Good Morning All. Running late today. Got up and then went back an hour later and slept soundly for another hour. Mostly clear and 46°, although the south wind gives a wind chill of 41°. However that same south wind will warm us up to 75° later today before another cold front midday tomorrow. Ironically I have parts of the yard to mow here in mid-January today.
Really busy day yesterday, starting with household chores and then the trip to town. Wife's laser eye surgery went well. It was basically to remove scar tissue left over from the original cataract surgery done back in September. While she was in there, I went to the other side of town for a haircut and beard trim. I usually do my own beard, but I just felt lazy yesterday. Then we treated ourselves to Pizza before heading home to take a nap around 2:30ish. After that, I brought in firewood for the night, but ended up not having to start a fire anyway. Meanwhile I was starting a rack of baby-back ribs for supper and I received a phone call from brother #1 regarding the services for my late brother #3. Since he willed his body to science, the Catholic Church doesn't have an official Rosary and private wake. The rules for the Rosary are that there must be a body! So, we're going to skip the Rosary and go straight to the private adult only family celebration of life (the wake & a sit-down prime rib dinner) at a high rolling country club across the road from where Jim (and also my other two brothers) live. Expecting at least 28 cousins from out of town as well as 40 Dallas area siblings who honor me as the family's patriarch. That's already confirmed; there could be more out of town cousins. The Memorial Service will be the following day with a reception afterward at the same place with god knows how many family and church friends also in attendance. Of course the estate is picking up the tab which is currently estimated at ~$26K. Irish people like to party!
On tap today is to locate and try on my suit. I think that I know where it is! Last time that I wore it, I was 40 lbs heavier!
Thanks for the comments and likes yesterday regarding my minuscule layout progress;
Smudge, Joe, Karl, Gary, Tom O, Patrick, Louis, OB Ken, Hughie, Sherrel, Mikey, George, Steve J, Justin, Curt, Rick, Tom.
With all of the other activity yesterday, I didn't have much time in the train shed. I was able to at least spray the Antiques Barn with dull coat.
Back to the archives today. So how about some folks having issues on my layout. All is not nirvana on my layout.
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Sherrel - Congratulations on
finally being caught up on taxes. Now you can start on 2021! We got caught on the wife unemployment and no withholding back in '84. That was back when you could actually talk to someone at the IRS and I avoided the penalty by pointing out that I had already had enough withheld in the then current year. Still had to pay the back tax though to avoid a penalty in '85.
Joe - Fortunately the RR ROW's around here are rather free from any metal junk, as scavengers get most of it before it can get there. It mostly ends up on rural roads for a few days though. Along the RR's, it's mostly old tires which I have a few on my layout. Have you seen the recent pictures from LA showing the litter from thieves breaking into UPS and Amazon containers and removing the contents of packages?
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Apparently they are just taking items of value and discarding the rest. LA cops are doing nothing, saying it's UP's problem. Maybe they should quit parking trains there!
Tom O - While I didn't see any of the Dallas/SF game, the local media is roasting the Cowboys pretty badly. It wasn't just poor officiating, but just a lousy game plan and terrible execution that cost them. That jives with my in-house analyst as well. It's been the opinion that Jerry Jones should have just given up the GM job back in the 90's when he pissed off Jimmy Johnson.
Patrick - It's a shame that you couldn't use the whole bridge, but the scaled down version is looking good.
Everybody have a great day. Stay warm and safe.
