BR60103

Woke up to find that street had been plowed, so there was a ridge at the end of the driveway -- too much to chance. Someone with a bigger car down the street was stuck on it. Then they did the sidewalk which gave us 3 ridges across the driveway. The driveway was cleared (we're at the end of the sequence) just before 4:00. Snow removal is done by the "Village", not the city. Cat is pestering me. He's had his 8 kibble on the plate, then the 3 tossed on the floor. He can count, but he thinks I can't.

We will not be in Paris tomorrow. Our friend will not be there either. With little effort, we can be in Paris, Lomdon, Brussels, Zurich and Delhi. Until about 100 years ago we could have gone to Berlin.

This Paris is about 3/4 hour south of us, although an hour's drive from London. It was named because of a plaster deposit.

We would like to go to Paris for a railway show on Sunday, but the weather is threatening several inches of snow for tomorrow. Newfoundland has so much that the snowplows are off the roads. When I had my retina operation, the receptionist asked what I'd eaten (nothing). She said "Thank goodness. We've had a few in this morning that have, including one full English." (roughly) I was operated on quite promptly. Then they sent me home without the followup inteview and meds.

My father heard an Australian commercial for decimalisation: Out go the shillings; out go the pence. In come the dollars and in come the cents. (Tune: Click go the shears). Do you have to explain to children that line in Alice about the jurors adding up all the numbers and reducing the total to shillings and pence?

I was digging through a box of model stuff the other day and found three shillings.

We had an old friend over this afternoon to see our trip records and such. She is the type of guest we would like more of -- looked at all the stuff we have on the wall and commented on it. (She retired last yearat age 88 and moved to our retirement community.) I have a worry about all the internet stuff. Why does wverything have to be connected to the same internet? Why does some of it have to be connected at all? Do the controls for a hydro dam need a link to anything outside, except for some sensors up the river? Is the U.S. Army fully linked to RMWeb? Just before I retired, our company centralised all the computing in the Washington office. Part of the connection seemed to run through downtown New York and went out on 9/11.

The coaches were sold to CNR which called it the Champlain train. I have an old CN equipment book with the car diagrams in it (up to early 1970s) One observation car was a coach; the other was a club. The cafe bar lounge has a toaster - One 2-slice electric and a "Silex" - One 4-burner and one warming oven. At that date "Kitchen and pantry not in use" but there were facilities on other cars. Of interest, the floor plans of the cars (one per page, each different) have the rounded ends on opposite sides.

We have a nephew who has a farm just inland from Lake Huron, south of Bruce nuclear. There are a lot of windmills up there. He was telling us that the contract signed to let them put a windmill on your farm is so restrictive that you need permission to put up an outhouse on the farm. He has no intention of letting them on his farm, but a lot of the neighbours have.

We went out this morning with blue sky in the south. While we were negotiating seats at the coffee shop that didn't stare at the sun, it went under cover and the rain started. After, we drove to the mall and parked under cover for our walk. By the time we drove home there was a puddle across our two lanes of the road anda depth limited by the curb (or kerb) at the side. Village ponds looked up by a foot or so. We didn't go out again and temperature is expected to plunge overnight (currently 1). Tried to watch show on Indian railways but couldn't take presenter so watched Clegg and his friends instead.

Tonight the new posts stretched over 6 pages. We had a crowd out at the Opera Group to watch a video of Die Fledermaus. And I think we were all still there at 10:00.

If you have to wonder, you're probably single.

If it had been 00003, they woud have billed you for 99999.

The Great British Train Show will take place April 25 and 26 in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Jim Archdekin Receation Centre, 292 Conestoga Drive. $10, $5 children, $20 family. 10:00am to 4:00pm; 10:00 to 3:00. http://www.theplatelayers.org/gbts2020/flyer.pdf I claim it's the biggest and best all-British model railway show in North America. Brampton is on the other side of the airport from Toronto.

The ideal solution would require a point motor with at least 3 sets of contacts. One set for the frog. One end would be used to decide which section at the other end the slip will be connected to. In a simple case, it could pick either the up line or the slip in the down line. The next slip (in the down line) could be connected to either the down line or the sidings. (try to picture it) This was covered in an article on X Section in a late 1950s Model Railroader.

You need a set of electrification warning flashes on both sides pointing down.

There was an article in a Canadian modelling magazine (probably a coule of decades ago) showing how to "correct" your locomotives by making the eccentric crank line up with the centre of the wheel. There were some letters about it in the next issue.

We managed a hobby shop visit today, among other things. I think SWMBO offered it to get me near IKEA which has a cheap lunch that she likes. (She had to go back as her salmon dinner hadn't contained the salmon.) I managed a calendar and a pkg of couplings and some gluing bits. IKEA produced a new ironing board which has a tight cover unlike the old one. Then a bookstore which has a larger selection of modelling mags than the local one. Tomorrow is Dragonfest at Lostock Junction. (Owner of same refers to his wife as the Dragon. She goes along.) This is railway club non-meeting that spouses are invited to. And the train running is extremely eclectic. My cousin on Cape Cod has an electric car. His wife is afraid that they'll get in a trffic jam on one of the bridges and run out of power. He's the one who designed his own house and feeds power back into the grid.

Rocker Check how the non-derailing feature works. I never had them, but I think I read that some switches needed an insulated joint (fiber pin) in the rail beyond the frog, otherwise the non-derail feature would be alive permanently. I think another set of switches had the insulated gap built in. (This is based on stuff read 60+ years ago). If you power the switch from the point end, test by bridging a wire between the two running rails beyond the frog. My manual switches had a different approach, The middle rail was only powered in the right direction.

I think the problem is confusion between cardinal and ordinal numbers, (to say nothing of the episcopal and papal ones). If you say the umpteenth decade since a certain event B, then the decade begins on the first day of a year ending in digit 1, and the initial digits are umpteen minus 1. If you say the decade of the 1920s, then it is all years 192x. I am going to define my decades from our last move, which was in April 2013.

Isn't that the Internet?

The newlywed couple were snuggling in the dome one night as they crossed the prairies. The bride turned to her husband and said "We've got a really sharp engineer on the train tonight." "Why do you say that?" "He gets through each green light just before it turns red."

I'm doing my annual listening to radio statio KUSC. They started with the surprise symphony (with a different set of surprises) and are now playing a song by Daffy Duck. (It's 7:00 there) Sometime before midnight they usually play Die Fledermaus and after midnight they have a quiz. The first question usually goes "Is anyone on this recordplaying in tune?"

We went to the mall after coffee today as outside was not fit for human activity. Found out the place opens at noon on Sunday for business, but the main doors were open and there were a few staff doing something between 10:00 and 11:00. Then came home and stayed pretty well down for the day.

Boxing Day with my sister's family. Used the iPad for navigation as we found the map program shows traffic congestion. We therefore took the toll road. Fees for this trip seem to be more than the toll from New York City to Buffalo in a motor home.