I use to live 50 ft from the tracks in the station at Secane. Electric commuter trans, didn't make that much noise. But every morning at 1:20 AM, a diesel work train came through doing about 12.3 mph. Because it had to cross North Ave then pass through station they were required(or just took perverse pleasure in) blowing the air horn steady from a quarter mile before the street/station, til a quarter mile after it.

By the way, did you notice the 2nd car from the right? There's the problem, we gotta build a wall along the border up north.:tinfoil:

I stopped in Torrington, WY, on several occasions and huge coal trains trundled through the town over a level crossing about every twenty minutes.

The air horns weren't too much of a nuisance but I was slightly alarmed that the building shook as trains passed.

I've just looked at Google Earth and the motel is 175 yards from the track! :eek:

Around here the protocol is apparently three short blasts of the horn, followed by three long blasts, followed by three short blasts when approaching a crossing. Every crossing.

Every. single. crossing.

There are seven crossings within 3/4 of a mile of my house.

Attachment 66339

They blow the horn there (nine times), and there (nine times), and there (nine times), and there (nine times), and there (nine times), and there (nine times), and there...nine times.

No matter the time.

There's a major thoroughfare RR crossing a few miles from our house that's right in the path to the kids' school... And more importantly, immediately parallel to the highway. When a train comes through, it backs up traffic a few miles down the road toward our house in one direction, and on the other side it stops all traffic on both the access road and the highway for up to 3 exits back. And the trains routinely come to a dead stop just like that rural one above.

Anyway, they have a major construction plan to fix it that will elevate either the train or the traffic (couldn't tell from the blurry specs in the local paper) to keep them flowing independently, and also somehow involve a roundabout. Plans call for something like 2.5 years of construction, but they assure us they will keep the minimum 2-lanes-in-each-direction open during that time. I'm just going to keep taking the back way home, myself.

Oh ye of little faith... you be smart. :yesnod:

What do ya call these things?

Attachment 66378

It's a garage, of sorts, covered with a tarp-like material. I thought it was framed with PVC pipes, but they're steel, I believe. I call 'em fake garages.

Anyway, Asshole Neighbor (the loud one, not the kittehnapper) got one to cover aaalllll the vehicles they have to have.

He's had it about two months. As you can see, the wind took issue with the structure. Actually, what you can see left of it, left with the most recent stiff breeze. I'm not sure that Beemer has any paint left on the passenger side. What was left of the roof flapped and beat against it in the wind for about two weeks. He don't know where the first bunch of wall/roof went, and he don't know where what was left went when it left, either. All that's left is the skeleton.

I damn near danced when I saw it tore to hell that morning. I don't usually revel in others' misfortune, because Karma, but this is a special situation.

Got any idea what those things cost?

My buddy has two small one car jobs, they were under $500.

Harbor Freight sells those garages pretty cheap and there are plenty of Youtube videos on how to mod them to make them more "windproof".

I'm hoping he got it at Lowe's. Theirs, that size, is about $1800.

From put up to blown away wasn't quite two months, btw.

That feeling, it's called epicaricacy.

Own it.

Use ten times and it's yours. #readersdigestwordpower

Two unrelated pics:

Max zoom, moving target, handheld not well lit. Over-sharpened in post:

Attachment 66692

And some Bambis:

Attachment 66693

'Nother Bambi...Maybe Aunt Ena.

Attachment 66726

Wonder why Bambi's mother is just 'Bambi's Mother', and the other characters have names? Reminds me of 'Epstein's Mother' on Welcome Back Kotter...

Bootsy (not Fargon's, this one's mine, kinda):

Attachment 66731

Neat mailbox:

Attachment 66732

Laws of Photography

612. If the Sun is out, it's in the wrong place.

287. If your camera takes interchangeable lenses, you have the wrong one on the camera for any given pic.

1. Cats rarely cooperate for photo ops.