Back

Well, it all worked out in the end. Shaunn's cousin and his girlfriend showed, and the food was just as tasty a day later. It just wouldn't be the holidays without a little mood swing. We got back tonight, now counting down to bedtime probably around 10:30. I haven't seen midnight New Year's Eve in several years. Stay off my grass. Happy 2008 and have a beer for me.

Arrrgh

Shaunn was at his parents for Christmas. Today, I was going out there to celebrate the holiday with his family. I had said I'd like to make dinner for everyone tonight, and they all thought it was a great idea.
So last night, I baked some bread, marinated the pork loin, and bought everything else to bring to PA.
This morning, I was informed that Shaunn's cousin and his girlfriend are fighting, over whether they can squeeze in both dinner and a visit to her aunt's house. So, they decided they can't do dinner. Shaunn's parents decided if they won't be there today, then they don't want to have a big dinner either. (I wasn't coming out to make dinner for his cousin, but I guess that's irrelevant.) So, all my preparations last night were a complete waste of time. Lovely.

The Flying Bra Saga Rides Again

My more seasoned readers may remember the story last year about the 2 hillbillies in Toledo who crashed their car to avoid a bra flung from another vehicle. Well, there's more to the story.

The short version - the passenger in the crashed car is suing everybody he can think of.

The laywer for one of the girls is quoted saying "We're taking the position the two guys were encouraging the girls and that they tried to catch the bra"
Who could believe something like that coming from these two? I'm glad the driver thought enough to put on his best drinking shirt for the camera.

Stay tuned for more thrilling updates.

My First Love

I just saw on of these cars driving up Broad St., and it instantly took me back in time. I was fresh out of High School, and was looking around Toledo for a car for college. I wound up inheriting the old Buick Skyhawk, but I will never forget when I saw one of these in my searching...

It's called an Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV. Great little cars, about the size of a Honda Civic. I remember spying it in the back lot of a local Buick dealer. I must have spent the better part of a weekend walking around and around it. I called the dealer to inquire, and was told the car was a '74 model, was owned by the daughter of one of the salesmen, hadn't been run in at least a year, and the price was $7000 firm. Ouch. On $3.35 an hour as a bagboy at Kroger, the price might as well have been a million. It was completely out of reach.

I still went back a few times to look it over, and eventually noticed that it was sitting on a halo of rust, as it slowly disintegrated from neglect. I realized it was probably my luck that they didn't make a reasonable offer, as I'm sure the upkeep costs would have quickly turned the love affair to hate. But still...what a cool car. And they only look better after all these years.

mmmm...beef

I've got about a pound of the tasty roast from last night at home in the fridge, taunting me, calling me home to make some mashed potatoes and gravy to go along with it. But I think I'l put that off until friday, when I can savor the wonderful flavors without the cloud of work the next day hanging over me.

Christmas Past

So, we had a wonderful time in Cleveland this year with the Barkers. Gifts were exchanged, little Geo did his best to entertain everyone, and we had what was quite possibly the most exquisite meal I've ever had. Really. It started off with homemade Sauerkraut Balls that put the ones at Barley's Brewing Co. to shame. We also had bacon wrapped water chestnuts and chicken livers, which lasted about 20 minutes. Then cheesy potatoes and a strip steak roast that Don grilled. It just melted in your mouth. Wow.
George was mesmerized by the tickle me Elmo that he got for Christmas....he was talking with him, and kept trying to help him back up when Elmo would fall over laughing.
I drove back this morning so I could be here at work bright and early, to count down the time to go home.

Miracle On Imperial Drive

Dad reprising his role as Santa Claus

I think it was 1982 when dad was one of the Santas at Woodville Mall, so this is the 25th anniversary. Several years later, our memory of it was clouded when Homer Simpson did the same thing (And then dad went to the track...no, wait that was Homer). But he loved doing it, and would always tell us about how he'd say 'ow' when kids pulled on his fake beard, and convinced a few non-believers during his stint.

Merry Christmas Pop!

The dealer

So, I didn't mention the car yet...when I went to pick it up on friday, the service rep who met me was reviewing the invoice, and read from it that the tech's 'diagnosis' of the nav system's voice static was because it was using an older software version, and I needed to order and install the latest updated dvd.
I said that was interesting, because I had installed the new dvd a week prior, and it was the latest version, copyright 2007 - and didn't affect the issue at all.
He went back to talk to the service manager. He came back and said if that wasn't the trouble, it may be the whole nav system itself.
I explained that if the supposed diagnosis was that I needed the new software dvd, than it appears that the problem wasn't even checked, as the software version is printed on the disc label (this is tricky, as you have to follow the complex process of hitting the 'eject' button and glancing at the dvd label). The installed version can also be accessed on one of the system's info screens, if you bother to look at it. Obviously, even these simple things weren't done.
I was trying to be as nice and patient as I could be, knowing that the service manager was lying about checking the problem at all.

So, now I have to make yet another appointment, so they can actually diagnose the problem that they didn't even bother to check into. I guess that's what I get for scheduling an appointment on a friday. I think I'll do something like put scotch tape over a couple of the connectors, to see if they actually do something more than park my car in the back lot all day. I can't say this recent visit garnered any trust in their service department.

Columbus, Oklahoma

Yesterday while taking care of a few errands, I saw something rolling along the side of Rt. 315 by Broad St. As I passed I saw it was a large tumbleweed, and scattered pieces of another, just blowing around on the shoulder. When did we start getting these in the downtown area? Maybe they were placed by the Chamber of Commerce as some sort of symbolic statement about City Center.

The wonder of Tali

So I fell asleep last night with the tv on, and woke up to that painting show with Bob Ross...which is entertaining enough, but made me remember that wonderful public access show we used to have here...Painting With Tali. So, a googling I did go.
He appeared on our public access, between the local pro wrestling knockoff show and Damon Zex, who deserves his own entry.
Tali was...specially talented. He set out to teach the world to paint...but was challenged by many internal and external demons along the way. You often wondered what medication he was supposed to be on, and why he refused to take it.
He would usually start off reasonably focused, but within minutes he'd be off on tangents where he'd be bitching about the suburban idiots who didn't buy his art...or the gallery owner who refused to carry his work. This would then discourage him and make him question whether the painting he was working on was any good.
This would usually disgust him and he'd finish the last several minutes of the show in total silence, because he was sick of talking and didn't have time to explain what he was doing anyway. But no matter how unhinged he became, he always signed off with his very best Norma Desmond impression.

Here's a brief sample of one of his more sedate shows. You've been warned.

Sadly, Channel 21 lost whatever meager budget it had, and stopped showing shows like Tali several years ago.
But his spirit lives on...In the world of TV painters, if Bob Ross was the Monet, Tali was the...well, let's just say he'll always be Tali.

Anticipation

So, when I dropped off the car for the 70k service, I asked them to look into an issue with the feedback voice for the Nav unit. The voice coming thru can be very distorted and full of static. It's done this off and on for a few months, but a relatively minor issue.
Naturally, when I dropped the car off this morning and described the problem, the voice was coming through as clear as a bell.
I did bring a printout of a troubleshooting procedure I found from an owner's website, to help them find the trouble - from the printout, it looked like it was an issue with improper grounding of a wiring harness. The car's still under warranty, so any needed fix should be covered. Now I'm just waiting for their call.

Braaaaaaaaaaains

I got up early to drop the car off at 7am for her 70k mile checkup (Things I learned from dad, number 264 - preventive maintenance trumps the unknown every time)...and I'm a sleep-deprived zombie now that the coffee has worn off. Ugh. At least the weekend is here. How my friends get up at 5:30 every morning I will never know.

Festivus 2008

My goal is to have Festivus take over completely as the official December holiday in our house. To be everything that Christmas is not, and more.

General guidelines so far:

-Do not mention Christmas
-There is absolutely no gift exchange of any kind
-Drinking is encouraged -nay, enforced

I think that's about it. I don't think the planned events can really be called 'traditions', as they haven't been done yet. The Wiki entry on Festivus is chock full of ideas.

Festivus is Coming

This year, Festivus falls on December 23. Don't roll your eyes. It's got as much legitimacy as quite a few other holiday observances, like Christmas. Christmas today is little more than a combination of clever marketing and slipper socks in the wrong size.
Everyone is sick of Christmas. Go ahead, ask them. The obligations for cards and presents, the music, the distracting tinsel everywhere. So why celebrate something you look forward to about as much as paying taxes?
This year we've missed the boat. But next year, as Joe Pesci is my witness, we'll have the pole up, the airing of grievances, the feats of strength, and all the spaghetti you can eat.

* I feel I should add that this is not meant to be simply an emulation of Seinfeld. It's meant to be a celebration without the commercial aspects of that other holiday. So there is a purpose behind it. Really.

Bulb Planting

I changed the last of our non-dimmer lights to cfl bulbs this weekend. I had changed about half of them last year, and we noticed our bills dropped about $20 a month - I guess that's probably more than most people would see - figuring that since someone is home all day, the lights are on more, and are a bigger chunk of our electric usage. So now we can extend that gain a little more.
The only thing to get used to is the warm-up cycle, when turned on it takes them a couple minutes to get to full brightness. But I've found that first thing in the morning, that can be a real benefit, as my eyes have a little time to adjust without being blinded by full intensity. The outside floods suffer this dim problem more, but after a couple minutes, they're as bright as incandescent ones.
There were a few spots where incandescent bulbs would frequently burn out - the front porch light would only last about 3 months on a bulb, and the kitchen light had a short life as well. Both have now used the same cfl bulbs for over a year.
Of course, it's not all rosy - cfl bulbs contain mercury, so I can't just toss them in the trash when they burn out. I think local supermarkets offer some type of recycling drop-off. But none have died, so we haven't had to worry about it yet.

Serenity Now

Minor updates...
-I got the Christmas Tree put up last night. One of those types with the lights, and only 4 pieces, incluidng the stand. Took all of 10 minutes. Now for the decoration phase.

-Shaunn's sleepwalking seems ot have resolved itself for now. He hasn't done it since I blogged about it last week. (I just spoke to him, he thinks he did a little last night, but it looks like the most he did was pull a towel off the bathroom rack and place it on the counter)

-The new Navi dvd should arrive today, according to the delivery bot at UPS.

Looks like it'll be fairly calm around our house this week. Yes, I'm tempting Fate by stating that.

Basement part XVIII

Normally, a blog entry after the storm we had yesterday would be full of tidbits about how many times I emptied our shop vac, or how deep the water was in the downstairs bathroom.
Our backyard by the rear fence is a (quickly freezing) lake this morning. This has happpened two or three times since we moved in...when the ground is wet enough for that, it's time to call off work, roll up your pant legs, and head downstairs for Operation Vacu-Suck.

However, the basement is, for all intents and purposes, dry. There was a little water by the wall, but I wiped it all up with one bath towel, so no need to roll out Megamaid. A cup of water, instead of few dozen gallons. The tide is turning...

Hmmm

Shaunn has recently started sleep walking. This week, I've found him changing the kitchen garbage bag at 1am, moving things around in the basement, and last night, he was busy breaking the legs off of a decorative elephant candle, by banging it on the coffee table. (I've got a picture I took a couple days ago...he'd taken my shoes from by the back door, placed one next to the cat's food dish, and the other on top of the fridge.)
It usually occurs within an hour or so of him going to bed.
Every time he's intent on whatever he's doing, and it takes calling his name loudly once or twice to get him to stop and go back to bed - but he will usually get up later and do it again the same night. His nurse feels that it could be temporary, or could be long term. Not a lot of help there, but there's no answer without knowing the cause.
I'm not sure what to do, or if I'm just worrying about it too much. The obvious fear is that he'll injure himself somehow. But what can I do, short of belting him to the bed?

Holy Crap

it's been a pretty wet week around here...we've had 2.5 inches of rain since saturday, plus more last night and today. That's on top of the 5 inches of snow that melted over the weekend. Shaunn just checked the basement...and it is bone dry. I must be onto something with the fixes I've done. I hope I don't jinx it, but we'd always get at least some water with this amount of rain. And we've had nothing. Sweet.

- Update - the NWS recorded 1.05" yesterday, so that makes over 3.5" of rain, and over 5" of melted snow. Booyah.
I have one downspout left to redo, which is on the opposite corner of the basement from where the big problems usually are. This area by the bar leaks a little occasionally, but generally, if there's any water over by the bar, then the other side of the basement is a lake.
There was a little water by the bar last night, but that was the only damp spot in the whole basement. So it's definitely improved. Once I replace that downspout and run it out into the yard, we shouldn't have any more water problems over there.

Christmas for the car

Our car's navigation system has proven to be indispensable over the 4 years we've owned it. Like a lot of technology, once you have one, you don't know how you managed without it before. Be that as it may, it does have some limitations. The maps and business directory/points of interest are stored on a dvd, which needs to be replaced every so often to keep current. Roads don't change very often, but businesses do, making the circa fall 2003 database less than perfect. (Case in point - Radio Shack recently shuffled all of their local stores, closing some, relocating almost all others. This made finding a location a recent exercize in futility, as the navi directed me to three separate locations that were no longer there.)
Plus, some local roads have changed - the I-670 redesign was finished about 6 months after we got the car, so the current 315/670 routes aren't shown - the map shows us driving off the highway and apparently flying through the air to certain death - it would be cool if the car's voice would scream when that happens.
So, time to bite the bullet and get a new dvd. These cost a little more than, say a movie - the normal price is $185 for the annual updates. Theyr'e on sale for $149 right now, so i jumped. But I can't complain, as the navigation service is free, and $149 over 4 years is less than my train magazine subscription.

Bussy McBusalot

In our family, the summer trip to Disney World in 1984 is forever burned into our dna. I've probably recounted this story more times than you've had hot dinners, and here's one more...
The entire trip revolved around the problems that our VW Bus gave us. On the drive from Toledo to Orlando, the starter died just north of Cincinnati. It would only work when the engine was cold. This doesn't happen very often on a long summer trip. So we became very adept at the 'push start' procedure, which was needed every time we stopped and the engine was shut off. When we'd pull off into a rest area or wherever, the driver would reach for the key out of habit. If someone didn't yell "Don't turn it off!" in time, it was up to us. I can only imagine how many people still tell the story of the family they saw pushing their VW Bus out of the rest stop.
( I learned a couple years ago that VW Buses starters were prone to this type of failure - on long drives, heat would build up and prevent the starter solenoid from working. But a lot of good that did us on the road.)
The rest of the trip passed by(Disney was just kind of a break from car pushing), and we were on our way home. It was late, and raining, and we had just pulled off the road in Savannah Ga to find a room. As the rest of us half slept, dad went into the lobby of the hotel we'd stopped at.
A few minutes later, dad came flying out, jumped in the driver's seat (he had left it running this time) and drove off like a bat out of hell, without saying a word. we found another hotel a couple exits up the highway. He later told us that while he was standing at the hotel counter, two people in there started an argument, when one pulled a knife, slashed the other person's arm, and ran out the door. The hotel manager's reaction was to lock the doors. Dad screamed at him that we were out there, along with the attacker. The manager let him out, and off we went.
The next morning, we came out to discover a flat tire. (I always wondered if dad ran over the knife!)When we started the job, right away we noticed the jack, which had never been used before. VW had made it out of what seemed to be heavy-duty aluminum foil. But dad said they must know what they were thinking. So, my dad, George and I jacked up the rear of the bus. We were parked on a very slight incline. This wasn't an issue until we had the van up, and had taken the flat tire off. Right at that moment, the jack decided it had done enough work for the day and bent itself in two. Somehow, we jammed the bad tire under the fender before the whole thing came crashing down on the ground. Dad ran off to quickly borrow a jack from a nearby garage, and we just leaned our weight into the van and prayed. He retrieved a jack, and we finished the job.
The rest of the trip home was relatively uneventful, peppered with push starts at every stop. But we will never forget that trip. My parents got rid of the Bus a few months later.
At any rate, this is my little recreation of the VW Bus at the center of it all...enjoy.
(The paint finish is, well, rough. I wanted to see how the colors looked, and was so stoked after the first trial coat that I had to put up a pic. It'll get better, really.)

Sappy

I know you've hardly been able to sleep without any layout updates, so here you are. Rainy days are usually my most productive.
OSHA has been sending letters regarding the high number of people who wandered around the station and fell onto the tracks behind it, because of no safety barriers. A railing has now been added to address that minor issue, along with sidewalks so Faceless Freddie can now enjoy the view in safety.


Here's the sappy bit...I've been keeping an eye out for a dark blue Karmann Ghia for the layout. Mom and dad had one identical to this when they got married, and I found one yesterday at a train show here in town. Ta-daa!
I'm also repainting one of my VW buses (not the one above) to match the one we had back from 1978-84...it's not quite ready for prime time - I'll probably finish that later this week.

In related news, the layout now has more Volkswagens per capita than Wolfsburg, Germany.

Side Benefits

Living on a side street off of a not too important primary street means we have never seen a snow plow within a half mile of our house. However, that changed today.
Shaunn has a home nurse, and she shared with him that if a street has a disabled person living on it, with certain other qualifying criteria(housebound, home care), the city has 48 hours to plow that road after a major snowfall, so that the docs and emergency services can get there in an emergency.
So, armed with this knowledge, he called the mayor's action line. And within 2 hours, our street had been plowed and salted. So long, sheets of ice!

Early Christmas

I forgot to mention in the last post...when I shut off the outside spigot last night, I had to move several storage totes that we placed in that room over the summer. As I moved the totes, I opened them to see what was inside. One of them contained - woo hoo- the eyepieces to my telescope, which I've been looking for since moving here in mid 2005. Just in time for those still winter nights which are perfect for stargazing.

Oops

Well, the weather reports were...conservative. We had about 5.5 inches here. So they were closer to correct than me. So I'll stop with the fraud lawsuits.
It did give me an excuse to winterize. so when I got home tonight, I put the storm windows in the screen doors, and shut off the water to the outside spigots. This is to avoid a repeat of our first winter here, when the pipe for the rear spigot burst, turning half our patio into a skating rink.
The snow let me again appreciate how effing great our Accord is in the stuff. Shaunn's nurse came by today, but had to park in the street when her Explorer couldn't make it up our driveway. When I got home, I just drove right up, the wheels slipping for just an instant in the snow ruts she created. Why do they sell suvs again?

Layout trivia

When I designed the layout, I used a design program to rough out ideas until I came up with something I liked and would fit in my available space. When I built it, the track was laid out using the eyeball process. I always wondered how much track was on the layout. I had a rough idea, but I never had added it all up. So, I measured out the track...
The mainline run, not including dead-end sidings, consists of 1177 inches of track, or a hair over 98 feet. In HO scale (1:87), this is a track distance of 8533 feet, a little over 1.6 scale miles. No wonder it took me so long to get it all down.

First snow

We got the wood last night. It was an exciting time. Wood. Giga and I went to the place, loaded it, drove home, and had it unloaded all in the space of about 30 minutes. Simple. Unfortunately, the wood had apparently sat in the rain we had over the weekend, so lighting it last night was kind of a non-event.
Tonight and tomorrow, we're supposed to see about 4 inches of snow. But I'll never understand how the local weather can accurately tell you what they'll get in New England or Nebraska, but always be completely off for the local snow forecast.
So, they're stating 4 inches here...this means we'll see some flakes in the air, and maybe - maybe - about an inch on the ground. I think we need the weather predictors in Nebraska to tell us how much to expect.

Warm house

We love using our fireplace. Last year, we went thru most of the scrap wood from the train table, and then started buying those compressed-sawdust logs from the store. they burn nicely, but the price works out to about $3 a log, which isn't very cost effective. So today at lunch, I did some checking around for firewood sources, and found a place near the house that sells seasoned firewood pretty cheaply.

I caleld them to inquire, and the salesman cheerfully said that their price is $40 for a 'rack' of logs, which he explained is about 1/4 cord. For those of you not familiar with these terms, a 'Cord' is about 85 Furlongs, or 19.5 metric Cochranes of wood. At any rate, it's enough to see us through most of the winter.
Giga has offered his truck and help in getting it home, we're going after work tonight. One problem, the temperature has been dropping all day, and is going to keep going. So I think we'll just stack the wood in the car shelter for the time being, and I'll move it to its permanent home later this week. That'll also give me time to throw together a rack this week to store it on, so it stays nice and dry for the burnination. This will also give the wood from the tree we had removed a place to dry so it'll be ready for next winter.

Layout updates

I've been doing some work on the city area. The brewery just added a large wing alongside the tracks for additional loading capacity. Just in time for their Christmas Brew! (And a gold star to whomever can spot the Enterprise-D schematics - Dr. Soran is still plotting his revenge.)
I've also rearranged a few of the taller buildings so they don't hide the buildings I've added to the background. I also bought a couple of passenger coaches to go along with the E6 locomotive I bought a few weeks back...pretty cars, pictures don't do them justice.

Score one for the Bill of Rights

MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) - U.S. prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of thousands of people who bought used books through online retailer Amazon.com Inc., newly unsealed court records show. The withdrawal came after a judge ruled the customers have a right to keep their reading habits from the government."The (subpoena's) chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America," U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in a June ruling. "Well-founded or not, rumors of an Orwellian federal criminal investigation into the reading habits of Amazon's customers could frighten countless potential customers into canceling planned online book purchases," the judge wrote in a ruling he unsealed last week.Amazon said in court documents it hopes Crocker's decision will make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain records involving book purchases.Crocker _ who unsealed documents detailing the showdown against prosecutors' wishes _ said he believed prosecutors were seeking the information for a legitimate purpose. But he said First Amendment concerns about freedom of speech were justified and outweighed the subpoena's law enforcement purpose.

When Youtube pranks go bad

ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) -- A man clad in swim trunks was arrested after riding a bicycle through a motel's hallways and hitting two men. A woman showering after using the swimming pool at Best Western Soldiers Field Tower and Suites told police she heard a door open and saw a naked man at about 3:10 p.m. Sunday.
The man ran out of the room, pulled on swim trunks, hopped on a bike and road through the hallways, police said.
Police Lt. John Edwards said the man, 38, hit another man, 76, and his son, both of whom suffered minor injuries.
The son chased the bicyclist, tackled him and waited for police to arrive, Edwards said.
Charges against the man were pending Monday, police said.

RR Layout Musings

Any design, by definition, is a compromise. The layout was a compromise, limited by the area I had to work with, my lack of experience with building a real layout instead of just an oval of track, and so on. I'm very happy with how it turned out, but there are things I'd like to change:

- More rail sidings, for train operations - picking up/dropping off cars, etc. I have a few sidings, but these were built in as more of an afterthought than as part of the original plan.

- Wider curves, to allow operation of larger and more varied locomotives and rolling stock. Larger equipment than I currently have, especially locomotives, will not stay on the track in tight curves. If you try to make a tight turn in a long vehicle, and you can't make it in one try, you have to stop and back up and try again. For a train, it's the same basic idea - only when it gets to the point that it can't make the turn, it jumps off the track.

- Better integration of scenery with the track design - the scenery got better as I went along, but there are things I'd go back and change, such as the huge mountain taking up half of the layout. Nice to look at, but very limiting in terms of train operations.

Unfortunately, the layout right now is pretty maxed out in terms of what else it can accomodate. Putting in wider curves, or making room for more sidings, would require tearing up and redoing much of the existing track, which I don't have room for given the current design. But now that I've built it, and see what I did right and what I did wrong, I know how to do better the next time around.

So, I'm working on a new layout design. Because I've put in so much time and effort into the current one, I'd like something that allows me to build on what I have, rather than start over from scratch. Right now, I'm not about to start tearing it up, because it's hard to destroy something you've spent so much time building. Maybe in about a year. And then, I can start running beauties like this:

New car for mom

When I was home for Thanksgiving, mom mentioned that it's about time to put the old Sable out to pasture. I asked what she was looking for as an alternative, she said she liked the comfort of a sedan, and wants something green, no suvs.
She's open to the idea of a hybrid, but would want to check them out first. She likes owning a Ford, but they're kinda light on green offerings. The only hybrid they offer is the Escape, which is an suv. I'm not sure how owners like them, but the few reviews I've seen mention decent mileage but complain about a lack of power.
As far as sedan hybrids, the Camry is a good one...GM offers a couple hybrid sedans, but their mileage is only 1 mpg over the same non-hybrid models, so little point in one of them.
There are green alternatives that don't require hybrid tech to deliver on low emissions and decent mileage...not to plug Honda, but the Accord comes to mind, along with other sedans like that. Most cars in the class offer good room, are comfy, and the 4 cylinder models get very good mileage.
So, it's off to the dealers for some brochures...

Adventures in Mathematics

Today I had to stop and get some food for the cat while running some errands...Dr Zoidberg will only eat Science Diet food, so I stopped at Petco, one of the few places that carries it.
The shelf price listed cans for 69 cents each, or a case of 24 for $16.56. No special deal there, but it would keep the cat happy for a few weeks. The cases were split in half, with 12 cans in a box. So I grabbed 2 boxes and went to the cashier.
She scanned each box's bar code. But each box rang up at $16.56, even though it only had 12 cans. I asked her if that was right, she looked at the screen and said 'oh yeah, it says $16.56 for 12 cans'. I decided to see what the receipt showed...sure enough, There were two line items, each listing 24 cans at that price, not 12. I'd been charged about $35 including tax. She had double charged me. I'm not sure where she saw 12 cans listed, but it wasn't in the item description on my receipt.
When I turned to head back to her, she already had another customer...so I went over the the next cashier. I explained that I'd been double charged, and billed the 24-can price twice. She called the manager, he went and checked the shelf price. He called her and confirmed the correct price.

This is where the math fun started. She looked at me and said 'Well, that price is for a case of 24, and you have two cases'. I looked down, pulled one of the cans from the box, so she could see there wasn't another layer hiding underneath it, and reminded her that there were only 12 cans in each box. She said 'no, there's 24, and you have 2 cases'. At this point she was really getting snotty, so I said in a raised voice "How many cans do you see here? There's 12 in each box. I have 24 cans total. Each can is 69 cents. I shouldn't have been billed $35."

At this point the manager arrived, and explained to the little rocket scientist that I had 24 cans, but had been charged for 48. She still looked puzzled, so he told her to just credit me back for one case, and walked away. She pushed some buttons, slammed the credit receipt down for me to sign, slammed down my copy, turned her back and stomped off. Apparently I was an asshole for not just paying double and going home.
As I picked up the boxes, I loudly suggested to her that she try some of the math classes at school. Somehow, I doubt she will.

Bethany and Professor Moriarty

I got an email from the B, she's living with Sir Richard in Guildford now. they live right across the street from the Guild hall, where they're warming up for the lighting of the Xmas lights.

They get a celebrity to do the honors each year...and the guest this year? Stephanie Beacham.

If you watch ST:TNG, you know who she is. She played Countess Bartholomew, who was Professor Moriarty's, um, useless sidekick in the episode Ship in a Bottle.

It probably wasn't the role of her career...she didn't do much besides stand there and offer tea to people (no, really).
You can run, but Star Trek always finds you.

Weekend trip

This morning, I decided I would suprise mom by coming up to Toledo tonight for a post-thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner. So I went home at lunch, packed a bag and a few things, and am all set to leave right from work.

I guess great minds think alike...I just got back to the office a few minutes ago - mom just called me and said she had an idea that i could come up tonight for dinner. So the secret's out, but at any rate we'll be together for the holiday.

Puttering

At what age can you call your daily activities "puttering around"? That's what yesterday amounted to. My main accomplishment was baking 2 loaves of bread.

I used the bread machine to mix the ingredients and to let the dough rise. Getting the stuff in the machine takes about 5 minutes. Then it runs through the kneading and resting cycles, which lasts 90 minutes. At that point, I take the dough out, form it on a baking sheet, and let it rise for another half hour. Then pop it in the oven for an additional 30 minutes. If you're scoring at home - or even if you're alone, we're at 2.5 hours of down time. And I did two loaves, so I had lots of time to kill...

I spent that time working on the railroad - I installed several decal signs on the buildings, and did a little detail work on the train station. If that isn't puttering, I don't know what is.

Thanksgiving

I went to Nala and Giga's for thanksgiving dinner yesterday. The food was incredible. Trust me, it was. Turkey with sausage stuffing, mash, more stuffing, bacon wrapped breadsticks...I don't think I need to eat until December 5.

And I'm one of the lucky souls working today. Think of me when you read this in your bathrobe at 1pm.

Jesus Saves

Want to know what else is made in a Chinese sweatshop? I'm not sure if this is ironic or just totally pathetic.

Scare Tactics

Or, why I hate the local news...we've all heard and seen the stories about being safe and smart while shopping during the Xmas season. Why? We all know, because we've been told for years: roving bands of thieves drive around the mall parking lots waiting to pounce and steal all your purchases left in the back seat. It must be a really serious problem, right? From the way they beat this type of story into you, it must happen - what? several times a day at your typical mall?
I just read this article from one of our local stations, on how awful the problem is. Not suprisingly, it's not nearly as awful as you'd think.

Over the last 3 holiday shopping seasons, the 4 busiest malls in the city have seen anywhere from 15 to 38 cases of theft from vehicles.
Over 3 years...not a weekend, or a month...3 years.
(They don't define 'holiday shopping season' in the story, it could be from July to March for all we know.)
So you probably stand a better chance of being insulted by the mall Santa than having your car broken into.
And yet, every year, we are scared into sneaking out to our cars and hiding everything we bought, because of 'dangerous trends' that border on the statistically insignificant. While securing your items out of sight is a good idea, the parking lots are not the war zones they depict them to be. Happy holidays.

The Pope and Pioneer X

Twelve years ago this month, theologians were thrown into chaos when this lost sketch of the 'greeting' plaque mounted on the Pioneer X spacecraft was unearthed: it revealed the church's tacit admittal that the scientific view of the universe was correct.

Weekend

Well, our thanksgiving went pretty well...all the food was great, and I only burned one batch of rolls. Nala & Giga brought some fantastic sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. Mr. & Mrs. Pickles again tried to convince our cat to come with them. And I discovered an easter egg on my camera.

(I forgot to get pictures of the goodies, but Naladahc did, you can click over to his site to see 'em.)

I spent today burning off the extra calories working on the railroad. I took some extra parts from a couple of the structure kits to finish a background building I started a couple weeks back:

This area is Conjunction Junction, where 6 separate tracks squeeze thru an area only about 18" deep. Normal scenery wouldn't work here, since there's no space for items with a lot of depth. So a lot of it is visual trickery...both of these buildings are only about 1.5" deep, and have no backsides. I'm going to build a couple more that will straddle the tracks, and hide the thin-ness of these. I'm happy with how these came out.

New car

We're thinking that we want a 2nd vehicle for more cargo-oriented duty. A 4 door sedan is great for commuting and road trips, but not so great when you're buying oddly shaped items at Lowes that will rip up the seats at the first chance they get. I'm not looking for something new, and I'd like to see what I can find for around $5000.
Since this will be for simple utility, I really don't care what it says about me. Pride be damned.

I have little desire for a truck based vehicle - I could live with a pickup, but barely. The rough ride in town and gas mileage that's lucky to see 20 mpg are not strong selling points to me.

So I'm looking at other options. SUVs are out for the reasons listed above. Maybe a smaller 4-cylinder suv, but those are hard to find in my price range. And if they are, they're pretty much used up.

I could have a station wagon, but you can probably count the models available on one hand. A Subaru Legacy would be nice, but they suffer the same availability problem that small suvs do.

The more I think about it, the more one thing gets into my mind - a minivan. They have carlike handling, are better on gas (generally) than an suv, and there are tons of them out there.

I would like to get something that'll deliver gas mileage at least in the low 20s, so a V6 model is probably out. Chrysler did make some 4-banger minis, but they are strictly the bare-bones models with wind up windows and didn't offer the safety features of the pricier versions, like anti-lock brakes.

One thing that has caught my attention is a first-generation Honda Odyssey. I don't really remember them either, the styling was completely invisible. But on my list of desires, it ticks a lot of the boxes...4-cylinders, abs and airbags, and they were all reasonably equipped. Only problem is their age - 1998 model year was the last one for them. But there are quite a few out there, and decent ones are right in my range.

So whaddya think?

Food Prep

Okay, for tomorrow, I've got bird, potatoes, meat and veg stuffings, gravy, rolls, pumpkin pie, um...forgetting something. Giga is bringing cranberry sause and wine. I need to grab a few more things at the store, but I think we're all set.
One thing I hate every year is the turkey brine recipe calls for a gallon of vegetable stock. The only 'stock' I can ever find is sold in 10 ounce cans or boxes. So I look like I'm going on a wierd diet when I plunk down a dozen boxes of the stuff.

With apologies to my vegetarian readers

Around thanksgiving, I always find it difficult to concentrate once the turkey is in the house. If I'm passing thru the kitchen, I have to take a peek and say hello to future dinner, and leftovers, and a week full of food heaven. Yeah, the diet's going well.
We're having dinner this saturday, with the immense mound of mashed potatoes, a gallon of gravy, cranberries, rolls, stuffing, veggies(yes mom, I eat them now) and some wine. Oh yes, and pumpkin pie, unless Shaunn eats it before saturday.
I've got a great stuffing recipe that I've used for a few years. But I take the heretical route and make it without celery. It's a meal in itself. And it just gets better after a couple of days.

Comet Holmes > the Sun

The comet I mentioned a few weeks back...keeps growing/exploding/transforming. The coma surrounding the nucleus now has a larger diameter than the sun, technically making it the largest object in the solar system ( by apparent size, not by mass). It's by no means the brightest thing in the sky, so you need some fancy equipment with a lot of zeroes in the pricetag to appreciate it firsthand. But, still, crikey. Unicron wouldn't stand a chance.

Success!

As I thought, the red wire was the problem. (And luckily, the only problem) Now I'm going to get her programmed and out to the track for the inaugural run.

UPDATE: It runs perfectly...I'm glad I was able to diagnose and correct the problem without screwing it up. I doubt the dealer knew of the problem. It was packaged new, and it had never been assembled, so it was probably just a manufacturing flaw. And I'll take the deal I got on it anytime( $55 for a $125 item).

Train show

We went to the train show in Chicago, which was kind of a bust for most of us. They had a lot of stuff for didn't really have much of anything that we were looking for, and it was several buildings of stuff I didn't want. But at least I know now.
I did pick up a loco I've been wanting to get for a while, an E6 diesel passenger loco. Very streamlined.

Only one small problem. When I put it on the tracks and powered up, only the lights worked. It didn't move, or even make an electric buzz like current was getting thru. This is the only dud I've bought at a show, so I'm willing to chalk it up to random chance.
Because the lights worked, it was (hopefully) a minor wiring problem. I checked the wires running through the chassis, and found one of the motor leads wasn't attached to the motor, apparently due to a bad solder joint. (In the picture where I'm holding the circuit board, the red wire hanging off by itself should be attached to the brass motor lead that looks like a small backwards "L" in the center of the motor close-up photo. Obviously not.)

Apparently a simple problem with a simple fix? Will it work? It should, basic electric motors like this are only a handful of color coded wires taking power to and from the motor. I've never had to attempt a repair like this, but hey, there's a first time for everything. The soldering iron is heating up as I type this. Will I be able to attach the wire without melting the plastic motor mounts? Will the loco run after this, or is the loose wire only a sign of more problems I haven't discovered yet? Hopefully, I'll have good news in a little while.

The trip

We made it back last night a little before 7 our time. About 6 hours for the drive, which was about an hour and a half less than the drive out there (ODOT decided to take I70 west down to one lane for some bridge work. On friday night at 6pm, around the intersection of 70 and 75. We went about 10 miles in an hour. fun.)

We got to see most all the relatives for dinner sat night, over some wonderful Chicago-style pizza and beer...and visited grandma and her roommate Dorothy at the nursing home. Those two need their own tv show - a weekly broadcast where they tell stories of the crazies around them, like the Soup Lady, the Mad Kisser, the others who apparently hum. A lot. Very funny.
We stayed at grandma's house, and all wondered about what it would take to keep it in the family. Lottery winnings sounded like the best option.
Kelmeister and Mr. Pickles kept our cat happy while we were gone,, for which we're very grateful. They apparently spoiled him though, as he is very attention starved today.

We visited the train show, and I got a few things. I'm working right now on the loco I bought, which didn't work right out of the box. More on that in a bit.

Driving to Chicago

I never look forward to the drive. It's thoroughly boring, with your usual generic midwest scenery (barn-field-overpass-field-repeat). 5 hours of feeling your brain turn to mush from nothing to do but keep the hood aimed between the trees. It's such a relief to reach Chicago and get out of the Indiana doldrums. But Chicago is where they invented the phrase 'urban sprawl' - so even after passing all the welcome signs, you're probably still an hour out. Very misleading to your mushy head. At least the drive home seems to pass by far more quickly.

Need to insulate

I need to get insulation added to our attic. When we bought the house, I intended to tackle this in year 2, but the events in my family last year scuttled those plans. And you don't really think about that kind of thing until it gets cold. So, THIS year I need to do it. I remember that the insulation up there is about 6" deep. But they recommend a depth of around 15" to get the place up to spec. So, sometime I'll be off to the store to get many rolls of the pink stuff. It looks like according to the many insulation websites available, it'll take about 17 rolls to do it. And around $500 for the whole thing. Plus, the Man is still offering tax credits for home improvement work designed to improve energy efficency. So, time to get cracking.

Road Trip

We're heading to Chicago this weekend to see the new wedded couple, and see the relatives I haven't seen in some time. The plan is to get on the road by 5pm tomorrow night, but that depends on how sucky rush hour traffic is. That should get us in town by 10:30 our time. I have to get our key to Kelmeister so she can make sure Dr. Zoidberg doesn't have a conniption fit in our absence.

Happiness is a warm soldering tip

I broke down and spent $4 yesterday on 2 new tips for my soldering iron. Wow. Huge difference. The job of adding wiring to the railroad has moved from 'pretty annoying' to 'fairly tolerable'.

The car shed has taken a beating over the last couple of days, with the high winds and all around here. And it's not moved an inch. Yet.

writer's strike

So the writers for everything on the tube are on the picket lines now. While I support the reasons they're doing this, and hope they can get at least some of what they're demanding...

I watched a little news coverage of them walking in front of Paramount Studios, and something funny hit me....this legion of writers could only come up with

"What do we want? Fair contracts. When do we want them? Now."

Which symbolically summed up why I hate 95% of tv today. And everything Paramount has excreted for the past 15 years or so.

Congratulations

Somewhere, in the sprawling neon jungles of Las Vegas, Bethany and Richard are tying the knot today. Congratulations!

UPDATE: They got married last night! The wedding video is online, if you want to view it, email me and I can send you the link.

Mortgages

I know that mortgage lenders are hurting because a decent chunk of their customers are not able to make their payments...
But does it make sense to start harassing your customers on the 5th of the month...especially when the payment isn't considered late until the 16th? I've gotten 2 calls this afternoon from the wide country lenders, wondering where my payment for November is. All of 5 days into the month. Vultures.

Weekend update

The weekend didn't amount to much, my big accomplishment was making chili on Saturday.

Yesterday, I did some additional wiring work on the layout...I ran bus wires to another area of track, and I'm going to solder feeder wires to the track this week. So far, there's over 50 feet of wiring on the layout (!), and another 20-30 feet to be done.

This is tedious work...the purpose is to feed voltage to the track at various places around the layout, to improve the flow of current, but just as importantly, to strengthen the digital signals essential for train control.

Without a good clear digital signal, the trains might not receive new orders (like STOP!) and keep running under their last received ones. As Murphy's Law dictates, the only time a train will not receive a new command is right after you have run it up to top speed, and there is another train stopped further up the same track.

This job involves running the bus wires carrying the main current under the table, and running smaller feeder wires between that and the track. When I built the layout framework, I drilled holes thru the joists to feed wire through for this purpose. It goes like this:

-feed the bus wires thru the table joists, and secure them in place with staples
-strip insulation from sections of that wire, and solder on the feeders
-drill holes through the scenery and table, poke the feeders thru, and solder those to the rails.

Believe me, it's about as much fun as it sounds. But it's all in the interest of better trainage. Training? Shetrainigans?

pics updated

I reloaded the pics below that were unviewable before...and here's an attempt at time lapse photography, and a close up of a fire escape I built for one of the buildings in the downtown area.

I love it when a plan comes together

So, my sister is getting married in Vegas in a few days, and then the family is getting together in Chicago next weekend.
As a bonus for me, there's a monthly model train show in Chicago that happens to fall on that weekend - and it's held about 5 miles from where we're staying. So I have family and trains to look forward to. Which is nice.

Schmucks for Schmuck

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/mel_brooks_starts_nonprofit

The tale of 4876

I have known this story for a while, it's one of the more infamous stories about the GG1, which you've probably guessed is one of my favorites. This takes you to a fairly in-depth account of what happened to GG1 #4876 when the brakes failed as it pulled into the station in Washington, DC back in 1953.

Future Plans

I had blogged earlier about the retro-cool Turbotrain, and my desire to have one grace the layout, but the price of the model is rather crazy...it would mean getting that and nothing else for several months. So, I'm exploring other options for the next major purchase, and I think I've settled on a new GG1 locomotive:

I have one of these that I bought cheap at a train show back in '05, but it had a damaged body shell that I only made worse by attempting to repair the flimsy plastic. Plus, it would have required some rewiring to be compatible with my digital control system. Model railroading is one of those areas where you really get what you pay for.

Another company with a solid reputation for quality products has released their own GG1 model, and this one is completely compatible. Plus, it has a digital sound system, which is a model railroad dimension that I haven't explored yet. And the best part, it's about one third the price of the Turbotrain model. I think I'll save that one for the layout version 2.0, which I've started planning and will probably get around to in 12-18 months.

Comet Holmes easy to spot

I stepped outside last night to see if I could spot it...yep. It's pretty easy to find using the method in the link below...and it's not as low in the sky as it might seem from the description - it's about 30 degress above the horizon. I was able to spot it above the tall trees that I thought would block my view.

And my apologies if you can't see the pics in the post below. Not sure what happened there.

By Popular Demand

Here we have my fine downspout work, and the bread of unusual size.

mmmmm...bread.

Comet Holmes

There's an approaching comet that may become an interesting sight over the next several weeks.
Named Comet Holmes, it has brightened considerably in the last few days and should now be visible to the naked eye - no visible tail yet though. But right now it's one of the brighter objects in the night sky, appearing like a fuzzy yellow star apparently.
It's pretty low in the sky - about twice the width of your fist above the horizon. So unless you live out in the sticks, it's probably a good idea to wait a week or 2 to try and see it, as it should get higher in the sky as it approaches.
If you want to brave the cold, the link above will tell you how to find it.

In case you were wondering

The name 'Fatty Farkle' was my mom's nickname for me when I was about 1 or so. I think I got off easy, my older brother's was 'Shimmy Shimmy Cocobop'.

The bread loaf that ate Pittsburgh

My new sunday routine is to do some baking, usually a loaf of bread in the breadmaker. ( I know this doesn't qualify as real baking, but hey, I'm trying)
Yesterday, I went to just make some plain white bread. I didn't realize that I had grabbed a packet of quick-rising yeast instead of the normal type when I was adding ingredients. I found out a couple hours later when the lid of the maker was being forced open by the loaf. I left it in there longer than usual to ensure that the top would at least resemble bread instead of uncooked dough. This thing was about twice as tall as a normal loaf of bread...and it was very tasty alongside a pot roast and rice for dinner.

Slowly but surely

Yesterday, I replaced the downspouts along the driveway. Hopefully this will help with the water that suddenly started lekaing in by the chimney (based on the hypothesis that hte buried drainage channels have gien up the ghost) We'll see if it makes a difference. And don't call me Shirley.

Chicago needs an intervention

Behold the latest design for the 'Chicago Spire', which will be the world's tallest, erm, building when completed in 2011. I think they should have just said no to the developers.

The right wing and wildfires

Depending on who you listen to from the right, the California wildfires are either being caused by people who hate America , or people who love America...I wish the Republicans would get their stories straight. Don't they have the talking points memo out yet?

So, is it the work of terrorism, or the work of patriots? Or is it a predictable phenomenon, that was expected to be pretty severe this year due to drought ...

But who needs boring old science...nothing gets the base riled up better than some good old fashioned fear tactics and 'love it or leave it' rhetoric.

Finally done with college

I just decided to check how paying off the last of my student loans was going...it looks like they'll finally be paid off in about 7 months. And it's only been 13+ years since graduation.

My own worst enemy

Warning: boring train talk ahead...

Over the weekend, I decided to take care of some items that were not necessary, but had bugged me all the same. I repainted some of the rock facings to look more like rock and less like painted plaster, with varying degrees of success.

The other job I tried to take care of was upgrading the headlights on a couple of the Locomotives, which are dim or not working. I got a couple of them changed without too much trouble on the D&H Alco PA, so I was feeling bold and took on the biggest challenge, pictured above:

The light is mounted on a pc board inside, and several internet searches hadn't turned up much more than this fact and a couple of diagrams, but no advice on how to change the light itself. I figured I'd at least try to get a look at it so I could see what I needed for the job. So I removed the 2 screws holding the body on and...after 10 minutes of prying, I had succeeded in nothing other than snapping off a couple of the smaller plastic details on the body. I decided to quit while it was still in one piece.

The front wheels highlighted above were the hard bit. The 2 front axles are mounted on an independent assembly. This attaches to the loco by a screw, that fits inside a spring that allows the wheels some up/down travel. Think a 1/87 scale shock absorber. You can imagine how small these parts are.

After finding where the spring had bounced off to (twice), I went to put the assembly back on. I found that the wheels were now hovering about 1/8" above the track. I tried backing out the screw, thinking I had simply overtightened it. This lowered the wheels to the track, but on the test runs they were so loose that they would jump off the track at the slightest chance. After messing with it for an hour, I gave up, and resigned myself to having ruined one of my favorite pieces.

I decided to give it another look last night...I took it apart and looked it over...after a few minutes I realized I had put the wheel assembly back on upside down, which made all the difference.

So to make a long story short, I wound up back where I started. But at least it runs as well as it did before I started messing with it.

More rain, and more rain

The talking heads were telling us on monday that rain was coming. They were only expecting about .5-1 inch through tuesday night.
I knew something was amiss as I drove to work tuesday morning...the 4-lane road I take to the highway was a 2-lane road because of standing water. When I got home, they said we'd had between 3 and 3.5 inches in Cowtown. And it's rained all night since then.
Now, because it's been so dry this year, it's been hard to gauge the effectiveness of any basement work I've done.
But I think we're showing a steady improvement. Looking at the 3 'shop vac incidents' we've had this year...
In March, we had the worst flooding ever, with melting snow and heavy rain. It took at least a dozen shop-vac loads to get all the water up.
In August, we had a heavy rain over a couple days. I think the rain total was about 2.5 inches. By the time all the water was sucked up, I had filled the vac about 3.5 times.
This week, with the nearly 4 inches, the shop vac scale is at...1.5.
So no, it's not fixed, but I am on the right track. And I think my next round of work will help more.
It appeared that most of the water we had this week was probably my fault. Remember those roll-up downspout extensions I was so proud of? Want to know why you never see them? The one by the driveway wound up dumping most if its water at the point where it connects to the metal downspout, which makes it about as effective as nothing. So several dozen gallons of water were dumped into the strip between the driveway and house, instead of out in the yard as intended. Oops. I replaced it with a solid piece and we had no water after that.

We've decided on how to resolve the issue with water coming in on the driveway side of the house...we're just going to pave over the little strip of land between the house and driveway. All it is is a mulchbed and home to various weeds. And once it's gone, we can put some potted plants along that side to dress it up.

Is there a dentist in the house?

Shaunn's been having some problems recently with tooth pain, caused by his medications. One of the fun long term effects of some of them is that they attack the tooth enamel and gums, and it looks like this exciting time has come. It's been bad enought that his diet for the last few days has been soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
I got a couple of dentist referrals here at work, and he called them to get an appt. The problem is, except for normal dental coverage they only cover people with Medicaid coverage. And we make too much to qualify for that.
The shake your head part is that although he is on disability, and has some degree of health coverage, nothing he has covers any dental work. He's calling around today to see if there are any programs that can offer some kind of assistance, but I'm not very hopeful. Anyone have one of those teach yourself dentistry books?

We need HBO again

I'm missing out on the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is one of the three funniest shows I've ever watched. I just read this little snippet about the latest episode...

Sunday night's episode of the HBO show was a classic case of art imitating life with the announcement by David's fictional spouse, played by Cheryl Hines, that she was leaving.

It was just in June that David and his real-life wife, Laurie David, separated after 14 years of marriage. The real-life divorce was filed by Laurie David, citing "irreconcilable differences." Their spokesman has called the split "very amicable."

On "Curb," the breakup was set off when Cheryl called hysterically from a potentially crashing airplane. Larry told her to "call back in 10 minutes" because he was having their Tivo fixed by a cable guy.
Safe but still rattled, Cheryl returned to declare: "I'm leaving, Larry. I can't do this anymore." "People ask me all the time, `How do you stay with him?'" she explained. "I always tell them, `There's another side to Larry that you don't see.' And then I just realized today, there's no other side."
Larry argued to no avail that the phone reception was bad and, besides, he was able to save her Tivoed shows like "Top Chef" and "Project Runway." The rest of the episode finds the couple's friends (some of whom are the REAL couple's friends), choosing sides between either Larry or Cheryl.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Matt and Bethany, who both turn 28 today, coincidentally. It gets even stranger...they're related! One might think they were twins.

Car Shelters and Storms

If I told you that I slept easily last night with the threat of severe weather, I'd be lying.

The forecasters on the local news were throwing out all their favorite buzz words on the news (Damaging winds! Heavy rain! Hail! Significant chance of rapture!)
But....I'm guessing the storms weren't all they were cracked up to be. The shelter showed no sign of damage, or even strain from high winds last night. Either that or it's more stable than I previously thought.

The beer again

Here are the 4 new ones...the names aren't as exotic as I was thinking before but they're:
-Falstaff
-Piel Brothers
-Bonanza Beer
-Schlitz

Bonanza Beer is the only one I haven't heard of before...this might be a fake brand, but it's got the best design.
According to the site with the subtle name HO Beer Cars, the Bonanza and Piers cars are a little easier to find, and the Falstaff and Schlitz cars are pretty rare. Cool.

more beer news

I guess it's the theme of the day...
I ran across this story on Autoblog, from someone who asks the question -

What if gasoline was sold like beer?

Do you really know how much gas you use? Sure, you look at the pump occasionally when you fill up and see that you put 16 gallons in, but do you ever really think about how much that is?

You would if gas were sold like beer, in 12 ounce cans.

In my 1991 BMW 750iL, which gets ~17 mpg, I would only get 1.6 miles per can. That means that for my 37 mile commute to work I would have to open 23 cans of gas and pour them into the tank.

I would need another case just to get back home in the evening.

My motorcycle gets 48 mpg. That’s not so bad, right?

I’d still need more than 16 cans for the round trip. Looks like I need to get a bigger backpack.

No, I'm not suggesting that we all run off and trade our cars for plowshares...but it's definitely surprising to consider how much cars drink using a different yardstick.
I burn about 5 gallons a week, thanks to a short commute and not driving a gas pig. Even so, that's 53 bottles just by driving to work for 5 days. I'd rather have the beer.

All hail the beer train

One of the local train stores buys and sells used equipment, so it's interesting to see what can be found there from time to time.
On sunday, I hit the jackpot. Somebody had sold several boxcars to them representing several well known and more obscure breweries...
Sometimes local railroad clubs will do a group buy and have a manufacturer do a limited run of cars painted to represent a local favorite brewery...it's a fairly popular side project for adults who play with trains to collect various brands for their collection. They had 5 there I had never heard of before.

I can't remember the names of all of them now, but one of them is a 'Schlitz Malt Liquor' car, complete with the bull on the side. Schlitz, no it's not a limited or special anything, and it will rot your gut all the way through to your soul. But finding model railroad boxcars painted up in their livery is pretty rare. Ride the bull!

Shelter is done

Shaunn and I got the rest of the shelter put up. I had a couple of minor setbacks...

The anchor that broke the camel's back -
you can see it was starting to bend from
the effort

The anchors for the shelter are apparently meant to be installed by professional wrestlers. They are 30" long, and have an auger tip, so you're supposed to screw them into the ground. Doesn't sound bad, right? So I grabbed the largest screwdriver I could find to use for a handle and got going.
The first couple went in all right, but it takes about 30 minutes of turning, turning turning to get them in the ground. By the time I got to the third anchor, I was spent. After an hour, I'd only managed to get it about 6" into the ground. There were 8 of them in all. At this rate, I'd be lucky to be done by thanksgiving.

So I switched to plan B, went to the hardware store for some steel stakes, and hammered them down. This cut the time and effort by a factor of about 100.

After that, Shaunn helped me pull the cover on, which secured with a few brackets and bungee cords. And now, it's finished. I'm going to lie down.

Nostalgia

Ah, the late 1970s...when network television didn't bother with shows about cavemen, and instead showed programs like this...

Anyone remember it? If you're under 35, the answer is probably 'no'. It only lasted a few eps, as America was not really looking for the Love Boat on rails. But it burned deep into my 9 year old brain. Maybe not that deeply, all I really remember was the train had a swimming pool.

What happened to the water?

Because of the basement, we cringe every time it rains. We have had a stretch of good luck this year, or at least the basement has. Central Ohio has seen very little rainfall since March. And it's been so hot, that most rain we get is evaporated before it does any good.
I checked the weather history for the city at the Nat'l Weather Service to see if this was just a perception thing...it's not.

http//www.weather.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=iln

Since March 31, we've had:
- 35 days with high temps above 90 (including 6 in October)
- 9 days with over .5 inches of rain (none in May, one in April)
For the monthly totals, generally about half of those amounts fell in one day. The highest amount we've had in one day from March 31 to today, 2.37 inches, was due to a tropical storm.

So over the last 194 days...9 days with any rain worth mentioning. Going 2-3 weeks without any rain was not uncommon. Which is uncommon for Columbus. And this year's April and May were the driest I can remember.

I gave up on maintaining the garden, the heat kept roasting the herbs. The only thing we were able to keep alive were the beans, and we only got a handful of pods from them.

I'm sure I'll change my tune when the weather does, but it's been a weird summer here. They're calling for rain today, but so far not a drop.

The Shed

No, not that mysterious chain of stores in Toledo. The Shed. Welcome to the West Side. Bitches.

Wood pile appears safe

The wood pile, much sought after by our neighbors, has remained unchanged for several days. I think we've weathered the onslaught.

When Clowns Attack

I didn't include the story, I think the headline speaks for itself:

Clown kicks in door, punches resident

What else do you need to know?

Bionic woman and Columbus Day

So, most feel that the ratings should be the villain of the show. And thus closes another poll.

Patrick and Bethany were down for a visit over the weekend, it was good to see them both. And no visit with family would be complete without a meal at El Vaquero. Good times.

To keep myself busy the rest of the weekend, I bought a garage (of sorts). I saw an ad for one of those vehicle shelters for a really good price, so before Patrick left town on sunday, he and I ran to get it before the shelters were sold out.

This is the model we got...I'll get some pics up of ours.

We wanted something like this for a while, but until the tree was removed, getting one would have been asking for trouble. This one was a steal - they regularly go for $499, but after rebates and all the discounts we got it for $139 plus tax.

Assembly of the frame was very simple, and only took a couple of hours. This was aided by no missing parts, and instructions that were written by someone with a strong command of English. The only thing that was hindering progress was the heat - if it wasn't 90+ degrees all weekend, it woudl have been a one day job. I was able to work on it for about an hour per day before the heat got to me.

The only annoying thing is that the anchors to secure it to the ground are not included, and you don't know this until you've goen thru everything twice and read the list of parts several times. So you have to make another trip to buy those, which I will do tonight.

Once it's anchored, I'll put the cover on - otherwise it would become a fairly large and unwieldy kite. And then our garage/xxl tent will be ready. I think it will also be a great place to have a mid-winter party, if shivering in the driveway sounds like fun, let me know.

If they can put a man on the moon...

Replica of Wright plane crashes during anniversary flight
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DAYTON - A replica of the Wright brothers' plane crashed Friday during a demonstration to mark the 102nd anniversary of the flight the aviation pioneers said displayed the first practical flying machine.There were no injuries, but the replica of the 1905 Wright Brothers Flyer III was damaged.

It's odd that after over a century of powered manned flight, we struggle with the ability to replicate the original airplanes. I'm sure the Wrights crashed plenty of times (I remember that Orville almost lost his life in a crash during an early demonstration for the Army), but they apparently took some elemental secrets of their aircraft with them.
Obviously the original designs left a lot to be desired and improved upon, as any subsequent aircraft demonstrates. But the act of flying them is probably just as much art as it is science, something that's lost in reverse engineering.

Guess the pundit

Which right-wing commentator feels that the nineteenth amendment is still a matter of debate?

If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.

Ann Coulter, New York Observer, 10/2/07

Last I heard, Ann was single herself. I assume she meant to exclude herself from that blanket statement. I don't think that even Limbaugh has ever advocated the idea that women's rights should be rolled back about 90 years. Stunning.

Ever-widening stance

Senator Larry Craig has now decided that he will not resign from the Senate, after a judge dismissed his motion to have his guilty plea changed. Comedians say this is the best news to come along since they heard of the astronaut wearing a diaper.