Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXVI

[Flip]

TERRY-Sorry to read about your niece. Added to our prayer list. Getting crowded on there.
ERIC- your modeling skills are awesome.
GARRY- CURT- and so many others, leave me speechless.

Only 94 now-feels like the oven door has been left open.
As I told CURT, tho my problems,to DEB and I, seem huge, in comparison to what others face, they are minute.

Best wishes and continued Prayers for all of us.
Phil

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Ken I am sorry to hear you have a lame shoppers. Maybe somebody in the bakery has been out sick. Mine is the opposite, always full if you go in the morning. There colossal donuts are the best you can buy in my book. They dwarf Krispy Cream and Dunkin Donuts, they taste better too and at $5.99 per dozen they are much cheaper. Bigger, Better and Cheaper! I like that combination. Too bad I'm diabetic, but I do enjoy watching my family and friends enjoy them.

Thank you Terry!

That's true about the price and quality of the SFW donuts. I asked the cashier if they were getting out of the donut business. She said, "heavens sake no. That's one of the biggest selling items in the morning". She said maybe one of the ovens was running slow or the person who cooks them didn't show up on time. I told her I have been noting this over the past month and a half. I guess I've been going in there too early. Gotta wait till after 8:30 or so when most other workers are finally out of bed and on their way to work.

 

[Bruette]

I have been, and will continue to not be here much for a while.
My niece suffered a heart attack Monday, and am dealing with that as much as possible, without a trip to California.

Forgive me Terry, I missed this post.

I hope and pray your niece is doing better.

God Bless us Everyone!

 

[Bruette]

That's true about the price and quality of the SFW donuts. I asked the cashier if they were getting out of the donut business. She said, "heavens sake no. That's one of the biggest selling items in the morning". She said maybe one of the ovens was running slow or the person who cooks them didn't show up on time. I told her I have been noting this over the past month and a half. I guess I've been going in there too early. Gotta wait till after 8:30 or so when most other workers are finally out of bed and on their way to work.

Ken at my store, Eastern Ave and Kane street, the donuts are always full and ready by 7AM and they keep them full until almost noon.

I frequently talk to the store manager and he confirms what the cashier told you. The donuts bring in a lot of customers, making them a vital part of their operation.

It could be they have been running shorthanded. It is hard to hire good people right now with unemployment as low as it has been. My wife's company, Royal Farms, has been running almost 15% below full staff across 200 stores for the last 3 years. In that time they have increased wages several times. Now they are paying $2-3 per hour above minimum wage to start and still they are having trouble filling all the positions.

My Shoppers is a union store, they have no trouble hiring people, according to the store manager.

 

[Boris]

Joe - Please don't misunderstand me, I am making no judgements regarding NJ politics. I just thought that this was an amusing sidebar when there are most likely much more serious issues for the politicians and media to deal with. I do agree with your analysis.

Willie: I hope I didn't sound defensive. Jersey's brand of Politics, if you take it seriously, it will torment you. I find these people and their line of s**t amusing. I also find the news and entertainment media appalling, but the bottom line is one throws up his hands and says "what are ya going to do?"

Currently, the big story is an alleged fraud involving Millionaires, and their families caught receiving all known forms of public assistance. The FBI, the State Police, the local Prosecutor, are involved. around 50 couples and individuals have been charged, the investigation is ongoing, with more arrests anticipated. Numerous other families have gone to social services to cancel their public assistance benefits, and nearly 1000 other families have applied for amnesty and have agreed to repay benefits they received but were not entitled to. No one has been convicted yet, it's a process just started, but outside of the initial story, this news item has been suppressed by the news media both print and visual, because it involves a particular community that the media has chosen to protect.

Note, the town involved, is considered the fastest growing town in NJ, There is a large volume of new construction, both residential and commercial. Yet the town does not receive sufficient tax revenue to fund the Public School system or Police and Fire. You cannot make this stuff up.

No wonder NJ is called the Soprano State.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soprano_State




As I said, amusing

 

[Boris]

I have been, and will continue to not be here much for a while.
My niece suffered a heart attack Monday, and am dealing with that as much as possible, without a trip to California.

Sorry to hear that, Terry. Hope she is on the road to recovery.

 

[Boris]

Ordered these yesterday from Trainworld, they arrived today.



Think the photo uploaded sideways, but you get the picture.

 

[Bruette]

Currently, the big story is an alleged fraud involving Millionaires, and their families caught receiving all known forms of public assistance. The FBI, the State Police, the local Prosecutor, are involved. around 50 couples and individuals have been charged, the investigation is ongoing, with more arrests anticipated. Numerous other families have gone to social services to cancel their public assistance benefits, and nearly 1000 other families have applied for amnesty and have agreed to repay benefits they received but were not entitled to. No one has been convicted yet, it's a process just started, but outside of the initial story, this news item has been suppressed by the news media both print and visual, because it involves a particular community that the media has chosen to protect.

Note, the town involved, is considered the fastest growing town in NJ, There is a large volume of new construction, both residential and commercial. Yet the town does not receive sufficient tax revenue to fund the Public School system or Police and Fire. You cannot make this stuff up.

No wonder NJ is called the Soprano State.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soprano_State




As I said, amusing

Boris it is true, it has been hard to follow the public welfare fraud case in Lakewood New Jersey.

Neither the NY Times or Baltimore Sun have reported on it. I learned of it through an acquaintance who lives in Lakewood. CNN has mentioned it and Ashbury Press has reported on it, but it has been largely ignored otherwise, that I am aware of.

Let's watch to see if this story gets bigger.

Fortunately the FBI is on the case and despite what others might say they will follow the facts.

This only reaffirms my faith in this great country. No matter how powerful and or influential you are you can't hide from the public for long. Sooner or later some investigator, reporter, or otherwise will uncover the story to make a name for themselves.

 

[Bruette]

Boris, nice looking trucks and Penn Central too!!!

Time for me to get ready for work, have a great evening Everybody!

 

[Boris]

Boris it is true, it has been hard to follow the public welfare fraud case in Lakewood New Jersey.

Just checked yesterdays weekly local newspaper, the Tri Town News, as well as the online Howell Patch. Neither source mentioned this story. Now if the perps were associated with Governour C, it would be all over the TV everywhere. Just proves my point about selective journalism.

We all put our pants on the same way, and we should all play by the same rules. Idealistic, I know, it doesn't work that way, but it should. The media should give equal sensationalism to all politicians when they do something off color. If someone is caught defrauding the public, they should be prosecuted and go to jail, regardless of who they are.

That's why the Media appalls me.

 

[Boris]

Boris, nice looking trucks and Penn Central too!!!

Time for me to get ready for work, have a great evening Everybody!

Could not resist them, MBK sold out over the 4th, Trainworld had some, now I have a couple.

 

[BigE]

Evening fellers,
I decided to run some laps with an engine only. A GP50 I think?

Anyway, I finally remembered what I wanted to ask of you all.
I'll go for my final walk of the night and see can I craft up a message that you all understand.
E

PS: Brother Bill (while taking me around town) told of two of my good friends who recently.
Angela - a true blonde goddess I knew in hgih school and would run across often during class changes whenI went to the university.
What a loss.

 

[GarryCBQ]

Good evening.

Joe... the new trucks look good.

Eric..... I think left some words off in your post after the word "recently". I can tell it must be bad news about someone you knew.

Eric and Chet. .. I had an easy solution to the problem of painting stripes on my Diner. I simply omitted them and it looks very good without them .

Phil ... thank you for the comment

 

[Bruette]

Just checked yesterdays weekly local newspaper, the Tri Town News, as well as the online Howell Patch. Neither source mentioned this story. Now if the perps were associated with Governour C, it would be all over the TV everywhere. Just proves my point about selective journalism.

We all put our pants on the same way, and we should all play by the same rules. Idealistic, I know, it doesn't work that way, but it should. The media should give equal sensationalism to all politicians when they do something off color. If someone is caught defrauding the public, they should be prosecuted and go to jail, regardless of who they are.

That's why the Media appalls me.

Boris are not alone in being appalled by our media, millions of Americans feel much the same as you.

Even for someone like me who tries to always see the best in everything I am consistently frustrated by our media.

The road to where we are now is long and convoluted. We have had mainly 3 maladroit and egotistical drivers; elitism, profit and manipulation. it began even before national newspapers and continued on through radio, TV and now the internet. The seemingly effective propaganda used during the wars only served to escalate the problem.

Rupert Murdoch and his brilliant, albeit deviant henchman, Roger Ailes have masterfully manipulated the profit driven elitist atmosphere they came into. The reaction to Fox has driven much of the main stream media even further into their self-created position of being loathed by many common men and women. The modern media has followed this fools errand to the point that now we have "red" and "blue" media outlets.

Despite what most of the media believes, people don't want to be told what to think, we only want the facts, all of the facts. Especially the facts that the media believes to be damaging to their view. it is their job to present both sides of the story as best as they can. It is not their job to bend, omit and twist the facts to influence our opinions.

There is too much "preaching to the choir", not enough objective and professional journalism.

If the media cannot earn some respect from the common people we are in grave danger. The very foundation of our democracy is at risk. All we need to do is to look to the countries that do not have a free press to know that is true.

My outlook; the future is bright. I believe our American system of capitalism will right the ship. One day soon a media outlet will give the people what we want. They will find objective and professional journalism sells! But first they must stop thinking we are too stupid to understand the issues or that we will allow them to manipulate our opinions.

 

[Bruette]

Could not resist them, MBK sold out over the 4th, Trainworld had some, now I have a couple.

The last time I was at MB Kline they were doing some remodeling to increase their inventory capacity. The building they have will never rival Train World/Train Universe's capacity.

I am happy to pay a few points more at Train World for somethings I would not be able to get otherwise. I noticed if you watch Train Worlds specials you can get prices that rival or even beat MB Kline.

Train World is selling on eBay as well.

I hope to get up to New York this year to see Train World and Train Universe.

Evening fellers,
I decided to run some laps with an engine only. A GP50 I think?

Anyway, I finally remembered what I wanted to ask of you all.
I'll go for my final walk of the night and see can I craft up a message that you all understand.
E

PS: Brother Bill (while taking me around town) told of two of my good friends who recently.
Angela - a true blonde goddess I knew in hgih school and would run across often during class changes whenI went to the university.
What a loss.

E I'm sorry to hear about your loss. Every year we have a 4th of July celebration at my house. Almost every year somebody is no longer with us to celebrate. I think this is one of the hardest things about getting older.

I'm glad to hear you had an engine running. Even to watch them run laps is comforting to me.

Eric and Chet. .. I had an easy solution to the problem of painting stripes on my Diner. I simply omitted them and it looks very good without them .

Phil ... thank you for the comment

Garry I like your solution! I am getting closer by the day to moving and when I do I will try my hand at some modeling. It's great to know there is more than 1 way to get things done.

I may never have a masterpiece to rival your layout or others, but I finally realize I will have a masterpiece, my masterpiece! Who knows, I may even surprise myself.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Note to self: Never put Bright Boy on the brown stool seat.
I don't know how many times I walked past it while looking for it on the layout.

My Toshiba laptop is about to die. I got a message on it that hard drive failure is immanent. I use that machine for the JMRI Decoder Pro and nothing else. No other files on it. No internet capability. I bought it in 2003. I copied all the JMRI files and put them on my Dell laptop that is running my Train Controller Silver for the signal system. That machine has a lot of old files on it from when my late wife Wendy used it for her Scrap Book business. I put a program on it called Fix-It-Utilities to clean things up. Went through the registry several times, eliminating useless and broken entries then defragged it. It runs a lot better now. I have to go to the hardware store to find a couple of shelf supports so I can add a shelf for the programming track.
In the picture, the laptop will host the JMRI. I want to add a shelf between the existing shelves.

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's mostly clear and 75.
D&J Ken: I think I have a surplus PATA hard drive lying around that I removed from an IBM Thinkpad in 2005. It is only 40Gb, but you shouldn't need more than that just for Decoder Pro. Let me know if you want it, and I'll scrounge it up and send it to you.

In other news, Sherrel sent me a text, and let me know he's alive, sore, and miserable.

 

[bnsf971]

In other, other news, I'm trying to get more info about my niece's condition. Obviously, them there, letting me here, know how she is doing is a lower priority than taking care of her, but the lack of info is frustrating, at best.

 

[Boris]

Good morning, 72°, sunny and...humid. Maybe a good beach day for those so inclined.

In other news, Sherrel sent me a text, and let me know he's alive, sore, and miserable.

Thanks Terry, sounds like his recovery is coming along just nicely .

Louis: RE: MBK, they are my go to place, for stuff. Fair price, good service, and reliability are beyond reproach. TrainWorld, is a slightly different business, as they deal as much with Hi-Railers, and collectors as well as modelers. They are also fair priced, with good service and reliability. Their pricing, reflects NY, vs. Baltimore, so generally it's slightly higher per unit. I do all my pre-orders with TrainWorld.

Orioles blew another lead last night...I guess they will be selling at the deadline.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning. 75° and clear this fine morning. Made more spaghetti sauce yesterday with my home grown tomatoes, garlic, onions and herbs. But one seal failed in the canning process, so that jar got dumped into a freezer bag instead. At least the jar didn't break. Looks like my weekend plan to remain in the train shed got changed. The part for my tractor that was supposed to arrive Monday, was delivered yesterday afternoon. I have no excuse not to resume mowing as soon as the dew dries. Believe me, the estate needs it with all of the rain we've had this summer. The storm Wednesday that dumped 1.4" in 45 minutes brought my pond up to 2/3 full from empty and dry on Tuesday. It's historically completely dry from June 25 through September 15.
Speaking of the train shed, I read over my project list yesterday and immediately deviated and assembled an Accurail freight car, another PS-2 4750 cu ft ribside covered hopper. These covered hoppers are no "shake the box" kits, and are relatively detailed for the price. There's over thirty parts not counting trucks and couplers.

Eric - That tank kit looks like another challenge. I have that piping kit from Walther's and there's a bunch of stuff in there. I'll be using mine for my yet to be assembled ethanol facility. Some of your later post was missing some words, but it sounds like an old friend passed into a better life. Prayers for her.
Johnny - As someone else already posted, scenery can cover a lot of sins.
Garry - I don't get fancy with backdrops (yet), I just paint the walls blue with some green horizons, and tape pictures randomly along the bottom.
Terry - Prayers and best wishes for your niece. I do appreciate you keeping us up to date with Sherrel despite the turmoil in your own family.
Curt -

...my back was hurting, and I have learned to listen to it the hard way.

Good advice. Now if only Louis would listen to that! I have built several of the American Model Builders kits and I like them. They are a tad easier then Bar Mills. Happy modeling and looking forward to the results.
Joe - I had read a little regarding the gigantic fraud case on USA today and Asbury Park Press, it's amazing. And 1000 families applying for amnesty! That's far more extensive than what I had read. While I don't know all of the facts, I feel that the amnesty seekers should pay a hefty penalty as well, just to avoid prosecution.
Ohhh! Nice looking trucks.

Everybody have a wonderful weekend.

Willie