Apr 20, 2024
Stopping by the virtual house on Leif Erikson Drive after a couple of years away from Tualatin Mountain/Forest Park
—orc Sat Apr 20 23:20:21 2024
Apr 19, 2024
Cozily sitting in the new recliner with several hundred million of its (smaller) friends
—orc Fri Apr 19 22:28:36 2024
Apr 12, 2024
It may not be very good chocolate, but it is still chocolate
—orc Fri Apr 12 23:49:19 2024
Apr 05, 2024
Dust Mite & cherry blossoms
We live just north of the farm where Bing developed his self-named cherry variety, and when we moved into our house there was a huge and ancient bing cherry tree slowly dying in the backyard. I think this may have been a first-generation bing, and in the last few years before it joined the choir invisible it produced bumper crops of completely inaccessable cherries (the tree was about 25 feet tall and the lowest living branch was 15 feet up, so no we couldn’t harvest the cherries at all) and one of them ended up setting root next to our dining room window. It’s now about 16 years old and it’s producing a fine crop of cherry blossoms (and presumably a fine crop of cherries, but the local squirrels & birds get most of them), but is sheltered enough so that it goes into bloom about a week after most of the other local cherries do.
This year Dust Mite managed to get out and see the cherry flowers before they all blew away.
—orc Fri Apr 5 23:59:22 2024
Mar 30, 2024
I had my latest Covid-19 booster on thursday and it knocked me completely flat all friday. This morning we’re sitting down with a nice cup of tea and trying to recover.
—orc Sat Mar 30 10:48:09 2024
Mar 28, 2024
577, pausing at the Pig’s Eye (St Paul, Minn) enginehouse
—orc Thu Mar 28 22:38:09 2024
Mar 24, 2024
Wabash FA-1 #607 sits in (I think) Decatur, IL sometime around 1960. Isn’t that a lovely paint scheme? The boxy shape of an Alco FA really goes well with the blue/white/grey Wabash paint scheme, don’t you think?
—orc Sun Mar 24 00:22:29 2024
Mar 22, 2024
There’s an ANIMAL in my sock drawer!
—orc Fri Mar 22 23:54:03 2024
Mar 21, 2024
I had to go to the social security offices to update my name and correct my sex on my social security record, so why not go to gresham so I could get a moderately-long ride in?
—orc Thu Mar 21 19:32:58 2024
Mar 16, 2024
#579 was in the shops in the fall of 1972, and was lined up next to a small collection of retired power. Three years later 579 was gone as well :-(
—orc Sat Mar 16 21:51:04 2024
Mar 15, 2024
A mac that’s newer than the 2012’s I’ve been using. This one has nothing replaceable on it, and to replace the battery (which this one needs) involves taking the entire computer apart to even get at the battery, and then you need to dump acetone on it to melt the glue that sticks the battery into the case.
It’s not one of Apple’s finer moments, but Dust Mite has doesn’t need a computer for very much.
—orc Fri Mar 15 23:57:40 2024
Mar 08, 2024
Mar 01, 2024
There’s a jelly sale at the Big Big Store
—orc Fri Mar 1 23:23:20 2024
Feb 23, 2024
Dust Mite helps me with a patch request
—orc Fri Feb 23 23:50:13 2024
In the middle of coming back from the courthouse after filing to change my legal name & sex. Note the rakish angle of the saddle; I’d hit a pothole and the silly thing slid back and down (the one good thing about this is it reminds me that I need to set up an appointment to do some additional repair work.)
—orc Fri Feb 23 16:55:36 2024
Feb 21, 2024
Not in La Crosse (the only time I saw #550 in North La Crosse was while it was being shipped to the breakers in Milwaukee), but in iron ore service in the UP.
—orc Wed Feb 21 18:19:58 2024
Feb 20, 2024
A BLW S-12 in the Milwaukee’s North La Crosse yard about 3 months (I think) before I imprinted on the platonic ideal of road switchers (the 4 alco-rebuilt rsc-2m roadswitchers that frequented the area until they were sent to the breakers in 1976.)
—orc Tue Feb 20 22:42:07 2024
Feb 16, 2024
Still life with fruits and Mite
…
What? It’s ART, damnit!
—orc Fri Feb 16 23:44:34 2024
Feb 09, 2024
Making up another batch of salad
—orc Fri Feb 9 23:33:26 2024
Feb 08, 2024
This one was taken in 1972, which was around the time I became aware of the Milw’s RSC-2ms
—orc Thu Feb 8 01:28:05 2024
Feb 02, 2024
It lasted three days, so I’ve gotta make another one
—orc Fri Feb 2 23:21:36 2024
This year’s first batch of candied citron is being inspected by QA.
—orc Fri Feb 2 23:17:30 2024
—30—
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