WWN - Fall is Here

Nothing says 'Fall is Here!' like morning temps in the 40's, pumpkin pie, whipped cream, and a crying littls sister. In this particular picture, Nora is crying because she wanted to hold the whipped cream for the picture. Later, she told me she didn't want her piece because it was covered in whipped cream and she just wanted a little bit by the crust.....and scraping it off wouldn't work. She was very upset at that point exclaiming, "This is the worst day of my life!". Obviously, she's had a good life if it hasn't gotten any worse than that. I took one for the team, disposed of her piece, and got her a new one. All was well once again.
Nora's new thing is playing with my fun, new tripod. She took it, made a couple of bends and said, "This tripod is praising the Lord."

Rations

It's been awhile (like 2 weeks) since I've taken a picture of my food and posted it here. I've been a regular passenger on the diet and exercise wagon for some time now. This weekend, however, the wagon hit a bump in the road; and we got separated. Never fear, though; it's circling around to pick me up. Here it comes now, what can I eat before it gets here? I think a Combo sandwich combo will do the trick. It's called a combo sandwich because it's got a grilled Italian sausage on a hard bun, covered with mozzarella cheese and Italian beef. It hits the spot. Back to salad tomorrow.

Wednesdays With Nora - Pentecostal Power Edition

This Wednesday With Nora started out like many others. I got up around 5:15, moved over to the couch to get my bearings. Now, I usually watch a little TV, get my railroad work together, pick up the girls and take them to school, bring Nora home with me, do my work while she hangs out watching TV or drawing. This morning was different. I watched last night's Chelsea Lately, David Letterman, and Law & Order SVU before logging into my computer and taking a look around. It was about 6:45 by the time I got around to my work, and I knocked it out in record time. When I got back with Nora, she didn't have to hang out by herself because I was already done with my work. We watched some TV together, cuddled a little, then went to the YMCA. After the Y, we had lunch with some friends, went to the store, then picked up the sissies. On the way to pick up the other 2, Nora asked me about why I always had railroad work to do. She even told me that she prayed last night that I would get it done fast so we could watch TV together....remember, record time this morning. Nora's been on a roll lately. My friend Jarrod just welcomed his first daughter into the world. She was originally expected last Friday but didn't show up until Monday morning. On Sunday night, when we learned that there was no baby yet, I asked Nora to pray for Miss Angie and the baby. Nora loves Miss Angie and was happy to oblige. She was thankful that Miss Angie was having a little girl and wouldn't be alone with all the boys anymore, prayed that the baby would come out easy, and that she would be cute. If you could see pictures of that kid, you'd know her prayers were answered. Tonight, at supper, Nora wanted to pray again. Se prayed that Miss Angie would come home soon, that the baby would be happy, and (notice the quote marks "that the Stocks would get the basement finished so we could come spend the night." I'm not lying, that's exactly what she said. I guess the lesson of "You don't get what you don't ask for" is not lost on her. I did fill her in and let her know that Angie was home, and the baby was fine.

Nora's been on a roll lately, and I may have figured it out. Her childcare center is in the same facility as Maggie and Grace's school, which is all located at my church....a Pentecostal Church. While they don't teach any Pentecostal "doctrine", per se, they do teach the Bible. I'm proud to say that we've all grown and continue to grow from the experience. So how does this relate to Nora and her roll she's been on? Look at the outfit she's wearing. She changed shoes when I got her home. When I picked her up, she had on tennis shoes and white socks with that long denim skirt. I thought she looked very Pentecostal. If you put a bun in her hair, a volleyball jersey on, and threw her on a volleyball court, she'd fit right in. Boy, it took a long time to get to that. Sorry, I'll try to do better next time.

Ain't Nobody Humpin' Around

I took a picture of myself with the river in the background, but I didn't like it. You get this one instead. It's the river, it's got alot of water in it, and it's muddy. No newsflash there. I hit the ground running this morning, only to find out that the hump, of which I'm supposed to be studying, had been taken out of service to re-align the track leading up to the crest of the hump. I had some time to kill, so I went to lunch with a co-worker from Memphis. I wanted to go to Gus's, but he didn't have enough time to wait for chicken, so we went to a Mexican place called 'Happy Mexican'. At first, I thought it sounded like a Mexican place owned by a Chinese guy, then I thought it might be a gay place. After looking at the waitstaff, it might've been the latter. I had the shrimp chimichanga, and it was quite good. I checked into my hotel, more on that later, and tried to get some sleep. It was 1 PM by the time I got situated, and I had a wake-up call scheduled for 5PM. My thought was I could take a nap, get ready, and see some of the Cubs game before I had to be back. That didn't happen as I got a phone call at 4:30 and was awakened from my slumber. I stumbled around, got in the shower, and made my way back toward the yard. I did find some time to stop at Gus's (look at the picture; it's such a dive!!) and pick up some rations for the evening's events. The chicken strips made a nice supper, and I'm figuring the 8 pieces of chicken in a paper sack will hit the spot as a midnight snack. Afterall, you can't perform this kind of grueling service to the company on an empty stomach. I'm not sure what's on tomorrow's menu, possibly some kind of smoked pork product. Neely's is right around the corner from the yard. Don't worry Jarrod, I'm thinking Rendez-vous on Friday. I've got a couple of hours to kill before catching the train home.

Well, the hump got back up and running around 1930, and it's been white knuckle excitement ever since. I setup my laptop in front of a window next to the tracks. I've got a clipboard, and I'm recording the start and stop time for each cut of cars being humped. I'm also keeping up with any delays occur. The folks in Canada have a fancy formula for determining how many cars we should be able to hump. We're not humping that many cars, so we're trying to blow a hole in their formula....more or less. I'm including a little video clip so you can share in the fun. I recorded this outside. The dinging sound you hear is the wheels rolling over the retarders which are used to slow the cars so they don't get moving too fast. I'm inside, so the dinging isn't that loud, but you can still hear it. Oh well, more tomorrow. I get a free breakfast buffet with my room, so I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about and take pictures about. For now, enjoy the hump.