Running Bear's May 2025 Coffee Shop

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Loius's idea of 15 down to 70 was good, but chatting with the innkeeper, I'll leave town the other direction, and flee like Bobbie Lee did. Chambersburg pike to well, Chambersburg, hit 81 south down to 70.
Looking at the map that looks like the best route.
with wet pavement on the highways, I'd rather drive safe than fast.
I like the way you think!

Been a busy week, after thirty five odd years I finally decided it was time to learn to drive a car and last week I passed my driving test!! Now the proud owner of an old but reliable low mileage Ford Focus:
Congratulations, she looks like a beauty!

My Hungarian wife was 38 when she learned to drive. In Hungary cars are not needed. Trains and other forms of mass transit are excellent and mostly run on time. Not to mention before the fall of communism, cars were hard to come by. You had to be on a waiting list to get a used car. You had to have been a member of the communist party to get a new car, no waiting list.

My Wife's father's family was involved with the 1956 uprising in Budapest. Guilty by association. Which put him and her entire family on the unofficial "blacklist" Her father was on the waiting list for a car for over 25 years and never got one. He was happy to have a motorcycle with a sidecar.

Enjoy your car and drive safely!

I’m in the model shop this morning working on a miniature chair I thought I would share with you all.
Thank you for sharing your magnificent work!

I was up in the loft just now and started digging through my boxes of train stuff. In my N gauge loco box, I found an Atlas SP Black Widow Trainmaster.
A fantastic find!

I can't wait to go through all my boxes in my attic. My inventory is out of date by well over seven years. I have no idea what "presents" I will find.

"raw" day
Exactly the word the lady who raised me would have used to describe today.
Work today then doing brake and exhaust work on the wife's car. 2 sets of pads, 4 rotors and a new muffler. Easy stuff. Much easier in a heated shop with a lift than at home on the garage floor!
Pace yourself and rest if you feel you need it. You don't have to worry about "flat rating" this job.

I envy you. Today is a depressing milestone. I took the equinox to have the front and rear brakes replaced. It will be the first time I have ever had anyone do the brakes on any vehicle I have ever owned. I did my first brake job when I was 16.

At 184,000 miles on the front brakes, I can't put them off anymore. God knows my hands aren't getting any better.

My mechanic just called, Marty Matic of Bill and Earl's Transmission, he told me the back brakes are still good, no need to replace them. I did those at 75,000 and it was too early. These new GM brakes are amazing!

Front brakes and rotors $330. No more $10 disk brake pads.

I mowed about 2.5 acres
I hope you weren't using a push mower!
Didn't feel like cooking last night, so we went to the Italian place in town.
No wonder! Push mower, I would have probably dropped dead. With a tractor I would have been sound asleep at best! Well done you young Ol' Buzzard! I always enjoy hearing how productive you and others are. Which makes me look like a slacker, but I'm cool with it. :cool: "Do your best and let God worry about the rest."
While grandson is not #1, he is in the top ten of his class.
For a class of over 500 students that is a big deal, congratulations! A chip off the old block.
 
Good morning all!

Another cool day today with temps only getting to 60F. No rain though. It has all moved out of the area.
Looks like the cool pattern will continue into middle of next week before we crack 70F again.

Last night we has my daughters graduation mass. I was really nice and only lasted a little over
an hour. Friends and family all came back to the house for a later dinner and cake. Kind of sad
to see grade school over, but Im glad this May crowning, and graduation are over. It was a lot of
planning and running around for things. Now Summer vacation starts.

Other than a little more cleanup from last night, not much else going on.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Good afternoon all. Afternoon tea please, Flo. Double up on the scones. I am hungry.

Catching up on housework, then reading new literature that has arrived.

A Beef Curry to make for dinner this evening.

Dunnottar Castle launched in 1936 for Union Castle Line

Dunnottar Castle.jpg


Sold to Incres Lines 1958 Renamed MS Victoria
Sold to Chandris Cruise Lines in 1975 Renamed The Victoria
The Victoria.JPEG




Final Sale to Louis Cruise Lines 1993 Renamed Princesa Victoria
In 2004 Scrapped in India as Victoria 1
 


Good morning, all! Overnight low was 80. Yesterday we got a reprieve from the humidity, I think every lawn mower in the neighborhood was running. Mowed, edged and trimmed.

jmupton - Not a bad looking auto.
kg - Amazing chair. I was placing it in the train room until the last photo.
Terry - I did not laugh. Snicker yes, but no laugh.
Troy - That looks like the "scenic" route.
David - A nice ship. I really like the white version for its classic lines.

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STAY SAFE
LATER
 
We’re nearing Columbus OH.

The scenic route was US 30across N Ohio. The scenery included a dead deer about every two miles.

I wondered if theOH DOT just leaves them out as a warning to other deer?
If you ever decide to go for a trip with lots of trains involved, US 30 West of the Mississippi parallels the UP mainline, and when traffic is up, it seems like you see a train every 5 minutes.
 


Good day to all.............
Weather in west Texas toady:
Sunny to partly cloudy and very warm; a strong thunderstorm this afternoon; thunderstorms can bring hail and damaging winds
96 degrees ; RealFeel 102 degrees.

In an effort to get out of my funk, I got my 2012 Corvette out of the garage and took a drive to Stamford Texas. Its a nice drive, minimal traffic and there is a mid sized WallMart there. Needed to pick up a few items at the WM that my local (18 miles one way) store does not have. I was also looking forward to eating some Bar B-Q at a place called Irene's that has great reviews. I went to the BBQ place only to find out they are open from 10 am to 2 pm, closed on Saturday and Mondays. I'll have to check it out some other time. It is 45 miles one way to Stamford and Tuesday the temp was in the mid 80s so the drive was nice. I haven't driven the Vette since last February so I needed to "blow it out" as my Dad used to say.
No dead deer on the road but plenty of flattened skunks.

I was going to try to use the JMRI, decoder pro to adjust the settings on my ESU decoder that I finally got the sound files downloaded to. Wow. I haven't used Decoder pro in about 5 years and now it looks like I will have to go back to school and take some computer courses to be able to use the latest version. So I think I'll just use the Lok Programmer to make my adjustments......maybe later today.

I have always thought that as a computer program improves, it would be upgraded to allow easier use by the consumer. As with Windows 11, JMRI seems to be much more difficult to use. In an effort to offer "super fine" tuning for those who have to have everything perfect, the "thats good enough" settings for the casual user are not to be found.

My lot really needs to be mowed.........a job for another day.

Everyone have a great day....John
 
Sunny to partly cloudy and very warm; a strong thunderstorm this afternoon; thunderstorms can bring hail and damaging winds
Hail as big as 1" in Gainesville, 22 miles north; about 90 minutes ago. The storm just barely skirted by here and left less than 0.01" in the gauge. But it did scuttle my plans to mow earlier. Main storm is traveling east along the Texas/Oklahoma border, along the Red River. Be careful!
 
Front brakes and rotors $330. No more $10 disk brake pads.

Not looking forward to getting the fronts done on the Colorado. The '09 cost nearly $900 for the fronts alone, replace the rotors and pads. Rotors are captive so they had to remove the hubs. Same place won't be doing it on the newest one. On the old truck the rear were at 75% at 125,000 miles when I had the fronts done. Mind, I've had the current truck since January 2021.
 
I'm trying to work my way through a stash of kits. I have a bunch left and I don't think I paid more than $10 for any of them. This is an old Walthers Sunrise Feed Mill. Wathers "Bright" decals just didn't look right, so I had some signs left over from a Bar Mills kit I used. I have the hardest time aging plastic kits. I am so used to wood that these seem a bit frustrating for as easy as they are to put together. This will just be another one I will add to the table at the next swap meet.

Not my best work, but it's what people seem to want based on the stuff I sold before.

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DSCN2730.JPG
 
I'm trying to work my way through a stash of kits. I have a bunch left and I don't think I paid more than $10 for any of them. This is an old Walthers Sunrise Feed Mill. Wathers "Bright" decals just didn't look right, so I had some signs left over from a Bar Mills kit I used. I have the hardest time aging plastic kits. I am so used to wood that these seem a bit frustrating for as easy as they are to put together. This will just be another one I will add to the table at the next swap meet.

Not my best work, but it's what people seem to want based on the stuff I sold before.

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I've learned that people don't want "perfection", they just want something that doesn't look like an epileptic kindergartner did it.
 
I was going to try to use the JMRI
It is a nice thing to have, but agree that it is not user friendly. For the longest time I was using the decoder pro to program and run everything. Didn't know about the panel pro as being the primary operating area, so when I started asking questions about controlling the PSX to turn track power on/off, I couldn't understand what they were talking about. And, the help seemed too high above my newby head as I needed hand holding at that time.

And as far as Windows: The Next Generation is concerned, seems they are going the IPAD/IPHONE/SMART phone way and since I can't figure those things out, makes sense that I can't figure this out. What has me worried is that people want more connectivity to everything with 3rd party apps from who knows where. I am not sure if with every update, a new door is opened that I don't know about and will invite the least nefarious intruder in without much of a struggle.

Me, I just use my computer to watch utube, run my DCC, design and print 3d, and listen to music. I don't talk to it, it doesn't control any household appliances, and there is definitely no camera attached.
 


I'm trying to work my way through a stash of kits. I have a bunch left and I don't think I paid more than $10 for any of them. This is an old Walthers Sunrise Feed Mill. Wathers "Bright" decals just didn't look right, so I had some signs left over from a Bar Mills kit I used. I have the hardest time aging plastic kits. I am so used to wood that these seem a bit frustrating for as easy as they are to put together. This will just be another one I will add to the table at the next swap meet.

Not my best work, but it's what people seem to want based on the stuff I sold before.

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That looks pretty awesome to me. Neat spigot on the roof!
 
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