Running Bear's March 2020 Coffee Shop


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Hi Shop Dwellers, guess it's time I share about the situation in my corner of Maryland.

Luckily I got my two-week supply of dry goods a week ago, so I've avoided the hysteria that apparently seems to have overtaken all the supermarkets the past 48 hrs. It was more of a "prudence" move for me, because I figure with my wife being a primary care doctor, and a 24yr-old daughter who is a nurse at Carroll Hospital and comes home a few times a week, it's just a matter of time before somebody in my household tests positive for COVID-19 which means we'll all have to be quarantined.

I'm not that worried the sickness aspect - I don't have chronic respiratory problems, diabetes or kidney failure - but I am over 60 with slightly elevated BP. My main concern is with the public hysteria. People don't seem to understand that the goal is to avoid overwhelming the hospitals by spacing-out the infections, so that the highest-risk people who will need critical care can actually receive it - not get turned away like many of the victims in Italy where their hospitals are totally overwhelmed. We don't want to become another Italy.

Then we have the layman doomsayers, like the guy who started a thread on the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum about COVID-19 and the stock market plunge. 95% of the replies were along the lines of "Yeah it's a current inconvenience, but it won't be like this forever" with the typical one or two pessimists chiming in. So what does the guy do? Re-titles his thread, throws in a handful of links of "view-this-and-be-scared" videos and implies that the rest of us are fools for not embracing his apocalyptic outlook!:mad: I didn't click on any of the links...
 
Well, the risk management of the COVID-19 situation has reached a new level of A. Prudence or B. Paranoia. The New Uork Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church has cancelled Sunday Mass throughout the Diocese. (Which encompases Manhattan and the Bronx - I think). The local media keeps providing hourly updates of newly confirmed cases, and irrational hoarding continues at local supermarkets and wholesale clubs throughout the country. So while my wife and I, (both elevated risk), are concerned that our trip to the supermarket this morning may have, (remote chance), exposed us to someone with the virus. Our younger neighbors have maintained their normal social and work lives. There seems to be a disconnect of sorts here, that I don't quite understand. No one seems to think it is as bad as the media fear mongers are saying, but they are all in a panic mode when it comes to groceries. The local Police are asking people to stop calling 9-1-1, because someone cut in front of them while standing on line at Walmart, or asking questions about what to do if they develop the sniffles. Go figure...

I did not read the thread in MRH forum, I saw enough in the NJ Devils Blog. One thing seems to be universal, that younger people who have never lived through any crisis or don't remember 9/11 or Tropical Depression "Sandy", or the 2008 Stock Market Meltdown, are in a panic. Others are oblivious to everything. Older folks are more inclined to blow off the hype. (Been there, done that Syndrome). It's interesting that the only local TV station to be affected directly by the virus, is offering remote "local" news originating in LA, has the least hype, while the others are foaming at te mouth with sensationalized accounts of the situation.
 
Some really great humor on the forum today.!
With all the closings and cancellations of businesses and organizations, I decided to take all the loot down to the club room. Attendance at the children's museum was very sparse, but the 81 degree temperature may have had people doing other things. My wife went with me and helped inventory the main rolling stock and structures. There are still two large boxes of detail parts, switches, On30 trucks and electronic components that may have to be inventoried in lots.
Just found out that the schools around here are closed now for three weeks. McWane may be closed next week and inventory will have to wait awhile.

OLD SOUTHERN SAYING- Those who like sausage or political policy should never watch it being made/
 
Question....How does one load a video clip? other than using youtube? I mean there is a section on this forum for media....Photos/Videos but no indication I see to up load a video. Thanks in advance.
 
Alcomotive said:
Question....How does one load a video clip? other than using youtube? I mean there is a section on this forum for media....Photos/Videos but no indication I see to up load a video. Thanks in advance.
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James, just click the little "three dots and a down arrow" in the middle top of the reply box, next to the image of the camera. It will give you the option to upload media.
 
Good Morning All. Beware the Ides of March today. 48° and cloudy around here this morning. No rain until after midnight tonight, maybe.
Abrupt change in plans yesterday, as my daughter and family cancelled their Sunday flight to Mexico for Spring Break. They got a condo on the Gulf instead and left yesterday morning. This meant that I had to drive to North Dallas to pick up the granddog instead of her bringing her up yesterday afternoon. Well, they live only a couple of miles from Discount Model Railroad, so I just had to stop since I was in the neighborhood. Left a pair of Ben Franklins there and took a small bag of goodies home with me. A lot of assorted detail parts and supplies.
Among them were four Oxford vehicles for less than $10 each.
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If I recall correctly, that's a '65 Chevy step side on the left and a '57 Dodge on the right.
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That's a '59 Pontiac Bonneville on the left and a '61 Cadillac on the right. I think that I remembered the dates correctly. These were all still vehicles that would have been on the road up into the early 80's here, especially since they don't salt our roads in winter.
And for that undeveloped scrapyard that's visible in some of the recent pictures of the new grain elevator, there's this.
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Being the sucker that I am about laser-cut structures, I also got another Bar Mills kit of a backwoods gas station. Picture unavailable today.
Rambling around Dallas wasn't bad, looked like crowds at places like Target and Walmart, but that may just have been the normal weekend traffic. No shortages were noted at Discount!:)

Make it a pair of over-easy eggs and a stack of sausage patties this morning Flo.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday regarding the structures/citizens; Guy, Garry, Tom, Ken, Joe, Phil, Chet, Karl, Sherrel, Justin, Jerome.

Actually spent a lot of time in the train shed yesterday afternoon. Continued with the scenery around the casket manufacturer.
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Note the anthill in the center. Still a little more to be done, especially adding more tall weeds.
I also finalized the track pattern on the other side of the layout for the grain elevator and nailed it down. Nothing special there yet. Since most of it is just a straight run of a couple of pieces of flex track, that part will not require any testing and I can paint and ballast it next. The area where I cut the additional switch in will need testing before I proceed there.

Terry - Continued prayers for Marie.
Guy - That's just a little too cold for me! We're already into the shorts and tee shirt weather around here, have been for about two weeks now.
Chet -
montanan said:
I still can't understand the run on toilet paper. The virus is a respiratory problem.
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I think that it has more to do with self-quarantining than the virus, and also the hysteria generated by much of the media and politicians.

OK, everybody stay safe and if you have any high risk factors in your life, be smart and cautious. Don't get caught up in the hysteria, as Chet posted a couple of days ago, there's a crisis every year. I survived my college years, and three teenage offspring so I can survive anything I hope.
Everyone have a great day.
 
Good morning, y'all.

Not much going on this morning here in Isolationville,

IronBeltKen said:
Then we have the layman doomsayers, like the guy who started a thread on the Model Railroad Hobbyist forum about COVID-19 and the stock market plunge. 95% of the replies were along the lines of "Yeah it's a current inconvenience, but it won't be like this forever" with the typical one or two pessimists chiming in. So what does the guy do? Re-titles his thread, throws in a handful of links of "view-this-and-be-scared" videos and implies that the rest of us are fools for not embracing his apocalyptic outlook!
Click to expand...

Ken: I had to log on to MRH Forum last night. after I saw your comments. You are right. Some people... On the bright side, some of the younger people on the NJ Devils blog are predicting a new baby boom, due to the cancellation of all other distractions...Of course for some, that in it self could be apocalyptic :rolleyes:.

Terry: How is Marie doing this morning? Hopefully she is improving.

santafewillie said:
I survived my college years, and three teenage offspring so I can survive anything
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Willie: Very true. I get tired of all the media outlets putting a negative spin on this, and trying toout do their competitor's negativity. Some stores are reducing their hours in order to have additional time to clean and restock shelves. This has been spun into a fear of shortages, and another attempt to breed panic. Not very helpful, to say the least. Almost like they are trying to bring to real life the scripts of their apocalypse programs....:eek: What a boost in ratings, eh?

PC Metroliner at Princeton JC August 1971.jpg

Metroliner in August 1971...still in Penn Central scheme
Orangeville 1970.jpg

Orangeville EH in Baltimore in 1970.
 
Good morning fellers. My brother went ill a few days ago. Swore he had COVID-19. No.....flu b is what it turned out to be. He swears we refuse to test for it here. But we do have quarantine rooms for those who are sick. I'm sure everyone knows that its here. Just too many old country I'll just let it run its course folks here who won't go to the doctor unless they absolutely have to. Now my brother has underlying health issues so his fears are warranted. They did close schools here indefinitely. My daughter will be given homework assignments through an online school app during all of this. The mad hysteria is just as bad here as everywhere else in the country. Good luck finding anything! My budget got completely destroyed this week. But there is something I wanna have a budget for. Stumbled on to it yesterday on YouTube. I really want this item!!
 
To save myself some typing, I'm pasting my Facebook post from yesterday:

We were set to leave for our Carribean cruise yesterday, the 13th, but on the 12th, Princess suspended all new sailings for 60 days. Plan B was to go to Disneyworld, which shut down yesterday morning. Plan C was the Grand Canyon, but the weather forecast sucked. We finally decided to hell with it. OTOH, part of Plan A was to stop off in Dayton to see our niece Beth's family and make a late delivery of Christmas presents. We were on the way yesterday when we found out Mom was in the hospital for some serious problems. After a quick conversation with Cece (my SIL, for those who don't know), we decided to continue to Dayton but to truncate the visit and come back today. We just got home, but stopped at the hospital on the way. It seems that at 9 am this morning, the governor declared that ICU and CCU clinics were not to admit any visitors at all, unless the patient is terminal. The good news is that they weren't going to let us in, but then the nurse decided I, alone, could go in under escort since we had driven all that way to get there. So, how's your weekend going?
 
bnsf971 said:
Joe, I haven't heard anything this morning.
It was distressing in the extreme when the hospital called me using her cell phone yesterday.
*phone rings*
"Hi, honey!"
*male voice*: "Is this Terry?"
(oh, sh*t) "uhh, yeah"...
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Yes, that is distressing, and a breech of protocol. Every call the wife receives from either the Hospital or Skilled nursing facility concerning her mother, comes in with the medical center caller ID. Once in a while, one of the vendors calls on his cell, so she answers those calls also, Of course, the MIL has no cell, and won't use the room phone for what ever reason, but that's another topic.
 
Boris said:
Yes, that is distressing, and a breech of protocol. Every call the wife receives from either the Hospital or Skilled nursing facility concerning her mother, comes in with the medical center caller ID. Once in a while, one of the vendors calls on his cell, so she answers those calls also, Of course, the MIL has no cell, and won't use the room phone for what ever reason, but that's another topic.
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They said my wife told them to call me on her phone. Still, a seriously disturbing moment.
 
Good Morning Everyone....Slightly overcast this morning and cool.

Was in the layout room yesterday and ran that DS-39 for an hour at a slower speed and all when well. No derailments or or problems. So I just ay leave it alone for now.

Karl: I have a stock of Proto wheels that I received from Proto just weeks before they were sold to Walthers. I talked to someone in their parts department at Proto and explained that I had at least 10 early model Proto locomotives, still in their boxes) and I was worried about the wheel set problem in the future. He sent me at least 10-12 wheel sets at no charge. The wheels like exactly like Athearn's in your photo.

First order of business today is remove a bunch of co-axle cable from the basement wooden rafters that the cable guy from ATT just left in place. Never saw such a terrible installation of cables and equipment. Lots of damaged ceiling tiles, tiles removes and not tiles replaced and cut pieces of cable on the floor. He used my layout to discard old fasteners. He was an area ATT "Supervisor" and I wasn't feeling well enought to watch him like did other installers and being a "Supervisor" he should do excellent work.

Willie: I like that old barn scene and the tree growing out of the barn's roof. The grasses growing by the rail bumper is a nice touch. I need to do at some of my rail bumpers.

The Mrs. casino bus tour was cancelled for the Tuesday trip. A good idea to cancel a non-essential trip on a full touring bus. She admitted she was worried about the "Bug" but didn't tell me, she's going out for lunch with her girl friend on Friday instead. Besides she saved us some money.

I have a Jack Daniels 1.75 liter bottle almost half full of spare change that's a savings account for a Scale Trains or Rapido locomotive. I alread have a Rapido on order, a SOO SW1200.

That's all for now.

Greg

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Good morning, fellas!
Another cold one around here; -26C when I got up at 5:30am. A heat wave is expected to be coming in, though, raising the bar up to a pleasant -1C. Which is good, as I can do my train walk in anything warmer than -10C and cooler than 18C. Anything out of that range, and I either freeze or boil over.
I'm forming an opinion that a virus has no chance of surviving in this kind of cold. However, there does seem to be the opportunity to form a toilet paper cartel in the area. If you control the flow of toilet paper, you control the world! BwaHaHaHa!

Terry - Being as I'm a new member, I don't know you well. I certainly understand what you are going through, and I do feel for you. I've never had proper words for such things, but, believe me that I hope you're circumstances change to the better!

Willie - More fine photos of you're wonderful layout work. I see you have plywood ceilings in the train room; that's probably easier to keep clean that the joists in my basement. Nice diecast vehicles.

Boris - I really do like the prototype photographs. You are a good photographer!

Greg - I know what you mean by the cable and telephone guy's not knowing (or caring) how they run a cable. I usually wait until they leave my home, and then redo it. They messed up my satellite, land line, and then that new modem thing-a-ma-jigger cables. Nice photo.

I'll be in the basement today, spraying a wide range of water based colors onto my new diorama rock face. I have to do it all today, before the wife gets home from work. I've selected 10 different colors to apply on the black oil washed base.
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All have a great day!!
Guy
 
Looks like there are several folks here with medical issues, one way or another. My sympathies to all.

It seems my mother was sent to the ER with a high fever and difficulty breathing. She was diagnosed with septicemia, brought on by the 30-yo ulcer on her right shin, and streptococcal pneumonia (Mom has always had various problems with strep). She was sedated, intubated, had a gastric tube inserted, an IV port surgically implanted into her superior vena cava, and placed on multiple antibiotics.

Things were stable during my visit yesterday, but this all sounds disturbingly like when MIL died over Christmas. Not surprising, since the two of them had an apparent competition over the past few years. One would come out of the hospital and the other would go in; it was almost like clockwork and never simultaneous, they always alternated. I know this sounds fanciful, and I'm a card-carrying skeptic, but I also know that it's possible to stay alive just a little bit longer or to die just a little bit sooner through sheer force of will. If you pay attention at someone's deathbed, for instance, you can actually see them "let go" of life and just let the end come. My father went like that. Of course, he never seemed to be afraid of dying. MIL, though, seemed terrified of it and kept declaring she wasn't ready to die. That always struck me as kind of arrogant but maybe it worked, up to a point.

In keeping with the morbid theme of this post:

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