Good Morning All. Clear and 32° on the way up to 63° later today. Then it's another roller coaster week, going down to 21° Thursday, up to 65° Saturday, etc.
Finally did the belated Christmas get-together with our two daughters and their families yesterday evening. Drinks and appetizers, gift exchange, then prime rib dinner with the usual trimmings and wine. Dessert with champagne, see below. I mostly received train stuff and a new supply of tee shirts.
An auspicious day today as I celebrate the completion of the year 70 around the sun. Notable birthday gift last night was a $50 gift certificate to the LHS. Inching forward although I don't think that I will catch up to Sherrel anytime soon.
Regarding dental implants: I am really pleased with mine. Pricey, yes. The dentist that I see is really a high class guy and was very upfront about the implants and other options. I have had no issues, and I was accepting of the long wait between the various phases of surgery. We spread it out over three years and did a few crowns in between. That way my measly dental insurance covered part of it at the rate of $1500 a year. Two of the crowns eventually broke because he said that the lab that made them took some shortcuts. He replaced both of them at no charge, and he said that he quit using that lab prior to either of mine breaking. He verified that none of my remaining seven were made by that lab. Regarding the high cost, I understand his position. Prior to taking on a partner recently, he had eight staff members to support, including two hygienists. In addition to the added dentist, he had to hire three more staff members and equip two more rooms with stuff. Besides being a dentist, he is also an oral surgeon so it is a one-stop shop. Sorry to read of other's misfortunes with theirs.
Thanks once again for the likes and comments regarding the Bar Mills structure from the archives; James, Guy, Patrick, Karl, Steve J, Dave, Chad, Sherrel, Justin, Hughie, Gary, Jaz, Curt, Louis, Tom, Rick, OB Ken.
Make it a Mexican omelet this morning Flo. Spicy salsa and OJ to go with it.
No train shed time yesterday due to being out of town. No pictures today either, as my wife is calling and I don't have time to search the archives. Sorry about that Guy!
OB Ken -
Sadly I thought that the Affordable Care Act was supposed to take care of that. Maybe just for illegal immigrants?
Patrick - Coming along nicely on the handrails.
Tom O - Excellent scrap loads and weathered gondolas.
George - Sorry to read of your delays with the implants, but if your jaw isn't ready, then it is best to wait, rather than to have a negative experience.
Tom - I like both the scrap loads and the pipe loads. It was dumb of me to not realize the value of the scraps from the machine shop when I still worked. We had an extensive one and I saw those scraps under the milling machines all of the time. At least I got over a dozen small blocks of tool steel that I use as weights and props when I build models.
Hughie - What a great story about your grandfather. My father's father invented the Heisman Trophy as part of a team at the Downtown Athletic Club in NYC, back in '35. As part of our family heirlooms, we have autographed programs from the first seven recipients.
Guy - I do use Woodland Scenics fine ballast for gravel roads. For asphalt roads, I mostly use tar paper, sometimes called roofing felt, for those roads. A few that are in the far reaches of the layout are just asphalt paint directly on plywood, as are a few parking lots. I have a partial roll of the tar paper leftover from home repairs, but one could easily pick up scraps from a residential building site, at least here in the states.
Troy - The plan for the MIL seems to be an ideal one. Now the hard part, implementation.
Moermusic - Now that's just dumb to get a finger caught in a log splitter. All of the ones that I have seen had two-handed controls to prevent that. They must have been operating together. Still dumb.
If I recall correctly, today is the latest sunrise of the year. While the daylight hours have been getting longer, it's because the sunsets have been getting later. Earliest sunset was about two weeks prior to the solstice on December 7.
Everybody have a great day. Stay safe and warm.
