Thanks Steve
Steve Featherkile said:Good advice! Best wishes to you, David.
Make sure that you are around friends, David.
David Kapp said:David hang in there. Your not too far from the poconos. You should stop by the Stroudsburg train show on Sunday and maybe attend some of our club meetings and get togethers. As well as the steam show in Scranton in feb. You can also come down by me and run some trains. I think your doable for a day trip to me. Your by Bloomsburg?
I don't know how I'm going to fair out this year. It's the first holiday season I will be doing alone since I was born some 62 years ago. To tell you the truth I'm not looking for this year's festivities. I just haven't been able to focus on any thing. I have an indoor track that needs cleaned so the train can run, but I just can't get it in me to do it.
David Kapp said:David, Steve & Shawn both offered good advice. However, you may need some help pulling yourself out of your "funk". There are support groups with people in the same situation. I suggest you see if you can find one in your area. Whatever path you take, it's important that you do something. Move forward, one step at a time. Ralph
I don't know how I'm going to fair out this year. It's the first holiday season I will be doing alone since I was born some 62 years ago. To tell you the truth I'm not looking for this year's festivities. I just haven't been able to focus on any thing. I have an indoor track that needs cleaned so the train can run, but I just can't get it in me to do it.
Shawn;
I have to work this weekend.
But the club meetings might be doable. When and where are your meetings?
I work nights, but I will be off for a week after Thanksgiving.
I’m just west of Bloomsburg by 20 miles.
Shawn said:David Kapp said:David hang in there. Your not too far from the poconos. You should stop by the Stroudsburg train show on Sunday and maybe attend some of our club meetings and get togethers. As well as the steam show in Scranton in feb. You can also come down by me and run some trains. I think your doable for a day trip to me. Your by Bloomsburg?
I don't know how I'm going to fair out this year. It's the first holiday season I will be doing alone since I was born some 62 years ago. To tell you the truth I'm not looking for this year's festivities. I just haven't been able to focus on any thing. I have an indoor track that needs cleaned so the train can run, but I just can't get it in me to do it.
Dave send me your e-mail and Ill have you put on our clubs e-mail list so you get all the dates ect…
Those that have not made it to this day to play with trains or yap on a confuser, probably would be most happy to have that ability. Some I actually miss.
What’s a Confuser?
yep that’s what it is alright, still works to.
The change in time in the winter always put me in a funk. I don’t mind the cold as I can dress for it. If it snows, I wait until it’s over and plowed away before going out. That’s one of the perks of being retired. It’s the sun going down at 4:30 in the afternoon that depressed me. Although it didn’t realize it until a few years ago, I suffered from Seasonal Affected Disorder all my life. Yes it’s real, more than 10 percent of the populations in the northern hemispheres suffer from it.
This year while resetting my Casio watch, I realized that it has two time settings. I reset one and left the other on Daylight Saving Time. As I am retired, I can ignore all the other clocks in the house. The clocks and mirrors are for da boss as she has a part time job. That’s a job with part time pay and full time hours if you are thinking about taking one after you retire.
I get up when I am rested, eat when I am hungry, and go to bed when I am tired. As I only have to concern myself with rat race time if I have an appointment, I leave my watch on Daylight Saving Time or Eastern Retired Time as I now call it when I am home. That way the sun goes down at 5:30 PM and I don’t feel bad at all. So far it seems to have worked, but the dark months of December and January will be the real test.
I don’t mind the month of February. The days are longer; and because it is too cold to snow, the days are brighter. By Valentine’s Day the cold snap is usually over. By the end of the month, the ice sculptures built during the winter carnival have melted. I use to find it the longest day of the month, but that has changed to March.
In March the snow begins to melt during the day, and you begin looking forward to the end of winter. But a couple of heavy snowstorms dash those hopes. The laneway becomes a canyon with snow banks piled up on either side. It seems like forever before the annual road trip to the ECLSTS at the end of the month. Miraculously when we return, all the snow is gone.
April is a dreary month of sloppy, grimy, wet, brown lawns. But the rain washes away the winter grim and flushes the ice out of the rivers. The earth begins to awaken, and thoughts turn to the new Railway Operating Season. Unfinished winter projects are prioritized and approached with new vigor. And then that day comes when you can open the windows and let that first mild spring breeze freshen the air in the house. Spring at Last! Thank God almighty it is spring at last!
Too cold to snow? Interesting… How’s that work?
When I flush the upstairs toilet the lights in the dining room flicker and go dim for a second or so?
Too cold to snow, that’s a good one. That’s like saying it’s too wet to rain. I guess you haven’t been to the Arctic Circle
Spent the day today doing leaf clean up. I may be weird, I actually enjoy it 
It does get dark too early, but that’s the price we pay for long summer days.
I know what Paul means when he says it is ‘too cold to snow’. He should know, he experiences a lot of snow each winter where he lives.
In this part of the world we also have that saying. The reason being that very cold weather (for the UK) comes from the east - direction Russia 
- and north east - Scandinavia/ Arctic. This air is ‘dry’ whereas the westerlies are ‘wet’ having crossed the Atlantic. Those are usually the directions the snow comes from. Being an island the UK is subject to very varied weather and conditions varying from County to County.
It rarely snows here, though just a few miles north and east it often does. Snow, when we get it here is ‘lake effect’ that is to say the very cold easterlies pick up moisture from the English Channel.
Ray Dunakin said:LOL Ray it is true very cold weather dries the atmosphere out. It happens here. They call for a monster snow storm and area to my south get snow but by the time it gets north the cold air sucks the moisture out. Oh ya I stayed at a holiday inn last night.
Too cold to snow? Interesting... How's that work?
Jon Radder said:Hmm I have to remember that for next year before I clean my leaves. We can have a leaf cleaning party. Ill supply the beer. Long Trail brews good?
Spent the day today doing leaf clean up. I may be weird, I actually enjoy it :D It does get dark too early, but that's the price we pay for long summer days.
Hey Shawn - My lot is less than one quarter of yours. Doing yours, definitely NOT fun !
Several years ago I declared all-out mechanized warfare of leaves. Back pack blower to move them away from the edges. A bagging attachment on the riding mower to chop them up and collect them. A leaf box on my utility trailer to dump and haul them. The trailer is just under a cubic yard. I usually fill and dump it twice a season.
Jon Radder said:We do the same only don't haul the leaves off and use them for compost. Have 5 different areas where they are stored during break down and they eventually just return to dirt. The key is layering of brown and green. Jan uses the compost soil to replenish nutrients around the plants. Been doing it for over 30 years and basically no grass or leaves are hauled off the property.
Several years ago I declared all-out mechanized warfare of leaves. Back pack blower to move them away from the edges. A bagging attachment on the riding mower to chop them up and collect them. A leaf box on my utility trailer to dump and haul them. The trailer is just under a cubic yard. I usually fill and dump it twice a season.
I just blow the leaves to the edges of the property and only worry about the front yard… I guess thats one advantage to having 9 acres