robert.admin – Page 185 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

May 18, 2014

OpsLog – FEC – 5/18/2014

t’s wonderful to be really good at something. You scrape along the bottom edge of perfect. And Saturday’s run across the Florida East Coast was pretty much there. We’ve got a good crew. The owner is dispatching. Everyone has good jobs. And there aren’t newbies wandering about asking about where Palm Bay or the bathrooms are. We’ve all run this dozens (if not a hundred) times. I’ve already run 920 that day, a turn up from Miami that made stops in Palm Bay, Melbourne and a bit further north before turning around and running back. Interacted with a lot of […]

May 18, 2014

The Powder Monkey (Review)

t’s been cynically stated that there are only two true plot lines, those being (a) a man comes to town or (b) a man leaves town. The Powder Monkey sees both of these come to play. Seaman Jack Jeens plods into our story along a countryside road, his dear ol’ mother at his back (he’s just given her half his wages, d’ya see, to keep the poor ald lady whole and hale), his schooner at anchor in nearby Torquay*. And that’s when he comes upon a poor little lad weeping in the lane, his mum and da passed on, his […]

May 15, 2014

Boot in the butt (DOG EAR)

ast DOG EAR, I told my friend that it isn’t time writers lack, it’s creativity and passion. And she told me in her comment to my piece that while that might be true, she was going to fight to find her creativity. And that opens an interesting thought. Writers have to make time, this I know. But why should we have to wait for creativity to strike? Perhaps we need to make that, too. Yeah, she kicked me in the ass. I sat there looking over her comments – it was 10:30 on a Sunday night. I’d just finished the […]

May 12, 2014

OpsLog – L&S – 5/12/2014

o here I am running a switch engine in the industrial yard I was born to run (or at least physically built to run), Altamonte Springs. The Longwood & Sweetwater RR is pretty tight here, something like a foot of headspace under the host’s backup N-scale layout (my long arms really help here). I’ve run this turn before and am just going into the drill. John is on the back end, tossing the throws and lining me up. Together we’re working the yard, bottom to top, cleaning it out a spur at a time. Then I tell him that I […]

May 11, 2014

Ten Years Later (Review)

‘ve noted before how confusing this series is (from a structural sense) – it’s been released as two books, as three, and including (or excluding) The Man in the Iron Mask. So the version I’m reading is the middle three of the The Vicomte of Bragelonne series, all about Athos’ son’s love for Louise de la Vallière, a confused country girl made even more confused by the glitter (and corruptive influence) of the court (she now has a position as a lady-in-waiting for Lady Henrietta, the English wife of the son of the French King, second in line to the […]

May 8, 2014

Time and Creativity (DOG EAR)

rom an email from a dear friend of mine… “So I decided to ask you for advice. You have a home, a wife, a job, a yard, a pet, a train hobby, ride a bike, and you and JB travel. So how do you find time to write? Do you apply your stealth mode and disappear……and if so, how do you find time?” I will admit that I face a significant time shortage. I used to set aside every Tuesday and Thursday evening for writing (three hours and then a cool-down walk). I also used my lunch breaks for […]

May 8, 2014

What writing isn’t (DOG EAR)

riting isn’t…. Deleting obvious spam postings out of my comments folders. Backing up this website. Fussing with the state over taxation forms. Dealing with copyright issues for song usage, and paying royalties for use. Sitting at a show booth for hours and only getting nibbles. Standing at the new arrivals section of the book store and seeing nothing but crap. Making sure the automated backups get all my latest versions of my writings. Getting interrupted at lunch when all I want to do is write (and the conversation that supersedes the writing is flat and dull). Having to jog at […]

May 6, 2014

Night flight

In the paper today, there was a bit about three local riders doing a DC to Orlando ride in support of Beautiful Feet International, a Christian charity. But their ride home turned tragic when they were struck by a van in Georgia and two were killed. And my opinion is against them on this. I know they had rights to be on that road, that they were keeping well to the right (as I do), had reflective gear and lights (as I do) and helmets (as I have). They should not have been killed. But then again, they shouldn’t have […]

May 4, 2014

OpsLog – TY&E – 5/4/2014

‘m on the Tipton Turn, sitting on the siding at Heiserburg in the God-awful middle of the night. I’ve just pushed two boxcars of ingredients into the brewery there and pulled two boxcars of beer out. With that, I roll my short local forward and walking speed, giving Jimmy on the crummy a chance to realign the turnout and hop back aboard. No rush – according to the timetable we’re supposed to meet a coal train here. So imagine my surprise when a refrigerated block (not an extra – I’ve got no orders for him) arrives and holds opposite me. […]

May 4, 2014

Chasing Fire (guest review)

Lynn Perry is a dear friend and a writer, and at one time a co-worker (in my rocket-scientist days). I love how she thinks and what makes her purr. And she’s getting her own little fanbase for her reviews. Enjoy her latest recommendation… e all know there are brave individuals out there risking their lives fighting forest fires. That, however, is all most of know. Although we read about fire fighters, see TV news clips of smoke jumpers, and pilots dropping retardant, most of us have no idea of the real job they perform. In her direct, exacting, and informative […]