Running Bear's August 2025 Coffee Shop

[RhB Michael]

They're all across Southern California. It wasn't until I moved to Los Angeles and began driving that region that I realized that California is an oil state.

They are all across Southern Illinois too. Most working, some not.

 

[troyphoto]

Well howdy there internet peeps that I missed first time around this morning.

Grocery run has been accomplished. Chili has been prepped and is simmering in the slow cooker (crockpot).

For those curious, 2.5 lbs ground beef (80/20) browned. 1 lb of ground sausage browned
1 bag frozen onion (because I hate chopping onions)
3 bell peppers (not green) freshly chopped
Diced garlic... whatever was left in the jar.

2 14oz cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 12 oz can of fire roasted diced tomatoes with green chilis
1 14 oz can of tomato sauce

2tbs Chili Powder
and whatever spices struck my fancy (blk pepper, oregano, fennel seed, dried red pepper flakes, smoked paprika)

Chili may differ depending on your geographic location. Above is what I like.

Need to go get my walk in. Apple Watch says it's 65 F-degrees outside. Overcast but no rain on the radar.

 

[logandsawman]

Good morning,
66 and a light breeze, filtered sunshine. Looking at an "easy" day, pretty much puttering around home today.

Louis- Good to know about using train lube for the hair clipper

I think I finished the fence for the layout. Not sure if I want 1 or 2 per fence or I have 7 cows put them all in there.

Later, Dave LASM

 

[migalyto]

Good morning all!

Happy Friday!

Should be another really decent day weather wise. Currently 71F heading up to around 80F. Weekend looks good as well!

Other than Friday morning chores, not much really going on here.

Didn't do anything layout wise last night. Just ran a couple trains and dug out the totes of old Unitrack. Its time to get that organized and sold off. I have 2 full totes of the stuff, half has never been opened. I switched to flex track before I was done putting done the Unitrack.

Have a safe day everyone!

 

[truckdad]

Well, a month or so after moving house, I am finally back. Need tea....
Start of a new era has begun:
View attachment 235884
And I treated myself to a nodding donkey as well!
View attachment 235885
Do any of the old type pumps still exist anymore? You used to find a few here in the UK at one time, I just remember seeing them in the opening credits of Dallas!

In and around Bakersfield there are areas where they are as thick as a forest. Hundreds. Some 50’ apart as far as you can see.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Mostly clear and 73° on the SFW estate. Nothing in the 10 day forecast has changed except which days next week they are guessing that it will rain. Still mid to upper-90's for the high until Tuesday.

The weekly grocery trek went OK yesterday, they're remodeling the Kroger store that I use and lots of stuff has moved around! At several places inside, there were crews of re-modelers just standing around acting like highway workers. Probably 20 total in three spots. I had to stop at Target afterward since Kroger was out of my wife's iced coffee brand. Then on to the tire place. It took them just 24 minutes to mount, balance and install all four new tires. Over at the pharmacy, their main cash register wasn't working, so it took a little longer while the lady walked back and forth to the other one at the drive thru window. Didn't get home until after 1:00 and put groceries up, ate and took a nap. Wife went to Dallas yesterday for an overnight visit at daughter #2's house so I ended up doing some of her daily chores.
Hopefully today I can resume some outdoor tasks after being shut out for the last three days. Gotta do them all in the morning before it gets too hot. Some places need a visit with the weedeater, others with the small push mower. There's still a pile of firewood to stack and more in the back 40 to cut up. Other than keeping the Tomato plants alive, the garden is done for a while. I have to contemplate whether or not I am going to plant a fall garden this year.

I didn't get much time out in the train shed yesterday after all of the morning errands. I hit the RIP track and did some minor repairs on several freight cars, drooping couplers, missing parts, etc. I had an engine that was missing two grabirons for some reason. All of the others were there and I haven't discovered any along the ROW during my quarterly clean-ups. Probably got vacuumed up or are still somewhere? I decided that my next project will be several small ones of adding figures to some structure sidewalks and surrounding areas. I probably have over 250 hand-painted figures in the box, and at least that many can be used almost immediately. I add sidewalks to my structures that don't have them included like DPM and Smalltown USA kits, so there are candidates there. Most of the structures that I got from Chet had no sidewalks either because he installed his sidewalks directly on his layout, in continuous pieces. It is odd to see a bustling city scene with a building in the middle of the block with no people.

Mikey - Thanks for the update on William.
TomO - I've never been there, but a couple of buddies of mine went to Seattle about 3 years ago and they also stated that there seemed to be something odd about the whole area that they visited. They thought it had something to do with the widespread use of recreational pot and the homelessness.
Steve - Lucky you with the rain in August.
John U - Lots of those oil pumps around here. The ones closest to me (4-6 miles) are no longer working, but many about 20 miles away are still pumping. Depends on how deep the wells were originally drilled.

Everyone have a fabulous Friday.

 

[Marlin39]

Not just oil derricks in CA, but off shore oil rigs. There's a half dozen in the Santa Barbara channel. I can remember the tar cleaning stations, an old coffee can with a brush and kerosene, to clean the goop off of you after surfing.

 

[boogietrain94]

They're all across Southern California. It wasn't until I moved to Los Angeles and began driving that region that I realized that California is an oil state.

SHHHHH don't say that to loud you know how America is with oil!!!

 

[TLOC]

 

[truckdad]

Not just oil derricks in CA, but off shore oil rigs. There's a half dozen in the Santa Barbara channel. I can remember the tar cleaning stations, an old coffee can with a brush and kerosene, to clean the goop off of you after surfing.

View attachment 235904

View attachment 235905

Farther up the coast around Pismo and Avila Beach, even before offshore rigs, there were little balls of oil on the beach from natural seepage.

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from Seattle where if we could have re-arranged our travel we would have left this morning. 73f degrees heading to high 80’s.

We had dinner with 4 friends last night at their house in Medina and it was a beautiful place. They have been here since being hired at Microsoft in 1989. They’ve done unbelievably well!

Willie, it’s not IMO the pot you smell on the streets because I’m not sure there is anymore here than there was in Vancouver. Plus I am an advocate. But Terry who finds the good in every thing was even having trouble with the excessive wealth displays in Medina. Maybe because the population is so young, more dogs than children in Seattle or the poor sidewalks in a supposed walkable city. People here seem to look right through you on the streets. The 3 hour tour guide was very good, informative and opinionated. He did tell us 2 streets to avoid in our area because of an out of the control homeless situation. Marlin39 mentioned the situation yesterday. The thing I’ve noticed the last couple days are the homeless here roam the sidewalks where in Vancouver they stayed more in the alleyways. In LA and Pasadena they seem to congregate at a park but LA has so so many more

This part is not a complaint or even a rant, just an observation. Food prices here are totally out of control. Terry this morning was reviewing the credit card. We are eating roughly the same here as in Vancouver along with similar selections. 2 meals, breakfast and dinner. In both Vancouver and Seattle we are in similar neighborhoods, downtown. We knew picking our locations the $$$ would be high. But overall she thinks we are spending 30% more per meal here in Seattle. She spreadsheets everything! We stopped at a Target store near the Public Market and a 20oz bottle of Diet Dr Pepper was $5.49 each. A 6 pack of Kind bars was $7.99 on sale, at home it is $4.99 regular price. Our restaurant bill is stupid but we knew we would be stuck with no choices because we are staying downtown. We love chocolate and we always search out good chocolatiers. $9.00 for a great tasting sea salted milk chocolate turtle. At home probably $5.00 for a 1/3rd larger size, The friends yesterday and last night all grew up in Wisconsin and while living here 35 years still have some Wisconsin good sense and values. They admitted though they just buy what they want and prices be damned. That seems to be the attitude here! It is what it is…

It’s a tech town through and through. A very young “nerdy” population that is earning great money. It’s like a soulless vibe! Interesting place that unfortunately we cannot wait to leave

 

[Bruette]

One bottle of shampoo lasts half a year!

Shampoo... I use a bar of Irish Spring “All the Freshness of Ireland"

Found some fantasy/medieval style zombies I could 3D print.

I want to see the Forest Dragon!

I can assure CB that changing their logo is a bandaid on an amputation.

It would help if their food tasted better than a TV dinner.

Another preview of fall. Temperature range since midnight: 53° and 64°

I said to my wife this morning, "it feels like fall"

Louis- Good to know about using train lube for the hair clipper

The clipper still works like new, and I have been using the same oil since 2013. Witch was the year I got hooked on trains.

 

[Bruette]

Don't look now, but guess who has the best record in the American League since July 24th?

Not the Yankees, or the Red Sox, not even my Orioles.

The Athletics!

I love baseball!

 

[Marlin39]

Good morning from Seattle where if we could have re-arranged our travel we would have left this morning. 73f degrees heading to high 80’s.

We had dinner with 4 friends last night at their house in Medina and it was a beautiful place. They have been here since being hired at Microsoft in 1989. They’ve done unbelievably well!

Willie, it’s not IMO the pot you smell on the streets because I’m not sure there is anymore here than there was in Vancouver. Plus I am an advocate. But Terry who finds the good in every thing was even having trouble with the excessive wealth displays in Medina. Maybe because the population is so young, more dogs than children in Seattle or the poor sidewalks in a supposed walkable city. People here seem to look right through you on the streets. The 3 hour tour guide was very good, informative and opinionated. He did tell us 2 streets to avoid in our area because of an out of the control homeless situation. Marlin39 mentioned the situation yesterday. The thing I’ve noticed the last couple days are the homeless here roam the sidewalks where in Vancouver they stayed more in the alleyways. In LA and Pasadena they seem to congregate at a park but LA has so so many more

This part is not a complaint or even a rant, just an observation. Food prices here are totally out of control. Terry this morning was reviewing the credit card. We are eating roughly the same here as in Vancouver along with similar selections. 2 meals, breakfast and dinner. In both Vancouver and Seattle we are in similar neighborhoods, downtown. We knew picking our locations the $$$ would be high. But overall she thinks we are spending 30% more per meal here in Seattle. She spreadsheets everything! We stopped at a Target store near the Public Market and a 20oz bottle of Diet Dr Pepper was $5.49 each. A 6 pack of Kind bars was $7.99 on sale, at home it is $4.99 regular price. Our restaurant bill is stupid but we knew we would be stuck with no choices because we are staying downtown. We love chocolate and we always search out good chocolatiers. $9.00 for a great tasting sea salted milk chocolate turtle. At home probably $5.00 for a 1/3rd larger size, The friends yesterday and last night all grew up in Wisconsin and while living here 35 years still have some Wisconsin good sense and values. They admitted though they just buy what they want and prices be damned. That seems to be the attitude here! It is what it is…

It’s a tech town through and through. A very young “nerdy” population that is earning great money. It’s like a soulless vibe! Interesting place that unfortunately we cannot wait to leave

People think that because there is no state income tax that it's cheap to live WA. They make up for it by taxing everything else. Did you notice the sales tax?

They also have a high minimum wage that gets passed on to the customer.

Some local jurisdictions have higher minimum wage rates and different labor rules than Washington State. The more generous minimum wage may apply in these localities:

Bellingham : $18.66/hour from May 1-Dec. 31, 2025.

Burien : $21.16/hour for employers with 500 or more employees, and $20.16/hour for employers with 21-499 employees. Employers with 20 or less employees are not covered.

Everett : Effective July 1, 2025. $20.24/hour for employers with more than 500 employees in Washington and $18.24 for employers with between 15 and 500 employees. Employers with 14 or fewer employees are not affected.

King County (unincorporated areas) : $20.29/hour for employers with more than 500 employers, $18.29/hour for employers with 15-500 employees, and $17.29 for employers with less than 15 employees and less than $2 million in gross revenue.

Renton : $20.90/hour for employers with 501 or more employees and $18.90/hour for employers with 15-500 employees from Jan. 1, 2025, to June 30, 2025, and $19.90 from July 1, 2025 to Dec. 31, 2025. Employers with 14 or less employees are are not covered.

SeaTac : $20.17/hour for employers in hospitality and transportation industries.

Seattle : $20.76/hour

Tukwila : $21.10/hour for employers with more than 500 employees and $20.10/hour for employers with 15-500 employees or more than $2 million of annual gross revenue in Tukwila from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2025, then $21.10/hour from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2025.
Does not apply to employers with 14 or less employees or have $2 million or less in gross revenue.

 

[TLOC]

People think that because there is no state income tax that it's cheap to live WA. They make up for it by taxing everything else. Did you notice the sales tax?

They also have a high minimum wage that gets passed on to the customer.

Some local jurisdictions have higher minimum wage rates and different labor rules than Washington State. The more generous minimum wage may apply in these localities:

Bellingham : $18.66/hour from May 1-Dec. 31, 2025.

Burien : $21.16/hour for employers with 500 or more employees, and $20.16/hour for employers with 21-499 employees. Employers with 20 or less employees are not covered.

Everett : Effective July 1, 2025. $20.24/hour for employers with more than 500 employees in Washington and $18.24 for employers with between 15 and 500 employees. Employers with 14 or fewer employees are not affected.

King County (unincorporated areas) : $20.29/hour for employers with more than 500 employers, $18.29/hour for employers with 15-500 employees, and $17.29 for employers with less than 15 employees and less than $2 million in gross revenue.

Renton : $20.90/hour for employers with 501 or more employees and $18.90/hour for employers with 15-500 employees from Jan. 1, 2025, to June 30, 2025, and $19.90 from July 1, 2025 to Dec. 31, 2025. Employers with 14 or less employees are are not covered.

SeaTac : $20.17/hour for employers in hospitality and transportation industries.

Seattle : $20.76/hour

Tukwila : $21.10/hour for employers with more than 500 employees and $20.10/hour for employers with 15-500 employees or more than $2 million of annual gross revenue in Tukwila from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2025, then $21.10/hour from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2025.
Does not apply to employers with 14 or less employees or have $2 million or less in gross revenue.

I did not and had not asked Terry about that. I look at the receipt total and food prices on the restaurant receipt before I sign.

I notice a huge indifference by the waitstaff here in Seattle but that seems to becoming commonplace. Our server last night apologized for her lack luster service a couple times. She was covering maybe 25 tables as she said most of the hotels and restaurants in the area are short staffed and are not hiring.

We are back from breakfast. I did check the receipt and glad I did. They charge a 18% service charge which is distributed amongst the entire restaurant staff including the supervisor. The service was lukewarm but 18% automatic limited what the server got. Any additional tip does goes only to the server. Gave her $10. So roughly a 23% overall tip. Heading over to the Museum of Pop Cluture.

 

[chadbag]

Wow, that's cool! I wonder how they load the firmware in.

The PIC based one you have a small USB based programmer that you hook up the board to. I bought all the stuff but never got around to implementing it. It's on my radar to do once things settle down...

I assume the others are similar. A USB based "programmer" that knows the chip and how to tickle the bits to make them stick.

 

[chadbag]

Wife said she wants chili tonight. So, I need to go get some ground beef and bell peppers. Maybe an onion.

 

[insomniville]

Afternoon, folks. It's 92F and 54% out here on the patio today.

Two and a half inches of rain yesterday. TWO AND A HALF INCHES! On a random day in early August where they said we had a 30% chance of getting about a tenth of an inch. @santafewillie: lucky indeed!

The rain was much appreciated.

Am still feeling just kinda meh. That's now coupled with an unpleasant issue today, which is not making me happy. I do not want to be tethered to the bathroom tomorrow, since I have a train show to go to!

I'm hoping that will be fun. The train show, not the bathroom...

Just ran a couple trains and dug out the totes of old Unitrack. It's time to get that organized and sold off.

I'm guessing that's all HO? If any of it is N, let me know what you have and I might be interested.

We stopped at a Target store near the Public Market and a 20oz bottle of Diet Dr Pepper was $5.49 each.

Holy crap! That same bottle is... $2.39 at my local Target. More than twice the price before sales tax is insane! I member when they were $1.50 out of a vending machine...

They charge a 18% service charge which is distributed amongst the entire restaurant staff including the supervisor.

Tipping is becoming a bit of a trigger for me in general, I think. And I've never worked in food service!

I've always seen tips as rewards for good service. They are rewards to the serving individual, directly from the customer. I am not tipping the business; I'm tipping the worker! In far too many jurisdictions (including mine, sadly), this isn't what happens, though.

Where I am, minimum wage is $7.25/hour, if you're not a food service worker. If you are, it's $2.13/hour, though the employer still has to make up the shortfall between there and minimum wage once tips are added in. How the hell is that not considered theft of those tips from the people who rightfully earned them?

It's exploitative in a way that I really don't like, and that I think is deeply wrong. I'm tempted to say that people in jurisdictions like mine should stop tipping completely since it's not the tipee that's actually getting the money; make the businesses pay their workers properly until the law is fixed.

The "shared tips" thing also bothers me a little, but it's far less offensive. The rest of the staff does have a bearing on the service, so it's at least an attempt at fairness if it's done properly. Right up until the employer claws those tips back by not paying a reasonable wage...

I feel really bad for all of those people.

Then you add in the "mandatory tip" thing, and it's no longer a tip in my mind; it's part of the price of the meal. That mechanism is flat out fraud as far as I'm concerned; they're putting a meal price on the menu that's 18% or however much lower than the actual price. It should be illegal; they should have to give alternate menus to large groups or whatever that include the correct prices instead of sneaking it in at the end.

Yeah, I tend to rant about this. Sorry. I'm going to shut up about it now before I end up writing a (bigger) book...

--

On a lighter note, the Austin train show starts tomorrow! I have no idea what to expect, but I'm very much looking forward to it. My only issue is that I wanted to take the train down there, but it would probably be a mistake; I don't want to have to carry any purchases I make back home on said train. Maybe on Sunday, depending.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Have a good day, folks, and TGIF!

 

[Bruette]

I member when they were $1.50 out of a vending machine...

I remember 5 cents for a soda in a machine.

I had to choose between a pack of baseball cards Hershy bar or a soda; each was 5 cents. I always choose baseball cards, but I still remember the quick debate in my mind.

 

[migalyto]

I'm guessing that's all HO? If any of it is N, let me know what you have and I might be interested.

Yep, its all Ho scale.