Running Bear's August 2026 Coffee Shop

[Kusojiji]

Maui and the hurricane

Hopefully it doesn't veer North.

 

[RhB Michael]

I serviced the bogies on the SBB Re/420 today. The wheels actually looked great. Like new. I may have cleaned these a few months ago and forgot about it. While I had them out of the bogies I cleaned all of the pickups. They really needed it badly. The bogies didn't have any visible grease, but the wheel axles had dirty oil on them.

All cleaned up now and running like new. I had it pulling an ore car unit train out of Austria for awhile, and then parked those and switched to an SBB express train. Looked great.

I didn't get to the ÖBB Rh 2143 today. I spent too much time running the Re/420.

 

[Kusojiji]

extensive system of underground storm-water drainage tunnels

Pretty neat stuff. But when I did a search for it, all I found was this.

Haha, only joking! I found this as well. Hope it serves its purpose well.

 

[bnsf971]

Good evening. It's currently raining lightly and 75.
Earlier, we had a series of torrential thunderstorms that caused some flooding, and a lightning strike set a new house on fire near where I live. There were a lot of lightning strikes this afternoon.

 

[John from Indiana]

Howdy from the "New" windy city of NW Indiana. We finally got power on and it is amazing how bored people of today get without power. I do not have any cell phones, tablets, etc. (Joan does} and I was pretty bored without electricity until today. Then I was like a kid in a candy shop. I all came back to normal in about an hour. Before, we had candles, battery powered lights, and nothing to do except, the crossword puzzle and listen to books on tape for me when it got to dark to do the crossword (Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Fox) was the book on take I was listening to. I think it won some awards; but I don't know if it would float in today's sensitive world. I like her writing style; I call it talk-writing. It's like a person is actually telling you a story instead of worrying about using the correct English. It's a great story and when the gym gets power, I will continue listening to it. Luckily today was trash day, as we emptied the entire refrigerator into the trash. The freezer in the garage held up pretty well (although I am a little skeptical in eating anything from it). We threw away well over 500 bucks worth of food this morning. We've haven't ate much in the past days except breakfast. Trees are down and electric wires are just flopping around so we didn't go out after 3. Our dogs is very frightened so we didn't leave her, so it was breakfast and that was it. I've lost about 5 pounds, maybe we should have power outs more often...not!! Joan's tablet bit the dust so we got a new one for her and I had problems with mine, so we took them to the computer shop and everything is back up to snuff. Joan has a new tablet, and I found how to install mods to my RPG. On the way home, we stopped by a local pub and I had three Ying-lings and Joan had two Rum & Cokes, and we both had cheeseburgers. Haven't ate meat in a long time, so everything is fine. Being without electricity really tests your marriage...no one else to yell at except your spouse. I hope everyone else (thousands) without power right now (although if they are without power they will never know I am mentioning them) is coping and like everything else, patience and everything will work our fine

 

[Kusojiji]

Japanese Warriors' armor

Yeah, me too. I wish I had kept or remember where all my pictures went. I did a lot of my sightseeing in Japan in '89-91. Had a ton of photos and bought a scanner since no digital camera back then.

 

[Kusojiji]

windy city of NW Indiana

Wow, how long were you out of power? Glad you guys made it through!

 

[NYC_George]

My back yard look has changed. Swal

 

[John from Indiana]

Wow, how long were you out of power? Glad you guys made it through!

4 days; but we were lucky. By some fluke reason, we got power. The mayor, who just OKed a Data Center less than a half mile from our house, said in a speech, that he didn't expect power to be on until the end of the month....meanwhile, they are working 24-7 at the Data Center location and they need electrical power (gobs of it) and Joan and I have drove all over town for the past few days looking for ANY Nipsco (power company) and found NO ONE. Seems funny that no one wants the Data Center (except the mayor) and all the city power company is no where to be seen, and people all all without power. We are in a straight line to the data center, so maybe for now, we are important. You've all seen the news videos about what it looks like here. 5-foot diameter trees are blocking streets, power lines are down everywhere, visibly by everyone and no workers??? I guess we are lucky that we are in a directly line to the data center. No city in the USA wants them; but our mayor OK'ed it and even for phase 2. He will not be elected again; but his pockets are full...Excuse my anger; but I'm a little pissed off at what is happening (Or not happening) in our little city. Speeches all day long; but nothing else. I know I got mine; but there are thousands upon thousands without....but more speeches tomorrow

 

[santafewillie]

Haha, only joking! I found this as well. Hope it serves its purpose well.

Yep! That's the new one that I was referring to in my post this morning. There's another one beneath Central Expressway originally constructed in 1949-1956, that was expanded in the 1990's. There's also several shorter ones distributed about, all ultimately flowing into the Trinity River.

 

[Kusojiji]

I'm a little pissed off

Yeah, I would be too. I guess its time for a new mayor. AI #1, living people #20. Re-prioritize or else.

But, as you say, it may be a blessing in disguise. I live near a nuclear processing facility so we have priority. I think we were down for a day after the big earthquake.

This is actually the first I'm hearing of this. I don't watch FNN.

 

[RhB Michael]

Yep! That's the new one that I was referring to in my post this morning. There's another one beneath Central Expressway originally constructed in 1949-1956, that was expanded in the 1990's. There's also several shorter ones distributed about, all ultimately flowing into the Trinity River.

Those would make excellent fall out shelters if they weren't full of water when you needed one.

 

[Kusojiji]

Everytime we get a typhoon or severe storm like we just had, the same places keep flooding out. I get tired of hearing about it and wonder why nobody is doing anything to fix it. But, I have to remember that some of these places are lower than the water table and that there really is nowhere for the water to go, without power.

On another note about tunnels, Japan's MAGLEV system is under fire as they dug a lot of tunnels to keep the line as straight as possible and looks like they want to keep it under ground as much as possible to prevent the sonic booms as the train enters a tunnel. In the process of digging these tunnels, they interrupted a lot of the natural flow of water, so a lot of farmers had their wells dry up.

 

[Kusojiji]

Those would make excellent fall out shelters if they weren't full of water when you needed one.

I think I'd rather be a bas relief on the wall instead of dying a slow, torturous death from either radiation poisoning or starvation. Now, if the tunnels went for several miles out of the city, that would be a good way to get out of there.

I told my parents that when we had that big air raid scare in 2017/18. The house in Hawaii cannot be sealed with the jalousy windows, so we'd get radiated. A lot of people went into the rain drains, but they are only about 6 feet down and still on the surface.

 

[DeaconKC]

 

[Bruette]

Rollie Fingers

The man who defined the modern role of a closer.

He was a cornerstone of the great Oakland A's teams of the 70s helping them win 5 consecutive AL West titles and three consecutive World Series Championships. Rollie was the1974 World Series MVP.

For me the highlight of his career was when he signed with San Diego in 1977, which meant my Orioles didn't have to face him!

Rollie returned to the American League with the Brewers in 1981. He won both the AL Cy Young Award and the AL MVP in 1981 with the Brewers and led them to the World Series (past my Birds) in 1982.

Rollie appeared constantly in high‑leverage spots and almost always delivered shutdown innings. He set the record for saves (341) a record that stood until 1992 and he still holds the record for long saves (135) of 2 innings or more. Rollie was a 4-time AL Reliver of the Year.

It came as no surprise when he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1992.

 

[chadbag]

Pretty neat stuff. But when I did a search for it, all I found was this.

Haha, only joking! I found this as well. Hope it serves its purpose well.

Here is some stuff on the Tokyo one:

 

[Bruette]

Trying to be as comfortable as possible at a recliner with a 55 pound border collie laying on me. She’s kind of my own nurse ratchet.

Imagine how much she missed you when you were in the hospital.

 

[Bruette]

A dear friend, a brilliant and devout man, reminded me that today (8/15) is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Where Mary has gone, we hope to follow.

I might have to reconsider doing my own oil changes, as getting up off the driveway has become the toughest part. Yesterday, I had a particularly rough landing; like pilots say, “any landing you walk away from is a good one.” I was surprised by how hard I hit and took a moment to make sure I hadn’t hurt myself. Luckily, I was fine, so I went ahead with the oil change and a quick preventive maintenance check. I'm going to need tires soon.

Walmart’s Super Tech Advanced Full Synthetic 0W-20 Motor Oil has been out of stock for a while, so I went with Castrol Edge 0W-20 Advanced 20K Mile Full Synthetic Motor Oil from Amazon for $27.48. Fram’s Ultra synthetic oil filters were also unavailable, so I opted for a Purolator PL11403 Purolator One Advanced 10K Mile oil filter at $7.65 from Amazon. There goes my under-$30 oil change, but it’s still not too expensive.

I'm no worse for the wear this morning, and the Equinox is ready for another 5K miles, thank God.

It's time for Orioles baseball, then I am off to work - life is grand - thank God!

I almost forgot to mention - I just received a new (to me) book from Amazon "Celebrating a Merry Catholic Christmas: A Guide to the Customs and Feast Days of Advent and Christmas" I can't wait to read it.

Only 106 days to the first Sunday of Advent, 11/29! I love Christmas even more than baseball!

Wishing peace to all.

 

[Kusojiji]

@RhB Michael - I unwatched that thread since that guy never came back.