Google Patents and will I ever post again?

Second question first, obviously this post answers that. Sorry for the delay. All that non-posting chatter aside, I'm back with a truly great post.

Yesterday, Google launched Google Patents to be able to more easily search US patents. The historical data here is absolutely fabulous as reflected in this link from the above post. But most especially significant is a patent I was able to pull up right away, filed by one of my heroes when I was two years old. It's from my Dad. He patented the ability to run multiple model trains independently on a single track. He worked for General Electric at the time and "sold" it for a dollar, I think. Anyway, it's making some little kids happy on Christmas morning when they get to play with their new train set and I'm thrilled to have a Dad who can take some of the credit for making that joy a reality.

Check it out!!!