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As much as don’t enjoy wedding receptions, or taking pictures of wedding receptions, I must say that the pictures from Brenna’s wedding came out pretty darn good.  I hadn’t looked at them in ages, until yesterday, and, really, if you’ll forgive the immodesty, they’re not bad at all.  You know what makes all the difference?  When couples obviously love each other and like being around one another.  It’s very hard to take wedding photos of unhappy couples.  Take note of that, soon-to-weds; look happy.  It also helps if you’re as beautiful as Brenna.  So, let’s make the recipe for good wedding pictures the following:

1. Look good
2. Look happy

I love trains.  Trains, trains, trains. 

Something I didn’t know about trains until recently is that it wasn’t until 1886 that the United States adopted standard gauge throughout.  That is to say, in some states, especially in the south, the two tracks on a rail line were farther apart than they were in other states.  A train crossing any considerable distance might experience a “break of gauge”, and passengers, for instance, would have to be moved to another car, and a different locomotive would be used, etc.  That sounds like a huge hassle.

But, in 1886, the broad-gauge track was converted to the standard 4′ 8½” we use still today.  Evidently, all rail traffic ceased for two days, and a veritable army of laborers pulled the spikes out of all the broad-gauge line, pushed the track in three inches, and spiked it back in place.  That must have been a huge undertaking.  The only thing I can think of that compares was Dagen H, the day Sweden switched from driving on the left, to driving on the right.  Amazingly, nobody was killed in the shift.  There’d be bodies in the streets if we tried such a thing in the USA.