Ok, I might have to do this the next time I’m in Texas. It looks like an incredible rush.
May 2013
Table.
So I just had a lite breakfast in the café car here on the Amtrak Lakeshore Limited. After I got my breakfast I found out that there was a full blown diner car at the very end of the train and that I could have had french toast or something down there. I’m not disappointed or anything, but I did find it surprising that the diner car is at the very end of the train, mostly because the sleeper cars are in the front and it would seem logical to me that the diner car would be in the middle so it would be readily accessible to all passengers. Maybe I should have asked for a map.
After getting my food from the man with the delicious UK accent, I needed to find a place to sit. Both of the seat areas were pretty busy, though there was no one singing “Snow Snow Snow”. Not being the crazy outgoing type, I worked up some courage and asked a woman if I could sit at her table that she was sitting alone at.
We ended up having a very nice conversation.
It turns out that she’s from Rochester, N.Y. and that she teaches comedy and improv there. I didn’t know that the folks in Rochester even had a sense of humor so this was something that I found to be a little bit fascinating. When she asked what I did, I told her whom I worked for and she was quite familiar with the company (it is the telephone company, after all). She admitted that she no longer had phone service, having opted for her iPhone, but she liked it when she had it. Ah, technology marches on.
The first question that popped into my head was how one teaches comedy and improv, since I have always thought that to be an inherent ability. I didn’t ask her this, though, because I didn’t want to sound insulting, especially since formulating sentences this early in the morning can be a struggle for me. So we talked about art and iPhones and the like. It was a pleasant conversation.
One thing that I was excited about was that she was using Siri on her phone to set reminders and all that. Now that was something that I could relate to.
Maybe these little attempts at being outgoing aren’t so scary after all.
iOS 7.
9 to 5 Mac is reporting some new details on the planned changes for iOS 7, the next operating system to run the iDevices (iPhone/iPod/iPad). It sounds like Jony Ive is going to follow the current industry trend of making things look flatter and more minimalistic.
I like minimalistic. However, one of my beefs with my brief exposure to Windows 8 was that it was so “flat” that the user didn’t know what elements were clickable and what wasn’t clickable. I don’t like that sort of confusion.
I have always been impressed with Sir Jony’s hardware designs and I’m really excited to see what he’s done with iOS when it’s announced at WWDC (World Wide Developer’s Conference) in a few weeks, but I’m really hoping that there is some added functionality as well. I don’t want only aesthetic improvements, I really want Siri to come out of beta and to be capable of a lot more than she currently is. Google is getting ready to launch a “conversational” search engine interface, Apple should be gearing up to do the same with Siri.
Still, I’m quite excited about WWDC and I’m really looking forward to seeing what changes make it to iOS 7.
Amtrak 449.
I am currently sitting in the roomette I mentioned in an earlier blog entry today. I just walked to the café car (which is two cars away) and had the specialty sandwich of the day, which is a pulled pork sandwich served a la Radarange. The café attendant was a fine man from the U.K. and had a delicious accent. The sandwich was quite tasty and surprisingly low in calories. I saved my appetite this evening for such a feast.
I am now enjoying Bud Light in a can in the privacy of my roomette. I hope I can do a little craft beer exploring on this long weekend that I have just embarked on.
I am surprised at how quiet this room is. I think we are two cars behind the last engine; there’s a baggage car in between. I’m not overly familiar with how things work yet, so I did what I’ve done in coach and just walked around, looking for the café car. There might be a different diner car in the other direction. I haven’t explored that way yet.
There are lighting options all over the place. Ceiling lights, reading lights, seatback lights. There’s also a toilet and a sink. Both double as the ladder to the upper bunk. I have to say that I have a hell of a lot more legroom than I would on an airplane headed for the same destination.
From the seat facing the front of the train:
And looking down on the seat I’m sitting in, facing the rear of the train. The bunk will be lowered down when it’s time for me to go to bed.
Sitting in comfort as I type on my iPad.
I’m excited about this train ride for several reasons, including that I’ve never been west of Syracuse on a train before. I’ve always headed east to Boston or southeast to New York. In both instances I rode to Albany where they split the train in half and you had better be in the right part that is going where you want to go.
I’m enjoying sitting here in the dark watching the scenery go by. I’m going to be on here for the next 13 hours or so and I think the time is going to fly by amazingly fast.
We are just getting to Syracuse; I recognize several landmarks from a city that I still thoroughly love, including the tiny James Street Wegmans.
I have to admit that I was nervous about the thought of using the toilet that is built into the room, but now I don’t feel bad. During the composition of this blog entry I have heard several flushes from adjacent rooms. I guess there’s no reason to be nervous after all. And it’s a lot more comfortable than doing it on an airliner.
I just noticed that the bed has seat belts. Heh.
Another reason I am excited about this trip is because I will see my husband after being apart for four days. We’ve been together for over 17 years, but I still miss him very much when we are apart. It’ll be good to be in the same time zone again.
Posing.
I just realized that I never left the week’s obligatory cat photo. I know y’all were clamoring for it, so here it is.
Trains.
So tonight I am leaving to meet my husband at our long-weekend vacation destination. I am excited about this trip for a number of reasons, including the fact that I am trying a new adventure for this trip.
Now, normally I would hop on a plane and fly the friendly skies because my love of flying is not a secret from anyone. However, since I’m feeling rather feisty these days, I decided to do something different. I’m taking a train. But not only am I taking a train, I’m taking a train for 14 hours. It’s an overnight and I’m sleeping in what Amtrak calls a “roomette”.
From what I have read, this Roomette is approximately 3 1/2 feet by 6 1/2 feet. There’s a bunk that folds up into the ceiling and another bunk that turns into two chairs and a table. There’s also a fold up sink and toilet.
I’m not only excited about this little adventure, I am über excited. I’m sure that I’ll be blogging and posting photos and the like from my little Roomette tonight and tomorrow morning. If this ride goes well, I might be able to convince my husband to try a train trip on one of our adventures together.
If anyone has a Roomette experience they’d like to share, feel free to post a comment. I’d love to hear how others have enjoyed the experience.
Helios Bars: Building A Smartbike.
I love Kickstarter. If you’re not familiar with the site, Kickstarter provides a platform for creative, inventive types to generate revenue to turn their dreams into a reality. One of the devices that I use everyday, the Elevation Dock, began as a Kickstarter project and turned out to be a successful little gadget for iPhone folks.
Cali Lewis mentioned the words “Smartbike” in one of her latest episodes of GeekBeat and I was instantly intrigued. I watched her coverage and then headed over to Kickstarter to read more about Helios Bars.
There’s more information on the official website if you’re not in the mood to watch a video.
I ride my bike a lot and to do this I tend to ride in the darkness of your typical Central New York morning. While I have battery operated lights on my bike, they’re not the best in the world. They’re not that bright and I’m always worried that I’m not going to see something in the road or more importantly, that a sleepy motorist heading to work isn’t going to see me. I’m always looking for ways to improve my visibility and I think the idea of Helios Bars makes amazing strides in that direction. When you add the functionality of GPS and being able to track the bike via smartphone, well, come on, that’s just wicked cool.
And we all know how a geek likes wicked cool. Especially a geek on a bike.
I’m hoping that this Kickstarter project gets funded because I think this is a really good idea. I’ve made my contribution to the project because I really want Helios Bars on my bike and I’m all for making the world a safer place. With all of the distracted drivers behind the wheel these days, increasing visibility is really vital for those of us on bikes.
Zap.
A friend at work lost her garage and its contents (including their vehicles) in a fire that was started by a lightning strike during one of the storms that blew through last night. Since yesterday was already a pretty tense day at work, I can’t imagine having to deal with that as well.
See, this is the part of thunderstorms that I don’t like. Mother Nature can get a bit zealous with her wild ways. I was happy to see that folks at work are stepping up to help where they can.
I spent the drive home and some of my evening last night chasing the storms that came through. The weather radio was going crazy with announcements but there wasn’t anything wicked huge, just kind of loud and boisterous.
As I type this, the weather radio here in the kitchen just started blaring. We are under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 10:00 p.m. tonight. It’s a good thing I gassed up the Jeep and charged up the portable weather radios.
I tried taking a photo off the front porch of the house during one of the storms yesterday evening.
I should have made sure the video camera was charged up as well. I’m ready for tonight.
As I fell asleep last night, I watched yet another light show. I captured this photo with my iPad.
Lightning.
I didn’t get much sleep last night. A thunderstorm came booming through town around 2:30 a.m. and someone (mainly, the bachelor of the week) left all the windows open so all of the windows needed to be shut before the rains accompanied the lights and noise.
It was kind of awesome. I shouldn’t speak in subtleties, it was friggin’ awesome. Despite paying the price through fatigue today, I loved every moment of it. I’m kind of excited to see that more storms are predicted through tomorrow. I’m crazy like that.
I love opening up the window shades to their fullest potential and watching Mother Nature’s awesome beauty in her thunderstorms. I find it so thrilling. Watching lightning bolts zig zag across the sky and seeing the big maple tree by the road sway back and forth (but still stand tall) from the wind is absolutely marvelous to me. I don’t know why it is, but I can never get enough of a thunderstorm. I always feel a little sad when they make their way through town and head somewhere else. I’m hoping that someday we’ll have a bedroom that has skylights so I can watch storms that way too. If I had the opportunity, I’d live in a place that required a storm cellar in a second. Like I said, I’m crazy like that.
I mentioned on Facebook last night that I wish I had paid more attention to Earth Science back in high school. I’m not comfortable with the amount of knowledge I have about the weather and how it works. I need to learn more. I wish there was some way that I could take my love of wild weather, namely thunderstorms and tornadoes and the like and turn that love into knowledge that could help others that don’t love a storm the way I do. I want to give back to the world by harnessing that information and helping build some sort of warning system, much like they attempted to do in the movie “Twister”, so that folks like those recovering in Oklahoma today weren’t mourning the loss of loved ones because of Mother Nature’s power.
I occasionally find the devastation left behind by Mother Nature’s power to be breathtaking, and not in a good way. The aftermath left by storms that I love so much can be so heartbreaking.
I’ll be thinking about the folks in Oklahoma tonight when the storms come rumbling through again.
