The DisFort's Chit Chat Cafe

[Sjm9911]

Slowly, but slowly making progress, still have to find the trains! Lol. Dont tell anyone what I used the dishwaser for. Its our secret........

 

[bama_ed]

Slowly, but slowly making progress, still have to find the trains! Lol. Dont tell anyone what I used the dishwaser for. Its our secret........View attachment 808810

What the ever loving ...

 

[Sjm9911]

What the ever loving ...

Its getting a little better. My tree inside the house goes in the window. We will see how it looks in a week or two. Unfortunately the kido says the decorations have to go up now. I said after Thanksgiving like evey year. She is 12 and much smarter then me, so she says then why are they up in all the stores. So I said thats diffrent, its not your house. On the way home 1/4 of the homes had started decorating. Cue Homer Simpson and a slap to my head, DOH! I have been outwitted.

 

[Sjm9911]

And, I did think of pressing the issue, but I figured it would go something like this

 

[Sjm9911]

It getting better and might be done for this year. I added a snow man, off-centered the inside tree. Picked up some drum decorations at a thrift store and shellacked an old slead for under the train table. Snowman need to be holding something, I will think on that one. I May have to build an encloser for the train in case of snow. Ill get spme pictures at night also.

 

[Sjm9911]

And at night, not too shabby.

 

[bama_ed]

I love that the trains are blurred in the last pic, Spencer. That means they were in motion.

Ain't it great to be retired and have more time to do this kinda stuff?

Ed

 

[MrsPAHunter]

I have to generally agree: one holiday at a time. But then, outdoor decorations should go up while the weather is more pleasant, just don't light them until the day after Thanksgiving. ... And you don't think you've spent the last 12 years building up an immunity to your granddaughter? LOL.

Love the holiday spirit and the set-up is beautiful. Debating if this year will take time for more decorations myself...but nothing so ambitious as that - still a working stiff myself.

 

[FtW Mike]

Jenn great to see you on here. Hopefully all is going well for you and Reba.

 

[jbrostek]

That turned out pretty cool! I don't start the decorating till after Thanksgiving. And this year, we wont start decorating some rooms until the contractors are done.

We got back from our weekend away in Charlottesville, it was a great trip and the KOA wasn't all that bad as a spot to start. The drive in was easy, just took US29 to I64 and got off at RT20 which was easy going. We had site 30, it was long and level, though had to drop the trailer toward the end of the site and park behind the trailer. Wasn't and issue and we enjoyed our stay. Was a nice wrap up to the camping season.

Thursday the exterior contractor starts and said it should only take a day or two to replaced the basement slider, fix some trim here and there, and the biggest project will be our entry door the deck! I cannot wait to share the new look and function of the family room. We are basically swapping our sliding door in the family room and window in the eat in kitchen. This will leave us with the entry door to the deck closer to the kitchen and center of the back of the house, and a better room layout in the family room for furniture. Also finally going to get some electrical work done. Some recessed lights in the kitchen, move a bank of switches closer to the new entry door area, and finally get a proper 30A RV outlet installed and some other dedicated power for the garage.

 

[tigger92662]

Love the holiday spirit and the set-up is beautiful. Debating if this year will take time for more decorations myself...but nothing so ambitious as that - still a working stiff myself

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Haven't found any spilled beans anywhere on the Internet, but this is all over my fbView attachment 803683

Maybe a Walt exhibit? Midwest meet up in the works?

Good follow up on my part...ooof.

https://tickets.unionstation.org/ev...social&utm_medium=meta&utm_campaign=disney_to

It's a Disney exhibit in March 2024. Not Walt focused, but could be interesting.

 

[jbrostek]

So I went to my office for the first time in 3 years and 7 months since I we where sent home. My calendar displaying March 2020 has been finally taken down. I do not expect to be back to the office in the next 6 months or more. I got to see the new much smaller building we are going to move too that is going to be mostly hoteling space with some random areas for people who need or wish to work from the office more permanently.

And onto more important things. Veteran's day weekend we spent the weekend down in the Charlottesville area, It was the perfect recharge get away for Melissa and I. The bigger bonus was our oldest Daughter agreed to watch the pups, so we really got a break!!!

We stayed at the Charlottesville KOA in Site 30. The drive down was uneventful and RV Trip Wizard took us the same way the campground recommended to get there. I forgot to get a picture of the site, but it was well over 100 foot long pull through but you had to park forward of the site to get level. Plety of space behind the RV to park so not an issue.

We spent Friday with showers walking downtown/old town Charlottesville, I will say if you are there with a big truck there is a great parking area off 4th ST SE and Garret St. Avoid the E Water St parking lots and garages. Plus it was only 2bucks an hour, less then the other sites.

Anyway, we had a great time walking around. Melissa loves Geocaching and there is a new thing called Adventure labs that you answer questions on the geocaching app by visiting locations.



This adventure lab we did required us to visit 4 book stores (now we combine two things she loves!!).




One of the book store had a public puzzle that they glue and put on display with everyone who put their name down after putting in a piece or two.



Of course you had to take the photo opp with my favorite pal.



And of course we had to find some wine and snacks to refuel ourselves....



After some fun adventures we wrapped up the day with dinner at a winery not far from the campground. We stopped off at Eastwood Winery and enjoyed a wine flight, a pretzel and an "apple and squash flatbread with bacon" It was PERFECT.

 

[jbrostek]

Saturday we started the day out with a hearty breakfast so we would be ready to head out on a hike at the nearby Walnut Creek Park




After breakfast it was off to Walnut Creek Park to hike the The Blue Wheel trail. Melissa saw a few geocaches on the loop, but we struck out trying to find either. We did find a 3rd one which required us to climb a really BIG hill.



After this we went back to the campground to shower up and head out. We found Loving Cup Vineyard, our first visit to a certified organic winery. The wines where all based off hybrid grapes and we really enjoyed our late lunch there.



After enjoying the view and a lot of discussions, we decided since it was getting late and most of the wineries closed at 5 that we would just go back to the campground and enjoy our evening there.

I got the fire pit going and we both just relaxed and read while dinner "marinated".



Dinner was butternut squash, sea salt 'marinated' filet minion, sauteed shrimp and salad. And we got to use our new Disney Corel plates for the first time! We bought the set for the RV to finally have a decent matching set for the RV.



We enjoyed the fire for a little longer before calling that good and snuggling up inside with a few Hallmark Christmas movies. The next day we did all the normal flush and cleaning work before heading home and winterizing the RV.

Now the RV rests for the winter while we prepare for the holidays.

 

[Sjm9911]

Ok people, I am sorry I am taking up the feed with train stuff. But, I am board. I really am, and am having a hard time being retired. Still looking for a job , but nothing. I did join the volunteer FD, so I help out there but its way different. I answer to kids that have no idea, I still go with the flow. I hope I can teach them something.... i dont need to work ,but I want to. Never in my life have I felt that I was basicly useless. So untill I find my groove, you will be inundated with mondane train stuff. Sorry, but thats how it has to be. Lol. I added a train shead to the outside x mass train. So it wouldn't freeze to the track in the snow. Built it this morning from scrap, and went to the thrift shop for the decor. I think it looks good.

 

[Stratman50th]

I for one happen to like mundane train stuff Spencer.

 

[bama_ed]

I for one happen to like mundane train stuff Spencer.

I do too, Spence.

After some acquisitions, I was hoping to get up in the attic and play with my trains (track had been cleaned and a few test runs made) but it appears of the old fluorescent lights up there (5 of them), 2 went out. Could be bulbs or it could be ballast (leaning toward ballast). So before I can 2 steps forward, I'm going to have to take 1 step back and fix my lighting problem. Bama's got a home football game today so I'll make the run to Home Depot tomorrow.

Also in the future is to do a proper inventory of what I actually have.

ED

PS - oh, I got "people" after our last discussion. And a new-to-me piece of REA rolling stock.

 

[StormyCA]

I'm enjoying it, too. I remember my older brother being soooo into his Lionel train back in the early 60s. Wasn't there something you stuffed in the stack to make smoke come out? He had a HUGE piece of plywood (probably the size of a king-sized mattress) that he and Dad painted 'grass' and 'lakes' on and stuck on little houses & buildings, even a 'mountain tunnel'.

Was I allowed to play with it? Noooooo. Back then 'trains were for boys'.

 

[Teamubr]

Keep it coming Spencer. The train shed looks great. Never would have guessed that was scraps.

j

 

[garneska]

I will interrupt for a quick mom update, though I prefer the train updates. She had a rough week. However after getting her bladder emptied with a catheter she is starting to pick up. She has had an infection from lack of peeing and her energy is pretty zapped. Unfortunately that has lead to her not being able to stand up. She has been laying in bed for 11 days. She has occasionally been able to sit at the edge of the bed and tried to stand but can’t. once she is medically cleared she will be moving to a rehab but I am not sure it will be till next week.