Running Bear’s June 2025 Coffee Shop

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It wouldn't let me access it, since I don't have an Amazon.jp account. It's not really worth the effort, since I'd probably run the thing for about 5 minutes, and it would get put on a shelf.
You don't need an amazon JP account to look at stuff on the Amazon JP website. I do it all the time. In fact I just tested it by making sure I was logged out and clinking the link above.

You can't check out without one, but you can use your Amazon US credentials and it will create a new Amazon JP account for you automatically (at least that's how it worked for me back when I created mine and I think it still works that way as I recently did it on a Amazon website in Europe).

I'm mainly interested in the challenge putting a decoder in it than anything... It's a funny thing to show people when they come over I would imagine, as well...
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps, and those who like watching the poo train go round and round,

It's Troy again.

Woke up at 4:20 for a pee run. (Insert your own "pot" pun if you are so inclined). Tried to sleep again but gave up at 4:50. Coffee is brewed and the reading of the interwebz has commenced - and the writing on the webz as well.

I've written up a recap of my Pilgrimage to the Holy of Holies for the American Civll War. This piece is going in the regional Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS-Great Lakes) newsletter.

Here's a photo that will probably accompany the piece. Even my wife is confused about why Uncle Dan Sickles would position his corps out in the distant rocks (Devils Den), when Little Round Top where she's standing has a great view, and even more big rocks.

Where is Sickles.png
 


It's 7 pm Saturday. Another baseball game on TV. Same two teams as yesterday but the Orix Bluewave are ahead 2-0 in the 4th.

Trying to figure out some stuff on a programming assessment I had for a job two months ago that I am updating and enhancing as a learning experience (and to re-apply since the job is still open). Stuck on some details of some new changes in the Swift language. My head hurts reading the web pages that go over it.

Been a low key day. Besides the Daiso trip earlier I've been here working on the computer doing various chores. Wife and daughter went shopping to buy cosmetics and personal care stuff. They did bring some awesome donuts back from Mister Donut.
 
So I was wrong about last nights baseball game and tonight's. It's Hanshin Tigers vs Orix Buffaloes. The Orix Blue Wave merged with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes back in 2004 and became the Orix Buffaloes. The Blue Wave is where Ichiro Suzuki played.

Last night's games 1-0 Tigers in 10 innings. Earlier it was Orix up 2-0 but now it's 2-8 Tigers in the 8th.

What does all of this have to do with Railroads? The team that became the BlueWave was the Hankyu Braves way back when, before it was sold to Orix. Hankyu is a commercial group that grew out of the Hankyu railroad -- owners of the Braves back then, which is a major and crown piece of the Hankyu group today. (Orix is a financial services company). The team the BlueWave merged with, the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes was owned by Kintetsu railway.

The Hanshin Tigers are owned or managed by the Hanshin railway company. Hanshin railway is now part of the Hankyu group (who originally owned the Braves -- see above) after a merger of the railways a couple decades ago approximately.

(In Japan professional baseball the teams are named after their corporate owners or managers).

EDIT: final is 2-8 Tigers
 
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The desert is going to be warm again today. 77f degrees at 5am heading to 106. Sunrise is at 5:22 but it’s light enough for a morning walk. But we are waiting for the official sunrise before we head out. The walker is ready as is the bear spray and a .45 being hauled in the seat of the walker! We are both licensed. The goal today is 20 minutes out from the house, pause for 5 minutes and head back. Yesterday’s walk was good but it wore out the brother. When I asked the PT if we over did it she said no, walking like that and a 40 minute nap after is good for him.

We had a good dinner last night at a non casino restaurant last night. I don’t normally order a steak out but It was delicious. Terry had a dish of stone crab that she shared and they were great. She loved her main dish of Chilean Sea Bass, I tried some and it was good but I’d prefer shrimp to any fish. A local place the g/f wanted to try. The son’s office manager and her partner will be here this morning. They already had plans to come Sunday night to Vegas but there was some seats on a flight so they will stay here tonight. Dinner today will be Mexican out on the patio. Party time. The brother has invited some golf buddies and neighbors. The son, his g/f and his office manager with partner are going to casino hop after dinner tonight.

Enjoy your day
 
So we had some bad news yesterday about the passing of Shigeo Nagashima, Mr. Baseball in Japan. He had a stroke several years ago, and I was actually surprised that he was still kicking. My understanding is that Mr. Baseball (tom selleck) was based on him.

Today's Tokyo Giants game was in honor of him.
 


Good morning, 56 and sunny in east central Minnesota. We had rain for a day or so, it is great to see the sun and smell those shrub flowers in bloom! We have a ton of them right now.

I finished the new little depot building, have to blend it into the landscape yet. It will be lighted (when I get the bus wire run for accessories).

I had to reduce its size a bit but from the road end it is a pretty good copy of the prototype. It is shortened and the scene is condensed on the layout, but I think it will work out fine.

Today I will be spraying more weeds, mowing a couple areas with the rider, and doing landscaping on the layout. This morning I was out switching a bunch of box cars that were in the vicinity of the depot, to clear the area for the landscaping project.

Dave LASM
 
How long will it take you to get back into a normal pattern once you get back?

A long few days though really being back is a week or slightly longer. The worst is the first few days.

My experience with travel is that E to W is a lot easier to handle than W to E. This was backed up by a study by the US Army that they did back in the 20th century with rotations of soldiers to Europe. The jet lag getting to Europe took a couple days longer to deal with than coming back to the US.

When we went to Sweden in 2016 we had the same experience. Going there we were dead for the first day. Like not get out of bed and do things dead. Coming back wasn't that bad.

Coming to Japan is not bad. Especially when most of the time you get here in the afternoon to evening so staying up until normal Japan bed time is not hard. For those coming from N America, you tend to wake up at like 3am or 4am for a few days but you quickly adjust. Using a low dose of melatonin when you go to bed in the new location helps that be overcome more quickly.

Going back to the US you feel literally dead for a day or two and tired for longer. The very first time I went to Japan, in 2000, when I was young and relatively fit, when I got back to New Hampshire I was dead and couldn't get out of bed for a day. Everything was lead.

Because of our going to Korea and then Las Vegas and a few hour layover in Las Vegas, we won't get to SLC until after 9pm this time. So we can go right to bed at the new time. Some times you come back straight and (for West Coasters at least) earlier in the day, thanks to the international date line. One time we flew directly Tokyo to SLC on Delta and we were home by like 1pm or something. That was hard since you need to stay up until the new locales evening time.

I need to remember to move the heat pump cooling temp down 2 degrees before we leave and also to move the hot water heater off vacation mode and to heat pump mode so that it slowly warms up and we have hot water when we get home. (Once home I'll turn it back to hybrid so that it re-heats quickly when used).
 
Good morning all!

Currently 66F heading up to a high of 77F. Looks like some rain will move into the area later this afternoon. Don't really
have any outdoor things to do, so it wont matter, We probably could use some more rain.

Home alone tonight. My wife, daughter and wife's sister are heading into Chicago to see a WNBA game tonight. They wanted
to go see Caitlyn Clark play but due to an injury, she is not scheduled to play. Everyone is pretty bummed about that since
it was the reason they are all going. It doesn't interest me, so I'm sitting this one out.

Last night in the train room I did some more blending of rock castings and picked up a little. Should have some photos up
in the build thread later.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Morning all,

Went out yesterday afternoon to see 3 sections of fencing down from the storm apparently Thursday night. Didn't see it until I went to get the mower out. Then overnight another storm dumping another inch of rain and more wind. Fence breaking is getting old, but the wife reminded me it is in every picture we've seen of the house online, so it may be as old as the house (25 years). At least it happened before my knee replacement.

Currently 67 and cloudy. Muggy high of 86° later.
 
Good Morning All. It's mostly cloudy and already 80°, or should I say it only dropped down to 80° last night. It's only temporary, back into the 60's and low-70's starting tonight. Rain is predicted for Tuesday through Friday next week. Very uncomfortable out there this morning with no wind and 84% humidity.

Off to a late start this morning. Granddogs decided to chase a rabbit off into the wheat field next door while we were on the far end of our morning walk. Took forever to round them both back up and head for home. The rabbits are usually long gone by the time I walk, so this was unexpected. I had to stay and call because I wasn't sure that they could find their way back to the house, or out of the field for that matter.
I resumed mowing again, and dealt with cutting and splitting firewood yesterday. I plan to stack it today. I was able to mow the largest section that I do, the east side of the yard. Technically that's the front yard of about 1.2 acres. I'll catch the west side aka the back yard around the pool etc, today. In the garden, I removed the remainder of the green pea vines and picked more Tomatoes. Picked the first three of the Early Girl variety along with some more of the 4th of July variety. Those 4th of July ones are early ripening, but they are only averaging 3-4 oz each; the Early Girl's are 6-7 oz. Looks like Yellow Squash either tomorrow or Monday.
Gotta do laundry today and vacuum some more, there's dog hair everywhere in two rooms.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I mainly ran trains again. I did take the cardstock drug store to the paint booth for a coat of dull coat, to reduce paint fading. It occurs even under the fluorescent lights. While running an intermodal train, I FINALLY found a well car that I've been looking for for over 2 years. This part has been on the workbench since I found it during a periodical layout cleaning back in 2023.
1749305923383.png

Several unsuccessful attempts were made to find the car with the missing platform, and I finally found it yesterday.
1749306030205.jpeg

Note that there is a mounting hole only on the left side, which may be the reason that the platform fell off this Intermountain car.
1749306154949.jpeg

It took a while and some deft maneuvering to drill a hole there, but eventually I was successful.
1749306252065.jpeg

However I got it just a little too far to the outboard side and had to go back and enlarge both holes a bit so the mounting pins would go in properly. A couple of dabs of Gorilla gap-filling super glue took care of the oversize holes and here is the result.
1749306467550.png

Another minor but time consuming project off the list.

Troy - The Zucchini noodles are interesting, that's what I make for my wife and her Keto diet. They're OK, but I prefer real wheat pasta myself.

Everyone have a super Saturday and enjoy the weekend.
 
Daiso, another place to go broke saving money.
I went to Ormond Beach this morning, and went broke there saving money. I got a lot of cool stuff for really cheap prices, but even 80% off a thousand dollar engine is $200... It looks like the BLI Big Boy is around $750 list, and the Reading T1 isn't far behind. I also picked up an Athearn Challenger they'd bought for research, and several diesels.

Has anybody heard from Karl?
 


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