Flo's Place (a.k.a. Coffee Shop #19)

[pcarrell]

Mornin' all!

51 degrees for the ride in this morning! It's getting a might "Brisk" out there! I broke out the long johns, winter leather, and ski gloves though, so I didn't feel a thing. BTW, I found out this new beard makes a pretty good chin dam for my modular helmet. I didn't even have to snap in the factory one!

Tomorrow is supposed to get even cooler in the morning. Those silly weather guessers (

) are saying it's going to get down to 44 degrees! It's too early for this! I'm protesting!

I mean, after all, we had the coolest, wettest summer in Indiana history, only to launch headlong into an early winter! Whats up with that?

I mean, all these years I'm driving hot rods year round, and weather is only an issue if it's REALLY nasty out, but this year I trade the rod for a bike, and this is the weather we have? I'm not down with this at all!

I'm petitioning for a long indian summer!

Who's in?

P.S.- Tom, I hope your boy gets to feelin' better soon. I'm praying for him!

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Phil make it 2 here----where's the petition? We're up to the eyeballs in rain again here!!

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Morning all!
I'm playing catch up on the forum, and I don't seem to be the only one.

Sunday afternoon was the first chance I had to cut grass in three weeks.
But it was still muddy in the low spots. It was only about 86 degrees F, and a light breeze blowing made it a pleasant afternoon.
A cool front came through central Alabama last night and the temperatures were into the 60's by the time I got home from train club. It made for a very nice drive to work this morning.
The Wrecking Crew will be jockeying four layouts in the Holiday Season at McWane Science Center this year. We have been updating our sectional HO layout and rebuildind a 4' x 8' HO layout that was donated to McWane last year.
We have had a 3' x 6' Woodland Scenics N scale layout on temporary display for the last couple of years. We had major track problems the last two weeks of the 2008 season. I got volunteered to make track repairs.
We wound up decapitating a mountain to remove some switches and a kink in the hidden track. New track is in place and the engine with 6 cars did not derail once. All I did was supervise a couple newer members who did all the dirty work.
The mountain has been replaced and the surgery scars won't be permanate. The track re-ballasting has started and will be complete next week. Reforestation and ground cover the next two weeks so we can make the November 7th opening to the public.
Whew! It makes me tired to think about it. I might actually have to plant some trees myself!
I hope the rest of the week goes well for everyone.

Jeffery- take care of those feet!

 

[RexHea]

Hey Mikey, are there going to be any decent train shows around town, this year?

 

[UP2CSX]

Afternoon, everyone.

Haven't been here for a a few days because my brother and sister-in-law are visiting for the next month. That meant a complete makeover for the house, including more painting and getting all the carpets cleaned. IN the middle of it all, the dryer heater element went out. Can't have no dryer with three women washing 24/7 so work was suspended until I got that rpelaced. Got entire base ment cleaned, including the 14 zillion spiders and other bugs that live down there. Organized all my tools and got several large pastic containers for the freight cars instead of having them all in cardboard boxes. I can now see the cars I had forgotten I had. The layout got cleaned up at the same time and the whole basement looks pretty good, although my back is complaining today. I reslly should just keep up with this on a regular basis but I'm a chronic procrastinator who does his best work at the last minute.

Tom, I sure hope your boy is doing better. That fluctuating fever is a little worrisome.

Jeffrey, I hope the foot infection gets under control now that you're recovering from the flu.

Mikey, I'm going to make it up to Birmingham this year to see the layout. I just need to get a date set in the calendar so the rest of the holiday stuff doesn't get in the way. What are the dates for this year's show? Sounds like you're doing an excellent job of supervision.

Rex, we did finally get fall, just a day late. I don't know how it was up at your place but it was about the most humid day we've ever had down here until about 5:00 pm, when the front moved through. It was cloudy and looked like rain all day but we never got a drop. This is the only place I've ever seen where you can have such a humid, unstable airmass collide with a strong cold front and nothing happens. It's 78 right now and we had a low last night of 56, the lowest overnight temperature since the middle of June. Sure feels nice.

Phillip, what happened to global warming? I remember years like that in Cleveland. No summer, about 10 days of fall, and then right into winter. Even the leaves wouldn't turn colors, they'd just fall off. I really hated Cleveland sometimes.

I know I missed a lot of other people but I hope every one is doing as well as can be expected. Looks like the weather should be fairly quiet nationwide (offer not available in Canada) and the tropics remain quiet so at least the floods and storms should be at bay for a few days.

 

[pcarrell]

Jim, you lived in Cleveland? I spent a few years growing up in Hudson, Ohio.....not too far away. It's about halfway between Akron and Cleveland. It's become "The" place to live nowadays I guess, but back then it was just a nice Smalltown, USA type place.

 

[vato loco]

Guess what I get to do on my last week at work?














































Train the guy thats going to replace me and he's a crew leader! Them S.O.B.'s That's cold blooded. Kick me while I'm down why don't they. I told them, he should know how to do my job cause he's a crew leader. Either way I'm not going to train him and they can just Kiss my A$$, I'll just call in sick on my last week man I have been done dirty!

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Windy Wet Evening-

Chris that is one way of getting some kind of revenge----love it!

We are currently at 8C and windy a raw out there---lotsa puddles for our viewing pleasure and stuff like that there--

I had a variation on the HD list today---a 'Honey buy' list showed up I had this delusion that I was going to go to Home Desperate to pick up a new pair of blunt nose pliers and had a list stuck in front of my eyeballs which shattered said delusion. I ended up going to 3 more stores and spent a chunk of time running around getting stuff-----HOWEVER ---I did find the other pliers and also (re)discovered my dads old UNIMAT 5 in 1 minilathe when I got home and starting cleaning out the storage closet---I's going to see if'n the thing still works--the motor runs and such----heeheehee

Anyways---what was your day like? HMMMN?

 

[vato loco]

Barry, Revenge would be going POSTAL! But thank God I don't own a Gun!

 

[UP2CSX]

Phillip, I lived in Cleveland until I was 21 before fleeing to California. Hudson and Solon used to be quiet farm towns but they are now yuppified suburbs populated by people fleeing Cleveland's collapsing inner suburbs. Many businesses moved out there with them, keeping the endless cycle of population loss and and tax revenue loss going hand in hand in Cleveland. There were almost a million people in Cleveland when I was born in 1946. There are now less than 450,000, almost 40% of whom live below the poverty line. Cleveland is the poster child for American cities that couldn't see change coming, did nothing to keep up with change when it happened, and are now trying to play catchup with no money. I feel sad for my childhood home but I'm glad I got our when I did.

Chris, given my usually agressive nature, I'm going to give you advice you probably don't want to hear. Do your best to be pleasant to the guy who's going to replace you and make it at least appear that you are being cooperative. You'll need a reference from them for another job and being petulant will not help you get a good one. In addition, Florida will recover and the parks will start hiring again. You want to be remembered as a good employee and not the guy who was a PIA your last week. It really sucks you have to do this and it's unfair but, sometimes, we have to do the best with cards we are dealt.

Barry, I've been through that routine before. "Can you stop at Walmart for a few things while you're out?". Yeah, sure, two hours later, I finally get the one thing I wanted and the 200 things my wife wanted. Those Unimat lathes are really nice tools - I hope yours works. They really come in handy for drilling neat holes for grab irons and such.

My brother and SIL arrived safe and sound and are settled into the RV park for their month's stay. The first thing my brother wanted to do was see the changes in the layout. My SIL could care less. He sent me a Spectrum 2-8-0 for Christmas last year. He's a really good brother.

Beautiful day today and chilly tonight, with the temperature already being down to 58. It's almost unbelievable that I can drive the car without the A/C blasting all the time again. It's been a long summer down here.

 

[vato loco]

I'm still not going to train him, trust me Jim There's tons to this story I didn't get to tell do to no Poly-ticks policy here. JR. the guy replacing me is a notch up the ladder and does have Baseball experience. So he should not need training! Lord Know's, drop me in to any park and I should be in the swing of things with in a week on my own this job isn't rocket science The park system is changing and Even if I wanted back in..............It wouldn't be wise! Plus trust me jim if you knew JR. Like I do and he did to you what he did to me in the past...... you would be helping me throw him in to the wood chiper too! It's better to take the last week off and there's nothing wrong with that!

 

[tompm]

Good morning folks

It was 56 F as I headed out this morning. High will be 65 F.

My son is still down. His temperature yesterday was pretty good but he developed a croup-like cough. Talked to the doctor and they felt that the virus he got may take 7 days to run its course instead of the 5 they originally thought. He had a slight fever this morning and was coughing so he is home again.

We took my daughter to dinner last night at the Melting Pot. Wow, what a good dinner we had. It was expensive but worth it.

We have our Recruitment Night for Cub Scouts tonight. I will also be on the phone to the doctor again about my son today. I will be calling the school to see about his missed work and how he can make it up.

I hope everybody has a good day.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Wet Morning

We're getting a 30% shower happening---with a bit of sun in the process---oh well. The current temperature is 6C going to a high of 14C today---the low will be 3C while we are supposed to be a mix of sun/cloud tomorrow---Friday: right back to the swing of things with rain.

Checked that Unimat out last night---it works fine I've got another toy to play with---b/c Audrey has done some Folk Art Xmas ornements on a Unimat she has her eyes on this---course she loves mucking around with scroll saws, band saws and such ---I've got competition in here! LOL!!---we have all kindsa stuff in this house

Jim Audrey lived in a neighbourhood on Euclid(sp?) ave---near something called "Little Italy"---in Cleveland. She was there for a couple of years---over 35 years ago. What area would that have been? Who knows--it was kind of tough then ---
And the Unimat does work fine

Gonna check a few things out this afternoon with a few clients then it'll be doing a few things to do with sending some of Audrey's work off to a gallery near here----all kindsa packaging and stuff

Have a good one---

 

[IronBeltKen]

Chris - I need to echo what Jim said, and urge you to avoid doing anything [even passive-aggressive] to 'payback' your soon-to-be-former employer. Even though the situation is infuriatiing, there might come a day [maybe even in a few years from now?] when you'll need to list this organization as a reference. Take it from me, I've "been there" - I worked as a contractor for a company that said they were going to hire me as a regular employee after 6 months. I got great evals, everybody liked me and the work I did. But for reasons I'm not allowed to discuss here (Polly ), the VP decided at the last minute to hire some other person instead. I was p***ed, and so were my co-workers. In spite of that, I resisted the urge to do anything destructive (and I easily could have if I'd wanted to) and left on friendly terms. 3 jobs later, I had a chance to get a dream job doing the exact type of work I had done for the company that backstabbed me - I just had to list my former boss as a reference. He gave me a 'glowing' review and I got the job. I was sure glad I hadn't tried to get revenge back then!

 

[pcarrell]

Mornin' all!

(short & sweet!)

 

[RexHea]

Chris: It would be a cold day below before I trained someone to take my job, references or not. However, what I would do is say "this is a lawnmower; it cuts grass." If he already knows the duties/tasks, then he probably could care less and is just following the bouncing ball.

Your time of employment will mean a lot in helping you gain future employment. It is hard to justify slamming a past employee when you allowed him to work the number of years that you have. For fear of becoming liable (sued) for you not getting a job based on their recommendations, most organizations will only say that "yes, he worked here for "x" number of years and maybe answer, "would you hire him again". Any prospective employer will see that you were in a reduction-in-force and understand hard feelings, but you must never bad mouth past employers.

 

[pcarrell]

Chris, listen to the advice given and don't burn bridges.

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Chris, listen to the advice given and don't burn bridges.

Chris- I have to caution you, also. More than one person will see how you react to this unpleasant task.
Just smile at the rascal and say, "Yes, sir, Mr. Jones" and "No, sir, Mr. Jones".
It will drive him crazy and he will drive the mower in front of a truck, trying to keep an eye on you. You can say, "Opps!" at his wake.

Jim and Rex- nothing is scheduled in Birmingham for train shows until spring.
The McWane holiday train display will run from Nov.7th until Jan.3rd.
Looks like y'all will have to do your Christmas shopping at the LHS or on the web.
Y'all enjoy the fall weather while it lasts. Some will be getting snow in a few week and others of us will have to swelter and keep cutting our lawns after Thanksgiving dinner.

 

[vato loco]

I'm not burning bridges just not training someone who should already know his JOB or should I say My JOB! He's not total green horn here and he should not have a problem...... I have over 200 vacaton time and over 300 hrs of sick time that is just going to waist! I told my boss of my plans to use the time to hunt for a new job and their OK with it! as long as they approved of the time off there's nothing they real can do about it! also I got a copy of the sick leave form signed and approved. Like I said, "No troubles Bubbles, I got this!" I just refuse to train someone who should know his job and stole mine! Got to remember I'm the one who's got burned here and got's over a inch thick of paper work to prove it! So no need to worry, no burnt bridges or sour milk here! Just Hugs and kisses every whereLOL's I crack myself up!

Everyones advice is well considered and was thought out, But Rex and I are on the same page. I have all my Personal Paper work and some paper work that most don't have! I'm a Pedagree Mower Jocky from the skhool of CRASH & BURN Univ. and I will mow again some where else again not to worry!

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Evening

We finally got shed of our 30% shower---that turned into an all day rain

And I finished checking out the Unimat which worked out just fine---

BTW--did anyone hear from Jeff yet?