Good Morning All. Clear and a chilly 24° out there. It will be in the mid-50's today with a rapid warm-up after that, still with 80° in the forecast for Wednesday. I'll welcome the sunshine after 3 cloudy days.
Yesterday, I finally walked up to the neighbor's property at the top of the hill going west, after seeing 3 truckloads of lumber going up there over the past 10 days. Jimmy, age 82, had already signed all of his 20 acres over to his now 50+ year old son about 10 years ago. Marty bought a trailer and moved out there with his son and girlfriend about 3 years ago, and had a slab poured in 2020, but lumber shot up in cost so he stopped there. Now lumber has come down some and he also finally sold his house in the city and commenced to building his "forever home". So I'm getting a new house built nearby without actually gaining any new neighbors. Because of the rise and descent of the hill, I cannot see the actual house from the SFW estate. Marty is building a room w/bath in a wing of the house for Dad, but Jimmy says that he will not leave his current trailer and move in. Seems like a nice house though, with 6" exterior walls to allow for lots of insulation. Looks to be about 2800 ft² with another 1000 ft² garage.
Still haven't seen any sign of activity at the AWOL neighbors house
, however after a 10 day absence, the garbage dumpster returned. Their Longhorns seem to be doing OK for now.
I had an extremely lazy day yesterday, sitting in front of the computer for far too long. Other than walking up the road and back, the only other thing that I did was to hoe up an area in the garden to plant Lettuce, Spinach and Broccoli plants in either tomorrow or Tuesday. I need to prepare a bed to plant the Green Peas in as well. For the Lettuce and Spinach, I will plant some plants and also plant some seeds to stagger the harvest.
While I did go out to the train shed yesterday, I only ran trains since that's why I built it. No project work of any kind, although I did do some vacuuming under the layout.
Oftentimes I build structures that I don't have a place for yet on the current layout. I still have about 30% of the overall layout left to scenic, but I resolved to complete some blank areas first. Here are a few of those structures that are sitting on the "ready shelf" waiting for their turn.
I have always anticipated a semi-completion date of mid-2025, but I may move it back a bit.
Patrick - When they did my fiber-optic, they used a machine that just sliced the ground and laid the cable behind it about 14" deep, across 250' of yard from their box to my existing telephone box. Then someone with a rake pushed some of the dirt back in. A different fellow (tech from the local phone co) made the final 40' connection to inside the house. Once it later rained, the path disappeared.
Sherrel - Re: The temporary handicap placard. Here they mark the expiration date on the placard with a Magic Marker that can be removed with acetone (in wife's case fingernail polish remover), and a new one can then be written. It doesn't change the "punched-out" dates, but I never have seen anyone get close enough to check those. I generally don't use it unless absolutely necessary.
Hockey is easy. Skate around with a stick and swat at a little rubber disc. If you hit someone else with your stick, they send you to an isolation box for two minutes.
Mikey - Yes those trees do appear to be Crepe Myrtle trees. in this part of Texas, they seem to be a "go to" tree in cemeteries.
Joe - There is way too much money being spent in politics, both to get elected and after politicians get elected. I think that one primary reason is that most politicians don't know squat about budgeting and have never owned or managed a business.
Todd - There's no such thing as a last word. The conversation might pick back up 15 years later!
Daytona 500 today. Another example of a sport that has been recently "dumbed down".
Everyone have a super Sunday.
. In the train room I finished up Wileys Waterproofing. I ended up making a couple minor changes to the kit. It's sitting on the layout in it's general area but it won't be finalized until I build the FOS McCauleys kit. They will sit next to each other on the layout.
