Running Bear's November 2023 Coffee Shop


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bnsf971

Gomez Addams
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Good evening: 46° right now with "rain showers" in the overnight forecast, dropping down to 39° by morning. here is the best part. Wednesday's high temperature will be no higher than 47°... that's compared to 74° this past Monday.

MIL still in the Hospital... maybe tomorrow, she will be paroled. Driving wife nutz. She needs a break.

Arm is still sore from yesterday's RSV shot, but I can move it now. None of the ill effects we noticed from the Flu and Covid shots three weeks ago. HVAC guy was here this morning to "set up the furnace" Everything looks OK...In the midst of the trick or treaters,
JCP&L shows up to change out all the electric meters on the street. Replacing analog meters, with digital "smart" meters... :rolleyes:

Lots of Cow Girl Barbie impersonators at last night's Pittsburgh Penguins game....some well passed prime...

I managed to spend a good part of the day in the train room, working a couple of projects. Also did some break in running with the new Atlas MP-15.

November 1, is All Saints Day, in the various Christian Communions.

LA Kings 4 -Toronto Maple Leafs 1 on tonight's nationally televised ESPN game. Caps and Devils don't play again until Thursday.
 
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For me and many others today is All Saints Day.

This is a fascinating time of the year. From the dawn of human history, the end of October through the early days of November are special days. There are feasts, celebrations, and solemn events in many places all around the world. You could say these days extend through Christmas and the New Year. We have many differences, but we have many things in common. We are all one human family.

Happy Holidays!

God Bless Us Everyone!
 
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Morning all,

James: Happy Birthday.

Currently 24° and dark. Turning Mostly light and 52° later. This is the coldest it's been since last spring. Something has changed as I'm really feeling the cold this year so far. I'm normally the guy shoveling or snow blowing in a flannel shirt.

Off Friday so I can update servers on Saturday. I realized I only work 1 Friday this month. I'm off the 3rd for server maintenance, the 10th for Veterans day and the 24th for an extended Thanksgiving weekend.

Willie: Sorry about jinxing your tires...The wife's Equinox tells me the pressure as well, just the truck has the idiot warning.

BBL
 
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Good morning from the chilled portion of my part of Wisconsin. 23f degrees is feeling like 23 per the WeatherChannel app. Heading to a high of 40 and right now you can see a billion+ bright stars is the cloudless, though dark skies.

Yesterday’s weather event was a bust. Yes, we got snow flakes falling most of the day and at times enough to cover the ground. Then an hour later it was gone. The grandkids and their groups didn’t even come to the house to trick or treat and I have enough candy to supply an army. Snickers bars and M&M’s to the freezer where I will have 1 or 2 a day for a few weeks. Kit Kats, some snickers and the Reese’s are in a candy jar and in the refrigerator for when Terry returns.

Spent time in the train room yesterday working on and running the layout. Added the final 4 circuit breakers I have and that should be it for a while. Road the trails yesterday and except for the wind at times blowing the snow in my face it was nice and peaceful out there. Terry’s group I rode to dinner with on Monday have another group ride this Monday that I said no to and told Terry. I felt very uncomfortable at dinner with them. She laughed when I explained why and she didn’t disagree with the reasons. A little too handsy after a few started drinking. Today I will ride alone about noon.

A quick trip to the grocery where I will get some more diet Dr Pepper and A&W sugarless root beer. 4-6 packs of 16.9oz bottles for $10 or maximum of 8 for $20. If I spend $40. total today I get $.40 per gallon in fuel savers. I have 3/4 of a tank and right now have $2.93 per gallon off In fuel savings. Current gas is $3.19 in our area stations. So in a couple weeks I should have a great deal when I fill up. The new Jetta hasn’t had a decent trip yet so no real idea what I will be getting for fuel mileage. The window sticker said 33 to 38 but since VW has been caught fudging gas mileage claims, who really knows?

Thinking the next few days I might take the 2.5 hour run up to North Central Wisconsin to mom and dad’s graves before Winter sets in. One of my previous assistants also has been asking us to come up for lunch. Terry’s fine about me going alone. We moved 2 weeks after I retired in 9/2014 after 38 years full time up there. I still 9 years later am very surprised I don’t miss it. It really was beautiful.

To the weathering bench…
 
Good afternoon from a wet land of the former North British Railway. The rain is persistent!
Visited the doctor this morning. Mainly good news. Ankle is okay. Slight? ligament damage. I have to wear a support stocking. So not as bad as feared.

Even better news. I can be in the train room this afternoon. 😄
 
Rabbit Rabbit

Now that the monthly ritual is out of the way...
F-16 pilots as business coaches.... ugh

I signed up for an online class on how to set up, and make profitable an online store.

Well, let's just say I'm not cut out to be an F-16 fighter pilot, even in business.

His class is meticulous about testing idea, and free-flowing on spending his student's cash. Once I realized what the financial outlay for the testing platform, and the ad spend before I even got the store set up, well...

I emailed and asked to "get a refund" since I couldn't find a refund policy. He was fair about it, and canceled the last two installments of $350, but boy did he talk hard to keep me from leaving. No discounts, just a bunch of F-16 attitudes about success & his way is proven etc.

Did some more digging that I should have done first. Found two more online classes with the same curricula, same price point, but radically different approaches. One of the instructors is Australian, and she's standing on a righteous mountain of "DON'T SCRAPE Reviews off Amazon because those are copyrighted by the reviewers!" And she's getting annoying with her diatribes. As only blunt Australians can. She'll post about it then turn off comments so no one can argue with her.

I get the sense she's doing it to undercut the teaching of the other two instructors, but she's not calling them out directly for suggesting using online reviews (it's a grey area, and frankly very, very common since tracking down reviewers is difficult if you don't own the platform the review is on).

That one became a pass.

Looked at the last one. A younger kid, late 20s to early 30s. I know enough about marketing to sniff out the bullshit. And he's talking the talk. And some other authors I respect are in his program learning, and not grumping about it. A few that I know are saying their platforms are growing under his program. Same as with the fighter pilot and different authors I know.

The Kid's program (about 50 online videos, with relevant links and "standard text" for ads and such) still has some rough edges. The F-16 pilot's was more polished, but still showed the roughness too. Fighter Pilot's program is only a year or so old, so he's had time to put a bit more polish on the videos and outline of the course, but not much more.

So, yeah, I'm going with the "Kid" marketer. The programs are similar, but this one doesn't have a $300-500 a month expense for add ons right up front. The Fighter Pilot insisted on building a landing page testing platform outside of the store (about $300/month + store and ad spend costs).

The kid is showing us how to do the same, but use the already expensed storefront (Shopify) as the landing page and testing platform.

So that's my day at the beginning of the month.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 30° here on the ranch; today's high is forecast to be 54°, but so was yesterday's when it reached 59°. Upper 70's return this weekend, lots of sunshine to dry out the place. There's no standing water left in any low spots any more.
Well, my pond didn't get as full as I thought, or a lot more water soaked in Monday night. I'll go with 55% full instead of 85% as posted yesterday.
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When at 100%, the water is covering that area in the lower left of the picture. Dead weeds and fallen tree limbs litter the shoreline. While I have never had fish in there, several turtles and frogs will appear from somewhere, I don't know where, when it warms up next week. It's not full enough to attract migratory ducks yet, but I don't see them on the southbound flight every year.

For the 47th year in a row, I had no trick or treaters last night despite leaving the porch light on. I was prepared with two fresh candy bars and a Reese's cup.

Good news yesterday from the doctor's office where I did the "capsule endoscopy". All clear, no problems. The problem to me is that after the three medical procedures, endoscopy, colonoscopy, and capsule endoscopy, they cannot find the source of the initial internal bleeding. Wife says it's the Aleve that I was taking for the sciatica; which has for the most part gone away without any further treatment. I still do some stretching exercises which may be the reason.

Rather long post this morning, so I will make a separate post for the series of HO scale layout pictures from the Texas City Museum.

Tom O - Yep! It's time to change those smoke alarm batteries with the time change. What are we going to do when the politicians go to DST all year long???
The guy checking while I teased him said 8 called in sick for the 3rd Monday in a row. Can’t fire them he said “as we need them when they show up“.
That's the story I get at the grocery store as well. Monday when I was grocery shopping, I noticed that five store managers were setting up the cold storage display, while several grocery carts full of frozen turkeys blocked nearby aisles. I asked my neighbor the department manager about it and she said that most of the overnight stocking/set-up crew didn't make it in Sunday night. She had no room for the turkeys in the back freezer and had to unload them into the baskets in the aisle, and her guy and the truck driver were still unloading them. She was expecting the display case to be ready when she showed up Monday morning.
I believe that you and Terry will be successful in your eminent domain squabble, but I have seen it backfire before. Some friends fought it and got a lawyer. Yes they got more for their land (for widening a highway), but after the legal fees, they received less than was originally offered, to the tune of over $10,000. They had to pay taxes even on the money that the lawyers received as well as the land sale.
Troy - If you have a Kroger card, good for discounts and fuel points, they've been tracking you for years. I can log into their website and review my purchases, prices paid, coupons used and discounts received; for every one of my trips there, regardless of which store that I use. I never really looked at how far back it records my history, but I have looked up purchases over a year ago. They use my history to determine which coupons to send me every month. I have used it at their service desk to get refunds when I couldn't locate my receipt. It even has a small picture/icon of each item! I don't have their app on my phone, I clip digital coupons from the comfort of home in my bathrobe. But I also believe that phones are for talking to other people, not for downloading apps or taking pictures. I'm just old-fashioned I guess.
Sherrel - I sure wish that I had seen this museum years ago. It has given me some ideas that I can still incorporate. I highly recommend a visit there for anyone who might happen to be in the Houston/Galveston area. The whole museum was great to visit, not just the train layouts; and at $5 admission for seniors, well worth it.
Todd - I wondered where our starlings were this fall.
Regarding the automatic windshield wipers, I think that I can get used to them and like them. It was just a surprise to realize what was happening.

Yes, today is All Saint's Day in many Christian religions. Tomorrow is All Soul's Day, or to the Hispanics here in Texas and elsewhere, Day of the Dead. More on that tomorrow.
Everyone have a wonderful day.
 
Troy - If you have a Kroger card, good for discounts and fuel points, they've been tracking you for years. I can log into their website and review my purchases, prices paid, coupons used and discounts received; for every one of my trips there, regardless of which store that I use. I never really looked at how far back it records my history, but I have looked up purchases over a year ago. They use my history to determine which coupons to send me every month. I have used it at their service desk to get refunds when I couldn't locate my receipt. It even has a small picture/icon of each item! I don't have their app on my phone, I clip digital coupons from the comfort of home in my bathrobe. But I also believe that phones are for talking to other people, not for downloading apps or taking pictures. I'm just old-fashioned I guess.
I just refuse to use their #$@#$% app. They get enough info as you mentioned just from the frequent shopper card.

If they want to track my movement around the store, well, they can set one of the former checkout girls - that are now stocking shelves - to follow me around with a clipboard. :p
 
Good news yesterday from the doctor's office where I did the "capsule endoscopy". All clear, no problems. The problem to me is that after the three medical procedures, endoscopy, colonoscopy, and capsule endoscopy, they cannot find the source of the initial internal bleeding. Wife says it's the Aleve that I was taking for the sciatica; which has for the most part gone away without any further treatment. I still do some stretching exercises which may be the reason.
I'm glad to hear the good news!

I think your wife may be right. The active ingredient in Aleve is Naproxen and that is a long lasting (12 hour) NSAID (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug) It is known to cause bleeding and other side effects. After you stop taking it, the bleeding can stop in as little as 3-5 days; complete healing can take 5 weeks or even more.

I have personal experience with internal bleeding. Mine was believed to have been caused by long term daily use of ketoprofen for arthritis. I don't take anything now. I just make a lot of "snap, crackle and pop" noises when I move. And not the good Rice Krispies sounds. The pain I can live with, not the bleeding.

I'm glad to hear your sciatica is in remission. Sciatica was the second worst pain I've ever felt, and I have had more than my share of injuries. My experience with sciatica was that nothing helped with that pain.
 
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