I Survived!

     I survived the cut-in, and more importantly so did everyone else!  I am also still employed, which is always a good thing.  Let me explain a little bit more about my job for this cut in.  I am assigned a section of track, in this case about 3.5 miles, and anyone who wants to be on that track has to talk to me first.  Cool right, you are the God of your 3.5 miles. Well yea kinda, but after being God of 3.5 miles I sure don't want God's job.  Here is the thing, when I say anyone, I mean ANYONE, must talk to me first.  This includes, trains, trucks, persons, train masters, road masters etc. and my job is to keep all of those people from hurting each other. For example, I had 8 crews spread out in my territory that were working on the signal system, one truck on the track taking down old signals and and trains calling me and asking to come through, or into the yard etc.  My job is to get the people that will be in the way of that train out, be sure the truck won't be in the way and then bring the train through.  If I forget someone, there is a chance they could get squished, and if I forget a truck, there is an even better chance of a WhamO. 
     The moral of the story is take good notes and pay attention.  Knowing your territory also helps, which is why I got this job. When I was a conductor I worked out of this yard, so I was more familiar than most of my counterparts.  However, I have already told my boss, someone else can have the privilege for the next cut-in. 
    
     In other exciting news, I am typing this from my very own living room! Which to me is pretty exciting.  It needs to be cleaned, but I can handle that.  My husband was good enough to keep most of the dishes clean and all of my pets are still alive so I will assume everyone got fed as needed.  Maybe I am easy to please but just doing those few things keeps me pretty happy.   This is a picture of me and my dogs laying in front of the fireplace.  It is one of our favorite pastimes

   
     I also go back to school this week.  I take classes online through Liberty University, mostly compliments of CSX.  I am a business major with a minor in project management.  This semester I am taking Theology 104 (Intro to Christian Thought) and Accounting 212 (Principles of Accounting 2).  Some people may ask why a business major is taking Theology, and the simple answer is, its required.  This is Liberty University and they are very big on teaching Christian thought as well as the normal college classes.  This is my last religious required class and I hope to find it interesting.  I am a Christian, which does help, but I never thought myself as a "bible beater" or a "fundamentalist".  I simply believe the word of God as truth.  There were two other required religious courses, Bible 101, which I liked, and Apologetics 101, which I wasn't a huge fan of.  Bible 101 taught the history of the Bible which I found very interesting.  Apologetics taught how to argue christian thought, which I found misaligned with the word of God.  He said tell people about it, don't argue or beat them over the head with it. 

   So dear readers, that is what has been happening here.  I am hoping for a nice break from work before getting back at it on Tuesday.  The farrier will be here tomorrow, I am hoping to actually ride a horse that I own this weekend and get some of that house cleaning done that I mentioned earlier.  If I am really lucky I might get a massage to!  Hope everyone has a great weekend.