NGT6 1315

Moaning awl.

Just completed submitting the incident report for yesterday. Here‘s hoping that today‘s shift will pass without anything of notice occurring. Route 16 doesn’t go through any notorious areas at least!

Weather forecasts suggest we‘re in for a deluge of rain beginning tonight and continuing through tomorrow. People living in flooding areas in particular are understandably tense! 
 

Stay safe, whatever you’re up to.

Cheers all. There sure are those days when you could be convinced that humanity itself is doomed…

To wit: Someone set off teargas or some similar substance aboard my tram this afternoon. Four pax were directly affected, including a girl of about 11 or 12 years and a mum with her daughter of about 8 years. The perpetrator had apparently set off the gas and immediately left the tram, though witness statements were somewhat fuzzy on the details. In any case, he had made an escape.

As we were getting the situation sorted, one witness, who had been reasonably well-composed until that point, found it proper to verbally abuse one of the paramedics for supposed racism as one of the victims was of colour and, in their opinion, apparently merited total priority over all others. Well, I‘m sure this witness had top-rate expert knowledge in emergency response procedures. Who else would make such a bold statement, after all.

In any case, the paramedic stated he wants to report the witness for her abuse. As she had been so clever as to give her personal details on record before her outburst, that might even go somewhere.
 

I certainly understand the paramedic not just wanting to swallow the matter. I am convinced the crass disrespect towards first responders and other public service workers which has become such a problem here has at least been contributed to by an attitude of shrugging incidents off in the past.

I guess you can tell I‘m a wee bit miffed!

Moaning awl. 🥱

Split shi(f)t today, though at least with the shorter bit in the afternoon. Still, such shifts generally mean an entire day is effectively gone, so our staff reps and the union have been working to disincentivise this kind of shift for the company for years.

FiL came home yesterday. As I expected, he's still very weak and quite evidently requires propping up for the time being. He does not eat very much independently yet, and thus requires supplemental parenteral nutrition. He's visibly relieved to be home, though.

And with that, I'll have to get going. Later...

2 hours ago, NGT6 1315 said:

I‘m not doing anything spectacular really! One thing that has grabbed my attention in recent(ish) times has been upgrading older releases of various models with components from newer ones, if and where available. These could be newer PCBs, which might have PluX22 or 21MTC DCC interfaces rather than older standards, for example…or offer LED lighting in lieu of micro bulbs. Sometimes, such upgrades in fact amounted to full chassis swaps, as on older Roco 189s - the cast frames having been modified in several details to accommodate LED boards and speaker capsules.

 

DCC sound upgrades have also been on the agenda, to give another frequent example.
 

Even such relatively minor jobs often go a long way at getting flotsam off my mind. I don’t know how it is about you all!

Just to visualise things a bit:

This is a locomotive those of you with a mind for Continental ferroviistics might be familiar with, 183 001. In this guise, Roco had the model (produced 2010ish) equipped with an 8-pin DCC socket but have since upgraded the ES 64 U4 with new PCBs accommodating keep-alive caps and a speaker capsule. The latter is on the bottom of the board adjacent to the cap.

An additional adapter board is required for actually plugging in a decoder, both of which I did not yet have installed in this photo. This also goes on the bottom of the PCB and extends over Bogie 1 for the decoder to go on the topside. The LED lighting boards come readily wired to the PCB, making everything a hot swap kind of upgrade really. Unfortunately, it turned out that the PCB I initially installed seems to be a dud, so I had to order another one. Meh.

Further back, an older Roco 189 is also waiting for a chassis and PCB upgrade. More on that in another episode!

The current situation here also at least contributed to a major stomach upset last week. It started as diarrhoea in Phase 1, if you want to call it that, and ended up with constipation in Phase 2 - aggravated, I confess, by unsuitable self-medication using charcoal tablets. I had just so badly wanted to get some sleep during Phase 1 that I must have had a slip of mind, ending up with three even worse nights of colic-like pain in Phase 2.

I even went to A&E around 4 am on Thursday because I had effectively panicked over what was going on. While I did not technically receive any treatment there (rightly so, in hindsight), they were of great help in calming myself down again and assuring me that this was nothing no GP could handle. Which turned out to be true later on Thursday as getting a prescription for MCP and using a simple laxative got things under control by about Sunday. I hadn't really had any regular meals until then either, which had not exactly helped matters.

Needless to say, I discarded the rest of the charcoal tablets soonest so as to not make that mistake again.

The ways reason sometimes fails at such times can indeed be baffling, eh?

Moaning awl.

The Rt Dis I.N. Somnia paid a visit last night. Nuff said.

A nursing bed for FiL will be delivered and put up later this morning. No further plans really aside from that, though I feel like that is exactly part of the problem. As in, I've been so lacking "me" time in recent weeks, and so has Elise. I almost literally have a tonne of modelling stuff in the basement, tinkering with which would so help me get earthed, if you know what I mean.

Not getting sufficient relief turns me into a GOG, even though I don't really qualify for the "old" part. Or do I?

Cosmic ouch.

Evening/moaning awl. Long time no see, again…

I believe I mentioned our worries about FiL‘s health before, so that’s what kept me from posting for so long. Though in hindsight, I feel like I’d have been better getting things off my chest soonest during the past few weeks.

Either way, following his latest round of chemo for his liver tumour, several complications occurred. He had contracted a post-op bacterial infection but was discharged without it having been properly treated to eradication. This necessitated his readmission after a couple of days, and it eventually turned out he had developed a liver abscess which took quite a while to get under control. They took him into the infectious diseases ward, which we feel was a good call to provide comprehensive treatment.

Right now, he’s obviously still severely weakened by this ordeal, but scheduled to be discharged on Wednesday. For the time being at least, he will require at-home care, which we needed to get organised in recent weeks.
We also needed to rearrange some furnishings in the house, which, shall we say, was more exhausting than I thought. My back certainly hurt after today’s jobs were done…

As for how things will continue from here, my guess is as good as any. In any event, he won’t be able to receive any further chemo due to excessive risk after his infection, so it‘ll remain to be seen whether this may cause the cancer to spread again.

Though from what Elise and Marie (SiL) relate from their visits, he seems to be at peace with himself right now, even if with a fair amount of brain fog. That certainly counts for something, too, but still, it seems so unfair that he was so seriously affected by some bug after he had been able to keep his cancer in check for several years.

Here‘s hoping that we ourselves will always remain hale and healthy, is all I really can say right now. There’s always chance involved, of course.

Please do stay safe and healthy everyone, too. Life is just too precious.

Moaning awl. Where's all that time going?!

Dull and overcast but slowly getting warmer again after a chilly spell came across the land. Though TBH, I prefer cooler temperatures.

FiL has been somewhat rough recently after his chemo session resulted in a follow-up infection with sepsis. That could be successfully treated but had left him weakened and at times slightly delirious, from which he is currently recovering. His GP (who is also mine) will be making a house call later today. Thankfully, FiL is visibly improving, but of course still taking things slow. Certainly makes one think about how fragile one's health may become when elderly.

Stay safe and sound...

Cheers all. LTNS but I still exist!

I'm currently in Gotha on the final day of another qualification week. After one more exam, I'll be off to the station and awa hame, as I gather they say up in Scotland!

Reading about India and food items in the same context is making me hungry. Dunno what we'll have for dinner tonight, though.

Later. 🫡

Cheers all. A bit windy since the middle of the night but all the same, I do feel like there’s the first traces of spring out there. Crocuses are blooming all over the neighbourhood in any case.

I seem to be past the worst of the lurgy but there are still some persistent remnants. I‘ll give work a try tomorrow, though.

Stay safe and sound, everyone…

Cheers all. Achy and tired this meridiem, so I suppose another visit to the GP is up tomorrow...

I‘m reading a pair of robbers had blasted open an ATM in a Hessian town but were stopped by a witness who rammed and immobilised their getaway car. They are now in custody and in addition to the bank pledging to compensate the witness for the write-off of their car, an online fundraiser resulted in a further €8,000 for the witness. 

The police commended the witness for their quick intervention but at the same time cautioned that civilians intervening in such ways may expose themselves to incalculable risks such as retribution from accomplices. I think either statement has a fair point.

Cheers everyone. I expect I’ll stay on extended mattress listening duty today. Oh well…

I certainly would if I were them!