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More revisiting of long-idle projects on Sunday during a couple of races. Dug into some of the Mars stuff that I'd written for Shadow of the Beanstalk years ago. Cut some of the extraneous meandering ideas out, made it a tighter, leaner scenario.

Big day for Mars in gaming today. The crowdfunding campaign for the Terraforming Mars RPG launched today, and of course I went in on it. Reasonable pledge level, the core book and the campaign guide. There's a ton of digital content added on thanks to stretch goals and the like. I love the board game - and its iOS adaptation - and will at least get this on a table at some Nerd Louisville event or another.

Also launching today, the new edition of Cold City/Hot War. Tight, brilliant horror games set in postwar Berlin and post-nuclear London. I had the originals and sadly sold them off in one of my bookshelf purges, and I've regretted doing
that for a long time. And now, future me gets a present!

There was even one more campaign that I'd been interested in - books of maps for modern/near-future games. I talked myself out of that one - I use maps and minis rarely enough, and I'm waiting for Loke to deliver on the set that I helped crowdfund last year.

Saw some interesting things today. A Rumpke garbage truck caught fire on 64 this morning - thankfully he was eastbound
and it didn't affect my commute and the crew got out safely. In the afternoon, on my way back from a client visit, I saw an unusual locomotive on a bridge over 9th Street. More interesting were the cars it had in tow - a track inspection train! I got a decent short video of it and dug into railpictures.net and found a picture of the very same train during a run through Georgia.

Saw Captain America: Brave New World last night. Did not like it - there's some great talent on the screen with so very little material to work with. 

Jupiter

Mar. 25th, 2024 07:42 pm
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The move is done. Setup is ongoing. The commute in isn't bad, but going home sometimes tests me.

The apartment is pretty quiet. A Norfolk Southern line runs alongside the property, and the diesels and their horns are not exactly loud, but there's no escaping them. And, well, I am a railfan, so hearing the thoroughbreds do their thing is sometimes soothing.

The job. I'm working for the right agency, but I'm in the wrong position. I can ride it out until mid-August, when I'm eligible to apply for something else within the agency. There are some significant perks to working for a non-profit - student loan repayment and public service loan forgiveness are way up on the list. Of course, LMPHW offers those, too, and there's a part of me that would rather work for a municipal/county/state-level public health organization than a private agency. But that's a question for near-future me.

The Tuesday evening game group is growing, enough that there's talk of adding a second weekly game night. Haven't had that opportunity for a while! I ran a DCC game at the nerd bar last night, and that went really well, so if we do add a second night, I'll throw my hat in the ring.
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The train club held a bonus operating session Thursday evening, and since I was fighting off boredom (and mind-weasels) with whatever weapon I could get my hands on, I made another trip to Jeffersonville with my trusty and freshly-repaired Dash 8. I drew a short and super-easy job - light run out of the yard, pick up two cars at one customer and four others at three customers on the same spur, then deliver those to another yard. Quick and simple, and I picked up a passenger run to finish up the evening. I get a kick out of the CSX Dash 8 pulling a passenger train - Amtrak's Genesis locomotives are Dash 8s with a streamlined carbody, so mechanically this is no big deal. Drove home, detoured into Shelbyville for a rare stop at McDonald's, and got home around 11:30. Dad texted me while I was refuel, asking if I was okay, and since I didn't want to lie to him, I replied that I was safe.

Friday was kind of a waste. Stormy weather, so that was nice. No Delta Green, as the store was hosting a PFLAG event. I watched some streaming stuff, had some trouble sleeping, laid in bed listening to podcasts.

There's distant thunder to the west-southwest, and I'm hoping for another rainstorm. There's been a lot of rain here over the past few days; some flooding, even. I want to go do something, but again, all of my friends are two hours away and I've spent a lot of time on the road this week. Wanderlust will get the best of me tomorrow, I figure.

There are the flashes of lightning and thunderclaps I wanted. I'm going to go sit on the porch and take this one in for a little while.
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I decided to head up to Louisville Friday evening, rather than light out really early from Liberty. Spent the night in my former home in my old bedroom. Thought about it as I was nodding off to sleep - I slept about 3000 nights in that room. Former housemate still has my microwave and cable modem and router, and that's fine; I'll get them whenever he figures out what he's doing.

The house, and I shouldn't have been surprised, was a mess. I put in a lot of time cleaning the kitchen and bathroom before I moved out, and you can't tell I did anything. Sigh. Not really my problem anymore, but it irked me.

Got in a few hours at the Southern Indiana Railroad - good crowd and a lot of trains. Somewhere along the way, my snazzy Atlas Dash 8's front pilot snapped off, so that'll be a little repair project in a day or two.

I-64 East is closed from downtown to the 264 interchange, so I had to take a longer route to Miso's. Wasn't bad. Got to the store to see a decent crowd already there, more for a WH40K release than for Free RPG Day. My DCC game went well - eight players! Chatted with some folks, collected some freebies, had some pizza, then headed to Brian J's for L5R. Very good group and scenario and GM, but lawd hammercy was I not taken with the rules. I love the narrative dice system in Star Wars and Genesys, and I can see some shared design language, but it just didn't work for me.

Wrapped that up around 10PM and I headed home. Easy drive, but I didn't have much of a chance to get something to eat, and I was ravenous when I got home.

Slept pretty late Sunday morning, and woke up to a pleasant surprise - The Niece and Grandniece were here! We had lunch, watched a couple of movies, I played wit the little one, it was really nice. Stormy weather all day, and it was downright hazardous here and there. The Niece stuck around as long as she felt comfortable, but still got stopped by the storm around Lawrenceburg. Said visibility was about zero, so she played it safe. Got home later than expected, but she and the baby are safe.

Most High

May. 1st, 2023 07:23 pm
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Sickness backed off quite a bit Friday evening, and Saturday morning, I felt good enough to drive over to Harrodsburg for a model train show. It was small, but pretty well put together. A half-dozen layouts, plus a few tables covered in large scale stuff. A few vendors with some decent N scale offerings, and I picked up a couple of cars. Stopped off in Danville to stock up at Aldi and get lunch, then back to the farm.

The sick came back with a vengeance Saturday evening. Fever, sore throat, coughing, and I'm salivating like mad. It hurts to swallow, so I'm being disgusting and spitting into a plastic soft drink bottle. On top of that, a case of conjunctivitis joined the party Sunday morning and that was just all kinds of foul. Overall, 0/10, do not recommend.

Also sickening, it's primary election season here, and we are just overrun with awful ads for awful candidates. Motherfuckers loudly and proudly calling themselves "Trump Republicans" and doing their damnedest to attach themselves to the orange son-of-a-bitch. Gods, I cannot imagine voting for a Repub candidate for any office at any level.

Ick ick ick. Ibuprofen is barely working, Dayquil's not doing much either. The home test says it's not Covid-19, but this is right up there with my bout with the thing last year and the sinus infection from a couple of years ago in terms of raw misery. Wasn't even up to a Discord RPG session yesterday afternoon.

There was a nifty little surprise yesterday afternoon. Looked out the front door and there was a flock of wild turkeys out in the field. I counted 13 of the birds, including a pair of solid white ones! A buddy on another Discord channel suggested that I try hunting one for dinner; I could only thank him for his estimation of my marksmanship.

A couple of big turkey drumsticks sounds really good though. Maybe after the discounted packs of chicken things and pork chops I picked up at Aldi are gone.
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The LFPL J-town branch had a Blu-Ray copy of Zach Snyder's Justice League available, so I went that route. The bad, right off the bat (not The Batman) - it's in 4:3 instead of 16:9 or something civilized. And there is entirely too much slo-mo. Aside from those quibbles, it is a darned entertaining movie. Better than the theatrical release. A big ol' superhero actioner.

Oh - the SFX people should probably have worked a little harder to make Steppenwolf not look so much like the Devastator from Thor.

After a couple of not-so-great weeks, I had a terrific mental health day yesterday. Got up early-ish and loaded up the Escape and headed over to Jeffersonville to run some trains. Got in a couple of hours of very relaxing train time. Feeling darned good about the start of the day, I headed back across the river, looking for lunch before gaming. Decided to swing by Chicken King for the first time in months, and damned if those spicy fried wings and potato wedges weren't the very thing I wanted. And then it was on to Heroes for a DCC demo game. Four players, one known to me. Had a blast - short, straightforward adventure, two PC deaths (and that's why I whip up plenty of spares), tons of laughs. Went home, took a nap, read, napped again. I felt so damned good.

Today should be pretty good, too. Went out to Meijer earlier. I have a gallon of soup going in the slow cooker, and I'm going to bake some cornbread when the soup's about done. Probably get a little nap before the OSE game at noon, then another nap before the Super Bowl. And work is going to get whatever version of me manages to drag itself in tonight, and they'll like it.
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Good night at the party. Good talks, jokes, stories and of course so much food.

I skipped out on going to the Great Train Show over the weekend. As much fun as the party was, it does take a lot of energy, and I just didn't feel like being around so many people.

It's been a decent week. I've managed some reading and even a little more writing than I've been averaging in the last few months. I want to keep that going.

I want a lot of things, though.

Debating going out for Armada tonight. Again - social energy. Tomorrow is UofL's bowl game (the Wasabi Fenway Bowl, wtaf) and I'm planning to go somewhere and watch it. Which will mean ... people.

Selenite

Oct. 5th, 2022 12:21 pm
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Friday evening/Saturday morning is going to be exciting. I scheduled a DCC game for the evening, and I'm not canceling or rescheduling it. Marcus is taking the night off, and he's a good partner, so I'm fine with covering his shift. So, I'm going to go home at 8:00 Friday morning, sleep until around 4:00PM, run DCC starting around 6:00, and babysit the building from midnight until 8:00 Saturday morning. And maybe go over to Jeffersonville and play with trains for a few hours after that.

If there's good news about Friday night, it's that I'll be working with another good partner and will probably get away with napping for a while during the shift. Yes, it's a firing offense, but we all three grab naps here and there, and we all know it, and we cover for each other.

I'm still marveling at how much I enjoyed being back at Archon, and what a great little con it is. I hope that Ice & Dice hits a similar groove.

The Weight

Sep. 10th, 2022 01:24 pm
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It’s been a year.

A year of firsts - first Halloween, first Thanksgiving, first Christmas and New Year, first birthday, first first first. First days without Mom.

I miss her. I can’t say I do every day, but when I do, I really do. There are days when I want to call her and tell her about some silly thing that I found interesting, to hear her cheerful “Hey buddy“ or “Hello son” when she answers the phone.

But,
the year of firsts. It‘s done. Little notes on a calendar won’t have “the first without” mentally attached to them.

I love you, Mom.

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I finally got in an Armada match last night. Lost the game, but got to see how a couple of ship and upgrade interactions went. It was good to play after so long.

Went up to Columbus, Indiana, for a train show this morning. Three gorgeous layouts, but not much in the way of vendors. Watched trains run for a while, then headed back. Everything considered, I think I would have rather just gone over to Jeffersonville and ran on the SIRR, but, whatevs. Better than laying on the couch.

The Hunt

Oct. 14th, 2021 05:59 pm
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Meant to post this a couple of nights ago - Tuesday - but something ate the post and the draft vaporized, too.

Christ, Colorado is incredibly beautiful. Uncle Charlie's place is at about 5300 feet, overlooking a broad valley and surrounded by the Rockies. You can see Pikes Peak from his yard. I love my state, and it is a pretty place, but Colorado is just something else entirely.

We had a great visit. Several hours talking, a very good lunch. Kaiser got along with their dog after his initial freakout. Charlie gave me a box of manuals and whatnot from his railroad career. Charlie's feeling good about his cancer treatment, too.

We went through Colorado Springs - saw an Army Genset locomotive at Fort Carson. More utterly beautiful terrain. Got into Kansas, and we spent several hours tearing along I-70 in high SE-to-NW winds. Sustained 45MPH, gusts to 60. The endless wind turbine farms were taking advantage of the weather; I wondered how much power was being generated by the storm. We made it to Hays, Kansas around sunset. Comfy hotel room, worse weather to the southwest of us.

Weather Wednesday morning was much better. We left Hays pretty early and got to Lenexa around noon. About 90 minutes at LMP, then I took us to Fred's Trains in Olathe and holy cow what a hobby shop. I was good, but there was a UP Geep that tempted me mightily. Back on the road, heading towards St. Louis with plans to spend the night around there somewhere.

Not far from STL, Dad mentions that we could be in Louisville close to midnight. I know a suggestion when I hear it sometimes, so we decided that we would press on. Stopped by the house to see if some legal documents had arrived, refuelled out on Blankenbaker, and then we headed for Liberty.

I slept until nearly noon today. Got a few last items out of the Yukon and into my Mariner, and then headed back to Louisville. Unpacked, started laundry, watching more Evangelion. I'm feeling alright this evening.

I'm so glad we took this trip, and that when Dad was waffling about Abilene, I told him that I wanted to see the place. In a way, my history began there; I may never see it again, but now it's more than a spot on a map for me.
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Before I forget, trains seen today: Union Pacific, 3x SD40-2, Abilene; 5x BNSF mixing EMD and GE, NW Texas and NE New Mexico; South Plains Railroad somewhere in NW Texas; Amtrak, 2x P42 Genesis at Raton Pass.

I’m in Florence, Colorado. We left Liberty at something like 1AM Sunday (yesterday, October 10). Dad, me, and a 95 pound Doberman in a GMC Yukon. Made it to about the 6MM on 65 South when traffic stopped dead for about an hour due to a serious accident. Back underway, heading to Abilene, Texas.

Fast, easy drive through western Tennessee and Arkansas, with Dad and I taking turns driving. Lots of construction, of course. Dallas was a pain to get through due to construction and accidents. Got clear of DFW and raced for Abilene, getting to our just a few minutes before a severe, if short-lived, thunderstorm brewed up. Sleep, finally.

This morning, Dad drove us around Abilene. The park where he and Mom met, 54 years ago. Their first apartment. Some places he worked. It’s good to see these places. They’re my history, even if I didn’t exist when they mattered to them. We drove around the edge of Dyess AFB, saw the main flightline and a full dozen B-1s sitting out as proud and beautiful and menacing as could be. Had my first visit to a Whataburger, and those are so good.

From there, we decided to head to Colorado. I had mentioned visiting a game shop near the base, but didn’t really want to wait around for an hour-and-a-half, and look, I have two darn good game stores back in Louisville. So, I pocketed this for a stop somewhere else along our trip. 

Abilene is at 1719 feet above sea level. Raton Pass is 7834. We climbed over a mile over the few hundreds of miles between Abilene and the New Mexico/Colorado border. And we made some good time. The Farm-to-Market roads through that sector of Texas are really REALLY well-built, and marked at 75MPH, and that behemoth of a SUV handled them just fine. Same with the Federal highways we traveled, but New Mexico has some egregious bullshit - anywhere that could be remotely defined as a community, the speed limit drops from 70 to 40 or 30, for maybe 3000 feet. Then it’s back to zipping right along.

I’m glad we’re doing this, even if the dog’s neurosis is getting to me - he loses his mind at the sight of another dog, bellowing out his nerve-wracking barking. 

Gods, it’s after midnight my time. Seeing Mom’s last living brother tomorrow before bladder cancer gets him. Then heading back east. Dad’s planning to stop in KCMO for some antique truck parts for his fool’s errands. I gotta get some sleep.

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Got my second COVID shot Tuesday afternoon. Had soreness in my upper arm a couple of hours after. Woke up Wednesday with a mild headache and felt feverish; checked my temperature throughout the day and it never read higher than 98F. Felt gradually worse as the day went on. Got home, started to change clothes, woke up two hours later. Headed into the kitchen to make dinner; opened the fridge and discovered that I had about enough energy to get something out of the freezer and microwave it. Headache and fever were worse. Checked FDA docs, and there's no interaction between diphenhydramine and the vaccine, so I dropped a pill and knocked myself out. Woke up Thursday morning, much better but ravenously hungry.

Skipped gaming Friday night, intending to get some personal work done, but that didn't happen. Really tired when I got home, and napped for a little while. Big mistake, waking up around 11PM and couldn't go back to sleep until around 3AM.

Slept another five hours or so, got up, got myself together, headed to the Kentucky Steam Heritage facility in Irvine. Saw a big lovely Kanawha under restoration and most of the other equipment the organization has accumulated. Met up with Sean Howard for lunch. We hadn't seen each other since, Christ, 2014? He's in Irvine now, running a PR business with his girlfriend and living a pretty darn good life.

The Stand

Mar. 13th, 2021 02:59 pm
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One of the sights seen along I-65 Saturday morning was a small school bus, garishly painted, with "Trump Train 2020" proudly showing on the sides. I thought, well, that's appropriate since this is just completely off the rails.

There was more of this to come.

I was in and out of the train show in about 30 minutes. Found a couple of models from my wish list and headed back out. Good timing on my part, arriving as early as I did. The show's organizers were doing good crowd control, and I didn't have to wait to get inside. When I left, though, there was a line at least 50 deep.

The Canyon ate up the miles along 65 and the Parkway, as is the pickup's nature. Exited at Columbia and rolled up 206. Saw more than a few magat banners, and some houses proudly flying inverted US flags on the same pole as traitor's rags, magat flags, thin blue line flags - one with the US flag below all of the others. Gods, these people.

Good time with the family. Enjoyed the company and the quiet. A healthy recharge. Mom's had her first vaccine dose; Dad hasn't seen the first sign of a side effect.

US127 was lined with shipping containers, all with banners advertising a recovery company. There are a few buildings that are going to come down and get rebuilt. Haven't heard about anything closing for good, but I won't be surprised if it happens.

The Ohio is receding. River Road reopened Wednesday afternoon, and I think all of the county's roads are cleared now. One family has gotten some closure, for whatever value that has. A kid went kayaking on the Ohio back in January and, well, didn't come back. His kayak turned up near the McAlpine lock; his body was finally found this week - in Evansville, Indiana. About 185 miles, river distance, downstream from here.

Sprite

Feb. 15th, 2021 07:36 pm
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Woke up to about two inches of snow, the puffy powdery kind. Dutchmans and Cannons Lanes were messy, slushy and rutted. I-64 was just wet, with more traffic than there should have been. We watched the weather throughout the day, checking forecasts obsessively. Around 1PM, the light snow switched to sleet, making a mess but seemingly reducing the amount of snow by quite a bit. On the drive home, I-64 was slushy and rutted; the surface streets packed with snow. The Canyon handled things well, and it seemed happy to switch from 2WD to 4WD-High whenever I pushed the appropriate buttons.

Very little snow or sleet or anything since I've gotten home. Most forecasts call for my area to see about six inches of snow by midnight or so.

I did get to play with trains for a couple of hours yesterday, mostly stuff I had picked up in the last year. Fun, relaxing, and I learned and/or discovered a few things. My lovely C&O Kanawha runs and pulls like a dream, and I'm glad I stumbled upon it instead of ordering one of the smaller steamers that Walthers regularly has on sale. Prototype 89' cars are just too big for my little semi-portable layout - one or two aren't so bad, but a full train of five or six 89' autoracks would just look ridiculous. Also, while it looks fantastic, the same goes for my Amtrak collection, if all ran together - four Amfleet 1 cars, a sleeper, and a MHC overwhelm things. On the positive side, my Atlas B40-8 and FVM GP60 (both in Norfolk Southern colors) look fantastic and run really well together, so there are my appropriate four-axle workhorses. Man, Fox Valley makes some great models.

Looks like our snow's over for the night. More in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, but I'll deal with that when and if it happens.
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Powered through Friday. Made arrangements with Dad to meet and swap vehicles, and lit out for Lawrenceburg - not Bardstown or Springfield, as Dad had suggested earlier in the day. Whatever. No big deal.

Mom&Dad had a ridiculously large birthday cake for me, and that was really sweet (the gesture, I mean), but I'm not really celebrating this one. Got some of my gear out of the Mariner and into the Canyon - didn't get the air compressor, darnit, and here's hoping that doesn't come back on me. Hugged and chatted and petted the dog and took off up 127 towards Frankfort. The Canyon remains very steady at upper highway speeds, and I was back in Louisville soon enough. I had begged off gaming for the evening, just wanting to rest. And I did.

Overbought at Aldi this morning, but what the hell, if this winter storm manifests like the forecasts say, I'll be glad for a stocked pantry and freezer and refrigerator. Heck, I'm glad for those now. Going out later to get some sandbags for the pickup's bed.

Between now and then, though, listening to a couple episodes of Astonishing Legends and playing with some of the trains I've picked up in the last year and barely run and doing some self-maintenance.
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Biden won. There's been the expected screeching about fraud and lawsuits and everything else, but only the most reality-adverse are giving that any credence. I know that the orange bastard is a symptom, not the disease, and there's a daunting amount of work to be done, but today, I'm just glad that the time of seeing and hearing and reading a hateful awful man's blathering is coming to an end.

Holiday gamer attrition has already started, so no DG session Friday night. Went to Heroes and played X-Wing instead, and had a good time. My Imperial squadron got clobbered, but my First Order pilots were successful. This was the first time I'd been there on a Friday night since the lockdown. Not many people there, one RPG table and some folks playing another minis game, and consciously or not, all three groups put as space between themselves as possible.

Since visiting the National Museum of Transportation last month, the low-level desire for a steam locomotive has gotten stronger. I've watched Walthers and a few other places, and was ready to pull the trigger a couple of times. I knew what I really wanted to add to my roster, and the models I put in various shopping carts were nice, but not what I wanted. After M&M, I decided to head over to Roundhouse, more looking for a similarly specific diesel. But there it was, in one of the display cases at the front of the store. New old stock, a DC-only C&O Kanawha. Got it onto the store's test track for a few minutes, and I was had. It's a solid runner, plenty of pulling power, just like its prototype. Out of place? Definitely. Don't care. My railroad.

This looks like a quiet week. At some point, I'll have to rake up a yard full of leaves, or just chop them into powder with the mower - heck knows it won't get done otherwise.
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Friday wasn't the drag I expected it to be, and I was grateful for that. The Delta Green session went really well, with a new player joining us and a lost lamb returning to the fold.

Sunday, some X-Wing matches with Ken, and those were games to remember. I won both matches, and beating Ken once is rare enough; two consecutive matches? The Force was definitely with me.

Monday morning, I dropped off my ballot, and then my contingency plan activated when Dad texted me to cancel out on going to Missouri. He was suffering from a spike in his chronic back pain and didn't feel up to the trip. I had halfway expected this, and had decided that I would not spend my first week off in a couple of years sitting around the house. I made a few notes, filled up the Canyon's tank, withdrew some traveling money, and spent the afternoon reading and resting up for the trip.

Tuesday morning rolled around. I reserved a room at one of the Gateway Center's hotels and around noon I put my bags in the cab and struck out, westward on I-64. I think it had been eight years since I had been any further west on that road than New Albany and the I-265 interchange, and I prepared for a long haul across pleasant but kind of boring terrain. I had loaded the iPhone with days' worth of podcasts, and episodes of Astonishing Legends kept me going. The drive was hampered by intermittent rain, varying from heavy mists to real downpours, but the truck is surefooted and I travel with the blessings of the Rockatansky, and all was well. The Canyon's inline-5 is a strong engine, but thirsty, and I kept watchful eyes on the clock, the fuel gauge, and the highway signs counting down the miles to St. Louis. We ate up mile after mile, mostly at a comfortable 75 miles-per, but sometimes you have to pass someone and you don't want to be the one camping in the left lane at one mile per hour faster than the other guy, so the truck happily sped up to 85 or better long enough to get around and comfortably ahead of slower traffic. I made it to Collinsville a little before 4PM local time, checked into my room, and took a little nap. Takeout from Bandana's Barbecue and the first game of this wreck of a season's World Series, and I went to bed well fed and happy.

Still on Eastern time, I woke up early and drove to a Casey's General Store to refuel. Gasoline for the GMC, donuts and chocolate milk (shut up I am an adult and chocolate milk is delicious) for me. Back to the motel, some reading and a touch of writing, then I checked out and headed on into St. Louis. Rolling westward into the Gateway to the West with cloud-dimmed sun behind and grey sky ahead is, frankly, a pretty sight. The Arch dominates the view with its eldritch angle, and the city's towers rise up behind. The elevated highways carry you across the great Mississippi River and into and over the city. Traffic is heavy, and moves fast, and the the voice of the GPS interrupts today's podcasts to direct me to my first - and primary - stop of the day: The National Museum of Transportation.

I was there for the trains, and gave only quick looks at the other exhibits. It was a cool rainy weekday morning, and there weren't many other visitors at the time. Freight and passenger cars of every stripe. Steam and diesel and electric locomotives, some of them the only surviving examples of their kind. A Decapod, one of hundreds
ordered by Imperial Russia, but undeliverable after the Revolution. An SD45, with its flared radiators and twenty-cylinder engine. The gorgeous Art Deco Zephyr next to a workaday switch engine. A Y6 Mallet, its coal-dragging days long gone, coupled to an Army diesel built for service during and after a war that never happened. Examples of Union Pacific super power from two generations - a Big Boy steam loco and an EMD DDA40X - sitting side-by-side. A C&O Kanawha, among other samples of the last great designs of steam power. Early diesels parked near the machines they replaced. I took few pictures, but spent a while chatting with a museum volunteer, an elderly fellow with a love for the machines under his watch. We talked about trains, of course, but also history and cars. For a little while on a rainy October morning, the two of us had a new friend.

I left the museum after a few hours, heading to my second stop - Miniature Market's retail store. Only a few minutes from the museum, it's a very nice shop, well-stocked and full of display shelves showing off dioramas and exquisitely-painted minis. I picked up a few things, paid, and was soon on my way to see an old GenCon buddy over in Metropolis, Illinois.

I had planned on at least one more stop in STL, the aquarium built in the old Union Station, but scratched it when Dave messaged me. I'll go back sometime; this was a lucky alignment of schedules and I wasn't going to ignore it. I made good time across 64 and down 57 - the truck does like to run - and got to spend a couple of hours chatting and catching up with my friend. I wanted to see one more person across the river in Paducah, but his work schedule wasn't in our favor.

So, back on the road. The Ohio River is much broader at Paducah than here in Louisville. The barge traffic I'm used to seeing isn't restricted by the McAlpin Locks, so tows are more spread out, and there seemed to be a few half-sunken or grounded hulls. There are probably stories there, but they aren't something I wanted to give much thought to while traversing a new-to-me road. One more refueling east of Paducah, and then it was back onto the highway.

I am far more familiar with the eastern part of Kentucky
than I am with the Commonwealth's western end. I know where some of the larger towns are relative to one another, but of course, the map is not the territory. Interstate 24 took me part of the way east, then it was on to the road that that I know as the Western Kentucky Parkway, but is now signed as part of Interstate 69. By now, sunset was getting close, and I still had nearly two hundred miles to go before spending the night at Mom&Dad's. Traffic was light, and I decided to take a little risk in the interest of saving time, setting the cruise at a little better than 85. I blew past places I knew as a teenager - Leitchfield, Morgantown - and the interchange with a new spur, Interstate 165. Soon enough, and not soon enough, I made it to Elizabethtown and the end of fast four-lane roads, but the beginning of familiar territory. Through Hodgenville and Campbellsville, a drive-thru meal from Long John Silver's, and onto Kentucky 70 and to the farm. The Doberman was happy to see me, if maybe more interested in the smells of fried fish and Dave's dog than in me personally. Gods, I slept well that night.

Thursday morning, I took the Canyon's key off my chain and put the Mariner's back on. Helped Mom&Dad with some tasks, then it was time to head on back to Louisville. I stopped by a car audio shop in Beuchel with the intent of pricing a new deck, but the shop had just what I was looking for and time to install it, so I settled in for a while. After a chat about lightsabers with the installer, it was, at last, time to get back to Cannons Lane.

I am so glad I took this trip. I had good talks with strangers and a better one with an old friend. The podcasts kept me from getting deeply into my head on those long stretches of highway. Despite my pledge of no more model locomotives, the museum visit convinced me that I need a steam locomotive and a Union Pacific diesel in the roster. I have my cute-ute back - and Dad is going to sell me the Canyon once we take care of some work on it - and the troublesome factory deck has been replaced. Tonight, I'm running the 15th DG session of the campaign, closing in on the 20th and final stage of investigations. Tomorrow, going to Frankfort for an afternoon of Armada.

And Halloween is next weekend!
tracker7: (Default)
My iMac came with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The mouse is pretty great, except for the horrible design decision to put the charging port ON THE BOTTOM of the thing, so it can't be used while charging. This keyboard, though ... it's small. My Macbook Air is wider. No 10-key pad or related control keys. And it's small. Did I mention that? Small enough that it'll fall between my legs if it's on my lap and I sprawl a little bit. What keys are there feel great, but the thing just isn't something I can happily spend much time working on. I think it's time to replace this one.

Good Delta Green session tonight. Only two players, but damned if they didn't go hard on what they had. I think we are now at the halfway point of the game, and while I hadn't given much thought to a big climax, some of the things the team has dug up have hooked them, and I think we're about to spin out of the operations in A Night at the Opera and into some more personal tales.

There's a model train show and sale up in Franklin, Indiana, tomorrow. I've talked myself into and out of going, and I think not going is going to win out.

Rain

Nov. 20th, 2019 12:56 pm
tracker7: (Writing)
Bevin finally conceded the election, after other big names in the Republican party advised him to do so. He now says he's looking forward to returning to the private sector.

Got in an Epic X-Wing match Friday night. Got beat, learned plenty, had a good time. We had some spectators during the game, a couple of elementary-age kids who found our mix of tiny and sizable plastic spaceships much more interesting than their Magic decks.

NMRA Division 8 train show on Saturday. A couple of decent portable layouts, and a hall full of dealers. I picked up three cars from my wish list, saw a couple of friends, went home. Operating session in Jeffersonville tomorrow night.

In spite of myself, I've been watching and listening to the presidential impeachment hearings. It hasn't been especially theatrical, and my stance hasn't been changed at all. I'm learning, though, that Devin Nunes is an utter nincompoop. Moo.
tracker7: (Default)
I just couldn't run the planned closing session of the Star Wars game. Drained in just about every relevant way. One of the players has picked up the GM hat (yay!), opting to run another Star Wars campaign. I would have preferred something else, but I'm honestly looking forward to being on the other side of the GM screen for a while.

Even better, there's a CP2020 game in the offing. More on that as it happens.

I've gotten in more memorable reading recently. Command and Control is a heck of a read if you'd like to see how many times things have gone wrong with nuclear weapons, and the blow-by-blow telling of a Titan 2 missile accident in Arkansas is brilliant and chilling writing. Read the first book in David Peace's Red Riding series (1974, I think), and while it's pretty damned good, it was also sufficiently brutal that I don't think I'm going to seek out the others any time soon. I'm a little over halfway through another Star Wars novel, Phasma, right now. It's good, but I don't know that I especially like it.

Had lunch and a good long talk with The Niece on Sunday. She's dealing with a lot, and let me in on a few things, and her trust in me is a precious thing.

Train show with the Southern Indiana Railroad this weekend. Two or three visiting layouts in addition to the club's permanent setup. Ten or twelve vendors signed up, too. With any luck, I've missed my last Thursday night operating session for a while.

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