Good Morning All. Mostly clear, or partly cloudy depending on how you look at it, and 71° here on the plains of North Central Texas. Cooler weather continues with the high today, like yesterday, in the low-90's. Even lower beginning Sunday if the weather geeks are to be believed, with scattered thunderstorms possible at the beginning of the week. Not our usual July weather. The pool has cooled off to 85° due to the cloudiness this week.
Yesterday's grocery trek went well, but it does seem that prices did make another jump in the last 2-3 weeks. It seems that our local Kroger has gotten the message from customers and now has 2-3 manned checkout lanes open all of the time once again. Baggers seem to be absent though. It's OK because I don't always mind bagging my own groceries, as I understand the concept of putting cold stuff with cold stuff for the trip home in the cooler. While I pat Kroger on the back for hiring people with mental and physical deficiencies, they really are at the bottom of the labor pool. Even after explaining the concept, I still get bread in the same bag as sour cream. Gasoline prices about town haven't moved much in the last two months, staying between $3.05 and $3.19/gal at most places.
Task of the day today is to gather up and stack firewood. I have piles in 3 different places of variably seasoned wood that need to be stacked in their respective storage racks. I might mow in the "back 40" if I'm feeling real energetic, but there is no pressing need to yet. It ain't growing any more until the next rain. Depending on the time and how warm it gets, I may also cut up some more trees.
Out in the train shed yesterday, it was work on infrastructure and do some re-boxing of model railroad magazines. The boxes got wet when the roof disappeared during the tornado, some of the mags on the bottom are damaged. In reality, I've actually just made it easier to get them all to the recycle center since I haven't used any of them in years. I intend to add some more shelving under the layout within the next few weeks, and started yesterday by reorganizing some minor wiring issues in the way. Then I remembered that I am 18 days overdue with the start of the quarterly layout cleanup. It's time for segment 3 on the lower level. While I eyeballed things, I didn't start yet.
None of yesterday's layout work is worthy of a picture, so I will visit the archive again. Once again, I will highlight a layout that I went to on a home layout tour associated with the semi-annual train show in Plano TX.
Tom O - I wouldn't worry about the modeling mojo yet. I find that it always returns, in my case within 3-4 days.
Terry - We haven't seen any "statement charges" on any statements or bills yet. But it may be hidden in the multi-multi page phone bill somewhere.
Today is the 77th birthday of Brian May, guitarist for Queen. I didn't realize that he was older than me.
Everyone have a great Friday. It may be payday for some.
