Running Bear's February 2026 Coffee Shop

[SD40 Jim]

Valentine's Day

Heart shaped cookie cutter put to good use, I see.

at first glance it looked like a grilled pre-formed chicken pattie but either way, I'll take an order

 

[kbkchooch]

I managed to get "officially" old and no one caught on.

While I was born on a Monday, today's is a Friday. I can't really draw SS yet, I do have my official you're old card.

I managed to to the loose tv antenna fixed and the peach tree clipped back even with a "bad" hand. Grandson was able to help me get the trimmings stacked up so I'll be able to get them loaded later to take to the limb yard later when the weather is nicer and limb yard is open. I don't like to go there after the rain as the mud gets the truck mucked up.

Supposed to get anything from 1 to 2 inches of rain through tomorrow evening.

Everyone have a good night.

Happy belated birthday!! I knew it was soon because you are about 2 weeks younger than me.
What was that TV show called “Men of a certain age “?

 

[SD40 Jim]

---

Good morning!
I've been down with cabin fever for the last week. The wife suggested the cure would be to go for an early dinner and celebrate Valentine's Day at the same time. That works for me as it's "predicted" to be 47° and sun, the highest temp in weeks.

A year ago I dropped one of my favorite Athearn 6-axle's on the basement concrete floor and there was a lot of damage. I put it in a box and didn't touch it until last weekend. I repaired the shell and have 3 orders of parts coming and should have it up and running by next weekend.
That was the first time I dropped a engine and hope it's the last . . .

Have a nice weekend

 

[Kusojiji]

official you're old card

AARP?

2 weeks younger

You guys around 55? I think that's when I got my AARP card.

 

[NorthBrit]

Good day all.

Elsewhere on a U.K. Forum the conversation is about the differences on being on a cargo ship and a cruise ship?

Off course the 'footfall' is not as big on a cargo ship. No three times around the Promenade is a mile and all that. No shows to attend.

Just the two of us on the little walkway watching the world pass by, interrupted now and again by a crew member
Exercise is more up and down stairs to the dining and crew rest area. Oh, and the gymnasium. (Wherever that is.

The Chefs (two of them) know that I like to cook and they have invited me around their galley.
Invitations to the Bridge are always a treat.

Cargo voyages at an easy, relaxing pace. Yes.

By the way, six weeks into this journey and we are off the coast of England near Dover!

 

[kbkchooch]

AARP?

You guys around 55? I think that's when I got my AARP card.

Add 10 years. The social security card is the official “old folks”card.

 

[Patrick]

Medicare is the official "old folks" card. You can get reduced social security at 62. And I've had my AARP card since I was 47.

 

[Kusojiji]

Ah, got it. The SS threw me off. I'm going to start pulling as soon as I can. 2035 is the 75% BS, so might as well.

 

[Patrick]

Currently 51° and rainy. Looks like we had an inch overnight. Supposed to get to 60° later.

BBL

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Happy Valentine's Day. Cloudy and 64° here. Radar shows that it is raining here, but my weather rock shows otherwise. I do expect it though, probably before I finish writing this post. NWS is calling for 1" of steady light rain today. A return to above normal temperatures on Monday. My new unofficial rain gauge is a straight-sided Mason jar since I haven't replaced the old broken gauge yet.

I mostly did just smaller odd jobs around the house and yard yesterday, trip out to the trash dumpster, bringing in dry firewood for tomorrow night (not needed tonight) and two loads of laundry. Got a load of burn trash done as well.
Today starts with the dishwasher, which seems to be more often than it used to be. Wife is leaving early this morning for an overnight stay at my granddaughter's, so I'll be home alone until around noon tomorrow. Some kind of early Valentine's Day dance recital

Out in the train shed yesterday, I had a lazy day. Just ran trains. Spent some time re-figuring a local run to one town, which now makes it easier to switch out. Bringing the train out of the north staging instead of the south staging made it happen. Now if I could just remember the next time!

Kevin - While I complain about the Walther's instructions all of the time, I have not had that type of plastic casting defect in my many structures of theirs before. Sometimes larger walls are warped, but adding stiffeners resolves that. I have had missing parts before, which a quick call to Customer Service took care of immediately.
Troy - That fire extinguisher should make you comfortable if there is an explosion!
Hughie - Eventually my job responsibilities included the side title of Project Manager. I did have the knack for keeping meetings on track and I had no issue telling higher-ups that they were getting off track.
Patrick - Belated Happy Birthday.
Mike -

About the only thing that would make it more perfect is a pound of crispy Bacon!

That's underneath everything else.

Wife just got off barely ahead of the rain and she's traveling in a direction ahead of it.
Everyone have a safe and enjoyable Saturday.

 

[rgeiter]

Animal's are so carefree and have no modesty!

Especially cats!

So true! She’s at it again this morning!

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from Minnesota. It’s 33f degrees heading up into the high 50’s!

Hockey was a win yesterday 4-1 for the #1 Badger Women vs Minnesota State ranked as #15 not the 10th I noted yesterday. We walked after dinner last night and the downtown area next to the arena is a huge college age fun spot. It was fun and we saw what we wanted. We don’t need the local historical society stuff and we will wander again before the game to see a few things closed last night. This definitely is a college town! Seems pretty vibrant…

Hockey at 2pm again today and then we’ll head 3 hours south to Des Moines, Iowa. Des Moines has a good food scene and we have reservations for a nice, no jeans, but casual dress Sunday evening dinner. The weather is nice and the roads are great so we shall wander the Midwest for a few days

 

[RhB Michael]

I would be able to use a Canon AF lense on a different brand body? Is the AF protocol a standard? That would be good with more options.

I would check at the Fotodiox website. They make quality adapters for popular lens/body combinations. It's the one I use for my Zfc DX body and my Canon FD lenses.

They probably have a combination for you too.

Not affiliated. Just a happy customer. Fotodiox

​

 

[migalyto]

Good morning all!

Slept in this morning which is rare for me. Actually was up earlier letting the dog out and went back to lay down and fell back asleep.

Going to be a nice day again today. Currently 37F with an expected high of 53F

Usual Saturday grocery trip and some laundry. Going to run both cars thru the car wash as well.

Daughter has a Sadie's dance at school tonight and then is staying over at a friends tonight. Wife and I will go out somewhere for dinner
but it has yet to be determined.

Have a safe day everyone!

 

[RhB Michael]

Good morning folks. 38°F here and rain is within 10 miles and moving in. Should be a steady spring rain all day today until tomorrow morning. Expecting up to 2" now. I welcome it. It will be unseasonably warm for the next several days, into late next week. The grass is liable to start greening up and later in the week I'll check to see if my tulips have started poking through the soil. I hope not, last year it did this and then we had a hard freeze that nearly killed them all. I did cover them though.

I didn't make it to the train room for photographs yesterday. I was mostly studying the 4,729 menu items in this camera to try and set it up for the best exposures under my conditions, save the aperture control which I want to have manual control over. I really love this camera as it reminds me so much of my Canon AE1 Program I had in the 80s. But it is quite a different camera. About as different as my A1 is to the AE1 Program.

Still shopping Gunbroker too, and a beautiful first variation NIB Walther P99 came up yesterday that I'm now watching. It already has bids and I'm just watching for now. The serial number is about 24,000 away from my original P99 (001237), but still a first variation model.

Have a great day folks! Servus!

 

[Espeefan]

Morning all! Happy Saturday, well they're pretty much all Saturdays for me now. In fact, I've shifted back to the three-day week I used in the Navy when deployed: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Simple but effective! We've been doing 'Adventures in Dining" here the last couple of weeks. This all started with the wife and I trying to figure out how to rejuvenate the dinner menu. She got interested in this "Home Chef" thing where you order your meals ready to cook. They're mostly fast prep, ready to go in the oven or in kits that take 30-60 minutes to do. The food is pretty good, but you have to read the fine print and watch them like a hawk The process is automatic which means if you don't watch out, you get meals automatically ordered and delivered. Basically a way to shove merchandise down your throat if you don't keep them on a short leash! Most meals are around $13-15 a plate. The verdict is still out on if it's competitive with plain old grocery shopping. My thought is: Nope! If you have a ton of time demands, it may be practical for you. If you're retired and watching your pennies, be careful! I also tried some British food which was more interesting. No minimum, no commitments, just pick what you want and they ship it. I tried some of their meat pies, which were very good, sausages (Bangers) which were also very good. Higher meat content than ours, and tasty. Now the big deal: Their bacon. Now as we all know, bacon is the fairy dust of the food chain! There's very little it doesn't improve. The Brits do it differently though. Our bacon is cut from the belly. Theirs is cut from the loin. It's leaner, but there's enough fat to give it the right flavor. I cooked it up and was pleasantly surprised. Imagine a center cut pork loin sliced into pieces as thick as bacon, maybe 1/16" of an inch, and fried up. Tastes like bacon but way more meat. If you're into bacon sandwiches, this stuff is for you! It should also do a good BLT. I also tried some of their relishes which were tart but good, and I was curious enough to try Marmite. Now that stuff is the nitroglycerin of the food chain! They say you'll love it or hate it. It's concentrated brewer's yeast which some German scientist figured out you could eat back in the early 1900's. The Aussies have a version of it: Vegemite. That stuff is a paste. Marmite has the consistency of molasses. It's actually good for you, a ton of B vitamins, but you have to go easy with it. I saw people try it on You Tube and it was a riot. The trick with it is a little goes a long way. If you grew up with your folks stretching a dollar, think how your momma was so good at skinning the butter across a slice of toast. That's what you want. it's got a savory taste. I found I like it if used sparingly. So far in this little experiment we've had more winners than losers, and that's important. You know how it is with old people. We're either eating or talking about what to do about our next meal! Sorry if I made anyone hungry (or killed your appetite)!

 

[migalyto]

Good day all.

Elsewhere on a U.K. Forum the conversation is about the differences on being on a cargo ship and a cruise ship?

Off course the 'footfall' is not as big on a cargo ship. No three times around the Promenade is a mile and all that. No shows to attend.

Just the two of us on the little walkway watching the world pass by, interrupted now and again by a crew member
Exercise is more up and down stairs to the dining and crew rest area. Oh, and the gymnasium. (Wherever that is.

The Chefs (two of them) know that I like to cook and they have invited me around their galley.
Invitations to the Bridge are always a treat.

Cargo voyages at an easy, relaxing pace. Yes.

By the way, six weeks into this journey and we are off the coast of England near Dover!

Sounds like a unique way to travel. Never thought it would even be a possibility to travel by container ship.

Seems much more relaxed than a cruise ship. As much as I love going on cruises, sometimes the crowds and all the action cane
be a little much.

 

[chadbag]

I would be able to use a Canon AF lense on a different brand body? Is the AF protocol a standard? That would be good with more options.

When I was using it I think the AF worked from my Canon lenses on my Sony. But I don’t remember. The adapter will tell you what to expect.

My Canon lenses were also EF and for my 20D.

 

[chadbag]

Daughter has a Sadie's dance at school tonight and then is staying over at a friends tonight. Wife and I will go out somewhere for dinner
but it has yet to be determined.

Interesting. Our local school did “Sadie’s” a while ago. Tonight is “sweetheart’s dance”. Another girls-preference. They run X dances a year. Something like 6. And half are boys choice and 1/2 are girl’s.

My daughter is at a brunch this morning that they prepared for their dates in her “group”. She and her friends always run the activities as groups.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good morning, all! Another pretty nice day at least for the morning. Scattered showers predicted this afternoon with thunderstorms, some possibly severe tonight. Not much happening here. Maybe a train or two this afternoon.

Patrick - Happy Birthday. It's tough being the same age as old people.


HAPPY VALENTINE

STAY SAFE
LATER