Dog Ear
March 23, 2023
n Google Maps, look up “Colonial Photo & Hobby” (in Orlando). The street it’s on (on the east face) is 17-92, or Mills Avenue. On a day too cold to ride a bike, I put on my walking shoes and my floppy hat and walked a section of it- I had an errand to run (north of there) and something to get at that hobby shop. Also, there is coffee on the return trip (Frameworks, on 17-92 and Lake Highland, about a mile north). So I had to walk down and then back up 17-92. First off, it’s pretty much […]
March 16, 2023
really like living in the downtown area. Nearby, a shopping district just revitalized. I’ve gotten to know some of the local shops and favor them over the loud, dirty main drag just south of here. Of course, it isn’t without some pain. I loved Juniors Diner (an eclectic little hole-in-the-wall with good omelets and wide book-friendly booths). And then there was P is for Pie, a great place to end my morning walks. In the latter, the lady behind the counter would always ask what I was reading. We exchanged views on books while my pie slice heated, smiling and […]
March 9, 2023
don’t know what’s going on with me. I seem to be changing, slowly. Maybe. The other day, I was third bike in line crossing a road with clearly marked crosswalks. The city, of course, screws things up (and covers their asses) by putting small baby stop signs on the bike side of things (and big yellow crosswalk signs roadside). All I knew was that a car had stopped and the first guy, second guy, then me were crossing, one after another. As I passed, the car let out an angry honk, I know I shouldn’t have (and kids, don’t do […]
March 2, 2023
ne of the best things about retirement is having time on my side again. Sure, I’m busy. I’ve got a lot going on. But now I can schedule things a bit more… humanly. Recently I had a pair of breakfast dates in the book. One was with a friend Steve, where we’d meet at Perkins and then go over to get a helpless railroader’s trains running again. The other was with my friend Chris, where we’d meet at Maple Street Cafe and then go to his house for a short little ops session on his CSX-Taft layout. Both of them […]
February 23, 2023
he other night I had just shut off the light (and fired up the CPAP) to go to sleep. I lay in the dark, thinking of tomorrow’s events. I’d be getting up early and driving way down into Disney territory (i.e. Occupied Reedy Creek) to meet with a friend for breakfast. Then we’d go over to a guy’s place in Champion’s Gate (where the elite prop up their feet) to help him get an old layout running again (and hopefully scraping up some club donations). I know traffic around Disney can be crazy so I decided to get there early. […]
February 16, 2023
alked into my local bookstore about thirty minutes before zen class. The place was about to close (for the public) and the owner had two young adults working the front (I think it is some sort of work-credit thing – I always see different young people working around the place). Now this part was weird – I’m not sure what their gender was. Both of them had crazy hair and lipstick and spoke in “valley-girl” lingo. But something said that they might, deep down, have XY chromosomes. If you think I’m bothered by this, I’m not. This is Colonialtown. Many […]
February 2, 2023
ometimes I’ll craft a word up whose meaning is obvious. And sometimes someone will tell me it isn’t a “real word”. To that, I explain, “If you know what I meant and what I communicated to you, then it serves as a ‘real word’. Information was communicated.” Noticed it today while driving the wife to breakfast. In our little neighborhood in Orlando, originally Virginia was a neighborhood street. Sometime along the way, the city sacrificed about a hundred front lawns and made it four lanes (me, I think if you want to live way outside of town, you should deal […]
January 26, 2023
ing ting!” went the bell of the coffee house. “One cup, black, please,” I told the young guy behind the counter. He eyed my shirt. “Hey, which anime is that?” I had to look down – I wasn’t sure how I dressed that morning. “Oh, this is ‘My Hero Academia.” He told me his roommate watched it but he loved Bleach. I had to confess that I was dragging through it. Once the coffee was up, I went outside to read in the sun. But it was interesting that we could chat over a shirt. Look, I read some manga […]
January 19, 2023
ough Sunday night. Went to the clubhouse to help unload modules (even though I’m still in the mask-for-safety aspect of post-covid). Came home. Wrote a blog detailing the show. And then, while it was still in draft status, I poked around. My updates were showing some issues and it told me I needed to upgrade my PHP. I clicked the UPDATE button. It should have been marked APOCALYPSE. It said it would take a minute. Twenty minutes later, the site was still in maintenance mode. I closed that browser and opened another. I was told my site suffered a critical […]