Running Bear's February 2025 Coffee Shop

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The Orioles will be bringing back the orange pants they sometimes wore during the 1971 and 1972 season.
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Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Dave McNally and Jim Palmer.
The Orioles four 20-game winners of 1971
 
Welp... overnight the wife's ipad - her main "computer" for her trading and email - turned into a brick.

Did all the button pushes and holds online says to do.

Got it plugged in with a different power cord. Tested cord and power adapter on another device to make sure the "charger" icon lit up.

Looks like I'm heading out to get another ipad if this one doesn't light up in the next hour.
 
Good Morning All. Foggy again and 45°. It's almost misting. Cool today, warm tomorrow, and cold from Sunday through Thursday. After that, I don't trust the forecast.

The weekly grocery trek yesterday went OK, no shortages. Forgot to look at the egg prices which seem to be our current economic indicator. Gasoline is still in the $2.59-$2.64/gal everywhere. No surprises at any other stops either.

Today's plans are up in the air. The mist, fog and heavy dew will limit what I do outside, I don't need to be slipping while either using the chainsaw or stacking firewood.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I mostly piddled around. A couple of days ago I posted about the broken handrail in the Live Wire kit, I decided to just make a new one from a piece of wire.
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I still have the assembly juices flowing so I built another electrical transmission tower.
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It's on the layout with it's mate now.
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I would like to string wire from one to the other, and I pre-drilled holes in the tips of all of the insulators, but it would only run from tower to tower without leaving the layout.
Meanwhile Live Wire Manufacturing is located nearby.
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Since this location is on the turnback peninsula, all sides are visible from an aisle.
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Incentive now to complete the scenery here.

Len - Good to read that you're settling in well. I guess that it is too early to have missed Texas yet.
Mike - Running trains is the best way to get out of the train funk. At least you can do that much. Eventually seeing all of that blank space will get your building juices flowing again.
Chad - Too bad about the permit. But it does seem like they are working with you to get it done.
John - Sorry to read of the past month's difficulties. Seems like you're on the path to forward movement. Good luck.

Everyone have a fabulous Friday. I know that it is Friday because the truck just emptied my dumpster!
 
Good Morning All. Foggy again and 45°. It's almost misting. Cool today, warm tomorrow, and cold from Sunday through Thursday. After that, I don't trust the forecast.

The weekly grocery trek yesterday went OK, no shortages. Forgot to look at the egg prices which seem to be our current economic indicator. Gasoline is still in the $2.59-$2.64/gal everywhere. No surprises at any other stops either.
I'd say eggs are more the exception right now.

Regional egg producers just had to put down several sites worth of laying hens due to avian flu. Which made our prices spike.
 
Good morning from So. Central Wisconsin. 14f degrees now high 30’s later and dry. Most of yesterday’s ice is gone. It sure messed up the roads till about midafternoon.

Grocery run with Terry this morning.

Terry has 3 ladies coming over for their monthly financial discussion get together. A retired bank president and 2 retired wealth investment consultants. They met and hit it off at an investment seminar about 16 years ago, 5 years before I retired. They formed an investment group in 2010. They are trying to figure out what to do in this crazy economy.

I will head out after lunch to a friend’s layout to join eight others plus the owner! We will be adding the blue point switch machines and scenery cardboard strips forms on the 3rd deck. The 30 blue points are going in the industrial sections. With a 2 man crew installing it takes about 10 minutes for each machine including linkages through the fascia. There will be 3 experienced crews of 2. The mainline switches are Tortoises already installed. Beta operating sessions are planned for September but we are working to get all mechanicals and scenery elements on the 3rd level complete before beginning the main level. It’s sort of a mushroom thing but the really nice part is the narrowest aisle in the layout room is 50”

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Bob on the left, I’m the heavy guy on the right with hair. I’ve gained 32# since my stroke in August. The owner is behind the camera. Here I am applying the 1st coat of paint on the fascia. Shown are decks 2 and 3. The 1st deck will be built in this section depending how much more scenery work we get done today. The framing is complete. It was built in sections on the other side of the room. The plan was for March but we are moving along pretty good. I’m thinking next Friday the 14th or at the session planned for the 17th, Monday.

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2 coats of paint on the fascia and more cardboard strips for scenery support. Getting the next 100’ of support cardboard strips hot glued is the goal today along with the resin cloth added. There will be 3 guys working on that while the other 3 teams will be installing the blue points. The blue points already have the 6 wires soldered to them

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The following day after pictures 1and 2 is what it looks like coming out of that upper tunnel in picture #2 with plaster cloth added

Once the blue points are installed wired up and tested today the crews will cover the tracks and start adding the plaster cloth. The owners wife was a project manager for a large construction company, she knows how to schedule. There is an whiteboard we follow. Along with my crew mate I will head to the paper mill where we will draw in the tracks and triple check the measurements for the structures.


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A viewing and work platform for the 3 deck in this area. The papermill will be located on the 1st deck here. 2’ x 21’ is the area for the mill. There is space between the platform and the paper mill deck even though the picture doesn’t show it. We have decide the mill will be operated with a plant based switcher

Enjoy the day
 
I am glad that you came to the coffee shop to vent. I have always done that because I know I can count on my train buddies to listen when I need to get things off my chest.

Hopefully, you will return to your railroad soon. In the meantime, we are always here.
Louis,
You're right I had to get some of the load off of my shoulders, and found this forum to be the best place. Thanks for your reply and thoughts
 


It had to happen. The planned quiet weekend is a no-go. Not bad by any means. Daughter and grandchildren will be visiting. :cool:
Dawn and daughter have arranged for a friend to visit also. That means when grandchildren are tucked up in bed it will be 'girl talk'. A late Saturday night it will be.

For dinner tonight, Dawn wants fish. I have a few Indonesian spice mixes. A couple of Asian vegetables as well.
 
Good mornin' y'all from mostly cloudy Cheyenne. It's 46 with wind chill of 35, winds from the W @ 20mph, humidity 28%. High for the day 58, low this evening 22. Expecting some snow showers this evening and on through the weekend. Colder and windier into next week.
No word from the movers so no actual workbench or layout work. Have got some things coming next week; a couple of benchwork modules from Siever's, a new kit from SierraWest, and a tank-topper propane heater for the soon-to-be train shed. Probably nothing I'll get on anytime soon as I still have several unfinished items in the moving boxes. Was going to get out some this weekend, but looks like the weather is going to be a bit raw and I'm still feeling the effects from the move, change in altitude, etc.
Y'all have a good day and take care.
 
You guys lives are so much more exciting than mine. 😁 I retired (early) 3 years ago, screwed up the wife's routine after 4 months, so had to get out of the house until I de-energized. I was outside sales, in corporate America, for about 40 years and I found out quickly that you can't just go from 1,000mph to 10mph overnight. You need to transition.

A new Trader Joes was opening 2 miles from the house so I figured I would apply to work 2 days/wk, to pay for my $650/mnth Obamacare. My future management convinced me to work 4 days because I only needed 28 hours to get full medical. They pay was great, 20% off on groceries, time-and-a-half on Sundays/holidays, 6am-2pm shift, and since I was already a gym rat I had an extra 2 hour workout every morning breaking down pallets of bananas, potatoes, etc.

I actually had multiple interviews to make sure I was a good fit. It was kind of enlightening to know that I was in the enviable position to not need to work, but want to work. TJ's is actually a very well run company. You actually work with management, not for them. That has only happened 2-3 times in my career.

I turned 65 a couple of months ago, now have Medicare, transitioned down to 2 shifts/wk, and will be re-retiring at the end of February.🥳 I am ready. We've already booked a couple of big trips for this year.

It has been fun and eye opening working retail with the younger generations. I could never work retail as a career. I loved outside sales and could never work in an office. I liked being treated like a cowboy....let me go out alone, do my job, and you can check my weekly/monthly numbers to see if I'm working.

Us Boomers have a different work ethic. I observed a lot of the younger members of the crew just do what's necessary to get by. I think tattoos, piercings, and pronouns are priorities to a lot of them. No planning for the future or drive for success.

Speaking of pronouns. I was counseled about 6 months after starting for referring to a "special" person by their wrong pronouns.:rolleyes: I made it politely clear that I'm a Boomer and if there's not two of them I ain't using "they and them". ;) I was given a pass from then on, but I did make a conscious effort to be nice. I respected them, they respected me, and we all work together fine.

I will miss working with the crew (and the 20% discount.😁) A lot of the crew have told me they're going to miss me too, "the old guy with muscles and no filter."
 
Welp... overnight the wife's ipad - her main "computer" for her trading and email - turned into a brick.

Did all the button pushes and holds online says to do.

Got it plugged in with a different power cord. Tested cord and power adapter on another device to make sure the "charger" icon lit up.

Looks like I'm heading out to get another ipad if this one doesn't light up in the next hour.
Take it to an Apple store or Apple certified 3rd party repair place. They can run diagnostic tests and see what the problem is. Sometimes they can also bring stuff back to life.
 


Good morning, all! Another cloudy but warm day considering that it is early February, and we are in the 80's. Yes, we are going to Target today, no I won't wear a red shirt.

TomO - That's going to be a pretty nice layout when finished.
Willie - The Wire Co. looks good and seems to fit that location. Are you planning on stringing wire on the transmission towers?
David - There always seems to be something that comes along and changes those "planned" quiet times. Sometimes good interruptions sometimes not so good.
Marlin - I went back to work twice after retiring. Both were fun to some extent and the last one I actually got to learn a little VBA coding. In 2012 I finally had enough and retired for the last time.
John - The saying is, "one day at a time" but sometimes it might be one moment at a time. Work those things that you and/or Joan have control of, and the rest, well leave the rest to The Good Lord.

STAY SAFE
LATER
 
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