Running Bear's January 2026 Coffee Shop

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


Status
Not open for further replies.
12°F this morning here and looking for 29°F. Cloudy too so I don't know if that is going to happen.

Still waiting for a small 1 pound package sent via USPS Ground Advantage from N. Carolina last Tuesday. It has been through St. Louis once, Kansas City, and Omaha, before returning to St. Louis. Now it is bouncing around in the St. Louis DC and I don't know if I will ever get it.

Had I known about the horrible conditions reported in August last year, I would have never selected USPS as the carrier. In fact, I swore to myself several years ago I would never use USPS for anything ever again, and broke my promise to myself.

St. Louis is the absolute worst DC in the system, and the worst part of this entire St. Louis operation is that no one is held accountable and no one gets the blame.

Happy Birthday Karl!

Have a great Mittwoch! Servus!
 
Last edited:
Howdy all from NW Indiana. It is a little nippy outside. To cold for mail on Saturday and Monday; to cold for trash pickup and yesterday was recycling pickup (too cold for that all so). Walmart is warning their customers to wear two pairs of pajamas while shopping. I will have to go get some bananas today (ran out Sunday) and Carlie, our Papillion, isn't herself if she doesn't have a couple of slices of bananas each morning. Also swing by the library and get Season 2 of Joe Pickett. Here's a picture of our weather station
 

Attachments

  • 1769607124468.jpeg
    1769607124468.jpeg
    115.6 KB · Views: 23
Good morning Crew. It’s -4f degrees now but feels like -19.

We have a problem with the roof! We had 2 icicles form overnight Monday in front of the large window of the family/living room. So I knocked it down. I didn’t think anything of it but later in the day I mentioned it to Terry! She agrees we brought this place in 2007 and rented it out for years. Moved in here temporarily in 2014, moved out in 2015 and back in again 9/2024. We’ve never seen icicles. Looking over the roof yesterday early afternoon from the back deck there looks to be a seam that there is snow melt. So I called the roofer as the metal roof installed in 10/2024 is still under warranty, they are coming out this afternoon. Home ownership is fun!

I saw my Endocrinologist yesterday afternoon. Then the lab even though I did labs last week for more blood letting. The ultra sound for my throat was explained, pretty much inconclusive with supposedly no change from the prior scan of July, 2025. But she caught in the report the word I saw when I read the report, “retrospect”. They missed in the July report that the lymph nodes had enlarged. So no change from the July 2025 ultrasound but there was a miss on the 7/25 report. Medical gobblygoc meaning they screwed up but it’s ok. My Endo doesn’t think it’s ok! So she had the last 4 scans sent off to another Radiologist group to be read. I’ll know next week what they think. This could be surgery #3 on the throat and she told me and I knew this, that’s not a good thing. Nothing I can do about it until we know the latest results but they drew enough blood yesterday to float a small boat.

I’ll be at the bench and there are no medical issues when I get immersed at the bench! Be well

Stay warm
 


RhB Michael said:
12°F this morning here and looking for 29°F. Cloudy too so I don't know if that is going to happen.

Still waiting for a small 1 pound package sent via USPS Ground Advantage from N. Carolina last Tuesday. It has been through St. Louis once, Kansas City, and Omaha, before returning to St. Louis. Now it is bouncing around in the St. Louis DC and I don't know if I will ever get it.

Had I known about the horrible conditions reported in August last year, I would have never selected USPS as the carrier. In fact, I swore to myself several years ago I would never use USPS for anything ever again, and broke my promise to myself.

St. Louis is the absolute worst DC in the system, and the worst part of this entire St. Louis operation is that no one is held accountable and no one gets the blame.

Have a great Mittwoch! Servus!
Click to expand...

That surprises me. When I send packages out from my post office everything goes to Milwaukee. If it’s going East or South but east of the Mississippi River it can go to Death Valley better know as the Chicago Center or to St. Louis. If it hits Chicago anything can happen. If it goes through St Louis my packages always Ground Advantage get there on time. I always hope it hits St Louis instead of Chicago.

I’ve had weathering commissions (always insured) sit missing in Chicago for 10 days. Then I file the missing package report to claim the insurance. Done this multiple times and Chicago then miraculously finds it and sends it on its way. The only thing I’ve had go through Chicago easily is when I use the USPS free priority boxes

Packages going west of the Mississippi River after Milwaukee head to Minneapolis and rarely have I had issues.
 
Last edited:
santafewillie said:
Troy - Good luck with the sciatica. It seems to be more severe this time around.
Click to expand...
WILLIE: Not worse, just a different cause for the pain. I have to figure out the best practices, and get some of the dated info from my go-to channels off the radar. Piriformis version is a much different treatment than lumbar caused sciatica.

In other news: The clothes get a lot cleaner if Troy remembers to push the start button on the washer.
 
RhB Michael said:
Surprisingly, a page refresh shows it is now out for delivery. It was never scanned at the sort center, nor was it scanned as having departed St. Louis.

Only three days late. Another milestone for USPS.
Click to expand...
As Tom mentioned, that's pretty odd for St. Louis in my experience. Always have good luck with that distribution center.

I too consider Chicago the "black hole" of USPS. It can bounce around the Suburbs for days before delivery.
 
Yesterday was blue sky, sunny, and high 40s maybe even kissing 50F

Today is overcast and up to 30% chance of rain but still supposed to get mid 40s range.

Then several days of partly cloudy. Tomorrow getting to 52F per the weather app but after that the next few days upper 40/ and even into low to mid 50s. And then getting sunny again.

I don’t mind the rain and we need snow in the mountains. We’re almost record low on the snowpack, which is bad for water later this year. So we can get precipitation this winter.

I’m just wanting rain in the valley and snow in the mountains. We don’t need snow in the valley.

Today is my kids’ birthdays. They are both today. My daughter is a senior HS and turns 18 so we’ll no longer have minors at home. I told her we can now kick her out if we want 🤣😉🤪😇🤣 but then explained that as long as she was being gainful in her time use (obviously until HS graduation she’ll be gainfully active) she was welcome to stay with us. It’s less expensive and she can save money while working or going to school. And I have no real worries. She’ll stay gainfully active. She has her humanitarian trip and lots of work after graduation and wants to do a semester of school and then go be a missionary and then come back and go back to school.
 


RhB Michael said:
Here are the highlight of an audit of the St. Louis USPS DC from August of last year. Apparently, nothing has changed since then.

https://bost.house.gov/2025/8/bost-...Center,that caused widespread delivery delays.
Click to expand...

Wow. If that had read Chicago I would have nodded my head so I must be lucky going through St. Louis.

I have for years been shipping my commission weathering projects weekly, 2-3 minimum boxes per week, till 2025 when health started making me back off. So I have plenty of experience with both Centers. Only shipped 6 boxes this month and 4 went West to California and New Mexico and 2 to Ohio. Ohio was in Chicago for 3 days which while sad I consider good
 
It might be easier to get packages through St. Louis vs getting them actually delivered from St. Louis. It's horrible here.

What really pisses me off about this particular delivery, is that it made it to St. Louis in two days. They had the package. Then they shipped it off to KC and Omaha. Idiots.
 
Good day all and Happy Birthday Karl. 39 here and sunny, hope it gets warm enough today and tomorrow to melt a little of the snow here. Once this clears off I am gonna get an electric [corded snow blower. It will only get used once or twice a year, but every few years we get enough snow to be a major inconvenience. TomO praying for you. Troy take care of that back, I have been fighting it myself the last couple days.
 
Quick post............

In reference to shipping, yesterday I posted my FedEx package was in Hutchins Texas, about 200 miles east of me. The tracking says my package is on its way today but only after being shipped to Wichita Falls Texas from Hutchins. Hutchins to Wichita Falls is about the same distance to my house. My house to Wichita Falls is about 65 miles. So an extra 65 miles added.
This package originated in Nebraska and has hit about seven cities before getting here. One would think UPS or FedEx would be faster than the USPS, however I have had better luck using the USPS than any other shipping service. That is NOT to say USPS has been perfect, just that overall, they have, in my opinion and experience, been best overall.
Guess a lot of this has to do with your location, I guess.

All my mail is supposed to be "out for delivery" today. It will be like Christmas all over again. 😄

Take care....John
 
Amazon just delivered the heated cat bed, three days late. But, considering the weather and backlog they probably had (as well as ongoing layoffs), I can see the need for a delay.

The cat bed is basically a heating pad inside of a fleece envelope. No cushion. We'll see if he uses it where we placed it, or if I'll have to move a cat cushion to that spot.
 
Good afternoon, all! Not a bad day here. Once the fog burned off and we got full sun, it warmed to 59. Actually drove with the window down. Had the CR-V in for inspection (emissions testing in required in Galveston County) and maintenance. So good for another year since we only put about 2,400 miles a year on it.

Karl - Happy Birthday

STAY SAFE
LATER
 
I reference to my previous post on deliveries...............

Earlier today FedEx tracking said truck had departed Wichita Falls and my item was on the way. It is about 4:15 pm and now FedEx tracking says shipment delayed until tomorrow due to bad driving conditions.
I ended up going to town today, not yesterday as originally planned. When I was going into town, I saw a FedEx truck pulling from a side road but instead of going west, the truck went east, back towards town. The roads here are high and dry, even the dirt road in front of my house still has some snow on it, it is drivable. I'm guessing the driver headed back to Wichita Falls so he didn't have to work overtime and called in the "bad roads" report.
Now can you understand why I have a distain for FedEx? The guy was about 16 miles from my place with dry roads to get here, a highway no less.
I don't have to have the item I purchased right away, but now I'm concerned about the condition of my package. What a crock of $hit.

And our post man is usually no later than 3:30 to 4 pm but has not shown up yet. I am about ready to bet he won't show until tomorrow.

My rant is over now.
 


Welp, let the Ibuprofen wear off while I napped today. Big mistake. Took an hour for the aches to subside enough I could sit for about 5 minutes at a time.

Spent the morning and afternoon with the prog rock channel on Pandora running. Heard some early Styx and made me go look at their discography. While not my favorite album of theirs, it is one of the best covers they had.

Made burgers on the foreman grill, and O-rings in the air fryer. Wife got her mozz sticks we picked up at Costco. I got most of the O-rings.

I did hit the grocery before my nap, I was about out of Oatmeal Raisin cookies. Since I get up at 3 am to take more Ibuprofen, I want something in the tummy to mitigate the damage the pills can cause to the stomach. And a cookie is about the right size for a 3 am nibble.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top