Robert Pence

In a six-person office where I once worked (as the only male employee), they had an annual Christmas gift exchange. Or at least they did the first year I was there. I'd suffered through those before, and the gifts generally ranged from thoughtless to tacky. The first year, I didn't know about it until it was announced so I kept my mouth shut and went along. The next year, well in advance, I registered sufficient dissatisfaction with the custom that they abandoned it. Nobody took issue with me over it, either. I think it was a long-standing tradition that most of the others never liked, but they were afraid to speak up in the presence of the Queen Bee who thought she ran things, and they seemed relieved that I did. The department salaried Christmas party tradition ended after the year when the purchasing manager enjoyed the holiday punch a little too much and explained to the the department superintendent exactly how he was screwing up the business - rather loudly, with an audience. Those were the good old days, especially if one stayed sober and observed. :-D

The past few months I'd been waking up after three or four hours, feeling like I'd been plugged into a 110V wall socket. It was wearing me down. Then, I remembered good old Benadryl. A tablespoon with a glass of water at bedtime, and I sleep about seven hours and wake up feeling reasonably rested.

It worked, Emmie, but attachments aren't the best way to post pictures. If you go to the Forum Issues section you'll find a section on how to post pictures using "" tags: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,3838.0.html

R&R is back!!! Now get some R&R lol. I'm glad you're okay and making a recovery!! The hospital should have a survey for you to fill out. Hospitals are subject to a lot of scrutiny for bad customer service; the surveys are mandatory. Definitely fill out a survey and let them know about your experience. Or wait until you're fully recovered and then go back and confront him outside; "Remember me? I remember you." Then shove him hard so he falls on his posterior, preferably on the concrete sidewalk. :whip:

The frustrating, infuriating part will come when Governors-elect Kasich and Walker successfully spin the whole fiasco to pin the blame on the intransigent federal officials who refused to allow them to repurpose the money. Instead of paying the consequences of their short-sighted pandering, they'll exploit the situation to enhance their standing and further undermine passenger rail advocates, and it will work. It's Karl-Rovian strategy, and it's been eminently effective in the past and likely will continue to be.

You really like "roughing it" don't you! Sweetie if I didn't know better i'd swear you lived in the middle of nowhere. I prefer to think of it as the Middle of Everywhere:

I don't have cable, a digital TV, or converter box, and haven't watched television in three or four years. I have no clue when people make references to most popular entertainers, singers, or bands. Ditto for athletes, sports teams, sports venues, or bowl games. I've never shopped at TJ Maxx or Bloomingdales. Or Nordstrom or Macy's. I don't own a dishwasher or a garbage disposal or anything by Cuisinart or Krupp. My garage door doesn't have an opener. I drive a station wagon.

Wanna' see my pictures? :-o

I can only speculate. Queensboro and Hell Gate are in important urban settings, and maybe that demanded more attention to the aesthetics, although Hell Gate, when you really look at it, is stunningly massive. Compared with those two, the Sciotoville bridge is in the middle of nowhere and the primary imperative was that it be strong enough to carry heavy freight on two tracks with low year-to-year maintenance costs. Pittsburgh's Smithfield Street bridge was designed in an era when automobiles and heavy motor trucks weren't a consideration; and maybe it has survived into the automobile because it was engineered heavily enough to carry streetcars. That continued on the eastern side until the PAT light rail/subway opened in 1985, when it was converted to auto traffic. I just noticed that the Sciotoville bridge appears to have stairways and catwalks halfway up in the trusswork. That might make for some interesting photos and a trip to the local jail after a passing train crew radios the dispatcher who notifies the police.

1990s could be about right for the trolley-bus configuration. It was around 1990 or 1991 that the long-time standard bearer for Dayton's trolley buses died. I can't remember his name, but he was president of the company before it became a public-owned operation, and was president of the board of directors from then until his death. He vigorously and successfully defended the system against mall developers (maybe this one?) who wanted to dismantle it and who succeeded in having at least one of the major routes truncated soon after his death. I remember going to Dayton in 1991 to take photos of what I thought would be the final operations of the last trolleybuses in the Midwest. Instead, a strong and concerted reaction by citizens against plans to dismantle the system, along with concern that dieselizing in the face of pending federal clean-air legislation would be folly, resulted in that decision being overturned. Bloodshed on the board might have accompanied the policy reversal, as that's what usually happens in those situations, but I don't know the details. The truncated route was reestablished and extended substantially, and new buses were ordered. To Dayton's credit, the system survives.

Memories! Forty years ago, my brother (not the insane, evil one) and I occasionally went to Fort Recovery, sometimes with two brothers who were camping and canoeing buddies of ours, for dinner. There was a restaurant, I can't remember the name of it, that served awesome steaks. They came out from the kitchen sizzling on a metal platter, memorably tasty and juicy. The place was always busy and lively and friendly, and the service and food were excellent. There were historical displays in the public library that, if I remember correctly, was very near the fort. Edit: As I browsed the photos a second time, the background search of my mental archives popped up the name of the restaurant. It was Meinerdings.

Neat coverage; Xavier is really growing, and doing it with style. The Catholic universities seem to be doing well financially. In Fort Wayne, University of Saint Francis has added a lot of new facilities in recent years. Enrollment is small compared with some others, about 2,000 students. The university started with 70-acre Brookside, the John Bass estate, purchased by the Order of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Perpetual Adoration as the new home for their college in 1944. John Henry Bass was owner of Bass Foundry in Fort Wayne, manufacturer of steam engines and related equipment and at one time the largest maker of railroad cars in the world. The 1903 Richardsonian Romanesque Bass Mansion was the university's library for many years prior to the recently completed $5.9 million restoration. There's been so much new construction that, except for the mansion and one other building, the campus hardly would be recognizable from ten years ago.

I guess I can accept that. I've seen some attractive yet unique designs in a few North American systems. It's been a while since I was out that way, but as I recall, some of the stations on the O'Hare extension of the Blue Line beyond Jefferson Park received some acclaim for their architecture when they opened. I haven't yet scanned the negatives, but from a visit several years ago I remember Calgary's C-Train stations having a clean, functional, accessible design without being extravagant. One thing that's missing on many US stations is real, effective protection for riders in inclement weather. Some of Chicago's CTA elevated stations are absolutely brutal, regardless of the small open-sided sheltered areas with the overhead infrared heaters, during the sometimes long off-peak waits. The old, open, wood-platform Metra Electric stations on the South Side are just plain nasty.

That's true. I got my share of beatings, and that's what encouraged me to perfect the art of deviousness. I learned that there are three ways to stay out of trouble: 1. Always play by the rules (no fun) 2. Be discreet (good work if you can get it, but not always possible) 3. Or, make it look like it's somebody else's fault (a winner every time!)

Thanks for bumping that, ink. I've always enjoyed Summit Street's pursuit of county courthouses, and it was good to revisit those photos.

Most impressive! It has the look of a clean, prosperous city; there are so many solid-looking historic buildings. The Butler County Courthouse reminds me, though, that Ohio probably would win a contest to determine what state has the greatest number of once-grand and elegant courthouses that have been mercilessly butchered by thoughtless remodeling or inapproprate repairs. If I remember, courthouses in both Hamilton and Tiffin lost their original domes to fire, and both replacement towers are travesties juxtaposed against the original style of the buildings. I think it's Defiance that has one of J.C. Johnson's designs that's been butchered by having its mansard roof and other superstructure removed and replaced with a drab and inappropriate third-floor addition.

We've had a bunch of petty thefts from unlocked cars in my neighborhood and the cops and neighbors are pretty sure they know who's doing it - a couple of early-teens gangsta wanna-bes - but can't catch them at anything that would justify a search warrant for their parents' homes. They got my jump-start and the inverter that I use to recharge camera or phone batteries while traveling. I didn't even miss them probably for some time after they were taken, when I was cleaning out my car to take it in for its annual inspection and treatment at Ziebart, and I thought maybe I had put them somewhere else, but a thorough search of the garage, my enclosed back porch, and the basement room where I keep my tools didn't turn them up. I've gotten pretty religious about always locking my car when I leave it, and making sure it's in the locked garage at night. Maybe I should park a junker in my driveway unlocked, and keep watch from the upstairs window with my 12-gauge. Just a blast into the treetops might convince them of the error of their ways. Or they'd come back when no one is home and break in to steal the shotgun.

Gustav Lindenthal was consulting engineer on the Sciotoville Bridge. Some of his other well-known bridges include the Queensboro Bridge, the elegant 1882 two-span lenticular-truss Smithfield Street Bridge in Pittsburgh, and New York's massive Hell Gate railroad bridge.

A couple of years ago my old (as in, 15 years) gas-powered two-stage snow blower was stolen. It was pretty well worn out and much-patched and repaired, and I had hoped to squeeze one more winter out of it before removing the still-serviceable engine and consigning the rest to the junkman, but I forgot to lock the walk-in door to my garage and someone got in and helped themselves to it. They had to go to a lot of trouble, literally picking up that heavy beast to get it out from behind a bunch of other stuff and out the constricted doorway, and considering the deplorable condition of their prize, their trouble got them just what they deserved. I toughed it through a couple of winters, and last year by the time I decided to give up the fight and buy a replacement, I was too late. I wanted to try an electric machine so as not to have to mess with gasoline supplies, oil changes, and fussing with a temperamental engine in cold weather, when I needed it most. By the time I made my decision all the stores were sold out and the manufacturers' web sites said their supplies were depleted and there would be no more that season. This October I got ahead of the rush. I did my research and decided on a Toro 1800 Power Curve as seeming to have the best construction. design, and user reviews. I ordered it through Amazon.com, and when it arrived I unpacked it and assembled it and ran it briefly to make sure it was complete and in working order, and then put it in the garage along with the 75-foot blue cold-weather extension cord. I saved the box the Toro came in, in case I'd have to return it after actual use. Now, I can recycle the box; the machine performs satisfactorily. While not as powerful as my old gas-powered one, it's more maneuverable and quite adequate for the snow we've had and probably for more so long as it's not heavy, wet snow. The cord is something of an inconvenience, but in my opinion less so that slopping around with gasoline and getting in on my hands in cold weather. From years of using plug-in electric mowers I'm used to working around a cord, but there's a caveat about winter; those blue cold-weather cords are coated with a type of plastic instead of the pliable rubber of the orange outdoor cords. Although it's formulated to stay somewhat pliable at low temperatures, it is harder than rubber - and on cold cement, especially with a skim of ice or snow to lubricate it, it's slicker'n snot! Stepping on the cord could start a long, fast slide that ends in the ER!

OK. I'll try to keep this from getting too long-winded, as I'm prone to do. It's been said of me that if you ask me what time it is, I'll tell you how to make a watch. So be warned. I have both 35mm and 120mm negatives and positives, including mounted 35mm slides. I have the Nikon SuperCoolscan 9000ED, a superb machine that can produce results that in my opinion are comparable to drum scanners costing $10K. I bought it a few years ago and will continue to use it so long as it continues to perform. The reasons I won't buy another Nikon scanner, unless they change their direction and policy, are these; I think Nikon soon will discontinue film scanner production and support because they haven't and don't plan to release 64-bit drivers, and haven't updpated drivers since the early days of Vista; and there are other scanners now on the market that do a very good job for a lot less money; and the 9000ED is painfully slow when scanning color negs at the maximum 4,000dpi resolution. The 9000ED set me back about $2K. The Nikon scanners, while indisputably of high quality, are expensive and slow and may have a limited future so far as driver support goes. If I were buying now, I'd probably buy the Epson V750-M Pro, about $850 MSRP. It's a flatbed scanner capable of handling both documents and negatives/transparencies up to at least 4X5, probably larger, with resolution and dynamic range at least comparable to the Nikon scanners, although I haven't checked into the detailed specs. It incorporates Digital ICE, which gives it the capability to remove dust and scratches from color slides and negs (but not black & white - I'll explain later), automatically compensate color fading and shifts due to aging of slides & negs, and manage the effects of grain as part of the scanning process without degrading the image sharpness and resolution. Digital ICE, in my opinion, is an essential feature in order to produce quality scans of old slides and negatives without laborious, time-consuming retouching and correcting in Photoshop. The next step down from that is the V700, about $600 MSRP, comparable in many respects to the V750-M except that it has a less expensive lens. I know a couple of very discerning photographers who have inherited vintage negative collections shot with high-quality cameras, and they've been getting excellent results with it. Sort of a sidebar to the topic; why Digital ICE won't remove dust and scratches from black & white negatives: It's due to the nature of the image on the film and the process by which the scanner identifies imperfections. First, the image on color film, both negatives and positives, is formed by transparent dye clouds of varying density. Think of it as analog. The image on black & white film is formed by metallic silver granules, and they're opaque; the silver halide granules in the emulsion that were struck by light in the exposure were converted to metallic silver by the developer, and then the unexposed silver halide was dissolved and washed away by the fixer, so the black & white image can be thought of as binary or digital; either there's opaque metallic silver, or there's nothing. Now, here's how Digital ICE identifies dust and scratches in a color film scan; during a first pass, a beam of infrared light passes through the film. The infrared light can pass through the dye cloud, but if it encounters a disruption caused by a scratch or an opaque dust or mildew spot, it maps the location of that disruption. After the subsequent RGB image scan, the software remembers what spots were mapped by the infrared scan and then interpolates what it thinks should be there according to the values of the surrounding pixels. It's very effective, and seldom leaves any visible traces in the digital image file it creates. However, the metallic silver image on black & white film is completely opaque, or impenetrable, to the infrared beam, and when the software gets the results of that scan and tries to reconcile them with the subsequent image scan, it simply goes nuts and yields an incomprehensible blotchy mess. There are numerous inexpensive film scanners on the market. A retired railroader and pretty good advanced amateur photographer I once knew put it this way; "Good things ain't cheap, and cheap things ain't good." If you shop the others, look beyond resolution and compare dynamic range; insufficient dynamic range results in limited ability to capture the full range of an image from highlights to shadows, and you're going to end up with blown-out highlights or greyed-out shadows with loss of detail, or dithered bands in solid color areas because the scanner couldn't render the enough of the color gamut of the image. And I seriously wouldn't give up Digital ICE. It may cost a few bucks extra to get a scanner that will do it, but it'll save you hours in the long run. Before I bought my Nikon scanner, I bought a Microtek 8700 flatbed scanner with transparency adapter that I thought would do the job. I ran into dynamic-range limitations almost immediately, and my subsequent experience with Microtek support echoes that of some other owners I've talked with; it simply does not exist. Microtek has never responded to an email question from me or from any other owner I've known, nor do they make any troubleshooting or service documentation available on line that I've been able to find. I'm still using it for scanning documents and old black & white photos. It does a good job there, but completely falls apart on negatives and slides. If you have only a limited number of slides or negs that you want to digitize, you can send them to a custom lab. The downsides to this are that it'll set you back about a buck a scan and you have little control over the quality. The resolution may not be what you specified, and chances are that you'll get back scans that have to be corrected for color balance and exposure and spotted for dust and scratches. Pro-quality scans are going to cost extra - a lot - and you can produce them yourself once you have the hardware.

Great-looking city and excellent photos!

Sounds like a monumental undertaking, and I can relate well. I have a 1TB SATA mirrored pair in my desktop system, with a mirrored 1TB USB external continuous backup, and I've used up about half my available space while at least a couple thousand 35mm and 120 roll-film negs remain unscanned, along with a comparable number of 35mm slides. I'll be lucky to get everything archived and organized in my lifetime. Then there are a couple thousand very good slides my dad took, that Mom was about to throw out in the early stages of her dementia, and several hundred slides that my aunt took of our family in the 1940s and 50s when my brothers and I were little kids.

Welcome to Urbanohio, Jaybird! That's a really comprehensive tour of downtown Toledo, and excellent photography! I spent a bright, cold, windy Saturday in November walking around there, and you captured most of the places I noticed. Toledo looks a lot better with the green foliage in your photos. Thanks for identifying the buildings in your photos, too. I echo that sentiment. During my November Saturday walkabout, except around the public library, at a few bus stops, and in the few cars that passed by, I saw almost no people anywhere. Despite losses of landmark buildings in recent years to a couple of fires and some demolitions, there's a wealth of beautiful, massive, imposing commercial architecture in downtown but a lot of it is vacant, at least so far as the street-level retail space is concerned. Even the Commodore Perry Apartments main lobby entrance was closed, with litter accumulated in the doorway and a sign in the window advising visitors to go to an entrance in the rear where there's an intercom and a keypad. The cold wind and low-angled intense early-winter light added to the atmosphere of desolation.

Nice looking town and handsome campus. In various travels across the state I've found a lot to like in some of Iowa's small cities.

I like the city hall/firehouse!