Running Bear's Coffee Shop July 2024


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Good morning from Texas and happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans!
 
Feels like 90 degrees here in NW Indiana. People celebrated last night with fireworks everywhere. I'm just a patriotic as the next guy; but veterans with PTSD and pets suffer through all the noise. We had to give our Papillion a tranquilizer last night, and the town is going to celebrate again tonight. I think people can light off fireworks here until July 15th.
 
Good Morning All!
51F @73% clear. Starting Monday, upwards of 95F+ ..yuk. We have had 55 degree temp swings day to night.

Fireworks: Used to hate them. Would be under the bed just like our animals. Before trucking, we would go to Fire Towers when available and stay the 4th and leave about midday on the 5th just to get out of the booms and bangs. Apparently I have gotten over *most* of that. Did buy a few mortar rounds. Around here we will be ...um... blessed with those that partake today and tomorra; Ya, you will hear them every once-in-a-while all Summer. At least right now we have had a ton of rain so it is pretty wet. People will still do st00pid things though.

Y'all be safe!

Later
 
Good morning everyone!

A overcast morning with some drizzle out there this morning. Hopefully it clears up later.

Today we are off to my parents for a family reunion. This year going to be a big crowd. This year we have family from Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, and Minnesota. Going to see some cousins I haven't seen since high school. This was the year everything aligned for everybody to make it. We don't have to travel far. About an hour.

Last night was the golden spike on the layout. I finally have a complete loop of the entire layout. Havent run trains on the new track yey. Many feeders and bus lines to run, but we will get there.

Have a safe 4th everyone, be careful with the fireworks if that's your thing!
 
Well, howdy there internet subjects

It's Troy again.

currently listening to a podcaster give the history of the US Declaration of Independence. He reminded me that the signing didn't happen until Aug. It was ratified, printed and distributed July 2-4. Adams wanted the 2nd to be the day, since that was the passage of the Lee Amendment authorizing drafting the declaration that gave King George a flying finger of salute.

Instead, we got July 4th, which is basically Press Release Distribution Day. The day the Declaration went public.

Tonight, I'll be watching the first half of the movie Gettysburg. The long extended version.

Found a new to me podcast about the period. Looks interesting.Screenshot 2024-07-04 at 10.34.56 AM.png


I've learned that I can research and read on my own and learn just as much as getting a college degree. Professors do have the experience of their own degrees, and insights from years or decades of study. But, many of those come through in their writings.

Wife and I are about to go attempt to find a pizza place open for a patriotic pie.
 
Last edited:
santafewillie said:
As I posted a couple of days ago, take responsibility for your own actions. Blame also seems to be a key factor in Washington DC these days!
Click to expand...
One thing I've noticed over the last several years is the propensity of the New York TV Media to assign blame and criminalize every incident that requires a government response... Examples, Traffic incidents / accidents, fires, sink holes etc. "Someone must be criminally negligent". "Someone must be to blame". Frequently though the one actually responsible, is instead portrayed as a victim.
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Happy Independence Day. It's clear and 79° here, supposedly heading up to 102° later on. Still haven't broken the triple digit mark yet, despite the weather geeks predicting it for over 2 weeks now. Only made it to 99° yesterday.

Another regular day on the estate yesterday, cut firewood for about 30 minutes, assembled the newest shade umbrella for over the pool, and did a few indoor tasks. I can't say that the new umbrella did it all, but the pool temperature did drop by 2° from Tuesday evening to last evening. It's now 88°, warm but still refreshing when the air is in the upper 90's. The water looks and tests great; I have had less problems this season and have actually used less chlorine than last year. Right now I am just losing about 350 gallons a week to evaporation., so the cool water input doesn't really help with the temperature in a 14,000 gallon pool.

Today would normally be the weekly grocery trek, but we haven't decided whether we're going today or waiting until tomorrow. I'm leaning for today but I'm concerned that they might not have re-stocked sufficiently overnight. If I'm going to grill tonight, I need to go...out of ground beef here! I have leftover fajitas from Tuesday, and leftover carnitas from Monday, but I have no "low-carb" tortillas left. I can easily make my own regular ones, but my wife is back on her keto diet and carbs are completely a no-no. My doc allows 60 carbs per meal 4x daily. I can make the low-carb variety, but I would still have to go to the store for enough almond or coconut flour. Might as well just buy the Mission brand. The problem with making the trek today is that some other places that we might want to stop at could be closed. We'll discuss further when wifey gets up.

One last word on college from me. Someone posted about taking courses that weren't in one's major, for the overall learning experience. I do agree with that. However in my case, I went to a Catholic private high school that was billed as a college prep school. There were no shop classes or home economics classes. I had to take civics, economics, geometry along with core language, history, math and science classes. Thankfully we learned how to think out of the box, work together in a team environment, take advantage of outside resources and generally learn to live in the world. I was totally shocked when I started college and was exposed to folks that came from the public school system. Many were just learning what I spent the previous four years learning to do. I have been thankful ever since. But I didn't end up completing college, as I had to get a job after getting married. I ended up paying for my wife to complete her degree since she was closer to it than I was, and they eventually made me an offer that I couldn't refuse. I did use much of my education to advance after that, but it was more from the high school training. She never used her political science degree to get any jobs!

I did make it out to the train shed yesterday. Disassembled vehicles, dull-coated some of them and added drivers/passengers to a couple, those that I could get apart!
Driver only.
View attachment 193211
Driver and passenger. Looks like I need to look at that hood ornament a little more closely.
View attachment 193212
The white glue windows worked as planned, but this is still going to be a distant placement.
View attachment 193213
The complete current line-up.
View attachment 193214

Joe -

The key word here is "blame". As I posted a couple of days ago, take responsibility for your own actions. Blame also seems to be a key factor in Washington DC these days!
Chad - If you have a degree and work as a bartender, you can then get elected to Congress!
Mike - Yep! Compound interest on investments is a wonderful thing. Don't ask how I know.:)
Terry posted:

However, remember the words of Getty Lee of Rush in the song Freewill:
"If you decide not to decide, you still have made a choice"

Everybody have a great 4th, don't get burned.
Click to expand...
Willie, I'd leave the hood ornament as is. I really love seeing pics of your work.
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Happy Independence Day. It's clear and 79° here, supposedly heading up to 102° later on. Still haven't broken the triple digit mark yet, despite the weather geeks predicting it for over 2 weeks now. Only made it to 99° yesterday.

Another regular day on the estate yesterday, cut firewood for about 30 minutes, assembled the newest shade umbrella for over the pool, and did a few indoor tasks. I can't say that the new umbrella did it all, but the pool temperature did drop by 2° from Tuesday evening to last evening. It's now 88°, warm but still refreshing when the air is in the upper 90's. The water looks and tests great; I have had less problems this season and have actually used less chlorine than last year. Right now I am just losing about 350 gallons a week to evaporation., so the cool water input doesn't really help with the temperature in a 14,000 gallon pool.

Today would normally be the weekly grocery trek, but we haven't decided whether we're going today or waiting until tomorrow. I'm leaning for today but I'm concerned that they might not have re-stocked sufficiently overnight. If I'm going to grill tonight, I need to go...out of ground beef here! I have leftover fajitas from Tuesday, and leftover carnitas from Monday, but I have no "low-carb" tortillas left. I can easily make my own regular ones, but my wife is back on her keto diet and carbs are completely a no-no. My doc allows 60 carbs per meal 4x daily. I can make the low-carb variety, but I would still have to go to the store for enough almond or coconut flour. Might as well just buy the Mission brand. The problem with making the trek today is that some other places that we might want to stop at could be closed. We'll discuss further when wifey gets up.

One last word on college from me. Someone posted about taking courses that weren't in one's major, for the overall learning experience. I do agree with that. However in my case, I went to a Catholic private high school that was billed as a college prep school. There were no shop classes or home economics classes. I had to take civics, economics, geometry along with core language, history, math and science classes. Thankfully we learned how to think out of the box, work together in a team environment, take advantage of outside resources and generally learn to live in the world. I was totally shocked when I started college and was exposed to folks that came from the public school system. Many were just learning what I spent the previous four years learning to do. I have been thankful ever since. But I didn't end up completing college, as I had to get a job after getting married. I ended up paying for my wife to complete her degree since she was closer to it than I was, and they eventually made me an offer that I couldn't refuse. I did use much of my education to advance after that, but it was more from the high school training. She never used her political science degree to get any jobs!

I did make it out to the train shed yesterday. Disassembled vehicles, dull-coated some of them and added drivers/passengers to a couple, those that I could get apart!
Driver only.
View attachment 193211
Driver and passenger. Looks like I need to look at that hood ornament a little more closely.
View attachment 193212
The white glue windows worked as planned, but this is still going to be a distant placement.
View attachment 193213
The complete current line-up.
View attachment 193214

Joe -

The key word here is "blame". As I posted a couple of days ago, take responsibility for your own actions. Blame also seems to be a key factor in Washington DC these days!
Chad - If you have a degree and work as a bartender, you can then get elected to Congress!
Mike - Yep! Compound interest on investments is a wonderful thing. Don't ask how I know.:)
Terry posted:

However, remember the words of Getty Lee of Rush in the song Freewill:
"If you decide not to decide, you still have made a choice"

Everybody have a great 4th, don't get burned.
Click to expand...
One of the coolest songs if all time ("Freewill"), i think that verset went more like: "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice". BTW, Rush rules!😁
Some one described not voting as a "Vote of no confidence", and i deffinitely agree with that.
 
migalyto said:
Good morning everyone!

A overcast morning with some drizzle out there this morning. Hopefully it clears up later.

Today we are off to my parents for a family reunion. This year going to be a big crowd. This year we have family from Missouri, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Colorado, and Minnesota. Going to see some cousins I haven't seen since high school. This was the year everything aligned for everybody to make it. We don't have to travel far. About an hour.

Last night was the golden spike on the layout. I finally have a complete loop of the entire layout. Havent run trains on the new track yey. Many feeders and bus lines to run, but we will get there.

Have a safe 4th everyone, be careful with the fireworks if that's your thing!
Click to expand...
Send me your address, i'd like to "check" out that golden spike😉
 
Happy 4th of July everyone. Out in the Appalachian mountains again today, and this is not really "me"...but out of curiosity i just had to check out that Impala:
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IMG_20240704_121942875_HDR.jpg
IMG_20240704_122002006.jpg

For sale and it says big block motor on the sale sign. Also big rod with round handle on the right side of steering wheel, so i'm guessing 3 speed manual (?).
 
Good afternoon gang!

After much debate about paint removal, I had a eureka moment. The loco I had to strip had been in a 95% alcohol mix for a week, with almost no effect on the paint. So I gave her a dip in lacquer thinner for a week. Most of the paint came off of the tender but the boiler was stubborn and would not give up. I wont use brake fluid anymore, mainly because of crazing issues with the next paint. The eureka moment came when I remembered that several years ago I purchased a thing called an "air eraser" from Harbor Freight. Last night I searched it out and and read the destructions so this morning I got to it. It was a slow and tedious process, but after about 2 hours the tender and boiler are cleaned off. The currently are resting in the alcohol bath to get any residual skin oils off the metal, but I am hoping (weather cooperating) to get some paint on them this weekend.

Why are there no knock knock jokes about America???



Because freedom rings!


L8ter gators
 
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