Running Bear's December 2025 Coffee Shop

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westtexjohn said:
Excuse me if someone else posted this as I may have missed it...........

Raul Malo died on December 8, 2025 at age 60. Singer, song writer and guitar player for the Mavericks.
Raul was blessed with a great singing voice. He could do any Roy Orbison tune and that is not an easy task.
He also did cover songs at his concerts that other artist, other than the original, could not do.
In September 2025, Malo said on Instagram that he was battling LMD, or leptomeningeal disease, a rare complication when cancer spreads to membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. He was originally diagnosed with colon cancer.

At age 77, I thank my God for everyday he gives me. Spend your days wisely my friends.

John
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John, also 77, I am also grateful for every day God gives me.
 
bnsf971 said:
Once upon a time I worked in Southern Missouri, and commuted 42 miles one-way to work. It took me less time to drive back and forth to work (84 miles) than it does here to drive the 17.6 miles one-way.
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You did get around, eh? I drove 78miles 1 way while with Amtrak. Finally got smart and paid to park in a garage across from Trenton Station, and ride the rest of the way. Don't miss that, either.
 
Slowly working on the layout, probably because I will begin dismantling it in January.

This is the still not completed flour mill.
King Arthur Flour - 12_17_2025 Progress.JPG

The footprint in the right foreground is for the TWINKIE Factory,which will have to wait for the next layout.

DSCF1887.JPG
 


Made it to the dentist and they called me in about a minute after I got there, good timing. Found out that they were doing a partial crown made of ceramic. Everything went fine, especially since I had already had a root canal done on this tooth when it cracked about 15 years ago.

They had an interesting new toy - a 3d scanner. After the doc ground my tooth down, the technician stuffed a wand into my face and scanned between my cheeks and gums, and everywhere else. I was watching as the computer then genned up a neat picture of all my nasty looking teeth with all the crowns, metal and resin fillings. I even got to see how bad my front teeth were since the uppers and lowers no longer touch each other, so I can't bite off any of those nice, tasty German sausages. I gotta cut them into bite sized chunks now.

So I have a return appt on 12/28, which is a Sunday. Wife told me that the mall that the dentist is located in, will probably be packed and no parking. I'll park on base since it is not very far and hopefully, all the base inhabitants will be off galavanting somewhere else on that day.

Currently feel like cr@p from whichever 'cain pain shot they gave me and that nasty smelling and tasting temp cap they put on the tooth. Making myself feel better with some 92 proof. Won't be surprised if I wake up tomorrow with some new trains on order... :)
 


Good morning Crew. It’s chilly at 23f degrees in Kansas City. It’s +7 at home feels like -11. We should be home by 9:30am as the flight is less than 90 minutes and it’s 20 minutes to home from the airport. I’m ready to head out as flight time is for 7:30!

Watched the UW Badgers VB fall in 5 sets to Kentucky a team we should have beaten but we kept making serving errors and it’s why the games are played. Still a nice ending in the final 4 to a rough (for Wisconsin) season with too much youth, new transfers and injuries galore.

When I get home I’ll take another shower. The excuse they call a shower in this hotel room is an insult to even poor showers. Water flow is negligible and when I called down to complain they basically asked me what they should do. We travel a lot and I’ll be firing off an email to the head guy when I get home.

Before we left yesterday I did get some time at the bench and spray booth.

Later
 
Good morning all!

Happy Friday!

A cold very blustery Northern Illinois morning. Currently its 8F, but with the 23 mph wind it feels like -30F. Last night when the front started coming thru, the temps dropped like a rock. Highs for today will only reach 17F, but mostly sunny. Big warm up starts tomorrow.

Usual Friday chores around the house today.

No games or practices tonight so it will be train time right after dinner.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Kusojiji said:
Today was challenging. Installing a DCC decoder in my Hornby J52 and wired the headlight circuit onto the adapter board. Blue wire is COM+, which is pin 6 for NEXT18. White wire is headlight, which is pin 8. Got it all wired in and the headlamp doesn't work. I find out that I put the blue wire on pin 8.

Next up is wiring the DCC controller to the track, requiring me to build an extension cable. Blue wire is +, white wire is - for Kato connector. Plan was to go blue to the red wire of a 22 AWG wire and white to the black wire. Finish one side and getting ready to heatshrink the connection when I realize that I put the blue wire on the black.

Two instances of getting a 50% chance, 100% wrong.
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When I wired my DCC bus (Peco flextrack, mostly) I chose red and black for the two wires. A while later I realized I needed a 12V DC bus too (it's my first layout in 40 years), and wished I'd gone with something else so I could use Red and Black for + and - on the DC bus. I ended up going with Red and Green because I had lots of those two colors, and I was too impatient to order more wire and wait.

And even after I still ended up wiring one of the building lights to the DCC bus instead of the DC bus.

I should probably add this experience to my "Beginner's Journey" thread. One of the things I am doing there is documenting all the mistakes I make for the benefit of others.
 
TLOC said:
Firing folks was one of the toughest parts of the job I’ve ever had to do, even when it was absolutely deserving.
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For me there was nothing worse. For the same reason I never coached a team that had competition for roster spots. I loved coaching teams when no one got cut. It was hard enough as a player to see other players get cut.
santafewillie said:
Get rested and get back to it!
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That is my plan. All I managed to do this morning was to listen to Chad's songs and watch the replay of last night's NFL game. I had no desire to work in this morning's cold rain.
kbkchooch said:
Last night we watched "Robin Hood men in tights" again with the dogs on the couch and the cat on the back of my recliner stretched out with his paws touching the top of my head.
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That could be a glimpse of what Heaven will be like.
santafewillie said:
$425 for 4 hours work, a reasonable cost for being out here in the boonies.
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A great deal if you ask me. The price of skilled labor is high these days!

In the 1980s I would have charged $150 to show up, plus milage portal-to-portal, and $75/hour once i got there. As an industrial mechanic I didn't do much plumbing, but I wasn't above doing it. Needless to say, I didn't do much work for homeowners. If I did it was often for free for somebody in need.
migalyto said:
Seems every time I go he finds something else that needs to be "fixed"
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That could be related to you snatching all those homemade sweet treats!
chadbag said:
This is for Louis
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I didn't feel the Christmas vibe, but I did enjoy it. YouTube showed me a few more of your songs I had missed. I liked them all and really enjoyed the Shogun one.
Bill Tidler Jr. said:
This has made me acutely aware of the thin line between life and death.
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Amen brother! One of the hardest things about growing old is all the people we have lost along the way.
 
Jacob Z said:
When I wired my DCC bus (Peco flextrack, mostly) I chose red and black for the two wires. A while later I realized I needed a 12V DC bus too (it's my first layout in 40 years), and wished I'd gone with something else so I could use Red and Black for + and - on the DC bus. I ended up going with Red and Green because I had lots of those two colors, and I was too impatient to order more wire and wait.

And even after I still ended up wiring one of the building lights to the DCC bus instead of the DC bus.

I should probably add this experience to my "Beginner's Journey" thread. One of the things I am doing there is documenting all the mistakes I make for the benefit of others.
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I did red/black for my dcc buss too, with brown, white & green for switches, and blue & yellow for 12 volt bus. Signalling hasnt been settled yet.
 
I know what you mean. I've gone from a family of around 20 that used to celebrate the holidays together down to me and my nephew. My son and his family are still around, but he's over a thousand miles away so we don't do holidays together.

Good morning on this chilly day. 25°F after a double whammy of cold fronts blew through yesterday. The wind is gone and the sun is out, for what that's worth at 25°F. But, back up to 55°F tomorrow.

Christmas Day forecast has now been upped to 68°F 69°Fhere. The record is 71°F. We'll see if their Magic 8-Ball was working when they guessed at that forecast.

Nothing planned today. I have a pound of my favorite pipe tobacco on the BBT so I'm looking forward to that today.

You all have a great weekend!

Servus!
 
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Jacob Z said:
When I wired my DCC bus (Peco flextrack, mostly) I chose red and black for the two wires. A while later I realized I needed a 12V DC bus too (it's my first layout in 40 years), and wished I'd gone with something else so I could use Red and Black for + and - on the DC bus. I ended up going with Red and Green because I had lots of those two colors, and I was too impatient to order more wire and wait.

And even after I still ended up wiring one of the building lights to the DCC bus instead of the DC bus.

I should probably add this experience to my "Beginner's Journey" thread. One of the things I am doing there is documenting all the mistakes I make for the benefit of others.
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Out in the world of low voltage DC, as well as some AC, black is positive and white is negative. You could use those and still be doing something that’s considered “standard”.
 


chadbag said:
You guys on statins should look into supplementing with CoQ10. Supposedly statins tend to lower the bodies levels of this important vitamin.

Don’t ask your doctor if you should. Just ask him/her if it will hurt or is harmful. Most doctors are not trained in nutrition but should be able to look up adverse reactions and stuff.

You can look this up as a need when on statins. It’s pretty well known and non-controversial. CoQ10 is important for heart, gum, and other health needs.
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One warning on taking CoQ10 - Do not take it if you are on blood thinners. At least that's what I found out when researching it for myself.
 
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