Good old Internet-Explorer

Every Christmas I send out train Christmas-cards.
It’s something I’ve done for years — my 81-year-old Aunt Betty, the only remaining Connor spawn, says she looks forward to it.
I’ve always gotten the cards from Leanin Tree in Colorado; a place that sells way more than train cards — more than Christmas-cards.
I’ve always been partial to the Pennsylvania Railroad, of course. I was always hornswoggled by that red keystone.
Many of my cards have had the GG1 on them; the greatest railroad locomotive of all time.
Thankfully, I saw quite a few GG1s. I have GG1 #4896 as my computer wallpaper.
I remember being at Claymont station in northern Delaware in the early ‘60s, when what is now known as the Northeast Corridor was still Pennsy; although electrified as it is now.
Four tracks went through, and I thought the GG1 passenger expresses ran the inside tracks.
Here I am standing trackside next to an outside track, and I hear a GG1 coming.
I set up.
Surprise; it was on the outside track, doing at least 90 mph!
Had I not hooked my arm around a light-standard I woulda been sucked into it — not be here.
That thing was boomin’-and-zoomin’.
Greatest railroad locomotive of all time: “Stand back! Look out! Comin’ through!”
For years I ordered cards through the mail.
But the past four years or so have been online.
So I figured I’d try it last night (Friday, August 22, 2008) with my FireFox, which was already on.
Old waazoo. Has Leanin Tree moved beyond Internet-Explorer?
I successfully navigate five steps.
Leanin Tree’s web-site is less friendly. No longer a train-card section.
I had to search the specifical cards I wanted by catalog-number; the catalog I received via snail-mail.
Leanin Tree has everything anymore; including grizzled Granny picking her nose.
I click “complete order,” and into the ozone. Spinning soccer-ball; the MAC equivalent of the hourglass.
Oh well; fire up Internet-Explorer.
Internet-Explorer displays the web-site a little screwy; search-window up here, and go-button down there.
Good old Internet-Explorer. My FireFox didn’t do that.
I start filling in the order with “auto-fill,” and then IE dives into the ozone.
I don’t even remember why. —Just that I decided mañana; some other time with Internet-Explorer.
So I quit IE, and it fell back to FireFox, which was on in the background.
I get the “unable-to-connect” screen, and the “retry” button, a screen I see occasionally when the web-cam at the mighty Curve, my FireFox home-page, doesn’t work.
So I hit “retry” before shutting off, and VIOLA! I get the Leanin Tree completed order page.
Thankfully, only one order in my e-mail — I’ve had double-orders when a browser bombed.
But I didn’t get very far with Internet-Explorer.
In fact, as I recall, it was telling me I ordered 225 cards (for crying out loud) instead of 25.
....And wouldn’t let me change it.

My mother’s maiden-name was “Connor.” My Aunt Betty was after her; the last Connor child.

The Pennsylvania Railroad (“Pennsy”) is no longer in existence. It merged with New York Central Railroad in 1968 as Penn-Central, and that tanked in about eight years. “Pennsy” was once the largest railroad in the world. As a child, I lived along the Pennsylvania-Reading (“RED-ing,” not “READ-ing”) Seashore lines in south Jersey, which was partially Pennsy. (“Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines” [PRSL] is an amalgamation of Pennsylvania and Reading railroad-lines in south Jersey to counter the fact the two railroads had too much track. It was promulgated in 1933. It serviced mainly the Jersey seashore from Philadelphia.) I witnessed the end of steam-locomotion on the PRSL in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. PRSL used Pennsy equipment, as well as Reading.

Erlton, New Jersey until December 1957; northern Delaware after that.

I drive an Apple Macintosh computer; and am loudly excoriated by all my siblings who use PCs.

“FireFox” and “Internet-Explorer” are both web-browsers; “Internet-Explorer” more in use as a Microsoft product. (This blog-site wants FireFox. The “add-picture” icon is missing with Internet-Explorer.)

The “mighty Curve” (“Horseshoe Curve”), west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, is by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to. Horseshoe Curve is a national historic site. It was a trick used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to get over the Allegheny mountains without steep grades. Horseshoe Curve was opened in 1854, and is still in use. (I am a railfan, and have been since I was a child.) —Horseshoe Curve has a web-cam, but it’s awful.