Running Bear's December 2022 Coffee Shop

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Good Friday Morning All. Mostly clear and 33° as we head into a cooler spell of weather. Highs in the upper 40's to lower 50's. The bottom really falls out next Thursday with a low in the teens and then the mid-20's for a few days. Christmas Day should be in the low 40's for the high. Last year on Christmas Day, it was 81°! No rain in store for the next ten days, or at least that's the current forecast.
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Nothing special on the weekly grocery/beer trek yesterday. Store was however out of a few items that were on my list. They were probably in the back, but finding someone to go and find them is nearly impossible right now. A lot of their stockers are migratory college students who have left town for the holidays.
As I posted yesterday, we traded out the rental car for what we were originally supposed to get. At the grocery store though, we still had the Ecosport. Absolutely could not figure how to get the back opened despite reading the instruction manual about the latch. A lady walking by saw us and came over realizing what we were looking for and showed it to us. She said that she used to have one, and it took her six months to figure out where it was. No explanation why she hadn't taken it to the dealer to ask! Of course now that we knew where it was, the rental guy called and told us to come by. He even helped me transfer the groceries to the Bronco. By the way, it was a swinging door and not a hatch that raised up.

Today is supposed to be a day off with no real plans other than restocking the firewood box. As much as I wish to fix a prime rib roast for supper tonight, it won't happen. For starters, there are too many leftovers in the fridge (three) and a 5 1/2 lb roast will feed us for three meals. Sunday we're going to my sisters home for this years family get-together. One day next week we're going out with another couple for dinner, and next Sunday my SIL is fixing a 14 lb prime rib roast. So no time to enjoy our own yet! Meanwhile today, the granddog will show up for a ten day vacation in the country, while her family heads up to South Jersey to visit my daughter's in-laws. Thankfully the surface of the ground has dried up, so mud shouldn't be an issue. The rabbits and squirrels that live on the estate will get some good exercise for a while.

Tinnitus for me used to be like crickets, but has progressed to the cicada stage. My hearing aids do a reasonable job of masking the sound, but it's always there. I have gotten used to it over the last 50 years. The hearing aids only work when I have them in. LOL It's sorta like white noise when I go to sleep.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I continued ballasting track. I have finished the main line and passing siding as far as I intend to go for now, 16' each. And I have done about 7'-8' on each of the loading tracks, about half of each.
Meanwhile here's a full view of the loading racks in place. Still going to detail them with some paint highlights.
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I also started with some ground cover near the beginning of the scene. Glue is still very wet here.
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Patrick - Thanks for picking up the tab yesterday. I enjoyed the bacon and cheese sandwich.
Tom O - Best of luck on the new house project.
I may have posted that the new Christmas tree that my wife bought, while still 7 1/2' tall, is 54" wide at the bottom. Old one was 42". Much harder to decorate and I had to use a step-stool to reach across to get to the upper branches. Then I ended up doing some of the ornaments as well, since wifey won't get on the step-stool.
Dave B - Have a plan for when you retire! My plan which started five years before retiring included building the train shed 120' from the house to provide space from my wife. My vegetable garden also provides a lot of isolation, I have a metal lawn chair out there so I can watch plants grow. I had a boss for a while who retired and unretired three times, claiming that he could only go fishing so many times a week; which is why he kept getting new jobs. Our company let him go after new management came in, and he went out and got another job as a machinist, at 73 years old. Of course if you like your job, keep at it as long as you are able.
Todd - Happy Birthday today.

It's looking like another terrible day in the Stock Market today, capping off a terrible year. I won't even get into how much my portfolio has gone down. It borders on 6%.
It's guitarist for ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons 73rd birthday today. Wonder if he's still "Looking for Some Tush"???
Everybody have a great day, stay dry back east and have a wonderful weekend.
 
troyphoto said:
Are you back in FL? I'll probably be down in Tampa Bay next Sept. Can arrange a day early or late if you want to meet and take out to see the train sights!
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Yes, in Tampa area.
Heading to a not so LHS tomorrow for the first time in 20 years. They are supposed to still be in business, we’ll see.
also, I forgot who brought it up, but H&R Trains is still in business in Pinellas Park.
 
Early start this morning. Just got back from helping fix a leaking water heater. Not the hot water heater that most have, just a water heater.
Doing last minute prep for tomorrow's op session. I keep putting off fixing a couple of turnouts that have jammed up after I got some white glue in there while doing scenery work. The Tortoise machine isn't strong enough to move the throw bar. Prolly have to hack things up under the bar to make it slide again.
Just might get warm enough to ride the Honda down to the cigar lounge today.
 


Good morning all, 27 F and cloudy. Power came on at 9 pm precisely last eve, so we were without for 13 hours. The fireplace kept it at an even 65 all day. Drove to town for a late lunch, still have a little more to shovel,

some muscle aches but thankfully today I had previously put in for leave so. We got plowed out last eve very late, that is the township road which is our frontage. My old burby is 4 x 4 so we didn't have any problem getting to town. The heavy snow broke tree tops all over, crews were working all over.

Willie - Thanks for the retirement advice. more and more I am thinking I will be a single man in retirement.

Trussrod - here is my track inspection rig, it is a Wheel Horse model I purchased on ebay, some at hobby stores too, pretty close to your era:

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It is a metal kit front wheels pivot and roll


It is not snowing now but we are supposed to get some more this afternoon/evening. Looks like we got about 18" out of this event.

Computer is acting wierd since the last update, seems to be over sensitive. Those people that are making money off this software should be in jail, they make a problem just so they can fix it. What a bunch of bullsh_t

On the upside, it is white outside, white as snow, literally, a massive white covering


Dave LASM
 
Smudge617 said:
My father was an architect by profession, he always made detailed notes of the customer's requirements and would have them typed up and the customer had to sign off on what had been discussed, before he even sharpened a pencil.

Always made two or three overlays of the building so he could also show his clients the basic build as discussed, and then what was possible or anything he thought would enhance the building, also spent time with the client getting to know them so he often would come up with designs that incorporated his clients interests and often improving on their original plan.

I think you would have liked my old man.
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I am sure I would have.

What really ticks me on this is our 3rd house they have designed and built plus a couple apartment complexes. This group decided they knew better what we wanted is what it seems like. It’s like the meeting we had never happened. I spoke to the owner this morning he was very sorry. Knows I am ticked off and promised the new designs after he reams them out. I did tell Jack that we have options of going to the design group we had worked with for years before we moved down here. He said there is no need for that, Terry chimed in that it sure seemed that way in yesterdays meeting.

the fun when people don’t listen
 
My portfolio is up 11% over this time last year. It seems the losses from 2020 and 2021 have rebounded a bit. In my particular case, I am very heavy in Exxon Mobil stock which took a big hit in 2020 and 2021, but has experienced more than a 38% growth since 12/31/21
 
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.
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I've been reading up on the Reusable Energy Credit (REC) program here in Virginia.
The governor signed into law a few years ago a program to help push industry into renewable energy, i.e. solar panels, Windmills, squirrels in running cages, etc.
The plan was to monitor the amount of energy a business uses then fine them $75 for each megawatt that the use from the grid. Renewable sources would lower that fine, i.e. solar panels on their roofs.
An alternative to the fines would be RECs. Homeowners who have an array that produces more than 5KWs can take part in the program. The program can only be accessed by homeowners through an REC broker. In my case, I chose Sun Tribe. My system creates over a megawatt a month so industry will pay me the going rate of about $52 per megawatt instead of paying the full $75 in fines.
I continue to use my free electricity.
I continue to bank my unused electricity in the grid for use at night or on cloudy days.
I still keep the tax benefit of buying my solar array.
I do have a tax liability for the RECs, about 12%.
So basically, some model railroad money for somethin I already have.\
Yeah, it does sound kind of stupid to create a green energy plan but then provide means of side stepping it.
 
Afternoon All,

Started out with some chores then messed around on the layout. I ended up putting the sharks in the RH today. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 52F which definitely mean bundling up. I'll probably wire up the 5 dwarfs tomorrow. Not sure what else on the agenda after that.

Troy- Someone in our subdivision also has one of those lamps in the window.

Smudge- Lucky you. Enjoy your time off.

Jeff- Beautiful looking dog.

TomO- Hopefully they will fix the plans to your satisfaction.

Willie- Nice progress.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 


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