Richmond Parents Monthly | Fifty Plus - Richmond magazines for seniors and parents

<% '------------------------------------------------------------ ' This function finds the last date of the given month '------------------------------------------------------------ Function GetLastDay(intMonthNum, intYearNum) Dim dNextStart If CInt(intMonthNum) = 12 Then dNextStart = CDate( "1/1/" & intYearNum) Else dNextStart = CDate(intMonthNum + 1 & "/1/" & intYearNum) End If GetLastDay = Day(dNextStart - 1) End Function '------------------------------------------------------------------------- ' This routine prints the individual table divisions for days of the month '------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub Write_TD(sValue, sClass) Response.Write " " & sValue & "" & vbCrLf End Sub ' Constants for the days of the week Const cSUN = 1, cMON = 2, cTUE = 3, cWED = 4, cTHU = 5, cFRI = 6, cSAT = 7 ' Get the name of this file sScript = Request.ServerVariables("SCRIPT_NAME") ' Check for valid month input If IsEmpty(Request("MONTH")) OR NOT IsNumeric(Request("MONTH")) Then datToday = Date() intThisMonth = Month(datToday) ElseIf CInt(Request("MONTH")) < 1 OR CInt(Request("MONTH")) > 12 Then datToday = Date() intThisMonth = Month(datToday) Else intThisMonth = CInt(Request("MONTH")) End If ' Check for valid year input If IsEmpty(Request("YEAR")) OR NOT IsNumeric(Request("YEAR")) Then datToday = Date() intThisYear = Year(datToday) Else intThisYear = CInt(Request("YEAR")) End If strMonthName = MonthName(intThisMonth) datFirstDay = DateSerial(intThisYear, intThisMonth, 1) intFirstWeekDay = WeekDay(datFirstDay, vbSunday) intLastDay = GetLastDay(intThisMonth, intThisYear) ' Get the previous month and year intPrevMonth = intThisMonth - 1 If intPrevMonth = 0 Then intPrevMonth = 12 intPrevYear = intThisYear - 1 Else intPrevYear = intThisYear End If ' Get the next month and year intNextMonth = intThisMonth + 1 If intNextMonth > 12 Then intNextMonth = 1 intNextYear = intThisYear + 1 Else intNextYear = intThisYear End If ' Get the last day of previous month. Using this, find the sunday of ' last week of last month LastMonthDate = GetLastDay(intLastMonth, intPrevYear) - intFirstWeekDay + 2 NextMonthDate = 1 ' Initialize the print day to 1 intPrintDay = 1 ' Open a record set of schedules Set Rs = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.RecordSet") ' These dates are used in the SQL dFirstDay = intThisMonth & "/1/" & intThisYear dLastDay = intThisMonth & "/" & intLastDay & "/" & intThisYear sSQL = "SELECT DISTINCT Start_Date, End_Date FROM t50Events WHERE " & _ "(Start_Date >=#" & dFirstDay & "# AND Start_Date <= #" & dLastDay & "#) " & _ "OR " & _ "(End_Date >=#" & dFirstDay & "# AND End_Date <= #" & dLastDay & "#) " & _ "OR " & _ "(Start_Date < #" & dFirstDay & "# AND End_Date > #" & dLastDay & "# )" & _ "ORDER BY Start_Date" 'Response.Write sSQL ' Open the RecordSet with a static cursor. This cursor provides bi-directional navigation Rs.Open sSQL, sDSN, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly, adCmdText %> Richmond Parents Monthly | Fifty Plus - Richmond magazines for seniors and parents

►Monthly Features
►First Thoughts
►Richmond Firsts
►Ask Mr. Modem
►Faith in Action
►Richmond Reads
►The Time of My Life
►Virginia's Kitchen
►Your Health
►Gardening by
the Month
►Travel

The rain started north of Albany and settled into a steady drizzle. The hills around Lake Champlain were wrapped with a mist that must have muted the sounds of the few boats gliding along the lake and of our train and its whistle. Inside the train, I sat with a cup of coffee and a book, alternately reading and watching the stippled lake.

It was the perfect way to experience the quiet, gray beauty of the day, and I was glad to have traded the speed of a plane and the convenience of a car for the train.

Given the price of gas, it was not such an expensive way to travel, either. Ridership figures for passenger trains are up over last year, surely at least partially a result of gas prices. Our train was full, but not crowded in the way that a full airplane feels crowded, since passengers are free to move around and sit in the café car.

(This is another reason I appreciate train travel: I’m not treated like an infant who must remain seated and tethered at all times, made to feel foolhardy or insubordinate if I want to stretch my legs with a walk down the aisle. And oh yes—on trains, there actually is an aisle, not just a beverage cart passageway.)

We were fortunate, on the leg from Richmond to New York, to have no delays due to sharing the tracks with freight trains. And although I didn’t have the literal opportunity to chuckle at people in cars stuck behind an accident on I-95, I imagined that we were speeding past lines of crawling traffic. I had to think of Ray Schreiner’s “Richmond Firsts” column on page 6 this month, about a “transportation question” one hundred years ago. (The problems never go away, it seems.)

The photo that accompanies the column was taken about a decade after the events Ray describes, in a slightly different location, but it was too amusing to pass up. Take a look at what mode of transportation is not stuck in the mud. You can imagine the smugness that driver may have felt.

Of course, his vehicle is now even less common than a train.

Rail travel will never be the complete answer to daily transportation questions, but it certainly is a satisfying way to take a vacation. Now, if only Amtrak could bring back the dining car, or at least learn to make a decent cup of coffee….

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