OK… so I now have six Life-Like Proto 2000 undecorated Mather Boxcars that I have longed to own for more than a decade.
My loving wife was excited for me when I won the auction. She was thrilled at how happy I was when the cars arrived. She was glad I enjoyed assembling them.
So tonight (actually 3:00 AM), I am in my workshop watching the Canada vs Finland Women’s Hockey game and assembling a Tichy USRA Single Sheathed Boxcar kit. She says “are you assembling another one of those Mather cars?”
I said no, it was a Tichy USRA car. Then… she asked what the difference was, because they looked the same to her.
I said… look, this car has three diagonal braces on each side of the sliding door, the Mather cars only have two.
Her look was priceless, then she said it “YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING! For ten years all I have heard is how badly you wanted Mather cars and it was just because they have fewer braces? That is ridiculous! They look EXACTLY the same!”
Then she left.
So, what have you done to make your spouse say “You have got to be kidding?”
I suspect that my answer will not be as tongue in cheek as you were hoping for, but my answer is “nothing”, and I hope your wife was making the comment in jest.
My wife supports all aspects of my modelling. If I was to show her a similar example she would no doubt state that my attention to detail was amazing. She does joke with our friends and her workmates about my hobby, but never in a derogatory way.
OK… Look at the crane in my avitar. I’ve audibly dreamed of building it since before we were married in '81. I actually started on it in Dec '06
It’s 1/24 scale. Well, it’s supposed to be. (we’ll call it G scale here) After spending years scratch building it, at about 95% complete, (8 functions are RC) I decided that it’s proportions were about 16 scale inches too tall at the deck height, the carrier is 7 scale feet to long, and the whole thing about 9 scale inches too wide. This is in comparing it with real 1/1 cranes in what would be it’s weight class, about the heaviest for a lattice - truck crane.
That has been bugging me for a while. So after taking about a dozen pages of notes, measurements, drawings, etc… I decided to make it right. Extensive rebuild of the carrier, and less but still considerable work to the upper unit.
When she found out I was up to my chin into the overhaul, well, she didn’t use the phrase word for word, but you know “The Look” when you see it, right?
The only time my late wife said “you’re joking right?” is when I went from my standard Kodachrome film to Fujichrome–plus a new Cannon 35mm camera just to take photos of trains.
Same as Dave, my wife supports my hobby and I don’t get “you’ve got to be kidding” comments from here.
My first wife was very antagonistic to my hobby, part of the reason we didn’t get along. That would have been the type of comment I might get from her.
I imagine those who have train hostile wives would be most likely to get those kinds of comments.
I think I can only recall one “you’ve got to be kidding” statement from my wonderful spouse (as it relates to trains or model trains I hasten to add): I had just poured “Magic Water” two part resin on my modeled creekbed and per instructions and suggestions was blowing on it to make any air bubbles rise up and disappear. She could hear me blowing and blowing and blowing and came from another area of the basement because she thought perhaps I was having another stroke.
When she heard my explanation she said the phrase in question, or one like it.
Another time I was weathering the “perfect” edges of plastic flatcar decks using a drywall screw and it made a very odd noise. She came down to investigate. When she heard my explanation she said “Good idea,” but I have a hunch her actual meaning was “you’ve got to be kidding.”
I haven’t gotten that particular phrase yet, but in my early enthusiasm, I guess I talked about trains too much, so I got “Honey, can you please talk about something besides trains? It’s getting really old really fast.” [#oops]
Good news is, I did, and she’s actually shown some enthusiasm herself now when I talk about my plans. So the key here, gentlemen, is to diversify the conversation. I don’t know that she’ll ever be into it the way some of the wives I’ve read about here are, but there may be some hope.
It used to be almost anything, but she’s pretty-well given up on talking to me at all…just as well, I suppose, 'cause apparently I don’t listen. [:-^][swg]
Nowadays I just get the occasional eye-roll after a visit to one of my local dealers, return from a train show or get a delivery. I can usually deflect it by asking about her trips to Jo-anns and deliveries knitting and sewing supplies. Fortunately she doesn’t have access to my inventory list that I created in Excel. I’ll probably be able to buy a little grace if I get her that long-arm quilting machine that she’s been hinting for the last few years…
well im collecting all 25 HO scale big boyi have 13 and im scouring fb market place for deals , do you think i can get the 25th big boy without getting that:#] phrase wish me luck [*-)]
My wife always makes me buy things at swap meets. She picked out a Woodland Scenics log truck at a recent show and bought it without my knowledge.
I always spend more when she is with me. This is expecially true when it come to brass. I probably wouldn’t even have half the brass locomotives I have if it were not for her. However, I doubt she could tell an F unit from a Trainmaster.
The only thing that (so far) has ever made my GF say “You’ve got to be kidding” is the one time we were on a rare mileage fan trip and, after having been on the train for over 8 hours, they decided to take a side trip down another line that originally weren;t going to go on, which added like another hour to the trip. Made me wish I had picked the final segment as my cab ride segement, because those guys got an extra long stint.
I forgot about this. About fifteen years ago the Seminole Gulf Railroad took out the tracks to the limestone quarries on Alico Road.
Right before this they had a “last run rare mileage fan trip” down the sidings and into the quarries. When I explained to my wife what a “rare mileage fan trip” was she said… “You Have Got To Be Kidding Me!”
Well, PWRS is on the way home from just about anywhere for us and they have all my modeling info on file. So one day I was sitting at the computer when my wife came home and she slipped an Atlas Gold Series Trainmaster over my shoulder and said “I stop and bought you a present”.
Sometime later I was running my Rapido coaches on the layout and she came in and asked why I wasn’t pulling them with the engine she had bought me. I explained that there was no steam generator in the engine with that number. Oh, she said.
So a couple of weeks later she came home and I was sitting at the computer and she passed another Atlas Gold Series Trainmaster over my shoulder and said, “the guys at PWRS assure me that the engine with this number was equipped with a steam generator”[(-D]. They were right.
Nothing I do could ever phase my wife. It took me forty years to find her.
A few months ago I was bent over sideways and backwards trying to tweak some wiring when my wife wandered in to see what I was doing. I tried to explain that the odd shape of the train room made a few areas difficult to work in (we designed our house with no square rooms, and my interest in the hobby was dormant at the time). After some discussions about minimum radius/ clearance etc, she says “Why don’t you just build a huge man cave attached to the east end of the garage and build whatever you want?”
Hmmmmm. Wheels are a turning, but that decision is at least a year out and a discussion for another thread.