Running Bear's December 2025 Coffee Shop

[westtexjohn]

A friend sent me this link of a model train layout built from the floor up:

This guy sets up this layout every year in the same room. I just imagine he adds some new stuff and tweaks a few things each year.
I remember watching his video from last year.

 

[chadbag]

Can't say I've ever eaten at Benihanas. But I have been to a few different "Japanese Steakhosues" like Benihanas, with the fancy cooking displays / theatrics. Always fun with food that is decent, but always overpriced. There is one over in Sandy here that we've been to once and the kids liked it. Have not been back in several years but may again if we get settled financially again.

The best one I ever ate at was in San Jose CA and I was invited by some people I worked for when we went to the Apple WWDC conference back in the 90s. I later went with them again when I no longer worked there but was at the conference and we hung out. It was really good food and from remembrance the "chef" was an expert at all the tricky food theatrics.

 

[Bruette]

Good morning, Everyone!

My wife and I aren’t big fans of dining out. She’s an outstanding cook, and I do pretty well in the kitchen myself. Every now and then, she feels like going out to eat, like we did last week. We went to an oriental buffet called “Best Buffet” on Merritt Blvd here in Southeast Baltimore. She loves it there, and I’m always happy to join her.

Best Buffet is always clean, which is a must! They offer a wide variety of foods, and my wife loves that. She enjoys sampling a bite or two of many different dishes. I usually stick to fish and vegetables, both consistently delicious. Of course, I can’t resist grabbing a half dozen French fries, they’re always great too. This time, I got adventurous and tried several things I had never tasted, and everything was good. My wife says the desserts are great as well!

We’ve never had to wait for a table, and since it’s a buffet, the food is always hot and ready to eat. The staff are friendly, even if many don’t speak much English. They greet us with smiles as they clear dishes and keep our drinks full. With my senior discount, the total for both of us was under $50, including a $10 tip.

How about a Christmas song?

If you haven't heard it yet this year... now you have!

Enjoy the Holydays!

 

[chadbag]

Yes "Snoopy and the Royal Guardsmen" is an awesome record. I had it on tape as a kid and listened to it a billion times. I bought it on CD sometime in the last 20 years but it's in a box somewhere. The whole album is awesome.

 

[Kusojiji]

Why spend the money at Benihana's when I can do it at home. The food don't taste as good, it don't look as good, it's a big mess that I have to clean up, but the show is free... haha

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's clear and 50.

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning! It's Tuesday, 19°F and mostly cloudy. Have a good day!

 

[troyphoto]

Well, howdy there internet peeps and those who ponder why Woodstock is a Little Birdie that flies upside down

It's Troy again.

Speaking of Woodstock, I found a nifty little annimated watch face for my apple watch.

Snoopy with his little friend come along each time I raise my wrist to activate the watch display. unfortunately, it has no options to display other info beyond the time. I prefer ones with date, local temp, number of steps, etc. But I put Snoopy on when ever I don't need all the extras.

Last night was an early one. Closed the tablet at 9 p and closed the eyelids right after. I spent some time with Enya in my headphones as I tuned out the geriatric crowd in the swamp of DC. I started looking at BlueSky (like Twitter used to be), but I'd subb'd to too many that talked about current events. Seeing the same headline link to the same story fifty times wasn't doing me any good. So I've spent the last few days unfollowing a lot of people. Mostly talking head commentator types.

In other news, I made an appointment with Discount Tire to get the Tire Pressure Monitor system up to snuff. Seems that a day after I took the car into the dealer for an oil change, the TPM system alert came on and won't go away. Funny how that timing worked. I know the dealership charges to do a rotate if I don't purchase tires from them. Which I don't.

So, we'll see if the wheel-guys can work a computer, and put fresh batteries in the sensors.

And that wasn't the only appointment I called about yesterday. Got the annual eye exam set for mid Jan, so I can have fresh glasses for the cruise in Feb. And I bounced the cat's monthly shot a few days early. Realized his shot schedule was going to fall right in the middle of the cruise when I cannot take him. So we'll shave a couple of days off this month, and again next month, and his feb appt will be just before the cruise.

LAYOUT update:
Not much new. I started cutting 1/2inch green foam to fit the raised roadbed areas. That hasn't been exciting enough for photos yet. We'll see if I do any gluing of foam to the layout today.

Not sure what else today will bring.

 

[troyphoto]

And, if you've got 8 minutes to spare, here's my favorite grumpy Englishman explaining the US Midwest, well mostly Chicago, to the rest of the world. Or, at least, to those who watch his video.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!

15° under cloudy skies today with a daytime high of only 33°. I say again, brrrrrrrr!!!!!! it’s days like this when I really appreciate remote start with pre-programmed seat heaters activating!!

BBL

 

[John from Indiana]

Howdy all from NW Indiana. I had to go to the bathroom at 3:30am (typical for me at 80 years old). Came back to bed after turning on the heater (feels like 15 degrees outside), and making a pot of coffee. Our dog felt like snuggling up to me on my pillow and began to snore, which for a small dog, she does very loudly. So at 4:15 I got up, poured a cup of coffee and went down stairs to see what was on the computer...but first, half asleep, I decided to swap out tender trucks on my Bachmann 4-6-0. I put the tender on a foam working mat took my smallest Phillips screwdriver, took out the screw holding the truck to the tender and ping, the screw went flying along with the insulated washer. I spent about 15 minutes for the screw, found the washer; but the 2m x 6m machine screw is gone. No where in this town to buy a 2mm screw; but I might re-tap the mount holes to 2-56 thread and buy some button head screws. The moral to this story is have your coffee first before you tinker with small items

We are going to have estimates today on repairing the kitchen water damage. We have $1K deductible on our house insurance...(if they find it deductible). I estimate the damage at about $5K at least. If we ignore it and ever plan on selling it; a good house loan inspector would find it in a heart beat...Catch 22. The supply hose that broke won't be in until Sunday; so we have no kitchen water till then. The dishwasher has hot water; but can't really clean any pots and pans in the sink...So it looks like McDonalds and frozen dinners for a while....Speaking of McDonalds, I went there to pickup some dinner for us and there was a sign at the drive-up window saying that they was not any fries!! WTF is a Big Mac without fries??? So I went across the street, got Joan something from Taco Bell and I came home and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...that sucked.

 

[Kusojiji]

Good morning gang!

15° under cloudy skies today with a daytime high of only 33°. I say again, brrrrrrrr!!!!!! it’s days like this when I really appreciate remote start with pre-programmed seat heaters activating!!

BBL

Does sitting on top of the motor count as heated seats? My 660cc 3 cyl is under the passenger.

 

[Kusojiji]

I just ordered 4 of these Kato old timer cars. They don't come with the ability to have lights installed, which is a bit weird. So, I bought the power picking up TR11 trucks, some brass strips that go between the floorboard and the car bottom, and have the light strips ready to go. It will take punching the holes in the car bottom and positioning the brass strips, but it'll be awesome if I can get this going.

It seems I am going backwards in time with my models...

 

[ctclibby]

Howdy all from NW Indiana. I had to go to the bathroom at 3:30am (typical for me at 80 years old). Came back to bed after turning on the heater (feels like 15 degrees outside), and making a pot of coffee. Our dog felt like snuggling up to me on my pillow and began to snore, which for a small dog, she does very loudly. So at 4:15 I got up, poured a cup of coffee and went down stairs to see what was on the computer...but first, half asleep, I decided to swap out tender trucks on my Bachmann 4-6-0. I put the tender on a foam working mat took my smallest Phillips screwdriver, took out the screw holding the truck to the tender and ping, the screw went flying along with the insulated washer. I spent about 15 minutes for the screw, found the washer; but the 2m x 6m machine screw is gone. No where in this town to buy a 2mm screw; but I might re-tap the mount holes to 2-56 thread and buy some button head screws. The moral to this story is have your coffee first before you tinker with small items

We are going to have estimates today on repairing the kitchen water damage. We have $1K deductible on our house insurance...(if they find it deductible). I estimate the damage at about $5K at least. If we ignore it and ever plan on selling it; a good house loan inspector would find it in a heart beat...Catch 22. The supply hose that broke won't be in until Sunday; so we have no kitchen water till then. The dishwasher has hot water; but can't really clean any pots and pans in the sink...So it looks like McDonalds and frozen dinners for a while....Speaking of McDonalds, I went there to pickup some dinner for us and there was a sign at the drive-up window saying that they was not any fries!! WTF is a Big Mac without fries??? So I went across the street, got Joan something from Taco Bell and I came home and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...that sucked.

John: Screws, boy having fun now! If they don't fly around your desk, they always seem to find the floor. Carpet is the worst as they hide in the 'piles'. But for me, the light came on and I remembered when I was working at Nepa Pallet in Snohomish and used a fork truck that had a magnetic bar on the front to pick up metal. So, happened to have an old microwave that was dead and got the magnetron magnet out of it. Horseshoe shaped thing and you do not even want it close to something metal; as you played with hell getting it off. Anyway most of those machine screws are ferrous and they jump on that magnet from at least 1ft away. Ya, getting them off the magnet is fun. Skinny piece of plastic works if you hold your mouth right and jump up and down on one foot with your left arm in the air.

L8r

 

[ctclibby]

Good Morning All!
40F @ 'HH' what ever that means. 40F in December? - geesh. Guessers say 40+ day, 34+ night until Monday.

Spent most of the last two days dealing with FreeCad. It is not logical; or is not condusive to my logic. So ordered a book which should be in tomorrow. Ya, could download yet another Cad program, but where does it end? I will at least try to stick with FreeCad for now.

So to keep me busy, I have been 'adjusting' the benchwork as there are some places in the trackwork you just can not move to get the point switch bar out from where the benchwork is under. I went to 16 centers in some places where the benchwork is less than 16" wide. I guess that only one 'BigBoy' can be in one of those sections at a time We will see if that works.

I also started going through my boxes of HO stuff. I started culling some of the older Engines that would be a PITA or impossible to install DCC. Some of the DC guys here might be interested as if I have enough ( probably ) will post in Forsale. Everything is NiB or slightly used.

L8r

 

[TLOC]

Good morning. Fries at McDonalds for years were the best. Not anymore in MOO and YMMV

It snowed overnight and the app says 2”+. I’ll know when I open the garage door for the plumber in about 30 minutes. If the plumber is less than 3 sound equipped new diesels I’ll be very happy. The garbage disposal died Sunday and needs to be replaced.

Winter storm advisory starts tonight at 6 and runs to 6am Wednesday. It’s a strange one! Only 2” of snow guessed at but it’s starting as a freezing rain and even Wisconsin drivers can’t handle freezing rain and glazed over roads. I planned to drop off the bridges on Wednesday morning and then head to my dental appointment. That may change

I made a purchase yesterday and picked up 13 estate diesels to weather and sell. One of my friends is coming over this morning and will test and clean the mechanisms. I hate doing the clean up and lube part and he excels at it. The couple I might keep he will put new electrical wipers on along with new Tsunami2 decoders. He’ll also tune the decoders to lower sounds, change out the couplers, make momentum changes and change the code to the cab number. Everything I tested at the hobby shop was factory settings. So I’m happy and I’ll give him one of the units.

I have been out of the speculation game of guessing what sells, buying it, weathering it and hoping it sells. But the deals yesterday were good and while it may take months to sell off I’ll be fine. Besides the creative model railroad juices are flowing so let’s strike while the fire is hot.

Not only did I buy the diesels I got a fleet of 50’ and 60’ high cubes from various manufacturers. I was planning to paint a fleet of cars for my Wisconsin Interstate freelance railroad. Now I can plus I picked up more woodchip cars for the paper mill for myself and 3 modelers. Texting is a wonderful thing. When I saw the wood chip cars and prices I sent out a message to 11 guys I know who have paper mills that can use them. 3 responded yes immediately and 2 said maybe, so I got all 20 of them.

I have 20 cars now in ziploc bags of IPA stripping of lettering and paint. I did 10 cars last night as it takes about an hour unless it’s Athearn, those take forever!

Be safe and well

 

[troyphoto]

I forgot to include your daily funny, so here it is:

 

[RhB Michael]

Good morning folks. 34°F here in Southern Ilinois heading for 48°F...several degrees less than bragged about yesterday by the Talking Heads. Tomorrow, they say, low 50s. We'll see. If it does get that warm, it certainly won't feel like it with the gale blowing that is also expected tomorrow.

Decided to see if there was anyone on 10 meters this morning. A woman in South America somewhere was calling CQ repeatedly. Here signal was 5/9*+, which is a great signal. However, her accent was so bad I couldn't make out her call sign nor her location. I passed on the contact.

No one else out there in DX land this morning. Lots of US talking in Tennessee, northern Illinois, Florida, and Louisiana on 40 meters, but I like DX and don't normally get into a Net or check-in morning coffee 'Stammtisches'.

Have a good day folks! Servus!

 

[Bruette]

So, we'll see if the wheel-guys can work a computer, and put fresh batteries in the sensors.

Be prepared, I don't think the batteries are replaceable. Of course, I could be wrong.

I love the Snoopy Watch!

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 35°. Mid-60's later today through Saturday. Cold front Saturday night will drop temperatures for a couple of days than repeat. Not supposed to freeze though. This is our typical La Niña winter weather pattern; drier and milder winter than average. The La Niña pattern also sends more snow to the Midwest, so you guys be prepared.

Came out of the EN&T doc visit yesterday with no changes. I'm still on the once a year earwax plan while my wife is still on the every three months schedule. Came home and trimmed and stacked more firewood. Had one of my neighbors help me lift a rather large tree trunk up and prop it on a log. We used the winch on the front of his ATV since the log is about 10' long and at least 18" in diameter. Easier to saw if it isn't laying directly on the ground. I still have another one but I won't get to it until spring at the earliest. These are still leftover from last years tornado. Did a couple of loads of laundry to round out my chores for the day. Heated leftover turkey for supper.

Last day of full activity for me today. Tomorrow is the pre-op for the heart ablation surgery Thursday. I am not supposed to any heavy lifting for a few days after the surgery. While we're in town for the pre-op, we'll do the weekly grocery trek a day early. The dishwasher awaits me right now and later today I will remove ashes/embers from the wood-burning heater. Even when I don't add any fresh fuel, it generally takes over 24 hours for the embers to go out.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I went at it with painting figures. I might have posted last week that I pulled a sprue of unpainted Preiser figures out of the stash. Here it is:

I'm not fond of those figures with the "re-positionable" arms, as the shoulders and upper arms really only line up one way. But they're there so I'll tackle them.
First up is painting skin colors while they are still on the sprue.

I used four different colors for variety.
Then the fun part, getting a few different colors going for the clothes.

Time to remove a few to make it a little easier to apply specific detailing. The gentleman in the upper right is one that I glued the arms in place.

I don't think that those white spots are missing paint, except for the bottoms of the feet; but that they are reflections from the light. If paint is missing, that will be taken care of soon.
To be continued.

Terry - I fully agree that light beer is a non-starter for me as well. Around here, Lone Star beer is regarded as Longhorn piss.
Kevin - Our recent experiences at Outback have been similar. No one seems to be in a rush, but with so few customers in the restaurant, turning tables is not a priority.

Hey Mike! Today is the late Admiral Grace Hopper's birthday. She was born in 1906.

Everyone have a great Tuesday.