Tuesday August 8, 2006 7:20 am Lethbridge Alberta Sunrise 6:11 Sunset 9:02 Hours of daylight: 14:51

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 1:00 PM

A. Morning Musings

7:20 am It is + 14 C at the moment, with a forecast high of + 33 C.

With another hot day forecast, staying in the basement and working on the model train layout seems a good idea. However the first item for the day will be a morning coffee at Esquires with Frank. He has just returned from teaching in Belize. It will be good to have our regular early cuppa and chat.

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
Mathematics	Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 3	1 hr
Model Trains	Wire Lower Mainline Reversing loop track	2 hr
	Build Lower Mainline control panel	1 hr
	Assemble wooden trestle kit	2 hr
	Build oil refinery diorama: buy materials for scenery	1 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Ada Blackjack"	1 hr
Later
Chores	Investigate water softeners for home	1 hr
Technology	Read manual for cell phone	1 hr
	add keywords to iPhoto records
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"	2 hr
	Begin reading "iPhoto"	1 hr
	digital photography - learn about using the various manual settings
Mathematics	Larson "Calculus"
	Gardner "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles"
History	Continue reading "Citizens"
	Watson "Ideas"
Model Trains	Add blue backdrop to layout
	Assemble second oil platform kit
	Redraw diagram for Lower Mainline control panel
	Wire Lower Mainline turnouts
	Look for Critical Path software on PC and install it on my MacBook Pro

C. Actual/Notes

	Model Trains 25 August 8
Model Trains Chronology
7:30 am Yesterday was largely devoted to working on the layout. Today will be more of the same. It is exciting to focus on this for much of the day as I can see substantial progress in the overall project. I am presently in the middle of 5 tasks: building a wooden trestle making an oil refinery diorama building a Lower Mainline Control Panel redraw schematic diagram for Lower Mainline wiring the Lower Mainline Reversing Loop The wooden trestle kit is progressing nicely. I might be able to finish it today. I expect to begin glueing the berms for the tanks and then I will begin placing of the piping to join the tanks to the refinery and the oil platform. This may take awhile as I am not sure what is involved in this. The problem is not the actual placing of the pipes, but deciding where they should be placed. I will give the Lower Mainline Control Panel a second coat of black paint which should make it ready for using tomorrow. I also need to create a new diagram of the Lower Mainline showing the location of the turnouts and power connections. But the most important task will be to complete the wiring for the Lower Mainline Reversing Loop. There are only 2 pieces of terminal track on this section, but I think I will have to replace two of the barrier strips from my earlier wiring from a 4-terminal strip to a 6-terminal strip. However I am still not totally sure that I have the plan for wiring this section clear in my mind at the moment. Looking at the above bullet list, I wonder if it would make sense to try to create a critical path chart of my activities. I could review my activities since I returned from Australia and easily build the chart that corresponds to what I have done so far. Then I could try mapping out what remains. I have a software program on my PC that can be used for this but I will have to find it and see if I can install it on my MacBook Pro. 1:00 PM I added a second coat of black paint to my Lower Mainline Control Panel. I then took a close look at my plans to wire the second Power Block (for the Lower Mainline Reversing loop) and realized that I want a totally separate circuit that will eventually connect to a circuit breaker module for DCC. This is best handled when wiring for DC by using an 8-position barrier strip with each of my 4 Power Blocks connected to two of the positions on the barrier strip. I had to visit an electrical shop for this, but now have it installed on the layout. I also bought a small package of "spade tongues" to see how they work. Great. I am now in the process of finding a location that sells these in packages of a specific size ( I will want about 40 that are suitable for 14 gauge wire).

D. Reflection