Meanwhile, at the railroad crossing...

Late Friday afternoon (August 30), a magnificent storm blew through our area. It was a wonderfully violent display of Nature, with gusting winds, chain lightning, driving rain and an unrealized threat of damaging hail. There was no real damage in its aftermath that I saw- however, according to the Chicago Tribune, over 150,000 homes lost power briefly, but as of ~2200 CST (Central Standard Time, or GMT -6), about two-thirds of these had power restored.

We knew the storm was coming- the National Weather Service (NWS) had issued some warnings at least a day in advance, so when it hit it wasn't really a surprise to the denizens of the Secret Underground Lair. I had worked late Thursday- well into the wee hours of Friday- and had consequently risen late on Friday. Jennifer and I were able to get all of our necessary running around done long before the storm hit, and I decided a nap was in order. I got about seventy-five minutes of snooze before the storm arrived, and I was able to get some really nice photos. I did a little experimentation with flash, and was quite pleased with the results.

Storm in background

The storm was quite amazing- and I had to get to work. I took my time getting ready, which initially annoyed Jennifer until I reminded her that it was the Friday night of a holiday weekend (Monday is Labor Day, a national holiday here in the United States). I expected traffic to be exceedingly bad because of the holiday and the storm. As it turned out, by the time I left (~1900 CST), the pavement was actually drying off, and the traffic was as good as could be expected. As the light turned green at the intersection I was at, I saw that the railroad crossing gates ahead were coming down. I pulled up to the crossing and waited.




Although I have never counted them, I've read that there are twenty-eight railroad crossings in our town. In fact, I can barely drive a mile in most directions from our house without having to cross tracks. The thing is, I like trains. I really like trains. When I was younger, I wanted to build a model railroad. When the kids were old enough to appreciate it, I ran an N scale train around the Christmas tree, and one year ran a Lego train under the tree. One year, we drove up to Union, Illinois, to visit the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest railroad museum in the United States.  When we got cats, we stopped putting a tree up, but I still love trains. Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon is still one of my favorite PC games, and the online game I play most often is Train Station.


So, yeah, I like trains. When I'm trying to get somewhere, though... well, I tolerate them (and now we- actually I- am back on... track). This particular train was pulled by a single diesel electric locomotive, and moving fairly quickly. It was comprised entirely of container cars. However, the setting is everything....

As I was sitting there in my pickup truck, watching the railcars pass, I decided to try and find a song on the radio. It only took one or two presses of the "search" softkey on the radio to find a station that was playing Poison's classic "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". Now, I'm happily married- Jennifer and I have been married for over twenty-five years, and even though this song is a boyfriend-girlfriend cheating song, it is still one of those classic 80's hair band ballads that puts me in a contemplative mood every time I hear it. Not because the song holds any special significance to me, but because it just takes me back.  Sometimes nostalgia is just best taken at face value. Adding to the time travel nostalgia was the actual atmosphere: to the north, the sky was clear and blue, with a very distinct line of clouds that defined the storm front. To the south, the sky was pouty and petulant, serving up shades of grey with chain lightning for punctuation. Of course, I was eventually going to head south.

Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing. I suppose if it had been a passenger train, the Poison song would not have had quite the effect as, say, Steve Goodman's City Of New Orleans. Steve wrote it, but I think Arlo Guthrie (yes, Woody's son) had the larger commercial success with the song. And the reason this would have been more powerful for me, is because I used to perform it at a college coffeehouse in the Seventies once a month as part of a 3-5 song set. I did it a bit more like Steve than Arlo, and it was always warmly received. I guess everyone has their song, and every rose does have its thorn.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.