Running Bear's September 2024 Coffee Shop

[TLOC]

Delivery services. Except for FedEx who we make a real effort to avoid and Amazon our deliveries are great.

UPS rings the door bell and they walk the side walks not cut through the yards

The USPS delivery folks are great but of course watching a package cross country via tracking can be interesting

DHL is exceptional

UPS, USPS and DHL have NO issues with where to place the packages per the delivery instructions

Amazon has issues with that but at least now get the packages on the front porch. When we lived at the last place Amazon repeatedly tried to enter a gated driveway and then would say could not deliver as gates locked! The instructions clearly were marked on the order and a sign at the gate showed where the delivery portal was, right under the sign u could not miss. It took quite a few emails with photos to the local Amazon place to get that straightened out. They blamed contract workers…

 

[kbkchooch]

We coined a new word at work today.

Redumbdant (Ree-dum-dent)
Adjective
A word to describe doing the same dumb stuff again and again!

Yes, work was that much fun today. Thank God tomorrow is Friday!!

 

[Boris]

A lean and eager work for may make you millions, but billions, you're fleecing somebody.

Not for nothing, when you "merge" with your biggest competitor, and close the most marginal stores, you have eliminated competition, and can set your price at what ever will bring about the greatest benefit to the surviving company.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning! It's 66° in Tipton.

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It’s clear and 73. Watches and warnings have expired, though more strong T-storms are expected this evening.
I picked up an Arnold/Rivarossi/Hornby/whoever owns them this week U25C and U28C, in BN, with decoders installed. USPS was pretty rough on them, and managed to damage one of the couplers. I damaged a set of MU hoses while installed an MT replacement, and I’m trying to find my old pair of glasses that would fit under my Optivisor so I can see to reinstall them. They both run well, though they are a scoche too long to reliably operate on my small layout.

 

[NorthBrit]

Good morning all. The rain has stopped and a hazy sky has the sun shining.
A Scottish breakfast please, Flo. A large mug of tea as well.

Out and about Wearside and County Durham today.
From tomorrow through to December is birthday time. It is somebody's birthday each week. Cards to buy and presents.

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway coat of arms

'Norwegian Jewel' seen in Singapore

 

[troyphoto]

Owwwwww

Woke at 2:30a with the Piriformis twisting the heck outta the sciatic nerve. It's like a hostage situation, but the piriformis doesn't know what it wants.

Advill, Arthritis pain relief gel (topical ibuprofen) and lots of stretching is slowly taming it.

Other than shopping just to get me up and walking so I don't sit all day, no clue what today will bring. I might clean the detritis off the layout since that's a standing activity.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!

56° under partly cloudy skies with a high expected today of 79°.

Heading out to work now, will be there till about 5:30 and then driving for a half an hour to go to the Western Maryland Railway historical Society meeting tonight. Rain is forecasted for the day tomorrow so it may be a good day to do some modeling.

BBL

 

[D&J RailRoad]

dang it. woke this morning with a Charlie horse pulling on my inflamed Achillies tendon. Nothing gets ya outa bed and standing faster than that.
I did more reading in the TrainController Silver manual last night. I think I'm doin it right, but prolly doin it on the wrong track.
Gonna have some breakfast, do my morning PT for my back then downstairs to the empire again for the day.
I'll have to take a break in there sometime to take advantage of the nice wx here today and take the bike out for a ride.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 69°, might hit 90° later on. Summer's over as the highs for the next 10 days will be about the same; lows in the 50's this weekend then back into the 70's for a while. All vegetation around here greened up pretty fast yesterday after the two days of rain, whether it's that it was rejuvenated or was just washed clean is anyone's guess.

Another uneventful grocery trek yesterday; store was not out of anything, prices haven't moved and the aisles are still cluttered and blocked because they can't hire enough overnight stockers. Gasoline prices are below $3/gal everywhere, mostly ranging from $2.79 -$2.93/gal. Second to the last PT session yesterday went well, no aches or pains noted. Wore me out for the hour that I was there, but I recovered about halfway home.
On the home front, I am experiencing a pleasant surprise. I bought some new batteries for my hearing aids about a month ago, same brand, same price, newer packaging that is a bitch to open; but I am now getting 9-10 days life from them (they're disposable) instead of the previous 6-7 days of life. That will save me $6 a year!
I'll resume yard duties today after 3 days off, good because I need the exercise. I can't decide on the pool cover yet, the next 5 days are supposed to be full sunshine which will warm the water back up. It was 78° on Wednesday and I didn't check yesterday.

Yesterday out in the train shed, I finished up painting a few figures and then spread them and others out for a shot of dull coat.

Some detail parts got a coat as well since I was doing it anyway. That's Jaz on the left side of the second row from the bottom. Her hubby is in the brown outfit in the center of the bottom row. At least that's what I imagine what they look like

Troy - You may not think that you're getting old, but your body is telling you otherwise!
Funeral music: Blow everyone's mind with Jeff Beck's version of Amazing Grace.

Tom O - I agree that old is just a state of mind, a number on a calendar. However a trip to the pharmacy is almost like a trip to the grocery store and the handful of pills several times a day is like getting an additional meal. About half of my pill intake every day is voluntary over the counter vitamins and supplements though.

Pink Floyd bassist/vocalist Roger Waters is 81 today.
Y'all have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend.

 

[TLOC]

Wishing good morning to all but especially the infirmed. Boy this Crew is a mess already and I just got here without incidence overnight.

The meaning of infirmed:

I definitely qualify for at least 1 of them…

It’s 54f degrees now and 65 later. It looks like a gloomy October day in So. Central Wisconsin beyond the windows!

Yesterday I did final inspections, final pictures and billing on weathering projects. Hopefully today I will get everything paid in and taken to the post office. I worked at the weathering bench on 3 diesel weathering projects and will do so again today. I inspected last night (no NFL 4 me last night) some freight cars and cleaned them with warm soapy water! Out of 15 freight cars only 1 set of wheels were out of gauge. I will be weathering these cars in 5 batches of 3 each. The 15 cars are owned by 3 different modelers but I need to make sure I vary the process and colors. Wheels and trucks will be worked on today and probably tomorrow

I watched a video on Facebook yesterday that one of my weathering clients took on the huge layout his small group is building in Tennessee. The last cars I weathered for him I did in a batch of 12 and while I tried to vary the cars I could see the weathering similarities, but damn they looked good.

Haircut in an hour and then back home for the day till party time this afternoon.

The Packers play the Eagles in Brazil tonight and the watch party starts at the daughter’s place at 4 or roughly 3.5 hours before game time. When we sold the last house the daughter and SIL said they would miss the large screen media room for football games. With the SIL’s help Terry and I gave an early Xmas present to them. While the daughter’s office and studio are in a separate building on their property the SIL’s office and business is located in the lower level of the house. He had the space for a media room and she was traveling most of August. So we had the space remodeled and at the granddaughter b-day party last week it was officially shown to the daughter. Let’s say she acted surprised very well. While it is not 100% done it’s more than ready. The walkout door still needs to be converted to French doors and the patio finished . It was a fun gift. This will be the first of many NFL and UW (away games only) football watch parties

Enjoy the day

 

[troyphoto]

Trip to the mini-costco, or GFS Marketplace this morning with the wife. Let her choose the sides to have at what I'm calling Mom's "Wake" - it sounds more fun than "Post Funeral Dinner"

 

[chadbag]

There are a group of politicians who equate large profits with price-gouging. Those politicians don't understand simple economics. But in a similar note to what Chad tried to explain, let me put it more simply. If your net profit on groceries is 2%, that is x times 1.02, where x equals your total costs; cost of goods, labor, transportation, utilities and other factors. So if inflation causes those costs to go up 10%, x is now x times 1.10; therefore profits are now x times 1.12 based on the original pre-inflation cost. So yes, the grocers (Kroger, Publix, Walmart etc) are making more money but the profit margin is still the same! They're spending more to acquire those goods. Those profits seem greater and are record setting because inflation drove them higher, not because of price-gouging. I am not naive enough to not realize that there may be a little gouging going on, but as Chad pointed out, your competitors will lower their prices and beat you at that game.

And also those profits are in inflated dollars so their real value is not necessarily higher.

 

[chadbag]

Trip to the mini-costco, or GFS Marketplace this morning with the wife. Let her choose the sides to have at what I'm calling Mom's "Wake" - it sounds more fun than "Post Funeral Dinner"

View attachment 198381

Got to go with the funeral potatoes (the upper right black containered ones). While they are very popular and famous in Utah and Idaho, I've also read in the Wikipedia entry they're popular in the Midwest...

Funeral potatoes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[chadbag]

They blamed contract workers…

And the proper response is: whose name is on the package and who hired the contract workers?

 

[chadbag]

On the home front, I am experiencing a pleasant surprise. I bought some new batteries for my hearing aids about a month ago, same brand, same price, newer packaging that is a bitch to open; but I am now getting 9-10 days life from them (they're disposable) instead of the previous 6-7 days of life. That will save me $6 a year!

Time to celebrate! It's always nice to save money, even if it's just a few bucks. It feels like a win.


Speaking of gas, our prices have been bouncing around (except walmart) between 3.4x and 3.5x for a while now. It will go to 3.59 and then drop down into 3.4x (in a couple moves through lower 3.5x) and then bounce back up. Walmart is usually in the 3.3x or low 3.4x when this is happening.

 

[chadbag]

Troy - You may not think that you're getting old, but your body is telling you otherwise!
Funeral music: Blow everyone's mind with Jeff Beck's version of Amazing Grace.

Speaking of funeral music, Amazing Grace is a good one. My aunt, when she passed, had requested Amazing Grace on bagpipes at the actual internment Iwhile our side was not Scottish her husband's side was). So this guy drove up in Scottish regalia and pipes and played and then drove off again while we were at the cemetery having that ceremony. Very traditionally played on pipes. My dad also wanted Amazing Grace, but he didn't want it traditionally done in a slower heavier style. He wanted a faster up-beat one. So my sisters either arranged it or found an arrangement and some kids and grand kids sang it at the funeral. It was nice.

 

[NorthBrit]

Speaking of funeral music,

Played at our family funerals --

Marble Halls by Enya
Going Home ( Largo from New World Symphony) by Dvorak

 

[moermusic]

been absent for last three months ! Glanced in thru the window now & again. So I figured it was time to join in a bit.
Somehow, I now seen 4 different versions of A Grace in the past 2 wks. Each one unique. None of these versions were used at Moms, Dads, or sisters' graveside. (All three in last 2 yrs) This song brings me to my knees.
Steamer is a mural on a wall in small village I frequent. Tracks are in same village. The browness catches my eye. Shows transition from wood to concrete ties.
My son & his family (wife & 2 girls) got back from a 16 day travelling excursion in Norway. The main end result was to visit my grandparents homes in Malm. 2 of them plunged into the ocean- north atlantic or southern Arctic, either way frigid !!
The water slide he rented for his company yr end party.
The Martin Mars last landing before going to the museum. It is a monster, which I got to see once about 15 yrs ago while wildland firefighting.
It was/is a pretty big deal up here in west Can.
All , sustain what you have or better yet improve health wise.

 

[chadbag]

My son & his family (wife & 2 girls) got back from a 16 day travelling excursion in Norway. The main end result was to visit my grandparents homes in Malm. 2 of them plunged into the ocean- north atlantic or southern Arctic, either way frigid !!

That's cool. I'd like to do a week or two in Norway and then a week in Sweden. My mom's side all goes back to Norway (all of her grandparents came over on the boat) though one of those grandparents lines goes back to Sweden. My aunts and uncles and mom have all been to Norway and visited relatives etc.

I've been in Norway twice, but never out of Oslo. in 1990 I went on a train into Norway, spent the day, and then continued on to Sweden. One of those Eurail pass sleep on the train and visit a new city almost every day types of things you can do when young. In late 2016 we bought a Volvo with teh Sweden delivery option. Volvo is in Göteborg (Gothenburg) on the SW coast of Sweden, which is a few hours south of Norway. So we drove it up to Oslo and stayed two nights and a full day and 2 half days. It was fun, but only scratched the surface of a Norway experience.