Working On The Railroad

Back in the day there was a rumour going round that there were military suplus Harley Davidson motorcycles to be had. I dis-remember the exact details, but I do remember a group of us Air Force types were to pool our money to get one, or several in a lot, or something.

Anyway, it never happened. The book The Vanishing Hitchhiker, by Jan Harold Brunvand, mentions this urban legend.

Well, I'm re-creating the dream on my model railroad by putting one of those motorcycles I was working on in a shipping crate. So far, I've got the crate done, made out of plastic.



This picture is pretty much the same, so don't look at it.



I think the box came out rather well. Now I need to get some guys to stand around looking at it.

---

I was given this cute little pencil lead box. You may look at it.







The leads would be contained in the wooden tray.

Pencil Lead webpages of interest:

Leadholder.com

Roger Russells' Scripto Pencil History Page

Un-Sunny Saturday

We had a bit of California rain last night and this morning.

That is, it sprinkled a bit.

I still need to water the plants.

My computer tech installed a DVD-CD-RW today. Very nice! Not REAL sure what I will use the DVD part for, but now I can make some CDs of those LEGAL mp3s I downloaded offa the net!

While we wuz in there, I decided to clean the CPU fan and fins. They needed it!



I recommend you check YOUR computer guts for dust!

Caught a mouse this afternoon. Live trap, stuck him in a coffee can for a little trip tomorrow, to a far away land.

The side-table at my television watching table:



Each item is noted, for your edification, on my Zooomr page, go look at it. Or don't, see what I care!

We visited the Apple Store today. Not your usual computer store! We played (I watched) around with an iPod Touch. Very cool. Not really for me, though. We left it on the Burnt Pizza blog. In the parking structure we saw a Mini that had possibly touched bumpers with a Jag. No one involved looked very happy. Saw an old Volvo sedan from the sixties, explained significance of same to my chauffeur.

I am distressed to hear my brother-in-law is not doing well. He is a swell guy, I hope he makes it, but he has a crapload of physical problems to overcome. Good luck, man!!

I started reading Eragon last night. It's a bit slow going (Smallish print, for a hard cover) , but an enjoyable dragon/boy fantasy.

I hear the fireworks for the KGB Sky Show in the distance, as I type. It must be down at the Murph. Never seen it, probably never will.

Geez, I wish I was back home in Monterey (very large panorama photo, 10 megs or so).

Today's musik:

Big Brother And The Holding Company -- Cheap Thrills
King Crimson -- In The Court Of The Crimson King

Butts

Last night, as I was brushing my teeth, I smelled smoke.

Burning smoke!

I figured a cig was burning in an ashtray, so I checked the living room.

Nope.

I noticed the window fan was blowing the smell in, so I checked outside.

Bingo!

The lady next door was outside too, and it turned out the plantings in front of her apartment were smoldering.

From a cigarette.

A carelessly tossed burning butt from the people upstairs, who sit on their porch and smoke.

I've noticed butts on the grounds before, I wasn't sure where they were coming from, I WAS sure where they WERE NOT coming from. Me, or mine.

I ran to get my hose from the backyard, but by the time I got it out and screwed on, next door lady had her hose going, and the fire was out.

Today's Music was:

An interview with Robert Plant, and an interview with that Aerosmith guy, Steven Tyler, with another Aerosmith guy, whose not quite as well know, at least to me (Joe Perry, I think. How rude of me! I), on Fresh Air on KPBS radio. Music from each group was played.

My, It's Hot!

A short little movie of some library drone processing a textbook...



The music for today was:

Mike Oldfield -- Tubular Bells
New Riders Of The Purple Sage -- Live

And a good time was had by all.

Tues.

The music for today was, in order:

Jimi Hendrix -- Band Of Gypsys
Spirit -- Time Circle (1968-1972) Two CDs
Donovan -- In Concert

There's Music In The Air

The music for today was:

They Might Be Giants -- Flood
Donavan -- Hurdy Gurdy Man
A Clockwork Orange: Music From The Stoundtrack
T.Rex -- 20th Century Boy: The Ultimate Collection
Beausoleil -- Bayou Deluxe

Did It!

Completed WeffRiddles Batch 1 today, started it today too.

But I did make extensive use of the hints on most of the levels, I must admit...

I will leave the remaining four batches for another day... or another month!

Obsessed

Level 20 completed! w00t!

So Frustrating

I've been fooling around playing Weffriddles.

What's that?

It's a a series of riddle pages, you must solve the riddle for a particular page to figure the URL to type in for the next page.

I'm stuck on level 16 (after 3 hours) at the moment, which is, like, NOTHING!! I have a bad feeling the evil person who introduced me to this torture, is like, on level six zillion.

Check it out, you'll either love it, or...

Leafy Thursday

It's ALIVE!



The Plumeria LIVES!

This poor plant has been so abused. Over watered, gnawed on, transplanted (Stuck in the ground with a stake holding it up.) Now, all of a sudden, it's producing leaves!

Garbage Day Tuesday

So, the cable (TV) conks out Sunday. I do all sorts of stuff, connect the cable directly to the TV instead of the vcr, nothing works.

So Monday I call the cable company. After wandering around their stupid (to me!) phone system, I finally get a live operator. She asks some rather personal information, but, what the hey. She transfer me to repair (Which is what I called in the first place!) where they try to trouble shoot it. So finally they agree to send someone out. And I don't want to disparage the live operators, they were very nice and helpful. So, we schedule for today, in the afternoon. No problemo.

The cable guy called before he came, asked me if the cable was still out.

I said "Yes." Without checking.

Because it was out all Monday. I swear. You see where this is going?

So, he says he's on the way, and I tell him to hurray, as there is actually a parking space out front. He knows the street, so he knows what I'm talking about.

I decide to turn on the television.

It works perfectly.

Possibly even better than before.

When the cable guy shows up, I'm out there, I apologize for being dumb. He's very nice.

I feel stupid.

A little stupid, not a whole lot.

I've felt stupider.

Saturday

My favorite quote of the day:

"it's too late, I already left the store,"

Ouch! Those Brits, larking about!

Yeah, I got nothing better than to duplicate links from Fark.

/got nuthin'

And It Didn't Even Rain

I decided to warsh and polish the vehicle Saturday, as the neighbor's car was gone and it was late in the day, and overcast. I don't want to get water spots on his car, he keeps it pretty clean. Anyway, my motto is: "Once a year, whether it needs it or not."

I drugged out the hose, the bucket, the microfiber cloths I borrowed from work, the special pink automobile detergent. Warshing went well, and I didn't even get sunburned! And the grass got watered, for once.

I went to get the liquid was I was sure I had. Sure enough, it was in the last place I looked. Which was the 7th place I looked. I shook the bottle, following the instuctions. Clunk, clunk. I looked inside. All dried up!

No waxing today!

Maybe next year.

And warshing the vehicle didn't bring rain.

Yet...

Friday In The Garage

Boy, I bet you're getting sick of this garage!

I dug a chunk of Sculptamold out of the layout and stuck it in.



I put the camera on the tripod this time. No more blurry pics!



Peeking in the side window.



Night time on the railroad. Oh noes, a little light leakage!



Despite my best efforts, including a black paper light block under the roof, you can see a bit of light coming through. Well, it's (the roof) glued in (hope the lamp doesn't burn out!) pretty solid, so that's what we're stuck with!

In The Garage

A couple pics of the garage I've been working on for the last few weeks.



One with the roof on, taken with the flash. You can see the pretty blue of the trim.
I'm putting a light bulb inside to show off the interior detail when it's on the layout.



This one is taken with natural lighting to show off the interior detail. It's kind of blurry, I should have used the tripod. Alas!

I think the Craftsman toolbox looks pretty good, so far. I still have to add some silver drawer "handles" to complete the illusion. It looks pretty awful if you blow up the image, though!

The toolbox hides the wires going to the light in the ceiling. I wish I had put the work bench farther back along the wall. It's hard to see, but one wall has stud spacing the same as my "real" garage, and one wall has the studs much farther apart. I think the "real" stud spacing looks too "busy".

I intend to have a motorcycle being worked on in there, or maybe a bicycle.

Hot Hot Hot Ship

Gee Whillickers, it's pretty warm today!

Here's the garage I've been working on for a week or so, from some drawings in Model Railroader.


Click the image to visit my zooomr page and see humorous captions on this picture. Or not.

I ran across an account of a fellow building a Cutty Sark wood ship model, so I thought I better put a couple pics up so my mother will think I'm actually working on hers...





There are a couple more pics of my Cutty Sark model on my zooomr page, click the image to go there. The big pretty version ought to be there too, but apparantly the original size image isn't available to visitors.

There are some old model pictures on this site, including my fabulous model of the Philadelphia, a Revolutionary War gundalow that was in the fleet commanded by Benedict Arnold. Before he became a "Benedict Arnold"... My model is made mostly of balsa wood, following plans from The Family Creative Workshop

Some interesting links on the subject:

The Philadelphia II, a replica

Historic Naval Ships Association, Continental Gunboat PHILADELPHIA page

Blogging the Revolution of 1776, Gunboat Philadelphia

The real ship, in the Smithsonian

Model of the Philadelphia by Mark Fairchild

Sat. Morn.

Rode up the Helix this morning, but you'll have to go visit the bicycle blog to see the pics.

After putting away the bike I took a couple pics of the finished boxcar you will remember I was constructing.



You will notice the weathering effects. I tried the gray wash technique, but it didn't seem to work too well. I think I will stick, as it were, to the pastel chalks.

Saw this link on the Bicycle Rding/Donut Making Guy's site. Very cool pic of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. From way up high!

July Doldrums

Read in SLJ this month that Jessamyn has been causing a minor stir on the intarwebs with her video showing how her Ubunto installation went. Nice. I think I might try to install something like that on the old HP server we gots laying about. It COULD work!

Windy

How come the cool gentle breeze doesn't start wafting through the window until it's nearly time for me to get up? I suffer all night in the dead still air, and then, just when it's time...

Haven't really watch Le Tour, just bits and pieces, here and there. Big crash today in the final 3k. Looks like Hincappie is doing ok, so far. Seems to be fourth overall.

My shoulder hurts. I've been sloughing off on the PT...

There was something else I was gooona put here. Something fascinating, I'm sure. I forget what it was. Maybe I'll put it in later.

Maybe not.