Scattered Thoughts . . .

L ast night I received a short note from my Oncologist about one of my most recent test results from tests done a month ago.  It is a relatively new test and so had to go to a separate lab.   I didn't see this note from my oncologist until we were heading to bed so this new information kept us up for another hour or so while we talked about it and what this possibly means for our immediate future as well as for the bigger, longer-term picture.   To be honest, I really wasn't expecting anything other than negative results from this new test so I have to admit I was a bit surprised to see that this time the results were positive.   This is a relatively new test that I had to pay in advance fully because no insurance companies are covering it just yet.  Although a relatively new test, it is a test result that can explain critically and chronically poor health like I am experiencing.  Naturally, this test also provides us with not only an additional diagnosis but with a significant

I spent much of the day yesterday working on our garden railroad again.  I stained all of the bare wood for two reasons...  first, bare wood looks unfinished but I wanted more of a finished look and next, the deck stain that I used will help to protect the wood from the elements.  I also primed the new truss bridge.  Right now it is primed black but I will probably finish it with a medium gray color and then weather it. I plan to add some gravel to this front section of the railroad to be used as ballast.  In an effort to keep the gravel from inevitably falling off this elevated train station section, I needed to add some short guard rails along the edge of this decking to keep the gravel up where it belongs.  Once I had cut and installed all of these side rails, I was ready to do some staining. There is a rather stark difference between the unstained wood in the above photo and the stained wood in the photo below... I also primed the new truss bridge.  Next week I hope to get to toni

S o, the other day, I built a retaining wall for the front side of our little garden railroad and wrote about it here  in this blog previously.  That new "model" retaining wall looks great and I have to say it was a brilliant idea to add this detail.  Today, I started working on building a truss bridge for the back side of the garden railroad.   I've been sketching different ideas over the past couple of months because I always knew I wanted one of these bridges on this garden railroad but I finally decided on a plan this morning.  Once I had the plan sketched and figured out all the dimensions of each of the parts, I immediately headed outside to start cutting lumber and building a truss bridge.  My civil engineering days are long behind me but, if I remember correctly, this would be a Warren Truss bridge due to the equilateral triangles across each side of the bridge. Designing this bridge required me to test my geometry and trigonometry skills (and my memory).  Other t

I 'm still recovering from my last bout with COVID so let me mention this continually lingering illness so nobody mistakes no news for good news.   My breathing is quite lousy...  I'm constantly trying to cough up the thickest of thick mucus...  I'm having difficulty breathing when laying down which makes getting some much needed sleep more difficult...  I have extremely painful joints...  and I'm generally feeling quite lousy.  Even so, I've still been trying to accomplish something, anything, each day.   The other day, I decided that I didn't like the front side of our garden railroad.  I have this front section up on 4x4 stilts so it has always looked a bit weird to me.  I'm planning to build a train station for this part of the railroad.  First I need to figure out the best way to make a model building that is completely weatherproof.  This little straight section on this low deck will also have a road crossing the two tracks and it will be filled in wit