Running Bear's February 2023 Coffee Shop

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 48° here in North Central Texas this morning. Shaping up to be another great day outdoors with the high around 66° again. More wind than yesterday though. Worked on my tan with shorts and tee shirt yesterday, that's the plan again today. And just a week ago, we had ice storms. Rain predicted for the next two days though, but still in the upper 50's. Cold front coming Friday.

Can't believe that our military used a Sidewinder missile to shoot down a damn balloon!?!?! Maybe Raytheon needed a revenue boost?
In other news, how about that train derailment in Ohio? Seems very serious.

Another outdoor day yesterday here on the farm. I spread out a bunch of shredded leaves that I had stashed, over the garden. I added more compost and other soil amendments and today I will till everything in prior to the expected rain tomorrow.
Today is day four of home alone, I am surviving. I'm generating lots of leftovers since it's hard for me to cook just for one. Last night it was Chicken Parmesan with my homemade spaghetti sauce. A single butterflied chicken breast makes enough for two!

Out in the train shed yesterday, I mainly glued together Pikestuff wall sections to make the connecting background buildings for the Ethanol refinery. Filing, squaring, gluing and then bracing them took time, but the results are giving the look that I am after. Here are multiple views from north to south along the backdrop. The first section behind the cooling tower is completed.

Then a small annex jutting out to break the monotony.

The next part is still in two sections just leaned against the backdrop right now, without the downspouts; behind the Ethanol storage tanks and the grain silos.

Then we come to the covered grain unloading building, still minus it's downspouts. They're tedious to remove from their sprues and there's a lot of them.

After all of this is finished, the fun part of adding all of the piping and the ground cover will begin. I am still imagineering the track arrangement and propane tank placement to the left.

Hughie -

Willie - That is quite a layout there. If it's a club, and close (close is a relative word in TX) you might consider joining.

You're right about close being a relative word in Texas. It's about 75 miles away and joining is a thought, but I still have enough to do on the home layout right now. But I would like to make a deal with their tree-maker.
Curt -

I think the government left the balloon alone so that the non-stop news coverage could work up anger against China.

Or defer the coverage of documents, grocery prices, laptops, migrants, etc.
Terry -

I'm in a 55+ park. Are you SURE you want to see the bikinis?

There's a small minority of 55+ that look great in bikini's. Sharon Stone, Elle Macpherson, Demi Moore, Christie Brinkley and more.
Karl - Get well soon.

Serial bride Zsa Zsa Gabor would have been 106 today, married 9 times and lived 99 years and 9 months.
Everybody have a fabulous Monday.

 

[chadbag]

I heard a defense expert from the Bush administration say balloons are long outdated technology for spying. Satellites can do much more.

And I read an article that said that balloons have great use as spies as they can be set to linger in one area (without needing to be geo stationary) and their cost is a lot less than a satellite. Not that the Chinese or anyone is replacing satellites with balloons, but using the tech to add to your capability makes sense.

I also read that weather and tech balloons often fly at 80k ft or above and NASA flies theirs at 120k ft. Much harder to shot down than 60k ft.

 

[Alcomotive]

MSN

 

[Alcomotive]

That's a serious train derailment! I hope everyone gets out of harms way. Not good for Norfolk Southern!

Morning ya'll!

It's supposed to get up to 40's? I dunno if it will happen but I welcome it! Saturday was frigid -21° F!

I burned wood Friday nite and Saturday to help out the furnace. Then I went out on a date with a gal I met last year at this time. She an I had agreed to take a pause do to her father taken ill. Well she called me Friday outta the blue and we talked and decided to go out Saturday nite. Needless to say it went very well and lots of talking and catching up. It was all good so we will go out again later this week. This o'l guy gotta get back in the game cause she is a keeper! I am hoping as we both like to fish and the outdoors. time will tell.

Anyways I have the last locomotive yet to arrive today #6667 that I posted about last week. I did get 2 hoppers in on Saturday and I will post later on the RPO. One of them is the notorious Saskatchewan green covered grain hopper. I plan to use the Circus City decal to put the lovely lady on it.

I do not know if ya'll have seen it but man the artist in real life did a heckava job on that hopper!



I ordered this decal already last week. I should have it today. I also ordered 6 other decal sets from them as well.

Saskatchewan Girl Graffiti SKNX 397367 HO Scale Decal

Saskatchewan Girl Graffiti SKNX 397367 HO Scale Decal

circusdecals.ecwid.com

Well I am in the office today. Tomorrow I will be working from home.

Ya'll have a good one!

 

[Sirfoldalot]

Morning from out here! It's 42 degrees and going up to 65 later with sunny breezy!
Major winds blowing down trees all over LA bending many cars as they fall.

I have a Dr appointment in Riverside for 10:45, so I need to make a sandwich, gas the P/U, AND hit the freeway pretty soon. It is the vascular surgeon - I guess he just wants to see if I am still vertical as I have had no tests (don't want any as he keeps finding things wrong).

Spousal Unit and I took a drive and winded up at Cardenas grocery store in Murrieta where we wandered about and picked up a few things. It's a HUGE store mainly stocked with any type of Mexican food that you can think of - so much that it really was confusing trying to find certain things. Last night we had grilled chicken thighs with cheesy polenta, a slaw salad with tomatoes and avocado. After a couple stiff bloody mary's I almost burned the chicken!


Joe - great news, happy all went well for you.
TomO - sounds as though you are on the down side of your cold.
Terry - Nice digs!
Willie - That is quite a layout there. If it's a club, and close (close is a relative word in TX) you might consider joining. 75 miles is just "right around the corner"!
Troy - I tried working in my PJ's, but they sent me home.
Sherrell- You lost and engine? Bet that made your a$$ grab the seat.
Hughie - In 35 years - my a$$ graded the seat several times, the engine didn't get "lost" - it was still attached to the wing, but it had shed a propeller.
LOUIS - The 747 was, and still is, the Queen of the sky! I was sort of used to seeing large planes - I had an Uncle in the AF and he would get me on the base to see B36's and B52's - but, at first sight, the 747 was jaw dropping the first time I saw one. It was a dream to fly!
The 707 was my favorite - being simply FUN to work with!

I gotta run ....

 

[Boris]

Good morning...48° and sunny...going into the 50s all week.

This morning's lesson learned, is that one cannot accurately measure heart rate after drinking black coffee first thing in the morning. Lesson answered is to check heart rate before one has their coffee in the morning.

Yesterday, I received a call from one of the "home nurse" shops in the Central Jersey area. the receptionist, wanted me to sign up for two weeks of home nursing. I declined. I or the wife could take my blood pressure, and / or look at my incisions and other related skin punctures, abrasions and know when to call 911 or the doctor(s). The woman had a fit, and tried to intimidate me into taking an unwanted service. I guess all old coots are compliant morons who are expected to go goo goo over all of the services offered by medical sub section practices, like home health care, and home oxygen etc. Hell, there may be a time in the future, when I really need someone to come in and help, but that time is not now. I already have explicit discharge instructions, that specify who to see, where and when, what to look for, and where, as well as what is wrong and where to go with it if it comes to that. This was also explained to the wife, and I, before I was discharged from the hospital in the first place. After all, I had the previous procedure, in the same hospital, with one of the two doctors. I had several incisions, and was expected to handle them myself.without a home nurse. The only difference, is the valve, which is a big deal, that requires monitoring, (checking vitals).

This week will be laid back, I must allow my body to heal...next week, I'll be more active, but it will be relatively calm for 2 full weeks. I do need to start walking, which is permissible for short distances, right now. I'll probably wait until the end of the week, to go down to the train room...

The Chi-Com are upset that we shot down their balloon, and are "threatening" retaliation...WTF, it was over our territory for almost a week. What do you think would happen if one of our balloons got away and flew into Chi-Com air space??? We all sort of know their what their reaction would be, don't we??? Those folks are not as benevolent or forgiving as we are, for sure.

"The 747 was, and still is, the Queen of the sky!"
Sherrel: For sure. My fondest recollections were almost daily, while leaving Oak Island in the morning. Every day, around 0800, a UPS 747, would lumber across the sky from the West runway at EWR It was especially a pronounced departure during sub zero cold, but spectacular any day. Only the C-5 Galaxy rivaled it for size and lumbering as it gained altitude...meanwhile as 7-2-7 or DC-9 would appear to soar at the same rate of climb.

Not sure of the details of the NS derailment...some of my spies may come through with the insider dope...or maybe, not. Many of them are now retired also....

 

[ctclibby]

The joke my kids tell me is that "no one lives in Wyoming - have you ever met someone from Wyoming?"

Of course my sister and BIL and their family live in Evanston and I've had a few roommates in college from Wyoming... But it is still funny.

Wife lived in Wyo few years before we met. She liked it probably cuz she is a hermit. Likes Montana better!

Later

 

[Texas Hobo]

Morning from out here! It's 42 degrees and going up to 65 later with sunny breezy!
Major winds blowing down trees all over LA bending many cars as they fall.

I have a Dr appointment in Riverside for 10:45, so I need to make a sandwich, gas the P/U, AND hit the freeway pretty soon. It is the vascular surgeon - I guess he just wants to see if I am still vertical as I have had no tests (don't want any as he keeps finding things wrong).

Spousal Unit and I took a drive and winded up at Cardenas grocery store in Murrieta where we wandered about and picked up a few things. It's a HUGE store mainly stocked with any type of Mexican food that you can think of - so much that it really was confusing trying to find certain things. Last night we had grilled chicken thighs with cheesy polenta, a slaw salad with tomatoes and avocado. After a couple stiff bloody mary's I almost burned the chicken!


Joe - great news, happy all went well for you.
TomO - sounds as though you are on the down side of your cold.
Terry - Nice digs!
Willie - That is quite a layout there. If it's a club, and close (close is a relative word in TX) you might consider joining. 75 miles is just "right around the corner"!
Troy - I tried working in my PJ's, but they sent me home.
Sherrell- You lost and engine? Bet that made your a$$ grab the seat.
Hughie - In 35 years - my a$$ graded the seat several times, the engine didn't get "lost" - it was still attached to the wing, but it had shed a propeller.
LOUIS - The 747 was, and still is, the Queen of the sky! I was sort of used to seeing large planes - I had an Uncle in the AF and he would get me on the base to see B36's and B52's - but, at first sight, the 747 was jaw dropping the first time I saw one. It was a dream to fly!
The 707 was my favorite - being simply FUN to work with!

I gotta run ....

Is there an echo in here?

 

[troyphoto]

heading out to get the ears lowered. Take care of the shop while I'm out.

 

[Jaz avalley]

I'm in a 55+ park. Are you SURE you want to see the bikinis?

Well hell if your 65 or 75 she’s a youngster lol

 

[Jaz avalley]

Good Morning All. Clear and 48° here in North Central Texas this morning. Shaping up to be another great day outdoors with the high around 66° again. More wind than yesterday though. Worked on my tan with shorts and tee shirt yesterday, that's the plan again today. And just a week ago, we had ice storms. Rain predicted for the next two days though, but still in the upper 50's. Cold front coming Friday.

Can't believe that our military used a Sidewinder missile to shoot down a damn balloon!?!?! Maybe Raytheon needed a revenue boost?
In other news, how about that train derailment in Ohio? Seems very serious.

Another outdoor day yesterday here on the farm. I spread out a bunch of shredded leaves that I had stashed, over the garden. I added more compost and other soil amendments and today I will till everything in prior to the expected rain tomorrow.
Today is day four of home alone, I am surviving. I'm generating lots of leftovers since it's hard for me to cook just for one. Last night it was Chicken Parmesan with my homemade spaghetti sauce. A single butterflied chicken breast makes enough for two!

Out in the train shed yesterday, I mainly glued together Pikestuff wall sections to make the connecting background buildings for the Ethanol refinery. Filing, squaring, gluing and then bracing them took time, but the results are giving the look that I am after. Here are multiple views from north to south along the backdrop. The first section behind the cooling tower is completed.
View attachment 161481
View attachment 161482
Then a small annex jutting out to break the monotony.
View attachment 161483
The next part is still in two sections just leaned against the backdrop right now, without the downspouts; behind the Ethanol storage tanks and the grain silos.
View attachment 161484
View attachment 161485
Then we come to the covered grain unloading building, still minus it's downspouts. They're tedious to remove from their sprues and there's a lot of them.
View attachment 161486
After all of this is finished, the fun part of adding all of the piping and the ground cover will begin. I am still imagineering the track arrangement and propane tank placement to the left.

Hughie -

You're right about close being a relative word in Texas. It's about 75 miles away and joining is a thought, but I still have enough to do on the home layout right now. But I would like to make a deal with their tree-maker.
Curt -

Or defer the coverage of documents, grocery prices, laptops, migrants, etc.
Terry -

There's a small minority of 55+ that look great in bikini's. Sharon Stone, Elle Macpherson, Demi Moore, Christie Brinkley and more.
Karl - Get well soon.

Serial bride Zsa Zsa Gabor would have been 106 today, married 9 times and lived 99 years and 9 months.
Everybody have a fabulous Monday.

I like the industrial kit, but it must be brand new so ..c l e a n..

 

[Jaz avalley]

Not that I’m egging you on to weather it…just teasing

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Started out with chores then drove up to meet up with Jon to retrieve my kit instructions. After getting home I had to re-caulk a slightly leaking window in the bird room then a honey-do before lunch. After lunch I cut the flash out of the windows, doors and roof glue holes for the roof mounting. I think I start on the ladders tomorrow.

Terry- Nice looking 5th wheel.

James- Best wishes with the gal and nice rail art.

Willie- Your project is coming along nicely. I think you hit the nail on the head with the distraction comment. Kids should do well at train shows.

Joe- Great looking cabin.





I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[Alcomotive]

 

[TLOC]

Back from the medical visits for Terry. They have no idea about the pain she HAD BEEN having and threw a bunch of tests at her before and after Hawaii. She has been pain free since the last tests but ran them again today. 2 visits after more testing today and everything seems fine. She is happy and so am I.

I need a nap…

 

[chadbag]

House update. Last week my brother-in-law came down from Wyoming (see, someone does live there) on Thursday and worked with me Thursday through Saturday, which I took off from work (well, Saturday is off anyway).

Thursday we had to get ready for the concrete pour on Friday after a morning inspection by the city of the rebar and stuff for the slab concrete. I did not arrange the inspection but the contractor/house builder friend whose company is helping me manage stuff* arranged it. The inspector showed up and he was expecting a "foundation" inspection. I showed him we already had that as we poured last August and the next layer is not ready yet. He was not sure what to look at when I said it was the garage slab over the pre-cast suspended slab so he called in and they said to just check the plans rebar placement against what we had done and to make sure we were pouring over a pre-cast slab and not something else. So the actual inspection took about 5 min, plus his time to call in and talk with the home office.

I don't remember what we did exactly each day but the concrete guys came in bright and early Friday morning. They took out all the rebar chairs I had spent time putting in on Wednesday, saying they were too high and would poke through the concrete (though they were all lower than and not right at the surface) of what we had agreed would be the thickness. Anyway, they had chalked their lines and put up some forms at the garage door parts where there was no foam, and doing so broke some foam off my corner in two places ( I can easily fix). I think they had trouble putting their forms against the existing foundation and foam and cut away an end. Easily fixed so I didn't say anything. The pump truck pushed out the concrete and they did they're rough spread. Two trucks worth of concrete. The guys did a few more progressive spreading and smoothing operations on the wet concrete. Some of the guys then left and the other guys sat around waiting for it to set enough that they could put on the big huge knee boards and float on top of it to do the final finish smoothing. The initial from when they told me they would get there at 7:30am to when the pour and all the various non-final smoothing was done was about 90 min. They may have gotten there earlier than 7:30am as I was not there until about 7:45am and so they could have taken an extra 15 or 30 minutes if they were there earlier. With waiting for the initial set to do the final smoothing they were there in part until about noon.

One of the concrete guys and his wife came back around 4pm when it was safe to walk on it and had their fancy concrete saw to cut the construction joints (the ones that are used to direct cracking from setting/drying shrinkage) to where the cuts are and not randomly on the concrete. I could choose the normal grooves done with wet for this, or for a small charge, the concrete saw grooves. The concrete saw grooves make a better finished product so I did that. This guy then covered the poured slab with concrete blankets to try and preserve the heat from the chemical processes of curing to protect against cold and help it set better over the next few days.

In the meantime I had rented a torpedo heater (diesel fed) -- 400k BTU with two ducts -- to keep the garage space under the slabs warm so that the heat would go into the precast slab and keep the new concrete warmer and protect it from freezing. This was delivered and we ran the ducts down into the basement and into the two parts of the under garage space. We blocked the doorways into that space to trap the heat and ran the heater. (2.25 gallon per hour ). Started it around 5 Friday afternoon.

They wanted it to run through Monday morning though said we could shut it off a few hours in the day when it was warmer. Friday night I went back and checked the warmth of the under slabs space and it was warm but not that warm. One duct was about 80 foot into the room and the other about 65 foot and there was a lot of heat lost from the duct before the warm air got into the room. I noticed there was one large concrete blanket the concrete guys had left behind so I went out and put it over the ducting. I didn't do the first 10 feet as the ducts were quite hot and hard to keep the hand on and I didn't want to hurt the blanket as it is not mine. But from about 10-12 feet to where it went down the staircase, all outside, I laid a double layer of the concrete blanket over the ducts and went home, after a short test where I felt the air coming out or the ducts was a bit warmer. Saturday morning we went back and the room was noticably warmer though I don't know if it ever got to the desired 75F temperature (despite the room being well insulated with the foam walls and also sealed off). We then went into one of the garage spaces and blocked off an open door that went to a side room (that only opened into this garage). Despite it not openeing to the outside, I thought it might be a leak of heat energy. It only had OSB on top and so we stuck a spare sheet of insulation board over that doorway to block it off. We then took scrap wood bundle "nylon covering" and scrap plastic covering from the foam blocks and laid it over the ducting inside the garage but outside the garage rooms -- so open to the outside air coming down the stairs and through a basement door and window opening. We also laid scrap insulation sheet pieces on top of the ducting and anything else to try and insulate this section of ducting. This helped I think to further reduce heat loss from the ducts before it got under the garage.

This morning, Monday, we went up and the heater had shut itself down from fuel starvation a little before. We didn't get there untol about 11am due to my work meetings. The duct and heater body was still a little warm and it was around 30F or so out so I don't think it had starved itself that much earlier. We dismantled everything and I am waiting for the rental place to come get their heater so I can follow them to the gas station and fill it up with fuel (I got it filled and have to return it filled or pay almost $9 a gallon -- like a rental car). Saturday we spent a lot of time fetching fuel for the heater as it burned it up and we used one and then three 5 gallon containers to get fuel and keep it going. Made many trips to the gas station and Citi started declining our Costco card as they thought fraud was going on due to the number of fuel charges that day, despite me once answering their text confirming it was me. I don't have the totals yet but I think it will probably be more than $500 in diesel we burned to try and heat that space with this infernal contraption of a heater.

Other things we got done was to install the extra insulation slabs around the first layer of foam and also the "form lock" the straightener pieces. Also a bunch of rebar cutm bent, and also placed and all the windows and doors marked and a good amount of a new layer of foam placed. (Need to add rebar to this new layer).

 

[Jaz avalley]

View attachment 161500totally agree

 

[Jaz avalley]

House update. Last week my brother-in-law came down from Wyoming (see, someone does live there) on Thursday and worked with me Thursday through Saturday, which I took off from work (well, Saturday is off anyway).

Thursday we had to get ready for the concrete pour on Friday after a morning inspection by the city of the rebar and stuff for the slab concrete. I did not arrange the inspection but the contractor/house builder friend whose company is helping me manage stuff* arranged it. The inspector showed up and he was expecting a "foundation" inspection. I showed him we already had that as we poured last August and the next layer is not ready yet. He was not sure what to look at when I said it was the garage slab over the pre-cast suspended slab so he called in and they said to just check the plans rebar placement against what we had done and to make sure we were pouring over a pre-cast slab and not something else. So the actual inspection took about 5 min, plus his time to call in and talk with the home office.

I don't remember what we did exactly each day but the concrete guys came in bright and early Friday morning. They took out all the rebar chairs I had spent time putting in on Wednesday, saying they were too high and would poke through the concrete (though they were all lower than and not right at the surface) of what we had agreed would be the thickness. Anyway, they had chalked their lines and put up some forms at the garage door parts where there was no foam, and doing so broke some foam off my corner in two places ( I can easily fix). I think they had trouble putting their forms against the existing foundation and foam and cut away an end. Easily fixed so I didn't say anything. The pump truck pushed out the concrete and they did they're rough spread. Two trucks worth of concrete. The guys did a few more progressive spreading and smoothing operations on the wet concrete. Some of the guys then left and the other guys sat around waiting for it to set enough that they could put on the big huge knee boards and float on top of it to do the final finish smoothing. The initial from when they told me they would get there at 7:30am to when the pour and all the various non-final smoothing was done was about 90 min. They may have gotten there earlier than 7:30am as I was not there until about 7:45am and so they could have taken an extra 15 or 30 minutes if they were there earlier. With waiting for the initial set to do the final smoothing they were there in part until about noon.

One of the concrete guys and his wife came back around 4pm when it was safe to walk on it and had their fancy concrete saw to cut the construction joints (the ones that are used to direct cracking from setting/drying shrinkage) to where the cuts are and not randomly on the concrete. I could choose the normal grooves done with wet for this, or for a small charge, the concrete saw grooves. The concrete saw grooves make a better finished product so I did that. This guy then covered the poured slab with concrete blankets to try and preserve the heat from the chemical processes of curing to protect against cold and help it set better over the next few days.

In the meantime I had rented a torpedo heater (diesel fed) -- 400k BTU with two ducts -- to keep the garage space under the slabs warm so that the heat would go into the precast slab and keep the new concrete warmer and protect it from freezing. This was delivered and we ran the ducts down into the basement and into the two parts of the under garage space. We blocked the doorways into that space to trap the heat and ran the heater. (2.25 gallon per hour ). Started it around 5 Friday afternoon.

They wanted it to run through Monday morning though said we could shut it off a few hours in the day when it was warmer. Friday night I went back and checked the warmth of the under slabs space and it was warm but not that warm. One duct was about 80 foot into the room and the other about 65 foot and there was a lot of heat lost from the duct before the warm air got into the room. I noticed there was one large concrete blanket the concrete guys had left behind so I went out and put it over the ducting. I didn't do the first 10 feet as the ducts were quite hot and hard to keep the hand on and I didn't want to hurt the blanket as it is not mine. But from about 10-12 feet to where it went down the staircase, all outside, I laid a double layer of the concrete blanket over the ducts and went home, after a short test where I felt the air coming out or the ducts was a bit warmer. Saturday morning we went back and the room was noticably warmer though I don't know if it ever got to the desired 75F temperature (despite the room being well insulated with the foam walls and also sealed off). We then went into one of the garage spaces and blocked off an open door that went to a side room (that only opened into this garage). Despite it not openeing to the outside, I thought it might be a leak of heat energy. It only had OSB on top and so we stuck a spare sheet of insulation board over that doorway to block it off. We then took scrap wood bundle "nylon covering" and scrap plastic covering from the foam blocks and laid it over the ducting inside the garage but outside the garage rooms -- so open to the outside air coming down the stairs and through a basement door and window opening. We also laid scrap insulation sheet pieces on top of the ducting and anything else to try and insulate this section of ducting. This helped I think to further reduce heat loss from the ducts before it got under the garage.

This morning, Monday, we went up and the heater had shut itself down from fuel starvation a little before. We didn't get there untol about 11am due to my work meetings. The duct and heater body was still a little warm and it was around 30F or so out so I don't think it had starved itself that much earlier. We dismantled everything and I am waiting for the rental place to come get their heater so I can follow them to the gas station and fill it up with fuel (I got it filled and have to return it filled or pay almost $9 a gallon -- like a rental car). Saturday we spent a lot of time fetching fuel for the heater as it burned it up and we used one and then three 5 gallon containers to get fuel and keep it going. Made many trips to the gas station and Citi started declining our Costco card as they thought fraud was going on due to the number of fuel charges that day, despite me once answering their text confirming it was me. I don't have the totals yet but I think it will probably be more than $500 in diesel we burned to try and heat that space with this infernal contraption of a heater.

Other things we got done was to install the extra insulation slabs around the first layer of foam and also the "form lock" the straightener pieces. Also a bunch of rebar cutm bent, and also placed and all the windows and doors marked and a good amount of a new layer of foam placed. (Need to add rebar to this new layer).

View attachment 161518View attachment 161517View attachment 161516View attachment 161515View attachment 161514View attachment 161519View attachment 161513View attachment 161512View attachment 161511View attachment 161510

Hard work, but hopefully saves you a fortune and makes life better in the future, little by little catcher monkey

 

[montanan]

Good afternoon. Didn't get on yesterday. I usually have breakfast on Sunday mornings with a neighbor couple that I have made good friends with. The wife was a big help after my surgery coming over to put the fitted sheets on my California king bed. A little hard doing that with one are, just like trying to pull your pants up with one hand. I can get my sweat pants up as well as the bib overalls with one hand. If I go out to run errands or go shopping, I wear my "Dress Sweats".

The neighbors live informally like me and have made dinner q few times and we had to eat at my place as they don't have a formal table to eat at, using a short bar just long enough for 2 people. After accepting their invitations, I did the Sunday dinner. Made a roast beef with baked red potatoes, fresh french style green beans with onions and bacon and from scratch biscuits. Nice to be able to cook for just me alone.

Joe - I missed what happened to you that you had to visit the hospital. Happy that you're apparently alive and kicking. Guess I should get on here more often. I had the county nurses checking in on me right after my surgery. They were helpful, but I was able to give them some information. They had brought over what they recommend to help get your pants up which consisted of a half inch dowel with a screw shaped like an L to hook onto the pants. I had that covered. An old fashioned wooden back scratcher works a hell of a lot better. The appreciated the info.

Willie - Those photos from the club were really interesting and I enjoyed your layout photos too.

Karl - I have what's left of my car collection spread out to different relatives that had shops or barns to keep them out of the weather. The '59 Impala is safe and is on loan to the Chevy dealer. They like to put it out on the showroom floor when they have room.

Curt - A video would be great. Tried to find your YouTube channel without any success. Looking forward to see more of the new and improved layout. There were a number of things that I learned over the years that I could have done to improve my layout, but that's no longer necessary.

Terry - That is one fine looking fifth wheel.

Chad - Thanks for the update on the house. I was wondering how it was coming along.

Can't believe how much time the media spent on that balloon. A distraction from other goings on. I heard that they claimed that it was being controlled. There are winds from the jet stream at altitude. The best that they could do is up or down. I'm sure that Sherrel can shed some light on the subject.

I have to get some boxes ready to send out to Willie. UPS is just a bit down the street from me, but they don't accept any parcels until 4 PM. Going to post some more photos from that archives and get out of here.

LATER

 

[kbkchooch]

Back from the medical visits for Terry. They have no idea about the pain she HAD BEEN having and threw a bunch of tests at her before and after Hawaii. She has been pain free since the last tests but ran them again today. 2 visits after more testing today and everything seems fine. She is happy and so am I.

I need a nap…

Glad to hear the news!