Good Morning All. 35° and cloudy. The drizzle has moved east for now, less than .05" in the last 24 hours. Still a bit chilly today before going up into the 60's tomorrow. Expected to stay above freezing with highs ranging from the mid-50's to the lower 70's for the next ten days or do. Spent most of the morning on the grocery trek that included getting a haircut and stopping by the UPS office to pick up a check for a washing machine part that they damaged when I returned it to the seller back in December. They included a refund for the shipping charges as well..
Daughter, SIL and two grandsons came to visit yesterday afternoon and picked up the granddog to take home for a while. The cats noticed immediately and re-commandeered the back porch. The granddog will return in about ten days when the next noisy phase of their kitchen remodel takes place, air compressor and nail-gun.
Thanks for the comments on yesterday's detail pictures;
Curt,
Chet,
Garry, and anybody else that I may have missed.
My grandsons joined me in the train shed for a little while and we decided to see how many freight cars I could hook up to a pair of ScaleTrains SD40-2's. I went with all of my well cars loaded with containers, all of which had between 1.5 and 2.5 ounces of weight added. I ran out of cars at 64 and the train was 51' long. It even went backwards as well. Removed one engine and the remaining one still pulled them although movement was jerky. Might repeat it today with covered hoppers to see if I can get 100 or more, a number I regularly saw on ATSF. I had some derailments on a 32" radius turnback loop that I wasn't happy with. The only cars that derailed were made by Bowser, no problems with Intermountain, Atlas, Athearn or Walthers models. All three of my Bowser three unit sets had a problem, regardless of where they were located in the train. I suspect it is the way that they interconnect. Never before had any issues with them in my normal 16 car unit trains.
Mark - You lucked out on the furnace. And yes, nothing breaks down during normal business hours.
Terry - Good to read that you are also paying less in taxes, even if it is just $150.
Louis -
Willie I am all for helping people in need, but when they scam the system it bothers me. I say investigate and reform.
No need to investigate, they (IRS folks) already know that it is happening. Unfortunately the laws allow it and the only way to change is to change the politicians in charge. There are truly some needy folks out there that need assistance, but the scammers outnumber them by a great number. My wife did a return Friday for a sixteen year old married woman who had a four year old daughter(!!!) along with three other step children. Current husband in the military was not the father of the four year old. Husband did a "Married filing separately" return to maximize what the wife could get. It's a source of income for many.
The caravans are seeking asylum, they can end up any where
Please note that it is only 1300 miles from Guatemala to Brownsville TX, but 2600 miles from Guatemala to San Diego CA. They're headed for the blue state where they're treated like royalty. Whoever is advising them knows this. They know better than to come to a red state like TX where emergency medical care and schooling are the only benefits.
Sherrel - Yes the grocery trek normally happens on Thursdays, but my wife has been working on Thursdays for the past few weeks so we have had to reschedule. Then yesterday, she backed out and I went alone!
What are you doing being up so early this morning?
Greg - Great photos.
Joe - I liked the Middlesex Manufacturing kit, I have two although only one is assembled right now. I originally planned to kitbash the two into one structure and I may still do that, but I may also put the second one elsewhere and display the other face. I remember when I was originally assembling it, you provided a brief history which I looked up and found extensive background information about Helm.
Mike - Good luck going forward, keep us posted.
By the way, it's -2° at
Mark's, expecting a high of 11°.
Everybody have a wonderful day.