Two updates in two days – craziness!  For me it’s still the same day, just a few hours later.  Any rate, I worked on the RBS some more tonight, and got a nice little bit of work done.  I fabbed up a new little short piece of track and got it all soldered and everything without any drama at all.  Nice.

This piece is the very first section of track that the marbles will ride on when they come off the lift (spoiler alert: there’s going to be a lift!).  No doubt, since you are all so eagle-eyed and whatnot, you’re saying to yourself, “Yo, those cross piece thingies are NOT like the ones on that first section Tom built.”  Right you are!  For the heck of it I decided to try using sections of copper tubing cut in half.  Look kind of neat, don’t they?  Originally, this idea was posted on the Yahoo RBS group as a time saver.  What I’ve found, however, is that it seems to take a lot longer to do this than to just bend a bit of wire and face off the ends flat.  Go figure.  Since these were sitting around I figured I’d use ’em and see what they looked like.  This means, of course, that my sculpture will look funky and mismatched to some degree, but I’m going off the deep end and allowing myself to make some that’s not absolutely 100% perfect and uniform (*GASP!*).  Letting myself do this is actually a really good exercise, as in the past I’ve allowed my efforts to be stalled or completely stopped when something wasn’t perfect.  By giving myself permission to try different things without worrying about every single tiny detail I free me up to make a lot more progress.  Since this piece got done in one evening, I’d say it’s a good indication that it’s not a bad practice in which to indulge.

In addition, I have a nice little surprise.  I was talking with a friend on the phone this evening, and she said, “I can’t wait to see what it’s like when it’s done.”  Well, me neither, but I have a little diagram I drew that at least tells me what to expect, and you do not.  Therefore, I am going to share said diagram with you, my little internet buddies, so that we can all follow along and anticipate the awesomeness as it unfolds.

Behold, my grand plans:

Stunning, isn’t it?  I’m sure this is crystal clear to you. If not, don’t worry.  I’ll be sure to provide plenty of details along the way to explain just exactly how this drawing will wildly diverge from/become the RBS titled “Turtle.”  (I’ll explain that one later.)

I’m tired, kids.  Time to put the lights out on a very productive eve.  ‘night!