Just saying hello. We have showers and I feel like a nap..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz 
Charlie

Good morning, don't know how most folks are handling the holiday, but I'm guessing quite a few are taking today off for a long holiday weekend. Got a few phone calls to make, not sure whose working and whose taking the day off. We hit 115 yesterday, it's going to stay up there for a while then drop down to 110 +/- . 

That's it for now, still taking it easy, I'm not suppose to do anything strenuous for two or three weeks. That's fine, I don't have the energy to do much of anything anyway.

Take care, have a great day and stay safe.

Greetings, gang.

Another warm day underway in the remote reaches of northern Iowa. 70 now going to the low 90s this afternoon. Same tomorrow then much cooler (mid 70s) for the rest of the week.

Fairly quiet day yesterday. Grave sites cleaned up and lots of goofing off for the rest of the day. Off to the gym for some swimming today and then a quick trip to the grocery store for a couple of items for tomorrow.

Don - no need to buy a new computer. Plenty of adapter cables available going from usb-c to usb for about$5 from Walmart..

All stay safe.

Tom

Hi all. as the song goes "just another manic Monday" this week I go to Tucson to see the orthopedic doctor about my hips hope they can do something to get rid of the pain that way i can be more active , need to get to work on the layout and to do more than isometric exercises. 
stay safe 
Jim

Happy 4th of July, gang.

It's 72 already going to maybe 92 this afternoon with a 50% chance of thunderstorms. That's down from the 80%chance they were predicting at this time yesterday. Oh well, either it will or it won't.

Fairly busy day until shortly after lunch yesterday. Gym and then the grocery store. After that I paid the bills and took the pollution solution vehicle to take care of the drive-bys. I'll be heading out shortly to get my bike ride over early before it gets too hot. Then it's goof off time for the remainder of the day.

Gas ws down to $3.33 yesterday.

All stay safe.

Tom

Good morning everyone, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY to you all.What a blast, no not the dumb-dumb neighbor that was testing our his fireworks, the temps. We started out yesterday at 87 and wound up at 116, one degree shy of the record. And yes, there are folks that hike the trails and wind up in the back of an ambulance. Occasionally worse, they've had folks start out with only a single bottle of water, so now they're closing all hiking trails when the heat gets up over 110.

That's all for now, some Fourth doings over at Pat's house later today, not sure if I'm going to make it. I'm doing better but in minuscule steps so I think I'll just sit back and watch the fireworks on TV.

Take care good people, and as they say, have a safe and sane Fourth of July, and please don't forget what it took to get us here.

Hello Blue
Gotta say hi on the 4th.
A thin layer of gray smoke this morning but at least the sun is shining through it today.
Yesterday afternoon I actually saw blue sky for a little while. Hi of 90 today, that is hot for us Michigan folk.
Will have some grilling at the daughters' house later today. Always lots of fireworks in our neighborhood. I don't mind, kinda enjoy them till the few jerks that won't stop till after midnight.
S.J.

Good morning folks

Going to be a sauna today. It is currently 72 on it’s way to 90. Humidity is already at 91%.

We had a nice and easy holiday weekend. Since it was just the wife and I we did not do much. When it wasn’t raining or ungodly hot, we did some gardening. I got caught up on the bulk item laundry. We did heavy-duty cleaning of the kitchen, breakfast nook, and dining room floors. Lastly, I got the new air conditioner installed in our bedroom.

I got the couplers changed out and screws installed for the coupler pockets on 10 Athearn tank cars. Also got the couplers changed on 7 Athearn grain hoppers and a couple of boxcars. I tuned up a bunch of rolling stock and got some entered into the inventory program.

Tonight, will be finishing the bulk item laundry. I need to figure out dinner. It is not easy cooking for two when you are used to doing it for four.

I hope to tune up some more rolling stock and perhaps run some trains.

I hope everybody has a good day.

Good "day after the fourth" morning, as usual, the neighbors cranked up their fireworks around 8:00 last night and kept going past 10:30. Even with earplugs I could not block the guy behind me who had some really loud ones and kept waking me up. I was waiting for a phone call, "uh, sorry neighbor but I set your roof on fire, better call the fire dept". Anything that leaves the ground is illegal here but that doesn't stop some folks.

As for temps, we are looking at up to 114 for the next few weeks. So far, our monsoon season is a bust, and storms are hard to predict. How hot is 114 really? Well, the water out of my cold water tap is hot enough to take a shower. I can basically turn off my water heater for the summer.

I have the plumber stopping by this morning to fix that leaking flex pipe. I feel badly because that's a job I'd normally do but my guardian angel is telling me I'm well past the age of crawling under a sink, and that's why I pay for a homeowner's warranty.

I'm still taking it easy for at least another week or so. I'm doing a bit better each day, but it would be stupid to not listen to the doctor's orders. The upside to all this is that I stay home and out of the blazing heat.

That's it for now, enjoy the day and stay safe, too many kooks out there right now....

Greetings, gang.

67 going to 75. Maybe clearing off after lunch. Got about a quarter inch of rain overnight.

Hope everyone survived the holiday. It was interesting watching people shoot off their fireworks while it was raining. Hope everyone around here got finished last night. Nothing much going on around here today. I took yesterday completely off except for feeding myself.

All stay safe.

Tom

Hello Blue
It's 78 heading for 92.
Tired but a fine afternoon with the kids and of course the food was great. The grandsons still had a heap of fireworks to shoot when we left. As for home, stuff was still going off when I fell to sleep around midnight. No special plans for today.
S.J.

We had a drive in a different direction today. Dayle felt that the radio we listen to a lot left a bit to be desired in the sound department. There is one in another room that she likes. These are internet or wi-fi radios that pick up stations that stream over the net. Our over-the-air stations here leave a bit to be desired. So she checked and found that the shop where we bought the last one still had some in stock so we headed out to the great metropolis. This is the first time we've had the new car out that way.
We're using a GPS that's hooked to her phone. It seemed to do what we ant, although the warnings of traffic congestion ahead come a little late and only show for the route it's advised us to take. The transponder for the toll route seemed to work OK in the new car.
The shop had a radio set aside for us. I managed to get it connected with only one mishap putting a password in. I'm listening to it now. I selected 3 PBS classical music stations and 2 news stations for presets.

Good morning, kinda sluggish this morning, only reached 111 yesterday so I should have went jogging except that they shut down the trails when it hits 110. Dodged a bullet there.... All TV newscasts are all about getting water to those on the streets. Must have at least 50 distribution centers throughout the metro area. One group donated almost 180,000 bottles of water. There is an area dubbed, "the zone" that Phoenix is under order to clear out the homeless by mid-July. They've been working on it for months now and the results, there are more people living on the streets there than when they started...

Speaking of water, one piece of trivia I saw on the news, they were talking abut current fashions and one comment said it took 3,000 to 5,000 gallons of water to make one pair of jeans. Don't know where they got those numbers, but that's astounding if they're even close...

No change, hot and some say a possibility of rain next week.

Plumber stopped by, has to come back and replace the faucet since the flex pipe is integral and not separate. He spent more time here taking photos of my layout since I'm not sure if he's ever seen one, plus he recognized some of the structures that I have on it.

Still in the "rest" mode, feeling stronger but can't take a chance of blowing out my artery so I pay attention to my instructions. Y'all have a fine and peaceful day, I see where folks are shooting each other for the slightest of disagreements. Just be careful and stay safe.

I replaced the ceiling light in the kitchen today. The track light has become a bother to maintain as the funny bulbs no longer seem to go into the socket things and I can't tell whether the bulbs are bad or the socket things aren't right. We looked at some yesterday in a store but I'm glad we didn't get any because I found that the mount for the lights was off center. Today we bought a bright circular LED fixture.
I ten found out how the track light was mounted. There were two bolts near the end of the track and I think they were those butterfly fixings. They were hard to unscrew and there are now two 1/2" holes up there. The middle of the track wasn't fastened.
The new light had a metal strip that went across the box, so I bolted that on. Then the light pops over the ends and is secured by plastic clips. Then I realised that it's also supposed to be screwed to the ceiling Those clips aren't coming out again because the light is over the island.

Now to see if the track light bits have a useful 12 volt transformer in them.

Good morning. I can say that because it is Friday morning here.  We had a hot day today.  I watched the news tonight and they were saying we have had record high average global  temperatures for the past 3 days. I find it amazing they can determine this so fast, and where did they get the readings before. The thermometers are no where near where they were a hundred years ago, and by the way, a hundred years ago the temperatures were almost (near a degree) as high. 

I have been taking my wifr to physical therapy for here vertigo.  
They are working to get the crystals in the inner ear back where they belong and so far so good. 

I mowed grass today and I didn't think it was overly hot. It was supposed to be a muggy 89 but sure didn't seem that bad to me.  

I worked on installing a decoder tonight and now I have to find some way to make lenses for dual headlights so I can glue some LEDs in place. 

The mouth pain is gone so I can call for an appointment to get everything else taken care of. 

Nothing else to report. Happy Friday everyone.
Charlie