Scattered Thoughts . . .

I've been focused on working on Lukey's train set (new scenery, new buildings, new trains) for some presents this coming Christmas. While I was looking for stuff for Lukey's train set, I ran across something which caused me to change gears briefly. For quite some time now, I've been reading about modelers who convert old S scale American Flyer freight cars to O scale narrow gauge. O scale is a larger scale than S scale but narrow gauge trains are purposefully smaller than their standard gauge counterparts so the smaller S scale trains often measure just right for O scale narrow gauge.  "Standard gauge" trains are the trains we see running around our real life world today... the rails are almost five feet apart (4'-8½", to be exact) and the trains are quite large. In smaller, tighter places, however, smaller trains were necessary (and a few are still running today) ... ie, winding through mountains, dense woods, around wharfs, in industrial comple...

We had a really nice weekend and had an especially nice Sunday dinner with the grandchildren, Liza, and Sheila's parents, Will and Sue! Lukey arrived at the house with a golf club in hand which immediately reminded me of creating golf courses when I was a kid myself. We kept the course design simple on this day, however.  First, we dug one single hole, inserted a cup, and then we figured out where to place five different tee off areas... one straight-on... one off to the side... one which we called "down in the hole" which placed the tee off area lower than the green... one which was off to the side of "down in the hole" requiring chipping around tall brush and foliage... and one which required chipping over our firepit.  We took a little break for lunch... cheese quesadillas, tomato soup, apple sauce and berry jello for the kids... some leftover fried okra for me... and a cherry tomato medley salad for Gee... then back outside to play more go...