Running Bear’s June 2025 Coffee Shop

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Good morning all. A warm, sunny day with showers forecast later.

Dawn's ideal breakfast.
Eggs Benedict with crispy bacon. A pot of tea.

My ideal breakfast.
Frosties (Theyy'rrrre Great), A Full English, A pot of tea.

Dawn is having a 'Girls Night'. Daughter will be here and a few friends.
I and the grandchildren will be in the Study out of the way.
 


Don't feel bad. I've been known to forget the hotdogs; until all the water boils away. I didn't notice until I smelled the smoke.

I did it to one of my wife's favorite little pots so many times the bottom fell out. It was a good pot from a set from Costco.
Warming up some milk used to be my downfall. Turn away to 'quickly do something else', FATAL.

'Keep stirring until the correct temperature', my grandmother would say. Heed her advice.
 
Easy day at Amazon today. Show up, no routes/blocks, get paid and go home.

We made effective use of our time. I checked the temperatures of the new Maytag refrigerator/freezer, both perfect. The little refrigerator/freezer on the back porch and the chest freezer are now both empty and turned off. I'm hoping for a net savings on the electric bill.

I finished watching the Orioles Rays game. Birds 22 - Rays 8. Now I have the Rundown recap on. It sounds more like the score for a Ravens vs Buccaneers game. It's good to finally be on the fun side of a blowout.

My wife is happy with her beast of a refrigerator/freezer. I'll be happy if we save even a penny on the electric bill. I'm always happy to watch baseball. Life is good, thank God.
 
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Good morning! It's 73°F and partly cloudy. 🌤️

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Full English! Have a great Saturday! ;)
 
Good morning, it’s mostly clear and 77.
In the “companies shooting themselves in the foot” department, we suddenly are experiencing a surge in sales, to the point we don’t have enough people to handle it all, and we’re losing sales because of lack of staff. If the company hadn’t fired so many people less than two weeks ago, we’d have enough help…
 


I've made one of my discoveries, this time about space requirements and availability.
I looked around inside the place I live, and discovered something I already knew. This is what is known as a "bunkhouse" model, which means there are several spaces for people to sleep. In beds, and bed-like things. And I realized the area where my workshop/project area is, originally had a pair of twin beds stacked over each other. Those beds were 3x6, and had pretty solid platforms. So, I can move a couple of things around, put one of the bed bases back in, and have an instant 3x6 layout base. That would give me room for an oval with 15" radius curves for simply running, if I wanted to do that, and/or an area more than large enough for a switching layout. I don't know if there's room to have it both ways. A simple loop would get pretty boring pretty quick, but a switching layout wouldn't really give me enough space for anything to really "go somewhere". I could build an N scale layout in the area, but the reason I'm looking at HO is the small size of N, and the layout I have now is 3x6.5, so it wouldn't make much sense to just build something smaller with the same scale size restraint.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 75°, probably will hit 95° later on. Nothing new in the forecast except they have removed Monday's chance of rain. It almost rained here yesterday, but it all stayed just across the border in Oklahoma. However we did get some cooling north wind as the result of the outflow from the storms, and it got pretty dark.

Yesterday was Tomato canning day. I had enough ripe ones for seven and a half pints.
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The half pint is on the left, the partially filled jar on the right is my first failure this season. Some of the contents came out and it didn't seal. Once it cooled off, I just poured the contents into a Ziplock freezer bag and into the freezer it went. On the next Tomato canning session, it will come out and get mixed into the next batch rather than getting lost in the freezer. It happens!
Took a look around the garden and I will have to pick the last batch of Green Beans this morning. Probably will only get enough for 4-5 more pints after I hold some out for fresh eating in the next few days. Other tasks yesterday included weedeating and mowing with the tractor. It's been 13 days since the last rain but everything is still lush and growing. I also went up the hill and helped my elderly neighbor make some emergency repairs on his carport. Normally his son and DIL, also neighbors, would help but they took their travel trailer out Thursday night for a weekend of outdoor life. And I call him elderly...he's just 7 years older than me.

Today will start in the garden, a load of laundry and the monthly septic tank maintenance. I also need to make the trip to fill up the gas cans for the tractor.

Out in the train shed yesterday, it was another shortened day, as this time of year I have to work some pool time in every day. But I did attack the white metal push mower handle. As I posted yesterday, there is no template for it in the kit. I know what it's supposed to look like. So I went out and measured mine to come up with the dimensions that came close and then started bending the provided wire. While it isn't exactly symmetrical, it's close and I'm going with it. It took more time than I wanted, but I no longer try to rush modeling.
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It's now drying in the paint booth with it's coating of primer.
I kept looking at the metal sprue that came with the parts for the riding mower on it.
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What can I do with that? I came up with a pile of pipe that I will add to my scrapyard after painting and weathering.
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I may use that blob that's still left, but I haven't figured out what it could represent. Any suggestions?

David - Have a good and safe trip next week. Looks like an idyllic place to be headed to. If I remember right, you posted some stuff about that rail station turned guesthouse in the past.
Troy - First time that I ever read or heard "above the fold". Quite an appropriate description. I like it!
Marlin - I have the same dermatological issues, never wore a hat outdoors until 2010, and my 45 mile afternoon commute home when I still worked was straight north; with my left arm and face on the west. I drove with the window open most of the time. I get the freeze treatment every six months, although it moves around a bit. Had a couple of spots surgically removed and one spot physically burned with some sort of blowtorch!
Terry -
when did kids in commercials become illegal?
It was never made completely illegal, but became more restrictive around 1990 or so.

Among today's birthdays, are Elon Musk (54), John Elway (65) and Mel Brooks (99). I didn't realize John was that old, nor did I realize that Mel was still alive. It's also my daughter #2's birthday at 44.
Everybody have a great Saturday.
 
Would two levels be possible?
The bottom "bunk" is at floor level. While I like trains as much as the next guy, my knees and back couldn't take it. Adding to that, a helix would take up half the space available on each "bed", and the end result would be exactly the same usable space as if it were on a single level. It's not a bad idea, just not doable in the space available.
 
I just got up. The internet is still out (and not a peep from my provider twelve hours later!), and I'm still stuck on my cell phone. Going back to bed and sleeping for a while longer since I got to bed really late anyway; will check in later if I have time.

I think I'm supposed to be installing a new light in my folks' laundry room today, so we'll see what happens.

Or I may end up down there just to leech off their internet...

It's going to be one of those weekends apparently. :(
 
Good morning from here! A bright morning with nary a cloud in the sky. Back to the 90’s today. No rain chance higher than 15% until Sunday night at 11 per the WeatherChannel guessing app. It will probably rain in an hour!

I sat at my bench yesterday and accomplished a few things. But mainly started on diesels that are to be delivered in July. It felt good to have a reason other than pultzing with my own stuff. I was there from 11:30am till 5:45 when I went to help prepare dinner. I took 15 minute breaks every hour per a rule I have to get up and walk away. I could and have been known in days past to work there 12 to 16 hours when on a roll. Now I use a timer and mostly obey it.

The daughter has a concert with her girl gang tonight and the son in law and grandson won VIP (wow) tickets to a soccer match tonight. The granddaughter will be with us. We asked her last night what she wanted for dinner (normally chicken strips or tenders). Shocking to both Terry and me, steak on the grill with steak fries in the air fryer and green beans. So I will grill, Terry will handle the green beans and the always there salads and the granddaughter will do the steak fries in the Airfryer.

The SIL, the grandson, the surveyor and me are heading over to the vineyard around 9am. We will grab one of the ATVs to check out a few things but mainly some adjacent property. His vineyard cannot afford to buy anymore property at this time and we both had an opportunity a few weeks ago to buy 300 acres from a neighbor to the vineyard’s property and we passed. The farmer called Terry yesterday and he’s in a tough situation like the last farm property I purchased a few years ago. He’s sick but other than his wife they have no family remaining in Wisconsin. It was overpriced a few weeks ago and not suitable for residential or commercial development. So in an area where real estate sells like hot cakes he’s got a lousy piece. Plus it’s really off the beaten path. But it fits perfectly as a vineyard or crop land like it is with its good soil, rolling hills and mostly gentle slopes. But those slopes and distance from a State or County road are what make it unsellable at the price for residential he wanted a few weeks ago. All Terry promised him is we would look it over today. He will join us with his wife at 11 at our house.
 
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I just made an interesting discovery about the credit union I’ve belonged to for the last decade and a half.
I have a personal loan through them, and it has a current balance of $605.58. I decided to make an additional payment of $5.58, to make it an even $600.
I made the payment, then checked the account balance. Imagine my surprise when the balance was $602.42, instead of $600.There is no explanation at all where the missing money went, it just shows balances. If I had to guess, they charged me $3 or so for me to move my money from one of my accounts in the credit union to another account in the same credit union.
 
I've made one of my discoveries, this time about space requirements and availability.
I looked around inside the place I live, and discovered something I already knew. This is what is known as a "bunkhouse" model, which means there are several spaces for people to sleep. In beds, and bed-like things. And I realized the area where my workshop/project area is, originally had a pair of twin beds stacked over each other. Those beds were 3x6, and had pretty solid platforms. So, I can move a couple of things around, put one of the bed bases back in, and have an instant 3x6 layout base. That would give me room for an oval with 15" radius curves for simply running, if I wanted to do that, and/or an area more than large enough for a switching layout. I don't know if there's room to have it both ways. A simple loop would get pretty boring pretty quick, but a switching layout wouldn't really give me enough space for anything to really "go somewhere". I could build an N scale layout in the area, but the reason I'm looking at HO is the small size of N, and the layout I have now is 3x6.5, so it wouldn't make much sense to just build something smaller with the same scale size restraint.
Sounds like you have made your decision. Now, time to be creative. Assuming you use foam for the base, you could safely extend 3" over each edge, giving you an additional 6", if you need it. Have fun developing your idea.
 


I just made an interesting discovery about the credit union I’ve belonged to for the last decade and a half.
I have a personal loan through them, and it has a current balance of $605.58. I decided to make an additional payment of $5.58, to make it an even $600.
I made the payment, then checked the account balance. Imagine my surprise when the balance was $602.42, instead of $600.There is no explanation at all where the missing money went, it just shows balances. If I had to guess, they charged me $3 or so for me to move my money from one of my accounts in the credit union to another account in the same credit union.
Credit Unions, are different in so many ways, from commercial banks. But they have strayed from the original intent. I belong to what was once the Reading Company Employees Credit Union. It has changed from what it was. They are getting away from the concept of you're a shareholder to you're a credit risk, you're lucky we let you belong, and we don't have to tell you anything.
The only reason, I still belong is a 4% Second Mortgage, and once it's paid, they're toast.
Even a commercial bank doesn't charge you for moving money from one account to another. I move money from my primary bank to the CU and the Brokerage account monthly without charge... Maybe you should call them, something isn't right.
 
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