Running Bear's February 2021 Coffee Shop.


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Well I am home for the duration. My ride is full with last minute employees and therefore my son and I got bumped. After Terry comes home and gets her shot in March we will decide when we both go back to Maui.

The son in Austin is fine with no power at home or the girlfriends place but his shop does 12 miles away. He is loading the pickup with firewood so he’ll have wood for the fireplace and he is grabbing the propane for Use on the outdoor grill. He has drained the g/f’s water pipes and his own. He is fairly confident except about the water line leading into both houses. He said it’s great traveling the Austin roads with few folks out.

I am heading to the trainroom.

TomO
 
santafewillie said:
more snow, no ice, in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning. It's about 120 miles away right now, expected to hit a bit after 4:00 pm.
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Still waiting...Radar shows that it's here, but my weather rock says otherwise. Weather Underground station 7 miles away is reporting snow, and the station around the corner is off-line. He and I have been rotating blackouts for two days now.
 
Here we keep alternating between sunshine and snow. As the clouds go by we get periods of bright sunlight (sometimes with remnant snow falling — very cool) and then cloudiness and snow falling. Nothing compared to some of you.

For those without power, with extreme cold and/or snow and ice, my prayers and wishes are with you.
 
Good evening. I just gassed up the generators, and made sure they both will start if we need them. That's the most Murphy way I can think of to make sure we don't.
I just checked in with Chet, and he says other than being short of breath, he's had worse colds.
 
santafewillie said:
One of my daughters lives two blocks from a fire station in Richardson and they haven't been affected yet. The other daughter about 1.5 miles away has been affected off and on since about dawn today. We now seem to be in a 45 minute on/45 minute off pattern since midnight or so. I am more irritated at the water company who didn't admit the extent of the issue until late yesterday when it was too late for me to turn off the water and drain the system. I am already on my plumbers wait list even though I don't yet know if there are any burst pipes. I have something else for him to do when he shows up so it's not a wasted trip.
James - I have used those in the past only to have varmints (presumably rodents) eat through the insulation and the wiring, repeatedly.
Jim - I have a heat gun, more wattage than a hair dryer, but with 75' of piping under the house, it's a task only for the younger generation. The answer is drip the faucets which was working until the water company fell down on their job. I guess that the water rates will go up to purchase some backup generators like James posted.
We're up to 16° right now with more snow, no ice, in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning. It's about 120 miles away right now, expected to hit a bit after 4:00 pm. High tomorrow through Friday around 30°. Into the 60's starting next Tuesday. I have to keep my eye on the beer currently stored out on the porch.
Later gang. I am approaching my power on window.
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i am guessing you are on the north side of DFW. I am south of Dallas. We just had our first outage about an hour ago. By the time we got candles lit and flashlights located lights came back on. We have had low water pressure all day with no explanation. Fortunately, we are on a slab. Weather like this is about the only time I would prefer slab foundation. Prayers for as things start to thaw out.
 
Good evening. Sorry to read of all the problems y'all are having South and West of me. Looks like 2021 is starting out as a nasty year too. We were spared the predicted ice storm over the weekend into Monday, and today the temperature at Belmar, (KBLM), reached 55° this afternoon, while it was 53°, on my front porch. The unexpected warmth, has put a dent into last week's snow pile, but the glacier, that is my front lawn, is taking its time receding. Supposed to drop to 22° tonight, go up to 32° tomorrow, then snow 3 to 5" tomorrow night, before warming up again. Crazy, eh?

Started my taxes this afternoon, hopefully, they will be finished tomorrow. I have not done much with the layout, except stare at it, while deciding on what to do next. Yesterday, I cleaned out the Condensate Pump connected to the furnace. This pump takes condensation from the furnace, as well as waste humidifier water, and raises it to the sewer drain. It was loaded with slime and sludge, and was probably a contributing cause to my humidifier leaking the other morning. The only remaining work is to replace the ½" tubing from the humidifier to the pump, which has a kink in it.

RDCs at Essington 2-16-2021.jpg

This is a view of my Essington Module, with the RDCs in the station, clear of the road crossing, and a couple of grain cars on the interchange. I'm working on the remaining structures, and looking into crossing protection for the Reading.
CR 7871 & CR 7875 at Lansdale PA June 1999 John Almeida.jpg

John Almeida photograph of Conrail local power at Lansdale, PA in June 1999 7875 is just out of the paint shop, while the 7871 is a showing a little wear. (The date may be wrong). Both are GP-38s
Marlo Thomas getting in cab at 30th St. Station.jpg

"That Girl",(Marlo Thomas), receiving assist from Red Cap, on the 29th St Side of 30th Street Station, in Philadelphia, during the waning days of the PRR. Love those 60's fashions. Forget the Red Caps name, but he was nice to everyone, not just celebrities. 53 years later, little has changed.
 
Greetings all. Below is pic from frigid tundra of NE Indiana. We still have power and water. We're mostly dug out from our foot of snow.

I'm still building my little Soviet Dude army Got about 40-ish of the dudes done.

Screen Shot 2021-02-17 at 6.19.21 AM.png



I think this means we're Number 1. In what, I'm not sure.

One of the outdoorsy/survival oriented folks I follow made the suggestion that anyone considering burning stuff to stay warm
1. Do so outside - not inside
2. Get some large rocks, warm them in the fire
3. Use a pot to carry hot rocks inside, rotate through your pots etc to keep up a steady supply of warm rocks
 
Morning all,

Cloudy with light snow and 9° this morning. First time it 5 days it has stayed above 0° overnight supposed to get to 20° today with temps rising through the weekend. Should get above freezing on Saturday for the first time in 2 weeks. Temps to near 60° by the middle of next week. It can stay there except it will fool the peaches into blooming early if the below 0° temps haven't already killed any budding.

TomO: Additionally with the Texas issue, it isn't just the wind generators, a lot of the coal and natural gas generating plants are also not winterized and by the time they figured they needed to get the additional generators running a lot of them were frozen over. My understanding is that it was over 100 years since much of the southern 2/3 of Texas (and maybe all) has seen this kind of prolonged cold.

Oh well That's it for now.
 
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Good morning y'all.

There was no rain yesterday, but there was a terrifying ball of fire seen in the sky. It caused many to wonder if the apocalypse was beginning. Currently it is 30 with a feel of 23. It should hit near 50 today with a return of the flaming ball of death. Terrifying or not, I will enjoy it as Thursday is projected to be mid 30s and rainy all day and all night. Friday is a 50/50 chance of more precipitation.

On to more important things:

Flo- Coffee, bacon, and one of those donuts James mentioned please.

Sherrel- Where we all messed up was thinking 2021 was going to be better than 2020. 2020 was just the warm-up act. 2021 is less than 2 months old and is already saying, "Hold my beer."

TexasJim- I have worked for City Hall before, I can assure you that there is nothing essential about them. They think they are, but more often than not they are actually the problem rather than the solution.

TomO- Sorry to hear that your escape plan was foiled.

Y'all be safe in the snow and ice and power outages. Makes our nearly constant rainfall seem like a bright summer day in comparison.

I'm going to hang out and enjoy breakfast until it's time (and warm enough) to go to work. Ain't no sense freezing unnecessarily.

Y'all have a blessed day. I'll be in my corner if anyone comes looking for me. Unless they look like a bill collector, then I haven't been here in weeks.
 
Good Morning from the frozen tundra know as North Central Texas. It's cloudy and 16° headed up to 28° later today and tomorrow, maybe 36° on Friday. The mostly wrong weather geeks from NWS are predicting upper 60's by Tuesday, much more normal for us. By then I will know the extent of any water pipe breakage. The blizzard that was forecast for yesterday and last night wasn't much for here. It looks like an additional 1/2" is all that fell. Still dealing with the rolling blackouts, so I am being brief because computer boot up after the power cutoffs takes over ten minutes versus two minutes if I shut down normally, so I will do that and go watch some news for a few minutes.
Stay warm and have a safe day.
 
Good morning gang!

Flo, just coffee for now dear.

21° , but there is this large yellow ball in the sky I am not familiar with!!!

Seriously, we're ok here, my hope is that all the rest of you are warm and safe today. Walking is getting easier each day. In fact, I will have to duck out here shortly and get a small bag of dog food to hold us over until the regularly scheduled box from Chewy.com arrives. SWMBO informed me as she served them breakfast that we were fresh out of dog chow!

Later I will be back downstairs to try out my new toy tool. I've been looking for a rolling road for a bit. The Bachmann ones are nice, but at 50 bucks for 4 (with my steamers I will need at least 8) . I also looked at the DCC Concepts rolling road, but the set of 12 ran @$125.00+ and $33.00 shipping from the UK :confused: . Iron Planet Hobbies to the rescue!
dcdcm-rra12.jpg


They had the 12 roller set on fleabay for $109.23 and free shipping! They come with the HO blocks installed. They come with extra spacer blocks for n, 00, On30, TT, HOm/12mm, P4 and EM (whatever that is). Gonna try them this afternoon. Should make diagnosing driveline disorders a lot easier, along with static break in runs!

Time to run to Petsmart, Maybe I'll take Bud the wonderdog with me.

BBL
 
Morning, fellas! -1°F up here in the north; supposed to get up into the 20's come the afternoon. So I can label it a fine day as we should get away without having to wear the mitts.
The wife wants to go ice-fishing. I don't feel like it, so I'm using the 'barometric pressure is too low' excuse.

I feel real bad for all of you experiencing the unusual storm systems to the south and east. Must be a bit of a shocker. I suppose you might take comfort in understanding it is only a temporary setback. Soon enough, you'll be rolling in tomatoes.

Karl - I like the new toy! Seems suitable for a fellow who has the locomotive rebuild knowledge that you seem to have.

I got a new toy in the post, as well. Another Atheran GP9, at last:
GP9_02-16-2021 (2).jpg

With that recent purchase, I'm hoping I now have a mating pair:
GP9_02-16-2021 (3).jpg

Somethings wrong with my darn camera. The auto-focus seems to be having issues. Suppose I'll have to look for another one, as I can't survive without a camera. My bloodline might just evolve with growing a camera as an extra appendage, in time.

Anyway, I need to be on my way. Good luck with the storms! Have a good one!
 
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