Found In the Woods

Why is today starting out to be the crappiest day in months? Well, last night while perusing my music in iTunes I noticed some broken links. Files not found. When I hopped over to my hard drive I noticed that folders containing albums S through Z were gone. GONE. The only thing I did recently was to install the new Apple OS X update via Software Update. GONE. I started to back everything up to DVD now… GONE. That’s over 1/5 of my music… GONE.

Then this morning I go to burn more DVDs and I see that the letter S folder has disappeared. GONE! Now about 1/4 of my music has disappeared. About 100+ GB. WTF is going ON!? Today is NOT a good day.

This has been a great year for the East Broad Top RR. Just to name a few things, several restoration projects came to a close or made great progress including the rebuild and return to steam for #15, rebuilding of caboose #28 & flat/tourist car #115. Shop buildings saw thousands of volunteer hours ending in newly painted walls, refinished windows, new sheathing, roofing, siding, brickwork, concrete, foundations, trackwork, ties and so much more! It’s a good time to be at the RR. My Dad and I visited to see the Fall colors and #15 in action – what a great day it was! Photos are online here.

“Did somebody say pi?”

Got a lot of work done on the network over the last couple weeks. Kris and I got all the drops in for the 1st floor and I have 2 left to do in the basement. A few more wallplates need to be installed and that’s it! The cabinet looks great all hooked up properly. I was waiting for a Linksys wallplate to arrive and it did yesterday. Check out the photos from today.

This year was the 5th annual pumpkin carving extravaganza at Forestree Ct. A great time was had by all. The aroma of the mulled cider in the kitchen made for instant satisfaction and nostalgia. Met up with some old friends I hadn’t seen in a while and got to catch up, which was really nice. I carved a castle and named it “Das Spookenhaus”. Kristin carved a traditional scary face which turned out really nice. I ended up winning a trophy for “Best Free-Form Pumpkin” which was a blast. Thanks to the judges and thanks to Brian & Dave for throwing once again a great party.

One bonus item, Steve Johnson was awarded the lifetime achievement award. In preparation, Brian, Pat, Randy & I put together a little video commemorating his career. You can view it here. (WMV format)

More info on BLee’s blog here.

This year was a special year for the East Broad Top RR’s Fall Spectacular, held every Columbus Day. Engine #15 has been restored to service, top to bottom. Since I started going to the EBT, back in 2001, only engine #14 was in service. I longed for seeing and hearing the other steamers but knew that it may never happen due to the high expense in rebuilding a steam loco. When I heard that they were going to restore #15 a few years ago, I have been closely following the progress, occasionally checking in on it in the Roundhouse whenever I visited the RR. So when I heard that she’d make her debut this year at the Fall Spectacular, I was overjoyed.

Unfortunately, this year was nothing but rain and since Kristin and Kyle were both planning on going, we had to opt out. We also needed to have a roofer come visit because of a leak in the roof. All in all it turned out to be a good weekend since Kristin and I did some work on the home Network (pics here), worked the B&ORRHS table at the Great Scale Model Train Show in Timonium, and spent some time with Kyle.

So the Sox were swept by the Chi Sox. *sigh* Next year I may have to get the MLB package on Comcast so I can watch more games. Hmmmmm…

Railfan, photographer, blogger Scott Lothes is in Northeastern China right now documenting the last remaining mainline steam operation in the world. This is proving to be quite an interesting journey, one which he’s documenting on his blog, World Scott. Thank goodness, because thousands of us can ill afford the fare and time it takes to endure such a journey. Yet it is all of us who love steam and the lore of the era who will live vicariously through Scott’s words. Here is an excerpt:

At 6:00 this morning, our group, now 20 strong with the addition of
nine others the previous day, gathered at trackside a few miles west
of Chabuga. The new sun was orange in the sky, the wind was low and
the air crisp and cool. A plume of steam billowed on the horizon, and
then a locomotive came into a view. Behind it followed a freight
train. Not some photographers’ special touristy freight train, but a
real freight train of cars with loads and destinations, paid for by
customers and powered by steam. It was the first of 15 trains we woud
see in the next twelve hours, every single one of them powered by
burning coal to boil water to make steam to turn rod-coupled driving
wheels. True, they’re just machines, and the diesels that will replace
them in a month will do the exact same job and serve the exact same
purpose, but as the rods flash, the red wheels turn, the whistle hoots
and the steam hisses and seethes from every pore, I can still catch a
fleeting glimpse into that childhood sense of wonder when these
machines lived and breathed in my dreams.

So our Boston Red Sox have made it to the playoffs by virtue of a last minute choke of the Cleveland Indians in their regular series to give us the berth. Now the fun begins as the ALCS starts. The above graphic has some numbers that have special signifigance to every Red Sox fan, let’s sit back and reminisce about that wonderful autumn day last year on October 20 when the Red Sox completed their comeback over the Yanks; after losing 19-8 in game 3, battling through games 4, 5 and 6 to pummel the Evil Empire in game 7 bringing the Pennant home to Fenway… and of course, the rest is history. Aaaah, yessss. GO SOX!

What makes me so sick is that in every photo I see of her being arrested in front of the White House, she is smiling. Sometimes almost laughing. I can almost read her mind…“Wheee! This protesting thing is FUN!” This “planned protest” fiasco that she and her nutjob allies cooked up is nothing short of laughable. Apparently her arrest was planned and plenty of media was on hand to capture it like some sort of twisted paparazzi red-carpet event, with photographers jockeying for a position to take a photo of this clown being hauled away by the police, who may I note were not smiling at all.

The photos make it look like protesting can be fun. It’s disturbing that this is the case. A fundemental right of Americans is to protest. It’s a national treasure. But, what pollutes it is when folks like this gain the media’s attention and begin to popularize the whole thing SIMPLY for the sake of the action. In other words, the easily impressionable might see this and think “oh yeah, she’s aweshome for standing up and protesting at the White House and making a stand!” where the truth is, she’s just another anti-war protestor. Many, many people have lost loved ones in this war, it’s a terrible thing. I think exploiting that is perhaps the greatest travesty of this woman’s life.

“If you haven’t had it with this horrible woman and her anti-American antics; her sick and disgusting exploitation of the heroic death of her patriot son, then I have…” Mark Noonan, BlogsForBush.com

Freedom isn’t free.