Running Bear's December 2022 Coffee Shop

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You have a thankless job.
Thank you, there are some complainers that couldn't get to grandma's house for Christmas. If we can't see to plow the roads how are you going to see to get there. I left them a Christmas present, by hugging the bank on the shoulder the plow wing does a nice job of filling in the end of the driveway. One nice thing about working the night shift. 😇
 
Hey all!

I hope everyone has had a nice Christmas. I am just popping in for a moment. I am headed off to meet my nephews for a movie and dinner. No time to really catch up here. I will check back tomorrow to see what's going on here. I did finally make a 2nd YouTube channel for the purpose of doing train related topics. I decided to do this so I can do layout updates in the near future etc. So right now I just did a quick test video of my Alco #5 doing a short run by. It's a video I did a couple months ago.

Maybe the new year will be better for me and my family. I can only hope. The unexpected loss of my younger sister at such a young age still weighs heavy on my family. We are doing the best we can. This past weekend has been bitter sweet. I know I am not the only one that goes through these life tragedies but nonetheless challenging and it can be difficult.


Well I am off to go meet the boys!

Here is the link of my 1st video for my new channel.


Peace
 


Afternoon All,

HAPPY BOXING DAY 🎂

Started out with a 2-mile walk. Temp was 38F. Current temp 53F with it slowly warming back up to normal this week. The Kia Sedona had a flat back tire yesterday so it's in the shop. I started the redo of the curve into the diesel storage tracks and of course I busted one of the T/O's trying to get it out:rolleyes:, so I have a new one on order (PECO #5 RH Insulfrog). Can I say my wallet hurts? I finished the parts that I can do without it. Tomorrow the ambulance is supposed to arrive, so I'll have all the needed parts for the accident scene. Tomorrow also, I have to take Dad to an appointment for the Fast pass thru for TSA.

Jaz- Although I'm not a fan of the Dr. (sacrilege I know) The flagstone (cobblestone?) with the vegetation looks top-notch. Very well done.

Troy- Lucky you.

Swal- Good luck with the plumbing.

Sherrel- I'm glad you and your wife are OK.

Dave- Nice layout scene.

James- Nice video.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Good afternoon, all. Well, the sun was out most of the day. Wife and I decided to take it easy today. She investigated some of her gifts, while I checked out a few of my own. I add ram to my laptop, bringing it to 16 g. A noticeable difference. And then this,
1672093796363.jpeg


STAY SAFE

LATER
 
Good evening. 27° and cloudy. Not going below 20° overnight. Warming up tomorrow.

I spent my most active day, since Thanksgiving today...just doing chores and picking up the slack for the wife. Now, I'm kind of tired. Meds in a half hour, then I can go up.

Second son, drove back to NC today, so it's the wife, myself and the cat. First son's Christmas package, finally arrived at his APO box. Better late than never. Finally stopped snowing in Watertown, NY. Things are looking up.

Maybe, tomorrow, I'll feel like going down to the train room, and actually doing something. Believe it or not, I still have a cough left over from the Flu/Pneumonia. They suggested it would linger, but it's almost a month now.

Maybe, tomorrow, I can resume posting photos. My sources advise trains have been scarce.
 
A little over two hours into our first Shinkansen ride. About 30 more minutes. Then two non-Shinkansen rides of about 30 minutes.

I read a little on my phone using the Kindle app ( started book 2 of The Mongoliad, a multi book series written by a team of authors - I read book one several years ago and reread it over the last couple weeks). Then I’ve been napping and dozing.

We’re on another N700 (no letter after it I know of) belonging to JR West. I believe it was a series of original N700 built especially to JR West specs including no tilt mechanism (owing to the JR West landscape not requiring it). They also outfitted the passenger wagons in a more nice wood accented interior with some of the seating better than their JR Central N700-types brethren. We’ve had Green Car passes, which is what they call their first class equivalent so have been traveling in nicer seats than normal. We had Green Car passes on our last trip as well. This time with the good exchange rate it was just a hair over $100 more for the 21 day pass to upgrade. They’re worth it during holiday and festival times as the trains can get full and it’s easier to sometimes get Green Car seat reservations. Gives you more options.

Once again we are in the middle tier Shinkansen. JR West calls it “Sakura” or “Cherry Blossom”. They travel the same speed as the top tier using the same trains, but stop at a couple extra stations on the way so your journey is slightly longer.


Our journey started on the trusty Kobe subway.
B5A4285C-8F48-4B3B-BBE8-E37EB887AA1C.jpeg

and then on the Shinkansen

5923E4E1-FE25-4027-8EE2-DAB03AAE3F11.jpeg50ACEC1D-E71D-464D-A49A-AED42CAC4633.jpeg

One difference in the Sakura from the JR Central N700 is they have a huge bathroom for every use including colostomy bag users. There was also a simple airline style men-women bathroom and a man urinal (which doesn’t actually lock but has a fogged window so you can tell if it is occupied ). Most of the Shinkansen we ride just have the airline style and urinal rooms.

17303FAC-02F6-423B-BE61-5BB73D563CBC.jpegF5D07393-1FBA-4575-9276-1396969D9FB4.jpeg

When we stopped in Hakata (Fukuoka) a few moments ago there was a Shinkansen 700 Rail Star which was still in service. I have this in N scale and is an older 700 series in special livery and is run by JR West. At one time it was mainline. I don’t know what service it does today

85B13962-04BA-42BB-82B6-573F17F43816.jpeg


I have an N scale N700 from JR West that approximates the one we are riding today

7-11 food for rail warriors: a bread and a Purin (Japanese version of flan pudding). The bread was not that great.
E092931E-B605-4C7E-9348-2D0BB28EA08A.jpegE2395400-FE9A-4353-8C7D-3790D7DA556B.jpeg

shot showing the wood accents and the end of our compartment.

9208F1BD-3D2F-4892-B855-4DAE41F0F301.jpeg

(actually posted after we got off the Shinkansen and are waiting for the next train, Relay Komome 83, which is supposed to take us to Kamome 83, our last short hop to Nagasaki. Kamome used to not be a Shinkansen but I think it might be one now but the tracks don’t go through yet, hence the local Relay Kamome train. We’ll see )
 
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Hey all!

I hope everyone has had a nice Christmas. I am just popping in for a moment. I am headed off to meet my nephews for a movie and dinner. No time to really catch up here. I will check back tomorrow to see what's going on here. I did finally make a 2nd YouTube channel for the purpose of doing train related topics. I decided to do this so I can do layout updates in the near future etc. So right now I just did a quick test video of my Alco #5 doing a short run by. It's a video I did a couple months ago.

Maybe the new year will be better for me and my family. I can only hope. The unexpected loss of my younger sister at such a young age still weighs heavy on my family. We are doing the best we can. This past weekend has been bitter sweet. I know I am not the only one that goes through these life tragedies but nonetheless challenging and it can be difficult.


Well I am off to go meet the boys!

Here is the link of my 1st video for my new channel.


Peace
Nice first video. It seems that you have a very interesting layout.

 
Good morning, Everybody!

My trend to sleep later continues, 3am is late for me.

George - I'm still hoping all goes good for you.

Sherrell - That was a great bit of driving that kept things from being much worse.

LASM - Have you tried restarting your computer? Maybe there is an update waiting for a restart.

Much more to comment on. but my time is short. As usual my accountant (me) has not kept up and needs to get ready for the end of year reports.
 
Good Morning All!
33F and raining. That is an almost 50 degree change from 3 days ago. Weather guessers say it is supposed to get to 46F about 1400 - we will see. Have about 24" still on the ground abet melting. Ground is not frozen to deep so the water should pretty much go away.

Had frozen rain yesterday:
windowice.jgp.jpg


I almost rolled the window all the way down for the pix - decided I did not want ice in the car! Even though it was 35F out, car sits on cold side of house; no sun - wait: what sun?

Christmas was pretty much uneventful which was a good thing. I put on almost 10Lbs with all the grazing! Everybody took off yesterday and we have the house to ourselves again. Gave the youngest daughter's squeeze one of the DL360's I replaced recently (dual XEON 3.0G -8 cores each, 32G ram, 6 disk raid 5 for almost a terabyte of storage). Had him grinning big time as he is starting to learn C++ using the Windoz environment - nothing but $$$ for that. DL360 has Fedora 32 ( Linux ) on it and ready to rock and roll. Ya should have seen the Daughter's look when he came in the house with it under his arm... His look was 'this is not negotiable' and put it in the car. Good thing it is less than 2" high, and you can put stuff on the top of it. These two are peas in the pod - get along together just great. Marriage is planned down the road, no set date yet.

Later
 
Good morning gang!

25° and sunny, supposed to get in the mid thirties later, then a warming trend with Saturday almost 60°!

Wife is off all week, and the kid doesn't go back to college til the 21st. I won't be off until next Sunday, that's life in the car Biz.

Flo dear, can I get a stack of blueberry pancakes with a side of sausage links and a large coffee please?

BBL
 
Good morning all, +8F and fairly calm. Roads are all good today, back to work day, we did not have it too bad with the weather other than a lot of shoveling and cold wind on the face.

Louis - I think youtube was the problem with the slow upload. It took an hour for 5% then all of sudden jumped to ready to view in a couple minutes. I suspect they were inundated with people sharing their Christmas stuff

Todd - that was really some ice! I suspect that same coating was on the roads, probably cleared off by now with the warmer temps you are experiencing.

I will be back later

Dave LASM
 
Good morning weather checkers, travelers and modelers. Wisconsin will be warming by about 10 degrees each day until we hit high 50’s on Saturday.

The house is quiet. The son is off to Duluth, Minnesota meeting this afternoon but still will be home in Austin, Texas tonight. The niece and boyfriend leave around noon to the Chicago suburbs and his side of the family. My sister is staying and Terry’s friend from Racine has texted she is on the road heading here. I was going to an operating session today but covid has hit the layout owners family. I could take my presents to the new place and continue organizing my work area, or not!

enjoy your day
 
Good morning all, +8F and fairly calm. Roads are all good today, back to work day, we did not have it too bad with the weather other than a lot of shoveling and cold wind on the face.

Louis - I think youtube was the problem with the slow upload. It took an hour for 5% then all of sudden jumped to ready to view in a couple minutes. I suspect they were inundated with people sharing their Christmas stuff

Todd - that was really some ice! I suspect that same coating was on the roads, probably cleared off by now with the warmer temps you are experiencing.

I will be back later

Dave LASM
Dave: That was the funny part - roads were only slushy and it stayed above 32F all night. Will see what today brings.

Later
 


Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 19°, going up to 50° later on. Last night of freezing temperatures at least for the next ten days. Mostly 60's and 70's during the same time.

Christmas isn't over yet for us. Today we have my wife's family gathering. It's a small gathering of maybe 14 people. We mainly have it to get together with the out of town folks to meet and greet. No gifts, no sit-down meal. None of my kids will be there as they all have to work, same for several others. We're actually bringing a couple of gift cards for a niece and her daughter, but the other niece specifically said no gifts for her three daughters.

I finally made it out to the train shed yesterday after an absence of four days. All townspeople seemed to be safe although they missed me. I did run a few trains, warming things up after the cold spell; and I resumed putting in ground cover. I checked out some of the Christmas gifts that I received.
IMG_2694.JPG

Of special interest is the gift certificate to Discount Model Trains.
IMG_2695.JPG
I received a package of 40 bathing suit clad persons from the Chinese company Evemodel.
IMG_2706.JPG

40 figures, 40 different poses! 13 male, 23 female and 4 youngsters.
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All but one female appear to be fully covered, unlike the Noch figures that I have received before. I have been getting these as gifts for four years now, and it is nice to see their progression. Originally a package of 100 had 21 poses, many painted the same, with a lot of flash, to these now with no flash and no duplicate poses. Still not on the same level as Preiser or Woodland Scenics but it doesn't seem like I will need to do much retouching. They will work well as background figures.
I also got a package of gooseneck LED lamps that I can add to structures for that rare nighttime scene.
IMG_2704.JPG

Other stuff included vehicles, trees and a Busch set of cultivated field mats.
IMG_2697.JPG

My grandsons went to Discount Model Trains and got me the same food trailer kit that I bought myself a few months back.
IMG_2696.JPG

I can always return them without a receipt if I decide not to decorate them differently. Pondering that right now. I have to go there anyway to use the gift certificate. But I will wait until after my birthday next week in case I get another certificate.

Mara - In response to your question, everything is OK here in North Central Texas. We had a couple of nights of single digit temperatures (in Fahrenheit), but here we did not have snow. It's a big country over here and different areas were affected differently. Some of the guys here had snow deep enough to half bury cars, while Sherrel had 80° weather.
Tom O -
Tractors with trailers. I don’t believe after a fallen tree is harvested the ground has been damaged
Maybe not if the ground is frozen, but the black clay soil around me can show scars from heavy equipment for as much as ten years later. Depends on how wet or dry it is to start with.

Everybody have a great day. Just five days left this year.
 
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