Yesterday the storm in south central PA knocked out the Amtrak power lines between Paoli and Lancaster.

I’ll spare the details, but my trip, again, took four hours instead of two and a half, but I was impressed with Amtrak’s quick handling of the logistics: they replaced the electric diesel engine, loaded everyone from the stranded local-stop train onto ours (standing in the aisles), routed us onto eastbound tracks going west, prevented other trains from colliding head on, and got us all home safely.

During none of that–none–did my Verizon Mifi deliver the goods. I don’t mind subsidizing mass transit. I do mind paying for a service that doesn’t deliver when I need it. I can code offline, but I can’t hit StackOverflow when I need it. So Verizon, whatever it is you need to do to at least match Amtrak’s service between Paoli and Lancaster, can you get to it?

With the storm came Fall weather–the crisp air, the smell of smoke from someone’s fire down the street, and weekend football.

And coding.

That’s a year-round activity.

On weekends I like to work on side projects  to learn new skills. This weekend I’m back at it with Node, though I admit I’ve been spending some weekdays on it as well. I should likely be looking into test suites and other adult things like that as I grow as a developer, but the toys just look to fun right now 🙂

Other weekend projects–like packing up my studio, sorting out stuff to keep, trash, or sell–well, they can wait.