One more day.

 

Not that I’d be getting any ideas or anything,  but when I get these types of snippets in emails,  my mind starts to wander.   I only included the relevant bits,  since the rest of it is part of an email that’s not really available for mass consumption.   You know,  that whole relationship between “the cards”  and “the chest”.

 

Mind you,  it’s  “Red Ticket”,  so that probably means sitting out on the wing.  Or I’d have to book it and fly in the next 20 minutes or something.

 

So it’s “one more day”,  since this is the point in time when T.C. and I start missing each other. She flies in tomorrow afternoon.  It’s not as gut wrenching these days as way back when,  when she lived in another country and I saw her drive off for the first time.  Have to say,  I got a little “verklempt”,  but we’ve learned to suck it up since then.

There was a comment the other day about living in Horseheads,  N.Y.  by Kelly from The Bayfield Bunch.  (Have to do the proper thing and put the link in there) and yes,  that was our first excursion into the whole “Ex-Pat” experience,  way back in ‘99,  when the higher ups in The Company that Cannot Be Named,  offered a few choices as to just where one might want to go in order to get into the “Top Team”,  as they called it.    The choices were,  Juarez Mexico,   somewhere in Colorado (Pueblo I think)  or Horseheads,  New York.  

Without too much consideration we ruled out Juarez right off the bat,  since Juarez isn’t exactly the safest place in North America.   Pueblo seemed OK,  but was a little far away compared to Horseheads.   Mind you,  we didn’t really know where the heck Horseheads was at first,  and this was back in the pre Google Maps days,  but thankfully we had an atlas of some sort and dialled in to it’s location.   It didn’t seem too far away.

I wasn’t quite ready to give up my illustrious career as an Afternoon Shift Caretaker just yet,  so we decided to find some digs in the area and work out some sort of commuting scheme.   So if you have a moment,  you can take a gander at 143 Stillwater Drive,  out past the “Arnot Mall”  (which,  technically is “Big Flats”).   I think the name of the mall had something to do with whoever built it,  as opposed to any sort of “It are,  or it are not a mall”?   That’s my guess anyway.

That arrow on the map isn’t quite where it should be,  but you get the idea.   Unfortunately,  the good folks at Google didn’t get around to doing a “street view” just yet.  Seems odd.  I can see our house in Canada using street view,  and that’s Canada.  I’d have thunk they’d do all of New York state first.  But hey, what do I know?

Maybe they’re working on it.

 

Anyhoo,  we did that commute for roughly two and a half years.   I’d head down early on a Saturday morning,  with the objective of being at the Queenston-Lewiston bridge right around shift change,  and I could be pulling in to Stillwater Drive by about nine a.m.  By the way,  and I have no empirical data to back this up,  but if you get to any international border right around 10 minutes before the end of the morning shift,  unless it’s really really obvious that they need to take a closer look at you,  you will pass through with relative ease.  I ain’t kiddin’.  I mean,  I had a pick-up truck with a hard top tonneau cover on the back,  and the border Dudes never looked in there ONCE.   Too tired to bother I guess.

I’d always make sure to call T.C. from right around the “stinky cows”,  so she could know when it was time to turn on the coffee.   I’m afraid I don’t have a Google Maps location for the “stinky cows”,  but suffice to say it was just on the other side of Corning somewhere,  and I knew at that point I was in the home stretch.   We’d hang around the Corning,  Horseheads,  Elmira,  Big Flats area for the weekend,  (Harris Hill, hello?) and I’d head off for home on Monday morning.  (I worked afternoons,  remember?).  

By Wednesday,  Travelling Companion would already be looking intently at the weather forecast,  and generally becoming a “weather worry wart”,  since she’d then head out on the Friday night.   She’d turn right around and push off again on Sunday afternoon.  Like I said,  two and a half years.  Good times.  (he says,  with absolutely no intonation.)

 

After that,  it was on to Puerto Rico,  which of course is a whole other story.   If you’re really good,  and go to bed tonight without too much of a fuss,  maybe I’ll tell it some day.    Ever do that one with your kids?  “Ah Daaad”.

 

In somewhat more local ‘news’,  I decided to meander over to the West Train Station (Westbahnhof) earlier today to poke around a bit.   That wiki article is a little out of date,  and I think I mentioned a while back that the whole place has undergone an extensive renovation over the last few years.  

You’ve no doubt gathered by now that I’m pretty pragmatic,  and typically underwhelmed by most anything in a city setting,  but I have to say,  it’s pretty damned spectacular.  

I was mostly interested in taking a peek at the new trains that are running between here and Salzburg,  called the Westbahn,  which you can see by that schedule there,  leave every hour at thirty-one minutes past the hour.  Plus,  you can buy your ticket right on the train if you prefer. 

 

It’s the one on the left.  I know I should have taken more pictures.  I’m a dope.  Sorry.

The thing is,  Travelling Companion and I have been toying with the idea of nipping over to Salzburg on a weekend,  and I was just curious.  The whole trip can be done much more cheaply by car,  which is the primary reason that we don’t hardly ever take the train,  but I think it would be kinda fun.  I guess I’d be willing to forgo the €95,20 for the pleasure of making sparkling conversation with my significant other,  as opposed to keeping my eyes riveted to the road,  and my foot firmly glued to the accelerator pedal.    The Beemer doesn’t have cruise.

Mind you,  taking a nap enroute would be the more likely outcome.  Um,  on the train I mean.

The other incentive is,  parking in Salzburg is horrid,  but I can still drive there and park for less.  *sigh*   This is where I had better stop,  or I’ll simply talk myself out of it. 

*We’ll see.*

 

I see by my ‘snooze-o-metre’  that we’re once again getting to that point.   I’ll stop now while I’m ahead,  and you’re still awake.

 

Keep your undies on straight.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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