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

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

73 with 92% humidity. High for today in the upper 80s with a steady increase in temps over the next several days. Looks like I'm going to have to turn on the a/c to deal with it.

Yesterday was a busy day. I got the laundry all caught up and restocked the cupboards. Also made a quick trip to the bank and changed the oil on my car. Also filed the gas tank. I drove 500.4 miles on 11.89 gallons of gas. That works out to 42.1 mpg and there was no tail wind as evidenced by the lack of movement on all the windmills I passed on the way home. Average speed according to my car was 70. Today I need to mow the yard and wash the car. Lots of bugs collected while on my trip.

All stay safe.

Tom

[Charlie B]

Good afternoon.

     It is a pleasant 75° with the humidity at 46% and lots of sun. Mowing is the job for this afternoon. 

     Gas is $3.399 and it looks like that is where it is staying for a while.  

     I worked on a couple locomotives that needed some repairs last night but I had to quit before they were finished.  The super glue was not setting as fast as I want it to. I can't figure it out anymore. It used to set instantly, now it takes forever at times. I wonder if they were made to change the formula to protect us from gluing our fingers together. I have been researching several products that no longer work as well as original and found they were made to dilute the product because you could get hurt if you did not follow directions. 

     Tomorrow my son (40 year mechanic) is going to take our motorhome to the shop and check the front end. It wanders and we want to make sure nothing is loose before I take it for an alignment.  I (he) has done everything on it except the alignment. 

     Have a great weekend
Charlie

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Hazy sunshine and 72 headed for the upper 80s with lots of humidity.

Finished all my "catch up" errands yesterday so I can kick back and relax all weekend.. I don't even have to do laundry as I got it all caught up Wednesday. Only item on my to-do list for today is await the arrival of the mail which has been held for the last two weeks.

14 years ago today I sold my avatar for $1500 which is what I paid for it 22 years prior.

All stay safe.

Tom

[jim currie]

went to the orthopedic doc yesterday in Tucson (by the way gas at the Arco was 2.95) the alternatives aren't good they can replace both my hips and right shoulder or I can get an injection every 6 months  i opted for the injection , she wanted to give some meds for the hands but after consulting with the heart doc who said no way I should take that med I'm back to Asper cream and Absorbine and hope for dryer weather.
Jim

[ezdays]

Good morning all, it's Saturday, it's late and that's a good thing.... sleeeeep....

Jim, you're right on two counts, I would opt for injections as well, Joint replacement is a long-term commitment. I have a friend that had a knee replaced back in October and he says it's still swollen and painful. Before that, it was just painful. And as for the humidity, it's high, yesterday in Phoenix it averaged 43%. I have a humidifier that I turn on at night, during the winter and spring months I had to refill it every other day. Right now it lasts over a week. Just like swamp coolers, it's hard to put moisture into air that's already saturated, that's why A/C is so popular.

Our weekend is going to be a bit placid, we keep getting forecasts of storms, but nada, at least in my neighborhood. We had a family from out of town go on a hike yesterday, 13 folks in all including a few kids as young as 18 months. They got lost, ran out of water and temps were hitting 110. A crew of 28 was sent out to rescue them, three kids and one adult was sent to the hospital. Why do they do that? I can't take the heat walking from my car to the store never mind going on a five-mile hike. Not only that, but they've put another 28 people in danger because they had to search for them dressed in rescue gear. One newscaster blamed the city for not shutting down the hiking trail although there was a huge sign telling hikers what and what not to do.

Enough ranting for now, enjoy the weekend, but be wise on what you do..

[Charlie B]

Good Saturday

     I am doing well. I only have a sore foot to complain about but that will pass. 

     Jim, they have a treatment for those joints that involve drawing some of your stem cells and producing cells that will regenerate the tissue and matter between the joints.  Insurance will not pay for it because the FDA has not approved it and is unlikely to do so. Here is a link to a Canada research site that appears to be truthful and objective.  They have been using it for dogs for several years. dogs with stem cell treatment.  I have had both my knees replaced but that was nearly 10 years ago. I don't have the pain but I can't kneel and that really limits me. I don't think we realize how much we kneel, The stem cell treatment will be approved but it will hurt the pocket book of a lot of surgeons.  I have had what I call ulcers on my legs just above my ankles since the replacement and I am now wondering if it is the results of an allergy to the titanium joints. There is a .06% chance of this happening.  I am going to ask my PCP next week when I visit her. 

     The cheapest gas here today is 3.359 and holding. It is another beautiful day. 

Cheers 
Charlie.

[sir james]

Saturday 7/27-----use this as a guide and you will have the correct day.
Hello Blue
Sun and 80s for this one.
Morning Looney Tunes are over. We had 1 load of laundry, done. Now I goof off for a while. Last weekend was really busy, this one nothing except a funeral home visit tomorrow, a neighbor passed, she was 92, fell and broke some bones, that is usually a death sentence for us old folk. Infection kills you. Knees? My wife is scheduled for a replacement Aug. 7, Her right knee was replaced about 11 years ago so she knows what's coming. I have a swollen knee from Arthur Ritis. I guess it's knee season.
S.J.

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It is 71 and is heading up to 88. The humidity is going up and we have a chance of rain in the afternoon.

Friday. I helped the wife with setting up her Poshmark show and then retreated to the basement. The Athearn SD40 I sent to Horizon had returned and it was time to test it. They replaced the trucks and now it runs perfectly. I also was running my new CNJ Bachmann 0-6-0. Everything was going well until it started stalling a particular switch. I cleaned the track and everything was running fine.

Saturday. We went to brunch with a friend of mine from high school. We have been in contact all these years and he has come to many important family events as have we. We had a good meal and some great talk. We are definitely going to do it again. We then went to Kohl’s to drop off Amazon returns and then made a trip to a place called Wolff’s Apple House which is a nursery and grocery store. We picked up a couple of plants for the pots at the fishpond and grabbed some produce and a couple of goodies. I tuned up ten cars by either adding screws to coupler box clips, changing plastic couplers to Kadee, and replacing plastic wheels with metal. I ran the Bachmann 0-6-0 and was still having the occasional stalling problem.

Sunday. My wife was feeling under the weather. She has been feeling tired and worn out at times. We found that her blood pressure is running low. Since she has lost a good amount of weight we think it may be time for another adjustment of some her medication. This would be the second time this happened since she started getting her blood sugars under control and losing 114 pounds in a year. She eventually felt well enough to do some light gardening while I did some weeding. I also worked on laundry. While my wife did her Poshmark Show I continued to run the 0-6-0 switcher. The stalling problem continued and began on a second switch. The drivers pass over the frog with no problem but when the tender wheels hit the frog the locomotive stalls. I am wondering if there is a problem with the electrical pick up from the drivers. This stalling is not happening all the time. The locomotive can make 10 to 15 trips around the layout with no problem and then it starts stalling. I may be contacting Bachmann about this. I have tested various locomotives and none of them are having this issue.

I have some laundry to deal with this evening and perhaps some more weeding to do. I hope to get back to the layout and work on the Bridges Area. I am not sure what I am going to with the 0-6-0 Switcher at this time.

I hope everybody has a good day.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

67 at the moment going 20 degrees north of that and it looks like possibly a minor thunderstorm approaching, according to radar. Last night an inch and a half of rain fell here in the remote reaches of northern Iowa.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day. I watched a very interesting F1 race in the morning. The rest of the day was spent watching movies and reading. This morning I'm headed to Ames for a routine doctor visit. Hour drive, 15 minute visit, hour drive home.

All stay safe.

Tom

[Charlie B]

Good morning

      It is 72 degrees and gas is 3,359 in the train wreck city. 

      I have an appointment this afternoon to get new hearing aids.  I wanted to go to a center that is in my hometown but after 2 weeks of no return calls or emails I decided to stay where I am. They are good folks but they closed the closest office and there is now 20 miles added to the drive. 

     We are supposed to get showers over the next 4 days and we do need rain. 

     I have nothing else to report. Have a grand week everyone.

Charlie

[ezdays]

Good early afternoon, it's 103 heading to 107. Yesterday started off at 89 and got up to 111. A typical week in the Sonoran Desert. An no, we do not use camels to get around. Horses were common until they started paving all the streets. That's one thing I liked about living in Wickenburg, there were hitching posts outside of many businesses, even though the streets were all paved, just a really nice small town atmosphere. For years, Scottsdale had signs, "Horses have the right of way". Speaking of camels, there were some here in the mid-1800's, brought here by the Army for transport. At some point a bunch were set loose and I guess they hung around until the early 1900's. If you go out to Quartzite, (about 75 miles west of Phoenix), there's a tomb for a camel herder named Hi Jolly. It's a pyramid of rocks with a camel monument at the top.

We had that really bad localized storm last week, collapsed the roof and the tilt-up walls on a huge warehouse. Only one worker was inside, but it took them three days to find him under all the rubble. He had a two-week old baby, what a pity.

That's it, I plan on just taking it easy for a while, so nothing exciting past maybe setting off the smoke alarm while I try to cook something.

Take care and enjoy the week.

[jim currie]

Hi all. well its Monday again and its pretty much the SOSDD a Frend did bring us a huge bag of fresh dates I personally don't like dates too sweet for me but the oldest boy loves them so we will take them to Colorado next month (next month is only a few days away.) so were looking at a long road trip soon. on the brighter side hips are much better but the hands are still hurting and i tend to drop things doc still trying to see what i could take for them that heart doc will agree to.
stay safe Jim.

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It is 74 with an expected high of 88. You can feel the humidity creeping in. Tomorrow may be the start of our next heat wave.

Last night did not go as planned. I found myself fighting with a couple of Ring security cameras my wife purchased. I had one hooked up and running on Saturday but after a few hours it lost the connection to the Wifi and I tried numerous times to reestablish it with no success. Eventually last night I did get it reconnected after I discovered it drained a fully charged battery in about 5 minutes. I used my spare battery from my doorbell. The only problem was the connection was weak. I actually placed the camera next to the router and could not get a strong connection. Another issue with them was the poor design of how the battery went into and out of the camera. Installing the battery was no problem but removing it was a Herculean task. According to the instructions you squeeze the clip and pull. Only problem was there was not enough of the clip sticking out that you could use your fingers. I had to use pliers. After all this battling I told my wife to return them. She will be dropping them off at the UPS Store later today.

As a result of my battle with the cameras I never made it downstairs to work on anything or run trains. I did receive an eBay order that was for four rolling stock kits; a 36 ft wood reefer, a 50 ft wood express reefer, a PS-1 covered hopper, and a plug door boxcar. They came without induvial boxes and no instructions. The parts were packed in plastic bags and seem to be very organized. All the parts appear to be included. Luckly I have built other versions of each kit so I should be able to assemble them. I thought it was just a strange way to ship them.

I hope everybody as a good day.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

68 headed to 90 with lots of humidity and a 40% chance of storms.  Heat index expected to be over 100.  Had a couple of really loud claps of thunder sometime during the night.  Enough to wake me up momentarily but not enough to keep me awake.  Found about a quarter inch of rain in the gauge this morning.

Had a routine visit with the dermatologist yesterday and have been promoted from semiannual to annual checkups for skin cancer.  Also promoted to upper body checks only so no more putting on the gown.  After I got back to town I stopped at the local windshield repair shop and have an appointment to get the chip fixed that I picked up somewhere in my travels over the last two weeks.

Only items on the agenda for today are swimming this morning and the new Twisters movie this afternoon.

Gas was down to $3.17 yesterday.

All stay safe.

Tom

[sir james]

TUESDAY 7/30/24
Hello Blue
Blue seems a little short of posters lately, maybe everyone is enjoying summer. Temp is 71/80s for the day. Cloudy, Sct'd storms expected. 
No special plans, just checking in.
S.J.