Home Again!
And it’s so nice. I remember the days when I had no desire to come back to Huntsville. Seems that when you don’t own the place in which you reside you can’t ever really call it home. I didn’t mind being away when I lived at Monte Sano Terrace and I didn’t mind being away from when I lived at Becky’s house (in fact I liked being away from there, except I always thought about the grass that was growing like crazy when I was gone). Now, I look forward to coming home when I’m away. That’s not totally true, I had no desire what so ever to be home on Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning. That time frame was one of the most enjoyable in many years and I hope to make it a recurring theme. I really liked having Insanity Claus track me down. But when I did leave to go be with my own family I missed being home, here in Huntsville.
So I delayed my return as a long as I could because I really do enjoy spending time with my sister and brother-in-law and the two babies, but I really wanted to be home. I got on the road at about 5:00 and got home at 8:30. 5 minutes before Jackie pulled up in the driveway. We exchanged hellos, I continued off loading (it takes a lot of stuff to support two dogs for a weekend away from home) and when I got done off loading I decided to play with the one toy that I got for Christmas. See, Sarah has been hearing me whine about wanting to make a really neat train layout on the table that I built for it. The problem is, the Chattanooga Choo-Choo locomotive that I have leaves a lot to be desired as far as power goes, so it struggles to pull the 6 little cars that I have. Granted those six cars are pretty heavy when you consider the scale but still that engine should be able to pull them a lot better than it does. So, Sarah decided that it would be good to buy me a new locomotive and with the help of her Dad who also enjoys model rail roading they found me a new engine that is AWESOME! 
I thought that I would have to get a new controller, but I decided to see what that engine would do if I put it on the track and let it run. I turned the controller to about half power and the engine took off, slowly gathering speed like a real train would. It got up to speed about half way down the track and I thought I should slow it down before it hit the cars on the other side. Now, the old engine that I have starts at full speed and stops immediately because it’s a direct gear drive engine meaning there’s no gentle application of power other than you slowly increasing the current through the track. So I’m used to starting and stoping on a dime. The new engine is different! It’s a fly wheel drive that allows the engine to ramp up speed, so it takes off slowly and then little did I know, it slows down slowly too. I got the engine up to full speed and started to back off expecting it a sudden stop of the engine. Instead it coasted to a stop after it rammed into the caboose from the other side. Jackie and I looked at each other and we both had the expression that Donkey had on his face when he and Shrek entered Lord Farquad castle and say the information both and had their picture taken. “Wooooooow, let’s do that again.” So I flipped the switch threw it in reverse and sent the engine flying around the track backwards, this time leaving enough room for a safe stop. I had now desire to break any of the cars or the engine itself.
The engine doesn’t have all of it’s parts put together yet, so the couple isn’t on it and I wanted to see how well it would pull my cars, so I decided to gently push the engine into the cars and push the cars around the track from behind. The cars don’t like being pushed and that engine has a TON of power. I gave it a little bit of juice, gathered some speed and promptly pushed 3 of the 6 cars off the tracks. Then I put the engine in Forward and pulled all six cars (3 still derailed) half way around the track before I stopped it. It didn’t even appear to be struggling. Todder LIKEY! So this is my version of saying many thanks to Sarah and her Dad for getting the little engine that could for me. Woooo Wooooooooooo!
Anyway, it’s nice to be back home! I think I’ll try to stay here for a little while.