Sunday Wrapup

We had a good time at the New Hope Valley Railway this morning. We got there around 10:30, which is normally enough time to ride the first train. Today was a mob scene, however, and we spent thirty minutes just waiting in line to buy our tickets. It seems the railway can’t sell tickets fast enough and that leads to delays. I suppose it doesn’t matter, though, since they only have one train and one track.
Continue reading

New Hope Valley

We’re on our way to the New Hope Valley Railway this morning to ride the train, since its the first Sunday of the month. Kelly will stay here and get some of her new editing project done.

The weather this morning is fall-like, the first cool morning in recent memory. It should be a fine time to ride a train through the dry, dying woods!

Grounded Weekend

When I was a kid, being grounded was a bad thing. Being the daddy in a cool family has turned that upside down, though. I had a nice weekend to become grounded and quite enjoyed it.

Friday was Kelly’s birthday, so we went out to dinner with the help of a neighbor who volunteered to take the kids for a while. We went to a local restaurant near the local mall. Bad move. The service sucked and the food was only marginally better. Atmosphere was zero, too. At least we didn’t invest much time in it and could head home to take in a movie.

The flick was The Da Vinci Code, which I understand everyone else on the planet has already seen. I thought it was interesting – mainly due to Tom Hanks’s excellent acting – but I found myself squirming and checking my watch well before it ended. There were some things too implausable to for me to maintain my “suspension of disbelief.” Like inexplicably carting around the goon that had just tried to kill you, for instance. Or a priest casually taking a cellphone call at 40,000 feet. Or a junkie takinig money to walk away from a fix. On the good side, Ron Howard is getting much better as a director: this movie didn’t seem nearly as wooden as some of his others. Overall, I give it 2.5 stars out of five.

Saturday morning I cooked the family a breakfast of pancakes. Then I went to the local Big Box Electronics Retailer and picked up a new car stereo for Kelly’s Oddity. The CD player refused to play CDs, so I reasoned we could buy a new deck and get free installation for less than the cost of taking the old one to the dealer and having them troubleshoot it. I wasn’t planning to install it myself but the professional installers balked when they saw the navigation system in the van. They said if they installed it the navigation system wouldn’t work right. The installation was probably the easiest of the half-dozen I’ve ever done but what they told me was true: the navigation system doesn’t talk through the stereo anymore. I figure I can figure that out at a later time: not having music in the car when the kids are riding in it is a much bigger problem!

Cleaned out the leaves on the lawn with the leafblower Saturday evening. Then got cleaned up and visited my parents’ house. My sister’s family was visiting from Shelby and everyone seemed to be pretty happy. I found myself feeling pretty emotional that night, just enjoying everyone’s company. I was sad when we had to go. I guess when I sneaked upstairs to look through a few photo albums from twenty years ago, I started to realize just how quickly time flies. Too often I don’t make the most of every minute of my life and that is a crime for which I can’t forgive myself. I’ve only got one life (this time around, at least) and its up to me to enjoy it.

This morning Kelly mentioned needing some time to get some work done. I realized today is the first Sunday of the month, so my solution was to cart the kids off to the New Hope Valley Railway for a train ride. Kelly decided to join us so we threw some snacks together and headed off to Bonsal.

As usual, we had a great time. If the train wasn’t enough, Santa and Frosty the Snowman were there. We found seats in a caboose’s cupula where we could watch the rails and stay warm at the same time. A bonus was hearing the steam whistle on Engine 17 blow throughout the day. There’s something magical about the sound of a steam whistle!

Hallie looked positively exhausted after the train ride but wound up sleeping only an hour. Kelly was anxious to keep working so I entertained Hallie by pulling out a deck of cards and teaching her “Go Fish.” She caught on quickly though she had trouble fanning her cards to see her hand. It’s so fun to watch her pick up new games and skills – mainly because she does it so effortlessly. I wonder if its too early to start her on chess?

I again stepped up to the “dinner” plate and cooked up a tasty spaghetti for the family. The kids and I wrestled a bit before bedtime, which went smoothly. Now its time for me to finish up a few chores before retiring tonight myself. The upcoming workweek doesn’t excite me much but I do have plenty of upcoming visits with family and friends to keep me happy.

Thanks to y’all for reading, too. It’s nice to have an audience sometimes.

MT.Net Back After Brief Outage

I went to check email this morning and was puzzled when things didn’t work right. Seems that at that moment Maestro, the server hosting MT.Net decided to give up the ghost. The likely cause is an overheated CPU.

I didn’t sweat it, though. The family and I went out to catch a ride on the New Hope Valley Railway. It was a beautiful day for an open-air train ride through a woods filled with changing foilage. It was also T’s first train ride and he took it in stride. He even did the baby sign for “train” for the very first time! We were amazed, and so proud.

After lunch and naps for the kids, I wrestled again with Maestro, fetching a new power supply to put into it. When that didn’t work, I got the idea to switch out its CPU with one of another machine that’s not currently being used. I did that about ten minutes ago and it seems to have done the trick.

I’ll be moving the MT.Net universe over to a new, hosted server soon. I’ll just chalk up today’s troubles as a good dress rehearsal.

Trains and Travis

We put some pics up of today’s trip to the Railway, including this nice shot of us hanging with Santa.

Later today, as I was about to do some yard work, Kelly suggested I stick around a bit longer, as Travis seemed to be trying out his facial muscles. It turned out to be a golden opportunity to capture his fleeting smile for the masses. Check out this adorable picture and the rest on the gallery page.

(And, yes, for the record, he is smiling at his mother, not the guy in the snappy new green baseball cap.)

Choo Choo

Hallie and I are off to the New Hope Valley Railway to ride their holiday train. Kelly and Travis will pick up our new coffee table. We’ll all meet back for lunch.

All aboard!

Home Again

Well, we managed to make it out of Virginia without getting a ticket. Helps that we drove the speed limit, of course. Took route 15 down from Warrenton, adding a detour through South Boston instead of our usual Clarksville route. There was nary a soul on the road: just the way we like it.

Well, that isn’t exactly true. There was a big traffic jam on 29 north of U.S. 17. All those cars were bound for the parking lot that is I-95. We were happy to blow right past them on 15 heading south. Suckers!

Had a great visit at the Swansons. Weather was cold and blustery, but we made the most of it. The Naylors joined us, on Thursday and Saturday and we spent lots of time together eating, laughing, eating, taking pictures of each other, and eating.

Neil put up a basketball goal in his driveway. The chance to shoot hoops was strong enough to lure all the guys out in cold, drizzly weather. My game was rusty, but parts of it still shine. Man, did I feel good after shooting baskets (and bricks, too). I need to play more often.

Travis and Hallie are world champion travelers. They both mostly napped all the way until Dillwyn, where the driver, yours truly, had to take a desperate pitstop. After taking care of that urgent matter, we pulled alongside the passenger cars belonging to the Old Dominion Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. While Travis nursed, I carried Hallie around to look at the rail cars. She was very whiny at the time, having just woken up from napping, and wasn’t in the mood to look around.

We’re all beat now, the fridge is empty, and we were short on sleep to begin with. But we had a great holiday and are now safe at home.

Blog ya tomorrow!

in Uncategorized | 309 Words | Comment

Happy Independence Day

We’ve had a wonderful Independence Day. Started off with an early trip to the New Hope Valley Railway to ride the train.

There were many hundreds of people there today, so we were glad we showed up early (though 90 minutes early was a bit much). We took a seat in one of the caboose’s cupolas (pronounced “COO-poh-lahs) and had a fun time as the train took us down the track and back.

I also thought to bring my dual-band HT to listen to the club activity. A helpful volunteer gave me the frequency (160.425MHz) and soon I was listening to the chatter.

The train ride was all too short, and soon we were back at the “station.” It was fun enough that Hallie has asked to go “again” multiple times.

Then it was home for a nap before heading over to my folks’ house for a Fourth of July cookout. We all had a great time there, with hamburgers and peppermint ice cream to help celebrate. The best part was the short ride home: five minutes compared to 45 minutes to Garner. Vive la difference!

I’ve got contract work most of the day tomorrow. When you’re an independent consultant, you don’t get “paid holidays,” so any work is good work. I’m betting I’ll be done soon enough to enjoy some more home-time before returning to my contract work Tuesday.

Fourth of July Railroading

We’re heading down to Bonsal, NC (south of Apex on U.S. 1) to ride the train at the New Hope Valley Railway. July 4th happens to be the first Sunday in the month – when the trains run – and as such they’ll be giving rides. A band is supposed to be there as well.

An open-air train ride seems like the perfect way to celebrate Independence Day. Hope to see you there!