# To the last I grapple with thee...



## GN_Rocky (Jan 6, 2008)

Dwight will love that one liner !!! So Dwight, name the movie and the charactor that spoke it.

1000 more miles on the truck to finish up, yes the condo...

All is set-up and put into motion for the LAST trip to finish the job. 
Tommorrow is "sign the papers" day and meetings with my uncle, realtor and handyman - to pay the balance of the bill. 
Saturday will be the loading of the last few garden/outdoor items and to clean( remove amy brick and weeds ) the garden where the little 2nd layout was, then even out ballast/dirt and add in mulch. The inside is done. All I have to do is remove the setion couch and take it to the dumpster the morning I leave to come home. Sunday AM will be the return trip - Sat. PM if I run ahead of schedule. So I will be off line thru the weekend. I just need to gather up some clothes and things to pop in the truck, then get the Russian, his food and nest, etc. and we're off !!! So hopefully this will be the last time I go to FL. Be nice to bring closure to that chapter of my life and focus 100% of my time here. 12 years I spent there, wow a big chunk of my life.It'll be nice to as they say here - "Git 'er Done !!!!!!!!"


Rocky


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Well Rocky;
I'm not Dwight, but my guess is Capt. Ahab in the movie version of Moby Dick (just a reminder to some of you - it's about a WHALE not VD).









Anyway, best of luck in your final venture for the move.

Yours,
David Meashey


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## fsfazekas (Feb 19, 2008)

"From ****'s heart I stab at thee..." (?) I'm gonna go with Kahn from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn but I'm biased toward sci-fi...


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Kahn is quoting Herman Melville's Moby Dick. It's Ahab's last speech. I can't help but wish people knew it form Moby Dick rather than from a star trek movie, but you take what you can get!


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## Dr Rivet (Jan 5, 2008)

Makes even more sense if you look at the whole quote from Moby Dick ... just substitute the FL property for the whale. 

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from ****’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!" 

Glad Rocky will soon only have to worry about GOATS causing derailments on his line when his back is turned. 

Safe trip.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

99.9% of Trek fans and sci-fi nerds knew it was quoted from Moby Dick, the other nimrods in the theater I cannot say but Moby Dick was one of the books clearly shown in Kahn's encampment. BTW its not the only Trek movie where Moby Dick was referenced, First Contact also quoted Melville when Pickard is confronted with his obsession of defeating the Borg, "if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it." 










If anyone is interested Moby Dick was based on a REAL event, in 1820 the whaling ship Essex sailing off South America was rammed and sunk by an enraged Sperm Whale, only a handfull of crew survived after a harrowing journey in open whale boats sailing 3000 miles back to South America and having to resort to cannablism to survive. One survivor the first mate, later as a captain sailed back to those waters to specificly hunt down and kill that particular whale down, which he did! But the memories marked him for life. The story and other similar incidents of sperm whales fighting back later became the nucleus for Melvilles novel in 1850.


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## GN_Rocky (Jan 6, 2008)

Ok, time to get this thread back to what it was meant to be... 
I never did care much for the "whale" book anyway, it WAS the Wrath of Kahn and it WAS a much better story line too, at least for me and other Trekies too









Alright, the last load of stuff out of the shed was loaded and brought up. 










It was one of the Heavier loads too due to the 2 horse statues on one side of the bed and a bunch of bricks on the other side to even out the load... 

The inside of the condo is empty and I didn't shoot pic.s of it for here, because it is NOT train related. THe realtor will do that and E-mail them to me for my records. 
But what we can do here is some Before and after shots.

Remember back some years, before the war with the HOA Nazis ??? 
The backyard looked like this ....










Now it looks like this ...










Ok, try again, before ( a little earlier -2004 ) ...










and now as it is today ...










THen there was the front yard where the 2nd outdoor layout was...

Before...




























And this is how it appears today in the front yard ....



















I didn't have many shots of the Phase 2 part of the front yard layout that was Zoomed out









But all is now returned to a normal, non train layout piece of property. 
Everything has been moved now or has been taken to the dumpster. I have walked thru the unit wiith the realtor. The re-fit is 95% done and will be done by tomorrow. 
Cleaning will be done by the end of the week and the disclosure and sale papers have been filled out. THis listing will go active next week. Soooo........

I am DONE in Taco land and need not return ever - Hooray !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

It's just a little bit of time B-4 Chris calls me to say - "this is our offer that was made, accept it ???" 

Sales papers will be Fed-exed back and forth as will a check be sent when all is said and done. 

I will drink a beer that day. 

I am happy now









Rocky

- Now back to work building my trains here in Possum Snout


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Sorry Rocky. I've been out of town and just saw this.


Also paraphrased by Kahn from Moby Dick...


"I'll chase him round the Moons of Nibia, and round the Antares Maelstrom, and round *perdition's* *FLAMES* before I give him up!"


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Herman Melville lived and wrote Moby Dick in the city i live in.


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## rdamurphy (Jan 3, 2008)

Herman Melville? I thought that was Kahn Noonian Singh?


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## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

Gee, Rocky- the landlord and/or the HOA couldn'tr even be bothered to issue a last round of threats/bills?


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Oh Yeah Rocky, those after pics are definetly WAY better (snark)









I'm considered a liberal and even I have no problem with taking most all HOA leaders, putting them up against the wall and pop goes the weasels!


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## norman (Jan 6, 2008)

Hi Rocky: 

Good thing that Walt Disney did not live in a condo ( no back yard train layout ) or else there may never have been a Disneyland. 

I don't see anything wrong with a back yard layout within the confines of the backyard fencing. 

I can see the HOA objecting to a front yard layout though just as one would not want to see front lawn plastic pink flamingo front lawn ornaments, etc. . 

The fronts of these condos need to appear uniform and sterile to conform to uniform tastes. 

However, there needs to be some private space ( such as that within the confines of the backyard fenced in area ) for condo owners to enjoy personal hobbies such as model trains, rose gardens, etc. One needs to enjoy some personal freedom. 

Today, up north in Ottawa, Canada it was a beautiful sunny day at 26 C I believe. Absolute perfect weather. I was thinking : Gee, how nice it would be to go down and visit Florida to enjoy more of this weather ! 

I guess as Rocky stated, Florida is for tourists. However, I saw some incredible homes down there last time I visited Florida. I could get used to that. 


Norman


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## GN_Rocky (Jan 6, 2008)

Norman, I guess you've never been to FL in thge middle of the summer when it gets Hot and steamy. Heat indexes get into the 110-130 degree range inland around Orlando. I've had cars with plastic wheels that melt on the rails from the heat. Had some tie damage too. Nope, too hot for me







Most garden RR's go into hibernation during the summer because of the heat.

As for the HOA, as long as I pay my Ass dues, they don't care. The property manager is always happy when anyone who opposes to him putting money in his pockets and stealing us blind moves away and sells their unit to someone that doesn't know what's happening in the complex









But for all purposes, I am done there








I got a call from the realtor today, Todd (the handyman/ contractor) has completed the work and the scheduled cleaning will get done tomorrow and Thursday (if needed) then the listing will go in effect by Friday. The realtor Chris already has 3 different intrested parties wanting to buy property in the complex for rental units. 

So it shouldn't take long to sell and all will be complete. 

Hopefully, it'll be sold and closed by the end of the month. Most of the sales for investment purposes have been cash deals. 

Then I'll drink my 8 year old bottle of Moosehead








It's been in cold storage ever since .... when ?!








Oh yeah since I got my divorce from the 1st wife. I said I'd save it for the day I left FL behind me









Well I got a train to switch out B-4 having to go out and mow my lawn .

Rocky


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## norman (Jan 6, 2008)

Hi Rocky: 

Being a naive Canadian, one of my visits to DisneyWorld was in July ! 

I could not believe how humid it was. I am a thin person, even thinner back in those days. Standing motionless, waiting in line to enter the "Pirates of the Caribean" , was exactly like standing inside a steam sauna. Personally, I found it amusing as the weather was a novelty for me. The teak ceiling at the front door entrance of the DisneyWorld City Hall was just dripping with condensation as the outdoor humid air met the cool indoor air conditioner exhaust. There were ceilling fans mounted under the outdoor canvass canopies to prevent folks from fainting. Still, in the evenings it was very pleasant. 

Walt Disney must have had a good reason to build DisneyWorld in Florida instead of further north ? Cheap swamp land? 

In Miami it was still humid although somewhat less so when sitting on the beach. 

Still it was exciting to visit Florida and I will probably go back again. I saw the Space Shuttle blast off from just outside the perimeter fencing. That was during Presidency of Ronald Reagan. 

I am guessing the best year round climate compromise would be somewhere around North or South Carolina. 



Norman


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## GN_Rocky (Jan 6, 2008)

Hey Norman, 
As myself as being from the not as far North (MN). I miss the snow and cooler weather. Spent many a year growing up just across the river from you on the Border in Baudette MN. 
I remember playing a real sport - hockey, growing up there. I had only moved down to FL to help with the family business (managing rental properties - condos) when my brother's diabetes got worse and he was no longer able to do the job. It took his life not 3 years later. Then my Mother started having problems and I took over her bills, and home maintanance issues as well as the condos. H1N1 took her just a bit over a year ago. So I had my chance to get out of FL forever. I never really liked it down there. I too saw the shuttle go up finally after the program was reinstated. The shuttle that had burned up that shut down the program happened the day after my brother passed away. Pretty cool to see it launch, but other than going to church in Cocoa, there was only the Lighting hockey games in Tampa that were much of anything to us. We were season ticket holders since the stanley cup year. But here in GA it's much nicer. Life is simpler with little to no Rap music spewing cars and no gangs plus very little crime in our town here. It's night and day difference from the area of Orlando we used to live in.

Life is happier here









Rocky


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## norman (Jan 6, 2008)

Hi Rocky: 

Sorry to hear of your family members passing. Moving to GA will help your emotional healing with a change of environment. 

Up here in Ottawa, the harse Winters of the 1960's and 1970's are but a memory. For some reason the recent Winters have been exceedingly mild. a walk in the park really. 

I like Michael Colbert's reference to hockey as Canadian Baseball. Very funny! 

I was disappointed when I drove around Orlando during the last visit. Yes, high crime zones and also zones of extreme poverty contrasted with zones of extreme personal wealth. Very bizaar to see such extremes. It was very tense, outside of DisneyWorld, as I always had to be aware of my surroundings. That really gets stressful after a while. 

But DisneyWorld was great. 

Miami was really neat as I have never seen such a display of personal wealth. Limos were as common as taxi cabs are back here in Ottawa. But it is too fast a lifestyle environment to live in. 

I am happy that I did not witness the space shuttle that exploded. The solid rocket booster seals were defective. All the more tragic as NASA was aware of the problem but yet did not halt the shuttle lauches until the seals issue was properly addressed. Atomic Energy of Canada assisted NASA in correcting the leaky seals on the solid rocket boosters. 

On the last drive through GA, a Police Motorcycle, was hiding in front of a tractor trailor. As I passed the tractor trailor, the Police Motorcycle pulled me over. This was a tricky speed zone trap. 
A quick drop of 10 mph just for a short section of hwy. The Police Man did not give me a ticket as he said that if I were a local "bwoy" , "boy" pronounced as "bwoy" , he would have given me a ticket. As I did not see the 10 MPH speed drop sign and I was a Canadian driving down to DisneyWorld, he did not ticket me. Remember Jackie Gleason in "Smokey and the Bandid" ? The Motorcycle Policeman, fat and wearing those "sunglasses", was an exact clone of Jackie Gleason! Imagine a very wide derriere sitting a top a narrow motorcycle seat. Very comical sight, but of course I did not laugh! 

In GA I stopped off at an old country dinner , sort of dumpy, with a slamming screen door and fly trap strips hanging from the ceiling. Just like a hollywood movie. I thought this was neat as opposed to the typical boring Mc D's . A very large local man came in and sat down at one of the lunch counter bar stools. The waitress asked "What will you have Bubba ?" . Bubba, man this is a name that you never hear up here. I really enjoyed that dinner visit. 

GA definitely seemed to be a safer environmnent, more like Ottawa. 


Norman


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Rocky 10,000 years ago Orlando was under the ocean, 10,000 years from now it will be again, your old complex will eventually be literally underwater, and not just with it's mortgage, that'll show'em!


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Couldn't resist


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Victor; 

HMmmmmm! Then we will have to change the quote to: " In civil court I will grapple with thee! For thy last red cent I will sue thee!" Ah, well. Since we live in the Age of Litigation, it kinda' fits. 

Have fun, 
David Meashey


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## Bob Pero (Jan 13, 2008)

Orlando has really slipped. I remember it as a quiet Southern town before the invasion of "the Mouse".


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## GN_Rocky (Jan 6, 2008)

Update ...

The condo has been cleaned and was just put on the market. 
I believe Chris said he has 2 or 3 showings this weekend








He also said it will go fast in a cash deal










Now on a sadder note, 
We had to put down Deb's cat Merlin this morning








Not a happy day here at all









Perhaps some train building tonight might help. 
Trying to run the NP coal transfer, but it's not helping yet.

Rocky


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