Engineer


Here’s a railroad engineer. Taken at the miniature railroad we rode nearly two years ago in Los Gatos. And especially appropriate today, given the state of things (see below).

Well, it was certainly a warm weekend, wasn’t it? I’m pleased to report that our air conditioner is working just fine. And it certainly had plenty of opportunities to prove it.

It was sunny and well over 90 degrees in Lardville both weekend days. The truck’s thermometer reported 95 at about 4:00 on Sunday afternoon. We’re back down into the mid-70’s today and are only expecting to get up to 70 tomorrow. After that, it’ll be back into the 80’s. Very pleasant.

The pool is starting to warm up a little. Loyal Reader Number Four and I were feeling quite warm on Saturday afternoon, so we rolled up our pant legs and waded in about a foot deep. Meaning we were standing on the top stair. That was about all we felt like doing, but you could certainly have swum in it without dying of freezation. You might not have enjoyed it thoroughly, but you wouldn’t have frozen.

Let’s see, how was the weekend spent? Saturday morning, we went over to visit Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve, as scheduled. We picked up the sofa, which LRN5 noted in Friday’s comments isn’t really uncomfortable at all. It looks nice in the room and we’re glad to have it. We also had a nice lunch together and just enjoyed hanging out a little bit. Their place is looking very nice and getting nicer all the time.

Saturday afternoon, Loyal Reader Number Two and I got the pond and pool filters cleaned. LRN4 helped me work on the pond’s plant life a little bit. We got last year’s papyrus plants out of the deep end. We thought they were dead, but there were signs of life, so we trimmed off the dead stuff (which was really most of the branches) and set them back into the shallow end. They may come back and they may not, but they at least have a chance now.

That’s pretty much all the work for the weekend. We watched a movie on Saturday evening and otherwise relaxed.

Sunday was the usual busy day. The good news for the near future, according to LRN4, is that choir practice is finally moving to directly after church. That will save us the frustration of having to rush home after church, grab a quick bite, and then rush right back for choir. It will make the church block four hours long, but it will be worth it to not have to come back right away.

Anyway. I got all the paperwork done and signed for buying the Honda, so I assume that will be taken care of within a few days. I can quit watching the mileage so closely! Although there’s no reason to wear it out prematurely anyway.

I’m out of subjects. See you tomorrow.

— Much later —

Greetings from the train! Still! It’s now 8:45 PM and we’re just pulling out of the stop immediately after mine. This should have happened about two and a half hours ago. It turns out a freight train had an unspecified “emergency” that left one or more cars stranded on the tracks just ahead of us. They’re just getting it cleared now and we’re finally on the way home. Sigh. I don’t expect to be home before 10:00 – and maybe later if things don’t go well. Guess how I’ll be getting to work tomorrow! That’s right – in my car. See you then.

— Even later —

It looks more like 10:30. We’re just pulling up the grade outside of Livermore. Still have to stop at Tracy and then we’ll be home. Well, we’ll be in the Lathrop station, anyway. Five minutes of driving and then I’ll really be home. Just in time for a few bites of dinner and bed. I’ll get this posted, but there will be no links (no wifi on the train today for some reason). See you tomorrow.

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