Running Bear's April 2023 Coffee Shop

[Patrick]

Morning all,

So far today should be slow enough for me to get back on track. We'll know more as people arrive.

Currently 49° and cloudy going for clearing skies and 60° later. Some rain potential tomorrow afternoon and evening. We got a whopping 1/3" yesterday and last evening. Wife said she didn't remember her parents watering the garden like I have been, I told her they never planted in the equivalent of talcum powder either. Yes it's been that dry, but the garden space is at least damp at the plant root level.

 

[wombat457]

I received a reply to my "wanting to buy" topic of Roundhouse Arch Roof cars.
Here is the message:

I got a message from Mallen990 as a local seller, it's my old friend and very honest person, message me about HO, Union Pacific Arch-Roof coach cars by Roundhouse for sale... Thought I'm still interested and I've get one few days ago, kindly check on him maybe it's still available... Here's his Email [email protected].

The message came from "loopki98".
I checked on this member and seems he just joined about 45 minutes before he send me this message. I am just a bit skeptical here.
I sent an e-mail to [email protected] telling I was interested in the cars. I also sent him a copy of the message I received from the forum.
I am curious of what to expect.
Any input here would be appreciated.

Take care....John

That member IS a scammer and he was BANNED by me when I was advised of his scam by another member last night. There is a group of individuals on the internet pulling this same scam, using the same message and sending it to various forum members.

My advice is simple - IGNORE IT and DO NOT respond to it.

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from a warming Wisconsin. Our part of the state should see 60’s today but with gusts of wind into the high 20mph.

Today, I will double check the mower and use it this afternoon or for sure tomorrow. The grass is very green and getting shaggy. Saturday morning is a op session and possible rains so I need to do this. I got a message from the City yesterday to register for No Mow May. At the rate the grasses are growing around here if you follow No Mow May you may never find your yard again. I follow, the grass is long, Cut It in May!

I posted some completed weathered container pictures online yesterday (also at the Continuous weathering thread here) for a California modeler. Then I got a FB message from the local guy I was doing his stack and spline car trains and containers. Said he hasn’t heard from me and was wondering how the project was coming. Replied back, I have been waiting for your daughter to pick up the items done and the stuff I am not doing. He replied back, I thought we got by your “hissy“ fit, I then replied back no I was still waiting for your apology and payments, please check your Paypal for the past due invoices sent on additional work done. Terry chuckled when I mentioned the exchange last night. She met him as he is unaware that he is the sub-contractor for the stone and brick work on our new house.

I did already hit golf balls this morning for 30 minutes. I am ready for some Vegas golf. I will hit balls again around lunch time and then around dinner. This is day 3 of the planned 90 minute tree making sessions. The 3 daily sessions have made me focus and I should be done today with the third session just being touch ups (I hope). I have some foam cut to hold the 9 trees I will gift on Saturday and a bigger piece to hold the balance of the 25 total trees I have been processing.

The son will be back Saturday afternoon to fly us out to Vegas on Sunday. He will stay with us a couple nights and is bringing a friend, not a girl friend along. When I asked, friend with benefits, he said yes for about 10 years. I can’t keep up with him other then I know he doesn’t plan to get married. He has had a few long term (for him 1 year is long term) but as soon as she brings up marriage they are gone.

enjoy the day

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Cloudy and 57° on the prairies of North Central Texas. The off and on thunderstorms yesterday ended just after noon and we had sun for a couple of hours. I had 0.9" in the rain gauge, enough to soak everything and make the world start growing like crazy. Read that as the yard will be overwhelming real soon. While rain is predicted again for Friday night, temperatures will be in the 70's for a while.

Happy that I had gotten the garden completely mulched except the most recent green bean row, before it rained. I have flowers on many green peas and tomatoes right now. I should be picking the peas near May 14 or so, with tomatoes (if these flowers pollinate), around June 1. I have picked as early as Memorial Day before, but that's just Cherry Tomatoes. Most of my Lettuce crop was lost when the granddog dug up that row, but once everything dries out this afternoon, I should be picking off the outer leaves of the remaining leaf lettuce. Pick off just the outer leaves and the rest of the plant keeps growing until it gets too hot in 5-6 more weeks.

I never really counted down the days to retirement because I ended up retiring early (63) and waiting a few years before applying for SS and Medicare. I sat down and made a spreadsheet one July 4th weekend and compared expenses, future income via SS, and retirement accounts and decided to pull the plug. Went to work the following Monday and wrote the two-week notice. That was 2015. Never looked back! They ended up telling me to go a couple days early and I still collected paychecks for about 6 more weeks.

Weekly grocery/beer trek day today. Let's see where costs are this week. Been relatively steady for a few weeks, but with very few exceptions, prices have not come down as a result of decreasing inflation. Never have in the past! I think that a lot of suppliers increased in the name of inflation when it was not justified, and are now raking in record profits. Just look at some of the financial reports lately.
I'm still waiting to hear from the hearing aid center about my hearing aids. Thankfully they worked out this "loaner" pair. Today marks four weeks at the lab for repair!

Spent most of my time inside the house yesterday on the "honey do" list, and I only visited the train shed late. Mostly puttered around doing odd tasks. I really have had the urge to do some kind of modeling lately, so I got out a P2K freight car kit to assemble.

As many of you already know, these are not "shake the box" kits. I did one back in January which I documented more closely than here. This is the progress after the first 23 parts were in place.

Alas, I did break one of the very delicate pipes.

I will work on that today.
I have made at least 20 of these cars since they came out in the late 90's, and I recall breaking this pipe before. This is the second of four that I purchased at the train show in January.

Todd - Seems like you'll be renovating the whole upstairs. Amazing that the house was built in Montana with no insulation on the second floor. Unless it's a hundred years old or something. Maybe Guy can come by to help! He's only about 600 miles away, not far in your end of the world.
Patrick - I didn't think of it yesterday during the Meat Loaf discussion, but he lived a few miles away from me in Dallas in the 60's. I didn't know of him (never met) until the late 70's, but it's possible that I saw him playing high school football back then. He was a few years older.
Tom O - Yep! Being retired is indeed a full time job. One of the first tasks that I had to do after retiring was to rehab a couple of acres of yard that had gotten away from me the previous years. That took two years. Now, it's keeping up with medical appointments and hospitalizations.

Although it has nothing to do with either his birthday, death day or retirement, today is National Babe Ruth Day.
Everyone have a wonderful day.

 

[CGW121]

Good Morning All. Cloudy and 57° on the prairies of North Central Texas. The off and on thunderstorms yesterday ended just after noon and we had sun for a couple of hours. I had 0.9" in the rain gauge, enough to soak everything and make the world start growing like crazy. Read that as the yard will be overwhelming real soon. While rain is predicted again for Friday night, temperatures will be in the 70's for a while.

Happy that I had gotten the garden completely mulched except the most recent green bean row, before it rained. I have flowers on many green peas and tomatoes right now. I should be picking the peas near May 14 or so, with tomatoes (if these flowers pollinate), around June 1. I have picked as early as Memorial Day before, but that's just Cherry Tomatoes. Most of my Lettuce crop was lost when the granddog dug up that row, but once everything dries out this afternoon, I should be picking off the outer leaves of the remaining leaf lettuce. Pick off just the outer leaves and the rest of the plant keeps growing until it gets too hot in 5-6 more weeks.

I never really counted down the days to retirement because I ended up retiring early (63) and waiting a few years before applying for SS and Medicare. I sat down and made a spreadsheet one July 4th weekend and compared expenses, future income via SS, and retirement accounts and decided to pull the plug. Went to work the following Monday and wrote the two-week notice. That was 2015. Never looked back! They ended up telling me to go a couple days early and I still collected paychecks for about 6 more weeks.

Weekly grocery/beer trek day today. Let's see where costs are this week. Been relatively steady for a few weeks, but with very few exceptions, prices have not come down as a result of decreasing inflation. Never have in the past! I think that a lot of suppliers increased in the name of inflation when it was not justified, and are now raking in record profits. Just look at some of the financial reports lately.
I'm still waiting to hear from the hearing aid center about my hearing aids. Thankfully they worked out this "loaner" pair. Today marks four weeks at the lab for repair!

Spent most of my time inside the house yesterday on the "honey do" list, and I only visited the train shed late. Mostly puttered around doing odd tasks. I really have had the urge to do some kind of modeling lately, so I got out a P2K freight car kit to assemble.
View attachment 167274
As many of you already know, these are not "shake the box" kits. I did one back in January which I documented more closely than here. This is the progress after the first 23 parts were in place.
View attachment 167275
View attachment 167276
Alas, I did break one of the very delicate pipes.
View attachment 167277
I will work on that today.
I have made at least 20 of these cars since they came out in the late 90's, and I recall breaking this pipe before. This is the second of four that I purchased at the train show in January.

Todd - Seems like you'll be renovating the whole upstairs. Amazing that the house was built in Montana with no insulation on the second floor. Unless it's a hundred years old or something. Maybe Guy can come by to help! He's only about 600 miles away, not far in your end of the world.
Patrick - I didn't think of it yesterday during the Meat Loaf discussion, but he lived a few miles away from me in Dallas in the 60's. I didn't know of him (never met) until the late 70's, but it's possible that I saw him playing high school football back then. He was a few years older.
Tom O - Yep! Being retired is indeed a full time job. One of the first tasks that I had to do after retiring was to rehab a couple of acres of yard that had gotten away from me the previous years. That took two years. Now, it's keeping up with medical appointments and hospitalizations.

Although it has nothing to do with either his birthday, death day or retirement, today is National Babe Ruth Day.
Everyone have a wonderful day.

What brand of beer?
Mike CGW

 

[chadbag]

You sound like my son. His home office looks like something out of Star Trek. My workstations look like flat screen TVs with keyboards.

It may be hard for you guys to understand, but some of us are happy with what we have.

I was happy with my Commodore 64 connected to my TV. Time marches on. I'm just slow to keep up.

I actually use a 40" 4K TV as my main monitor with the iMac screen as a second. I have an older non Hi Def 30" (2560x1600) Apple Screen as a 3rd off to the side for email and stuff like that.

My work computer is similar. Same model 4K TV (40"), a 32" 4K monitor, and the some wide screen but in portrait mode on the side for Slack and Email. It is in portrait mode as that is all that would fit. Previously I had a laptop there and that was the Slack screen but when the laptop was replaced with a small table top I had to get another screen

 

[Boris]

It's so good to see the Orioles and Blue Jays games mean something again!

My oldest son's very first MLB game was at Memorial Stadium vs. the Blue Jays...I don't remember the score, but the (Good) Birds won. As I remember it was a Saturday afternoon game with caps as a promotional handout. 1985 maybe? Several weeks later we went for Glove day, against the Cleveland baseball team. Again, the Birds won.

 

[troyphoto]

I actually use a 40" 4K TV as my main monitor with the iMac screen as a second. I have an older non Hi Def 30" (2560x1600) Apple Screen as a 3rd off to the side for email and stuff like that.

My work computer is similar. Same model 4K TV (40"), a 32" 4K monitor, and the some wide screen but in portrait mode on the side for Slack and Email. It is in portrait mode as that is all that would fit. Previously I had a laptop there and that was the Slack screen but when the laptop was replaced with a small table top I had to get another screen

Fortunately, I'm not wording words today. I'm listening to my already-worded words, as I try out Google's AI narration for one of my books.

Fortunately, I have a desktop set of Klipsch Pro-Media 2.1s on my desk. I'd love to have their Pro-Media Heritage series for the looks. But, with my hearing, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

 

[NYC_George]

I never really counted down the days to retirement because I ended up retiring early (63) and waiting a few years before applying for SS and Medicare.

I did, I knew exactly the time my heath care ended with the union and the 18 months I would be on Cobra. At 61 1/2 I had 1 year to go. I retired at 62 1/2. The union paid my heath care for 1 year after I left. I paid Cobra for 18 months until I was 65 and went on RR retirement Medicare. It all worked out as planned and it's been good ever since but even with that my wife and I spend $13,000 a year between Medicare and the ARRP health supplement.
Swal

 

[McLeod]

Good morning folks!

Still working on the fence. The older I get, the harder it is to dig post holes.

I go down to my favorite local store to buy lumber. This is the front of the store:

I always walk around behind the building, where I can find one or more of these parked:

So, a trip down to the hardware is an enjoyable experience.

Gotta go! I hear a fence calling my name, and there's a wife standing on the other side of it.
Have a great day!

 

[Boris]

Good morning. 52°, cloudy with a 40% chance of showers, going to 60°. Inside it's 64° and feels colder. The furnace guy opened the front, and immediately burned himself on the inducer....motor seized! Choice 1 replace 20 year old furnace, Choice 2 order a new inducer. Choice 3, wait for fall to make a decision. I choose option 2. The inducer is ordered. Should be in on Monday or Tuesday, just in time for it to warm up. Meanwhile, we are thankful it's not winter. We do have a electric heater in the garage storage, that we can use if it gets real cold, otherwise, the plan is to ride it out. The temperature outlook is highs about 60° lows about 40°, with rain and clouds for the next seven days.

 

[westtexjohn]

Good Morning All. Cloudy and 57° on the prairies of North Central Texas. The off and on thunderstorms yesterday ended just after noon and we had sun for a couple of hours. I had 0.9" in the rain gauge, enough to soak everything and make the world start growing like crazy. Read that as the yard will be overwhelming real soon. While rain is predicted again for Friday night, temperatures will be in the 70's for a while.

Happy that I had gotten the garden completely mulched except the most recent green bean row, before it rained. I have flowers on many green peas and tomatoes right now. I should be picking the peas near May 14 or so, with tomatoes (if these flowers pollinate), around June 1. I have picked as early as Memorial Day before, but that's just Cherry Tomatoes. Most of my Lettuce crop was lost when the granddog dug up that row, but once everything dries out this afternoon, I should be picking off the outer leaves of the remaining leaf lettuce. Pick off just the outer leaves and the rest of the plant keeps growing until it gets too hot in 5-6 more weeks.

I never really counted down the days to retirement because I ended up retiring early (63) and waiting a few years before applying for SS and Medicare. I sat down and made a spreadsheet one July 4th weekend and compared expenses, future income via SS, and retirement accounts and decided to pull the plug. Went to work the following Monday and wrote the two-week notice. That was 2015. Never looked back! They ended up telling me to go a couple days early and I still collected paychecks for about 6 more weeks.

Weekly grocery/beer trek day today. Let's see where costs are this week. Been relatively steady for a few weeks, but with very few exceptions, prices have not come down as a result of decreasing inflation. Never have in the past! I think that a lot of suppliers increased in the name of inflation when it was not justified, and are now raking in record profits. Just look at some of the financial reports lately.
I'm still waiting to hear from the hearing aid center about my hearing aids. Thankfully they worked out this "loaner" pair. Today marks four weeks at the lab for repair!

Spent most of my time inside the house yesterday on the "honey do" list, and I only visited the train shed late. Mostly puttered around doing odd tasks. I really have had the urge to do some kind of modeling lately, so I got out a P2K freight car kit to assemble.
View attachment 167274
As many of you already know, these are not "shake the box" kits. I did one back in January which I documented more closely than here. This is the progress after the first 23 parts were in place.
View attachment 167275
View attachment 167276
Alas, I did break one of the very delicate pipes.
View attachment 167277
I will work on that today.
I have made at least 20 of these cars since they came out in the late 90's, and I recall breaking this pipe before. This is the second of four that I purchased at the train show in January.

Todd - Seems like you'll be renovating the whole upstairs. Amazing that the house was built in Montana with no insulation on the second floor. Unless it's a hundred years old or something. Maybe Guy can come by to help! He's only about 600 miles away, not far in your end of the world.
Patrick - I didn't think of it yesterday during the Meat Loaf discussion, but he lived a few miles away from me in Dallas in the 60's. I didn't know of him (never met) until the late 70's, but it's possible that I saw him playing high school football back then. He was a few years older.
Tom O - Yep! Being retired is indeed a full time job. One of the first tasks that I had to do after retiring was to rehab a couple of acres of yard that had gotten away from me the previous years. That took two years. Now, it's keeping up with medical appointments and hospitalizations.

Although it has nothing to do with either his birthday, death day or retirement, today is National Babe Ruth Day.
Everyone have a wonderful day.

I feel your pain on the Proto 2000covered hopper build.
I started one of their 8000 gal tank cars about a month ago and am about 50% done. You can hide some of the small parts in a rat turd. I work on it for about 30 minutes at a time as my patience level starts wearing thin at that time. And I have about 19 more of these on my "to do " shelf.
Opti-Visor is a MUST ! I have an extra kit that I use as a "spare parts" supply for those easy to break/lost parts.

Take care....John

 

[ctclibby]

You sound like my son. His home office looks like something out of Star Trek. My workstations look like flat screen TVs with keyboards.

It may be hard for you guys to understand, but some of us are happy with what we have.

I was happy with my Commodore 64 connected to my TV. Time marches on. I'm just slow to keep up.

Bruette: Ya, C64 was a blast. Well, until the C128 came out! I actually started on an ISAM8080 with tape drive before the C64 - never did have a trash 80 though.

Later

 

[Bruette]

I actually use a 40" 4K TV as my main monitor with the iMac screen as a second. I have an older non Hi Def 30" (2560x1600) Apple Screen as a 3rd off to the side for email and stuff like that.

My work computer is similar. Same model 4K TV (40"), a 32" 4K monitor, and the some wide screen but in portrait mode on the side for Slack and Email. It is in portrait mode as that is all that would fit. Previously I had a laptop there and that was the Slack screen but when the laptop was replaced with a small table top I had to get another screen

I'm not too far behind, I like using TVs as monitors! I am still using only one per PC.

I have three SCEPTRE 32" HD TVs and one TCL 32" HD TV, one for each workstation. I don't think any of the four are 4K. I paid less than $100 for each of those TVs.

In my living room I use my 75" Samsung TV as a monitor for that PC. That TV is 4K. I use that for my DVR.

In my bedroom I have a 65" TCL TV as a monitor for a laptop. That TV is also 4K. I also use that for the DVR.

In my attic/train room/play pen I have an all-in-one HP desktop. I guess it is close to 32" and no idea if it is 4K.

My grandson's gaming computer uses a monitor. I have no idea what it is, but he and my son tell me he needs higher definition and refresh rate. My son built him some kind of "super" computer. Damn thing is liquid cooled.

I have an old 50" Panasonic 720p plasma TV in our family room my grandson and I play PS4 on. He has been beating me like a rented mule on Madden! I can still give him a game on MLB the Show.

To be honest I can't see the difference between any of them.

I will say my old Panasonic looks the best when watching old westerns on broadcast TV in 480i the new TVs don't seem to do as good in 480i

 

[truckdad]

What brand of beer?
Mike CGW

There's more than 1 kind of beer? hint (sierra nevada)

 

[Bruette]

Bruette: Ya, C64 was a blast. Well, until the C128 came out! I actually started on an ISAM8080 with tape drive before the C64 - never did have a trash 80 though.

Later

My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99, I think.

 

[Bruette]

There's more than 1 kind of beer? hint (sierra Nevada)

Yes sir, there are two kinds in my book. Lager and Pilsner. Both Lagers but you get my drift.

 

[ctclibby]

Good Morning All. Cloudy and 57° on the prairies of North Central Texas. The off and on thunderstorms yesterday ended just after noon and we had sun for a couple of hours. I had 0.9" in the rain gauge, enough to soak everything and make the world start growing like crazy. Read that as the yard will be overwhelming real soon. While rain is predicted again for Friday night, temperatures will be in the 70's for a while.

Happy that I had gotten the garden completely mulched except the most recent green bean row, before it rained. I have flowers on many green peas and tomatoes right now. I should be picking the peas near May 14 or so, with tomatoes (if these flowers pollinate), around June 1. I have picked as early as Memorial Day before, but that's just Cherry Tomatoes. Most of my Lettuce crop was lost when the granddog dug up that row, but once everything dries out this afternoon, I should be picking off the outer leaves of the remaining leaf lettuce. Pick off just the outer leaves and the rest of the plant keeps growing until it gets too hot in 5-6 more weeks.

I never really counted down the days to retirement because I ended up retiring early (63) and waiting a few years before applying for SS and Medicare. I sat down and made a spreadsheet one July 4th weekend and compared expenses, future income via SS, and retirement accounts and decided to pull the plug. Went to work the following Monday and wrote the two-week notice. That was 2015. Never looked back! They ended up telling me to go a couple days early and I still collected paychecks for about 6 more weeks.

Weekly grocery/beer trek day today. Let's see where costs are this week. Been relatively steady for a few weeks, but with very few exceptions, prices have not come down as a result of decreasing inflation. Never have in the past! I think that a lot of suppliers increased in the name of inflation when it was not justified, and are now raking in record profits. Just look at some of the financial reports lately.
I'm still waiting to hear from the hearing aid center about my hearing aids. Thankfully they worked out this "loaner" pair. Today marks four weeks at the lab for repair!

Spent most of my time inside the house yesterday on the "honey do" list, and I only visited the train shed late. Mostly puttered around doing odd tasks. I really have had the urge to do some kind of modeling lately, so I got out a P2K freight car kit to assemble.
View attachment 167274
As many of you already know, these are not "shake the box" kits. I did one back in January which I documented more closely than here. This is the progress after the first 23 parts were in place.
View attachment 167275
View attachment 167276
Alas, I did break one of the very delicate pipes.
View attachment 167277
I will work on that today.
I have made at least 20 of these cars since they came out in the late 90's, and I recall breaking this pipe before. This is the second of four that I purchased at the train show in January.

Todd - Seems like you'll be renovating the whole upstairs. Amazing that the house was built in Montana with no insulation on the second floor. Unless it's a hundred years old or something. Maybe Guy can come by to help! He's only about 600 miles away, not far in your end of the world.
Patrick - I didn't think of it yesterday during the Meat Loaf discussion, but he lived a few miles away from me in Dallas in the 60's. I didn't know of him (never met) until the late 70's, but it's possible that I saw him playing high school football back then. He was a few years older.
Tom O - Yep! Being retired is indeed a full time job. One of the first tasks that I had to do after retiring was to rehab a couple of acres of yard that had gotten away from me the previous years. That took two years. Now, it's keeping up with medical appointments and hospitalizations.

Although it has nothing to do with either his birthday, death day or retirement, today is National Babe Ruth Day.
Everyone have a wonderful day.

Willie: Yup, almost 100YO. Until the EPA got involved with restrictions on smoke from the chimney you could have a wood stove that you could really stop down to keep the place heated. There was baseboard heat up there so ya didn't freeze, but as the electrical rates kept going up and up ... we chose to get rid of them and just give the kids electric blankets and such. That actually kept them downstairs for the most part where we could interact with them. Insulation between the 1st and 2nd floor is pretty heavy so the 1st floor keeps heat for the most part; goes up the stairway and we loose some cuz of that. We are looking at new windows on the 1st floor.

Really don't have that much to do: remove carpeting, strip walls of plaster and lathe, insulate, add an electrical receptacle or 2 where needed, wallboard then Lam flooring and paint. Have help with getting-r-done so we will see how long it takes. I may have to get some outside help as I am not the artist type and can not ever seem to get the wallboard seams and corners smooth. Everything else I can do though.

Later

 

[migalyto]

My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI-99, I think.

Mine was a Vic-20. Was expandable to 8K of memory with the cartridge you put in the back.

 

[ctclibby]

Good Morning All!

53F @ 44% Did not quite get to 70F yesterday, could be 68F today.

Weather guessers are saying wind gusts upwards of 35Mph, so no burning today. That is ok with us as we are running out of poop doing that. Time to move on to the next stuff. Plan is upstairs demo and redo, then more outside stuff; new chicken hut with enclosed fencing, possibly a new fence on the West side of the property that borders the creek, probably will replace the perimeter fence too. Maria wants to see her Niece in Oregon for a few days sometime next month. Will see if that gets done or not as we really do not want to do the Oregon thing. The chicken hut needs to be finished by the end of June so we can order chicks from Murry McMurry. Minimum order is 50 of the little critters which is more that we want/need. We found out that a young hen will sell for $25 to $30, breed depending so we can get at least some ROI. The egg guy that comes into the bar is selling fresh brown eggs for $5 dozen. Can't wait until we have our own good brown eggs again.

Not much going on with the MRR, get a few minutes here and there to play so it is going slow.

We think that we can get everything we want this year and some of next so it is nose to the grindstone time, then maybe we can relax.

Later