Thursday November 2, 2006 6:20 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:21 Sunset 17:08 Hours of daylight: 9:47

A. Morning Musings

6:20 am It is -16 C at the moment with a high of -6 C forecast. But tomorrow it will warm up with temperatures back to positive values.

I have coffee scheduled for 8:30 am.

I am not satisfied with my last two days. I have reverted back to snacking, have failed to begin an exercise routine, and am spending far too much time watching hockey games on television. I should get back to my math as well, but at the moment my priority is to get all of my cars dusted off and placed on the model train layout.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 1:30 PM

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
Model Trains	Dust off cars & update data base	3 hr
Mathematics	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 7: quadratic reciprocity	1 hr
	Continue reading "The Equation that Couldn't be Solved"	1 hr
History	Continue reading "Marie Antoinette"	1 hr
Literature	Begin reading "The Breakfast of Champions" by Kurt Vonnegut	1 hr
Later
Chores	Investigate water softeners for home
Technology	Read manual for cell phone
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Begin reading "iPhoto"
	digital photography - learn about using the various manual settings
Philosophy	Read "The Art of Living" by Epictetus
Mathematics	Larson "Calculus"
	Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 3
	Gardner "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles"
History	Continue reading "Citizens"
	Watson "Ideas"
Model Trains	Build oil refinery diorama: add ground cover
	Assemble second oil platform kit
	Assembly of CN 5930, an SD40-2 with a NAFTA logo
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #9

C. Actual/Notes

	Model Trains 51 November 2
Model Trains Chronology
6:30 am I now have some paint for the hay bales and 100 ton hoppers. I bought 2 more turnouts which will help the layout. There will be two main tasks today: painting the hoppers and hay bales and adding the dusted off cars to the layout. The latter also involves updating the data base for the cars. 7:50 am I have taken photos of all the cars that I dusted off yesterday. The cars are now all on the layout. I still have to update my database. I now realize that I also need to clean the wheels on all of the cars - that will take a while. The locomotives need a regular maintenance and lubrication. I will have to do some reading before I tackle this. There is a lot of background work to be done before the trains are fully operational. 1:40 PM A very good morning. I now have a total of 57 cars dusted off and on my layout; plus 2 diesel locomotives. Equally important my data base is up to date with photos of all these cars. Here are the images of the new additions: ALNX 396400 Alberta Heritage Fund ALNX 396422 Alberta Heritage Fund CNWX 395538 Canadian Wheat Board CGLX 1367 Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan UTLX 48238 36' tank car PNR 1986 Pacific National Railway Exhibition in Lethbridge unmarked 36' hopper (loaded) unmarked 36' hopper unmarked 36' hopper Australian Iron & Steel #63 hopper CN 520502 40' boxcar CN 428453 40' boxcar Grain symbol GTW 516134 40' modern boxcar BCOL 869378 60' bulkhead flat car CN 242705 50' boxcar newsprint AOBX 527 gondola car BCOL 5437 50' boxcar ONT 7605 50' rib side high cube boxcar HHX 191 Home Hardware 40' reefer car CN 55877 rotary snowplow CN 2351 baggage passenger coach Alexandria Bay observation passenger coach Lac Flamand passenger coach CN 1244 diner passenger coach Riverdale Park Pullman passsenger coach UTLX 8715 36' tank car Here are two images of the results so far: Black Diamond Coaldale classsification yard I still have a few cylindrical hopper cars to dust off, but I am almost finished unpacking my rolling stock and getting it operational. I also spent some time reviewing many of my buildings and glueing on a few loose pieces. Then I will have to have a close look at the few locomotives that I have (both diesel and steam). I am still finding it difficult to believe that it has been 10 years since I last looked at this.

 

D. Reflection