Good Morning All. Clear skies and 78°. Starting out at 78° is not a good omen, although it only reached 97° yesterday. Forecast is on repeat cycle, hot and dry with highs near 100° from now until September. There might be some high clouds later this afternoon. Oh yes, the semi-permanent heat advisory is in effect and has been since June 8.
Nothing unusual about the eye exam yesterday, I actually saw the Ophthalmologist instead of one of his assistants. Didn't know in advance that they intended to dilate my eyes, so the trip home was interesting! He confirmed that I still have 20/20 vision in both eyes, which I thought so anyway. Still need reading glasses for the phone, but I can normally read the desktop screen without them. At some point I need to set an appointment at the driver's license place and have the restriction removed from my license. I still have about a dozen pair of readers of varying strengths laying around the desk and the workbench.
On the way home, I went to Sam's Club since we skipped that stop last week. Something new at the one we visit, actually a convenient thing. On the way out of the store, there is a pair of what look like giant metal detectors, but are actually just receipt scanners. The result is that you don't have to wait in line for the clerk to scan at your receipt and the goodies in the shopping cart; they just wave you through! Saves a few minutes.
Otherwise a mundane day until it got too warm to work outdoors. The usual stuff which is now down to tree debris and branch removal and processing. At some point, I will get enough removed to start gathering up the remnants of the barn and filling the dumpster. I might hire a crew of helpers for that.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I split my time between figures and running trains. Decided to do two large (to me) switching runs. One of them was switching out 16 loaded covered grain hoppers at the ADM complex. There were 8 each on the loading track and the storage track. Just to make it a bit more complex, the crew had to stop for a few minutes on the passing siding, while I ran an Autorack train by on the main line. The other run was to switch out 16 loaded tankers of Ethanol at the refinery They were split at 8 each on the two loading tracks. I was able to use the main to hold the empties while I assembled the loads on the passing siding.
Meanwhile I performed some minor surgery over on the workbench. So many of these Chinese figures as well as the ones from Preiser are passengers, and I have no passenger trains or stations. So I removed a suitcase from this fellow.
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I continued with others and just need a few final colors on a few of them, mostly hair and shoes.
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Swal - I haven't formed an opinion regarding the Covid shots yet. I got the first three and felt no adverse effects that I know of. We had a 42 year old niece and a friend's 23 year old son both die before the vaccines were distributed; that was scary so we took the safe path. Every member of both of my daughters' families got sick, several times in some cases, even though they got the shots. This was after the first wave and they just felt ill for about a week and a half. Both my wife and I have pretty robust immune systems, so in retrospect we may not have needed the shots. She was not going to be allowed to have her knee replacement surgeries unless she was vaccinated.
Mac - Nice series of pictures yesterday.
I resemble that. I managed to go from 1968 until 2005 without seeing a doctor. Then things started happening. It's taken a while, but my primary care guy now knows that I would prefer to work on what causes conditions rather than taking pills to mask the results. Watching those damn carbs has been hard but effective. Moderation has been OK, but I sometimes think "What the heck, I don't have much time left anyway".
Troy - Re: Tinnitus. I found out early on not to fret about it. It isn't going to go away, just get used to it. Masking is a good temporary fix, but it still isn't going to go away. Worrying about it makes it seem worse; and indeed may make it worse. The damage was done years ago and cannot be undone.
Everyone have a terrific Tuesday.