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

T his morning, I noticed that the weather was unusually nice so I decided it would finally be a good day to do a little more work on my large scale steam locomotive and the trolley.  I had painted and weathered both of them but I never got around to sealing all my work with a matte UV resistant sealer.  This is something I would prefer to do outside since I would be applying this sealer from a spray can and it appears as though today would be a good day. My plan was to go outside to grab a couple of sawhorses and a piece of plywood so I could make a utilitarian table where I could safely place my big steam locomotive and trolley.  We've had bears and skunks in our yard quite often lately so I've been very vigilant about scanning the area before I step too far away from our door.  I stepped outside...  no bears...  no skunks...  then headed to behind the house where I left my sawhorses. As I was about to place my right foot back behind the sawhorses so I could more easily lift t

J ust this past week, I picked up a used anamorphic lens adapter.  This adapter allows me to convert a useful selection of my lenses to be used to create cinematic wide screen videos with most of the characteristics of far more expensive cine lenses.   True cine lenses are both huge in size and exhorbitantly expensive when compared to typical camera lenses used for still photography.  These anamorphic lenses are used mostly by filmmakers because this type of lens is actually designed to fit wide-screen cinematic video on smaller film and digital sensors. Back in the 1950s, movie studios were filming on 35mm film.  Some studios were probably still using 16mm film too but major productions were using 35mm film.  By comparison, home movies were being filmed on 8mm film.  I was very well versed on 8mm film through the 1960s and 1970s as that is the format my family used for all our home movies.   By the time I was in high school in the mid-1970s, I was cutting and splicing 8mm film to cre

E ven after multiple negative home COVID tests, I am now absolutely certain that I am struggling with another bout of COVID.  This would make it the sixth time I've developed this insidious virus.  Since the first bout with this virus in early 2020, I've been struggling with long-COVID problems. Each time I'm infected with the virus again, my long-COVID problems worsen significantly.  I have occasionally gotten colds, infections, etc, and yet these illnesses never worsen my long-COVID symptoms.  Each time I have developed COVID again, however, my long-COVID problems significantly worsen.  Keeping this in mind, I am certain that I have been struggling with another bout of COVID over the past two weeks regardless of what the crappy home COVID tests indicate. So, my breathing has worsened significantly.  I am struggling with phlegm as thick as...  hmmm, thinker than sour cream...  thicker than butter...   I guess, as thick as kindergarten school paste is the best description. 

T oday, the owners of the park were in town (which is rare) and stopped by to visit with Sheila and me for a short while today.   It's funny...  I didn't recognize them at first!  We hadn't seen them in years and they've aged significantly through the pandemic.  At first, I just thought they were people who were going to ask about where to find one of our neighbors or ask whether I knew of any places for sale since that happens quite often (too often).  I recognized them within a second or two though. We discussed some recent goings-on in the park and they seemed genuinely interested in our opinions which is nice.  Between infrastructure upgrades tearing up the whole park, heavy equipment continuously running up and down the road in low gear, and some rather dangerous problem neighbors (too many lately, actually), we had a lot to discuss.  I had actually been contemplating writing them a letter mentioning everything we discussed today but primarily the problems so it wa

I 've been feeling very lousy since late last week and I can't help but wonder if it is yet another bout of COVID for the sixth time.  We saw all the grandkids earlier in the week last week and went on a cruise on Lake Champlain with our group so I was exposed to the general public and a lot of tourists during a period when COVID spread is "high".  I feel so consistently lousy that I really can't help but wonder if I have COVID again. Here is a quick list of my current problems: - consistent breathing problems most often when lying in bed - thick-as-paste mucus...  although, this is much less severe than in the past...  so far - I have a little bit of a dry cough...  sometimes producing this thick-as-paste mucus - sore throat - swollen glands - a relentless sinus headache - ear aches, coming and going - my joints ache more than usual - I'm exhausted - I haven't had a fever but I'm experiencing chills occasionally - I just generally feel like poop - the

I had previously written about painting and weathering the new skirting that I had added to the trolley and mentioned that I wanted to do something about repainting the roof next.  I didn't really care for that molded-in cream with a slight green tint color of the roof (top photo at right).  It definitely appeared rather toy-like to me so I wanted to paint it to change the color to something more realistic.   My plan was to chose a color, mix the paint myself to attain the desired color and then paint the roof.  Upon looking more closely at the roof and some of the details that were installed on the roof, I realized that I would need to remove these details first so I removed the pantograph and then removed the wood plank walkways.  I always knew I wanted to make these plastic walkways appear as though they are wood so I figured I would need to remove them at some point anyway.  I originally wasn't thinking I need to remove them to paint the roof but I reluctantly removed all