If We Were Having A(nother) Beer

The perfect place and beverage to share some casual conversation.

This visit to the bar is also part of Linda G. Hill’s fun weekly series, Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Yours truly is filling in for Linda today, and our assignment was:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “ooooh, aaaah,”. Use it as a phrase, or break it apart. And since I love bonus points, bonus points if you somehow manage to start and end with all or part. That’s about it, oh yeah, I almost forgot – Enjoy!

“Ooooh, just the man I was hoping to see.”

“Was this in doubt? I mean, I’m usually here on Saturday.”

“Well, you’ve been mixing it up a lot, I thought maybe you were changing your routine.”

“Dan? Change his routine? $10 says he asks me for a Yuengling.”

“No bet, Cheryl, he is a creature of habit.”

“I am, and I will have a Yuengling, and I don’t understand why you think I’m ‘mixing it up’ “

“Well, I heard that you were in here on Sunday.”

“Yes. Sunday. Father’s Day. I was having dinner with my daughter.”

“Aaaah – I get it. Her gift to you? Pretty safe bet.”

“Actually, her gift to me was a visit to the Railroad Museum of New England and a ride on the historic Naugatuck Railroad, and a wonderful book from their gift shop.”

“A train ride. That’s an even safer bet than coming here. Here’s your beer, and I assumed you wanted a glass of Meiomi.”

“Speaking of safe bets, thanks, I was going to ask.”

“You boys want to visit the dining car, as it were?”

“Do you still have the Oysters special?”

“No, and I can honestly say, I don’t miss serving them. But, we always have Mussels on the menu.”

“Oooh, those are good, but white wine with red wine, I’m not sure…”

“I’m good. Mussels go fine with beer.”

“They’re Blue Point Mussels, red, white and blue…for the fourth???”

“OK, OK. Two orders of mussels.”

“Coming right up, you guys are easy today.”

“I think that’s because it’s my turn to pay.”

“So, I’m checking that museum out on my phone. It looks like you finally got your wish.”

“What wish was that?”

“To ride on a train pulled by a New Haven Railroad locomotive.”

“Not quite. They do have NHRR locos in their fleet, but we were pulled by a Naugatuck Railroad locomotive. Same GE engine, actually they said it was one of the first engines to have a rudimentary computer control, very similar paint scheme and the same slab serif font in the logo.”

“Sigh…”

“What?”

“I was just thinking how you could have said: “No, it just looks like New Haven, it was actually a Naugatuck Railroad loco…that’s all.”

“I do tend to go on.”

“You do. So how long was the ride?”

“It was an hour and fifteen minutes.”

“Wow. That’s a good long ride.”

“Yeah, it goes down to Waterville then back up, past the Thomaston station, over the Thomaston dam and then back to the station. Oops, there I go again.”

“So, half way being pulled and half being pushed?”

“Nope. In Waterville the engine disconnects, turns around and reconnects at the other end.”

“That must be fun to watch.”

“It was, but they give viewing preference to the kids on board.”

“Aaaah, that’s cool.”

“OK guys, mussels are up. More wine? Another beer?”

“Ooooh, look at those bad boys. Yes, I’ll have another beer.”

“Great, you boys doing anything special for the fourth?”

“I might go into Hartford for the fireworks.”

“I’m going to pass on the fireworks. The loud noises still screw-up my hearing.”

“Let me guess, you got your building permit and you’re going to start on your garage.”

“I did get the building permit, but I’m pretty sure my wife will be maintaining the fourth-of-July-construction-ban.”

“Whaaaah?

“Three years. Three projects. Three trips to the ER or walk-in medical, and she drew the line. No construction on the fourth of July weekend.”

“Who are you, Tim from Tool Time?”

“Ha ha. It was beginning to feel that way.”

“She doesn’t seriously forbid you to do the work…right?”

“Oh no, she does. Seriously, no construction. I can do some work in the shop, but I won’t be starting that project.”

“So bike ride? Barbeque? Sit with Maddie and suck down a few Yuenglings? What’s the deal?”

“Those all sound pretty good.”

“What if it rains?”

“It’s supposed to be a pretty nice weekend. And, on the fourth, there’s always the Twilight Zone Marathon.”

“Aaaah.”

Exhibit showing some of the restoration photos

Our trip took us along the Naugatuck River (Faith’s photo)

She’s a good kid.

A crane that rides the rails – my dream vehicle.

Business end of the rail crane

This little guy blended in pretty well.

Exhibit showing some of the restoration photos

This is for David, He’s building a New England model train layout (in England)

Central Connecticut is quite beautiful

Riding easy along the river

Boston and Main wooden boxcar

Boston and Main boxcar

Rail crane

Riding across the face of the Thomaston Dam

Spillway of the Thomaston Dam

That’s our loco rolling up to the other end as we change direction

That would be our ride

Sign from the great days of rail travel

Bridge over the Naugatuck River

Interior of our car.

The video is of the work yard for the museum., I thought David would enjoy seeing the collection of rolling stock.