Geezer's Lounge (Rev 1) - Volume 5

[deemery]

A truly great photo today, Rick!  A big part of luck is just showing up.  Once or twice, I got my lazy ass out of bed to get daylight photos, but not with results like yours. 

We're still hot and muggy, maybe this clears out Tuesday.  Basement is getting warm now in part because of the dehumidifier.  But still tolerable.  I'm working on the orchard at the farm scene, with luck should plant the apple trees and finish the fence today.

The take-away I got from TomO's generated scenery was that I need to add more deadfall to my cliffside scenes.  

dave

[elwoodblues]

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Rick, that is one gorgeous shot.  Hope you get a good nap in later.

Jaime, take it easy with the yard work.

Curt, have fun at the bench.

Larry, looking forward to the scenery update.

TomO, that is a lot of cardboard strips to cut by hand.  While I wasn't a huge Fan of AI when it first came out I'm starting to use it more and more.  The third photo with the AI generated scenery looks great.  That will be a great scene when completed.

Karl, hmmmmm fresh bread.  Hope you get more clean-up done today, it's a never ending battle.

Dave, have fun planting the apple trees.

Current weather here is 23c (74f), overcast and 70% chance of showers.  We didn't get any rain yesterday so Taking Gracie for a walk was a piece of cake.  Hopefully I can get another walk with her today.  Yesterday didn't go as planned as I ended up working (the paying job) a lot more than I planned to so I didn't spend much time at the bench, but I did manage to get a little done.

Today's plan is to make a run to the grocery store, then go for a walk with Gracie, if the weather holds out, and then the rest of the day should be mine.

Have a great day everyone.

[Jerry]

Morning everyone

Rick thanks for the coffee & breakfast.
To bad about not sleeping last night.
That picture is stunning!!

Curt glad the back is better.

Larry is your getting more storms stay at the bench.

TomO that last picture is beautiful.  Looks like you doing the strips really helped out.

Karl great pictures this morning.

Dave good luck planting the apple trees!!

Ron don't you hate when work interferes with fun?? 

Weather in South Jersey is warm P.sunny/87.  Later on 94.
We are in for 4 more days of the mid 90's.

Rick it's a typical Jersey August here!

My room is like to warm in.
So it will be a day in the sun.

Everyone have a wonderful day!! 

Jerry

[TomO/Tloc]

My last few projects starting 10/2025 have been in locales I may have driven through but not really stopped or have not been to. Places I have no real references to. The paper mill and power plant for a friend based in the Tacoma area of Washington. The ore dock build for Two Harbors, Minnesota, now Negaunee and Ishpemming areas of the UP. I've traveled the Michigan UP for work and ice hockey with the son but never investigated these 2 mining regions.

So to get familiar with the area starting in 10/25 for Washington I was tired of the Search engines and thought I'd try Ai. Lots of inaccurate info on the Tacoma area paper mills of 1965. But learned how to ask Ai better questions and a few months ago asking for the reference Ai was using for answers. That has helped eliminate many of the inaccuracies I was receiving in answers.

Images I use and getting what I want while not the easiest is getting much better. The picture is at least 4 tries before it's something I can use. Down often from 20+!

Ai is another tool and it is easier than photoshop.!


Karl do you have anymore pictures of the Negaunee station?  I turned down a request to build it because he didn't have enough data or photos for me to build from.

Tom

[KentuckySouthern]

TomO, few pics of the brick "Union" station. A few of the wooden freight station.

[TomO/Tloc]

Karl, no pictures

[Rick]

There was talk earlier about bears and I had mentioned that talking loudly is the best deterrent.
Bells are not the best deterrent.

I just saw this while while surfing:
Biologists played recordings of human sounds to wild animals, and found bears and mountain
lions go to extreme lengths to avoid us.

Stay safe out there.

[Jerry]

There was talk earlier about bears and I had mentioned that talking loudly is the best deterrent.
Bells are not the best deterrent.

I just saw this while while surfing:
Biologists played recordings of human sounds to wild animals, and found bears and mountain
lions go to extreme lengths to avoid us.

Stay safe out there.

I'll drink to that!! 

Speaking of a nice Eagle Rare neat would go right about now!!
Join in if your a round!

Jerry

[PRR Modeler]

Good Morning All,

Today for breakfast is coffee, cereal, bagels, yogurt, pastry, OJ, and soda.

Yesterday I got in about 90 minutes at the workbench. I continued working on the roof. Today after chores I hope to make it there but MOH was talking about taking some storage bins back to HD.

Next week should be pretty clear other than running Dad around for his errands on Monday. MOH has a VA appointment early Wednesday morning but she never wants me to go with her. It's routine.

Nothing much happening this way but I see the tropics lottery has started out by Africa.

I hope everyone has a good day.

[Rick]

Good morning everyone.

61 now in Poncha Springs, sun in the AM clouds in the PM with a high of 85.

Coffee, sodas and OJ are ready.
Two eggs the way you like them, bacon and/or sausage patties and roasted potatoes for breakfast today.

Jerry, I haven't had a bourbon in a while.
Hope you have a nice beach or bench today.

TomO, that AI photo is amazing.
If only we could replicate it that easily.

Ron, hope you got to enjoy your me day.

Dave, fortunately I'm a morning person and I'm usually up well before sunrise every day.
But, you won't see many sunset pictures from me.

Karl, that's a gorgeous sky and thanks for the RR pictures.

Larry, how's the scenery work going?

Curt, glad the back is feeling better.

Jamie, I never enjoyed yard work and still don't.

Mike, hope is well with you.

ACLTom, hope you're doing well and I send positive thoughts your way daily.

How's everyone else.

Never did get a nap yesterday, but I slept much better last night.
Yesterday's plans changed drastically.
I drove to the trailhead of the trail I was going to hike today.
The road there is narrow single track, very rocky and steep.
I got there OK but then things changed dramatically.
The road there is very narrow and there's room for only three cars.
There were already three cars there and an ATV too.
It was too narrow to turn around so I stopped the van and got out to walk and see if the road widened so I could turn around.
Just then someone came up the road in front of me.
I couldn't get past him and he couldn't get past me.
He agreed to go backwards down the road and after a couple hundred yards was able to pull over enough for me to get past.
That section of the road was extremely rutted and for the first time I had a rock lightly and briefly scrape the bottom of the van.
Fortunately now damage and was able to get back down to the bottom and get back on the highway.
It was white knuckles the whole way though.
I decided to skip that hike, which is a shame because it's gorgeous, and drive back towards to Boulder to meet up with my friend from Oregon and do a hike with him tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments on yesterdays photo.

Sunrise on the Ice Lake Trail.



Have a great day everyone.

[Larry C]

Good Morning,

Curt thanks for breakfast and hope you get in some bench time.

Rick glad the incident wasn't any worse and I can only imagine how daunting trying to get back down a very narrow road. Enjoy the hike with your friend; you deserve it. Nice photo.

What's your plans?

It's a sunny 72 with a high of 83; we'll be cooling down a little throughout the week. The scenery progresses and maybe an update in a few days; it's slow going. I also may have to break down and mow if the weather holds today.

Have a great and safe day!! Be well and keep cool.

[TomO/Tloc]

Good morning from a glistening Wisconsin. It's 60f degrees, the dew point is 61/degrees, the humidity is 97% the blades of grass are very damp as are the windows. High later today is being guessed at as 85.

Rick thanks, I use those Ai generated images for inspiration. We are not going to try to duplicate it but it gives the layout owner an idea of what we want to represent. The guy I am working with on these scenes is a scenery master. His layout had an article on it in MRR within the last 3years. He's had many pictures and articles posted since there. I don't get or buy MRR anymore but the articles were well received. But he and I need to be on the same wavelength and since neither one of us can recall these areas of the UP we needed a visual. I used ChatGPT to start and let Gemini refine it.

Forecasted rain this morning at 8 and 9 where the chances are shown as 80 to 90% and drop off to below 10% after that. We need rain but the grandson really needs the grass to grow so he can cut and earn $$$!

Yesterday I had to say no to a friend and boy it was a tough decision. I love modeling paper mills but close behind is steel mill modeling. My friend of 30+ years started talking about end of life stuff on our rides to work sessions about March. He is a steel mill modeler and his HO scale mill must be 50' long and up to 30" deep along a wall, like a big shelf as it is cantilevered. It's a museum level model. The rest of his layout is a plywood pacific but extremely well done. He's been going through his unbuilt and mostly unopened kits. He has a gold mine of extra Walthers steel mill series kits. He been selling and giving stuff to his buds and friends for about a year now but no steel mill stuff. In July he stopped over and offered me the steel mill kits for Free. But if I didn't build them I could not sell them until he passes. I'm going to be 74 in a month! I am working at least another 6 months on a paper mill for a friend that is on hiatus till September because I have other projects. I no longer have a layout. I may not have a space beyond the 24" x 20' shelf I have available now. We talked yesterday after I discussed it with Terry during a few conversations over the couple weeks. I honestly cannot see myself building a steel mill complex for myself in the next 18 months. Still it was hard to tell him no

Enjoy the day
TomO

[PRR Modeler]

TomO that sounded like a hard decision to make. You had me fooled with the AI scenery photo the other day.

[elwoodblues]

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for the coffee and breakfast Curt, Sounds like an easy week will be good considering the past week you had.

Thanks for the second coffee and breakfast Rick, can never have too much breakfast.  Hopefully there isn't too much damage to the van.

Larry, looking forward to the scenery update.

TomO, I think we all get there eventually, I no longer buy kits unless I have a specific need for it as I already have more kits that I will ever build.    I really need to start purging but it's hard letting stuff go.

Jerry, we don't get bourbon here, but there are lots of scotch to be had.

Current weather here is 21c (70f) with the sun shining and no rain in the forecast today.  Yesterday's me day went well as I got some work done on the turntable, I'll post an update later this morning.  I also decided it was time to assemble the diode laser I bought a couple of years ago, according to the information I had at the time of purchase I should be able to cut up to 1/4" wood with it, but I'll probably only cut up to 1/8" material.  Another tool to learn.  Today's plan is to do the weekly grocery run, take Gracie for a walk and hopefully finish the turntable build.

Have a great day everyone.

[Jerry]

Morning everyone

Curt thanks for opening and coffee.
Sounds like you have choices today!

Rick thanks for the breakfast.
Glad you didn't damage the van.
Nice sunrise.

Larry I'll be looking for the update.

TomO that was a big decision to make.

Weather in South Jersey is sunny/84.  Later on 92.
August weather in Jersey for sure.
My room is still to warm to work in.

Everyone have a great day!! 

Jerry