Running Bear's December 2025 Coffee Shop

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Evening peeps, got the connector replaced today, took longer than I was expecting. I didn't realize the new hose that comes with the connector was a bit too long, had to trim it down nearly half an inch. The connector only slips onto the thermostat housing a certain way, and that extra hose length was hindering it from doing so. The throttle body was lookin a little grimey, so I cleaned that while it was off too.

Me and the folks then hit up an out of town Mexican restaurant afterwards. Quality mexican food, and one of the best margaritas I've ever had.

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Another bit of useless pork trivia.....

In 2013(?) Smithfield Foods was bought by the Chinese.
You are correct sir! Smithfield Foods was purchased in 2013 by WH Group which was then called Shuanghui International.

Smithfield is Chinese‑owned, but all Smithfield meat sold in the U.S. is 100% produced in the U.S. They have changed some of the manufacturing processes. Which is what ruined Esskay hotdogs a Baltimore brand that had been owned by Smithfield since 1996.

I will buy Smithfield hams, bacon and a few other products, if they are the cheapest. Many are still made in Virgina using Smithfield's original processes.

I miss “Smitty Pig” he was Smithfield’s old cartoon-style mascot a cheerful, smiling pig often shown wearing a butcher’s hat or apron, holding a ham or sausage. Standing next to the Smithfield name or appearing on older packaging and advertising.

A bit twisted if I think about it, but I am easily amused.
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my prescription is a combination,
When I was paying cash for prescriptions, I found it to be cheaper to have separate prescriptions.

I found Costco to be by far the cheapest place to pay cash for perscriptions.
got the connector replaced today
Well done!
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps and those who misremembered Howard Hughes owning PanAm

(He owned TWA - I had to look it up)

It's troy agin.

My extrovert batteries are dead. It was only a small gathering and I didn't say much, but too much holiday cheer, way too much food and prep... I don't even want to go game today.

In the book cover rebranding phase, all 10 main book covers are rebuilt with input from the AI overlord. He's actually very helpful in things marketing, and especially in writing prompts for the Image fabricator AI. Today I need to do one more cover for the newsletter subscription only mini novella (4-chapters), and then redo all the marketing and sales graphics with the new covers.

Don't forget: tis the season to check for animals in your car...

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Good morning from foggy Wisconsin. 3-5” of blowing white stuff starting at noon into Monday in our area and high winds and rain in Milwaukee may prevent a road trip today. Asked if SIL and g/s wanted to go see the Badger men’s hockey in a Milwaukee tournament on Christmas Day. Yesterday daughter asks which game so I said the 4pm game 12/28. No clue the weather was going to be this complicated. I’d go if it was Terry as we could stay overnight in Milwaukee if travel was dangerous, but not with SIL, G/S and one of his buddies.

If we don’t go to the game this afternoon I will be in the train room.

Enjoy your day
 
Good Morning All. Mostly clear and 66°, last warmish morning for a while. High today of only 78° after 82° yesterday. Cold front due around 3:00 or 4:00 this afternoon, near freezing tonight, high tomorrow might hit 48°. Below freezing, possibly mid-20's Monday night and then warming up after that. 60's & 70's beginning Wednesday.

The last family Christmas gathering was yesterday; my wife's side of the family. Small gathering of just 14 people. They just don't celebrate as much as just getting together. Out of deference to the host family, there was no alcohol! Been that way for most of the last 30 years, since her parents passed away. We brought Avocado dip and deviled eggs.
The earlier part of the day was just devoted to clean up chores from stuff that we brought home Thursday and prep for yesterday. While it is sad that the holidays are now behind us, they do take away an awful lot of time while preparing, going, and cleanup. Next week isn't going to be any better, even though we no longer celebrate New Years Eve/Day away from home. We have doctor's appointments on Monday and Friday, and I have to work in a grocery trek since we missed last week! Later today, I will take a look at the Wifi extender that my SIL gave me for Christmas Thursday. It should extend the wifi network out into the train shed. It currently goes as far as the front porch of the train shed, but not inside, even with the door open. The challenge is going to be which outlet I can commandeer to plug it into. Important stuff is plugged into all of the ones closest to the train shed, like the electric toothbrush, water-pic or a bedside lamp & clock. A multi-outlet extension cord will be needed. Which outlet of three works best will be the determining factor.

No time out in the train shed yesterday since I wasn't here. Today I am actually going to work on Granddaughter's electric toy that no longer works. I already know that a connector is broken, but there is something else wrong as well. I jumped the broken connection to no avail.


Patrick - That fence seems like a life-long continuous project! This isn't the first time that you posted about it.
Tom - I have seen your steel plate and beam loads before, and I had saved the previous pictures for potential modeling in the future. They are well done. Thanks for the tip on painting them, I didn't recall that in the original post a few years ago, or I didn't save the information. This time I wrote it down.
Kusojiji - Out here in the country, cats whether feral or domesticated are your friends. That includes Bobcats as well. They do keep the rodent population in check. One source of food for the rodents that cannot be helped is spilled grain. No matter how careful a combine operator is, a fair amount of wheat/oats/sorghum/corn, gets spilled during harvest. Unfortunately the harvest seasons don't overlap with duck/geese migration or they would clean it up. Deer help a bit, but they are spotty.
David (Marlin) - Wild caught seafood is the only type that we buy.

Everyone have a great Sunday.
 
Morning all,

it was 58° when I got up at 6:ooa and currently 40° with a wind advisory in place. expecting gust over 50 mph this afternoon. Temps falling into the teens through the afternoon and overnight.

Willie: I have indeed complained about the fence. I approximately 250' of fence that is slowly getting replaced. I had a bid las spring to replace the whole fence at about $35000, yes 35 thousand. So it's basically getting new posts and stringers, but I'm reusing as much of the 1" x 8" pickets as i can. The first post I replaced in nearly 11 years old and I guess I really shouldn't expect the cedar posts to last much longer.

As I got laundry done a day early, might get to the train room later.
 
Good morning all!

A wet and foggy Sunday morning. Currently its raining fairly heavy. Good thing is sits too warm so non of it will fall as snow.
The temp is 48F and it probably wont get too much warmer. The cold front will come thru later and drop the temps like a rock.
Low teens for lows tonight.

Wife said last night she wants to start taking some of the Christmas decorations down. It will mean several trips for me hauling
up totes and then carrying them back down. Im not sure how much she intends to take down but my guess is once she gets
started it all may come down. We are not ones to keep it up too long after Christmas is over. There have been a few years we
have taken it down the day after.

Not much else going on here at the moment.

Have a safe day everyone!
 


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