As seen from Amtrak headed toward New Orleans.
J.P.
Progress.
We are making progress on our Amtrak ride to New Orleans. According to Apple Maps we have about 185 miles to go.
We both had a decent night’s sleep and feel pretty good. Sharlene in the dining car has been very nice and we enjoyed a very good breakfast sandwich this morning. I also had “coffee, black”.
As we were in Memphis at sunrise and now we’re keeping it low key as we make our way down through Mississippi. I’ve never been the length of Mississippi before, the scenery and small towns are giving me a better perspective of the state. I’m happy for the experience.
Ride.
Earl and I are on our way to New Orleans for an extended weekend. About an hour ago our Amtrak train, appropriately named “City of New Orleans” left Union Station Chicago. We are in an upper level Roomette on a sleeper car. We just enjoyed dinner in the Dining Car.
The roomette is quite quaint. It’s like having two first class seats on a B777 facing each other with the option of popping up a table between the seats or dropping a bed from the ceiling. I’ll be sleeping on the top bunk tonight.
The train ride in just shy of 20 hours long. I’m enjoying watching the scenery go by at 70-80 MPH, even if it’s currently 9:00 PM at night. I’m comfortable and content.
This Amtrak ride is a test to see if we’ll enjoy riding across 2/3 of the country in a similar configuration, either to or from Los Angeles from or to Chicago. I look forward to that trek across the desert.
This will be our third trip to New Orleans in 23 years; and my fourth time total. It should be a fun little vacation.
The Horror’s.
You don’t know how much it pained me to abuse the apostrophe in the title of this blog post. If you’re unaware of what I’m talking about, this blog post is for you.
First of all, in common parlance the title should read “the horror”. Because I was trying to make a point, I pluralized “horror” to “horror’s” which should have been “horrors”. The horror doesn’t own anything. In this instance the apostrophe is trying to show possession. The horror doesn’t possess anything.
Apostrophes are used to show what the word has (possessive use) or what the word is missing (a contraction). Apostrophes are _never_ used to denote plural. Ever.
I recently read something at work where a distant co-worker basically referred to “The Jone’s”. Luckily, I work remotely, hundreds of miles from my closest co-worker, but there’s a chance they could still hear my screams.
First of all, we never use an apostrophe for the plural. Secondly, the last name in question was not “Jone”, it was “Jones”. If a house belonged to the Jones, it would be “the Jones’ house”, or possibly, “the Jones’s house” (though that makes me cringe a bit). If we are talking about the folks in the family, we’d be talking about the Joneses. Because when we want to use the plural form of a word ending in “s”, we add an “es”. Not an apostrophe, and we certainly don’t change the spelling of a name to something it’s not just to wedge an apostrophe into inappropriate places.
While I’m on a rant, use the loops of your pants to keep your trousers up because you’re losing weight and subsequently your pants have a looser fit. That’s because you didn’t eat two desserts in the desert after you deserted the rest of the group. And honestly, I couldN’T care less how much weight you’ve gained or lost. If I could care less I probably would.
Please take notes.
I mention all of this because today I read a story about “The Apostrophe Protection Society” closing up shop, basically because the efforts of the society have become a lost cause. The founder of “The Apostrophe Protection Society”, John Richards, age 96, has decided to abandon the effort, citing society has become too stupid and lazy to use apostrophes properly.
I feel his pain.
Cautious.
Truman is adjusting to the relocation of his cat tree to accommodate one of three Christmas trees in our home this year. He has batted at the bottom row of branches and has climbed up as far as the second from the bottom row of branches. So far he has not bothered any of the ornaments. The styrofoam and other less fragile ornaments are along the bottom of the tree.
Since this is Truman’s first holiday season living with us we’re not sure how he’s going to be around all the extra merriment. We have a couple of long weekends away coming up, so the big Christmas tree won’t go up for another two weeks. The smaller trees will help us gauge how he’s going to react.
It’s good to ease him into the change. Actually, it’s good to ease us into the change. We all know he runs the roost.
One Ringy Dingy.
I love legacy technology. Youtube suggested I watch this video about AT&T operators in 1969. My mom was a telephone operator for New York Telephone for a little while in the mid 1960s; I wonder if her job was as colorful as what was depicted in this video.
Shopping.
Back in the day one of the things I enjoyed about Christmas shopping was seeing which stores were using what technology at the checkouts. It was really the highlight of my shopping experience on the day after Thanksgiving. This was long before it was called “Black Friday”. I remember people thinking Zayre Department Stores had gone crazy because they were open 24 hours in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Notice how pleasant everyone is in the picture above. I’m sure in the madness of today’s Black Friday someone, somewhere was punched in the face. It might have been over an Instant-Pot, a television, or a cheap, knockoff tablet, but I’m sure the police were called more than once.
I didn’t bother following the mayhem on Twitter today. I was too busy working.
I’m not particularly a fan of the shopping experience, especially since technology has become so boring. I know it’s nearly magic that I can order everything I want without leaving the home, and that’s all due to technology, but I what I would give to see a cashier punch some numbers and the price and to be pleasant about it again.
Meal.
Back in the mid 1990s my grandfather told me I needed to marry a woman that could cook. Later on, after I had been with my husband for a couple of years and my grandfather was enjoying a second helping of my husband’s famous baked beans, he told me my husband was a good man.
I will never forget that day.
My husband can cook, is quite amazing at it, and he amazes me day after day and year after year. He can get fancy or he can keep it deliciously simple. No matter the approach, I am thankful for anything he makes and I am constantly impressed. I never take my luck in this department for granted.
Earl made an amazing Thanksgiving meal again this year. Our family thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We have been comatose on the couch ever since we finished the meal time.
Maybe it’s time for a snack.
Thanksgiving.
I am thankful to have all kinds of family. I hope anyone reading this in the United States has a wonderful Thanksgiving. If you’re elsewhere, happy Thursday!
Cher.
We scored some tickets to Cher’s “Here We Go Again” show tonight at the United Center. We were delighted to find we were in row six.
The show was very enjoyable. I was very impressed by her stamina and performance. Her voice is still top notch, both with and without electronic augmentation. She auto-tunes for effect, not to mask a lack of talent.
She performed several ABBA numbers, including “Watertloo”, “S.O.S.”, and “Fernando”.
All in all a great show. A wonderful experience.
