paploothelearned

Three weeks ago I became the father of a beautiful little girl!  Unfortunately, I don't have the energy to process and post photos, much less take new ones.  I am still around, checking my deviations an messages, but it is going to be awhile before I get around to posting anything.

It's summer, which means long days that are great for railfanning--and I'm too busy to enjoy any of it.My day job is the software architect and primary framework developer for a small startup company writing healthcare software.  We have a big project with a tightly packed schedule and it is eating up most of my spare time.  Indeed, I'm needing to work weekends to keep up.Anyway, it is safe to assume that my activity will be kept down to my usual commenting (which is a nice use of my short break time), but I will not be posting any pictures until my schedule loosens up a bit.  :)

Yesterday I went on an all day trek with :devrdw283: to chase Southern Pacific 4449 from the Oregon border into Spokane, WA.  I have chronicled our endeavors with a posted picture and a blurb from each of the dozen stops we made, but was careful to keep each shot unique and interesting so that each one would be worth viewing.http://paploothelearned.deviantart.com/art/Jealous-No-More-128261667 http://paploothelearned.deviantart.com/art/Foamer-Invasion-128265922 http://paploothelearned.deviantart.com/art/Hot-Desert-Air-128270189 http://paploothelearned.deviantart.com/art/Providence-Hill-128273180  (**This is my favorite one!) http://paplooth...

I got a Canon Rebel XT and a Tamron 18-200mm lens and am having to get into the swing of a manual camera again; but it is so much nicer than my aging Canon SD550.  My only complaint is that my lens has more chromatic aberration around the edges than I'd like... but for $280 I can't complain too much.  :)I look forward to getting in some good days of railfanning in the near future!

The official previous record was 13" of snow in 24 hours at the airport.  Today we topped that by 4" and made it to 17" in 24 hours.  But the snow hasn't let up.The storm system has parked itself, starting yesterday morning and still going this afternoon.  Out in my yard, it is probably around 2 feet deep right now.  I spent two hours shoveling just to make a path to one of the cars, and make a 2' wide hole for it to sit in.Anyway, while 2' in 48 hours may not be a problem in some places, here the town has pretty much shut down.  The city buses aren't running, and pretty much anyone not in a 4WD with chains is getting stuck.  They even clo...