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

[IronBeltKen]

Jeff - that's a bummer about the foot bone infection! I guess it was the trauma of the surgery that brought it on? Hope the docs get a handle on that thing...

... Be careful of one thing with that zero turn. They will dig divots in a yard under hard cornering! They will reverse the inside wheel to make a sharp turn and will rip grass out by the root doing so!
...

Karl - now ya tell me! I've been doing that quite a bit, no matter how carefully i try to turn it still seems to chew it up! At least its my own lawn, and not a paying customer's

boB - good thing you had that excellent insurance coverage, I might have to pick me up an NMRA policy. I know my stuff adds up to a lot more $$ than when I first got my homeowners policy, although nothing even close to yours...

 

[bnsf971]

Of the 4 equiptment lines we carry (Deere, Toro, Echo & Stihl) Toro parts take the longest, usually 5 working days.

Karl, I sort of remember some corporate lineage from the late 1970's-early 1980's on some of those brands. At the time, Lawn Boy was owned/controlled by Toro, which was owned by JD, which was owned by Caterpillar, which was owned by a Japanese investment company. Do you know if any of that still holds, or has everything been split back up and resold?

 

[vato loco]

OHhhhh but the difference is the Green
tractors I can get parts, usually in 2 days!!!
Of the 4 equiptment lines we carry (Deere, Toro, Echo & Stihl) Toro parts take the longest, usually 5 working days.
Anything under MTD (Cub Cadet, Troy-Built, Bolens, etc) or Electrolux (Poulan, Weed eater, Husky, Craftsman, etc) I'll work on, but be prepared for a long wait for parts and/or wrong parts coming in.

Chris Be careful of one thing with that zero turn. They will dig divots in a yard under hard cornering! They will reverse the inside wheel to make a sharp turn and will rip grass out by the root doing so!
Thats one thing a regular tractor wont do (Of course it wont turn as well!)

Karl,
How quick you get parts depends on the Lawn Mower store and the guys that operate it! As Far as C shaped gouges out of the turf, I'm well aware of! Remember, i (Use to) run a 72" Toro 589 Z master at my park that monster weighs in at a whopping 1600#'s. Now that monster is a pain when it comes to turf wear!!!! The little ZTR that I'm getting weighs less than 600#'s Turf damage shouldn't be that bad if any at all!



Toro owns Exmark, Gravely ownes Ariens, Husqvarna owns Dixon, MTD and Murry make All department stor models!

Now this is a MOWER from Hell! http://toro.com/grounds/mower/widearea/gm5900/micro/launch/

 

[vato loco]

Jeff - that's a bummer about the foot bone infection! I guess it was the trauma of the surgery that brought it on? Hope the docs get a handle on that thing...


Karl - now ya tell me! I've been doing that quite a bit, no matter how carefully i try to turn it still seems to chew it up! At least its my own lawn, and not a paying customer's

boB - good thing you had that excellent insurance coverage, I might have to pick me up an NMRA policy. I know my stuff adds up to a lot more $$ than when I first got my homeowners policy, although nothing even close to yours...

Ken, do a K turn rather than peging a wheel and turing on it! It take's a tad bit more time to do but it won't chew up your lawn!

 

[stationmaster]

Even with all of the brand names out there for mowers, two companies basically make 90% of them, MTD and AYP(American Yard Products). MTD also owns Agri-Fab, a subsidiary, that makes other equipment like wagons/carts, thatchers, plows, harrows, and other attachments for you mower. Many Craftsman mower are made by AYP.

I know that my Dixon is a Dixon, before they were sold to some conglomerate. And it's the blue one. The did change colors for a couple of years after they were sold.

ken, the NMRA policy is limited coverage. I have a rider on my homeowners that is for replacement of the layout and the trains. Same for my cars, the shop and my guns. I have to give a replacement value every two years on the value of each item. But since this was a new policy on the house, no everything had a value placed on them yet or a current appraisal. The guns were appraised about three months ago, so those are good, though none were taken. The cars were appraised last spring. And having everything insured through one company gives me some pretty nice deductions on premiums too.

Just to let you folks drool, the chili was AWESOME!!!!!! Not my usual 6-pack or 3-alarm brew, just the standard red stuff. Should have used a bit more hamburger though. But I thought 5# would be enough for 5 gallons of soup. It was high in fat though. I had to drain the meat about three times while frying it up. What can I expect for $.78/pound? This soup is much tamer than what I usually make. I still broke into a sweat while shoveling in a couple of bowls. A couple of my other recipes are the kind that you have to live through to get the picture. Spicy is a conservative description. Good stuff, but you have to live through a couple of days of being alone in life. It's just the way it is.No one wants to be around you, and if you could you would leave too.

The 6-pack chili is green in color. The red of the beans and tomatoes give it a Christmas look. Not real spicy, as in lighting up your mouth, but when it hits bottom, you know it's there. It got it's name from a buddy that said you need a 6-pack to eat a bowl. I never did, but I guess some people are just sissies. Dad called it "REAL". When I made a batch for him to take to work once, his comment was, "This stuff is REAL". But I did kick that batch up a notch or two. He sampled a bowl while it was cooking and wanted it a bit spicier. I obliged. Added three tablespoons of crushed peppers.

The 3-alarm chili is hot from the time it enters your mouth until ..... well, you know. In spite of all, it is really good. Just a bit spicey. And the spices don't over power the flavor, that's a hard thing to do. I haven't mad a batch of this stuff since our deer camp a couple of years ago. I need to whip up a batch for this winter as the Farmer's Almanac says it's gonna be a snowy, fold one.

Bob

 

[kbkchooch]

Karl,
How quick you get parts depends on the Lawn Mower store and the guys that operate it! As Far as C shaped gouges out of the turf, I'm well aware of! Remember, i (Use to) run a 72" Toro 589 Z master at my park that monster weighs in at a whopping 1600#'s. Now that monster is a pain when it comes to turf wear!!!! The little ZTR that I'm getting weighs less than 600#'s Turf damage shouldn't be that bad if any at all!

Chris, I know that living in Flori-duh that you have never seen it, but I understand that a Z-master can be a lot of fun on a snow or ice covered parking lot! Amazingly, Toro does make a snowplow kit for the larger Z-Masters! Its gotta be fun!!!

Toro owns Exmark,

Wanna hear something funny? As a Toro dealer, we can't order Ex-mark parts direct, we have to do through a competitor 30 miles away

 

[UP2CSX]

Morning, everyone.

Jeff, I guess it's both good an bad news from the bone scan. The good is they've finally localized the area of infection. The bad is another operation. As you say, new bone should fill in for the bad ones taken out and you should be better off in the long term. I'll keep you in my prayers.

I don't know a darned thing about lawn mowers except the guy who comes every Monday has a one like Chris is buying. He seems to love racing around the yard in it, and I like sitting in an air conditioned house watching him.

Bob, glad you made it back to Indiana safe. Sounds like your insuarance company will give you a fair deal and you'll have lots of kitbashing and rebuilding to keep you busy this winter. I need to look into a rider since I do have a few bucks invested in the layout and rolling stock now. Nothing like you but I suspect I wouldn't get the kind of treatment you're getting without a rider. I love good, hot chili and my stomach still seems to be able to tolerate it. Unfortunately, the wife and two girls hate anything that's even slightly above bland so I have to go to our local Mexican restaurant to get anything muy picante.

Andrew, that's amazing that a city the size of London can have so few hobby shops, especially with some of the fantastic English layouts I've seen. I can understand North American prototypes are harder to find but where do people in London go to get train supplies. It sounds like it must be mostly mail order or the net. Enjoy all the exhibts and shows.

Corey, just keep repeating "9.8% unemployment" and you'll feels a lot better. Have a great train ride. The 4449 is a great substitute for just about any other engine still running.

Barry, those DIN connectors sound interesting. Do you have any pictures? I'm a real convert to Positaps. Much better electrical conductivity and mechanincal strength than those danged suitcase and you don't have to crimp anything laying upside down. They are also infinitly reuseable so, if you do something wrong, you just unscrew them and start again. I can't even guess how many suitcase connectors I've wasted over the years when the crimping didn't work right and it was time to cut off the bum one and try again.

I did manage to get a basic NCE decoder installed in my SW1500 today. The only puzzler was where the black wire went. I called NCE and the guy at the other end didn't even seem to know what an Athearn BB engine was. I've gotten people who knew a heck of a lot more at Digitrax and Tony's. I finally puzzled it out that that must be the left motor pickup. I soldered it to where the little metal strip is on bottom of motor mount well and put a piece of Kapton tape over it. The right side was already soldered to the bottom of the motor so I put another strip of Kapton tape over that and got the motor remounted with no problem. The headlights were a real ball. The front one was no problem but the rear one was a real pain. I have some pretty small bulbs and LED's and none of them would fit high enough in the cab to be in front of the headlight lenses. Plan B was to paint the windows black and mount the bulb as close to the lense as I could get. It actually looks better with the cab windows blacked out since all you see is wires anyway. I'll give the windows another coat tomorrow to make sure all the light stays inside the engine. I've tested it as I went along and no magic smoke and the engine runs good. Not bad for a guy with a record of a 3:1 ratio of blown decoders to correct installs. Maybe I'll actually get this one day.

Tropical strom/depression Henri is no more, since it was torn to shreds by high shear today, just as predicted. The NHC is now promoting another typical tropical wave, 92L, that's actually below the equator off the coast of Brazil. Hurricanes almost never form from any system below or near the equator because they don't have the rotation of the earth to help them spin up. Nevertheless, I'll bet this one finally gets a name too, since time is running out to get anywhere near the predictions of even a month ago of named storms and especially hurricanes. $100 million has been poured into the NHC since Katrina to improve long term forecasting and the new software does a far worse job than the old. I guess they'll be going back to Congess for another chunk of change to fix what's obviously a defective program. I wish someone would give me money to replace all those blown decoders.

It's hot and almost suffocatingly humid here. It's going to stay that way at least through the weekend. The high today was 90 and it will be Sunday late before we get some relief. We should get some pretty good storms Saturday though Sunday morning but that's just theoretical and never seems to pan out here. I'll be happy if just get some lower humidity. You start sweating as soon as you go outside, even if you're standing still. If you're actually doing some work, you'll smell worse than after Bob's "real" chili in about 5 minutes. Yuck!

 

[vato loco]

Chris, I know that living in Flori-duh that you have never seen it, but I understand that a Z-master can be a lot of fun on a snow or ice covered parking lot! Amazingly, Toro does make a snowplow kit for the larger Z-Masters! Its gotta be fun!!!


Wanna hear something funny? As a Toro dealer, we can't order Ex-mark parts direct, we have to do through a competitor 30 miles away

And the Z-Master can be real fun on slopes too! My biggest problems with 90% of ZTR's is the rigid frame Idea! 56" deck and up stink on slopes and hilly terrain. Also Large ZTR's are prone down here for sinking and getting stuck in everything! Wedon't have snow......Just.........SAND Lot's and Lot's of sugar sand! I never knew a Toro dealer can't get parts for exmark Only thing that really is diffrent between the two are the decks? I love those new 5910's! Mow speed of 15 acres and hour I would still give Jim's left and right kidney fer a New 72" 325D!

Jim, why I like mower's? I just do! The smell of cut grass and CO2 in the air...........Priceless!hehehehehehehehe

 

[AndrewC]

Jim: There are lots of reasons for a lack of London model shops. The biggest being the high cost of rent and mail order. When we moved here 6 years ago there were about 4 or 5 still around including one that was strictly O scale. Now there is just 1 and he is a miserable git with very little in stock. There is a transport book shop within walking distance of the office. They stock the basic range of Hornby and Bachmann but at full price. Its cheaper to click the mouse and have what you want at your door in 2 days.

The large number of exhibitions in the surrounding area also helps as they are seen by some as mobile hobby shops. I can pretty much get to a different show every weekend within 100 miles. There is also a lot more of the cottage industry here. Small traders that make items like cast figures or brass etchings. They tend to sell only at shows or via mail order.

More coffee........................... aaarrrggghhhh

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Well today is the day. This is the second time my right foot has been operated on. I hope that they get all the infected bone out on this go-round because I don't want to have to do this again. This will be my last posting until after the operation is completed.

 

[AndrewC]

Well today is the day. This is the second time my right foot has been operated on. I hope that they get all the infected bone out on this go-round because I don't want to have to do this again. This will be my last posting until after the operation is completed.

Good luck Jeffery. Let's hope this op does the trick for you.

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Jeff Hope the operation works on it! Take care---

Jim I haven't taken any yet---but will be soon----my weekend will be kinda stuffed with seminars and what not---So far I have not seen any issues with it though.

We's be dull dull dull and foggy with drizzle bits and rain periods--the high today will be 13C and the low will be 4C under clearing skies----tomorrow will be sunny --while I'm indoors doing seminars---natch---then cloud up and be showery(40%) in the evening---when I'm finished----sheeesh

Got some stuff to complete here---have a good one

 

[leghome]

I think I am getting ole timers cause I can't remember if I posted a link to the final appearance of the deck I just completed. The first four pix are the completed project. If I haven't here it is if I had then please ignore me again. LOL LOL LOL
http://s270.photobucket.com/albums/...ojects/Latest project II/?albumview=slideshow

 

[vato loco]

I think I am getting ole timers cause I can't remember

Hmmmmmmmm, Is that the reason? Or is there more to it than that! I'd rather use, "The sun was in my eye's!"

 

[vato loco]

We's be dull dull dull and foggy with drizzle bits and rain periods--the high today will be 13C and the low will be 4C under clearing skies----tomorrow will be sunny --while I'm indoors doing seminars---natch---then cloud up and be showery(40%) in the evening---when I'm finished----sheeesh

Got some stuff to complete here---have a good one

We be Sunny, Sunny, and Freaking Hot(95*) and Humid with no chance of rain for the next week or two! It's like summer down here Damn, Global warming!

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Got the surgery done and I'm back home. My nephew took me to the hospital this morning then came back to pick me up when they called him to tell him I needed to be picked up. There was one perplexing moment though. As I was getting dressed to leave the hospital I noticed this rather large dark red puddle on the floor then looked up toward my foot which was propped on the edge of the bed and saw a thick stream of blood coming through the bandages. I called to the nurses in the room somewhat urgently and informed them that I was bleeding like a stuck pig and could use some assistance. Three of them quickly unwrapped it, applied new dressings over the old ones and did a rather professional job of wrapping it up again. They surmised that what had come out was what had collected from just after the surgery. So far I haven't had another bleeder moment and I'm taking care to insure that I don't.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Wow Jeff I'm glad the nurses handled the situation as well as they did. Hopefully you can stay off your foot until that thing heals up, no more mowing lawns or lugging heaters!

 

[UP2CSX]

Jeffrey, glad to hear the surgery is over. That blood pouring out must have been kind of shock. Sounds like they have it right now. Just don't be hobbling around playing with trains for a while until you start to heal.

Andrew, at least you have the exibitions to go to. It's basically on the net for me except for the few times a year I make it up to Birmingahm. I guess the wide selection and better prices on the net have killed off mom and pop hobby stores in most place, although they still seem doing well in others. I'm not sure what the demographic and economic differences are that allow hobby shops to still thrive while other places are devoid of them.

Barry, I always like to see trestle consturction, just because I'll never have enough room to build one. The first club I belonged to in LA had a 45 foot long trestle (real feet, not scale) that I helped build. Even with 25 members working on their parts, it still took six months to complete. That's the last time I built a trestle but it sure was a learning experience.

Chris, you might get some rain mid-week form the remains of old TS Henri. The steering currents are all west, so anything that remains should get to you. Tell me about the humidity. It has been miserable for the last couple of days. BTW, it's "Climate Change" now, not global warming. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble witha Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Larry, you did post those pics before but it's a pleasure to look at them again. You can tell I didn't participate in the project because nothing looks crooked.

Got a shower this morning and had an impressive looking front approaching us this evening. As usual, it dissolved just before it got to us, giving us another five minute shower. It's clear as a bell now. At least the front bought some drier air with it. It's only 73 now compared to 85 and humid at the same time last night. We are supposedly going to get more rain tommorow and Sunday but I can't see where it's going to come from. The tropics are once again quiet although the NHC still wants to promote 92L as having the potential for development even though the low has moved inland over Venezuela. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

 

[stationmaster]

Jeffrey, hang in there, bud. It hasn't been that long ago that such a condition usually warranted amputation. Medicine has come a ways since then, thank God.

My Mom had a the same problem. Her bones on the outside of her foot did as yours did. She had to learn to walk without stumbling, or falling to the right,as these bones and the outside of your foot are used for balance.

The problem we diabetics have with circulation, especially to the extremities, is one of the causes/contributors for osteomyelitis. With restricted blood flow, the bones, being living tissue, cannot live nor can they ward off infection. Even the slightest thing as a bruise can start the problem rolling. One of the reasons having a good podiatrist if you are suffering from diabetes is essential.

Hope you decide to take better care of yourself right soon. Remember what I said earlier, your days of being superman are over. And if you don't take care of yourself, ain't nobody else gonna. And that's a fact.

As far as your bleeding spell, it could have been blood that had pooled during the surgery. I had the same problem with my back surgery. I sat up in bed after the surgery and had the red stuff running down my crack. Scared the holy....., well you know, out of me. I am what they call a "free bleeder" anyway. Usually I have to take vitamin K for a couple of weeks before surgery.

Bob

 

[blownoutcylinder]

Good Morning

Got a 30% shower come along and dump on us in the form of a 15 minute monsoon We are supposed to clear up to a mix of sun/cloud this afternoon. Then be sunny tomorrow--the highs will be around 9C this weekend The 'normal' for up here at this time is 15C.

I got up to 2 popped bulbs--which meant that I had to jump and get the ladder first thing----and this without my morning cup of coffee no less!

So, off I go into the sunrise---getting stuff together for my weekend seminar stuff---yeehaw-----or is it hawyee----oh nevermind---

Have a good one