Coffee Shop Part VIII

[IronBeltKen]

Good morning Bill and gang!

Still haven't heard any further word on whether NASA will cancel the contract or not , but if they do, supposedly my own job won't be in immediate danger.

Josh, it sounds like Murphy reigned supreme at your job yesterday - was there a full moon or something?

Rex - glad to hear you're enjoying setting up your signals. I've been trying to deal with unexpected warping of my benchwork, it's done a number on some of my tracks and my once-smooth running mainline is spawning derailments everywhere. At least "slow orders" minimize the problems.

 

[tompm]

Good morning folks

20 F was the temperature as I hit the road this morning. High today will be 36 F.

I worked a little on weathering the flat car decks.

This weekend is the bi-weekly restocking of the food stuffs. On Saturday we will be taking our Cub Scout Pack into Philadelphia via the train to the Chinese New Year Celebration at the University Of Penn Museum Of Anthropology.

I would like to finish weathering the Athearn blue box TOFC’s. I have 5 to do. Then I have two Athearn RTR ones. I also have a couple of other RTR flat cars to weather.

I hope everybody has a good day.

 

[CanuckMark]

Morning gang!

The last two days have been good for my homebrew DCC project. It uses the serial port directly to a booster unit. Got the algorithyms figured out during Christmas for loco control, then yesterday I got the OTM programming working with (surprisingly) little grief. This is really turning out good - takes my mind off work issues (as any good hobby should).

Mark

 

[IronBeltKen]

This just in: NASA approved the continuation of my department's main project - YESSSSSS!!!

(Thanx everyone who prayed for this intention)

 

[NYC_George]

Good news bad news

Good morning everyone. For me it's one of those good news, bad news days. The bad news is I got laid off after being on the project for 2 years. The good news is I needed the rest. They don't pour much concrete this time of year and there's already 110 people on the list waiting to go back to work. It looks like I'll be finishing some of my model railroad projects at least until March.

NYC_George

 

[Steve B]

Ken Spot on, thats a great start to the weekend
JoshThats a bad start to the weekend
GeorgeYou were ready for a break anyways, take them whenever you can
Rex happy signaling
Mark That is a project i would not even think about tackling, top marks for trying

Ya'll have a great weekend

 

[OldGettysk]

Good Morning ALL ! Looks like a busy morning here Flo . I'll have a decaf with a bit of cream . Another cool day here in Buffalo , 14 going up to 27 .No snow so a good day. Ray did'nt you take advantage of the New York State Rebates they where handing out a couple years ago to swap in your old air conditioners for more energy efficient ones. I traded in 4 old ones , even one that didn't work and got three hundred and fifty back towards new ones. Not only did I save right away but over two summers they paid back in energy savings. My daughter just went out the door to school and I told her to be careful. Hope the accident bug stays away . Ken hope your job stays save. We had Bell Aircraft here from it's beginnings . My mother was even a riviter there in WW2 and they closed thier doors back in the eighties. It was a sad day I'll tell you but like other industries in NYS just a bad place to do buisness. well gonna go get some work done. So hope all have a good day !!

 

[rhoward]

Mornin' everyone!

Josh at least you weren't bored.... Hope no one was hurt!

Ken L that's great news. I am happy for you and all the other folks that effects.

George at least you will have some quality time with the layout.

Tom that sounds like fun. I remember trips with the pack when my boys were Cubs. My favorite was taking a bus to Syracuse, boarding the train and riding to Albany, visiting the museums there an getting in the train for the trip home. That was when we lived in Waverly, NY so that was a very long day. Thank you for your supporting Scouting! Hope you have a great time.

Mark that sounds like an interesting project. Hope it works flawlessly when completed.

Paul I never did take advantage of that rebate. When that came out, even with the rebates, I couldn't afford to upgrade. By the time I could, the rebate had been discontinued. I have been upgrading little by little over the years to both lessen my impact on the planet, and to save myself $ in the long run. Right now my train room is biggest user of energy in the house.

I have to get everything ready today to record an All County Festival tomorrow, so I best get to work. Catch you all later.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Good morning.

35 degrees here at this time with a wind chill of 29. The wind chill is even lower here, about 25 because of the wind coming off the lake. Also getting quite a bit of rain today.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA 71446-6114 1/25/2008

Wind Chill: 29°F
Humidity: 70%
Dew Point: 27°F

So Far Today
High: 38°F
Low: 35°F
Rain: 0.01"
Rain Rate: 0.00"/h
Gust: 17mph NNE

Now through 11:00 AM CST January 25, 2008

Through 11 AM...moderate rain will spread out of southwest Louisiana and coastal acadiana. This rain will taper off over southeast Texas. Amounts up to a quarter inch can be expected south of a line from Buna and Longville over to Ville Platte by 11 AM. Occasionally rainfall rates will reach a half inch an hour. Rain should get under way around Lafayette by 10 AM.

Today High: 42 Cloudy. Chance of rain in the morning...then rain likely in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 40s. Northeast winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent.

Tonight Low: 38 Rain in the evening...then chance of rain after midnight. Lows in the upper 30s. East winds around 10 mph in the evening becoming light and variable. Chance of rain 80 percent.

 

[jbaakko]

Good morning Bill and gang!

Still haven't heard any further word on whether NASA will cancel the contract or not , but if they do, supposedly my own job won't be in immediate danger.

Josh, it sounds like Murphy reigned supreme at your job yesterday - was there a full moon or something?

Close, seems the Full Moon was on the 22nd.

Josh at least you weren't bored.... Hope no one was hurt!

Nope, no injuries, just allot of twisted metal.

No fireworks even, which, is a good thing, considering it was loaded with flare boxes...

 

[UP2CSX]

Afternoon, everyone.

Good news for you, Ken, and not so good for George. Sorry about that, George, but I will say that every job I lost I ended up in a better one so losing the old job turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Josh, how did that rotor manage to hit the fuel truck ladder? Our fuel truck had a ladder two feet below the lowest droop point of the rotor at minimum RPM's but it still always got me a little nervous when we were doing a hot refuel. Speaking of nervous, have you heard any scuttlebutt on that triple seven crash at Heathrow last week? Seems like something must have gone wrong in the control system.

Tom, that's neat you are able to take your Cub pack places by train. None of my childen have ever been on a real passenger train and don't even understand what they are when I run a passenger train on the layout.

Mark, I know serial port communication is a lot easier to program but can you get that thing to work with USB? Serial ports are getting to be about as rare as hen's teeth.

Ray, down here, it would be an all COUNTRY festival.

Gray, cold, and gloomy here today with a temperature of 41 degress. Might get some freesing rain or sleet tonight but I'm hoping we'll be back up in the 60's for the weekend.

 

[RexHea]

Ken, that's great news. Now you can feel so relieved, you can go out and buy some MR stuff. (Always helps to celebrate after a big worry. )

Ha, we just went under a winter storm advisory with a chance of freezing rain, sleet, and possible snow tonight. Boy, these weathermen sure like to stir things up. It has almost become theatrical.

...down here, it would be an all COUNTRY festival

More Alabama bashing, Jim?

 

[UP2CSX]

Rex, no winter weather advisories here yet but I wouldn't be surprised to see some kind of frozen precipitaton tonght.

...down here, it would be an all COUNTRY festival

More Alabama bashing, Jim?

Why is is this Alabama bashing? You telling me that country music isn't the most popular form of music down here? Come down here to Karla's Country Cafe on any Saturday night, when they always have a band. If they play one song that's not country, dinner is on me.

 

[Steve B]

After an early night but the police helicopters flying round in circles overhead and armed responce units outside,,, so i'll stay up a bit me thinks

 

[jbaakko]

Josh, how did that rotor manage to hit the fuel truck ladder? Our fuel truck had a ladder two feet below the lowest droop point of the rotor at minimum RPM's but it still always got me a little nervous when we were doing a hot refuel.

We never hot fuel with a truck, to many variables there, we use static fuel points for that.

However, even with the Marine Corps droop control on the blades, they still manage to hang at just around 10', and the ladder sticks up just high enough that it caught it. The ladder arms stick up and curve back down to the tank, for added safety while climbing it.

The blades were turned by hand, by the crew on the ground, using a rope that they use to tie back the blades while parked.

Speaking of droop control, I stood next to a CH53E Monday, which had a broken droop control ram, and the tip of the blade sat at about 4'!

 

[RexHea]

Just got back from my 92 yrs. old Mom's. She fell again and this time I had to get the ambulance to take her for a checkup at the hospital. This is the second time in two weeks, but she insist on living alone and not with us or in a nursing facility.

Jim, Ya-hoooo!

Steve, What was up with the police?

Josh, When I was in SE Asia an urgent message came through about a sailor that lost the back of his head from a helicopter blade. This was on a Carrier.

 

[UP2CSX]

Rex, I'm sorry to hear about your mom. As I'm sure you know, falls and broken hips are the major cause of death in someone her age so I hope you can work out a solution.

Josh, the Sheriff's Department had a Ranger and then bought a Super Ranger. We didn't have the luxury of fixed fueling points so we always had to refuel from a truck. The FBO had a truck that had been specially modified to not have any projection that came within two feet of our maximum droop because we often had hot calls and couldn't shut down to refuel. Never had an accident in 25 years but that rotor always looked awfully close to that truck. Those CH53E's are scary birds. I've watched them flying in formations of three pulling mine sweeping sleds in San Francisco Bay and those pilots have way bigger ones than me.

Steve, sounds like L.A. Between the city and the county, we had 47 helicopters, which was more than something like 90% of the world's air forces. Helicopters circling above your house almost became like background noise. I'm sorry to see that's come the the UK too.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Thanx everybody for the supportive words! (George, sorry to hear about your news...)

Rex, I wish I could follow your recommendation but I've already overspent too much - kinda pushing the envelope here, LOL! Sorry to hear about your mother, I have an 87yr-old widowed M-I-L that I'm trying to teach about computers and the 'net - talk about a MAJOR challenge...!

Steve we had a situation like that here in my 'rural' neighborhood a few summers ago, 3 choppers circling overhead and cop cars blocking the entrances to every street. Some armed maniac had been seen in the Patapsco State Park, after he had assaulted his wife in PA and tried to escape in my state. They found the guy lying dead 2 days later beside the river about 3 miles from my house, he had shot himself in the head.

Wow Jim, that's a lotta choppers for one city P.D.!

 

[RexHea]

Would you believe T-town and the County have 3 choppers. Our Sheriff has really made his department first class and changed their overall mission from that of court bellboy to hands-on law enforcement. He has turned a lot of drug monies into high tech equipment. FYI: Last week he was appointed to be the Deputy Director, in charge of law enforcement coordination, at Homeland Security in Washington D.C. (or something like that ) He came a long way from police K-9 for the city to become Sheriff, to Homeland Security. (While all this sounds good, it is my bet that this is a political appointment. It is only for a year .)

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

01-26-2008

Good Morning from Tipton IN !