Aha

Today is Friday the 13th.  It is a full moon.  This won't happen again until 2049.  Well - I wish it wouldn't have happened today.

A believe I may have mentioned I bought a new camera.  An Olympus.  I have always had great luck with the Olympus brand.

We had no train rides today, so we did some sight seeing.  We went to Pea Ridge battlefield.  It was really fun.  Things like that depress me a little, but at least I wasn't looking out of a train window, but that's another story.

We got back here to Springdale and decided to eat lunch.  I had the Olympus in my lap.  I got lazy  and didn't put it in the case. I was going to put it in the back seat, out of sight.  As I was doing this, I it sort of fell, and I heard quite a clunk.  I even remarked that wasn't good.

So when I got it out, the on light was flashing.  I removed the batteries to turn it off.  When I put them back on, I turned it on.  The little "view finder" window on the back was in four parts.  In the upper right and lower left were things the lens captured.  The other corners, who knows. 

I looked in great detail.  The lower left hand corner is spider webbed.  Censored words go here.

I have found a couple of places in Houston who repair this camera.  Most of them want to only work on big, fancy SLR cameras, not little rather fancy point and shoots.  I found a place I could sent it, but repairs are $121.   Now I don't know how they know what's wrong, but...

So I guess I will fall back on the Kodak.  It does a good job, but this little Olympus is really nice.  Sigh!

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I was completely wiped out after yesterday's train ride.  We rode from Springdale to Ft Smith.  The scenery was really pretty, but it wasn't Alaska.  And because G wants to argue, and can't hear me either, we ended up like sardines along a wall of the club car we were assigned.  I was miserable.  I felt like I was on a plane.,  You know - coach with 17 inch seats, and I was sitting in a five across row.  That kind of sardine.

There were tables that were "reserved for couples" but Mr Man had charged ahead.  When I tried to tell him, and he snapped and argued, others slipped into those. 

The rail road had just refurbished their dining car, and they were using it.  This train had at least 300 people on it.  A dining car can handle about 50.  Needless to say, things didn't go along well.  When they began service, I didn't want to eat then either - it was 10;45.  G wanted to wait and wait. 

We were getting closer and closer to Ft Smith.  We were to de-train there.  So he decided we would stay on the train while they turned the engines.  The railroad was telling everyone to get off.  This was at noon.  We were not going to be allowed back on the train until 2:30, and it seemed there was no place to eat where the grain stopped

Then we were told we could stay on.  The brakeman said, no he was told everyone off.  This went on for several minutes.  It was a complete madhouse.  Off, no stay on, no off and on and on. 

It finally came down that we could stay on, and yes, we could eat lunch. 

As it turned out, even though I missed visiting the bordello (I saw a guy who bought a t-shirt that said Our bordello still serves visitors), we were certainly more comfortable on the train.

Tomorrow we ride the same car.  The trip is to be shorter.  Rather than 8am to 6 pm, it is to be 8 am to 1 p,m.  I just hope we can get different chairs and a table!

AND we will go home on Sunday.  That will give me Monday thru Wednesday at home in Houston.  Then we are off to the SSB ---- again.