Coffee shop one-three

[Cjcrescent]

Jim/Rex;

I guess I'm up with yall as well. I get to watch this weather as well. It is currently 0345 and the squall line appears to be decreasing in strength, even though its done this several times already tonite, only to spin up again. This line has moved east only about 75 miles since midnight! Very slow mover with the inidividual storms racing up along the line! Some places NW of Jasper have had over 6.5" of rain since 1900. The front edge is just now getting here, and that's not even the bad parts of the storms.

There's also been several gravity waves form and move up the squall lines bringing straight line wind damage to several areas to our west. One skywatcher even clocked a wind gust of 85MPH just west of here! Thats hurricane force winds. Trees and power lines are down around the area, and other damage has been reported just north and west of you Rex. Hope you come through with no damage there fella.

The TV stations here have been in long coverage of the storms since right after midnight, according to them. I slept from about 2130 to 0230 tonight so I guess I'm up.

My stress test went really well, but I'm having a "hangover" from the drugs they used. I have to have a "chemical" stress test, since I can't walk long enough to raise my heartrate enough to cause the heart stress. My foot won't let me, without it hurting like a SOB! They raised my rate to 140 and my BP went to 150/100. Like last time, I had 1 PAC, (Premature Atrial Contraction), but the MD's weren't concerned.

Rex, I hope that you have a real good session Sat at the ARG. I can't attend for the reasons stated in the E-mail, unless sumpin' slips or comes untied. I'm really not gonna enjoy the drive!

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

12-10-2008

Good Morning from Tipton IN !

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning.

It's 39 and cloudy. The high is expected to be around 40 and it will be rainy with a chance of snow and sleet tonight.

Didn't do much yesterday. I converted a BB GP38-2 to DCC only to discover that it had a bum motor. It ran but very slowly. I changed the motor out and it runs OK now. The rest of the day was spent bracing for the storm and dealing with it's aftermath. I know I won't get anything done today as I have to go to Alexandria to have my eyes dilated again so the doc can look for more damaged blood vessels due to my diabetes. At least the weather is cooperating with me for once. It'll be good and cloudy on the drive back home.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA 71446-6114 12/10/2008

Wind Chill: 29°F
Humidity: 87%
Dew Point: 34°F

So Far Today
High: 42°F
Low: 38°F
Rain: 0.00"
Rain Rate: 0.00"/h
Gust: 24mph NNE

Through 6 AM...scattered showers will continue to affect area along and east of a line from pecan island to Opelousas. Rainfall amounts of up to one tenth of an inch are possible as this activity moves off to the northeast at 45 mph. Elsewhere...drizzle and sprinkles will be possible over the remainder of Louisiana and southeast Texas.

Today High: 42 Rain likely. Much colder. Highs in the lower 40s. Northwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent.

Tonight Low: 32 Rain likely...a chance of snow and sleet. Little or no snow and sleet accumulation. Lows in the lower 30s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/proudIndian/P1010612.jpg

 

[AndrewC]

Good mornig all fro Ye Olde London Towne. Its a chilly 3c (38f) both high and low. I blame all those smug greenies with their silly little electric cars for causing global cooling. I'll take boring cool weather any day over the heavy storms though.

After having nearly a year of modelling hiatus due to a very protracted house move and a lot of work needed in the new place, my office room has been completed to the stage where I can start setting up a workbench again. YIPPEE!!!!!! The previously mentioned train shed will be kitted out with insulation, heat, and power in the new year. This morning has been spend in pulling the first dozen plastic tubs full of train stuff from the loft. Opened the first one and thought to myself, 'I don't remember buying half of this stuff'. Looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of time updating my stock database.

Most of the rest of my time this week will be in setting up the Christmas decorations. (not Griswold style either)

Being more or less homebound has it's advantages.

Sorry Jeffery, I didn't realise you were that mobility limited.

 

[pcarrell]

Phillip, .....Where is that locomotive? Someone did a nice job with the lights.

I don't know, but they did do a great job, huh? The pic was just given to me.

 

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It was 54 F as I rolled into the traffic jams this morning. High today will be 63 F with rain.

I had another morning of traffic chaos. I guess people couldn’t handle the mild temperatures and the rain. Accidents were everywhere and people driving like the roads were ice covered. It was another hour plus commute. Of course that meant I was almost late for a meeting. Luckily the person we were meeting with was stuck in the same traffic mess as I was so the meeting got started more or less “on time.”

No modeling last night. My daughter had flute lesson and I had to attend Cub Scout Roundtable. My wife took my son and other scouts from our pack to a local grocery store for a behind the scenes tour. My son did set-up his HO track and Christmas village under the tree. He hopes to test it before we go to Cub Scout den meetings tonight.

I hope everybody has a good day.

 

[Steve B]

went to the professor today relating to my problem and he says its not marfans syndrome but some other rare condition, more x-rays on my feet as my toes keep dislocating and going under my feet, which is a bit painful.

who knows??

 

[RexHea]

Made it through the storm ok. Nothing like our crazy December weather: it is now 59 deg w/50% chance of rain, tonight 40 deg 100% rain, and tomorrow 40 deg high w/29 deg low. Guess what...chance of snow tomorrow (no accumulation). Did I say, "crazy weather!"

Had a local MR over last night to help me check out some train routes. all went pretty good until I fired up my two PCM, Loksound Y6's. (They have been sitting on a siding for a month while I did other things.) When I fired them up, I got every weird problem imaginable: Very loud volume that would cut-in and out, erratic speeds, and then......while stopped (and with my back turned), took-off like a bat of hell. I couldn't stop them except with an emergency stop. I defaulted one of them and it appeared to have cleared the erratic movement, but the sound is still screwed up. Still working on them.

The pups are now mud-puppies after the rains. They have dug up the backyard again and have enjoyed wallowing in the mud. Dang, I hope they outgrow this.

Ya'll have a good day!

 

[Steve B]

Rex Get an outside bath put in, your gonna need it did you say SNOW, in Bama ???

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Took off to Alexandria this morning for my eye appointment. Good news. The swelling in my eyes is gone and the bleeding has subsided by a good bit. The doc is quite happy and so am I. Had a breakdown on the way there though. I was about 10 miles up hwy 28 when the fuel pump suddenly quit. I pulled off onto the shoulder with a pretty good idea what was wrong. Y'all really missed quite a sight. You would'a had a good laugh watching my 260 pound body going under the back of the car. It was a tight squeeze but before I got the jack and all out I wanted to confirm my suspicion. I was right! So I got the mini floor jack out and raised the back of the car 6 inches so I could be more comfortable under there and not feel like a ham sandwich squashed between two high school history books. Here's what the problem was. About June of 2000 one of the wires going from the fuel pump to the quick connect plug behind the gas tank had broken loose from the plug. I had fixed it by splicing a wire in ahaed of the plug and joined it to the other wire with a suitcase connector. The connector has been replaced with a new one on two occasions when I had to drop the tank to install a new pump, the last being 5 years ago.(Used a cheap pump before). Well guess what! That connector had worked loose over the years and this morning the wire arced and melted the connector! I didn't have another one to put on and didn't have the time anyway so I stripped the ends of both wires and just twisted them together. The sound of the fuel pump starting up was music to my ears (it's connected through a toggle switch to the battery). I tossed the tools in the trunk and hit 70 in six and a half seconds. Not bad for a car that's running rough. The next stop was Alexandria.

 

[UP2CSX]

Afternoon, everyone.

Jeffrey, I'm glad the storms moved away from you before they got too bad.

CJ, you guys further north really got hammered compared to us. All the frontal activity was from about Selma north. All we got is a few of those gravity waves that bought some rain but never even saw a flash of lightning. The NWS is investigating at least three possible tornados up your way. Lots of straight line winds too. Except for some rain, we seemed to be right in a dry slot as the front passed through. We are still in the warm air since this low from the north hasn't reached us yet. It's still 66 and low was 64!. Looks like the area around Dothan is really getting it now although heavy rain is the main problem. They have flash flood watches out for that area. For the whole storm so far, we've only had .91 inches of rain. I don't think the cold air will get far enough south for use to see any sleet or snow but you guys up north might see a bit of it before the dry air gets here. Glad to hear the stress test went so well. I've had bouts of PAC's since I was a teenager and still get an occasional run of 5 seconds or so. Feels weird but it's basically a benign condition.

Steve, it does snow in Alabama, especially since I've moved here and wrecked the whole normal weather patterns. The picture at the bottom is our house last February, when we had the first snow since 1993. A week later, we had the big tornado that roared through town. My neighbors keep giving me suspicious looks.

Rex, it never fails that, the closer you get to an ops session, the weirder your layout will behave. Sounds like Y6's need to have the DC capability turned off to stop the runaways but I don't have clue about why the sound systems should be acting up except maybe low voltage due to dirty tracks? At least my cats don't like to play in mud. They destroy everything else in the house but don't track mud in.

Just cloudy, misty and foggy here but still weirdly warm. That should change quickly later tonight. It won't be as bad as further north but our high should only get to around 46 tomorrow. It should be clearing by the time the sub-freezing air gets here.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Guess what? My new glasses will be here in about two weeks. My niece custom ordered them per my prescription and tastes from Zenni Optical. They're less than $75!

 

[vato loco]

Dang Jim, that's a nice little home! Now I know where the CRAP funds have been disappearing too!

"Hmmmmmmmm, Flo! I'll have one of everything on the menu and put it on That Rich dude Jim's Tab!" a evil LOL's;-)

 

[RexHea]

Yeah Steve, snow is predicted for tomorrow afternoon. The ground is to warm for it to accumulate, even if we do get more than a dusting. They have winter weather warnings posted for the Northwestern part of the state and we have been told that it may eventually include us. My daughter is having snow in HOUSTON now!.

Jim: After defaulting the PCM's and reloading the CV's, both units run real good, but now no sound at all. DC analog is turned off as with all my units. I first suspected something in that line since Loksound samples the power on the rails and then selects the method of power to use. I have all that turned off and it shouldn't have happened but still....... The weird thing: Why both locos?
Guess I will have to call a tech at BLI/PCM tomorrow. At least they can be ran for the Ops. You are sooooo right about things going nuts before a session. Everything has been running perfect up until yesterday.

Andrew: Isn't it fun to open boxes of goodies you have long put aside.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Hi gang,

Been lurking these past 36 hours, just haven't had the energy to compose a message. I used my annual "personal" day from work today so I could be here while the plumber fixed a recurring problem with a pipe in the laundry room. Luckily I signed onto a home appliance insurance plan last summer, the work he did today wouldv'e cost me over $300 otherwise; all I paid was the standard service fee of $55. I got some more work done on my cement silos, and hit the mall in the afternoon to knock out some more Christmas shopping (want to avoid that place like the plague on weekends! )

Rex - I experienced something similar with the decoder in one of my GP38's, CV29 was set at 4 (supposed to be 34); I posted a thread about this across the street on the 'DCC' sub-forum, they suspect the decoder misinterpreted some line noise.

Steve - do you guys across the pond refer to doctors as 'professors' ? Whatever the case, I hope what you have isn't too serious...

All you 'Bama guys - glad the storm system didn't affect you seriously (other than losing a few hours' sleep).

 

[UP2CSX]

Steve, I forgot about your foot. If it's not Marfan's I wonder what the heck could be going on? I hope you get answers (and relief) soon.

Jeffrey, that story is hilarious. I nominate you of the King of Roadside Mechanics Award. Glad to hear you got a good price from Zenni on the glasses. They've always done a good job for my girls.

Chris, you're thinking of Florida homes. This is just a modest little house in Alabama. If I told you how much I paid for this (4,000 square feet. .8 acres of land, and a huge finished basement) compared to what I sold my crummy little 1700 square foot tract home in California for in 2005, you'd have a heart attack. I was lucky to get out before the real estate market collapsed. My house has lost some value since I bought it in 2006 but nothing like if I had stayed in California. However, my insights into how the economy flows and what stops it up does make me the logical leader of the CRAP program.

Rex, I hope BLI has a solution to your problem. Seems almost impossible that two decoders would fail at once but I guess it could happen. I was lucky when Ken was here. My one crummy little train and switcher stayed on the tracks the whole time.

Ken, I hate plumbing and malls so got a double whammy. At least the plumbing probably cost you a lot less than the mall.

Well, this is one weird cold front. The temperature an hour ago was 62 and it's now up to 65 with more rain pushing up from the Gulf. At the same time it's snowing in Houston, Galveston, and Corpus Christi. No sign of anything severe, at least, just rain, but the cold air is apparently trailing way behind the front and is way further south than it should be. It will be interesting to see what will happen when the cold air finally does get here. Hard to believe that Alabama will escape snow completely when it's snowing on the Gulf coast of Texas.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

12-11-2008

Good Morning from Tipton IN !

 

[vato loco]

Chris, you're thinking of Florida homes. This is just a modest little house in Alabama. If I told you how much I paid for this (4,000 square feet. .8 acres of land, and a huge finished basement) compared to what I sold my crummy little 1700 square foot tract home in California for in 2005, you'd have a heart attack. I was lucky to get out before the real estate market collapsed. My house has lost some value since I bought it in 2006 but nothing like if I had stayed in California. However, my insights into how the economy flows and what stops it up does make me the logical leader of the CRAP program.

Just a Modest little house?LOL's 4000sqft ModestROFLMAO! Jim, your a funny dude my house is 5x's smaller than your house! Now That's a modest House. your California home is 1 1/3 x's bigger than that modest little home too!



Your still buying Breakfast!



Well it's our turn with those bad stormes today! they are lined up and starting to come ashore as I type this! I'll have to drive to work 30 miles in this storm o'well at least I won't have to work hard today

 

[latenttrainfan]

wait, someones buying breakfast?

I'll have whatever you're all having.

reminds me of back when I had a real job, the crew would meet up at a tiny little greasy spoon in an out of the way location, we'ld hide all our work trucks inthe parking lot behind the building so we couldn't be seen from the road, (just in case a manager happened to be driving by) and have the all day breakfast. 3 eggs over easy, LOTS of crispy bacon, home fries to die for, coleslaw and endless coffee. $2.95

we did that every day for 4 months, while on a special job. I gained 15 pounds.
theres' a downside to everything I guess.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning.

It's 34 and raining slow and steady and there's some sleet now and then. The high will be around the mid 40's with more rain predicted.

As predicted I didn't get anything done yesterday. It's hard to work on anything when you can't see squat.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA 71446-6114 12/11/2008

Wind Chill: 26°F
Humidity: 93%
Dew Point: 32°F

So Far Today
High: 36°F
Low: 34°F
Rain: 0.50"
Rain Rate: 0.12"/h
Gust: 20mph NNW

Through 6 AM...light to moderate snow will continue across southeast Texas and southern Louisiana...generally along and south of a line from Toledo bend dam to Lafayette to Marsh Island. Up to one half inch of snow accumulation is possible. Elsewhere...a mixture of rain...snow...and sleet is expected. Rainfall amounts up to one half inch but little snow or sleet accumulation are anticipated.

Today High: 48 Cloudy with a chance of rain and snow early in the morning...turning to rain by late morning. Becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 40s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Lowest wind chill readings 23 to 37 in the morning. Chance of precipitation 50 percent.

Tonight Low: 32 Partly cloudy early in the evening then becoming mostly clear. Lows in the lower 30s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n3/proudIndian/P1010623.jpg