Most awesome! Spread the MRR joy to a new convert and a VET to boot! Excellent! Get him to start a layout and hang with us, I believe all returning vets should be encouraged to get into MRR! The European way of 'rehabilitating' soldiers is a little more advanced than ours, I guess they have had a little more time to work on the problem, The way they encourage art as therapy is an excellent idea, many of you have mentioned Bill Ross the painter(happy little trees), I remember Bill Alexander, the elderly German gentleman who did the awesome paintings on PBS, he got into painting after being wounded on the Eastern front! He was GREAT!
View attachment 55544"You load up ze brrrush wit de Prussian Blue and den just FIRE it IN dere!" LOL!
He is missed!
I remember a feller on PBS who did paintings like that on air. He was a white guy with a big poofy afro and spoke like he was loaded on Quaaludes. He died several years ago if I'm not mistaken.
As for my new Marine friend, I have no doubt he'll be healing up for a few days. He lives at the end of the street so I'll be seeing him around. He said he'd been seeing me around walking to the store or just hanging out and stuff. He couldn't stop talking about the trains. He'd never seen anything like that he said. I went to run them and some how I sent one through the crossover and about had a head on!!! He had asked what the control panel was for and I showed him how the turnout throws worked. That's probably what I did and one of them got stuck.
If he wants to get into trains I'll be happy to assist. He's taking college classes now and is considering going back in the Corps after he gets his degree. His wife is also former Marine and they met in boot camp. They have a 4 yo daughter. They've only lived here in "the hood" for a few months.
Now that I've some time to decompress and reflect on the whole ordeal, I'm becoming seriously angry and somewhat bitter about how everyone else acted. I just don't understand people. I just happened to be in the kitchen and heard the bike scraping down the road and knew something didn't sound right. I peeped out the window and there he and the bike right in front of my house. Without a thought I immediately ran out. A couple of people were kind of milling around but doing nothing. He was not moving very fast and was taking his helmet off. In just a few minutes there was probably 20 or so people around all with their cell phones out. No one called 911 until I raised hell about it and dismayed that they had to be told to call. Un-FREAKIN-believable!!! What a bunch gut-less idiots. Hope they don't need my help any time soon. Perhaps I'll go get a cell phone just so I can stand over them while they are bleeding all over the street.
Maybe it's a matter of crisis that makes people do nothing. I don't understand it really. It just seems natural to me to jump into action without concern for myself. I had this guy's blood all over me and it never bothered me for a bit. When EMS showed up they asked if I was ok not knowing who was really the injured party.
Now that I think about it some, when I came in to get some towels the bike was still running and no one thought to turn it off. Perhaps they didn't know how.
It was leaking out break fluid, anti-freeze and gas since it was laying on its side. I got him somewhat bandaged up and his senses were coming around and he thought to ask if the bike was still running. I had already taken care of that and he thanked me for that and coming to his aid.
By the time EMS and police showed I already had him up and about and the bike out of the street. I did advise him to stay put in the street in case he might have had a neck or back injury. He was pretty tore up but it dam sure could have been much much worse had this been in summer time with him in shorts and t-shirt. Instead it tore up his shoes, jeans, leather jacket and put a big scrape on his helmet. He was more madder about tearing up his clothes and scraping the helmet than he was worried about bleeding all over the both of us.
I invited him in for a beer and a shot to cool off and calm down. I think he more enjoyed meeting someone in the neighborhood and a vet and someone to talk to more than anything. When he said he'd been seeing me around and saw my mannerism about "keeping watch", "I figured you must be a vet and spec ops or some sort the way you carry yourself". That's when we opened up to each other. He had said about him and his wife don't have any friends around and I said "well, you do now but that was one helluva way to introduce yourself!". We had a laugh about that.
He asked what I did for a living and I told him about helping Larry remodel his house but other than that I was just a hermit with the 2 cats. He wondered about me being a hermit/introvert with no TV and how I could handle that.
And that's when I took him upstairs to the train room and really blew his mind.
IF he's really into it, I'll buy him a starter set. Something under $200 probably like most of us started with as kids. At least I did.
It would cut into my plans money-wise but I don't mind. Actually, I'd rather tutor him through college if he needs it (which I offered) than distract him with a new hobby.
I know that was all super-long winded and I appreciate you all's ears to bend.
Guess I'll go out and see what sort of scars were left on the pavement.
Eric.
