Believe it or not, one of our favorite shows to watch during quarantine is on Twitter. DadHouse, “the best imaginary reality show on the internet.”
This weekend, we’ve asked the stars of DadHouse to tell us about their own Weird Quarantine Obsessions.
Trains, by Danny Caine
Last year we moved from Lawrence to North Lawrence. North Lawrence is the eccentric, kinda separate part of a town that itself feels eccentric and kinda separate from Kansas. In North Lawrence, chickens literally cross the road. Sleek carbon-neutral contemporary homes neighbor shaggy Victorians sprouting weird yard art. You never know when a sinkhole might open in your yard. All the plants seem to grow thicker up here. The bugs are worse. And Union Pacific freight trains tear through the middle of the neighborhood every few minutes. Our windows rattle with the eastbound trains. My toddler son and I have been spending a lot of time in the outdoor landmarks immediately adjacent to our house—the back alley, the driveway, the empty parking lot at the elementary school across the street. Lately we’ve taken to sprinting the block towards the train tracks at the first whistle in the distance. Oh to hear that horrible sound mere feet away, to feel the rumble in the tracks, to see those yellow beasts crawl by at 35 miles per hour. I’ve started looking train stuff up on Wikipedia. Yesterday we saw a train with 163 cars and an extra engine in the middle. That’s called Distributed Power. The other day when I was pushing Jack in the stroller I saw a strange train parked on a siding—it turned out to be a rail grinder, which some YouTube videos call The Train from Hell. Yes, I’ve even dipped into the vast and vibrant YouTube train community. Every few days I see Engine 1976, the only one I remember to keep track of. It feels like being reunited with an old friend when I can’t be reunited with old friends. At the end of each train, Jack always says, “bye choo choo,” and I find comfort, watching that last car disappear. At least something can still go somewhere else.
In real life: Danny Caine is the author of El Dorado Freddy’s, which he’s very proud of but it came out in the middle of a pandemic so he couldn’t tour or anything. He’s also the author of Continental Breakfast, the zine How To Resist Amazon and Why, and the forthcoming Flavortown. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas where he owns the Raven Book Store.
On DadHouse: @mistercaine. On Dad House I’m making an aggressive play at being forgettable enough to advance. I’m the guy who maybe wins one technical challenge, but never a showstopper. Nonetheless I make the top four, if not the final. Some viewers will say, who? Oh yeah, him He’s alright, I guess. I lack the warmth of a Mike Tager, the eccentric vision of a Dan Brady, or the clear eyed honesty of a Dan Hoyt. Of the three bearded Dans, I’m the one standing the background. Also sometimes I’m too busy to reply to Jaime’s tweets.