Trackside Treasure's Twelfth Anniversary

For this Twelfth Anniversary, I was bard one afternoon. Played out. Scene better days. I had the shakes, peer pressure. What to do to mark this auspicious occasion? Well, to speak commemoratively, of course. In ways yet unheard and words yet unseen. Shakespeare! All the world's a stage! So here, in twelve bullet points, are a Dirty Dozen Trackside Treasure points to ponder, based on that famous play, Twelfth Night! (Absolutely hated the bard's scrawlings in high school, this one included, but survived!)

Part the First

• “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” Well, I don't know about great, I'm happy to achieve some goodness by blogging here!

• “If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die." It's been an easy challenge to continue the blog lo these dozen years. That's 686 posts, 31 in draft form, and 3,120 comments - and that's just the appetizer. I haven't yet entered the entree.

• “Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.” Trying to keep it light, while still providing useful information. Taking the job seriously, though not quite taking myself seriously.

• “Journeys end in lovers meeting.” That's how we ended up here, talking in the previous post about arriving back home aboard VIA Rail in 1986 to greet my future wife. Exeunt!

Pictures like this one make me want to blog. CN 4364 leads westbound VIA No 1/55 
under a Beaconsfield, QC overpass in April, 1984. At this time, the Park and Skyline
operated out of Toronto only, but look at those five former club-buffet-lounges behind
the mix of power! Kevin Day photo shared with permission.

Part the Second

• “I say there is no darkness but ignorance.”And my blog partners spread light through their blogs and websites in my sidebar: Dave, Steve, John, Ed, Chris, Don/Peter/George, Matthieu, Bernard, Marc and Michael. I enjoy reading their latest.

• “O time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me t'untie.” I like a challenge. Sometimes post ideas marinate for awhile in point form, partial form or perhaps-never form. Some take time sometimes.

• “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent.” I have time on my side here. I can work away and come back and publish when ready. But ask me something OTOH? That's what the top-left search box is for, for me.

• “Them that dally nicely with words may quickly make them wanton.” I idly dally daily, ideally. I like words. But a picture is worth a thousand of 'em. That's why this you'll never find text passages on Trackside Treasure that are any longer than my attention span.

My new winter workspace - family heirloom drop-down desk.
Here I will write drop-down lists.

Part the Tailend

• “He does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural." I thought, talked and blogged about putting launching some or all of Trackside Treasure on other social media. Too much work right now; one-stop shopping right here.

• ”But that’s all one, our play is done, And we’ll strive to please you every day." You have my word on it that the play value will continue here. If one person out in cyberspace gets something out of this, my day is complete. 

• “Why, this is very midsummer madness." It was the summer doldrums when I furnished this little one-bedroom cyberspace apartment called Trackside Treasure. So it's only fitting that we are all annuitants of an annual anniversary annal. Thanks for reading, for commenting, for suggesting, for sharing, for searching and for coming back weekly for more. I couldn't do it without you. Well I could, but it would be a lot less fun!

Running extra...

A rapid rash of Rapido Trains Inc. product announcements made this week - RSC-14. RS-18u and re-do of the Angus van. Apparently not in Conrail colours this time! How much can Canadian prototype modellers handle, you know what I mean? Meanwhile:

Quarantinewhile, Stephen Colbert's A Late Show is back after a hiatus. Sometime I'll search out his former-Meanwhile word-salad intros. There's no masking the best political/current events satire right now, presented with lots of thought stipped-down with minimal pandemic production value.

Post-COVID haircut time. I've been Edwardscissorhanding my own since March. Picture this: This barber gave the customer a comb as he was leaving the barbershop. The customer thanked him but asked why? The barber said that the comb was a parting gift!