Good Morning All. Cloudy and 39° to start our day here. Supposed to be about 10° warmer today, up to 55° with some sunshine. The cloudiness yesterday finally produced very light rain around sundown, there's 0.25" in my rain gauge this morning. Temps in the mid-50's for the next 10 days or so. Pretty much normal weather for this time of year here.
Plans for today changed, as I received a phone call yesterday from the Cardiologist's office saying that everyone in the office was sick and they changed my appointment to late January, so that's out of the way for now. It's just the 18 month follow-up for the stent that was put in, nothing actually wrong. I'll empty the dishwasher instead, along with any other miscellaneous indoor chores that my wife can come up with.
I seem to be having an unusually large number of field rats this year. They build their nests under the raised firewood stacks. I've caught 5 in the week since Christmas so far. I will have to berate the snake and hawk population for not doing a better job. I normally don't have enough of them to bother setting traps, but their high visibility this season prompted me to do so. Speaking of wildlife, I didn't post a few days ago, that when I went to daughter #2's home on Christmas Day, we saw a rather well-fed coyote in the street in their neighborhood. I asked her about it and apparently it's a neighborhood pet, so to speak. Their neighborhood Facebook page has even given it a name, Jimmy Coyote. They think that it mostly spends time in a nearby 8 acre wooded park that also has a lake full of fish in it. They do eat fish and frogs as well as domestic cats and small puppies! Don't bother asking how I know about the latter two!
While I did get out to the train shed yesterday, I didn't really do much. Mainly I tidied things up and got (looked for) the tools needed to start the cemetery scene. I removed the grain elevator that resides in front of the location , vacuumed, and measured my dimensions.
That steel 18" ruler marks the eastern boundary. Included in this project will be finishing the ground cover that's been hidden behind the grain elevator all of these years. The elevator was the first industry that I installed on this layout.
The other project that I will be working on at the same time, is the quarterly layout cleaning. If you have been following me over the years, then you know that each level of my layout is divided into 4 approximately equal sections. I clean one section at a time at the beginning of each calendar quarter, thus each gets a deep cleaning once every two years. This entails removing all rolling stock, inspecting all track, and vacuuming all of the track and surrounding area. I clean the track also, not out of necessity, but as a proactive measure. I follow that with removing the vehicles and structures individually and taking them to the workbench for cleaning or repair; sometimes for additional detailing. The blank areas also get a vacuuming.
This quarter I am back to what I refer to as "the beginning". It's the first part of the layout that I built and this section starts at the large visible staging yard on the east wall and continues for about 60' to the other end of the town of Gainesville which also includes the town of Budville.
This is where I start. I will be moving all of these trains out to the main line and passing sidings for a few days as I start. There's 9 complete trains in this 12 track staging yard.
It kinda counts as running trains!
After cleaning this 2'x16' section, then I have to back everything up. It's a good test of rolling stock and trackwork.
Chris - It is interesting that the exploding car video that you posted yesterday was readily available when I first saw it. Later in the day and today as well, there is a notice that it is age-restricted and you must view it on You Tube and not on the forum! I wonder why that is? I watched without the sound, so maybe there is some salty language in it.
Karl - That's a neat looking kit. You're tempting me again by providing the link!
Everyone have a great day.
symbols in the WeatherChannel’s app forecast. I may after the swim this morning nap under the SAD lights in the shop.
