robert.admin – Page 17 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

October 20, 2024

OpsLog – TBL – 10/19/2024

nice summer day on the Tuscarora – an aspect we’ll mention a bit later. Greg and I were thinking of a two-man run but got enough interest to bump it up to six. Of course, I got there two hours early and set up in thirty minutes (why do I do this (because I’m usually freaking before ops, I’d wager)). But the guys all came out and were ready to run. I spent some of the down time explaining to the new guys how it worked (yes, this isn’t simply a tiny 2×4 foot train layout). But of course, they’d […]

October 20, 2024

Adjustment Day (Review)

hat makes this a creepy read is that Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) wrote this in 2018, two years before the real-world insurrection, and it’s yet as chilling and disturbing as our own. The story takes place with a wide collection of characters (hint: write them down so as not to be confused) with most of them involved in the overthrow. Working off an online unpopularity list of political and public figures, Adjustment Day finds the various state houses filled with machine gun toting radicals, who quickly kill off pretty much everyone on that list. To get credit for doing it, […]

October 17, 2024

Coward of the County (DOG EAR)

remember it well. Hurricane Charlie was coming right up Interstate 4 towards us. We had the house battened down. Tools and cat cage in the center hall. Windows boarded. Winds picked up and as the sun set, the hurricane rolled over us. Suddenly it was black outside, winds howling. The lights flickered and went out. In the back, I could hear trees going over. Got Prince the cat and stuffed him into his cage. The cat and wife and I hunkered in the center hall, all the doors closed. The house shuddered, wind coming up through the floorboards. At the […]

October 13, 2024

Fokker Dr 1 Aces of World War 1 (Review)

‘ve always thought of writing a semi-fictional book about World War One aviation. I realized there is far more to know than just the planes. Did pilots use zippers or buttons on their flies? Did they drink coffee (could the Germans even get coffee by 1918?). What was the slang, the thoughts, even the haircuts. Think about your own life and the number of little items in it – now imagine trying to write a compelling story at some level of detail. In the end, I still love flying so I wrote a book about crows, an excellent book that […]

October 6, 2024

ShowLog – Deland – 10/5/2024

he night before the show. Getting a full eight is very important before the early morning setup, the all-day running, tear-down and take-home. Which is why I pulled a “Zach” and got about two hours of snooze. Actually, I hit the bed early enough but woke up in the middle of the might, my mind tumbling with club membership issues, show issues, and the upcoming convention next weekend (which I have to host operations for twenty hours AND give a clinic DURING a possible hurricane). So yes, a lot of my mind. The cats woke me up before the alarm […]

October 6, 2024

The Portable Curmudgeon (Review)

ou might remember me mentioning this, how I got interested in this book, only to find out that I already had it on the stacks. Amusing story HERE! So Jon Winokur wrote this 1987, a book which look on the art of being a curmudgeon and what societal role we play (I use the “we” form here – is there any doubt that I’m not a get-off-my-lawn curmudgeon). Of course, the Okay Boomer crowd sees it this way. To them, they are superior to us, what with their ability to speed and tailgate (with their parent’s insurance close at hand), […]

October 3, 2024

Joybirds (DOG EAR)

nother local bookstore closes, this time, Joybird Books, less than a mile from my house. Loved that shop. Popped in from time to time but the owner felt sorry for selling me so many books and ended up loaning them to me. Also, the store was set up as a community center, so there was room for kids to color and play, for people to sit, to enjoy themselves. My wife and I went to Zen sittings on Sunday nights there. Another victim of the failure of Americans to read, and the encroachment of Amazon into every aspect of small […]

September 29, 2024

The Garner Files (Review)

‘m a little late to the party here. The Rockford Files played while I was in junior high and college, and that was D&D night so I never caught them. I do know that in my final year at Va Tech, my roomate watched these things and curious, I watched over his shoulder. I still carried an interest in this show for, what, forty years? Thus, in retirement, I took time to watch the series on Roku (which shows dedication, since it runs with lousy commercials that are no longer fun to dissect the tenth time around). Anyway, Garner plays […]

September 26, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 9/25/2024

wake up in a sunny room. Surprising, It’s not the train crew flophouse I’m used to. A woman in white comes in to put a vase of flowers on the sill. Is this Heaven? No, wait – she’s a nurse! Is this a hospital? Was my train in a wreck? Then I see the embroidered lettering on her apron. Zanesville Sanitarium. I’m in the nut house! Yes, you guys put me there. What a frustrating session. I think I must have answered about thirty questions and found at least two drifting engines that had shorted the layout. It’s a little […]

September 26, 2024

Retiiiirement (DOG EAR)

inding out new ways to be in the five years since I retired. Back when I worked, my special delight every day was to ride my commuting bicycle across the entire floor to the coffee pots and start a brew, then ride back. God knows what would have happened if the building manager caught me. And yes, I rang the bike bell at every cubicle intersection. So now I’m retired. One of my favorite things is to ride over to Leu Gardens (the city’s botanical gardens, about a block from my house) and walk it. Then I’ll ride over to […]