I've decided to add some more stuff to the cull.
A pair of Genesis GP9s in Chessie. One B&O, the other C&O. One has a Tsunami, the other has a Soundtraxx motor decoder.
Athearn RTR GP40-2, Chessie/GM50, with added Tsunami.
MTH GP35 in B&O blue and yellow, and an MTH GP35 in Chessie, both with factory sound.
I also have a string of Bethgons in CSX, some grey, some black. One of them has a no-longer-working FRED.
Terry you are tempting my resolve! I've decided to halt all train purchases due to buying a house and a commercial property for my wife to go into business for herself. I will be dismantling my layouts until after the move. I don't know when I will be getting back to building even temporary layouts like I have now. My energy level has reached a plateau that has been lower than I expected and my naps are more frequent. I am hoping it is just a byproduct of the heat and humidity.
Louis: I have not even considered roster expansion, interesting idea. I do find it strange, that we have so many Hall of Fame pitchers, who used to do their training in a saloon. These guys were expected to pitch 9 or 10 innings an outing, and managed to survive a long career. If Cy Young pitched by today's standards, he would have been an unknown, and there would be no Cy Young award. Tillman should have sat out the season, slowly rehabing his way back to the rotation. The O's don't need another one inning relief specialist.
The owners have a lot of money, or they wouldn't be in the game. TV throws a lot of money at sports leagues, but it's like making a deal with the devil, the Leagues cede control to the Networks. Wonder how much this factors in? Angelos is a TV guy, who owns a team, similar to Jimmy Dolan in New York. When was the last time the Nicks or the Rangers won anything?
Pitchers today throw every pitch at 100% effort, they may have no choice. Hitters are better today than ever before, even utility players can hit with power. Advanced scouting, smaller ball parks, juiced balls. I don't care what they say or how many test they show, I believe the balls have been juiced since 1987. You can't pitch to contact anymore, check swings can go out of the park. Add to that; todays arms are not conditioned for endurance.
I have always said hitting is much easier to teach and takes less practice to become proficient. Even little guys spend hour after hour swinging the bat. Every kid wants to have batting practice, they are disappointed when I say "it's time for infield practice" If you see kids playing with each other or their parent, what are they doing? Hitting the ball. In my travels this year I have seen only a dozen or so kids playing ball at their homes and I have yet to see any playing catch. I use to play hour after hour of wall ball by myself, simulating entire games in my mind pitching for both imaginary teams. When the neighbors complained I would play wall ball at the church until the Nuns chased me away. Then I would throw the ball into the air as high and far as I could and run to catch it.
I know there were days I threw the ball a thousand times. I never once injured my arm throwing. The man who raised me taught me to loosen my arm by slowly expanding how far I threw. Today they get on the mound and gradually throw harder and harder. I can remember the Orioles' pitchers playing long toss in the outfield before every game. Long toss is something they only do in spring training now.
Louis - Dang! I was expecting a "good/bad/indifferent" answer. Didn't mean to get you so wound up. I guess that the answer is bad. By the way, I don't disagree with anything that you posted, except the golf stuff. C'mon, whack a little ball as far as you can, then chase it down and play hide and seek with it until you find it (not always); and then do it again...for a hundred times in a row!!! But the scenery is great at places like Augusta and Pebble Beach.
Willie it's a sensitive subject. You can eventually stop thinking of the images of death, but the smell seems to last a lifetime. Sometimes I walk into a public bathroom following somebody who must have been sick and the smell reminds me. The image of people you know killed on the street can be hard to put out of your mind, but the smell of their intestines emptying is something that lingers for a very long time. Enduring pancreatitis at its worse was something that constantly reminded me.
I pray for our soldiers who have been in combat, no wonder so many commit suicide and have other mental issues.
Worse is when politicians that grew up far from the places where this stuff goes on talk about how easy the solution is. I briefly went to college and a few of the guys I knew from those days talk about solutions; the death penalty, extreme prison sentences, etc. They are only showing their ignorance. Take one gangster off the street and another takes his place. You could never pay for enough prisons.
Dealers don't actually work the street themselves. They have young boys, as young as 8 to early teens, they call "hoppers" because they hop from car to car making deals. They carry a few bags of dope each. The dealer resupplies them as needed. These are the gangsters in training. When a dealer and or his lieutenants go down senior hoppers take their place. A dealer will have many of these hoppers because they supply them with the money needed to survive. Everybody has to eat, everyday.
Nixon said it in a crude and racist fashion, but he was right. "The "people" (he used a different word) in the inner city don't need welfare, they need jobs." He was right and wrong. They need jobs, but the government needs to sell the drugs. Now we have welfare and even food stamps being exploited by addicts.
I would not cut a penny from these social programs, but I would provide assistance in finding jobs and better public transportation. More important I would have the government control the sale and most important the distribution of drugs. But they better sell cheap, these guys have plenty of cash reserves and will cut price to drive each other out of business. It's pure cut throat capitalism.
By the way it is not a black or white issue, every group of people has people using drugs. Furthermore, when I was young the big high volume wholesale dealers were all white and lived in the best neighborhoods. I've seen 2-3 galloon punch bowls filled with cocaine. They say "have some" like I would offer peanuts to my guest. They live behind reinforced steal doors and even bullet proof glass. You know not to try and rob them because they are the most heavily armed and have many soldiers on the street. Not to mention safe rooms to hide in. They have the money to pay for it.
Another thing to consider; many self-employed contractors are addicts. They work for themselves so that they don't have to be drug tested. I would like to see mandatory hair follicle drug tests every time you renew your license and if you fail; mandatory drug treatment. Lawyers would be the first to balk at that. From my experience they are the ones who use the most cocaine and what we called crank, now known as many things but its meth-amphetamine. You may be surprised to know who is using. The government's estimates are far below the actual numbers. Like that movie "They can't handle the truth!"
Golf! It's a lot of fun. Get yourself a used club or two and a bucket of range balls. Take them to the "north 40" and have a whack at it! See how many you can hit straight. I bet you enjoy it.
Once I learned to NOT try to hit the ball as far as I could I did better. Makes the ball easier to find
I'm a true hacker, but if my shoulders were good I'd try to play again. Being a city boy it's nice to be surrounded by beautiful green scenery sometimes and very nice and polite people, for the most part.
