Just a Tuesday. Ordinary Tuesday.

I had a fairly interesting morning at work today. Ordinary, I suppose. But interesting nonetheless. We took our train to Hamilton, as usual. I napped on the way, as usual. Yes, Ms J. I am the engineer. But there are two on every passenger train. My mate operates the train westbound and I run it eastbound. Hamilton is west. So I nap.

Oh, I'm not supposed to be napping of course. But I start work at 4:45. We depart Mimico at 5:15. It's still dark outside. And I'm still sleepy. So I nap. Forty-five minutes later, we're in Hamilton. Lovely!

We park the train at the station platform and go inside for a cup of coffee. There's a cute little coffee shop there which opened last April. The place is clean, the service friendly, and the coffee's brilliant! But this morning, they were short-staffed. Normally, two girls work behind the counter. Jaime serves coffee while Karen prepares food orders. They serve muffins and bagels and even pancakes and eggs. It smells delicious.

But this morning, Jaime wasn't there. Poor Karen had to do everything. And she was not very happy. Jaime hadn't even bothered to call. She just hadn't shown up. I wonder if she's alright. Hamilton can be a pretty rough city. It's a steel town, like America's Pittsburgh or perhaps Sheffield in England. I don't think it's safe for a young woman to be out alone in that part of town at 5:30 am. Karen was angry. I was worried.

We enjoyed our coffee, my mates and I, then we boarded our train and departed Hamilton at 7:04. Seven-oh-four, Ms J. What a strange time. I've often wondered why it's not 7:00 or 7:05.

Invariably, there'll be some passenger who arrives a bit late and still wants to buy coffee or a newspaper. We often wait, for there's lots of time in the schedule between Hamilton and Aldershot, our first stop.

"You're alright," I tell them. "I don't think they'll leave without me."

The lazy winter sun must press the snooze button a few extra times before getting out of bed as we don't see old Sol until we're well away from the Hamilton station. If the sky is clear, I often thrill to see the sunrise across Lake Ontario's Hamilton Bay. Sometimes, the majesty of it fills me with joy and I gasp softly at the shimmering sight.

But not this morning, Ms Journal. This morning was wet. Rainy and foggy. Very foggy. I hate the fog. Luckily, it didn't last long. By the time we arrived at Oakville, our last stop before proceeding non-stop to Toronto, the fog had cleared. The rain continued intermittently.

We surprised five or six deer as we rounded a curve. I blew the whistle and they bounded off into a nearby field of winter wheat. They're so beautiful to see, aren't they? And so graceful, floating effortlessly over the farmer's wire fence.

I pressed the P.A. button on the radio and addressed the passengers.

"Morning folks. Sorry to bother you. There's a small herd of deer on the south side of us right now. Look out the window. Can you see them?"

I smiled to myself as I imagined the passengers craning their necks to look all around. Some of them would surely look the wrong way. Some might feel annoyed at my impromptu announcement. But others might share my joy at being in the right place at the right time. I always feel blessed somehow, to witness animals in the "wild."

Besides deer, I've seen coyotes and foxes. Skunks. Raccoons. Possums. Hundreds of squirrels. Hawks. Turkey vultures. Once, a Great Horned Owl flew up in front of the windshield. He'd been sitting on the ties, eating something he'd caught, and when he flew in front of me, I nearly died of fright! I saw the huge bird fly off and I was relieved we didn't kill it.

That's it then, Ms J. That was my morning. Ordinary, yes. But also as interesting as I want it to be. Every day is as interesting, as exciting as I want it to be. It's been a long time since I last wrote these words, but "Gosh, I love my Life!"