Hello Douglas!

I have been remiss. There was a time when I was posting something here four or five times a week, but I just checked and it’s been seven days . . . in fact it will be a week by the time tomorrow comes around and you check to see if Loomis is back in harness.

I’m going to blame it on the damn virus. I’m cooped up here and desperate for something constructive to do . . . something that would require some mental effort. A project, if you will.

And so—typically biting off much more than I could reasonably be expected to chew—I decided to write a book. I mean, how hard could it be? I have more than a dozen years of posts from this blog and all I have to do is rummage through several thousand electronic files, pull out 40 or 50 of the better ones, slap ‘em into some kind of logical order and voila! . . . a book!

Oh, yeah? Well, guess what: It’s just a tad more complicated than that. Forget about the really important stuff for the moment—you know, stuff like quality writing—I’ve been plodding through God knows how many of my old posts, looking for a few dozen that were on subjects that are still current . . . still interesting. Guess which posts have been the most popular . . .  the ones that were about Amtrak equipment . . . like the pros and cons of booking a Family Bedroom instead of two roomettes. 

I have expanded my search for new and different content for the book project and, once I took my time and searched my memory for what seem to me to be interesting incidents . . . well, I do think there’s plenty there. And it’s something to do.

In the meantime, we are awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Douglas, due to pass just off our North Shore at about 2:00 this afternoon, Hawaii time. As of now, according to the 20-somethings that report news-sports-weather on TV, the storm will have sustained winds of about 90 mph.  ”Sustained” doesn’t bother me. It’s the phrase “with gusts up to . . . ”  that you have to worry about.