Coffee Shop 22


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Chris- Agreed, simple is great. I know exactly what you mean, a set of tires can really make a truck. A buddy of my dads changed the tires on his 2500HD, and i didnt beleive the difference. I dont know why, but ive always like black rims, like these. Something about the stealthy look of black, even with a lighter color body, really makes the truck just look tough. Throw some radial tires on it and youd have a sick looking truck.

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Chris- Agreed, simple is great. I know exactly what you mean, a set of tires can really make a truck. A buddy of my dads changed the tires on his 2500HD, and i didnt beleive the difference. I dont know why, but ive always like black rims, like these. Something about the stealthy look of black, even with a lighter color body, really makes the truck just look tough. Throw some radial tires on it and youd have a sick looking truck.

dej_octaneblkpsl_ci3_l.jpg

Stick with 16"-17" wheels! the tire choices are better and also the wear rates are better with 16" tires!;)
 
Good early morning, everyone.

Barry, you had a heart attack? :eek: Must have happened while my body was attacking me. I hope it wasn't serious. As far as termites go, if your neighbors have them, you should get your house inspected. The little buggers can travel as far as 300 yards for a good meal.

Jeffrey, if you think your bill is high now, just wait until they put in "smart" meters. They can then charge you more by time of day and peak usage. They are already doing that in California and many of the meters are giving erroneous readings, even though PG&E denies it. The price of oil is actually moving up slower than I expected given what's happening in the Gulf. Our price for regular is still $2.70 a gallon, which is only about a dime higher than two weeks ago.

Matt, follow Chris's advice and stick with 16" rims. Once you start to go to 17" rims or bigger, the prices of tires goes up like a rocket. Dianna has 17" rims on the Miata and new tires run about $800 each! It is interesting that beater trucks always have sound systems that are worth more than the vehicle. At least there will be a big opportunity in the hearing aid business about 20 years from now. :)

Chris, you've hit the nail on the head. We now have excess capacity in most of generating systems. There are fixed costs to pay, and the less people use, the more the prices will go up. There's a negative incentive to conserve on electrical power use right now.

The massive gusher continues in the Gulf...even though none of it has come ashore. The Feds have now prohibited fishing from Louisiana to Florida. Seems like a real good way to make sure all the fishermen suffer no matter how bad the oil spill turns out to be. I would think most professional fishermen are a better judges about the quality of the fish than the Department of Homeland Security. :mad: Of course, BP will pay the bill for all this, so look for prices at the pump to start taking off any day now.

Speaking of the DHS, have you guys read about the "bomb" in Time Square? Seems like Chris and Rex, even after a few six packs and on a bad day, could have come up with a better bomb than firecrackers and non-explosive fertilizer. If this was really the Taliban, I'm feeling a little safer now. ;)

We are finally getting the rain that has been hitting Mississippi and Tennesse for the past three days. We have a line of training thunderstorms coming all the way out of the Gulf from Mississippi to right over us and it looks like the front is about to stall in our vicinity. Nothing really severe like tornados, but lots of rain. We've had almost an inch since 10:00 pm and it looks like there's a lot more on the way. We need the rain but I hope this doesn't get out of hand, since the current rain rate is 1.10 inches per hour. Still 74 with a dewpoint of 71, so there's lots of moisture for the front to work with.

We lost power for about four hours this afternoon when a tree branch fell on a power line. Didn't even break the lines, just crossed them and tripped the circuit breaker. After about two hours of wondering what the heck was taking so long, I went down the street and talked to the foreman. There were five Alabama Power trucks there with everyone staring at the power lines. He said they had to wait for their contract tree service to come and remove the tree limb, and then it would be ten minutes to get the power back on. I could have cut the whole thing up in 15 minutes with a cherry picker and chain saw, but I guess there are rules to be followed and hands to be greased. "Alabama Power - Always On - Except When It's Off". :confused:
 
Barry, Jim? Termites? Get yourself a pet armadillo, or a pet Gecko(or two), they luvs 'em bugs!!! When I lived in Oklahoma, we had an armadillo that lived under our front porch. Termite mounds were about 150-200yards away. Yet, we had no termites. Go figger.

Yep, BP may have screwed the pooch on this mess. I learned a long time ago to prepare for the worst, and pray for the best. Unfortunately, consumers will pay the price. Seems that the crude guys haven't figured out a way to have pressure sensitive valves that open and close when they sense certain "emergencies". We had them on some of the gas rigs in the Anadarko Basin in Oklahoma. At least the holes that were producing.

I worked on the deepest land-based drilling rig in the world as a rough neck. It was the deepest until the feds deregulated natural gas. Many rigs just pulled off the holes and quit drilling. Just capped the holes and went home. I believe the deepest drilling now is in Russia. We were over 35,000 ft when we shut down. We had to be very careful not to lose a bit or bust the casing. Mighty hard to fish either out of a hole that deep. We made some Amway guy mighty rich as we used Amway products to "lube" the hole.

And the DHS folks should be lickin' their wounds. That is at least the 3rd attempt to create havoc since 9/11. They caught 2, but I'm sure there will be many more attempts to follow. I think one may even be a "dirty" bomb that will have devastating effects. And people around the country are complaining because one state, Arizona, decided to take a stand against immigration, be it legal or illegal...... WOW!!! Personally, I think they did the right, and correct, thing. They certainly had bigger "stones" than any Fed.

Back to bed.

Bob
 
I would think most professional fishermen are a better judges about the quality of the fish than the Department of Homeland Security.
Sounds about right :mad: what a bunch of goons, thats like an ex social worker advising US how to fight fires :mad: the worlds gone mad,,, mad i tell ya
 
Jeff We produce North Sea Gas, but as pur leaders say we should do whats best for europe we store 90% of it overseas in the Netherlands, Belguum and Germany,, and guess what, when we want some back we pay double for our own gas :confused: If you look at the bigger picture it's all to do with fractional banking, and the world of money, as long as a piece of paper is being passed back and forth between banks its all classed as a new business transaction and all these figuress are all added to the end of year sales totals, If $100 goes back and forth between the same company and the banks 10 times, it's ten lots of income on the books I.E. $1000, but in reality they only have the original $100, they just bend the truth,,, rather a lot and they always will as long as we have a debt based money supply.

Rant over,,, on the subject it's a bank holiday today over here
 
Well, at least you're safe until tomorrow...:rolleyes:

Then the crows start singing.

Hey, yesterday we go and find a yard sale down the block from us'uns. Guess what I came home with?:):) 2 ATLAS RSC11's...all for the measley amount of $10 the pair. I now have a couple of HO scale DCC ready lokes for the club layout. Heeheehee:D:D:D

Back to the yard sale hunting-----:eek::rolleyes::D:D:D
 
Jeffrey, if you think your bill is high now, just wait until they put in "smart" meters. They can then charge you more by time of day and peak usage. They are already doing that in California and many of the meters are giving erroneous readings, even though PG&E denies it. The price of oil is actually moving up slower than I expected given what's happening in the Gulf. Our price for regular is still $2.70 a gallon, which is only about a dime higher than two weeks ago.
We've had 'Smart Meters' here for the past five years. The rates stayed right they'd been for the previous five years prior to the change. It's only been this year that the rates have jumped by almost double and the increase coincides perfectly with the time that this outside company that has nothing to do with either Valley Electric or Swepco started supplying power to Valley. The determination was made by the powers that be that the company was charging double for the power and is apparently now under investigation for price gouging.
 
Gooooood Morning!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Supposed to get to 70 today with clear skies. Of course there is snow in the forecast for later this week.

Ew Chris...yucky shrimp tales. I knew there was a good reason that I don't eat seafood! I did have shrimp once when I was about 12. That will last me a life time!

Jim...good luck getting rid of those little visitors. Hopefully this will be that last problem you'll have to deal with...you've had more than your share! How are your wife and daughter doing? Hopefully they are both 'mending' well.

I worked all weekend so I didn't get to enjoy the amazing weather. I did, however, get to miss the church workbee :)

We had a dirt rain last week. Sure, right after I washed my car. Can hardly tell what color it is right now. I work from 6-8 today and tomorrow so I cannot even get it washed. Oh, well at least it isn't the only dirty one around.

Hope everyone has a terrific week! :)


Sandy
 
I took care of the 'beasts' last week. The first afternoon, while I was on the phone, Maggie (the red one) ran off with the remote control. After I retrieved that, I looked up to see Kev with my toothbrush. EW!

They are just a joy (most of the time). They keep me laughing. Maggie likes sleeping under the bed in their crate. Silly girl!
 
I just got back from a 3 week, 6113 mile trek from Birmingham, to Phoenix, to Spokane and back to Birmingham.
I'm amazed how few trains I actually saw moving. On the way to Phoenix, I saw one UP and one BNSF consist moving across country. I saw several trains on sidings and in yards, but little actual traffic.
In the Spokane area, I happened on an absolute treasure. In the metropolitan area of Valley, Washington (population- 258), I found a MoPac transfer caboose in a parking lot, in excellant condition. As I got my brother to stop so I could take pictures, a lady walked out from behind the caboose and asked if I would like to see the insides.
The lady had purchased the caboose a year before and moved it to the lot. She was restoring the interior and had a coal burning stove from another caboose installed for heat. An electrician was coming the next day to put some lights in the caboose, and set up a flashing crossing bucks on a pole. She was to open a small craft shop and would use the caboose as a lounge and meeting place for friends and family.
I'll post pictures as I sort them out of the 800 plus pictures I took.
I'll check in with y'all later.
 
Good evening folks

I decided to stop in for a few moments. I have been reading lately but not posting.

Basically if I felt like crap I would be feeling better. I have had a nasty cough for days now. It really got bad over the weekend. It is so bad that I have back spasms. There have been a few occasions that I have actually lost my breath during a coughing spell. I have not been able to sleep well for about 3 nights now. In order to go to sleep I have to prop myself up almost in a sitting position. I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow morning. I will post an update when I can.

I hope everybody has a good evening.
 
morning all

Sandy they do keep you on your toes pets ;)
Mikey sounds like you had a great time, look forward to the pics
Barry 2 RS11's for $10, thats a bargain :)

The shrimp are,,,, preserved, was going to say fresh but preserved is more suitable as they get enbalmed

volcanic ash has once again caused mass clearance of the sky over the UK of it's air traffic
 
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morning all

Sandy they do keep you on your toes pets ;)
Mikey sounds like you had a great time, look forward to the pics
Barry 2 RS11's for $10, thats a bargain :)

The shrimp are,,,, preserved, was going to say fresh but preserved is more suitable as they get enbalmed

volcanic ash has once again caused mass clearance of the sky over the UK of it's air traffic

I think sailing or motoryachts may be in our travelling future----:eek::eek::rolleyes::D:D:D

I have a bunch of people in this neighbourhood who appear to have model railroading going on---now---if I can get a few more of these going on ---:rolleyes::rolleyes::eek::eek:

My day will be spent doing the modeling part--got to finish off the conveyor systems for the elevators at the Denfield New Life grain elevator/mill area, then start doing the landscaping around it---
 
Good morning. It's 59 and sunny. The high will be 88 and it will be partly cloudy.
This morning I go to see the foot doc the I have to go to the pharmacy and have the old fight with medicaid over what I can and can't get. We don't have to worry about tyhe day that Biog Brother shows up to control our lives. He's already here and has been for many years. Tomorrow I'll be mowing my parent's yard for the comfortable seat of the old Peerless tractor. All hand controls on that old beast. No feet required. Just keep gas in the tank and a cool drink in the cup holder and I'll be happy.

http://i682.photobucket.com/albums/vv186/Running-Bear/DSCN0104.jpg
 
Good morning folks.

My wife had a funny thing happen yesterday. We purchased a new bed a few weeks ago which had to be ordered. It came in yesterday and was ready for delivery in the afternoon. I had to work, so my wife was here to let them in. I was wondering if they would comment on the trains since you have to go past them to get to the bedroom. My wife said, "oh ya, they couldn't stop talking about it!" Comments of "wow, that's cool" and "how did he build this?" were made. She had to remind them that I was a 32 year old man and not a kid. I'm guessing she was a little embarrassed at first, then realized that they were blown away by something they had never seen. I don't blame her for wondering what they would think, obviously I asked for their reaction for a reason. I just had to laugh at the fact that the delivery guys were so impressed. It made me feel good.

That's my little story for today.

I have today off so maybe I'll get a little more foam carving in.

Have a great day everyone!
 
We had a dirt rain last week. Sure, right after I washed my car. Can hardly tell what color it is right now. I work from 6-8 today and tomorrow so I cannot even get it washed. Oh, well at least it isn't the only dirty one around.

Sandy

Mine was still dirty from the previous "dirt shower"... and the wind today blew off a 40ish LB branch from one of our trees in the backyard. Weird year so far.
 
Howdy Folks! Been a long time.

School is almost over for... 3 weeks. Hope everyone is doing okay.

Today is a bittersweet kind of day. I am buying a "new" car that doesn't run, going to make it a nice project, built up for some drag racing (debating if I should go turbo or N/A). Don't worry Jim, I will keep it running slow on the roads, no point in harming anyone's life.

But to finance it I decided to get rid of some HO stuff. Going away for 3 years anyways, won't have space or time to even armchair model. Sad to see some stuff goes, but seems like most of you all did it too.
 
Hi all! High of 88 here and going to the 90's tomorrow. Dang! What a quick Spring.
Went to the eye Doc yesterday for routine exam and decided to try multi-focal contacts. Sure hope it works out as I can really get pissed at all the hassle you have with glasses.
Layout changes are starting to shape up now. The Ashland Coke and ByProducts plant has all its track in place and I have started the re-work for the Steel Mills trackage. This time around, the Steel Mill is in a different location than the Coke plant. It will allow more operations having to transport the coke a distance and also add to the distance the coal unit train has.

Sandy: The pups are sure growing and look full of mischief. I would bet they have an unlimited amount of energy until siesta time.
Tom: sorry your under the weather. This is a terrible time of the year to be ailing.
Dan: Where you heading out to? the military (or prison? LOL:D)
Corey: it does feel good when someone visits and appreciates our hobby; makes all the cuts and bruises, fussing, and confusion worth while. :)
Steve:How's the family doing? you haven't mentioned them in awhile. Do the wee ones still like trains?
Mikey:That was a long trip! Did you drive all of it? I have a nephew in Spokane.
 
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