Another Very Productive Day

Today was another very productive day!  I am left in extreme pain but it was a very productive day.

I ended up getting sunburned pretty badly but that doesn't seem to be painful.  Sheila thinks it will blister but, oddly enough, I'm not finding it all that painful at the moment.  It is uncomfortable but I wouldn't call it painful.  I'm thinking I got so sunburned because I may still be very sensitive and vulnerable to the sun after two antibiotic treatments for my tick bite in recent months.  The heat index today was at 102 degrees so it was definitely too hot out there to be doing anything physical as well as being prime sunburning weather.  

The real pain is in my joints and my spine.  The pain is nearing an unbearable eight on the ten point pain scale.  I plan to take some AlevePM tonight so that should help me get some sleep by cutting the pain and making me drowsy.  This will also mean a down day tomorrow due to drowsiness but it is supposed to rain tomorrow anyway so I'll be stuck indoors at least for part of the day.

Today, however, I managed to get a lot of track laid in the garden model railroad.  I shot a few photos as the work progressed through the day...

I decided to make lap joints to hold all the pieces of wood together.  These pieces of wood are sort of a roadbed for the elevated track.  Unfortunately, these lap joints ended up making this a very time consuming project.  Each piece of wood had a four inch rabbit on each end so each piece of wood required about 60 sawed kerfs.  Then I used a chisel and a belt sander to quickly knock off the saw kerfs.  That really slowed me down but I seem to have much more solid joints now.

This particular joint, below, isn't level (this roadbed is still slightly tilted uphill but is supposed to be level and will be level before this is finished) which is why there is the angled gap between the parts.  

Today, I installed both curves, one at each end of the layout.  My plan is to join both ends in the middle of the back side of the garden layout.  This will allow me to mildly shift the track plan one direction or another in three axes as necessary without it being very noticeable.  

The ground on this end of the layout is filled with buried rocks (below).  This really slowed me down too.  Pounding in the support columns was impossible on this end of the garden until I painstakingly removed all the rocks.

The beginning of this curve is also the beginning of the long wood trestle bridge.  Well, it will be where the trestle bridge is located.  I'm really looking forward to getting that bridge installed!  It will be a great feature of the garden railroad.

And here, below, is a wider shot of where the wood trestle bridge will be located.  The bridge will curve all the way around to the back side of the garden.

Again, below is the curve that will be all wood trestle bridge underneath this curve...

I have to say that although it was a very productive day, it was also an extremely painful day all day today.  First, my health does not do well in the heat so I had to take a lot of breaks throughout the day.  I kept cooling myself off under cold water and getting a cold drink every time I went inside to cool down.  I don't know how much of an effect the heat had on the intense pain in my joints and spine but I'm sure it didn't help.  

My spinal injuries are screaming today and were screaming at me all day.  I'm having great difficulty getting around and I'm a bit bent over sort of resembling a question mark.  

My knees, ankles and hips are killing me too.  I'm assuming this is some of the long-COVID stuff that is still lingering.  I do get daily joint pain anyway due to my primary illness but this is far worse than usual today.  

My breathing was quite labored too.  I'm sure this is one of my long-COVID symptoms that is compounded by my primary illness.  

I'm now in the air conditioned house so I'm feeling quite a bit more comfortable...   still in significant pain but, overall, I'm feeling more comfortable so that's good.

This project is definitely coming along nicely.  I'm pretty sure I will only need about half a day to finish up the trackwork on the back side of the garden.  I'm looking forward to running a train around this garden!   (I'm pretty sure Lukey is looking forward to it too!)