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Cog Railway to Mount Washington

 

 

As has been the norm for me this past summer, August was no exception. This time around it was a trip to take the Cog Railway to the summit of Mount Washington and a visit to the weather station located where the worst weather of the US can be found.

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The Mount Washington Cog Railway is a first of its kind. Built in the mid 1800’s for the purpose of ferrying tourists to the top of the mountain.

 

Picture ot the tracks up the side of the mountain taken from about 7 miles away.

Being so steep the train needs a special way of getting of getting it self up the mountain. This is where the cog comes into use, it actually walks itself up the special track.

 

Pic of the cog on the bottom of the steam train.

The ride up the mountain is a hour long providing some amazing views of the surrounding area which consists of the presidential mountain range. Unfortunately it was a bit to cloudy to get any good pics of the mountain range.

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After the ride up there is an hour spent at the Mount Washington State Park.

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One of the things that I found interesting was the restored mountain top hotel.

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It was a place to provide hikers of the Appalachian trail a warm place to eat and sleep for a night.

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Although not the most comfortable of hotels, for a hiker it was like a luxury stay.

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Taking a ride through history, I would say it was a very fun day for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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Posted by on September 28, 2014 in Life as it is, Travel

 

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Chilli The Chinchilla

Adventures In Maid Service

One of the things that is really fun about doing maid service is getting to see many different pets and I have a load of cats and dogs in my life as well as many other kinds of pets.

This is the tale of Chili the chinchilla.

This is Chili.

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He belongs to one of our newer customers and is very friendly.

He also enjoys rolling around in his little ball.

 

Sadly, a couple of weeks after filming this little video, when we got to our customers home we discovered Chilli had past away. And by discovered I mean that our team was the first ones to see that Chilli had passed.

 

RIP Chilli

When we told the lady of the house what we had discovered she informed us that Chilli had been their daughters pet and that she was at camp and would not be home until the following day.

The daughter is between 11 and 12 years old, her brother is between 8 and 9 years old. When the son heard about Chilli he started to put together a little box with all of his sisters favorite treats. He also made her a condolence card to giver her when she got home from camp and found out about Chilli.

It makes me feel good to see this kind of caring between siblings it is so rare.

 
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Posted by on August 29, 2014 in Adventures In Maid Servive, Life as it is

 

The Morning After

 

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 Write Now Prompt: July 8, 2014

 

Aaron woke with a start, thinking that he had over slept and had that panic adrenaline going through his veins. He immediately looked at his alarm clock, it was only 5:15am but he felt like he was already hours behind schedule.

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He started to get dressed and wondered about Roger and whether he had found his keys and got back to his hotel. “I should go over to the construction site and find out” Aaron thought.

He looked out the window to see if the storm had passed and whether or not if there was any damage to his property. As he was looking he remembered about setting up the room to try meditating and gave it a thought that maybe he should give it another try.

Aaron picked up his copy of Spirits Among Us to read the chapter on meditating as he was heading to the room he decided to use for meditating and realized that he had not heard from Roger. He checked his voice mail to see if he had called and found he had not.

He decided to take a ride out to the construction site and see if he had found his lost keys and if not to give him an extra set of eyes to look for the keys.

After breakfast Aaron headed out the door and took a walk around his yard to access the damage from the nights storm. Other than some broken branches on a tree or two and his yard furniture blown around there seemed to be no apparent damage.

Feeling satisfied all was well he headed for his car. That was when he saw something a bit unexpected. There was a knife sticking out from one of the tires of the car. “Damn” Aaron thought, “that must have been some crazy wind out here last night”.

 

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Thinking how lucky he was to have driven the site truck home the night before he hopped into the drivers seat of that truck and drove off to the site to see how Roger had faired the night before.

 

 

Remember to check out more from Aaron and all the gang over at the Adult Pool with CeeLee.

 

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Posted by on August 21, 2014 in Paranormal Investigating Agency, Write Now

 

Winnipesaukee Weekend

 

In my continuing weekend adventures this summer I spent a weekend on Lake Winnipesaukee in the lakes region of New Hampshire. I stayed at the Tilton Inn in the Sanborn Room which was rumored to be haunted by a young, mischievous girl.

While at the lake I took a ride on the Mt Washington, the main reason I took this little weekend.

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The day was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the sky was clear and the temperature was at a comfortable level. Some great views while out on the lake.

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While out on the lake we passed a bunch of different islands but this one caught my attention when I saw a for sale sign on it. Unfortunately I did not get my camera up quick enough to get the sign itself.

 

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So anyone interested in getting their own island check out Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.

All in all it was a good way to spend an afternoon.

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Posted by on August 14, 2014 in Life as it is, Travel

 

Adventures In Maid Service

 

Adventures In Maid Service

This is an introduction to a feature I will be doing here on Random Thoughts. It may also be considered a little about me page as well.

For a living I work in my family’s maid service company, by company I mean there are five of us who are part of the company.  Mom does the books, dad is the head of operations, I am second banana which basically means that I am operations and one of my cousins and her husband round out the full crew.

Cleaning houses is our main function but with it are also some other cleaning type functions. New constructions, janitorial jobs, spring and fall cleans and just “we are having a party could we get out house cleaned” cleanings.

In my work I get to meet many people, see many different homes and also come across some interesting stories. My intent with Adventures in Maid Service is to give some of these stories a place to be seen.

I will be telling stories that may be funny, crazy or just really heart felt stories as they come to me,

 

Our Garden

 

 

 

Summer is here and our garden is starting to really sprout up.

 

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The zucchini and summer squashes are starting to pop.

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The string beans are reaching for the sun.

 

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And the flowers are starting to add some nice color to the back yard.

 

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Posted by on July 28, 2014 in Life as it is

 

On The Word Random

 

A rant on Random Thoughts on the word Random who would have thought. Smile

 

Today I stopped at a grocery store, who’s name I shall leave unmentioned, to pick up a few things for home.  This particular store has a self scanning system that is used in conjunction with their loyalty card. It makes things quick and easy at check out, scan and bag your items while shopping then at the self checker scan a bar code that sends the shopping list to the main computer then scan your card at the register to retrieve your order from the system. Scan your credit or debit card and then your out the door. 

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Well today it was not quite that easy for me at the register. When I scanned my card I got a message that an associate was needed to finish my order. Now this would not upset me usually, but this is the second time this has happened to me, it also happened at my last visit to the store.

So when the associate comes up I asked her what this was about and she said that my card was getting a random audit. This is exactly what I was told the last time this happened to me so I made a comment about this not being random. The associate that was taking care of me said that it happens all the time. Well I said that if it happens all the time then it is not random.

Her reply was to tell me that a lot of people come in and have their card audited every time that they come in and that is just random.

Google defines random as      made, done, happening, or chosen without method or conscious decision.

Now to me being chosen every time some one comes into a store to be audited means that this is not random but has some other reason for the audit. My real gripe here is not that I am being audited every time I go to a certain store but rather that someone tells me that this is a random occurrence. 

 
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Posted by on July 22, 2014 in Life as it is

 

Day’s End

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 Write Now Prompt:June 13, 2014

 

Aaron and Roger got back to the construction site and planned on driving back to Aaron’s home to call the coroner to come back to the woods and pick up the body and maybe try to identify him as well.

“Shit” Roger said a bit exasperated “I think I dropped my keys in the woods”

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“Well, don’t you have a spare set in the truck”

“No, I need to go back into the woods and look for them, hopefully I can find them” Roger said.

“Maybe we should split up and try to find them together.”

“No, I can go find them. You need to learn to relax and focus better. You get distracted by your sensors.” Rog pointed out. “I want you to get back to your house and set up a room where you can just sit and meditate.”

“I have always found that to be very relaxing for me and it helps me to keep focused on what I am doing.” Roger said. “There is a chapter in my book that gives some basics that should help you get started.”

“OK” Aaron said, “ I should be able to grab one of the work trucks to get back”

He went to the foreman trailer, got out his key and went in. “Damn” he thought “ it has been a long time since I have been in here and yet it is still as clean as the last time I was here”. He brushed off that thought and went to the key cabinet and got the keys for one of the site trucks.

As he was walking to the truck he could hear thunder off in the distance and hoped it was going to pass by quickly.

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Back home, Aaron prepared a room to relax in. Candles flickered in the silent room as he sat down to try to meditate for the first time.

Then the storm came upon Aaron’s home. Wind was whipping and knocking the tree limb into the house and the lighting striking so close he could feel the air ripple from the sound waves. He decided now was not the best time to try and meditate.

Thinking what a long and tiring day it had been, Aaron decided to just go to bed and hope for the best tomorrow.

 

Hells Home Chalkboard

 

Remember to check out CeeLee’s blog for more adventures in Hell’s Home.

 
 

Conway Scenic Railroad Trip

Conway Scenic Railroad

Last weekend I went for a short weekend trip. Left Friday from work for a 3 hour drive north from where I live. The day was really nice for a drive, windows open and the radio playing, one of my favorite places to be.

A Scene from the road

This is a trip I have been planning for about eight months. Last summer I had taken a couple of day trips to North Conway and had even taken the shorter train trips that are offered from the station but I really wanted to take the five hour trip and the only way I could do that was to stay the night before to be at the station in time to board the train.

North Conway Scenic Railroad Station

 

The ride is a 5 hour round trip to Crawford Station, right next to the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Highland Station.

Crawford Notch Panoramic 360 degree view

 

The ride has some amazing vistas to view and the conductor gives some history about the railway and the area as well.

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One of the more noteworthy parts of the trip and history of the railway was the Frankenstein Trestle, named after cliff over which it spans.

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I enjoyed my the train ride so much that I have already booked passage for mid October when the foliage is at its peak.

At the end of the day I went to a scenic view rest area up the road from my hotel and did some experimenting with my new cameras settings. The pic on the left is my favorite, the pic on the right is the same area and taken at about the same time just to show differences in exposures.

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Thank you for reading.

Forrest

 
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Posted by on June 29, 2014 in Life as it is, Travel

 

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Chasing a Ghost

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Write Now Prompt:June 10, 2014

They both watched as the boy walked past the idle construction equipment and into the woods. Not sure exactly what to think Rog and Aaron started into the woods hoping to find out what was going on.

Aaron had become fully aware of the chill on the back of his neck and started rubbing it.

“Trying to make it go away are you” Roger said.

Aaron gave a startled look at him and that was when he realized that he was indeed trying to make the chill go away. “ What do you mean by that” Aaron stated.

“I mean the chill. Have you realized that it comes on just about the same time as you see a spirit.”

“No” said Aaron “I had not realized that.”

“We can talk about that later, right now lets see if we can follow that boy.” and into the woods they went.

They could see the boy just ahead of them almost out of sight, then he disappeared from view. They walked up to where they had last seen him. Just behind a tree Aaron saw the one of the oddest sights he had seen. It was a cactus, but this cactus was bent over into what looked like a sad person. Aaron could not help himself as he let out a giggling laugh at the sight. All of a sudden the cactus lashed out at Aaron and almost caught him on the arm with one of its limbs. Then the ghost boy jumped out of the cactus and started running again. Aaron knew that was the last time he would laugh at a cactus.Photo Credit http://pixabay.com/en/arizona-sunrise-nature-landscape-83770/

The two continued to chase the boy through the woods for what seemed like hours to them. Finally the boy stopped running and just disappeared from sight. At the spot where the boy disappeared Aaron and Roger saw a sad sight. There was the skeleton of a small boy leaning against a tree with what was obviously a broken leg. The two searched around the area to see if they could find anything that could help them identify the body, all they could find was a pocket knife with the initials B,T. on the handle.

Roger looked at Aaron who was rubbing the back of his neck again. “It looks like we may have just found an unlucky soul who got lost in these woods a long time ago, but I have a feeling there is more going on here than just one lost boy.” as he started to walk back out of the woods.

“What makes you think that” Aaron asked.

“Just that we solved a small mystery and you are still rubbing your neck and I still have a gut feeling there is more here to discover. Lets get back to your place so we can start you on your training, you have some things you need to know.” Rog said as they walked out of the woods.

 

Hells Home Chalkboard