Running Bear's March 2023 Coffee Shop


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Sirfoldalot said:
Morning from the WEST! 47 degrees to start and only 62 for the high. Mostly sunny and breezy.
Sure nice to see some sunshine for a change?

Charlie is better this morning. Last night he would not eat the scrambled eggs, but he did eat 1/2 can of chicken vienna Sausage. This morning he lined up for the PupRoni handout about 1/3 of a stick.
So he is better - I am not ..... started having chills yesterday afternoon and wound up in bed at 7 PM; I did not want any food but continued to drink a lemon type electrolyte that the daughter had given me. After crawling into bed, I managed 3 running trips to the pottie. Fairly weak this morning - need to look for some soup.
BBL
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I'm glad to hear Charlie is better.

Sorry to hear you are not doing so good.

I keep Campbells' Chicken Noodle on hand. It's my go to food when I don't feel good. Campbells is what the lady who raised me would always give me when I was sick. She was not a great cook, but she did everything for me with love.

My wife makes great homemade soups. When I don't feel good, only Campbells Chicken Noodle will do.

I hope you feel better.
 
Well howdy there internet peeps

It's Troy again.

there's a bit of kerfuffle going on in the author community about a very notable author of fantasy, Brandon Sanderson. A "Senior Editor" from Wired Magazine spent several days shadowing Mr. Sanderson. And wrote this piece about him....

www.wired.com

Brandon Sanderson Is Your God

He’s the biggest fantasy writer in the world. He’s also very Mormon. These things are profoundly related.
www.wired.com www.wired.com

A few of we writers view this as a decent, though slightly negative piece of long-form reporting. Most of the authors, however, see it as a snarky barely controlled hit piece from a disgruntled writer.

There is a classic piece of long-form writing from "back in the day" by Gay Talese who was tasked with interviewing Frank Sinatra. Who supposedly, as the title suggests, had a cold and begged off. So Talese followed him around and wrote this piece. It's one of my favorite pieces of writing.

www.esquire.com

Frank Sinatra Has a Cold

The defining piece of journalism about Frank Sinatra, and one of the most celebrated magazine stories ever published.
www.esquire.com www.esquire.com

Now, truth be told, Brandon Sanderson seems to a humble gent, as only Mormons can be. Except, perhaps, Canadian Mormons. I dunno. I've never met a Mormon from Canada. And Sanderson is definitely no Frank Sinatra.

Given this assignment, I get the impression that the Senior Editor from wired blew a chance to at least attempt to write something trying to be as good as Talese's FSHAC piece.

But he failed.

I'll leave it up to folks to decide for yourselves.
 
CGW121 said:
Thanks for the well wishes. I hate seeing anyone suffer but we all get old and this is part of the aging process. I am so thank full we live in a time when they can do something about it.
Mike
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Mike: You didn't mention this, but when I had my left knee joint replaced, they recommended applying ice for the swelling and pain... I don't take IBU because it's not heart friendly, but I do take Arthritis strength Tylenol for pain....it generally works.
 
Good evening. Still daylight though cloudy. 49°, been hanging around 50 for a good part of the day. Feels raw though. 0.08" of cold rain, just enough to be annoying.

Troy, I'm not familiar with contemporary writers, but I don't care for snarky reporting/writing.

Sherrel: Hope you and the pup feel better soon.

Went out to the yard to feed the birds. (lots of migration going on). I heard an unusual aircraft engine drone, and looked up in time to see a flyover by a single DC-3 / C-47. The pilot made a complete loop over the neighborhood, before resuming his SW journey. Haven't seen one of them since we were in St. Croix back in the late 1980s. (There were a representative number there, both scheduled Island Hoppers, and charters). The aircraft was in "civilian paint". I don't know where he might have been going, but the aircraft was headed in the general direction of McGuire AFB. Over the years, I have observed some cool aircraft flying over this neighborhood.

Spent some time working on the layout. I'll be going down to do a little more in a few. Highway and structure foundations mainly.




Engr. Charlie Hess takes EP20 consist through South Amboy for #1111, in June 1967 - Bill Stras...jpg

Engineer Charley Hess takes his consist past ESSAY Tower at South Amboy, NJ, enroute to the station to position themselves for the Westbound for Bay Head, enroute from NYP for Bay head, behind a GG1. June 1967 photo by Bill Strassner,
 
Boris said:
Mike: You didn't mention this, but when I had my left knee joint replaced, they recommended applying ice for the swelling and pain... I don't take IBU because it's not heart friendly, but I do take Arthritis strength Tylenol for pain....it generally works.
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She is on Tylenol which seems to work ok, I might add she is an RN with over 25 years experience. Thankfully knee replacements are a routiine surgery. That is unless its your knee they are replacing.
Mike2
 
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This Frank Riley photo was taken on July 10, 1967 at Edison NJ. Located just West of the Metuchen Receiving Yard, the Mail train was proceeding Eastward on #1 track when it struck a deliberately placed cross tie, and wrecked, rolling over on their side, on top of the Naught track. (Five main tracks between Edison and Lincoln. The train consisted of two engines and five cars, all of which derailed. Overhead Bridge in the distance was the Camp Kilmer Loop, which still existedwhen I retired in 2008. That's the bottom of a B60b baggage car immediately behind the GG1s. In the mid 1970s, under Amtrak auspices, another Mailtrain powered by GG1s, struck MW equipment in the vicinity of this incident.
 
Drove down to Destin. Fl. last Sunday and Monday morning it was 31 degrees on the coast.
I saw frost on cars in the parking lot. I could have stayed home and had that kind of weather.
It has warmed up nicely since then, which leads me to share my lunch for today.
A peanut butter brownie sundae.
It was my carbohydrate allowance for the next two weeks, but worth it.
 

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Haha, well this looks like familiar territory! I've definitely been here before.

Hate to barge in fellas, but a guy who's been gone almost 3 years would like to enjoy a coffee and talk some model trains. I posted in the introductions section of the forum to get everyone back up to speed, but the TL:DR is a was an member here on this lovely forum up until a house fire.

Admittedly, I forgot about everyone here up until earlier tonight, but it's never too late to get back to it. Nice seeing so many friendly faces again. Hope everyone is having a pleasant evening! Looking forward to being an active member here again!
 
Good morning gang!

Another Saturday at work, waiting for the throngs of happy money spenders to arrive, hugging a coffee mug and watching the rain outside the window. Woo hoo!!
C'mon 2 oclock!

BunkerTheHusky said:
Haha, well this looks like familiar territory! I've definitely been here before.
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Welcome back!

Mikey. Eating that would put me in a sugar coma for days!!

BBL
 
Good morning from Spring in So. Central Wisconsin. As usual the weather guessers have it wrong. The 2-6” or 4-8” (they kept changing the forecast on TV) accumulation from 2:00AM to 2:00PM today are already off. It’s snowing like crazy. It’s actually coming down hard enough I can barely see the house across the street. Straight down as the winds are calm. I opened the garage door for my official wake up measurement and there is 6”+ out there.

Text message from the friend driving us to the op session about 45 miles north of us. The forecast for Baraboo last evening was .6” of the white stuff. They are in the 5” range right now. Our plan was the drive in our snow to the big Highway (5 miles) we could handle because north of there was basically at .6“, snow free. That changed and it’s not worth being nervous in the weather. Our trip he cancelled about 30 minutes ago. As I type this a text message from the host cancelling the session. So the entire stormed moved further north then expected and is basically stationary per radar. Can’t wait to hear the lady weather weenie tell us how this all happened.

Today, I will be using the snowblower. But, I will wait for the end of the snowfall which is wet and heavy. The official end to our snowfalls is the plows coming by and pushing too much white stuff onto my driveway apron. The dog walkers will have to find the sidewalks on their own till then.

Today will become another day of weathering. Yesterday was a mess. The Badger compressor I was using after the Porter Cable died the other day, died yesterday. I had a new one all picked out. Head off to Menards, the guy in the aisle says it’s a deal but 2 were returned Friday morning. Off to HomeDepot. 3 choices there per the website. While a bit more expensive than Menards, I was looking forward to one by California Air. Guy I had to find says we don’t carry that brand. Pull out the phone and show him the aisle and bin number. He calls someone else. Website is not right there is no California Air. Plus they don’t have any of the 3 machines the website showed were in stock. I head to Harbor Freight. Open stock compressors they won’t let me plug in to hear the noise. Start to get in the car and home. Pull out the phone to check if I can find a California Air. Both places I checked were 10-14 days on delivery. Went back into HF and decided grab the new one closed in the box and if I don’t like it, I will return it. It’s fine and 3’ away you can barely hear it. That’s ideal as the tank is much smaller then what Mr. Porter Cable was. It will push the stapler, Brad nailer and pin nailers. We will test out the larger one that probably will not be used again but I want to know.

Enjoy the day
 
Good morning all.

We ended up with a dusting of snow. No where near what Tom got. It was enough to cover the grass and very little stuck to the streets. Looks like the winds are picking up. Good day to get Saturday chores done and be scarce in the basement.

Think Spring everyone,
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 48° here this Saturday morning. We're a long way from drying out after Friday morning's rain of 1.5". I do still have standing water in the yard from grass clippings clogging up the outflow patterns of run-off. No wind in the forecast for today, so drying out will be slow despite temperatures in the 70's and unlimited sunshine.

Household chores occupied much of my time yesterday morning, they seem to be taking longer to do. The recent rains have highlighted the need for a new driveway here. That would require 40 tons of crushed rock (2-18 wheelers) to be dumped and spread. My buddy with the piece of equipment needed to do the spreading has moved to East Texas and is no longer available, so I have to look for a contractor. The rock is no problem as there is a rock and gravel dealer about 6 miles away. First it has to dry out. I knew this over a year ago but never got around to it. It needs to be done about every 15 years.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I did some more ground cover. This time I added green foam to the ROW next to the spur and gravel and grass to the area between the drugstore and auto parts store. Oh! I also added that section of dead-end road that will lead into some more gravel parking area.
IMG_3263.JPG

IMG_3262.JPG

Decided to run some trains through the area which put an end to landscaping, as I usually can't put the throttle down.
IMG_3260.JPG

IMG_3261.JPG

I am slowly nearing the finish line for this part of the project. A fence, more ground cover, trees, figures and other details remain. The train engineers approve of the view.

Todd - Been meaning to ask you whether Libby has gotten over the asbestos problem from years ago? I hadn't really heard about in nearly 15 years.
Tom O -
TLOC said:
Terry told me around noon yesterday the storm is delayed now until Friday night till noon Saturday.
Click to expand...
Storm is delayed? Maybe weather guessers were just wrong!
Sherrel - Hope that you are feeling better today.

Today is National Medal of Honor Day, a notable holiday in my opinion. For music fans, it is also the birthday of the late Aretha Franklin and the still kicking Elton John. Wouldn't a concert with the two of them together be a really great affair.
Everybody have a great day.
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Clear and 48° here this Saturday morning. We're a long way from drying out after Friday morning's rain of 1.5". I do still have standing water in the yard from grass clippings clogging up the outflow patterns of run-off. No wind in the forecast for today, so drying out will be slow despite temperatures in the 70's and unlimited sunshine.

Household chores occupied much of my time yesterday morning, they seem to be taking longer to do. The recent rains have highlighted the need for a new driveway here. That would require 40 tons of crushed rock (2-18 wheelers) to be dumped and spread. My buddy with the piece of equipment needed to do the spreading has moved to East Texas and is no longer available, so I have to look for a contractor. The rock is no problem as there is a rock and gravel dealer about 6 miles away. First it has to dry out. I knew this over a year ago but never got around to it. It needs to be done about every 15 years.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I did some more ground cover. This time I added green foam to the ROW next to the spur and gravel and grass to the area between the drugstore and auto parts store. Oh! I also added that section of dead-end road that will lead into some more gravel parking area.
View attachment 165381
View attachment 165382
Decided to run some trains through the area which put an end to landscaping, as I usually can't put the throttle down.
View attachment 165383
View attachment 165384
I am slowly nearing the finish line for this part of the project. A fence, more ground cover, trees, figures and other details remain. The train engineers approve of the view.

Todd - Been meaning to ask you whether Libby has gotten over the asbestos problem from years ago? I hadn't really heard about in nearly 15 years.
Tom O -

Storm is delayed? Maybe weather guessers were just wrong!
Sherrel - Hope that you are feeling better today.

Today is National Medal of Honor Day, a notable holiday in my opinion. For music fans, it is also the birthday of the late Aretha Franklin and the still kicking Elton John. Wouldn't a concert with the two of them together be a really great affair.
Everybody have a great day.
Click to expand...
Willie: General consensus is maybe. Being a Superfund Site gets the .gov in your backyard. ER ( Environmental Resources, I think ) has not had trucks and people running around for quite some time. Haven't seen an EPA worker for awhile either. I also think that in 2021 everything was closed down, or in process of that. We got here in 2004 and did not have a clue about this. When we researched where we were gonna move, none of the Superfund stuff came up. At that time it was said 'Libby does not have its own dirt anymore'. Infested locations had the top 8 to 16" of dirt removed and trucked *somewhere* and replaced with a crappy sand/loam stuff that was worthless. Think that most was trucked back up to 'Asbestos Mountain' ( second pix ) . You still can't get up there as it is fenced with a guard shack. The biggest problem to this day is rebuilding some old barn or the like as the popped stuff *could* be in the insulatable spots. This stuff was bad, breath it ONCE and Meso could set in later down the road.

For those that don't know, or remember. W.R.Grace strip mined asbestos 4 or 5 miles north of the City. This asbestos was different than others - Tremolite. A magnification of the popped ...rock... showed something akin to a fishing hook coming out the bottom of it. That is where the problem lies. It would hook itself in the soft lung tissue and the body could not get rid of it. The ore looks like and is layered something like Mica. It was processed by adding heat at some temp I don't remember; which 'popped' it into fuzzy asbestos looking stuff.

We had 4 guys in moon suits 'clean' our front yard circa 2008. Still don't know how they figured it was there as you could not see it. Just to the South of the front yard, there were small piles of the un-popped rock that they left alone. Note that the sand/loam they brought in still does not grow grass well at all.

Take a look at the first pix. You can see the BNSF main just above Libby Station ( Amtrak ), then another track a little more north. That used to be a small holding yard for Grace covered gons. 24" of infested dirt was removed from there; pretty much from East Libby siding ( top left, not in the pix ) to the bridge over Libby Creek; also not in the pix. All processed ore was trucked into town and loaded into covered gons. Grace was going to build a conveyor from the mine, down the hill and across the river to where the BNSF main is. There are footings at Ripley Siding that still stand. Grace got 'caught' before that could get finished.

I was a great money maker for Grace and the local worker bees. Years back there were Biscuit and Bread recipes with it in them. Grace knew that the popped version had problems although as you might know, told no one.

This site and operations; even though bad; have gotten my interest. There will be room somewhere on my railroad for a scaled down version with the conveyor. I have found W.R.Grace gons over the years and have a few just for this.

Oh, in the first pix; top left - see what looks like a Switch kit? We have been hearing that the Amtrak Station is gonna be moved near that and the siding ( East Libby ) will be extended to just before the Libby Creek bridge; probably a 1/2 mile.

Gawd, wrote a book again:

LibbyStation.jpg


AbestosMountain.jpg


Later
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Clear and 48° here this Saturday morning. We're a long way from drying out after Friday morning's rain of 1.5". I do still have standing water in the yard from grass clippings clogging up the outflow patterns of run-off. No wind in the forecast for today, so drying out will be slow despite temperatures in the 70's and unlimited sunshine.

Household chores occupied much of my time yesterday morning, they seem to be taking longer to do. The recent rains have highlighted the need for a new driveway here. That would require 40 tons of crushed rock (2-18 wheelers) to be dumped and spread. My buddy with the piece of equipment needed to do the spreading has moved to East Texas and is no longer available, so I have to look for a contractor. The rock is no problem as there is a rock and gravel dealer about 6 miles away. First it has to dry out. I knew this over a year ago but never got around to it. It needs to be done about every 15 years.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I did some more ground cover. This time I added green foam to the ROW next to the spur and gravel and grass to the area between the drugstore and auto parts store. Oh! I also added that section of dead-end road that will lead into some more gravel parking area.
View attachment 165381
View attachment 165382
Decided to run some trains through the area which put an end to landscaping, as I usually can't put the throttle down.
View attachment 165383
View attachment 165384
I am slowly nearing the finish line for this part of the project. A fence, more ground cover, trees, figures and other details remain. The train engineers approve of the view.

Todd - Been meaning to ask you whether Libby has gotten over the asbestos problem from years ago? I hadn't really heard about in nearly 15 years.
Tom O -

Storm is delayed? Maybe weather guessers were just wrong!
Sherrel - Hope that you are feeling better today.

Today is National Medal of Honor Day, a notable holiday in my opinion. For music fans, it is also the birthday of the late Aretha Franklin and the still kicking Elton John. Wouldn't a concert with the two of them together be a really great affair.
Everybody have a great day.
Click to expand...
A weather guesser being wrong rarely is admitted. They use these play on words. Just tell me, We missed it!
 
Snow sucks. Higher than the 12” ruler. The weather TV folks Terry said claim 6-8 has fallen, more in some areas.

The plows are not out yet as we still have some white stuff falling. It’s very wet and very heavy. I will go out again after the plows fill my driveway. I am on a corner and that is just the way it is, not intentional

sidewalk
20891006-A424-45D6-BF54-D77D2E96C958.jpeg
 
TLOC said:
Snow sucks. Higher than the 12” ruler. The weather TV folks Terry said claim 6-8 has fallen, more in some areas.

The plows are not out yet as we still have some white stuff falling. It’s very wet and very heavy. I will go out again after the plows fill my driveway. I am on a corner and that is just the way it is, not intentional

sidewalk
View attachment 165389
Click to expand...

Sorry Tom, but I'm glad you got it vs us. You probably have more use for it.:)

Thats the one thing that hasn't happened at all this year. The pack of snowmobiles screaming by at all hours of the night. We haven't had enough this year.
 
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