Hi All:
Hope you and yours had a great Christmas and will have a good New Year
holiday.
As I sit here and look at the past year (in regards to my model
railroading), the old familiar pattern was again in place:
Inactivity.
Small spurt of activity
Inactivity.
As lamented before, I miss modeling... some. Don't know if I'll ever have
the energy to pursue modeling as I did previous to my current 7-8 year bout
of model railroading apathy, but nonetheless, I do miss modeling at times.
Me being the introspective type, I think I've distilled the Number One
reason that I don't model as actively as I have in the past. Perhaps you
too, can relate to what I'm going to share.
I think the single most detremental impact upon my disposable time energy
is: The internet.
Yup, I'm afeared the internet has become my entertainment.
I don't do much TV. It's too easy to watch videos about whatever I'm
interested in at the moment on the internet. Same with model trains: Why
sit and work at a workbench when I can point and click my way to read/see
things I find interesting?
However, I think this brings with it a price: Adult Attention Deficit
Disorder.
I'm being serious. A chronic surfer gets so used to quickly scanning this,
then viewing that... then off to this... then that... that you don't take
the time to thoroughly digest the material in front of you as you used to do
with hard copy magazines/reading material. This can become an acquired
learning pattern.
SOooooo...
What was I talking about?
Oh yeah, AADD...
I suspect I need to make some serious changes in my disposable time
patterns. I am seriously considering limiting my time on the internet. In
fact, last Saturday I cut some firewood and did some other outside chores.
Plus, I went for a nice nippy ride on my Harley. The past couple evenings
I've begun to tackle cleaning/organizing this horrendous hobby/computer
room. (A cluttered room/workbench is a sure-fire way to hamper my model
time.) Today I have more yard/exterior work I'm going to attend to. (Right
after I surf a couple of forums I'm interested in.) Later I will return to
cleaning/organizing this hobby/computer room.
NOW... what has this to do with model railroading and S scale in particular?
In some ways, nothing really... yet in other ways, everything.
There's not a time that I turn on the lights to enter this hobby/computer
room that my eyes fail to fall upon the semi-scene in front of me that
exists on the eye-level benchwork. Upon the benchwork sits several sticks of
ME rail, with some AM and PRS boxcars thereon... an SHS SW or two... as well
as a AM CB&Q Baldwin switcher. All of this is backdropped by partially
mocked-up building flats in a scene remniscient of the Kansas City West
Bottoms of my youth. I like what was shaping up.
Seeing this, I think:
"You know, it would be fun to have something operational again... how long
has it been??"
However, the old addage is: Wish in one hand and sh** in the other and see
which happens first.
It's a dead cinch that NOTHING will happen if I continue to allow myself to
stay in the same pattern I've been in for way too long now.
So, the dynamic question is: Will I change the things that need to change
in order to regain some areas of my life I have surrendered to the
Cyberworld?
Hmmmmmm.
Perhaps.
Fortunately, I CAN control the outcome if I choose to.
Maybe I need to give this some more serious thought... right after I do a
bit of surfing. <g>
Andre Ming
Pondering In Patootey
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