Running Bear's October 2024 Coffee Shop

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Good evening. It's sunny and 80. After returning from the other side of the state, and driving back and forth to work for a full five day workweek, I filled up the car and found out it gets 38+ mpg. That's with a regular gas engine, and a normal transmission with real gears that it really shifts through. Using the air conditoning every afternoon.
 
John from Indiana said:
Yesterday, I took Joan in for her "last" checkup before open heart surgery. This time they took a scan with a camera going into her wrist and eventually going into her heart
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When I was 16 years of age I had a camera going into my arm to go to my heart. Result was they found I have a hole in the heart and had it since birth. Every so often the heart misses a beat. I was told to 'just live with it'. It is still beating. :)
 
For those interested, after the first discharge cycle, charge durations have dramatically increased for the laptop I'm test-driving. From 7.75 hours before completely discharged, the 7.75 hours now is a little under half of its time away from the charger. I'm now getting nearly 16 hours on a single charge. That's still 10 hours shy of its claimed performance, but much better than most laptops currently on the market. Keyboard, touchpad, and touch screen all are decent, bluetooth and wifi are both very good. The only thing lacking is program comparability, which is dismal Programs and apps are being written or modified so they will operate on this new hardware. The laptop itself weighs a tick over 2,75 pounds, and is pretty thin. While I don't think it's "there" yet, by the time most of us will be in the market for a new laptop, they should have most of the bugs ironed out.
I'll be returning this next Friday, along with a review of it, which will probably never see publication.
 


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Good Morning! It's 39° in Tipton.
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Well, howdy there internet peeps, and Billionaires who break our immigration laws,

It's Troy again.

Forgot to plug in my sleep headband yesterday, so no tinnitus-calming cricket sounds in my ears. Sleeping was slightly rougher the two times I woke during the night. But this morning, I'm hearing the whine at about a 7 with my hearing aids in and the tinnitus masker going. I just turned on a vid with rain hitting big food storage drums in Korea.


Not sure what's in them. Wife told me something about fermented something-something used as a base in a lot of cooking???

Heading down to Indianapolis today. Not planning on going anywhere near the speedway... but I may make a few left turns as I head to the game store.
 


santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Mostly clear and 64°, looks like we're staying in the mid to upper-80's for a while now for our high; at least until Wednesday when the NWS still is predicting rain.

Finally tried out the new chainsaw yesterday, works as expected but didn't cut as much as I wanted. A neighbor stopped by to chat, and chat, and chat. Politics was our main topic, friendly since we both lean the same way. He had just returned from early voting. He's been my neighbor the longest, having moved in about 6 months after I did. His son is another neighbor, Bubba, who I have referenced often.
Today I will cut some more wood and finish up what I didn't get to yesterday. I also hope to remove the remaining tornado debris from the garden to prepare for the potential upcoming rain, which I need before I can till it up for next spring. I missed working in the garden this year, but the tornado devastated it just at the wrong time; stripping all tomatoes and flowers off those plants and totally flattening the green beans, peppers and squash.

I posted about cleaning track on Thursday. While my track doesn't get too dirty, I do some preventative cleaning every so often. On the section of the layout that I am concentrating on right now, I start with a Woodland Scenics cleaning tool called Tidy-Track. I actually have two of them, as I broke the first one a few years ago. It can still be used though.View attachment 202663
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I outfit one with their grooved gentle cleaning pads.
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The other has the same pads, just flipped over for a solid surface used to do switches where the grooves don't work as well.
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I use what I call the gentle pads which are similar to an old pink school eraser. They also have aggressive pads which are abrasive like a Walther's Bright Boy. I normally don't use them.
I also have a track cleaning train, which I set up occasionally. Nothing fancy.
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It begins with an old LifeLike caboose that I have fitted with an old fashioned Masonite pad that basically sweeps away cobwebs and other debris.
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That's followed by a Walther's car with a mildly abrasive weighted pad for tougher spots.
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Then there's an engine, followed by a Centerline car with an alcohol soaked roller.
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Lastly is an antique Bachmann track cleaning car with a felt pad. This car was designed with an internal tank for cleaning fluid which would slowly drip on the pad; but I run it dry just to remove any residue left from the alcohol.
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Since I had all of the cars out for this section, I ran it over all of the main and passing sidings on the lower level. Today I will move it to the upper level and make a few passes. Again, it's not really necessary since the almost daily running of trains does a good job of keeping track clean; especially since I have "Track Monkeys" on all cabooses as well.

Joe - There are several hidden gems on the various layouts at the museum.

Ex-Charlies Angels star Jaclyn Smith is 79 today. Hillary Clinton is 77. On the male side, musician Keith Urban is 57 and Pat Sajak is 78.
Everyone out there have a great Saturday.
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Willie I may have to buy one of those Tidy Tracks. Does it extend out for bridges not that I have any left on my railroad.
Swal
 
John from Indiana said:
The procedure is called an angiogram. My wife says a camera went in her vein and that I had the same procedure when I had a stent put into my heart. I looked it up and I don't know if an actual camera went into my vein; but they describe an angiogram as using a thin wire the snake the way into the heart area; followed by a cathode that acts like a tool to do various things, like injecting dye into the area so it can be seen on an x-ray or inserting a stent into the collapsed vein in the heart. Joan says they used a camera, so that's good enough for me
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I understand. When they did my angiogram they went through the groin. Couldn’t see it happening nor could I feel it.
 
TLOC said:
I understand. When they did my angiogram they went through the groin. Couldn’t see it happening nor could I feel it.
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I had one done a few years ago. They went in through my wrist however they did prep the groin area in case the wrist was viable. I was kind of a twilight sleep where I didn’t feel anything however, I did get a few peeks at the monitor over my head to see what was going on.
 
Good Morning All. It's clear here and 56°, back into the upper 80's again today.. No change in our weather until Wednesday when the promised rain might come. Highs drop into the 70's after that due to cloud cover. Still shorts and tee shirt weather for another month or so.

Back into the same old routine yesterday. I cut a week's worth of firewood and stacked it. This was fresh trees and won't be burned until the winter of '25-'26. I did get to the garden for a bit of cleanup in preparation for next springs use. I removed all of the Tomato cages and sorted through the ones that will need repair before being used again. Mainly bending the wire back in shape after many were collapsed during the tornado. More of the same today. I want to get more trees cut up before the anticipated fall rain.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I ran the track cleaning train on the upper level since it was already out. Then I removed it and ran regular trains. I did a little figure painting over at the workbench when I wanted to get off my feet for a spell.
The last of the Traintastic pictures show a couple of layouts that are still under construction. None were operational yet, all layouts in the museum can be operated by visitors pushing buttons. Sadly, they don't do any operating sessions with members.
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John - Again, I offer payers for your wife and a successful surgery. My angiogram, or angioplasty I think it was called, went through the groin and not the wrist. Didn't feel a thing. I didn't think to ask the doctor how they saw through the camera with all of the blood in the way???
Never cooked a meal? I always cooked 2-3 times a week for years. After I retired, I basically kicked Mrs. Willie out of the kitchen and took over myself. I enjoy it.
Swal -
NYC_George said:
I may have to buy one of those Tidy Tracks. Does it extend out for bridges not that I have any left on my railroad.
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The handle pivots on the cleaning head. It can be level and reach into bridges, or at any angle up to vertical for reaching hard to get to places like track between buildings or trees..

Everyone have a wonderful Sunday.
 
Good morning Crew from a chilled So. Central Wisconsin where the donut run at 7:01am with the granddaughter was done in 26f degrees. High later is 59. The weather app and Terry’s local TV guy says 80’s on Tuesday

Started a weathering commission early this morning as I was out of bed at 4:40! Just sat in my chair till 5:40 trying to sleep in the cave as the bed seemed really uncomfortable. Since the chair didn’t seem any better after trying for an hour I went to the bench.

The layout is cleaned up after working on it yesterday. Maybe an uninterrupted hour left to get it where I want it. Sometime today I will vacuum the floor and put back the skirting where I removed it to work on the wiring and fiber optics under the paper mill.

Enjoy the day
 
John from Indiana said:
The procedure is called an angiogram. My wife says a camera went in her vein and that I had the same procedure when I had a stent put into my heart. I looked it up and I don't know if an actual camera went into my vein; but they describe an angiogram as using a thin wire the snake the way into the heart area; followed by a cathode that acts like a tool to do various things, like injecting dye into the area so it can be seen on an x-ray or inserting a stent into the collapsed vein in the heart. Joan says they used a camera, so that's good enough for me
Click to expand...
Book definition: An angiogram is an x-ray test that uses a special iodine contrast dye and camera (fluoroscopy) to take pictures of the blood vessels. When it is used to visualize the heart arteries, is called a coronary angiogram or cardiac catheterization.

I had the procedure in 2023, about a month before I had an arterial valve replacement... That procedure was done with entry from the groin, vs. through the wrist for the angiogram.

Hope Joan's procedure goes well.
 
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Good late morning all!

A little chilly this morning in Northern Illinois but not near as low as Tom had. Its going to be 61 degrees by afternoon, but the little wind is going to make it feel much cooler.

Our house slept in late this morning (dog included). Somehow I was thinking this was the time change weekend. I made everyone omelets, toast, and fruit for breakfast this morning.

Hopefully today is a Sunday that the daughter and wife get involved in a Hallmark movie marathon and I can get a few uninterrupted hours in the basement. Grocery shopping, laundry, and the leaves were all done yesterday, so I cant imagine anything major is on the schedule for today.

Have a safe Sunday everyone!
 


bnsf971 said:
For those interested, after the first discharge cycle, charge durations have dramatically increased for the laptop I'm test-driving. From 7.75 hours before completely discharged, the 7.75 hours now is a little under half of its time away from the charger. I'm now getting nearly 16 hours on a single charge. That's still 10 hours shy of its claimed performance, but much better than most laptops currently on the market. Keyboard, touchpad, and touch screen all are decent, bluetooth and wifi are both very good. The only thing lacking is program comparability, which is dismal Programs and apps are being written or modified so they will operate on this new hardware. The laptop itself weighs a tick over 2,75 pounds, and is pretty thin. While I don't think it's "there" yet, by the time most of us will be in the market for a new laptop, they should have most of the bugs ironed out.
I'll be returning this next Friday, along with a review of it, which will probably never see publication.
Click to expand...
I found it to be more than just interesting; it was also informative. Thank you!
 
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