What a storm it was, don’t choose Florida if you don’t like heavy, blasting rain. You cannot imagine the amount of water that warm air can hold. I got caught on the way back from bingo, where the crowd was so small, I “bellered” the numbers. That’s where, instead of setting up the PA system, I set the cage on the bar and [sort of] shouted the numbers. Gives it that more hometown feeling. The rain was so bad, I walked the scooter home the last mile and my wristwatch stopped working until it dried out.
Ah, everyone wants to hear about the train museum. It’s still $8 but now they want an extra $2 to tour the [Ferdinand] Magellan, the presidential car. Luxury on wheels. The society says they are restoring the trains, yet I found them in the same condition as in 2003. Other than being swept and polished a bit, no work has been done. There are also few cars than before. My goal was to check the berths and I found four of them in a sleeper car. Not only are they slightly smaller than my camper, you have to sleep at an angle to the stretch out.
Another pleasant surprise is the lack of plastic. Lots of shiny metals and leather seating. A quick look in the lavatories tells us the average person was much smaller, by like a hundred pounds, back then. Too many people [nowadays] would not fit through the door, must less squeeze into the stall. Most of the crappers were barely shoulder width. Still, I think if the train people got off their stalls and updated their passenger system, they could do a very competitive job of things.
How would I change the train system to bring people back? First, I’d take advantage of the space, because airlines can’t compete with that. Individual rooms, and make them bigger and more automatic. Offices. Where are the offices so I can get some work done on a business trip? Soundproofing. And add spur lines at the destinations right into the business and shopping districts. Put the depots right into the heart of suburbia. Lose the “train station” mentality because it never did work right. And bring back the private varnish.
Where are the movies? Where is the library car with coffee service? I’m saying there are dozens of angles the railroads could use to keep customers on the ground and happy. But if I have to pay the equivalent of air fare, ride a cattle car, and at the far end get dumped in a bad neighborhood, I’ll drive it. There would have to be clear advantages to get me back on the train. The one item I’d push [if I was them] is personal space. No way could an airline compete.
As it was, there were maybe ten people at the museum. I took a half-hour nap in one of the cars and nobody noticed. Then another nap in the model train shed. The museum is on Dixie out toward Homestead, so that is a hundred mile round trip, or four hours of city driving. On the return leg, JZ was not in, so I stopped to see Alaine. That’s when we took the dogs for a walk. I learned why JZ didn’t answer his phone. He was in the Bahamas. And on October 11, he’s flying out to California to see Mary-Jo. I should get the address.
Alaine was the perfect hostess again. She makes every meal a masterpiece. Mostly, we tested features on her iPad that I learned at class last Monday. Like the way to overtype a text box, I've seen so many people use the backspace key because they don't know how the overtype feature works. Hint: you hit the little “x” which is hardly instinctive, since “x” is the universal symbol to exit or close an application. But who am I to tell Apple how to get it right?
No photos of the visit and our sit by the backyard pool. Or the pork dinner and the new fish in the big tank. The Nikon camera batteries ran out. The damn thing started taking flash pictures in bright sunlight again and if you don’t notice, ka-poop go your batteries. This is the junky piece of camera I’m taking with me on the road trip. I should know better. Up yours, Nikon.
The government begins selective shut-downs next week. My interest is that for the first time there will be a large group of citizens watching for which departments make the least difference. There is already backlash that the National Park employees will lock the gates when they leave, as if the forest belongs to them. Let’s see who really cares if civilian contractors to the military get cut off at the knees. Or who really needs the Department of Agriculture (whose budget is greater than the food bill of the entire nation). To me, the biggest benefit could be the average voter’s realization that most of the government is non-essential.
Put another way, I hope this shut-down is lengthy (several months) because that would reveal to Joe Voter how little is actually being done by all these needless and useless government people. What I dislike most about government workers is their attitude that you have to be nice to them or they don’t have to do their job. Tell you another country that could use a wake-up call: Canada.
That place should shut off their welfare payments for three months just to watch what happens. Then make everyone who re-applies explain how they lasted so long without working and be required to do it again. Grew your own vegetables? Good, here’s package of seeds and a hoe. Borrowed from your relatives? Let’s see the receipts or it didn’t happen. Moved in with the parents? Good, because they are at least partially responsible that you became a welfare case.
ADDENDUM
McAfee, the anti-virus guy and only boomer I can identify with, has come up with a product to prevent the authorities from illegal spying. Called Decentral, it works by making the network appear to “float around”. Good for him. The law specifically states there must be a warrant for any search. Using surveillance on everybody instead of just suspected criminals is an illegal search. Thus, the argument that this new device will be used for “nefarious purposes” is the mark of an idiot. Conceptually it is no different than drawing the curtains. I would buy one on principle alone.
Or how about those dorks who want the terrorists or suspected terrorists at Gitmo released? They say the prisoner’s lives are uncomfortable. Folks, these are not innocent babes plucked off the streets. Their names were on the wanted posters before they were arrested. Boo-hoo, they are locked up 23 hours per day. Hey. That is the life they chose when they started suicide bombing. If they got money to conduct a global war on unarmed civilians, they got money to hire their own lawyers. Especially that laughable one who wears his underwear on his head and talks to himself—he doesn’t need a lawyer, he needs better acting lessons. Abdullah, it’s been done. Get some new material.
