A Good Day, A Bad Day


It’s a good day for the United States Marine Corps: Happy 231st Birthday to our USMC fighting men! Marine Commandant Mike Hagee writes here about this day and what the Marines mean to a free United States.

It was a bad day for moviegoers: Jack Palance died today at the age of 85. His family said he was actually 87.

Palance, a wonderful “bad guy” in the movies, kept me enthralled with his work and was one of the most down-to-earth actors around. He received his Oscar for 1991’s “City Slickers” and, besides being a WWII veteran, was a heavyweight boxer.

Anyone remember the ’91 Oscars when Palance dropped to the floor and whipped out a number of one-armed push-ups in front of millions of television viewers?

It was a bad day for my area where, not more than five miles from my house in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a train derailment occurred yesterday in which eight persons were injured and one man was killed.

Today, a second man feared missing, was found dead in the wreckage. The first man was crushed horribly; the second was burned beyond recognition in the ensuing fire.

The train was not a standard Union Pacific freight train, nor an Amtrak passenger train — the sights usually seen on the rails adjacent my house.

Instead, it was a Harsco Track Technologies rail grinding train, on contract to the Union Pacific Railroad. A rail grinding train usually consists of two custom diesel-electric locomotives on either end, with various cars in the middle to include a water car, fuel car, two cars for the crew and the actual grinding cars. Six of the ten cars derailed and chewed up over 1,400 feet of track.

A Placer County Sheriff’s Department representative, Lt. Chal DeCecco, said “If you look at the crash site, it looks like excessive speed was a factor.”

The yin and yang of Life.

BZ

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4 thoughts on “A Good Day, A Bad Day

  1. 11 10 06

    Oh man BZ:
    That is sad about the train derailment, but at least more people weren’t killed. 🙁 About the elections, well Arnie WON! I know you wanted him to win so that McClintock would get into position. Well it has happened. Now, about Jerry Brown…we will have a wild ride because I see him as soft on certain types of crime, but hard on others. Soft on e.g. marijuana laws and hard on campaign finance issues. I hope he can bring a balanced perspective to his office, cuz Lord knows we need it. I just am tripping off of the conversations that we won’t be privy to, between Arnie and Jerry. I wonder if they argue or party with one another? hehehehehh

    Only time will tell if we voted right, and I hope we did:) Wishing you, your fiance and Daddy a wonderous weekend:)

  2. To B zeppelin

    Sad that the accident happened the train accident was possibly due to too much high speed, I hope not because that means it was avoidable. Jack Palance died he will be missed and also singer Gerald Levert died he will be missed Levert dies of a heart attack. Ed Bradley died also yesterday of Leukemia Cancer he will be missed by many. Life is for the living so we should live it too the upmost death will cathch us soon enough.

    If we live everyday as if it was our last someday we will be right.

  3. Mahndisa: Oddly enough, I kind of expected McClintock to actually win this one. But Arnold coming in again does assist in clearing the path for McClintock. My ultimate goal would be to have McClintock become Fornicalia Governor, so that he would have an inroad towards becoming PRESIDENT.

    Jerry Brown acquired his position on his name identification. No one knew what in the fuck a Poochigian was. A bad virus? Dermatitis common to canines? I’m taking a “wait and see” attitude with Brown. He couldn’t be any worse than our absolute DO-NOTHING FUCKSTICK Bill Lockyer.

    In terms of the bulk of the propositions, I am not primarily disappointed. What did YOU think of the propositions results?

    Thank you, once again, for your kind words regarding my family!!

    Chance:

    You’re right. One of those “dies in threes” things again: Palance, Levert and Bradley.

    BZ

  4. Sad day indeed… we buried a local hero here as well, Jackie Parker. Y’all wouldn’t know him, but it seems to be that time of year when people are dropping off. We seem to see a lot of that at the beginning of winter, then again in spring. I guess when it’s time…. it’s time…

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