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

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

A very cool breeze from the north is making it feel much colder than 66 this morning. May get to the low 80s later. I thought we had a good chance for some rain but the storm split and went around us. Adding insult to injury it fired up again just east of town. Go figure,

Routine trip to the gym followed by mowing the lawn after lunch. This morning it's time to hit some grocery stores followed by a bike ride. Not much else planned.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning, rise and shine. Well, how about rise and a large cup of coffee.... I sometimes get so busy on the computer that I forget that I have a hot cup sitting on my desk, getting colder as we speak.

I think yesterday was the 11th day of 110 or better, we're heading to break the existing record of 18 day back in 1974. So folks, global warming was around long before it became fashionable.

Still not got much energy, way too hot to start walking outdoors so I'm looking to get a treadmill so I can walk inside, watch TV and sip a cool one all at the same time. Used ones seem to be running from around $100 up to $4,000, new from $175 to over $6,000. I also find that if you buy a certain brand, you have to subscribe to an app or else it won't work. What the heck is that all about? It's like you buy a toaster and if you don't pay every month for the app, you can't make toast.

If someone told me even ten years ago that I'd be going to the store to buy data for my phone, I'd tell them they were dreaming. Same goes for 25 or so years ago if someone said you'd be buying water in small bottles at the grocery store. Well, I did buy a Gig of data for $10 and now my cell phone does all the things it's suppose to. I find I'm using it up to view activity at my new doorbell. Apparently, it sends all the video to the cloud and to view it, my phone then uses up data to retrieve it. I apparently used 120 mb overnight doing nothing, at this rate I'll use my 1 gig in about a week....

Take care my friends and have an enjoyable day whatever it is you choose to do.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Thunder and lightning underway with rain just moments away. Second storm of the day. Had one move through overnight that dropped about a quarter inch. After the storms (yes, more on the way) move through it's supposed to hit 80.

Routing day yesterday. Grocery store and then a 17 mile bike ride. In the afternoon I ran the edger around the sidewalks and driveway. Looks really nice now. Swimming later on this morning.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning, thunder, lightning, rain, does that still exist? The weather lady on TV says we have a slight chance of some of that today, but she didn't sound too positive. The Weather Channel says nada.... Not a very inspiring monsoon season so far.

Not much change in gas prices, there are some valley stations  under $3.50, but here in Surprise, we're looking at $3.89 and up.


My "get back to me" list is growing, they all say they will, but nope. I told the woman yesterday, "I'm in no rush, just let me know what the status is, that's all I ask". Yup, "I understand Mr. Day, I'll get right back to you"..... sure you will.  BTW, she didn't. Have to call two doctors today because they never got back to me either. This seems so common now days with customer service, either you can't understand what they're saying or they haven't a clue how to help you. When you do call, you get, "please listen to the following because our menu options recently changed". No they didn't, you just want to confuse us so we just hang up. Same goes for, "you call is very important to us, we'll get to you as soon as our crew get back from their morning tea break". Even worse, "you call is very important to us, you are now #45 in the queue and so please don't hang up". I did have one the other day, "press '1' if you would like us to call you back", did that, "we'll call you back in two minutes". Twenty minutes later, I get a phone call, "please hold, you are next in line to actually talk to a human".

Enough grumbling, but us old retired folk are allowed all the grumbling we want so you who understand, grumble away, those of you that don't, your time is coming when that will be one of the little pleasures in life...

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

[BR60103]

We had an extra $7 charge on the phone bill last month. When the target phone was busy, they offered to call us back when it was free. That was $3.50 a shot, if I understood properly.

[Charlie B]

Good evening.
      I just finished the decoder and lighting in an Amtrak FP45 (I know they didn't have them but it is close to the SDP40F) It was a slow process because of glue drying time. I had to make headlights and numberboard lights from LED's, other than that it went well. Pictures tomorrow. 

       We got a separate bill from the anesthesiologist  company that attended my wifes surgery. We were charged double the amount the insurance said we were liable for so I called them and told them flat out I wasn't going to pay the extortion fees. I told them what I was to pay and the clerk, or what ever wanted me to pay it today. I told her I would pay the bill as soon as I got one for the correct amount so now I wait.  This is not the first time companies have tried to double up.  When I had my cataracts removed they tried to ding me for a $275 fee for using the facilities. The insurance company thought that one to be very creative but said they had covered everything and to forget that one.  I remember when they used to send everyone a huge itemized bill and it really tiny print at the bottom it said "this is not a bill"  however I knew some folks that had paid that and had a heck of a time getting a refund.  I haven't seen that for many years so that practice must have been shut down. 

       We had a nice day here today so I got the front 1/2 acre mowed.  

       We placed our grocery order on line and it will be ready to pick up at 10AM tomorrow.  I like it because I don't have to wander all over the store, and impulse items don't jump out to grab you. 

        More to come
Charlie

[jim currie]

hi all. another hot one the house made it up to 99 today the one part for ac got here the other is slated for Tomorrow before noon hope it gets here. too hot to do anything.
Jimm

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It is 72 heading up to 92.

The last few days have been a mess. Tuesday the flood waters receded and we were able to the concrete pour originally scheduled for Monday which for me meant a 10 hour day. Yesterday my back flared up. Moving around in the morning took quite an effort. Looks like I may be getting closer to that second back injection.

I was able to tune up and inventory some rolling stock. I have been trying to organize my locomotives into which ones have DCC, which ones are DCC ready, and which ones are DC only. I am trying to get a handle on the task before me in regard to converting fully over to DCC. Another pile I need to tackle is the passenger cars. Since the arrival of the Walters “the General” cars things are very disorganized.

Tonight, I need to make a pharmacy run. After that I need to get back my reorganizing the basement to give me better access to the layout and the models.

I hope everybody has a good day.

[FiatFan]

Greetings,, gang.

64 and clear headed for the mid 80s with a slight chance of rain this evening. Wound up with an inch and a quarter of rain yesterday.

Routine day yesterday except that baseball for one of the great-grandsons was canceled due to the field being under water after the rain. Looks like today will be a nice day for a bike ride. Otherwise no major plans for the day.

The gas station holding out for higher prices finally won. All the station I saw were at $3.39 as of yesterday.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning all, today will be the 14th consecutive day of at least 110, we should easily beat the record of 18 based of the forecast. Speaking of records, yesterday's low was 94, a record for that day, although I have seen a few days some time ago where it never got below 100.

Charlie, we seem to be in a era where our medical care is in chaos, nobody seems to care, and everyone has a story similar to yours. If it isn't a hospital or doctor that's trying to charge you, then it's the insurance company that doesn't want to pay. They overcharge you and hope you just pay or else they'll pound you until you surrender. Last year I had this surgery and when I got home, I found a letter from Blue Cross telling me that they wouldn't cover it because the doctor was not in my network. Now it's no fun recovering from any surgery without the added stress of wondering if I'm going to be hit with a $50,000 bill. (It'll cost you a few thousand just to remove a splinter now days). They eventually did pay and now that doctor is still not in my network, but they pay for what he says is, "continuity of service". Remember that phrase, it may come in handy some day.

Now for a medical miracle, I have had no energy since my recent surgery, I could hardly walk because my legs were so week. I got a massage yesterday, and by last night I thought I'd go out dancing if I could only find someone to dance with. Today I'm heading to the workshop and build me something.... The issue, I spent the best part of 10 hours on my back in the hospital which apparently affected my legs.

Y'all have a great day today, no floods, tornadoes or heat strokes, just a pleasant day...

[sir james]

Hello Blue. 80 for today.
Wife said storms overnight but I didn't hear them.
Years ago a doctor told me that leg muscles were very lazy so when we can't walk for whatever reason it's tough to get going again.
We have an outdoor club event on Saturday, weather looks iffy and there will be too many for being indoors. It's being held at a member's house.
One of my wife's sisters is visiting, a former smoker, on an oxygen machine 24/7.
S.J.

[FiatFan]

Happy National Nude Day, gang.

Clear and 67 going to the low to mid 80s this afternoon. Copy and paste for the next few days.

Decent bike ride yesterday. 21 miles in an hour and 41 minutes. Also hit a new top speed of 30.1 mph and yes that was downhill. I had a really bizarre dream last night I was at a dinner with people I used to work with. The main course was a pizza with spaghetti and Tostios® on top. Yes, it was just as disgusting as it sounds.

For all you swimmers out there I saw an article on CNN this morning that speedos are making a comeback. Definitely not a fashion trend I will be following.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning good people, another day in paradise, low yesterday was 95, and 115 for a record high. TV lady is back from vacation and says we could hit 119 this weekend. I see nothing but well over 110 through the end of July.

Good point SJ, after inactivity it is hard to get back to normal. I am looking for a treadmill, nobody in their right mind would go out walking in this heat..... Oh yes, we do have a few rescues everyday for those that have no mind and go out on the trail with a small bottle of water. Trails close early, but that doesn't stop some folks.

Plumber showed up yesterday with a very low end two-handle faucet to replace a single-handle one saying that was all they would allow. I called the warranty company, one gal insisted that was all they covered, however, her boss said that they had already authorized the right one so it's the plumbing company that's screwing up. Just like the medical industry, no real customer service that cares.

That's it, going to be a long day, did not sleep well, even with A/C on, it can get miserable at night. I hope Jim has his fixed by now. Some years ago we had an A/C go out, but that house had two, so we slept in the living room until it was repaired. This house, like most, only has one.

Have a pleasant day, seems like harsh weather all over the continent. Stay safe and stay cool.

[sir james]

Don I love summer but have no desire for the kind of heat you endure. Fla. doesn't get that hot but the humidity is as high as the temp. A nice place to be in the winter though. I remember one summer night in Vegas, it was still 106 degrees at midnight.
Sun and 80s for our today.
S.J.

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It is currently 80 going up to 91. We have already had a weird weather day. Due to a 6 AM concrete pour this morning I had to leave the house at 4:30 AM. Temperature was 83 and it felt like you were walking with a wet blanket around you. I was sitting in the construction trailer at 5:15 getting all the stuff together I would need to monitor the pour when all hell let loose. Lightening, thunder, wind, and heavy rain for about 15 to 20 minutes. Temperature dropped to 76 and the humidity went down. Since then, both have been climbing back up.

By the time I got home yesterday I was exhausted. Somehow, I found the energy to make dinner, aka put in the oven. I did manage to get the daily chores done. No modeling got done. I was too tired and I knew I had to be up at 3:30 AM.

Saturday if the weather holds there will be some gardening which will most likely be weeding. The wife has a dentist appointment, so depending on how she feels afterward will determine what we do. We have some running to do such as the produce store and grocery. I also want to run to Delaware to get gas.

Sunday the weather is supposed to be bad so we will be indoors. That will mean doing some laundry and other household cleaning. We got a new TV for our bedroom to replace the very old and obsolete one we have. I will be setting it up.

I have more cars to tune up and inventory including a box of cars that I recently discovered amongst some other non-train related boxes. I would like to run some trains. I have some a couple of locomotives I want to convert to DCC.

I hope everybody has a good day.