Things seem to be busier on weeks where we have a holiday. We had nothing but customers all day and it was pretty heavy throughout the day. We did not have any crazy people today-a relief considering the number of people filing papers and some confusion regarding a Waiver of Fees for Publication. That took three calls to Legal Aid to get ( Read more... )

Now that the President-Elect is known, we can progress with the actions necessary to address the messes left by Mr. Bush and rebuild the nation's economy and international standing. I do not subscribe to the notions that President-Elect Obama is socialist or that he will destroy our nation. GWB has already done that. I expect that some reforms and ( Read more... )

The political winds are shifting here in the State of Arizona. The Republicans hold the majority of Maricopa County and a couple of more rural counties with a comfortable lead, but in Southern Arizona their grasp has been steadily eroding. In Pima County, our Congressional representatives are both Democrats and are in very strong positions. In ( Read more... )

Well, it was a fun and busy week up in Colorado Springs. I learned a lot from my compatriots at other railroad museums and operations. The organizers for this year's convention lined up some great vendors-the  one I patronized the most was an antique book seller who had all sorts of railroad technical books that were priced just right. Thrilling ( Read more... )

Here is a photograph of the railroad dwarf signal that I have re-wired to run off household voltage. As you can see, even with a 40 watt chandelier light bulb, the light is VERY bright.


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Well, I've been back at my old job for two days now, working out of a cubicle on a temporary basis. Tomorrow I'll be working Window No. 1, which is my assigned work station. It's a shared work space, although the only person I share it with is the Night Unit clerk assigned to that station. Windows No. 1 and 7 are each adjacent to a door from the ( Read more... )

It seems that the last few days have flown by. That's most likely due to the fact that I've been so busy...
Saturday was nothing but a continual series of meetings and projects. Met with a new street railway volunteer at 9:00 AM and spent about an hour and a half. I had lunch with our restoration volunteers and then sat on a Safety Committee panel ( Read more... )

Today we remember the Founding  Fathers of our great nation and the declaration of independence from the Crown of Britain. However, we do not speak of the women who supported their efforts. I sometimes think that we should speak of Founding Parents instead of Founding Fathers. As someone who is a naturalized citizen, I sometimes wonder if those who ( Read more... )

I've finally gotten one Saturday off to deal with things that needed doing around the house. Normally I would be working on the streetcar, except that the line had to be taken out of service due to damage to a switch and parts of the overhead power transmission wire that occurred this past week. The line should be open for business next weekend ( Read more... )

This week has been something else. We had a bunch of judges and their staff out on vacation over the previous couple of weeks, so now things are picking up as they return to work. The upturn of cases has coincided with the mechanical failure of one of the two staff elevators in the courthouse. That made life a pain for our file room runners. We ( Read more... )