Halloween, and more!

Because it is Halloween, I just had to post something.  So, here you are.

It has been a rather busy month.  Wedding anniversaries, birthdays; two of each. It has been fun celebrating them.  Not much in the way of pictures from them.  I will have some pictures later in this blog, though; just be patient!

First, some health matters. I have had another catscan to check up on the stent; Ann has a new bridge in her mouth, I have had a hand Xray fpr the arthritis; no results on any of these yet - a few more days.  But enough of this.

The most interesting new thing I did was go to (my first) Chamber of Commerce Mixer representing the Trolley Museum; we had about 4 people there, and made a name for ourselves.  Will have to go to some more. 

Then the RR club had an open house so I was there running the trolley. Had one decide to act up, so it is home here for repairs.  Will only take 15 minutes, but it is hard to just get upstairs to do it.

On our anniversary, Ann and I finally used a gift certificate that Ed and Kelly had given us to eat at the CIA.  Had a great time enjoying their delightful cuisine. And we have been to Ed and Kelly’s house a couple of times to celebrate things.  And Ed was up here to do a couple of things.

But of course, the biggest things were Sandy and Halloween.  Sandy was largely nothing up here - we were on the edge and had a fair amount of wind that brought down mostly small stuff but a few trees in the neighborhood.  About an inch of rain in very light manner.  A picture of a tree across the street:

We were without power from 2:!5 PM on Monday till 6:20 PM on Tuesday; most folks have had it much worse.  The basement got about 2 inches of water but it is gone now.

The Museum has an undetermined amount of damage; you can see what the storm surge did to it at tmny.org/sandy.

Then there was Halloween; we were prepared as usual, with candy and decorations including carved pumpkins.  But only two kids showed up; their costumes were great.  See a picture of them, and of our pumpkins.

And that is that, for now.

Busy September

Gee, has it been a whole month since the last entry in this blog?!  Hard to believe, but time does go by, and I can sometimes be real lazy and not get over to the computer to do some writing.  We left you with some pictures of Grand Rapids, so we will now take up another RR convention, this time in Syracuse for the NER (North Eastern Region).

A highlight of this trip for me was a trip to a steel mill where we saw steel scrap being melted down in an electric furnace and then poured into bars about 20 feet long and 6 inches square.  They then reheat them and draw them down to rebars about 60 feet long.  For intellectual property reasons we were not allowed to take pictures in the mill itself, but were able to out in the yard where they were shipping the stuff by railroad and truck.  They said they use as much electricity as the city of Auburn, where the mill is located.

A second highlight was a visit to a home layout of O scale trains and trolleys.  Very nicely done.  Got talking to the people, and they asked if we knew train  people in Syracuse. Said no, which was true, but that I knew people who lived there that I had met originally in Philadelphia in the early 50's.  Mentioned the name, and these people knew them and see them frequently.  Small world!

Then, last week we had a visit from Marilyn and Tyler.  It was shorter than planned because of airline problems, but it was still great.  We all met at Ed and Kelly’s and had a great time eating cheese and crackers and grilled ribs.  And Ed tried out several whiskeys on me - trying to get me loaded?  Don’t think so, it was just a taste of several things.  He is getting to be a whiskey common sewer (?) as well as a beer one.

Now for a little philosophy about politics.  On the tax cliff of tax cuts.  I suspect that both parties want the cuts to expire because they all (both parties) know the additional income is desperately needed.  So no extension will happen and they will each blame the other for it.

On the political ads.  We hang up immediately if we get a political phone call; we also throw out immediately political mail.  We change the channel or turn down the sound on TV ads.  We know that most of it is phony and hype.  The debate starts in an few minutes, and I haven’t decided whether I will turn on the TV or not.  I think I would rather continue working on this.  What they say has no relationship to what will really happen in the next several years.

They can take or give credit or blame, but the reality is that changes in policies at the federal level usually have no visible result for 3 to 4 years.  So this dragging on of the recession is really the result of things that Bush and Obama did 4 years ago.

On jobs: yes manufacturing jobs went overseas starting back in the 50s, actually.  Remember Japanese cameras in the 50s, TV also.  But what will you do as a consumer or store buyer when you can get manufactured  products from Asia for a certain cost, while the similar thing made in America costs 50 to 100% more.  A closer to home example: apples from China cost less than apples from the Hudson Valley.  We all voted the jobs overseas by buying on price.  My new slogan: BUY AMERICAN (if you can find it).

Well enough ranting and raving.   See you all sometime, maybe sooner or later.  This month we have two weddings and two birthday anniversaries to celebrate.