Running Bear's August 2022 Coffee Shop


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Sitting on a bench in a park at Mineral Point, Wisconsin. The sun is strong today! The humidity is rising!

Willie, I don’t have a strong enough imagination to write a story!

Troy, I am not sure the horses talk but their owner talks to herself, a lot.

Another small town business district reminding me of some of the Merchant Row buildings from Walthers. We are about 30 miles by the bird flies from last week’s stop in Galena, Il. I did not know Walthers has a Merchant Row 6 kit available in stock, but they do.

We were in a Art Gallery and someone called out Terry’s name. That’s fine the 2 of them can hit all the Art Galleries. This is a artist colony! The bench I am on is in the shade

pictures of Mineral Point, not sure who the 2 people in the street are. I sure don’t remember them being there when I took the picture. But there they are!
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Mike, when I heard about Vin Scully my first thought was of you. I knew you would feel it deeply. I'm deeply sorry friend.

Sausages, I love that stuff!
I'm a man of simple tastes. Subtle is probably a better word.
I don't like lots of spices or combinations of strong flavors.

My way of eating hamburgers is a good example.
Cheeseburgers - ketchup, yellow mustard, and dill pickle chips. That is all!
Hamburger (no cheese) - lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. Nothing else needed or wanted.
I would pass on that hamburger Jaz posted. I don't even like A1 steak sauce. A good steak only needs salt in my book.

I know you are right, there are many good sausages that most other people would prefer.
I've been to the Kecskemet Market in Hungary. I have sampled many of the hundreds of sausages hanging in the market.
To be honest 9 times out of 10 I'll prefer to have a Johnsonville Jalapeno Cheddar sausage, boiled please. Add some yellow (not sweet, the onions that "talk back") onions and sauerkraut, that is what they will serve in my version of heaven!

I hope you are having a good day my friend.
I saw this posted on the Dodgers’ official FB page today & thought you would appreciate it, since the day he passed was the trade deadline.
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My friend in Toledo was a chef. He once told me that steak sauce is a coverup for either a cheap cut or a bad cook.
Your friend was right. Tonight, I grilled a tick strip steak and two ears of corn. I wasn't quite finished when the storm blew up, so when the corn was finished, so was the steak, irrespective of what the meat thermometer said. Steak and corn were both perfect. Did not touch the steak sauce.
[I usually have a tendency to over cook my steaks, hence the steak sauce].

Vin Scully: Great loss. I stopped watching Dodgers games when he retired. He had the perfect style and flow to make the worst game interesting.
 
Good evening from the humid south deck in So. Central Wisconsin. We are home and when the breeze blows it’s not too bad out here. The house just got buzzed by a drone and it is not one of ours! A quick mover too that did a turn when it saw me on the deck.

We hit up 2 “Historic” downtown business districts today and drove around and through a third. Mineral Point, Wi. I have already posted some pictures of. Not as hilly as last week’s Galena, Il. experience but it was hilly. The scenery around southwestern Wisconsin is very nice and many hills. MP was also the home of the Mineral Point RR Museum located in the depot I did post 2 exterior pictures of. No photo taking allowed inside and they had an extremely well done HO scale diorama of the railroad around the depot dated in the 1890’s. Definitely some excellent modeling skills by the builders of the diorama. I did check out the Museum website but no pictures of the exhibits there either.

The second stop was Darlington, Wi. a city found along with Argyle, Wi. on one of our scenic “we have to get out of the house“ during the 2 Summers of Covid rides. Much of its historic downtown has lost the “historic” charm as not all the buildings are on the National Historic register which allows remodeling the way the owner wants it and not the the Historical Society. A farming community, I truly believe the grocery, restaurants and bars in town had more ATV and USV’s then cars. I took no pictures of those. They all seemed to be on the wrong side of the sun. I didn’t see any Electric Vehicles
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in the 3 towns today. Downtown storefronts here were empty of business in Darlington. IMO a dying town! Still I did get some modeling ideas for some details for the Merchant Row storefront kits.

From the Facebook page of the Toy Train Barn.
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The first stop though was for The Train Barn in Argyle, Wi. That is normally open at 10AM but today because of a dentistry appointment it was to open at 11. We were there around 10:30 but I know where it’s at now and it’s about 40 minutes on the backroads from home. The Train Barn from what I read is chock full of model train animations and a 3 rail layout. That’s fine, I love to see trains run. Someday we will get back there. Argyle is a farming community with nothing distinctive about it but the farms along the roads we took were super maintained and seemed really big!

That’s it for Southwestern Wisconsin for us for on the ground exploring for the year 2022. We both know North Central Wisconsin like the back of our hands after 40 years there and 2 kids playing hockey 16 of those years. He same for most of Southeastern Wisconsin where she grew up, we know it very well. We did start in July on the area north of Milwaukee along the shore but between Milwaukee and Green Bay Terry has lots of family and it’s a pleasant but relatively flat scenic tour. We shall see.

Friends in New York State because of family illnesses have told us we can’t visit them for the planned September visits. I have some business in October out East but we would be flying in and nothing for us beats driving the car around. She insists we are doing all stuff Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois and I want to hit up the Gerard Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I want though to drive to Manitowoc, Wi and take the ferry across Lake Michigan to Luddington, Mi. then onto Ann Arbor. The return trip then across the Mackinaw Bridge into the Upper Penisula on US Hwy 2 to Superior, Wi. I want to see the twin ports of Duluth/Superior again but 25+ years after the kids last played hockey games there.

Since I don’t have enough to do at the weathering bench or the layout, I ordered a few things from Walthers since I have been home. From the Proto line I ordered 4 cars, 2-4 bay hoppers and 2-3 bay AMD hoppers. I also ordered Merchant Row #6. I pulled out the lumber for the frame work and decided I have enough 2” pink for a Merchant Row diorama. I will have all 6 kits when it arrives plus 2 duplicates. I want tracks in the middle of the road similar to Winona, Minnesota and La Grange, Kentucky (I think) but it is a LaGrange but not the Texas LaGrange. They have tracks but not sharing of the roadway.

I did decide this week to start collecting for the 3 unit trains I want to build. A covered hopper train of Potash, a 2 bay hopper train of frac sand cars and a auto train. These daily travel through Central Wisconsin on the CN.
 
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Good evening. Hope everyone had a great Friday. 74°, partly cloudy with some lingering thunder and drizzle. Yeah, we finally had some rain this afternoon. My fault, I elected to cook out. I did manage to finish cooking, before the rain. Fortunate, as we had a good old fashioned summer thunder storm with lots of wind driven rain. While the reporting locations reported 0.20"and 0.28" respectively, my gauge showed 3.00", with lots of puddling. Last meaningful rainfall was July 28, with 0.56", so things were quite dry. Sandy soil doesn't hold moisture like clay does, so I was irrigating on alternate days. High today was 96 °, but it didn't feel hot until after 1500. We are under an excess heat warning through 2000 on Sunday. The beaches will be crowded.

Not much else going on. I did spend some time in the train room, today. Ran a freight and a lite engine, and dug out another ALCo for variety. Repaired a couple of TTX flats that had minor problems needing attention, and I threaded rail through the engine house pit track. (Photo tomorrow).
 
Good evening, just passing though. Ran the normal everyday errands and did a few chores. Hot and humid. Gas at the local Buck-ee's is $3.19.
I changed out the couplers on the BLI NW-2. Uncoupling was sort of hit and miss. The couplers that came on the engine just didn't seem like they were moving enough to unhook. Put some Micro Train couplers on, they work like a charm. Then I started looked at coupler height. Only a few needed adjusting. Hopefully next switching operation will be smoother than those in the past.

STAY SAFE
LATER
 
Good morning Everybody!

We are off to a late start this.morning. I refuse to get off the couch for $18.50/hour. Unusual that Amazon has not raised the rates for the early work. As I said previously, Amazon is slow right now.
We found a good block, 5:15am. I will get off the couch for $40/hour. It beats talking a walk for no pay.

When I was on the bench for so many years I would occasionally play games (MLB the Show and Madden) online with the youngsters. I could not compete with their dexterity, but I had a better understanding of the games. I won a few more than I lost overall. Was fun hearing them complain about my style of play; Never throw strikes to someone who swings at balls, Control the clock and play for the last score to win.
I could not compete at all with a few of those kids. They sometimes beat me like a rented mule. But I never quit, I finished every game.

Time for us to get ready to go.

Have a great day Everybody!
 
Good morning folks! Hopefully I'll be finishing up a part of a multi-phase project at work. Currently doing some contracting work for "Old Carter Whiskey" getting their warehouse ready. I don't know if any of you guys have heard of em, but I sure haven't which makes sense when its over $200 for a bottle lol. I've yet to give it taste though and I've never had a bottle of whiskey of that caliber, so I'll hold my judgement until I can taste it one day.
 
Good morning from what will be to a Wisconsinite a not so great weather day. It’s already 71f degrees heading into the 90’s and a heat index into the 100’s. But the humidity is now at 91% and the dew point at 71 degrees. Already an uncomfortable day with the breeze barely moving at 3mph. I am out on the north deck as it has a ceiling fan, it’s not really helping!

My 2 mile walk this morning left me drenched, the shower after felt great. I am finally back to walking at 3 miles per hour this whole week with the 2 miles at 19 to 21 minutes per mile. My goal of getting back to 15-16 minutes per walking mile I believe is no longer realistic.

Christian, I am not a fan of any booze but my brother is. He sends us an occasional high end bottle of bourbon, rum, tequila or vodka. He says they are smoother with better taste. From a low end bottle of Old Grand Dad or Canadian Mist for 9 or $10 a bottle compared to a GlenDronach Allardice aged 18 years at $190 per bottle yes, even I can taste the difference in flavor and a difference in smoothness. It matters but for whiskey, I am still not a fan of the flavor. The middle stuff for bottles, well they all taste the same to me, harsh. My son and friends tell us we have a great bar! It is I haven’t purchased any booze for it since I retired in 2014.

Trains, I believe much of today will be spent indoors because of the heat index and humidity. I finished 1 of seven weathering projects last night. I hope to have at least 2 or 3 more done today.

Television, it will be 3 weeks today since I last turned my TV on in the cave. I have though ventured and sat with Terry through some morning TV news shows on her TV. But, I think I am exhausting the You Tube video content on weathering scale models. I watch those on my IPadPro but seldom while at the paint bench. The last sports related TV I watched was the 1st round of the NHL draft.

Dinners, Terry promised no friends over for dinner for at least 7 days, that started last Sunday. I was informed yesterday 2 couples will be over Sunday night so her promise is fulfilled. I get to handle the grilling!

Last night I was on the south deck until almost 9 when the bugs started bothering me. Terry about 8 asked me what was the noise she was hearing. 3 years ago we sold a piece of property about 1/2 mile southwest of us and across the street. An apartment complex was then built there. Occasionally I would hear the construction last year but what she was hearing was the kids in a swimming pool. The weather and winds conditions were just right enough that the pool noise seemed just a couple hundred feet away. That made for a strange feeling.

enjoy the day
 
Good Morning from the upstairs den looking towards the South and the mountain known as PALOMAR. A couple summers back we drove up to the observatory and toured around - very interesting to me as I love astronomy anyway!
OK, here's the poop for today:
Mostly sunny and very warm, high near 92°F.

Tomorrow is the Birthday of my bride. It's going to be a busy day trying to figure out either get something from the store, go somewhere, dine out and where, or just vege out (which probably would be the wrong choice).
Just have to see what I can work out ...
BBL
 
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