Blogging from the train

It occurred to me as I typed the title of this post that as recently as 10 years ago, the phrase "blogging from the train" would probably have been met with a curious "doing what from a train?"  The term blog wasn't as widely used or understood just a decade ago, never mind the idea of actually being able to do so from a moving vehicle.  But now that wifi and fast 3G connections are prevalent, I suppose it's possible to blog from just about anywhere.

In honor of that fact, I'm now blogging to you live from a charging Amtrak train headed to Washington DC.  I'm spending the next four days at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice annual "March on DC" where we'll have an opportunity to present to members of our congressional delegation and their staffs on issues pertaining to our industry.  I'll have an opportunity to talk about the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston and the likely impact of proposed changes to Medicare reimbursements over the next few years.  I'll cut to the chase - it's not good.

The schedule is quite full, so I don't know whether I'll have any opportunity to blog real time or whether it will have to wait until I'm on the Acela Express headed back toward Boston.  In any event, I'll let you know how it goes.

A quick note about the photo above.  I shot it quickly with my little point & shoot camera and upon full screen inspection, the shot appeared dull and unexciting.  Which means it cried out for some computer manipulation.  Thought I'd give it a classic charcoal effect.

Why a train to DC?  Though it takes a bit more time, the hassle factor is substantially less than flying in my experience.  Because it's a Sunday and the first meeting is not until 3:00 today, I have the luxury of time. And in my experience, when you factor in dealing with the ever increasing challenges of air travel, including airport transfers, security, etc., and the fact that the end-to-end train stations are quite close to home and destination, the time it takes to go via train is only fractionally greater.  Coupled with the availability of wifi internet and big, spacious seats, it's a more civilized way to go.

UPDATE:  Seconds before hitting the "Publish Post" button, a booming voice just announced that "car 6 is disabled", meaning that we're headed back to the last station to ditch it.  This gives us an approximately one hour delay.  So much for civilized...