Ezday's 2009 resolution challenge

[ezdays]

yep, I made some silent resolutions for 2009. The one's that I should pay attention to, but most likely won't are:

• To lose about 20 pounds
  To exercise at least three days a week
  To eat healthier meals
  To spend more and get the economy going again
  To achieve world peace
  

OK, these all are fantasies, but we can dream. In the order of reality, and more on the topic and intent of this challenge I hereby declare that I will:

• Get my trainroom organized to the point that I can work efficiently and actually find everything I need within a short time of searching
  Finish redoing my trackwork on the new section of my layout and getting the track on my older section working better than it is now
  Finishing at least two of the kits that I've started over the past few years but haven't gotten around to completing.

These last three things will be documented here as I progress.

[ezdays]

OK, just as an update, I'm part way there, well, maybe a bit past part way, but not anywhere near finished.

Get my trainroom organized to the point that I can work efficiently and actually find everything I need within a short time of searching

Yeah, I've done most of this. I rebuilt my workbench so it's not about to collapse under the weight of what's on it, and I did move a few other things around, but all-in-all, it still looks a lot like it did before I did all that work. And for some reason, my workbench filled right back up again. No big surprise there.

Finish redoing my trackwork on the new section of my layout and getting the track on my older section working better than it is now

Somehow I managed to finish the trackwork on my new section, but have not run trains on it yet since it still needs to be wired and the switches need ground throws added. I also failed to do anything with the older section of the layout as far as trackwork goes.

Finishing at least two of the kits that I've started over the past few years but haven't gotten around to completing.

Finish two kits, are you kidding, I haven't even looked at one kit since I first posted this. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with my other resolutions about loosing 20 pounds and achieving world peace.

What kind of excuse can I possibly have for being so far behind? Well, for one thing, I did start on a woodworking project a month or so ago and that's got the garage tied up and in a mess, so that takes priority over anything on my layout since I'm tracking sawdust into the house, making my better half a bit testy. That, plus my train room isn't in anyone's way so that becomes secondary. My other excuse is time. It seems like when you're retired, you have less free time than you used to when you worked. I don't know how to account for that, but it's true, ask anyone that's retired and they'll confirm that. Maybe it's because time seems to go so fast the older you get, and you also seem to work at a much slower pace. A one-hour project can take four hours and multiply that by the speed of time and you've shot a whole day on something that should have only taken an hour. :o

Anyway, since my progress hasn't been stellar, :oops: I'm officially withdrawing myself from this challenge. I've completed other challenges that we've had over the years, so I don't feel quite as badly about not finishing this one, I just wish that I had more time to get everything done that I planned on doing.

[nachoman]

Haha! I won't give you a hard time about giving up. I specifically never entered the challenge for this very reason - I knew I would get sidetracked and never complete squat!

[ezdays]

Haha! I won't give you a hard time about giving up. I specifically never entered the challenge for this very reason - I knew I would get sidetracked and never complete squat!

Well, as I said, I don't feel quite so bad since this is the first one that I haven't completed, and I did get some things accomplished. I do feel bad only because it's the first challenge at Big Blue and it would have been nice to be able to do at least as much as I predicted I could. But, as I frequently tell my wife, "there's always tomorrow"...

[ezdays]

OK, this is not, repeat, not part of the challenge, but it is a project that has taken up a lot of my time these past bunch of weeks. I'm thinking around five weeks from start to finish and is one reason why I didn't even attempt to show what I did for this challenge. It is a TV stand for our bedroom. I was tired of the rats nest of wires behind the cabinet we did have and we needed some easy access storage for our DVD's. I needed to get back to doing some woodworking, so I designed something that would work for us. This wan't part of my New year's resolution challenge, but it was satisfying to have done it nonetheless.        

[eightyeightfan1]

Looks nice...And all in only five weeks.
Someone told me that Ikea furniture was hard to put together.

[ezdays]

Looks nice...And all in only five weeks.
Someone told me that Ikea furniture was hard to put together.

Yeah, the instructions were all in Swedish.

[nachoman]

I like the detail on the cabinet doors. Well done.

[Steamtrains]

Great job...!!! Not a train, but good woodwork is always nice to make, and look at..!!

How did you make the flutes on the legs..?

[TrainNut]

Very nice! I thought for sure you'd work a stained glass train into the doors somehow. We don't keep any of our DVD cases anymore. As soon as we get back home, the DVD's go in a soft case (more compact) and the hard plastic case goes in the trash.

[ezdays]

Thanks, I did the flutes on my router table. I did them mainly to hide the glue joints since the legs are made up of two 3/4" pieces of oak glued at right angles.

Somehow the use of a stained glass door with trains on it wouldn't work out too well in the master bedroom. I had the lead and the stain from some doors I did when we lived in Wickenburg. I couldn't believe it, but the stain came out of the bottle as fresh as when they were brand new, and I've had them for a good eight years now. I have used the stain on some of my models when I wanted a red or amber window or light. You just squirt the stuff out of the bottle until it covers the surface, then it becomes transparent when it dries. It works on glass or plastic.