Monday Photoshoot #20: Busy, busy

I was so busy with chores yesterday that I forgot to post my Monday Photoshoot yesterday. No, really. I was trying to catch up at home before leaving on Tuesday for a conference.

As it happens, the theme for last week's Monday photoshoot was very relevant:

New Monday Photo Shoot #20: You're busy. I'm busy. Everyone's busy. (Well, almost everyone.) Show us a photo the represents one of the demands upon your time.

We got home late on Thursday -- we were in the backup of a really bad accident near Palmdale. Really ugly. I had the beginning of a sore throat throughout the day. I was tired since I drove almost the whole way from Carson City because Hubby was trying to recover from one lallopalooza of a cold that he had all week. When we got home, I unpacked and we both collapsed.

On Friday, the cold won. Ugh. I managed to get the dog out of puppy prison, pick up my repaired lens, unpack, and throw a factoid on my blog before I decided enough was a enough and went to bed.

Saturday I dragged myself from bed. I took stock of what needed to be done:

Wash the clothes I need for next week

Sort the mail


Water the plants that survived the 90+ degree weather

Get a week's survival rations for Hubby & dog

Clean the dishes so same husband and dog can eat on clean dishes

Sweep and clean the floor (yes, that is just one day of dog hair from one 50+ lb. Lab)

Pack for Tuesday's flight

Looking at my list, I just sat down at the computer and did what was important --submit my photos for the Round Robin Photo Challenge. Whereupon completing this assignment, I went back to bed. Hubby wasn't home. He was helping out on a model train layout tour. When he got home he was hot and grumpy. I was not little Miss Sunshine either. We decided to skip a performance of Miss Saigon on our CLO ticket subscription. You know we are sick when we don't go to something for which we spent good money!

Sunday, since I didn't want to be "Cold Kiva" (as opposed to Typhoid Mary) at church or my writers group, I stayed at home and did most of the chores -- a cursory sort of the mail which turned up three graduation announcements and an assortment of bills, the laundry, our grocery shopping, the graduation card shopping, dish washing -- before I collapsed again.

Today I feel much better -- on to watering, packing, dealing with the rest of mail, and packing. I'm leaving the floor for Hubby to do when I'm gone :0)

Round Robin Challenge: Norwegian Wood

I'm so excited. The Round Robin Photo Challenge picked my idea for the first round of the new season:

But since I could choose only one idea for this challenge, I went with one of the suggestions made to us by Kiva, who authors the blog, "Eclectic Granny." Here is what Kiva says about this challenge...

I'm into a Beatles mood this week.
Norwegian Wood - take a photo of anything wooden.
Merriam Webster defines the word "wooden" as: 1. made or consisting of wood. 2. lacking ease or flexibility, awkwardly stiff (e.g., wooden performer, a wooden speech). A picture of John Wooden or anyone named Wooden qualifies.

Alas and alack, as you have constantly read in my blog, my favorite lens broke. It was in the Canon shop for repair until I got home yesterday. I didn't even know if I could participate. I didn't even RSVP -- sorry guys...

Luckily, Hubby brought his Rebel with him to Carson City to photograph the reenactment of 1869's driving of the golden spike to connect the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah. The Nevada State Railroad Museum made that reenactment the centerpiece of its celebration of the first National Train Day, May 10, 2008. Hubby kindly lent the lens to me after the festivities. It's not MY lens but it worked. Now I can participate :0)

Since I had client meetings on Friday and Wednesday and I didn't want to miss the celebration, I volunteered to work on the steam train over the weekend. The youngest car on the steam train is at least 90 years old, so you could expect the train museum to have a variety of old wooden things... like train cars carrying wood:

Or, logging wagons:


However, I found my perfect picture not at the museum, but just walking back to my hotel by the Nevada State Capitol building. I decided to take a "long-cut" through the grounds surrounding the original 1870 building. Huge trees towered above me and I found myself looking at the little plaques beside them. Each Nevada county had contributed a tree from their area -- Sequoias, single leaf pinon (state tree), pines, and even flowering plum. I went from tree to tree looking at the plaques, until I found this one:

Why is it perfect? Here's the plaque:

Because they had just watered and the plaque was partly wet, you might not be able to read it. Here's the translation:

NORWAY MAPLE
ACER PLATANOIDES
LINCOLN COUNTY

Ahhhh, isn't it good Norwegian wood!

Train trivia & an explanation of a common phrase

I learned from Powell's Books' Technica newsletter:

Elijah McCoy, born in May 1848, invented the "lubricator cup" for steam engines, allowing the steam to push oil into the engines parts (up to this point, engineers hand-oiled the train like it was the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz). Other competitors made similar lubricants, but customers knew that McCoy's was the best; they made sure to ask for "the real McCoy."

Weekend Assignment #215: Everyone's a critic

Since my favorite camera lens is getting fixed, I didn't participate in Karen's Monday Photoshoot, so I'm going to try to get at least her Weekend Assignment in.

Weekend Assignment #215: Review a film. Any film. Got something interesting to say about Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery (1903)? I'd love to read it. Metropolis (1927)? Why not? A Night in Casablanca (1946)? Fine. The Seventh Seal (1957)? Er, okay! Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)? You'll get away with it. Speed Racer (2008)? Go for it. From Hollywood to Ballywood to Hong Kong, from Kubrick to Kurasawa, it's all on the W.A. marquee. But there's one catch: the film should not be on your personal list of favorites; nor should it be a film you despise.

Extra Credit: Is there a film due out this summer that you plan to go see? If so, what is it?

I'm a sucker for films about destiny. It's a Wonderful Life is on the top of my list -- one decision can irrevocably alter the lives of others. Dead Again poses the question of fate and reincarnation. Then there is the beautiful and haunting Double Life of Veronique about two identical women, one living in Poland and the other living in France, both pursuing singing careers, yet their lives turn out so differently.

When I was surfing the channels in my hotel room, I started to watch Sliding Doors and became engrossed. In this movie, it wasn't a conscious choice but a mere circumstance that changed a woman's destiny. What would happen to a young woman if she missed her train? What would happen to her if she didn't? In this movie, Helen, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, has been fired from her job and is taking the Tube home. In one scene we see her get on the train with the doors sliding behind her, in the next she's standing in the very same tube station but the doors have just slid closed in front of her and she had to walk home. We watch with fascination how this one event impacts every part of her life: whom she loves, her future career, where she lives, and what she finally becomes. As her parallel lives diverge, she becomes two completely different individuals. Will the two converge and which one will she be? Watch the movie.

This is a truly inventive story. Not only do you have a good time listening to the witty repartee and getting involved in the romance, but it also prods you to think about some of the "what ifs" in your life.

Extra credit: Indiana Jones & the kingdom of the crystal skull

I'm going home... for a few days

I had my meeting with my client today in Carson City. He liked the first draft of the website, but wants some more samples. He was also a bit peeved that it doesn't work well in his version of Front Page. The site is written in strict XTML with CSS that have passed the W3C validations! Why can't Microsoft at least upgrade their programs to cover the international standards and then add on as options their proprietary features? It looks like I'll have to make a form that feeds his content into the web pages automatically so he doesn't have to code.

At least, I'm going home for a few days. I'm packing as I'm pecking out this on my laptop. I'm going home to get my camera lens! I'm going to take pictures, pictures and more pictures. I'll put them up on my blog next week.

I have a nine hour drive from here tomorrow so there's a very good chance I won't post anything that evening.

Texas Eagle Part 3: The Awakening

After dinner with our new friends from Mineola, we went back to the roomette where the beds were turned down. I fell asleep only to be awakened by the wail of the train horn. The engineer had a heavy hand on the horn at crossings – perhaps he had a collision with a car and was over compensating, but he was constantly blowing the horn -- beep beep beeeeeeeeep beep.

I finally got to sleep again when someone started pounding on our door. I fumbled for the lock. Hubby was still asleep in the bunk bed. When I finally got it open, two conductors – one sourpuss male with a droopy mustache with a "borg unit" attached to his ears and the corpulent red haired female conductor that took our tickets in the station -- looked down on me.

“Where did you get on?” the male conductor demanded.

I stared at him and then found my voice, "St. Louis."

He looked in his envelope at something. " You the ones getting off at Minneola?"

"No, Los Angeles."

He frowned and then squinted his eyes at me "You’re the ones we are looking for. Where’s your ticket? I’ve already called you in as a no show."

"We gave it to her at the station, " I replied, pointing at the woman behind him. She looked surprised. Dave looked over the upper bunk, finally awake. She looked at him and something passed through her eyes, recognition, perhaps. She didn't say a thing.

Mr. Conductor looks into an envelope filled with tickets.

"Nope, only got two tickets for rooms 2 and 5, no ticket for 3."

He looks at us as if we sneaked on the train.

I knew that I didn't have the ticket. Hubby gave me back the e-reservation, but put the ticket in his pocket. He showed it to the gentleman at the train gate so that we could proceed to the sleeper car. I asked Hubby to look in his pockets. I heard him wrestling with the covers as he replied that he didn't have it. I looked in his backpack. Nothing. Hubby says that he knows he gave it to me to put it on my clipboard.. I know he didn’t, but in my groggy state I'll accept anything. Clasping my Mickey Mouse sweatshirt over my nightgown, I walked down the stairs in my barefeet with the male conductor in tow. I pulled out the bag from the luggage rack, got the clipboard, but it only had the reservation confirmation -- just as I thought. The conductor gave me a nasty look, as if to say, you're wasting my time. I know you don't have tickets.

We went back up the stairs to the roomette. I tore the place apart for the ticket. Hubby finally woke up enough to search his bunk. He's one of those people who needs a half an hour to become coherent after he wakes up. The male conductor left in a huff, probably to call security to get us off the train. The female conductor stood and watched us. I told Hubby to empty his pockets on the bed not just feel around in them. He threw everything on his bed and in the pile of receipts, tissues, wallet and other junk that he normally carries was the envelope with the tickets that had been punched by the conductor. He handed it to her. She snatched the ticket and, examined it closely. Muttering to herself something like, "It is the ticket. OMG” Without a word to us, she turned to run after the male conductor. Before she could leave, I asked, "what time is it?" "5:30" she said as she glanced back and then made her way back down the train . She didn’t even say she was sorry for waking us up. They must have woken us up before 5am. We had been on the train for over six hours and they were now checking for our ticket? Strike 2 for the Texas Eagle.

I'm working on the railroad

I was going to post yesterday, but I worked all day as a brakeman on a steam engine and pooped out after I got back to my room. I'm working today. I hope yesterday got me in better shape so I can last out the day and then come back and post. Hasta!