Running Bear's December 2021 Coffee Shop

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 50° here on the prairie this morning. Looking at upper 70's for the next few days. More outdoor tasks later today. Grilled T-bones on the grill last night to go with the homemade coleslaw that I made yesterday afternoon.

Wow! More than 80 posts since the December Coffee Shop opened yesterday.

Wife seems to be recovering from the surgery at about the same pace as the previous ones. Still ornery though.

Getting the list ready for the weekly grocery/beer trek this morning. Looks like Dollar General and Sam's Club are on the itinerary as well. Two things that I will watch for, higher prices and face mask usage. No compliance rules in Texas, but that doesn't stop me in certain places.

Thanks for the likes and comments yesterday regarding the mini-scenes; Patrick, Chad, OB Ken, Guy, Gary, Tom O, Sherrel, Hughie, Christian, Karl, Curt, James, Tom, Jaz, IB Ken, Joe.

Poached eggs and bacon this morning Flo. I think that I'll have apple juice today.

I didn't spend a lot of time out in the train shed yesterday, household chores, patient care and taking advantage of the beautiful outdoor weather conditions took priority. No new projects yet, even small ones. I did run a few trains. So let's go back to the picture archive for more "girly" pictures. How about shorts today?

Chris -

December already, crazy…. Hoping we all have a good month that leads into an even better new year

Boy, sure can't be worse than 2021.
Karl -

It's strange that at this time of year 35° is unbearable, but come February it will feel almost balmy.

No, it's still unbearable to me!
Mikey -

Willie- I have started exposing more skin on many of my painted figures. Sometimes, it requires me to file or sand a figure to remove coats or other unwanted materials. I noticed you modify many of your figures, also.

It especially needs to be done on those German figures from Preiser, with all of those heavy coats and scarves.
Bigfoot - Nice start to the structure.
Curt - Texas Roadhouse - M'm! M'm! Good!

Gotta go now. Everybody have an awesome day and stay safe.

 

[Jaz avalley]

If the computer store wasn't 90 miles away, I'd go there so fast this place's head would swim. Complicating matters is my wife's and dog's health issues, and I really can't be that far from home for extended times daily. There's an oil change place on the corner that's hiring, I think I'll stop by on the way to work tomorrow, and pick up an application.

Have you considered checking out computer places close to home and offer a resume,and offer a free trial days work in any close by computer stores,pro activity may be an option at this moment, I am really sorry so close to Xmas that you and yours are taking such a pounding

 

[Bruette]

My doctor asked me how much coffee do you consume in a day? I told him usually about 4 cups. He said to many. So now I don't have any. I drink 2 cups of green tea a day. Much healthier choice.
George

George, my kidney doctor said my high coffee consumption was ok. My primary doctor had me measure my blood pressure after not drinking coffee for a week, no change. None of my doctors are complaining. I make a lot of healthy sacrifices, but coffee won't be one of them. I often drink 2 pots of coffee a day, sometimes more. Usually 6-8 cups per day. I even like a cup of coffee before I go to bed. Coffee seems to have no affect on me, thank God.
Thank you all the same for thinking of me, I appreciate that!

Louis- The problem is that the stupid people aren't always readily identifiable. They should be required to wear signs, then we'd know. That one is stupid, better stay away. And as far as coffee goes, mine has been the best it's ever been since going to work for a coffee company. The job perks are nice. Read: coffee tastes better when you don't have to pay for it.

Wife took her car in to find out why it sounded like a diesel yesterday and found out we need to rebuild the engine. It's a 2012 GMC Terrain with the 2.4 in it. Piston rings have failed and are allowing oil to pass by and burn off, which has lead to failure of the timing chain components that keep it tight. They said we could just do the timing chain, but the last one they did lasted 1,000 miles before the bottom end grenaded. Timing chain: $2,600. Engine: $7,600. Trade in value: $1,000. This has only furthered my disdain for GM and most modern vehicles in general. GM knows about the piss-poor rings, but it is cheaper to keep building the engines than to correct the issue. I am now considering taking the gearhead approach and trying to build a forged bottom end and slap a turbo or supercharger on it. She is going to baby it until I get home and can move the car seat over to my Ram. She'll be driving the Goat until I get hers repaired. Thankfully I have a company vehicle now and my truck is just sitting in the yard anyway.

On a more positive note, I found a hobby shop yesterday that would get me in trouble if I were local to the area. They have a good selection of new, and used, trains, buildings and accessories. Scored 31 vehicles for less than $25. Most will be background scenery or junk heap fodder, as they aren't highly detailed, but I did get a few nice ones. The only issue is they are a tad larger than the rest. If I use them, I'll have to put them in the foreground away from everything else to add depth to the layout. Pics below.

View attachment 136152

View attachment 136153

If given enough time to speak stupid people identify themselves, usually.

I'm with you, almost anything that is free is good!

Sorry to hear about the GMC. Karl is the source for GM advice. If what he says is not an option I've had success with Jasper engines. I wish you well.

Great score with the cars! I love my little vehicles almost as much as my trains.

 

[Jaz avalley]

2nd day of december
i suppose they hate Santa because he was saint claus and they would definitely know that would they not,all kids know that,doh….pc correctness, any ways if you want a Santa sleigh this might give you some ideas

 

[NYC_George]

George- You can have as many cups of coffee as you want at this coffee shop.

Thank's Doctor Tom.

 

[Bruette]

No seasonal music... Thems fightin words!

The only problem with talking religion... Which religion and who's version, best to be avoided. I often express my faith, but never delve into debating how to practice one's faith. My view, most any faith is good.

Now I have a nap to take!

God Bless us Everyone

 

[troyphoto]

Well, howdy there internet MRR Cafe people

It's Troy again.

No poly-tics nor religion today.

Unless CAD usage is considered a religion? I'm not much of a math whizz, but I did find Tinker CAD online. It's geared for users at my level. Dummies who want to make stuff.

Seems I've been 3D printing aereoplanes ... those fly thingies that go where Trains can't.

Got a fun game I play, that I'm building a force to simulate the parts of the WWII battle of Leyte Gulf. The scales is 1:200, so kind of close to N-scale. A few of these may get reprinted in 1:160 and painted for an airfield on my layout.

And the manufacture of the game doesn't have many IJN and IJA planes out (Zeros, basically). So, above are some of the VAL dive bombers from Japan that I printed. Found a nice gent with a monthly subscription of $7, and he releases one or more designs a month. So I grabbed a bunch of files.

Problem is, those stands have a triangular top to the peg, that's supposed to fit into a hole on the bottom of the plane. Sometimes the holes aren't quite triangular.

I've tried scraping those holes out. That's dangerous for me. Most of the 3D printed planes need more than a scraping of the hole. I'd cut myself if I tried it. And, since they don't make drill bits that size which can drill a triangular hole easily, I went to play in TinkerCAD.

Made these:

Hollow on the inside, with a 3mm round peg on top. I can drill a 3mm round hole in the bottom of the plane, glue these on, and the widgets are designed to drop onto the flight stand.

I'm printing them now to see if I need to change tolerances.

 

[OBTC 1909]

Good morning all! Sunny and 51 heading for sunny and 66 for the day. Nothing much to report here. Off again today and have a guy here doing more flooring work. We thought we were done with that after he finished a month or two ago, but we liked it so much we decided to have more put down and have the whole house done.

Family is slowly recovering from Covid, but they are recovering and that's what counts.

Not sure yet what the day has in store for me. Hope you all have a great one!

 

[CHRISTIAΝ]

I slightly modified the track plan of the folded figure 8. I put more second radius curves (17'1/4) than first radius curves (14'1/4). The trains run better than ever !

 

[CHRISTIAΝ]

Now it's time for real music. Get ready !

 

[chadbag]

View attachment 136172

I like that. Looks reasonable enough and detailed enough and would look awesome painted...

 

[Patrick]

Ken: What kind of flooring did you have put down. The wife and I are debating what type we want (wood, LVT, LVP, carpet), in the meanwhile the carpet is getting older and more worn. We believe it's the 22+ year old builders grade carpet that was in place when the house was new. Pad is badly worn down (read non-existent) in the traffic areas.

Troy: Nice plane!

 

[chadbag]

Ken: What kind of flooring did you have put down. The wife and I are debating what type we want (wood, LVT, LVP, carpet), in the meanwhile the carpet is getting older and more worn. We believe it's the 22+ year old builders grade carpet that was in place when the house was new. Pad is badly worn down (read non-existent) in the traffic areas.

Not Ken but we are putting down the Modin signature stuff from flooret.com. I got some full plank samples and really liked the large and long size, the print quality, and the extra tough wear layer. And the price is pretty good as well...

We don't have it down yet as the house is still under construction but the 5 full plank sample I got convinced me...

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good Morning all! Starting out as a pretty nice day here in H-Town. Forecasters saying we may break some high temp records over the next few days.
It looks like I'll be putting up some Christmas lights today. Not as much as years past.
"Seasonal" music is OK if it's the season. Two weeks before Thanksgiving is not the season. Another thing is they seldom play my favorites sung by Mario Lanza.
In the train room, I'm expecting some trees and crossing bucks to be delivered today. The trees should go a long way in setting Jefferies Point. Pics when done.

STAY SAFE
LATER

 

[chadbag]

"Seasonal" music is OK if it's the season. Two weeks before Thanksgiving is not the season.

This times 100. One of our local soft rock stations starts Christmas music basically after halloween. And as soon as Dec 26 comes around, they stop it. The Christmas season lasts through Jan 6 (Epiphany -- The 12 days of Christmas START on Dec 25 and end the day before Epiphany, which is the last day of the season and represents the wisemen/magi appearing at the stable in tradition). Seasonal music shouldn't start at earliest after Thanksgiving and preferable after Dec 1 and in my book should go through Jan 6... Christmas is my favorite time of the year. But not with Christmas displays in the stores end of Sept or in October (before Halloween in some cases!) and with it in full bore way before Thanksgiving. That is ridiculous.

 

[DakotaLove39]

Apparently I had to try out Covid-19 for myself. Thanksgiving day was the absolute worst, and every day since then has been better. I've been sicker with less scary bugs in the past, but even with that said the mental toll of this has been a real B.

I went and did a drive-thru swab test Sunday morning and I STILL have not gotten the results back. My employer made me get an at-home test kit just so I had something to show them.

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Ninety miles... that is a long haul, too far for you, I agree.

I'm sorry - for some reason, I thought it was in your area?

In all honesty Terry you are one of the smartest people I ever met. That is not redundant, it needed to be said twice.

Louis -- I have been telling him that for as long as I have known him!

Playing catch up on the posts 2 pages to go ?

TomO beat me to his cartoon pic!

 

[santafewillie]

Playing catch up on the posts 2 pages to go ?

Like I posted this morning, over 80 posts prior to mine this morning since the new shop opened.

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Started out with some chores then put down the initial dirt layer around the round house and associated tracks. What a mess. There's a lot of cleanup to do after everything dries. Tomorrow I'm heading up to see my buddy Jon for a couple of hours (first time in almost 2 years).

My two favorite holiday songs are Happy Christmas by John Lennon and O Holy Night by Josh Groban.

Jaz- Nice photos. Beware, you can't trust Daleks! Beautiful job on Santa's sleigh.

TomO- I don't know why you can't do what you want as long as you have the room. It's your RR.

Tom- Nice looking trailers.

George- Nice job on the 1:1 shrubs.

Joe- Thank you. I hope you and your wife feel better soon.

Bigfoot- I guess it would depend on what you use it for.

Jesse- Nice haul.

Toot- Nice photos.

Willie- Nice painted figures. Are all wives onery at times (I guess they can say the same about us too.)

Troy- Sounds like a fun project.

Ken- We started out with carpet upstairs, then we put in laminate wood (what a job that was) and then after our roof leak was fixed with the associated wall damage and sub floor damage (had to take down the1st layout) we had a contractor put in vinyl plank flooring just before Covid struck last year. It looks great and if it gets wet it doesn't ruin it.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[CambriaArea51]

Good morning. It's clear and 37.
I think I can comment on the other thing that has occurred without delving into religion.
Yesterday afternoon, one of the people from the new company informed our service manager he needed to stop playing "seasonal" music where it is audible to customers, because it might offend someone.

If you have the holiday off you can't complain about being offend.