The hobby store I used to work for part-time changed owners last month. They closed down two of the other stores and consolidated into the main store. Most of the people I knew there are gone, and they've reduced their model train inventory to a ridiculously small selection. Online retail basically did them in. This makes me sad. I really like ( Read more... )

Snow reached us at noon on Tuesday, so I drove home right after lunch. Considering it was starting to accumulate by the time I arrived home, I suspect Atlanta had already had significantly more than we did. Apparently, a LOT of people didn't think about the consequences of waiting until a significant accumulation had occurred before releasing ( Read more... )

Dragon*Con was a much more subdued experience for us this year. We stayed at one of the satellite hotels instead of one of the central hotels, but we did not spend a lot of time going through the hotels, so I feel like we missed out on seeing a lot of costumes--though some costumes we did manage to see seemed to be missing a lot (usually, taste). ( Read more... )

The upgrade for my venerable "rescued" steam engine was pretty easy, but I am not done with it yet. I love that decoders are pretty much modular now. All I had to do was unplug the old decoder and plug the new one in--no additional soldering or rewiring was required. However, now that there is a speaker, a capacitor, and more wires, the tender's ( Read more... )

We finally have a new generation joining the railroad club/museum ranks. Three guys fresh-out-of-high school showed up at the railroad festival at the end of April and have been hooked ever since. I've had a month off from railroading activities due to travel, illness, and simply other stuff going on, but it sounds like the new guys are getting ( Read more... )

ealdthryth directed me to the pet supply store while I was on my way to the grocery store. The cat litter we purchase for our little beasts has gotten expensive--we've experienced a price increase of over 20% in the last couple of years. ealdthryth found out about a sale that dropped it below pre-runaway inflation prices, and sent me forth to acquire as much as ( Read more... )

Thanks to the vehicle's temperamental media center, I was listening to NPR this morning and was horrified to hear some of our elected representatives wanting to toss out the Rule of Law because of what happened in Boston. The law MUST apply uniformly and consistently for the people to have any hope of justice--you don't carve out exceptions ( Read more... )

Sunday, I dug in and got the floor prepped for the hardwood. The subfloor in front of the hearth has been replaced, and the underlayment has been rolled out on top of that. I ran out of seam tape, so I need to stop at the DiY store to pick up a roll. The floor currently looks like we carpeted it with blue tarp or a wrestling mat. The cats have ( Read more... )

I took the new vehicle in for its first oil change on Friday. They took care of the tire rotation and oil change in pretty short order, but I did think it odd they asked if my computer system had been working OK. I think they hexed me. Driving around Friday and to the gas station this morning, the system was fine. After refueling, the audio ( Read more... )

Last night, we got to attend a presentation by one of Norfolk Southern's economic development guys. It was pretty interesting--especially the info on how the new inland port system is taking off. We also were disappointed to find out that the Saluda grade isn't going to have any new rail traffic in spite of maintenance crews working on it. It is ( Read more... )