Blog – Page 26 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

April 22, 2012

Casca (Review)

In my science fiction stories (both the published Early ReTyrement and several others I spooled out over the years), the hero did the direct jump, either backwards or forwards. Blink and he’s there. In the Casca series, the hero does it the long way, by living each year. See, Casca Rufio Longinus is the hapless Roman soldier put on execution duty. He’s on the detail putting Christ up on the cross. And in that, he takes pity on the guy and jams his spear into him if only to shorten his suffering. Christ, for all his blessings, misinterprets this action […]

April 24, 2012

Aft torpedos!

Well, I’ve got to do what old guys occasionally do. Buy a sportscar? No. Get a mistress? No. I’ve got to get a colonoscopy. Had one a few years back and they found enough polyps (good luck with that word, Mr. Spellchecker) that I had to go back. Gads. And there is no backing out of this (pun intended) – my sister is a Colonoscop-doc, and has been keeping her gloved finger firmly on the pulse of my calendar. So in I go this Friday (or in it goes this Friday). For those who’ve never had one, it’s not so […]

April 25, 2012

OpsLog – LM&O – 4/25/2012

Then he slid down the chimney. A rather tight pinch. But, if Santa could do it, then so could the Grinch. He got stuck only once, for a moment or two. Then he stuck his head out of the fireplace flue… Everyone remembers that Tex Avery image of the Grinch rolling into a ball in those tight confines. Funny when it happens to him. Not so funny when it happens to me, the dispatcher. We were rattling the rails with a full house of operators. Trains east, trains west. I was kicking out warrants pretty fast – a warrant is […]

April 26, 2012

Naga-more (DOG EAR)

I don’t think other writers have this problem. I don’t think Moby Dick hung off a pier near Melville’s house, bubbling dejectedly. And I’m sure Mr. Darcy didn’t rap on Jane Austen’s door, grousing, “Damme, but are you through yet?” But me, I’ve got crows. Been working most evenings on knocking off a chapter or two of Indigo, my aerial version of Watership Down. The book is done but there are a number of things I’d like to do before putting it back before the agents (who were warm to it, so there is a shot). I need to read […]

April 27, 2012

Look, A**hole – a medical proceedure

Had to go to my colonoscopy today. I’d mentioned my concerns/dreads/exasperations HERE. No, it’s not done for fun. We’d picked up the big gallon jug of laxitive mixer over the weekend. I decided to add in the lemon-lime flavor pack – yeah, it’s a flavor, all right. Tuesday I added water and mixed it all up. And Thursday, I had to drink it. Knowing I would be short-term-renting food for the day, I only had a muffin for breakfast. Then, starting at 1pm and continuing every 30 minutes, I had to drink a full glass of the stuff until it […]

April 29, 2012

Meet the Author

Looks like I’ll be downtown at the local library, giving a speech on the 19th? With my usual timing, my employers are offering Dale-Carnegie courses for free at work, but they will be moving too slowly for me to have them under by belt by the time I hit the podium. But I’ve got an idea of what I’m going to say, so I’ll just work at polishing it up this week and getting it all ready for live-time. And any of you locals, if you have the time and want to watch your pal in action, come down and […]

May 3, 2012

Barker

Okay, as promised, here is my picture of me as a carney barker. Did three hours in the hot sun, heckling some 200 people through our concrete carnival. So that’s a new career path for me…

May 3, 2012

Effort (DOG EAR)

It always seems like a strange question (especially from wanna-be writers): “How do you make the time for writing?” My answer (which I picked up someplace along my life) is “Butt glue”. That’s what it takes to make myself write – establishing a time and metaphorically gluing my ass to the chair, and forcing myself to write. Some of my best writing came from times when I really didn’t want to, but had to. But that’s not the real crux of the question. See, it’s not just about finding time (and passion) to write. That’s the easy part. I’m always […]

May 5, 2012

Fuckitnügen II

Here we go again. Wednesday at the club, I noticed that the car seemed sluggish to start. Today, when we wanted to go to lunch, it seemed inert. Dead battery. So we jumped it (what a circus that was – I had to push the car, the wife steered, and she put it into the hedge). Anyway, got it running, went out to lunch at a nearby Wendy’s. Came out and found it dead again. So home we walked, 100 degrees but lots of shade, so not bad. Brought the wife’s car out with the jumpers and started it again. […]

May 6, 2012

OpsLog – San Diego & Eastern Az – 5/6/2012

The plight of the blogger – what to say if the session goes so smooth, there is nothing to comment on? Oh, I don’t know if there were any catastrophes in the other room. I heard about soldering a wire around a dead section, one of those crummy track gang repairs. And I know that one of the railroad’s cheap seats gave way in the crew lounge, spilling an operator to the floor (a fine way to treat guests). But from the dispatcher’s panel, no big deal. Trains moved across the division, I referred to the timetable and made their […]