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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I owe everyone a news update. I took yesterday as a "Me Day" at http://www.gdsf.co.uk/ to start to get back to normal.
My mother leaves hospital on Tuesday as "walking wounded", except she has lost the ability to walk, possibly permanently, though that depends on her. I will still be going to visit her, but it will not be as stressful because it will not be in hospital.
This means I can now think, at last, about the website.
I am so grateful that my eyes are moist as I write this that everyone has understood. I know so many authors are impatient internally and patient externally. I apologise for my inability to have updated the site for so long and thank you for your extreme tolerance.
The server is somewhat temperamental at present. We are watching for final signs that it has returned to stability before I post new items, simply because I don't want to drive you to visit an empty screen. So bear with me, please, a very short while longer.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Dude! Great news! Take some more time for just you, okay? Everything y'all have been through takes time to get over. Not just the physical exhaustion but the emotional and spiritual drainage too. My dad would mosdef prescribe a few "Mental Health Days."
Cool that you like traction engines. There are a few left in North Carolina too. Here's a way cool pic a dude in England sent me.
I think that's really great news about your Mom!!! Just wanted to say that again.
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My Dad was a former railroad engineer. He started out as a fireman on the old coal fired steam engines. When it came time to add water to the engine's boiler, they would pull up to a water tower. It was my Dad's job to climb on top of the engine and pull the water spout down over the filler neck on the locomotive. Well, the engineer, a Swedish fellow, stopped the engine a little short of the water tower spout. My Dad held on to the spout and walked backwards as the engine crept forwards. He forgot that the hatch cover on the filler neck was open. He stepped into the open filler neck clear up to his hip! The engineer leaned out of the cab and hollered "yumpin' yiminy kid! Yust fill it up——don't tamp it down!"
[Updated on: Fri, 31 August 2007 18:30]
Youth crisis hot-line 866-488-7386, 24 hr (U.S.A.)
There are people who want to help you cope with being you.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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You really ought to look at http://train.spottingworld.com
I wonder if it needs an "Anecdotes" section? Perhaps we should start one, especially if you have the name of the railroad!
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Tim,
That's great to hear!
And you're right: We do understand -- and we do support you. We're grateful for everything you've put into the site over the last years, and we know you'll get back to it when you can. No hurry. Take as long as you need.
Undoubtedly, other authors have been sending you stories to post when you get ready again. I hope you'll take this as further encouragement, rather than a nag, but I've also been working on a new Haiku Tale. I've completed 4 out of a projected 10 or so chapters. It'll probably take a month or two for me to finish and send it to you -- given how slowly I write. (Believe me, I'm not "impatient" with you.)
Best wishes to your mother for a good recovery! I personally wasn't so fortunate in my mother -- and if yours has gotten so much loyalty from you, then she must be one fine lady.
-- Bill Coleman
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The photographer for the U.P. Railroad would occasionally come over to our house for dinner. When they planned a calendar shoot he'd make sure my Dad was the engineer. Many of the freight trains you see in their calendar shots have my Dad in the cab. He gave him a number of photos but I guess one of my brothers inherited them. I do have a photo of him they used in an advertisement with his spiffy engineers cap, jacket and bandana. They don't wear those clothes anymore.
When I was ten my Dad took me for a day trip in the locomotive with him. Strictly against the rules but the railroad bulls would look the other way. Most of the trainmen took their kids on at least one ride. And my first summer out of high school I worked as a telegrapher/switchman at some small whistle stops.
Youth crisis hot-line 866-488-7386, 24 hr (U.S.A.)
There are people who want to help you cope with being you.
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We only have a rural branch line when i live. It used to be part of a larger railroad called the Norfolk and Southern. A hurricane destroyed the railroad bridge across the Albemarle Sound and later it got turned into a county road bridge. When i went with my family on vacation to Canada a couple of times we went through Baltimore and Washington and Philadelphia and I couldn't believe the trains they have there.
I have this secret fantasy of making love in a sleeping car. Do the railroads still have sleeping cars? I'll have to Google Amtrack.LOL.
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Whoa dude! Sites likethis are dangerous for me! I fall into them and get mesmerized and forget all about calculus homework!
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>There is something very, very askew in a society that uses 16,000,000 barrels of crude oil to process the plastic bottles in which common water is sold.
It all works out in the end though, whitewaterkid. The plastic is collected, ground up and reprocessed by McDonalds as Big Macs.::-)
Youth crisis hot-line 866-488-7386, 24 hr (U.S.A.)
There are people who want to help you cope with being you.
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JimB
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Likes it here |
Registered: December 2006
Messages: 349
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Ahh, calculus homework, the thought brings back fond memories of days long past. It was a struggle but my real downfall in math was what followed, I think it was called differential equations. It caused a change in career plans and I'm better for it.
JimB
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I think my downfall in my will be Complex Analysis.
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
~Phil Ochs "I Aint Marching Anymore"
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daffey44
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Getting started |
Location: USA
Registered: March 2004
Messages: 23
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For those of you interested in rail travel, I found an amateur travelogue about a train trip up the Pacific coast of the U.S. and then across Canada. It's at http://www.rossde.com/Canada_trip/index.html
In the section about traveling between Vancouver and Montreal, scroll to 9 August and click on the thumbnail of an old fire truck. There are two pages of photographs, including some photos of steam-powered farm tractors.
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huwar
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Getting started |
Registered: May 2004
Messages: 13
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Amtrak and Via (Canada) have sleeping cars with a variety of sleeping accommodations from single units to bed-sitters and very comfortable they are for whatever you will. The conductor will not be pleased to find two sleeping in a single. But if you book a section (upper and lower berth) no one will notice if there are two in the roomy-enough-for-a-good-cuddle lower one. There are showers, too.
don't ask the way to peace; peace is the way
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I have just been able, in a small way, to restart posting. It will be a little jerky at first, but I will get back on top of it as soon as I can.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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JimB
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Likes it here |
Registered: December 2006
Messages: 349
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Cool, Timmy. I bet there is a ton of stuff awaiting your attention. I would ask for my favorites first, but the only fair way is FIFO.
JimB
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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If only I could recall which came first
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Bravo, and thank you! There is great pleasure in anticipation, and even greater pleasure in seeing a promise fulfilled. We are all greatly in debt to you.
"Tu non altro che il canto avrai del figlio, o materna mia terra..."
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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There will be nothing on Tuesday. My mother comes home from hospital and I am running a load of heavy errands. I am unsure of Wednesday, but we WILL get there again.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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