I seem to be having technical difficulty with my Gallery. I am working on re-installing the gallery software at this time. Rest assured that I do not intend to lose anything. Bear with me

Environment: The fact that CO2 levels have been higher than they have been in mensurable history is based on solid evidence. Human activity is one of the few variables that affect CO2 levels that could be responsible for such a spike. The “greenhouse gas” properties of CO2 have likely been proven, and reproduced in chemistry labs.

My family lives out on a private lake/subdivision 10 miles north of Lawrence and 5 miles from the nearest town (that would be McLouth, our city of record) and a fairly decent size house to boot. Not exactly the smallest “carbon footprint.” I read Tim Miller’s column in the Lawrencian the other day regarding global warming. It would seem to me, based on Mr. Miller’s writings, he would have this family move out of this house, tear down the entire neighborhood, force all of us to move back to town into smaller quarters and, to boot, compel us to use public transportation. I also see such a notion just be reading the title of Al Gore’s little documentary, i.e., heavy on the “Inconvenient” in An Inconvenient Truth.

Surely there is a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without compelling people to give up a standard of living that they have worked to attain.

So far in September, I’ve grabbed a few shots at the Lawrence BNSF and UP depots, a couple shots of my cousins (Including a Jets fan who *doesn’t* know who Brett Farve is) and the meeting of Road Enthusiasts in KC on the 20th

Photos taken September 13th and 19th:

Kansas City Roadgeek meet:

I didn’t get out much this month, but I do have a few pics from the rails for August.

Currently, GSN is currently re-running episodeds featuring notable contestants….

First off, at 8 Central, they are airing episodes of Tic Tac Dough featuring Thom McKee. He appeared in 46 shows and won over $300,000. Bascially, he was the Ken Jennings of the early ’80s.

Speaking of Ken Jennings, his episodes of Jeopardy! are airing at 11 Central.

A while back, Mark Roberts discontinued his Pioneer Radio history site in an effort to conserve web space. Seeing as how his pages were the influence for me to research and write my own history for KLWN/KLZR, I offered to take over hosting and maintenance for his work, which he accepted.

The new home for Pioneer Radio History is at http://www.route56.com/radio/ I made some minor adjustments to the pages to conform to my style, and updated the histories of KLWN, KLZR, and KMXN with the updated style.

With the move to a new house, and a new county, there’s a new polling place.

The polling place for Sarcoxie Township is at an old one-room schoolhouse just north of Lawrence. They also use a optical scanning method pretty much the same as the one in Douglas County.

For the Republican Primary, there were only two contested seats, plus one ballot question. Here’s how I voted.

US Congress, KS-2: Lynn Jenkins
The Republican Primary has been somewhat contested between the incumbent state Treasurer and former Congressman Jim Ryun over their respective service records. I choose Jenkins mainly because I wanted to vote out the Democratic incumbent, and I doubt the person the was previously defeated would be able to re-claim his seat.

County Attorney: Caleb Stegall
The Kansas Court district Jefferson County is in is shared with neighboring counties, each county having its own attorney. In the larger counties, such as Shawnee, Douglas, Johnson, and Wyandotte, the court district is contiguous with the county, and therefore, they are considered District Attorneys.

Stegall’s campaign against his opponent, the incumbent county attorney, mainly challenged his effectiveness. I did not see any campaign material from his opponent.

Sales Tax Issue: Yes
Jefferson County also had a sales tax issue on the docket. It was a 1% tax with a 6 year Sunset clause for road improvement. There was no campaign material for or against, and the tax is very likely a renewal of an existing tax issue.

All other positions on the ballot were unopposed, except for township treasurer, which did not have a Republican candidate.

So, I saw the penultimate episode of Doctor Who’s fourth (or thirtieth, depending on how you look at it) season, “The Stolen Earth,” on Sci-Fi. It is certainly all those who saw it on the initial airing across the pond.

My friend Deena is a fan of Sci-Fi, mostly Star Wars, LOtR, and Lost. I suggested that she watch this episode.

Deena, if you didn’t catch it, where were you, we missed you. In any case, I have it on DVR.

Two weeks of photos packed into one post…

Gallery 1: The Little ones

Gallery 2: Two Depots, One City

Gallery 3: Beers Finale
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Recently, I took three cats over to Helping Hands in Topeka. Now that I see them on petfinder, I can tell you about two of them.

Scamp is listed as a Domestic Shorthair. He does have some Siamese in his blood.

Bob is a “tuxedo” cat.

Both are ~6 years old and have been neutered. Their shots are up to date.

I did not see the last cat, Esther, on petfinder, so I’m assuming that someone took her in.

And, as Bob Barker used to say: If you don’t live out here (”out here” in this case being the Topeka or Lawrence area), you can find a friend like Bob or Scamp at a shelter near your home.

A whole lot of changes since last I wrote:

First off, on June 29th, my camera suffered from an accident where it was knocked off of a table and took a blunt force trauma to the body, resulting in a catastrophic failure. (It quit working). I took it to Wolfe’s for repair, with a note to inform me if the cost of repair goes over $200. Meanwhile, I have been using my mom’s Powershot A570.

My friends have started a rec-league softball team called the “Bad news Beers” (In case you haven’t noticed ). I’ve posted the pictures from the last two games at this site and on Facebook.
The June 29th gallery (including some of the last pictures taken with my Digital Rebel) are posted at http://www.route56.com/gallery/v/Season14/062908/. The railroad pictures are also posted on rrpicturearchives.net and the game pictures on Facebook.

Last week, I made a trip down to Wichita on a cabling job. It didn’t pan out, the field manager sent me home with an indication that I was a bit too white collar for him; However, I did get a free road trip, and a possible lead on a job that is more up my alley. I got a few shots of construction along Kellogg Avenue in Wichita, as well as the Canal that gives I-135 through Wichita its nickname. Also, my cousin Cyrus had a birthday party, and the beers had another game. This gallery is posted at http://www.route56.com/gallery/v/Season14/070808/, and the party and softball photos have been placed on Facebook.

Tonight, I made a executive decision. Whether of not my broken camera is worth repairing, I decided to upgrade to the new Canon Rebel XSi. I elected to purchase it a Best Buy over Wolfes mainly because Best Buy offers optional Accident Coverage (i.e., for something like a dropped camera) while Wolfe’s does not. If the XT is repaired, I have a Backup camera that my brother could use if he wanted to. I took some pictures with the new camera of East 7th in Lawrence, which is about to get a new surface. They just milled the pavement off, revealing pieces of brick as well as the old streetcar tracks. Those will be posted soon.

Photos from the Bad News Beers game of 6/22, plus some trains on the Topeka Sub.

Last night proved interesting weather wise, especially if you were on the K-State campus for any of the summer camps that were in session. A nasty tornadic storm cell came through. This excerpt from a Severe Weather Statement from the National Weather Service says it all.

AT 1101 PM CDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR AND STORM
SPOTTERS WERE TRACKING A LARGE TORNADO. THIS TORNADO WAS LOCATED
IN MANHATTAN…DOING DAMAGE AND MOVING NORTHEAST AT 31 MPH.

The Topeka Capital-Journal is encouraging its users to post pictures to Their site

Last Sunday, I went to see my friends play softball. Here are the bad news beers in action, along with a trio of roundabouts

…you might have a hard time getting one right now.

Thanks to a “High Risk” day for severe weather, there’s been a run on weather radios.

I was at Radio Shack today to purchase an spare antenna for my TV, the employee there indicated that they ware out of Weather Radios there as well. He indicated that all sorts of demographics were in there to try to buy one.

Here’s a set of pictures that I took from the Ottawa Depot Museum and from the BNSF mainline in Edgerton over the past week:

Here are some pictures that I took over the past two weeks.

Also, I have uploaded the video from a couple of previous rail trips:

BNSF 805 West
BNSF 5408 East
BNSF 5990 West

Pictures of UP 6936 on the 15th and two BNSF trains from Ottawa on the 19th.

http://www.route56.com/gallery/photo/042008

Thumbnails of the pictures:

I also have video that I took along side the still pictures of 6936.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj1xA8ETpCk

I also took video of the two BNSF trains… it is not posted to youtube yet.

I’ve posted my pictures of the parade from high atop Kennedy Glass’s rack truck #7, in front of Central Jr. High

http://www. route56. com/gallery/photo/041308

I have recently uploaded my latest train pictures as well as shots
from a bridge hunting roadtrip over April 4th and 5th

The first album:
http://www.route56.com/gallery/v/Season13/040408
http://route56.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=31004
Railroad Pictures: 4/4/08 (same set of pics, different locations)

And the thumbnails to the individual photos

Album 2: The Bridges of Neosho, Allen, and Anderson Counties
http://www.route56.com/gallery/v/Season13/040508

Thumbnails: