Running Bear's February 2026 Coffee Shop

[troyphoto]

Troy, that's a VU meter pictured in your post. Not certain why unless you were recording it.

It's an app call SPL meter. Comes in handy whenever I want to tell someone their music is too loud.

 

[santafewillie]

It's an app call SPL meter. Comes in handy whenever I want to tell someone their music is too loud.

Party pooper!

 

[Patrick]

Party pooper!

He is a snarky Old Fart in training....

 

[michaeljoe]

I need your prayers gentlemen.

My Nephew, Shawn posted this on Facebook. I don't normally check Facebook but Angela saw the notification in my email and said I should take a look.

"Our family is facing every parent’s worst nightmare.
My niece Cecilia, who is 13 years old and has autism, was tragically struck by a car and is now in critical condition. She has already undergone multiple emergency surgeries, including relieving swelling in her brain and repairing a femoral artery, and will need additional surgeries in the days ahead. She was stabilized in Myrtle Beach and airlifted to MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital in Charleston for specialized care.
This places her far from home and adds a huge financial strain on my sister Katie as she stays by Cecilia’s side.
We’ve created a GoFundMe to help support Katie with medical, travel, and recovery expenses.
Please keep Cecilia in your prayers
And please SHARE this post — even if you can’t donate, sharing helps more than you know
Every bit of love and support means the world to our family."




gofundme.com
Donate to Help Cecilia Fight for Healing After Tragic Accident, organized by Shawn Little

Your family will be on my prayer list

 

[kbkchooch]

After spending 5K yesterday I received my BGE bill today. 2 weeks into the billing cycle they projected my electric bill to be around $1,200 bucks,
I feel blessed that is is only $529 bucks and some change. I feel "blessed!" ???

 

[boogietrain94]

It's an app call SPL meter. Comes in handy whenever I want to tell someone their music is too loud.

if my music is to loud your to old lol that being said it drives me nuts when in a car and the whole car vibrates because someone has a sound system more expensive then the car they put it in

 

[migalyto]

After spending 5K yesterday I received my BGE bill today. 2 weeks into the billing cycle they projected my electric bill to be around $1,200 bucks,

You plugging in a fleet of diesel trucks?

 

[bnsf971]

He is a snarky Old Fart in training....

He has graduated to Snarky Old Fart Adept.
The next level is Snarky Old Fart Master.

 

[Kusojiji]

Everybody's so quiet today!

Site was a bit slow yesterday. I had some timing out issues.

 

[kbkchooch]

You plugging in a fleet of diesel trucks?

Nope, just a household of 2-3 people (depending on when son#4 is home), single digit temps and a heat pump HVAC. I swear the boy does not know how to turn off a light switch, and when he is home from college he must run the washer and dryer constantly. His idea of a laundry load is 4-5 pieces of clothing, so he is always doing light loads. I pick up armfuls of clothes until the washer is LOADED! I even skipped outdoor holiday lights this year! WTF!

 

[kbkchooch]

He has graduated to Snarky Old Fart Adept.
The next level is Snarky Old Fart Master.

Is that what that smell was, Troy graduating??

 

[RhB Michael]

Good afternoon all. Just a quick update.
Last night was a 25 hour day. (I love them. lol)
We have two more 25 hour days before arriving in Philadelphia.
We are booked to arrive in two and a half days.
Methinks we may be late.
Not that we are in a hurry.
The company is good. lol.

I hope you packed knee waders. You might be needing them at the dock in Philly.

4473 filled out and approved. Pickup on Friday. My nephew bought a new Kimber 2011 .45ACP double stack race gun. I couldn't believe the price. The dealer knocked off $600 and I still could have bought 3.5 brand new Walthers for what he paid for the Kimber. I'll admit that it's very, very nice, but if I were spending that kind of money I would have bought a Wilson Combat or Les Baer. Not my money and I'm not shooting it, so I hope it makes him happy. That's all that matters.

 

[Kusojiji]

son#4 is home

Make him pay the difference...

 

[chadbag]

I hope you packed knee waders. You might be needing them at the dock in Philly.

4473 filled out and approved. Pickup on Friday. My nephew bought a new Kimber 2011 .45ACP double stack race gun. I couldn't believe the price. The dealer knocked off $600 and I still could have bought 3.5 brand new Walthers for what he paid for the Kimber. I'll admit that it's very, very nice, but if I were spending that kind of money I would have bought a Wilson Combat or Les Baer. Not my money and I'm not shooting it, so I hope it makes him happy. That's all that matters.

THat's cool though it has to suck to wait. We don't have waiting periods and if you have a concealed permit you don't even have to get a Brady Check (because the state does a daily run of all permit holders against outstanding warrants and arrests and federal lists and anything else anyway).

I think the race guns and stuff are interesting. But it's not something I'd ever buy myself. I'm not into gun games and stuff but I do admire the cool tech and hardware.

I'm not a 1911 guy but Larry Vickers did tell me at a class he thought I'd enjoy building one (since I like to build ARs etc). My bro has built two 1911 I think for bullseye and other competitive use IIRC. I may give it a go one of these days once I get retired and need yet another project LOL

I do appreciate big bore wheel guns. I have a Colt Anaconda 44 in 8" Barrel and a Taurus Raging Bull in 480 Ruger with 6.xx" barrel...

Otherwise I am mainly interested in "useful" guns of the sort you'd carry -- not necessarily concealed but use as a defensive tool. Concealed or open or whatever. Not a Glock guy but I have a S&W M&P and a bunch of Sig P320 made from aftermarket grips and slides and some Sig P239 and P229 and several H&K USP. (Thats not all as I have some 22 and a 32 and other misc but that's the main gist of it)

 

[kbkchooch]

Make him pay the difference...

Ever try getting blood out of a turnip?

 

[chadbag]

The last few days I’ve been working to get the Fn function keys in DCC working in my throttle app. Since I want it to be command station agnostic at the throttle level onjad to abstract stuff out and then set up a way to convert it to whatever the active command station is for a given locomotive so that the command station specific bits and bytes can be sent. So I made some abstractions and some conversion functions to inject etc.

I also had get a UI for it and it needs to handle different sorts of buttons (momentary, toggle, etc).

I got it working today and had tested it with one of my normal locomotives. Actually I was able to test it yesterday but with a UI that needed some work. But most of my locomotives only respond to F0 for headlights.

Today as I finished up the UI I remembered I had a couple European locomotives with sound including a Minitrix Taurus of the Raaberbahn/GYSEV (Austria and Hungary respectively in joint venture) in a special Richard Wagner livery. I went digging for it and was able to run it and test it. Not only did it work with F0 but it had some internal cab lights and also can turn the from or rear lights off individually (if F0 is on) plus it has all sorts of sounds like whistles and horns plus running noises and even a snippet of the “Ride of the Valkyries” music. So it allowed me to test momentary (horns), toggle (music and stuff) and latching (press to turn on and press to turn off). It all worked. It felt good.

 

[Bruette]

UPDATE 2/24: (from my niece)
Cecilia’s numbers were stable overnight, and a great deal of her facial swelling decreased. We were preparing for her femur surgery/ laceration repair today but saw a drop in her O2 stats and a spike in her ICP (pressure on her brain) when we laid her at 90 degrees to mimic the surgical environment. Though the changes were within an expected range, it was decided to wait 24 more hours. She spent her day being cleaned, doted on, and listening to Impractical Jokers. She is obviously still in a paralytic state, but we’re trying to surround her with noises she loves like laughter, SpongeBob, Dory, and her favorite phrases.
Chris and I are attempting to be as strong as Cecilia is. That is no small endeavor.

Please keep up the prayers. They are working!!! Thank you so much for the support.

 

[Kusojiji]

to abstract stuff out and then set up a way to convert it to whatever the active command station is for a given locomotive so that the command station specific bits and bytes can be sent. So I made some abstractions and some conversion functions to inject etc.

Uh, English, please? haha

 

[Kusojiji]

I've been buying Train-o-Matic (ToM) decoders for a while as they are relatively cheap. When I run into issues, I go to their website and send them a message. They respond to my email and we go back and forth trying to figure out what I did. I sent them two N18 decoders back for diagnostic and they told me that both were fine when I was sure they were dead.

Recently, I think I scrambled two function decoders and while they work with a quick DC test - put two LEDs on the yellow and white with the blue as VCC and apply DC power. FWD bias and the one on the white line should work, REV the leads and the one of the yellow line should work, which they did. Both function decoders did this, but my NCE system cannot find them. So, ToM is sending me one of their decoder programmers to help with updating firmware and for T/s-ing decoders that I mess up.

What support!

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning Coffee Shop, it's Wednesday!
The temperature is 36°F (2.2°C) and partly cloudy here.
Have a great day!