Good morning!!!!

[daugen]

lot of rain about, .66 inches yesterday, .48 so far today, over an inch total and it looks like maybe the same on the way.
Drive carefully, take your time, avoid the panicked crazies and ask for at least 40% off.

For five years I took a break from the insurance industry and owned my home town's electronics business. A Radio Shack on steroids.
And boy do i remember Christmas Eve. Huge sales; this was when computers were first coming out, and a Tandy 1000 PC for Christmas was a big gift for the whole family. Of course I saw the light and started selling Acer computers; still a good brand today. They just never, ever broke.
Everything seemed heavier duty back then, but now electronics of course are tiny, lightweight...

Christmas Eve was when display models even sold. There was no price shopping at all, more like "Thank G.. you have this". And little electronic things, like batteries, were great stocking stuffers. A pack of AA or D batteries back then was something considered valuable. And likely built in Japan. Almost everything was back then. Before China came Japan for sure. Difference was that the Japanese were oriented towards high quality and there was honor in making a good product.

On Christmas Eve I would add a free pack of batteries to Walkmen and such. Remember they cost over a hundred bucks early on. And I had a storage locker just packed full of batteries as the day after Christmas it was a mob scene of people coming in after finding out "batteries not included". Well, that was better than finding out "assembly required".

Bet there are some fun stories on that in this group. What did you have to build on Christmas Eve?

 

[sodamo]

64°F and 1.52 inches rain last 24 hours. Snow was forecast for Mauna Kea overnight, but haven't looked yet.

Hope it stays dry, Christmas Eve party at friends and can't get there if it rains too much.
Have to be back early as we have 2 guests checking in, one just for the holidays, second will be with us three weeks as part of 7 month stay here in Hilo.

Be safe
Have a great day

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[dave1949]

With my Dad, I would assemble toys on Christmas Eve for my three younger brothers. Once they were in bed, work started. Train sets, the old stamped & painted metal things that were held together with little tabs in the slot that you bent over. Pedal toys, about whatever kids young enough to believe in Santa would play with.

Some of those old things never got assembled without some on-the-fly re-engineering or digging through the usual garage collection for a missing screw, washer or nut.

 

[dave1949]

With my Dad, I would assemble toys on Christmas Eve for my three younger brothers. Once they were in bed, work started. Train sets, the old stamped & painted metal things that were held together with little tabs in the slot that you bent over. Pedal toys, about whatever kids young enough to believe in Santa would play with.

Some of those old things never got assembled without some on-the-fly re-engineering or digging through the usual garage collection for a missing screw, washer or nut.

 

[mostly_gas]

Good morning all. Merry Christmas to all. 36F here this morning going to 48F north wind 16-20. Warm through next monday then it get cooler till we go home . Was supposed to be putting up Christmas tree but when I looked at the tree stand, it was too small. New one should be here soon. Stepdaughter has been on call during her vacation days really messing with our plans.

 

[Larro Darro]

Good Morning. 1150, overcast, 72F with 98% humidity. We have already hit our forecast high with 20% chance of rain for the rest of the day, and the low is supposed to be 42F tonight. It looks like the rain has all moved out, but just before day it was still rocking and rolling. I have a 90' water oak 60' outside my bedroom window, so anytime it has rained steady for two or three days, then we have high winds like we did this morning, it makes sleeping very sound a challenge. I did get up and move to the couch in the other end of the house for about an hour. By then the wind had died down, so I went back to bed. Ended up sleeping in to 1000, so haven't got much done.

We are going over to Sister's tonight to do Christmas. Margie is having to work all day {she always gives her folks the day off, and stays herself}, so I'm responsible for any last minute food we need to take. So far there has been no instructions. I need to deal with my Christmas ham from work. I always get it sliced into two roasts and the rest steaks. A ham steak for breakfast is sounding like a pretty good idea right now.

good job Larro

My only input on the grill was online research. One of our board members had seen one similar at a hunting camp and I searched the web to find examples. Luckily for us, my boss's husband was able to pick through his scrap pile at work for everything but the winch and cable. And I had some input on the layout of the cook shed, but most of the labor was done by state prisoners. {One of the nice things about being a Not For Profit}

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas,

Larro

 

[Larro Darro]

I forgot to mention we are under a Flood Warning and a Flash Flood Watch. But the Chipola River has came up less than 3' so far. From 9' to 11.83'. Our camps don't get underwater until 28.5', but the roads going into them will flood at about 26'. Either way, unless we get a lot more rain the next few days, I don't think it will get over 20'.

 

[mostly_gas]

Roy, good to hear no significant damage to you or the truck.

Dave the bike is as clean as it has been this year. 15 miles on the Katy trail and it looks like it has never been washed :thumbdown:

Drew making progress ! :cool2:

Happy New Year to all.

 

[deerseeker001]

32 this Morning with some freezing drizzly will have a high of 38.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Happy Christmas Eve everyone.

The flat tire yesterday made up my mind to not go into work today, so I went to Costco hunting for an 18" tire. Didn't have any in stock, so down to Sams club. None there either, and they couldn't order any because michelin is closed today. Ended up going back to Costco and having them order them (They said on Friday), so picked up another 2 LED shop lights and a few other things, and drove back home on the donut tire.

I was going to stop at walmart, but there was a line of cars just to get in the parking lot, so decided to skip that one. Today reminded me why I like to shop on amazon.

 

[noller9]

And the Commodore was it 8000? What a sweet piece of extruded polyurethane and circuitry!

 

[300UGUY]

39 and raining here, a little wind, so it feels colder. Not supposed to get cold for a few more days.

My dad always assembled the toys with us Christmas morning. The folks usually included the batteries!

 

[farmer2009]

Wife asked if we bought anything that needed assembly. I don't think so was my response but I don't really know what was bought. Dad always waited to assemble things after they were opened. Except for things like bicycles but pretty sure they came assembled.

Drew my thought was they half pound Reese cups at the local minitmart. But seeing as our local single expert says otherwise I may change my mind. .

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I've been sick as a dog since Sunday afternoon. Lost over 10 lbs. Further info would be TMI. I might be up to 65% of normal.

Glad to hear for the most part that all y'all's troubles have been such that nobody was hurt. Roy, my grandpaw lived on Icepond road in Levittown PA. He told me "Nobody can drive on ice without ice tires or chains. If they say they can, they're liars."

Scott, what seems to be the problem with the hoodlums? Hope you got some rest eventually.

Drew, have any Coleco's left over?

Don, if you have any red cars you want to give me, I'll take the stigma off your hands.

Merry Christmas to all.

 

[sseelhoff]

I've been sick as a dog since Sunday afternoon. Lost over 10 lbs. Further info would be TMI. I might be up to 65% of normal.

Glad to hear for the most part that all y'all's troubles have been such that nobody was hurt. Roy, my grandpaw lived on Icepond road in Levittown PA. He told me "Nobody can drive on ice without ice tires or chains. If they say they can, they're liars."

Scott, what seems to be the problem with the hoodlums? Hope you got some rest eventually.

Drew, have any Coleco's left over?

Don, if you have any red cars you want to give me, I'll take the stigma off your hands.

Merry Christmas to all.

Kyle:

Sorry to hear you are feeling poorly. I would bring you some chicken soup, but the one hen I had in mind suddenly decided to start laying. Better late than never.

Hope you are up to 5 bars in short order.

As for our issues, the problem is car thieves who are in the import/expert business. Import independant contractors into the United States, export the vehicles back over the border. They pay $3,000 per truck on the other side of the border (per the sheriff's deputy). What happens is if they get pulled over for whatever reason, they run. They are in the country illegally, and driving a stolen vehicle. Since we are just off of I-10-they try to get off the highway to lose them on the back roads. Part of our road a mile or so in either direction is visible/accessible by crossing a grassy area. Since they are not driving their own vehicles, it's no big deal to them to leave the roadway and try to get away by going cross country. Unfortunately, our neighbors and us sit right where they obviously think they can get away off road.

I'm building a moat. I'm filling that sucker with fricken' sharks with laser beams.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Maybe alligators too? How about a pack of rabid Chihuahuas?

I heard the big fords are easily stolen.

 

[sodamo]

Maybe a line of tire spike along the bottom of the fence and tell the authorities.

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[sseelhoff]

Maybe alligators too? How about a pack of rabid Chihuahuas?

I heard the big fords are easily stolen.

Deputy said they really like Dodges. It's a shame the transmission went out on ours before they had an opportunity to get us insurance dollars instead of trade-in dollars.

The vehicle they were in this time was a Ford. It looked like it was a nice one, too, before they wrecked it.

 

[sseelhoff]

Maybe alligators too? How about a pack of rabid Chihuahuas?

I heard the big fords are easily stolen.

Deputy said they really like Dodges. It's a shame the transmission went out on ours before they had an opportunity to get us insurance dollars instead of trade-in dollars.

The vehicle they were in this time was a Ford. It looked like it was a nice one, too, before they wrecked it.

 

[dave1949]

33F. The day lived down to its promise: 34F, fog and drizzle allllll day long.

Kyle get well soon.