Running Bear's August 2025 Coffee Shop

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I don't want to know!

Another wonderful wife. 😁

I won't tell you and TomO @TLOC what I think, you cheap... 😁

But seriously, I spoiled my kids, I still spoil my grandsons. For the most part it has not turned out well for me. My daughters are ungrateful. I don't see much of my son anymore except for holidays. He says, "call me if you need anything" and I know he will do anything for me. He should know I wouldn't ask for a glass of water if I was dying in a desert. I don't see my oldest grandson or the youngest.

Only my grandson Ayden is truly close to me and calls me regularly, just to talk. He is humble and grateful for everything. He is turning out to be the man I was raised to be, without the mean streak I acquired on my own.

To be fair to my kids; I am blunt and brutally honest. Other than Ayden, they don't seem to respect that. What do they expect from a worn-out old street rat? My money is always welcomed, but me, not so much anymore. They have no idea how hard this old street rat had to work to earn that kind of money.

I knew I didn't want to know.

Do like I do and skip it.

How did you know? I slept to 11:34pm "this morning"

Good lord Louis! I can’t think of ever being called cheap. If anything too generous to service people.

The lawn service my grandson performs is because I seek value in every $$$ I spend. I shouldn’t be cutting per my doctors in the Summer heat. It may have been a big factor per the Doctors in last Summers stroke but we’ll never know. For our small 1/3 acre city lot the professional lawn services want a minimum $75. In my case I was quoted $90 weekly because ā€œyou have a corner lotā€. I never figured that out but…

The grandson agreed to a price. $30 cash for 45 minutes work is exceptional pay IMO for an 11 year old, YMMV. Plus he gets a sub sandwich (loves subway) a soda and chips! I just don’t want him expecting a tip for just doing a job. His parents sat him down to explain the financial facts of life recently to him.

This Spring he said he would not be playing Summer League hockey. Then last minute decided he wanted to play. $360 for 12 games plus playoffs and $50 for 2 jerseys. He broke a stick, $140! His mom says he needs new elbow pads and shin guards. Plus he plays soccer and his shoes no longer fit from June! We are trying to get him to understand money doesn’t grow on trees or out of granddad and grandma’s wallets. We do pay for 50% of all his hockey fees and about 75% of his equipment costs. It’s because we want to and easily can. When his mom and his uncle 1st started playing Terry and I had no help. We weren’t in a good financial spot when they started playing but we found ways. His parents can handle it but like I have told the daughter and son, there won’t be much left when we kick off. I’d rather see them enjoy what we can give them now

I’d love to give him $50 for cutting but he wouldn’t have earned it. He needs to understand you need to work. When I asked him last week if he discusses the grass cutting and pay with the 2 buddies and the buddette. He said not really but sort of! He said the 2 buddies cut both their parents yards and both grandparents yards for free! The friend that’s a girl rides a tractor cutting her grandparents acreage but she’s always broke so he doesn’t think she’s paid.

Down to the trains I go
 
Evenin', folks. For me, at least. It's 85F and 74% out here on the patio, with just a few puffy clouds in the sky, floating around like little lost cotton balls... I'm about to go back inside because the humidity sucks. Seems to be going around today...

Am stressing. Will be stressing even more tomorrow, as that's the day before the procedure. The porcelain throne will probably be seeing far more of me than you will tomorrow. Because I'm so looking forward to that...

I owe a few responses around here, but the totally irrational stress levels ("it's just a colonoscopy! You've done this before!") are too high for me to want to do anything other than lose myself in a some story or other, so I'll probably see you all in a couple of days.

Have a good day, folks!

Never fear most of us understand
 


Good Morning All. Mostly clear and 75°, only going up to 97° again today. Mid-90's for a few days before warming up again. Cloudiness coming and going which is a bit unusual, but no rain chance in the ten day forecast.

Another lackluster day on the SFW estate yesterday. It needs to cool off just a bit before I resume serious outdoor activity. Meanwhile my wife is running out of "honey-do" items inside. Somewhat busy week coming up with more than the usual "leaving home" stuff. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow with the primary care guy, wife is making a solo Walmart run today. I've been invited along but haven't decided. I hate that place. And we somehow forgot that the Accura registration had run out in July, so I have to deal with that this week. Wife stuck the mail notice in the bill box 8 weeks ago and forgot it was there. I happened to notice the sticker Friday evening. I'm not sure that we have put over 2500 miles on it in the last year. But that's a trip north to the county seat to get the inspection and then visit the DMV.

On the subject of dumping, as I posted yesterday, we mostly got dead animals like dogs and goats. There's been an occasional calf and some domestic pigs. They were always dumped on the at the time, unfenced property about 1/4 mile south. It's now fenced and the couple with the "country estate" live there. The most unusual was a full-grown horse. Tire tracks through the grassy field indicated that it arrived by trailer and was shot there. It was at the edge of some woods about 2000' in towards the back of the property near an area that was also used to dump old appliances. That property has a storied history including 4 deaths and 3 unexplained fires on it in the 44 years that I have lived here. The owners sister has always claimed that it was haunted.
The trash on the side of the road virtually disappeared after my county and also neighboring Denton County, hired investigators to sift through what was found and tracked offenders through mail envelopes, prescription bottles and other assorted identifiable stuff. They were also able to track some people through traceable store receipts! It turned out that a small number of offenders were responsible for almost all of it.

Took it easy out in the train shed yesterday. I finished up some figures and sent them all to the paint booth to get their protective coating of dull coat.
1754921790959.jpeg

Checked out that switch that I ballasted Saturday (with adjoining track) and it worked without even having to loosen it up.
1754921910169.jpeg

1754921926016.jpeg

I'll scrape off the stray ballast next. I'm not done here yet, I'll get back to it today with more ground foam and trees. I'm not ready to landscape the cemetery on the aisle side of the track yet. Still in the planning stage right now.

Tom O - At least the rain has cleared the air temporarily. Must be playing havoc with the daughter's pool construction though.
Dave - Last year's tornado gifted me with what appears to be a 2.5 year supply of firewood. I'm still processing it. Remember that I heat with nothing but wood in the house. Train shed has electric heating.
John - Good luck with the A/C.
DirtyD - Much of that discarded university housing furniture in Denton (UNT & TWU) never even hits the street. The immigrant population knows the move out dates and will even help students move it out to their waiting trucks/trailers. Both universities assist by unlocking and opening the lift gates at the parking lot entrances for a few days ahead of the move-out date.
Louis - I'm not cheap, I'm frugal. I do not spoil any of my kids or grandkids. Honest pay for an honest day's work.

Today is the late Hulk Hogan's 72nd birthday. Unfortunately he didn't quite make it. He passed away 3 weeks ago.
Everyone have a great Monday.
 
Evenin', folks. For me, at least. It's 85F and 74% out here on the patio, with just a few puffy clouds in the sky, floating around like little lost cotton balls... I'm about to go back inside because the humidity sucks. Seems to be going around today...

Am stressing. Will be stressing even more tomorrow, as that's the day before the procedure. The porcelain throne will probably be seeing far more of me than you will tomorrow. Because I'm so looking forward to that...

I owe a few responses around here, but the totally irrational stress levels ("it's just a colonoscopy! You've done this before!") are too high for me to want to do anything other than lose myself in a some story or other, so I'll probably see you all in a couple of days.

Have a good day, folks!
I survived mine last week. Just waiting on the pathology results.
 
"The need to work"

When my son turned 18 I told him he was an adult. I explained that the only thing that differentiates him from a child now was one word, "responsibility".

I told him he was required to register for the draft and I highly suggested he register to vote and apply for a passport. All 3 were accomplished within a week.

He got a summer job right out of high school, during college breaks, and got 2 different internships before graduating OSU. He found an entry level job using his degree 6 weeks after graduating. He paid his dues for 3 years, then moved on to a real chemistry position (R&D). He's been promoted twice in 3 years and was told that they want to promote him into a Process Engineering position next year. We're very proud of his work ethic.

My FIL was a well know chemist, with 18 patents, and my dad was an engineer. My wife and I were skipped over in the gene pool. Thankfully our son wasn't. 😁
 


On a 1’x1’ piece of scrap plywood my 6 yr old great nephew started laying track under my direction..

He glued down the cork, nailed down some scrap track, made some terrain and painted it all…
Next step is a dirt border next to the bottom track and some ballasting…


IMG_7149.jpeg
 
Evenin', folks. For me, at least. It's 85F and 74% out here on the patio, with just a few puffy clouds in the sky, floating around like little lost cotton balls... I'm about to go back inside because the humidity sucks. Seems to be going around today...

Am stressing. Will be stressing even more tomorrow, as that's the day before the procedure. The porcelain throne will probably be seeing far more of me than you will tomorrow. Because I'm so looking forward to that...

I owe a few responses around here, but the totally irrational stress levels ("it's just a colonoscopy! You've done this before!") are too high for me to want to do anything other than lose myself in a some story or other, so I'll probably see you all in a couple of days.

Have a good day, folks!
Don't worry about it so much. Wife went through one last year ( or year before ) and she said it was a breeze. Put her out for the procedure, when she woke up, no pain, no fuss, no mess. She did figure out NOT to drink the pre-op stuff all at once. Couple of swallows, wait a bit, couple more...

L8r
 
She did figure out NOT to drink the pre-op stuff all at once. Couple of swallows, wait a bit, couple more...
I figured that out after my first one too.

The first bottle went down a little rough, but ok. I made the mistake of chugging the second just to be done with it. It all came up, and I had to run to CVS and get 2 more bottles and start over.

It helps a little to put it in the refrigerator and have it cold. At least for me it made it a little better.
 
After a few colonoscopies, and being wiped out by different bowel preps, I decided it doesn’t have to be like this …
So the last 2, I went easy on food a few days before..
Started the bowel preps 2 days before (instead of 1)

100% better experience.. no feeling hungover..no cramps…headache…nausea…etc
 
Luckily I still have my hobbies. A few I've looked at ways to expand them including ways of making money, for example, making a DCC control app, as part of the railroad hobby, that I'd put up, though if it made any money or not I don't care. I'm doing it for fun and learning.

But most of what I do is just to relax, de-stress, and expand my mind for myself.
 
Good Morning All!
62F @ 62% clear. No Perseid viewable here - moon too bright.

Garbage: In Montana there are dumpster(s) placed around in specific locations; most of the time inside a bear proof area. These are free to all to dump in them. They usually do have an area for appliances and metal wanting those types separated from the ...um... normal garbage. The result is there is not much junk on the side of the road. Ya, still are folks with ID ten T problems and are fined if found. It is amazing that someone would dump stuff with their address on the mail included. Sure, inside city limits there usually is some garbage service with a monthly, but why go there. In fact, the bears help you with getting the stuff out of those street side cans and it can be spread over a wide area; grrr. I do a dump run maybe once a week and get rid of the household stuff. Driving 8 or 9 miles round trip is much cheaper than the ~$50 per month service stuff. If we are cleaning out something, back of the truck it goes separated by type: wood, metal, appliance, construction stuff and placed into specific bins/areas at the dump.

Both Maria and I got some sort of food poisoning yesterday, put us down almost all day. Went to the store yesterday early and some dang doughnuts jumped into my cart. Suspect that they changed the oil used for doughnuts or it was tainted somehow. It was the only thing we ate in the AM. If that is the case, there are gonna be a ton of folks with that issue as the case was pretty much empty by the time I got there.

L8r
No charge for the dump is nice. At my old place you were charged by the pound. Had to scale in and out.
 


I owe a few responses around here, but the totally irrational stress levels ("it's just a colonoscopy! You've done this before!") are too high for me to want to do anything other than lose myself in a some story or other, so I'll probably see you all in a couple of days.
Stressing out... it is what some people do, It's okay. Handle it in whatever way that works for you. At least you don't have to stress yourself over us, we will be here when this is over. It takes true courage to face things that cause us stress, you are doing great!

I'm not cheap, I'm frugal. I do not spoil any of my kids or grandkids. Honest pay for an honest day's work.
See my replies to TomO below, they apply to you as well.
I was pulling your leg!
I understand and I admire what you are doing. I should have done the same.

MiroLax powder and mix it with sugar-free lemonade.
I was told to mix MiraLAX with sugar free Gatorade and to drink it slowly.
 
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