Patterson Pumpkins & Chasing Chip

[Jimbaux is tired of how so many people like him walk on eggshells all day long, all I know is that all I want is to feel like I’m not stepped on.]

A Miniature Rock Star?

And Then It’s All Gone

A flustering week it has been.  As you might know, I’m accustomed to dealing with stupidity (and there’s a good chance that you are too.)  I even get paid (sometimes) to do it.  Indeed, perhaps it is even part of my purpose on this planet (if one believes in such things), as ignorance itself and alone is a petty crime (of which I myself am often guilty) compared to the pernicious and disgusting absence of a desire to ascend from ignorance and fear so paradoxically present in so many in our supposedly “civilized” species, albeit not surprisingly, if one is to believe that we have descended from apes.

However, it’s also somewhat your purpose too, if you follow, as I do, the credo that one is obligated to use his talents in the world; all of you reading this have a unique array of gifts (even if nobody, not even you, realizes it), and the world demands that you share them with it, even if the act of sharing them does not help put food on your table (and, if it does, consider yourself supremely fortunate.)

My threshold for my ability to deal with human stupidity has been exceeded in the last couple of days, as much as that shames me to admit it.  I’m normally just fine, but right about now, I’m in one of those just-leave-me-the-f@#$-alone-and-let-me-die-in-peace moods, and, no, I’m actually hardly referring to anything on Jimbaux’s Journal; real life, afterall, is full of countless complex challenges, and it isn’t that I can’t handle them, but, it’s plenty at one time, and I get a bit steamed when people take 10 minutes to do something that should take one minute all because they don’t say what they mean and mean what they say.  Communicate!  Don’t assume!

I’ll be okay, and so will you.  I just don’t like being diligent for my own sake and considerate to others by thinking five or so moves in advance, only to have roadblocks thrown in my way, even if not intentionally.  Don’t you just hate that?  What do you normally do in such situations?

Ah, enough of this.  Afterall, I am reminded that Rumi said, “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

So very true it indeed it is.  Relax, Jimbaux.  Relax, for it’s time for some Pumpkins in Patterson!

Here Again?

Yes, four days after I did this shot for the first time ever, I’m here again, this time with a westbound BNSF manifest train that appears to be the M-CSXLAL.  I just hope that this time, people don’t vehemently scream to the high heavens about how wrong my information is here like they did four days ago.

The problem here (well, one of many) is that these two shots were actually overexposed by almost two stops due to not having any time at all to spare as I snapped these shots.  Due to the wonders of modern imaging technology, I was able to repair this issue enough in DPP to make these images at least presentable.

The delivery truck in the below image made a tighter view much more appropriate, I thought.

Well, that’s what Jimbaux thought in Patterson on Wednesday.  Enough of this.

Chip?

The Boeuf-Ursa Looker had alerted me to the fact that there was an empty gondola for Chip to pick up at South Boeuf.  Hoping to catch this, I kept my eyes and ears close to the track for much of the afternoon.  I caught him (Chip) around Donner and did something that I rarely do anymore: turn around and chase him in the opposite direction of which I had been traveling.  I debated whether to shoot him at West Gibson or at Boeuf and ultimately chose the latter, getting a swamp shot as I set up

It looks like the Morgan City Local has once again swapped locomotives, this time with the LLPX 2272 in charge of this seven-car Chip Local blasting through Boeuf.

I was very hot, tired, and sweaty at this point, and I lacked the will to chase him any further.  He was supposed to go to the Morgan City scale track to get out of the way of an eastbound BNSF train and then run around his train to spot those pipe loads at Patterson Pipe.  So, I just left the scene with what I had.  Oh, well, no shots of Chip himself today, but I appreciate that some of you liked what you saw with him last time.  This is really enough for today.

Hit The Floor

Reminder That A Badge Does Not Make One Infallible

The are apparently some people who still think that I have a “campaign against the police.”  I’ve already explained enough about how that’s a patently unfair charge, and I mentioned in the previous post my gratitude for the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Deputy who stopped to make sure I was okay in Raceland.

Still, if you’re still of the “if the police do something to you, you surely must have done something wrong” mentality, I point you to a terrible miscarriage of policing that took place in the MidWest recently.  Thoughts?

Reaching Out

How do you deal with an overload of human stupidity at one time?  I need advice, but I also need a break from all of this.  Really, I just need to recharge, but the trick is finding the time and space to do that, both of which are in very short supply right now.  Some of you probably wonder why I even bother, why I argue with idiotic comments.  (Again, that’s not the source of my most recent problems, but the principle is the same.)  I guess I’m just trying to live Gandhi’s mantra of being the change that you want to see in the world.  I’ll never come close to being able to eradicate the unwillingness of people to ascend from ignorance and to not make statements and actions based on unwarranted assumptions, but I can work to mitigate it, and, until next time, remember, so can you!

Merci,

Jimbaux