A Rainy Day Distraction

For the past two or three weeks (it seems like two or three months, actually), Sheila and I have been completely immersed in cancer stuff with little time nor energy for much else. 

We've definitely eaten out significantly more often because we simply have had no time to cook on far too many days. All of our attention and all of our energy has been actively and acutely focused on doing everything possible to get beyond Sheila's cancer. 

Yesterday morning, Sheila was a bit too emotional for driving to work nevermind working through the day so, instead of driving to work while trying to see through a wall of tears, she called work and arranged to have the day off to regroup. The dreaded thought and knowledge of lymph involvement and metastatizing of her breast cancer was a bit too overwhelming so we called a timeout from everything and we spent the day together doing "normal" things for a change.

I took Sheila out to lunch and, for the most part, we talked about other things... about getting out of town whenever possible, about the grandkids, about the kids, and generally tried to keep the conversations focused on living life today, tomorrow and in our future. 

We went to Marco's for some pizza and then we did a little bit of shopping for some appropriate bras for Sheila in her post breast cancer surgery condition. She is still healing from the surgery and I know this can't be comfortable.

Shopping for bras actually proved to be much more cathartic for Sheila than we had envisioned. She even appeared more relaxed and at ease after finding some appropriate and comfortable bras.

The day turned out to be a very nice, relaxed diversion and distraction.

Today, Sheila went to work so I'm home alone with my own thoughts. I wanted to work on the house and use that as a distraction from all medical stuff but today is a rainy day. The moment I saw the rain and the temperature (in the 40s... when it is rainy and in the 40s, I'd much prefer snow so I can stay dry), I knew I would be indoors today and would need to find some other distraction. 

Fortunately, I had a little fun project just waiting for a day like today.

For the last few years, I've been slowly collecting used trains as I find them for sale which would be appropriate for a little room-sized model railroad I hope to build near the end of our home renovations. I recently found another O scale diesel locomotive for only $25 so I quickly purchased it and it had arrived late last week amid all of this cancer stuff. I placed this new-to-me locomotive on our mantel waiting for a day like today... rainy, cold and during a time when I need a change of pace. 

So, I cleared out a clean area in our living room in front of the fireplace by moving a bunch of building supplies. For those who don't know, our house currently is cluttered with building supplies because we were in the midst of a major renovation when we received the news of Sheila's cancer. So, I cleared out a long strip of a clean spot and laid down a ten foot test track. I then wired this test track to the appropriate power controller. 

Now it was time to test this little old locomotive. 

I placed the locomotive on the track... I powered it up and the lights came on brightly... then it slowly started moving... it was a little jerky, but it was moving. This was good news!

When the little locomotive reached the end of the test track I reversed direction and moved it back toward me. I could hear some gears grinding but that didn't really surprise me since this locomotive probably had not been maintained in a decade or two or more. No problem. It was a good time for some maintenance and even a little preventive maintenance. 

I brought the little locomotive over to my desk where I have a magnifying lamp for such projects... dug out some screwdrivers, oil and grease... and started disassembling this little guy. Once disassembled, I lubed it up... cleaned up some parts... fixed the lighting... then assembled it again and placed it on the track...

It was now running much more smoothly!

Okay... now I need to find another little project to keep me distracted...