(Notso) Best Toy I never got



Ok - Saw this on line today. sCaRy! What was it last year with the Chinese toy Aqua Dots that had elements of the Date Rape drug in the plastic? Geeesh.... beginners.

Contents below!

The set came with four types of uranium ore, a beta-alpha source (Pb-210), a pure beta source (Ru-106), a gamma source (Zn-65?), a spinthariscope, a cloud chamber with its own short-lived alpha source (Po-210), an electroscope, a geiger counter, a manual, a comic book (Dagwood Splits the Atom) and a government manual "Prospecting for Uranium."

Time for a little reflection



Eric and i stopped over to see Jimmy and Grace last night. To commemorate his new kitchen - some new IKEA Medjal Cookpots were just the trick

People you meet on the train/ plane.

As I mentioned in an earlier post - Eric and I made fast friends with our neighbor on our flight from Chicago. Cindy and I spent alot of time looking at her photos of Mexico. Very neat. Eric
made friends with the plane staff and managed to extract $60 worth of wine from the airline and was in a good and loud mood. He entertained Cindy quite a bit [ along with people around us]
The subject of Facebook came up and we discussed with Cindy about exchanging emails. After our plane landed, we walked with Cindy and helped with her camera bag until we found her family in baggage claim. Our friend Lynn soon found us and soon we were all talking with each other. After some hugs, we wished Cindy and her family off and we headed to Venice.


I had to laugh Friday after our return. The New York Times had a traveling article about riding on the long distance Amtrak trains. The author's experience completely mirrored our own. I will be the first to admit that in certain settings - I go into antisocial mode and really do not care to speak with anyone. i expected the train trip to be one of these times, where it would really be just Eric and I and the rest of the train could for all means, be empty so far as I was concerned. BUT IT WAS NOT MEANT TO BE.

Amtrak (1) Tom (0)

Amtrak touts the train trips as a social experience and they are right. “There Are No Strangers on a Train.” One way the train facilitates this with group dining. You are seated in groups of 4 - so naturally Eric and I were eating meals with new people 3 times a day.

I was not looking forward to this actually.

My experience has been one of initial greetings and then people across the table start doing the math on Eric and I and then get all rigid and stiff lipped. Not that i really care what anyone thinks, but it gets really tiring.

Our first dinner sorta followed the script. We sat with a couple from Fullerton who were very nice. They were on the way to Colorado Springs. The gentleman's father had just passed away and they were going to the funeral. The man spoke about how much he liked train travel but I really did not feel like they had much to say to us and I kept my best to keep the conversation going. The whole .. ask nice questions and do not expect any reciprocal interest in return game. Which was basically most of the dinner. Finally I inquired about the man's line of work and he replied he was a traveling salesman for a musical instrument distributor. From there the conversation picked up a bit and Eric and he discussed types of drums and symbols. The man was clearly impressed with Eric's knowledge and started to loosen up a bit. So the dinner ended up on a slight upshot.

[insert whimpy rant here ]

It would good to reflect on the dinner as a positive [ which it was ] but again - I do not have the energy any longer to help strangers with their Gay comfort level. I realize it is good to alter people's impressions and stereotypes - but it is like a tax burden straight people never have to deal with.

I should not complain. At my last job over the course of my first five years, barriers were knocked down and even the most conservative of my coworkers managed to set most of their bias aside and admit that they respected my work and actually liked me. But all that extra barrier breaking charm routine - takes a lot of energy and effort.

Things are much better these days I freely volunteer. But still.... 3 weeks ago in a lunch meeting at my new job, my inquisitive boss managed to ask out loud in front of everyone "so you are going with your girlfriend?" [on the trip] and I promptly put him off his track telling him that I was going with my partner Eric.

[ the whole rest of the room already knew ] but somehow the room got quiet as i replied.

So you can understand the antisocial mode sometimes. Which made the rest of our trip on the train a bit of a surprise. Our next morning breakfast we sat with a couple told us all about their anniversary trip and as it turns out - they lived in a town next to my hometown. and they knew my brother-in-law's nephew. Small world. It was really interesting.

After lunch, I spent 35 minutes in the lounge talking to 2 Amish famers about green technology and politics. [ seriously] The next day[?] in the lounge while I Photoshopped, an Amish group started singing for 35 minutes[?]. Eric did not quite care for it. I thought it was interesting. Though Eric's recording of it on his cellphone - does sound rather creepy.

Of course our dinner that night took the cake. We sat with an older couple on their way back from Albuquerque. They went for a visit and during the visit - they decided to move to the area and managed to buy a house! They were on their way back home to pack their stuff. These folks were definitely on their own reality plane, but it was a really good one. They also kept asking Eric and I if we were actors. And told us we looked liked actors. We tried to pop that bubble - but that did not happen. Mrs. went on to tell us later she would look for us in the movies but she figured we might change our names because movie stars do that.

I really want whatever cough syrup this lady was drinking. OF course - during the dinner conversation, we asked about their line of work and [ ta da] does the man tell us he is

an Elvis impersonator.

....and after spending 30 minutes with them, Eric and i did not even skip a beat. He even said he did Roy Orbson. Which I could totally believe. He even pulled out pictures for us.

You cannot for pay for this kinda of alter reality. Their sense of optimism was wonderful. It must have been through the train. Earlier that day Eric and I were in the lounge listening to a man tell the steward that he was moving his family to Phoenix and he just got a new job as a forklift operator at $16 a hour. He was very enthusiastic.

Then he mentioned that he has 11 children.

It must have been in the train tap water or something. I shoulda drank more of it.

At the end of our trip, we spotted our friends at the platform and exchanged hugs and wished them the best in New Mexico. Mrs. by now was referring to me as Tommy and told us that they would be looking for us [ in the movies?]

So despite my ranting, i think the train shaved off a layer or two of my antisocial jade. And still makes me smile.

Left turn at Albuquerque













Our train had a 2 hour stop in Albuquerque along the way. So Eric and I hopped off the train and took a walk downtown to take a look around.

All Aboard!


















The Southwest Chief pulled out of LA at sunset and Eric and I settled in to our room before dinner. The first class rooms are very nice and probably the only way either of us could manage to spend 41[?] hours on a train. The room has a large picture window to watch the scenery change along with 2 bunks and a private bathroom. If the room gets boring, the observation car and lounge are open pretty much the whole time. Sleeping car passengers get a attendant service - so we were allowed to pick all our meal times.

Waiting for the Train













Eric and I got the station early before our departure and I took some time to snap a few pics of the station and one of the trains. Beautiful place. Reminds me that there was a time when train travel was much more prominent transportation and hopefully will be again someday.




















This is the old main concourse inside the station. Current people traffic in the station apparently does not merit its use, so it is blocked off. Hopefully one day that will change.

Last of LA









Some snips of Venice and some shopping outside of Union Station before our departure from Los Angeles.



















Before we left Venice, Lynn and Robert took us to a local design furnishings showroom to check out a store I liked called Twenty Gauge. They refinish old steel furniture with a modern twist. Love their stuff. I hope to take an old steel tanker desk and make it a bathroom vanity at some point. The showroom had some other cool idea as well - including this old scoreboard as a wall hanging. COOL!











We also stopped at a street vendor outside the trains station to pick up a blanket for the train trip. I had many naps planned.

Bleu the Wonder dog



We met Bleu on our last day in Palm Springs. I think he is an ambassador for the Orbit Inn where we were staying. A beautiful dog, very attentive in his duties at the inn. He gave everyone an initial nice greeting and welcome and then quickly resumed his focus on his ball or orange. His owner reported that Bleu likes swimming in the pool but is not really allowed to do so at the Inn. It was clear that Blue was looking for an excuse to swim but mindful that he was told not to. So... to our surprise... when Bleu was invited to take a step out on a floaty, he did so with remarkable skill. What appeared to be a momentary exercise before the dog took the plunge..turned into a 12[?] minute long display of canine dexterity and focus on retrieval of the toy of the moment - an orange. Bleu never did take a swim...but impressed us all with a great walk on the water.

A Trip to the Salton Sea





I read last year a bit about the Salton Sea in California. A strange story of a large lake created by a dike failure in 1905. ... with a 356 sq mile lake as a result.. It became a tourist destination and development area at one point. [ 1940's?] The lake itself is slowly dying now and much of the development is abandoned[?] leaving strange apocalyptic sites to explore. We headed down Sunday morning to look around and came across this former public beach/playground and a former beach side resort. Strange eerie place. I felt like i was in a scene from planet of the apes.

Palm Springs 2009


















We took off to Palm springs around 11:30 and arrived at the Orbit Inn
before any other guests. A GREAT PLACE. It took Eric and I maybe four minutes to decide we loved the place and want to go back. A modernist 50's style place, all restored and furnished in jet set 50's furnishings by famous designers. I can see why our friends Cristian and Patricia love the place so much.




































































The party was a surprise, so after several other of the guests arrived early, we started plotting the best way to surprise our friend Cristian. I have an iMovie to work on for that. Palm Springs was a great place all around. i always have heard much about it, but this was our first visit. Eric and I started thinking about our future telecommuting jobs and retirement plans along with looking at real estate listings. [ This is a great time to invest......]

More shots of Palm Springs



























































Of course.... i think housing in Syracuse should probably be our priority.

We were in Palm Springs for Cristian's 40th birthday party along with a group of his friends and family that I had always heard about but never met. It was alot of fun to meet everyone and doing another round of "What were they thinking?"