New apartment, new layout
The weather is getting colder – well, sometimes! Now that the leaves are brown, and we’re heading into the end of November, this writer gets a chance to do something he has done since 1958. Run my Lionel trains. Christmas 1958 I got my first Lionel set, and I still have all the cars. The steel bridge and a few things have been lost in time, but my 2037 engine, whistling tender, gondola, rotating floodlight car, crane and working caboose are still around. They show a bit of childish carelessness, but I still have them.
In the past month, the Riccio homestead has moved to another apartment. The last one I had was home for 28-and-a-half years. For various reasons, including the move toward corporate ownership, it was time to leave. The current digs are nice, and much brighter than the old place.
My landlord knew about my hobby right from the get-go. The first time I looked at the apartment I was worried about where the layout was going to go. Unfortunately, the layout at the old house did not fit comfortably in the new one, so a few adjustments had to be made. So, for the next few months, there is a plan to work on the layout in its new L-shaped iteration, and making sure all the trains can run comfortably and smoothly.
I had a liking for trains since I was able to know what they were. My first train was a Marx double set. In 1957, but it was a starter set, and I asked Santa to send me one that whistled and smoked. Christmas morning was something special and for two reasons. Not only did I get a great Lionel train, but I got a blue suit and a red vest – all the rage back then. For a five-year-old it was not bad!
Back to the trains, I admit I did not take as good a care of them as I ought to have over the early years, but I still respected and kept them. Giving them an oiling, having them cleaned up. That engine is still the best smoker I have of any Lionel vintage, and I’ve been collecting them for many years.
As far as the layout is concerned, I’m still mulling over what to do. Model railroading is a winter hobby, and I have to admit from about late March until November, things get pretty busy Umpiring baseball in the spring and summer, and acting as assigning commissioner for the local group takes most of my spare time. I often make the quip, “I have to go to work to get some rest.”
For me, though, it’s four or five months of therapy. Things can get intense between the job, the officiating and various other things I have to do. The tempo can be very upbeat having many what I call “check off” days. I have a list of things to do, and have to check them off one at a time.
The trains are the first thing I look at for relaxation. There is something very calming about watching the trains run on the layout. Most people think it can get monotonous, and maybe it is, but knowing you worked on the scenery or the layout itself can be very rewarding.
Over the next weeks and months, though, I have to start from scratch. As I said, the old layout had to be dismantled, and the configuration of the table had to be adjusted to fit the new space. There is room to expand if I want, but I have to have some space for living.
I didn’t mention it, but it’s a three-room apartment. Very nice, and almost the same square footage of the old, but just a tad different, meaning things had to be altered.
My new landlord got quite an eyeful during the weeks spent moving. Boxes and boxes of stuff were carted onto the second floor. I got quite a workout each day, and some days included my regular jogs. Still have to get those in – though with officiating now since September, there are fewer runs and more games. That will change in the next two weeks.
The boxes and bins are under the new table, and will be unpacked when we start working on the layout. First thing is to get padding so the trains, which can be noisy, don’t get overbearing for the neighbors. Then it’s working on the configuration of the layout and doing all the other “stuff” that has to be done. I hope to have it done after the first of the year. The fact the holidays will have me busy with church-related stuff will keep things busy.
It’s a new project and new therapy. Having a little “me” time isn’t a bad thing. In fact, sometimes I don’t get enough of it
That’s something I hope to change.
We have a mental health crisis
The Covid-19 pandemic and its shutdown – the one we now know was not only a bad idea, but a premeditated one (ask Dr. Deborah Birx) – has contributed to what can only be described as a mental health problem in our nation. While I am no psychologist, nor do I play one on TV, one does not have to have a degree to see the insanity that has overtaken many of our fellow citizens.
One can only wonder if the isolation that was prompted by the shutdown not only adversely affected many people, but allowed their problems to stew in the loneliness.
I must admit. I didn’t understand the idea of a shutdown, and because I am solo in the office most of the time, I came to work each day and went jogging three or four times a week. My routine was not as static as some.
And just as we saw in the recent election, the media’s yellow hues came out with the nonstop scaremongering that infected the daily fare. Masks, six-foot spacing, dousing one’s self in hand sanitizer played on many people, making them insufferable scolds – something that has continued.
Social media plays into it as well. We see hundreds of thousands of people are glued to their phones, texting or calling or gaming or posting. They need that adrenaline rush of the next response to what they posted or posited as an argument or debunked.
The post-election insanity has gotten way out of hand. I never understood what has become pro forma. A person sits in his car, and rants about whatever the topic is, dating or lack of it, politics or anti-politics, you name it. They sit and rant, sometimes emoting quite irrationally, and then look for the clicks. I guess a few have been caught when they forget to turn off the camera, and then lose the angst on a dime.
I say a mental health crisis because the people who tend to post on various platforms don’t seem to be able to handle adversity. Things don’t always go your way. The way you handle it is a sign of maturity. There is not a lot of adversity handling out there – at least in what I have seen.
Let’s hope things begin to get better. It seems we are still moving out of the rut of the pandemic, but normality is returning bit by bit. Let’s hope, also, when these people live their lives over the next few years, they will move out of this constant rage and angst and get a little joy in their lives. It is there to be found, if you look for it.