# 23360 days.



## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

23360 is the number of days since my first Birthday. 11 21 1945

Today is my birthday and I am going to work on my layout.


I am 64 

WE were out to dinner last night and someone asked how old I was. I said 78

The peroson said I looked great for 78

My sister jumed in and said "Your not 78 your 64, Why did you tell them you were 78 "









I said "because I look better at 78 then I do at 64"


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## Ron Senek (Jan 2, 2008)

John have a happy birthday and enjoy working on your layout.


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Yes, Have a Happy Birthday JJ.


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## Dave F (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy Birthday J.J. Have fun working on your layout, have a great day!


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Happy B'day JJ! 
Looks like a good day to get out side, well down on this side of the state anyway. 
I think I'll join you, well outside anyway... 4 buckets of mine tailings to wash and place... 

John


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy Birthday JJ....I'll write more when I finish chuckling over your 78 vs 64 remarks.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy Birthday JJ.


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Happy Birthday JJ! But it's been longer than you think. No wonder you look so bad at 64. You forgot all of those leap years. (23376 days).


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY" JJ Yer a doin yer birthdays like dog years only in "reverse" huh????? hah LOL Remember everytime you runs a train on yer track you get 7 years younger too!! Hee Hee LOL The Regal 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY THANKSGIVING MERRY CHRISTMAS HAPPY NEW [email protected]! DER NOW I GUES YOU AND ME IS DONE FOR THE YEAR HUH. LOL


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## noelw (Jan 2, 2008)

*J.J. You have the right idea on running trains today. We are also going to run trains with our Train Group and have a small bbq even if it wet and ovecasst. 

Happy B.day guy and many more... We have 10 yrs on ya and will never stop playing with trains.....
64 was a good age.. but then so is 74..







. Noel *


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Hey, have a HAPPY J.J.!


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## Kristi_Edington (Nov 21, 2009)

Happy Birthday to you. 
An old man are you. 
Living in the desert with ole sneaky snake, 
A 10 gallon hat so you don't bake, 
Watchin the train go round the loop, 
Lookin for a wreck caused by you. 
Happy Birthday to you!!! 



Happy birthday JJ!!!


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## Bills (Feb 20, 2008)

Did you add in the extra days for leap years? 
Happy Birthday!


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## Kristi_Edington (Nov 21, 2009)

Here's another one for you JJ. 

Happy birthday to you 
You're 64 so here's a big toot toot 
the rails are rusted, 
but not quite busted, 
happy birthday to you. 

Have a great day JJ.


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## Steve Stockham (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy Birthday to you
Go run a choo choo...
It may be a diesel
but it's still a train too!


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy 64th, JJ!


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## Rod Fearnley (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy Birthday old pal, from England
Rod and Jill


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## John Corradini (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy Birthday JJ


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Yes happy birthday to you JJ may you have many more......





















I will toast you tonight for sure....


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

A very happy birthday, John. Have a double cranberry juice on the rocks with a twist of lime.....


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## bvdrr (Jan 3, 2008)

Happy Birthday JJ,hope you had a good one
Fred & Ethel


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## pimanjc (Jan 2, 2008)

JJ,
*Happy Birthday.* May all your trains stay on the rails.

Jim Carter


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## Jim Francis (Dec 29, 2007)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY *JJ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

*You look good even at 64!* 


May you have many, many more![/b]

*Jim*


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## nkelsey (Jan 4, 2008)

Have a Happy Birthday, and take the battery out of the smoke detector before you light the candles.....


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy Birthday JJ!! Years of practice and self denial.


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## Gary Woolard (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy Belated Birthday, J.J.! So if yer' 64, it's your _HAT_ that's 78, right?


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## tom h (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy Birthday JJ !!!







64 candles, reminds me of the song "Burnin down the house"









tom h


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## Tom Ruddell (Jan 9, 2008)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN J!!!! And I love your numerology!

Got me to do my own math. Ugh! 26,787. But then my claim has been "I've been 35 ever since I turned 21." Seems like 35 represents maturity when one is 21 and represents youthful vitality when one is 73.

Much fun can be had with such claims in restaurants, especially when you've got a server (which is more like the thing on which your credit card gets debited) or "waitperson" (which, I suppose, is politically correct for waiter/waitress as is "cowperson" for "cowboy/cowgirl")....well, anyhow, one of those folks who not only waits on Customers but has a great sense of humor, thereby earning a bigger tip. One of my infamous lines is that "my favorite wife and I are going to celebrate 94 years of marriage on Jan. 5." That statement produces a three-category "triage" of responses: (1) "Oh that's nice" or "Congratulations" or the like, or (2) "That _can't be because you two look much too young to have been married for 94 years!" or (3) Response #2 plus "What do you mean your favorite wife—do you have more than one?"_

The "94 years of marriage" claim has to be stated just that way, for the answer is: "47 for her and 47 for me." As to the "favorite wife" bit, the answer is: "Oh, yeah, I've got a few more stashed in Saudi Arabia and rural Utah."Such nonsense can make dining out great fun, not only for Nancy and me but for "waitpersons" who, too often, have to put up with unruly kids and the rude demands of chronic complainers. 

Besides enjoying good food, there's no greater reward for us than having a server ask that we please request his or her table next time we come in. 

Sometimes, when I'm feeling especially naughty and want to test the products of our government schools, I'll hand the cashier a bill with Honest Abe's picture on it and ask: "May I please have six ones for a five?" Several times, usually at Waffle Houses, I've had to hand a dollar back.

Tom Ruddell 
Bethlehem Central Railroad
Midland City (Dothan), Alabama
www.gardenrailwayministry.com


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Tom Ruddell on 23 Nov 2009 08:28 AM 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN J!!!! And I love your numerology!

snip

Besides enjoying good food, there's no greater reward for us than having a server ask that we please request his or her table next time we come in. 

snip

Tom Ruddell 
Bethlehem Central Railroad
Midland City (Dothan), Alabama
www.gardenrailwayministry.com 







I spend my "cigarette and beer" money by anonymously paying for someone else's dinner at restaurants. (Hey, I don't smoke or drink so I gotta do something with the money! I mean, it's not like I have any expensive hobbies like Live Steam Garden Railroads.)

While I am eating I select some other patron that seems they will finish eating just after I have. Then, when my bill is presented, I explain that I do not know the person/people and that they likewise do not know me, but I want to pay their bill as well as my own as an anonymous gift to them. I tell the server to not tell the other patron until I have paid the bill and left (doesn't always work as I have heard people yell across the room, "Hey, thanks!" and then they get shushed by the server).

I try not to second guess who "needs" it. I just pick a table. Sometimes it is a single person, sometimes a couple and sometimes a whole family. The only criteria is that it appears they will be wanting their bill just a minute or two after I get mine.

I make sure to double-tip the server and I have heard that the other patron often leaves a big tip also.

First time I did it the waitress had to ask the manager for permission to give me the other people's bill and they both watched me carefully to see if I was trying to pull a fast one on them. But after doing it a few times at one restaurant the servers will knock people over in racing each other to the door to greet me as I come in (interesting way to find out which one has "seniority"!)... and you would be astonished at the service I get!


Hey, JJ... Hope you had a perfect birthday. And I hope all the days that are not your birthday are even better... so "a very happy un-birthday to you" today.


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## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 23 Nov 2009 12:53 PM 

I spend my "cigarette and beer" money by anonymously paying for someone else's dinner at restaurants. 






What a great thing to do! Interesting enough while dining in a restaurant yesterday with the family, we were discussing this very thing. Apparently Kurt Warner of the Arizona Cardinals football team does the same thing on a regular basis. It is a very nice way to spread some joy.


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## JEFF RUNGE (Jan 2, 2008)

So the VERY RICH are buying dinner for the RICH ?? . Nice I guess...


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Del Tapparo on 23 Nov 2009 04:22 PM 
Posted By Semper Vaporo on 23 Nov 2009 12:53 PM 

I spend my "cigarette and beer" money by anonymously paying for someone else's dinner at restaurants. 






What a great thing to do! Interesting enough while dining in a restaurant yesterday with the family, we were discussing this very thing. Apparently Kurt Warner of the Arizona Cardinals football team does the same thing on a regular basis. It is a very nice way to spread some joy. 

Yeah, once he paid for a meal for the family of a member of the opposing team!


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By JEFF RUNGE on 23 Nov 2009 05:31 PM 
So the VERY RICH are buying dinner for the RICH ?? . Nice I guess... 

VERY RICH?







NOPE! LOL! I live on Social Security and the savings I accumulated the 10 years before I retired (ex-wife spent everything prior to that time).

Try adding up how much it costs to smoke and drink... you will see how much you could spend on food for someone less fortunate.

Buying for the RICH! ??? Maybe... Dunno about most of them; obviously if they were at a restaurant they could afford to go out to eat, but then again...

I have learned, after the fact, that at least one of my "gift meals" went to a Mother and 2 children, where the Mother had not ordered anything for herself because she wanted her youngest to have a meal out for his birthday but could not afford food for all three. She wanted to know how the restaurant had known it was his birthday, but of course they didn't, and neither did I. (BTW: If I had been "calculating" about it, I would not have purchased anything for that family... the kids were rowdy and quite obnoxious and the "Mother" was coarse and crude in language, dress and conduct!). The server told me that when the Manager heard the Mother asking abut it he gave her a "Doggie bag" with several pieces of fried chicken, containers of mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and several biscuits with a bunch of those little jelly packages. The waitress said it became quite "a scene", with the Mother sobbing and the kids sitting so still and quiet! I would have loved to have seen THAT!

I bought "Happy Meals", at an interstate McDonald's, for a Farmer's kids (and food the parents, too). This was one of the few times that my selection was "calculated"... "Dad" had waited in the car for "Mom" and the kids to go in to get some food for the kids. The kids were whining for "Happy Meals" and while I was holding the door for them I overheard "Mom" whisper to the kids that they could not afford to get much "because of what has happened". I was rather rude in that I asked the Mother about her comment to the kids and after she had explained that they had just lost their farm in foreclosure and were on their way to live with her parents, I told her to order anything they wanted. The kids just wanted a Happy Meal, I don't remember what "Mom" got, but I got "Dad" a Big Mac, Fries and a Vanilla Milkshake and took it to him on my way to my car. "Mom" and kids were following me as I put it on the hood of his car and yelled, "Merry Christmas" to him (it was in July!). He had the dumbest look on his face, looking in the sack, as I was driving away!

One time, at the usual restaurant, one of the servers gushed, "You must have won the lottery!" To which I replied, "I have never lost the lottery." She got this real quizzical look for a second and then realized that I have never played the lottery. If you can't give up your cig's or booze, then stop buying 10 lottery tickets every week and at the end of the month go out to have a nice meal someplace and get some REAL joy by buying a meal for someone else, too. It can't be beat!!!!!

If you already don't smoke, don't drink, and don't play the lottery, and still cannot afford to share with someone less fortunate, then go down to the local food bank, Salvation Army or other "helper" type organization and volunteer your time.


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## JEFF RUNGE (Jan 2, 2008)

Semper, My comment was per the KURT WARNER reference, and not that I don't like him or his team or what he does. But if your eating, where dinner for 2 runs over $100.00 they don't need a hand out. If it is just for fun, go for it. 
Just for the record, I don't and never did smoke, I drink a beer a few times a year, ( less then a six pack a year) I play the lottery with about the same frequency that I drink and what I have spent on trains in my life time is be a very small percentage of what a pack a day smoke habit or a 6 pack a week addiction would cost... . However in this economy I just pay the basic bills, no more trains for now. The hospital I owe money is going to have to wait till I land a job that pays more then the eight to ten dollar an hour jobs that are out there. Oh and no you don't need health insurance to get medical care, but you do need a good job to afford the insurance. 
Well back to Careerbuilder to see what's new...


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I have a big tray in the shifter console of my Envoy. I put all my change in there. There are times when I get to a stop lite and there is some one in need. I grap a big fist full of change and give it to him Mostly quarters. I did this once to a kid that was in the median. He looked like he fell asleep in the sun. He was all blisters. I gave him a hand full of change. Two days later I had to pass the same intersection. There he was with new Sneakers. I gave him another hand full. The nex time I saw him about 4 days later he han on clean Clothes and was all washed up and clean shaven . He had a hair cut. He had taken the money people had given him and used it well . 

That Part of Phoenix is not good. I have gone through Mc Dolands and gotten extra hamburbers and gave them to the less fortunate. On the way home from my last tirp to ABQ I stopped at a KFC for supper. I was eating it in my car watching the sun set Near Holbrook AZ. I older Native American came up to the car and explained his wife and him were trying to get meal at Mc Donalds. I gave him 10 bucks.

One of the things that tug on my heart strings the hardest is the Home Less. I give when I can.


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