Running Bear's February 2021 Coffee Shop.


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Morning from the SouthWest - FLO - I'll have a coffee with Jesse there and take him up on the bacon! Throw on a couple eggs and home-fried potatoes with the bacon. Oh darn - I just spilled my coffee! At least it missed the keyboard - my Spousal Unit was not so lucky with her iMac - at least her Sister had a spare that she is using now.

My plate cup overfloweth here lately. A friend, one of our Bunko group has a hundred-foot section of fence, 1/2 on the ground and the remainder leaning, that I would like to replace with my carpenter neighbor; he needs it done yesterday and my Spousal Unit has her knee surgery next week + daughter's baby will be taken early around March 3rd or so. I am having a time trying to figure if I can work it all in - I am leaning towards telling him that I just cannot do it at this time. That's too bad as I sure could use the extra $ - just wish we could take our time with the work. The hardest part will be the demo work on the 13 sections (half on the ground) cutting and hauling them off plus getting the old and broken posts pulled out of the ground. I'm just gittin too old to be doing that anymore even though I think I want too!

Sorry to hear of all you guys and the problems with caused by the cold. I learned yesterday that most of my LA and TX cousins have survived although not very comfortable. one of my LA cousins has a son who lost his wife to Covid and he is sick with it along with my cousin who seems to be in recovery at this time.

I'll be bach! Better see how my steller performance with the market is doing this morning ... losing per usual, I see!
 
Hey folks we finally have a chance of getting to 32 degrees today. Lots of prayers needed for people all over Texas. Already lots of reports of burst pipes, and will be tons more as temp warms up this weekend. There will also be lots of pr9blems with water mains bursting.

Lots of blame being thrown around on the power problems, and there is plenty to go around. What I can’t stand is the politicians who act like they had no idea this could happen. We have built like mad the last decade (both business and residential), but every time a utility said they needed to build a new plant all the residents said we don‘t want ugly thing in our area. Hence no growth of the power grid. After the 2011 storms the utilities were told to ”winterize” their plants but they did nothing because the state would not grant rate increases to pay for it. So this should not be a surprise to anyone in the power industry or government. Off my soapbox now, and thanks for your patience.
 
Good morning gang!
After getting enough snow to turn everything white this morning, now it has turned to a snow/sleet combo that I can here bouncing off the siding today. Oh joy!
Flo, coffee, and pancakes please, tall stack to start!
Garry, glad to hear you made it back safely.
Willie. you could have left the strip poker part out of your tale.
As for the rest of you suffering at the hands of old man winter, here's to hoping he loses his grip, and soon!
For us, the snow has turned to rain, things are looking up already!
 
Morning!
Feel real sad for you folks suffering with mild cold and snow down south. I know the media likes to paint a more exaggerated picture than what it really is, but, I've been hearing some bad stories. Sounds like the infrastructure to deal with cold just dosen't exist in the south. Blame it on the butler, though, for letting the cold in.

Here in the north, where we are used to the cold, it's -3°F with sunny skies. Supposed to cloud over later with the temperature reaching somewhere in the 20's. Not a bad day, at all.

Awhile back, someone asked why we don't use ice-fishing shacks when we go out. Found a comic explaining one reason:
IceFishComic.jpg

Just trying to brighten up you're day a wee bit. The cold won't last.

Garry - That is a wonderful layout scene of the lumber supply you just posted. I like that retaining wall in the background.

Jerry - Ah interesting find with the old magazine. Seems like it's in very good shape after all these years.

James - I like you're cabooses. If you are collecting those, it seems like a real niche part of the hobby.

Tom - I would have thought 'beer' can on the mug. Maybe if you touched it with some red it might look more like a Coke.

TomO - Even though I've never painted, I've thought it would be an idea to try and paint some perspective extension on the background behind a flat. I really like the paper mill flat, but, that hill suddenly appearing in the background looks funny. Maybe it's just the camera angle. - Believe me, I'm no Rembrandt either. - The forest industry layout is beautiful.

Sherrel - I read your post with interest. I build many fences as an ex-contractor. When you are pulling out those old posts, a 4x4x8' post used as a lever along with an auto jack-stand used as the fulcrum is you're friend. I pull them straight out this way, even if they have a glob of concrete holding them in. It's easy.

Well, I've had two coffees in the time I've spent here. Time to get on with it!!
The wife will want to go ice-fishing next week, for sure. It's supposed to be above zero temperatures.

Have a good one!
 
TexasJim said:
Hey folks we finally have a chance of getting to 32 degrees today. Lots of prayers needed for people all over Texas. Already lots of reports of burst pipes, and will be tons more as temp warms up this weekend. There will also be lots of pr9blems with water mains bursting.

Lots of blame being thrown around on the power problems, and there is plenty to go around. What I can’t stand is the politicians who act like they had no idea this could happen. We have built like mad the last decade (both business and residential), but every time a utility said they needed to build a new plant all the residents said we don‘t want ugly thing in our area. Hence no growth of the power grid. After the 2011 storms the utilities were told to ”winterize” their plants but they did nothing because the state would not grant rate increases to pay for it. So this should not be a surprise to anyone in the power industry or government. Off my soapbox now, and thanks for your patience.
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TexasJim

I am glad you went where I thought about it. My son as most know lives in Austin and loves the area, the opportunities and the warmth of the temperatures and the people. It has changed a little regarding the people in the 10+ years he has lived there mainly because of the folks from California. What he dislikes are the road conditions (crumbling), traffic and the all knowing Texas politicians. I make no bones that I have some liberal leaning, not much, but with very a conservative financial underpinning. My wife is a bleeding heart liberal, the son is in between somewhere. As Tom (CambriaArea51) in NY says, how can you not have backup power sources in the most energy producing state in the country? Sad and blame is everywhere as you TexasJim state. Not in my neighborhood is big in Wisconsin too.

The son got his electricity back and then lost sewer and water because neither facility had backup power and no fuel to run the generators yesterday. I read this morning, because the damage is infrastructure and internal home issues, like water and sewer the last hurricane, Harvey I think, bill for Texas will in comparison to this have been very cheap. Insurance premiums will raise maybe 100% or more for some residents.

Very sad
TomO
 
Guy from the frozen North.

You my friend may not be a Rembrandt or Monet but I agree with you. All my hills are out of proportion to what I had intended and I have 2 including this one that definitely should be changed. I have been waiting while searching for a backdrop to fit behind this paper mill screen but have failed.

It was me asking about why you don’t use ice shacks as they are all over Wisconsin lakes in Winter. I love the joke.

TomO
 
CambriaArea51 said:
Willie- I can't understand why the water dept don't have backup generators. Here in NY we have to maintain a minimum of 20 psi per health dept. Our pumps are on generator power for outages and run when the pressure drops below 40 psi.
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Texas didn't plan for this kind of cold, which is the fundamental problem. They may indeed have backup generators but if the system freezes up, you're still screwed.
 
TLOC said:
Well good morning everyone from Wisconsin.

Thanks for the comments on my postings and the good lucks to our son in Austin, Texas. What a mess, but he said he’s fine and will learn to be better prepared. He hoped the state officials have learned from this unless they really want the immigrants from California to take over. He is scared for his electric Bill.

I posted I had put the ladders, cages and landings together for the grain bins. I then lost interest, hopefully today.

These 4 showed up from a friend in Fort Worth. I am starting to adding rolling stock from others freelance railroads.

Be safe
TomOView attachment 124935
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Those are good looking cars! Nicely weathered! Very cool!
 
Must not be a fluke. Power has been on continuously since 9:00 pm last night. The rolling blackouts have ended here. Now it just needs to warm up. still just 27° with very bright sunshine. I am about to make a run to the mailbox a mile and a quarter away if I can figure out where the driveway is! Haven't been in or started the car since last Friday.
 
TLOC said:
Great looking. I have been close to pulling the trigger for a Milwaukee Road transfer caboose from Fox Valley. Best prices I have found are at Lombardhobby.com
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Tom: I purchased a MILW transfer caboose from Lombard Hobby and I was very happy will the service and especially with the quality of the cabooses. I would pull the trigger since this may be a limited run of the product and once gone, they're gone. I like it so much that I also purchased a C&NW transfer caboose.

Greg
 
Good afternoon. Checking in quickly. I am alive but still not well. Quarantine is over but I understand that some of the symptoms can continue on for some time. Got tired of sitting around doing nothing as that was about all I could do. We have had a number of small snowfalls over the past few days adding about 9 inches to a foot build up. I did get out to plow but it did take the wind out of my sails.

thumbnail_20210218_134116.jpg thumbnail_20210218_134121.jpg

Willie - I was wondering how you were getting along after hearing what has been happening in your part of the country. You seem to have been somewhat prepared. Glad you got through what seems to be the worst of it. We do have a stand by generator (Generac) just in case. Even if we lose power, with natural gas, we can always cook and the gas stove we hear with will still heat even without electricity. The problem is water. The generator give us enough power for the entire house including the 220 for the pump. It is nice to still have TV and other items such as lights.

Garry - Like that photo.

Greg - Those transfer cabooses are a nice addition to a model railroad.

Going to call it quits for now. Hate the idea of having lost the sense of taste. Sort of takes the fun out of eating.

Later
 
Good afternoon all. So we were without power from 2:00 AM Monday morning till about 8:00 PM last night. We came home house was warming, but no water. It appears the well lost prime. Went to my daughter's this morning a got 10 gallons of water. Primed the well and got pressure back. They say there is still a possibility of more "rolling blackouts", which is OK if they truly roll them. They said rolling blackouts would last between 15 minutes and 1 hour. We were just shy of 3 days without power, nothing about rolling in 3 days. Been working on get most of the day trying to clean the water lines. I drained the piping before we left. So with the cold temps, empty lines and now chlorine a lot of scale coming out. But a least we are home and as of now no blackout.
I am certainly going to be looking into a stand-by generator since it appears many of the providers to the electrical grid don't. I suppose it was hard to predict long range that we would tie a record 122 years old (13 degrees). So for obvious reasons nothing from the train room to report.

STAY SAFE AND WARM

LATER
 
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