Cafe Einstein : LPTP #9...onward and upward

I've gotten lots of calls from those guys.

My current response is pretty aggressive. After they make their initial claims (something like "I'm from the Windows technical support department and we see that your computer is sending out distress signals"), I say something like:

"We both know you are telling lies. Why don't you quit and get a real job?"

The stringing along for 10 minutes approach is probably much better, as it reduces their success rate per hour.

But I enjoy my approach.

@TL4 : Ah, the ancient question : do I take the red pill or the blue pill ? :-)

@David : it seems odd to say it, but that streetcar is well proportioned and I like the color! The street-scape :

of it in the early postwar years makes me wonder what/where the passengers were up to that day ? That multi-story orange/cream building in the centre background looks like a hospital, and those billboards look like cigarette ads. That looks like a good drop to pavement level from the door lip, do steps fold out or does a platform solve that ?

@Mikey : I've had CitiWank calling me all hours from off continent, with the pretense of doing me some favor while stealing money from me. As I almost never answer the home phone first, I've instructed the family to lie. Perhaps "he's in intensive care" might work well as an ambiguous/plausible polite answer. But they just don't take polite hints do they ?

Good Morning All.

Cheers, Mike.

Mike, you're probably right about the billboards. My thought, based on fair familiarity with Chicago, is that the building is a factory of some sort. Examining maps.live.com, I found a building still standing that could possibly be it, on the corner of Madison and Laflin. If that is it, it contradicts my other theory that the caption is wrong and the car is actually going east. This theory is based on the shadows, but they could work for a late day shot in the summer on the part of Ogden that crosses Madison.

This Saturday, I lost my pole coming out of the yard. No big deal, it's to be expected. Then I came to a red signal. It's permissive, so all I have to do is stop and proceed at Restricted Speed (which is as fast as it's possible to go in that spot anyway), but I called the dispatcher to ask what was going on. He didn't know of anything. I went around the curve and found two switches against me. Grab the radio and call the Track Department, since I see a machine working on the track one of those switches leads to. No response. Call the dispatcher again to verify that I'm within my rights to set the switches for my route. He says yes, do it. The first one is brand new (which is why the track machine is working out there), no problem. The second one won't latch in place. I try pushing the handle down with my foot (considered dangerous and frowned upon). I finally had to put my entire considerable mass on it and even bounce a little to get the latch to lock in place. Then I put the padlock on, for good measure. Get back on the car (not easy where I stopped). THEN notice that the indicator light for the switch is still wrong. Look at the points. Not closed properly; if I try to proceed, I will split the switch. Get back off the car and try kicking the point. It won't budge. Unlock the padlock and try to unlatch the handle. IT won't budge. Oh boy, how am I going to get it open if I have to ;put all my weight on it again -- I can't do that and reach down for the latch at the same time. Fortunately, it didn't require all of me and I got it. Flop the handle back the wrong way, inspect the points for foreign matter, nothing, try again. This time I just flopped the handle as far as it would go on its own and then looked at the point again. Tried pushing it. Just a little bit of weight on top and it went downward and then slid into place, the throwbar (the term I should have been using all along for handle) dropping almost all the way down. Now it's just a simple push to latch it. Lock it again. Back on the car, breathe heavily for a bit, and proceed.

Since I have no passengers and there are none waiting, I blow past Springfield Ave.... and lose my pole. Stop on the crossing (easy to get off and on there) to fix it. Museum General Manager pulls up in his car and has to wait for me to clear. Proceed to Barn 9 North and stop, just in case anyone pops out of the barn and wants to ride. No one. Proceed, cautiously due to proximity of parked equipment. Safety stop at Central Ave. Ding ding, give it power, and.... nothing. Lost the pole again. As I climb down, the head of the DC Line Department comes over saying "who moved my cones???!" Not me. "This track is out of service. You just found out why." I look up. There seems to be some sort of covering on the wire, maybe a safety insulator or something. "You can see my cones here, they're supposed to be on the track back there and right here." I didn't move 'em. Will that be all day? "All day." Get out the radio again and inform the dispatcher of this. He says I'll have to ping-pong again. I put the pole on and move the car, and the wire guy puts his cone back. He never really does much, if anything, during the day, though, and at various times the General Manager moves the cones (presumably with permission) and runs through with diesels and strings of cars and engines from the south yards.

to be continued