Aloha from a sunny and cold Chicago. Great Hallowe’en. Probably only a time or two left to take the youngest out. He just likes to dress up. The candy is not important to him. (more for me) Great idea about the beer, SJ.for next year. Bet LaRussa ends up assistant to the chairman for the White Sox. Joe, I’ve used this website to browse for things to do in Tokyo. There’s some super-fun toy shops.
Good morning
36 frosty and bright sun.
No chores this morning but we are going to supper at a friends house. It’s granny’s lady friend so she’s wanting to go. Would of been a good afternoon to cut grass for the last time. I’ll do it tomorrow at 60 degrees. No kids came here at all last night, I think most go to newer subdivisions or parties instead…S.J.
Here on the beautiful North Fork, we dodged the snow all together, and had a beautiful, albiet, colder
Sunday, and Halloween.
The nice thing about the colder weather is that it means train season is here !
Time to put the beach and surf stuff away.
Ken
Good Mornin’ Ya’ll From Partly Sunny Taxachusetts,
It was 30 this morning at sunrise but we’ll hit 50 today. Most of the snow has melted, even warmer temps are in the pipeline, and we may have a week without rain.
My wife is wonderful for maintaining family traditions. We held our annual Halloween get-together here last night, and we’ve been doing it for 23 years. It started out with inviting neighbors with their kids over to our place with our kids. We’d serve something simple (chili, beef stew, some great bakery breads) and then the parents would all take the kiddies out to score their loot. Somehow or another [:-^], it became a tradition for the households to give candy to the tykes T&Ting and adult beverages [B] to the neighborhood parents. [swg]
When our kids and those of our neighbors grew and started doing their own thing, the affair at our home started to die. A dwindling number of the same adult neighbors would come over each year for the evening sans kids. But neighbors change as does the dynamic. And a metamorphosis began.
Things started to ramp back up when our daughter and SIL and their friends started having kids, and it has continued to this day. Chow, pictures, and then making the circuit. I stay behind at the ranch with a few of the husbands to take care of the T&Ters at our home.
I was somewhat surprised/disappointed to read here how many of you are experiencing a declining number of kids showing up in costume at your door on Halloween. Not here. Even with the advent of school-sponsored Halowwen parties, we seemd to have had a record number of the little tykes last night. The amount of candy we gave out testifies to that. One thing has added to the numbers showing up at our door: parents from
Good morning. It’s 62° and sunny. The high will be 76° and it will be sunny.
I’ll be going into town to pay a few bills at some places that refuse to leave the stone age and discover something called online billing. Also have to get gas and groceries and drop some packages at the post office, not necessarily in that order. I’ll be back later.
Mornin’ All.
Halloween is over, after working on the garage & layout for a month now it is time to start tearing it all apart. Numbers seemed to be down a bit from previous years, still went thru about 9# of candy. Applied finishing touches very late yesterday afternoon just in time to get ready for the munchkins. Now the time crunch is going to really kick-in, dismantle the halloween layout and have the Christmas layout ready before our Thanksgiving gathering.
Joe, Enjoy your time in Japan. My one and only visit was very enjoyable, especially Kyoto and Kinagawa Hot Springs. The only problem was chaperoning a group of youngsters was like herding cats.
Brutus, Hope all goes well with Chewey. [tup]
Today is veg-out day. Between the museum Sunday and spending allday monday finishing for halloween I’m pooped. [zzz]
Time to sort out the morning meds, check back later.
Lunch Time,
Trick or Treating down in our neck of the woods is done on the 30th. We have a big Haloween Parade in Toms River, that schools, Fire Companies, First Aid Squads, businesses and many civic organizations, families and individuals participate. It seems to get bigger every year but the trick or treating seems to have slowed down.
Ken, we had no snow down the Jersey Shore also, but we were really hammered inthe area where I work.
RI Jack, Like the costume on the pup.
Have a great day,
John
Jeffrey, don’t tell me you’re going to spray weathering all over that pretty Santa Fe Warbonnet engine.
Good morning all, not too many trick or treaters last night but more than last year. New kids next door came over with neat costumes. One like a devil and the other like a pirate. Got some milky ways left over that I will dispose of in good time.
All systems are go on my trip for leaving Saturday morning heading for Chief’s territory except my back pain is still acting up. Been taking OTC Aleve twice a day but sometimes that’s not enough. Put in a call with the doctors office this morning explaining the situation to his assistant. Will leave it up to him wheather I will take any different medication and will see him if necessary when I get back. Sounds like this trip is developing into a mini family reunion with most of my brothers and sisters together and a cousin or two for the first time in years. My sister in Jacksonville, N.C. that we are all going to see is holding up good so far.
Brutus, best wishes for Chewy.
Surpised that Tony LaRussa is retiring but if you have to go that’s the way to do it. Morning paper says Dodger Owner, Frank Mc Court is closer now to selling the team. By the time he gets through there may not be anything left to sell.
Michael Jackson doctor trial winding down, finally. Enough of these spectacles already! Well, this is Hollywood I guess. Historic old house over there called the Magic Castle where magicians perform for club members and dinning guest, had a fire last night. Doesn’t sound like too much damage. I went there once as an invited guest and saw Buddy Ebsen (Jed Clampet from the Beverly Hillbillys) in the audience. He is gone now but was pretty old when I saw him. He lived to be 90 something.
Have a good November,
Ray
Yep. It’s gonna be dusty with a bit of rust. My general era is the mid 70’s to mid 90’s with a railroad that uses older equipment and by older I mean lots of the people that made them are pushing up tombstones.
Good Evening
54 now
We got back from our visit in time for me to run the trimmer. After, I drained the gas and then ran it dry. The lawn mower will get the same treatment tomorrow when I finish cutting and chopping the leaves. Banilla is ready and got some store bought cookies…S.J.
Joe I’m looking forward to your stories, keep em coming.
Back from the clean up!
Had a 3 car MVA earlier today…some people don’t know how to MERGE into traffic!!
Was in the high 50’s today and will continue tomorrow, sunny and bright.
Princess made it back from her friends house and is doing homework and going to watch GLEE later. I’m heading for Shop Rite for bananas and something to drink…
Soon, I’ll have to get the track plan together…8 X 16, some will be elevated, but looking at Skip’s center elevated layout, I may do something like that or a hybrid of that. I have 3 weeks.
That’s all from Exit 8…
A beautiful 74 degrees here today, we have had an awesome fall but extremely dry. It will all work out with snows and spring rains. I noticed on the national news that it’s been extremely dry in the south west and now here, I guess that’s why we have “averages”. Too many folks crying wolf just to be heard.
All lawn equipment now winterized with fresh oil and Seafoam in the gas tanks, I did ride the bike into the dealership this afternoon for needed service and fresh oil, hate to see the season come to an end but at least I’ll be ready to roll in the spring!
Working downstairs in the train room will take precedence beginning tomorrow, weather is turning crummy and I’m ready to take several days and just tweak things up.
All the politico’s are in Iowa now sharing with us how they are going to save the country, blah-blah-blah, will be glad when January 3 arrives (caucus time) and even happier when Jan. 4 is here and they are gone. Very difficult to take any of them seriously, guess my cynicism is showing.
Stay well.
Jeff,
I think you are trying to pull my back into HO… I was heavily into Bachman, Life Like, and Tyco until I sold it all off in 99 to focus on O and S.
Bought the GL today.[:P] Had a couple heartstoppers on the way home, but nothing serious. The first occured when I took it to fill it up. The gas gauge isn’t working right now, so I didn’t know it was nearly full. As I was pumping, I noticed the sound changed. When I looked down, I saw why.[:|] Gas everywhere. I thought it was a rotten tank, but it turns out that it was just a vent line. My BP dropped back to normal, and I felt better.
So, everything was ok and I proceeded home with my brother behind me in the 97. Turns out the front brakes are questionable.[:|] No big deal. It runs and feels great aside from that. Some very minor surface rust on the body, but I’ll take it to the guy that fixed the 97. It has a new exhaust all the way back, and was under $1300 total. I can’t wait to dig into this one. I like it more than the 97, which is something I never thought I’d say.
Back in the 80’s I was modeling in N Scale but got to where I couldn’t handle those small locos and cars anymore. It was time to move back up to a larger scale. I thought about O Scale but I haven’t done anything with that since the early 60’s and besides, I don’t have the space for it. An 8 x 13 room isn’t very big when you take out the space taken by the kitchen and the computer equipment. So even though HO gives me some handling problems it was the most sensible solution to my space problem. If I had the space and money for O Scale I’d probably go with it. However my small income of less than $700 a month doesn’t buy much and O costs much more than what I currently have.
Time for me to call it a night. I didn’t get much sleep last night and having a busy day didn’t help much. See y’all tomorrow.
Another busy day. More work under shelter done. Walled up bay where tractor is parked with treated 2X4’s and plywood. Now to paint. Cleaned out big bay for wood working area. Table saw on treated plywood floor and compound miter on stand behind it. Can cut on miter saw, turn around and cut on table saw. Drill press to one side. All mower pull behind equipment and chipper/vac lined up between big trailer and wood working area. Almost through.
Very tired. Off to bed after shower.
Sleep tight.
Awaiting the arrival of the halloween “Ghouls & Goblins”. [:o)]
Good Evnin’ Ya’ll From Chilly Taxachusetts,
About time to hit the sack.
**HudsonJohn…**hope you are holding up under the strain and weighty responsibility of this storm’s aftermath.
News from Connecticut and the Northeast…still a massive mess from an electric power outage perspective due to this past Saturday night’s storm. And it will continue to be so, as will the economic and personal impact. CT Governor (as is ours) is very unhappy and very vocal about it. Officials are now saying that getting all the folks back on line is going to take another week, for some longer. The beleagered local utility workers meanwhile are totally overwhelmed and need help too slow in coming.
CT and MA. electric utilities, as in all States or regions, understandably do not individually have the resources in place to handle by themselves a catastrophe of this magnitude. But what is an enigma to me is that the power companies, even if they compete against one another, don’t seem to have an effective formal mechanism in place with further outlying and unaffected electric utililties to “borrow and mobilize” personnel and equipment in advance of a weather-related mess that they know full well is going to happen.
This power stuff doesn’t happen infrequently here in the Northeast. I know the electric utilities have the infrastructure in place to buy and sell power to/from one another in a blink of an eye and a flip of a switch, and they plan quite well for spikes in electric demand (Summer) or a reduction in localized capacity (due to maintenance or unexpected equipment failure). Why not a similar responsive partnership to deal with above-ground power line dam
Good morning everyone. Bit on the chilly side but will be in the 70s most of the day. Feel sorry for y’all up north, we have never been without power for more than a few hours. Still real busy with the adoption paperwork. Have our second meeting with the social worker this weekend. Also have to do a report on how we are to deal with any needs for the children. Last night I had a nice conversation with a lady with Georgia Pines, a group that works with the blind. We are supposed to bring them in when we get our daughter. They will come to the house to teach her. One great thing about the lady I spoke with is that she is Chinese and speaks fluent Mandarin, so that should make the kids more at ease.
Joe, from what I hear, a lot of deployed folks purchase such items as cars,etc from military returning state side. At Ft. Benning, we had “the lemon lot.”. Unlike the name sounds, it was where you could pick up some nice deals. Hope you have a great time there. Please share some photos of the local area when you get a chance.
Time to head in.
God bless, dennis
Good Morning from Blueberryhill…
It is a dark and dry 40 degrees. Going up to 56 today with a little sunshine.
Up early today. I have an appt. to take care of and then I can relax the rest of the day. Looking forward to running trains. I have to take it slow and not rush going down the basement steps. I remember a few years ago and it took me 3 months to get down there. It has only been 5 weeks, so far.
Dining car is here and it is Cheerios for breakfast.
Y’all have a great Wednesday.
Chuck