Phillip, I think a motorcycle riding preacher is pretty cool.
You'd only be mildly scary to a few people. Do go ahead and make those safety mods to your bike. I'm sure God has some work for you down here and we'd like to see you around for a while.
Ken, sounds like a boring and frustrating day but at least you get paid to be bored and frustrated. Could be worse nowadays. There does seem to be a problem with a lot of people now regarding the right and wrong thing.
Jeffrey, glad your mom is OK and that she can make it to the family reunion. The one big advange of the central line is no more poking while it's in. I hope the white cell aglutanation test shows the epicenter of your problem.
Terry, I like the one with the bat. I've got that saved.
Edit: Bob, missed your post somehow. That's really good news about the grandfather clock and your brass engines. Not so good about the rest of the layout but keep an eye on e-bay to see if anything you recognize shows up there. It's become a popular place to fence stolen train stuff. It is amazing how much litter there is when things that were nicely in containers get thrown around.
We had the same problem in our county but it was lots of summer homes along the coast that were being burglarized in the winter. One guy would stake out a house for a day to make sure no one was there and then they'd hit it the next night. They were using illegals to do actual job but it was local thugs that were doing the directing. If they hit 130 houses up there, this was a highly organized gang and I suspect there had to be at least 50 people involved, since they usually hit multiple houses a night. We broke up one ring that had about 30 members and got the four locals that were the head of the operation. This was when the wholesale destruction thing started. One of the ringleaders rolled over on the other guys and we were able to round up the rest of them pretty quickly. They used illegals because they work cheap and they know they probably won't do any serious jail time if they are caught. Only a few of the top guys among the illegals even knew who they were working for. They told the illegals to trash the houses because all the houses belonged to people who hated Hispanics.
The real reason is that it's a lot harder to get prints off a bunch of trash than it is off a house where things just get stolen but the house isn't half-destroyed.
I know it's the closing the barn door after the horse has left but I feel a lot safer with my alarm system. Mine is both silent and audible. I hope to scare them away first with a 120 DB siren and, if that doesn't work, the central station should have the police here in a few minutes. I don't have video monitoring but I'm thinking about installing it since it's wireless and relatively cheap. There are systems that would allow you to watch the house over an internet connection when you're not there, but a really loud siren and having the cops on the way is still your best protection.
I'm sure those guys don't realize how lucky they were you weren't home.
I've only had my house broken into one time and that was in the middle of the night, while we were home. I heard the glass break and had Jean call 911 while I grabbed the shotgun. I got him just after he got through the living room window. He was extremely cooperative with that Remington 870 in his ear. I lived in the city limits and the PD dispatcher wanted me to put down the gun before the officers came in. I told Jean to tell them I was an off-duty deputy and I'd put down the gun when they had him in cuffs. I got some really speedy service that night.
Turns out he had an old Webley 38 stuck in his waistband, which I never saw until they dragged him upright after cuffing him. Good thing he didn't have it in his hand when I saw him or the outcome would have been a lot different. I'm sure the sheriff never realized he had that kind of firepower anywhere in his county. Damn good thing you are responsible and had such a good safe or the outcome of this would have been a lot more serious. At least an Ulrich boxcar can't kill anyone.
Have a beer on me and count your blessings tonight.
A gloomy, cloudy day down here today. No more rain but a lot cooler than normal, with a high of only 68. Looks like we could get some more rain Tuesday night and Wednesday. I have done nothing productive today on the layout but my brother and did manage to get two grab bars installed on our garden tub walls. I don't know why those weren't put in when the house was built since it's only eight years old. The studs were really difficult to locate, even after we found the first one. It seems they are not on even on center as one set was 17" and the next was 15". I don't know if that was by design or just great workmanship.
Supposed Tropical Storm Grace has already been absorbed into a cold front headed to the British Isles and all the models have backed off on developing anything out of that disorganized mess east of the Lesser Antilles so it looks like the tropics will remain quiet.
