Coffee Shop 15

[RexHea]

Howdy all! Hope your day is going well.
The storms weakened somewhat after coming across Mississippi last night, but we still had a downpour and winds. If my figures are right, we have had almost 3 inches since these storms started up yesterday. As Jim said, more intense storms to come in tomorrow evening. We will fall short of the original guess-ti-mate of rain totals (thank God), but have already had enough for river flood warnings below T-town.

Had a great night's sleep on the new mattress. Maybe it was worth the $$ just to have a good night's rest.

Have a friend coming over tonight for a little train action. He has been on vacation and is suffering from throttle withdrawal. What can I say? You have to help your friends out in time of need.

KENL: I have missed something! Where are the pictures of your MRow?

Have a good'un!

 

[UP2CSX]

Afternoon, everyone.

As Rex said, the squall line weakened just as it crossed the Alabama line. Still a pretty impressive line of storms for 4 in the morning though, with lots of wind and rain but nothing more severe than some trees down. We had a little under two inches of rain in the last two days and more is one the way. Looks like the front that moved through last night will come back north as a warm front tonight. Might be some severe storms out of that but I'm not too impressed. Friday afternoon through Saturday afternoon looks to be the worst period, as a storm which is now causing a blizzard on the plains sweeps through the area. Lots of warm humid air ahead of the front with good shear and lifted indices, which means everything will be in place for severe storms and tornados. If we luck out, the low will weaken before it gets here. If not, well, time for the cat vacuum again.

Rex glad that new mattress is suiting you. Since we're not getting any younger, we have to be nice to our backs. I haven't run a train in weeks so I think I'm getting withdrawals also. Ken did a heck of a job on his Merchant's Row. I thought mine looked OK until I saw the job Ken did. Check them out at http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12060&highlight=merchant's.

I keep getting those DVD's too, I guess because I'm an MR subscriber. I never ordered them and the postal regulations are clear that I can consider them a gift. Good thing too, because they really are snorers. Some of the layout video is nice but there's alsmost no information that's useful for anyone who has any experience in the hobby. I guess they would be OK if you've never done anything with model trains but they are still really boring.

Ken, I think you're selling yourself short on a painting article for the Merchant's Row. That's really one of the most difficult structure kits to paint and detail and, frankly, most of the ones I've seen look awful. You must have some pretty good tips and tricks to have yours come out looking so good.

Phillip, sorry to hear you're still getting hammered at work. Maybe things will calm down by the weekend.

Jeffrey, I was lucky and managed to pick up two decent Toshiba laptops for $700 each. They are way better than my old junker laptop and now I'm jealous. All the scattered debris in my yard from all the pruning this week were taken care of by our strong south winds. Now my neighbors have little pieces of me to remember in their yards. You sure you can't sell all that pine straw?

Nothing else exciting happening here although we did manage to find a home for another stray cat that wandered up a few weeks ago. She's a nice little cat but four of them is more than enough for me. I don't know if there's some kind of kitty telegraph or what but I seem to get a new stray cat about once a month now.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Evening peoples--Well, that was quick! Had three clients to do and got them all done in under 6 hours--all because two were done in about 2.5 hours--talk about fast throughput!. Now, having done that something will come along tomorrow to put me behind again----

Jim We got some friends that live just outside of Ancaster ON on a farm and there are at least 15-20 "strays" they look after at a time. There was a while ago a rash of this "dropping pets off" in front of farmers fields or homes that there were some people kind of keeping an eye on strange cars driving around--seemed they caught a few. It's died down a tad since but--

Jeff I'm getting pieces for my own custom PC. To heck with buggering around with getting systems that even when you do specify WHAT you want always end up NOT QUITE----

So into the trainroom with me----I go

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Jeff I'm getting pieces for my own custom PC. To heck with buggering around with getting systems that even when you do specify WHAT you want always end up NOT QUITE----

That's a good idea. I always advise people that if they know how to build their own system. I've built about a half dozen for myself, three or four for friends, two for my parents. The system I'm using now was built by me and has a custom made main board from MSI built to my specs. The main board alone cost more than a lot of the systems you see for sale at Wal-Mart, in the range of $500. It has seven expansion slots for different types of cards. I can run four IDE drives and four SATA drives at once and the system memory is expandable to eight gigabytes. There are sixteen USB ports, eight powered and eight unpowered. The processor is an AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+ on an AM2 mount.

We had a vicious line of thunderstorms pass through here earlier. Power flickered several times but didn't go out. The winds at times were in excess of 60 mph. Everything is OK here. We're still under a tornado watch until 11 pm central time.

 

[vato loco]

Had a great night's sleep on the new mattress. Maybe it was worth the $$ just to have a good night's rest.

Ya, Ya, Ya, keep on rubbing it in! While you sleep sweet, I keep waking up in the middle of the night screaming from bad dreams of the savage beating I got from my breakfast Did you get me a mattress too Lord knows I could use the rest!

 

[Sandy]

Hey all!

We are getting blasted here in Colorado. I live about 20 miles NE of Denver and we are in the midst of a white out blizzard. It is absolutely fantastic!

We have been needing some snow and this one is supposed to dump about
18 inches of the cold, white stuff right in my front yard. I can work from home again tomorrow so I don't even have to venture out. I made a pot of curried lentil stew and have a cup of Sleepytime tea steeping. Ah...life IS good!

I love the refences to Jim's cat catcher. What a hilarious mental image

I hope y'all are staying warm and don't get too envious of this fantastic weather we're having!

Take care

Sandy

 

[TaeOH]

The system I'm using now was built by me and has a custom made main board from MSI built to my specs.

I have been building my own gaming rigs for over 10 years now after owning 2 Gateways. I started building them when I realized I knew more about PC's than the Gateway tech support guy that I contacted after I had issues with the new PC I had just received from them. After that experience I realized that buying a proprietary POS for the warranty and "support" was just a bad deal.

But you are the first person I have ever seen actually order a custom motherboard for a home PC.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

But you are the first person I have ever seen actually order a custom motherboard for a home PC.

When I can get what I want I spare no expense. No sense in building up a good system if I'm gonna stick a cheap board in it. I'm a self-taught computer tech and have a 187 IQ. Gotta use those smarts for something.

 

[TaeOH]

When I can get what I want I spare no expense. No sense in building up a good system if I'm gonna stick a cheap board in it. I'm a self-taught computer tech and have a 187 IQ. Gotta use those smarts for something.

Damn, that is a higher IQ than my brother. I could never beat him in chess (literally never beat him), Stratego on the other hand, that I understood. He would only beat me 3 games out of 5 in that game.

I love the photo's of your work. Truly beautiful work.

I am self taught in pretty much everything I do (which really isn't too much, this hobby is going to teach me the most practical skills I think I have ever had an interest in learning). That is why I entered IT after foundering as a waiter in high class restaurants for 12 years, found out I could make a decent living just figuring **** out.

 

[UP2CSX]

Evening, everyone.

Looks like a long night again. We've got a pretty good storm over us now, probably from the same line the hit Jeffrey earlier. Almost no wind but tons of lightning. More coming from the south, a direction I don't like in terms of tornados. No watches or warnings yet, which is kind of surprising.

Sandy, I saw some video of the whiteout in Denver. I'm glad you think it's fun. Yuck! Unfortunately for us, your storm is racing across the plains and will hit use early Saturday morning. This is the one I'm really worried about. It will have all the dynamics to set off a real tornado outbreak. Probably won't get much sleep tomorrow night either. "...a pot of curried lentil stew and have a cup of Sleepytime tea steeping." Are you sure you don't live in Boulder.?

Jeffrey, I buy from Tiger Direct for building computers. They have some fantastic barebox systems that you can add all the high powered gaming stuff you want. It's also a good place to find good deals on refurb desktops and laptops.

Chris, you have to stop fighting with inanimate objects. All that does is give you high blood pressure.

BOC, we live a little out in the country and I suspect people dump their cats out here too. Our little white stray was pregnant, which is probably why she was dumped. We found a nice old lady who's other cat just died and she was thrilled to get our stray. She'll give it a real good home. I'd love to catch someone dumping a cat out here and have a little "chat" with him after the appropriate dose of pepper spray.

Tom, I found I could pick up a lot of things on my own as long as I could read about it or watch someone else do it. I have no idea what my IQ is but it has been enough to get me through life so far.

Just watching the lightning and listening to the thunder. Number 2 daugter wanted to know if lightning would come through her bedroom window. I have to go and give her some basic physics lessons.

 

[vato loco]

Evening, everyone.


Chris, you have to stop fighting with inanimate objects. All that does is give you high blood pressure.

"NOW YOU TELL ME!" My blood pressure is thru the roof and if those Bananna's on the counter don't quite giving me the eye............well it's on baby! Dang Fruit, is starting up with me

 

[vato loco]

BTW: why can't we get some of that rain u guys are getting..........The so called weatherman said we might get some/not much rain Sunday? we're -24" in the bucket so far!

 

[James S]

Hello all!

layout update: I'm building plan #6 from 102 track plans, but modifying it to a more midwest feel. I'm having three industries served by rail, Feed/Grain, a Lumber and Hardware dealer and a small alcoholic beverage brewery.

I've been running my new Atlas ATSF (BNSF Patch) GP35 on a piece of flex track for 2 hours. Man is it quiet. It is a latest release and you can't even hear the motor running.

I'm heading to the Hobby store on the other side of town tomorrow to probably pick up a few freight cars, and check out some Peco/Atlas C55 track.

Hopefully, the benchwork for the layout should begin to take shape this weekend.

 

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It was 45 F as I headed into work this morning. Our high will be 64 F. It looks like we have a wet weekend in store for us.

Yesterday at work was another session in the nuthouse. We had to work like crazy to get bid addendums to two advertised projects that had to be published yesterday. We made it. We also had to finalize another project so the bid proposal could be advertised. We made it but the project did not since the person who had to request the Federal Authorization failed to do so before the deadline even though he had all the information days ahead of time. Frustrating to say the least. The project will now be advertised next week and the bids opened one later than we intended. We now have one more project to advertise and we are done with this round of crisis.

No modeling last night. Our Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet is coming up next weekend so we were working on items for that.

Tonight is guitar lesson for my son and it is also my FIL’s 75th birthday. I may have to work a few hours on Saturday. My wife will be working at the museum all day Saturday also. Sunday is wide open. I need to renumber a couple of cars and then start weathering a bunch.

I hope everybody has a good day.

 

[Secondhandmodeler]

Good morning folks.

We have returned to winter for a while. I forgot how frustrating spring can be. Our highest high is in the low forties for the next ten days. BOOOO!

I said something to my wife about my river valley coming along nicely. She wasn't impressed! She seems to think that I should just get it done. I asked why she doesn't just watch a movie instead of reading a book. Oh, she likes the process of reading, how silly! Oh well, at least she is encouraging me to make more progress. Usually, in the spring, I'm chomping at the bit to do yard work. This year I don't have a yard, so modeling will continue at a decent pace.

Prom tuxedo season is fast approaching. We are being inundated with immature kids with their overbearing mothers. I thought the kids in groups were hard to deal with. Oh no, picky mothers are worse than brides! The money is great, so I try to keep my whining to a minimum.

I hope you guys have a great day. Good luck with those nasty storms.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning.

It's 64 and foggy. High today should be near 80 and there's more thunderstorms coming in.

Hope today isn't like yesterday was. We had one thunderstorm after another come through. My yard looks like a war zone. I heard some branches falling yesterday but none hit the trailer. Surprisingly the power never went out, just flickered a bit. The cable though was a different story. It went out several times but came back on after a few minutes. I had absolutely no problem with the satellite signal. I've heard people dissing them for going out during storms. Even during the most intense part of the storm I never saw even as much as a spot in the picture and it was so cloudy and raining so hard that it looked like late evening at five in the afternoon. I hope to get some layout work done today but that depends mostly on old Mr Murphy.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA 71446-6114 3/27/2009

Wind Chill: 64°F
Humidity: 100%
Dew Point: 64°F

So Far Today
High: 64°F
Low: 60°F
Rain: 0.00"
Rain Rate: 0.00"/h
Gust: 7mph SE

Today High: 78 Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds 10 to 15 mph.

Tonight Low: 48 Showers and thunderstorms until late night...then a chance of showers late. Some thunderstorms may be severe. Cooler. Lows in the upper 40s. West winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent.

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm18/forum-2/DSCN0848.jpg

 

[TaeOH]

We are supposed to get those storms tomorrow I guess. They are calling for severe thunderstorms with damaging winds. There are still tons of roofs still not fixed from the hurricane winds that came through Ohio last year. We hate storms with a passion ever since my house got hit by lightning a exactly one year ago tonight. Scariest thing I have ever gone through, we were lucky the house did not burn down.

Jim - I hope to find some modelers around town to learn from, but I have a tendency to go it alone when learning. I seem to not really learn anything until I make a mistake.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

We are supposed to get those storms tomorrow I guess. They are calling for severe thunderstorms with damaging winds. There are still tons of roofs still not fixed from the hurricane winds that came through Ohio last year. We hate storms with a passion ever since my house got hit by lightning a exactly one year ago tonight. Scariest thing I have ever gone through, we were lucky the house did not burn down.

I have my trailer set up so the electrical lines, the trailer exterior and the sheet steel on the overroof are grounded to the trailer frame then directly to ground. Since 1995 the trailer has been hit several times. I've had no damage from the strikes as the energy is all channeled to the ground like an inverted Faraday cage. I also have a 'whole house' surge protector as well surge protector strips for sensitive electronics.

 

[pcarrell]

Mornin' all!

Well, the work thing is calming down somewhat. I don't mind work.....it's good for a body. It's just that when you have too much work, it can be overwhelming. Anyways, things are getting back on track, so thats good.

So I see Tom is getting ready for the Blue & Gold Banquet.......I remember those. Hope that goes well for ya!

And Jeff is still with us after weathering the storms......excellent! Wouldn't have it any other way, right?

Looks like Corey has decided to just skip spring.......summer is good, but I kinda like the buildup to it that spring provides, but thats just me.

James, as I don't have that book I'll rely on pics from you to fill out my imagination on the new layout.

And Chris, I guess for you, rain is like job security, huh? (Me too! But for different reasons!) Well, if it makes you feel any better, my wife just came back from Florida and she told me that she brought the sun back here to Indiana with her and she left you our nasty, rainy weather. So far though, our weather report seems to indicate that she might have been stretching the truth a bit........

 

[leghome]

Sure hope Bill and the Girls are OK. He has not posted since the 20th. Where oh where for art thou Bill we misses ya.