To the trains!

And that right there,  is about the extent of the excitement.

Travelling Companion actually caught me a little off guard last night when she called from the car at just before eight to say she was,  “getting out of jail now”.   This is sort of a running gag for us,  since the property (at the Company that cannot be named) has an automatic gate that gets closed some time after 5:00 p.m. (when the rest of the slackers are going home)  and will only open once you approach from the inside by car.  There’s no getting back in unless you have a transponder type key fob thingy (that’s the technical term) that you have to wave in front of a little sensor. 

There’s no magic incantation,  the whole ritual can be done without making a sound.

That “Open Sesame” program got replaced by technology a long time ago.

 

Anyway,  this morning our visitor was heading off to Prague by train,  and I volunteered to accompany her over to the train station. 

So, it may seem a bit of a stretch that I’d bother to go with someone to the train station (hey,  I’ve picked up entire families by subway from that train station,  so there’s not much of a difference)  but it just so happens that this is the very first time in this person’s life that she’s travelling on her own.   Originally she was going to come over from Canada with a cousin,  but that person is having some health issues and couldn’t make. 

Suddenly having “health issues”  seems to be something that tends to creep into a person’s vocabulary at this stage in life,  but let’s not go there.

 

While I’d just as soon not give out too many details about folks who visit,  I can probably fill in the gaps a little without entering into any personal details that might be considered “verboten”.

 

Here’s Nan and I at the train station this morning.   You’ll also notice that if you click on that picture, it does NOT get any bigger.  Suck it up.

 

Coincidently,  the train you see behind me is the morning train to Ljubljana, the 8:05,  that one of the sisters-in-law took a couple Sunday mornings ago.  Apparently it’s a daily event.

The train to Prague comes in on the other side.  (kind of makes sense,  since it’s going the other way?)

 

So here’s some of the story.

When I came out of University way,  way back when we still had rotary phones,  I had had enough of schooling,  and decided I was going to get a job.  I ended up working for Mother's Restaurants,  and her husband was the store manager.  

That link is to a very brief Wiki article that someone has posted.  Not too many details,  except there’s a link suggesting they’re going to re-open?  Whatever.

He and I never became like two peas in a pod or anything, but we did play a few games of racquet ball over the following years,  and there were a couple family gatherings.  As the way these things sometimes go, and this was mostly due to career changes, we eventually sort of drifted off in different directions.

Skip ahead many many years,  and we learn that,  due to a series of unfortunate circumstances,  the two of them have parted company,   and at one point when going through an old address book,  there was this phone number of yours truly (well,  and Travelling Companion),  and she gave us a call.    This was well prior to 2008 by the way,  when we were still living in Canada,  and we’ve had a few catch up visits during that time frame. 

 

There you pretty much have it.   This is the way a person out of the blue (sort of) ends up coming to Vienna for a visit. 

 

Hey,  gotta get those visits in while you can!  Time marches on!  There could always be “health issues”!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

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