Good Morning All. Cloudy and 74° (23°C) on my back porch; I'm reasonably sure the front porch is the same. There's evidence that we had some sprinkles overnight, even though there is nothing in the rain gauge. Rainfall yesterday, if you call it that, was 0.01", hardly noticeable. There's widespread rain areas just north of the TX/OK border about 20 miles (32km) away, but so far the Red River is holding them back.
So what's happening here? Wife has been gone seven days and I have run out of "honey-do's". I did do some of my usual daily "fun in the summertime" mowing again yesterday, some of the usual gardening tasks and the glorious time in the pool. Funny how a pool with a temperature of 83° (28°C) can feel warm (but refreshing) in the early morning after walking, but feels cool in the afternoon after mowing or other activity!
Grocery trek went well yesterday, all items on my list were in stock and I even picked up something that caught my eye. I usually don't do that. Got a haircut so now I don't
quite resemble a Neanderthal person, no beard trim though. On the way home, I stopped in at a Schlotzsky's right next door to the Pro Cuts and ate there for the first time in my life. Another thing that I don't normally do is eat at fast food joints. All of my stops just took too long and it was already 1:00 and I didn't want to wait another 30 minutes til I got home. Roast Beef & Cheese on their sourdough bread was very good.
PAUSE while I turn off the computer as those thunderstorms finally snuck across the border and are here.
OK, the major storm has passed by and I am back. Rain gauge shows 1.75" in the 45 minutes that I was off-line, and I confirmed that with the Weather Underground station around the corner. Still raining, just not as heavily. This really saves me from having to add water to the pool for quite a few days, maybe two weeks since it has topped out. I just have to add chemicals to retain the healthy balance. Our rain here tends to be alkaline so I have to add acid as well as chlorine. Granddogs are sad because they cannot go out.
Thanks for breakfast
Garry. Sorry Flo, just a tall OJ here.
Thanks also for the likes and comments regarding the layout progress (little as it was);
Joe, Karl, Patrick, Christian, Chad, Garry, Sherrel, Tom O, Gary, Troy, Hughie, Guy, Justin, Rick, Tom, Ken.
Well, I didn't get a whole lot accomplished in the train shed yesterday, in addition to grocery shopping and mowing; I did laundry and washed dishes.
I painted and added some debris to the storage area between the main and the spur to the cannery.
Sorry for the blurry picture, I'll get a better one after I add some more junk.
Meanwhile you may have seen this in a few pictures recently.
A pair of "Whistle" signs that have just boon languishing on the right of way until I got the preceding ROW landscaped.
They'll go in next. Here's the grade crossing that they apply to.
Here's a pair from the other direction.
I believe that they are on the wrong sides of the track for approaching trains, but there isn't enough room on the right between the passing siding and the grain elevator siding (out of picture to the right) to comfortably put one. Anyone out there who knows what the real world rule is?
Sherrel - Good luck with the garbage disposer. They are not all that hard to replace, but it is difficult to work on them; rolling around on the floor and squeezing into the cabinet. Of course once you get in under the sink to start, you realize that the most important tool is out in the garage or shed!
WILLIE - What's that tank car doing in the dirt? A derailment perhaps?
It's just there while I work on the spur track. No problem because it carries corn oil for the cannery and it's already empty.
Tom O - I lkie your business philosophy of selling to people who have come up in the ranks. It is too bad that you couldn't get your daughter and SIL interested in carrying on the business.
Wednesday was not a good day for you. Glad that no one was hurt in the accident. Best of luck with the AC. I guess that it hasn't been a good week either, starting with the news from your daughter and SIL, and the defective foam.
Joe - I regularly look up the history of some of the locos that you post. My knowledge of eastern and northeastern RR's is very limited.
Guy - I have been reading about the fires in BC, very sad. Great looking rescue dog. She's very lucky that you came along.
Everybody have a great day and an excellent Independence Day holiday. Be safe with fireworks. No problem with grassfires here after today's rain.
Oh well, at least the breakdown didn't happen until after the mowing job was done...
