Running Bear's May 2022 Coffee Shop


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Greetings from the WEST where we are looking for a high of 81f with a mostly clear sky.
FLO - I have not had a good MEL's brakfast in a month - how about a CFS with smashed taters, gravy, eggs up, and sourdough toast?

I'm still on the green side of the grass. The cardio inversion procedure went well and smooth after I once was back in the system.
Someone dropped the ball and forgot to notify me where I was to go, the time to be there, and the fact that I needed a Covid test for starters.
Once all that was sorted out at 11:30 PM Tuesday night with the surgery unit - then the Spousal Unit and I managed to lay down for 4 hours before we had to prepare to head to the hospital. I was supposed to be at room 212, building 1 at 6:30AM for the covid test and not knowing the traffic congestion we left the house at 4:45 am ... traffic was light and we had a few minutes of car time before the doors were opened. Someone finally gathered me up at 7:15 for the 6:45 Covid test and placed me in a closet sized isolation room. Mind you, the procedure was supposed to happen at 8AM -and finally at 8:10am they remembered where I was and then it was "hurry up-we're behind schedule"

Things settled down after that and around 10:30 the Spousal Unit and I were walking towards the car and headed home.
I was pretty tired out and slept most of the afternoon. Last night was not a very restful night and finally dozed off sitting in a chair at 3;30am.
Feeling better at this time, still short of breath, but the breathing is a bunch easier. Still hoping that things continue to improve. I would hope to get some semblance of a normal life back again - so here is hoping?

I'm going to try and catch up on a couple days of posts ... looks to have been busy here?
 
Random thoughts for the day (aka 2 minutes inside Jeff's brain):

It's impossible to have a meaningful conversation with someone when that person listens to reply, rather than listening to understand.

If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

Great minds talk about ideas. Average minds talk about current events. Small minds talk about each other.

Are you ever are curious who loves you more, your dog or your wife? Here's an experiment to help you figure that out: Lock both of them in the trunk of your car. Come back an hour later. Open the trunk, and see which one's happy to see you. Pretty sure it will be the dog.

Why are they called hemorrhoid's? Why not call them asteroids? Also, Preparation H doesn't work. I ate a whole tube and I still have hemorrhoids (where's my sign?). Which reminds me... Shouldn't "passing gas" be called "asphalt"?
 
Here is an interesting story and fact....

The Baldwin 12-8-1500/2 were BLW's first serious attempt at a production road diesel locomotive. Baldwin built the famous "Centipedes" between 1945-48. The carbody rode on two enormous articulated half-frames that were linked at the middled with a hinged joint. One unpowered four-wheel truck at each end guided the locomotive through curves and helped provide stability. The Centipedes were huge - 91.5' feet long for single units as operated on SAL and NdM. Semi-permanently coupled pairs, as operated on the PRR, were 183' long! Each unit contained two 1500 horsepower diesel motors, so a pair contained four motors and totaled 6000 horsepower. Centipedes were heavy, totaling 1,200,000 pounds (1.2 million) for a pair, with more than 800,000 of those pounds carried by the 16 drivers.

In 1945, the prototype A1-A2 set toured American railroads and three railroads placed orders - PRR, SAL, and NdeM. Union Pacific originally ordered two units, but never took delivery. Unfortunately, the Centipedes did not last long in service. PRR and SAL retired theirs by the early 1960's and NdeM followed in the late 60's. The Centipedes were enormous, and maybe the most unique diesel locomotive design of the era, but they could not compete with the more capable EMD locomotives.

In our 2022 production of Centipedes, we are offering models in all of the prototypical paint schemes, including the Demonstrator scheme. We are also offering two Union Pacific sets. There has been a debate over the years about which road numbers the units would have been assigned, so we have built models painted for both 1600A/1601A and also 998/999.


I like the looks of these units but I actually like the Alco DL-109s/110s better. Union Pacific ordered these units but again never took delivery of them. If they ever do these, being an Alco guy I would for surely get them.
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps, and those who eat eggs without the cake mix.

It's Troy again, coming to you from the land of Kamado Joe Smokers...

What's on the grill today?
potato.jpg


I had to steal half a tater! That's the way to dial in the temp inside the dome (Kamados use all three heat sources, direct, indirect, and convection, about equally). And any cook needs to get the ceramics in the dome heat soaked prior to cooking. I can cheat with burgers and steaks (short cooks). But a four-hour brisket cook needs better temp control.

Here's the roast, all trimmed up. Willie was correct, there was a lot of trimming. Probably got about as much meat as what I would have had with the Choice Flat, instead of a whole in Prime.

More pics to follow in later posts.

brisket.jpg
 
That looks good, Troy!

I use a cheap Masterbuilt electric smoker I got at Cabelas a few years ago. I know, I know... electric?!?!?!?

It works for me. I smoke a few Boston Butts a year, and an occasional turkey breast or 2. I have never tried brisket. I would like to try my hand at smoking provolone cheese... But I don't think my smoker is well suited for that low of a temperature.
 
You're right Jeff about people hearing conversation only to inject their perspective as the ultimate truth.
Current text message discussion with my siblings about Trump saying we should inject bleach into our veins to cure COVID.
I offered a link to the actual recoded event. They don't want to listen to it. I provided a link to when Biden claims he actually intended that, they won't look at that either.
This is just never-ending events in political discussions. Those who want too only hate on Trump will do that regardless if the truth is played out right in front of them.
 
That looks good, Troy!

I use a cheap Masterbuilt electric smoker I got at Cabelas a few years ago. I know, I know... electric?!?!?!?

It works for me. I smoke a few Boston Butts a year, and an occasional turkey breast or 2. I have never tried brisket. I would like to try my hand at smoking provolone cheese... But I don't think my smoker is well suited for that low of a temperature.
there are "cold smoke" ways to do that. A pellet tube add on, that burns just pellets in a cold smoker. Check YouTube for ideas
 
You're right Jeff about people hearing conversation only to inject their perspective as the ultimate truth.
Current text message discussion with my siblings about Trump saying we should inject bleach into our veins to cure COVID.
I offered a link to the actual recoded event. They don't want to listen to it. I provided a link to when Biden claims he actually intended that, they won't look at that either.
This is just never-ending events in political discussions. Those who want too only hate on Trump will do that regardless if the truth is played out right in front of them.
What's interesting is that I watched that event live, and recordings of it later... and I garner our interpretations of it are going to vary wildly. To say I was shell-shocked following his pronouncements would be an understatement.

Did he say to inject bleach? (from Politico). Not exactly... but, well, kinda... (emphasis mine)

“A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world,” Trump began, clearly thinking the question himself, “So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that, too. It sounds interesting. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”

The look on Dr. Birx's face as she tried to contain her expression... yeah... that was priceless. Poker face fail on that one.

The problem with political off-the-cuff communication is that it goes off the rails quickly, and gives the political opponents ammunition. That's why the current POTUS is known for gaffes. He tends to be frank and honest upfront, instead of deferring with political delay speech that sooooo many other politicians have mastered. They, unfortunately, have it mastered to the point where they never actually say anything while moving their mouths at the speed of sound.

OK, back to normal brisket grilling.

Foil boat time to protect the presentation side.
foil.jpg
 
Here's the roast, all trimmed up. Willie was correct, there was a lot of trimming. Probably got about as much meat as what I would have had with the Choice Flat, instead of a whole in Prime.
Good looking Brisket. I have never tried doing it on the grill. I have always stuck it in the oven @ 175F for 10 to 12 hours with the Good Sh.t on it. After about 8 hours, spread your BBQ or whatever sauce on both sides, the cover with AL. Mmmm-mmm good!
 
Good afternoon,

Late lunch after a big discussion on right of way permitting. Office admin did not want to insure us while working in the Railroad ROW, essentially it was a little too much work to jump through all those hoops. In short, Highway Department doing work at a busy BNSF crossing. Wouldn't it be a no brainer we would want to follow the rules? Anyway, it got straightened out and long story short I WON.

Politics - life is much better without them. While on vacation we were in a no news mode and it was soooo refreshing.

Pests - fun to talk about the skunks, squirrels, and woodchucks. I like them, just not in my yard. I was thinking about putting up a bunch of signs around saying skunks and woodchucks KEEP OUT. May have to use a pictogram, maybe pass a law. Or not.

One time I killed 3 woodchucks with one 22 round. I was aiming at the first one and the other two were behind him. All three were hit and died. Quite by accident, however made me feel pretty good. TRUE STORY

Willie - nice Longhorn shot. Good progress on the building in a short time!

James - nice loco collection

Sherrel - great to hear about the surgery


Todays photo, another view of a favorite loco. The tie down chains needed work, will upgrade them over time:


Bringing logs.jpg.JPG



more later, Dave LASM
 
Yeah... I dabbled and I'm out of the political discourse here again. Since my degrees are in a field of communication (with a specialty in political coverage), I tend to nibble.

Back to games. Just got a shipment in from Warlord Games... they've released a "Combined Arms" game that is kind of a board game, and kind of a campaign aid.

Here's the dice they included in the box.

dice.jpg
 
Yeah... I dabbled and I'm out of the political discourse here again. Since my degrees are in a field of communication (with a specialty in political coverage), I tend to nibble.

Back to games. Just got a shipment in from Warlord Games... they've released a "Combined Arms" game that is kind of a board game, and kind of a campaign aid.

Here's the dice they included in the box.

View attachment 145828

Took me a few seconds to get it.

Like that Star Trek episode with the guys with one side of face painted black and the other side painted white, they were still able to find something to be offended with.

Dave
 
Ya I kinda like it. I wished I had gotten the 1 run of the SP Daylight which looked wicked cool. Now they are selling for 600 plus bucks.....

View attachment 145797

I like the fantasy schemes. I have several of them and enjoy having them on my layout. I just call them heritage units on my layout.

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They also have this Black Widow scheme but I already have one by Athearn #750 (shown above) minus the American Flag.....

View attachment 145796


Here were some others from the past runs which I have a few of.......I was not interested in the F59PHI units. I did bid on the Union Pacific SD60M on ebay and paid and the guy screwed me over and decided not to sell or rather sold later to somone else at a hogher cost. I won the bid at a 100 bucks. I knew he wouldn't honor it. It sucked....he sucks!

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I wish someone would do this scheme in HO scale. Currently this scheme is done in O gauge by Lionel I think or MTH......

View attachment 145805

Ohh James, sorry dude but the last one looks like a dog turd with racing stripes! 🤣😂😅🤣😄😁
 
Took me a few seconds to get it.

Like that Star Trek episode with the guys with one side of face painted black and the other side painted white, they were still able to find something to be offended with.

Dave
Actually, it's more the size and quantity. Two 10mm dice. Normally we get bags with at least 10 of them.

That's probably half-a-pence, if that, in dice cost. And most of that was probably paying the bloke to drop one of each color into the zip lock bag.

The "free" dice in any wargame are usually good only to keep track of "hits" on a model. They rarely roll well (random) and are tiny.

I expect in a year, they'll drop to 5mm dice, and we have to color our own pips on them 😜
 
10mm dice are actually not a bad size when you look at what AH and the others used to ship back in the old days. Of course I think those were higher quality dice. My non D6 dice from the 80s are much better than the ones they sell in stores today (and who needs a D10 -- D20 in two colors works better and is one less die you need).
 
Actually, it's more the size and quantity. Two 10mm dice. Normally we get bags with at least 10 of them.

That's probably half-a-pence, if that, in dice cost. And most of that was probably paying the bloke to drop one of each color into the zip lock bag.

The "free" dice in any wargame are usually good only to keep track of "hits" on a model. They rarely roll well (random) and are tiny.

I expect in a year, they'll drop to 5mm dice, and we have to color our own pips on them 😜
I thought it was one black and one white dice. They could have made them both red like Yahtzee?
 
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