have a safe and happy day.
Mornin’ all!
Nasty winds last night, could hear them howling against the house. And the temps plummeted, it was 14° this morning.
It’s March! Time to look into finally getting the new tires for the SS - need to get it and those to my main man Angelo, so he can mount the tires and pass the SS for inspection. Then I can drive it this summer.
Have a good one!
Tue. 77 Wed 62 and might rain. Hasen’t rained an a while and only a drizzle.
I was a machinist and the usual way it was done is a hour before quitting time you were called into the office. If you saw a guy carrying out his toolbox you knew he was gone.
Cars have been my lifetime passion more so than trains. I enjoyed your comments on hot rods and agree with all of them. I have had engine swapped cars all my life.
In CA no smog check on cars before 76 sounds like Texas is even stricter. You can do a few minor things headers and intake with CA air resorse board approved parts but not much on cars 76 and later. You can do a engine swap on a car later than 75 but it has to pass CA beaura of auto repair inspection and they give you a doorjam sticker and then you get a smog check every 2 years like everyone else. But all smog stuff for the engine has to be working and passing the test is difficult so few bother.
I watch youtube vidios in the evening and there is a guy in northern CA who is a charasmatic leader kind of guy who is reall smart about Honda engine swaps and all the complications that entails with late model engines. He has a bunch of cars and friends all terrably illegal.
The only thing I can figure is he is in the in crowd and has someone who smogs his illegal and his friends illegal cars. He never mentions how he registeres them.
The smog people are reall strict about this and I thought it was just impossible anymore but that’s all I can figure.