Running Bear's April 2025 Coffee Shop

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So after 30 years of service my American Flag has to be replaced. It tore all apart last winter. Anyone here bought one recently. I'm looking to buy a 3X5 to replace the one I took down today. I'm also repairing some bad spots on the front lawn.
Swal

American_Flag.jpg
 
troyphoto said:
Just for Willie,

Here's a Post-Squire YES performance with a special guest on bass at their induction

Click to expand...
On another Rock & Roll Hall of Fame note. I did not know Foreigner was inducted to the hall in 2024. What! They should have been inducted 20 years ago. What's going on with that? I also didn't know Rick Jones and Lou Gramm only live 20 miles from me in Katonah and Bedford NY.
Swal
 
JimKrol said:
Every freight car I see is loaded with graffiti. I thought rail yards had guards. What I see is not sneak in and write your name in spray paint. Some of the artwork would take a long time to do. How does this happen?
Click to expand...
The level of graffiti I see I’m guessing it’s at least running at 70-80% of cars
The scrawl tags I can see as relatively easy quickly done… but the complex, intricate graffiti patterns must take some time…
 


Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and a warm 70° again this morning. Looks like an area of light rain (if it is actually hitting the ground) might have developed to the west and is heading this way. Forecast is for thunderstorms off and on for the next week or so, with milder overnight temperatures. Yes, as I posted last week, our humid season is here. We've so far avoided having to turn on any of the window a/c's, but came close last night.

I mostly did yardwork yesterday after a load of laundry. Parts of my area are getting away from me with growth around 18" right now. It's areas over by the pond behind the train shed and an area between the woodlot and hayfield; although I do have a 48" wide mowed path separating the two. I saw evidence that neighbor Delang had taken a short cut across the pasture in his ATV to get home from Bubba's. Avoids the regular road out front when either in a rush or inebriated. Or both! It's OK because I have given him permission. He has reciprocated with free labor, grading my driveway with his front-end loader. I only have fencing on about 250' of over 4000' of perimeter, and that's someone else's fence, so it's a clear path.
Today's activities will depend on this approaching rain, garden maintenance is my top priority today with more mowing in the queue.
In the garden I have flowers all over the Green Pea and Tomato rows, peas within a week and Tomatoes towards the end of May. Another picking of Lettuce and other greens will be this morning.

I continued with the P2K covered hopper kit build yesterday. I did manage to get those two parts pictured yesterday, installed without breaking either. I think that there was a dysfunction in their molding process that caused the longer one to break with just easy handling on several of the cars over the years; including the last one that I built.
1745934700465.jpeg

After this, I skipped several steps and started working on the roof. Avoiding the end cages and all of the grabirons for now.
1745934801176.jpeg

The hatch part is pretty straightforward, but then there are straps and retainers to be trimmed and installed next.
1745934885921.jpeg

I only had time to install the straps so far.
1745934937968.jpeg

While it doesn't seem like a lot, I had also cut and installed the brake line from the sprue.
1745935030345.jpeg

1745935044365.jpeg

This took a long time because it has 18 sprue attachment points and 11 more of those mold overflow parts to remove; all carefully! Oops, I didn't take a picture of it either before or after installing it.

Tom O - I forgot to ask, or maybe I just missed it, but how was the violin concerto?
Marlin - Judging from the attire and lack of folks on the beach, it must not have been very warm in Santa Barbara!
Jim - The covered hopper that Airbrush pictured looks like one that hauls plastic pellets. In South Texas, there are railyards out in the middle of nowhere, where railroads and plastics processors store cars full of product that are staged for other customers up north. The plastics manufacturers make a run of product which is stored in hoppers, and then switch to a different compound. While these yards are fenced, the fences are easily breached leaving taggers days/weeks to do their thing.

Willie Nelson is 92 today.
Everyone have a wonderful and safe Tuesday. That rain on the local radar has come and gone without getting my weather rock wet. However there is a heavy dew on the vegetation.
 
santafewillie said:

Marlin - Judging from the attire and lack of folks on the beach, it must not have been very warm in Santa Barbara!
Click to expand...
That's West beach. The "Tourist" beach. East Beach towards Montecito and Ledbetter, on the other side of the harbor, are for the locals.

Did you notice, in all the photos, the lack of homeless and trash in the streets? It's kept very respectable. There's also signs posted everywhree "This is a no smoking town". We saw maybe 2 people standing on the curb smoking the entire time we were there. There is a cigar bar that was full though.

Coldest April we've ever had while visiting. Never got above 60 and we had heavy rain Saturday morning. Half mile inland from the beach it was 65 and calm.

Back home in OR it was in high 70's the entire time we were gone.
 
hey folks

airport is busy (vacation time over here) weather is great.
upcoming long weekend woop woop.
discgolf tournament number two also this saturday in bern. lets go!

about the graffiti topic. tags or throw ups are easy and quick. more ccomplex or bigger pieces are taking more time ican tell, but also depends on the skill of the writer. yes i did that back in the 90ies so now i can talk about that :P

we painted freights and also passenger trains in switzerland. in the 90ies you had the whole night and also make some bbq in the yard because no police or so around. today i would guess depends on the spot you still have a long timeframe to paint. in switzerland not that much because of the security and stuff. but still the writers from today find a way to paint wholecars what i found awesome :)

if i look at american yards, i would say its nearly impossible to overlook the whole yard. and if there is one or two guys in vests from the train company doing stuff at a car i dont watch to close and bam there goes another piece ;)

wish you all a colorfull day!
cheers
jay
 
It’s interesting but you don’t really see graffiti on railroad cars in Japan. I can’t say it never happens. But there are probably two reasons.

Cultural. Japan is a very group oriented society meaning you don’t do things that disturb the society/group. (That’s not to say that things don’t happen — there is still crime etc — but in general people grow up that way)

Functional. The railroad companies are probably out there scrubbing it off as soon as it is noticed.
 


chadbag said:
Japan is a very group oriented society meaning you don’t do things that disturb the society/group.
Click to expand...
Many years ago, I played in a baseball tournament. We followed a team from Japan who had our dugout in the previous game. It looked like it had been professionally cleaned, but it hadn't been. Not a drop of Gatorade or water was on the floor and absolutely no trash anywhere! Even Japanese baseball players respect everything.
 
NYC_George said:
So after 30 years of service my American Flag has to be replaced. It tore all apart last winter. Anyone here bought one recently. I'm looking to buy a 3X5 to replace the one I took down today. I'm also repairing some bad spots on the front lawn.
Swal

View attachment 217883
Click to expand...
Thirty years is amazing! If you can remember, get another one from the same place.

If not here is one on Amazon. It's not cheap, but it is made in the USA.
 
Bruette said:
Many years ago, I played in a baseball tournament. We followed a team from Japan who had our dugout in the previous game. It looked like it had been professionally cleaned, but it hadn't been. Not a drop of Gatorade or water was on the floor and absolutely no trash anywhere! Even Japanese baseball players respect everything.
Click to expand...

Seems par for the course. Do you remember this?

apnews.com

'Normal thing to do': Japanese fans tidy up at World Cup

Japanese fans and players get attention at every World Cup because they clean up after themselves after the matches. This happens if they win or lose.
apnews.com apnews.com
 
Bruette said:
Thirty years is amazing! If you can remember, get another one from the same place.

If not here is one on Amazon. It's not cheap, but it is made in the USA.
Click to expand...
That was both the flag and flagpole 30 years ago Louis. You can see the flagpole has a few rust spots that need to be painted. I just ordered a 3X5 from United States Flag Store $38.00. I hope there made in the US. I didn't check. Dumb of me, I guess.
Swal
 
NYC_George said:
That was both the flag and flagpole 30 years ago Louis. You can see the flagpole has a few rust spots that need to be painted. I just order a 3X5 from United States Flag Store $38.00. I hope there made in the US. I didn't check. Dumb of me, I guess.
Swal
Click to expand...
At that price I'm sure it is. The imported version runs under $10, and they are no comparison. You will know you have the genuine article when you see it.
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and a warm 70° again this morning. Looks like an area of light rain (if it is actually hitting the ground) might have developed to the west and is heading this way. Forecast is for thunderstorms off and on for the next week or so, with milder overnight temperatures. Yes, as I posted last week, our humid season is here. We've so far avoided having to turn on any of the window a/c's, but came close last night.

I mostly did yardwork yesterday after a load of laundry. Parts of my area are getting away from me with growth around 18" right now. It's areas over by the pond behind the train shed and an area between the woodlot and hayfield; although I do have a 48" wide mowed path separating the two. I saw evidence that neighbor Delang had taken a short cut across the pasture in his ATV to get home from Bubba's. Avoids the regular road out front when either in a rush or inebriated. Or both! It's OK because I have given him permission. He has reciprocated with free labor, grading my driveway with his front-end loader. I only have fencing on about 250' of over 4000' of perimeter, and that's someone else's fence, so it's a clear path.
Today's activities will depend on this approaching rain, garden maintenance is my top priority today with more mowing in the queue.
In the garden I have flowers all over the Green Pea and Tomato rows, peas within a week and Tomatoes towards the end of May. Another picking of Lettuce and other greens will be this morning.

I continued with the P2K covered hopper kit build yesterday. I did manage to get those two parts pictured yesterday, installed without breaking either. I think that there was a dysfunction in their molding process that caused the longer one to break with just easy handling on several of the cars over the years; including the last one that I built.
View attachment 217887
After this, I skipped several steps and started working on the roof. Avoiding the end cages and all of the grabirons for now.
View attachment 217888
The hatch part is pretty straightforward, but then there are straps and retainers to be trimmed and installed next.
View attachment 217889
I only had time to install the straps so far.
View attachment 217890
While it doesn't seem like a lot, I had also cut and installed the brake line from the sprue.
View attachment 217891
View attachment 217892
This took a long time because it has 18 sprue attachment points and 11 more of those mold overflow parts to remove; all carefully! Oops, I didn't take a picture of it either before or after installing it.

Tom O - I forgot to ask, or maybe I just missed it, but how was the violin concerto?
Marlin - Judging from the attire and lack of folks on the beach, it must not have been very warm in Santa Barbara!
Jim - The covered hopper that Airbrush pictured looks like one that hauls plastic pellets. In South Texas, there are railyards out in the middle of nowhere, where railroads and plastics processors store cars full of product that are staged for other customers up north. The plastics manufacturers make a run of product which is stored in hoppers, and then switch to a different compound. While these yards are fenced, the fences are easily breached leaving taggers days/weeks to do their thing.

Willie Nelson is 92 today.
Everyone have a wonderful and safe Tuesday. That rain on the local radar has come and gone without getting my weather rock wet. However there is a heavy dew on the vegetation.
Click to expand...
Willie.

They were called the Black Violins. 2 guys on violins along with a DJ, drummer and a keyboard player and for a continuous 90 minutes they were awesome. They opened the show introducing the 2 violinists as starting the group right out of college and “this ain’t you mothers recitals”. They’ve been touring for 20 years all over the world and including matinees they said they are approaching 4500 shows. It was fun

About – Black Violin

blackviolin.net blackviolin.net
 
chadbag said:
Seems par for the course.
Click to expand...
I wish it was in America.

I have always had a thing about throwing trash into a trash can. One of the reasons I smoked non-filter camels for so many years. I didn't like to throw my butt on the ground. Nothing but paper and tobacco was okay. Bottles, cans, and other trash must go into the trash can.

I once took a baseball bat to a Gatorade cooler. I didn't care I smashed the cooler, I felt bad about the sticky mess. It didn't bother me in steel cleats, and I was on my way home. But the coaches were sticking in it. The sound was embarrassing. "I did that"

I was prone to fits of rage in my youth. I got ejected for arguing balls and strikes. Every baseball player knows you can't do that. I took it out on the cooler. Better than hitting the umpire!

For the record I had to buy another cooler, but nobody said anything to me until the next practice. I suspect what they were thinking as I gather up my gear; "There goes screwy Louie. Stay out of his way, he can be crazy mean." But only if you mess with me and that umpire was blind, I had to tell him so. I was 6'8" tall and that ball was two inches below my knees!

Not a Japanese thing to do, but I was made in the USA.
 


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