Running Bear's August 2026 Coffee Shop

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Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with temperatures.

It's Troy again.

Piriformis syndrom still ongoing (it will be for a while) This week is about figuring out what works to empty the bladder when it hurts to stand, hurts to sit, and basically hurts enough to cut off the flow.

I'm not getting any writing done. That's my goal for next week.

But this week I decided to add a beaver to the sleepy coastal magical town with the wooden pier.
Wood.
Beavers
A need for a dam.

This isn't going to be pretty...

Managed to sell off one of my miniature armies yesterday, just in time to pay the preorder for the Rapido GP9u Canadian Pacific with beaver.

Seems to be beaver week here.

UPS said the GP9u should arrive today.

Right now, the most comfortable place for me to be during the day is my hobby chair. I squirm a lot, but can sit for 30ish minutes. Standing is painful if I'm not actively walking.

So, I've been putting paint on miniatures: Some Cultists for my undead army:
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These are about 38mm toes to top of head. 42ish mm to top of hat. So they're fun to paint with lots of detail.
Currently working on some undead minotaurs and some living statues for the same army.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 76°, forecast to reach 100° again today. But that's our forecast for the rest of August anyway.

Good visit with the spine doctor yesterday. He says no to surgery and thinks that the stenosis can be treated with an epidural a couple of times a year. First one is a week from today, after I abstain from Eliquis (a blood thinner) for a few days.

Weekly grocery trek today. While it in itself isn't bad, it's the third day this week that I have to be somewhere. My idea of retirement is not having to be "somewhere" after 43 years of having to be on time for a job. Post office, Sam's Club, Vitamin Shop, water company to pay the bill and pharmacy are included on this trip, as well as somewhere that my wife wants to stop that I forgot. May need to gas up the chariot as well. While there's no rush, I also need to stop sometime at Home Depot to replace the garden hose that I absentmindedly ran over with the mower last weekend!:mad:

I didn't get much time out in the train shed yesterday because of the early afternoon doctor appointment. So I mostly just ran trains. I did do a little bit of cleanup and under layout vacuuming where I had moved stuff out earlier in the week, so there was some minor productivity.

David (Marlin) - Last month was the last month that I received MRR, which I had a subscription to for 33 years. Other than getting smaller, there was nothing basically wrong with it except that it offered nothing new to me. Now if I need some information, I just ask here.
Tom O - Since I quit actively purchasing model railroad structures several years ago, it came as a surprise to see a Walther's kit made of anything but plastic. I also lay out all parts and check them off before I start as well. I also keep the instructions filed with a handwritten summary of what color and brand of paints I use for future reference. But I am with you on the normal Walther's instructions.
Terry - Karl visited yesterday morning. Probably forgot to recharge the phone.

Everyone have a terrific Thursday.
 
Morning all,

Kevin: Thanks for the laugh. It was a catchy tune, although I haven't actually played D&D for over 40 years.

Hopefully Karl chimes in soon.

Rainy and 70° this morning. I had alter my way into work this morning BNSF decided it would be fun to park 2 mile+ long trains across a US highway and several county roads.

Not much yet this morning as it's otherwise still early. Waiting to hear from the local fiber internet company. Long story short, we saved them a ton of money when they got the contract for interconnecting the school district as we (the city) has fiber running past most of the schools. So we made a fiber swap agreement where they cost share the installation of new fiber to places we haven't built yet and they got some of our conduits. They also repair all fiber. We have a line that's been glitchy for years and yesterday we spent 3 hours trying to figure it out. The area guy responsible had to get with the engineer with the results and what we need to do to get it fixed. He'll be calling me sometime today. It will be nice to have it work properly again.

BBL
 
Good morning all!

Still not feeling the best this morning.

Going to be a cloudy day but no rain is predicted. Currently 68F and the high will reach 79F. Will also be very humid today.

Going to try and get out to mow today even though the motivation is not there. It needed done several days ago but did not feel well
enough to do, but today I have no choice. Probably not much more will happen today.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Good morning Crew. I’ve been awake maybe 45 minutes. I didn’t have trouble sleeping I just wasn’t tired at the midnight bedtime. Somewhere after 1 I crawled into bed and woke at 7:20 so a good amount of sound sleep. Feel good. 65f degrees now and 83 later. No rain in the forecast. The 2 rain events predicted for yesterday produced a trace each time in the rain gauge.

I finished assembling the Pony Truss bridge last night around 10:15. It felt good finishing it off
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I added the rivet details to the bridge and I like it! Today I will spray (or maybe the grandson) a light gray primer to seal the bridge. I’m not sure if I am doing the final, paint and weathering.

While I have a ton of trees to create building the bridge was helpful. It wasn’t the mind numbing twist and shape like trees do after 5. So I will pull out a quick project to break up tree time. Another straight from the box Walthers kit.
IMG_8225.jpeg

Something easy to build where the painting and weathering will take longer than the assembly of the Engine House. This is a bit different in that it’s part of a 22”x 41” modular drop in scene. I have the modular base and the Engine House that will become a MOW support shed with only 1 track in the building. The friend collects MOW equipment so he wants the module to be a display though it will be part of operations. Not much scenery to build. A concrete pad for the building and gravel for most everything else with a slight elevation in back.

5 things planned today. First I must clean off my bench. It maybe the worst It’s ever been. Clean and re-organize. I went to storage yesterday and pulled out 3 of the outdoor Shoi screen panel sets to screen off my workspace. Daughter agrees with her mom it should help me concentrate better and they are easy to move. Then lunch with Terry and the grandkids. Terry and the granddaughter will drop the g/s and me off at home while they go see Moana at the movie theater. The grandson will probably prime the bridge for me ( I will supervise) since it’s for a friend and is not a commission. Then he has a bunch of new slot car bodies in various stages of decal work and 1st coat paint. I’ll work on birch trees

Enjoy your day
 


Update on the Piriformis issue:

Last time I had it, it went 4 weeks before I started seeing major relief. Each week got a little better, but week four to five was a major lightening of the pain and increased comfort.

I just checked back in the July coffee shop thread. Looks like my grumping about it started on July 31. So today is the end of week one.

I've got a trip to Tampa for a writer conference coming up in about 7 weeks. I had to cancel that trip two years ago because I was only in week 2 of my first case of this. Could barely stand to sit, so no way was I doing a couple of flights to get to Tampa.

Wife has been trying to move her Methoprexate schedule to take it on Friday night. She started on Tuesday night. The next two days are brain fog days, so she'd rather do that on the weekend. I go upstairs to check on her, and I'm surprised if her eyes are open and the fingers are moving on the keyboard.

If I can manage to stand for about 15 minutes today, I'm going to try to get more roadbed on the layout. We'll see how that goes.
 
Good morning! A wonderful 65°F/65°F with dark cloudy skies and light continuous rain. A few rumbles of thunder for good measure. The first area of rain is starting to clear the area and then another large area of rain will be moving in before lunch time.

Another short taste of Autumn, but will not last. I can see the changes start to happen though. The day before yesterday, we reached our average high temperature day for summer, and now the average starts falling a little at a time. The sun is moving farther south and my patio chair is now not in the umbrella shade until 1330 now instead of 1230. My patio set faces south BTW.

Halfway through summer was yesterday, and now the slide to Autumn starts. 45 days and counting.

Waiting on a delivery for some supplemental groceries. Bread, smoked ham, cheese, chips. Mostly lunch stuff I run out of first after a major grocery buy. I'd buy two loaves of bread if I had room in my freezer, but it won't fit with the other food.

You all have a great day!

Servus!
 
I finished assembling the Pony Truss bridge last night around 10:15. It felt good finishing it off

That turned out really great. I sometimes wish I had a spot for a rail bridge on my layout. Had I built the whole thing in HOm instead of as an afterthought I would have had plenty of opportunity for viaducts and bridges.

That bridge should provide some great photo opportunities for the new owner.
 
That turned out really great. I sometimes wish I had a spot for a rail bridge on my layout. Had I built the whole thing in HOm instead of as an afterthought I would have had plenty of opportunity for viaducts and bridges.

That bridge should provide some great photo opportunities for the new owner.
Thank you. I can’t wait to see bridge lightly primed because the rivet detail parts look great out of the box. Once primed they really should pop! Texting my friend this morning he said if it's as good looking as I say he’ll move the location from the 3rd level to the 2nd level where it will be at eye level.

My new layout if I build one will have sites for bridges
 
Good afternoon, Everyone. My thoughts and prayers go out to all who are suffering, and I wish you comfort and a quick recovery.

I just got back from the urologist, no good news, but nothing earth-shatteringly bad either. My bladder still isn’t bouncing back after the two surgeries. It might just need more time to heal. I’m confident it will recover; it’s just being stubborn and uncooperative - it is my bladder, after all.

Suffering can be a blessing if you choose to embrace it. Every hardship I’ve faced in life has brought something good in the end. Still, I doubt ending up in diapers is the kind of blessing I’m hoping for. I’ll just wait and see what the good Lord has planned for me; almost like waiting for Christmas!

It’s a day game in Baltimore! Angels vs. Orioles at 12:35 p.m. I’m excited to see the Angels’ young 24-year-old starter, Ryan Johnson. He’s a big guy at 6'6" and 215 pounds, making just his 10th MLB start. I’ve never seen him pitch before, and I can’t wait!
My Birds counter with one of my favorites Brandon Young. This should be a great game to watch!

Enjoy your day, Everyone! And if you’re in pain, just try not to think about it, that is what I do. Easier said than done, but hey, good luck with that!
 
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Good day to all..........

Today In History

On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by U.S. forces. A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later, followed quickly by Japan's surrender and the conclusion of World War II.

Still working on installing servos and controllers for my turnouts. Making decent progress but man my neck and shoulders get tired working the under side of my upper level. I am installing control panels on the fascia as I go and all frogs on my turnouts are powered which adds a bit more work but worth it. I just can't wait until I start doing all this on the main level which is about 18 inches or so lower with even more turnouts. I ran a few trains on DC just to check things out and all worked well. Nice to see a train run after all the work. I also got around to connecting some feeder wires I had skipped over. I'm hoping to finish all hook-ups by this coming Sunday, then I will begin connecting my NCE DCC system up and check it out. I may need to upgrade some of my NCE stuff, something else to check on (and spend money ). I'm using the wireless system and I think the antenna base has an up-grade. I'll need to send it to NCE for the fix.....we shall see.

It is dry and hot in west Texas. I don't get out much during the day if I can help it.

Take care....John
 
Good afternoon gang!

Progress has been made, but it is still not enough to get me out of here.
Currently I am sitting on a rolling recliner with both feet up, actually with better lumbar support than the bendable bed. It’s nice to see outside where I can see part of the local 4H fair

BBL
 
Afternoon all!

No rain or storms yet, looks like we may have gotten missed.

I mustered up the gumption to at least get out mow and so a little of the trimming. It was decent weather-wise but with still not feeling well
zapped most of my energy with the humidity.

There will be nothing going on tonight other than recliner time in front of YT with the dog.

Karl-Good to hear some progress is being made. Hopefully you are out soon!

Have a great rest of your night everyone!
 
On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by U.S. forces. A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later, followed quickly by Japan's surrender and the conclusion of World War II.
Having visited both the Hiroshima museum and the Nagasaki museum a few times each, I reflect today on the terrible outcome when you prosecute an unjust war.

Both museums are things you should visit. Ignore the political displays and the pacifist propaganda but learn that this can be the outcome if you prosecute unjust war. (obviously I am speaking of those who started the war, not those who finished it)

And that those who suffer the most are the civilian population who didn't vote for war.
 


Only been to the one in Nagasaki. I don't see too many protests in front of the base anymore. Used to have a lot of them, especially when the USS Midway was here. Helicopters and boats would always be there to greet her when she came back in to port, especially when she had the fire onboard.
 
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