Tag: excavator

I’ve Been Working on the Railroad

Andrew and I went up to the pet store in town to get some dog food for Daisy this week. There is a set of railroad tracks that run directly behind it. We can often hear the train’s whistle as it goes through town from our house.

When we pulled into the parking lot, Andrew saw these vehicles up and down the tracks. We stood there and watched for a minute before I realized just what they were doing. They had already come through and unspiked some of the rotting or cracked railroad ties and pulled them out from under the rails/track.

Right in front of us was a crane-like vehicle taking new ties and placing them off to the side to replace the ones that they had pulled out. Both of us stared in wonder as this machine did its work.

We walked down the side of the building and along the tracks (on a sidewalk) and came to the next contraption. This thing was behind the crane and was basically making sure that there was a pathway for the new ties to slide under the rails.

A ways down from that thing was a bigger vehicle that slid the new ties into just the right position. It would slide it under the rails and tap it into place.

Behind this vehicle were a group of guys all doing something different. One guy would toss the thick metal plates on top of the new tie and make sure the top of it was free from rocks. Then the guys behind him came up and with their machine put in the new spikes to hold the ties in place.

Andrew was in heaven! He loves watching construction-type stuff. He just couldn’t get enough of what they were doing. He watched in fascination at this whole process. I’m sure if I wasn’t watching the clock (because I had to get home to get ready for work), we could have stayed there all afternoon. I hoped that there might be an old railroad spike laying around for us to grab, but we couldn’t find one and really didn’t want to get too close to the tracks.

I told him that we had to get into the store to get the dog food. He told me to hang on a minute because he wanted to get a picture. I couldn’t resist grabbing my phone and getting my own picture of him snapping a photo of the crane.

It is a total coincidence that he has on a shirt that has bulldozers, excavators, and construction vehicles on it! It only makes this picture more special.

I’m so glad I got to share this moment with him.

Expensive Trip To The Book Store

Because of the Microsoft issues yesterday, I got a text from my boss saying I could stay home if I didn’t want to come in.  Well, almost everything I do needs a computer, so I stayed home. It was nice to have lunch with the family and, honestly, even nice to be able to grab a nap when the kids napped.

After nap time, we decided to take a quick trip to the bookstore.  I found a couple books that they just love and promised to get the third in the series.  The “Creepy” series features Jasper Rabbit and some creepy objects.

We found the Creepy Crayon book and began walking through the kids books.  It didn’t take long for the kids to find some of the toys and stuffed animals.  It took them even less time to find something there that they “had to have.”

I suppose it is wrong for an adult to think that they will get just 5 minutes to look at books for themselves.  When I walk into a book store, I want to browse.  I want to be able to take pictures of books I want to add to my “To Read” list.  Yeah, that didn’t happen.

There was a book that Sam really wanted to read that is unavailable in the Library audio apps.  The two of us walked the store looking for it as the kids continued to run around like crazies.  When we finally met up she stated that she had found it and that we should probably go after she found a couple more kid books.

That, of course, meant going back to the children’s section.  Ella found a Jasper Rabbit stuffy, but when she saw a fox, she wanted that instead. 

This fox was like 10 bucks.  Andrew, who loves all things construction, found an excavator stuffy.  I had no idea that this stuffy is a character from a book, which means they can charge more or something. 

I think, and I haven’t compared the two but this may be a bit smaller than the fox.  As we walked up to the cashier with 4 kid books, Sam’s book, my $5 magazine, and the two stuffies, I was surprised when they told me the total was like $130!!!!

I looked at Sam when they told me that and she showed me the price of that excavator.  Neither of us was smart enough to look at the tag, which read, $29.99!  What makes me even more angry was a search for the picture above on the internet showed me a few places where it was $15! 

At bedtime, when we read our new books, Ella grabbed her fox and I asked Andrew to get his excavator.  “I don’t want it,” he said to me.   Urgh ….