Way back and July I rode the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad with Shorty. Here are some of those pictures:
More from that trip later.
Ridin’ the Rails with Shorty Backlog – Vol. 1
Category Archives: Shorty
Bass Creek Valley
I recently took a Saturday afternoon and rode the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad with Shorty. Here is one of the photos I took on this trip:
This picture was made possible by having long arms and tremendous faith in my hands.
PARTICULARS
CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO: 100
FOCAL LENGTH: 10mm
APERTURE: f/5.6
EXPOSURE: 1/125
DATE: 07/02/2016 – 14:58
LATITUDE: 42.09092°
LONGITUDE: -93.9298°
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Shorty
EDITING SOUNDTRACK: “A Girl Like You” by The Smithereens
Photo of the Day 0045
Shorty, Becca, and James before the wedding.
Shorty was James’ Best Man. A wise choice.
Sabbatical
A picture I’ve been meaning to post for some time.
I just thought I should make a formal announcement that I am going to take a sabbatical from blogging formally. This sabbatical really already began, and I anticipate it lasting until at least May, but maybe longer.
This isn’t to say that I’m out of photos to publish. In fact, the contrary is actually the case.
This isn’t to say that I’m taking a break from photography, because I certainly am not. It is just, that you won’t be able to see my unpublished and yet to be taken photos. At least not here.
Although, I’m sure there will be the occasional blog post about tenderloins, travel, movies, music, life, whatever…
I’m just taking some time off from this project to pursue a couple of other projects. Hopefully those projects will bear fruit someday and I’ll be able to share those with you as well.
Until next time,
Your Humble Narrator
Thomas the Tank
A couple months back I made my annual pilgrimage to check out the Thomas the Tank festivities at the Boone Scenic Valley Railroad.
Next Wednesday’s randomness might very well involve the olde Computer Mine. No promises though.
Instagram Update
Since most of the random pictures I’ve taken are of the “can’t-quite-publish-yet” variety, I thought I would publish some of my favorite Instagram pictures of the last few months.
Since I got a new phone and have been able to get back on Instagram.
Of course, if you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen all of these pictures before.
If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve seen most of these pictures before.
If we are friends on Facebook, you’ve seen a few of these pictures before.
The Living Legend
My New Bike
Stay Classy
Lake LaVerne
What my Birthday Cake will Look Like Next Year
I Want this Sign
Me
On the way to the Dog Park
The Essence of my Life
Cyclone Tailgating
Andrea’s New Church
Pickle’s
Josh and Andrea
Whole Family
Gracie
Ready?
Mini Train!
Sara and Shawn – Pufferbilly Days Parade
Boone First United Methodist Church
Recently donated to the Boone First United Methodist Church Youth Group
Luckiest Son-of-a-Gun I Know
Visiting Derrick
Tenderloining without my Partner – Legal Limit
Making Pickle Relish
Logan at the Block Party
Barn I wish to Photograph
Smith Wedding
Best Part of Thomas the Tank
Touching the Baby
Thomas the Tank
Junckner Photo Shoot
Vi Fellowshipping It Up
Creepy Work Thing
Tailgating in Style
Playtime!
Hot Dog Cart Day!
Trapped
Most accurate artist depiction of Iowa fans I’ve ever seen!
Cyclones!
Experiment
Another Experiment
Instagram may have replaced Twitter as my favorite social media outlet. Not as useful as Twitter, but probably more fun. Plus I may have an addiction to the Photo Map feature. Even though what that feature tells me is that I need to road trip in the worst possible way.
Flowerbed Buddy
I went up to Boxholm to have lunch with Shorty and Doris on Saturday. As a bonus to the fantastic food, I saw my first snake of the year. No more False Snake Hype! I saw a real snake.
only wish I would have had a photo assistant with me to agitate the snake a little bit. That would have been fun.
My Happy Easter
I feel like posting some pictures from Easter.
Alexis
Carla & Mom Watching Egg Hunt
Egg Hunt
Neighbor’s Dog that Doesn’t Shut Up
Mom
Alexis Sorting Eggs
Teresa Displaying the Maturity of her Years
Brandon
Johnathan
Jason, Carla & Brandon
Elainie
Logan
Teresa Crocheting
Vacation Pictures
I also had supper with Shorty, Doris, Tim, Rebecca and Nate. Doris told us the joke that their Pastor (Pastor Rod) had told the congregation on that day. I thought it was kind of funny.
“The elders of the church decided that since Easter was coming up they wanted to have a really special speaker for the Service. They thought about it for a bit and they decided that they wanted the most knowledgeable Pastor they could find to give the sermon.
So they went to him and he turned them down.
They thought about it some more and decided they should get the most eloquent Pastor to give the sermon.
So they found the most eloquent Pastor and asked him, but he turned them down.
They went back to the church and thought about it some more. They decided that they should get the best looking Pastor they could find to give the sermon.
So they found the best looking Pastor and asked him, but he turned them down.
They went back to the church and thought about it some more.
Then one of them said: “Well we can still get Pastor Rod.”
They all decided that was a good idea and they came to me and asked me to give the sermon on Easter Sunday.
I told them, “Yes.”
After all, I had already turned them down three times.”
I hope you had a Happy Easter.
The Church of the Inebriated Saints
Shorty often refers to going to church twice on the same day as building up credit. On Friday night I went to The Venue to attend the Church of the Inebriated Saints. I think by Shorty’s logic, I get credit for that and can skip church some time in the future.
I took several pictures of Inebriated Saints and I’m going to unload a large collection of them right here. I left shortly after their show concluded, but based on then names of the other bands, they sounded like yelling-screaming-angry-white-male-feel-sorry-for-me music, I’m just going to assume that they were the victors.
It is a fact that many of these pictures aren’t really your standard picture and might be kind of artistically pretentious, but I felt the need to get a bit creative because bar photography is not my forte. There is limited light, so you are really kind of limited in your options. You can crank up the ISO, but that results in digital noise. You can crack out the blinding flash and my Top Photo Assistant can tell you, I don’t really like flash photography. The only other option is to get a little creative. Admittedly you will find examples of all of these in the photos above.
On a more personal note. This trip out to The Venue was my first trip to a Boone bar in almost 2 years. I saw some people that I hadn’t seen in several years. Anybody that has ever seen me knows that I’m not a big personal appearance person. (Although I have really gotten into color coordinating my beanies lately.) If I know somebody, I know them and don’t even really think about what their personal appearance might be saying to the rest of the world.
A couple different people came up to me and asked me: “You are Christopher Bennett, correct?”
One of these people was a muscular looking gent with a shaved head and a goatee. I had a brief conversation with him and then he returned to his job duties. I never thought of him as being scary looking. Although I might not ever be muscular looking, the clock is ticking on when I will be a bald dude with a goatee. The only thing to be determined is whether or not I will have the guts to keep the sideburns.
Shannon said that guy was really scary looking.
I thought, really? I mean maybe a guy that looks like that can be intimidating, but I only see Larry Sprecher. One of the kids (along with his brother Mike and Kelly Wilson) that I played G.I. Joe with.
Becky came to the concert with Shannon. This resulted in a bonus photo session that I call “The Get Your Picture Taken with Shannon Session”. Check out these bonus photos:
One other person that talked to me at the bar was Jamie’s friend Bonnie. She wanted to know if I had a “little, short, blonde guy with me”. She was referring to Jay. When I relayed that story to Jay on Saturday morning, he became distraught. It turns out Jay doesn’t like to be referred to as both little and short.
Thomas the Scam
Every year I feel myself compelled to go down to the B&SVRR when they are scamming small children and draining the coffers of their parents with Thomas the Tank. I admit that it really isn’t their doing. They put on a pretty good show. There is a magician and a petting zoo. There are characters from the show. There is a funnel cake stand. Actually it is “the funnel cake stand”. If you’ve never had a funnel cake from the Kruse funnel cake stand my friend, you’ve never actually had a funnel cake at all. Plus they have real train rides like their dinner train or their excursion train. However, Thomas the Tank is a lie. He is no train engine. He is a glorified caboose and the kids fall for it every time.
I’m a firm believer that a person shouldn’t lie to their children. There is no reason to have your children believe in things like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. It just sets them up for a lifetime of disappointment when they realize that other mythical objects like social mobility and the American Dream are as real as a 7 foot rabbit that hides eggs on the day that Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Son of God. Although it does teach them to learn at an early age that authority figures (employers and the government) will lie to you at every conceivable opportunity. Perhaps there is something to lying to your children.
It is because of this that I think that parents should make it very clear to their children that Thomas the Tank is nothing but a glory hound. He isn’t doing any real work. The real work is being done by that engine in the back. It doesn’t have a face, but it is the one that deserves your respect.
Why is it that I feel compelled to go see this charade every year? I admit that Thomas does have a certain allure. For not doing anything, I feel compelled to look into his eyes to make sure that this isn’t the beginning of the machine revolution. The one foretold in the book of Maximum Overdrive. I believe you may have seen the movie they made based on this prophetic text starring Emilio Estevez. What I saw when I looked into Thomas’ eyes this year is that we are still at least a year from the coming of the semi with the green face.
Also, I go down there to see Shorty. He always volunteers for the B&SVRR when Thomas is in town. He is also going to do the Santa Express again this year. However, I got a surprise when I found out that Johnathan was going to be volunteering. He has never been a community service type of chap, so this I definitely had to see and digitally record.
