A new respect for what is hidden

TRAIN!

One of our family's favorite cries is that of "Train!" when the sound of a train is heard in the distance, or when we see one passing by on the long long tracks that wind East from the ports of San Diego, carrying everything you're going to buy in a week or two on its way to you.

We get to call "Train" a lot down here in the high desert -- trains coming in from the West turn North, they come down from the North and turn East, we hear trains afternoon, evening, night-time -- only major roads have automatic gates out here. Many, many smaller roads and gravel lanes have, at best, a red light, or even nothing at all. So the trains must sound their haunting cry as a warning many many times on their journey through town.

All this I knew. And happen to love. But driving around through our continuing dust storms today, I became aware of the enormous amount of work being done on this major route for consumer goods into your town. We saw quite literally millions of dollars worth of huge, heavy machinery working its individual tasks on rails, and sleepers, track and bridges. Wow. Something I've kind of taken for granted for a long time turns out to be one huge job ... inspiring.

One thing I love about life is that no matter how old I get there are always whole new worlds to discover, from quilting to the hidden truth about plain old freight trains. What have you learned today?