Rick's b.log - entry 2010/02/28

Here & There, but not Everywhere

Here it is coming. It's an infra-red picture because, obviously, the better-looking visual picture is not much use at night!

And... well...

AfterStory - Here

I got up about four(ish) as the sun was starting to get low in the sky. I walked up the lane and back looking for stuff on the road. Nothing to report, so kitten and I sat outside and watched the sun set.

In fact, about the only thing to report, which isn't that unusual in the winter, is the rain has made walking across the field to feed the cats to be something that requires a little bit of care... as demonstrated by the picture on the right here. I can imagine this will get worse before it gets better as we now have a weather advisory for heavy rain.

I was able to get a nice moon shot, complete with timestamp so nobody thinks I cheated and took it in the afternoon. It was an 8" exposure with an Agfa (plawa) DC-8330i. For some odd reason, long exposures always take twice as long as they are supposed to?

AfterStory - There

There is widespread flooding, and around 50 people dead. 29 of them drowned along the Vendéean littoral, which is along the coastline.
Two deaths reported in Loire-Atlantique were old people (77 & 83) parked their camping car at the end of the port by the beach. A high sea coefficient, plus the hurricane, meant the vehicle was quickly underwater. They apparently died trying to get out... I say "apparently" as who the hell parks beside a beach in the path of a known-to-be-violent hurricane?
A woman was out in her garden and was killed by a flying bin lid. Perhaps she didn't recycle and the bin took revenge.
When the power went out (and it went out for 900,000 homes), two people dragged a generator inside and started it up... and gassed themselves.
Coastal caravan parks... well, I'm sure you don't need a description.

It looks like we (as in our region) got off lightly.

Nozomi, sayonara!

Secondly, the overall website at http://www.japanrail.com/ has shut down and is pointing you to the various regional offerings. Good luck finding a schedule on the JR West site... it looks like the JR Central's timetables may cover it?

I think this was part of the point of a centralised website, guys? Not having to work out what and where?
The British, for all their trains may be accused of not running on time, have a very clear and easy to use website (www.nationalrail.co.uk).
I can take a train from Ash, tomorrow (1st March) at 8h24. Change at Reading, and again at Taunton. I will backtrack up the line a ways and arrive in Bridgwater at 11h13. Walking will get me to the middle of Bridgwater for about half eleven, so I can stop at the Admiral Blake chippie for lunch.
As it is off-peak, it'll cost me £38 (standard class). I don't believe it... this site will even create a customised pocket timetable (as a PDF) for you to download.
So, Japan... where's your one-stop rail schedule?

Your comments:

Please note that while I check this page every so often, I am not able to control what users write; therefore I disclaim all liability for unpleasant and/or infringing and/or defamatory material. Undesired content will be removed as soon as it is noticed. By leaving a comment, you agree not to post material that is illegal or in bad taste, and you should be aware that the time and your IP address are both recorded, should it be necessary to find out who you are. Oh, and don't bother trying to inline HTML. I'm not that stupid! ☺ ADDING COMMENTS DOES NOT WORK IF READING TRANSLATED VERSIONS.
 
You can now follow comment additions with the comment RSS feed. This is distinct from the b.log RSS feed, so you can subscribe to one or both as you wish.

No comments yet...

Add a comment (v0.11) [help?] . . . try the comment feed!
		Your name
		Your email	(optional)
		Validation	Are you real? Please type 75046 backwards.
		Your comment