The little Inn by the wayside

[Tormuse]

Happy Birthday, Railwaymodeler!

In light of the above discussion, courtesy of Google, here's a Fedora cake!

[jayenkai]

Not 100% sure why, but that cake puts me in the mood for something liquoricey!! Mmmm...

[Dizi]

Happy belated birthday Ralio, I hope you had a really nice day

[eMTe]

Oops. I failed to find another googlepic railroad-related birthday cake. I blame my uneven forum presence.

I wish you a lot of cakes, locomotives to find on ebay, babies to produce and fedora hats to wear.

[Zyx]

Just poking in to say that I'm in Montreal, Canada. (Should be pretty easy to guess why.)

...which means that eMTe's midnight PMs actually arrive in day time. =)

[jayenkai]

*tries to think of things Montreal is known for*

..... You're going to the Comedy Festival?!

[Zyx]

[Railwaymodeler]

There's no Canada like French Canada!

Oh, and Montreal is known for Montreal Locomotive Works, the Canadian subsidiary of American Locomotive Company. They had some interesting Canadian-only builds that are still seen today.

For many years there was a tariff that meant locomotives built in the USA could not be sent to Canada, so all the major locomotive builders set up separate subsidiaries in Canada. General Motors-ElectroMotive Division set up GM Diesels of Canada in London, Ontario. When the tariff was lifted, the plant in La Grange, Illinois was shut down and all production moved to the Canadian plant which was much newer. The La Grange plant was kept for offices only, and I have some contacts down there that get me old blueprints and paint diagrams when I need them.

[eMTe]

I force myself to stop EVEN THINKING OF travelling from the time when I met Italians on the Barcelona beach. They had nothing to communicate, so (probably to prove they're alive an they're not just amoebas) they began to shout in front of me "Walesa!", "Golota!", "Wojtyla!".

Still, despite this outofmyworldish meeting, I desire to visit certain PLACES in the world. For example New Orleans and Chocolate Hills. I just don't want to meet people.

[jayenkai]

Hmmm...

You know when you don't spot spelling mistakes and things, because your mind sort of assumes they're fine, so never bothers to actually read them properly...

[eMTe]

Time for long-forgotten big red writing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ZANDRAV IBISTENN !!!.

[Railwaymodeler]

At the Pace union meeting tonight. Another driver was fired recently, from what I understand a passenger had been aggresively panhandling on the buses, seemed to target this particular driver's bus. Driver had the punk arrested three times, and the punk started whining to the garage about "Discrimination". Uh, no. If you get on a bus, and start begging money from passengers, and becoming violent when told no, then regardless of all else, the police will be hauling you away. But what does the management do? Right. Fire the driver.

This is why Maria and I have made the decision. We are not moving until the general manager is replaced and Pace can demonstrate that they can go for more than five minutes without doing anything dumb or illegal.

Plus, a city hall employee, who was a former union officer for a municipal workers union, was fired over a computer related "offense" a while back. As I was the one who repaired his home computer and was familiar with his setup, I have to testify in court in a couple weeks to prove he did not do the things that city hall high-ups claim he did. Even better, the guy who was the driving force behind having this man fired, was the same guy who drummed me out when I worked for the Waukegan Police.

Nothing is more satisfying than a big helping of justice being served!

[Chroelle]

Da da da da da da da da RAILLO! (Insert spinning Fedora logo sign).

A very belated congrats Raillo. I hope you had a great day!

Remember Justice is a dish best served cold! (OR something...)

[eMTe]

Don't you think that all this Pace issue becomes sort of burden?

I mean, you have a loving wife, a beautiful daughter; wouldn't it be better for your family to leave the city and start new life?

I might have watched too many Hollywood movies (like Mosquito Coast f.e.), but there's sort of weird feeling I get while reading your posts. What you both fight for may ultimately lead to dissolution of your relationship, especially if it involves a big load of negative, revengeful, feelings. Negative feelings rarely lead to anything fruitful. And even if they do these short-term benefits don't outweigh long-term positive approach. I know it all too well.

If my opinion counts: take the Oregon Trail and forget Illinois.

[jayenkai]

It's been an odd week.
My health seems to be picking up, enough that I've been having more or less daily walks around the street. Usually I could do a couple of days, then spend the next few days being too ill to bother, but ... So far, I've had almost a full week without being sick.
This has led to me really getting a good grip of my walking situation. Namely, I ain't walking well!!

I'm shuffling, more than walking, and if I try to look around, it knocks me off balance and I need to re-find my footing.
Walking around our quiet street is one thing, but if I head deeper into the village, where there's more traffic to watch for, it's going to be problematic.

I've also have to walk everywhere with Mum. She's taking care of me, and making sure I don't collapse, mid-walk.
*sigh*
I'm really not enjoying this. :/

On the plus side, Animal Crossing comes out on Friday, so I'll be spending time chatting to my townsfolk, drawing sprites all over the village, and teaching all the animal naughty phrases! Hurray!!

[jayenkai]

..spoke too soon. I have a migraine today, and it's a doozie!! Aw well, carry on!

[Railwaymodeler]

Fathers Day yesterday, Maria took me to a steak dinner, and gave me a freight car kit, with the note saying "From Skoda", of course. Very peaceful day.

My left knee and back both hurt tonight, so can't sleep. Go figure too I got a nasty papercut on my right index fingertip, so typing is a little uncomfortable.

[jayenkai]

Really?! I've a cut on my right index finger, too, except I've not a blooming clue where the thing came from! Weird!

Had a trip around the block, again, today. After a rough weekend, I was feeling slightly more myself, today, to figured it'd be ok.
.. *puff*
It's completely knackered me out!
Just a short walk, and I'm out of breath, and quite dizzy. Bad sign, methinks.
Perhaps I should exercise more, but it's tricky to find things I can do without keeling over!

Spent a good couple of days playing Animal Crossing on 3DS. I'm not sure exactly why I love this game as much as I do. It's absolutely not the sort of game that I normally play, and yet, ever since the GameCube original, the games have this strange pulling power!
Can't get enough of the things.
I even started a tumblr about my adventures, not that anyone'll read it, but it's nice to jot things down I suppose.

[eMTe]

I had a nice meeting with a couple of friends. Opportunity? Our mutual friend from studies, now living abroad with his wife, came to spent a holiday week in Poland. So we started our usual ramblings about work, politics, relationships and we occasionally entered the surreal field where everybody talks to everybody and after a while it turns out that everyone is talking about something completely different, but we all understand it's even funnier that way.

As your beloved hater I have three clever observations.

First, the core seems to be stable. These meetings had always their own specific mood, but there is now a stable set of people who not only attend, but really like to attend them, everytime he comes to Cracow.

Second, it is the first time when EVERYBODY of us was completely sober, but we got into even more clever and deep talks. Interesting.

Third, this meeting reminded me of my, unfortunately forgotten up to this time, definition of "friendship". A couple of years ago I have read this definition in an interview with Lem, or maybe with Miłosz. "Friend" is somebody who you meet after 30 or more years and you pick up the conversation like you leaved his room yestarday.

Just some unimportant thoughts from sweltering Cracow.

[Railwaymodeler]

First day of summer, and also Maria's birthday today.