Sunday December 31, 2006 5:05 am Lethbridge Sunrise 8:29 Sunset 16:40 Hours of daylight: 8:11

A. Morning Musings

5:05 am It is -9 C at the moment with a high of -2 C forecast. This is the last day of 2006 and the last journal entry for 2006. I am pleased, no - delighted - that I have been able to maintain these entries for a complete year.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 11:30 am

B. Plan

Immediate
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
Science	Make notes for "Three Roads to Quantum Gravity"	1 hr
History	Read Watson "Ideas"	1 hr
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"	1 hr
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go" Volume 1	1 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Virginia Woolf: The Inner Life" by Julia Briggs	1 hr
	Continue reading "Selected Works of Virginia Woolf" - Jacob's Room	1 hr
	Continue reading "The View From Castle Rock" by Alice Munro	1 hr
Model Trains	Continue assembly of coaling tower	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	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
	Make notes on the beginnings of number theory
	Larson "Calculus"
	Read "Symmetry" by Hermann Weyl
	Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 3
	Gardner "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles"
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 62 December 31
Model Trains Chronology
5:40 am I have just reviewed the description in The Scenery Manual (published by Woodland Scenics) for applying ballast and was almost ready to try this on a small section of track when I suddenly realized that by applying the ballast I will be gluing this stuff to the track forever. This seems to me to be a poor idea until I am absolutely sure that I will not want to make any further adjustments to the layout. Like the proverbial pendulum I am now swinging to the opposite extreme and beginning to think that I will not apply the ballast at all. Certainly not until after I have the DCC wiring finalized and have determined that I have an operational running layout that does not need any further adjustment. Since this is my goal, and I have always been clear about this, the scenery has always been secondary. Also, it may well unfold that at some time in the future I may no longer want to have the layout and so long as I don't apply the ballast it will be easy to take it all apart and give it away. I am glad that I didn't rush into this step. Now I can step back from the ballasting and focus on setting up the DCC and on working on my remaining structures. Before doing that, I will spend the next hour looking at the messages on The Gauge model train forum ( http://www.the-gauge.com/ ). Fairly quickly I learned about this site: http://www.modelrailroadtips.com/ . I continue to Learn. One thing that I have learned is that it pays to go slow and see what happens when you browse. Incredible. The latter web site had an article on how to make coal loads for coal cars. Exactly what I need. The steps are very easy (a classic example of "why didn't I think of that?"). 8:10 am The Gauge can be as big a time sink as eBay. The last couple of hours has been very enjoyable as I see what others are doing. 8:50 am Did some maintenance on CN 665489 40' 50 ton flat car. I put a new brake wheel on one end and adjusted the coupler hose height on the coupler on the same end. Just a little job, but one that restored a car to operational status. I remembered to update the database to reflect this maintenance. 11:30 am I made a quick trip to the hobby shop to buy some plastic cement. They were out! But I did end up buying some coal loads for my hopper cars so the trip was not a complete waste.

D. Reflection