Your Today in Pictures...

[Graham Ritchie]

Well I don't have a photo but thought I would share this with you. Today down at the park it was pretty quiet, but had the Westar threaded for at least one run through, as the week has been cold and wet and as you know projectors don't like not being used. Anyway a young couple came up to me with a small baby exercising his lungs as baby's do They asked can we watch some film, I said absolutely, so they sat down with baby still going to town . I said if its a bit loud for the wee one, I can turn it down?, his mum said he likes loud

So away we went and for the full 20 minutes the baby was completely silent, I wasn't expecting that, afterwards the couple thanked me, and I commented how quiet there wee one was, as his mum adjusted his little wooly hat, so there you have it folks, the magic of the movies

[Steve Klare]

That’s great, Graham!
-sometimes pictures come in words too!

(Theres some thousand to one ratio in there, if I remember right!)

[Ed Gordon]

...So away we went and for the full 20 minutes the baby was completely silent, I wasn't expecting that, afterwards the couple thanked me, and I commented how quiet there wee one was, as his mum adjusted his little wooly hat, so there you have it folks, the magic of the movies

I like your conclusion that movies are magic! It may not have been the movie you showed, but the sound of the running projector.

5 Hours of Soothing Sounds of a Running Motor| Calming ASMR

5 hours of soothing ASMR of a running motor sounds while riding on the open road. Relax while listening to the soft soothing sounds of the soft continuous rumbling to fill the silence. Use white noise for concentration, sleep, meditation, and/or have something in the background as you complete your everyday tasks. You can listen for the sounds of a wheel spinning to ease your stressful day, or elevate your mood. ASMR and white noises are really nice for concentration, studying, sleep, and meditation.

The sound of a running movie projector works. Be advised that the sound of a running video projector has the opposite effect; it is annoying as hell.

[Graham Ritchie]

Arriving at the Heritage park today I have to make sure I take some bread with me, as every time I drive in the wildlife heads for the car before I have even stopped the car is surrounded here are a picture of my friends, I have to be careful though with the Pukeko in particular as they are quite stupid, they run in front of the car when its in motion, I do talk to them..... its an age thing

I have called the below duck "Gertrude" it stands at my feet getting first go at the bread Although we are into winter at the moment, still plenty to tourists from other countries, such as France Japan and China at the moment. So folks if you like a skiing holiday, the South Island here really is the place to be, heaps of good snow up in those mountains at the moment.School holidays start next week for a couple of weeks, this country always seems to be on holiday

[Ed Gordon]

Gertrude has trained you well. Is she related to the other famous Gertrude?

[Graham Ritchie]

Yes

[Steve Lee]

This morning one of our neighbours chicken escaped into our garden. I was able to catch it and pick it up, but to tell the truth it looks like it has escaped from Disney's Enchanted tiki room.

[Chip Gelmini]

A cold glass of ice water do you see the eyes, the nose and mouth of a lion?

[Douglas Meltzer]

Views from Battery Park City at the southern tip of Manhattan.


Across the Hudson River lies the state of New Jersey.



That's the Statue of Liberty in the distance.





Moored boats near the marina.



One World Trade Center.



Yikes!

[Steve Klare]

MV Zuiderdam, 82,000 Gross Tons

A few days ago we got home from our big family vacation for this year: a cruise to Quebec City originating in Boston with stops at Portland, Maine, Halifax and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and finally Quebec City itself.

The ship is Holland America's Zuiderdam. She is a sister ship to Noordam, which we cruised Alaska aboard 3 years ago. This was a big plus: we knew where the dining rooms and common areas were already and had a faint-grasp on all the weird plumbing and electrical fixtures in our cabin!

Oosterdam and Westerdam also exist out there on the world's seas. Together, they are the Dutch words for the four cardinal directions of the compass. As our Cruise Director said the night before we departed the ship: "Thank you for choosing Holland America. Maybe someday soon I'll be seeing you on some other 'dam' ship!".

I learned something about myself recently. Especially with the Thursday Night Theme at CineSea being "The Ocean", I took stock of the sea-goin' flavor of my film collection and figured out that I really do like boats and ships! As a matter of fact, it was a 16mm film about a similar cruise to Montreal that planted this idea in my families' heads (-how a cheap film off eBay became very, very expensive!).

So I want to show you some interesting things I saw. Given my nautical weaknesses, the first of these is:

The Boston Harbor Pilot

Very often, a busy local waterway will require a Pilot aboard a large ship while navigating to and from anchorage. They are there for timely local knowledge: maybe they dredged a channel last week and it's now preferable for a deeper-draft vessel, maybe some loony on a jet-ski has been riding the bow waves of large ships and they know to slow down and call up the Harbor Patrol when they see him zoom out of some cove headed for their bow.

Their job is very brief: maybe an hour between the docks and open water. After that, they are done. This doesn't mean they get a free ride to Bermuda or Southampton with a week of buffet food and free drinks at Happy Hour!

-Nnnnoooo! They board and depart the ship on the fly!

It's not unknown for this to happen with a helicopter, but I would imagine it's more common from a smaller boat. It happens that we saw it this time.

My son and I saw this boat pass our cabin port-hole headed forward:
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-and we went running forward into a lounge trying to catch him in the Act!
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The pilot boat comes right up to the ship's hull and the Pilot leaps from a door down near the waterline: (-on a freighter, they may have to climb a 30 foot ladder up onto the main deck: even if it's storming-wet, even if it's icy and windy! Makes me glad I have an office job!)
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(Calm seas are certainly a plus here!)

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-and so our hero bids us farewell! Who knows? -maybe there is a tanker, cruise ship or container ship inbound to Boston and he'll leap aboard that one 30 minutes from now! At least once he reaches the dock, he can use the gangway like everybody else! (-where's the challenge?!)

(There are some other things for other days!)

[Steve Klare]

Portland, Maine, and an encounter with an Old Friend
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B&SR #8 under wraps

So, we got settled aboard ship, had our Boat-Drill and welcoming message from the Captain on the TV in our cabin. We sailed overnight and arrived in Portland, Maine just after breakfast.

Portland and I are old friends: I've been there a number of times because of the railroad museum there. Because it's such a big harbor, I didn't think we would be seeing it that day, but it turns out our dock was literally a 30 second walk from the Maine Narrow Gauge Company and Museum.

That lumpy white object above is actually very special. She is Bridgton and Saco River #8. She is 101 years old and the last steam locomotive built for the Maine Two Foot Gauge lines. Maine used to have five of these lines between 4 miles and 120 miles long. These were inspired by the Welsh Ffestiniog Railway, but are rare among American narrow gauge lines that they kept the Ffestiniog's 24 inch gauge.

Modern times weren't kind to them: between 1929 and 1944, every last one went bankrupt and was scrapped. As much as I love 'em, there is nothing they do that trucks, busses, cars and roads can't do more cost effectively.
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B&SR #8, 85 Years ago but without all the Plastic

The Bridgton and Saco River was abandoned and scrapped during WW2. #8 and her sister #7 were almost requisitioned by the US army and shipped to India (-where the curves were WAY too sharp for either to ever operate!) , but instead, a farmer in Massachusetts with a passion for trains rounded a whole bunch of disused Maine 2 foot gauge equipment and set up a little railroad for himself just after the War. (If I were a wealthy cranberry farmer, I just might do the same!)

#8 has been in-service pretty steadily for over 100 years now. She has to be on maybe her 4th or 5th boiler, but the joy of a steam locomotives is as long as you can fabricate replacement parts and not wreck them too spectacularly, they have a certain mechanical immortality. She is now on her third home railroad, but because these trains are small enough to be transported on a truck-trailer, she makes guest appearances at other Maine Two Foot Gauge museums pretty regularly.

She is personally very special. I've ridden aboard exactly ONE steam locomotive my whole life, and underneath all that plastic, there she stands! Still a college student, I went up to that Massachusetts museum 43 years ago on a railfans' day and sprung for the extra fare to ride the 5.5 miles around the loop on a steam locomotive. Right above that "8" on the cab-side above, you would have seen me that day with my GAF ST/602 Super-8 camera and a substantial stash of Kodachrome 40 cartridges stuffed in pockets. You see, I have commercial film originally taken on the Bridgton and Saco River right around 1940 where the cameraman stood in that exact spot, and that day I got my chance to continue his work (-even if it was two states and 40+ years away!).

What's kind of funny is I wound up wedged between the cab wall and the side of the firebox: you would think on a typical June day, I might have roasted! Truth be told, it was a cold, rainy day and I was never so comfortable all day as I was in that warm cab!

There is an even stronger film-side to all this: those commercial films of the Maine Two Foot Gauge lines were literally what got me into film in the first place. If not for them, I might not be here today, but OH! -the model railroad I would have by now!

By the way, the reason such a priceless artifact of railroad history is standing outside shrink-wrapped is the Maine Narrow Gauge Company and Museum recently lost the lease to their storage facility, and for now this is the best they can do to protect her and her friends from the weather. Let's hope she finds better lodgings soon.