robert.admin – Page 238 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

March 14, 2011

Opslog – Longwood & Sweetwater – 3/14/2011

My old consolidation is popping and hissing on the Altamonte industrial branch lead. Five inbound cars behind the tender, then the tracks fan out into dual and triple industry placement. The back car (car five, we’ll agree) goes to the door of the Swift meat packing company. And that’s down a spur behind a casket company. What a combo that is. It would be an easy trailing-switch/backup move, if not for the fact that the casket company has a shipment of casket handles in a box car plugging the spur. Okay. I whistle back, push car five past the turnout, and yell […]

March 12, 2011

Zoom boot!

After a long day, once I’m home, its easy to feel impatient when firing up the computer for fun with games or the net. But my computer’s boot felt sooooo slooooow. Even at the train club, I’d boot up my computer so someone else could use it to dispatch and they’d comment, “It’s taking forever”. And these are old guys; they know what forever means. Funny thing, but I was listening to “AOL Anime” on radio.com and the had a tech blurb about Soluto, a freebeeware that allows you to look at what’s booting up with your computer, the ramifications […]

March 12, 2011

Keen Prose 1

I’ve started the “Keen Prose” thread, where I’ll post phrases from authors whose pen’s I’m not fit to lick. It’s the word choices and phrases that bring smiles, and convey buckets of meaning in the tightest structure. “On the following morning, whilst Major Sands was sulking, like Achilles, in his tent…” The Black Swan Rafael Sabatini Footnote: I’ve always loved Sabatini – next to Wells, he is the author who’s work comes across as poetry to me. And Major Sands in The Black Swan is the smoldering dufus who is being outwitted and outdone by the flashing hero, Charles […]

March 10, 2011

OpsLog – FEC – 12/10/2011

“I need three guys,” the FEC superintendent emailed. “Extra operators for this Saturday.” Christmas is just around the corner, all manner of obligations, and the sessions sometimes suffer. With access to our club base, I got four at short notice. It’s interesting to take club operators to a stand-alone layout. Club ops are usually informal and easy-going. Home ops tend to be a little more by-the-book. The FEC is fun, but its also a fully-signaled main line effort, lots of industry, lots of switching, lots of following orders tight and right. So the worry, when I bring my pals over, […]

March 10, 2011

Metagame (review)

A friend of mine sent this to me with guarded praise. “It’s not great, but it’s interesting”. Quite a rave. And let’s just be clear that when I read, my editing light is lit. I love well-crafted prose, and the horn goes off when something jostles the story flow. For example, in Metagame, we have “R-shaped streetlights” (an issue of case, I think). A smiler: “Lily let go of D_Light’s hand, no longer needing him to guide her; he, however, did not let go of hers.” And this jolly description: “Even so, D_Light thought he could make out a large […]

March 9, 2011

Miss me?

Nothing like adversity to make you realize the important things in life. Two weeks ago, my wife caught on that someone had hacked our credit card. There were “kiddy” purchases to online trendy shops (and a damn food delivery service in Albany and a snack bar in a drug rehab shop in Phoenix). Like a horse with a broken leg, we took out our cards and shot them. You really learn what it’s like to be without credit without that card. Everything is in cash. I’m not a five-buck-lunch-run-the-card sort of yuppie, but there was something I wanted to buy […]

March 6, 2011

Fences make good nieghbors

Okay, I’m putting together this special page so all the N-trakers (and others) can help me find the fence I need for the Jacksonville bridge area. We’re trying to model the cribbing that lines the main channel and keeps the boats from smacking the pillars. Here is the actual Jacksonville fence. Yes, someday I dream of mounting that tiny little manitee sign on the fence. Here is my San Luis Obsipo corral, which I think would do a good job imposturing it. The thing is, I think I got this […]

March 1, 2011

Ying and Yang

“Maybe this wasn’t a good idea,” I thought as I came out of the drive this morning into the face of a sinister western sky. “Maybe I should turn back,” I considered as it started to spit. By the time I hit 17-92, this was a bad-idea, full-fledged. The rain was pouring down, the water was spanking off the spokes, and I was shaking my glasses to clean them. But I was committed now, and kept the push up all the way to work. I did notice that all the fossil-burners came in an hour late, fuming about the horrible […]

February 27, 2011

Be Safe

“Be safe”. How many times do you hear this? When you’re heading out for a weekend. Driving further than 50 miles. Going anywhere. Doing anything. Be Safe. Please. I beg of you! When did Americans become such cowards? When people hear I bike to work (with full lights and safety equipment along a route I carefully scouted) they become paralyzed with fear, equating what I am doing to riding a bike across Niagara falls on a cable. Trips abroad, the same thing. It’s always the cringing fear of terrorists, of criminals, of disease, of discomfort, of sadness, of disappointment, of […]

February 25, 2011

Am I in the right life?

The city had my bike path blocked off so they could leaf-blow it. I had to detour. A guy was stacking copper pipe on the loading dock at work, in front of the door he would shortly be using. I had to wait until he shifted his stuff to get in. I realized the back fender had come apart and was rubbing. Had to fix it in my office, dripping sweat. Forgot my badge when I went to the showers. Had to bang on doors (Willllmaa!) to get back in. There was SOMEONE ELSE in the showers today! Six years of […]