So here I am at my desk ................. New Years Day 2022. Every year at this time I think back to that famous line from THE WHO, "hope I die before I get old". Well thank goodness that this insensitive wish has not stood the test of time. Ok, so I maintain an enthusiasm for life. That's good; and the fact that I still have work to do, have interests and hobbies, enjoy a stroll down to the pub ............. all good. However, the one bugbear that I cannot seem to shake off is procrastination .......... despite this stimulating Ted talk by
this talented Australian lady, Andrea Jackson. As I get older I find ever more complex justifications for my chronic habit of putting off doing anything. Each New Year's Day I ponder that which has remained undone throughout the last 12 months and what it is that must be acheived in the coming 12 months. Nothing works as well as this to remind you that you have feet of clay.
It's at this point that I caste around for positives and in the particulars of this WSJ thread there are some. I intend to cut up and use the baseboard of my grandchildren's layout to construct the loco shed diorama ............... so I couldn't just go ahead and take th saw to it. No. First I had to make sure that the soon to be 18 year old and mid term sixteen year old were happy that their layout would be no more; they had to be consulted and I sprung the question upon them on Christmas day at breakfast. Thumbs up from them .... but ............. of course I couldn't just take myself off to the shed during the festive season so I have planned the "cut" for January 2nd ........... gulp .............. tomorrow. (Now I have to do it).
In the meantime I have been what I call "fettling". Tittivating that or cleaning up this. Basically stuff that can be done with no real effort. In the past couple of days it's been this:
Cleaning up the electrical surfaces of my Gaugemaster/ Marion Zeller rolling road test unit.
This is where I wrote about the conversion in 2014 on MRF.
Just why I bought a GN tank engine for an exclusively GE layout escapes me but I do know that a solitary J50 was allocated to Norwich. It had to get there from Hornsey somehow so could have rested awhile in any depot when en route. Such is the licence allowed a modeller. For anybody who produced a decidedly disappointing effort from the K's Kit or purchased the ham-fisted offering from Lima this Hornby model was a real temptation. The model needs chipping (a useful occupation for a procrastinator) and I calculate that my Esu Ecos could power 24 x Hornby J50s at the same time. Ah that reminds me of another project that as yet has not be completed ........ when I take the Marion Zeller rolling road off the Gaugemaster LT unit and hook it up to my DCC controller I lack the easy to read amp meter. I bought one but so far have not created the planned small DCC test and formatting station. That initiative has withstood the best intentions of many New Year's Day resolutions.
So ............ today the hair shirt ............... tomorrow the saw.
Best regards for a happy and successful 2022 to all on MRF .............. Greyvoices (alias John)
PS. Two positives from Andrea Jackson's Ted Talk .............
- head down bum up (must be an Australianism - what ever happened to strine?
- productive procrastination ................. I'll buy into that.