moonlight on the soft brown earth, it leads me to where you lay

Steelhead's new train station is finally finished. Appropriately, it has the town picture Sir Edward took when my camera failed, of the residents visitors are likely to meet.



From left to right, Miss Qlippothic Projects, Captain Midnight Bohemia, Sheriff Fuzzball Ortega, Lady Primbroke, Christine McAllister-Pearse, Warrior Goddess (and sim manager) Tensai Hilra, Miss Kattrynn Severine (owner of the sim), Earl of Primbroke, Sir Edward Pearse, Bloodwing Dragonash (then still possessing Dr. Darien Mason), your capable chronicler in lavender fur, Miss Lumina Elvehjem (designer of the Steelhead Public Gardens), Mr. Finnian Fitzgerald (founder of the Steelhead Gun Club), and Mr. TotalLunar Eclipse (capable sim manager himself, and builder of the new train station, in addition to many other structures).



Outside the train station, even the 5:15 just pulling in looks a little more exotic, against the backdrop of Tensai and Lunar's new store.

Actually, over the past six months, the character of Steelhead, while remaining true to its nature, has changed significantly in appearance. Now it's really more San Francisco gold coast, less Boot Hill. And considering Steelhead City is in Oregon...that's no bad thing.



And then there's the Taiyou.

I still look at her and she takes my breath away. Taiyou House. The palace. Largest thing anyone's ever built for me.

She's going away.



It was a mutual decision, I want no one to go to the management of Steelhead and accuse them of wrongdoing. I was involved, I was part of why it's going away.

Why is it going away? Combination of factors, really. It was beautiful but it was huge. It wasn't well utilized. Delay in getting it up and open, combined with, if I'm to be honest, managerial misconduct...I claim my faults in this, I could have done better.

But more, while a place for Companions is wanted in Steelhead...we can do better, go smaller. Utilise the space we've got more effectively.

Save prims in the process.



Plus, the saloon is finally going to be rebuilt, saving even more prims. We'll be using the upstairs of the saloon, the first floor still being, well, saloon. Just can't have a Western town without a saloon, after all.

Then the large footprint the Taiyou had can be turned over to vendor stalls, merchants, rental slots....fish market...whatever.



This still makes me giggle, somewhat--I saw Miss Terry Lightfoot for the first time from the balcony of the Taiyou. In an hour of talking, I setting up various poses, Miss Lightfoot on the roof of the then-new business of Avalanche, Sputnik and Lightfoot, we became friends.

Reminds me, I should write her soon. Perhaps go visit Professor Sputnik again--after all, I haven't seen him since the change.



I won't say I won't miss seeing the Taiyou of an evening. I did so want it to succeed. And it didn't precisely fail--it staggered, it stumbled, but it wasn't a complete disappointment. I hold to that. And I'll still have access to everything that went into it, and some--though far from all!--can go back in the upstairs of the new saloon.

For that matter, since it will be a saloon, I have some lovely Victorian settees I can put out...that could work better.



Goodbye, old girl. I may be the only one, but I'll miss you. And if you did nothing else, you taught me the value of attention, and gave a new builder much-needed confidence in his skills. For that alone, you were a worthy structure indeed.

But trust me, the ladies of the Taiyou? We aren't going away.

Now, if I can just find more of them...