I finally got my telephoto zoom lens back! It was costly to repair, I am glad that I had that little experiment last week of shooting the Port Rail train and other trains with only the medium-range lens, and I am glad that I don’t have to do that again!
I got a few decent shots today, Wednesday 9 October 2024.
I also am glad that I am not thinking that much about my old friend LCK anymore.
As I have done before, I will start by recounting some thoughts on the days since the last blog article. As usual, if you are here only for the pictures, you can skip the text until you get to them.
Tuesday, October 1st
I was just now thinking about the possibility of encountering Rose and having to play that game again, that game in which I hold my ground on the left side of the road, and it made me think about how, yesterday, when I returned to the house, I noticed, while I was driving back, this person, kind of an attractive young woman whom I had seen walk before only recently, was walking on the left side; so, that’s yet another person who habitually walks against automobile traffic.
I feel like it’s kind of cheating to point that out, because, even if I was the only one of us doing it, it still wouldn’t change the rightness or wrongness of doing it. I mean, there is an argument to be made that, you know, you should at least do what the consensus is, but, okay, why is that thing the consensus? Why do that?
I guess that I am emotionally better enough after yesterday that I can get some painting done, but I am still emotionally distraught. I figured that I absolutely needed my walk this morning.
That shot that I did of the #1 yesterday was pretty cool, even though the lighting was messed up. Wow, imagine if Union Pacific Railroad trains still passed there. Imagine that. Imagine shooting the IAVLB there. Imagine that.
I wish that I were allowed to live my own life. Really, this is the same thing that I was thinking when I was starting Patreon before we left home, and I was trying to survive on my art and all of that and was begging for money for all of that.
I just now had an insight that may or may not be worth anything. I was thinking about KSJ and like just not … and then hearing a Nintendo theme song, a Super Mario Brothers theme song, on NPR, and it made me remember how he pronounced the word “Nintendo” when he couldn’t pronounce it, and then it made me think of something. His neurotypicality and foreignness maybe sort of conflated in my head, like, why is he worried about this stuff that, to me, is weird? I don’t know.
Wednesday, October 2nd
I started my morning walk at 05:49. The neighbor who almost ran me over when she was backing out of her driveway had just left her house just seconds before I started my walk. She very slowly backed out of her driveway. She is still backing out of it, which is so stupid.
I got some painting of that shelf done yesterday. I realize that the shelf is a little bit more complicated than I thought. So, it’s still going to take a while. I am really tired.
Five years ago today, I hurt my knee flipping out of bed in New Orleans and went to the C house in Avondale for what would be the last time but did not see S and then chased the New Iberia Turn from Waggaman to at least to the Bayou Sale siding, but I remember hearing “New Iberia” said over the radio as I had the scanner in the C house, and, then, it was like nine or ten days later when I lost my scanner.
Oh, yesterday, I also called Canon to figure out what the hell is going on with my lens, because I haven’t heard anything. Even though I got an email saying to thank me for approving the order and that they will begin doing the work now, it didn’t charge my card, even though I put all of that information in there. The person over the telephone was able to successfully do it even though she didn’t ask for card information, suggesting that I had successfully inputted it before.
Oh, I am just now realizing that they might not have … because, when I put the information in more recently, I used a different card than I had originally, and that might delay me getting it back.
Unless the cane is already being cut at that Franklin broadside shot that I started doing this year, the cane would be too high right now to do that shot. Actually, it might be a good time of year to start shooting from the south side of the track at Berwick Bay, even though I don’t really want to do that shot, since it’s cliché and doesn’t show much of the train.
That’s the thing; there is not much that I can do over there without the telephoto lens, and it’s driving me nuts.
Yeah, if I could afford to do so, I would get the f4 version of the 70-200mm lens as a spare.
I have this sad vision of a couple of boys digging through my stuff when I am dead and not appreciating any of it, because no one knows me.
I miss my WJ people. I really do. It was the greatest time in my life. I miss that place plenty.
Friday, October 4th
Ten years ago today, I chased Union Pacific Railroad train IAVLB from Melodia to Berwick, and I should not have chased it past Schriever; that is why I made that “Relief And Rationalizations” post, and I can still hear that Robert Plant song “I can breathe again” that I used for that post and my conversation with LCK about rationalizing the chasing of that train on that day and also rationalizing chasing trains in general.
He and I thought alike; that’s what is so weird about it. It’s strange, and I was thinking again this morning that he used to be somebody to whom I would have been proud to introduce people as my friend and, now, I would be kind of ashamed to do it. It’s strange. People whom I know and respect probably would judge him and, by extension, judge me, and I am okay with that, because I myself don’t really like what I see of him now, whereas before, even if they would have found him to be weird with his foamy stuff, I’d have been proud to and would have been able to defend it.
I am kind of glad that things worked out the way that they did, with me not having that lens on September 30th. It created some variety. So, I will have it on the 30th of this month when I go foaming in Lake Charles again.
I need to put one more coat of paint on those little vertical strips on the wall behind the shelf brackets. So, as early as today, once those things dry, I finally will be able to install that shelf.
“Rock Bottom” – yeah, that “Rock Bottom” post two days 10 years from now, yeah, I don’t think that that was rock bottom for me, but I see why I thought that at the time. It’s just a horrible thing, all of this. Only fellow autistic people understand, and only some of them understand. Yeah, it’s like, I can perform the task, I can understand the content, but it’s the whole social relationship of it and getting people to do things, like, it feels manipulative. It’s like, no, y’all are manipulative, because y’all do that without even realizing it. It just feels manipulative to people like me, and it might come across to other people as manipulative just because I don’t do it right, but that doesn’t mean that what neurotypical people themselves who succeed at all of this are doing is not manipulative. Probably most successful people outside of very technical areas are manipulative, and people with specialized technical knowledge can get manipulated.
The Mid-City Marine and I talked about getting together. You know, it’s like he and I never really had this conversation. This whole thing happened to me, and I never had any agency or say-so in it at all. Nobody cares. I want to go home. I want to go home.
I can’t wait to get this shelf installed so that I can clean up the messes that I have or, at least, start to clean them up.
Saturday, October 5th
Let’s see here. I ate fast food last night. I went to Burger King, the first time that I go to Burger King in a long time, and the person there didn’t do the damn “combo” thing to me, and that’s great, even though that should be baseline and expected, and the fact that Burger King typically is worse about that than other fast-food places are is why I don’t go there as much even though I like the food there better than from most fast-food places. I got a Texas Double Whopper and an Original Chicken Sandwich with extra mayonnaise.
I ate that, and, then, I finished working on the March cell-phone pictures that I had open on Photoshop, and, then, I went to bed. So, yeah, I was working on March cell-phone pictures yesterday. I think that it’s pretty cool that I am really getting into March on the cell-phone pictures. The reason that I ended up eating fast food yesterday is that I had been working late on something else that is good.
Anyway, I got my lens back! I got my Canon 70-200mm/f2.8 lens back! FedEx delivered it at about 13:11. I am so happy for that.
So, again, The Mid-City Marine and I are talking about meeting in Schriever next weekend, maybe a week from today. I need to email Bill, Alice, and Rich about this possibility.
So, as I have been telling people, when I have to choose between eating fast food in order to get the meal done as quickly as possible so that I don’t miss my bedtime and staying up later to avoid eating fast food by preparing my own meal, I pick the former.
I guess that I don’t need the scanner right away, because, with what I am going do with Paul this weekend, the train-watching is an afterthought. I need to talk to him about all of this drama. So, I probably should email him and KSJ and other people.
I can’t really enjoy the good weather anymore.
Monday, October 7th
I cooked lentil soup, pan-fried chicken, made tea yesterday; so, I have a big pile of dishes to wash this morning.
Oh, I wonder if it’s because of the lentil soup that I ate yesterday that I gained weight yesterday. I think that that might be it. I think that that’s it. I forget how filling lentil soup is, but, even after I ate it, I ate a big salad, and, then, after I ate the salad, I ate one of those protein wafer crisp things.
Yeah, most of the lentil soup that I cooked yesterday is in the freezer, because I was cooking it because I needed to do something with the carrots, which I could have just eaten by hand, and I still have some of those carrots left; so, either eat them by hand or cook more lentil soup. I already have plenty of lentil soup in the freezer.
Yeah, it’s unrealistic to try to get the scanner this weekend before going to T town, and, also, like it’s not supposed to be a big foamy event. It’s supposed to be an event of talking to my friend about this family-life issue.
Tuesday, October 8th
I wasn’t able to get frozen meals at Walmart even though I was thinking about it while I was there, and it was like I had too big of a list to worry about that, and I thought about how maybe that is an executive-function thing, because most people wouldn’t find that to be an issue. Like, it’s an executive-function thing not just finding a new item but a new category of item for which you’ve never shopped, and it’s like every time that I have to do it, I get stressed out, and I often can’t do it the first time that I want to do it. So, I wonder if that is an executive function thing. So, it’s like I need to go to the store where I am there just to get that.
The temperature at dawn was in the low 60s, and I was wearing a sweater over my tank top.
There is a horrible hurricane on the way to Florida, Tampa, especially. There was a weeping meteorologist on the TV. I
Oh, I need to think about where I will shoot the #1 tomorrow or even if I am going to shoot the #1, because the shot options are not good. A big problem is that, until after the train stops at the depot, it’s going in a northwesterly direction, making sunny-day shots bad.
Oh, I could do it in Rayne, not that broadside that I did last year but more of a downtown shot. There should be room down there.
Wednesday, October 9th – Today
I had plenty of outings today and had my camera gear with me, including my recently-repaired telephoto lens. So, I plan to, am hoping to, get my first train pictures with the repaired telephoto lens since it got repaired
I just realized this morning as I put my camera gear on the back seat that maybe my habit of leaving it on the front passenger seat is why it got damaged, because it would roll off of the seat when I would brake or turn, and it would hit the wheel well, and that’s kind of a strong impact. So, Jim, take better care of your equipment, all of it.
The temperature was in the mid 50s at dawn, the coolest that it has been so far this season, and I was wearing a jacket.
I now feel bad reminding people whom I know from my previous life that I exist. That is such a sad thing to say. I kind of wish that I had died in 2009 or in the early part of 2010, no later than early July, more like late June.
I have an idea of a photograph of the westbound Sunset Limited in Rayne today. If that doesn’t work, I will go do my shot from the west end of the siding in Crowley from last week again.
The specific aspects of parenting that I would find difficult, more than difficult, almost painful, almost insulting, I don’t know, is all of the stuff in which I would have to do neurotypical stuff, all of the hoop-jumping and sensory-inducing stuff, and, if I had a neurodivergent child who was bumping up against some of the issues that I was, I would be a way better advocate for the child than anyone ever was for me.
There are very poor land-use patterns here in Lafayette.
Look at all of this pipe that should be moving by rail, I thought as I rode on Cameron Street before I went ride by the BNSF Railway yard, where I saw a Ferromex locomotive to the east of the bridge, and there was a power set of three H3 locomotives that were moving tank cars.
Wow. There are almost like hills in North Lafayette. There is relief here, and there is that Burger King that I saw on the map. All right.
A couple of hours after the political meeting that I attended, I was in Lafayette driving southbound on Louisiana Avenue, foaming on the Breaux Bridge Branch.
There was at least one boxcar in the runaround track just east of the salt mine, and there were some tank cars at the LPG place in Breaux Bridge. It’s a damn shame that the railroad potential of this place is not realized.
At Loop Street, where I came 20 years ago, I saw a loaded centerbeam flatcar in the yard. There was nothing happening here. I saw a BNSF Railway locomotive in the yard, but there wasn’t anything happening here. I did not even go to check out the yard. So, what I am going to do now?
I passed Kaliste Saloom Road, and it made me think of Kerry and Manuel Builders. I am not calling it “manual”.
I cannot conform, man.
Southpark
That was a stupid TV show, really.
Anyway, so, finally, I encountered a moving train that prompted me to take out my camera.
So, there it is. That’s my first train shot with my repaired telephoto zoom lens, totally uninspiring.
The LDRR 1850, which I have photographed numerous times over the last two decades and may be the locomotive that I have photographed the most, backs into the Southpark spur.
Let’s see what the empty Elks track looks like.
He started going out of the east switch at Elks, and, then, I erred by going east of the Southpark Road crossing, thinking that the train was going east, like to New Iberia. Of course it wasn’t.
It was just getting onto the mainline, and I should have gone west from where I was to get in position to shoot it going away.
I thought about going west to try to shoot it on this wide-angle broadside that I had in mind from this morning, like around Willow Street, kind of on the edge of somebody’s yard, but I wasn’t entirely sure that they were going that way, like if they were going to stop at the yard first, and, then, I messed around too much to get ahead of it.
So, I went to Southpark and went to American Blvd and came around on Pinhook, then figured that they might be too far ahead already.
Walk Scenes
So, I parked at the church and visited there and then took a walk in the neighborhood. I had a good visit at the church.
I just have mixed feelings about living in that area, because it’s too many college kids and bars, and, then, I realized the residential area along University Avenue west of the church, I need to check that out.
I went walk, briefly, I think as far as Taft Street east of the church north of the university.
It was kind of all right, but it was warm.
I had a honey-butter chicken biscuit and a potato taquito from Whataburger this morning.
It was time to head west.
WSS Crowley Redux
I redid my Crowley shot from nine days ago, but, this time, with the telephoto zoom lens.
Notice the BNSF Railway Maintenance-Of-Way truck on the siding.
That middle shot of these three is the best of them, I think.
What do you think?
I could see passengers inside of the train, I waved at some of them, and some of them waved back at me. The train goes slow at this location, I guess because it is coming into town. That’s interesting.
Crowley Rice Mill Cars
So, I went into town and took some pictures of cars at the rice mill.
Trains ain’t as interesting as they used to be.
I was so upset with all of that graffiti on those boxcars in Crowley, nice-looking boxcars.
I seriously hate these people who do this. They have destroyed the one activity in life that has brought me joy, with their obnoxious, aggressive transgressions; like, I really want them to be flogged for that, and I am against flogging. What is wrong with people? Something is really wrong with them. I know; I don’t believe in cruel and unusual punishment, but that crap is not funny, not cute.
At least there were some unmolested railroad-owned hopper cars on the other side of South Avenue F.
Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets anymore.
This is why I have come to really like loaded centerbeam flatcars.
It’s also why I have come to really like – and really miss – intermodal trains.
Thank you, UP 78831, for keeping it real, or whatever.
It’s time to head back east and call it a day. I just kept obsessing about the old Texas & Pacific branch and how it should be there, especially that scrap metal place, but, now, apparently, you can’t do that, because all of that area around Mill Street in Crowley was reworked. You can’t do that now.
Rayne
Yeah, now, I am obsessing about the Texas & Pacific Railway again. I kept scoping out that shot at Arena Street in Rayne, and I just never took it. That is a part of today’s narrative. That’s a shot that I should try to do when lighting conditions are better than they were today. In other words, I should do it when it’s cloudy, get those rice elevators in the background.
It’s funny, because about the only place around there that I photographed a train prior to anything to do with KSJ and The Move was here; the day after a cousin’s wedding, I photographed the eastbound Sunset Limited coming through Rayne, before Amtrak’s 2012 schedule change.
Duson And Scott
From Crowley, I followed the track back as far as Scott because I was anticipating scooping a westbound freight train behind the #1, because that used to be pretty standard practice, but maybe it’s not anymore, especially since the Union Pacific Railroad is not running trains on the line anymore. Of course, that was standard practice out of Avondale, but I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be standard practice out of Lafayette, except maybe, well, at least for BNSF, Avondale is not a home terminal.
I went to parts of Duson and Scott where I have never been, like some roads north of the track but south of I-10. It’s good for me to explore those areas. I saw some damn Trump flags.
I took this cell-phone snap.
That’s all for the pictures today.
Epilogue
I didn’t really get that many pictures today, which is good. I don’t want to have a huge blog post.
I am just tired. It could be the returning to the gym that was part of it, although not being properly hydrated earlier today, too, probably is a factor.
I got back to the house at 14:26. So, that should be my time.
Yeah, I was too tired today to go and shop for clothes, even though I need new clothes. So, I’ll do that some other time.
I have a busy weekend ahead of me. I really do need to rest today and tomorrow.
It is very interesting how the reason that the streets in Rayne are oriented due north-south and due east-west while in Crowley they are parallel with the railroad and why the railroad did have that bend at all in the first place is for the railroad to avoid having to build three movable-span bridges instead of just one.
I also keep thinking about the possibility, far away in Algiers and Gretna, a six-axle switcher for Gouldsboro Yard. That would be neat. Paint it in Conrail Blue or something like that. Bring it out of the yard to help grab Westwego grain trains. Yeah, do that. That would be nice. Have it grab grain trains, with GPs on the back end so that it can roll out on the NOLR at Gouldsboro Yard.
Wouldn’t that be nice?
It’s five years ago tomorrow that I lost my radio scanner while out foaming.
There is so much potential for cool train action in Crowley that is just not there.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I hope to get some better pictures this weekend.
Merci.
Jbx
