A DOOR AND MORE (from the SPOTS blog)

I know I have been absent - again - but I really have been so busy. The Train Station has been a big part of that business as a couple of us try to work down there a couple mornings a week before the temps hit 90 or more. To catch you up with what has been going on down the street, here is the blog posting from the SPOTS blog.

Work at the station has slowed down a bit in part because of the extreme heat (note the wet T shirts!) and, well, it is summer time and folks have places to go and things to do. We won’t mention the fact that most of these guys have wives with Honey-Do lists a mile long. I have to do my own Possum-Do list and have no one to push those jobs onto, so I can appreciate all the demands these guys have on their time. But, we have some new workers helping us out on Saturday and occasionally during the week, so we are really seeing some progress. One of our BIG jobs (OK, they are all BIG jobs) but size-wise, this biggie that has been slow to come together, literally, is building the new door on the southern end of the building. We will be replacing the old sliding door with a new door that will open out like shutters. It has been a learning experience, to put it mildly. We built the door several weeks ago, I primed it, Paul painted it, Niall split it in half, Charlie and Paul helped put the hinges on it, Niall and Paul screwed a gazillion screws in it to make it good and stable, then did the same to the other half of the door, Crawford Doors made special hinges for us, and Niall and Charlie managed to hang half the door today. Meanwhile, our newest member, Tony, helped me put the fence up around our HVAC compressor and primed some more boards for the inside of the fence. Dennis and Tom ran the wiring that will go to the rest of the building and the layout. We really did not think we were going to survive more than a couple hours in the heat, but we hung in there and got half the door hung and the other half ready to go up. Last week, our former mayor spent the morning vacuuming the office area so we can move our “stuff” out of the storage unit a couple miles away. I might add, he, John Willis Kellam is in his 80s, so you see, we are an equal opportunity volunteer labor force. Nobody is too old! Imagine someone older than I am! But, it sure is nice to have a couple younger guys working, too.It is always interesting to find out what our members do or did for a living. The newest member, Tony, is an Art Teacher, so that makes 2 of us, tho I am retired. Among today’s crew, besides 2 art teachers, we had an Army colonel and veterinarian, a member of the clergy (Unitarian Universalist), an opera star (from the Met), a furniture maker, a heavy equipment operator, and a construction manager with VDOT, a golfer, bicyclist, a big game hunter, a couple philosophers, a Shriner, a couple musicians, and a Ballroom Dance instructor. How eclectic can you get? We represent a wide divergence in political thought as well as religious inclinations. What do we have in common? We all like railroading in one form or another and to one degree or another. We all believe in volunteering. And we all get along very well, thank you.You are welcome to stop by when you see us there or come to one of our meetings, the 3rd Monday of the month, 7 PM, at the Sage in Onley.