I knew what my main birthday present was, because I found it while
we were moving into Mystery Creek. I was very grown up about
the lack of surprise.
Dear diary,
I knew what my main birthday present was, because I found it while
we were moving into Mystery Creek. I was very grown up about
the lack of surprise.
Anyway, it was a Lionel train set, a Polar Express. Dad even got me tracks so that the new Fasttrack could join up with the old Lionel O-27 track that I have with my tram car layout. They are both kind of hard for me to put together, but the fasttrack is not so bad. HO is easier, so is G-scale. Lionel ain't so brilliant but I guess every American kid has to have some.
It has weird digital control, where it changes gear (neutral,
forward, neutral, reverse, and so on) every time the power
switches off.
The loco really puffs smoke, and the tender has a real
whistle but that refuses to work for us.
To make it smoke, you put a few drops of this funny liquid
into the funnel. Dad wanted to know what is in smoke fluid, so he asked
a few of the guys at the uni. In no time they had it in the mass spec.
Turns out it is not so simple, about 5 different 12 to 14-C
hydrocarbons with boiling points about 170C, but bi-chlorinated
and mono-brominated, and not straight-chain but
aromatic structure! Where do you get dichloro-anthracine cheap?
Dad is now working on the design of a large-scale pseudo-steam
train with a bunch of other nutters. Lionel have a lot to answer for.
6.00 years old (Oct 06)
5.97 years old (Oct 06)
5.90 years old (Sep 06)
5.87 years old (Sep 06)
5.83 years old (Aug 06)
5.82 years old (Aug 06)
5.80 years old (Aug 06)
5.75 years old (Aug 06)
5.74 years old (Jul 06)
5.71 years old (Jul 06)
5.70 years old (Jul 06)
5.67 years old (Jun 06)
My first 5.57 Years in Santa Rosa
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