robert.admin – Page 31 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

May 5, 2024

Trigger Warning (Review)

rigger Warning is a collection of Neil Gaiman short stories, perfect for the long plane trip to Amsterdam. They all are stories which the main character is surprised (sometimes fatally) by a turn of events. Often they are close calls, or cautionary notes, or just death. But they were all fun. My favorite of the bunch was Adventure Story, a cute little story where a man asks his mom about an item on his late-father’s desk, an tiny figuring, and in denying and pooh-poohing it, his mother hints of some sort of crazy Indian Jones adventure his father went through. […]

May 2, 2024

The Babble with Travel (DOG EAR)

hat, I’m still doing this? It’s been, what, weeks since my last DOG EAR. Well, I’ve been busy. First off, I was off for two weeks in the wonderful Netherlands. And as my want, I write a blog each day about what we saw and experienced. That’s all find and good – with my tinytop computer, it’s nice to retire to the quiet lounge at the end of a day and just… reflect. It’s the writer’s thing to do. And you can find all my recent travels HERE. The Netherlands are right at the top. Anyway, I’ve been doing this […]

April 29, 2024

Destroyermen 9: Deadly Shores (Review)

ou’ll notice that I’ve picked up reviews again. With my two week vacation in Amsterdam and my blogging about it, I really didn’t have time for book reviews. Well, I’ve got a stack to get through so even though it’s late, let’s get started. So Taylor Anderson’s Deadly Shores is the ninth book in the Destroyermen series. In this one, the world gets bigger as we learn more about the reptilian grik locations in Africa, hints about another race further north along the western coast, and possibly more allies beyond the South American Dons. Yes, the book is busy. Unlike […]

April 25, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 4/24/2024

he moon dapples the western Pennsylvanian hills with splashes of silver. All is still. Suddenly there arises a low rumble and large slabs of forest slowly part, sliding away, the wire armatures of Bill White fake trees twanging. An exposed lair. And then a dark shape vaults into the sky! It’s the Dispatchocopter! Whirling along like a large, dark, criminal-fear-inspiring bat, Eastern Dispatcherman rides the night air, having left his ward Western Dispatcherboy in charge of the railroad. His mission – to combat the confusion that holds the Lehigh, Monongahela & Ohio Railroad in its deadly grip. The Robert-button has […]

April 24, 2024

Netherlands – Concluding comments

ell, if you made it this far on my blogs, you win the prize (eye-strain and headaches, most likely). Anyway, I’ll just wrap up our trip home and offer my own thoughts. The day after the tulips, we left. Our activity director, Danni, was in charge of getting us transport to the airport. Apparently, the Gate One people listen to my brother in setting up connections – sure, leaving two hours before our flight seems like a great idea, right? So what would we do – sit on the boat and watch the old passengers leave and the new ones […]

April 23, 2024

Netherlands – Day Eleven – Grande Tulip Finale

s I write this, we’re easing into Amsterdam Docks at 5 AM, bedtime chocolate melting on my tongue, coffee steaming, just having given the next boat dock-ward of us a nice wake-up nudge. It’s tulip day today. And it’s the day the wife packs, with all the hysterics and recriminations that brings. Flashback: The last “final day” on a ship in Amsterdam, she broke her arm as noted HERE. Fun fact: The cruise director told me that this ship takes 9000 gallons of fuel and on a full tank can run from here (Amsterdam) all the way upriver to Vienna. […]

April 22, 2024

Netherlands – Day Ten – Colonial Memdemblik and Cool Trains

kay, so, observations. Our journey has exacted a toll. There are at least four women on the cruise who now sport splints on their arms. No men. We all think that irregular cobblestones (and a lack of situational awareness) have contributed to this. I did hear bitching that someone lost their footing dodging a bike. To that: (A) Bikes run largely in straight lines and (B) at constant speeds and so if an object moving along a set path and velocity “surprised you”, you (C ) weren’t looking. That’s on you. No billboards here, none at all. On I-75, coming […]

April 22, 2024

OpsLog – WAZU – 4/21/2024

guess it comes from bumming around the Netherlands for two weeks. Everywhere you go, you see trains zip past. And Central Station in Amsterdam has more rail traffic in and out that a Christmas tree layout. Every five minutes, a sleek blue train from the Dutch Railways bursts into the sunset, flying across fields and vaulting canals. And here, we just crashed a couple of trains at Folkston, GA, in what sounds like a complete stooges act of train safety. But those Dutch trains – poetry in motion. Look, for American railroading, Doc Andy likes creating fast lines. It’s Union […]

April 21, 2024

Netherlands – Day Nine – Windblown windmills

uestion – whose bright idea was it to place a small bit of chocolate on your pillow at night? If you pop it down then and there (as I did for the first few nights) then you have to brush your teeth all over again (or lay there in the dark tasting it as you fall asleep (perhaps this explains all those yellow Dutch teeth I’ve seen in recent days?)). Further, there is that final sugar spike you get, not so perfect when you lay me down to sleep. I’ve gotten enough sugar in recent days (with the waffles and […]

April 20, 2024

Netherlands – Day Eight – Reflections and more Medieval Stuff than you can imagine

e’re currently docked this morning in an industrial town outside of Ghent. Kinda bleak and, well, industrial. Just off the fantail, there is a very utilitarian “barracks”, a three-story floating block of flats, tied semi-permanently to the dock. Notices of this and that taped to three stories of end-side entryways (off something that looks like a fire escape). It is nothing but a big square box where presumably workers reside (for the industrial yard itself, or some nearby project?). On the shore, there are a hundred bikes drawn up, hinting at the numbers inside. It rather puts me to mind […]