Running Bear's July 2019 Coffee Shop


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Good Morning Everyone....sunny and mild here in Wisconsin.

Speaking of "Old Age" and health issues, my Grandmother lived to be 98+ years old and her last wish was to go to McDonald's for a Big Mack, Fries and a Shake. She passed away that night. She was religious and believed that her mind controlled her body. I remember one time, against her will, she was taken to a hospital with all the indications of an heart attack. Tests proved the medical staff right about a heart attack. The next morning the monitors went crazy since she detached all the monitors and was doing deep knee bends. The MD examined her and all indications of a heart attack were gone. She went home that afternoon. She taught me a lot about the body and one's mind.

She stayed up until 4:00 AM every morning reading the bible. And then she got up at 8:00 AM to leave her dogs out.

I still don't feel like going down to the train room. Been reading magazines and the web site instead. Most people say it takes at least two weeks to feel half way normal.

Later I'll fire up the VCR or DVD and watch some Allen Keller videos.

Louis: Yes, there are parts of big cities that are dirty and run down. I couldn't believe parts of Phoenix where gangs were stripping cars during mid-day. We stopped for directions and happened to stop at a store run by the Bloods. An older gang member suggested we leave intermediately after he gave me directions. I have a carry permit and carry a weapon when I go to a certain hobby shop in Milwaukee since its in a bad neighbor.

Nice looking photos everyone. I agree that the tow truck is cool. You don't see many of them on layouts.

That's all to report for now.

Greg

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Cabin Snow March 12.jpg
Early April at the Cabin...71 inches of snow fall during February. Sort of refreshing for guys like Willie who have the heat down South.-Greg
 
Louis: Yes, there are parts of big cities that are dirty and run down. I couldn't believe parts of Phoenix where gangs were stripping cars during mid-day. We stopped for directions and happened to stop at a store run by the Bloods. An older gang member suggested we leave intermediately after he gave me directions. I have a carry permit and carry a weapon when I go to a certain hobby shop in Milwaukee since its in a bad neighbor.

Greg, I think it's the nature of the beast for big cities.

Baltimore does not have much of a presence of big national gangs or any organized crime. The local neighborhood gangs make sure of that. Many of the local gangs will kill national gang members wearing their colors on sight.

From what I know of these national gangs I'm glad we don't have them. They seem to be predators to all citizens. Our local gangs are business men, drugs being their main form of commerce. They mostly prey on each other for territory and supply. Of course the occasional bystander gets shot as well. Most all organized crime stays off the streets of Baltimore. Big organized crime sticks to white collar crime in Baltimore since the legalization of the lottery and the daily numbers. Even the pizza parlor distribution networks of the 60s and 70s were constantly under siege by local gangs and were never able to establish much of a presence in Baltimore.

The old nick name for Baltimore "Mob Town" did not refer to organized crime, it was and still is the local street Mobs. Now instead of protesting they are selling drugs. I should say they occasionally do protest as they did after Freddy Grey killed himself in the back of a Paddy wagon, but that was only a cover to loot drug stores. Very few people actually cared about Freddy, that lifelong drug addict, small time hood and all around scumbag.
 
Speaking of Baltimore, I think it would be funny if it were not so pathetic to hear a corrupt businessman/politician deride Baltimore for corruption. As my Nanny would say "that's the pot calling the kettle black"
 
Good morning Everybody!

No work for me today, no deliveries, no pounding the pavement or phone calls looking for sales, nothing but simple chores that I can take a break from at anytime. Trust me when I say I take frequent breaks!

Since my health improved and allowed me to make few dollars again I have been fixated on making more that I spend. That was a mistake, now my primary concern is staying healthy! I can afford deficit spending if it allows me to stay healthy.

Now my grandson is finally hungry and has requested a BLT, good choice! This little man of mine is such a blessing. Unlike my children, he never wakes up hungry and has the patience of a saint in general. Timing works well, it's lunch time and come to think of it, I forgot to have breakfast!

That's all for me today, I wish I had time to thoroughly read each and every post, but for now skimming and looking at the pictures is the best I can do. Forgive me if I have missed anything important.

Have a great day Everybody, God Bless You All!

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Speaking of Baltimore, I think it would be funny if it were not so pathetic to hear a corrupt businessman/politician deride Baltimore for corruption. As my Nanny would say "that's the pot calling the kettle black"
Hmmmh! In the last twelve years, Baltimore has had four mayors. Two have resigned for (alleged) corruption, a third so badly mishandled the riots after the Freddie Gray incident that she chose not to run for re-election (a sure loss), and the fourth has only been in office for two months. He might be the most honest since Martin.
 
Afternoon all,

Been an extremely busy day as Microsoft decided that a particular driver would cause problems with the latest Wind-blows 10 and at least didn't break our machines, but I've spent the better half of the day chasing a new driver for 2 year old machines that doesn't appear to exist. Would have been nice if MS had posted something about it BEFORE they get the user base worked up about it. Would also be nice to have a fix when they did it as well.

I was just kidding about everyone being old, as I'm a heck of a lot closer to 60 than 55. Beside the knees, I've broken both wrists a couple of times each and have several crowns. The dentist is pushing the wife to have me get an implant on the one back tooth I'm missing as I was too cheap to get a replacement crown when the root canal in the crowned tooth caused the crown to pop off an the tooth basically broke. Either $500+ for a new crown (after insurance) or $75 to pull. Yank that sucker!!!!! LOL Now 5 years later , I'm looking at a whole lot more for an implant.....

Not much new on the train side as I had several other things going on when I got home last night. Hopefully the rest of my day gets better.
 
Good morning everyone. 68 and partly cloudy. I'm having my first cup of coffee right now, using my new Hamilton Beach percolator. My little Mr. Coffee quit working so I bought this two days ago and got it last night (Amazon prime). First cup is verrrrrry good!!!!

Garry - Nice views from the cog railroad.

Now, if you will indulge me, I took some photos with my phone camera. I want to see if they post as clear as they look. So here are a couple of photos of my layout I took last night:

LookingNorthDownMainStreetJuly2019.jpg
LookingSouthDownMainStreetJuly2019.jpg


They seem to be clearer than the ones i took with the iPad. So clear in fact that I notice I need to redo the toy store sign and the paint job on the store on the south end of town. Rookie!! Oh, boy, am I embarrassed!! At least the coffee's good:rolleyes:

Have a good day everyone.
 
Good morning y'all. 77° and sunny.

Garry: Thanks for sharing your photos. I Imagine that was a fun train ride to the peak. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

Hmmmh! In the last twelve years, Baltimore has had four mayors. Two have resigned for (alleged) corruption, a third so badly mishandled the riots after the Freddie Gray incident that she chose not to run for re-election (a sure loss), and the fourth has only been in office for two months. He might be the most honest since Martin.

Willie: How's your wife doing ? Hopefully better?

Baltimore mayors have always presided over questionable practices within their administration. On my very first work assignment in Baltimore on the last day of 1967, I had the most interesting cab ride from Penn Station to Orangeville Engine Terminal. So.. none of this is new, (or defensible).

Wife and I enjoyed our time there, and Baltimore was really the only time that she enjoyed spending time in the city. I also worked there at night, and covered D.C .at night, so I knew what locations to avoid. Speaking of DC, and talking about open in your face defiant corruption, remember Marion Berry? He made those Baltimore mayors look amateurish and that was in the 70s.

In other business, I have been following this summer's remake of the Jersey Devils Hockey team. It's going to be an interesting season. Today's big question is where will the Mets send Syndergard?

My plan for today is to start building my original Champion Processing building. I will have to modify it to fit the space along the back drop, and include a cattle pen. Sort of have it planned out, but need to remeasure. Going to do this one in the garage, which gives me a non airconditioned atmosphere, and natural light from the opened door.

Boris
 
So clear in fact that I notice I need to redo the toy store sign and the paint job on the store on the south end of town. Rookie!! Oh, boy, am I embarrassed!!

Johnny:
Nothing to be embarrassed about in those photos. That's a nice scene. High definition imagery does show things the casual glance misses, but real urban buildings are far from perfect. Your main street is good work, and so are the photos.

Boris
 
Good Morning All. It's 73° and mostly clear. Weather Underground indicates that we have south winds at 0 mph. I think that they are north wins at 0 mph. Close to 100° for the next four days, next slight chance of rain is Saturday. So far we haven't made it this summer officially.
How about a couple of ham, egg and cheese biscuits this morning Flo.
Wife is comfortably deposited on the couch with her TV remote, cell phone, tablet, laptop, landline phone, Diet Coke and glass of ice water. Alexa is on standby! Only one screw up so far last night when I had taken out my hearing aids, and my phone went into automatic "do not disturb" at 8:00 and I didn't know that she was yelling/calling me for more ice!

OK, this is for Sherrel and Joe who both asked for updates for this impending procedure in their lives or wife's lives. Operation was very smooth according to the doctor and one of the attending nurses. They administer an epidural or saddle-bloc which takes 24 hours to disappear. Some patients are released from the hospital the same day, usually younger ones or those that dislike hospitals to begin with (me for example). The aftermath is mainly pain management. The knee joint and the leg are fully functional immediately after the operation. The initial physical therapy for the first four days is simply getting up and down and walking around so the muscles keep moving. The clinical physical therapy that starts Friday is meant to restore muscle movement back to "normal", that is where it should be instead of where it ended up as a result of the issue to begin with. She is hooked up to an "ice water recirculator" (sp), that eliminates ice packs normally used to reduce swelling. The pain is mainly the result of the surgery and the ensuing muscle recovery, and is normal. They had to stretch the muscles apart quite a bit to gain access to the bones for removal and replacement. She is using a combination of drugs including Vicodan, which I had hoped to sell at the local college for extra cash. Three of the medications required personal pick-up with picture ID, doctor could not call them into the pharmacy. We have a thirty day supply, even though the doctor said the pain would mostly subside in two weeks. She is up and moving as the bathroom is a 60' trip each way. I made her the special cup of iced coffee a few minutes ago, successfully I might add.
Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and prayers.

I'll be back in about an hour as I have some stuff to do right now.
Everyone have a great day.
 
Good morning. 56 degrees to start off the day with an expected high in the upper 80's again.

Yesterday our little long hair doxie went to the groomers. She has legs again and doesn't look like a hovercraft. After getting her home I went up and got a couple of hours flying time in. A beautiful day to be in the air. After that all I did was sprat weeds and moved rain birds. No trains again.

Johnny - Nice photos. I use my phone for most of my train photos as it can fit into spaces that my digital camera can't fit but unfortunately, you can't get the depth of field with the phone that you can with the camera.

Dave
- Good photo. I have a few NP and Milwaukee Road outside braced wood box cars but may be pushing the time period.

Chad - Nice family photo. Waiting for more train photos.

Garry - Enjoyed you photos of the cog railway. Never rode one here in the states but did ride a few in Europe when I was in the service.

Willie
- Like the dumpster enclosure. Nice added detail.

Louis - Really liked your photo of the B&O power. Thumb up.gif

Again, no trains today. Will be meeting my friend on out Friday night bowling leagur for lunch and then head to the lanes to bowl a few games. Gotta get ready for leagues starting after Labor Day.

Later
 
Hmmmh! In the last twelve years, Baltimore has had four mayors. Two have resigned for (alleged) corruption, a third so badly mishandled the riots after the Freddie Gray incident that she chose not to run for re-election (a sure loss), and the fourth has only been in office for two months. He might be the most honest since Martin.
I can tell you first hand corruption was deep seated in Baltimore. As a commercial tire salesmen I never sold a single tire to the city of Baltimore because I was not willing to provide gifts to the purchasing agents. I was good at what I did, I did not need to sacrifice my integrity to make 6 figures selling tires. I did it through long hour days. Hard work is the answer, not get rich quick schemes. Corruption ran from the bottom to the top in Baltimore, but I had no part in it!

After our hugely popular, former Mayor William Donald Schaffer left office things began to change and the change continues through oversight. Schaffer was not a good mayor, he sacrificed good paying jobs in manufacturing to build the tourist trap, the Inner Harbor. The inner harbor is now bankrupt and in receivership. There goes all those minimum wage jobs cleaning hotel rooms, folding sheets and serving meals. Schaffer was popular because he was great at "gas lighting" people, sound familiar?

The 2 mayors accused (1 convicted, 1 more than likely soon to be) of corruption were brought down by fair and impartial investigations conducted by members of their own political parties. Not to mention the Baltimore Sun. Unlike the accuser, the mayor of Baltimore is not protected by Department of Justice policy. No one is above the law in Baltimore.

The Baltimore city council and the people of Baltimore have had enough of corruption. The mayor who has yet to be convicted is not only under investigation by the city council, but also by the state and the FBI. By the way the FBI was invited in by the state Senate that has a large, controlling majority of her very own political party. Nobody is hiding behind pollical allies or accusations of fake news and witch hunts.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake, she would have more than likely easily won reelection. There were no serious challengers in the primary and the primary is the true race for mayor in Baltimore. With 9 out of 10 voters in Baltimore being of her own party, winning the general election was all, but assured. Like most of the nation, Baltimoreans foolishly vote along party lines. Her mistake in the riots was not to see it was only a cover up for the theft of millions in opioid perscription drugs. She did not want to turn it into a blood bath by beating down what seemed to be only high school students at first. None of us knew the whole thing was mostly coordinated through social media and exploited by opportunists until moths later when the investigations were finished, hind sight is always 20-20.

As for her not seeking reelection, once again Mayor Blake showed her integrity and her love for Baltimore. She choose not to run so that Baltimore could move past the riots. Honesty and self sacrifice is not a thing we see much of in DC. She is a brilliant lady, I'm sure she will earn much more in private business. She does not need a government pay check/hand out to succeed. I'm proud to have voted for her. She sacrificed her earnings to serve the people of Baltimore, not her own self interest like many politicians in DC are doing. Seems to me, if you are a serial bankruptcy filer and fail at business over and over, run for office, who knows, you might even win!

I will say something good came from all these bombastic and unfounded accusations. Like anything bad there is always something good. The Civil war pioneered trauma surgery, WWI brought us antibiotics, to name a few. Last night watching the local news I see the citizens of Baltimore are taking responsibility for cleaning up their own neighborhoods. That's long over due, people should always take responsibility for themselves and no wait for the government to do it for them.

I'm still undecided about Mayor Jack Young, but I was proud of him and how he stood up for Baltimore. He went as far as to ask for the accuser to investigate his claims of corruption. I doubt that will happen. Why let the facts get in the way of a divisive and polarizing political attack? It's a good way to energize the base. After all most of his supporters don't believe facts any way, it's all fake news and witch hunts.
 
Good morning Everybody!

I could not resist working yesterday evening. Those new Amazon managers threw me a curve. I usually have 10-25 stops, last night I had over 60 packages and 53 stops! The good news it was only minutes from the distribution center, and the stops were close together. I got them all delivered in 2 and 10 minutes, with several breaks in-between and I got paid for 4 hours. The down side is my hips and legs are not happy with me, It was a long night. I seriously doubt I will work today. I made enough to cover half of my recent train purchases. I can take the day off and make the other half Thursday. The good news I feel good internally!

Time for me to do some pool maintenance and lounge in the cool water. Then I have some projects to work on around the house.

I hope Everyone is doing good, have a great day Everybody!
 
OK, this is for Sherrel and Joe who both asked for updates for this impending procedure in their lives or wife's lives. Operation was very smooth according to the doctor and o

Thank you Willie: That was very informative, I appreciate it. Praying she continues her recovery.

Boris
 
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