robert.admin – Page 18 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

December 17, 2024

OpsLog – WVN – 12/13/2024

‘m down in a dark low place, a plywood and benchwork cavern under the hills between Darby and Elkview, looking for reefer cars off my Pacific Fruit Express run which was turned into tossed salad by a miss-thrown turnout. Several cars were derailed in the tunnel and one had hit the floor. On my knees in the dusty dark, it was then that I saw it. Tucked in the corner opposite me, under the town of Harris, the dull ivory of ancient bones amid a scattering of Indian war bonnets, rusting tomahawks and flint arrowheads. It was an Indian burial […]

December 15, 2024

On Earth as it is on Television (Review)

n popular culture, aliens are presented as either destructive pricks or bulb-headed benefactors. But what if they were fun-loving little creatures who love our greasy food, our discarded plastic, and above and beyond, our wasteland of television. This novel, written by Emily Jane, is a delightful story of aliens nosing around Earth, placing agents among us, controlling our cats, and generally being goofy and funny. Told from humans (who might be humans, but maybe not) the story starts with a dis-unified collective of characters and slowly works out their bonds and origins, explaining the oddball situations in ways that delight. […]

December 12, 2024

Rickmember (DOG EAR)

or those of you who haven’t watched Rick and Morty, it’s a funny animated TV show over on Hulu. The idea is that it’s a loose lift of Doc Brown and Marty, played by a crusty (and often drunk) super-scientist and and his slow grandson. Sure, it’s nasty and the violence is gratuitous. But on the positive side, the show often makes stunning observations about our culture and especially our tropes. They will back-reference themselves and make occasional fourth-wall rim shots (such as, “You’ll remember back in season two…”) So I’ve watched all seven current seasons. However, all the way […]

December 9, 2024

OpsLog – WB -12/7/2024

nother biannual jaunt down to Port Saint Lucie to run on Al Sohl’s magnificent Western Bay (a DRGW narrow gauge line that will make your eyeballs hurt, the scenery so vast and, well, western). We had a contingent foursome of operators: myself, studious John L, personable Jim M (the padre), and Terry B (a newbie who seems interested in operations, has survived two club beatings and is game to try other lines). Terry and I had ridden east to the Holiday Inn marshaling yard, and I was gratified to learn that he was aware of Time Table & Train Order […]

December 8, 2024

Alexander and the End of the World (Review)

his is an interesting work on Alexander the Great. His adventures, driving across the known world and beyond, are the things that (used to) thrill the imaginations of schoolboys (back when they had imaginations). But the interesting aspect of this work is that it doesn’t do his entire life, not his youth, his father’s assassination (mentioned as an afterthought). And not (as I would have loved) the siege of Tyre. No, this is about his later campaign. It starts with him in Persepolis, with Darius III on the run and his primary objective (stated as revenge against the Persians, but […]

December 5, 2024

Get off my lawn (DOG EAR)

s Poopdeck Pappy said in Popeye, “I come across my hating fair”. And I do. The other day on Facebook, I posted something about kids being little shits. A friend of mine had just quit the teaching profession, having been beaten, assaulted and mauled by her students. She’d had enough. This slots into my own personal thoughts on this subject. I don’t have kids. But I can’t tell you how many movies, dinners and airplane flights have been ruined by screaming children. And how many events, from bike riding to train shows to anything, have been tarnished with shitty teens. […]

December 2, 2024

OpsLog – HL – 12/1/2024

here are things I’m thankful for. For example, I’m thankful they detected the cancer before it hit a nearby nerve and spread through my body. And I’m thankful that when my ultralight engine failed on a steep takeoff within five hours of soloing, I didn’t panic – stick forward, get speed back, and glide down to the lake to kiss it with my pontoons. But my latest thanks goes to the fact that I didn’t push to run the Highland Line under TT&TO. Talk about a narrow shave with death. Up in the tower, I had my hands full. Host […]

December 1, 2024

This is how you lose the Time War (Review)

n interesting little time war story. It starts off with an operative from a future world who is trying to shape the destiny of the universe to suit her masters. She is pacing through the ruins of a titanic battlefield, scattered with space ships, tanks and corpses, surveying the carnage and pretty proud of herself. And then she finds an envelope labeled, curiously, Burn Before Reading. Inside, she finds a short letter from a counterpart of this time war, a playfully sneering letter from her nemesis. Of course, the two are heavily monitored and watched by their respective commands so […]

November 30, 2024

OpsLog – CT – 11/29/2024

t’s taken a long way to get here. Our HO B&O Chicago Terminal layout was promised to be a major attention-getter at our club, drawing a huge wave of HO guys into our membership. But then the clique lost enthusiasm and quit, leaving us with our own version of the I-4 eyesore, a big expensive thing nobody knew what to do with. Jim T worked on it, adding industries (possibly too many industries) to the line. Bob K helped him with scenery. But that ended with us having (for all practical purposes) a very long engine test track. Again, interest […]

November 28, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 11/27/2024

s usual, we are never sure how many people will come out for a night-before-Thanksgiving session. We’ve always underestimated our turnout. And this year, as in years past, you’ve shown up just how much you dislike your family and relatives by coming out for a good night of full ops. And as always, we are glad to have you. As John C’s photo shows below, we had a large number of club members (plus a couple of friends and family, a guest or two, and even our favorite den-mom) to run with us. So our overall perspective from the dispatchers’ […]