Come and see Flo at Coffee Shop 18

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When I went to college we were still using abacuses and slide rules. Only during my Junior year were we allowed calculators. And they were selling for around $250!!! And computers were a dream. Today's youth have it made. Books, obviously, weren't as expensive but in 1972-5, $150 books were common. We actually had to draw out projects using drafting tables, triangles and parallel bars or T-squares. seems like such a longtime ago. CAD was non-existent. Talk about the Dark Ages..

Anyway, worked all day yesterday painting Tom's house. That chore is finished. Carpet layers are done and today's task is re-installing much of the trim in the house. I'll drag the 26g air compressor and trim nailer along to make quick work of that. The guys did an outstanding job on the flooring installation. I had them put a quarried tile at the entranceways. Carpet can get dirty in a hurry tracking the crap in from outside especially during Indiana winters.

I went to bed early last night and woke up at !:30 AM unable to go back to sleep. My back is talkin' to me too. Hurts like........... Andf all I have is flexeril. Figures.

The Realtor stopped by while I was painting. She brought me a cup of the caffeine enhanced beverage from Starbucks. She was amazed at how much had been done in less than a week.

I'm hoping to have a short day today. Get the trim done and call it a day. I'll clean and reseal the grout in the bathrooms and kitchen today, too.

Tomorrow I'll pressure was the garage, patio and deck. Then, the next day, weather permitting, I'll apply a sealant to the deck. No Thompson's!!!! It is parfin oil based and sweats in the heat and rain washes it off. I use a product called CV-UV. It is much better than Thompson's and cheaper. It doesn't gum up my sprayer either, nor does it discolor the wood like Thomson's.

I'll let all of you know right now, this is almost like work. Something I really haven't don in a long time. Being the engine builder at my old shop was a sit down job, not much work involved. We had hoists and lifts to do all of the heavy work.

I've got to make a phone call today to have the Marina in Michigan pull the Carver. I've decided to have them go ahead and rebuild the other transmission and do some other preventative maintenance for next season. I had to have one tranny rebuilt earlier this year. When one goes down the other can't be too far behind. And the boat is almost 20 years old. Having a twin engine boat has it's advantages, but the expense is times two. But, I do appreciate the comfort and security of knowing if we are out on the water and one drive fails, we can limp home on one engine....Just not as fast. I'd sure hate to try and paddle a 12,000# boat any distance.

Bob
 
Good Morning

We's be all awake and piculous this morning:):D:):D---getting ready to go up to the university to see some friends of ours who've just come back from wherever they were. The weather here has been dry and cool/mild---temps ranging from highs in the 22-24C range and lows around 10C and SUNNY!!:eek::D:D:D:D

Some of the books cost about $150 still--he got this one on sale at 1/2 price----Student Relief Sale is what they called this----:p He has 3 more to get but they have not come yet---another GRRR factor (BTW---his most expensive one will be the winter term---an engineering stats book for only $379.95.:eek::eek:
 
Good morning.

It's 62 and clear. The high will be around 86 and it will be sunny.

I'm here this morning with first degree burns on my hands. Short version of it is that I went down to my parent's place last night to scrub some algae off the side of the pool using the vacuum pole and brush. I didn't notice until later that I had red splotches on my hands where water coming off the pole had run over my hands. Turns out my sister had added a gallon of muriatic acid to the water only a few hours before and hadn't bothered to leave a message about it. A note on the door like 'DANGER: Acid in water!' would have been sufficient. Oh well, live and learn. Since I have very little feeling in my hands anyway I'm in no discomfort and the burns will heal in a few days. On the layout front I assembled my new Athearn BB boxcar kit last night and weathered it. I also disassembled a N Scale SP single dome tank car which I'm going to kitbash into a HO Scale large propane tank. It's going to require a bit of sanding to get the molded on hand railing and grabs off but I like a challenge.

Today's Weather for:
Sundown, LA 71446-6114 9/2/2009

Wind Chill: 62°F
Humidity: 73%
Dew Point: 53°F

So Far Today
High: 68°F
Low: 62°F
Rain: 0.00"
Rain Rate: 0.00"/h
Gust: 6mph NE

Today High: 88 Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 80s. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight Low: 60 Mostly clear. Lows around 60. Northeast winds around 5 mph.

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm18/forum-2/DSCN1873.jpg
 


Good morning folks

It was a pleasant 66 F as I headed in this morning. High will be 80 F. It will be another no A/C day.

Yesterday was a bit hectic. At work I discovered that a plan and report that were supposed to have been submitted to one of the Soil Conservation District last week had not been. I found that the plan was done but the report was not. The plan was sitting on a person’s desk and instead of telling us it was done he was waiting for us to tell him what to do. It just amazes me that someone can finish an assignment and then never tells anyone that it is done. So I get all the involved parties together and explain the situation and what needed to be done and the repercussions if it is not. Needless to say the package was ready by 1 PM. I then had to personally drive 50 miles and hand-deliver the package. This was probably a good thing because it got me out of the office and away from the morons who created the situation.

On the bright side I met up with my wife and kids at the mall and we had dinner. They had gone to the museum with my wife to help care for the baby rabbits the staff found in the parking lot a week ago.

After that it was flute lesson for my daughter and some painkillers for my back. The back is still bothering me and I will be calling the doctor today for something stronger than over the counter pain killers. My van goes in for state inspection tomorrow so I may take the day off anyway to help the back recoup.

No modeling. Can’t do it when I can’t sit comfortably.

Jeffery, hope the hands heal up quickly.

I hope everybody has a good day.
 
Tom, I can relate to the back pain. Some days here are only minimally better than others. I do try to stay away from the heavyweights as best I can, though. ibuprofen and acetaminophen are always close at hand. Today is definitely a vicodin day though.

Taking a break and brought the laptop along so's I could keep tabs on all of you troublemakers. The trim in Tom's house is all done. I knew it wouldn't take long with an air nailer. I applied the cleaning goo tot all of the ceramic and porcelain tile grout. Can said to wait 30 minutes so that's the reason I'm not working. Stuff smells foul. I'll have to wash all of it off and give the grout lines a bit of a brushing, let dry and spray on the grout sealer. Should be done before lunch.

UI'm thinking of heading to the train shop today. I need a piece of 1/8" round plastic rod to fix a few Tyco/LifeLike cars that I am upgrading. Changing the trucks and couplers. I think I'll take a couple of cas along just to make sure I get the correct size. I bought 6 sets on eBay last week and need to get a TON more trucks. I've got plenty of wheelsets thanks to many of my friends on the forums. Eventually, I'll upgrade them all to metal, but the project is enormous.

I may get to start on the "low-dough" layout today. 'Bout time. Angela said she can't think of anything she needs done right of hand. But, I know how that goes. Give her time, she'll think of sumthin'.

Hopefully, I'll be back to check in on you all later.

Bob
 
Tom That sounds like the person you had there was someone who probably was trained to follow everything To the letter. I had one fellow who worked here who was like that----got to the point that I ended up having to write every single thing down and then I would have to verbalize the dang thing as well just so the fellow got it into his head.:eek::mad:
The thing is some people I know who work in the field of HR are telling me that we are going to see a lot more of this-----due to everyone guiding the kids through all kinds of Pre-Planned activities. We may have started to see what happens when everyone is told what to do----the result being that the little one has no clue as to what is done when something is done:eek:

Time for me to get off soapbox----:eek::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
pcarrell said:
Dang Jeff, I hope those burns heal up good! I'll bet your sister feels pretty bad.
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It's no big thing. Just a little reddening of the skin. They'll be fine in a couple of days. It's amazing how strong that stuff is. She only put in a gallon so it's diluted in 35,000 gallons of water and it was still strong enough to cause minor burns. It sure the a job on the stubborn algae though. This is algae that wasn't responding to chlorine. I went down and checked it out this morning and the algae just falls off the sides of the pool. All they have to do now is vacuum it up.
 
Hi everyone! Just passing by and grabbing a cuppa'joe.
The fellows that are going to lift-out my AC didn't make it yesterday, but should be here in a couple of hours and then I can see what parts I need.

I finally installed, programmed, and trial tested my last signals (for now:o) and can start getting ready (cleanup again) to build more buildings, scenery, and other fun stuff. Total signals are 32, 3-light signal heads; all are automatic and indicate traffic in the blocks.

Jeff: Dang man, you must have sensitive skin for that solution to react that way: 35000:1 with the Muriatic acid already being a very diluted hydrochloric acid. Maybe it was a combo of its reaction in the already installed chems. I've had 35% HCL on me and a flushing with water and sodium bicarb left only a slight sting and redness.

3 days to kickoff: (5)Alabama vs. (7)Virginia Tech, 8PM ABC

12 days to Jury Duty: :p:(

Take care and CUL :)
 
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tompm said:
Good morning folks

It was a pleasant 66 F as I headed in this morning. High will be 80 F. It will be another no A/C day.

Yesterday was a bit hectic. At work I discovered that a plan and report that were supposed to have been submitted to one of the Soil Conservation District last week had not been. I found that the plan was done but the report was not. The plan was sitting on a person’s desk and instead of telling us it was done he was waiting for us to tell him what to do. It just amazes me that someone can finish an assignment and then never tells anyone that it is done. So I get all the involved parties together and explain the situation and what needed to be done and the repercussions if it is not. Needless to say the package was ready by 1 PM. I then had to personally drive 50 miles and hand-deliver the package. This was probably a good thing because it got me out of the office and away from the morons who created the situation.

On the bright side I met up with my wife and kids at the mall and we had dinner. They had gone to the museum with my wife to help care for the baby rabbits the staff found in the parking lot a week ago.

After that it was flute lesson for my daughter and some painkillers for my back. The back is still bothering me and I will be calling the doctor today for something stronger than over the counter pain killers. My van goes in for state inspection tomorrow so I may take the day off anyway to help the back recoup.

No modeling. Can’t do it when I can’t sit comfortably.

Jeffery, hope the hands heal up quickly.

I hope everybody has a good day.
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At least you got a job to complain about!:o It's like that all over ..........

My 13yr. old can mow circles around some of the adults in my job!
 


Afernoon, everyone.

For all of you complaining about book prices, try having two daughters in nursing school. The total this semester is about $1700. :eek: All I could think of while I was whipping out the credit cars was how many nice new engines I could have bought. I told them they're stuck changing my diapers when I get senile. :)

Tom, that's the reason why schedule plans are supposed to work. Line 111, do Plan, Line 112, Do Report, Line 113, Deliver report. It looks like he stopped at line 111. My job for years was to make sure all the line items got done. Talk about morons. I was probably the least popular guy on a project team. But, I didn't like most of them either so the feeling was mutual. :)

Bob, I think that sounds like work to me - way too much work. It's good you can help your friend but you need a break when you're gettin up to Vitamin V for back pain. I hope you're just about through or you may be spending more time in bed than you've planned on

BOC, it's not raining here either but I guess I can't blame you today since it's sunny up there. It should stay sunny for the rest of the week. We need that high pressure system to build south to direct Erica our way.

Jeffrey, sorry about your hand. I guess this is one time neuropathy is a blessing.

It's cloudy and relatively cool here but no rain in our neck of the woods. I'm still working on that stupud church road. This one tiny road has taken me more time than all the rest of the roads on the layout combined. I'm getting the feeling I should have just poured a load of ballast on it and called it done. I built the graveyard yesterday and got the two yard lights up for the church. Have to keep them lit up at night or people come and steal all the copper wiring. :mad:

Spent the rest of the day responding to various request from the sick wife. She's been taking Tamiflu and has all the side effect, including nausea, dizziness, and bronchitis. I told her to stop taking them as the flu has just about run its course anyway. People who take Tamiflu when they are symptomatic for at least two days tend to develop these side effects. As usual, it's taking her about four days to get better because she went to the doctor compared to 96 hours if she just stayed in bed and drank plenty of fluids. :)

Erica is looking pretty sick today too. She's over waters warm enough and the shear is low enough that she should be able to develop some over the 24 hours. After that, it's kind of a corundum for us. If she turns into a hurricane, she will start to to move north into an area a much higher shear and get torn to shreds. If she stays a tropical storm, she won't have enough energy to move north and should stay under the nose of high pressure developing in the eastern US. That would give us a chance for her to move west toward Florida and the Gulf. She won't be strong enough to do any real damage but she'll bring some much needed rain. I'm hoping for that scenario to pan out but I'm afraid she's going to end up being another Danny, heading north and then dying.
 
RexHea said:
Jeff: Dang man, you must have sensitive skin for that solution to react that way: 35000:1 with the Muriatic acid already being a very diluted hydrochloric acid. Maybe it was a combo of its reaction in the already installed chems. I've had 35% HCL on me and a flushing with water and sodium bicarb left only a slight sting and redness.
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This stuff they use for the pool is concentrated and must be handled with great care. I don't know how it reacts in the presence of chlorine but there was plenty of that in there to. Keep in mind also that it was on my hands for some time as I can't feel any stinging sensation or much else for that matter with the exception of pressure and a little heat. I had no idea anything was wrong until I saw my hands when I started to work on an Athearn boxcar kit last night. This is why I'm usually so careful with the use of chemicals and sharp tools I use in the hobby. I can get a really severe cut and never feel anything.
 
Jeff: Yeah, no feeling in your hands makes it double trouble. Just thinking: some algaecide have phenol in them and that will irritate most people's skin, particularly pool shock treatments. Glad it didn't burn beyond redness and no one went into the water for awhile :eek:. ;)
 
Jim HA!! If that were the case I'd have the proof for what you did to that road then this weekend! I'm going by that Road 25 that I was squawking about in that thread about the road you were doing----a very narrow---a little wider than that weather beaten truck of yours---and nothing but pure limestone powder gravel----white/grey in colour---any ballast could be a bit more powdlerized with a mortar/pestle---there would be a pure gravel---:):) Hopefully If we go by one of those good roads I'll get a pic of it:):)
 
Well, no Genesis today. I decided to power wash the garage , patio and deck at Tom's place. That was goingto be tomorrow's job. Glad i did though. There was oil that refused to be powerwashed so out came the industrial stuff. I poured it on the area and went to do the deck and patio. That took about 2 hours. When I came back the spot was gone but the flor was cleaner than the rest, a BIG spot where I applied the cleaner. So, The rest of the floor got "the treatment". I went back after supper and washed it all again. Looks like a brand new, freshly poured concrete garage floor again. I'll apply an oil resistant concrete paint next. I think it would be the best move on my part. Definitely prevent circumstances in the future like I ran into today. So, I'm a day ahead of schedule and should be done no later than Friday at lunch time. But, boy, I'm tired and the back is a hurtin'.

So, no layout time today. I am in the process of painting a few shells though. I have a couple ofE7/8's that need a coat of paint as they are being repatched to new roads. And there are about (4)SD's that are being patched for NYC from their original West Coast flags. I need to get to WalMart for some Krylon in yellow, light gray, charcoal gray, cranberry/maroon, blue((2) shades), oxide, and white paint for a few other repaints too. And I could use a can or two of dullcoat. I have those colors at the other house, but they aren't doing me much good 300+ miles away.

Made the phone call today to the marina in Michigan. They said they would have the boat at their shop today. Business must be slow. They even said they would "hang" the boat in the boathouse if I wanted them to after the job is finished. The boat will be out of commission for a week. But the work will be done for next season, so I won't have to worry about that next spring or over the winter. Boy, I sure miss being able to go out on the water whenever the urge hits me. I could live on a boat if I could get one big enough for a good size layout. A 32-footer leaves little room for trains with (2)adults, (3)dogs, and (2)cats aboard. And add the grandkids during the summer months and friends visiting..... Gets a tad cramped in a hurry. Maybe if I had a 1964 72-foot Berger, like Alan Jackson, I'd have room for a layout, ya think?

Bob
 
Went to El Giro's with the parents tonight right after my Athearn boxcar posting. I prefer El Giro's to Las Margaritas out on Billy Goat hill. Their salsa is better and you get a better value for your money. I usually order their #9 which costs about $10. A single serving size is big enough that I can make 3 meals of it and I'm a big eater. Try getting a meal that big at the other place and you'll shell out $30+!

The redness on my hands is just about completely gone now. I put burn creme and Vaseline them this morning and that helped a lot.

On the way back home (8:30) we came across 4 SuddenLink trucks at the top of Vernon Park road. Looked like the cable there was getting a lot of attention. They've been having major problems with the cable out here since that last big storm went through last week. Hopefully they've got it fixed now.
 
Jim hope Dianna feels better soon - for her sake and yours!;) That procedure Vicky had the other day was more of a major nuisance than anything scary - it's a test that everybody over 50 is supposed to get done every 10 yrs or so. Nothing abnormal found, everything's back to normal around here.

Yesterday I got most of the garage floor [the visible parts anyway] vacuumed and free of bug and worm carcasses, so I'm another step closer to having the next op session. Didn't get much done this evening though, a tooth in the right bottom side of my mouth is making life unpleasant for me, sapping much of my energy. I need to go get it x-rayed, then I'll probably need a root canal. Better double-check my insurance coverage, they find the most bizzarre, convoluted reasons to deny claims [example: you can't have work done on the same tooth within a 2-year period by the same dental practice]. And of course I'll have to pay up front with money I don't have.:mad: Ah, the joys of getting old; as of tomorrow morning I'll be another year closer to death.

Rex - so you've got 32 signal heads wired and working now? I'm totally envious (j/k)! I still need to figure out how to power the 8 CPL masts I bought at the Timonium train show back in February.

Time for bed, 5:00am comes awfully early!
 
Bob: What kind of cleaner did you use? And does it work on all types of oil? We have a nasty spot where some peanut oil got on a concrete slab. All the stuff we have at work has got oil mostly out, just a really bad looking stain there.
 


Dan, I bought this stuff some years ago. It's made by the people that make Castrol Motor Oil. Really good stuff. It comes in 1-gallon, 2-gallon, and 5-gallon containers. if you scrub with it, make sure to wear rubber gloves. It will dry your skin out in a heartbeat. Don't ask how I know that. It's called "Super....." something or other. The name fits. Good stuff, though a tad bit damaging to the wallet. Best thing is it works. The 5-gallon bucket I bought was around $120, if I remember correctly. I've used a product from Amway, too. Another good product, but my Amway dealer moved and the new guy couldn't find , or get, the product for me. It's some kind of industrial product and not always available to the public. The Amway product is more expensive than the Castrol product. 2.5-gallons cost me about $150, if memory serves me correctly. Both do the job.

Went to bed early again last night. Up at 1:30AM and can't get back to sleep. Oh, how I hate that. Sleep deprivation will catch up to me, I'm sure. And I'll have one of those 12-hour "log-sawing" episodes.

So, Ken, you're having another birthday? Didn't you just have one of those about a year ago? Well, ol' buddy, the more you have the older you get. And no matter what they say about the "golden years"(once you get there), they are lying. They fail to tell you about all of the rust. Happy Birthday, anyway. Enjoy your day.

Well. I'm too sleepy to think of much right now. I guess I'll go scan some of the posts and bounce around the net looking for some sheep to count.

Bob
 
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