Robert Pence

Madison looks beautiful in snow! Nice shots!

Beautiful! Very Christmasy!

Not particularly pretty, but winter here often isn't. These are from my porches this morning, and that's probably as far outside as I'll go until I stop coughing up pieces of my lungs. Back door Back porch Patio - cookout, anyone? Back steps, Ranger & driveway West on Washington Street & Swinney Park, from front porch East on Washington Street Across the street, this house was built in the late 19th Century and later donated to the Catholic Church as a residence for the Bishop of the Fort Wayne Diocese. The wing on the left, added at that time, holds a library on the first floor and a chapel on the second. Both have been maintained intact by the present owners. The Bishop now resides in South Bend, and the house is a private residence. Thomas Swinney home in Swinney Park

Ooooh! Hoarfrost! It's one of my favorite winter scenes, especially out in the country as the sun is coming up! :-)

My dad owned some rental properties, and although I don't like to admit it, he teetered on the brink of being a slumlord. At least one place was an old house that had been duplexed before codes required separate heating systems, and it was grandfathered in. Dad paid the gas bill and provided for it in the rent that he charged. The tenants on the two sides of the house could never agree on the heat; the people with the thermostat would set it for their comfort, and it was too hot for the people on the other side who would then open the windows to cool down their unit. Dad about went ballistic when he drove by and saw windows and the front door standing open on a twent-degree day. The next time the place became vacant, he painted all the windows shut. He didn't last long as a landlord; he was too frugal to renovate the places properly so they would attract anything other than riffraff, and too controlling to tolerate the riffraff and their failure to respect the property.

Great photo set, PigBoy!

Interesting and beautifully-documented tour, as usual! When I read "Dorothy Lane," I conjure up an image of a cozy street in a gay neighborhood of quaint cottages with picket fences and meticulously-tended flower beds. :wink:

Does anyone know the background story on Joe Vranich's transformation from an ardent supporter of Amtrak to a vehement opponent?

"Commie Pinko Fag!" :whip: That's how a former boss responded to my accusation that he was a misogynistic racist (he was). Archie Bunker was long gone from the local TV programming by then, but my boss still identified strongly with him. No, it didn't get me fired. I got promoted out of his department shortly before he got shipped off to a dead-end job in the boondocks. :clap:

Faaaaabulous! What was the vantage point for the shot past the top of the Federal Courthouse, looking down on the river and old viaduct? The only possibility I can think of is Key Tower, pretty high up.

I agree that the ideal scenario would be a passenger rail system separated from the freight roads, but it's not likely to happen any time soon because of the costs involved. First, we'll have to build public support and demand via incremental improvements in the present system, with faster, better and more frequent service. [rampant_digression] I can envision a passenger rail system with tracks installed in the medians of the existing interstate highways. In many cases there's enough real estate to accomodate double track, and although some structures would have to be modified, it would be much more economical than acquiring virgin right-of-way. The grades, while sometimes too severe for freight trains, would not be a problem for modern light, fast passenger trains. I believe the legislation that created the interstate highway system made a provision for use of the medians for railways. I see the separated passenger trains as part of an integrated national passenger transportation system; we should remove the legal barriers that prevent companies from operating more than one mode of transportation so that competing companies could each invest as they see fit in airlines, passenger trains and buses. Either the rights-of-way and terminals could be jointly owned by the carriers that use them, or they could be publicly-owned and and paid for by collecting realistic fees from the tenant carriers. Various modes would share transportation terminals, with convenient, quick public transportation to city centers and the surrounding smaller cities. Our present non-system, in which various modes sometimes compete in markets where they cannot operate effectively or economically, leaves smaller communities isolated. It even leaves non-drivers in medium-sized and some larger cities without access to travel, and enforces car dependency. [/rampant_digression]

Even if Laney's motivations are honorable and well-intentioned :roll:, the premise that a nationwide passenger rail service can attain break-eve or operate profitably, especially in competition with heavily subsidized commercial aviation and highway systems, is false.

Lately, I've been having to deal with my youngest brother a lot. Anyone who has an encounter with him gains an acute sense of the nature and pervasiveness of evil.

Clever, indeed! You're the clever one, finding me out like that! :lol: inkaelin, many Evangelicals believe 666 is Satan's number, the number of the beast, or the mark of the beast. I didn't even notice the license number until I downloaded the picture into Photoshop. I took the picture because of the stickers on the tailgate; I've been thinking about compiling a photo series on the presence/nature/influence of Evangelical belief in my part of Indiana

There's a pretty vocal community of Christian extremists in the area, and to them there's no such thing as coincidence or randomness. In their view, all mortal existence is defined by the struggle between God and Satan and they are Christian Soldiers bound to defeat Satan and give the victory to God. They perceive messages in everything they see and hear.

I didn't even notice the license plate until I downloaded the image. I wonder if the owner is aware? The BMV probably did it on purpose, just one more thing to prove that government is evil :evil:

Most likely, Mineta had a chauffered limo on each end to get to and from the airports, and made the flight on a government-owned plane that was standing by for him. How would he know anything about a private commuter's experience?

There's a strong tendency to only look at the consumption and cost of energy in discussing contemporary development patterns and transportation habits. Often, people fail to consider the social justice implications. Although Americans may have averaged ten percent of their income for transportation over the last fifty years, a local study several years ago showed that for Fort Wayne's working poor, the number is closer to 60%. These are people who manage to keep their families together and off the welfare roles by working at menial, minimum-wage jobs, sometimes two or three of those jobs. The jobs they can get are often outside the service area and hours of public transportation, and the cars they can buy aren't reliable, efficient hybrids, or even safe. They get stuck with the junker cast-offs, and often make monthly or weekly payments at high interest rates. Environmental impact goes beyond tailpipe emissions, too. The production and consumption of electricity both release heat, and in the case of large generating plants, the amounts are prodigious. Where rivers and lakes are used for cooling, ecosystems are often changed over a substantial area and we still don't know everything about what the long-term effects of those changes may be. Spent nuclear fuel presents a major storage and disposal problem, and I've read some accounts that say it may cost more to decomission a worn-out nuclear power plant than it cost to build it. The filling and paving of rural land to build shopping centers, office parks, parking lots and expressways disrupts natural drainage patterns and the natural soil percolation that should be filtering surface water to replenish aquifers, and the runoff from roads and parking lots is contaminated with oil, transmission fluid and antifreeze from automobiles that pollute our streams, rivers and lakes and interfere with the biological processes upon which sewage treatment facilities depend. Millions of used tires, made from petroleum, accumulate every year, providing breeding places for disease-carrying mosquitoes and contributing to tire fires that foul the air, and fighting the fires releases toxic runoff. Those are just a few of the consequences of our short-sighted, irresponsible car-dependent way of life. Our unwillingness to recognize a need for change carries with it an almost endless cascade of bad consequences. Er ... am I being taken over by the persona of my avatar?

How about railroad station?

I think KJP and possibly others have already pointed out that the freight railroads now recognize that they can benefit from Amtrak's growth and prosperity. It's not likely that the U.S. will have major long-distance rights-of-way dedicated solely to high-speed passenger trains any time soon, and the growing public sentiment in favor of fast, reliable, frequent passenger rail service is motivating some transportation experts and congressional figures to discuss public investment in the existing rail infrastructure to increase capacity. Some of the improvements to facilitate better passenger service, like double-tracking, longer sidings that will accomodate today's freight trains, advanced signaling and train-control systems and eliminating grade crossings or providing four-quadrant crossing protection, would also benefit freight haulers by allowing them to run more trains faster with greater safety. The people who run the freight roads know that publicly-supported incremental improvement of rail passenger service using existing technology and rights-of-way is a win-win for both freight and passenger service, and they recognize that Gunn has the operational and business skills to help bring it about.

Excellent photos! New Albany is so nice it makes me want to run the other way! :roll:

Unless you pay for your space. It's not expensive -- I pay $13.95/month for 5 GB storage and 200 GB data transfer with a Yahoo Small Business account.

Wiow! Mr. Packard had a remarkable talent and a distinctive style. I love the railroad station! Excellent photos!

You could pick up a magnetic resistance trainer and mount the bike on it to gradually work on getting in shape for the winter. Then, you'd be ready for the hills when spring arrives. That would also help you make sure any kinks are worked out on the bike, and you're fully accustomed to the way it feels before you get out on the street.

'Tis a street light post: