Tuesday 30 May 2006

12:41 -- Suyen is ticked at me. I went chasing after the UP 844 today, and while I was in the middle of it, I guess she decided to ring my phone a million times. Well, with the wind, the noise and the excitment, I guess I missed the phones going off. So when I checked my phones and saw all the missed calls, plus 4 on the pager, I called back, and got no answer. OOOPPppppssss. I got done so late that I came back here to Henrys before heading off to woik. I also got in a nice walk downtown -- I need the exercise, but it is HOT!!! Oh well. I finally got the train, but had no luck in pacing it -- the thing was just going to damn fast. I almost added a fellow FOAMER to the Haul of Shame. You see, pacing can be dangerous as everyone is watching the train and not the road. Well, this idiot in a silver sedan decided that because he was special and was chasing a train, he didn't need to obey traffic rules. He was easily doing 100 trying to catch the train. What blew my mind was when he blew the light. OK, FOAMERS and stormchasers -- there are a lot of accidents resulting from your "hobby." It is just not worth it.

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I got the 844 as it was pulling out of Union station, I got there just in time. I tried to pace it along Kaw drive, but again no luck. Then I caught up with it at the Union Pacific station in Lawrence. It must've slowed down for something in between -- plus I took the turnpike. Then, again, I tried to pace it out of Lawrence, but, again, to fast and there were too many cars ahead of me. Oh well, I got two great shots. Suyen just called and yelled at me. She said I must be seeing someone. I said yes I am, and her name is 844. Hahahahaha.

There is a time and a place for everything....the time is now and the place is here.
Those who constantly worry about the futre are not thinking about the future

It was a nice long good soothing walk.

Sunday afternoon, I tried to catch the 844 as it came in to Union Station. I was told it was coming from the west, so I thought I would catch it and pace it along Kaw Drive. I should've known I was wrong by the dearth of FOAMERS along the road.


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I found a good place to pace trains, though, beyond Kaw Drive.

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I paced a westbounder coming into the spot, the paced to eastbound coal trains -- I think they were two sections of the same load.

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I was having so much fun pacing the trains that I missed my 18:00 deadline to be back at Union Station to catch 844 pulling in.

I came back to Union Station at about 18:30, and the 844 was already there percolating at the station like it had been there forever.... So, I headed home to pick up Suyen, so we could go to Wal*Fart to pick up cole slaw and cake for Debbie, then we headed to Debbies for the backyard cookout. We got there fairly late. While there, and old friend of mine from way back, Jeff showed up. He is married and has 3 daughters and seems quite happy. It is strange being in the old hood after so many years. I suddenly felt like there were too many years behind me.









































Monday, Suyen and I got up early and headed to my parents. Mom, Dad and Suyen are going to Leavenworth for Memorial Day to pay some old friends of my Dad's a visit in the cemetery. They brought a beer for Dan and flowers. I guess I could be buried there if I want to be (I mean after I'm dead -- hopefully not tooo sooon). It rained yesterday after a long dry spell. People were pissing and moaning about it, but I think it was nice.

At woik, Steve and I did a story about a family in KCK that have to put up with young (probably teenage) prowlers on their property. They actually live out in WyCo (Wyandotte County). They are fighting back. They have security cameras that caught the kid and they made posters, and are putting them everywhere. As well, they called us and we did a story on it.

Today the defication is hitting the electric occilating cooling unit with the Spicer Case. They beleive they found the body of Michelle Richie in Clay county and another body in Lafayette County. This is no surprise to anyone, especially those of us in the media.


Here is the Raccoon that has been visiting our dumpster nightly. This time it is visiting us during the day. My colleagues have named it Rocky -- unimaginitive. When I was pulling out tonight to go somewhere, it was right next to my car, and I figured out that Rocky, is acually a she because she had big teets like she just had young 'uns, which would also explain why she is coming out during the day as well, because of all the free food in the dumpster and many hungry mouths to feed have driven this normally nocturnal animal into the daylight to forage.