Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[MK]

My best wishes for you going forward!  Take care of what's important first.

[Wolf N Works]

Mike I can only echo the other sentiments here. Yes please take care and know you are in the the thoughts and prayers of others. My best wishes on a speedy recovery.

[John]

Best wishes on speedy recovery ... life life to the fullest -- you never know when the time comes ..

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Best wishes on speedy recovery ... life life to the fullest -- you never know when the time comes ..

That's what I was about to say. In addition to seconding all of the other well wishes.

The layout's not going anywhere, and hopefully, neither are you!

[C855B]

Thank you for your well-wishes, everyone.

... Heart attack and now a stroke!? ...

Sadly, they go hand-in-hand. Strokes are a frequent consequence of a cardiac stent (vs. bypass surgery) to resolve blockages in the vessels that supply the heart muscles. Platelets want to cluster around the stent and form a clot, which in the usual situation will eventually break loose and go places you don't want, usually the brain. The normal post-stent therapy is a blood thinner or anti-coagulent, "Plavix" being the most prevalent these days, versus old-school drugs like warfarin. I was taking Plavix.

Well, as it turns out, Plavix doesn't work well in some people. There is a test to determine this, which was not run when I got the stent. They tested for the condition during my lovely stay in the hospital this week, and waddayaknow, the Plavix was doing nothing for me. Helluva way to find out. New script for something else, and here we are.

Robyn claims there is an angel on my shoulder. The heart attack could have easily been fatal in and of itself, it was a blockage in the main artery to the heart. The stroke was diagnosed immediately, I knew exactly what was going on as it happened, and by happenstance there was also an EMT on-site at our cabin resort to confirm it. There is a 4-hour window for the "clot buster" therapy. The ER doctor was hesitant to use it because it carries its own risks, but at least he had the presence of mind to consult with who I later discovered was the preeminent expert on strokes in our state; she advised to administer the industrial-strength med, basically a chemical roto-rooter.

As to the layout and trains in general, this all raises the specter we have mused about here, pre-ordering models and related supplies: will they be delivered while I'm still alive? I understand there is now limited availability of ME C55 flex. I think I have enough on-hand to keep me busy for a couple of years, but what then, given ME's current limbo as they look for somebody to buy the business? I do have to hand it to ScaleTrains and BLI, who each seem to have better mastered the supply chain issues that so plague the majors. My plea to Atlas: I know it will increase prices significantly, but please, please, please, redouble your efforts to move production on-shore. What you're doing right now with two- and three-year lead times carries a heavy risk of doing many of us no good.

[Van Horne]

I had a massive heart attack in February, 2019.  Took the best part of an hour to decide I was having a heart attack, but I was in the hospital within 2 hours. Ended up with 3 stents in the main artery and have have a loss of about 1/3 of my heart function. My cardiologist has been a bit cagey about any backing off the Plavix that I take. Basically the consistency of my blood makes rubbing alcohol look viscous! Apparently the stroke risk rises exponentially with the number of overlapping stents. I just do as I'm told!
Really, I was lucky. In January that year we had been on a Panama Canal transit cruise, and I really wasn't feeling too great. I had no heart risk factors that I knew about, though, so that never crossed my mind. The warnings were too subtle and easy to ignore. If the attack had happened on the ship, it is highly unlikely I would have survived. Onward and upward!

Dave

[Cajonpassfan]

Mike, Robyn may be right about the angel on your shoulder..
Very sorry to hear. Stuff happens, sometimes tough "stuff". Take it easy and hang in there... and take good care of yourself.
Best, Otto

[CRL]

Please take care of yourself and get well soon.

[basementcalling]

Get well, recover and continue as best you can.

My dad had a heart attack at 44 while deployed on a Los Angeles class sub. Luckily, his was mild by comparison, as he became one of the few sailors to survive a one while deployed. Sure enough when he got back to port, tests showed 30% blockage. All too often the first symptom of heart disease is the heart attack.

[SAH]

Whoa!  Missed this bit of "news".  I fully understand you and Robyn have lots going on and even more to think about right now.  Hobbies help pull one through though and you engage in two of the best:  Model trains and music.  Although I've heard heart attacks are tough for horn players.  Switch to the cello maybe?  It'll give you something else to think about.   

[GaryHinshaw]

Yikes, I missed this too!  Please take care and do what you gotta do.  Rootin' for you.

[C855B]

The best news I can report on layout progress is that I'm still alive, but you guys know that. Sadly, notables in our hobby have been passing left and right, and every time somebody posts bad news there's that "...am I next?..." sensation. We're doing our damnedest to keep on keepin' on, despite last weekend's little ER adventure with chest pains. Simple angina; they sent me away with nitroglycerin pills in that tiny bottle I'm supposed to keep with me but that I know won't survive the washing machine when I forget they're in my pocket.

Then there was the distraction with the puppy over the past month, well-documented here. Frankly, it was a close call. Dangerous animal.

BUT... actual layout progress to report. I spent most of yesterday upgrading the JMRI computer (Raspberry Pi 400) to Ubuntu 22.04LTS, which initially made the railroad inoperable. That is, unless I wanted to go full medieval and use my lone Digitrax DT402D to run things tethered to the control station. The layout was not wired with utility panels by intent; all controls are via WiFi.

The Linux upgrade sort of wiped everything except the JMRI files themselves. It took about two hours to get Java pieced back together and then JMRI would run, but now it won't talk to the DCS240. I'm going to hammer on it again this afternoon, after spending most of last night searching and so on for solutions relating to serial port management. The older version of JMRI (4.12?) I had on the layout booted-up fine, the latest (5.0) seems to ignore the customization folders. So I have more debugging to do, or at least some RTFM relating to the newest release.

Now that I'm feeling better, I will be splitting my time between neglected repairs to our residence, finishing remodeling of the guest cottage so we can sell it come spring, and... then... the layout. It would be really nice if I could at least make the yard at Yermo operable as a place to park things. I have trains stacked up everywhere and it seems that I spend an hour or two just shuffling things around so I can run the track cleaner. Crimeny!

[CRL]

BUT... actual layout progress to report. I spent most of yesterday upgrading the JMRI computer (Raspberry Pi 400) to Ubuntu 22.04LTS, which initially made the railroad inoperable. That is, unless I wanted to go full medieval and use my lone Digitrax DT402D to run things tethered to the control station. The layout was not wired with utility panels by intent; all controls are via WiFi.

The Linux upgrade sort of wiped everything except the JMRI files themselves. It took about two hours to get Java pieced back together and then JMRI would run, but now it won't talk to the DCS240. I'm going to hammer on it again this afternoon, after spending most of last night searching and so on for solutions relating to serial port management. The older version of JMRI (4.12?) I had on the layout booted-up fine, the latest (5.0) seems to ignore the customization folders. So I have more debugging to do, or at least some RTFM relating to the newest release.

Hmmmm. I didn’t understand anything in these two paragraphs. I’m beginning to think I need to abandon all thoughts of converting everything to DCC and just sticking with DC which I understand thoroughly…. Especially since I’ll be turning 70 in a couple of days. 🧐

[C855B]

Oh, I wouldn't blow-off DCC. It's eminently useful and solves all sorts of operation issues on its own. I wouldn't go back to DC-only if you paid me. Well, maybe if you paid me a lot, and then I'd go behind your back and use the money to buy new DCC stuff. 

I've added a particularly complex layer with JMRI, and then insult to injury with a "not the usual" computer system. Not necessary at all for DCC, I just happen to prefer certain capabilities versus running a regular DCC system like what you get from Digitrax.

Age has nothing to do with it - I'm 68. However, I've been a computer jock for 50 of those years. The tendency to make something incredibly complex out of just running model trains is an inherent quirk.

[dem34]

I mean hell even if you don't do anything beyond stock install decoders and entry level base stations. Its still a massive wiring simplification when %90 of whats being done is |Rail A: + Bus | Rail B: - Bus |