March 08, 2005
My parents are concerned that I'm going to leak stories about the family that they don't want aired. So, I thought I'd describe a story that I'm not too proud of, but I still find funny.
Engineering school is very demanding. Maybe not more than any other school, but we thought so. We covered our sanity by trying to find times to completely unwind. Rolla is not a large town, and there isn't much to do at the last minute. Sure, we had great fishing and spelunking opportunities, but that takes planning. If you wanted a last minute thrill you went to the train bridge. And you brought beer, which must be consumed on the way.
The train bridge was an old wooden bridge that in the dead of night still had one train that transported goods. You could sit on the bridge with your legs dangling down and as the train came over the hill, it looked like it ws going to take your legs off... never mind that the bottom of the bridge was below your legs even for a talk gangly person like me. It was a thrill. When you had a good drive, he would even blast the horn as he went below the bridge.
Well, on this particular night, we decided to go to the train bridge. We had smuggled in some beer (God, no!) to our rooms. Flanders and I had rallied the troops for the event, and had chosen coats to meet the occasion. We had Lord only knows how many beer bottles stuffed down our sleeves. We couldn't walk without clanking. Curse our good nature. We had recently brought up to our RA (irony: we both became RAs) an issue with a fellow floor member that concerned us. We walked out our doors and were met by our RA and the Assistant Director of Residential Life. We held very still. We covered the issue, and went about our business. I later found out that they knew about our stuffed sleeves, but couldn't prove anything from what the saw, and were just hoping to make our beer warm. Not something I did as an RA.
We finally exited the building and began making our way to the bridge. Unfortunately, we had gained a tag-a-long that we didn't really want. He was the animal nerd from the Far Side. "Hi, Guys. What are you doing?" But, we didn't want to hurt his feelings (until now), so we let him join us. On the way to the bridge we had our share of bad ideas. Before we got to the bridge, our tag-a-long indicated that he had lost his keys. Good Lord. I'm a geek, but this was unreal. We went back to where he thought he lost them: a day care center where we had... er... decided to enjoy the play area.(Hey! they had cool equipment!) We were scouring the area for the keys, when the cops pulled up. We politely told them that our friend was here earlier and lost his keys, and we were trying to help him find them. They left. It was 2:00 am. What the heck? "Hello officer, we're stalking small children, and planting cameras for that purpose..." "Carry on..." I'm not commenting on cops in general, just those. I've had other bad communications with them, so pardon my disgust.
We never got to see the train on that trek. But, in my opinion, it makes a good story....
Thank the Lord for college...
Choo-choo...
Engineering school is very demanding. Maybe not more than any other school, but we thought so. We covered our sanity by trying to find times to completely unwind. Rolla is not a large town, and there isn't much to do at the last minute. Sure, we had great fishing and spelunking opportunities, but that takes planning. If you wanted a last minute thrill you went to the train bridge. And you brought beer, which must be consumed on the way.
The train bridge was an old wooden bridge that in the dead of night still had one train that transported goods. You could sit on the bridge with your legs dangling down and as the train came over the hill, it looked like it ws going to take your legs off... never mind that the bottom of the bridge was below your legs even for a talk gangly person like me. It was a thrill. When you had a good drive, he would even blast the horn as he went below the bridge.
Well, on this particular night, we decided to go to the train bridge. We had smuggled in some beer (God, no!) to our rooms. Flanders and I had rallied the troops for the event, and had chosen coats to meet the occasion. We had Lord only knows how many beer bottles stuffed down our sleeves. We couldn't walk without clanking. Curse our good nature. We had recently brought up to our RA (irony: we both became RAs) an issue with a fellow floor member that concerned us. We walked out our doors and were met by our RA and the Assistant Director of Residential Life. We held very still. We covered the issue, and went about our business. I later found out that they knew about our stuffed sleeves, but couldn't prove anything from what the saw, and were just hoping to make our beer warm. Not something I did as an RA.
We finally exited the building and began making our way to the bridge. Unfortunately, we had gained a tag-a-long that we didn't really want. He was the animal nerd from the Far Side. "Hi, Guys. What are you doing?" But, we didn't want to hurt his feelings (until now), so we let him join us. On the way to the bridge we had our share of bad ideas. Before we got to the bridge, our tag-a-long indicated that he had lost his keys. Good Lord. I'm a geek, but this was unreal. We went back to where he thought he lost them: a day care center where we had... er... decided to enjoy the play area.(Hey! they had cool equipment!) We were scouring the area for the keys, when the cops pulled up. We politely told them that our friend was here earlier and lost his keys, and we were trying to help him find them. They left. It was 2:00 am. What the heck? "Hello officer, we're stalking small children, and planting cameras for that purpose..." "Carry on..." I'm not commenting on cops in general, just those. I've had other bad communications with them, so pardon my disgust.
We never got to see the train on that trek. But, in my opinion, it makes a good story....
Thank the Lord for college...
Choo-choo...