Afternoon, everyone.
Sandy, the more I read and hear about the baloon boy, the more convinved I am that it's a hoax. He actually said to the father on TV that he thought he was supposed hide because "it was part of the show". The parents dragged the poor kid around to all three morning talk shows and he barfed on two of them when asked what he meant by that remark. I don't know how far the sheriff will go in his investigation but there certainly should be an investigation by child protective services, since the other two kids were
on the roof of the house taking a video of all this. Those kids are being used as pawns by the parents. I would think the FAA should be interested in the case sine he had no permit to launch balloons and a couple of neighbors said he launches balloons all the time from the back yard. I don't know what kind of drugs the father was on but he's on something, judging by his speech and demeanor that I've seen in interviews.
That 17 degree to 80 degree temperature swing would drive my arthritis nuts. That was actually one of the things I hated about Colorado. It's still better than Cleveland, where it never gets above freezing for months at a time but I prefer a mere sedate temperature range now. The lack of Jellyfish is a plus though.
Those things really sting if you get caught in a pod of them ( or whatever the right word is for a boatload of Jellyfish).
Chris, sorry I didn't see it earlier but, as you say, the vast majority or people won't notice it anyway. My 19 year old just thought it was the cutest thing she ever saw, especially that pile of turtles in the back.
Did you do the whole design yourself? If so, maybe that's where your real talent lies. I hope the story about the layoffs does make the paper. People tend to get more cranked off when their parks start looking ratty because the county decided they could get along without you guys. We'll see if it does any good. At least you're able to get your new mower and have some jobs already. I think things will work out fine.
As for Miami, I'm with Terry. It was the only place I've been where I didn't feel safe leaving the car to do some railfanning, especially as I got closer to Homestead. I had the scanner along, listening to both the railroads and the police. I finally had to lock out the police channels because they never stopped. The only place I've ever been where the police radio talked more than LA. BTW, I told you it was going to rain.
Barry, our high was 72, which occured at midnight. It's now 58 with 20 mph winds. Your cold air even made it down here. Well, I know not as cold as what you have, but pretty danged cold for us. I actually had to hunt up my jacket today.
As for the wage situation and Athearn, it's not the hourly wage that kills manufacturing here, it's the taxes and benefits. A person making $20 an hour actually cost a company about $35 an hour if you count SS taxes, unemployment taxes, state taxes, and the cost of a health plan, paid holidays, vacation, and sick days. That doesn't even take into account the grief from OSHA and various state labor agencies...and unions knocking on your door.
The average Chinese worker makes a little more than $3 an hour. Kind of a no-brainer if you want to produce model trains. I agree that there are cultural and quality problems sending production offshore. The Chinese wallboard problem, primarily in Florida, is a good example. Still, all that can be dealt with by your lawyers and your insurance company. Your bottom line still looks a lot better.
As I said, it's cool, cloudy, and windy down here, quite a change from the last week of warm, humid weather. The tropics remain quiet...too quiet. Something has to give. We should warm up again next week. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll get in some layout time tonight. Hard to do with visitors here that want to be entertained.
"IDIOT's........the world is full of them!"
Talk to Rex about blocking up trains in yards. He's the master. In the operating session we had at his place, all the trains were in the right place and the manifest were all right, even when I didn't read them quite correctly.
