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

[TMo]

Today was my regular day off or RDO. Slept late, took the dog up to the park, had a quick lunch and lolled about. Cold and rainy, so I'm not outside working on the garden beds this weekend.

Watching some of the Big10 basketball tourney, my alma mater pretty much punched their ticket last night with a win over Illinois, which means I'll probably be taking some time off next week to watch the opening round games of the Big Dance.

Boxed up one of my D&H C628's for the last time after taking a bunch of pictures of it for inclusion on an ebay auction listing for it. Hope it goes to a good home.

I ran out of Realistic Water on Thursday after trying to put the final finishing touches on the river under my girder bridge spans - one more bottle is on the way. Looks like maybe next weekend I might be able to start the rest of the scenery there. Until then, I'm going to work on a panel for my mom's kitchen island and clean up my workshop. Stay warm and dry!

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Cloudy and 29 with 2-4 inches of snow on the way, although I'm taking that with a whole shovel full of salt. Thursday we were supposed to get 4- 8 inches and wound up with 2".

I did finally get the film transfer problem solved, sort of. I tried it with my laptop which is newer and has a separate graphics card. Last time I was able to use my desktop but apparently micro$oft has "fixed" something with an update. Not much planned for today. I was going to go to Sioux City for a train show today but with the nasty weather I'll go tomorrow instead.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning, ahh, sweet Saturday, staying home for breakfast means a bit more sleep. We were suppose to get to 81 yesterday, but the NWS says we only hit 79 at the airport. I cannot find a forecast number from the NWS, when I look, all I get are maps. But we still may not hit 80 until tomorrow. Got a forecast for gas prices though, higher than yesterday. Even Costco is now over $4.00, most are $4.19. They say that demand is high here and supplies are low. I guess all the snowbirds and baseball fans are responsible. They're also responsible for the ungodly traffic and long lines at the stores, restaurants, and Post Offices.

Got out to the workshop yesterday but wound up cleaning and putting things away so I had room to work. Been spending a lot of time activating my new cell phone. I bought it right after Christmas but just now opened it up, mostly for fear of what it was going to take to get it all working. Seems like I rarely use it to make phone calls, but need it to control everything in the house but flush the toilet (that's coming).   Turns out it was easy-peasy. Had an app that copied everything from my old phone once I was able to verify it was really me. Biggest problem, needed to enter my passwords to access everything, another couple of hours of tracking down my passwords and I was up and running. That just about shot the whole day. My new phone has twice the storage, (whoopee) is larger and almost twice as heavy (boo) . I can do everything with it now except make phone calls. ...Oh, I guess I'll move my number over today.

Take care everyone, especially those still getting winter weather.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Clear and 23 and that's about it for the day. Colder for the next couple of days then 50 by Wed.

I actually did get the 4 inches of snow but it was dry enough that I was able to use the snow blower. Then my day went downhill. I discovered a leak in the waterbed. I was able to siphon off most of it but couldn't get the last bit done. It was a struggle to get the bag into the bathroom to finish draining it. New one has been ordered. Should be here by the end of the week. Also gonna skip the train show in Sioux City. There's another one in Des Moines next weekend. Maybe I'll go to that one.

All stay safe.

Tom

[ezdays]

Good morning all, really dark clouds yesterday, and there was some rain in the north edges of the valley. We still didn't quite hit 80, maybe today. No change in gas prices, Costco $0.001 under $4.00, but so are a few others.

Tom, we don't get too many train shows here, we will have a few local ones this summer, and it's rare that we get one of the national ones, but when we do, they're in the middle of the summer. Why not have them in the winter when it's snowing up in Sioux City or Chicago and we're basking in the sun? Yeah, the venues are A/C'd, but it's still 110 or 115 getting there. Plus, that's when snowbirds have gone home and locals head up north for the weekend.

Yesterday I went to a very large gun store in Scottsdale, I was warned that it was a bit pricey, and yeah, way too rich. The guy I was with says that we'd be better off driving up to Prescott, 100 miles one way, pay for the gas and still save money. Lots of folks there, didn't see anyone buying anything. Drove by a couple of houses that we lived in nearby, one has been totally renovated inside and out. We sold it for $239,000 back in 1998, it recently sold for $1,500,000. Every house in that neighborhood has had major renovations to it, the problem is that the taxes now far exceed what we were paying on our mortgage (including taxes) back then.

So much for now, take care and have a great day. It's Sunday, a day of rest.

[Charlie B]

Good afternoon. 
        With the spring ahead function my post is afternoon. Days doesn't have that problem.
        We have a coating of snow and it's currently 34 heading for 41. I worked on the track addition yesterday and I have cut into the main for the #6 switch that will divert to the extended yard on the south side.  The  needed "bridge will be at a wide angle so it will be around 3 feet long. I need to get the crossing in place so I can build it exactly as it needs be. 

       I like the time change but it is going to take some time to get used to it. I think It is harder when you don't have to get up and at 'em to make the change

       Nothing much to report but I have noticed the covid cases are non-existent since the East Palestine derailment.  

Cheers
Charlie

[ezdays]

Good morning all, Charlie, there is talk about doing away with DST. I was in Arizona the year that they forced it on everyone, it was still light out at 9:00 and over 100 degrees at Midnight. They changed that real quick. The only issue here is that twice a year, some of the cable programs are an hour off their published schedule until they realize someone screwed up.

It hit 82 officially at the airport yesterday, Wednesday we'll drop into the 60's with an excellent chance of rain. That means cancelling a lot of Spring Training games. They play football in the rain and snow, why not baseball? Just askin'...

So far I've got a clear week, going to a friends house on Friday for corned beef and cabbage. It's Friday and lent, but the bishop has granted everyone a dispensation for St. Paddy's Day. Wouldn't be right without the artificially dyed green beer, green dyed rivers, parades and of course, corned beef and cabbage with boiled potatoes.

Take care and have a great week...

[FiatFan]

Greetings,. gang.

22 and cloudy this morning. It may hit 30 later on. Warming through Thursday the back to winter with lows in the teens and highs in the 20s with rain and snow for the weekend.

I slept for over 8 hours last night. Very unusual for me. Gym this morning and then a quick trip to Menards for some fertilizer that's on sale. Had to also order a new liner for the waterbed as the old one tore while I was trying to remove it. The liner is what saved me from a lot of grief when the mattress sprung a leak.

All stay safe.

Tom

[sir james]

Hello Blue
Lite snow floating around this am, 29/34 for today.
DST? I don't mind, since it gets dark at 5 in the winter it could stay year round. However I too am tired of the time changes.
A good turnout at our Detroit3Railers club meet on Saturday night. The theme on this layout is Northern Michigan RRs.
I don't know how to give you the link but you could find it on our website. Come to think of it, Saturdays is probably not posted yet but there are past meets you could look at.
S.J.

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It is 37 with on and off drizzle. High is supposed to be 42 with more rain. It is just a raw day.

I had a good weekend despite the change to DST. Saturday, we did some cleaning around the house. Then we took a trip to Target, the grocery store, and the pharmacy. When we went to the pharmacy we arrived not long after the town’s St Patrick Day parade. As a person of Irish decent I can say I am insulted by what the day has become. The groups and families of drunk, and obnoxious people roaming the streets afterwards was a disgrace. I was talking to the manager of the pharmacy, and she was saying how worse it is getting every year. She said the local businesses had to plead with the township to get porta potties put in place because of, well I will let your imagination take it from here. I cannot blame one age group as it was people from college age all the way up to senior citizens. St Patrick must be rolling in his grave seeing what his feast day has become. Sorry for the rant.

Sunday was a quiet day recovering from loosing an hour of sleep. All the pets were thrown off as I was later than usual with the morning feeding. We let the robot vacuum loose in our bedroom. The only laundry I had to dela with was a couple sets of bedding.

In the modeling world nothing went as planned. I didn’t have any foam board to make a base for the Union Station. This led to me clearing the area around the station. From that I realized I need to build a few more building. I moved to pile of structure kits which meant I had to clean and organize the modeling supply table. Picked out the kit but before I could work on it I had to clear and clean the workbench off. I managed to get one wall painted. I also converted two Atlas B&O GP40’s to DCC. The conversion involved moving a jumper on the board. These were Atlas Master DCC System Locos. The hardest thing was figuring out how to access the board. The instructions with the locos did not say how to access the board. Only what to do after you did so. I had a similar set of GP38-2’s but their instructions also failed to tell me how to access the board. I then remembered I had a couple of undecorated GP-38’s. Low and behold the instructions said remove the dynamic brake cover. Cover removed access obtained. I put the locos on the track and selected address “3” and nothing worked. After some head scratching, I checked the instructions. Atlas had made it easier to run multiple locos straight out of the box by programing the addresses of the locos to the last two digits of their road numbers. Locos selected on the cab and away they went. Success! While the locos were on the workbench I changed the Accumate couplers to Kadee #148 couplers.

Today I need to hit the produce store. Other than that it should be quiet evening.

I would like to work on the building kit and possibly find another easy DCC conversion to do.

I hope everybody has a good day.

[Charlie B]

We have light snow but a high of 41 is predicted.  I have been renaming some photos to fit into my system so I can find them with a search, I usually name them as they download from the camera but my wife doesn't do that and now and again she wants a picture but can't find it, then it is up to me. 

I hope to spend some more time on the layout this afternoon, it isn't a fit day for anything else. 

Cheers
Charlie

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Cloudy and 20 but our very good friends at the National Weather Service have assured me personally that the skies will clear an the temperature reach 35. They are also saying the the temperature will be near 50 tomorrow. After that the weather goes somewhere in a handbasket.

Yesterday was routine. Gym followed by trips to the grocery store and Menards which were successful. Eggs were $3.69.

Speaking of successful I have managed to take off 5 pounds in the last week. through watching what I eat and some exercise.

All stay safe.

Tom.

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It is 31 with a hard cold wind blowing off the river this morning. High is supposed to be 39. We have a chance of some frozen stuff at any time during the day.

This will have to be fast as we have a concrete pour this morning. We only pour on the bad weather days. It is a small pour; only 34 cubic yards which means four trucks.

I try to add the mortar lines to the wall piece I painted the other day. I am not sure if I like the results. I painted a second wall section. I began working on another Nickel Plate Accurail kit. This one is a double sheath wood boxcar. I got done most of the floor.

Have to run as the first concrete truck is due in about a half hour.

I hope everybody has a good day.

[ezdays]

Good morning all, today will still be in the low 80's, tomorrow in the high 60's thanks to rain. I see 60, 70,80 and 90% chance right here, 98% up in Flagstaff.

Somebody's got hold of one of my email addressees, not good. I'm now getting strange email packed with advertising. I block one, and another pops up. What gets me is the constant bombardment from spammers and scammers. I subscribe to Kim Kamando and everyday it seems she has warnings about a new scam working  its way around the Internet. Seems like the Internet is a boom to criminals, they no longer need to get a gun and go out to rob someone, they can do it sitting at home in their pj's. Just one of the reasons I stay away from social media sites.

Just read an article where a truck driver has pictures of a ghost walking on highway 87 about 25 miles to the east of my house. Fox news has a video and it really is scary.AZ 87 ghost

Tom, that's great. It take will power. About the only time I lose weight is when I'm sick or just had surgery. Good job...  

Take care everyone and if you're in the area, stay off AZ87 near Fountain Hills at night..

[Charlie B]

Good morning. 
     We awoke to about an inch of snow, the most we have had so far in 2023. It's 31 degrees which is as high as it is supposed to get today,

      Good job losing some weight Tom.  I won't talk about myself but did decide I was not drinking enough water so I loaded up yesterday and I didn't have to get up overnight any more than usual and I feel slightly better this morning than I have been. 

      I will continue playing around with the layout extension today. I have ordered some custom switches and I know they will be here before I am ready for them. 

      NS is still removing dirt but now none of the approved  land fills will except it. It does look like the 200 car trains will soon be a thing of the past and the chance of running trains with a single person in the cab will be outlawed.  They need to do something to increase the call time for the crews too. 

Cheers
Charlie