Running Bear’s August 2019 Coffee Shop


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Patrick -- sorry to hear about the garage door. If you are talking about the long springs on the sides of the door - I have replaced them on another house back 15, or so, years back. Not exactly easy to do - and I can't remember how I did it - I think the wife helped hold something while I stretched the spring.
Save yourself some money ... might be some cussing involved?:D

I wish...Those are easy. This is one of the twisted ones that are at the top of the opening. These can toss you off a ladder if not done correctly. I have installed several of the long springs over the years and never had any problems.
 
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Patrick - Sometimes those on line auctions can be a pain. I also set a limit to what I am willing to pay. I can't count how many times I have seen items bid up way over retail price.

Sometimes I think I'm paying too much, but then I see the prices for the stuff at the train shows. I know some of it I'm not going to keep, but think I can do something in the future maybe.

And great pictures of the park.
 
Patrick: Installing coiled garage door springs can be dangerous. Be careful if you tackle the job yourself.
Greg
I don't do the coiled ones, just the long ones as I can control them with a cable through the middle.
Got the company that did the door several tears ago coming out on Friday afternoon. I was pretty close on the price. Told the wife about $200ish. They quoted $220 with tax.
 
Chet - beautiful photos. We've only visited the park once, many years ago, after visiting my wife's grandparents in Red Lodge, we took the route through Bear Tooth Pass down into the park from the north/northeast. Spent a couple of days there and the night at the lodge. It was great. Definitely want to go back some time.
 
I don't do the coiled ones, just the long ones as I can control them with a cable through the middle.
Got the company that did the door several tears ago coming out on Friday afternoon. I was pretty close on the price. Told the wife about $200ish. They quoted $220 with tax.

Probably the best for you.
I've had quite a few coiled Window Shades swarm on me trying to re-coil them. Can't fathom doing that on a big garage door one?
 
Good evening. It's partly cloudy and 84.
I got a notification in the mail today that my factory warranty had expired on my 2019 truck with 1200 miles, and I need to call the extended warranty company to continue warranty coverage. I wonder how many people are gullible enough to do this...
 
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Louis-
the Dodgers have a lot of “repeat offenders” in the first month of the season. 6-7 games in 10-11 days against the Midgets, Cards, Nats & Bucs. They do, however, get rewarded in mid-summer. Between June 29 & July 22, they don’t have to leave Southern California. Planning to catch them July 28 or 29 in downtown Minneapolis, as I’ve never been to Target Field. This will make the 7th different MLB ballpark I will have been to(unless Dad took me to Connie Mack when I was a baby), 6th for the Dodgers. The trade off was going to a fabric outlet just north of the 494/694 loop, in Brooklyn Park.
 
Good evening. It's partly cloudy and 84.
I got a notification in the mail today that my factory warranty had expired on my 2019 truck with 1200 miles, and I need to call the extended warranty company to continue warranty coverage. I wonder how many people are gullible enough to do this...

12 hundred? Please tell me that’s a misprint. Or are people that gullible.
 
Good evening Shop Dwellers, it's 75*F and cloudy in my central MD neighborhood with T-storms approaching.

Wow, I see that my post and photos of the Big Bug and the Little Bug sure generated a lot of discussion! Thanks everybody for the kind comments, I'm too tired now to read back thru all the posts to name names. I could write a short novel about that vehicle since I have so many vivid memories involving it. [Heck, maybe I'll do exactly that..!]

Today was my first day back at the job, and it went quite smoothly. No major crises awaited me, no earth-shaking policy changes had taken place, all my co-workers were glad to see me. Even Murphy was there to welcome me: An old legacy database that I'm still managing, had behaved perfectly for the whole duration of my absence; then it malfunctioned with one of the users 30 minutes after my arrival! [It turned out to be a minor network glitch, not a database problem.] There was plenty of design work to keep me occupied, so I didn't get bored.

Since MOH was working evening shift today, so when I got home, I had some time to run trains using my new WiThrottle setup. It's actually quite easy, the only downside is that I have to look at the smartphone to tap the correct button instead of just doing it "by feel". But it sure beats having to buy several new Cab 06 throttles for my non-NCE guest operators!

Chet - those were awesome photos you got from the plane! I can totally understand the difficulty trying to snap pictures while controlling a plane, I have trouble enough just standing still doing layout pics. (At least no police are up there to ticket you for "distracted piloting" :p)

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Ken IB ..... I like the picture of B&O 4604.
Garry - #4604 was one of only two B&O F-units that had the GN-style snowplow pilot installed, the other one was #4603. I normally don't do "oddball" prototypes, but I've always loved the look of those plow pilots and decided I just had to model one!

It's getting late and I'm totally exhausted, so I gotta run - g'nite!
 
12 hundred? Please tell me that’s a misprint. Or are people that gullible.
Nope, not a misprint. The scam, err, extended warranty company is willing to add an additional 3 years' coverage to my vehicle for $2400. That means the scam, err, warranty company would only have roughly one month to cover, since my factory warranty is 3 years, and the truck is one month old. Somebody has to keep falling for this crap, or they wouldn't keep sending out letters.
I checked with BBB, Yelp, and several other sources, all are reporting this as a type of insurance scam.

Of course, my wife got a letter from a different scam, err, warranty company in the same bunch of junk mail, offering to extend the warranty on the 2010 Focus she hasn't owned in 7 years...
 
Good Morning All. 78° and clear. Still haven't hit that 100° mark that has been predicted for the last seven days, so the weather geeks lowered it for today. The 99° that we hit yesterday wasn't all that bad as there was a moderate wind and relatively low humidity. Wife's progress is good, they did some motion tests yesterday and she is up to 92% of full motion in just two weeks. Still has to use the walker due to the pain from putting too much weight on it, but she is becoming a bit less reliant on it. When she gets out of the car, I have been setting it a bit further away each time so she will use the leg more. We make the two week visit to the surgeon today. The swelling is hardly noticeable any more, we're now down to about eight pounds of ice a day in the ice circulator. First four days was twenty pounds a day.
I'm over here with Louis this morning Francine, I'll take a couple of those sausage, potato, egg and cheese burritos this morning.

Thanks for the comments and likes yesterday regarding the tire service business; Phil, Chad, Sherrel, Justin, Patrick, Garry, Chet, Dave, Louis, Ken.

Eventually made it to the train shed yesterday. Finally finished up on the gas pumps that I have been working on for three days.
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Still to go is the soft drink machine and some people and vehicles. I want to put an interior into the service bays but haven't found anything suitable on the Internet yet.

Gene - For the best hot links, most likely not available north of the border, I buy Earl Campbell Hot Links.
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OK, I cannot leave it alone, I view SS and Medicare as social insurance programs since we all contributed to them. My vision of entitlements is as Louis put it, charities. Mismanagement by elected officials doesn't change SS/Medicare to entitlements. Remember that a previous President cut SS and Medicare taxes for several years, costing hundreds of billions of $$$ lost to the funds.

Today is one of those days that goes well with me, National Filet Mignon Day. Next to prime rib, it is my favorite cut of meat. Bacon runs a close third. Unfortunately I cannot afford to have it as often as I want it.
Everybody have a great day.

Willie, I'm glad to hear about your wife's continued improvement. Forgive me for not mentioning it sooner. I've been guilty of skimming through quickly and only looking at the pictures.

If Earl Campbell's sausages are half as good as he was a running back they should be among the best. If they sold them in Baltimore I'd try them just for his name. I did not see much of Jim Brown. OJ … well, I'll just say he disappointed me so much I don't like to think or speak of him. That said, Earl Campbell was the greatest running back I ever saw play, that I will speak of. Barry Sanders was amazing, but he was a big play guy. Earl Campbell consistently moved the chains. Earl Campbell was 5+ yards, a cloud of dust, bodies flying in his wake and if he hit open field he was gone!

The Dallas Cowboys, the real Cowboys :) under the man with the hat, were tacticians and finesse at it's best. Bum Phillips and Earl Campbell, that says Texas football to me. Dan Pastorini, wtf, only in America, but he could play and the Oilers were fun to watch! If not for injuries the Oilers would have had a Super Bowl trophy or 2 maybe more.

Filet Mignon, prime rib, I almost never buy expensive cuts of meats. I love a good chuck steak or a hamburger cooked on my Weber charcoal grill and they are usually about $2 per pound. How can it get better than that?! That's just me, I'm cheap, my wife likes NY strip steak. I buy the whole strip and slice it myself when it's on sale.

When I go to a restaurant I think of how much meat I could have bought for the price I paid. Food my wife or I could have cooked as good if not better. My wife enjoys going out to eat so I generally keep my thoughts to myself. When the bill tops $100 I have a hard time keeping quite.

I would agree, you could call SS and Medicare insurance. Like insurance, if you pay your premiums and file a just claim you are entitled to receive benefits. Entitlement should not be a bad word, because entitlements are earned.
 
Good morning. The sky is starting to peel back the black of night 80* and muggy. The t/s didn't get here till sixish Went thru quickly with little rain Other nearby towns got heavy rain and lightning. More on tap for later today.
Wish all a good day with continuing healing. Prayers,
Phil
 
I don't believe people are entitled to welfare, free health care, food stamps, section 8 housing or anything. That's not to say I think these things are all bad. The way it is now they are often necessary.

I'm in favor of national health care for all because it makes good economic sense to me. Business should not be burdened by paying for health care. I should not have to pay for health care for united auto workers when I buy a car. While unskilled workers have no health care and go to emergency rooms for catastrophic care that costs all of us a small fortune.

I don't know about other states, but in Maryland nobody can be turned away from an emergency room, regardless of their ability to pay. The state picks up the tab if they can't pay. No wonder so many use the emergency rooms for primary care, how crazy and expensive is that?!

As a former now semi-retired/disabled small businessman national health care for all makes sense to me. I did not expand my business by adding employees because I could not in good conscience offer no health care in exchange of fair wages. I could not offer both, the long-term risk of failure would have been to high for me to comfortably take. I did fine as a one man show and I slept good at night. Why worry about making payroll and paying for health care? I have a conscience, my greed was not stronger than my conscience. I also ground myself into the dirt and I have been squandering a small fortune on health care ever since trying to recover.

Jeff Bezos is a billionaire ridding on the back of his part time workers. Amazon pays $15 per hour, but most of Amazon's employees are part time workers with no benefits. Walmart is now paying $10+ per hour, but they also employee mostly part time workers as do many other companies. The trend now is only managers are full time. Unskilled workers have 2 or more jobs and no benefits!

If we had fair wage standards and national health care we could cut out cooperate welfare programs like food stamps and others. No person working 40 hours or more should need help.

When wages don't keep pace, the economy will suffer. History proves it, look at growth vs wages before every recession and or depression. The common man does not hide his wealth, he spends it, fueling the economy!

To clarify, national health care is not free, nothing is free and national health care does not mean we can't have private insurance if we so chose. You should be able to buy any insurance you want. I just don't want to pay for it when I buy a car or other products and services from your employer!

Again, nothing is free, even the snacks in the bar are not really free. They are salty to entice us to drink more. A $5+ beer buys a lot of peanuts and pretzels.

Pay now or pay later, we are all going to pay. As it is now we are supplementing billionaire's earnings, while many others are suffering, why?
 
Good evening. It's partly cloudy and 84.
I got a notification in the mail today that my factory warranty had expired on my 2019 truck with 1200 miles, and I need to call the extended warranty company to continue warranty coverage. I wonder how many people are gullible enough to do this...
Sad to say but it must be enough suckers to make the phone calls worth doing.
 
View attachment 38665Louis- the Dodgers have a lot of “repeat offenders” in the first month of the season. 6-7 games in 10-11 days against the Midgets, Cards, Nats & Bucs. They do, however, get rewarded in mid-summer. Between June 29 & July 22, they don’t have to leave Southern California. Planning to catch them July 28 or 29 in downtown Minneapolis, as I’ve never been to Target Field. This will make the 7th different MLB ballpark I will have been to(unless Dad took me to Connie Mack when I was a baby), 6th for the Dodgers. The trade off was going to a fabric outlet just north of the 494/694 loop, in Brooklyn Park.
Id say you made a good trade! :)
 
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Good morning Everybody!

Warm and humid in southeast Baltimore, no surprise.

Another day, another dollar, life is good. I'm so thankful to be able to work, even a few hours a week is far better than nothing.

As a contractor for Amazon I do well, but I feel for the Amazon workers now that I know they are almost all part time, except for the few managers. Times like this I have to be a professional, be like a race horse, put my blinders on and focus on my task. In reality I more like an old over worked mule that somehow manages to keep going, thank God. Unlike a mule I control when I work and I have been doing far better by limiting my work.

I don't need to work, I like to work and my work is easy! Pickup packages, drive, drop off a package to a happy customer or on the porch, drive and repeat. It's almost obscene what they pay me to do this. It's good exercise for me. I find it hard to be motivated to exercise on my own, but working is different, I love it!

No more Amazon's Whole Foods Store grocery deliveries for me. The last one I did was a 3rd floor walkup, 3 cases of water, 2 gallons of water and 5 bags of groceries. They can't pay me enough to do that again! Good thing I only had one delivery that day. I came home, took a shower and slept for 2 hours. Then took the next 2 days off to recover.

Time to do some personal accounting work, hard to get motivated to do it, but I'm thankful I can still make one end meet the other. Deficit spending is always bad, but some trains are just too good to pass up! ;)

Have a great day Everybody!

God Bless you all!
 
Good morning everyone. 68 and clear out there - - a cool front came in and cooled things down to the upper 60s?!?

Not much to report from the train room. Here's a better photo of the logging camp and tunnel/main line. The logging camp was almost an afterthought, unfortunately, even though I knew from the start I wanted one on the layout. So I squeezed it into its current location. But here you can see the main line coming through the tunnel, the camp, and the spur for the log cars.

TrainTunnelAndLoggingCamp2_8_19.jpg


Have a good day everyone.
 
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