Coffee Shop XXV

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Beautiful day here in T-town. It was down to around freezing last night, but now in the upper 50's. Last night, I turned on the furnace and....NOTHING!:eek: (remember the fireplace is in-Op until a new liner is put in). Turned everything off, thinking maybe a restart would help, but still...NOTHING! Went out to the garage and dug-out a roll around oil tank type portable heater, just got it hot, then the furnace came on. Wife's cousin is in the business and said that moisture may have upset the control board or a pressure switch is acting up. Worked well all night, so maybe it will hang in there. At least he can help me fix it if it finally gives up long enough to find the problem.

The Christmas camera (Canon T2i package) I mentioned has been shipped and should be here middle of week. The package comes with a 16gb, class 6, memory that will be ideal for making videos. This may seem to be a weird "We" gift, but the wife and I couldn't think of anything we needed as individuals (happens with age:D), and we definitely need a good camera.

Think I will go out and make a dent in all the leaves on the yard, if they are dry enough. Then I will head to the depot and see what I can tear up:eek:.

Mikey: OK! You win for this year (looking at you without eye contact and gritting my teeth). We do have a complaint filed with the SEC: Seems nobody told us that their were two halves to play in a football game.:eek::D:D

:)You guys have a great weekend:)
 
11/28/2010

Good Morning ! from Tipton IN.
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Good morning. It's 38 and cloudy with just a little sunlight peeking through. The high should be 65 with times of clouds and sun. Isolated showers are expected this evening.

More layout work today. There's still some clutter to be cleared away. Amazing how hard it can be to find places to put things sometimes. Whoever said 'A place for everything and everything in it's place' obviously never had a layout that took up most of the space in the front room of a small trailer. The room is 7' 10" wide by 13' 7" long. The layout is in the shape of an inverted 'U'. If you stand at the back of the room (hall) looking to the front of the room the layout is laid out this way. On the left side of the layout is 3' 10" wide by 6' 5" long. The top of the layout bridging the two sides of the 'U' is 1' 10" wide by 2' long and the right side is 1' 11" wide at the top for a distance of 4' 10" where it expands to 3' 5" wide for a distance of about 5' 8". The walkway in the middle is 4' 3" long by 2' wide. The park (2' wide by 1' 8" long) takes up part of this space when it's in place. The space underneath is at a premium too. Under the left side at the front is the heater. Along the left, front and right walls are boxes full of MR related stuff, a 5 gallon Shop-Vac, a small milkhouse heater in case the big one conks out, numerous cans of different colors of latex paint ranging from 1/2 pint size to 1 gallon size, a small air compressor (Campbell Hausfeld 3 gallon) and under the right side extension is the computer. This leaves some space on the left side of the room for the door and the fridge and a little space on the right side for a tiny kitchen where there's barely room enough for the sink and the microwave and a small patch of counter space. And you thought your layout space was cramped.
 


Good morning. It's 22 here, and everything is covered with ice, or frozen. Including the water line going into our travel trailer. I'm waiting for it to thaw so I can get everything stowed before winterizing and heading home.
The cold froze and broke our 2 year old, high-dollar RV toilet, so I'm going to have to replace it next Spring. Of all the things I thought would get broken if they froze, that wasn't on the list. It's almost all flexible plastic, and the plumbing is pex or vinyl. With a single exception. The part that broke, and is cast onto the toilet. Of course. Sigh...
On a brighter note, I went to the LHS here yesterday, and picked up a 60' SP boxcar (looks like Exactrail, but there's no identifying marks) and a Bachmann DCConboard GP 40, in Santa Fe. We also took advantage of Black Friday in the boonies, and went to the local Wally World, where we picked up a new TomTom GPS. We'll see if it does any better than our old Garmin. Supposedly, it has a million miles more maps than our Garmin, and is supposed to do better routing. I hope so, as our Garmin has been known to send me through peoples' backyards and through unmarked desert, all the while proclaiming it's really on a road...
 
Oh yes, the infamous Garmin GPS system. My sister has one of those things. It lists only 2/3rds of the roads around here and not always in the right places.
 
went to the local Wally World, where we picked up a new TomTom GPS. We'll see if it does any better than our old Garmin. Supposedly, it has a million miles more maps than our Garmin, and is supposed to do better routing. I hope so, as our Garmin has been known to send me through peoples' backyards and through unmarked desert, all the while proclaiming it's really on a road...
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Well I don't want to rain on your parade, but don't expect any real difference. The Tom Tom has better maps and excellent mounting but it'll take you on the scenic routes of back roads, residential areas (when there is a nice 4 lane available elsewhere in the city) and yes mine took me through a back yard that might have been a road 20 years ago, announced that I had arrived at my destination while in the middle of an intersection about one mile from where I wanted to be. (stopped at an A&W for directions, that worked much better) That's just a few of the things it did for me.
All told it was better than the previous Garmin which gave us wonderful directions on one trip. While nearing our destination maybe 5 miles away, it announced we should take the next exit (sounded right), then it told us to turn left ?????, OK I did and crossed over the main highway to a big surprise, there was only one way we could go, back onto the main highway going in the opposite direction and then announcing our destination was 150 miles away. That's why I bought the Tom Tom.
If you don't know the route, or destination, before you leave take a look at the Google maps, study the routes to take you where you want to go, so when it determines the worst way is the best way, you can avoid the utter confusion it's quite capable of creating while showing you those million or so more miles of maps :D. There were many times I stopped and asked for directions because the darn thing had been taking us up and down streets close to the final destination.
Anyway best of luck with the new toy, it may be the better of all the GPS units available, you can depend on it getting you there eventually if you're really lost, but with fuel/gas at premium prices it may not be the most economic choice of routing directions. Use it cautiously :D
Cheers
Willis

PS: At the Tom Tom home site there is a software backup function, use it to back up the software as it is NOW in your unit, do not change that configuration again unless you are sure it is working properly.
Thankfully I did just that. After one of the software updates mine started turning itself on while not in use, the cure was to reload the backup into it, it no longer turns itself on.
 
CBCNSfan said:
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If you don't know the route, or destination, before you leave take a look at the Google maps, study the routes to take you where you want to go, so when it determines the worst way is the best way, you can avoid the utter confusion it's quite capable of creating while showing you those million or so more miles of maps :D.
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Not so fast!
Google Maps can be just as wrong as any other! Ask my neighbor across the street! Google Maps shows a road going through his garage!!!:eek: The road does exist, but its a half a mile away, going the opposite direction from the main road! This is not the 1st error I've found either!
I might be old school, but I trust my important trips to ADC maps!
 
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Hey gents!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving, I sure did. After dinners were done and desserts were eaten, I went home and packed for camp. We left early Friday morning and arrived around 9. Not much to report of other then we got 4in of snow. I also almost wrecked the wheeler and my friend did wreck his wheeler because of the weather.... and some increased speed :rolleyes:. No deer, not even a track to follow, but still had fun.

When i got home this morning i found 2 boxes on my bed. One of the things inside was an Athearn RTR AC4400 in GE Demonstrator colors :D. That brings my total to 3 AC4400s, total cash spent: $25 :D :D :D The other box contained half a dozen frieght cars and containers, all with metal wheels and kadees! Now i just need to figure out what i want to do with the RTR AC4400.

Have a good one gents!
 
The one thing bad about Thanksgiving season is the Christmas "stuff" comes out of storage. I spent most of the weekend working on the tree with the wife. It is a high-end foldout, lights attached tree, that cost over $300, but we got on sale for half price. Problem: many of the light sections did not work. I checked bulbs, fuses, connections, and still didn't get it all going. After several hours of this crap, I told the wife that since the tree was still in excellent condition (5 years old), we needed to cut all the old lights off and replace them with LED type. Sounded simple, but I didn't realize just how many bulbs and how many twisted/wrapped wires had to be cut out. By 11pm last night, we finally got all of them off and the scrap filled a kitchen trash can.
This morning the wife was up early and working away putting the new LED strands on. She put on 1000bulbs :eek::D. Oh well, they should last forever and: WOW! are they ever bright and beautiful, not to mention the economics of less electricity.

Matt: sounds like a fun weekend for you. My wife's cousin already has two in the freezer. He promised us a roast and some sausage out of it.

Karl: you're not old school, just OLD and more cantankerous :p:D
 
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REX When I went to LED's 3 yrs ago I did the same thing a whole bunch of those LED's and last year only used about 2/3rds of them and the tree looked a whole lot better. It kinda glowed in the dark with all them there lights and put out so much light that you could not watch TV with the tree on. All of our tree lights, the out side tree lights and the ice cycles are all blue LED's. I think it is beautiful but Glendia would like to have multi-colored lights but I have had the blue light s of one kind or another for over 20 yrs..
 
Rex- Congrats to your wifes cousin! 2 deer in a season up where I hunt is a once in maybe 5 years occurance! NY is broken up into 2 zones. I usually hunt Northern Zone, then when that season ends, move to Southern Zone. Northern Zone is alot different from Southern Zone, in N. Zone, its the big woods and there isnt a deer behind every tree, a hunt is successful is you see a doe. In S Zone, its more agricultural, and an average hunt is seeing a couple deer and passing on a small deer to get a bigger one later in the day. Its a night and day difference :p.
 
Larry, I have always loved to see a home with blue outside lights. They make a place look so peaceful/quiet.

Matt, one of the deer was a 6 point and the other a spike. The deer are usually plentiful down here (too many), even when they have an open doe season to thin them out. It's not unusual for an experienced hunter to get several. Don't get me wrong, there have been several bad seasons the Conservation people can't even explain.
 
Had a few guys over to the layout yesterday, and we got all the ground throws for the yard and engine facility installed. Now I've got to drill holes and install all the feeders for the yard. I also got some more painting done on a couple of locos for a customer. Glad he's not in a hurry. Just haven't felt like painting at all recently. Got another repair finished for another and need to put that new gear into another loco for the LHS.

Got about another 100 cars to put on the layout and get tested. Gotta make sure that they will run on what I've got built so far. I have all ready tested about 250 cars in all sorts of trains and those run fine.

Had a disaster yesterday as well. My daughter got the turkey out for supper and she left it out. Right in a place where the puppies could get at it. They did. It reminded me of the scene in "CHristmas Story" when the neighbors dogs got into the kitchen and took the turkey. In some ways it was funny. There was some satisfaction in making her clean up the mess they caused. To make up for it, the wife went to the store and got 2 roasting chickens and I've got those on to cook now. May not be turkey but close enough.
 
As of 2:50 this afternoon there's a Bachmann GP38-2 on it's way to me. The paint scheme is Onion Specific (UP). Y'all know what's going to happen to that. The patching paint is ready!
 
kbkchooch said:
Not so fast!
Google Maps can be just as wrong as any other! Ask my neighbor across the street! Google Maps shows a road going through his garage!!!:eek: The road does exist, but its a half a mile away, going the opposite direction from the main road! This is not the 1st error I've found either!
I might be old school, but I trust my important trips to ADC maps!
Click to expand...
Yep you are right in that there is mistakes, I also use their street view to check things out. One incident was the Wal Mart in Brooks Alberta. (come to think of it that's where the Tom Tom took me through the back yard) Hmm just checked Google but now it's been corrected :) but the Tom Tom map was just as incorrect at the time. I'm afraid from past unpleasant experience I have more faith in the online maps. Take for instance if I had followed the Garmin instructions, let's say at the time gas at close to $4 per gallon, 150 miles out of my way then have to double back for a total of 300 extra miles at 13 mpg (being generous), well you do the math, it aint cheap eh! :D
Another little quirk was for the Tom Tom to pass a turn off without a peep or indication, then announce "Turn Around" this is real lovely when there is no place to turn around, then as you continue onwards it then selects another route. Seen a lot of territory that I wouldn't have if I had reviewed the trip on the online maps, mistakes or not.
Even printed maps can have mistakes but in any case it's better to know the most direct route, or the fastest. Although those options are selectable on most GPS they never seem to work to any real satisfaction.

Cheers
Willis
 
I got very lost out in the southwest desert last year about this time (at night, of course). There was a bad accident closing the Interstate for hours and hours. I ordered my Garmin to do a detour, which it did. I made the turn it indicated, and was tripping along about 50 mph, towing our travel trailer, when I went up a slight rise in the road--to find a canal full of water across the "road"! Needless to say, there was one hell of a brake application. The Garmin then sent me through the mentioned back yard, then along another "road" that looked like it may have possibly seen a covered wagon or two about a hundred years ago, if that much, and that short a period of time. My "2D Nav System" (map) was useless, since it just showed a big blob of not much of anything where I was. I did manage to find my way out of the wilderness (obviously), pretty much stopping at the top of every rise in the road to make sure I wasn't going to splash down anywhere. But I have never trusted that Garmin since, with its' haughty "recalculating" tone telling me it thinks I'm an ID10T.
 
bnsf971 said:
I got very lost out in the southwest desert last year about this time (at night, of course). There was a bad accident closing the Interstate for hours and hours. I ordered my Garmin to do a detour, which it did. I made the turn it indicated, and was tripping along about 50 mph, towing our travel trailer, when I went up a slight rise in the road--to find a canal full of water across the "road"! Needless to say, there was one hell of a brake application. The Garmin then sent me through the mentioned back yard, then along another "road" that looked like it may have possibly seen a covered wagon or two about a hundred years ago, if that much, and that short a period of time. My "2D Nav System" (map) was useless, since it just showed a big blob of not much of anything where I was. I did manage to find my way out of the wilderness (obviously), pretty much stopping at the top of every rise in the road to make sure I wasn't going to splash down anywhere. But I have never trusted that Garmin since, with its' haughty "recalculating" tone telling me it thinks I'm an ID10T.
Click to expand...

:D:D:D:D:D:D welcome to the wonderful world of GPS :D:D:D:D:D

with its' haughty "recalculating" tone telling me it thinks I'm an ID10T
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Ah yes I remember that, the Tom Tom doesn't have that it just says "turn around at first chance" of course it than may decide to take you exploring without notice. I sure didn't miss the "recalculating" I found both the Garmin and the T.T. both like to tell you to make a right or left turn while on a Railroad overpass. Sounds like you have as much fun as I do with them :D

Cheers
Willis
 


Here in montreal, they change the road indication so often, my gps tried to send me thru a one way more than few time

"tooo-dooo, recalculating"

The alouettes won the grey cup yippeeee. :)
 
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