The train rolls again
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 11:00AM ;)
All my regular readers know that I love trains - big trains and little trains, too. When I was boy, my family had an electric Lionel steam locomotive with a coal car, several freight cars and a caboose. Most of the time, it stayed in boxes, but every now and then my dad would let me get it out, splice the tracks together and then I would run that train late into the night, headlight shining, little puffs of smoke belching from the smokestack, until my parents forced me to shut it down and go to bed.
To make it more interesting, I would sometimes put marbles and toy soldiers, tanks, planes, jets, horses, knights in armor and such on the track. That heavy chunk of steel locomotive would blast its way through it all - and if it did sometimes derail, it was a tough thing and the crash would cause it no harm.
For Christmas of 2000, I bought myself a little HO train. I set it up briefly on my office floor and let it run in circles as my original good black cat, Little Guy, watched, chased, and sometimes batted at it.
Less than two months later, Little Guy vanished and I was left devastated. I do not exaggerate. Devastated. Truly, truly, devastated. No less so than if he had been one of the closest humans to me. Among the things I did to cope was to build a railroad in my office, about eight feet up on the wall above the floor.
Either when Kalib was a baby or before he was born, my locamotive derailed and fell into one of my fish tanks and got ruined. Since that time, my railroad has sat inactive.
But I wanted the boys to see the train go, so a few weeks ago I bought a new locamotive, broke it in a crash before they could see it, got it repaired and now the train is running again.
This weekend, the boys saw it roll for the first time.
They were fascinated. Especially Kalib. "Choo! Choo!" he shouted. "Chugga, chugga, chugga, Chugginton!"
As you can see, especially in a larger view, the tabby cat, Pistol-Yero, was fascinated, too.
I also have pictures of Jim and Jobe being fascinated, but I will let this one do it by itself.
;)
Come mid-afternoon, I found myself hungry for a hot dog, but there were none. So I got into the car to go get one. Along the way, I passed these firemen and this firetruck.
;)
Can anyone tell me what year this Chevy pickup truck is?
If Scot of Metro Cafe sees this, he will know.
;)
Later, I took a long bike ride, down past the shot-up sign alongside the Little Su, and then way beyond that. It started to rain right after I left the house, and then rained on me until I got home. It was a cold rain and it was windy and I had no jacket but only a t-shirt, but I didn't care.
If I had cared, I would have turned around and went home.
If you view this in large view, you can see actual raindrops that have fallen from the sky and are about to strike the ground.
;)
I returned home the long way, so that I could pedal a little further. These two passed me up, but just barely. Not so long ago, I announced that I was taking this blog into retreat mode for the remainder of the summer, as the work burden on me is too great to spend more than a minimal amount of time per day on this blog.
Due to events like the Fourth of July, my birthday, visits of the boys and such, I have somewhat retreated from that retreat, but the time gun is really pointed at my head now, so I am going back into retreat. Again, I will still try to post every day, but not much.
Reader Comments (5)
ALL ABOARD!!!!
Based on a google image search I guess 1950?
LOL at Pistol-Yero!!
ah, trains! my BF scott has a huge set in his basement w/adorable model cars from the 60s and 70s. he's also a fixer of trains n whistles here in PA.
Bill Hess: go to retreat, go directly to retreat. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. You must stay in retreat until you have gotten a get out of retreat free card.
That's the way the game is played.
We'll be waiting for you to come back.
I haven't seen that cat since I began carrying my camera full time. Maybe he's camera-shy. Maybe he's waiting for a professional photographer to capture his good side. I don't know. But I'm still waiting for him. Oh. And his name is Booker C. I have a vision of being curled up before the fire, reading a book in my library with a purring cat on my lap. So his name is Booker C.
Not to be confused with Booker T. who with the M.G.s had a hit called "Green Onions". Booker T is a different cat altogether.
What are you doing standing there gaping at me like I've lost my mind?
Go to retreat, Bill. Go directly to retreat. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Catch you on the flip side.