Running Bear’s April 2026 Coffee Shop

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Today is my court case gentlemen, we'll see how it goes. On a lighter side i have finally caught this Phase IIV Amtrak decaled former Metroliner cab:
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The westbound Keystone was traveling through Gap, Pa on April 24, 2026.. and it looks like is a regular on this line now. Somewhat reminiscent of the huge "billboard" looking Amtrak scheme from late 1970s but with missing large Amtrak sign up front.
 
Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 53°, the cooler weather continues. The rain chance for today has been reduced by the NWS, and has been taken out of tomorrow's forecast. The forecast for the weekend is crazy, with a norther dropping nighttime temperatures into the 40's, but daytime in the 80's! No tornadoes coming up.

The weekly grocery trek is today, list isn't quite as long as usual. Cart will be heavy as it's buy 3-12 packs of soft drinks, get 3 free. Which works out to everything at the regular price of 4 years ago! Sugar-Free A&W Root Beer for me, and Caffeine-Free Diet Coke for the missus. I think that she's going to head over to Walmart while I am in Kroger. Gas and drug store are on the itinerary today.

Out in the train shed yesterday, it was a productive day. I am almost finished with the currently planned ground cover, just a bit left on the near side of this last blue house.
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I am continuing to add trees to the LH side.
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Some decorative stuff as well.
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Even got the birdhouse in place.
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Meanwhile on the other side of the layout, I removed the first few structures for cleaning. Some of them were cleaned after the tornado of '24 took the roof off the train shed and let the rain in, so there isn't much to do.

Radio Shack - One of the locations in Denton remained open until 2018 after two others closed in 2015. I loved that place.
Fry's Electronics - They were more than just a California thing. There were at least three in the Dallas area. I only went in once and was not impressed.
David (Marlin) - I love Asparagus as well, but I did get burnout after 6-8 weeks of prolific harvesting.
Mike - The Fry's that I went into was a much bigger Radio Shack type of store. It was closer to being like Best Buy but carried a lot of the smaller hobby type stuff. They also carried groceries! Yep! They carried X-rated videos behind a curtained-off area back in the 90's.
John - Sorry to read about the data center going up so near you. Closest one to me is about 25 miles away in Denton Texas. There's a lot of them around the Dallas area, including those around Denton. I have read that they "hum", which might be quite annoying to those who live nearby.

Everybody have a wonderful day.
 
TLOC said:
UP.com has the full schedule for the eastern tour of #4014. If you haven’t seen it moving IMOO it is more than worth fighting the crowds


Friday, June 5​

South Holland, IL
NO PUBLIC ACCESS		Depart: 8:00 a.m. CDT
Argos, IN
S. Michigan Street Crossing		Arrive: 2:15 p.m. EDT
Depart: 2:45 p.m. EDT
Fort Wayne, IN
NO PUBLIC ACCESS		Private Norfolk Southern employee event

Saturday, June 6​

Fort Wayne, IN
NO PUBLIC ACCESS		Depart: 9:00 a.m. EDT
Continental, OH
Near Oak St. and Main St.		Arrive: 11:45 a.m. EDT
Depart: 12:15 p.m. EDT
Fostoria, OH
Fostoria Iron Triangle Railpark
499 S. Poplar St.		Arrive: 2:00 p.m. EDT
Depart: 2:15 p.m. EDT

Sunday, June 7​

Troy, posted this for you. There has to be a place to put your old photography skills back to use. No open stop in Fort Wayne but it’s parking overnight there. Locally they will tell you the tracks it’s using and where the overnight will be
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Yeah... I saw that on the news....

Now, if I put my stealth spy suit on, and go full James Bond, maybe I can get in.

Local word is the NS RR Mall Cops will be out in force. They have a very nasty "You're Trespassing, here's a citation, don't make us call the Feds!" attitude.
 


I grew up in San Jose and remembered when the original Fry's (Sunnyvale) opened in 1985. My dad, an IBM engineer, loved this place. It was truly a geek & nerd hobby shop.

I remember all the local "theme" stores. San Jose had the Mayan "Chichen Itza" temple theme. Fremont had the "1983 Worlds Fair" with a giant Tesla coil in the middle of the store. Sunnyvale was the " History of Silicon Valley" and Palo Alto was the "Wild West".

It's kind of ironic that the rise of the internet ending up forcing them to close.
 
Well howdy there internet peeps and those who get to see the Big boy!

It's Troy again.

Wife is upstairs grumbling about her work and stupid clients wanting everything, changing their mind, then changing it again, and following up with "How soon can you have this ready? By the end of the week?"

I browned up some ground sausage I got out for her to make meatballs in the Instant Pot with.

A friend just posted to FB that Gas is $4.99 here in the Fort. I haven't seen prices that high since I was in California. :eek: ⛽

Also noticed that NATO is now eyeballing and close to signing the Canadian/Swedish version of the AWAC plane for their impending upgrades. That's going to make Boening workers grumpy.

I already got 2200+ words worded today. And one office, the local Barney Fife of the town, managed to step in the blood from the victim and didn't realize it. So when the other officers got on the scene, he had to remove a boot and is now hopping around the crime scene holding his bloody boot, and trying not to step in it further. Going to play that one up for laughs throughout the book.

The nice thing about having my AI assistant is that I can feed it details I want to remember.... who was on the shuttle? Why did the phone's time matter? stuff like that as I think about clues and red herrings I'm planting. Then when I go to write the big reveal and peg the killer, the AI can remind me of the stuff I planted and forgot about.

In other news, wife is dealing with a swollen hand (mostly knuckles) that looks like Osteo Arthritis but it's come on quickly, since I cruise two months ago. Her sister the nurse is watching it, and they're running through inflammation reduction strategies. Including sweetie giving up her nightly rum. So now she's cussing under her breath at her clients. As long as it's not out loud.

Hopefully her work stress will drop soon, and she can get that under control.
 
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Morning All! 43 at the moment, but we had frost on the ground this morning, as Wisconsin does its bipolar weather thing. Just 51 today, but at least the sun is out. The Mud Jackers did their thing yesterday, and they did a very good job getting the patio level again and not looking like an obstacle course anymore. The price was reasonable too. We are still hanging up pictures taken down for the paint job, hanging up drapes, and like that. The grand son had his fourth birthday this week and we're going to see him this weekend. He's getting some more Brio trains to build his layout. It's cool watching him play with it and use his imagination. You can see the wheels turn while he plays. Not sure what I'll do today, other than the club this evening. I may just take a day and do nothing, at least nothing after I hang new curtain rods in the master bedroom. Tomorrow is Friday for those of you that still mark that. Enjoy your day.
 
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Good Morning All!
37F @ 71%

Bags of Bags - Ya, we do that even though we can get paper at the grocery store. The tank-top bags pretty much fit in a 5 gallon bucket, although ya can't fill it to tip top. They are free, so who cares if it is full or not, just tie the knot and pitch.

Baggies - I have been known to wash them out to where they would be upside down drying all over the kitchen. And y'all though you are cheap! Since we started vacuuming food, baggies seem to last quite awhile. No, not washing out the vac bags, although I have thought about it with the bigger ones.

Fry's - There was one in Tukwilla I found by chance. Used to travel up and down the I5 corridor picking up dead monitors for repair and would go to SuperTronics and Vet Co in the great part search for obscure parts. That Fry's store; circa '94 had everything for the hobbyist, and small fab builder. Besides isles and isles of discrete components, blank PCB material, chemicals, had TV's ( both CRT and Flat screen ), Stereo, different band Radios, antenna's, all kinds of needed dongles for just about anything and tons of specialty books. Good sandwich's too. While OTR, found one North of I80 close to the I5 interchange, took the big thing in and parked in the back. At that time, most of the good stuff was gone, had mostly groceries and household stuff. Ho-Hum.

@KriegslokBR52 - BNSF gave out a 'pass' of sorts. Guessing in the early 90's. You could carry it with you and show to any employee and they pretty much left you alone. I probably still have it; although it is in the somewhere place.

I asked Siri why I was such a flop with chicks? Got - I am Alexia dumb ass.

L8r
 
ctclibby said:
Baggies - I have been known to wash them out to where they would be upside down drying all over the kitchen. And y'all though you are cheap! Since we started vacuuming food, baggies seem to last quite awhile. No, not washing out the vac bags, although I have thought about it with the bigger ones.
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We do that with the quart and gallon ones! I've also been known to get more than one use out of a paper plate under the right circumstances! 🤣
 
Espeefan said:
We do that with the quart and gallon ones! I've also been known to get more than one use out of a paper plate under the right circumstances! 🤣
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I'm reusing cheese and ham zip lock baggies for months at a time to keep my sandwiches for work. Haven't bought ziplock baggies in years. After rewashing some and good drying, they are also used for spare parts of my locomotive project. Plastic grocery bags are used for garage trash bin where cat poop also goes in. Haven't bought trash bags for that bin in years. Plastic milk containers have been used as bowls for rust converter on car projects after cutting out the bottom and using that instead of dirtying up a regular bowl.
 
TLOC said:
UP.com has the full schedule for the eastern tour of #4014. If you haven’t seen it moving IMOO it is more than worth fighting the crowds


​

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I see its not coming thru my area again. I went to see it on the first run when it went thru Rochelle. I went to a crossing further down RT 38 so the crowds were much smaller. Plus we were able to get much closer and feel the vibration as it came closer and went by.

Here is a few photos of it.

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Note when speaking of Fry’s that there is also a Fry’s Food and Drug, now owned by Kroger.

It was founded by the Father of the guys who started Fry’s electronics. The grocery store was sold to Dillons in the early 70s, per Wikipedia. And they sold it to Kroger’s in the early 80s. Very big presence in Arizona. Except the same family being founders was unconnected to the electronics stores. Though the logo seems similar.
 
Costco run is done.

We're stocked up on TP. And I purchased ahead on a bunch of OTC meds and supplements.

Bought a pack of grassfed beef hamburgers. OUCH! that was twice what I paid last year.

Got some treats as well. Total of $273

Gas was really 4.99/gal here in the fort. Which made Costco's gas station PACKED, and I went at 10:30. Home by 11:30. It didn't get any less congested while I was in the store.
 
John from Indiana said:
Howdy all from NW Indiana. It feels like 27 outside (don't plant anything until the week after Mother's Day). The big happening here is the addition of a new "Data Center" that no one wants I don't recall how many hundred acres of farm land this thing is going to encompass; but NO ONE wants this except the mayor and his "select" committee that have approved this 100%. I have seen pictures of these giant land grabbing things all over the NW and no one wants one of those in their backyard...It's starts about a 1/2 miles from our house. So I'm pretty sure our property tax is going to skyrocket to pay for this waste of land, while our home value will go right down the toilet. We have a very weak mayor and he has let the down go to hell. The "data centers" require tons of electrical power and water. We lose power here about once every two months and I don't mean the lights flicker for a second and then come back on. We've got a section of town that has not had power for almost a week now and we are a small town @ 15,000. Suppose to take around 10 years to complete with "jobs for everyone" until completion and then they need only a couple of hundred people to run the entire complex. Everyone is pissed off about this.
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I agree with you.

John
 
KriegslokBR52 said:
This popped up on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1CFdJRNMS7/
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Hey Waitaminnit! I play Battletech!

Anyway good afternoon folks, 63 here and sunny today, might see rain late Friday, then supposed to get warmer.
Went to the Doctor this morning and had some spots that were possibly pre-cancerous frozen off. Gonna finish up some Battletech minis this afternoon, so Nyah! The gonna take my Missus out to dinner later, possibly one of the great-nieces if the time works out that way.
You guys have a great day.
 
chadbag said:
Note when speaking of Fry’s that there is also a Fry’s Food and Drug, now owned by Kroger.

It was founded by the Father of the guys who started Fry’s electronics. The grocery store was sold to Dillons in the early 70s, per Wikipedia. And they sold it to Kroger’s in the early 80s. Very big presence in Arizona. Except the same family being founders was unconnected to the electronics stores. Though the logo seems similar.
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Frys had a huge "electronics" store in Arlington Texas. They did a brisk business. They had about 24 check-out stations and even then, on occasion, I would have several customers ahead of me waiting for an open cashier. I bought some mother boards, desk top cases, hard drives and processors from them plus music CDs and software packages. I puchased a TV from them on a one day 50% off sale. They had an area of electronic components that was very well stocked that I enjoyed as Radio shack had all but removed their component section. They even had a long magazine rack and I remember buying Model Railroader and Railrod Model Craftsman there. I think they carried every magazine that was in publication covering any hobby or sports interest.
The Arlington store sold appliances, cameras kitchen gadgets, TVs, car stereos, home stereos. It was like a huge Best Buy and Micro Center mix.
I liked just looking around at all stuff they had and usually spent at least an hour seeing what was new.
There were two other stores around the Dallas metroplex area but the Arlington store was closest to me.

They moved into a building that had housed an "Incredible Universe" store. Anyone remember them?

All this had to be about 20 years ago or more.

John
 


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