Duxford Girl

My last day started just as early as the others as I headed to the station to catch a train into Regina. I decided on a relatively early train as anything could happen on the road and I didn't want to miss my 1500 flight.

My day started early again with Engineering Services (ES). The Road Manager picked me up and quickly deposited me with in a high rail when he was called away because of an incident. ES is responsible for keeping tracks and crossings in good condition so they spend a good part of the day inspecting track in their high rails.

I hung out with Yard Operations today and saw how trains are coordinated in the Moose Jaw Yard. It's the biggest yard between Winnipeg and Calgary and they see a large amount of traffic in all directions. For my part, I call them to see if they can take a train coming in off a sub that I'm working and if so, where they would like me to line it into.

Day Two started at 0700 with the Moose Jaw Road Manager picking me up and driving me along the Weyburn Sub. Sadly, as we drove through Rouleau, it was still dark and I was unable to take pictures of the “Dog River” grain elevator, water tower or the set that serves as the gas station for Corner Gas. It was also dark on the way back (and blizzarding) but I did catch the “Foo Mar T” store front. The production company apparently sends their schedule to the railway in the sad hopes that the CPR will run trains outside of the shooting schedule. However, the railway stops for no man (just one little dog).

The last three years I've taken vacation time in the early months of the year. This is largely because I'm low man on the union totem pole but I'm starting to think that I would take holiday at this time anyway because it really kills the funk I seem to fall into every Christmas.

I might have mentioned this before but I don't train in a 172. I train in a Katana and it has it's quirks. For instance, if the Princess doesn't want to start, she doesn't start. So was the fate of my lesson today.

The Lidonians don't like change. We never have and now a mighty big change is about to happen.

Although there are certainly Holiday songs on this CD it also has some very contemporary music on it. I tried to capture the whole of November through February. Snow, dark, skating and all the rest.

A couple of years ago I put together a holiday mix CD that I was quite proud of. This year I put together another one and I've decided to basically post the liner notes of these two CDs right here on my blog. Who knew the mixed CD racket would go so high-tech?

After looking at a recent comment from Cindy, I realize that I should do some explaining. About a year ago myself and a fellow crew dispatcher were having a discussion. The first time myself and this particular crew dispatcher worked together I mentioned that it was going to be a long night and that we would need to find stuff to talk about. After a few minutes he handed me a list covering the next eleven hours with a topic for each hour. This was a tradition to last until we both became RTCs.