The Wayback Machine: September 2011: What do you make of this?

Back in September, as I drove across Nebraska, I stopped at the Union Pacific Railway Yard in North Platte.  It was pretty cool.  And I forgot about this little gem until recently.

Up on the observation deck was a tiny model of the rail car repair shop that an old employee (I think) had made:

Clearly a labor of love to spend so much time on the little buildings and railway cars and employees, no?

But wait...  Look closer...  Does that one little plastic guy have a gun?  And is he pointing it at the railway worker?!  Yes he is!

A closer look at the model reveals little plastic men with guns all over the shop, menacing little plastic workers, and calling to mind the Pullman Railroad Strike of 1894.  There's even a man down!

A close-up of the diorama.

Since I failed to find out what that was all about while I was at the railway yard, we are left to wonder... Is this a subversive pro-union diorama?  Perhaps a warning to lazy or uppity railroad workers that they better get back to work?  Maybe the artist ran out of supplies, and had to paint a bunch of the Little Green Army Men?  Or perhaps the gun-toters are there to pull off a great train robbery?  Alas, we'll probably never know.

Aliens Attack!

Written by guest blogger Nicky.


After spending Sunday in Portland -- where we toured the oldest cemetary in the city, climbed the Portland Observatory, and visited Maine Meade Works -- we headed to New Hampshire and the White Mountain National Forest on Monday.

The Portland Observatory (it observes ships, not the stars).

The view from the observatory.

Mead.

After an afternoon of hiking, we set up camp outside the park and built a nice little camp fire (Gaby's first of the trip, despite all the camping she's been doing).

Earlier in the day, Gaby had been talking about a series of books that she had read in which aliens come to earth and make first contact with people on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. As we were sitting around the fire, she then went on to say that if she had one wish, it would be that before she dies we discover definitive proof of life on another planet.

Nicky started the fire and kept it going.

Five minutes later, we started to notice an interesting phenomenon in the night sky to our east. Over the hills, the sky started to light up with a series of flashes. Our first thought was lightning, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Then we thought it might be fireworks off in the distance, but the flashes went on for way too long. Finally, we determined that the only possible explanation was that Gaby's wish was coming true, and the aliens had arrived. The sky was still lighting up when we went to bed a little after midnight, but the mystery only deepend when we started to hear helicopters circling overhead. I can only assume that Will Smith was called in to control the situation.