robert.admin – Page 8 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

April 2, 2025

Fantastic Voyage (DOG EAR)

ometime media and entertainment play a larger and unifying role in things. I had pretty important surgery today. There was 70% blockage of some of my blood passages in my heart. To make things worse, it’s called “The Widowmaker”. Happy thought, especially since in the week following the diagnosis, I suffered an episode of small but sharp pains right from that area. Of course, like your automobile, by the time I went back to the cardiologist’s urgent care it had stopped and I was fine. No sign of anything. That made me more than happy to follow the doc’s recommendation […]

March 30, 2025

Destroyermen 13: River of Bones (Review)

think I’m almost there – two books remaining. As always, the reptilian Grik in Africa somehow come up with another massive army and fleet of galleys (along with the usual host of ironclads) and are coming down the south-flowing Zambezi river, attempting to break out and flood across the strait to Madagascar, to push out the allies and keep pushing until thousands of miles are taken back. Unluckily for our heroes, all their assets are north, up in Zanzibar, where they just put paid to much of the Japanese presence there, including squashing a significant character or two. So there is […]

March 27, 2025

OpsLog – LM&O – 3/26/2025

t was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But doesn’t every OpsLog start like this? The important thing here is that we gradually get better. In prepping the photographs for this blog, I noticed a number of properly-done background things (such as cars off-spotted correctly). As simple as it seems, it means that our operators are learning. Every session is a bit better than the last. And so, in this blog, I’ll be listing the lessons we (or, at least, “I”) learned. You’ll see them in bold. Okay, from my point of view, I came on […]

March 27, 2025

Procrastination (DOG EAR)

o I got it bad. I’m kinda in a distracted point in my life. I have some critical surgery coming up, and the testing alone (with the various support activities) is really bugging me. And there is the continuing issue about the club trailer (a member put the title in his name and then died, and the DMV has been less than helpful). And then there is all the model railroading operations I do, often two to three times a week. And an older friend of mine who is having anti-social issues – that costs me time in the form […]

March 24, 2025

OpsLog – WAZU – 3/23/2025

came into this session with determination. The day before we’d operated over at the Virginia Southwestern. Some of the operators were new, some timid, and some.. well, “some”. At one point we had four L&N trains in the CTC-controlled shared trackage, and two more snippy Southern trains trying to get through. Since I controlled the turnouts from the panel, I set up a pretty neat lap siding pass for two long coal trains to get around Kyle’s mine shifter. But the two crews were timid – even with warrants all the way to Atlanta staging, even with all turnouts set, […]

March 23, 2025

OpsLog – L&N – 3/22/2025

t was such a nice morning. Came out of the house as the sun broke over the trees, breath steaming in the cold as I made my way to the car. Swung by the coffee shop to pick up a cup. Dropped by Zach’s place to mailbag him for the ride out – an informal meeting of the ONT Operations Committee. Happy to say while we rode out, we might have cracked the steel mill output dilemma, as well as tidying up the freight flow across our club’s bridge route. Time for a quick meal in Wendy’s before heading over […]

March 23, 2025

Gate Crashers (Review)

don’t quite remember where I got this one – probably a used bookstore. It didn’t have ISBN or copyright info, so I’m guessing self-published or an advance copy. Either way, it was a pretty good effort. So we have the Magellan, a deep-space exploration vessel making a time-dilated, sleep-chamber haul out on a mission of exploration. Deep in space they find an object with no relative motion, just sitting there. When they try to move it, it attempts to remain where it was, slams into the back of the shuttle bay and then burns out. Fortunately they can communication with […]

March 17, 2025

OpsLog – Highland Division – 3/16/2025

hen I was a small lad, I dreamed of dispatching. The idea of trains ordered to meet other trains at passing sidings, of rolling through stations, that was a really cool image. It was an unrealized dream. And now? Today on the New Haven Highland Division, dispatching was like Donkey Kong. The entire day I was running up ramps and jumping over barrels, tormented by a host of huge monkeys beating their chests. Really, I was wedged in a corner behind a panel that didn’t make a lot of sense at times, yelling across the room or squinting up at […]

March 17, 2025

Toto (Review)

f this book’s vector didn’t immediately jump out at you, let me remind you. Toto is Dorothy’s little dog from the Wizard of Oz. Oh yes, that dog. We saw this with Wicked and A Barnstormer in Oz. These are reimagining of the classic movie we all watched as kids, that big event. in each case, we see the various elements recast, either humorously or horrifically. And this work is no exception. Tota is a clever, sharp, wisecracking mutt who is still trying to wrap around the through that his beloved Dorothy and the Gales (Henry and Em) turned him […]

March 13, 2025

Leading the horse to water (DOG EAR)

o I’ve been thinking about the divided nation we live in. People are so touchy now (and being a “people”, I suppose that extends to me). In my wife’s weekly coffee club, someone invited a clod who sat across from me and talked politics to the person next to him (in rude and belittling ways) until I silently got up and walked out. So I figured to try that reach-across-the-divide thing that people always tout. On one Facebook post, someone was claiming that it was right for the VA to be shuttered since there was supposedly massive fraud taking place. […]