Scattered Thoughts . . .

I made a bit more progress on the outdoor grill and kitchen area which allowed me to let out a small sigh of relief after a few weeks of alternating between poor weather and poor health.  I believe we have enough patio blocks for the small kitchen area that will be under a roof. This area is only about 42 square feet so I didn't really need a whole lot of blocks. They are heavy, however, so we had to buy them in about three batches because we've been transporting them in our small cars. As a result, we encountered a problem when Lowes restocked with a different shade of block than we had originally bought in the first batch. I had to settle for two shades of gray, but it will look fine when it is all put together.  Since we were transporting these patio blocks in our cars, we had to make multiple trips back and forth to Lowes. This was fairly easy to do... whenever we were up in the Burlington area running errands, we just stopped at Lowes also to pick up about 200 lbs of b

I love railroads, trains, even model trains... I think that has been abundantly clear to those who follow this blog. But really, what I find fascinating is any and all engineering which is also classified as art with character not just function. I love any engineering design which exudes so much character and details that it is an inspiring work of art. This includes trains, boats, aircraft, cars, homes, cottages, lodges, bridges, cityscapes, urban buildings... as well as old train stations. On our way to San Antonio, we had a layover at Chicago's beautiful Union Station (as well as an unscheduled overnight layover on the return trip). I captured many photos of the station and, I must say, some of these photos are as beautiful as this historic station so I felt I should share them here with my thoughts about the station. This huge train station in its current design opened in 1925... ninety years ago. In a time when many railroads are being dismantled, destroyed and sent to

While visiting San Antonio to attend Adam's graduation ceremony, we visited a number of well known places as well as a few lesser known places. One of these lesser known places was the Tower of the Americas.   We had previously spent a rainy day briskly walking the Riverwalk through downtown San Antonio. The Riverwalk can be a beautiful downtown area but when it is raining, that really puts a damper on sightseeing. When it is raining, you are focused on getting to your next destination... quickly... and staying as dry as possible. We were wet and a bit uncomfortable the day we walked (almost ran) the Riverwalk and I think I can safely say that none of us were looking forward to another day dodging rain outdoors. Most of our time in San Antonio was under cloudy skies with precipitation falling from those clouds. By the time our last day in San Antonio arrived, we were pretty tired of getting wet (and, admittedly, tired of all the walking) so we were hoping to visit a place wh