Greetings, gang.

81 going to 90 with 73% humidity.

Just got back from a 2 mile walk and am really sweating. The humidity makes it really nasty outside. Nothing else going on here today.

Welcome back to our wayward member.

Charlie - with the heat and humidity I won't be doing anything outside for at least a week. Once I can get back out I'll set some stuff up and take a few pictures.

All stay safe ( and cool)

Tom

Greetings, gang.

The heat continues. 95 today, 100 tomorrow, and 102 on Wednesday with humidity above 60%. More like the gulf coast than the upper midwest.

Spent a quiet day yesterday. I was able to sit on the porch in the morning but was back in the house by lunchtime. After lunch I waged the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron. Not much plot but lots of explosion and some pretty cool cgi. Off to the gym this morning and probably another movie this afternoon.

All stay safe.

Tom

And a good Monday morning to everyone in earshot. Tom, sounds like our current weather, but not a brutal as it's been. There was a bit of rain on the east side, which is a bit confusing since Hillery is to the west of us and we're suppose to get some of its moisture. We did get a small shower early yesterday morning, but it never hit the rain gauge so we are still officially dry since March 15.

Not a lot going on around town right now other than the usual shootings, hit-and-runs and other disgusting stuff, like politics. It was announced a few weeks ago that the city is going back to recycling. We are asked to separate and put recyclables in the blue bin as if it was heading to the recycle plant, but it isn't. It'll still go into the landfill until the city thinks we got it right, so we have no clue when the real thing will happen. I wish they'd be a bit more specific about what they'd like to see and what is a no-no to recycle. That's the problem, too much garbage because people don't know sometimes. One guy made the news a few years ago because he though dirty diapers were OK to recycle.

It's good to see some long-lost friends coming back, let's hope we see more of them as they progress in their projects, of just to stop by the Camp and chat.

Take care all, and have a good and fun day.

Hello Blue
Sun and 80s today.
Due to poor weather in May our mater plants got put in late. Well I finally had BLTs yesterday with a real tomato. Tiss my summer pleasure.
S.J.

Good morning. Wake up it was 62 and heading for 87. The humidity is just right so it feels pretty good. 

I worked on the headlights on the FP45 yesterday. I managed to blow both SMD LEDs even though I had a 4.7K resistor in line so I switched to 5 MM LEDs and they glued to the headlight lens with super glue without a problem. I have to take the fur baby to the vets for a second injection of Adaquan. It has really helped. 

When I get home I may tackle a few chores but I still have one feral kitten to trap and take to the vet for desexing. 

Everyone stay safe this week and be careful of flash flooding. 

Cheers
Charlie

Good morning folks

It is 79 heading up to 89. They are saying that today will be the hottest day this week.

Saturday was a good day. My wife and I did some running around. My wife had a dentist’s appointment. Afterward we hit the produce store, got the car washed, and then stopped at the grocery store. When we got home my wife sat in the backyard gazebo while my daughter tried out the hammock she just purchased. I rounded up a few stray items from the yard and put them away in the garage and did a load of laundry. My wife cleaned and changed out the bedding in the Guinea pig cage by herself. While this may not be considered monumental it is considering nine months ago, she could barely do it. It shows how far down she went because of the blood clot almost two years ago and how far she has come back. There is still a good way to go but she is getting there. I added a cookie sheet outside and under the living room air conditioner so the water won’t drip down the wall.

Sunday, we did some more running. We stopped at Kohl’s to drop off an Amazon return. Then we headed to Delaware to get gas for my car. Price was $3.73 but I paid $3.13 with my grocery store reward points. Then we stopped at the grocery store to get a few things I forgot on Saturday plus a few items we didn’t know we needed Saturday. At home there was some more laundry to be done.

On the layout I tested a new B&O Bowser Baldwin AS-616. In DC it ran great, and Bowser did a great job on its appearance. I now need to get a decoder for it. After the test runs, I pulled up some track and over Saturday and Sunday I glued down more roadbed and tacked down track. I finished the two-track mainline so that half of the track for it is now down permanently except for a couple of pieces that I was waiting for the roadbed glue to dry.

This afternoon after work the wife has another dentist’s appointment. I have a few items in the yard that need to find a permanent home. I have some laundry to move around.

Tonight, I hope to tack down those couple of pieces of track. Then it will be time to move onto the second half of the main line tracks. I will also be adding feeders and wiring it into two blocks. I am hoping this will solve some of the power issues some locomotives have on that side of the layout.

I hope everybody has a good day.

Good morning all, well, we finally got enough rain to measure. Watching the TV news the past few days you would have expected severe flooding, showing videos of street and house flooding, water rescues and maps of where you can go to get sandbags. Problem is that we got around 1/4" on the average, the airport got all of 0.04". We'll take what we can get, and temps were in the low 90's, so we can't complain about that.

Nothing else significant going on. I may fuss with my layout today, I built a couple of log cabins and an outhouse a few months ago and I need to plant them and build a chain link fence around the park they'll be in. It's time I got back to doing something worthwhile.

That's it for now, enjoy the day, be careful and stay safe....

Greetings, gang.

It's a hazy 75 outside my window this morning and it will possibly hit 100 later on. With the humidity in the 60-70% range the heat index will be closer to 110-115. In other words really nasty out there.

Not much going on around here. I haven't even been on the bike because of the weather. I may make a run to Menards later on. I need a 2-1/4 hole saw for a project. Also a trip to the gym for some swimming.

Today is also the 13th anniversary of the ground breaking for the Backyard & Southern.

Gas price dropped again to $3.56 yesterday. Of course I still have 3/4 of a tank. By the time I need gas it will probably be back close to $4.

All stay safe.

Tom.

Good afternoon. 
     I got a very late start today. I just didn't want to get up so I stayed in bed for a couple more hours of sleep. 

     It is going to be almost 90 here today and the humidity is a little high so I will do a little work at a time. 

     I want to tell everyone, I bought an Epson Ecotank printer and set it up last night. If it holds up it has to be the way to go. It came with 4 bottles of ink, each bottle 65ML , compared to the Canon ink (XL Black has 22.5ML and color 6.5ml of each color. Canon cartridges (color and black) cost $54 and the 4 bottle genuine Epson refill (65ML each bottle) is on sale from one vendor for 34 bucks including shipping so I bought a spare I'll let you know how it prints for decals when I make some more.  The printer cost more but these others have been throw aways after you replace the cartridges several times and they won't print well with generic ink cartridges. 

     Our furgurl is doing a little better. She has had 3 sessions of injections and I believer there are 5 yet to go. I got a nice surprise when I when I asked about the charge for the day. The gal informed me I had already paid in advance. If the advance payment covers everything I am thrilled. I was figuring $300 per injection, so I am hoping I completely misunderstood the Vet. I still have to get up to take her out 3 times a night but I have to get up 3 times a night anyhow so that isn't a problem except I do have days I just have to play catchup with my sleep. 

      I may do some work on the motorhome this afternoon.

Keep cool and dry ya'all 
Charlie

Charlie: we have an Ecotank. We bought it when our HP stopped talking to our computer.
I had a small problem setting it up -- when you tell it to load the printer head with ink, I was pushing the wrong button.

We've had a small disappointment today. Two of Dayle's cousins from Michigan were going to come here for a few days. The older one (mother) isn't feeling well so they've cancelled. We were worried as the weather forecast for the route involves a lot more rain than Daze got. It is an eight-hour drive with a single driver.

Good morning everyone, just a short one today, nothing of any significance going on here.  After a few days in the 90's, we're back up to 105, no rain, but there's suppose to be another tropical storm headed our way, only to give us false hopes. So far this year, our official amount of rain is less than 3" at the airport.

Gas is steady right now, $4.49 at most places, Costco and Sam's are $4.29. There are remote parts of Arizona that have regular gas in the low $3.00 range, go figure...

Got an early morning appointment and some housework to do. I looked at my layout yesterday and I need to do some wiring and some ballasting before I can build the log cabin park so I'm skipping that until I feel better. Still a bit under the weather right now.

Take care, have a great day...

Good morning folk

It is currently 68 and going up to 78.

It has been a couple of crazy days. My wife had a dentist appointment on Monday and a podiatrist yesterday which threw our schedules off.

I finished tacking down the last two curves on the “western half” of the layout basically meaning half of the double track main line is tacked down and wired. I did have a couple of curve pieces that didn’t stick and had to redo them. On the eastern half I had a depression where a couple of foam board pieces came together. I spackled the joint smooth and level which should eliminate the bouncing that was happening there which was causing uncoupling and derailing.

The wife and I are going to spend this weekend in Rehoboth Beach, DE, so we will be packing over the next couple of nights. I hope to begin gluing down the roadbed and adding feeders to the first curve on the “eastern side” of the layout.

I hope everybody has a good day.

Good evening
       It has been raining here for about 6hours and look like it will continue overnight. 
       David, I didn't have a problem setting up the Ecotank using my wife's laptop but the setup program wouldn't install on mune. It would not download the driver properly so I downloaded the driver separately and all is well. My wife did some crafting with it and she is very happy. I will try some decals soon and see what happens. 

       Yesterday afternoon my wife told me she was going to trap the last unfixed kitten. She had been able to get close by putting food out so she thought she could grab it and put it in the trap and sure enough she did.  It wasn't at all happy about that but it went for a ride this morning and is now back with her mom and the other kittens. They are all desexed, all 5 are females. 

       I found a couple bad gears on one of the the FP45s and managed to let the axle cover fly so I quit for the day. It's on top of the cluttered work benchand that is cluttered with 4 different projects. I know I should only do one at a time but that would be too easy, especially now that I can't find tools when they are in my hand 

       Days, I hope you get some rain. The media said Hilary has raised lake Mead but I have been watching the water level for over 5 years now and it has been raising about .2 feet per day for several months now. [attachment=41271]
We need about 6 more snowy winters to bring it back but we also need to start conserving the water. Generating capacity is cut drastically when you loose almost 200 feet of head.

       Well I am into a new day here with my post. It's still raining and the dogs are taken care of for now. Have a great dy tomorrow and everyone stay cool.
Charlie

Good morning all, yeah Charlie, it'll take a long time to get back up to full, if ever, but it at least is heading in the right direction. I head the other day that someone was talking about moving some water from Powell to Mead, but I'm sure there'll be a fight about it..

Nope, not a drop. I looked out last night and saw a puddle in the gutter across the street, but no others. They wash their cars frequently there. I either take mine to the car wash or wait until it rains.

Gas prices are a bit funky, Costco and Sam's down four cents to $4.25, a few others dropped a few cents as well, but most are holding steady between $4.29 and $4.69.

That's it, still recouping so not much is getting done. Need to get a few house things done today, the cleaning lady will be here tomorrow.

Take care everyone, do something fun today..

Greetings, gang.

Another warm one under way. 77 now going to 97 later on with still very high humidity. Currently 85%. Just icky out there.

I moved a step closer yesterday to getting a door installed where the old one used to be. The original covers plate for the door knobs is smaller than current models so I am cutting pieces out of the door frame that came with the new door and using them to fill in the 2-1/8 opening. Then I'll redrill the opening to a smaller size. Going well so far but I can only work for short periods of time as I don't want the sawdust sucked into the a/c system. Only thing on the agenda for today is a trip to the gym and my usual Thursday group.

Gas down another penny to $3.55. It will skyrocket approximately 5 minutes before I need to fill my car.

All stay safe,

Tom