Monday, July 24, 2006
Smelly Trains
One of the odd downfalls of where we live is, sometimes, the trains. Mostly it’s cool, having a big trainyard right here. Then there are times like last night…
You know those trucks you get behind on the road that have particularly foul exhaust; the “how did that pass inspection” kind of exhaust that requires you either drop far behind, pass immediately, or be airtight enough for LEO, lacking only a launch vehicle?
There are train engines just like them, and they will sit in the trainyard idling for an hour or four periodically. Filling our apartment with toxic fumes. Especially my office and Sadie and Val’s room, courtesy of position plus window fans.
Sadie got to stay up for an extra hour past the already late time she was going to bed, else she’d have been shut in an exhaust-filled room. At least with everything open, it can dissipate better. I ended up in the bedroom reading, rather than working on billing. The fumes were making me sick to my stomach in the office.
Eventually we heard the train power up and rumble off, and within a half hour the fumes were entirely gone. The bad thing is that another train briefly did the same thing around 4 AM. Enough for me to wake and notice, anyway. Sheesh.