Running Bear's December 2022 Coffee Shop

[Smudge617]

Smudge: Your answer is "at what rate" right?

later

No, doesn't work like that, weekday would have been normal rate £11ph

 

[Smudge617]

Yes ?

No

 

[Smudge617]

No I think he should keep the holiday, unless they treat it like a bank holiday and pay extra plus days off in lieu

The University my company does this run on behalf of is out, I don't work, I could work, there's always private hires or service work they need drivers for, I can even work for another company during their long 3 month summer break, but I don't, so far I've had 4+ months off, and used up most of my 28 days, this is the last of my paid holiday of the year.

 

[bnsf971]

I felt like Chevy Chase when he got the outside Christmas lights to finally work!

But can you see the coffee from space?

 

[troyphoto]

Well, howdy there internet peeps. And those watching Smudge not work.

It's Troy again.

Book 6 in the Pixie Twist series went live today. My pre-orders for the books have been falling off of late. I suspect it's a combination of two reasons:
- people are post-lockdown, and are enjoying other activities besides reading
- it's getting later in the series, and I see a drop off anyway.

Either way, it's still good. I have people who want to purchase my books.

We're slowly on the mend here. I've got some residual mucus in my chest to get rid of, but the head is finally over the cold. Wife is still a couple of days behind me.

Spent some money yesterday signing up for a Facebook Advertising mentor as mentioned above. Starting to work on getting my Amazon tracking links set up - so when I send out a link via FB ads, or my newsletter, Amazon will actually track which links turn into sales. That way, I'll know if the ad campaign is fizzling or working.

And, Amazon is having an internal conniption, and won't load my links. So I can't cut and paste them as appropriate. More hurry up and wait.

Gonna need a bigger cup of coffee this morning.

 

[Patrick]

Morning

Cold morning and supposed to get colder this next week, just in time for Christmas. Temps of 12° for Friday.

The small 2 bedroom house beside the kids is up for sale. Owner bought it a couple of months before the boy got the larger one next door. It touches both kids yards. It has the wife thinking about going smaller. We have enough equity to cover it if we could sell the current house. But the oversize 3 car garage becomes a narrow 1950's single car, and no basement. Watching the market, houses aren't moving and we just moved the potential down payment funds into a CD. Either way, I have some rooms to repaint...

 

[chadbag]

Time for bed. 10pm. I’m tired and still under the weather. I’ll do the update I’ve been planning tomorrow. Church isn’t until 1pm my sis-in-law said so I’ll have some time in the AM.

One pic though. This was in the aquarium gift shop. it’s obviously a fan, but I’m not sure what the image represents. I was wondering if it is some secret link between the Illuminati and the under sea world.

 

[Espeefan]

Good morning.
it’s mostly cloudy and 68.
Our company is holding their monthly ass-reaming session luncheon today.
I can hardly wait…

The beatings will continue until morale improves!

 

[troyphoto]

And, another question for the brain trust...

Finally figured out that one of my reasons for not tackling my RR layout of late has been the redesign of the track plan I need to do.

The benchwork is a folded dogbone in N-scale.

I had a fairly high difference in elevations, which worked when I had another 12 feet of benchwork to gradually bring it down. Now, I'm faced with tearing out the four-inch risers along the back wall and re-painting part of the blue sky backdrop.

OR

Could I have two mainline runs? One elevated, that folds back on itself, and has a 2% grade? If so, do I have the room to get another loop on the lower elevation? (remember, one deck, not two like Willie's double-decker).

Hmmmm... There's a 5" height difference between what I originally laid out for the upper elevation vs the main deck.

Here's the OLD layout:

And here's the new, with the leg on the far right removed.

I'd have to do some serious rework here on the "yellow" end where I've already got the track down. Add an outer loop for the elevated line, with a 2% drop and curve it back into the main area. My thought is to use its elevation as scenic dividers (hills) between the lower level's line. Several short tunnels for the lower level.

My initial thought is to have the elevated loop be the through line, with broad curves where I can run a passenger consist. And have the lower elevation with sharper turns for freight lines and some switching.

Anyone got input on lessons learned? What to avoid?

 

[Boris]

Good morning. 36° and sunny. Over two days, the Nor'easter deposited 2.70" of rain. Imagine if this was snow....

I'm scheduled for a "Angiography", at 0900 at Jersey Shore University Medical Center on Monday. So I'm a little nervous, to say the least.

 

[BigGRacing]

thank you for tolerating me.

I agree with you Bruette, when my kids are doing what is expected, I help them out whenever I can!

 

[Smudge617]

And, another question for the brain trust...

Finally figured out that one of my reasons for not tackling my RR layout of late has been the redesign of the track plan I need to do.

The benchwork is a folded dogbone in N-scale.

I had a fairly high difference in elevations, which worked when I had another 12 feet of benchwork to gradually bring it down. Now, I'm faced with tearing out the four-inch risers along the back wall and re-painting part of the blue sky backdrop.

OR

Could I have two mainline runs? One elevated, that folds back on itself, and has a 2% grade? If so, do I have the room to get another loop on the lower elevation? (remember, one deck, not two like Willie's double-decker).

Hmmmm... There's a 5" height difference between what I originally laid out for the upper elevation vs the main deck.

Here's the OLD layout:
View attachment 157863


And here's the new, with the leg on the far right removed.

View attachment 157864

I'd have to do some serious rework here on the "yellow" end where I've already got the track down. Add an outer loop for the elevated line, with a 2% drop and curve it back into the main area. My thought is to use its elevation as scenic dividers (hills) between the lower level's line. Several short tunnels for the lower level.

My initial thought is to have the elevated loop be the through line, with broad curves where I can run a passenger consist. And have the lower elevation with sharper turns for freight lines and some switching.

Anyone got input on lessons learned? What to avoid?

I can honestly (and thankfully) say, I have no idea, I'm leaving this to the Forum Brain Trust.

 

[BigGRacing]

My initial thought is to have the elevated loop be the through line, with broad curves where I can run a passenger consist.

Exactly what I want Troy except in HO scale so a little tighter for sure. Your layout is awesome! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Espeefan]

Hi again. The walk in the pool cooled me off but hasn’t calm me down. The talk with the construction company owner this morning wasn’t much help and I was unusally snappy (Per Terry). I really enjoyed over the years working with this guy but his project manager (his daughter he said this morning) didn’t listen in October. The designer also kept looking to Terry for answers instead of me and he didn’t get them. While not a huge job it still is a lot of money to us. I did pull out my notes from the October meeting and emailed them to the group, the owner and Terry. Terry chuckled and said I needed to get … never mind. I’m still laughing. That helped my mood.

portfolios, Terry has been looking intensely again about moving things around. More movement this year then the last 4-5 years combined. Dividend companies though will not be touched. Money market accounts are good right now. That’s her thing. We know this year will be a decent size loss. I did tell her though she should sell off anything Huskster Elon has his hands in. This year she has brought and sold lots of Tesla. No matter what she sells at it will be a significant profit as both her and our son really liked his companies the last 5-6 years especially when they weren’t making money. They were cheap stocks

We have never invested in crypto

My own financial issue is I have to start thinking about my 401k plan. The year end report received in November showed on one of the 401 plans I am not in being down 30%. How can people trust a company that makes money handling a fund that lost 30% in fiscal 2021-22. I guess my disbursements have to start in year 72 of my orbit. The company handling the 401k have just changed withdrawals to $90 per transaction. So that rules out any monthly withdrawal as that was part of my plan. So, trying to decide where to move the 401 to.
View attachment 157810

This year was a little rough but nothing like the bath I took at the tail end of Bush 2.0's administration. The handy dandy retirement planner that's on the website where most of my 401K funds are says I'm still on track. Remember, until you sell, it's only a paper loss. High risk plans did suffer, but if your financial planner is worth his/her salt you should be in the right places. Those high risk plans are for youngsters who are willing to take higher risks for more rapid gains. If they eat the big one, they still have time to recover being the theory. I've been working with Edward Jones for a good while now. They have done me a good job. They have everything up until 2017. The current employer's outfit has everything from 2017-present. Their retirement planner says the same thing as the Edward Jones software looking at my total portfolio. I decided to stay on at work for another year. Partly because of the market dip and not wanting to retire in a bear market, and partly because since I'm a key man the company sweetened the pot to where I couldn't say no. Plus the wife is three years younger than me. Not exactly robbing the cradle but there are financial ramifications. I want her on Medicare before I pull the pin. Funny that this is all so far in your future when you start out, then suddenly its right in front of you!

 

[BigGRacing]

So I'm a little nervous, to say the least.

Hang tough Boris, we will see you shortly.

 

[Smudge617]

Good morning Everybody!

I woke up ticked off this morning! I did good yesterday and held my tongue. Only my wife knew I was not happy. My blood was boiling this morning.

I tried to let it go. I read all the posts, thank you Everybody!

My kids are so cheap with my grandsons! They say I'm spoiling my grandsons. Nobody is going to tell me how to spend my money!

My kids had everything they wanted for Christmas, anything I thought they might want and more! Not to mention how much I spent on private schools; they see no need for. They turned out ok, just ask them!

"It is my right as a Grandparent to indulge, spoil or reward my Grandchildren in any way I see fit (not necessarily to the detriment of their parents) as punishment for the countless days and nights of worry, anxiety and anger you caused us, your parents, while living under our roof as children"

 

[Smudge617]

Good morning. 36° and sunny. Over two days, the Nor'easter deposited 2.70" of rain. Imagine if this was snow....

I'm scheduled for a "Angiography", at 0900 at Jersey Shore University Medical Center on Monday. So I'm a little nervous, to say the least.

I'm sure you'll be fine, and on Tuesday be rolling your eyes at how may posts on the forum you missed while away.

 

[Smudge617]

Time for bed. 10pm. I’m tired and still under the weather. I’ll do the update I’ve been planning tomorrow. Church isn’t until 1pm my sis-in-law said so I’ll have some time in the AM.

One pic though. This was in the aquarium gift shop. it’s obviously a fan, but I’m not sure what the image represents. I was wondering if it is some secret link between the Illuminati and the under sea world.

View attachment 157862

It's probably meant for the woman in you life, so she can keep an eye on you.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 29° to start my day here. Should make it into the lower 50's today after just 46° yesterday.

The day off yesterday worked out as (un)planned. I sorted through 100's of digital images and either filed them in their correct folders or deleted them. I went over to the MRH website where I am a member also and checked out a few threads. Hadn't been there since October. Granddog showed up in the early afternoon. My 15 year-old grandson was the driver for the trip back to daughter's home. He's had a learners permit since June and yesterday was his first adventure on two-lane country roadways, as well as a 45 mile trip on IH-35. Previously he only drove on residential streets in Dallas. Daughter reported back that he did OK, albeit not at the speed limit of 75 mph on the Interstate.

Today, my wife heads for Dallas for a showing of the Nutcracker and I'll be here with the granddog. She'll be back this evening since she adores me so much. I'll trim my beard while she's away; that will make her happier. Looks like Rib Eye Steak for supper.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I worked on several things. I ballasted a bit and while that was drying, I did some more ground cover. Nothing worth photographing yet. While they were both drying, I decided to start on the pipework for the Ethanol loading platforms. I decided to make it simple and not install overhead delivery pipes, but just make them underground. I started by measuring and trimming 24 pieces of pipe from the kits.

Test fitting the first set.

Fully installed and lined up at my predetermined spacing.

Tom O - I am lucky when it comes to smoking chips. I have Oak, Maple and Pecan trees, and my SIL cut down and donated about 300 lbs of Peach about two years ago. The only issue is using the axe to make the chips so I don't contaminate them with chain saw bar oil. I don't smoke as much meat as I want or could though. Just 1-2 times a month, whereas I grill at least 3 times a week even in winter.
I self manage the IRA accounts, not trusting financial advisors any more. I mainly use ETF's and mutual funds, but I am seriously looking at individual stocks now. I still have another year before RMD kicks in for my main IRA, but I have to start taking one next year from the Inherited IRA from my brother. I do need to look at RMD's from Roth accounts, as the IRS may be changing their interpretation on those.
Ken (D&J) - I never saw much point in having a hot water heater.
Joe - Much to the chagrin of my wife, I have stuck out most of this year in the market. I mostly got out from February through September when I got back in. Overall I am only about 19% exposed with the rest still in money market and earning nearly nothing, $18/day. I came out a bit ahead in both 2020 and 2021.
Sure is a beautiful SD-9. Must be at least 60 years old!
Swal - That's why my wife doesn't want me on the roof any more. If I fell off without screaming, it might be hours before she noticed my absence.

Read yesterday that Dino Danelli, drummer for the 60's-70's rockers The Young Rascals died Thursday at 78. They sure had a lot of hits back then.

Everybody have a great day.

 

[Espeefan]

Morning All! A little snow on the ground out here in the frozen tundra. Just enough to have to shovel! We had a little early Christmas yesterday. The wife had asked for a Snow Joe for Christmas. She saw it on QVC and decided it was a great idea. It showed up a couple weeks ago. The box was too big to wrap, and it's just been sitting by the tree. Since we had enough to shovel yesterday too, we decided to break it out and see if it was all it was cracked up to be. Verdict: Not bad. Leaves a little behind, but that could also be us getting used to the tool. I usually handle the driveway and front sidewalks with the big two stage snow thrower. She handles touchup and the front walk, but the idiot stick was getting to her back. No it's not all she's getting, I haven't slowed down that much! She's happy with it, and my life is easier when she's happy!