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Help Meeeeeeeeeee!

I am trapped in a house with 5 females and only 1 little year-and-a-half old guy. But seriously, it is real nice having most of my family here visiting from Texas. I know the girls have to be bored out of their skulls here with the 'old folks' but that's what we do. They've been going through my video collection (647 movies and counting) quite a bit and just 'hanging out' after the press of school. Driving lessons for the older granddaughter are progressing, albeit slowly, as she has a hard time waking up before the crack of noon. She suffers from insomnia so sometimes she doesn't get to sleep much before 2 or 3 AM and that makes it difficult to get up early. We have been out a bit though - no clogged city street driving yet, but progressing. This has to be the first teenager in history that isn't hopping from one foot to the other waiting for a chance to drive.

Rain clouds have gone away and sunny skies have returned. Today was nice, but it is supposed to be hotter tomorrow. I hope not as I have a few outside things to do - like put up another ham antenna to add a 2M capability from my shack. Not good to be climbing towers when lightning is afoot.

I had a barium swallow upper GI today. OOK is that stuff nasty. It wasn't the pepperminty kind, just plain old chalk that the military uses. Wouldn't have been too bad, except that they kept it in the sun for about three days and it was almost warm. Cold I can take it, but warm is the very worst. What started it was the little bit of bubbly crystals they have you take first. The kind that expands your stomach to bass drum size while they tell you "don't burp now". I tell you, my eyes were out on stalks trying not to burp loud and hard enough to cause seismographs in California to stutter. I bet I looked hilarious.  Like Ren or Stepmy (whichever one does those really gross burps).

Stupid bicycle has a flat - again. There has to be a garage troll that pokes holes in tubes when you don't feed them regularly. This makes the third time in two years I've had to patch a tire (sorry, I guess I mean 'tyre'). This time the repair went pretty fast though and it is back in operation again.

Later.

 

Current mood: Bored


Well, its birthday time again

Where does the time go? Seems only last year I had one of these. Now, I'm 66 on the 5th. How about we all petition to have birthdays every other year? Sound good?

We (the family) are going out to a friends house for a Fourth of July celebration. Loads of hot dogs, burgers, beer, and brats. Good music also due to a really good boom-box (emphasis on the boom) provided by one of his neighbors. This will be almost a block party if everyone comes.

More later.

Had a real nice celebration even if the drizzles came and went.  There was a neighbor from the Philippines that brought Lumpia - very, very tasty.  Had a few Hispanic guests also that filled a table with all sorts of really good meals from south of the border.  I'm afraid I overindulged a bit though - I feel very fat.

A couple of days later:

Now, it is nice and sunny out, but not very hot.  Temperatures are down in the 70's and very pleasant.  I have to go mow the lawn or it will get out of hand.

 

Current mood: mowed


Back home again

We are now back home again.  It was a longer trip back than going down, but still an enjoyable one.  Our mileage back - with the air conditioner going all the time - was 38.5 and 41.2.  Only 2.75 tanks of gas for 1020 miles.  I love that little car.  It's got 80K miles on it, and was built in 1995, but really runs great.

Our granddaughter, Briana, came home with us so she can scope out some local colleges, get a job, and move upwards into the adult world. Its going to be strange having someone that old back in the house again after our two daughters left.  I have to teach her to drive my pickup because she loves the 5-speed instead of an automatic shift.  My daughter (her mom) drove 18-wheel big rigs for a while so I guess it is in the blood.

My yard was a jungle - literally.  I ran the mower over it one direction and then ran across the grain a second time to tame it.  Loads of little trees that grew up from the "propellers" that dropped from the maple trees. I also have to get up on the roof and remove plants growing in the gutters before they break loose and jam up the downspouts.

Very hot today, considering it has rained for three days straight.  According to my rain gauge (which has not been emptied in two weeks) we had 4.25 inches of rain -- and that's a lot.   Sunny today though; humid, but sunny.

 

Current mood: Hot


Hot and muggy

It's been very hot and muggy all yesterday and today.  Temperature running in the high 90's.  Humidity is at least the same.  Today we had a real decent downpour for about an hour.  Rain running over the rim of the gutters and all that.  Quit just like turning off a faucet.

Had a good dinner tonight and now just sitting down for a comfortable read.  New book even.  Sister-in-law's kittens (2 Ragdolls) bouncing around following a laser dot on the floor.  Might even go sit in the pool later even though it's about 2000 or so.

 

Current mood: Full


Arrived in Addison, Texas

Not a bad trip at all. Took us 1047 miles in two days - and only three tanks of gas. The lowest mileage we made was 37.9 and the highest was 40.8 per gallon. Not too shabby for an elderly (1995) Eagle Summit. This is a car produced by (and has the logo all over it) Mitsubishi. A very nice 1800cc 16 valve 4-cylinder, 4-door car.

It is certainly HOT here though. Well over 90 yesterday and probably the same today. The breeze helps (as well as the pool in the back yard). Just going to sit in the living room and watch the Indy 500 today though. I'm rooting for Danica - she's a good driver and cute to boot.

More later.

Well, the Indy 500 has run and I am really bummed out.  Danica took a really shabby shot from a supposed professional driver coming out of pit row and got knocked out of the race.  She thinks it was deliberate; and so do I.

  

Current mood: Angry


Time for a trip to Texas.

We are heading out soon to Texas.  Fuel prices being what they are, we'll have to tow a trailer full of money so we can pay for the gas.  Isn't it nice that they have raised the price so we gan get screwed even more during the Memorial Day holiday? Wonderful. I am sure that those wonderful people over in the Middle East celebrate this holiday with us.

Have to drive this time because we are going down to be at our eldest granddaughter's High School graduation.  Once that is over, she is going to come back with us and see if she likes Wright State University, which is about a mile away from us.  We have a spare room that she will get, plus having three cars will let he have the use of at least one of them, but not until after she gets her final driving license.  She has a learner's permit, but that isn't enough to let her go solo even though she is eighteen.  Car use is also contingent on finding some sort of job to sustain tankfulls of gas.  No job, no gas.  Heck, I hardly drive anywhere now myself.

Took the car down to have a transmission problem checked out.  After THREE WEEKS he finally tells me that it will cost me either $560 to just put it back together with all the worn parts, or $959 to put it back together with good parts.  Those guys really have got it down pat haven't they?  "Ha!  I got it all apart now and you gotta pay me to put it back together!"

This is the same chain transmission place (whose first name starts with "AAMCO") that serviced the very same car just four years ago and charged me $1200 and pronounced it "fixed for life".  Damn short life, I say.  Same one that worked on my truck now that I think of it.  Problem is - it's the only place in town unless you count some of the garages down by the railroad yards where they claim they can fix anything for $49.

 So, off we go to Texas along with the 249 Billion other people who travel on Memorial Day.  It'll be fun.  Right.

 

Current mood: Sceptical


Spring has finally arrived

It appears that spring has finally arrived here in mid-America. The Jonquils have popped to the surface and bloomed, all the other flowers have presented either blooms or potential blooms, and the rose bush has buds all over it. The days are cool but not overly so, and the nights just a bit cooler. Have had only about three-quarters of an inch of rain over the last week.

Keeping the bird feeders filled can be a full time job now as they all start looking for food to sustain them for the summer.

Furnace repairman just arrived. More later.

Later. It turns out that even the heating & cooling business has specialized: he doesn't work on oil furnaces. So at least we didn't have to pay for a service call. I think he wanted to charge, but didn't have the nerve to do so. Now we have to wait for another one to be dispatched by our home insurance carrier. At least there isn't a blizzard outside.

Just got my truck back from having the tie rods and the drag link replaced (very expensively). Drives nicely now, and the steering wheel doesn't shimmy at 35Mph. It only has 75K miles on it (for a 1997), but some of those miles were 4-wheel driving in very difficult conditions. Last time I was hunting I think I may have hit a hidden rock under the snow and bent one end of the tie rod slightly. That would do it.

Time to get moving outside and replant all those annuals that need to be planted. Tiring work, but the results are nice - flowers all over the front of the house. Maybe I'll post a picture or two. It's hard to do what with the arthrytis in my lower back, but once I start bending and stooping things will loosen up for me. I've been sitting for too many days at the computer keyboard working on programs (and the DHR - which is finished now). Now it is time go get outside and exercise away those winter pains.

 

Current mood: Green-thumbed


The DHR is now ready for downloading

We have finally finished the DHR. It is available for downloading at this site (www.darjeelingtrainz.com) by following the Downloads link. You have to be a Auran/Trainz registered member though before you can get the password needed to unlock the ZIP files.

We think it is a great route just brimming with the "look & feel" of the real railway. Check it out.

 

Current mood: Happy


The DHR now has a Forum!!

We finally got us a forum just for the DHR.  Here is the URL. It is open to anyone, but if you own a copy of TRS2004, TRS2006, or TC sign up using your Auran username.  If you don't have those games, but would just like to have information on the real DHR, sign up anyway, we'd love to hear from you.

It's only been up for just a week now but we have 57 people signed up.  It's growing fast.  Once we release the route (target date is now March 14) this forum will really be hopping.

It turns out that just the content we created adds up to over 850 Mb, and if you add the content that we created, but didn't actually use, it comes to just over 1Gb.  We are supplying the content, map, and sessions as self-extracting ZIP files.  They are password controlled and you can get the password (once we release the route) on the Auran Forum.

Sessions are self-running trips over portions of the DHR.  Some of them run uphill and some run downhill, but all of them allow you to just sit in the passenger car and enjoy the scenery as you go by.  You can also stand beside the engineer, ride above the engine/cars, or go roaming all over the map while the train chugs along. 

More later.

 

 

Current mood: whooped. making all those ZIP files tires a person


Hello Spring??

Here's a fine how-dee-doo: my bulbs I planted last fall are coming up just fine to the tune of about 3 inches high and along comes a snowstorm and buries them in six inches of snow. Bummer. A lot of it is melted now, and I am confident that the little shoots will prevail against the blue cold nasties, but they sure look pathetic against all that snow.

To top it off, the snow turned into freezing drizzle hardly better than an over-active fog which then coated the whole shebang with ice. My cars look like popsicles, hard outside and crunchy inside.

My eldest cat (19 years old) has decided that he has to test my hearing aids several times a day. He will sneak in behind me while I am concentrating on something at the computer and then let out with a ferocious YOW! This never fails to levitate me from my seat, turn me around in mid-air, and yell "Damn! Put a sock in it!" He then looks at me like I have paid him a compliment and does it again. So we then start YOWing at each other until my wife gets into the act and tells the both of us to knock it off or she'll give us a 'time-out'.

Went out to dinner tonight with friends. Been a long time since we've done that. A very good Italian Ristoraunte. I had a huge plate of spaghetti with garlic & oil, smothered in cheese and mushrooms. Mixed in was a great Italian sausage. I over-ate, but loved every bit of it.

 

Current mood: Full (burp)

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