Running Bear's June 2020 Coffee Shop


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Good night America, how are ya? Back in Illinois and I’m having a blast right now........getting ready for my colonoscopy in the morning! Had to go to the hospital last Sunday to have a Covid-19 test before my adventure tomorrow. Got a call this afternoon and they said I passed and I didn’t even study! They also made sure I knew what all I had to do for the prep.

All the talk and pictures of food is making me HUNGRY!! Enough all ready!😄 Doing this on my IPhone, not really as bad as I thought it would be. Just that the pictures are pretty small compared to what I’m used to. Oh oh, got to run!
 
B-BOB- Hope/Wish you have better luck than me. Couldn't drink enough fluids to get rid of the sludge. Ain't going thru the hassle again To damn old.
To all who post pictures -THANK YOU. I enjoy seeing the efforts put into your visions Stay with it and enjoy this many faceted hobby
Prayers for all. Goodnight.
Phil

ps don't mean to slight all, like me, who only post words
 
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Good morning Everybody!

Today is my son's birthday, he is 35 today. Cheese and crackers, I’m getting old! All my boys are easy to buy for. My son makes it especially easy with his wish list on Steam. I can even buy well in advance and schedule delivery on his birthday. Technology is great when it works.

Another family get together postponed for God knows how long. I like to sit quietly and listen to them talking, bantering, and laughing. It makes me feel good to see how much they love each other.

I mailed my ballot yesterday, but there is truly little good news to report on that front. All I will say is the “Age of Stupidity” is global and bipartisan, but my conscience is clear.

I worked three consecutive days. I know I said I would heed the advice of my doctors and not work on consecutive days, but the weather was so nice, and the new Amazon distribution center in Edgewood, MD has given me only rural routes, my favorites! I like delivering to multi-million-dollar homes and a scattering of farms. I enjoy seeing dogs, other domestic animals, and wildlife. Not to mention the beautiful scenery. I can’t finish as fast, but the van does more of the work than me. I can always buy a replacement van, but there is only one me, thank God!

I would not want to live in rural Maryland. I love the convenience of living in the city. I don’t like to drive on my time, but I don’t mind driving when the “meter” is running! My little 50’x100’ piece of property and house are easy to maintain and did not cost a fraction of what those homes in rural MD cost. A house and property comparable to mine would cost more than double in Baltimore County, I can’t imagine what it would cost in “God’s country”.

It is forecasted to be in the 90s today with thunderstorms in the afternoon. It will be a good day to go shopping for my Mom and me. I think I’ll take a couple of days off.

My Gout flare up is all but gone. The pain has been insignificant since Sunday, I think, but my left big toe is still ugly! Good thing I don’t like sandals and I hate flip flops!

Have a great day Everybody!
 
Couldn't sleep - been awake for two hours, been up for 1:45 already and it's on;y 4 am! EEK! :eek:
Going for another coffee and switch computers as this one is about out of gas? Didn't bring the charger with me so as to not wake the "sleeping monster" - LOL~

Be back in awhile .. Glad your feeling better, LOUIS.

Spousal Unit
and I have been binge watching "Mcleods Daughters" on PRIME.
wonder if any "kin" to GUY?
 
MT Winans yard, Baltimore MD, 1988 Summer
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Couldn't sleep - been awake for two hours, been up for 1:45 already and it's on;y 4 am! EEK! :eek:
Going for another coffee and switch computers as this one is about out of gas? Didn't bring the charger with me so as to not wake the "sleeping monster" - LOL~

Be back in awhile .. Glad your feeling better, LOUIS.

Spousal Unit
and I have been binge watching "Mcleods Daughters" on PRIME.
wonder if any "kin" to GUY?
Sherrel, maybe you got your routine out of whack. I know when that happens to me it screws with my sleep patterns. Ride it out and slow down until you get some good sleep.

Thank you for the kind words!
 
Morning all,

Partly cloudy and 70* this morning, going for a high of 95* today. Possibility of late evening\overnight thunderstorms, but the sever ones are supposed to be more to the North.

I did get the wire connected between the 2 controllers last night, and I forgot I had actually put the drill in the garage where it belonged. Once I got back upstairs, out to the garage and back in the house, I ended up not getting back to the basement, except to get the drill in the train area and turn off the lights. So I need to hook up a 14" piece of wire to be able to test my dual control setup. I figure worst case, I'll blow a fuse....

Patrick- It was me. I'll PM the info to you.

I got the PM and replied. Thanks once again for the paint and mix recipe.

Today is my son's birthday, he is 35 today. Cheese and crackers, I’m getting old!

Hope your son has a good birthday. Just remember, in the words of Groucho Marx, "Your only as old as the women you feel". (Sorry if I offended anyone).
 
Good Morning Everyone. Clear, muggy and 72°, with 89% humidity to start the day here. Absolutely no wind either. Went for my mile long walk a few minutes ago and then had to take a dip in the pool. Saw a pair of coyotes who were out past curfew, but didn't have the camera with me to catch them in the act. The much touted thunderstorms in yesterday's forecast didn't happen, in keeping with the weather bureau's 14% accuracy record for this calendar year. They'll do better in the next three months with the repetitive "hot and dry" forecast. Looks like warm southerly winds will keep the temperatures in the mid to upper 90's until Tuesday when a cool front lowers the high to just 93°. That's summer in this part of the world.
Took a day off from mowing yesterday and shredded brush for a change. Don't really remember what else I did yesterday, one of those days!o_O

Been up for a while already today Flo, how about an Italian sub sandwich and some fries instead of breakfast this morning. Just like the one that you served Chet yesterday. I'll take just one draft instead of the two that he had.

Thanks to all who liked or commented on the CUP (Charlottesville Urbanization Project) progress yesterday; Sherrel, Joe, Guy, Louis, Jerome, Patrick, Karl, Garry, Chad, Curt, Phil, Bob, Ken, James, Tom.

Out in the train shed yesterday, ballasting continued. I completed the main line as far as I intend to go for right now. I have almost run out of the light gray ballast that I use and need to schedule a trip to the LHS now that has reopened.
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I also did one industry siding and part of another.
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All that's left to do is the stretch of passing siding between the two.
Buffalo Industries is the southern border (trackwise) of the CUP project. While it has a name and receives and ships with boxcars, I haven't yet determined what they do. It is a freelanced structure made with PikeStuff walls and components. It is one of only a handful of structures on the layout that does not have a fourth wall.
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I did do some work over on the workbench cleaning up and preparing other structures that will be used in the next few weeks.

Garry - That does indeed look like the same restaurant kit. I've had mine for quite a few years and it is showing some wear and tear, as well as losing that spire when I moved into the new train shed. Now that it is going to be front and center on the upper, eye level of the layout, I will have to spruce it up a bit and add some kind of interior. I like the awnings that you added. If they came with the kit, I didn't add them at the time that I built it and have probably long since lost them.
Bob - Although you most likely are already at the medical center, good luck with the procedure this morning. Hope that the results are negative.
Louis - Happy Birthday to your son. Glad that you are feeling better. Not all rural homes are multi-million dollar ones. At least not near me. There is something to be said about the conveniences of living in the city, but I absolutely could not live with the neighbors 20' away. In Brooklyn where I grew up, there was no space between the houses! Now I have a couple of neighbors about a quarter mile away in two directions and I own all of the land between me and them. In the other two directions, the distance is 1.25 miles and 3 miles to the nearest neighbor, but it's not my land!;)
Take it easy today.
Steven - Good to see you here in the Coffee Shop again. Don't be so scarce.

Y'all have a great day.
 
Good Morning! It has been a few days since I've reported in, so I thought I'd better leave a few notes.
It feels darn cold here with the consistent winds nearly every day. 44F today, in overcast and it's going to rain along with those winds.
I've completed building 9' gazebo benches for a customer; stained them already, but I can't apply the Varathane until it warms up a bit. Needs to be about 60 in my shop before I can get on with that. I'm hoping it warms up, as the benches need to be delivered by June 11, and two coats of Varathane will require a healthy cure time.

binge watching "Mcleods Daughters" on PRIME.
wonder if any "kin" to GUY?
Nope, Sherrel, my namesake is a fast, wet river. Not fast, wet, beautiful women.

Normally, I don't care to post without photos, and I don't have anymore locomotive photos. So I've dug through my files for photos of a railway served, coal-mining ghost town. These are some photos of Lovett, Alberta, one of the many small towns located along the coal branch area in the foothills of the eastern Rocky Mountains.
Lovett has been a ghost town for a very long time, but, there was a general store open there until at least the late 1960's. I have photos of the old store taken in 2010, but, I'll have to look on disks to find them.
Some of these photos may have been posted already; I can't remember.

Lovett in 1915:
LovettTown (1).jpg

An abandoned miners cabin, 2010:
LovettTown (2).jpg

Abandoned Vauxhall sitting in a still standing single car garage:
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Old wood burning cook stove in another Lovett ghost cabin. A fairly fancy stove, I thought:
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I have a lot of photos of Lovett on a disk somewhere. I worked in the area as a mine electrician for a couple of years. Great place to work!

Anyway, it's getting long. Have a great day everyone!
 
...
Louis - Happy Birthday to your son. Glad that you are feeling better. Not all rural homes are multi-million dollar ones. At least not near me. There is something to be said about the conveniences of living in the city, but I absolutely could not live with the neighbors 20' away. In Brooklyn where I grew up, there was no space between the houses! Now I have a couple of neighbors about a quarter mile away in two directions and I own all of the land between me and them. In the other two directions, the distance is 1.25 miles and 3 miles to the nearest neighbor, but it's not my land!;)
Take it easy today.
...

Willie, it sounds like you live in paradise. I enjoy driving through “God’s Country”, but green acres are not for me.

I just got back from two grocery stores, dropped off my Mom’s groceries and put everything away, all in under an hour and half, round trip. As slow as I move and drive that is saying something. I could not do that living in rural Maryland.

I was born and raised in a small apartment. I owned an end of the group rowhome. I lived in 2 rented town homes and a duplex before moving here. I am accustomed to neighbors; I get along with just about anybody and ignore the ones I cannot get along with. I can be downright nasty if someone is rude to me and at my size it only takes one time for them to avoid me in the future. I live in my own world, regardless of who is around me for the most part.

Much of the rural housing property in Maryland is converted farmland. The values of the land alone are astronomical, and the cost of building can be even higher!

There was a time when my income would have easily supported buying one of those homes. I cannot imagine having that kind of housing costs while I was going through all the awfully expensive medical problems I have had off and on since I turned 30. Mostly without health insurance. Let me tell you, 100% out of pocket expense gets expensive, fast!

Even after I recovered and rebuilt my nest egg, I did not even consider buying at what the realtors said I could afford. I did not spend a quarter of what they recommended by buying this house from a former customer of mine.

My 1953 house is so well built even my wife can not hear when it rains! I doubt they build them like this anymore. It is not too big for me to cut the grass, it is in great shape and most importantly, my wife loves it! Not to mention I get the entire attic for my playpen. No HUD no FHA or any other government acronym, just a straightforward 3.25% 30-year mortgage that will be paid off in less than 10 years.

I have been mostly disabled since 2005. I am not eligible for Social Security because I never paid in while I was self-employed for most of my life. I can no longer work fulltime and even if I never work another day I can afford to live here.

America is blessed, even if you only work hard for less than half your life you can live "fat and happy" without any assistance, if you are smart about it. I am living proof!

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I found this photo on the web, that is my house and my little Angel's car. I must have been working that day, otherwise my van would be in the driveway. I need to do a better job of keeping up with the edging.

I am fortunate to love my city and city life, but I do live on the very edge of the city. Baltimore County is only a block away.
 
Louis - The house that I grew up in in Brooklyn NY in the 50's. The one to the right of the fire hydrant.
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Moved from there to the right side of this duplex in New Orleans LA in 1959. Got some separation.
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Finally my family moved to Dallas TX in 1961 to this house that my youngest brother still lives in today. It's the only house that he has ever lived in!
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All shots courtesy of Bing Maps Streetside Views.
Neighbors still too close for me.
Streetside is not available in my neighborhood, so here is my best shot and I am not even in the street!
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By comparison, here is an aerial view from Bing.
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That's my lot in the lower right hand corner. The shiny white roof is the train shed. No porch pirates around here!
 
Willie, all nice homes indeed! Looking at your current home and all I can think is "how long does it take to cut the grass!?" :) Although it would have been great when I was coaching, I could have held practice in the back yard!

I see all those kinds of homes in and all-around Baltimore. Even though Baltimore itself is best known for brick rowhomes with white marble steps.
 
all I can think is "how long does it take to cut the grass!?"
The small area in the corner around the house, train shed, garden and barn takes about 3.5 hours on the 52" tractor. The hayfield from the "E" in Eagle up to and over to the "3" in 321 takes about 8 hours with an 8' Brush Hog, to clear the field. It takes longer when a hay mower (aka disc mower) is used to cut and windrow the hay.
 
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