Elliot's Trackside Diner - Sept. 2014 - Model Railroader Magazine

thought I'd pop my head in and say hi.

I have had lots of things to attend to. Matters of the car accident {got rear ended}, and Things are still not completed over the car accident.

Then there are the other medical things between MOH and I. MOH has the pagets disease, apparently it only is atgtacking the right hip, and chances of it spreading are less. Most likely its either always been there and waited till aging to "come out" and make its dreaded appearance known, or developed slowly over time.

I have calcific tendonitis in boht shoulders, in short I have calcium deposits,rather large ones, in the tendons of the shoulders. It hurts like hocky sticks, limits range and motion, and to "fix" can be as simple as "needling and lavage" to full on open rotator cuff surgery! {which I may have to go away to get done}. I see the ortopedic surgeon the 23rd and he will determine if MRI is needed, I think it should as it will give better Ideas of what exactly is there{and I HATE MRIs as I get claustrophobic in an elevator, and the "open one is STIlL to close fro my comfort-only the sides are open, its like two pancakes on top eacah other. According to all I have read the "painful period" should only last 1-2 months, HAH! the rt shoulder has hurt for over a year, and the left for over 6 months! Just every time I was at my Doctor, we either never talked about it as I was there for other reasons, or he suggested switching hands with the cane, which obviously did not help! I'll bet he was surprised to find out what was really wrong!

Jeffrey:I see Jeffrey had his gall bladder out, good riddance I say! It took them 5 years to decide mine had to come out, and I paid a dear price in sickness and agony for those 5 years. I was told to "stay away from fats"" after ward as the bile isn't any longer there to digest it and break it down, but trial and error will help you adjust your diet like you are doing. I am lactose intolerant and since everything seems to have dairy products of one kind or another, It can be hard to tell if it is a no-no to eat what for which reason. I am surprised he put staples in, i had regular stitches for the 3 1" incisions I had to take it out. I still see your medical history is still no bed of roses. I understand about all but loosing external body parts. Of corse, right after I was released fromt he surgery, when i was out driving out soon after,  I went blind going HypOglycemic and had to pull over beg an unknown neighbor to call 911 for me, he thought I was a lunatic! They told me as they raised my sugar adn my sight came back "it will go away". HAH! that was some 20 years ago! I am STILL HYPOglycemic, and they say that puts me into a spot to turn diabetic any time.

Ulrich:Don't feel disheartened. I had/have my 3.5' x 5.1' HO layout I wanted to expand to 4.2x6.5',but there really is NO ROOM in that room for it. If the furnace did not intrude into that room, MAYBE I could have. And It gets used to store everthing we don't know what to do with. I had it nice and cleaned up, one wall all for storage, all else in the closet,and it was neat and tidy when I built the layout, then it got filled with cast-offs, the old dehumidifier, the extra toilet tissues large packages, paper towel large packages, cat little large containers, tool storage cabinet and other stuff so much it is hard to even walk in the door now! One of these days I have to get to the closet and clean it out, as most in it is my old stuff and since I haven't seen it since, oh, about 2005, I don't even have a clue what I have saved in there! I am pretty sure, then, that most can go out as garbage. age is a cruel master and it is too bad You can't go "z". I would love to do "z" and have it in an "underbed plastic storage container"! but I am still able to function with "z" so I think I could handle the project! I just might have trouble getting the cars on ther tiny track still. I haven't touched or bought any tain stuff in, golly 3 years  now, and i am amazed at all the stuff I have accumulated! MORE than I could use on a 5x20' layout! i am seriously tying to decide to bone up and get "packages' togetheer, get a new digital camera and set up ebay account to sell off some/lots/all of my stuff.

HOBBY:  You know after getting into the trains {a hobby which MOH DID share in N scale, but wants only european locos that cost $500 imported}, afteer a while, I said "NO MORE HOBBIES", then there came the kilt obsession, and celtic heritage {MOH is welsh} hunt-downs. I now own a purple/blue/black kilt tartan called "Pride of Scotland"  and a red/green tartan  kilt  called "celtic heritage"{red is my favortie color, but man that purple is great too}. I have the dress shirt and vest and sporan to go "formal" with either, or the "swashbuckler" shirt and sporan {which I HATE wearing} for the "casual look". ONLY it doesn't stop there!!! I had to have kilt pins, too, I forgot to mention those, and I have my family tartan in green and red/blue for scarfs for winter, and OF COURSE I HAVE TO get the Red/blue clan tartan kilt NeXT year! Fortuantely we found the heritage crests for MOH's historical Welsh family and my family crest and had a blended double herald banner made with our first marriage date and the renew of vows date enblazoned between the two. Then there came two charts of the heralds explanations too, all 8 1/2x11. MOH wants to find more welsh heritage too, {but FIL stopped searching when he got to the welsh individual who left for america, and did not search into the welsh history which MOH would like to know more about} and apparently has some Irish too, {as Do I as well}. This has all turned out to be a "hobby" too! Whatever will be next?

Since I am fairly "out of practice" with the trains, I feel as if I no longer belong here. I know the dienr is not all about trains only, but I do feel I shouldn't belong,a dn I as sure there are quite a few who would be just as glad I left.

well, this has been different. I may periodically stop in, but don't on regular morning openings and "intersting tidbits" so much any more.

later, dinner is late, don't know what yet, probably heat N Eat as yesterday I got my quarterly spinal nerve injections! I made the mistake of going ot the grocery store this morning and filling a basket, "carry out" is nice, but MOH had already left for work by the time I got home, so only me to "carry in"! Heat N Eat means I am not so long on my feet cooking. Frozen bag of dinner. Spent a whole $170 I could not believe it! I stopped counting at $100 as that gave me a coupon for extra $0.40 off gas i coudl use, but did not realize I had gone $70 over! Now have $0.72 off a gallon gas, up to 20 gallons at the sunoco. last filllup on coupon was a lot off so I paid just about $2.00/gallon for 17 gallons, not bad!