Jimbaux is born to be down
He’s learned all his lessons before now.
Well, today was a productive day! I did not get any stellar pictures, but I went to places that I had not previously been, and I learned some things. So, that’s good!
The day started out with the goal of seeing and photographing the train on the Acadiana Railway branchline from Eunice to Crowley, and, when it seemed that that train wasn’t running, I went to Mamou and Ville Platte for the first times in my life and, as such, learned about those places.
The last time that I chased the Acadiana Railway train from Eunice to Crowley was in late 2021.
This is my first blog article since my three-day trip back home and to New Orleans, the 4th in bayouland, the 5th in New Orleans, and the 6th back in bayouland.
So, before we get to today’s activities, I will go through the previous day’s notes.
Thursday, December 7th
On my morning walk, on which it was quite cold, I really noticed sounds of the highway, now that I was back here after spending a few nights in my original neighborhood and after spending time in the quietness of Melodia.
I even mentioned to my friend last night, not anyone by name, but that he never saw that side of me that the students from the glory days saw and that I had been chatting with a student of mine who is now approaching age 30 and that the reason that I am latching onto such persons is that they saw a side of me that nobody has ever seen.
I just enjoyed being in the family friend’s house, with the lack of the intense brightness that causes me so much pain and distraction here.
This is all so embarrassing, and I want to escape from it.
My friend does not understand the threat of Trumpism, and that bothers me, and, right now, I am just now seeing how that’s a connection with the Gym Lady thing. Like, you don’t really get it. Like, solidarity. No, it’s not Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s what support for Trump says about a person’s values.
There was no way that going to the places that I visited in the last few days would not be emotional. I was thinking just now about how I didn’t take any pictures on this trip in Morgan City or even anywhere west of Schriever, except, as I had apparently forgotten, the shot in Berwick on the morning of the 4th.
The plants need attention.
Friday, December 8th
I did plenty of walking on my trip in my original neighborhood, at Schriever, on campus, and at Melodia.
I didn’t wake up early enough yesterday to do a full hour of walking. I did maybe 20 or so minutes in the morning and maybe 25 in the afternoon, and, then, just because I didn’t prepare food well yesterday, I ate at McDonald’s last night, which, I know, is gross, bad, and I didn’t take a shower, didn’t much break a sweat yesterday. I didn’t wash dishes yesterday, but I should have. I didn’t wash clothes yesterday.
I was able to get some 2003 blog posts done yesterday, Dec 19, Dec 20, and Dec 21
I have been thinking that that whole thing with that crew from across the river that I befriended at college orientation is the perfect example of autistic masking, especially because it was my first such experience after high school. I had them convinced, at least for a while, that I was a normal person, or, at least, normal enough to treat me better than high-school people treated me. They didn’t know me like people in high school and elementary school did, and they were the first same-age people whom I met in a sustained, structured way after learning “how to behave” a few years earlier.
So, twenty years ago yesterday afternoon, there was a derailment around Midland of a train that I had photographed in Schriever 20 years ago yesterday afternoon, when I also saw and photographed high-nosed SD40-2s leading a train past Schriever, and 20 years ago this afternoon, I photographed the QLUCB at Kraemer Road on a Monday afternoon just before dusk.
I have a bunch of scheduled postings to make.
The Christmas lights in front of the loud people’s house look good, but it’s difficult for me to see them over that blinding light over their driveway. I read recently on one of the autism forums about how all lights should come with dimmers.
Perry mentioned the possibility of crude oil trains returning to Raceland, and that got me to thinking that that train could do the work at Schriever, since the trains that do do it often end up dying at Raceland or Salix or whatever.
My weight has stabilized.
I just want to eat good foooood! I do, I do, I do.
Tuesday, December 12th
The big thing about this day is the event that I attended at night, but I’ll get to that shortly.
The temperature this morning at about 05:50 when I was out for a walk was in the 30s, unpleasant, but I’ll take it over that 100-degree crap in the summer.
I had a doctor’s appointment this morning at 10:45.
Last night, I finally got done except checking those 2015 January 6 pictures. I got done the social-media, sized-down, and watermarked versions, but I just need to check them.
As early as tonight, I can start working on the January 7 pictures. I just really want to get that done, man. I need to get the rest of these blog posts of 2003 pictures done. I have it done up until Christmas, but not past that.
So, I went to that guild event on this evening. It was a chance to meet some people and to learn things, which was great.
I ended up helping with the teaching! The leaders saw it and saw the potential there.
I really felt a sense of empowerment like I haven’t felt in 15 years. I walked out of there feeling hopeful. I was also wishing that I had done something like this earlier. What would my life be like now if I did what I did the other night two years ago?
One thing that disturbed me about the event is a sexual joke that the leader made quietly to us adults, in response to someone else saying to the students something about sticking a nail in there, or whatever, something that you could make a sexual joke from. I was afraid that she was that kind of person.
First, that’s another reason for me to not really trust her that much, but I was also imagining a future confrontation with her about this if she were to do it again in the future but more directly to me, with her then saying that the problem is me when, no, the problem is you. No, the issue is that you are unprofessional. You completely don’t have to do that.
Today! Preliminary
I awoke today at 03:30.
I should not have bought those doughnut holes at Walmart yesterday, but I did. I ate some of them this morning and then took a shower, then ate a banana, but I didn’t eat anything else. I have been awake since about 03:30, and I loafed in bed for a little while. I got the 30 December 2003 post scheduled. So, all that I have left for 2003 pictures is the 31st and the compilation. I made tea this morning, even though the last part, the sugar part, is in the pitcher in the refrigerator.
Before 07:00, I was headed to Eunice to photograph Acadiana Railway train to Supreme Rice mill, my first time doing this in almost a year. It was a cold, cloudy morning. I like it. I love it.
The only reason that I was listening to Cajun music on KRVS this morning is that the regular music stations were broadcasting stupid talk crap this morning, like Richard Condon and the stupid talk shows on other stations, which makes me remember that rock music has a very conservative audience, which reminds me that it’s the same pop-culture crap that we had in the 1990s, which explains the party shift that we have had since then, too. There was plenty of anti-wokeness in the Democratic Party in the 1990s. Interesting.
I haven’t recorded in a few days. I have had plenty to say but haven’t felt like talking into this recorded.
I passed by a regular, traditional “factory” high school, and I had to stop for a parade of busses.
Wow. This is such an inefficient way of educating children.
I made a comment on an autism page on Facebook to say that a change that would have us not doing everything at the same time would benefit everyone, not just neurodivergent people, not just disabled people. I get the whole idea that we are all a community, we are all in this together, kind of thing, but doing it this factory way comes with huge downsides, and it doesn’t need to be this way.
I have been thinking about how to maintain my website when I die.
There are so many people driving with no headlights on!
I still can’t stop thinking about that girl over there.
Yesterday, I tried to get a coronavirus booster shot and a flu shot, and I learned that I couldn’t do that because I am taking antibiotics for that lump on my back. I had realized that the guild people would take a while before arranging shadowing and figured that now is a good time for a shot if it has bad immediate effects like the previous one did.
It’s the foamy time of year. I didn’t go walk this morning. My throat is a little on the scratchy side.
The First Catch Of The Day, An Accident
North of US Highway 90 between Duson and Rayne, I crossed the Lafayette Subdivision mainline on South Riceland Road and saw a headlight to the west. So, I went ahead to a point ahead where there is this new big industry place north of the track here, and I turned around to go and get the shot.
My camera has a problem, which compromised the quality of the images that I made and also made me miss some shots.
I like how you can see the Rayne water tower in that image! This is a new shot. I had never photographed a train here prior to today.
The camera did that thing again where the shutter wasn’t firing on autofocus, and that’s a problem, because it made me miss some shots. I may need to learn to shoot with manual focus.
That’s a problem. I have already destroyed one camera, last week, and, two days after that, this one started not shooting. So, I have a problem.
I may have to look into getting a new camera, but I can’t afford that.
I really want a 17-40mm/f4 lens again.
So, at 07:20, after a six-minute delay to photograph that train, I was back northbound on Riceland Road.
The Rest Of The Drive To Eunice
I kind of hate to admit that I mildly like seeing those Heritage 2 locomotives. I still hate them, but they take me back to a happier time. The only locomotives in wide-nose that I ever liked was the Warbonnet scheme, which doesn’t work with the conventional-nose locomotives.
That’s really it.
Well, those TFM SD70MACs, too, were cool.
ISO is a good example of the measurement becoming the thing itself. 800 what?
I miss being a Lafourche-Terrebonne Man. I would shoot the UP local train every day if I could.
I was slowing to a crawl by Branch Elementary School. There is a woman with a nose ring. That looks painful! Why do people do that? Yuck! It’s like how people on railroad enthusiast groups who show pictures of locomotives being scrapped, like, I don’t want to see that! I don’t want to see that! No, I cannot just scroll by, because you made me look at something distressing that I didn’t need to see, but I also can’t just say anything, because that puts a target on me, creates a way for people to harass me with plausible deniability. That’s something that I ought to tell Jenny.
I finally have a great answer to the “What do you do?” question, and it’s the best answer that I have had in 15 years.
I remember being really jealous of math teachers after my peak.
I am just not going to pretend that I like the jokes that the guild leader told that I don’t like. I’m going to let it be known in subtle ways that I don’t approve of that crap.
Eunice
So, I arrived in Eunice, and the Acadiana Railway locomotives were sitting there in their usual spots, with no crew aboard.
I checked out the yard. There was a string of what appeared to be storage cars on the western end, and there were two cars that appeared to be rice-mill cars on the eastern end. One of those apparently-rice-mill cars has graffiti on both sides.
Dammit! I cannot come here and not have a graffiti train.
Damn those graffiti people. They are terrible. I want to slap them. They have destroyed one of the few legitimate hobbies that I have ever had.
I was hungry and figured that I’d be able to grab food somewhere before the crew got there and got the train ready to go. So, I headed west in search of food.
I drove around and saw St Edmond’s School and church, which are rather neat, as I have never been here before.
At 08:22, after a really long wait at the Wendy’s in Eunice, I was driving with my food eastbound on Park Avenue. I had never been there before; it’s a nice street, it’s a boulevard, even though it’s not called that. Meanwhile, things that aren’t boulevards are called “boulevards”. So, I wanted to see this part of town, and, so, I am.
I had to pee. I tried to go inside of the Wendy’s, but the lobby doesn’t open until 09:00, a bad thing if you’re going foaming and don’t want to pee on the side of the road.
There is a neat little traffic circle with a playground in the middle, perhaps not a great walking area, though, at South 7th Street.
I was trying to get to what little there is of downtown Eunice, because I recently saw a Facebook post from Saint Landry Parish tourism thing that made me interested in this area.
This is weird. It’s kind of like Opelousas, where the old part of town is not by the current mainline railroad through town.
The Gulf Coast Lines railroad mainline came later, came after the Southern Pacific, even though the SP tracks are gone.
That explains the strange ways that the downtowns are away from the mainline railroad that remains in town.
There is also the matter that the GCL branch to Crowley is on the other side of the SP branch from downtown.
I scoped out the Mosaic Coffee shop. I didn’t buy anything, but I determined that it would be a good place to meet someone. Coffee shops live or die based off of atmosphere and location.
Yeah, I found the KBON office!
This Liberty Center building is neat!
Here is the war memorial.
I would like to be here on a cloudy day.
Every town has a story.
I didn’t know about this place!
So, I went into this place.
This is LA Legion Antique Store.
There is nothing here that I wish to buy.
It’s interesting, though.
There is a town named for this woman and a town named for her husband.
This is where the SP yard was.
I went into the depot museum for the first time.
I climbed on the caboose. There is still a part of the SP track, isolated, back there!
The employee of the museum said that the train today to Crowley comes from Bunkie! I said, no, the locomotives are right there and that she probably interpreted that the Acadiana Railway stretched from Bunkie to Crowley.
Anyway, for some reason, the Crowley train is not running today.
New Places!
So, I left and went exploring. Instead of going straight to Opelousas like I did the last time that I left Eunice because I wasn’t satisfied with what was happening on the Acadiana Railway in Eunice, I went north! I went to places that I had never visited.
At about 11:14, I entered the city of Ville Platte for the first time, with “When The Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin playing on the radio, appropriately, and, wow, what an interesting place this is. On the way there, I also went to Mamou for the first time in my life, but I took no pictures there. I think that I saw the CRIP roadbed there.
I found the carbon-black plant north of town, but there were no railroad movements there, even though there were plenty of carbon-black hopper cars there, and, so, I took no pictures.
So, I then found the UTLX facility south of town.
“Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd had just played on the radio after “Bound For The Floor” by Local H played.
This RSSX 2011 was working at the plant.
I think that it’s assigned there permanently.
I learned that the Acadiana Railway comes here on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to interchange cars here.
This was interesting and satisfied my curiosity, but I quickly got bored with it, especially since I learned that I would see no other railroad activity here today.
I am glad that I came here, though.
My curiosity has been satisfied.
I left Ville Platte, but I went back through town, partly because the train was parked on the crossing at Lithcote Road and partly because I wanted to see the town one more time. It looks neat with all of the old buildings by the jointed-rail track! This railroad was a branch of the Texas & Pacific Railway that started in Bunkie and once went all the way via Opelousas and Rayne to Crowley!
There are some neat rice dryers by the track in town; it would be so neat if these things still shipped by rail in some neat Acadiana Railway hopper cars.
So, I left, feeling no reason to stay here. I don’t know if I really care about seeing it again. I was now trying to head to Opelousas, where I could at least catch some action today.
There are some old houses and old buildings right by US Highway 167, so weird, so bad, and so good. I love it. It’s amazing. I want to come hang out here more. I want to go home, but I want to come here more.
I might see Bug or his wife. I don’t want to see them, but I might. Oh, that’s weird. So, Red and Bug are near each other. I would hate it if they met. Of course, how would that conversation go? Red would be inclined to say good things about me, and Bug probably would be disinclined to say bad things about me, at least at first.
I took state Highway 103 to the track just to check out the crossing there, and I noticed on either side of the railroad crossing is a two-track yard; both are full of cars.
This trip to places that I had heretofore not visited was fun!
Opelousas!
At 12:50 CST, I was exiting from I-49 onto US Highway 190, waiting in a column of traffic to get onto US Highway 190. As I was going over the GCL mainline, the tail end of an eastbound carload train passed under me.
I also almost got in a wreck that would have been my fault.
I was also getting very warm, because the air temperatures were getting warm with the clouds having parted long before. I hate sunny, cold days.
The old city-hall place in Opelousas is neat.
There were several old locomotives, including the AKDN 3018 that I really like, parked at the Ventura Foods plant, and it was a bit sad to see them here.
Here is a different set of locomotives north of the plant on the old Southern Pacific line.
The south-to-north locomotive lineup is a locomotive 1108, with no reporting marks, an EMD SW1500 in yellow paint, then LTEX 1201, and, finally, SILX 101, with a Kinder-Morgan logo on it.
This southward view of the plant also shows the string of old locomotives parked there.
This place is amazing.
We could have saved the day 40 years ago. There could have been Lafayette-Opelousas passenger trains running all the time, but false mythologies aren’t helping.
I was thinking that I might be able to see the Union Pacific Railroad local train come by here.
I want to see the 3018 refurbished and running. I hope that EMD brings back that body style with electrical locomotives.
Next, I went to the Acadiana Railway headquarters.
Well, look at that!
There were six cars at the Cal-Chlor place.
The AKDN 1586 looks new. There is an LTEX 3825 being worked on. It appears to be on.
The 1015 and the 1500 are here. That must be the power that was working today.
That’s all for my visit to this part of town.
I went to the interchange yard and perched myself there.
I heard a train going through town as I was perched at the interchange yard.
I had some books, but I don’t know if this is a good use of my time.
So, this happened!
Hey, look, it’s an Acadiana Railway job coming from Ventura Foods, right?
Of course, I hadn’t seen such a job working at Ventura Foods when I was there.
Of course, I soon learned that this was not an Acadiana Railway job at all but was, in fact, the UP local that I had earlier wished that I would see this afternoon!
This is my first time seeing this train.
This is UP train LLD41 out of Livonia, and this is as far as it works.
It usually comes around here at this time of day, I was told, and the time here is 14:10 CST.
The train had 16 cars to deliver to the Acadiana Railway. The first three cars were Port Barre cars.
One of the first three tank cars in this train is labeled QLF, which would make sense if it is bound for Port Barre.
That is all for the pictures for today!
I thought about setting up to photograph the UP local train leaving by going out the way that it came in, but, then, I realized that that wouldn’t happen, because it wyes itself when it comes here.
I saw clouds to the west and thought that they might come here and help me photograph things that would otherwise be backlit.
Problems And Hope
Now, there is something wrong with my telephoto lens. Two of the chambers are misaligning fairly significantly. I can hold it in place and shoot it right, but it’s not good. The thought occurs to me that I should get a 70-200mm/f4 lens as a backup to the 70-200mm/f2.8 lens.
Once piece of good news in this bad news about my lens is that it’s likely the cause of a problem that I thought was a camera problem. I had been vaguely aware that I hadn’t tested this problem with another lens, since I hardly use that lens. So, that means that getting a new camera isn’t as urgent of a thing that I need to do as I had thought that it might have been.
Somebody is selling honey. I wonder if that is Bug’s house.
That’s all for today. I guess that I have no tweets!
Jim
