Oh, I had nothing to do with writing Dan Ainsworth's obituary. Wish I had. I'd have to second Carol that family likely wrote it, someone who knew (and loved) him well. After nagging him to look up Carol Voss at Winterail he uncharacteristically spoke highly--of Carol, calling her a blast, really taken with her. Dan was quite fond of dirty humor, enough that I'm having real trouble finding something printable from him. His e-mail list had plenty of military e-addresses. He'd usually sign off e-mail with stuff like this:
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"if a man speaks and there is no woman present to hear him, is he still wrong?"
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"Women always get the last word in an argument. Anything said after that is the start of a new argument."
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"Marriage is a partnership where one person is always right. The other person is a husband."

Almost the last thing he forwarded was photos of a large, half-submerged school bus:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Subject: Italian Cruise ship captain Francesco Schettino began his new job as a bus driver yesterday....

He loved to needle me when I chided him for overly liking rightwing humor, so for one of the least unprintable things he'd send, after I'd checked with USC about video copies of their 1974 game with USC he wanted, I got this:
As a reward (punishment?) for your efforts, you MIGHT enjoy one or both of these. In response to a number of complaints that there are not enough Black and Hispanic people appearing on TV, the Network has decided that in the future "America's Most Wanted" will now be shown TWICE each week.

His obit had him being closed-mouthed. I would agree but not completely, he let his hair down at times. And he could be "got" cause on rare occasion I was lucky to tag him back but that was a tall order, real tough to do. He was an extraordinarily fun person to be with, it's quite painful to lose him. I'll end with what he sent about Orange County railroading he remembered after I mentioned my pap moved to Huntington Beach in 1967, Dan's preferred typing intact:

I'm sure you have old maps, but here's one-on-one history.

I moved off of Gisler ave near Harbor Blvd in 1957 - branch came parallel to Harbor Blvd about at Gisler and ran south past Baker and cut east after dale and ran south of logan but no longer crossed fairview. Old trackage at air base was long gone as was base itself (fairgrounds occupied souther portion). Costa Mesa HS built around 58-59.

After military service, family started a trucking company on logan - got boxcar service at rear of warehouse - dunno if it was between logan and village or if village was row at that time. Business moved out in 68-69.

Trackage was torn out befor SD Fwy was extended south of Harbor but freeway overpass was needed as there was a new retail warehouse (like Levitz) at Gisler and track stub-ended there after going under freeway (I assume that is still there?)..

Even in 1957 there was absolutely no trace of PE row west of Harbor over to HB.

There WAS still a connection to Newport line crossing PCH in Hunt Beach, and newport station still had boxcars spotted but only track to HB plus a spur for spotting cars that would have been the old newport blvd line. track ended at station.

Newport Blvd still had a couple of cross streets (between Harbor Blvd and Tustin) where old newport row was still 'humped' and had cut rails in pavement here and there.

Santa Ana PE ended at a lumber yard at Fairview in west santa ana even in 1957. No signs of tracks in 5th street.