Running Bear's February 2025 Coffee Shop

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Len Turner said:
It's a balmy 43 and clear in Cheyenne, headed for high of 59 today. Usual wind warnings, etc... And,

He's back... :cool: Well for the most part anyway. What started as some chest discomfort last weekend turned into a full-blown a-fib episode. Went to Cheyenne Regional MC ER Monday afternoon and spent the rest of the week in ICU and Step-down getting stabilized and pulse rate down to an acceptable level. Still on restricted physical activities until I see cardiologist later in the week. So, it's low-sodium diet (yecccch) and decaf everything (which I can handle ok). Its funny how almost no one talks about cholesterol anymore...
In other news.. beginning to get irritated with movers; still got our stuff. Been 4-weeks. Weather, truck availability, scheduling, etc. blah-blah-blah...
No train activities, other than some doodling on basic layout scheme.
Hope everyone is doing ok and getting some train stuff done. Probably be on-and-off a bit with posting for a while, but we're gettin' there.
Y'all have a good day and week and take care.
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Glad you’re feeling good enough to talk about the movers! That has to be stressful enough. Best to do when you do visit the cardiologist guy
 
Good morning from So Central Wisconsin where it’s currently 39f degrees feels like 32 but heading to the low 50’s per the WeatherChannel app. Terry is in Austin so the TV is not on and I’m not checking the scrolling at the bottom of the screen. Therefore I have no clue what the weather lady is telling SCW this morning.

Our service that installs the outside Christmas lights is stopping by before noon to deliver all decorations they install. Received a email after midnight. They are closing shop. We have 1 year left on the “gifted” service but since it was a gift any refunds will go to the brother if they have the resources to refund!

I did my walk outside this morning and got 3 miles in. The weather is very nice and by the end of the walk the windbreaker was around my waist not draped as a coat fits.

Yesterday I did my quarterly airbrush breakdown and cleaning. The spray on one of the brushes my Patriot Extreme 105 was not right. Did my usual cleaning procedures and was putting it back together and as I was putting the tip back I sneezed. Off went the collar I had almost started to tighten along with the tip. I spent an hour at least looking for that tip, found the collar immediately. Finally gave up, went to Midwest Airbrush supply and ordered one along with a few other things including a new Sotar V. I have a buddy who is an illustrator and this will be a good brush for his birthday next month.

Anyway, I needed a cold diet Dr Pepper this morning after my walk as I did not put one in the kitchen frig last night before bed. So I went to my stash in the train room cooler. With bare feet (which I never do) I stepped on the tip to the air brush. Not sure it’s any good and the foot is very sore where it embedded but the blood did stop.

Today has changed with me wanting to be home for the decorations delivery. After that I need to head to the clinic to prepay for the lenses they are going to be adding when Terry has her cataract surgery in March. I have to go in person to deliver a form Terry did not send in last week.

I will stop at the post office to drop off 5 boxes. I need to clear coat 24 sets of chassis and containers I started working on and sold over the weekend. After they dry I will add some more light weathering and seal again. I should get these off to the post office Wednesday.

Write down what you did today, you never know when you’ll be asked to prove it
Be well
 
Good Morning All. Foggy, extremely foggy and 36°, heading into the low 70's today and the rest of the week. That's a slight change upward from previous forecasts. Might have some rain next week..

Short and brief this morning as I have a doctor appointment 30 miles away at 8:30 this morning. Who the hell scheduled it for that early??? It's the yearly pulmonologist visit. Don't know what the rest of the day has in store yet.
Got all of the onions planted yesterday, but these bundles of plants didn't have the usual number of plants in them, so I will be stopping at a different place while I am in town and getting some more. I also somehow missed the fact that all I had bought were yellow and red varieties, no white ones. Whites and reds are better for raw use and yellow are better for cooking, although they are all interchangeable. The grocery trek earlier went OK, only slightly more crowded than our regular Thursday morning trip.

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Joe - Steel mill looks great.
Karl - Condolences to your co-worker on the death of her spouse.
Swal - Looking good.
No summary here, you have to go back to each individual day.:cool: In my working world, we were required to accomplish something when we were in the office.
Jim - Glad that you got it down now.
Len - Glad that things are on the upswing again for you.

Heading out now, y'all have a great Monday.
 


Good morning. My Macbook updated on Friday, and I've been using it since then, though I've noticed for some reason, the battery stopped charging. Great. So, I went and bought a new charging brick for it, came home, plugged it in, and--not charging. WTF?... I rummaged around and found another charging cable. I'm pissed I just spent quite a bit on a charger that it looks like I don't need. I disconnected the cable on the laptop and charger, connected the new cable, and--not charging. It shows being plugged in, but it is at 79% charge, and won't budge upward. This is now day three, and I don't dare unplug it, because the battery will probably continue discharging and not recharging.
I've been trying to decide if I want to go buy another Macbook, since they're pricey and I only use this two weekends a month. I could probably do most of the things on my Windoze laptop, it'll just mean things won't be as convenient.
Then, I just happen to do a Google search of this, to see if I need to reset the motherboard BIOS. Apple does have it, though it's slightly different than M$.
That's when I discovered Apple had decided all on their own to limit my battery charging to times and days when it will reduce my carbon footprint. Also decided to limit the percentage of charge to prolong my battery's lifespan. Since I'm pretty sure my 6 year old laptop with 120 charge cycles will be in the scrap heap long before the battery fails, I want to turn these "features" off. A half hour of frustration later, I finally figured out how to turn this stuff off. I'm sure somewhere in the list of things the update did, it said it changed these settings, but when it insists on installing right now, all it says is security and enhancements.
So, I'm putting the charging brick I mistakenly bought back into its box, and I'll see if they'll accept the return. Wish me luck.
 
I’m back.

Terry called the Clinic when they opened this morning at 8. No need for me, she handled it all on the phone and than online.

The Christmas decorations were delivered into the garage for me at 8:15. Talked to the guys doing the delivery and they were shocked this morning by the closing down announcement. Seems that one of the 2 owners is sick and the partners could not agree to a buy out price

I’ve been to the Post Office.

My formerly good client for all things Intermodal showed up after I got back from the PO. Was wondering why I didn’t contact him about my container and chassis sale. He took pictures of what’s available as he claimed he did not have his inventory list on his smart phone. Found out his daughter who stops here twice a week to use the studio for her art had not told dad she was stopping here. He found out because she was here this morning when he got here. I don’t always know she is here until she texts me she is in the studio. She has her own key and usually comes with a couple other students. He really stopped though because I am acting as the project manager for 2 houses being built. The daughter’s new place and one of her neighbors. He dropped off his bid for rock and brick work. Based on past bids I’m sure he’ll get the work.

I am about to clear coat the 24 sets of container/chassis. I will check them this afternoon to see if any additional weathering is needed. If so I work on that after dinner. Meanwhile I have some layout work to do

Have a great day
 
My Brother all in one laser printer DCP-7065-DN just informed me (I think it was the printer or was it Windows 11?) There was software available. Either way something downloaded and installed new firmware, driver, and software for my printer I bought in 2011. Which happens to work perfectly.
 
Good morning, all! Well as I sit here typing the sun has finally broken through the fog. There were hints thrown about that we might see 70 degrees today and possibly near 80 toward the end of the week. No rain in the forecasts more the next ten days. I'm pretty sure I'll be tuning up the zero turn in the next few days.

Bob - Looks to be a fair sized layout. Wish I had that kind of space. I doubt there is a home with a basement for a hundred miles.
Len - Good to her you are on the upswing. Question, don't they have a delivery by date in the contract? Seems a month would more than sufficient to deliver.
Swal - I'm lucky I remember what I did an hour ago let alone every day last week.
Terry - Nice museum, the trains not your old computer.
Louis - It ain't that bad.

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STAY SAFE
LATER
 


All y'all probably remember the windshield wiper discussion from a couple of days ago, when I said our rainy season was winding down and would stay that way until the end of May? Silly me... It's been steadily raining since about 2AM here. Ordinarily, when mid-season cold fronts roll through, we get about 30 minutes of light showers, this one seems to have stalled over my living room.
 
Weather guessers was wrong!!! It's currently 71° and sunny with a light wind. Far cry from the -5° and -25° of last week. Went for a walk in the big park in town and drove both ways with the window down.

Line at the car wash is longer than I would have expected for mid-morning though.
 
bnsf971 said:
Good morning. My Macbook updated on Friday, and I've been using it since then, though I've noticed for some reason, the battery stopped charging. Great. So, I went and bought a new charging brick for it, came home, plugged it in, and--not charging. WTF?... I rummaged around and found another charging cable. I'm pissed I just spent quite a bit on a charger that it looks like I don't need. I disconnected the cable on the laptop and charger, connected the new cable, and--not charging. It shows being plugged in, but it is at 79% charge, and won't budge upward. This is now day three, and I don't dare unplug it, because the battery will probably continue discharging and not recharging.
I've been trying to decide if I want to go buy another Macbook, since they're pricey and I only use this two weekends a month. I could probably do most of the things on my Windoze laptop, it'll just mean things won't be as convenient.
Then, I just happen to do a Google search of this, to see if I need to reset the motherboard BIOS. Apple does have it, though it's slightly different than M$.
That's when I discovered Apple had decided all on their own to limit my battery charging to times and days when it will reduce my carbon footprint. Also decided to limit the percentage of charge to prolong my battery's lifespan. Since I'm pretty sure my 6 year old laptop with 120 charge cycles will be in the scrap heap long before the battery fails, I want to turn these "features" off. A half hour of frustration later, I finally figured out how to turn this stuff off. I'm sure somewhere in the list of things the update did, it said it changed these settings, but when it insists on installing right now, all it says is security and enhancements.
So, I'm putting the charging brick I mistakenly bought back into its box, and I'll see if they'll accept the return. Wish me luck.
Click to expand...
Apple is purposely limiting your carbon footprint. Whew I bet that saves a lot! What a joke…

Glad you found a way to turn them off and regain some independence. I better check if they do that on IPadPros!!!

If you didn’t wreck the box I see no reason they wouldn’t accept the return charging brick
 
Good evening all. The rain has held off!!

Yesterday was a day when all the family could get together, so we had a Birthday Party. It wasn't anyones birthday we had a party nontheless. The birthday people involved were younger granddaughter (whose birthday is today) Daughter-in-Laws birthday in March and mine also in March..

Today is younger granddaughter's birthday as I said, , so she called in to receive her present.

As children are on holiday this week there was no Brownie Run, so an easy going day.

Time to make a cup of tea.
 
It’s still a nice bright day in my part of Wisconsin. It’s 51 which was to be the high for today. Now the app says 54 in 90 minutes at 4pm before it levels off.

I basically took January and February off from commission weathering because my health hasn’t been right. Told my regular clients I would start on the 7 diesels I’ve had since December on 3/15 and the owner had no issue with that. Told the regulars don’t send in any models yet. They honored that request until last week! All of a sudden starting last Friday the USPS is living on my front porch. Packages came Friday, Saturday, Sunday and 3 more today. If it fits in my large mailbox delivery is with the regular mail. If it doesn’t fit the mailbox we get separate parcel (package) deliveries usually around noon to 3. Sunday is parcel delivery only. My normal delivery is 4-6 weeks. Based on what I have it’s going to be 6-8. I know 1 first world problems but this time around I will do a better job of scheduling for my health issues as I’m no where near 100%. But getting closer every day.

Terry actually asked me this afternoon if I could live in Texas? My answer was I will live wherever you want except on Maui! The son I guess has found an “absolutely stunning” (her words) 300 acres + outside of Wimberley, Texas (Hill Country) on the Blanco River and another one near Lockhart that has wet weather springs and creeks. Should be interesting when she comes back Wednesday. They are both distress sales and Terry loves it when she is told that.

Enjoy the day
 
So today my Atlas HO Signal Bridges were delivered. Trouble right away being I ordered 2 right hand signal bridges and found out I don't have enough room to place the other right hand on the opposite side of the double crossover because it will be too close to the siding track that's there. Not that's a big deal because I planned on buying another 2 so I'll just order at least 1 left hand the next time. Other than that, I had to make a concrete base for the unit. I drilled 4 holes for the wires to go under the layout but that would have been impossible if I didn't cut off the electronic terminals attached to the wires. They look like they plug into the Atlas signal system but I'm just going to hook up the signals to the 4 tortoise switch machines that are going to power the crossover and I just cut them off. If you're not doing that then you're going have to make a bigger hole in the concrete base you make. So for now, I'm just going to install the one on the left-hand side of the turnout and install the other right hand one I bought in some other place on the layout. You're going to need 2 signals bridges one on each side of the crossover otherwise you're going have to receive a (form 19) train order to run trains in the opposite direction. I'm not sure how big the concrete base I made will end up being that's still up in the air.
Swal

DCS_01.jpg
 
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Good evening. It's (still) raining and (still) 60.
I was able to return the charger, so that at least went well today. I'm currently running a train on the layout. I've learned to just run a train over all the track at least once a week. That keeps the dust on the rails to a minimum. Maybe this coming weekend I can actually devote a few hours to operating my railroad.
 
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