Running Bear's August 2025 Coffee Shop

[bnsf971]

I don’t know if anybody else read what current AT&T CEO said about the company’s employees. It was extremely direct, and he told them their benefits include a job, period, and not to expect the company to do anything special for them. There are no more careers at his company. And if they didn’t like it, they could find a job elsewhere.

 

[DeaconKC]

Good morning folks, 81 here and heading for 96. In the middle of busy moving weekend. Family got in from Alabama LATE Thursday night/early Friday morning. Yesterday started at 7am unloading Nephew's MiL truck at her place, grateful for some folks from church that showed up to help. Hit 95 by midday, but we got her in to her new condo. My Missus watched Mollie, our 4 yr old g'niece all day and had dinner ready for us last night. We were hoping that my Nephew's place would be ready so we could get moving underway there last night but no joy. They are supposed to be finishing up a couple of minor projects this morning, and hopefully we can start moving him in this afternoon. After this, and then preaching 2 services at our church tomorrow, he has to head BACK to Alabama to relist their house as the purported buyer really jerked them around for a month. My back is complaining loudly today but is actually better than I expected it to be. The Missus and NiL have taken the kids to the Community Center, where they are giving out backpacks and school supplies this morning.
Working on my third cup of coffee right now. This may save someone's life today.
And we have an auction going on the next street over...this has the entire area jammed up as a seeming majority of Arkansas drivers have never mastered how to parallel park. And these same folks can back a horse trailer 100 yards down a rutted cow path without the slightest difficulty.

 

[Patrick]

Sounds like the current job climate.

Locally business wants specific computer skills and experience, but want to pay just out of school wages, then complain there isn't any IT workers available. Move to any of the big 3 or 4 cities 200 miles or so from Wichita and get twice the pay. Same crap Elon says about engineers, can't find any "qualified US engineers", but many won't work for what he wants to pay.

 

[ctclibby]

Good Morning All!
55F @ 75% clear. To be ~82F later. Good for out door stuff today.

Have the power/water conduit between the Train Cave and chicken/goat house in and covered. Today is flatten the washed rock for the base of the concrete with the new tamper. It is smaller than it's big brother jumping jack, but we can actually lift the thing and put it where it is wanted. Take a little longer to do, ya so?

Gawd, where are we at? Windoz did 2 updates; 1 yesterday, 1 today that did not require a restart (W10).

Intel CEO is in a tizzy of problems - why in the world would he even get put in that position with his previous nefarious dastardly deeds?

Wifi routers/AP's - as anything INet, it is an upgrade spiral. I try to do those hardware switches every 5 years or so...PITA but what the hay! Wired network(s) are going to be the fastest with less latency; so far. Time will tell on that one. Wired is getting faster too although you have to upgrade those older PC's net cards and network switches. I currently have a couple Gig AP's which in my network usually stay around 900Mbits up/down. Of course, my network is only 3 users right now - had 6 at one time when the kids/gkids were here for awhile with everybody having 2 devices along with Siri, Alexia and whatever the other one was. I also have 10G fiber between the 2 servers, house and Train Cave which in my case is way overkill, just wanted to do it. Still looking at Ziply for the 2nd Inet connection, that price has been coming down since they got here 2 or 3 years ago. 1G up/down for $45. Hmmm, almost down to the old dial-up prices. I probably would jump on it if they could give me a 'sticky' IP.

Maria is wanting cameras around the outside of the house and Train Cave - yet another AP or 2 depending, just for those...it is only money ... right?

L8r

 

[Marlin39]

I don’t know if anybody else read what current AT&T CEO said about the company’s employees. It was extremely direct, and he told them their benefits include a job, period, and not to expect the company to do anything special for them. There are no more careers at his company. And if they didn’t like it, they could find a job elsewhere.

This reminds me of my younger days when I used to tell the emperor he had no clothes on. I learned some important lessons early on about keeping my mouth shut.

This is one of those life lessons....
We had a long term employee come in, turn all his stuff in, and said good bye. The ops manager told us at a meeting the next day that he screwed all of us by not giving a 2 week notice. In my youthful, infinite, wisdom I said, "would you have given him a 2 week notice before firing him?" I was written up for insubordination, but all my coworkers told me they wished they had the balls to have said that.

There are very few companies and almost no public companies today that consider you anything, but a number.

One of my neighbors recently retired (57yo) from a senior director of manufacturing position, at a BIG tech firm. He said that he just accepted the fact that engineers were mercenaries.

 

[Texas Hobo]

This reminds me of my younger days when I used to tell the emperor he had no clothes on. I learned some important lessons early on about keeping my mouth shut.

But sometimes you just have to speak up or out. I was a Turnaround Coordinator, running the morning status meeting. A Night Supervisor stated he had fired an individual for carrying a bottle of water up into the structure (the decks and landings in the Unit) This is mid-summer, your Safety man is preaching hydration, Foreman are pressing to get jobs done. Descending and climbing 4 and 5 flights of stairs every time you need a drink of water from the water keg meant no work being done, not to mention tiring. There was some agreement with the firing. It was suspected that one might contaminate the bottle with chemicals in the air in the unit. The firing just rubbed me wrong, so I asked, "what makes the possibly one squares inch opening on the bottle more susceptible to contamination than operations 500 square inch barbeque in the middle of the unit that was cooking burgers and steaks every night". The man was re-hired, though he lost a days pay and BBQ was not allowed during the remaining outage. I was taken aside and told not to go into the Unit as I had pissed off a lot of people because of the loss of BBQing.

 

[chadbag]

Just ran fast.com - 630 down 890 up. paying for 2G fiber. Everybody home doing something internetty.

Does your router have a speed test? Running it from your phone or PC is constrained by the link from the phone or PC to the router itself. It’s not really test your home’s connection.

 

[DeaconKC]

While still working I had earned the reputation for speaking my mind. So my Boss worked diligently to keep me away from political appointees who had no clue about dealing with actual violent convicted felons. About a month before I retired, he told me he had to go to a meeting at the Capitol to a Supervisor's meeting with a couple of new political hacks who had just been appointed. Our unit [High Risk Parolees] had very draconian rules for public safety. Bob told me he was worried he would get in trouble if he were to speak his mind in this meeting. I told him "Take me along, I'm Union protected and retiring next month." He replied "Good Lord No! You'll get us both fired!" The next day, he called me after the meeting to let me know he still had a job. I asked him how it had gone and he replied he made it all day with out saying anything to a pair of really naive individuals. Then just before the meeting ended, one of them looked at him and said "Mr. Ley, you've been really quiet today, what do you think of all this?" He said he looked over and said "Well, I can tell you what one of my agents would say." And proceeded to give them a reality check. Upon which, he said three other people in there said "You mean Collier, don't you?"

He kept me away from Springfield for the next month...

 

[Boris]

Wille: They don't like peach pie or cobbler. More for me. The youngest 2 do like fresh peaches.

 We upgraded last year to fiber from AT&T DSL service. I bought the 100MB service as it is just the 2 of us in the house most of the time. Fiber a lot more stable than DSL and the cable company is so bad, I don't even consider them an option. All they have for "fiber" still has the copper line into the house. Sorry, still copper. My low level fiber still cheaper than the DSL line was.

Perhaps 15 or 20 years ago, when Verizion was about to launch their Fiber "FIOS" service, Cablevision (,Now Optima), pre emptively replaced under ground cable with fiber. This was done to increase band width for cable TV capacity, not internet. Now, they are marketing a Fiber based internet service of questionable value, at a premium fee. Meanwhile, FIOS has finally wntered most "wired" neighborhoods, but not under ground utility neighborhoods. They still offer a bundle of satellite TV and DSL for those outside of the FIOS Zone. Meanwhile 5G is spotty...Verizion will not offer their home 5G enhanced service, here because they do not have the infrastructure in place. Y-Mobile offers something similar to what Louis has, but not everywhere.
Optima provides me with 500 MBPS for $95.99/mo, but I rarely get more than 400 MBPS anywhere. We have two PCs, 2 Pads, a radio, two TVs using WIFY in our house unless the kids are visiting.

 

[Boris]

Same crap Elon says about engineers, can't find any "qualified US engineers", but many won't work for what he wants to pay.

There you have the attitude of the Corporate world toward the rest of us. At least no longer any BS about being valuable assets.

 

[montanan]

Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 74°. Rain never hit my little part of this earth last night, even though it was all around me. A Weather Underground station six miles NE of me got 0.25". Earlier in the day, we hit a temperature of 105°, we're now looking at the low-90's for the next 4 days. Humidity which was generally staying below 30% for the past few weeks, is at 80% this morning.

Yesterday's grocery trek went OK, but they are beginning to remodel their store. I had seen the construction containers in their parking lot for a few weeks now, and some prep work has begun. Stuff has moved from their original shelves to other shelves and aisles. The employees either don't know what the real plan is, or they're sworn to secrecy! Someone is posting daily "cheat sheets" at the ends of many aisles telling where stuff is that day. Been through this before at this store twice since I started doing the grocery shopping after I retired. First time in 2017 when they increased the store size by 1/3, the second time in 2022 when they eliminated a couple of aisles and widened some others. Progress I guess!
Additional stops were made at the Vitamin shop, UPS to make an Amazon return, Dutch Bros Coffee so my wife could redeem her points (last day), and finally at the local fried chicken place for her rare cholesterol fix. She suffered from food poisoning (her description) all afternoon and evening. I was OK because I came home and made my own sub sandwich.
I did finish installing the ceiling fan in the guest bedroom later in the afternoon, thus avoiding the heat outdoors. Not too sure of today's agenda yet.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I did some detailing on my model of Walther's Interstate Fuel & Oil. I started by putting a floor inside the open door.
View attachment 234163
The kit came with some barrels, so I added them along with a forklift and a figure.
View attachment 234164
View attachment 234165
View attachment 234166
Another figure taking it easy.
View attachment 234167
View attachment 234168
I looked at the decal sheet and decided to apply one to a sheet of white styrene instead of the corrugated building side.
View attachment 234169
However I screwed up the big decal and had to settle on one of the smaller ones.
View attachment 234170
View attachment 234172
I got out the weathering powders, but called it a day so I could still enjoy the pool.

Louis - It's good to read that your health is improving. Also good to know that you are pacing yourself a bit more now. Lots of time can now be spent with trains.
Marlin - Good luck with the recovery.
Troy, Dave, Tom O - Watch out for that smoke. Avoid extended outdoor activities if you can.

The late Grateful Dead singer/songwriter/guitarist, Jerry Garcia was born on this day in 1942. Sadly, he passed away at age 53 in 1995.

Everyone have a great Friday. Be safe and avoid the heat.

Good Morning All!
55F @ 75% clear. To be ~82F later. Good for out door stuff today.

Have the power/water conduit between the Train Cave and chicken/goat house in and covered. Today is flatten the washed rock for the base of the concrete with the new tamper. It is smaller than it's big brother jumping jack, but we can actually lift the thing and put it where it is wanted. Take a little longer to do, ya so?

Gawd, where are we at? Windoz did 2 updates; 1 yesterday, 1 today that did not require a restart (W10).

Intel CEO is in a tizzy of problems - why in the world would he even get put in that position with his previous nefarious dastardly deeds?

Wifi routers/AP's - as anything INet, it is an upgrade spiral. I try to do those hardware switches every 5 years or so...PITA but what the hay! Wired network(s) are going to be the fastest with less latency; so far. Time will tell on that one. Wired is getting faster too although you have to upgrade those older PC's net cards and network switches. I currently have a couple Gig AP's which in my network usually stay around 900Mbits up/down. Of course, my network is only 3 users right now - had 6 at one time when the kids/gkids were here for awhile with everybody having 2 devices along with Siri, Alexia and whatever the other one was. I also have 10G fiber between the 2 servers, house and Train Cave which in my case is way overkill, just wanted to do it. Still looking at Ziply for the 2nd Inet connection, that price has been coming down since they got here 2 or 3 years ago. 1G up/down for $45. Hmmm, almost down to the old dial-up prices. I probably would jump on it if they could give me a 'sticky' IP.

Maria is wanting cameras around the outside of the house and Train Cave - yet another AP or 2 depending, just for those...it is only money ... right?

L8r

My router died a while back and I called Montana Sky which just happens to be down the street from m and by the time I got there it was all set up. Plugged it in and haven't has a problem. Couldn't get Ziply here when I moved in. They finally ran cables last fall. I got rid of DirecTv and stream now. Just ran a speed test and download is 102 and upload is 32. Usually up around the 50's, but I have my phone going (call and data are wifi) If you need a hand, I can give you some help when you start building. Talking about buildings, I still have a few boxes here.

 

[Patrick]

Fortunately the fiber provider came into town through the underground utility area of town first. Torqued the neighbor behind me, but his yard is the one with the RoW. After having had both underground and overhead utilities, I deliberately made underground utilities a priority when we bought our current house.

My router does have speedtest capabilites and always have slightly above the 100Mb both up and down.

 

[troyphoto]

all this talk of speed tests so I looked at mine:

*

Hmmmm Frontier has upped our price from our 59.99 sign up special a few years ago on the 500mgb package. I started looking at their site, and our current rate should get us 1 gig download. Think I'll call them on Monday and see about getting the upgrade. Why pay the same for half the speed?

 

[montanan]

I am alive and well. Haven't turned the computer on for 4 months and needed it as I got a new phone and haven't figured out how to navigate on it trying to download while on the internet. Use the internet mainly for shopping and staying in touch with friends.

My son was finally able to move out of Bozeman. He can work remotely and has moved up near Helena. Renting a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with a fenced in yard with raised garden spots for his with and plenty of room for the kids to play along with a garage with three spots. His rent is less than he was paying for a TINY 2 bedroom in Bozeman. Made a few trips down there. There is a model railroad museum with an outstanding layout in Helena, but their hours don't work out with my visits. They also have a small retail store in the building that used to be VEK camera which was taken over by one if the club members. Will try to take what locomotives I have left, trees and vehicles along with around 100 freight cars and put them on consignment.

I can hear the BNSF trains pass by as I am not too far from the tracks. Just taking it easy and spoiling my little doxies. Take them up to the Libby Dam rec area and let the go. They have to be on a leash, but I just hang on and go where they want, Usually walk a couple of miles.

I absolutely don't miss Bozeman, but do miss my layout. My daughter wants out also, but she's stuck there until her kids are out of school. Was down there a couple of weeks ago for a wedding and couldn't get out of town fast enough. It's so sad to see what jas happened to 0such a beautiful area.

Back to the archives for a few photos.

Gotta go. I will have to get back here more often.

 

[troyphoto]

Had a good visit meeting the NMRA core crew. About 9 folks all together plus me. The host's (Jim M) layout was open. He started it during the pandemic, and is gearing up for ops sessions. I snuck a few pics.

Must have been nap time for the scooter kid.

Lots of good ideas that I plan on stealing for my layout.

 

[Marlin39]

This railroad is about an hour south of me. Using steam to work a local industry. The narrator sounds almost like AI.

Here's another one he just did. A new shortline operation with only 1 current industry. The narration is just like the other one. Great verbal content, but poor execution.

 

[chadbag]

Does your router have a speed test? Running it from your phone or PC is constrained by the link from the phone or PC to the router itself. It’s not really test your home’s connection.

My Linksys used to have a speed test built into it and trigger able from the app. In fact it ran the speedtest.net (Ookla) right from the router.

I hadn't been in a few months and a recent firmware update or something changed it. Now when you go to the speed test in the router's app to will redirect to a speed test from your phone. Which is useless in determining what your speed really is to your home.

 

[JimKrol]

There you have the attitude of the Corporate world toward the rest of us. At least no longer any BS about being valuable assets.

I always thought that was hilarious.

 

[Kusojiji]

his previous nefarious dastardly deeds?

Won't he get a 7 quadrillion dollar termination bonus?

 

[Kusojiji]

This railroad is about an hour south of me. Using steam to work a local industry. The narrator sounds almost like AI.

Here's another one he just did. A new shortline operation with only 1 current industry. The narration is just like the other one. Great verbal content, but poor execution.

Very cool. They even moved porky to the tender lamp. I think that was AI as he didn't come up for air at all...