Running Bear's April 2020 Coffee Shop


Status
Not open for further replies.
Afternoon All,

Did some chores then the wife needed a taxi driver for some errands. I started the Blair-Line truck coal dump today. It's very basic but I haven't modeled anything in 4 or 5 months. Today I painted the concrete footers MM aged concrete and everything else in Floquil aged black. Everything is drying overnight. Of course MOH was complaining about the smell. That's the downside of a workbench inside the house.

Johnny- Nice layout scene.

Chet- Great video.

Garry- Great layout scene.

Guy- No basement for most of Florida. The loft is a 23' x 13' space that will be a combo layout and workbench room. Being inside it's climate controlled unlike a garage. Those coupler and wheels will work. I have built a bunch of the Tichy kits and my recommendation is to stay away from their tank car kits. You need to be a excellent modeler and have the patience of Job to build them.

Paul- Interesting truck photo.

Beady- Interesting photo (snail).

Mikey- Nice layout scenes.

Willie- It's both. It's neat and clean because I had just set up the modeling area from storage boxes, but I do have a touch of OCD when it comes to cleanliness. Nice job making the porch work.

Joe- Interesting GG1 photo.

Karl= Very nice job on the hoppers.

Alan- Very nice fixing up the TOFC.

Admin Bob- Can you explain why my pictures are rotating 90 degrees to the left when I post them in the forum. They're correctly orientated in my computer photo alblum.

20200403_125307.jpg



I hope everyone has a good night.
 
You know how some women are. I'm bored sitting home and these guys are out playing golf. I'll put an end to that. That's my guess? I haven't played fearing bringing something home to my wife who's having some health issues this year.

That last is precisely why golf courses (and shooting ranges, et al) are closed. The more vectors (people) that are in motion, the faster and farther the virus can be spread.

And think about it: you, yourself, won't go to the golf course because you don't want to maybe spread the virus to someone who's vulnerable, yet you seem to think that it's unnecessary to keep other people from doing the same. Why the seeming contradiction?
FB_IMG_1585946849623.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Please keep fishing friendly, and keep sites clean and safe for everyone to enjoy.

As of April 1, 2020 until further notice there will be no vehicle access to Beaver Lake and Fiesta Lake (depending upon physical distancing actions displayed by users, further restrictions may be put in place). This action has been taken to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and to align with the direction of Ministry of Environment and Parks and the Chief Medical Officer of Health.​

In addition, to reduce health risks to everyone, all ACA conservation site outhouses are now closed.

When the fishing holes and outhouses are being closed, one starts to realize we are headed for a total lockdown. Fishing in winter is usually a very lonely experience to begin with.

Now for a train related picture. Some rail workers doing their thing under a $600,000 dollar pedestrian bridge that I have never seen a single person use. One of the white elephants that CN demanded before they would let a new town road cross the tracks:
CN Workers 02-28-2020.JPG
 
Good afternoon America! (My apologies to Steve Goodman) Been gone for a few days. We had a severe storm come through Saturday night/early Sunday morning that downed electric lines for miles. We had straight line winds up to 95MPH and it snapped poles and trees everywhere, blew whole trees over and ripped roofs off and flattened buildings. We didn't get power until late Wednesday, just before dark.

We had to buy a generator when we found out the power could be off for a week or more, depending upon where you lived. Called around Sunday and found an inverter generator (read expensive) at a Lowe"s about 100 miles away. The last of three they had in stock. I said we would take it and the wife paid for it over the phone while I drove.

It's only 2300 watts, but it delivers clean power (good for electronics), nice and quite and doesn't use much gas. We were able to keep our refrigerator and freezer going, so we didn't lose much except what we had in the fridge before we got the generator. Just some eggs, milk, juice and 1/2 pound of bacon. There was just enough room left in the freezer to put the frozen meat from the fridge in there.

Sure was glad to save all the food in the freezer, would hate to try and replace it all now. Would be darn near impossible, given the circumstances! Our daughter had bought an outdoor chair set for my wife for her birthday and I put them together right after they were delivered Saturday morning. My wife and I had just gone to bed and were listening to the news and weather when they said that there was a chance of thunderstorms overnight. I said we better bring the chairs inside and we're glad we did! Otherwise, we would probably have never seen them again.

We had a tree split in two and half of it is laying in the backyard. I'll get that cut up and cut the remaining half down over the next week. Other than finding our trash can almost a quarter mile down the road, that was the extent of our damages. Others were hit a LOT harder than we were, so we count ourselves among the lucky ones.

I missed a lot and it took a lot of reading to catch up with the goings on here. Lot's of good modeling and pictures from everyone!

Greg-Hope your B-I-L is doing OK.

Ken-Hope your wife gets good news on her test.

See y'all later!
 
It's only 2300 watts, but it delivers clean power (good for electronics), nice and quite and doesn't use much gas. We were able to keep our refrigerator and freezer going, so we didn't lose much except what we had in the fridge before we got the generator. Just some eggs, milk, juice and 1/2 pound of bacon. There was just enough room left in the freezer to put the frozen meat from the fridge in there.


The power goes out so many times here I finally had one of those transfer boxes installed. Very simple operation now. Plug in the generator then throw the switch.
George
 
The real kick in the pants of the whole deal is the fact that we have a 7500 watt, duel fuel generator in the garage at our house in Illinois. Along with a whole lot of my other tools. We had plans of going back after we had been here about a week or so and bringing our truck, motorcycle and tools back here. Then the lockdown was put in effect in Illinois and at long last, here in Tennessee. Oh well, things could be worse! Anybody want some lemonade?
 
Beautiful day. Gas is cheap but everything is closed. Even the BEACHES !!! NO jogging-walking- NUTHEN!!.
Did get more oak leaves bagged. May have as many as 4 more bags to fill. Just taking my time as no rain called for till Sunday. TO old for this.
Thanks for all the picture posts . Awesome display of talent.
Prayers for all and best wishes,
Phil
 
Good evening y'all. Was damp raw and sometimes rainy today. Wife & I ventured to the grocery at 0800, after the Senior Hours crush. We were able to pick up everything on our list, and then some, including tissues and paper towels. Although we didn't need it they even had toilet paper. Yes, we wore masks and gloves....latest count in our township is 161. There were not that many folks about. Highway 9, (aka Thunder Road), was nearly deserted.
This virus is for real. Unless you really have to go out, don't! BTW, the wife made the masks from instructions offered by the CDC. Unless there is something we forgot, we are good for at least two more weeks, before we have to go out again.

Karl: The Covered Hopper turned out very well.

Alan: Like your pig flat and trailers. I have seen some photos of the original, and Irvie's Blue Box flat isn't that far off...the Trailers look good in daylight Colors.

Willie: The porch looks good, a short loading dock, may work out better than the ramp. Ramp might have been for Wagons, not trucks?

Johnny and Garry:
Nice photos.

Guy: Good luck with the kits.

Chet, Curt and others: Thanks for the comments on the GG1 Photo.

My latest pet peeve, is called "Telehealth". It seems every medical practice in Central Jersey is pushing it in lieu of office visits. From the description, Telehealth is a means of having a face to face encounter with your physician, without leaving your living room or kitchen...It's like ""Facetime" or Duo with a meter, to record the encounter for record and billing purposes. I get it, the folks in the Medical profession, are human, just like the rest of us, and want to keep their exposure to Covid 19 to a minimum, as we do...They are also business people, who need to keep cash flow coming. It's a compromise. OTOH, I am now supplying the receiver, my Smart Phone, or laptop, I get my own vitals, with my own scale, thermomiter, and BP devce. Also I supply a flashlight so the Doc can look into my throat.
What the Doc cannot do, is check my ears, or eyes, listen to my heart and lungs, examine my digestive system or any of the other requisites of a physical exam. The Orthopedic cannot drain fluid from my knee, or inject a steroid to keep me walking... But they all, want me to use this software to "tele-med". I still have to leave the house to have blood drawn, x-rays or other hands on procedures.
From a business standpoint, the doc gets to maintain cash flow, and cut costs, while I get to keep paying, while supplying equipment so the doc doesn't have to...Thus the supplier is selling a product, but adding all production costs to the customer...Meanwhile, the customer, receives less service than prior encounters, at a greater overall cost... Not bad, if you can sell it.
The best one, today, [which set me off again], was from the Physical Therapy practice, which proposes, I do physical therapy via "Telehealth"...
I would love to have a home gym with all the stuff they have, but if I did, I could rehab myself without them at all...

It has been said repeatedly, that this Corona Virus, will change the way we live and interact with people. They are not kidding...Our whole economy and our lives will change, wether we contract the virus or escape it. the aftermath will affect us for a long time.

Passenger Geep at Ivy City 10-1963.jpg


Ivy City Pit Tracks, DC, back in the day. The Sunburst Geep looks great, eh?
 
I hope Hobby Lobby never reopens around here. Imported dirt cheap Chachkies made by low wage sweat shops, sells same at huge mark-ups, and offers 40% off coupons that are excluded, because all over priced products are always offered at discounted sale prices. Doesn't want to conform to any laws or regulations, while importing stolen artifacts, under the guise of religion. On the Eighth Day, God created Karma!
 
wow --so much going on today that I don't know where to start?

Willie -
I like the stair repair and the planned loading dock, but not a fan of the pad look. I think you should have used bricked footings for the porch. Other than that, YOU have done a fantastic job on the structure.
Isn't it interesting that the way people are acting like the companies are going to quit making stuff. I witnessed a woman in Walmart place 10 of those quart containers of chicken broth into her buggy - I said dam - and took the last two on the shelf thereby getting a harsh look from her as I whistled away quickly.
Most things are available, but the shelves start to empty before the day is done - the paper isle remains clean.

I counted all the TP rolls in the house the other day - comes to 42 spread over the pantry and 3.5 bathrooms. I could go and rob the RV, maybe another 10 rolls, if need be.
SWMBO was not the responsible party for shutting off my phone. They assumed after she got her iPhone working that we were good to go - NOT It took the little lady one and a half hours at the Phone shop to clear up the mess that I made - I had crossed up the phones and was trying to reverse engineer the transfer process. What can I say - it's out of my comfort zone.

The Spousal Unit has MIL duty from yesterday until Monday so I don't have any one bugging me. I need to get some box data and see if I can call about shipping costs on that wire for Jerome; maybe I can get it to a reasonable cost ? She was not the reason for the phone shutoff -

GUY - You do make me chuckle with almost daily remarks! I think we have a "bridge to nowhere" NW of you that cost in the millions - I think it just sits there?

KARL/ALAN/GARRY -- Great pic of the TOFC's - and the locos too!

CURT that is the cleanest train room I have ever seen, your not on a sub any longer - cool it before you give the rest of us a complex!

RAY - the MASH skits nailed it!

JOE - Beautiful Photo there.

Anyone heard from IB KEN about his wife;s test?
 
Hello Shop dwellers, day #8 and still no COVD19 test result. But I've moved beyond being pist off; apparently LabCorp (the place where MHO's snot sample was sent for testing) is overwhelmed and now the wait time is two weeks. Just in time for our self-quarantine to end and for them to tell us "Yep, you HAD it." Or not..? Nothing they or we can do to speed things up, so now we're just hoping to get thru the next 6 days without any severe symptoms suddenly appearing.

The "well wishes" you all have offered for MHO and me are very much appreciated!

B-Bob - Your reply to me was the first thing I noticed so I just instinctively clicked the "Thumbs-Up" LIKE button. Then I read the rest of your post and thought, "Dang - I shoulda clicked the GASP o_O button instead!" We were struck by a derecho on the last day of June in 2012, so I know what you went thru. Bad enough that our power was out for several days and my generator had no gas - we didn't realize the severity of approaching the storm so we hadn't prepared for it - but I nearly totaled my Dodge Durango when I drove over the crest of a hill, and a fallen tree branch in the middle of the road impaled the radiator! That was an experience I would happily forget if I had the power to do so...

Sherrell - is your new phone functional yet? {EDIT - nevermind, I just now saw your latest post!}

Nothing new to report from the trainroom, and probably will be very little this weekend; I need to breathe life back into my riding mower which has sat dormant in the shed for the past 5 months, our front lawn is starting to look rather ugly.

Stay well and stay safe!
 
Last edited:
Good morning, it's clear and 42.
A couple of weeks ago, I pulled the tractor out of the basement garage, where it shares space with my wife's car. I had filled the gas tank last time I ran it. It was still full, and started as soon as I turned the key.
I have a theory, which seems to be working so far (10 years or so). Modern gas oxidizes faster than the older stuff, because it has alcohol in it. If a container is air tight, it should limit the amount of oxidation, and how quickly the gas goes bad. The gas that was in the tractor was from last September. I fill my equipment before storage, and so far have had no issues with the gas going bad.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.



Back
Top