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

[GaryHinshaw]

The show must go on!! 

Good to see you back in the saddle, Mike.  But do pace yourself, please.

[Sokramiketes]

You tell Fate, "There's no killswitch on awesome" and bugger off. 

[CRL]

The only thing I would add is that earlier you mentioned two issues that don’t really go together: “upstairs” and “aging in place”. I would seriously recommend you consider having all your primary living area on the ground floor. Think bad hips &/or knees, wheelchair access, etc. My wife & myself are in the same boat & made adjustments to our retirement home accordingly.

[C855B]

The only thing I would add is that earlier you mentioned two issues that don’t really go together: “upstairs” and “aging in place”. ...

The "upstairs" would be the caretaker's quarters only, not our living space.

[CRL]

Gotcha… in that case… never mind. 👍👍👍

[C855B]

Done, although I was feeling a little blue:




And the new "HinshawPlus!" setting. Very rough calculation is somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 lumen:



What impresses me more than the brightness is the clarity. The iPhone pic is the sharpest I've seen from it for a casual hand-held snapshot.

[GaryHinshaw]

Ironic that you should mention this.  I was just running some of my newly weathered cars around the layout and got to thinking how I need more light.

[Chris333]

That's illuminating.

[Cajonpassfan]

Hi Mike, thai is truly amazing! Modeling the Southwest, one can never have enough light.
I try to compensate for the shortage of lumens by making my scenery very light colored. This approach helps, but doesn't  work too well on steam engines though😜
And yes, it is nice to know you're sticking around; in the big scheme of things, that IS the main thing. Where is the "resort" if I may inquire? Perhaps spending more time there and less time "working" would do you well?
Best into 2022 my friend!
Otto

[Van Horne]

Glad to hear you survived a "widowmaker" with no permanent damage. I wasn't so lucky and toasted the anterior wall of my heart. I did survive though!

Dave

[C855B]

Thanks, all! And sorry to hear you weren't quite as fortunate, Dave. Mine was definitely a warning shot. I was the last male in my immediate family to not have cardiac issues, so sooner or later I was due for my comeuppance.

Otto, the resort is in northeastern Missouri, not too far from the Transcon. But far enough away to not hear trains, nor much of anything else - deep in Amish country. Very serene. Will probably brave the cold to check on cottage construction in a couple of weeks if it hasn't snowed.

[Bob]

So happy to hear you are doing well!  Amazing what medicine can do these days. Love your layout thread.

[C855B]

I am finally feeling somewhat "normal". Didn't really have a setback per se, but tired easily and was demotivated from doing much of anything other than sit in front of the computer and surf. So...

...the past few days have been seeing progress on the yard in Yermo:



This was where I intended to be a year ago.    On the plus side, the Photon-produced C40-C55 transition joiners (lower left) seem to be the cat's meow, so once the track is down the next biggest thing in the way is building the electronics to control each end of the yard and do a whole bunch of occupancy detection on the main and siding around Yermo.

[C855B]

Reality Check Time

Not totally bad news, but not good, either. As many who follow this thread have probably figured out by now, the layout project will be taking a back seat to other life issues for a while.

First, there was this little heart attack thing last Thanksgiving. Some on TRW know. This sidelined me for a couple of months. Still have limited energy, which has to be rationed to other life issues.

Second, we have built a R&R cabin in remote reaches to "get away". It is viable in warm months only (April to September) but has taken a lot of time to build, and is distant enough to command almost a full day of travel to and then from. So travel time plus relax time is going to occupy 40-50% of our summer.

Third, we are downsizing. The bulk of the remaining time this summer will be devoted to getting rid of 40 years' accumulation of "stuff". I want the garage empty. (Don't worry and/or get excited about a "fire sale", none of it is train stuff at this point.)

Fourth and closely related to the third, we are planning to jettison one house and maybe two before consolidating into the yet-to-be-built residence at the studio property. This is going to take time as the second house is in mid-remodel, sidelined by the heart recovery.

Finally, and the kicker, I had a stroke three days ago. The cause was the cardiac stent combined with a blood thinner that didn't work, which I discovered the hard way. Fortunately it was treated in time to (apparently) have no discernible effect, but at minimum it was as much or more of a warning shot to get the above and a host of other things in order, the least of which at the moment is the layout.

I will dabble with the layout from time to time, but don't count on significant progress over the next year or two. Life is happening as we speak. 

[davefoxx]

Damn, Mike.  Heart attack and now a stroke!?  Stay with us, please.

DFF