Running Bear's February 2026 Coffee Shop

[DeaconKC]

@westtexjohn Here is a rather long thread from another forum that deals mostly with RPG stuff, but the basics are still the same. Lots of input on 3D printers. I'm Corsair over there so say Hi.

https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/88640-3d-printing-general-discussion-merged/

 

[Kusojiji]

I was browsing through the tubes of yu, and found this old Pentrex video somebody uploaded:

I have/had the VHS tape.

 

[Kusojiji]

From the top down from usoft xlator:
Before scattering / After scattering - basically before and after the season starts and ends. - happy tree

Few - we get this on rainy days. - sleepy tree

Slightly many - disturbed tree

Many - angry tree

Very many - very angry tree

Extremely numerous - berzerk tree

As Chad said, this is the amount of pollen in the air. This time of year is cedar, which is what I am susceptible to.

 

[Kusojiji]

The house maker came by today as we are coming up on the 15 year mark. The head honcho from the local reform company and an inspector from the mother company came to do a quick look over and give us our options. The reform company guy sounded like a sales man and my wife laid it in to him about our complaints and issues. He did the sales man thing and I could see her getting torqued.

After he left, the mother company guy came in and checked the inside and checked the house walls for plumb. It was funny to talk to this guy as he started talking cr@p about the other guy. He said that we really don't have to go with the reform company to maintain the warranty, but the warranty would be covered by the sub-vendor vice the reform company, so we'll see. He also said that the reform company would be about 40% more expensive. I'll see what the estimate comes out to and we'll probably talk to the agent that originally sold the house to us about it.

The work will include washing the outside walls and cutting out all the caulking/seals and redoing them. They also will be painting the walls, which are fake tile looking. I asked if they had a clear coat so that our wall doesn't end up with a single color and after sucking in some dust, he said that there is a clear coat that they just started using. Doesn't make sense to me to pay for a tile wall looking exterior and then paint it a solid color. They will also reseal the windows, and other stuff that I started to glaze over.

I'm all for preventative/corrective maintenance to make the house last longer. I'm not willing to throw the house away in the long run. I am bimbo (poor) and can't afford to buy a new house. This was part of my reason to retire early as I don't have any expenses. Both cars and house paid for.

Just need a mortgage for my trains? haha

 

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning Coffee Shop, it's Thursday!
The temperature is 32°F (0°C) and mostly cloudy here.
Have a great day!

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's clear and 42.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!

33° under cloudy skies this morning with the daytime high expected of 47°.

BBL, need coffee!!!

 

[migalyto]

Good morning all!

Currently 26F with an expected high of 45. Its mostly cloudy from what I can see, but should see the sun by late morning. The dusting
of snow predicted for last night never came. Might of gotten some flurries, but nothing visible this morning when I let the dog out. They
say maybe close to 70F tomorrow.

Few things to do around the house today, but not much new at the moment in my world which is good!

Have a safe day everyone!

 

[migalyto]

View attachment 258827
From the top down from usoft xlator:
Before scattering / After scattering - basically before and after the season starts and ends. - happy tree

Few - we get this on rainy days. - sleepy tree

Slightly many - disturbed tree

Many - angry tree

Very many - very angry tree

Extremely numerous - berzerk tree

As Chad said, this is the amount of pollen in the air. This time of year is cedar, which is what I am susceptible to.

Yes, it's the pollen report. The trees with the colorful circles represents the pollen in the air and the number of colored circles underneath the tree (the line of 5) indicates a severity in addition to the tree and air full of pollen.

The language symbols of course also mean something . In fact, since the wife is not here to explain it to me, I used Google translate to see what funny translations we could come up with for it:

View attachment 258825

So as you see, two dots is "slightly more" while five dots is "extremely many"

Thanks for the explanation. Interesting how other countries do things!

Always learning something new in here!

 

[Bruette]

Latest Cecila update from my niece:

Surgery was a success! Cecilia is such a fighter. We are still not out of the woods, but there is much more hope. In a few days she will be decreasing some of the meds that are keeping her unconscious and the long journey to recovery begins.
Thanks for your continued prayers and support. We couldn’t be doing this without all the love

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

Funny, but I gotta head to the office in a bit, but not work related. I have a meeting with a rep for my 457b account. It a way to save extra funds for public employees. Gotta get a bunch of info pre-retirement. I still have a KPERS (Kansas Public Employees Retirement System) meeting next month where they're supposed to give me some more info. Everything geared for employees retiring at 65 and not 70.

Currently clear and 42° going for 67° later. Got to 71 yesterday, but not a record.

BBL

 

[Kusojiji]

I hope your retirement counselor is better than mine. FED OCHR is on the east coast. I knew I was going to have issues with our time difference being around 12 hours so I asked for someone at least on the west coast. Not happening. So I sent her emails to get the process going. No answer. Sent another. No answer. Found out who her supervisor is and got ahold of him. Then I started getting one sentence responses from her and then had to wait another day for the next answer. I finally got all of my paperwork done and as I got closer, I find out that the info was bogus. I was pissed and let her and her supervisor know. So I had to fix my paperwork to fit what I wanted to do.

On the day of my retirement, she was supposed to give me a final outbrief. I ended up calling her and her BS was that she was off work and just happened to answer her phone as she was telefcking off. Since I didn't have any more connectivity, I let my now former bosses know what she did and that they should be careful and adamant in their dealing with OCHR when other employees go through the process, them included.

 

[troyphoto]

Well howdy there internet peeps and not peeps. It's getting close to peeps time. Get yours early.

It's Troy again.

Yesterday was Phillipsburg, St. Maarten. We stayed on the ship and enjoyed doing nothing.
today is Basseterre, St Kitts. Another day of doing nothing.

I've already written 1700 words on the book, though. Counts as something.

Realized yesterday that I underpacked. I expect that my undies from the last load of laundry are still sitting on the spare bed at home. Fortunately, we sent in a bag of laundry with undies and t-shirts. It's one of the perks of our loyalty status on the line. But, I'm out of cleans. I have to hope the laundry magically appears on my bed today while we're out doing nothing on deck. Otherwise, I'll be washing a couple pairs in the bathroom sink and hanging to dry for tomorrow.

I'll post pics later. Right now, I need to drop the computer off in the room, then get out on deck so I don't miss out on doing nothing again.

 

[Kusojiji]

inside out and backwards. 4 days! haha

 

[RhB Michael]

Good morning folks. It's 38°F at 0700 here this morning. Heading for 56°F today and 72°F tomorrow. Just before it snows on Sunday.

Nothing going on today. Might put a Mrs. what's-her-name apple pie in the oven later. Had a few raindrops overnight, but it didn't sound heavy enough to amount to anything.

Have a great Donnerstag! Servus!

 

[DeaconKC]

Good morning folks, it's 50F and sunny this morning. Supposed to get to 70F today. Feeling good enough that I will use the leaf blower to clean out the garage. I usually do it about once a week, but being down for 3 weeks has seen a lot of leaves blow in.
@Bruette wonderful news, we will continue praying for her here.
@troyphoto enjoy your day and just tell folks to stay upwind! Or I'm sure they sell Depends in the gift store!
Anyway got the little Kato power pack yesterday and am gonna try it out today.
Lifting my coffee cup to you all.

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from Wisconsin. Partly cloudy at 13f degrees which feels like 13 heading to 43 per the WeatherChannel app that yesterday said the high would be 56 for today. So we lost some degrees from the previous guess! Mother Nature will have the final say.

Painters coming today at 10am, 2pm and 5:30 to estimate doing the entire inside of the house including the lower level. I will be home all day.

The saga of the sister in law intensified while we were in the USVI. Seems she showed up at the house unannounced and ended up at the daughters demanding to know where we were and when we’d be home. Daughter, clever girl who used to adore her Aunt said, they mentioned something about a week or 2 and something about the Virgin Islands. The aunt told her let her mom know she’ll agree to all Terry’s demands but needs to do it this week or she’ll lose the house! Daughter said to give her the bank info and she’ll take care of the mortgage until mom and dad get back! Wish I had been there. The son in law said the look on Terry’s sister’s face was worth everything when the Aunt said you can’t possibly help me with that, and Kait said sure I can and will following the same terms mom gave you. Terry’s sister said she’ll wait for Terry. Terry called her sister this morning telling her to sign all the paperwork at the attorney’s office in Racine and the attorneys will handle filing everything. The house hold betting is 2 or 3 things will not be signed! The attorney is ready to give all the papers back if a signature is missing on anything. It’s almost funny but so sad at the same time. In the long run this is a good thing for my sister in law and truthfully with what she put Terry through in court over the years, I’d have told her to pound sand. Totally frivolous lawsuits that truly aged my beautiful wife.

So happy to be home!!!

 

[chadbag]

I've already written 1700 words on the book, though. Counts as something.

I think that means your cruise is a business expense !

 

[MilwRoader_Steve]

Greetings all!

Chill start to the day at 18F, but soaring to a high of 42! Near 50 tomorrow, but then cold and snow for Saturday.

Willie: Wifeykins is in your neck o' the woods as she is in the Las Colinas area for a work trip. Mid 80s is practically snuffing that Minnesota snowbird! Las Colinas: When I was a kid in the late60s/early 70s, Dad had a golf membership out there. Took forever to get there from North Dallas and was a wilderness trek. Miles and miles of scrub ranchland, or so it seemed to this kid. Now? not so much!

Late last year, I got a boost to my Model RR allowance. My VA claim was approved with a 50% disability rating, all service connected. Last week I picked up my new hearing aids from the VA Med Center in Minneapolis. I must admit, the practitioner was very good, caring and empathetic. She even recorded an order to come back next year to be fitted for a new set as she insists I NEED a back-up set. They work great. In fact, when I walked into the atrium after leaving her clinic, I suffered an anxiety attack. Hearing things I haven't heard for years! I've been mentally fatigued and my RN wife says it's because the old rattrap has been processing more info and data than it has for a loooooooong time. Thanks taxpayers!! Oh, and the monthly check is kinda nice, too.

Hit a snag on the layout. But I stopped and considered. Brainstormed a new workaround and should continue on and still have the industry sets I need. Nothing on my schedule this evening, so plan to lay track and maybe do some wiring deep into the night as sweetie-pie doesn't come bac until tomorrow.

Blessed day to all!

Steve J

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Foggy and 51°. Another nice day today, like yesterday, sunny, light breeze and high around 78°. Other than a cooler day on Monday, it's the same temperature range for the next ten days. They are still predicting warm thundershowers starting Wednesday.

Must be the day for the weekly grocery trek today, the fridge looks rather bare. The running list is pretty long right now. No other stops are currently planned on this trip.
One of the neighbors who uses my trash dumpster, came by and paid part of her costs yesterday. She's 10 months behind and paid for 3 of them yesterday. Her husband (the bad neighbor) is still incarcerated for 5 more months for violating the restraining order that another neighbor has on him. She cannot access his bank accounts, as they are in his name only. He doesn't work but receives royalty checks from inherited country & western song rights that his father wrote. To put it politely, he's a real jerk!

Out in the train shed yesterday, I worked on two small projects before succumbing to the urge to run a few trains. I did add three trees and a bit more gravel to the newest scene.

I'm thinking that I need to add a couple more.
Then over at the workbench, I did some work on this tractor that I got from Chet.

This should fit in well with the scheme here. It is a little more exacting than I initially thought. Many very small parts to add.

There's 13 of them left on that sprue.

Here's where I am right now.

Louis - Great update on Cecilia. Prayers will continue.

Johnny Cash was born on this day in 1932. Even though I generally don't listen to country & western music, I did like some of his stuff.

Everyone have a great Thursday, or Donnerstag as it's known in Southern Illinois.
Late posting this because the forum flaked out earlier. Thought that I might have lost everything.