This Sunday, the kids and I assembled the old G scale “pizza box” set we put under the tree each year, only to discover the ART540 power pack has given up the ghost. I glanced at the clock, to see it was 4:05pm and wouldn’t you just know the local hobby shop (1/2 hour away) closes at 4:00pm ? My 4 year old Peter, heard Daddy say a new word just then. Mondays I carpool to work, (daughter needs the 2nd car) and it is also snowing to beat the band right now, so there is no way to get three towns over to the hobby shop and pick up a new power pack until at least Tuesday that is assuming it actually stops snowing by then. I told my wife Julie what was needed and she offered me a choice that was both sublime and ridiculous. She suggested that instead of running the G Scale under the tree (a 22 year tradition) I should buy the Lionel O-27 Thomas we saw at the local Mom & Pop toy shop, a few blocks from where I work. They don’t actually carry trains, but just sells starter sets as a holiday item. A $40 power pack or a $150 train set that my 4 year old TTTE fan would absolutely love!?! It felt I was in one of those ‘man trap’ scenarios. One of those moments like when the wife asks: 'Does this dress make me look fat?', and as God is my witness I didn't know what to do. The brutal caveat is that she wants it wrapped in its box as a gift for Peter (she said this with an exaggerated wink) but absolutely NOT running under the tree on Christmas Eve, and thus would die a great and noble tradition that began barely a month after we were married in 1986. I have to go for the Thomas set if it’s her idea, right? I’ve been admiring the no longer produced G scale Thomas and James sets on eBay for a while now. The O-27 line is more readily available and a bit more extensive too. And I can always get a new power pack next month, but if I decide to hold off on the O-27 until Peter’s birthday in February, the store might not have it we almost certainly won’t have the $ and frankly it will just never happen. Besides I can get James, or Percy, and lots of O-27 track, and the freight car set for his birthday. Hell! I’ll drag Julie’s mom to the hobby shop. Mary is the best mother in law in the world. She‘s the type who would go ga-ga, and offer to pay for it all. Opinions?
It's your hide. laugh: I'm sort of glad I don't have to make those decisions anymore. If money is tight like you say I would go with the power pack and see if you can't get a good deal on e-bay or see if you can't get a discount at that shop the day after Christmas. Have a very Merry Christmas. :tb-smile:
I would say just go with the TTTE since the wife has given you the thumbs up. As much as the old set won't be running you can still have it sitting under the tree in it's proud place of honour.
:mwink:The wife is always right, and she pretty much told you what do do. Take the hint. (I've been married 23 years)
Well, over here the fuel to go 'three towns over' and back might well come to $100, so it'd be a no brainer But more helpfully (I hope): 1/ this is SWMBO you are talking about 2/ Might the power pack for the Lionel run the G scale? (or are Lionel on the funny volts like Marklin?)
I'm married 50 years next month, and I agree with those posting before me...traditions are nice, but a wife suggesting a workable compromise is a happy wife, meaning that you are the winner in the long run...!!!
Women can be strung along, fellas...ya jus' have tuh know how tuh do it. Firstly, yep, she's right. So right, in fact, that you absolutely will do the Thomas as she opines. That does two things...makes it a no brainer for you, another empowerment for her, an inkling that trains are kinda neat...for her...really important...and pretty much keeps you running trains. Say, that comes to three things. You can keep feeding her with choices and possiblities, and when she jumps on them, you capitalize like nobody's business. At some point you end up being told to do precisely what you had intended and engineered all along, except that it was her idea.
I am laughing way toooooooooooooooooo hard to make a decsion but I think you knew before you posted the only option. < deep rollign on going laugther > Um, what, hmm,, wait (knock on the door) k I'm back, it was my downstairs neighbor asking if I was alright, (Ive been under stom stress recetnly and they were concerned). < moooooorrrrrrrrrrrr laughter > Anyway - um, thanks, I assured them I was fine, well as I tried to explain my mirth between poorly supressed chuckles. ... Ok, slow down, deep breaths, in / out / in / out k I'm alright. Yes, you have no choice. This was not an option.
HAPPY WIFE, HAPPY YOU I see a Lionel O-27 Thomas under the tree this week. As others have said HAPPY WIFE, HAPPY YOU. After almost 4 decades of being married I have learned to do what the wife said and then drop hints until she comes up with the idea. I do not have any idea how many times I have been told "No we can't do that.", or get the look like I'm NUTS and then 6 months later she has an idea and we do what ever was not an option 6 months before. Of course I don't tell her that it was an idea I had earlier. Don't get me wrong, my wife is a good person and no one else would put up with me and my trains and other hobbies. Set up the G under the tree as a static display, go buy the Lionel O-27 Thomas and get the power supply for next year. The Thomas train will not be under the tree next year because you will have started a layout for Peter. One more thing, tell the wife that she had a GREAT idea and have a Very Merry Christmas. Gary P.S. Look at it this way, you now have another scale (sorta) to work with and more reasons to go the the LHS.
I'll quote many a comedian who said it best: "Happy wife, happy life", or " If she is happy, then you are happy." It is your call. Tough one though. Who is the "CFO: of the family? If you are the CFO, can you 'adjust' some future expenses to allow both purchases now? If not, you must choose wisely. Whatever you do, enjoy it. Merry Christmas!
Resolution of Holiday Dilemma Guys, I had to let you know how this all turned out. I told Julie I could pick up the Thomas set on Wednesday at lunch. That morning after dropping Peter off at school, we swung by the ATM to get $$$ for the purchase. I almost never carry cash. She hands me $80. I should have trusted my spidey senses. She was thinking of the $75 HO TTTE set, not the $150 O-27 set. For that matter the $80 would not have covered the 9% sales tax in NY. Well that ended it right there. Suddenly she found great merit in encouraging the boy's newfound attraction to Sonic the Hedgehog. I had it all worked out how after the holidays I'd start on a 5x9 table in the basement for an O-27 Isle of Sodor layout "for Peter." In the end I managed to get the G trains running using an old power pack from an N scale set. There was no momentum effect but at least they went roundy-round.
