Running Bear’s April 2026 Coffee Shop

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Morning fellow coffee shop denizens. 61 here in the Milwaukee area, with cloudy skies but no rain forecast. Got the grass cut yesterday. Looks like another season of "cut every four days" as wet as it's going to be. Gotta grab an air filter for the Snapper this weekend. I checked it and it's not terrible, but it looks "iffy". Fish fry today! I know what a concrete mixer is, but I tend to limit myself to a single scoop in a cup or cone infrequently due to Dunlop Disease. Electric mowers weren't as heavily promoted when I bought the Snapper as they are now. If I was going to do it today, I'd for sure consider one. I have electric ratchets, drivers, lawn blower, weed whacker, and even a little electric chainsaw. They work just fine.
 
Decided to take a well deserved break from laundry and other household duties and found my chair had been taken over!

Thats her I only move for a treat look! 😀

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You do know Culver’s has seats inside you can sit at?
I repeatedly point that out to my wife. Especially since we're sitting in them while we eat our butter burgers... but she insists that frozen treats must be eaten at home in front of the TV.

Fortunately, when we go the other direction, stop at Penn Station for Sandwiches and then to Handles Ice Cream right next door, she's fooled by the change of location, and I can get her to sit on the patio there. We do have three more stop lights to go through getting home from Handles, so even she doesn't want her ice cream a soupy mess in that case....
 
Good day to all...........

I have trying to learn FreeCAD, as some know. I have had some difficulty making things work even following along keystroke by keystroke from tutorials. Then I ran across a new video yesterday that mentioned a glitch in the new version of FreeCAD ( the one I am using ). I have been getting the very same screen notification that was mentioned in the new video and have been very frustrated because of it. I hope to apply the fix mentioned in the new video and hopefully have some success on my parts. All this time I thought I was goofing something.....oh well.

I finally got my cows painted ( all 64 of them ) and they turned out ok. I added a wash to most and they look pretty good. I'll need to add them to my stock pen for the packing company building.

I ordered some green paint for a Sinclair gas station project along with a couple of J L Innovations gas pumps. And I have a Blair Line General Store I started several years ago that I haved revived and hope to finish soon. These will be in a scene together, I hope.

Harris Hobbies notified me the BLI "BullMoose" Union Pacific locomotives will ship in a couple of weeks. I ordered an early "stealth" version last April so I'm looking forward to receiving that item.

Everyone have a great weekend....John
 
Good Friday evening all!

Today did a dump run to get rid of a trailer full of junk including a queen size mattress that was heavier than a dead priest. Took everything I had to get it up in the dumpster that I was directed to put it in. Then off to Lowes for 25 bags of mulch in the trailer, then home. After lunch came the weed spraying, the trimming , the mowing of the lawn. I did manage to mulch some of the trees. I'll do the rest later this weekend. Wifey can do the flower beds. Around 4:30 I retreated to the basement (it's cooler down there). After dinner we did a BJ's run. Afterward I did glue some foam in place of the bridge approach. . More on that tomorrow.

I would like to (if I may) put out an APB for a particular model. As some of you may know (or may not) the lovely Sharon and I were married at a place called Worship Rock on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. She does want me to have a small Grand Canyon Railway train. The cars are easy, decals are available, so are the core cars. The tough part is the locos. We've settled on the FPA-4s . The F40s are ugly, she no like. Rapido did them in the 1st run of the FPA-4s, but not the current run. That being said if any of you guys happen to see one of them at a hobby shop or know of one for sale, please forward the info. It's not often SWMBO says "go get on of these". I do have a standing search on eBay, no joy in the last 6 months.
DSCF2475.JPG

This is the "reserve power" loco, in case the regular power fails enroute , stored at the Grand Canyon village.​
 


Good morning Coffee Shop, it's Saturday! The temperature is 55°F (13°C) and partly cloudy. :cool:
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DINER_COFFEE CUP.jpg
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Have a great day! ;)

WEATHER:
High of 72° today
Partly cloudy then becoming mostly cloudy toward daybreak then becoming partly cloudy then becoming sunny late this afternoon. Patchy fog toward daybreak. Highs in the lower 70s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph becoming north 10 to 15 mph.
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with pots, instant or otherwise

It's Troy again.

The great instant pot adventure was a bit of success, and a bit of bust yesterday.

You might recall that that I was going to make cowboy beans in the brand new instant pot mini, and do stovetop for the red tomato rice for a mexican themed night.

Well... Troy forgot to run the test cook on the instant pot.

So, I'm cooking away, getting the cowboy parts of the Charro bean mix ready (Rotel tomatoes, onion, garlic):

beans.jpg


Just about time to add that to the instant pot with the soaking beans, and I remember about doing the test cook. Three cups of water, fire it up... So I did!
Screenshot 2026-04-25 at 7.33.33 AM.png


Problems began.... I noticed it venting a LOT of steam.... and after 10 minutes it was still on preheat... hmmmm

Hit google, and realize I'd forgotten something:

Screenshot 2026-04-25 at 7.33.25 AM.png


That red warning tag under the steam vent was supposed to be removed. So I yanked it out... kindof...

Seems you need to pull up the steam vent cap. It's a big hunk of metal that sits over the steam vent. And the tag had a ring around the steam vent pipe the black cap was covering. Yanking it removed the tab, but not the ring of paper under it.

After 10 minutes in the steam bath, it was a soggy mess, and got under the steam release lever. And it was too hot to get in and clean it out. Then Run another test that takes about 20 minutes with the preheat...

So beans on the stovetop! For 90 minutes instead of the 45 it should have taken.

We only ate 90 minutes after we had planned.

Wife did pronounce the dish suitable to make again. And we have left-overs for about four meals (two each person).

Wife also said we're going out to purchase the artificial flowers she needs for family graves. Her grandparents have the pop-up vases next to the markers. Her father get's a "saddle" in Red, White, and Blue over the headstone. Mother-in-law isn't up to driving to see all the grave sites, but she sees her parents after the flowers are placed. The girls take photos of Dad's site to show her.

So, I'm in charge of driving and carrying, and ordering the pizza for lunch.
 
Good morning all!

A cloudy hazy start to the day but it should burn off by mid morning to become mostly sunny. Currently its 48F with an expected
high of 69F. Had the bedroom window cracked a quarter of the way last night and it was perfect sleeping. Slept in till around 7am
which is rare for me.

Today is weekly grocery shopping, laundry, car fill ups, etc.. I will probably mow later but I have to wait till I hit the gas station since
my gas can is empty. I have been using the gas I got in the late fall for the snow blower and have finally run that out.

Not much of anything else going on at the moment. Time to hit the coffee and enjoy the quiet with the dog since no one else is
up yet.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Good morning Crew. We should hit 70f degrees today. Rain chances are at 15% for another 32 minutes when it drops to 2% for the next 48 hours. I predict we will get some rain as the radar shows a storm coming right across our area at 11. Who really knows it all a guess.

Grandson has soccer on the home field today at 11 which means we are going. He has 6 goals in 6 games this season (all away) as they are undefeated. No girls on his team this year as the 4 they’ve had for years moved on to the all girls team this season. All 4 were very good. New 13 year old goalie is 6’1” and covers the net pretty good. Same coaching staff this year as last and per the Son in Law the kids seem to be buying in better so far this season and the coach has changed his style some to match the kids. Basically he’s not shifting positions of the players during the game unless there is an injury or short players. The parents really were vocal last year about changes within the game. Oh yeah, it’s that kind of team parents. Sometimes more excitement on the sideline than the game. Of the 16 players 6 are new comers to the core that have played together since kindergarten

Again Friday I never went in the train room. Maybe this afternoon.

The grandson when he cuts my yard now has the 2 adjacent yards to cut. Good money for a kid.

Enjoy the day
 
Good Friday evening all!

Today did a dump run to get rid of a trailer full of junk including a queen size mattress that was heavier than a dead priest. Took everything I had to get it up in the dumpster that I was directed to put it in. Then off to Lowes for 25 bags of mulch in the trailer, then home. After lunch came the weed spraying, the trimming , the mowing of the lawn. I did manage to mulch some of the trees. I'll do the rest later this weekend. Wifey can do the flower beds. Around 4:30 I retreated to the basement (it's cooler down there). After dinner we did a BJ's run. Afterward I did glue some foam in place of the bridge approach. . More on that tomorrow.

I would like to (if I may) put out an APB for a particular model. As some of you may know (or may not) the lovely Sharon and I were married at a place called Worship Rock on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. She does want me to have a small Grand Canyon Railway train. The cars are easy, decals are available, so are the core cars. The tough part is the locos. We've settled on the FPA-4s . The F40s are ugly, she no like. Rapido did them in the 1st run of the FPA-4s, but not the current run. That being said if any of you guys happen to see one of them at a hobby shop or know of one for sale, please forward the info. It's not often SWMBO says "go get on of these". I do have a standing search on eBay, no joy in the last 6 months.
View attachment 264089
This is the "reserve power" loco, in case the regular power fails enroute , stored at the Grand Canyon village.​
I was able to see both ALCo FA in action (although demoted to power packs by LIRR), as well as many F40PHs. While the F40 will always place behind the streamlined units with its angular shape, compared with what we are treated to recently (Chargers 💩🥶) the F40 has definitely got my vote for modern passenger power (behind beautiful Genesis series of course). And the sound of the "Screamers" is unique in its own sense.
 


60°F this morning at 0800. Got to sleep in this morning until 0700 undisturbed. Couldn't believe I slept through the night/morning.

St. Louis lost last night after stranding several runners during the innings. They couldn't get anything to work last night. Pitching was good from both sides, but I thought Pallante would do better, but no errors during the game. That is the first game I've seen on TV in years. We don't usually get to see St. Louis play locally.

I was going to cut grass today, but I think I'll save it for Monday. Have a great Saturday!

Servus!
 
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