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

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

24 at the moment under clear skies. 50s and 60s for the next several days.

Pretty quiet around here this past week. Only activity has been going to events for the great-grandkids. Even that will be coming to and end next week. Basketball ends tomorrow and soccer probably won't start until April. A couple of music performances and the running will stop for a while.

Wednesday I drove to Des Moines for lunch with my sister-in-law and her husband. It was that or have them spend the night. Easy decision.

I put gas in the car on Wednesday @ $2.51. Good thing I did as the next day the price dropped to $2.42.

All stay safe.

tom

[tompm]

Good evening folks

The temperatures are finally getting closer to the average for this time of year, and the snow is actually beginning to melt. Weather has kept the contractor from being too busy the last week or so. This has given us time to catch up on paperwork and training.

I have been building some rolling stock kits the past few nights. I have also been going through the collection to find stuff that I will not use or duplicates. Currently working on the passenger cars.

The wife wants to go to the farmer’s market in Wayne, PA. If time permits, she also wants to go to a store in Wynnewood called the Head Nut which is a store that sells all types of nuts of course. They also sell candies, coffee, and dried fruit.

I am hoping to continue assembling kits and running trains. I have some organizing to do along with going through the collection.

On the annoying side of things, I am dealing with an individual who does not like the fact that I am running my P5a motor with the pantograph raised up with no catenary and dared to make a YouTube video of it. He called it ugly and unprofessional. This isn’t the first time he has made negative remarks about running electric motors with the pan up and no catenary. More on this at another time.

Jim here's to a speedy recovery.

I hope everybody has a good evening.

[BR60103]

Tom:
when I was younger (much younger) there as a shop in downtown Toronto called The Uptown Nut House. The lady that ran it was slightly eccentric.
It was at a major intersection (2 subway lines) but it's gone now.

Why doesn't the individual make some catenary for it?

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

It's a cloudy 38 degrees outside my window this morning. Supposed to get to the upper 50s this afternoon.

Yesterday was productive. I got a batch of leaves and sticks collected from the yard. Overall not too bad but still more work to do as some leaves still frozen to the ground. The next several days should help with highs predicted to be in the upper 50s to low 60s. After lunch I hopped on the pollution solution vehicle for a 7 mile ride. Then in the evening there was a band/choir concert for one of the great-grandsons. Dash home to get on line as two of my nieces were in dance competition. Very disappointing as I couldn't get the web site to work. A simple message which said "An error occurred." Not much help there. I tried in both Firefox and Edge on two different computers, one with Win11 and one with Win 10.

This morning is possibly one more basketball game for this season. Great-grandson was ill last night so he may not be attending. Otherwise routine Saturday chores this morning and another bike ride this afternoon.

Gas dropped again. Down to $2.38 last night.

All stay safe.

Tom

[LiveSteamer]

Good afternoon everyone. The warm weather is here for a few days but we are to get more snow this weekend. A good amount of the snow has melted and tomorrow it is supposed to rain so even more will be gone. Hopefully it's not like 1996 all over again with getting rain and causing a good amount of flooding. On another note, I had seen my doctor this past Tuesday and have to go for a MRI of my right foot once again. He is thinking that I tore another ligament or tendon but this time its in a different area of my foot. If he is right, it will require another surgery but he isn't going to fix the tear. He told me that he will fuse my ankle and it will prevent me from tearing more ligaments or tendons. The doctor did say that if this is done, my days of driving are over and to file for disability. This was a major blow to me as I am only 41 years old and never thought I would have to have my ankle fused and get told that I will never drive again. But I guess that is life and I have to accept what could possibly be on the table for me. Hope you all have a great weekend and take care. Back to the workbench I go to continue working on my projects.

[FiatFan]

Greetings gang.

29 under clear skies this morning with a potential high in the low 60s.

As predicted no basketball game for the youngest great-grandson yesterday. I'll check in with his folks later to see how he's doing. I did get in another nice bike ride along with the usual Saturday chores. Last night I tried to watch the dance competition for one of my nieces but during her performance the web site started buffering. She and another young lady were the only tap dancers in the competition and the web site buffered during their performances (but no one else's). Hmmmm!

With another nice day in store I'll be dragging out the pollution solution vehicle again. I also have the file out of the drawer for the taxes. If I get bored I may start on those this morning.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ngauger]

Going up to 46 later, then a tiny bit of snow overnight

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Another nice day underway in the remote reaches of northern Iowa. 40 and clear now headed for the low 60s.

Bike ride and taxes accomplished yesterday. Great-grandson is recovering nicely. This morning is a band competition for one of the great-grandsons. After that will be a bike ride and probably cleaning the inside of the car. After that I may just go sit on the patio and enjoy the warm weather. Got a notice that my XM radio subscription is expiring. I've decided not to renew it. I've been a customer since 2008 but it's just gotten too expensive. I will miss Phlash Phelps though. My car has a usb port and I can plug in a stick and listen to my own music. I have about 600 songs already and will be collecting more as I recall various titles.

All stay safe.

Tom

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang

39 under cloudy skies this morning. The NWS has allotted us about 25 additional degrees for the day but is offsetting that with winds near 35 mph.

Yesterday went well. Band competition int the morning then a bike ride after lunch followed by vacuuming the interior of the car. This morning I'll be heading back to the local hospital. My daughter is having a lump removed from her back. Nothing critical, just too big to be done in the doctor's office. If I get home in time I'll finish cleaning the inside of the car.

Gas was down again yesterday - $2.34.

All stay safe.

Tom

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

43 and a little breezy this morning with winds near 25 mph. The temperature is headed to near 60 and the wind speed is predicted to nearly double by this afternoon. A red flag warning has already posted from 10 until 7 this evening. Tomorrow the weather turns ugly with rain during the day and 2-4 inches of snow tomorrow night.

Yesterday's surgery for my daughter went well with only one minor issue. The incision was seal with super glue but it wasn't quite dry when she laid back down. As a consequence the bed sheet stuck to her. A doctor came in and removed it. Lots of jokes about how if they couldn't get it off she would have to pay for the sheet or she could wear it as a cape.

We didn't leave the hospital until 3 and by the time I made some other stops I didn't get home until after 3:30 so no additional work on cleaning the car. I will try that today. While my daughter was recovering we did get to see a life flight helicopter take off. We saw a white cooler being placed on board so there was speculation that it might have been an organ transplant.

All stay safe.

Tom

[sir james]

2/18/26 Wednesday
Hello Blue
Gloomy, breezy, and some rain overnight. Hi of 53 for today. It's a crazy temp for this time of year but I'll take it. 
My wife has an ear infection, got meds. Our friend's wife fell and hurt her shoulder, I fell a few weeks ago and my knees still hurt. Afraid to leave the house LOL.
No special train news.
S.J.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

18 snow covered degrees this morning in the remote reaches of northern Iowa. Looks like we got about 6 inches of snow last night in blizzard-adjacent conditions. Heavy blowing snow with gusts over 30 mph mad for some really nasty travel.

Due to the weather some school events were rescheduled. The basketball game was moved from last night to tonight which necessitated moving the band concert from tonight to Monday night. Only activities on my schedule are to clean the sidewalks and make a pot of chili.

Gas had been at $2.34 for a few days when it jumped yesterday. The gouging gas station went to $2.79 but most other stations went to $2.59.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ngauger]

Rain here, yesterday and today. Most of the snow is gone... just in time for another 3 to 6 inches over the weekend

[tompm]

Good evening folks

Just when we get rid of the snow and ice that has been covering the landscape for the last few weeks another storm is coming Sunday and Monday to drop up to 6 to 12 inches on us. I brought my computer home from work just in case I don’t go in on Monday. I was already planning to work from home on Tuesday since the repairmen will be working on the heater.

I saw my primary doctor yesterday. She wants to find where these UTI’s I have been dealing with are coming from. It means more bloodwork and urine cultures. She also wants ultrasounds of the kidneys and bladder. I have been off the antibiotics for two days and tonight I am not feeling well. I hope there isn’t another round of infection coming on.

More metal wheels and Kadee couplers arrived today so I can get back to building rolling stock kits. I have some organizing of rolling stock to do. I would like to run some trains over the weekend.

Tomorrow we are going to get the Christmas lights in since they are finally accessible. We need to rush and get it done before snow arrives on Sunday. I need to reset the outdoor timers for the outdoor lights now they are no longer covered in snow. We have a few errands to run before the snow starts. Sunday we will spend it watching the snow.

I hope everybody has a good evening.

[TMo]

Snow coming to northeastern Maryland also. Our meteorologists at work were having trouble committing to a forecast late last week (and they are usually pretty good), so I figured we could get nothing, something or a whole pile. Looking like something in the range of the latter two. Snowblower is ready again, I guess. Our commander has decreed that we might have to go in even if post is "closed", so I'll probably be getting up very early on Monday to prep my 300-ft driveway.

We dropped my son, daughter-in-law and our granddaughter off at the airport this morning after having them here off and on for two weeks. More normal operation here in the household, but we do appreciate company.

Tough hearing the stories about ailments, doctor diagnoses, surgeries and the like - each of you are in my prayers. To date I've been blessed with good health, but getting old is no picnic.

Took in the Olympic women's curling bronze medal game this morning - curling's one thing I think I'd like to try before I die. I find the game fascinating. Good on Canada, they played better than the Americans today. I'm gonna try to catch the hockey game tomorrow morning - certainly a huge amount of talent on both sides and I'm thinking that game will probably only be settled in overtime.