Trying out electric cars in space tights…
16 minute read
May 25, 2022, 2:31 PM
This past Thursday, Elyse and I went out to take some electric cars out for a test drive. I started seriously considering purchasing an electric car after filling up the HR-V a few weeks ago and being blown away by how expensive it was to fill it up. The idea was to use whatever electric car for commuting, and then keep the HR-V for road trips and other adventures where it might not be practical to use an electric car.
In going out, it was warm enough to finally take this pair of men’s space leggings that I had bought for myself a while back for a spin. I had wanted a pair of space tights for a while, and I was delighted to have found a pair of these things for men. After all, why should women get to keep the joy of fun prints all to themselves? Plus, after having lost so much weight, I can now fit into a pair of these and not look ridiculous. You be the judge:
Continue reading…It’s kind of like being in the shower for eight hours a day…
6 minute read
May 16, 2022, 8:16 PM
It’s interesting how jobs work sometimes. As many of you know, I work as a train operator, operating a subway train in passenger service. This is a job that I had imagined myself doing for a long time, and it still amazes me that I actually get to do it. But no one ever tells you what the experience is like when you’re in the train cab all by yourself in a tunnel underneath the city.
When I was in class learning how to be a train operator, our instructor told us that it was an easy job, but that it was also a boring job. However, all throughout training, an experienced operator is always in the cab with you, and as such, you’re never alone with your thoughts. There is always someone nearby to interact with, plus, since you’re just learning the job, you’re thinking about the mechanics of the job a lot because it has not yet become second nature. So that “boring” aspect never really comes into play. Even in my case, where one of my instructors said that I was a natural in regards to my ability to operate the train, I still had to think a lot about what I was doing because I had not yet internalized it all. It wasn’t just a matter of sitting down and going to town like it is for me now, six years later. The mechanics of the job are pretty simple: fire up the train, move the master controller to control your speed, monitor the radio, scan the tracks for any hazards, make good announcements to the passengers, and open and close the doors at the stations. It’s really not a hard job by any means.
Once you get comfortable in the job, and the movements come more naturally, that’s when you really get to experience what it’s like to operate a subway train. And it’s also when you learn what your mind is capable of doing when it is left alone for long periods of time with minimal distractions. It’s kind of like being in the shower, in that you are alone with a task to accomplish, and that task is all that there is to do while you’re in there.
Categories: Myself, Schumin Web meta, Work
A weekend trip to Richmond…
22 minute read
May 4, 2022, 8:30 PM
From April 14-16, Elyse and I did a weekend trip to the Richmond area. This was a case where one adventure begets another, as Richmond really got the short end of the stick on our October trip to North Carolina and Hampton Roads. We had plans for the Richmond area on the outbound trip as well as the return trio, but they ended up being greatly abbreviated in the interest of keeping it moving. Richmond is in that little spot where it’s close enough that we can go any time that we want, but difficult enough to get to so that we typically don’t. Our last day trip to Richmond was about five years ago, and more recent visits to Richmond have occurred while we were passing through on our way to other places. I think that the biggest impediment to our visiting Richmond more often is I-95, as it’s fairly unreliable, being subject to backups on a very regular basis, making it difficult to predict when we will arrive in the Richmond area. In any event, inspired by our earlier trip, we had gathered up enough stuff that we had wanted to see to make a weekend trip to Richmond worthwhile. So we picked a month and did a weekender.
On this particular occasion, we left the house and got going, taking I-270 to the Beltway to the I-95 express lanes, which were pointed southbound at the time. We soon learned that there was a very long backup on I-95 southbound. So we bailed, taking an express lane exit to US 1 near Lorton. A major backup on I-95 had the potential to derail our entire day, so Route 1, while slower, was still a better bet than taking 95. This routing took us past a number of places, and and we made some planned stops and unplanned stops. The first stop was unplanned, at the Harley-Davidson place in the Quantico area.
Categories: Amtrak, Photography, Railroads, Richmond, Travel