Thoughts of the Drew

2010-04-21T00:31:00.000-07:00

Well, it's 2am and i have had a heck of a day. I cant sleep, so I figure I'll blog about one of the worst days I have ever had.

This day was prefaced with the death of my 90 something old grandma dying a couple days ago. It is sad, but she's been wanting to die for a long time. She is now with my grandpa, who preceded her in death. She was a sweet woman.

Anyway, my grandma died. the funeral was set for the 21st at 10 oclock in the morning. I had it all worked out that me and my four year old daughter were going to drive up to worland, where the funeral is, and have a fun time and maybe teach her a little about death and what happens to you when you die. Well, I only have one functional vehicle so I borrow my dad's car, which he drove to rawlins to drop off earlier today.

So I get home from work at about noon, pack up all my stuff and all leah's stuff, and we are on the road, baby. To get from rawlins to worland you have to take US 287 north. It's not a very good road, but hey, what do you do. I've been to worland a few times but I am a little fuzzy on the exact way how to get there. I have a handy dandy gps navaigation system I just bought which should help me on my way. (make note of that because that gps comes in later in the story) Me and Leah drive towards worland and she is watching dvds in the back seat and everything is great. My dad's old car is great too, aside from a noise coming from somewhere. I get past muddy gap and the gps tells me to take a left. I take a left. I am on the right road. How did we ever live without gps? I'm going down the road and leah is asleep. her head is drooped over and she is totally snoring.

I am almost to riverton when my gps tells me to take a left onto a dirt road. What the freak? Why is it telling me to go on a dirt road? Well, it was a very nice dirt road so i took it. it said to go two miles and then turn right. whatever. Here i go. well the road got worse. And Worse. I realized I was in trouble. the mud on the road was getting thick and my car was getting bogged down. To make a short story long, I got my dads car very very stuck in some sticky mud. Leah woke up and was a little concearned when i had trouble opening my door. There was a lot of mud.

I took a minute and assessed the severity of my situation. I'm screwed. We are a mile from the road, which is barely travelled probably even on the fourth of july. I have no signal on my cell phone which is about to die anyway. Leah told me I shouldnt have gotten our car stuck. she is so cute. I get out of the car and decide to walk the mile to the road. I had about 3 hours till dusk.

I get leah out of the car and it is muddy as all hell. i am muddy to my ankles in my brand new white sneakers (I was trying to keep them clean to look good.) I am not going to let my little girl get dirty so I pick her up and start for the road. Leah suggested we pray to jesus so he could help us. I prayed and asked for help. I had a hard time standing up because of the mud. it took a little while but we got to the road. We were standing by the road for all of two minutes and the huge diesel dodge ram came upon us, which I flagged down. There was a woman in it and she stopped. She got out of the truck and shook my hand. She asked leah her name and leah said: "My name is Leah and I have a baby sister!!!" This lady, Jeneen, shook leah's hand and offered to get my car unstuck. Is this for real? Did I say a prayer and get an answer like this?

As we drove to the car Jeneen told me she was LDS and from Dubois. We talked for a while and then we came up on the stuck car. we were going to have to pull it out from the rear, but the mud was so bad we werent going to be able to do it. this truck was making noise and throwing rooster tails of mud. I was afraid 3 different times that this big diesel truck was going to get stuck. Leah started crying so I held her. I held my baby and she stopped crying.My car is no longer silver. It is brown. I better wash this car before my dad sees it

Me and jeneen decide to go to riverton where she would get me further help. It is only a couple miles away. Her truck is covered in mud. I have to call my wife and my dad and a tow truck. I stop at a large gas station and start looking in the phone book for a tow truck. You know what? at least a dozen other people, including Jeneen, whip out their cell phones and phone books and called every freaking tow truck place from lander to thermopolis. They were calling their brothers and their uncles and anyone else they knew with a truck. the girls were playing with leah and it was a beautiful thing. But you know what? there wasn't a single tow truck that had four wheel drive, much less a policy that would let them leave the road.

About this time I call my wife, and she is upset. She is so mad at me. She is worried that leah is not safe. My wife is crying and is spitting nails she is so mad at me.I had bought leah a big lollypop and a bottle of water. She is safe and happpy and never out of my sight. I know how to keep my little girl safe. Jeneen suggested I call the sherriff and have them get me out. But first she drops me and leah off at a motel, because it is after dark now, and leah needs to go to bed. I was for sure I was missing the funeral, but my cousin is coming down to get me and leah at 7. The sherriff is going to activate their search and rescue unit to get my car out in the morning. they will drive it into town for me and when i get back from the funeral we can just drive home. So now it's 2am and i'm sitting here on my bed next to my snoring baby. Let's see if tomorrow can be better than today.

2010-04-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

Earlier today I was deadheading home from green river on a train. Usually they give us a van and they drive us home. Today It was snowing like crazy and the roads were horrible, so we road on a train bound for North Platte. When you deadhead on a train the whole idea is to sleep as much of the way as possible. We were lucky today, it only took four hours to go to Rawlins. That's an awesome time.

Anyway, somewhere near wamsutter, my engineer, sitting in the engineer's seat, knocked the air brake lever and threw the train into emergency. (we were riding on the third unit). This woke us both up and he immediately realized what he did and felt really bad. The train came to a screeching halt and we heard the conductor on the radio calling out our situation. The crew thought they had separated an air hose, since we had just gone over a road crossing bunched. Louie, my engineer, radioed the fireman and told him what he had just done. We recovered our air and we took off, laughing at louie. It was funny.

2010-04-03T20:15:00.000-07:00

So the other day in Green river a fellow conductor stole a guys wallet and then went shopping with his credit cards. within hours they tracked him down and went after him at the motel that all of us stay at. they hauled him off and apparently didn't let him get dressed. All he had on was his tighty whiteys and they arrested him and took him to jail. He might lose his job over it, not to mention going to jail.

That's not the funny part. The funny part is hearing the rumors ab out it from other railroaders. I heard everything from stuff of homosexuality to stories about the fbi with other railroaders. You have to understand. The railroad is like a group of old ladies. gossip gets out of control and you don't know what to believe. The railroad grapevine is like no other!

I'm Back!!

2009-10-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

Well, as of the first part of september, I'm back to work. I was pretty discouraged in my last post. It got ugly, and I was out of work on and off for nearly a year. Being cut off really sucks. It's humiliating and embarrassing. But, I'm okay and making money. I was cut off for less than a week a little bit ago but was quickly put b ack to work.

The railroad is turning nicely right now and I am loving it. I just got a five percent raise and I'm making some good money. I just missed fireman training this time, but a guy with seniority this sucky can't expect to get that kind of stuff.

I'm going to post scary situations and near death experiences on this blog, hopefully i can stay employed for as long as possible.

Sick of the Railroad

2009-06-01T23:33:00.000-07:00

I lost my job with the railroad today. I don't like the railroad anymore. I have a college degree, maybe I could do something with that, worthless though it is. Stupid railroad.

My railroad wife

2009-04-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

My wife has been very supportive since I started with the railroad in 2006. She likes the retirement plan and everything. She doesn't mind the job either I guess, I'm gone half the time when I'm working. She doesn't even complain when money is tight, she doesn't get discouraged when I come home and tell her I'm cut off again. She is always there. I'm the one that doesn't have the patience so she ends up putting up the the railroad and me at the same time. She's like a rock. If I didn't have her I would be up a creek. Sometimes I don't treat her like a should, so she pipes up. She doesnt' care what the railroad is doing and she shows tremendous strength with everything. She won't tolerate being mistreated though. Come on. a person can only stand so much, right? She's my railroad wife though, so she needs some consideration, some love, and understanding. She really doesn't ask for much.

The railroad is notorious for breaking up marriages. When I got hired they asked us if we were married, and the ones that answered in the affirmative they asked if they were happy. They said if your marriage sucks now, it will end with the railroad. I know guys that have been married six times or more! I don't want that to be me. I think if I lost my sweetie it would make my life very dark indeed.

2009-01-24T23:10:00.000-08:00

If you've read my other posts you'll soon find out how frustrating detectors can be on the railroad. One time we got hit by a detector that said we had dragging equipment 18 cars back. I wouldn't have minded, but our train happened to be on a very steep hill. So steep, that I had to hold on to the cars as I went back to keep myself from falling about 150 feet through sage brush almost straight down to a big thing of mud. I started back, making my way to that stupid car. About halfway there I got brave and thought it would be faster to just walk. No sooner had I let go of a car that I tripped and fell down the hill into the mud. (It was snowing, and 2am). My engineer had seen it happen and laughed at me on the radio. So I walked in the mud until i could see the 18th car, and then I started to climb up the hill, grabbing sagebrush to pull myself up, in knee high snow. I was thinking to myself that there better be something wrong with this car or i'm going to freak. Well, I got up the the car, and upon inspecting it thoroughly, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I was disappointed, but relieved that I didn't have to deal with any problems.

Now I had the problem of getting back to the unit without taking all day. The engineer said I could walk between the two tracks and that he would tell me if a train was coming so I could get out of the way. I got on the other side of my train and started to walk between the two tracks. Keep in mind that if a train came while I was walking, it would pass within 3 feet of my train.

When I was about 200 feet away from the head end of my train, I saw another train bearing down on me coming in the opposite direction. Knowing I didn't have time to run up there, I had to lay down on my belly right next to my train and wait for the other train to go by. It was going pretty fast and loud, and I was scared, but it went by and I finished walking up the the front of my train.

2009-01-22T23:06:00.001-08:00

I haven't posted on my blog for a long time, mainly because I am lazy, forgetful, and sometimes don't care. Most of what is on my mind comes from my job. I am a freight conductor on the union pacific railroad. This is a fun job, one that is in my blood. I am the fourth generation to work for this railroad on my dad's side. My dad currently works as a locomotive engineer on the same set of rails as I work on, which is the same set of rails that my grandfather worked on, as well as his father. the railroad has changed a lot since my grandfather worked on it, but it hasn't changed that much from when my father started in 1978. I am typing this at about one in the morning because i can't sleep.

Lots of fun stuff happens on the railroad. I'm full of stories, which my wife doesn't like to hear, mainly because I forget which ones I've told her, and I repeat a lot.

my dad called my up today to tell me what happened to him on the job this morning. On the railroad, you don't work a fixed schedule. Sometimes you go to work at midnight, sometimes in the afternoon. this morning he went on duty at about two. His run as about s 350 miles, and just as he was about 100 miles into his run, he said every time he hit the throttle fire would come out of the smokestack on the third unit. It then started to spew oil, which caught fire and engulfed the entire locomotive. This is dangerous because a unit can hold 2500 gallons of fuel. I didn't ask him how the fire was extinguished.

sometimes you have to do dangerous stuff when you are a conductor. the most dangerous thing I have ever done happened a couple months ago. At certain locations on the track there are detectors. They can tell if your load is tipping, if you have a hot axle, or if you have dragging equipment. If it detects something wrong, it will come on the radio and anounce the problem and which car it is on.

at 3 in the morning, we went over a detector that told us we had dragging equipment on the sixth head car. It's my job to get my tool kit, and my lantern, and walk on back. I also have a radio i can use to talk to the engineer with. Well, when I went back to the sixth car, there was a one hundred pound piece of the brake rigging that was disconnected on one side and dragging between the rails. I needed to wire up the dragging side, and to do it, I needed to crawl underneath the car in between two wheels, bench press the steel bar, and wire it up. As I was doing that, another train came by me on the other track going 70 miles an hour. keep in mind i was four feet away from the other track so when it went by it it was kind of scary. did I mention the track I was on had a foot of snow on it? after half an hour and two trains, I was done and went up to the lead engine covered in dirty snow, half frozen, and glad it was over.

I think I'm going to use this blog to talk about my job, so maybe I can give my wife a break.

The Bird

2008-11-04T15:29:00.000-08:00

Today I was running an errand, which I love to do so very very much. I was going through the post office parking lot. There were some pedestrians so I was going very slow. I notice a woman parked on my right put it in reverse and start backing out, right at me. This woman didn't know what she was doing because she was lighting up a cigarette, and talking on the phone at the same time. I hit the gas to get out of her way, nearly hitting a couple of peds. I didn't honk, I just looked back and gave the woman a mad face. Then guess what she did. Yep, she flipped me the bird. If I wasn't a good boy respecting women and all that I probably would have returned the gesture. I stopped to mail my letter and she whipped around me while hitting the gas excessively.

Seriously, what is wrong with people? If I were to screw up like she did, I wouldn't have been that way about it. I would have smiled sheepishly and waved. Oh well, that's just me I guess.

Introduction

2008-11-03T16:33:00.000-08:00

I guess I will introduce myself to anyone who may be reading my blog. My name is Drew, I am 34 years old, I am six feet tall 265 pounds. Okay, I'm a tad stout, but lets not dwell on the negative!

I love baseball, riding trains and spending time with my lovely wife Camille. I also enjoy doing stuff for Camille. I also like to fix my cars and work out my abs. I speak Spanish which I learned on my LDS mission to southern CA ('93-'95), and... okay, well, that's about it.

When I'm not doing that other stuff I'm probably sitting down and being out of shape. I am the first child out of five in my original family, with one sister and three brothers. Ironically, I am the shortest brother, with the youngest being tallest. I don't know why I included that tidbit of info, other than the fact that it is a constant source of pain for me. I can still pin any one of my brothers though, so I am the toughest. I'm sure it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I outweigh them all by at least a hundred pounds each.

Railroad

2008-10-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

I am a freight conductor on the Union Pacific Railroad. I go from Rawlins to Green River every day. I was talking to a guy at the hardware store the other day who wondered why my job even existed. He assumed the train ran itself and there was no work to be done. He was smug and I wanted to smack him. The engineer is like the pilot of a plane, and I'm like the co-pilot. He runs the train and I do everything else.

Every once in a while the train's air brake system will break and It's my job to get it fixed and get the train moving again. This usually entails a 2 or 3 mile walk no matter if it's hot and sunny or cold and snowy. sometimes I'll be in between trains as they move by. I've almost been run over several times. That's scary, especially when the other train is going 60 or 70 miles per hour.

I could relate some stories where I am not sure how i survived but my wife will probably read this.

Working on the railroad also means memorizing hundreds of rules. Most of them I use every day. If you don't follow these rules and you get caught, you could get fired.

I love my job. I'm gone a little too much from home, but it's a job.

my blog

2008-10-04T20:55:00.000-07:00

I am now a blogger. I don't have anything to blog about, but here it is, my blog. I was jealous that my wife had a blog that everyone read, but now I have my own. Da** if I know how to blog or what to put in my blog. I guess I will just go along and reinvent the blogging phenomenon for myself, thereby alienating my friends and making myself look like a boo*. Can you say the words "da**" and "boo*" on a blog? Are they going to take my blog away from me? I will try not to think about that. This is the first blog I have ever had, so please don't laugh at me and negatively blog about my blog to other bloggers.

I've heard of other people flaming other people's blogs and demonstrating their discontent with those blogs. Please don't flame me or make fun of my ill attempt at blogging.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I would like to talk about...

Oh heck. I'll think of something later.