Running Bear's May 2022 Coffee Shop


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Another early morning for me out here where it is a cool 40f and looking for 70f under partly cloudy. Not a lot to report on except that the Spousal Unit has, more or less, returned and after today will - once again - be a "fixture" here -- finally!
Let's see what the total is: There is a total of 8 and all 8 have been jabbed 3 times each, yet 4 have contracted Covid with 2 of them pretty heavy.
Maybe it could have been worse, but seems to me that the injections were somewhat lacking in the protection department? Sure makes a person wonder.

TomO - Glad to see that you are on the green side of the grass after your procedure.

KEN D&J -- It's been that way out here for as long as I have lived here. We did have a "flurry" of protests when the ARNOLD was made Governor, but that faded as well.
We need a bunch of "Tea Parties" again!

Everyone stay tuned - my turn under the surgeons eye is coming tomorrow morning!
 
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Good Morning all!
35F and clear in Libby, no wind.

Just got our property tax bill. $748 this year, $730 ( me thinks ) last year. Ima wanting a garage and hope to do that this summer sometime. Suspect that the prop. taxes will grow somewhat when they figure out there is new stuff.

Anyway, heading for Spokane for a VA visit as my right hearing aid went kaput. Tried to change the ear wax filter and it looks like some of it is still down in the speaker. Stopped in a Sam's club a week or so ago in Olive Branch and talked with the hearing specialist there for awhile. He had a small vacuum that looked handy-dandy and I want one. Could not get the remaining wax or filter out.

Chef's Store ( X Cash-n-Carry ) is also in the plan as we decided to buy up on meat because who knows what is gonna happen with the impending recession.

Wife is not going this time so our usual $500 at CostCo will not come into play. Taking camera and will try to get some more 'today' pix.

Later
 
Good Morning All. Clear and a warm humid 75° this morning. Hopefully returning to the 60's overnight by tomorrow. Even though it only got up to 90° here yesterday, it has been unseasonably warm for this time of year, especially at night. While the wind abated some overnight, 10 mph, it will be back soon.

I have begun to put up my tomato cages, and there are little tomatoes everywhere. But that will cease soon as a tomato flower will not pollinate if the nighttime temperatures stay above 70° for very long. Hopefully a long enough cooler spell is coming up this week to reverse that. The heat sensitive veggies like spinach and red lettuce have bolted and gone to seed, my Romaine Lettuce is still holding on. This is the first year that I have ever grown that variety.

Thanks again today for the likes and comments on my lowly project yesterday; Jaz, Moermusic, Hughie, Sherrel, Karl, Dave B, James, Troy, Smudge, Rick, Guy, Joe, Patrick.

I did continue my rehab of the structure yesterday out in the train shed. After drilling a hole in the roof, I added a vent pipe extension to the sewer line.
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I painted both handrails black and added ground foam in all of the non-sidewalk areas.
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Next, I'll add some shrubbery and some minor weathering.

Smudge - While it works for you, there's no way I am going to apply painters tape to over 1300' x 2 rails when I add glue to ballast. That's 800m in your world!
Tom O - Glad to read that the two procedures went off well. That lunch bill is outrageous, especially considering no alcohol! I have the same problem with Cardinals here.
Ken (D&J) - I find that most people do not read their estimated tax statements until after the appeal date! I received mine Friday and have two weeks to file an appeal. Mine actually went down by $23. Not that it matters much to me, as property taxes in Texas are frozen when the homeowner reaches age 65, which my wife did in 2015. One of my brothers turns 65 in December 2022. He got a retroactive refund on his 2021 property taxes that he paid in January!
Sherrel - Good Luck.

National Shrimp Day today. I believe that I have a bunch in the freezer.
Everyone have a great day.
 
My property tax will be about $3700 if nothing is changed. Virginia has a relief program for seniors if the "total" annual household income is less than $22,000. That means everybody living at that address. If a single senior is living with an adult child, the child's income is counted. Basically saying no programs available.
 
Good Morning!
27F this morning. 10 minutes ago, I stepped outside in my PJ's to take this street photo in front of the house:
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That's not going to last long. We're supposed to be finally getting some warm air soon.
Anyway, I need to do some paper work and then get out there to build a fence. Just checking in for a coffee, and I'm outta here.
Have a good one!
 
Taxes. Personally I don’t understand why folks don’t politely question their officials every year when the tax bills come out. It sure won’t hurt anything, it may save you money and it shows the ”officials” they are answerable to the people. But as we know, that’s nepotism what happens.

In 2015 Terry decided she really wanted a farmhouse as she always wanted one, that and a Victorian. When I retired in 2014 the plan was move near the granddaughter and family and DOWNSIZE. That went well, moved from 3200sq feet to just over 3600 but she got her Victorian and I got a no maintenance outside. That lasted a year. We moved in on 10/1/2014 and taxes at closing were paid by the previous owner. We got the year balance on 12/28 or close to that. Terry on 1/5/2015 was at the City Hall. She appealed as nothing had changed on the house but there was a 18% increase. Of course “input operator error”, BS but it was reduced.

In 2015, while I was in stroke recovery Terry found 1050 acres in bankruptcy court for 5 years with a decent house to be remodeled. Every year since, because we sell parcels of property and we do something to the housing we go in and appeal the tax bills. The staff I truly believe act in good faith using the info the machines have, but adjustments are not timely. The office manager at our local government entity says of the 40,000+ non-commercial properties they tax maybe 50 folks a year come in to appeal the bill. Most of those she has said just previously purchased the property.

If you don’t check your bill and learn to UNDERSTAND it, you most likely are giving away money.
 
Willie: Nice rehab. Right now there are four of these Victorians sitting on my layout mainly as place keepers until I find something that fits the space. I bought them, years ago, because they resembled a row of Multi-familys in Elizabeth, NJ. They took up a tad more room than I expected, but they were too nice to dispose of.
 
Good morning all,

Another day - more rounds of Phys Therapy. Tomorrow is first appt with PT, so will likely get more. But, I am a believer in PT. About 12 years ago I slipped on ice landing on my right elbow and completely dislocated my shoulder. Ouch, is right. All those action movies about the heroes pulling their own shoulders back into joint? Nahhhhh! Pain was unbelievable!

But wifeykins was sure I'd need surgery, but told the ortho doc that I wanted to be on the golf course in the summer (this was late Feb.). He hooked me to a good shoulder PT guy, and I was! So I will be a good boy this time round also.

Anyway - - birds: Did not get a pic, but last night whilst sitting out on the front deck, a turkey was strutting about the neighborhood. "Winner, Winner, Turkey Dinner!"

Did run trains yesterday. Starting to see a prob with my BLI 4-6-2 Pacific. With no change to the throttle, it slows to a stop, pauses a few seconds, and then rapidly accelerates to full speed before slowing to the ordered speed step. Weird, no? I have read that the DT602 throttles had a bit of a glitch that firmware updates should correct. So must do that. Both my DCS52 Zephyr and the DT602 throttle need firmware updates. Oh joy! See what you are missing out on Willie?

Enjoy the day all! Steve J
 
I walked out to the garden just after posting earlier and much to my surprise, I found my nemesis who has been rooting things up in search of worms and grubs.
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It felt like it weighed at least 20 pounds and was a feisty SOB.
Since they can range about 5 miles, I took it and released it 8 miles away in a wilderness area next to an ATV recreational area.
Of course this is immediately after I fenced the area off and just set the open trap next to the fence.
 
Morning again,

Thanks to all for the ballasting tips. Should go a bit smoother I hope.

Weather guys are saying closer to 100° today, so we'll see. It is a bit early, but dry air is moving in. Supposed to be back to the 80's over the weekend.

Willie: I've got 10 of those houses still in the boxes unbuilt. I'm not quite sure I'm gonna use them all. Yours looks good for what it is. Glad you caught the trash panda. But they usually come in multiples...
 
I caught a Racoon once in my Have a Heart trap. That guy was snarling and screaming at me. I wanted to calm him down a bit before releasing him so he wouldn't come back around and go after me, so I put some tuna fish on a screwdriver to stick through the cage. At first he really went after the screw driver tip then realized it was kinda tasty. After a dozen or so little snacks of tuna fish, he became pretty docile and receptive to the treats, licking it off the screwdriver rather than biting at it. Eventually I was able to open the trap and let him go without having to fight him.
 
Good Tuesday morning, Jaz & gents. Flo, a stack of blueberry pancakes, bacon & a black cuppa, please.
Tom O- hope you find good news from your endo consult today. Only about 70° up my way, but muggy from last night’s line of tstorms, so broke down & put the AC on today.

Ended up back in the ED last night with chest pains yet. ER doc agreed to do a chest CT & found that the nodule on my left *lung had doubled in size in 7 years. He said that if it’s pushing against pulmonary blood vessels, that COULD explain the chest pains I’ve been have these past 2 months. I see cardiologist & pulmonary tomorrow to see what the next game plan is.
 
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Patrick said:
Glad you caught the trash panda. But they usually come in multiples...
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This one is a male. But I also am aware that there may be more nearby.

D&J RailRoad said:
I caught a Racoon once in my Have a Heart trap. That guy was snarling and screaming at me. I wanted to calm him down a bit before releasing him so he wouldn't come back around and go after me, so I put some tuna fish on a screwdriver to stick through the cage. At first he really went after the screw driver tip then realized it was kinda tasty. After a dozen or so little snacks of tuna fish, he became pretty docile and receptive to the treats, licking it off the screwdriver rather than biting at it. Eventually I was able to open the trap and let him go without having to fight him.
Click to expand...
This one actually damaged the trap, although I can easily repair it.
 
Good afternoon all,

currently a sunny 69° in central Minnesota, gonna be sunny all day, they say. We got an inch of rain in 20 minutes yesterday, then sun for a beautiful rainbow and sunset.

I got some time in yesterday after work painting hydrocal rocks to go on the layout. My wife has a bunch of pages to read to get her book back to the library so rather than watch TV together I got to work on the layout project.

I have been anxious to see how the boulders and sandstone slabs will look, also select a technique and color. Maybe pics later this week.

Curt - thanks for checking out my build thread!

Sherrel - hope the knife is well directed tomorrow.

Todd - luv those prop taxes in Montana

Willie - handrails look great, model is looking very nice. On trapped animals, we usually take ours over the bridge to Wisconsin and let them go in their woods. If they are smart enough to get back over the bridge, more power to them.

Steve - I have a naughty finger that comes out of joint when I am working hard. Putting it back has become routine, but a very loud ouch, ouch, ouch usually comes out of my mouth. I am sure nothing like the pain from a dislocated shoulder or knee.

Todays pic from the old layout, confusion at the dock:

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more later, Dave
 
Good morning, all. A very warm start to the day, 80 degrees, somewhat hazy. Rain is forecasted for the coming weekend, but only 20% chance.
We have been doing a lot of store hopping lately. Today will be shoe stores, oh joy.

Racoons - bear in mind I grew up in Queens NY. Racoons were non-existent in the city. 1963 I was a lifeguard at Alpine Scout Camp in Alpine NJ. Great summer job, lifeguard at a Boy Scout camp, in the woods, invited to campfire meals by the visiting troops. The only caveat, no Girl Scouts.
Anyway, one night I grabbed a racoon coming down a tree. Didn't take me long to examine it. It jumped and hissed and I let go quickly, never to be done again.

Since I have had very limited train room time I just post from the archives. The track aligned with the TT is my program track.
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STAY SAFE
LATER
 
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chadbag said:
Actually was only 30F this morning when I got up. Last couple days it has been mid 30s first thing so a little extra cold. Kind of annoying to have these cold fronts come through after stretches of nice 60-70s weather...
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CHAD - I have had to kick the furnace most of last week and this week too!
I just thought to myself - Enough of this wintery mix. I am ready for the 90's and here I have to wear a jacket to the grocery store!
 
Well, howdy there internet people, and all mourning doves...

I wanted to get a few pics of mama-bird... got one, then spooked her with the second angle.

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Then she spooked and flew away. Still only two eggs in the nest. The interwebz tell us that's what they do. 2 eggs.

Mama bird flew back, but I was sitting about 7 feet to the right of the nest.

She wasn't getting back on the nest if I was out there. So I went inside to refill the iced tea.... took her about two minutes of hopping around on the fence to finally jump back in the nest.

Now she's popped her head up and staring at me... giving me the evil-stink-eye

I told her I don't eat eggs

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