Scattered Thoughts . . .

This past weekend, Sheila and I headed down to Rutland for a small train show. We've been attending this show since the first show seven years ago. Each September, we find it is a nice excuse for a relatively short day trip.  It was nice to get out of town for a short while after weeks of significant health problems for me. Sheila and I seem to take turns with poor health. This past month was my turn, apparently, so it was nice to get out of town if even for a short day trip.   The weather was quite nice although we did encounter a few sprinkles on the way down to Rutland. The autumn colors are barely visible in our neck of the woods and not yet all that crisp anywhere nearby but we did encounter some color once we approached Killington right outside of Rutland.  Driving through the northeast is always nice this time of year... the air is cooler and the landscape is in a stage of transition with colors beginning to uniquely enhance the appearance of each type of tree.  W

I've been trying to catch up with the many tasks on my to-do list as the season changes toward winter. One of the things I have been focused on in recent is our furnace since winter is fast approaching.  I already did some annual cleaning of the furnace... checked and cleaned electrical contacts inside the ignition... and then turned my attention toward our thermostat. Our thermostat has been a little bit of a frustration for quite some time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We replace batteries regularly and have to clean contacts inside this old programmable thermostat approximately twice each season.  Programming that old thermostat is a pain in the butt with tiny switches on the circuit board and a very clumsy interface. Usually, we just avoid changing the programming because it is such a pain in the butt and, instead, just make do with the main programming. Whenever we need a change, we simply manually change the temperature and use the hold button which de

I've spent the past 18 days struggling with chronic and serious health issues related to a failed attempt at a colonoscopy. It has been a rough few weeks and a few weeks of nothingness... just trying to get through one moment to the next.  After constant and consistent extra medications, I am finally beginning to feel more like myself again. I'm not feeling "good"... I am not anywhere near what is considered "normal" for me... but I am feeling decent enough to safely attempt a few small chores around the house. I even started back on a very light version of my daily physical therapy for my spinal injuries (which is much needed!).   Needless to say, after all this time of nothingness, there is a lot to be done around here because everything, other than my health, has been ignored and neglected.  I did some preventive maintenance on my furnace... then I had to get the thermostat in working order again. The heat kicked on after this little bit of wor

This past weekend, we went to a local park to watch Lukey and Kenzie play in a soccer game. Fortunately for all of us, they are both on the same team which makes scheduling a lot easier! It was a windy and cold morning but we all came prepared for the weather. Fortunately, the heat and humidity that we had for months has finally left the area but this particular morning was a bit chilly by comparison. In the first half, Lukey and Kenzie's team found themselves down 3-0 but they seemed to motivate themselves in the second half and scored three goals. In the end, t hey lost by only a single goal but Lukey scored a goal in the second half. Kenzie was injured early in the second half but she is fine. They both played a great game! Here is a short video of warm-ups...

I'm still slowly recovering from last week's attempt at a 'routine' colonoscopy which was anything but routine and only resulted in anaphylaxis and more than a week (at this point) of recovery. Overall, I'm still sticking close to the bathroom and I'm still feeling rather lousy. Considering all of this, I'm really not getting much accomplished and what little I do attempt to accomplish is on a rather small scale. In this case, it is 1/4" scale! I suspected I would need a long recovery from this procedure even if all went well so I had already stocked up on some supplies to accomplish a small model railroading project, little by little, as I felt up to it. So, by doing a little bit each day, I've been making a bit of headway on a long overdue model railroading project.  What prompted this project is that I needed a few different test tracks. As I was coming up with ideas on the best way to do this while also trying to save space I decided to c