Blog – Page 5 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

February 5, 2011

Three days without a drop!

I’ve gone three days without a drop… of petroleum. Thursday and Friday I ground out the commute on the bike. Friday inbound was really interesting with the heavy mist that soaked as bad as any rain. Late out of work, too, riding after the rush was done, oddly quiet and peaceful. Today I spent the morning readying the train layout for its next ops session. Rode over to the hobby shop on my bike. How gratifying that the bike rack in Little Saigon (where the hobby shop is) was filled with bikes. I’m sure the people at AA (automobics anonymous) […]

February 7, 2011

Isn’t this supposed to be a hobby?

I’m sweating bullets and biting my nails right now – I’ve got Ops. I hate hosting. Once it gets going, its generally okay. But until then, I’m like an actor before going out on stage. I’m wired, tight to twanging. Problems I dealt with this weekend: A corroded wire (again!) the in Salinas panel. A Watsonville turnout that wouldn’t carry power. A steam engine that worked fine until I added the front coupler, and now its dogging. My new sound-equipped E8s are jacked a little high, putting their pilot couplers out of line. And the Salinas switch engine, which no […]

February 7, 2011

Logical mind meets Illogical line

Continuing the earlier posting… Got home early, everything in control. Moved things into place for ops, a very methodical process (in a little house, you have to do a number of things to make it ready for 8-12 operators). Anyway, was performing the final step, adding CRC to spots on the line and then running a set of F3s up and down the track to spread it out. The engines were running smooth and I was actually goosing them right along. On the first uphill, at high speeds, they piled up at the lower Serrano turnout. Odd. Well, I was […]

February 7, 2011

OpsLog – SP Coast Line – 2/7/2011

In my last two blogs I went over the ass-aches I went through to drag this railroad into operations. Let’s add one more – the cat got INTO the layout, crawling around inside the framework and walking along the hidden mainlines. I had to drag her out from under it – this stunt earned her a big squirt off the spray bottle. She’s still sulking. So there I was, bringing a new automated dispatching program online, unsure if I had track damage under the layout, wondering what was going to happen. And what happened was wonders. The trains ticked out […]

February 10, 2011

Irony

Yeah, its ironic. On the bike beneath leaden (hell, rainy) skies, sitting at a stop light, waiting for the oncoming left-turn lane traffic to get their red so I’ll get my green. A look up into the light-shield overhead. Yeah, its yellow. They’ll be stopping soon. A look to the oncoming lane. Here comes an FUV, racing along like a barrel of gluttons, flying to make his hard left turn on slick pavement. Light: Bing Sizzlesizzlesizzle go his tires as he slides through on the one-second-old red, crossing across my nose and my right-of-way. And the irony? The Lynx transport company […]

February 13, 2011

That seems like

That seems like. This is an old word-trick of mine I use while editing (and I’m certainly finding it useful while reworking Early ReTyrement). I came up with it a few years back and it’s helping me to pull all sorts of chestnuts out of my old, old novel. Keep these three words in mind while you punch up your work… THAT – I use “that” too often as a filler word and end up tripping over it. “He knew that the only thing that he had to fear was that fear, itself.” SEEMS – It’s a weak word, once […]

February 14, 2011

OpsLog – Saluda Grade – 2/14/2011

Today I had to fix everyone’s little work problems, putting out fires, taking three hours of process training, and researching another ill-conceived tool. But tonight I worked the Marion local, pushing the cars into Dunn’s and Tricky Dick’s paints. The cars bang and clatter as they go together – just fine – because when I pull them out, they uncouple right at their docks, a satisfying trick. And now I’m done. I swing across the main, pick up my outbounds off the CSX interchange and roll out of town. I’ve even got two cars for Florida Chair at Old Fort […]

February 15, 2011

Terminus

Interesting thing – I crossed into the 300-page range on Early Retyrement the other night. Oh, there was still typos and boner phrases (“…a handful of feet away…”). But at this point of the novel, with the story elements coming together for the conclusion, I finally settled down. Not many that’s. Very few seems. And the likes were rather clever. I’m wondering what happened way back in 1999 while I was writing those pages, what outlook shift took place. Before the 300 mark I was still a wannabe, just out of The Writer’s Room, still learning. Yet suddenly, over a […]

February 15, 2011

OpsLog – Pricthard & Charlotte – 2/15/2011

Nice to see the Pritchard & Charlotte up and running. Our club mentored this club in the basic of ops, a very easy-going format. No waybills, just a list of trains and an agreed-upon route (their twice around becomes a double-loop mainline). Ran them under warrants for a few months. Now they took over and are setting up their own sessions. A relief, just come in and run. Got to take 111 west out of Charlotte, way underpowered with a single GP38 on the front. It didn’t help matters that I pulled into Division Yard and sucked up another dozen. […]

February 18, 2011

Early Retyrement done (almost)

Got through the last page of Early Retyrement (my exercise in republishing) last night at 12:30am, meaning I’m going to feel it today (yes, I rode in). Its done and ready to go to the Kindle. Well,except for the editing passes. And the conversion to their file type. And the copyright. And the ISBN. And the cover art. And getting it out posted up. And blogging the heck out of it. But still, its in better shape then a week ago. I’ll be pushing the first chapter when my unpaid editing staff approves of it and tossing up the cover […]