Hear ye, hear ye - - Coffee house is officially open for the week. Floors swept (except that corner over there with the big furry lump in it - - ain't no way I am disturbing that critter), counters clean, coffee and ph00 are made, hot water on for Claude and sprinkles on the counter, some lively music playing on the surround sound. Now, what more could you ask for. .........................

Nuther week is upon us - - so, rise and shine, polish your shoes and let's go to church.

Bob

 

I have no shoes that would accept polish.

Morning all. I see the old breakroom got closed and the new one opened, complete with a cleaning and coffee! 'Bout time too!

Today is Sunday, August 11th.

1860 - The first successful silver mill in America began operations. The mill was in Virginia City, NV.

1874 - A patent for the sprinkler head was given to Harry S. Parmelee.

1896 - Harvey Hubbell received a patent for the electric light bulb socket with a pull-chain.

1909 - The American ship Arapahoe became the first to ever use the SOS distress signal off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC.

1934 - Alcatraz, in San Francisco Bay, received federal prisoners for the first time.

1941 - The Atlantic Charter was signed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

1942 - During World War II, Pierre Laval publicly announced "the hour of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war."

1945 - The Allies informed Japan that they would determine Emperor Hirohito's future status after Japan's surrender.

1954 - Seven years of fighting came to an end in Indochina. A formal peace was in place for the French and the Communist Vietminh.

1975 - The U.S. vetoed the proposed admission of North and South Vietnam to the United Nations. The Security Counsel had already refused to consider South Korea's application.

1984 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio broadcast when, during testing of the microphone, the President said of the Soviet Union, "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

1992 - In Bloomington, MN, the Mall of America opened. It was the largest shopping mall in the United States.

1994 - A U.S. federal jury awarded $286.8 million to about 10,000 commercial fishermen for losses as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

1997 - U.S. President Clinton made the first use of the line-item veto approved by Congress, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills.

1998 - British Petroleum became No. 3 among oil companies with the $49 billion purchase of Amoco. It was the largest foreign takeover of a U.S. company.

2003 - In Kabul, NATO took command of the 5,000-strong peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

Today's thought:
Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.
Maya Angelou

Keep B0b & his family in your thoughts and prayers. It's WORKING!

 

This stupid friggin computer... Had a nice long post about ready, hit enter to drop a line for another picture, and the ting takes off to another website. Firefox has become as bloated as IE anymore.

I was mistaken about the steamer at Cody Park, it's Challenger 3977, not a Big Boy. 4-6-6-4 arrangement on an articulated frame. You don't see much in front of you from the cab.

They have a couple cars hooked to it, one has some memorabilia in it, the other was a post office car. Workers in a Rail Post Office carried sidearms while they worked.

Centennial 6922 sits beside it. They were built starting in 1969, hence the 6900 designation, and called centennial for the 100th anniversary of the joining of the transcontinental railroad. They were essentially two normal power units built onto one frame, 6600 horsepower.


Only surviving 9000 series 4-12-2 steamer. Rumor is that some of the drives had no flanges to reduce the turning radius. They had to straighten out a lot of track because of them. Largest solid-frame steamer built.


Yes, Scotty and family and I did catch up for breakfast. Cool people and his daughter is going to break a lot of hearts someday. Did have a misunderstanding on the time though, he didn't realize, and I forgot, that there is a time zone change between North Platte and Ogalalla. Oops. Got to watch some pre-season football, decent games, so all is well.

Went to the street dance at Old Settler's Days last night. Some cute little 21 year old squeezed her way up to the bar to get a pack of cigarettes and I talked to her for a minute and dumb me didn't pursue her any. Then when I went outside realized I didn't know what she looked like other than small and cute. She turned 21 in March and said it shows she can't drink worth a darn. Told her as small as she is she better just learn to pace herself.

Well, off to see if you can pull the exhaust off a Cummins without draining the coolant. Heater lines are in the way.

 

OK, where is everyone. I can't believe ya'll are still in church. If so, stay there until He is done with you. You may not get a lot of sleep/. LOL

So much action around here think I will go keep the blonde company. Been up since 4am and starting to run down. Maybe I can get a nice head rub and go to sleep in her lap - - that would be nice. YEH - - .....

CYA morry, ..........................

Bob

 

Wow, sure was busy in here today!!!

Got the manifold off the Dodge, then pulled what I need to to put the new ball joints in the left side. Gotta call napa in the morning for gaskets and a lower ball joint. The lower was pretty stiff, couldn't hold it in my hands and move it around. Haven't been able to get grease into it in a while now. The rubber boot was all tore up on it too. Everything surprised me how easily it came apart. Not sure if I should get new manifold bolts or clean these up and reuse them. They aren't all that rusty.

Got 2 inches of rain tonight. More to the south. There's dry creeks that are pretty flooded. Top speed coming up the gravel road was 25. It got real interesting about the time I was getting ready to hit 30.

 

You must be lookin' at a different breakroom. Great train pics tho. Thanks for posting them!



G'mornin' my faithful subjects!

It's Monday, August 12th.

1676 - "King Phillip's War" came to an end with the killing of Indian chief King Phillip. The war between the Indians and the Europeans lasted for two years.

1851 - Isaac Singer was issued a patent on the double-headed sewing machine.

1865 - Disinfectant was used for the first time during surgery by Joseph Lister.

1867 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

1877 - Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and made the first sound recording.

1898 - Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. Hawaii was later given territorial status and was given Statehood in 1959.

1898 - The Spanish-American War was ended with the signing of the peace protocol. The U.S. acquired Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. Hawaii was also annexed.

1953 - The Soviet Union secretly tested its first hydrogen bomb.

1960 - The balloon satellite Echo One was launched by the U.S. from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was the first communications satellite.

1962 - The Soviet Union launched Pavel Popovich into orbit. Popovich and Andrian Nikolayev, who was launch a day before, both landed on August 15.

1981 - IBM unveiled its first PC.

1986 - It was announced by NASA that they had selected a new rocket design for the space shuttle. The move was made in an effort at correcting the flaws that were believed to have been responsible for the Challenger disaster.

1992 - The U.S., Canada, and Mexico announced that the North American Free Trade Agreement had been created after 14 months of negotiations.

1993 - U.S. President Clinton lifted the ban on rehiring air traffic controllers that had been fired for going on strike in 1981.

1998 - Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to World War II Holocaust victims.

Today's thought:
As you are, I once was. As I am, you shall be.

C0ffee & ph00 are ready.

Have a kind thought for our B0b!

 

Hey - - it's Monday - - another busy week in store. Been in the lanai working from before sunrise - - wrapping up the "construction" side of everything this morning and installing the grille. Still have some accents to in planters, etc, and put in the ramps/stoops at the two doors, plant exterior perimeter plants for privacy and I will be done. Wow, thought this day would never come.

Love those train pics. I will always remember a cross country train trip with my mother from Niagara Falls to California. I was about 7. That was soooo neat. And, ya know what, they had a restaurant on that train. Wow, that amazed me. And another thing was when we came back from supper, my seat was gone - - don't know where they put it - - and a bed was in it's place. I don't know where they found that, either. After breakfast in the morning, the bed was gone and the seats were back in place. I never once saw them carrying those things down the aisles. .................Funny how the young mind works. Uhhh, yeh, I know - - - funny how the adult mind works sometimes too. ............

OK, grabbing a ph00 and back to work. Thanks for all those prayers for Ianna - - the reports from out there are she is gaining some strength back and has a good and stubborn attitude about this whole thing - - I am going to get better, mommy - - you watch me climb these stairs. She got about three the first time, then had to be carried. Now she is 1/2 way up before stopping. I am going to make all the way, mommy, you just watch. How precious to see that kind of grit. More people need that attitude instead of asking for more handouts.

Bob

 

Bobby! I replied to the amazing news on the Prayer thread.
Thanks for being patient and waiting for the lost time zone travelers Scot!

We are home and I head out to nanoose B.C. tomorrow. It's been hectic and on top of that I'm entertaining three other jobs/contracts that need an answer before fall.

Time to change the oil, vac and clean the glass on the truck then do the lawns.

Scottkwa I may call ewe in the near future as I'm eyeing a new 2012 freightliner near ewe and may need to fab a deck as well as other items. it's One of several med duty rigs that haven't sold and are cheaper then a new ram with much better warranty.



Lary, I showed our Nebraska friend my leggs and for some reason he went silent which is odd when you see how much he can post. J/K Scot

 

Glad the trip went well. I will check out your answer on the other thread. If I were buying a truck for the fiver right now, I think it would be a Freightliner - you are right about the price. And they definitely hold up better. Not as good mileage, but a tough critter.

Now,the LEGGS - - hmmmm???? I would probably go silent too -- - or else bust out laughing, eh.

Bob

 

Thanks for breakfast Scotty.
I completely forgot about the time zone. Had no other plans for the day anyhow. Now that I am getting the truck put together I should be able to get out a little more this winter. Hopefully. Maybe. I don't know. Hopefully something else doesn't break once I get this stuff fixed. It was a year ago I rode over to Colorado, went to Sydney in May, and Thursday was the first time I got east of Arapahoe since 2 years ago next month. And it was all of about 3 miles. I need to get out more.

I've come to the conclusion that if there is one event that can be blamed for my life-long want of a sublime big-block Dodge Charger, it would probably be the first time I saw Dirty Mary Crazy Larry.

The only reason I started watching Nash Bridges was the hemi Cuda.

 

Here's a picture of one of the Big Boys.

Ok, got a question for y'all. Know how they get the big puff of smoke out of the stack when the steamers start moving? Know how they did that?

 

I have always assumed that there was some kind of steam driven blower driving air into the firebox. That is the only way I can possibly explain the force of the smoke coming out of the chimney of those steam trains. That is not just passive smoke.

 

Close.

 

Okay NE, if I am close, what is the real answer please.

 

Mornin' all....
Grabbed a donut and cup of mud ...thanks to whoever added new grounds to the old.

Love seeing them old trains .... Rollin' the coal !!

Hope y'all have a fantastic day, full of good things. I'm gonna attempt to make today a better one than yesterday ...should be pretty easy thing to do, cuz man ....was I in a foul mood yesterday !!

Cheers,
PISTOL