Running Bear's January 2022 Coffee Shop

[Smudge617]

Good Morning All. Clear and 24° to start the day here. Should be returning to the 50's today, 60's tomorrow. Yesterday was a beautiful day despite only getting up to 40°, sunny and no wind. The rain chance for Monday has been removed from the forecast, so it will probably rain!

I did the postponed weekly grocery trek yesterday to a nearly empty store. Nothing like 20° outside to keep the crowds down. Shelves were somewhat empty and there were restock carts blocking parts of most aisles. So they had the stuff but were unable to get it on the shelves. Exceptions were the products that distributors themselves restocked, bread/tortillas, soft drinks, chips, beer and some deli products. The produce, deli and meat departments were also well stocked by store employees. These three departments are real stand-outs in this store. Prices were considerably higher all the way around. As an aside, the baggers in this store will take your stuff out to the car if asked, but I have never taken advantage of this. Gas here is still under $3.00/gal.
I do not shop at the local Aldi as they tend to be rather snobbish there.

Sad reading about the passing of Meat Loaf. While I wasn't a big fan of his, a lot of others were. I didn't dislike him.

Worked a bit on the property taxes yesterday,mainly reviewing them, then paid them. My property tax bill was $150 less for 2021 than it was for 2020! I'll take it. $791 for 15 acres, a 1500 sq ft house with 4 bedrooms, and the 800 sq ft train shed. I get dinged big time on the train shed since it is not under the agricultural exemption like 14 acres, the homestead exemption for the house and 1 acre, or the property tax freeze for the taxpayer being over 65. I paid online with the Amex card which gives me cash back, and I'll pay that off before any interest accrues.
Regarding taxes, my wife finally made the decision to retire from H&R Block this season even though she spent time during recuperation in maintaining her accreditation. No pressure from me either way. We don't need the extra money. They will call her once the farms and foreign income clients start rolling in since no one else in that office can do those returns.

Thanks for the comments and likes yesterday for the photos of the goings on outside the tobacco store; OB Ken, Smudge, Mikey, Sherrel, Justin, Patrick, Moermusic, James, Chad, Hughie, Tom O, Curt, Karl, Tom, Rick, Louis.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I was able to resume some modeling. I mainly did some more ballasting and ground cover. No pictures of it yet, but soon. Meanwhile here's a little something else from the town of Jamestown. Bruckner Woodworking before scenery.
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Troy -

Yogurt - I don't eat it, but my wife really likes the Two Good brand.
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Smudge - While those ScaleTrains locos are a bit pricey, they are well worth it. They run very well right out of the box and the detailing is phenomenal. I just wish that they were around 20 years ago when I was building my fleet of locos.
Tom O - ScaleTrains is going to announce a four axle loco at the Amherst show next weekend, their first one.
Mikey -

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Bottom center.
Different angle, bottom right.
View attachment 139237

Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend. Stay safe and warm

Morning Willie
Yeah, I know, the scale trains do look amazing, but not in the budget just yet, good old Import Tax (plus the postage), takes it way out of my league. I have found somewhere that have Scale Trains in the UK, but a Rivet Counter SD40-2 Admiral Cab, DCC ready is £215 or ($292) with sound is £335 or ($454). got reasonably deep pockets, but I ain't sunk an oil well just yet.

 

[TLOC]

Good morning global grocery shoppers and modelers. A nice morning but even the weather guessers are confused as to the rest of the day. All I keep hearing on TV is it may hit us or it will go this way or that way. Anyway, I am in the house. The train room needs to be visited. A 4pm UW Badger verus Minnesota hockey game at 4 and then the GB Packers on national TV for the late game today.

I am building a Enginehouse for the layout replacing the scrap/recycling yard. I started a thread. I need (want) a engine service center for the layout and I just never got around to finishing off the facility. I will enjoy this as it is hugely different then working on the paper mill or weathering pulp wood cars. I am out of pulp logs so I do have to get outside and pick out some branches and work on them.
enjoy your day
TomO

the area I am working on and parts for the engine house

 

[Smudge617]

Morning from here where it is 47F looking for 71F later with clesar, sunny skies.
YES, FRANCINE, I will have a large coffee and wait till the sun cmes up for breakfast.

OBKEN - Nice photos of OWEN tower, and memories to go with them. That looks to be a Buick in the picture - Would that be correct? My dad had a Cheby P/U like that - yes, good memories.

On the grocery bag front ... CA wanted to do away with the litter caused by all the plastic bags, so now we do not havbe as many bags on the roads - just larger ones!
The Spousal Unit has a car full of bags which she adds a few more too each time she goes grocery shopping. An absolute mental block of remembering to take a handfull with her into the store!

MICKY, That's very funny (well, mabey NOT) about the romance department. The Spousal Unit never fails to remind me to leave a generous tip and I always remind her that my tip is based on service! between 8-20%+.

The thing about taking the plastic bags in with her when she shops will come, it takes a while to get out of a habit you've been doing for so many years.

 

[TLOC]

Morning from here where it is 47F looking for 71F later with clesar, sunny skies.
YES, FRANCINE, I will have a large coffee and wait till the sun comes up for breakfast.

OBKEN - Nice photos of OWEN tower, and memories to go with them. That looks to be a Buick in the picture - Would that be correct? My dad had a Cheby P/U like that - yes, good memories.

On the grocery bag front ... CA wanted to do away with the litter caused by all the plastic bags, so now we do not havbe as many bags on the roads - just larger ones that last longer!
The Spousal Unit has a car full of bags which she adds a few more too each time she goes grocery shopping. An absolute mental block of remembering to take a handful with her into the store!

MICKY, That's very funny (well, maybe NOT) about the romance department. The Spousal Unit never fails to remind me to leave a generous tip and I always remind her that my tip is based on service! between 8-20%+.

8%! Sherrel not meaning to being critical but that’s too low. Even crummy service gets 10% and a note on the receipt why it’s not at least 20%. So at least go 10%, they have to learn and live to learn

TomO

 

[Smudge617]

Their Here
Big thanks to Tom and Paul, you guys are definite stars in my book.

 

[Boris]

The drive for lower costs is why they have the carts with the deposit thing on and why they've always charged for bags and have only a few checkouts...

To be honest, I'm not that impressed with either Aldi or Lidl. Lidl, is maybe a half mile from where we live, so it's a logical stop for bread and milk.
Unfortunately, unless I go on Wednesday...day the new circular takes effect...I cannot get 2% Lactaid milk there. Bakery goods are usually stale, and their prices are only marginally cheaper than ShopRite, which is a half mile further away.

Trader Joe has some very interesting stuff, some quite tasty, but not everything. Prices are reasonable, but the closest is 15 miles away...

I do not generally shop at stores with cart deposits, (mandated in the adjacent county), and I'm getting tired of cost cutting that throws more of the costs of doing business on the consumer...(To better serve you).

 

[Boris]

I have the LokProgrammer installed on my system along with the JMRI. The LokProgrammer can be seen just above the right edge of the keyboard.
The computer is tucked away under the facia. The rotary knob to the bottom left below the loco selects JMRI/Run/ESU with gaps in between each setting to avoid accidental cross power to the track where the loco is sitting. The programming track is about 5' long. The UP5 just below the loco is to plug in a throttle for testing or programming directly by CV. The tracks behind the loco lead to a 40' long three track staging area to the left, a 25' five track staging area to the forward right and up to the main layout area to the rear right. The layout's command station (power district 1) and power supply can be seen in the dark to the left, booster (power district 2) to the right of the command station just above the loco. Just above the computer screen is an un-named mountain base where three tracks emerge from a 20' long tunnel.


View attachment 139228

Cool. I was curious. Right now, I have two 48" program tracks using Kato Uni-track. One connected to the MRC controller which interfaces with JMRI on the lap top, the other for the Lokprogrammer. Uni-track allows me to store it when not in use...ok as long as I remember where I stored it.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

FOUR pretty large food stores plus Sprouts within 2.3 miles of the homestead here. In order of pricing top to bottom is Raphs, Albertsons, Stater Bros, Walmart, with Sprouts mainly for produce and a few speciality items.
Bread and meat and fish and liquor I like best from Stater.
Ralphs is closest, but the most expensive - can be as much as $1.00 per item over Walmart.
Albertson is such a HUGE store that I can spend too much time looking for something, price close to Ralphs.

I have taken to using a fruit box from Costco (has handle slots on the side) and a couple plastic bags with me.
Breads and most cold stuff and produce in the bags - and canned stuff, milk, dog treats, ect, in the box-eggs on top.
I place the box in the cart and I can load my box and bags faster than the checker can scan.
The box makes it nice for loading in the car and at home - don't have to worry about bags falling over and such!

TomO - I can't even remember the last time I tipped 8 - or even 10%. If I left 10% - the Spousal Unit would be all over my A$$ and not in a way that I would like her to be!

SMUDGE - Glad to see that you got your stuff from TOM. How much was the postage?

 

[Smudge617]

FOUR pretty large food stores plus Sprouts within 2.3 miles of the homestead here. In order of pricing top to bottom is Raphs, Albertsons, Stater Bros, Walmart, with Sprouts mainly for produce and a few speciality items.
Bread and meat and fish and liquor I like best from Stater.
Ralphs is closest, but the most expensive - can be as much as $1.00 per item over Walmart.
Albertson is such a HUGE store that I can spend too much time looking for something, price close to Ralphs.

I have taken to using a fruit box from Costco (has handle slots on the side) and a couple plastic bags with me.
Breads and most cold stuff and produce in the bags - and canned stuff, milk, dog treats, ect, in the box-eggs on top.
I place the box in the cart and I can load my box and bags faster than the checker can scan.
The box makes it nice for loading in the car and at home - don't have to worry about bags falling over and such!

TomO - I can't even remember the last time I tipped 8 - or even 10%. If I left 10% - the Spousal Unit would be all over my A$$ and not in a way that I would like her to be!

SMUDGE - Glad to see that you got your stuff from TOM. How much was the postage?

Not as much as I feared, $20 is all

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Good Morning all you modelers out there in Model Railroadland. Warmer with light snow over night, maybe an inch. Riley is starting to expect to be left outside the first thing every morning and loves the snow, especially new snow.

My Cathy likes shopping at Aldi due to the smaller store size and easy to find items. Pays .25 to rent a shopping cart each visit.

Absolutely beautiful locomotives. Run great too. I have sold my Turbines and Sd45’s and hopefully waiting a 4 axle.
TomO

TomO: I'm going to enjoy running the Scale Trains SDL 39 especially with Stay Alive to combat areas of dirty track. I have three Rapido locomotives with two still in their boxes. I test ran one and I'm impressed with its running, excellent sound and LED lighting. I was sold on Rapido's after I purchased a Rapido RDC in the C&NW color theme. A great runner. I would of enjoyed watching those Turbines run on your layout!!!

One of the Rapidos is a Southern Pacific, on a Wisconsin based layout? Well, my logic is that it's a leased locomotive and besides I like the color scheme, the bloody nose and strobe light. CambriaArea51 you're correct in that the light weathering brings out the detail of the Scale Train locomotives.

Getting ready for the Packer Game at 7:15 PM. The Packers are back to almost full form so they should be a challenge to the 49'ers. A friend in California has season tickets to the 49'ers, but the cold weather in Green Bay will keep her away from the game. We were at one NFC Championship Game at Lambeau and the temperature was -8 degrees when we stepped off the tour bus. We sat in the sun so I was warm in my snowmobile suit. The fans from North Carolina were not prepared for the cold. Cathy lost a woolen mitten and someone was nice enough to turn it in to Lost 'n Found.

TomO: That engine house looks like a good project and will fit the layout perfectly. My layout is lacking an engine facility until I expand the layout. However, Cathy is pulling back on "allowing" the expansion to go the wall into her laundry areas. A previous layout took up a lot of her space and I don't real blame her for having some doubt about the size of the expansion area.

Going to order some Vallejo paint in spray cans from a LHS and have it delivered. It's hard to find spray Vallejo around here in cans, but the small bottles seem to be standard hobby shop stock. I also like Scale Coat spray paint which dries so fast. Their Grimy Black is great for truck frames and car under-bodies.

Time to run....................

Greg

################################

 

[Smudge617]

Good Morning all you modelers out there in Model Railroadland. Warmer with light snow over night, maybe an inch. Riley is starting to expect to be left outside the first thing every morning and loves the snow, especially new snow.

My Cathy likes shopping at Aldi due to the smaller store size and easy to find items. Pays .25 to rent a shopping cart each visit.

TomO: I'm going to enjoy running the Scale Trains SDL 39 especially with Stay Alive to combat areas of dirty track. I have three Rapido locomotives with two still in their boxes. I test ran one and I'm impressed with its running, excellent sound and LED lighting. I was sold on Rapido's after I purchased a Rapido RDC in the C&NW color theme. A great runner. I would of enjoyed watching those Turbines run on your layout!!!

One of the Rapidos is a Southern Pacific, on a Wisconsin based layout? Well, my logic is that it's a leased locomotive and besides I like the color scheme, the bloody nose and strobe light. CambriaArea51 you're correct in that the light weathering brings out the detail of the Scale Train locomotives.

Getting ready for the Packer Game at 7:15 PM. The Packers are back to almost full form so they should be a challenge to the 49'ers. A friend in California has season tickets to the 49'ers, but the cold weather in Green Bay will keep her away from the game. We were at one NFC Championship Game at Lambeau and the temperature was -8 degrees when we stepped off the tour bus. We sat in the sun so I was warm in my snowmobile suit. The fans from North Carolina were not prepared for the cold. Cathy lost a woolen mitten and someone was nice enough to turn it in to Lost 'n Found.

TomO: That engine house looks like a good project and will fit the layout perfectly. My layout is lacking an engine facility until I expand the layout. However, Cathy is pulling back on "allowing" the expansion to go the wall into her laundry areas. A previous layout took up a lot of her space and I don't real blame her for having some doubt about the size of the expansion area.

Going to order some Vallejo paint in spray cans from a LHS and have it delivered. It's hard to find spray Vallejo around here in cans, but the small bottles seem to be standard hobby shop stock. I also like Scale Coat spray paint which dries so fast. Their Grimy Black is great for truck frames and car under-bodies.

Time to run....................

Greg

################################

I didn't know Vallejo did spray can's, have to look for some I think.

 

[Greg@mnrr]

TomO: In the second photograph of your engine house construction, in the lower right hand corner is a TTK box car that was weathered. How was the weathering done. It looks very realistic!

Thanks.

Greg

 

[ctclibby]

Morning all!

32F and overcast. Gave up on the weather guesser and went back to sticking my arm out the window.

Snow finally fell ( slid ) of the roof last night. I was just getting to bed so I heard it. Wife says the whole house shook a little. Oh joy, this morning is moving ice with snow.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good morning alll! A very chilly morning, 39 with a feels like of 31. Oh, I've lived where it gets much colder, but you had time to climatize, you know four seasons. Here it can be 80 one day 30 something the next.

Willie - the Wood shop is a nice looking building, I need to do more searching for some unique structures.
Curt - Sorry for the delay in replying, layout is eleven foot long by 40 inches wide by 50 inches tall.
Mikey - Not sure about the first truck load of rocks, but sometimes I think I was on the dock crew for Noah's ark.

Bags - Any of you know what a 2 bagger is? No not the one in baseball.

Now something railroady

STAY SAFE
LATER

 

[Jaz avalley]

Jaz - - somewhat related to what I call the "Lawnmower Principle." It is very much part and parcel of what makes us independent Americans who we are.

In any given housing subdivision in the suburbs, say there are 20 houses on one street within a 3 minute walk of each other. Each has quite a modest lawn. Want to guess how many lawnmowers are on that street?

We don't share well. We want things just like we want them. And we HATE waiting. Even though we are getting more and more molded into waiting, we still hate it with a passion. Think "Cheaper By The Dozen" (old movie). If a thing can be done 5 seconds faster, let's do it. Hence the world's jokes as to Americans being such unsatisfying lovers! "You want to do WHAT first? How long's enough?"

The fights and arguments I hear about from families who are trying to get out the door to enjoy a leisurely relaxing weekend. And trust me, I am NOT holier than thou. "Ah, look at that gorgeous view ... smell that clean air. Okay, that's good let's go do something."

Uk don’t share stuff either,my other half is the 5 second faster type,I have never had issues with his performance lol,he is not the type to sit still and enjoy the scener,I can sit and smell the grass,he would be climbing a tree,and after look a a blade of grass,a tree,a cloud he would think of something that he needs to do and start discussing how to do it better,relaxed personality he is not,his brain is always in overdrive.

 

[Jaz avalley]

Morning all!

32F and overcast. Gave up on the weather guesser and went back to sticking my arm out the window.

Snow finally fell ( slid ) of the roof last night. I was just getting to bed so I heard it. Wife says the whole house shook a little. Oh joy, this morning is moving ice with snow.

View attachment 139252

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Blimey still better than the snow built up to a major weight and came in rather than slide off…….

 

[Jaz avalley]

43 years of heavy construction. Mills, refineries, road construction, pipelines. Zero paid holidays!!! If you aren't there, you ain't gettin paid. Spoiled ass office workers!! LOL

Blimey you’ll hate me I get national holidays
1 Christmas Day,
2Boxing Day,
3New Years day,
452 days at Easter a fri and a mon as I don’t work weekends that’s a long weekend 4 days,
6May Day at the start
7another mayday at the end they are Mondays so 2 x 3 day weekends,
8august gives us another day another 3 day weekend,
So 8 days, people often get paid 2x or even 3x if they work those days, or 1x day but get an extra holiday day to use at will
then 20 days on top is often the case
as you get more years under your belt you can often make 31 days holiday on top, so 31+8=39 days holiday
my dad and my other half have both maxed out,
some companies may pay you if you don’t use them, they may also pay you 1x 2xl or more if you are asked to work them without notice as holiday runs out this a rare thing I think I have only ever seen twice, and the company basically begs you to help them out.
maternity leave is usual, paternity all depends on the company although paternity was rare very rare it is becoming more, maternity is not only leave,but paid leave, this may be government minimum but is usually company standard.
although over the years a lot of people in non office jobs have been dumped on zer hour conditions then the things you mention might occur.
I do know that companies no longer like free trainees at weekends, the supervisory issues are not an issue, but the government paperwork often take longer than the hours for the trainee, so companies just can’t afford it nowadays, people want and expect university kids, college is more vocational. the police now want a uni kid to also do a special course for police that can ,Dan studying longer than a lawyer for far less return. worse the police no longer do proper background checks so when a police turns out to be a criminal it is not unlikely to find he had a record, and they did not even look…..sighs
I suspect without my knowledge a bundle of companies are sliding your direction, I have always walked In offices, and usually near or assigned to bosses so with better working conditions the norm.

 

[Jaz avalley]

A very, very old saying about London Buses was, "If you miss your Bus, don't worry, another one will be along in a few minutes". My Father told me that he drove new cars across London in 1935 to dealers. A picture of Queen Victoria Street, London 1935
View attachment 139102

London being London their is not enough road or car parking for London workers and visitors,hence trains,London Underground,taxis and especially buses are always busy, if you look at the price of a single car park space for sale in London you would feint.this is a space out on the road not a spaced off road to the side of your home.The odd one that has come up for sale has gone for silly money,such that you could likely buy a small house elsewhere in the country.
Yeah my buses definitely outnumber my vw, although there are plenty more, I can find a picture of one that has a matching trailer tent,several are campers

I think I don’t own a lipstick red one! what an oversight, we owned one of those, I’ll have to address that asap.

 

[Jaz avalley]

I love working, I get antsy when I'm not working. My circumstances are unique. My health sidelined me for almost 10 years. I was offered hospice care. Being Catholic i have had my Last Rites three times.
I was fortunate to have the resources to survive. I'm thankful to be able to work again. I love telling my doctors they were wrong about me. "I'm not dead yet!"
I can't do many of the things I once did. I can't be productive for more than a few hours at a time, but I'm still making profit! Now that my wife works with me full time I'm beginning to rival the profits I made in some of my best years. Thank God!
I honestly hope I never have to retire again.

Blimey Louis last rites three times!!!!!!!! You and your wife must have nerves of steel.I for one am glad your here, and please tell your wife from me, stand by your man musta been written for her. I hope you both enjoy many more years.

 

[Jaz avalley]

Being self-insured since October 2020 I am more than happy to invest in my own healthcare. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" I have saved over $10,000 in that time being self-insured. Even with a $614 monthly cost for prescriptions. My wife is not happy about it. She worries about a catastrophic health problem.

What I am not happy about is seeing so many people investing in healthcare, only to see some of the the money used to pay dividends for healthcare stock holders. Or seeing my tax dollars go to waste on people having no choice other than to show up in emergency rooms for care. Or worse yet seeing the elderly having to work part time jobs to pay for prescriptions.
I am a deeply proud and committed capitalist, but I will never see the wisdom in any of that!

How much in prescriptions! In the NHS you can pay a nominal 3 month figure equal to about 4 prescriptions around 40 pounds and have as many prescriptions as required under that, a lot of people obviously buy these ‘passes’ you monthly bill is scary.