March 24, 2009

Been rather busy thwe last few days. Vicki and I have been closing up her mother's apartment at Lakewood Village, Fort Worth. She is unable to care for herself and we had to admit her to the "med center" portion of Lakewood Village - (their own nursing home). She is 89 years old. We and she needs prayer and Vicki needs our prayers to maintain her strength, health, wisdom and faith during these trying times. It was a hard decision but a necessary one. he has had a series of old age strokes that have left her ataxic and weak. God's will be done!

In the meantime, I have added to my loco collection - a new CB&Q GP7 road switcher. I hope to add a decoder with sound soon. I also found an S2 switcher - long time finding! I found it on Ebay - have paid for it and I have my fingers crossed that it actually arrives.

Added a really good friend on Facebook. We finally found each other after several years of no commo. He is an ole Army buddy - a retired LTC, MSC (lab) officer. We were good friends before, during and after Desert Storm. His name is Michael Abbiatti and now lives in Arkansas. We hope our familioes can get together again soon!

Happy March 17th

For anyone with the last name of Patrick, St. Patrick's Day has special meaning. I was born at Shamrock, Texas (East of Amarillo on Route 66). Shamrock has always had a St. Pat's Parade that probably still features their one fire truck. Several years ago my family (two sisters and father) paid a return visit. The parade was smaller but still fun. I hope those good folks had a fun day.

Spent the day - making the base of that troublesome track stable with some balsa wood, bracing and spackling. It looks so much better that I decided to do a little landscaping. I have high hopes that it will continue to work well. I have glued the track down yet , nor have I done any ballasting. I'll test it out later today.

Vicki continues to need your prayers as she deals with her invalid Mother. Clois has been moved to the nursing home of her village. She has had a stoke that has affected her ability to walk and care for herself. We will have to make some decisions about her apartment soon. I doubt that she will be able to go back to it. Vicki particularly needs her strenghth, health, patience and endurance that only the good Lord can provide. God Bless you this day and wear GREEN! Pat

16 March 2009

This is the start of my wife's Spring Break. We both stayed in bed until 9:30am. RARE for me. I immediately started working on that section of troublesome track. Put in a distress call to TWMRRC guys and gals as well as another user group - "The Gauge". I removed a nail and actually got my loco to go around 4-5 times - decided to let well enough alone and glued down that section - nails tend to warp the track for some reason. For those of you MRR's out there - how is it possible to get a derailment on a section of 24" radius Atlas Track - (non-flex)? I was I new what the Gremlin is/was. Keep all your fingers crossed! Never mind the nail - that was only temporary and did not seem to make a difference.


Had several people respond to my Facebook request - including my SISTER! I think she will enjoy using it. Stock Market up again today! Barack flames AIG execs for bonuses but says nothing about most of the bailout $ going to banks OUTSIDE THE U.S. - he holds the new DEMOCRATIC CEO blameless --- in addition AIG cannot fail because most of the Congress' Pensions are tied up there - go figure.

Started fixing the way too elevated portion of the layout - I'll get a picture of that for you. Waiting now for glue to dry before applying the new plaster cloth. See ya later, Pat

Sat, March 14

Made it through the 13th. Just got back from our weekly bible study/breakfast held at the Denny's in Grand Prairie. We are studying Romans and were reminded of a couple of things - we are "dead in Christ" and even Obama is a part of God's big plan.

This AM I fixed a decoder problem with my light mikado loco - had sound but no motor control. It is a Broadway Limited so its sound decoder is separate - only way to change the self-installed motor decoder (easiest way) is to put the plug in decoder (a Digitrax) into another loco and reprogram it - then put it back into the broadway-blueline loco. The company says it is easy but it is NOT! Works great now.

Will work on a section of track today before going to the Texas Western Model Railroad Club (from here on called TWMRRC) which meets tonight. We are continuing with Engineer/Conductor training.

Also - found a few friends and families listed on Facebook that I invited myself to be their friends. I will see how that goes. Tried to find several others - but alas the whole world is not on Facebook (DUH!). The sun came out today after 3 days of constant (badly needed) rain. See ya later, pat

First Post

Well - this is my very first post. I had little to do tonight except watch a movie and search for something to eat - so I decided to strat a blog. Don't know how much I will use it but it sounds like fun. I'll try to use it to mainly update the progress on my model train layout. I am also finishing various projects for the Texas Western Model Railroad Club. So - stay tuned---I might write something interesting some day, God Bless you on this cold and rainy night, PT