Running Bear's February 2023 Coffee Shop

[troyphoto]

Me... when it comes to weddings, I just want one of these bad boys at the reception

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. It's 62° and raining. An hour ago it was an incredible 70°. Incredible since it is February 22! But yesterday's high was 89°. Didn't break the record of 93° though. I haven't stepped out far enough too see the rain gauge, but the Weather Underground station around the corner shows less than a tenth of an inch.
Yesterday after finishing up some household chores, I moved the final load of wood chips and tilled the rest of the garden. Then I planted a 2 oz package of green peas, another frost-hardy veggie. Lowest temperature in the ten day forecast is 40° tomorrow. Those seeds will be nicely buried. 2 oz of pea seed should yield about 20 lbs at harvest time.

Thanks for the reactions and comments regarding the Gateway Cafe. It's mostly Chet's work that can live on despite the Logan Valley being gone.

Garden took longer than expected, so I only got some minor stuff done out in the train shed. Added figures to the confectionery/law office building.

I also took a few more photos inside the cafe.

Troy - While using the Barney/Andy/Opie scenario is a great idea, my attempt is going to be to memorialize the Logan Valley layout in various places on my own. Hence keeping the Gateway Cafe, along with the Gateway Market from last week together and without changing the names is my intent. I might still use the characters if I find or make something suitable.

Curt - The good news is that everyone survived.
Jaz - I use bicarbonate soda and vinegar to clear drains when needed. However none of my graywater drains go into the septic tank. It comes highly recommended by both of our late moms.
Sherrel - Get well soon.

Today is Ash Wednesday. It's also National Margarita Day. Celebrate either or both depending on your beliefs.
Everybody have a great day.

 

[troyphoto]

And one other point for the coffee caucus to chew on.

We've hit a new age in publishing. the robots are writing fiction.

And they're not good at it

And small publications are fighting to keep the crap out:

Source: https://www.axios.com/2023/02/21/chatgpt-science-fiction-mag-ai-clarkesworld

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

61° and rainy this morning, going for a high of...Oh wait, It's 62° and temps supposed to drop later this morning as a front comes through with a low of 18° overnight. At least no snow or ice expected, but as I told the wife on Sunday when we went to get a couple of the grandkids, I hate this time of year because everything is brown and dead. Welcome to Kansas, the brown state. I'm just ready for warm temps and green.

Boris: The downside of where I live is that we don't get fresh Paczki (Pronounced punch-key) here. My grandmother used to make them and our local Kroger affiliate has them from a bakery in Chicago. Figure they are a week old by the time they hit the shelves here. Diet requirements for the wife has kept them out of our kitchen this year.

 

[Boris]

which Walther's modular building do you have ?

Smudge: I have a 3 in one kit, which might generate 2 smaller buildings. I also have some modular sections that I picked up when they were running the modulars. I have an unfinished freight house, I built from the sections. Not for nothing, Walthers mishandled marketing on the Modulars, claiming they didn't sell, when crucial parts were not readily available.

 

[Boris]

our local Kroger affiliate has them from a bakery in Chicago. Figure they are a week old by the time they hit the shelves here.

What gets me, is that there are numerous Polish bakeries, between Newark, Linden, Trenton and NYC. ShopRite gets them from a bakery in CT. So much for buy local. eh? What is worse, where I live, we lack good ethnic bakeries...in spite of large Italian Polish and Jewish communities, there are no good local bakeries, and only a few delis.

 

[Boris]

Good morning. 30° and currently sunny. Supposed to rain later. In about an hour, we will be going for our walk, followed by a side trip to Lowes, and the Post office.

Conrail OI-8 awaits railroad at CP Pike. Interesting consist includes NS 1700, (painted EL), followed by CSX 1700.

 

[santafewillie]

Smudge: I have a 3 in one kit, which might generate 2 smaller buildings. I also have some modular sections that I picked up when they were running the modulars. I have an unfinished freight house, I built from the sections. Not for nothing, Walthers mishandled marketing on the Modulars, claiming they didn't sell, when crucial parts were not readily available.

I know that feeling well. When my LHS owner retired, he gave me 35 packages of Walther's modular stuff; I already had 10-12 of my own. I cannot make anything with them as is, because Walther's didn't make enough "wall columns" to attach the walls together! They would have been much better off mimicking DPM instead of "re-inventing the wheel". Their walls were sufficiently different enough to provide variety from the DPM stuff and could have been a whole lot more successful. I have gotten around it a little by substituting .250" styrene strips painted concrete color for some backdrop structures.

It actually needs to be a little wider than .250", but that's what I had.

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from the very confused State of Wisconsin. Weather has become a joke. Even the forecasters are laughing about it. The comedy last night was our weather guessers on TV. He literally ended the forecast by saying, Folks, this one’s a guess! Terry knew that the weather the next few days was going to be a mess. But, GMA told her basically the Upper Midwest would be covered in many inches of white and then sheets of ice. They were putting a fear unneeded into viewers. Last night the forecast was only 1/2 to 2” of snow followed by rain. Actual was a dusting, maybe 1/4” but they closed the schools by 9 PM per the text the daughter forwarded to us. Online class schedules due to the uncertainty with bussing. No rain last night or yet. The reason, 3-6” of snow between 9 and 3 today, followed by rain and ice totaling 1/4” which of course is deadly… I looked at the radar a few minutes ago. I don’t see any snow but I do see the line of snow/sleet mix the NWS has added to the Winter Advisory. Like the Summertime heat warnings they are asking neighbors to check in on their eldery neighbors as the area food services will not be delivering until Friday. I checked on Terry, she is still sleeping, but we are prepared!

enjoy the day

 

[JeffH]

A real eyebrow raiser today...

Our house is only about 6 years old. Unfortunately, we have a small leak develop in the cold water supply to a hot water tank. It's a slow leak.. about a drip over 3-4 seconds. The leak is in a joint made up of many elbows, and is a place where the cold water supply does and "up & over" the hot water pipe. So I'm not very keen on my PVC abilities, so I decided to call a local plumber who advertises on our local classic rock radio station.

I'm at work. My wife calls. The plumber is there, and he's asking where the main shutoff valve is. Seriously? It's in plain sight.. 10 feet from the drip. Any person with an ounce of common sense can follow the pipe from the drip back to the spot on the basement wall where there's a pipe coming in from the outside... And there's a valve right there... Right where one would expect a main shutoff to be... right near the place where the water main comes in from outside...

I'm afraid to go home tonight and see what this guy may have done...

 

[CGW121]

Gloomy and rainy, Oh well at least its not snow.

 

[ctclibby]

A real eyebrow raiser today...

Our house is only about 6 years old. Unfortunately, we have a small leak develop in the cold water supply to a hot water tank. It's a slow leak.. about a drip over 3-4 seconds. The leak is in a joint made up of many elbows, and is a place where the cold water supply does and "up & over" the hot water pipe. So I'm not very keen on my PVC abilities, so I decided to call a local plumber who advertises on our local classic rock radio station.

I'm at work. My wife calls. The plumber is there, and he's asking where the main shutoff valve is. Seriously? It's in plain sight.. 10 feet from the drip. Any person with an ounce of common sense can follow the pipe from the drip back to the spot on the basement wall where there's a pipe coming in from the outside... And there's a valve right there... Right where one would expect a main shutoff to be... right near the place where the water main comes in from outside...

I'm afraid to go home tonight and see what this guy may have done...

View attachment 162768

Jeff: You might check the local code. Don't think you can use PVC for the input to the HW tank. Needs to be galvi, copper or the like. Plumber should know that. Well, if you have a real plumber. Sure it is done, but when it comes time to sell - you might need to fix it. As a side note, I had to strap our HW to the wall - 2" stainless straps. Asked the appraiser as to why and he told me that FHA does not want the HW falling over. Water heater is in the basement. If there was something Earth shattering that would cause it to fall over, it would be the last of my worries.

Later

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Morning there RR Fans!
Currently 44 degrees and only 49 estimated for a high under cloudy, showerly skies.
We had a smidgen of rain last night -somewhat less than a quarter inch, but all is welcome; it will make the brush grow faster and larger for the next fire season! HA!

Feel better this morning but still stuffed up - think I will just do nothing for today, which is what I mostly do even when feeling "chipper".

Have a great day - guys and girls!

 

[Smudge617]

Hello Happy Members !
I started to build a layout inspired from an old Atlas 4x8 HO Scale DC Layout. At the moment it's only a big mockup. I'll do better very soon. When the Spousal Unit saw it I said first: "Too late honey, I built it !"
All your comments, advices and criticisms are welcome. You can also laugh if you want !

And now, my own version ( 3'2" x 7' 6"). I usual, I used my favorite brand of track: Trix C track.

It is always easier to seek forgiveness after the event, than permission before.
Nice layout, looks really good, like this one,

 

[Chrιstιaη]

I decided to slightly change the plan:

 

[chadbag]

As a side note, I had to strap our HW to the wall - 2" stainless straps. Asked the appraiser as to why and he told me that FHA does not want the HW falling over. Water heater is in the basement. If there was something Earth shattering that would cause it to fall over, it would be the last of my worries.

I think this is standard code in many places. I've seen these requirements most everywhere I've lived in the last decade or so. It is an Earthquake thing.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!
Raining hard now, should continue for a while, high of 45°. Boring here at work today, the phones aren't ringing, and the weather is keeping the walk ins at bay.
BBL

 

[chadbag]

Well it started snowing last night, after flurries changing to rain yesterday afternoon. Still snowing. No clue how much there is as it has drifted. This is 5 min ago. Hopefully our house project has not had problems. Worried the garage foam wall might fall over.

 

[migalyto]

Top of the morning all,

Had a steady rain since about 7am this morning, I'm in Northern Illinois, and we are missing the sleet freezing rain by about 30 miles. Looks like I-88 is the cutoff line. This is the second ice/rain event in about 3 weeks we dodged the bullet (at least for the time being).

Down in the basement today, layout cleaning continues. My 2-year hiatus caused it to become a catch all. Hope to have some semblance of order by weeks end. I got to get back to track laying so i can run trains again!

Hope everyone has a safe day!!!

 

[TLOC]

Top of the morning all,

Had a steady rain since about 7am this morning, I'm in Northern Illinois, and we are missing the sleet freezing rain by about 30 miles. Looks like I-88 is the cutoff line. This is the second ice/rain event in about 3 weeks we dodged the bullet (at least for the time being).

Down in the basement today, layout cleaning continues. My 2-year hiatus caused it to become a catch all. Hope to have some semblance of order by weeks end. I got to get back to track laying so i can run trains again!

Hope everyone has a safe day!!!

Mike, you are 90 miles +/- south of me. I am not looking forward to the rain turning to ice. Winds right now are out of the northeast. But radar is showing multiple fronts moving in on us. Winter is so interesting…