trains

A lot of things you forget pretty quickly. Or at least I do. Two years away from a place and I'd forgotten just how much train time there is in that area. Well- not forgotten completely but forgotten what it feels like. To be on trains. AllTheTime. On a day train, you can get stuff done. A lot of stuff. And I have. I've written letters and emails and done blog posts and read books and studied and sorted through notes and papers and pictures. You name it. If it's portable it's probably been done. But- being in limbo sort of stifles that. At the beginning of August, I packed up and shipped most of my 'stuff' to a central Ukr city and then went on down South for a few months. Meantime, stuff happened- like it is wont to do- and plans changed. At the end of the 'South Stint' I was briefly reunited with my stuff. Which was a big thing. The apartment it was in had been broken into in mid August. My stuff along with that of several other people was thoroughly sifted through and scattered around and disrespected. Some dear soul had been there after that and tried to put stuff away as best they could. But when I got there- I found some of it on the shelves, some of it in my cases. A lot of it wasn't how I'd left it and it took awhile to sort through it realize that nothing had been taken (which was no surprise- aside from this laptop, I have nothing of real monetary value...and the laptop was with me at the time... whew). So- just as I got all my stuff spread out and sifted and sorted, I also got word that within days my stuff and I would be moving West to be with T for a bit. Being the calm person that I am, I quietly packed it all up and shipped it off again. (permission granted to laugh... I might have fluttered a bit... heh)

What's this have to do with trains??? Just a minute.

Oh yeah- so for the 2 weekends I was in the train area I was fantastically unmotivated to dig into my stuff at all to find much to do. Oh- I had some stuff along that was on the surface and easy to get to. But not much. And so the train time got L-O-N-G. 

So Monday, when we parked just across the aisle from these 4, it didn't take much to distract me. Mr Light Blue Sweater had a little Bluetooth headset on his right ear. He loved talking on the phone. Loudly. He must have been some sort of wheeler dealer buyer seller. He had several conversations about stuff he was looking for for other people. Including a mattress for 2 very small lightweight people. He didn't really know if the mattress Caller On The Other End had was really what they were looking for. Then there was a phone call about magazine subscriptions. His voice went on and on and on. And when he wasn't talking on the phone, he was talking. Period. To anyone and everyone. He was verbose. Wordy. Diffuse. Prolix. Long-winded. He had it all and knew it all. And was happy to share.I just love his wife's pointed disinterest in this pic.

To be fair- these guys seemed in the mood to chat and did their share sometimes.

And then- and then. Mrs Wife in the Pink Sweater came to life. Turns out... they're a good match. She can talk too. She Can Really Talk Too. 

see her hands? Blurs? Yep... they talk, too. And, once again, to be fair- they really weren't obnoxious. They just talked. A Lot. Like the whole 2 1/2 hours. No Breaks. At All. 

A mom and baby got on right behind us and settled just beyond our seats. I caught Baby's eye- he was running around looking at all of us. But no go making up to the little squirt.  Suddenly, he careened by me clutching a toy car. Bypassed me altogether and ran right up to the only other child within shouting distance. A boy of about 8. Showed him his car and offered it to him. They hit if off right away.

It was really neat to see how the older boy immediately responded to Baby. 

Baby was happy and content the whole time largely because of his new buddy.

And tell me- How does a toddler know that this 'also-bigger-than-him' person is going to get right down on the floor and play with him? How did he hone right in on the one person in the whole wagon who was most likely to give him all of his time? Ok- sure- he's short, too...shorter than the rest of us. But really- he obviously wasn't too small to recognize another kid. And the kids? The big one was Russian speaking; Baby babbled...but his momma spoke Ukrainian. Kids are really something else. 

And so- the train trip passed and we got home and I didn't finish packing but just crashed... And was glad. :)