BR60103

Deck us all with Boston Charlie, Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo! Nora's freezin' on the trolley, swaller dollar cauliflower alleygaroo! Don't we know archaic barrel, Lulaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou Trolley Molly don't love Harold, boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo. From the Pogo comic strip; words by Walt Kelly. When he needed a song to make a mess of, he found that this one had no Christian symbolism in it. Someone suggested that the places named all had penitentiaries in them. I can't confirm. I liked it, 70 years ago, because it had 2 references to trolleys in it.

A bit over 60 years ago, Toronto was putting up a new Board of Education building. My father reported a big sign painted on the hoarding "No parking on front this doors".

Reminder: go in on an empty stomach. When I went to have my retina re-attached, the receiving nurse asked if I'd eaten anything; I said no. She told me they'd had 3 patients already that had eaten breakfast, including a "full" breakfast. I was into the operating room quite a bit sooner than the schedule.

My wife said that, at the crown corporation she worked for, people would be let go, then taken on on contract as a means to reduce the employee count but still get the work done. I can see "outsourcing" if the job is not part of the core competency. Lets say, a small firm of lawyers that hires a firm to clean the office, since none of the lawyers knows how cleaning is done.

Why is Austria running Paris-Berlin?

The news tonight reported that we had a new record high for the day -- 12 degrees replaced 11.5.

tT This was taken yesterday on our walk by the river. The tree is now supported by its neighbour. There are a lot of stumps, but this was the biggest we saw. We took a closer shot but that seems to be a movie that we can't upload.

Wile E. Coyote v. Acme Company, by Ian Frazier | The New Yorker see story here

One of our friend's husband had a roomful of deer heads. One Christmas, he hung name plates around their necks. The nieces and nephews refused to go in there again.

Another point on charities: Get the name right. Dayle's aunt left amounts to a couple of charities but the names were only approximate and the executors had a right headache dealing with it.

Many years ago there was a newspaper photo of one of the prime ministerial aspirants fumbling a football catch. This was published all over, but not the previous ten where he'd caught the ball. Our Viva was bought because its trunk (boot) was high enough for te wheelchair, while the American competition were all long and low.

My mother had a runabout wheelchair that didn't fold down. In the early 60s my father needed a new car. None of the American models (that he could afford) had a trunk that would take it. He ended up with a Vauxhaul Viva.

We have an extra little drain on the tap that turns off the outside pipes. I think that the taps were not drained the winter before we bought the house (the owner had died) and both outside taps had leakage problems. We had the garage one replaced but the one to the backyard runs through the ceiling of the railway room which has a nice plastered ceiling. it still has a leak, but there's no handle on it and it's turned off inside.

I did my Black Friday shopping this morning after housework. One newspaper, some hair stuff for Dayle, and a box of Shreddies. I found that the Shreddies were redundant as there were two boxes in the pantry. I think I've arranged a trip to the train shoppe for tomorrow.

We had a bit of snow this morning, both before and after I went out. The grounds crew were mowing the grass this afternoon. I don't know what all the fancy kitchen equipment is that you've been talking about.

I will admit that, while not having a shed, I have 3 workbenches. Two of them are a sort of furniture with drawers. The third is a door that had folding legs added to it; it was in the house when we moved in. I added to the door a set of IKEA measuring tapes (3 foot paper ones), two on each side. One side is inches, the other metric. I always have a way to make quick measurements. I will also confess to having had a pannier once. It was sold on about 40 years ago with the rest of my N gauge.

When we took the motorhome out to California, we found an establishment in Santa Rosa called Snoopy's Home Ice. This is an arena with a restaurant/coffee shop attached. It's next door to the Charles Schultz museum.

Another item I use is pre-moistened eyeglass cleaners. After using for their intended purpose and letting them dry, I use them to clean wheels. A few drops of track cleaner in the right spot, put them over the rails and run the rolling stock back and forth until no more black comes off. Or run a loco onto it and spin the drivers. The cleaners I have are made from a stiffer material than paper towels and don't snag the uncoupling pins on couplers.

Today was supposed to have ice all over from about noon. So we set off early (before I had my second coffee or read the second paper). We reached the mall before most stores were open. Back even before the bins were picked up. We never did get any ice. My cousins say that they have a movie of my father unwrapping a Christmas present that they did up for him. He very patiently and carefully undid the layers of giftwrap. When he came to the sucker, he undid it and ate it before continuing on to the next layer. I don't remember the event and I haven't seen the film.

There's another connected space -- all the places behind doors that say "No admittance" or "Private". (according to Tom Holt) I don't have a loft. There is an attic, but the only access is a hole in the garage that is above the garage door opener. An inspector for insulation looked at the hatch and decided not to check it.

I use a lot of T-headed pins. Woodland Scenics supplies them, but they also come in the sewing/dressmaking section. I use them for locating track on the roadbed, then in at an angle to hold the track down while the adhesive dries. They also hold foam plastic scenery bits together. Very basic, but alumin(i)um foil and wax paper. Wax paper as a base when painting and gluing kits. Foil as a palette for paints and glues where you glob a bit out and apply it with toothpick or brush. I tried wax paper for this, but the paint tends to mix with the wax. Watch out as a number of glues will add alum. foil to your model. These can be had cheaply from the kitchen. If you're lucky you can persuade the person in charge that foil, etc. dropped on the floor doesn't have to be thrown out as the railway doesn't care about sanitary. Sometimes I can get several feet of it this way.

The big street that goes past us has 5 different speed limits in 10 km (about 6 miles). They are (from the west) 50 60 50 60 80 kph. The road starts in a residential area, passes a commercial/office stretch, then goes between the university and residences, passes a marsh and ends up country. The city has added some 40 kph stretches to (what looks like) random roads. Some are in residential areas, but one is on the main N/S road on the hill between the Uni and the river. It seems to be generally unobseved. The motorway nearby has a 100 speed limit except for a stretch going up (and down) a hill that is 80, That was under construction for years and may be again. I don't remember anyone going 80 except for some heavy trucks. The expressway through town has speed limits of 80 on the south part and 70 on the north part. Again, not universally observed but there are regular reports of police catching cars doing speeds like 165. The charge is "stunting".

From Terry Pratchett, "your finger, you fool."

My best friend from school was a Mini enthusiast, eventually having a garage that serviced mine. He referred to the constant-velocity joints as "the clunkers".

This was dental morning. One tooth had a corner pillar come off. 40 years worth of filling came out, a bit of decay tackled, then all filled in again and filed flat. Another tooth near it with a bit of decay. (for the technically minded, teeth 26 and 24) In at 10:30, home about 12:30. Delayed lunch as the freezing had taken much of the dexterity out of my lips. Major job of the day was vacuuming lint out of the clothes dryer. There had been a hot smell at one point. SWMBO found a book about railroads for me. So far it seems to be about financial shenanigans by the robber barons. Story from about 50 years ago. There was a book written called The National Dream about building the Canadian Pacific. This was made into a TV series. The first bunch of episodes were all parliamentary/boardroom wrangling. My boss's 4-year-old son asked him, "Why do yo call this the Railway Show, daddy?"