Running Bear's February 2022 Coffee Shop

[Boris]

Our dumpsters at work are overflowing because the new company hasn't paid their bills for those services

That says a lot about them, eh?

 

[Boris]

Very tired of waking to hyperventilation caused (they say) by A-FIB and gasping for air!
Pulse rate varies by the hour from 50 to 150 - BP all over the place, EKG looks like a pre schoolers drawing.
Almost zero sleep 2-3 hrs a night for over a week resulting in zero energy and no appetite.
Will see whatn the Doctor says this morning. Going to the ER last week was so much fun ... the hallways were lined with beds and the waiting room must have had well over 50 souls there.

Hope they find the real problem, instead of just applying the "usual canned response". Cardio - Pulmonary issues are not something taken lightly.
Best wishes, and you're on the prayer list.

 

[MilwRoader_Steve]

Thanks Jazz, Smudge and Willie and others for suggestions. I do like the idea of a thin clear plastic guard. Thanks for the heads up on the expansion and contraction, SFW, did not know that nor would have guessed. I always thought plastic was very stable. What kind of screws will hold in that foam, I wonder? I was thinking airplane canopy glue to keep the clarity.

Wife had a dinner planned with a work chum, so got some work done. Not as much as I hoped, because they apparently went to dinner quite early and she called on her way home just after 5pm. But I did glue down the foam roadbed for the 22R curve and soldered a frog feeder wire to the first of the curved TOs. That one is a Walthers/Shinohara. I actually had to cut carefully some of the plastic from the backside of the frog as there is no pad as delivered from the manufacturer. At least that I can see, if anyone knows different, Please tell me as I have two more to do!

Progress:

I am pleased with how it is going so far!

Progress is doubtful until Friday. Today, we have a late-ish workout class: 1730 - 1845. Then dinner and relax time. Tomorrow is an exciting evening. Merlin's Rest is a cool pub/bar/restaurant in Minneapolis (not too far from the Hennepin Overland). They specialize in Scotch whiskies with over 300 Scotch varieties available. Added to that is more than a hundred Irish and American whiskies. Anyway, during the winter months they have Whisky tasting events, and I, my SIL, and a friend from up north are all going. Yes, I will wear the kilt, even though it will be single digits tomorrow night!! Good thing for heavy wool hose! My friend will stay the night and I strongly suspect that he will bring down a few whiskies from his extensive collection; I'll have to match that with some of my prizes ... ... ... you get the idea. So may not get much done Friday either.

Funeral Saturday which will keep me busy until about 3pm. Hopefully some work then. But am reserving Sunday for ROW day!! !!

Cheers to all! Steve J

 

[PNKFLOYD]

Bet your glad you asked lol.

Jaz- So you are saying you have a ways to go to be healed.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[santafewillie]

What kind of screws will hold in that foam, I wonder?

I didn't connect the fact that is only foam out there. The screws that I used were just 6x1 PHP screws, loosely screwed through oversized holes directly into wood. You could use a couple of well positioned mounting blocks or just a layer of plywood under the foam.
Expansion - When we made skylights, the 2' wide sheets were "floated" on a 2" wide ledge with 1/2" expansion gap on all four sides, complete with foam insulation/cushioning and weep holes for drainage.

 

[bnsf971]

That says a lot about them, eh?

The service manager and I checked the amount of vacation time I’ve accrued, and it equals more than the work time remaining this week.
In theory, that should mean I can leave now and still get a full last paycheck.
Reality will probably be the company will find a loophole on page 42, paragraph 6, line 3 in the employee handbook that allows them to confiscate earned time off when the employee quits. Supposedly the manager has a call to HR to confirm which it will be.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

They won't pay you for the unused leave?

 

[TLOC]

Good morning. It's mostly clear and 28.
Our dumpsters at work are overflowing because the new company hasn't paid their bills for those services, and the garbage companies have stopped coming.

Karma

 

[TLOC]

Very tired of waking to hyperventilation caused (they say) by A-FIB and gasping for air!
Pulse rate varies by the hour from 50 to 150 - BP all over the place, EKG looks like a pre schoolers drawing.
Almost zero sleep 2-3 hrs a night for over a week resulting in zero energy and no appetite.
Will see whatn the Doctor says this morning. Going to the ER last week was so much fun ... the hallways were lined with beds and the waiting room must have had well over 50 souls there.

Just take care of yourself

TomO

 

[TLOC]

I feel your pain Sirfoldalot, I have had a sore throat for two weeks now and difficulty breathing as well. Don’t want to do any soldering or glueing right now and it freakin sucks.

Heat up some Dr Pepper adding some lemon. Very soothing on the throat

TomO

 

[TLOC]

Good Morning All. Cloudy and a warm 62° at 0600. Winds are quite strong out of the SW at 20+ mph. Expecting a high of 70° again today before cooling off a bit for a couple of days. 66° on Saturday and back into the mid-70's on Sunday. Saving on the firewood right now! Our weather pattern mimics Patrick's for the next ten days or so, just not as cold and 6-8 hours behind.

I believe that the last remnants of the pneumonia have gone by the wayside. Took the last antibiotic yesterday, but I felt great prior to that. Breathing is back to effortless. I'll slowly resume walking that daily mile for the next few days to get back into that routine. I do miss that daily exercise. I was able to resume splitting some more of that large tree that we took down last year; kinda have to get it all up and stacked before I have to resume mowing. I still have about a third of a cord left to do and everything is 12"-22" in diameter.

Thanks to all who liked the pictures of the LHS purchases, and of course the tenderloin; Jaz, Steve J, Hughie, Chad, Guy, Greg, Dave B, Joe, OB Ken, Karl, Mikey, Smudge, Tom O, Patrick, Rick, Tom, Gary.

Well, I just couldn't stand it any longer out in the train shed yesterday. I just had to start on building one of the structures that I purchased Saturday. So off the workbench went the tree making stuff, although I did manage to make 25 of them. I chose the Walther's "Smiths General Store".
View attachment 141091
This is a kit made for Walther's by Kibri, and similar to other kits contracted out to them is very advanced with well-fitting parts and generally better instructions.
View attachment 141092
The walls and windows are made with a process called co-extrusion, with two colors molded as one. Here's a shot of a sprue showing the contrast.
View attachment 141093
We used a similar process in the vinyl window industry to produce window parts that were one color on the inside and another on the outside.
For the most part, these parts snap together and glue/solvent is only required in a couple of spots. Of course, the entire thing can be glued together if the modeler wishes. I glued the internal parts of the door on the right.The doors themselves are molded into the clear parts as seen on the left.
View attachment 141094
Here are the windows using the same process.
View attachment 141095
This is the assembled structure. The bay window is glued over either one of the top twin units, but not until I add curtains to mask the unit behind it.
View attachment 141096
Today, I will disassemble it and add the window treatments all of the way around. Some of the commercial signs are in German and won't be used. Walther's includes a decal sheet with American signs, but in keeping with Walther's tradition, the Bakery and Saloon signs are too large to fit anywhere on the front wall.
View attachment 141097
The kit also comes with a single LED lighting fixture which will go into a box with two others that I have from other kits made for them by Kibri. A single light doesn't really do me any good, but now that I have several, I will use them somewhere.

Steve J - I am not a financial advisor, nor do I know your financial situation; but I would be more inclined to keep that company stock as is instead of cashing it in. It's about the only way that you're going to beat inflation right now, especially since it seems that the company is doing so well.
In the past, I have used clear Plexiglass around an extension like that. Cut a piece and drill extra large holes for screws. Plexiglass expands and contracts a great deal. You might be able to get a scrap piece from someplace that makes skylights. We made them at our window company. It cuts easily with a fine-tooth jigsaw blade.
Dave - I usually make my own barbed wire fences with toothpicks for posts and fine wire strung through holes that I drill in them. But I am woefully behind on my fencing of various areas and I decided to give this stuff a try. It looks good and it looks to be easy to install. I have actually been eyeballing it for several months and finally pulled the trigger. Of course I will display the results here.
William - Long time-no see! Good to see your posts.
Sherrel - Wow! That's far worse than I understood from our conversation last week. I certainly hope that you don't have to endure the ER again and can get some relief soon. Positive thoughts and prayers for you.

Today is National Do A Grouch A Favor Day. It's too bad that Beady is no longer participating here!
Everybody have a great day.

Willie,

I like the response to Steve J. My brother sold a company he was a major shareholder in last month to a Madison, Wi. based science company. I also have some of it. He will be here tomorrow but over the past 3 weeks we have been having discussions regarding the 1/2 stock 1/2 cash deal it was. We all agreed since the science company stock is doing great we will keep it. You are right, it’s the only inflation beater besides real estate out there right now. The cash is already worth less then it was at sale time. Good advice

TomO

 

[TLOC]

The service manager and I checked the amount of vacation time I’ve accrued, and it equals more than the work time remaining this week.
In theory, that should mean I can leave now and still get a full last paycheck.
Reality will probably be the company will find a loophole on page 42, paragraph 6, line 3 in the employee handbook that allows them to confiscate earned time off when the employee quits. Supposedly the manager has a call to HR to confirm which it will be.

Terry

Remember unsolicted advice is as good as how much you pay for it, even what I offer. Before walking off to use the vacation days call a Labor Attorney to find out if you can use the time off and still get paid. In Wisconsin, they have to allow it. You may have a case that Attorney maybe interested in.

I agree you are probably right that you are entitled to use it but they will mess it up for you. They know few folks will hire an attorney so in the long run it’s cheaper for them to deny you. Writing ethically but good business practice as to profits. That is what they seem to be all about.

The thing I don’t understand about this new ownership is instead of making life difficult for employees they should have purchased the company without any carry over employees. It would have been cheaper to have the old owner tell the employees they were done

TomO

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good morning, all! A warm day, going to approach 80, before a cold front moves in this evening with rain.
Flo, scramble a few eggs with a couple slices of bacon. Coffee.

Willie - cute grandson.
Jaz - to recap, you are doing ok
Sherrel - Prayers to you. Slow and steady. All we are trying to do is finish the race, we don't need to win or place, just show.
Curt - good looking model.

Does anyone have experience American Model Builder products? I ordered a structure, A.C. Brown Manufacturing, though I'm not sure when it's going to arrive. I did get 3 more light poles for Bar Mills Row and hope to install them this week.

STAY SAFE
LATER

 

[Greg@mnrr]

Being in the shopping center business, our company was sold and traded on a regular basis and so many of my benefits carried over from one company to another. The first time it was sold to a smaller developer and there were some employees in the new company who liked to extend their authority over some of our departments and made working life miserable. Another company's top executives were first class and a real pleasure to work for and with on projects.

One hot summer day, a construction crew hit and broke the 10 inch main water line coming into our complex. It just so happened that we were hosting a company Board of Directors meeting with guests from all over the world. No water means a lot of inconvenience. After the meeting we were told that the members were coming to our office. I thought the worst. The owner of the company, a fellow who came up from the ranks, came to my office. I apologized for the problem we had and he replied simply, "S__t happens....great complex".

I guess you have to choose your employer carefully and know all the rules.

Like TomO said, it may be better to start over with new employees than keep the old and then make life hard for them. During one transition we went from near 41 office employees down to the 16 that remained. All of the employees, but one, that were "cut" found as good if not better jobs. I guess the six months of separate pay and confined benefits helped. A couple employees left our company on a Friday and started a new job on Monday.

"that should mean I can leave now and still get a full last paycheck." When I retired, I understood that I could take my accurred vacation pay along with me as a final check. I confirmed this with the HR manager. I saved two weeks of vacation from the prior year and over two weeks for the current year. It was nice being retired and getting a full salary for over a month.

Best of luck Terry on your change in employers.

Greg

 

[bnsf971]

They won't pay you for the unused leave?

As suspected:
“PTO time requests must be submitted and approved by corporate at least 30 days in advance of the time off.”

 

[santafewillie]

Does anyone have experience American Model Builder products? I ordered a structure, A.C. Brown Manufacturing, though I'm not sure when it's going to arrive.

Hughie - I have twelve of their structures on my layout, from easy beginner stuff to more complex stuff. So I must like them! A.C. Brown Manufacturing looks to be on the more complex end of their product line, especially in N scale that you do. Looks like a good kit for your layout. I think that I posted pictures earlier this year of their F Bruckner Woodworking model. Here it is again.

 

[BigGRacing]

What kind of screws will hold

I wonder if those screws that screw into the little adapters would stick in the foam with a little glue, something like this maybe?

 

[bnsf971]

We just did a little more checking on the PTO thing, and sick days are included in that 30 day advance thing. So if you get the flu, a cold, or throw your back out on Sunday when you’re shoveling snow (or whatever), you’re SOL, as far as getting paid for your days out sick. It’s looking more and more like I made a good decision.

 

[MilwRoader_Steve]

I wonder if those screws that screw into the little adapters would stick in the foam with a little glue, something like this maybe?

Good idea! I have some of those wall anchors and some scrap foam - - I can try it out.

 

[logandsawman]

Good afternoon all,

18 above and sunny, going to go downhill for about 30 hours high tomorrow only 9 above.

I lost my phone this morning and someone found it. It fell out of my pocket at the car wash and someone picked it up. Not even a cracked screen, going to pick it up after work today. Lucky, Lucky, Lucky

Curt - beautiful freight building, photos

Tom - nice club photos

Willie - another great project

Sherrel - you may not be reading posts but I am praying for your recovery

Yesterday I ordered the last of my track and turnouts needed for the layout. Getting anxious to make trains run.

Here is some more of my ground cover work, using dirt and commercial products. Ballast also some dirt, supposed to be like those old tracks which are seen sinking into the ground:

This track painted with the WS rusty rail. Dust on the ties to bring out the wood grain a little

Used sheet rock mud for roads, sidewalks

more later, Dave LASM