Good Morning All. Clear and 65°. 10 day forecast is still the same, clear, sunny, low humidity, mild wind, and temperatures in the 65°-90° range. Maybe partly cloudy next Tuesday. The only rain that I see right now on the radar is in
Patrick's area, 300 miles away.
Thursday again, which is weekly grocery trek day. Wife is not going today since she is going to her hair dresser at the same time. A stop at Sam's Club is in order for the reason explained below.
Yesterday's visit to the Cardiac Electrophysiologist was not what I expected and it went very well. He spent over 30 minutes with me and my wife reviewing stuff and explaining what was probably happening; and what type of service he could offer if any was needed. Much more detailed and thorough than either my cardiologist or PCP had ever been. He definitely wasn't "on the clock" like most doctors that I have seen. I left with a monitor to wear for 30 days, unobtrusive patch that I don't really notice unless I put my hand on it. I'm supposed to live life as normal except don't go swimming! OK, the season is over anyway.
After that, we went to pick up my LH hearing aid which had come back from the shop Tuesday. Sadly it was out of warranty by 10 days, so I was out of some $$$. I knew this when I dropped it off 3 weeks ago. I need to have an additional adjustment made, (it's just too loud), but I can do that in Denton since they have now re-opened the hearing aid center in the Sam's Club there. Finally hired a tech for it after being closed for a couple of months.
Didn't get home until 2:00, so the day was already shot. I'm still adjusting the already fluid schedule since I am not spending 1-1 1/2 hours in the pool every day. Since we weren't home early enough to thaw out supper, we went to our favorite Italian Restaurant with our BYOB bottle of wine.
After napping, I went straight to the train shed. Yesterday's task was to change the front couplers on all 6 of the ScaleTrains couplers from their plastic couplers to Kadee #146 longs. That's because all of my freight cars have trip pins that get hung on the ST front plows if I use #148's. For now, I am leaving their couplers on the back end, because I always run my diesels lashed up in back to back pairs. Eventually they will get the #148's back there, but I primarily wanted to run them yesterday. I still harken back to the old days of running a few laps to "break them in" even though I know that it isn't necessary with today's models. I ran a few 18-20 car trains with one pair for some of the time. Different pair today.
More photos today, close-ups.
Can't tell from these pictures, but 5174 & 5176 are earlier rebuilds without ditch lights. All of these models represent units built with 88" noses. I had previously gotten some from ST with 123" "snoot" noses, which ATSF had a few of, 24 I think. They had 187-SD40-2's all together. My roster contains probably 26, with some from Kato, P2K and Athearn.
Swal - With a bit of care, that holly hole could become a putting green!
Todd - Please wish Maria a happy Birthday today from me.
Mikey - I just use some old beach towels folded up for knee pads on the floor. If I know that I will be doing extensive time there, I have 2 pairs of real knee pads, one for indoor stuff and the other for outdoor stuff.
Chet - Of course every time that you post photos, I see a piece of my layout in them. Thanks as always for the opportunity to take some inventory off your hands. I'll have to think long and hard if you ask for any of it back!
John - I did run all 6 engines together Tuesday when I took the pictures that I posted yesterday. It was indeed sweet.
Singer/bassist for the Police, Sting, is 74 today.
Everyone have a terrific Tuesday.