California flamingos

Angie and Justin sent pictures of their San Diego trip, and it was nice to see their faces since it has been so long. But they also sent a bunch of flamingo pictures from the San Diego Zoo, which was totally cool.

Meanwhile back in the Dells, Tom was engineer again today for six runs, and it pretty much wore him out. Right now he is recuperating by watching Pirates of the Caribbean: The Black Pearl with Sundance stretched out and dozing on his legs. My day in the store was not so strenuous, but I am pretty pooped, too. Today we had folks from Missouri, Arkansas and Minnesota. Nothing too exotic about that, but it still fun to talk to them.

The funniest thing to happen today was that I got a phone call at the railway inquiring about rail service to Florida. I explained that we run a very small train along a mile-and-a-half track. I offered to look up the number for Amtrak for her, and she said it hadn't occurred to her to check out Amtrak. (Why not?) Anyway, I found the number for the station in the Dells, but I know that they are only open when a train is scheduled to arrive or depart. So I then offered to look in the Yellow Pages to see if I could find her an 800 number. When I did look there under Railroads -- Commuter and Passenger Service, there was only one listing. It was not for Amtrak but for the Riverside & Great Northern Railway -- our place. And Amtrak wonders why it isn't getting more business.

Tom's youngest, John, will arrive, however, by Amtrak on Sunday for a spell. His plans to start law school got complicated by too much advice and too many options, and now he is thinking about entering the Air Force. I think he is coming up here to let his mind settle out and make more specific decisions.