Good Morning All. It's clear and an incredibly cool 74° right now, only expecting a high today of 89° as the winds shifted out of the north a few hours ago. Thunderstorms are back in today's forecast, they're hovering on the other side of the Red River in Oklahoma right now, about 30 miles away. Depending on the weather conditions here today, I might do some preemptive mowing or not. The only part of the yard that needs it is the part of the "back 40" that I didn't do last week.
Thanks for the many likes and comments regarding the weed tutorial and the 4014 pictures yesterday;
Rick, Gary, Karl, Guy, Tom O, Christian, Hughie, Tom, James, Joe, Chad, Garry, Troy.
Flo gave me a like yesterday for the tip that I left her, thanks. Today I would like a BLT sandwich with extra bacon, and a sugar free A&W root beer to go with it.
For my next project out in the train shed, I reverted to one of my favorite things, building a laser-cut wood structure. This one is from Blair Line, a rather simple one called Blairstown General Store.
I started this Thursday.
I primed it and started assembly.
It already has a home om the layout.
Today I should finish assembly of the remaining walls and the roof. I want to give it another coat of white paint, but I ran out!!! I intended to purchase some more after the train watching yesterday, but due to the delay, I had missed cocktail hour and was very late for supper. That took priority over going into the dreaded Walmart. Besides I later realized that I hadn't taken any money, credit cards or ID with me! I am not sure if I will go back to town before next Thursday's grocery trek. I may just use brush on paint instead of spray cans.
Guy - Yes, the
Perseid meteor shower was rather significant here on Wednesday night, but clouds obscured it afterwards. As far as a shower goes, at best I have seen maybe a meteor a minute this time and in good times in the past. I assume that the satellites were part of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite parade. I think that it unnecessarily clutters up the night sky. So do others. I read that he will be painting them black in the near future due to the complaints from astronomers. I believe that the last time that I read, 1800 of an estimated 12,000 are already in orbit.
Karl -
we have a very popular Republican Governor and a heavily Democratic General Assembly and the sparring between them borders on the ridiculous at times.
Not too sure it can get more ridiculous than the minority party here in Texas abandoning their elected duties! They're all up there near you getting arrested!
Garry - What a wonderful anniversary to be celebrating.
The engineer had a bullhorn to address the crowd and advise them to get back when he was about to start up again. He did an excellent job of running the engine, as very little black smoke was emitted from the stack. I've read that that is a good sign. The cab was obviously crowded with six people (that I saw) in there. Here's the engineer perched on the tender ladder taking movies of the crowd. Note that the fellow in the seat behind his replaced the employee in the arrival pictures. I guess that the guy in the black shirt ended his shift...or moved to the other side.
It stopped in the middle of the grade crossing so the on-ground workers had an easier time performing their inspections. Police had blocked all of the grade crossings around 4:30.
Hughie - By the way, 4014 will arrive in Houston Monday night and be on display all day Tuesday before leaving Wednesday morning for New Orleans. Today it is spending the entire day on display in Ft Worth.
Schedule here.
Gary - The crowd was actually smaller than I anticipated, maybe 2500. It actually thinned down a bit as we waited, as couples with baby strollers, and some older folks left. I stood in 95° heat for 2 1/2 hours, fortunately I was in the shade with a very slight breeze. From my vantage point I did see two persons leave with EMS crews in ambulances.
Here is the trailing diesel in the consist
I noticed in this and all of the diesels in the three freights that passed by, that the windows were open! I guess that UP doesn't air condition their cabs.
Today is VJ day, in honor of the victory over Japan in WWII. That was a few years before I was born. Today is also National Bowling Day, I wonder where
Chet is today?
Thunderstorms still haven't moved south yet, sun is shining.
Everybody have a great day and weekend.
They develop some interesting story lines. Thanks for the complement on the photos.
