A little bit of history

Information about Lydick is ridiculously difficult to find. It's fairly easy to find history from Walkerton, North Liberty, and New Carlisle, but they are all considerably bigger than Lydick. Plus they happen to still be towns, whereas Lydick dropped off the map some time ago.

Lydick's former claim to existence was based on the South Shore Railroad (formerly Chicago Lake Shore & South Bend Railroad), which still runs through here. Supposedly, the South Shore used to stop here as well, though I've not yet found any documentation to support it. I figured that by researching the history of the South Shore RR, I might come up with something relevant to Lydick.

What I found is that there used to be another railroad running through Lydick as well as the South Shore and Norfolk Southern lines that are still in operation. The Northern Indiana Railroad was an electric commuter line that connected South Bend with cities in northern Indiana and southern Michigan. There is an old depot/electrical substation still standing in Lydick. The depot is visible from Edison Road, but is set back much farther than the homes along that street. I had noticed it a few months ago, but assumed it was an old warehouse. The photos below are courtesy of the NIRR page at www.monon.monon.org and show the depot in 1934 and as it is today.

I also found another bit of information about the Northern Indiana Railroad that is extremely pertinent to my house. The tracks used to run through my backyard. Seriously. I read on another website that the former right-of-way of the NIRR through Lydick is easy to find because it follows a certain set of utility lines. Those lines are less than 100 feet north of my house in a little strip of woods. We always thought that this so-called utility easement was a bit strange... All of the homes here were built in the early part of the 20th century, and none are as far apart as ours from our neighbors to the north. We assumed that the utility lines weren't here when the homes were built, and we couldn't figure out why there was such a large gap. Now we know.

I'm even more surprised now that our home is in as good of shape as it is. Even though the NIRR was shut down in 1934, that's at least 10 years of extremely close proximity to train vibrations. The South Shore and Norfolk Southern freight lines are about 500 yards to the south, and have been there since before the house was built. Thos tracks allow about 100 trains per day to barrel through Lydick, and our house shakes from almost every single one. I can't imagine what it must have felt like to have trains running through here:


In the picture, I'm standing at the side door. The woods are where the tracks used to be, and it's about 60 feet from our garage to the woods. Pretty amazing.

Mourning a Hero

The past few days have been a little rough. Since I was relegated to light duty, I spent my last 3 days of work up in Master Control. The most strenuous thing to do up there is push a button or turn a knob. It's not the most stimulating duty station in the jail, but essential nonetheless, and it's ideal if you're injured. At about 10:45 pm on my second night in exile (Friday), South Bend PD put out a call of a shooting. Several minutes later, a dispatcher came on the air and said it was an SOS officer that had been shot. Even though I don't really know anyone on SOS, my stomach wrenched. When cops are killed in the line of duty, it's horrible. I don't know if it's explainable to anyone not a part of the "Thin Blue Line", but there's an amazing empathetic reaction even when you don't know the officer who died. There's a small voice in your head telling you that it could have been you; it could have been your husband, your friend, or a member of your family. Through random chance or God's master plan, it happened to someone else, but you know it could have just as easily happened to you or your loved ones.

I listened as South Bend officers rushed to the scene, set up a perimeter, and administered CPR to the fallen officer. When I heard that they were performing CPR, all I could think was, "Oh shit, he's not going to make it." And he didn't. About 30 hours later, after undergoing emergency surgery and sustaining 2 strokes, Corporal Scott Severns died.

Tonight South Bend PD had a memorial procession for Cpl. Severns. Neither Shayne nor I really knew Severns, but we had both met him and had spoken with him a few times. But even if we hadn't known him, we would have attended. I'm not sure how many squad cars were in the procession, but it stretched for at least a mile (and quite probably more). People of all ages lined the streets waving flags, holding candles, and standing by homemade signs. It was a moving reminder that not all citizens hate the cops, that society as a whole is comprised of good and decent people. It's easy to forget when you deal mostly with the 5% who can't get it together...

Here are a few photos I took from the staging area and during the procession. I regret that they didn't turn out better, but I only had my little point-and-shoot digital camera, and some of the pics were taken with the camera out the window of a moving squad car.

May God bless Cpl. Scott Severns and all the police, firefighters, and military personell who are willing to make the supreme sacrifice to help, serve, and protect others. Your actions will not be forgotten.

Broken Houseblogger

Progress on the house and the physical agility test both just got a major setback. I sprained my ankle at work on Wednesday night... It's not a bad sprain, but I'm on light duty at work, and I have to keep it elevated, ice it, and wear a brace. The doctor said that I should bounce back quickly, but I'm worried about the agility test next weekend. If I can't pass, I won't be considered for promotion for another year. I should be healed enough to work on the house on my days off (Sunday through Tuesday). I'm glad I've never been seriously injured; I don't think I have the patience for it!

On the upside, my sedentary work environment has given me lots of time to think about our next major project: the bathroom remodel. I've been tossing around different ideas for the bathroom since last August when we bought the house. I thought I had all the criteria covered until we found that a 60" bathtub is too small. Here's the current floor plan (the closet space is drawn a little larger than it actually is in this one):

In the current layout, the space between the vanity and the tub is right around 2 feet, and it creates a bottleneck. The vanity is also huge and hogs visual space. There's too much storage in the bathroom (amazing, huh?), and the cabinets also eat up floor space. We use maybe 30% of each cabinet. The bathtub is cheap, shallow, and uncomfortable. And, last but not least, the bathroom is just not us or suitable for the house.

We have quite a few requirements for the new bathroom, but we want to work mostly within the existing space and plumbing. We'd really prefer not to move the toilet. We want a linen closet accessible from the hallway; there's already a door there, and we don't want to get rid of it. The wall between the bathroom and the closet has to stay mostly intact, since it's a load-bearing wall. We definitely want to get rid of the bottleneck between the vanity and tub. This is what I've come up with so far that involves the least amount of rearranging fixtures:

Input is VERY welcome....!

And now I should stop getting ahead of myself and start thinking about the living room again...

Conflict of Interests

I'm not sure how it looks to folks outside of my project, but to me, it feels like we're progressing at an amazingly slow rate. As much as I try to keep my blog free of my personal/professional life, right now, they are really affecting each other. Next weekend I'll be taking a physical agility test, which is the first step in the process to get promoted from a deputy (jail officer) to Patrolman (police officer). I've been having trouble managing my time, since I've been working out pretty hard to make sure I pass the test. So when I get home at night, I'm pretty exhausted. The only time I've been making real progress is on my days off (and thank God I have 3 of them!). Once I get this agaility test out of the way, I'll have a few interviews, but those won't eat up my time and energy like working out does. And, if I get promoted, I'll have more money and time off to play with, which will hopefully mean more progress on the house (and a happier, more fulfilled me) :)

Pipe dreams

So much for the great, wonderful, free clawfoot tub... Shayne hopped inside it to make sure he'd like it and found that it's too short for him. WAY too short. It would have been comical if it hadn't been so depressing. I've sort of come to grips with not being able to use it in the upstairs bathroom, but I'm still hoping we can find a use for it in the downstairs bathroom. Currently there's not enough room in there to turn around, let alone add a tub, but we'll see. If we do add on to the back porch, we should be able to bring the tub into the bathroom. If nothing else, maybe I can get one of those do-it-yourself refinishing kits (or have it done professionally) and resell the tub to someone who will love and cherish it. *sigh*

Also today in the quest for a longer clawfoot tub, I called a tub refinisher in South Bend. The company I contacted had several tubs, but none longer than 5'. Poo. They did tell me that refinishing a tub with porcelain enamel (as opposed to polyurethane or some other similar synthetic) would cost me $650. More expensive than the synthetic stuff, but I'd prefer the original materials to something I can't pronounce. He also took my name and number and said he'd call if he came across a long tub.