The Great Train Ride

If you have been following my blog you know that I have a love for railroading.

That being said Faye and I traveled to Akron last Sunday to take a ride on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway. Our trip started out in a "modern" 1950's era, air conditioned, passenger car. The train was being pulled by a "modern" diesel engine of the same era to the midway point of our ride. About 45 minutes away. We were able to disembark the train at that point for a photo op of the train being pulled by the steam engine that would pull us back to Akron. The locomotive that pulled us on the return trip was a late 19th century steam locomotive fueled by coal.

The massive stature of the steam locomotive was very impressive which is why the pictures accompanying this blog are of the locomotive and the tender cars. We really enjoyed the experience. Next time a theme ride maybe. They offer several different theme rides that are a little more pricey but look very fun. If you are interested the website is www.cvsr.com.

EMHE (Extreme Makeover Home Edition)

So if you have been looking at Facebook and you are my friend you know that 1. Extreme Makeover Home Edition was in Columbus this past week 2. I have been enthralled by the aforementioned event. Oh man, I am reviewing too many legal papers, using aforementioned in a sentence. Any who, Faye and I visited the work site on Saturday and then I returned by my lonesome on Sunday.

After the visit in Saturday I was determined to volunteer for the work crew. After we came home on Saturday I visited the websites for the show and the builder and submitted my application to volunteer. On my Sunday visit I made some inquiries about volunteering and discovered that all that was really necessary was to show up with a willingness to work. Cool! I decided to take Tuesday off from my regular job and volunteer, I figured by then most of the accelerated pace framing work would be done and the finishing work would be underway.

Let me also say that on Sunday when I was visiting, Tracy, one of the designers walked by me into the house to do a spot. I was not ready for a celebrity appearances since on Saturday we did not observe any. I tried my best to get my camera, but as my parents used to say I was an hour late and a dollar short. I was determined to get a recognizable picture of Tracy so I made up my mind that I would stay until her return trip back to the secured celebrity area.

I was not expecting the outcome of my diligence to get Tracy's picture. She emerged from the house and I had my camera ready but as they do it had turned itself off. I got a couple of pictures of her as she was walking away. What did I do? I proceeded to stalk her to the end of the spectator area and asked her for a picture. She responded, only if you are in it with me! Her escort grabbed my camera and I posed with her for the picture posted above.

I also posted a picture of my t-shirt and security badge. Since this show is going to air in December there is also a picture of the ever present Santa Clauses for the Christmas themed show. I have more pictures but they show the house, I can't publish them per the non-disclosure statement the show producers made every volunteer sign.

They treated the volunteers "extremely" well. there were coolers full of soda, Gatorade, and a selection of exotic and non-exotic waters everywhere you looked. Also several tents that had tables loaded with bags of chips and stacks of candy bars. Lunch was catered in an air conditioned tent with several flat screen TV's tuned to different stations. Hot food (grilled chicken and seafood stir-fry) and a 20 foot buffet of salads, fruits and desserts.

It was a great experience, that was sweaty, fulfilling work and also a ton of fun.

Update/Apology

I have not posted here in quite a while and for that I apologize. It is not that I have not had anything to post, quite the contrary I have been very busy.

Doing what you may ask? Well first of all there is my gainful employment I do have to help Faye pay the bills for the essentials. Luckily I have a job I enjoy going to and I am there from 7:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. five days a week. I also spend a good amount of time gardening this time of year, not so much lately though do to the ungodly heat we have been experiencing. Then the mundane day to day chores that consume so much of our time, coupled with trying to get a full nights sleep and still arise at 5:3o a.m. work days and there hasn't been much time left over.

I will also admit that when I get on the computer blogging is not at the top of my list of what I want to accomplish. So if you are one of my followers again I apologize, but that is the end of my apologies.

I am going to try to be better about my posts and attempt to post more often with content that reflects my more important accomplishments and possibly share some of my larger missteps. Well if you have stayed with this until now I am going to end your pain and ease on out of here for now.