Running Bear's April 2021 Coffee Shop


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Good morning. It's clear and 33.

I know there are people here besides me that will find this interesting:

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Morning! Just a quick coffee with friends for a few moments, as we are headed to the city this fine morning.
'They' said it was going to snow over night; it didn't. 'They' said it was going to rain; it didn't rain. 'They' said it was going to be cool; it is at 24°F.
My wife thinks it's a good day to go to the big greenhouse in the city, so that's what we are doing. Flowers are her hobby, and I need to keep my beautiful wife happy!

Here are some ghost town photos that some might find useful for model weathering purposes. This stuff was 'found' in buildings still standing at an old Alberta coal branch town, called Lovett, Alberta:
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And I'm dropping a photo of a women who I think is beautiful, even though she's masked in black for a funeral. You should be able to recognize her, with all the media she's faced. She is beautiful, and one of my most admired people on this planet:
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Gotta go; need to drive the wife to the city a couple of hours away. Have a good one!
 
Good Morning All. Cloudy and 53° this morning. Welcome to Earth Day 2021. Glad to see that cold snap came and went.
Doctor visit yesterday went OK, all seems to be normal and we'll know the blood work results this afternoon or tomorrow. They scheduled my next appointment for late August, so he expects me to live that much longer. Celebrated by getting some greasy fried chicken, okra and french fries on the way home. After a good nap, I uncovered the garden to survey the results of Tuesday nights frost. Looks like 3 of the 42 tomato plants suffered some minor tip damage, but all pepper, squash, onion, garlic, lettuce, radish and broccoli plants made it unscathed. Those three tomato plants will recover easily. Speaking of survival, 11 of the 12 tree seedlings that I planted last month are leafing out nicely. They will provide firewood 20 years from now, maybe!
Looking at the list for the weekly grocery/beer trek this morning. Beer is top on the list since we didn't go last week, although there's most likely a three week supply still in the pipeline. Already, the Vitamin Shop, wine store, post office and Sam's Club are on the list with Kroger. It will be a very busy morning.

How about a stack of blueberry waffles and a handful of bacon this morning Flo. Tell Mel not to overcook the bacon like he did the other day.

Thanks for all of those likes and comments regarding both the layout progress and the layout tour; Patrick, Garry, Sherrel, Guy, Chad, Chet, Rick, Jaz, Ken, Gary, Justin, Hughie, Tom O, Joe.

With all of the other activity yesterday, time in the train shed was woefully short. And to top it off, I left the camera on and the battery was totally dead. So I just ran a few trains for about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile I still have a few pictures left going out of Vernon.
Across the road from the church and on the back side of the RR tracks is a small grocery store, that was quite common before the big box stores.
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This is an old Walther's kit that I believe was just called Neighborhood Grocery Store.
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As we round the "U", we pass by a semi-rural residential area on the aisle side.
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And of course a fixture in the 50's through the early 80's, the drive in.
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All of this area is on the extensive project list, as is much of the area between City Hall and here. Some is already almost complete, the neighborhood for example, but I recently got some jogging figures and yard junk to add to it. It won't really be a project, just a diversion or time-filler while I work on other stuff that is more involved.

Guy - Can't help with any explanation of the white painted rectangles on the boxcar. I have observed them before but never really asked about them. I have seen them on cars other than AOK cars before. Interesting seeing an AOK car that far north. FWIW, all AOK freight cars are leased, they only own engines.
Patrick - That's Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues doing the vocals on Jeff Wayne's cover of "Forever Autumn", in the 1978 War of the Worlds version. The original melody was written by Wayne in 1969 for a Lego commercial!
I wish they'd do more obscure songs than they do. Many very good rock songs that aren't the top 15 rock bands of the 70's, 80's and 90's.
One can only listen to "Freebird" and "Stairway to Heaven" so many times. That's why I have 40,000 mp3's on my iPod that I play on the docking station in the train shed.
Garry - I also read the news regarding the new KCS suitor. While I think that CP would be a better fit, CN's offer may be too much to refuse.
Mountain Man - While a herd of deer may be a rather serene view, they will destroy a garden in no time. I am not sure that any fence short of 6' could keep them out.
Sherrel - And I thought that I was the only one who still had my BSA manual from the 60's. I have to use it occasionally to recall certain types of knot tying.
Seems like a paradox to put picnic tables along side of a walking path! That would make it a stopping path!;)
I have an amusing story about dentures. A buddy of mine took his out while driving home and laid them in his lap. He had to stop to get out and check what he thought was a low tire, and heard a terrible "crunch" while getting out, as he stepped on and totally destroyed the dentures.
Joe - About the knees, they made my wife go through the X-Ray machine at the airport last month since the metal detector screamed at her! New experience for her.
Mikey/Jaz - Great to see modeling skills carry over to real life.
Karl - Patrick beat me to the draw regarding Snoopy. Maybe you're too young to remember all of those Royal Guardsmen songs from the 60's.

Another exciting day in store on the SFW estate. I'll be on the tractor mowing later on. Everyone have a great day.
 
I can’t sleep and while I usually just force myself to stay in bed the waves are actually annoying at 3am as I type this.

The Red Baron story is excellent. I did know he got shot down by a rifle but was unaware the Australians buried him. For some reason I thought he was returned to Germany.

Gardening, Willie yours looks great and glad the frost didn‘t damage much. No frost here in the Islands of Paradise. Until Easter Terry has been container gardening, now with the ground fixed up she is in her hobby element.

Jaz, that chicken coop you model looks damn fine, well done

Music, over the years I have listened to lots of different types. Really the only kind I can’t handle is Blue Grass. I have heard too many local bands destroy that sound, but I have been told I would enjoy “real” professionals playing it. I have 10,000+ in my music folders and generally in the train room will play just 1 artist at a time from the “old” IPod.

Happy modeling folks, back to bed, I hope
Tom
 
Things that make you say, " What The..."

I bought my new to me truck January 20th. In the mail Tuesday was a mass mailing from the dealership I bought the truck from saying that trucks like mine are in high demand and that they could sell me a newer truck for the same or lower than my current truck. Funny, I barely owned it 3 months when the mailing arrived and I deliberately didn't buy a newer one. This one wasn't a steal by any means, but it was a decent value (9 year old truck with 8250 miles). Being older tags, taxes and insurance are cheaper and I'm already knowledgeable about issues this truck may or will have.

Needless to say, they won't be seeing this truck on a trade anytime soon... 🤣
 
Good morning. Temperature dropped to 35 overnight, but with the breeze, no frost or damage. It will only go into the 50s today, then drop to 32 or so tonight before moderating again.

Earth day was born during the idealism of our youth...considering all the changes we have made, the over all problem remains, because the rest of the world didn't buy in. Especially, the so called developing and under developed countries. We can't do it all.

Willie: I have heard of such things happening, somehow, I'm afraid that either my knee will permanently glow in the dark, or the CT scan machine will make like a microwave when you put aluminum foil in it.

While looking through my cabinets, I found a container with five motors in it...one Athearn, (RTR), two Bachmann, and two Kato. Long forgotten projects, I suppose. Wonder what else I'll find?

PRR ARS16s 8850 @4th St. Station 03-20-1961.jpg

PRR Commuter train at 4th Street, Pittsburgh, 03-20-1961. Unknown Photographer, copied / shared from Social media.
 
One can only listen to "Freebird" and "Stairway to Heaven" so many times. That's why I have 40,000 mp3's on my iPod that I play on the docking station in the train shed.

While I agree with Freebird, I can listen to Stairway to Heaven whenever. Not that that is all I listen to bu that one is so good that I'll listen whenever I get the urge, it comes up in the mix, etc :)

If you want something "new" go look at foreign tunes. Japanese, or German, or whatever. You may not understand the words, but the music may speak to you.
 
Good morning. It's clear and 33.

I know there are people here besides me that will find this interesting:

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Lot of debate about who actually shot him. Last I heard, a ground unit was credited with the fatal shot. In a few more years, no one will even remember that there was a First World War - most of them don't even know anything about the Second.

Got to drive my wife to her MRI, so keep the coffee warm and the bacon ready. Busy week.
 
Good Morning.
Even though it's only 6:00am, it's already fairly warm with the thermostat reading 35°F. 'They' say it's going to be a beautiful, sunny day reaching into the high 60's. - That's ok, but, then it's supposed to snow tomorrow. I don't much like mother nature teasing me, and I mean to have a serious discussion with her in the form of prayer.

Willie - You're garden looks wonderful. - I'm not sure I could stand having a two crop garden, though. Suppose I would rather be doing something else, other than working away in a garden for too long. It's probably a good thing I have a snow garden for half the year.

Jaz - I once drove a motorcycle through a line of honey bees heading out from the hives to some distant flower patch. It was like hitting a wall of bees. I know what it's like to get stung to the head by an angry bee. - Hope the sting you talk of wasn't too bad; put some wet mud on it. That seems to help.

This morning, I'm posting photos of a box car I'm having trouble understanding. Can't tell if this is the desired color of the car, or if it is just prime painted. Those white squares on the right confuse me; seems like they might be for some signage, but, I just don't know. Does anyone know what's going on with this car?
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That's all I have for today! Waiting for the town workers to show up and change out my water meter.

Thanks for the likes on past posts. Everyone have a stellar day!



Pretty typical of AOK. They are a short line so they buy whatever and then lease out the cars etc....Whatever paint or no paint or rather existing paint scheme are used. So they just slap on their recording marks for thir RR.



 
Still no train time, but I did make it to the hardware to get more wire. I need to install a ceiling light over my painting/workbench area. I'll work on that this weekend.

Fired up the Kamado Joe (and didn't pull a Sherrel since it's charcoal).

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Made an Angus Ribeye for the wife and I to share.

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She's got a late call for work... the joy of working with people in Asia... sometimes it's their time zone you have to accommodate.

I promised her an Old-Fashioned when she got done with the call. Picked up Simple Syrup and bitters... Hope I can figure out the recipe by 8:30...
 
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