The Hobo Camp Fire Is going well #IX.. Stop In!!!

[ezdays]

Good morning folks, boy, did we take a hit yesterday morning. There was so much water in some freeway underpasses that the pumps couldn't work fast enough and they got flooded. Some areas got close to two inches, big news... Bad wrong-way freeway crash a few miles from me and a few hundred feet from where we lived a few years ago. The driver was not impaired, she and a young girl didn't make it. There are signs all over when you enter a freeway the wrong way. Some off ramps here have detection devices, but that's mostly in the center of Phoenix on I-17 where all the drunk drivers seem to accumulate.

Looked up corner notching types for my N scale log cabin. I knew about full and half dovetails and V groove, but there must be 43,000 other ways to notch logs all dependent of the shape of the log and actually the ethnic builder and location of the cabin... I've decided that going the dovetail route is crazy difficult and wouldn't be seen anyway, so I'll wait until I see what Jim sends me so I can decide, round, flat, square, rectangle or whatever for the shape, then decide on how to notch the corners.

Time to go, it's Friday, big group gathers at Brenda's for breakfast. One day we expect Brenda to show up. She should be out of the hospital by now and recovering. Apparently weak and no hair still, but she's a very strong woman. Keep her in your prayers if you can.

Take care, have a great day, stay safe and stay cool....

[Charlie B]

Good morning
 We had a nice rain last evening and we needed it. My wife and daughter are at the county fair so I will work on the motor home for a while. We have a nice day predicted for the most part. I will probably mow later when things dry out. 
Good luck with the surgery Don. Everyone else stay safe and keep the soles of your feet on the pavement...
Charlie

[sir james]

Hello Blue
Sun and 80s today. Humidity is high.
Rain yesterday evening added to the two inch's we got the day before.
We did need the rain, my back lawn looks more like straw than grass.
No special plans for the day. We have enough groceries to run us well into next week.
Tomatoes got planted late due to so much spring rain that they are all still green. Looks like we will get too many all at once.
S.J.

[tompm]

Good afternoon folks

It is 83 and going up to 90. According to the weather guessers we are in for some heavy rain over the next day or so.

Last night was recovering from physical therapy. The therapist played with the shoulder and I felt it. The only thing I did after I got home was put out the trash. No trains. I did get the non conductive tape I need.

Work around the house will depend on the weather. If it goes as predicated with a lot of rain the outside items such as moving plants around in the window boxes an doing a bunch of weeding will be postponed. We do have some inside things to do such as some heavy cleaning and the never ending laundry.

If I have time I want to finish cleaning and tuning up the first Athearn RTR loco. I then need to start on the second one. It too is soaked with oil and needs a good cleaning. I also have many cars to tune up.

A gas run should happen at some point along with probably a pharmacy and grocery store trips.

I hope everybody has a good day.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Cloudy, very humid and 75 degrees outside my window this morning. The high for today is supposed to be in the upper 90s. Then storms move through the area overnight and everything is much cooler for the next several days.

It's been pretty quiet around here the last couple of days. I'm planning to stay away from the stores this weekend. It's a sales tax free weekend so the stores are always mobbed by people stocking up for the start of school. I did run the edger around the sidewalks. I'll probably do that once more before winter sets in. Makes it much easier to shovel and run the snow blower.

Gas price was down to $3.51 yesterday.

All stay safe,

Tom

[ezdays]

Good Saturday morning all, looks like the funcasters agree today, temps around 106 and no chance of rain. That will change next week with good chances of rain and temps even under 100.

I keep missing these assigned, "days", Wednesday was "Chocolate Chip Cookie Day", blew that one.... The one I miss more frequently though is "Taco Tuesday"..  

Most gas here is around $4.40 +/- a few now down to $3.75.

Not going anywhere that I don't have to. Looking at surgery on Tuesday and I don't want to be rescheduled if I caught something. Pat's family all have had a stomach flu and I'm making sure they stay two blocks away for now.

Take care, stay cool and do something that you like doing today, trains, sure, but anything else that's fun counts too...

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Light rain and 72 degrees this morning in the remote reaches of northern Iowa. The much needed rain should let up soon and the sun will return but at a much lower intensity. Only the mid 80s for a high today after yesterdays 94.

Not much accomplished yesterday other than the usual laundry. I went to a 60th birthday party for one of the neighbors. He had a nice turnout and I had a nice chat with one of the other neighbors. Nothing planned for today at all other than a bike ride after A.) it quits raining, and B.) the sun comes up.

Gas was down another 6 cents. $3.45 when I was out late yesterday afternoon.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning all, I did it again, yesterday was "National Mustard Day" and I could have had a mustard glazed donut if I knew.

Got up to 108 yesterday, today closer to 100 and possible afternoon t'storms. All week as a matter of fact.

Gas here is crazy, ranging from $3.69 to $4.69. Costco here is $4.14

Tom, good neighbors, I've been here four years now and still don't know any of my neighbors names. A few wave as they walk by, one couple stopped to talk when they knew my wife had passed, the same with the lady next door, but that's about it. I miss my old neighborhood where we knew each other from the day we moved in....

Not much else going on here, really slow news day, a car ran into the corner of a house, took out about an 18" square of stucco and it made the news including interviews with the folks that were sleeping "just inches away".  Come on, the car knocked off a bit of stucco and shook the house a bit, just cosmetic damage.

Uh, the elections aren't until November and we're already seeing "don't vote for that scumbag" TV ads. I truly hope they backfire of the candidate that's doing it, makes him look like he's running scared as an incumbent. Political and survey phone calls have stopped and we're now back to the phony charity ones. The ones where 99% of what they take in goes to "administrative", 1% to charity. It's like giving a panhandler money for food when it really goes for drugs.... We have one guy down by US60 holding a sign, "I really f----ed up, please help" Can't read the whole sign, too much info there, but just down the street is another sign, "Help wanted, all positions, will train".....

Take care, enjoy what's left of the weekend, and by all means, stay cool.

[sir james]

Hello Blue
Sun and 90s today, that's hot for us. Storms expected late afternoon will bring next week's temps into the 80s.
Daughter's family just got back from Myrtle Beach on the coast, they liked it but not the summer heat and humidity.
We too did laundry yesterday, the new machine makes some strange sounds when in the wash cycle. We are programed for swish-swish that is no longer there.
Some club members got together last night but I didn't go.
S.J.

[Charlie B]

Greetings guys. 
         I did get the grass cut yesterday and worked on the motor home. I worked on it today too, not long because of the humidity but I got the seat bolts out so I can remove the seats and pedestals so I can install new carpet. There wasn't enough room to use the impact wrench (which has spoiled me for sure). I had to use a breaker bar to loosen them then I applied some ATF and drank a cold coke one while the ATF loosened things up. After an hour soak I was able to remove all 8 bolts with my 1/2 in drive rachet. The bolds were 1/2 inch fine thread and there was a lot to unwind.  I have a doctor appointment in the morning so I will commence when I get home. I want to replace the spark plugs while the dog box is removed. 
         I went to Schenley to see the railroad before the track is removed. They were working getting ready to remove the stick rail that remains. They are bringing in a rail train to pull up the ribbon rail. There is about 11 track miles of that that was laid in 2010/2012 and it handled 130 trains so it is still brand new. I understand it is going to be laid to provide rail service to another mine that belongs to Rosebud. It was pretty tough on me to see all of our hard work being destroyed but time marches on. 
         Another one of my volunteers dies last week too. He was 83 years old and in great shape but had a fall about 6 weeks ago.  He was fully recovered and had just gone home. He did not respond to his sisters calls and she found him dead in his chair. 
        Here is a photo of him running his 15 inch live steam in 2004.    
He donated the railroad equipment to a group in Harrisburg, Pa. about 8 years ago. he boiler needed retubed and he didn't want to do it.
         He, like the other volunteers that have died will be missed by everyone. It was fun while it lasted.
         Unlike many railroaders, I was able to not only run a railroad, but I repaired equipment, did inspections, rebuilt track, installed a switch and 800 feet of siding and almost a mile extension of the line in Bagdad.  I also did the billing (NS and Conrail) and did the demurrage billing to the freight customer. I also saw a lot of things that made me upset with the railroads. There is a lot of mismanagement everywhere as well as crews that really didn't care if the job got done or not, but there were also great crews that serviced us. 
          More later, all stay safe and I pray that the whole country gets drought relief. 
Charlie

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Cloudy at the moment but "they" claim it's supposed to clear off later with a high in the upper 70s. Yesterday's high was also in the upper 70s but the humidity never got below 80%. Very muggy and uncomfortable. I did get about a third of an inch of light rain/heavy sprinkles.

Sister-in-law returning this evening for a couple of days. She's bringing pictures and 8mm film she got from her aunt and uncle when they passed away. Wants me to help sort them out. Only things I will be looking for would be pictures of my wife as a child and I know there was at one time a film of us on our wedding day. Hoping to find that.

I need to get to the gas station this morning. I forgot to go last night and Monday is the day they tend to raise the prices. Gas was down to $3.41 when I was out yesterday.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning everyone, hope you all had a good weekend. Me, I did little next to nothing, well, I've been shopping and laundry so I'm all caught up when I get back from surgery. Have no clue how mobile I'll be afterwards until they tell me.

Had a big storm blow through, lightning lit up the house for a while, thunder, all that as I'm going to bed. Just looked at the rain map and talk about living in a donut hole, there was almost an inch and a half to the west, well over an inch to the north, but our area stayed dry as a bone. It came from the NE heading to the SW and just missed us by <------> that much...

Gas is moving down, what gets me is Costco is at $4.15 here, $3.59 about eight miles away and $3.65 an yet another station about the same distance away. I know they call that, "regional pricing", Walmart does that too. There's three large and one small Walmart all withing about five minutes from my house and I've seen the same item priced different from one to the other. Walmart used to have those price checker thingies all over the store that would read the bar code and tell you the price, they've been gone a long time now, so if you're not sure you have to find an, "associate" to check if for you. Good luck with that....

Got a busy day today, started the design work on my log cabin, not sure if I'll have time to do anything on it today.

Take care, stay cool and stay dry, but most of all, stay safe...

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It is a very uncomfortable 82 going up to 93. No rain until Wednesday, just hot.

We got none of the supposed heavy rain for the weekend. To the south down around Wilmington, DE and just a couple miles to the north along the PRR's Main Line got rain. We did see some lightening and hear thunder. Since it was hot outdoor was very limited. We did the plants moved around in the window boxes and I got some weeding of the front gardens done. I had to fiddle with the water fountain in the front garden as it apparently was sending the water out of the basin. I also moved a plant from the backyard to the front patio. My son attended a back to school bookbag give away as a vendor so I helped him transport stuff to and from the site Saturday and then the wife and I ran some errands. I shampooed all the area rugs in the house. Sunday went to Delaware to get gas. Paid $4.09. I didn't have any grocery rewards this time. Price was about 25 cents lower than any Pennsylvania prices. We then hit the grocery store for the weekly restocking.

I finished cleaning and lubing one locomotive. I then tested it and it now runs better than before. It also has more pulling power. I began working on the second loco. I pulled apart the rear truck and cleaned off the excess oil. This locomotive is not as bad as the first. There is oil all over the trucks and the frame near the trucks unlike the first one that had oil everywhere. I wanted to test a couple of new locos I got but I did not get the chance.

Tonight is pretty open. I have to put the trash on the curb but little else so here is to hoping I can get some train time in.

[sir james]

Hello Blue
It's cloudy and 73. Sunset is 8:45 tonight. We have already lost a half hour of evening daylight.
We had some rain already this morning with more expected later in the day.
I haven't ventured out in the last few days so don't know how much gas is this morning.
I do know one thing for sure, we are paying steak prices for hamburger.
Not much news but at least I do check in.
S.J.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang. 

Slightly hazy and 56 this morning.  The high is supposed to be in the low 80s.  Should be a very pleasant day.

Sister-in-n-law arrived about 8:30 last night.  We ha to make an emergency run to the liquor store for some wine.  Seems she did not have the best of times visiting with and old friend.  This morning we're headed to the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Ia.  It's about 45 minutes away.  Then this afternoon we'll start sorting media that she brought along from her late aunt and uncle.  I'm hoping to find an 8mm film of my wife and me on our wedding day.  My SIL also wanted to know how her uncle got his photos on a "film strip."  After I saw what she was talking about it turns out it was simply the processed film from an analog 35 mm camera.  No further comment.

All stay safe.

Tom