Good Morning All. Clear and 26°, maybe going up to 54° later today. The latest "Big Chill" will come tomorrow night around sunset and is supposed to bring the dreaded ice storm. It will start as rain around noon and worsen from there. Low Tuesday and Wednesday predicted to be close to single digits. I know that this isn't out of the ordinary to you Upper Midwesterners, but it is cold for us. From there it will not get back above freezing until sometime Friday with upper 60's and mid-70's expected by Sunday, all of the way through next week.
The original gardening plan was to plant onions and some other root crops this past weekend, but in light of the forecast, I decided to wait another week. I hate losing that extra week on the onions, since the planting season is already later than normal this season. Gardening trivia here: An onion only grows to 16 layers and stops. If it gets too warm or the days get too long, they stop growing and may have only 13 or 14 layers and won't be as big. Here, the day length for maturity hits in the second week of May, so the onion tops die and the bulb goes dormant then. That's harvest time, although you can pick some early if needed. For me, if I let them mature, they will successfully store in shaded outdoor bins until usually Christmas before it gets cold and they start sprouting. They're a biannual and will go to seed the second year. Some will actually go to seed the first year if the initial bulbs are too large from the nursery. Pencil size thickness are the best starter plants.
While yesterday was an average Sunday, it ended with a trip to Addison TX, a northern suburb of Dallas, for the combination Valentine's/birthday dinner at a high class casual restaurant that she likes. We made reservations 6 weeks ago, without them you won't get seated until maybe 9:30 or 10:00. We actually got the last available table when we reserved. Food is really excellent, drinks are normal, but everything is expensive. With tip (24%), it set me back $222 for the evening. Well, we did get a freebie birthday cupcake at the end! The 16 oz strip steak that I got was done perfectly medium rare, unfortunately they were out of rib-eyes which I had intended to get. The same meal at a place like Outback or Saltgrass would have been less than half as much. I am not really in favor of paying extra for sides like this place, but as the saying goes "A happy wife..."; the salad was $8!
Not sure what today has in store; wife has already left for her annual eye doctor appointment and will probably go shopping for something. Maybe I'll do a surprise chore.
No time out in the train shed yesterday, so no new pictures of projects today.
Ken - House at 58° doesn't seem like it is holding heat very well. I have found that electric space heaters don't really heat up any space larger than a bathroom, but will maintain a temperature in a larger room. Now, those old-fashioned gas ones could cook a whole pig from 5' away. Good luck with the blower.
David - I wouldn't consider "Mystery Boxes" for the same reason. Gotta fit my time frame and my chosen RR line.
Joe - While I haven't thought about it any more yet, the boxcar runs fine. Problem is that I didn't build in any unused sidings on my layout. I do have three places with turnouts in the passing sidings that don't connect to anything yet, but I was planning to use them for industries. I do have a specific RIP track though.
I like the blue signal!
John - Yes, I installed that A-Line stirup step. I like your idea also, but I have too many projects on the wish list already. I don't really need to make use of the car itself since I have 800 freight cars already.
Karl - Interesting gun law in MD. In Texas, you get it when you are approved, but you cannot carry it to your car. A store employee must carry it out for you. You have to carry all of the ammo though.
Terry - Get well soon. I don't think that
Bob has the time to handle the load by himself.
Everyone have a great President's Day.
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