Good morning folks

Currently the temperature is 76 degrees and going up to a high of 94 degrees. Today is supposed to be the hottest day of our heat wave.

Yesterday turned into an annoying and frustrating afternoon. Going from work to my cardiologist appointment was a struggle with unexpected heavy traffic. As I watched the time on my GPS increase instead of go down with each mile I traveled I decided to call the cardiologist’s office to tell them I might be late. To my utter surprise the receptionist informs me that my appointment is tomorrow, Friday. I asked since when. I had checked the online patient portal before I left work, and it said Thursday the 27th. She tells me that someone called from the office last week and told me it was changed. I informed her that I never received a call and I never would have agreed to a 3 PM appointment on a Friday. She then asked if I could still come in tomorrow and I had to inform her no since I had taken time off from work and I could not do it two days in a row. Now I had to reschedule the appointment again.

I created a consist with the two Reading Centuries. I ran them while I cleaned the litter pans and started a load of laundry. The locomotives ran fine. Later I started to make up a train and I selected four Rapido PRR F30D flat cars and trailer for them. I put them on the track and coupled them to the locomotives. I did not make it around the first curve before troubles started. Two cars uncoupled and the cars were not running smoothly. I examined the cars and found that two of them had broken couplers. The couplers looked fine, but they were not staying closed when the train was moving. Examining the wheels, I found out they were not moving freely in the trucks. It was at that point I decided to go to bed.

This afternoon my wife and daughter are going to see the Barbie Movie. After spending much of the day outside I will most likely stay in the air conditioning. There is some laundry to do.

Saturday is supposed to be hot and humid before the rain comes. If I am up early enough, I may go outside and trim the Hosta since they are done flowering. I also have some plants to move around and replant a couple of pots. Once the heat starts to ramp up, I will be inside. I have more laundry to do and the floors in the foyer and living room to do a heavy cleaning. We need to run to the produce store and the grocery store. I also will need to run to Delaware to get gas.

Sunday will be doing whatever did not get done Saturday.

Any modeling I can do will consist of working on the Rapido flat cars. I want to finish making up and running the trailer train that I have been trying to do all week. I have a few cars that need couplers changed. Maybe I might even layout the street pattern around the Union Station.

I hope everybody has a good day.

Good morning, everyone is suffering from the weather. We did have a storm the other night, really messed up some parts of town. Some even got rain, 3/4" just south of us, Scottsdale got over an inch. We got just enough to spot up the vehicles and enough wind to break a few things. I have several arms on one cactus that are broken off from wind, but no rain to water them. The rain even skipped the airport and so officially we are in our 127th day without rain. Maybe next week. Right now, it's hard to tell the difference between the hot and cold water coming out of the faucets. Speaking of faucets, it's been over a month now and they still haven't replaced my faucet. "it's on order" they say when I call.

Tom, we have many discussions during our breakfasts about customer service, especially in the medical field. Seems like no one cares that we are the customers and patients. My dermatologist did a biopsy last week, so I called yesterday, "sorry Mr. Day, the results aren't back yet, it's taking a bit longer than normal, but we'll call you after the doctor looks at the results". It wasn't ten minutes later, they called. "just got your results". Yes, someone dropped the ball and didn't call me days ago, and yes, I now have to go back and get cut up again....

Nothing else significant going on around here, when it's 115+ out, not too many folks want to do anything except get out of town or hunker somewhere that's got A/C. I remember when not all houses had A/C, some had "swamp coolers", and so going to the movies or hang out at the mall were popular things to do. Now in the Phoenix area, there are but two or three left. The PV mall was leveled about a year ago and they're in to process of demolishing Metrocenter Mall, one of the oldest and largest around and Fiesta Mall which has been vacant for years now.

I hope everyone has a nice day, stay cool if you can.

Hello Blue
Sun this morning, even a sky without smoke. A nice purrty blue. Mayhaps storms in the evening. Hi of 92.
Did some grocery shopping yesterday, left with a tear in my eye. Prices just keep going up. At least eggs are back to a dollar a dozen.
Might stay in today, humidity is high.
S.J.

Good evening everyone. 
        Yesterday the fellow showed up to do the floor and I must say he is as slow as molasses but what a craftsman, (I knew that). This fellow grew up with my kids and I have known him since 1974. A great worker, works for a reasonable price, and does a terrific job and can do most anything construction related, and he is even a very talented upholsterer.  He is very fussy but so far he as installed about 300 sq ft of flooring and will finish tomorrow.  If we would quit reminiscing he could get more done   .  I have been doing the cutting but he has been marking what he wants. The best part is my wife loves the floor. We have gone from a oak appearing laminate floor to a vinyl planking that looks like grey planed barn siding. 

         Watching the news tonight (which I try to avoid) they were toking about the passport back log.  They also mentioned the option of paying extra to expedite the process. I know this has been available for years but tonight it finally rubbed me the wrong way. I don't see how it is fair for someone to buy a place in line closer to being helped and I wrote both my senators and my congressman to let them know exactly how  I felt.  I always thought paying a bureaucrat extra money to do his job was bribery.  

         I got a little train time tonight. I lubed the Amfleet cr wipers and it made a real difference. I also started to add the detail parts to my last SD80 MAC. I did the 4 number boards and 9 grb irons then calmly turned out the lights and cme into the house.  Detail work actually makes me shake if I do too much at one sitting.   

         Days, I remember back in 1958 GM was having trouble with new cars painted black with the "New" acrylic Lacquer in sunny Arizona and other hot spots in the south. It supposedly was heating to where it ws reflowing. 

          We have had rain all around us but it has managed to miss us. We need some right in our area.  It reached 88 today and hit 91 yesterday but I was inside most of the time except for moments using the band saw and scroll saw to cut the planks, and it was a quick job because the garage was over 100 degrees. 

          Gas here is around 3.45 and rising. 

Cheers
Charlie

i all. Been Mia for the last week fell about 8 days ago and ripped my hamstring off the hip then Sunday felt like pile of hammered you know what went to er Monday they slapped me into hospital with a bad case on phenomena finally got out today weak but on the mend.
Jim

Greetings, gang.

Clear and 66 in the remote reaches of northern Iowa this morning. Only going to the mid 80s but still very humid. Like Charlie there's been rain all around me but nothing here. Yard is looking very dry.

Also like Charlie I did some letter writing. I wrote to the local newspaper complaining about their decision to switch to having the newspaper delivered by the postal service rather than by carriers. It's gotten so bad that sometimes I get 3 days worth of paper in one day. Can't imagine why I haven't heard back from the paper yet.

Jim - glad to hear you're doing better. Prayers for a speedy recovery.

All stay safe.

Tom

Good morning all, according to the rain gauge map we got the only rain in the valley last night, .04", enough to mess the vehicles up and blow garbage into my entryway. We are expecting this heat wave to let up a bit by Monday, (108) with a good chance of a storm. I'll wait until Monday to see what actually happens.

Charlie, my DIL's passport expired and so she went and paid the $50 for a fast return. She was frequently on the phone tracing it's progress and it finally showed up two days before they left for London. That only took three months to expedite. And yeah, you're right, we should all get expedited service at no additional cost. We employ enough government workers that we should be able to move them around where they are needed the most.... I know, what a stupid concept.

Oh, I went back and checked that transformer on that flat car. The only marks I could find was the car #16800. There were no owner's marks visible. My friend said he got close enough to see the gross weight, 330,000 pounds, max load, 780,000 pounds. Not sure where it's heading to but it's been sitting there for over a week now.

Jim, sorry to hear you were in the hospital, but that's the best place to be if you're sick or hurting. Glad to see that you're doing better. Just take it easy, we all heal a lot quicker when we listen to our doctors.

Tom, I gave up on my newspaper several months ago. Advertised to be delivered by 7:00 AM, some days it was showing up around 3:00 PM, other days, not at all. They just can't find folks that want to deliver papers. I got a phone call a few weeks ago trying to get me back, I told them, I've subscribed continuously since 1956 and when I dropped out, no one ever thought to ask me why. You know what, she didn't care either. I'm OK, I read the news and comics on the Internet and watch local news on TV when I feel up to it.

Ya all have a fun-filled weekend, stay safe and stay alert, too much crap going on right now that if you're not alert, you may not be safe.

Hello Blue
rain, now sun, hi of 81 today.
August already, kinda sad for me. I love the greens and flowers of summer. 
Newspaper? yes, the same thing here. A lot of missed papers, price increases, after many years we gave up too. Missed it for a while, but past that now.
No train news.
S.J.

I was told that there was a little problem with the curtain in the living room. The support at one end had pulled out of the ceiling. (This is one of those I-beam tracks.) The plug was broken and it looked like the hole was expanded. Went down for a new plug -- we have some nice big ones that screw into drywall. But there's a beam right above the hole and the plug drilled a bigger hole. So I went shopping for 1" long plugs.
I moved the mount a couple of inches and installed the plug. Noted that there was no beam above this bit of drywall. Screwed the support back on and tightened the next one in line.

Sometime when SWMBO is out I'll plaster the old hole.

Neighbours came back from their trailer so that they could have their kitchen floor replaced on Thursday. Found that their water heater was leaking. They managed to get an appointment for Friday morning; showed up a bit after noon.

Greetings, gang.

Cloudy and 64 headed for maybe the low 80s. Looks like the heat has broken for a while.

Unfortunately for me I'll be heading directly into the heat. I'll be leaving here Tuesday morning headed for Teas to visit my son and his family. Looking forward to it. Got a text from my daughter-in-law saying it's supposed to be triple digits while I'm there and to dress accordingly. I told her no, I will be wearing clothes. Not much going on around here. F1 pre-race starting shortly. "bout all the news for today.

All stay safe.

Tom

Good morning all, so far this summer has been a bust. We're still breaking and tying records, 30 consecutive days with temps at 110 or over, 15 days of 115 or higher. Still no big monsoon storms. Today's forecast: There is a marginal risk of severe weather today, yeah, sure....

Was talking to the lady that cleans my house, her husband worked for the local Budweiser distributor for 40 years. Budweiser is laying off folks thanks to the Bud Light fiasco, and so are distributors, including him. I guess employees are really upset, she says that he switched to Modelo even before the layoff. But your job is eliminated after 40 years, come on....

Saw this on Ziggy this morning, typical of what we old folks go through:

https://www.gocomics.com/ziggy/2023/07/30

I did finish my project and it's still nasty hot out in the garage workshop, but I did the finish work inside the house. Notice that Mr. Pendleton said nothing about us loosing brain cells....

Nothing else significant going on to talk about. Have a great day today, just don't overdo it, the heavy stuff can wait. Tom, have a safe trip, and yeah, clothes are a good idea, even when it's hot out.

Greetings, gang.

Cloudy at the moment but it's supposed to clear off and get to the mid 80s. No rain in sight.

There is, however, water in sight. Just in the wrong place. Turned the water on yesterday and realized it was not getting hot. A quick trip to the basement confirmed my diagnosis that the water heater had gone belly up. I'll be calling the plumber shortly to see about getting a new on. This is not something I want to have to deal with while finishing preparations for my trip tomorrow.

All stay safe (and dry).

Tom

Hello Blue
Another Monday is letting summer slip away. 
Sun and 80 for the Hi. 
No special news.
S.J.

Good morning Blue
     It is currently 68 degrees heading for 79. 

     I made a trip to the vet with one of the feral strays this morning. It volunteered to be fixed. I had set the trap but there was no bait in it so I guess you can say curiosity cost it it's reproductive system.  only 4 more to go.  

      I trimmed the rest of the hedge that was encroaching the alley to my drive way and put the clippings on the compost/brush pile. 

      I am slowly adding detail parts to a Kato SD80 but I have to make a run for some super glue. I damaged the tube I had trying to open it so I know it will be dried out.  I only buy the small quantities because of that.  It is a small expense compared to the other things in modeling. 

     I have the never ending battle with the grass to complete today. I got most of it mowed yesterday but I got rained out. 

      Keep us updated on your trip if you can Tom. 

      Tme for a second cup. 
Charlie

Good afternoon, just a bit behind today. Things are changing a bit weather-wise, went to church early yesterday morning and there was evidence of rain in Sun City, yet the rain gauge map doesn't show any in that area. This morning there were puddles in the gutters and more evidence of rain in our area,but again, the rain map doesn't show we had any. One thing for sure, it was in the low 80's this morning and not suppose to get over 108 so this is the end of at least two records, 31 consecutive days at 110 or higher and consecutive days of lows at 90 or higher. (not sure how many). We are still vying for the record number of days without rain, so far yesterday makes 130 at the airport. We watered the cactus over the weekend so that should bring the rain today. If not, I'll get the truck washed tomorrow.

Got a real slow leak in one tire, needed to add air today and my compressor went south. Never good timing but you never know until you need it. Lucky, Harbor Freight had one the same size on sale.

That's all for now, take care good people...