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This was me on my very last night out before lockdown on Wed 18th March 2020. Now that we can see some light at the end of the tunnel I am posting this one now. Maybe I'll get out again this year? Not likely to be before the autumn I think though. xx
Two hours earlier…
Deep down, I always knew this day would come. The day when Batman would destroy Bruce Wayne. Part of me always hoped it would never come to be, at least no with Alfred still around. I always knew that it would break his heart. Hell, it even upsets me and I’ve spent the best part of my life loathing the damn place. But it’s for the greater good, and Alfred knows that. If that weren’t the case, he would have almost certainly fought to stop me.
”Are you alright beloved?”
”As good as can be expected.”
”You’re worried about what my father will do to your allies.”
”What if we run? If your father’s anger lies solely with me, surely if I leave Gotham he’ll abandon this assault and pursue us both?”
”Even if we did do that beloved, you know my father’s ways, and my father knows yours. If we did flee, he’d destroy Gotham simply to draw you back. We both know there’s no way you could just look away from all the destruction that was being in your name. My father always intended to destroy Gotham whether you fell to Damian’s blade or not.”
”All to make a statement. No-one betrays the Head of the Demon.”
”And to lay to rest the rumours of his ill health.”
”Are they genuine?”
”It’s not my place to….”
”Talia, I need to know everything about him if we’re to stand a chance. Please….. tell me.”
”My father has been slowly dying for almost two decades. The Lazarus pit sustains him, but his body is reaching the point at which it cannot survive without daily exposure to the pit.”
”The very thing that’s keeping him alive is slowly killing him. That’s why he’s spent all this time trying to find an heir, his time is running out.”
As I utter those words I notice a single tear drop down the left cheek of Talia’s face. Her statement is genuine. Ra’s is running out of time. That’s why he’s choosing to act now. Damian’s place in the League is uncertain thanks to my desertion, so to demonstrate his rite to the title of Heir to the Demon, Ra’s intends for him to slay the one person he has been unable to.
Bruce Wayne.
Batman and Gotham are merely collateral damage in all of this.
Despite my best attempts to excuse all this, reality is hard to ignore. This is all my doing, what comes next is the result of my actions. It’s all down to me as to what those actions become. The only consolation to all this is that this fight will not be my own. No matter how much I wish it were.
With that thought racing through my head, I take a moment to wipe away the tear on Talia’s cheek in the hopes of cheering her up. She knows deep down that there’s realistically only one way this will end.
She’ll lose either her father or me.
Assuming Jason makes it to Gotham with the Lucifer in time that is. Otherwise, poor health or not, Ra’s will ultimately triumph. Even with my above normal physical endurance, it would only be a matter of time until I made one fatal error, and that’s all Ra’s would need.
”Hey. Everything’s going to be alright.”
”We both know that’s not true, Bruce. Like it or not chances are someone from my family isn’t walking away from this.”
”Not if I can help it.”
”If you don’t kill my father he’ll just bath in the pit´s waters once more and continue this crusade against you. Whether you like it or not, there’s only one way to end this.”
”I won’t kill him Talia, even after all he’s done to us.”
”You have no choice, Bruce. Even if you do somehow manage to miraculously defeat him without taking his life, unless you let him bath in the pit he’s going to die. And when you do, he’ll fight you again, and again, and again. Until one of you breaks the cycle. Like it or not, either you’re going to kill him, or your morality is going to kill you.”
I take a moment to pause and consider Talia’s words. They’re of course correct. It’s almost impossible for me to claim that I wouldn’t expose Ra’s to Lazarus if I were fortunate enough to take him prisoner. After all, choosing not to save someone is just the same as killing them yourself. That’s why to this day I still believe that Batman killed Harvey Dent. I chose to save his daughter, but not him. My own actions were the reason for Two-Face terrorising Gotham.
Whether we like it or not, all our actions have consequences. It’s merely a case of deciding which ones we can live with.
As Talia and I enter the house’s basement, I take a moment to inspect the fake wall my father had built long before I was brought into this world. My mind always wondered what his reason for building this wall was. Did he have a sordid affair that he chose to hide from the world? Was he a black-market dealer? Or did he just simply crave an area dedicated only to himself.
I may never know the answer as to why the wall was built, but it has proven to useful at times. On the day of my parents’ funeral, I came here to hide from Alfred intending to take my own life. Fortunately, I was never very good at hiding from Alfred. At least, not as Bruce Wayne. Since then, the room has become a hidden storage of sorts. My contingency in case I needed to destroy Bruce Wayne but protect Batman.
As I push the wall back to reveal the concealed entrance, I lay my eyes on the four gasoline cans that have been there since I first put the cowl on. A primitive method of erasing evidence, but that was the point. A well organised explosion would arouse suspicion, imply that something was being concealed. But a setup like this? You’d have to be Batman to know that it was a rouse.
Whilst I begin to carry two of the canisters out of the room and towards the front entrance of the house, Talia takes a moment to glance inside the room.
”Why is everything in here broken?”
”It’s a reminder.”
”A reminder of what?”
”Of the pain I felt that night. And a reminder of my promise. That no other child should have to feel that pain.”
”You came here that night?”
”I came here most nights after Crime Alley. It wasn’t until the day of their funeral that I decided to stop coming here.”
”That was the day you considered taking your life.”
”You see that rifle? I stole that from its mounting in the hallway and ran here with the intent on taking my life.”
Talia appears surprised that I would admit to that so easily, then again most people are always so hesitant about admitting to suicidal thoughts. Most people these days use it more as a joke than actually committing to the act itself.
”What stopped you?”
”It jammed.”
”Bruce….”
”Alfred stopped me. He reminded me that they gave their lives to save mine. To throw my life away as well would have been the ultimate betrayal. I owed them so much more.”
Without a moment’s pause, Talia picks up the other two canisters and begins to follow behind me. She says nothing, but she doesn’t have to say anything at all. Her actions speak volumes.
”How do you plan to detonate these?”
”A small breaching charge from my belt will suffice. We’ll put them in the front entrance of the house, that way most of Gotham should be able to see the explosion.”
”What then?”
”Well first, we give them a warning. Then we’ll use this as the proof.”
”A warning? From who? Batman?”
”No. From Ra’s Al-Ghul.”
On 5-27-15, Union Pacific's Sterling to Rochelle local backs a cut of cars down to the cold food storage plants in Rochelle, IL.
"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children.
One of these is roots; the other, wings."
~Hodding Carter
Textures by Sarah Gardner; brush by French Kiss
Now on the final stages of the second trip into Omaha of the year, 4014 eases north along the Missouri riverfront towards parking for the next couple days.
Taken at Hilsea Lido Portsmouth The art work is by Paul Stone, a local artist who goes by the mane of, "My Dog Sighs".
I wanted to see just how close I could get to this mourning dove, as you can see I got pretty close for this close up photo.
Union Pacific Railroad U50 38 at Council Bluffs, Iowa on June 13, 1965, Kodachrome by Lou Schmitz, Chuck Zeiler collection. Built July 1964 (c/n 35098), placed in service July 27, 1964, retired September 1973 and traded to GE, the U50 was two U25B's on a common frame, utilizing span bolsters and trucks from retired gas-turbine locomotives. To reduce weight, aluminum wiring was used, which deteriorated in 10 years and required replacement. The railroad chose to trade the locomotives for newer power. The triangular shaped items on the running board, located almost over the center of each span bolster, are the sandboxes. I’m not aware of the actual design challenges at GE that resulted in locating the sandboxes in these locations, but there was concern about the ingestion of sand and sand dust into the diesel, both at the fill time and the actual use of sand for traction. The Southern Pacific purchased three U50 locomotives, and they lasted a bit longer.
The MIR job in Golden Valley pretty much at the old MN&S yard.
Thanks to Shawn for the heads up.
I've never seen them parked here. There are quite a few rolled steel cars behind them.
Elevators/Lifts ~ Cruise Ship Interior ~ Royal Promenade
Independence of the Seas - Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Independence_of_the_Seas
This fifteen-deck ship, built in 2008, can easily accommodate 4,370 passengers and is served by 1,360 crew. She is 1,112 feet long, 184 feet wide, and typically cruises at 24.9 mph. The vessel operates from Fort Lauderdale, Florida during the Fall & Winter months & Southampton, England during the Spring and Summer months. Cost: $828 Million.
Rock Legends Cruise V - January 19th-23rd, 2017
Independence of the Seas - Royal Caribbean Line
Fort Lauderdale - Cozumel, Mexico - Ft. Lauderdale
Twenty-one bands - sixty-three concerts - four stages
(four more photos of 'this cruise ship' in the comments)
***************************************************************************
The 2017 Bands: Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, REO Speedwagan, Credence Clearwater Revisited, Thin Lizzy and Black Star Riders,
Don Felder (Eagles), The Marshall Tucker Band, John Mayall,
Todd Rundgren, Mark Farner (Grand Funk), Nazareth, April Wine,
The Kentucky Headhunters, Rick Derringer, Paul Barrere and
Fred Tackett (Little Feat), The Weight Band, The Artimus Pyle Band (Lynyrd Skynyrd), Gary Hoey, Carolyn Wonderland, Two Wolf,
Pink Talking Fish (Pink Floyd) - [We are booked on RLC VI 2018!!
Different each year! Signed so far: Sammy Hagar-Bad Company]
Should post some cars....this custom Chevrolet El Camino goes nice here. Ilike the early '80s grille on this one.
I dunno why me and sissy got putted in time out we was just playing nicely wif da doggy!
Pose: Snuggle Me Poses - Dog Series - Doggy Dress up
marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Snuggle-Me-Poses-Dog-Series-...
Charlie wearing:
{Little Miss} Embro Belted Dress - Pink (from color me cute)
66118 brings 6V05, 0915 Round Oak to Margam, round the curve at Up Hatherley, just south of Cheltenham Spa.
Did anyone not know that UP was bringing 4014 across Nebraska for the College World Series this year? Anyone? I'm guessing not judging by the traffic trackside today. Talk about a stampede.
I had originally planned on going west to catch this large lad yesterday morning as today was supposed to be set aside for a "day" trip to Illinois to catch the westbound roadrailer on the NS. If the rumors are true, the days of that train are very numbered, and this is the last weekend for the rest of the month I'm free. However, the weather wasn't going to make the trip worth it, so I changed my plans and went out for this absolute unit today.
Sam and I both had the same idea: pop him once between North Bend and Fremont and use the extra time with their stop in Fremont to get to out spot in Omaha and get setup before the crowd arrived. I showed up to North Bend an hour before the train would be there and there were already 20+ cars at the highway crossing in town, including two gentlemen chain smoking cigarettes with one foot on the rail.
We had predicted a scene similar to that while talking the night before, so we planned on heading to a farm crossing east of town with the hope that most people would also have the same idea. I'm not going to say it was as bad as it was in town, but we certainly weren't the only ones with that idea, as both the crossings we scoped out already had several cars waiting.
Since the shot was just going to be a wedgie anyway, we set up with the others a couple miles east of town and waited. Unlike everyone else at that crossing, however, we brought our big boy lenses (pun absolutely intended), allowing us a telesmash of the consist with the North Bend elevator in the background.
I'll end this story for now and continue it on the next post.
Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" 4014 heads east to the 2023 NCAA College World Series in Omaha on the Columbus Subdivision outside North Bend, Nebraska, June 11, 2023.
As Alfie hits her pensioning years she still know how to get up on the fence, but i had to help her get down as it had been a while
Welcome to red rock country!
Union Pacific 4730 & Ferromex 4077 form the motive power of train LDG-451-B; the sundays only Potash Local on the Cane Creek Sub.
Een stukje voorbij Moab, aan de Colorado river, staat een mijn, waar Potash gedolven wordt; een zoutachtige substantie die veel in kunstmest gebruikt wordt.
De Potash mijn wordt normaal gesproken enkel op zondagen bediend. Op andere dagen wordt de spoorlijn bij Moab namelijk geblokkeerd doordat op de lijn vrijwel de gehele dag een containertrein staat. Die trein vervoert een belangrijker goedje; namelijk met uranium verontreinigde grond en heeft derhalve voorrang. Maar goed nieuws voor de liefhebber; aangezien zondag de enige mogelijke rijdag is van de Potash local, is de kans groot de trein ook daadwerkelijk te treffen.
Na echter ruime tijd gewacht te hebben in de Bootlegger Canyon moest ik op een gegeven ogenblik opgeven; het begon serieus te regenen én ik kreeg honger. De trein was dan ook al serieus een paar uur te laat. Terug bij de auto...u raadt het al...passeerde hij echter alsnog.
Gelukkig is de snelheid op het traject naast de Colorado River erg laag; een mijl of 10 per uur, harder zal het niet gaan. De trein is dan ook snel ingehaald.
Een eerste fatsoenlijke foto toont de Union Pacific 4730 (EMD SD70M) en Ferromex 4077 (EMD SD70Ace) met hun trein LDG-451-B van Grand Junction naar Potash naast een gruwelijk groot rotsblok.
Al had ik een paartje GP40-2's verwacht...ik was al erg blij dat de trein toch kwam opdagen!
26 april 2015
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
~ Thomas A. Edison
66758 The Pavior heads 6D44 Toton to Bescot approaching North Stafford Junction with Mike's second camera already set up for the Kidderminster convoy which was running behind this working. The loco is named in honour of the Worshipful Company of Paviors, who were historically responsible for the pavements of the City of London and, over the years, have been critical to the development of the craft of paving, road making, general construction and infrastructure.
windsor, april 09
Kiev 88, Arsat 80mm f2.8, Neopan 400
Just had a load of films developed dating back to march, so working my way through it pretty much chronologically.
epic thanks to Tom for the loan of his scanner.