Day 165

I spent most of the day on the layout.  I measured the places for the four retaining walls that I built yesterday and cut them to size.  Unfortunately I couldn't paint them because the paint I bought yesterday is too dark.

I spent much more time organizing all of the stuff I've collected.  I had train stuff in boxes all over.  I'd bought organizers for it at estate sales, but I hadn't done anything with them.  So I spent literally hours collecting stuff, sorting it out, and organizing it.  It took time, but I think it will make life easier going forward.

I kept finding stuff that I didn't know I had.  I found other things that I'd been looking for.  I even found a few things that didn't belong with the train stuff at all.  One was some emitters for the IR repeater that we use for the living room TV.  Maybe they'll work to replace the broken one on the satellite box.  That would sure make it more convenient to use the remote.

About 2 I decided to call a halt.  I had lunch and then we took the truck for errands.  It hadn't run in two weeks.  Given the state of the batteries, it wouldn't have been long before it wouldn't start.  Hopefully the driving we did recharged them.  We went to the post office and Costco for water.  The people in front of us bought $990 worth of stuff.  It filled three carts.

The last stop was Circle C.  It was 82 and windy.  The wind made it better for us, but the dog was hot.  She still did a pretty good job searching for mice and squirrels.  We stopped in the middle again to water her and wet her down.  I think that helps her on hot days.  She was still moving slowly when we got back.

When we got home I had the overwhelming desire to get something done on the layout.  So I cut down the last viaduct pillar to use on the curved viaduct.  Then I installed the viaduct and it's power leads.  It's the only track I got laid today.  I was going to do more, but that's when I discovered that all of the remaining track needs holes punched in it.  So I punched holes and stripped wire in the west siding track and all of the plateau track.  I still have all of the upper level mainline track to do.

It was after 6 when I got done with the plateau.  That seemed like enough for today.