After getting my Covid-19 booster # 3 and the seasonal flu shot, I felt pretty safe that the protection for a winter outbreak from Covid-19 or the flu was done. The next day I was out shooting again because my arms were not that sore from the shots. Then, I came across one of my passions for railroading when I found a pile of old ties that had been replaced on a very historic piece of track that runs behind my house. It has been close to a year since the traffic stopped. Then about three weeks ago I was awakened one morning about 2 a.m. with the rumblings of a passing train again. "Surely, it was a dream," and went back to sleep I thought. Then, a couple of days later while out talking to one of my neighbors, the sound and earth began to rumble again and looking up, there were double stacked shipping containers passing by. Don't you see, Dallas has an ever growing large inland port just off IH-20 in South Dallas. The second piece of the equation is that the Kansas City Southern Railroad moved it's make up yard to Frisco a couple of years ago from the KCS facility off Garland Road south of Northwest Highway in East Dallas. Now you know why there is so much truck traffic on IH-20.Each one of those containers fit onto the frame of an 18-wheeler.
Seeing the old ties stacked along the track, my state of inquisitiveness peaked like an old thermometer that ends at 100° and the needle is pegged because it's more hot than what the dial reads in degrees. In short, "I got to go check this out", flashed through my mind. Now, I don't Trespass, especially when I see signs posted. But, "there is always the other half of the story " Paul Harvey would say from time-to-time. And that got me thinking. Let's see, I can't go this way because the KCS has the right-of-way posted. but, the easement used by the home owners association with the high tension wire company that is running next to the KCS postings is wide open. And, with the lens that I had with me, walking down the easement of the HOA would put me right where I wanted to be without trespassing.
In retreat mode, my mind was already working to remember about when that category of images was last shot, when I saw an old 2x4 laying over an overturned shopping cart that the neighborhood kids use to scale the HOA fence as a shortcut. Reaching down to pick it up and lean it against the wall, I took hold of the board and Lo and Behold, I put the fleshy part of my left had right onto a nail that was sticking out the bottom side about and eighth of an inch. Sure enough, it punctured and blood was running. But, I took the time to look to see if the nail was rusty are not. It was a fairly new nail so, I flushed the wound with water and made sure I had cleaned it the best as I could, then applied an antiseptic hand wash that I carry with me. Finally, I pressed my middle finger against the wound and headed for the house. Now, my mind is racing through my knowledge of when was the last time that I had had a tetanus shot? It had been more than 5-years so it was a give me that I needed one within 48-hours. When I got in the house, I washed the wound again, cleaned it again with alcohol, then applied a non-sterile but antiseptic skin wash used before surgery. Then the old band-aide routine sealed the deal until I could make an appointment and get a shot the next day. The wound was not sore and was not red so, there was no infection developing. Good thing. Long story shorter I made the appointment on line at my Walgreen's and now, the big question was, which arm now. Tetanus shots tend to be more sore at the site. It was then decided that it would be my Tuesday Arm over my Thursday Arm (That's another story for another time that saw me getting 2 shots a week for 4 years as a kid, hence the Tuesday Arm v. the Thursday arm).
The historic tracks are the Atchison,Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, Chartered in 1859 and still live rail, today. Johnny Mercer made it famous with a song he wrote by the same name.
