Thurs. Track Testing

Still not nearly as irritating, irksome, tedious, banal & annoying as the horrible outside world you damn cretins have made for everyone.

Homo sapiens In Three Words

The Dead Who Walk

When the hell was tagging supplemented by stickering, anyway? I s'pose it's because spray paint is age-restricted in Calif., but the yout' found a way around it.

Hot Rails To Hell ...

... Are Actually Hot!

Spent almost an hr. post-shooting fiddling w/ sectional & flex-track before suspending operations. But one line is almost going & I've proved w/ geometric logic it won't need added feeds.

Other modeling stuff:

Also, at some point you need to decide if you are content being a casual recreationalist or if you want to move to the next level. It’s your call. No judgement. That said, if you want to move forward, you need to get out of your comfort zone, buy that sixty-buck airbrush, and get comfortable with it.

Easy, Lance. Sounds a bit judgemental to me who, picky as I am, fully intend to remain in my "casual recreationalist comfort zone". No desire to obtain an air-brush, but I did click the "sixty-buck airbrush" link out of curiosity, to find it's a) Amazon; b) $199.99, not any "sixty bucks". Ha!

Don't have the space, don't need the noise.

I'll stick w/ washes & powders; my primary interest in weathering is eliminating gloss & shine on rolling stock, not creating1:87 works of art. Avoided a soldering iron so far too, but if the track continues its recalcitrance ...

Dry Heat

Temperature & humidity in the bunker earlier.

Currently 58% humidity, 86°F (30°C). Don't make me no never mind. Haven't broken a sweat or broken out the fan yet. If you can't take the heat ...

Angry? Absolutely Bitter? Better Believe It!

Gone like a puff of smoke.

Saturday Savings Spectacular!

Going to the corner for milk yesterday I spotted Xmas lights in a cardboard box & decided I could use the wire if nothing else. Well, they work & are battery-powered, so don't waste your money on Woodland Scenics JustPlug® or Dioramo® lighting systems.

My curiosity piqued, I checked battery-powered wired LEDs & found piles, some powered by AAs, some by D cells, & some by hearing aid batts. Turns out the above suckers are made by Greenbrier International, Inc., a subsidiary of Dollar Tree. (Or it's Dollar Tree's parent co. Fucking robots.) All plastic; the only metal is the wiring & whatever's in the battery pack. The biggest deal to me is the self-containment. Everything's in the structure, no connecting to an external power source, so no wall-warts, extension cords or added LED wiring are needed.

This looks as if six bldgs. could be illuminated for $40.00. W/ 30 lights per string, six huge industries could be lit, or a small structure could be overdone until it caught fire.

Hoo boy, now Woodland Scenics is offering this; the video came out two months ago, but the system can't be searched on their crummy site; you have to look in the "Coming Soon" area. No prices yet, but an arm & a leg should cover it fairly easily. Speakers, sound cards & readers &c. will be just a smidge more than a transformer, control box & LEDs. Might not be easily duplicated at a bargain store.P.S.: If you do want the tried & true, I compared the Just Plug® & Dioramo® MSRPs sometime last yr.; Dioramo was a bit less expensive & their system seems more open to using non-Dioramo LEDs & the like. Or, Dwarvin & their fiber-optic "no wires" system. Tain't cheap neither.

Confuzzled

Today's Dull

Almost three insufferable hrs. in the outside world & nothing happened beyond flashing lights.

Very Excited

Not sure I can stand it! Assembled something electric that works as intended! Only took about an hr. & a half to make the 10 connections. The switch machine's been sitting around for yrs. because the power pack I had didn't have AC terminals for accessories.

Even better, it works when attached to the switch.

Will it work when it's back in the track? No reason to think it won't, but we'll have to wait until it's painted to be sure.

Orgy Of Consumption Complete*

The TrainWorld tat was there when I woke up, delivered at 1049.

Home Despot divided five items into three deliveries, first sand & the box for fiddly bits (just after 1100) then the alligator clips,

finally, at 1352, the glue & flashlight.

A real damn flashlight (A bright LED that uses three AAAs; almost blinded myself pushing the TRY ME button.) for when I block the light when working, or the dark recesses below.

---

*For today. Still need ...

More Meat Monday

Indeed, Nothing But Meat

Music For Painting Plastic

Has other uses as well.Not only the version, but the original!Again, the original. You get it all here! I prefer this arrangement anyway.The 20-odd ft. of butcher paper used for packing makes a good surface for painting.

It Arrived!

Delivered at 1025, US$78.95, plus $32.94 S&H & $10.90 tax worth of plastic & nickel/steel from The People's Republic of China. Now I will cut it open & show you every item, one at a time. NOT!! Sweet Blood of Jesus, what is duller than an "unboxing" video? This is all track, nothing interesting, & now I have to paint all 24+ linear feet of rails & ties before I can try my luck laying it.

Want a mind-numbing video of that?

I am disappointed that the Postal Service didn't put it on a 'plane but trucked it across the country. Expecting some interesting plastic & electronics Fri., which left N.Y.C. this a.m.; maybe the P.S. will send that on a 'plane. I can at least hope for Thurs. delivery, air mail or not.

Jeeze, I'm like a consumer. When did that happen?

Holding Pattern

Definitely have to wait for the flex track."Expected Delivery" is Monday, but the pkg. left PHX suburb Avondale at 0822 today, so my optimistic heart hopes it's already in town & will be at the Nat "King" Cole station in time to be delivered tomorrow. If not, an exciting wknd. of replacing plastic wheelsets & couplers w/ metal ones & adjusting coupler heights.

Auto-focus my ass, SONY.

Even the Catalina is in a holding pattern atop the desk.Minutes later: My stuff arrived at the L.A. Reg. Dist. Ctr. at 1916, so my optimism may not be wrong. Sad when all one's optimism is because one's somewhat wiser than a Postal Service robot.

"ONLY CASH & Z"

Big Rock In The Sky

Further Proof Of The Existence Of A Kind & Loving Gawd

Got up at noon, felt like vomiting, had dry heaves & bile. Felt like crap, went back to sleep at 1400 & slept unil 1800. Jesus certainly 💘 me, does't he?

Now, some pictures of clouds & birds.

If there were a just gawd, birds would have pecked out your eyes that refuse to see & ripped your lying tongues from your ugly mouths long, long ago.

Impasse Hiatus Momentary Pause

Came to the realization that short bits of sectional track are not conducive to electricity or good running,

& I'll have to give flex-track another shot. Might neeed a slighty better voltmeter, too.

Decided to try TrainWorld again, so was awake before 1600ET, when they close, & spoke to a nice enough woman who set up a new acc't. for me & e-mailed the link to their form as we were on the 'phone. But it looks as if the pkg. won't be shipped until Tues., due to the holiday.

In other consumption news, I finally got an undamaged USN boxcar from Yankee Dabbler. Only took a couple of months.

Looks nice & rolls well. Certainly worth the US$34.99. Not worth the aggravation!

And the pirates at DoorStepInk have promised me a refund. Not there yet, & "It may take up to 10 days for this refund to appear in your account." Didn't take any 10 fucking days for the money to be taken from my acc't.! (Forget quite when I started this, but the refund did show on 5 July. Thanks again, clowns!)

I have been making good use of my time by getting the two areas that go nowhere fine-tuned again, & decided that amusing as it was to have the stock pen so close to the Yard Cafe & depot, it could be moved.

And the transload facility works better on the other spur as well. Win-win.

Then I realized that as soon as I have the new track laid everything will need fine-tuning again. And once I've bought turn-outs to replace some I bought when I didn't know what I was doing, or would eventually do, another round (theoretically the last🤞🏻) of alteration & adjustment. Gah!

Not to do anything the upper classes would, like set a goal, but having had this for four months less than seven yrs. now, it would be nice to have fully electrified, runnable track & even have glued a structure or two together & slapped it on the layout before Nov. I've had seven building kits, trees, plants, 'phone poles & other details in layout limbo for yrs. Pprobably beat inflation & Fat Boy's tariffs by buying early. Speaking of, even laying track like a dirty 19th-century Irishman beats the hell out of current events. An hr. passes like nothing.

Mounjaro® & Moi

Why I laugh & laugh (Sneer, even!) at your pathetic need for food. See? Breatharianism works!

I'm like a death camp inmate.

Note visible sternum, & hiatal hernia around navel. Not the one in the groin that is irritating. And tightened belt. Have gone from a 42" (107 cm.) to a 38" (96 cm.) waist & lost about 50 lbs. (23 kg.) in two yrs.

I now pay US$47.00/month for the stuff, but have literally no appetite. It's a struggle to consume a whole banana at one time; have to bag the remainder & refrigerate it until later. Occasionally I'll eat half a slice of toast (current loaf is "best if used by 6 May") or have a slice of cheese for protein. Haven't had or wanted meat for months now.

My only exercise is walking. No car, no moolah for Big Oil. (Gas & groceries? Wise up already!) Net result? Having paid all creditors their monthly pound of flesh, there is $1,150+ in the checking acc't. Barring disaster or emergency, I can't imagine necessary expenses being over $250, leaving me w/ 900 bones to blow on anything my foolish heart desires. Charity, maybe?

No, Eli Lilly and Company ("A Medicine Company") aren't paying for this, but I'll gladly take my money back from them if they're looking for a testimonial from a "real person" who is an "actual user".

Knew It

It did arrive a day earlier than estimated, a die-cast PBY5-A Catalina. What a Navy seaplane w/ early WWII insignia is doing over an Army camp close to 150 miles from the Pacific & around 125 miles from the Gulf of California in the mid-'50s is anybody's guess; maybe it's a Twilight Zone episode.

Not bad for US$17.75. (Just saw the same model for $39.99. And I didn't even compare prices. Hah!) I do resent those pirate bastards at FedEx getting $8.99 for shipping. (And Jesus, next time leave it at the door to the bunker, not the mail boxes, & knock before you run away.)

No tax, which I think violates California law. Ah. Only if your operation moves more than $500,000 anually in Calif. I dunno; populous state full of chumps & suckers. Maybe someone should look into it.

There are few HO scale aircraft available; this is 1/144th scale & should look better flying from the convenient hook, used on the prototype to lift it from or lower it to the water.

Does not want to be grounded.

Not balanced for flight either, so my story is it's struggling taking off from a short field, heavily laden w/ poison gas or an H-Bomb, especially as the landing gear is still down. May have mentioned that the Rice area was considered for the Trinity test. Pretty damn sure something nefarious is going on at Camp Patton.

Now I have to figure how to attach it securely to the ceiling.

Provenance:

Does Macau/Bangladesh mean no Trump tariffs, or has this been on a shelf for yrs.?

The actual item.