Running Bear's January 2023 Coffee Shop

[Smudge617]

View attachment 159799

What's this, the US version of an Aussie Road Train ?

 

[Boris]

Good morning. Today, Friday the 13th, comes on a Friday! (Pogo - Walt Kelley). It's still cloudy. 55° and they are still talking up a chance of rain, although two day totals are less than 0.17". The morning forecast calls for the temperature to begin dropping into the low 40s after 1100.

Sherrill, I hear you on the boredom. My weight, is down to 164.6 lbs, in spite of eating 3 squares / day. I'm not complaining, yet, but there has to be a bottom. I didn't know sodium had such an effect on weight. The leg swelling I have been complaining about is mostly gone. The addition of a Beta Blocker to my medicine regimen might have something to do with that, but the fact sheets don't mention any such effect. DR, is non committal.

Wife's first refill of her Rinvoq for her RA came to $1942.96. under our new Part D plan. I miss the old Teamster plan which subsidized these costs. Of course, that may be why the Teamster Pension Fund went Broke and needed a bailout. Not for nothing,this is BS. I have to totally revamp our budget and financial plan to accommodate this higher cost. We also have to look into other treatment options.

Gotta go, I have stuff to do. Catch ya later.

 

[ctclibby]

View attachment 159799

Geesh! Can you imagine what the engineer was doing? Well, maybe saying? Sh.t sh.t SH.T or use your imagination. I am suprised that the pavement is not broken. That taken in Boseman on the truck cut-off?

Later

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear, calm and 31° to begin this Friday the 13th in North Central Texas. The Weather Underground shows the wind from the west at 0 mph! How do they know that it is from the west if it's 0 mph? While today is still going to be cool in the upper 50's, tomorrow marks a return to mid-60's to upper 70's for all of the next week.

Yesterday's grocery trek went about as normal as it could, certainly better than last week when I had to use self-checkout. They're still in the midst of a complete remodel of the store which is great in that their ultimate goal is to widen all of the ten center aisles from 8' to 12', a long overdue fix. They're getting the room from several frozen food aisles that are 24' wide, and according to the manager that I spoke with, eliminating the temporary displays down the center of those aisles. On the negative side, they are rearranging where a lot of stuff is, thus making it more difficult for me to find my way around. They have lists available on a changing daily basis informing where stuff is "today", but obviously not everything is on there. Not all store employees are sure either!

As always, thanks for the comments and reactions regarding my meager progress.

Yesterday's progress out in the train shed was minimal, as all I actually did modeling-wise was to paint the handrailing on the stairway and attach the stairs to the wall.

I looked at this stair assembly from the point of view of all of my years of indoctrination of OSHA standards, as I do with a lot of models that I build. That's a 36" inswing exit door, a big no-no by recent standards. Outswing is mandated. It can't swing out since the porch is just 2.75' wide! The railing on the steps is according to the standard, but the one around the porch itself is 6" too low. This structure is obviously grandfathered since it existed before the newer standards came into play. At least that's my story!
The rest of my time was spent starting up the quarterly layout cleaning. This quarter begins with the top level from the entry door along the east and north walls. I was able to visually inspect all of the trackage along the east wall for loose railcar parts. Then I used the Woodland Scenics cleaning wand with the "mild" cleaning pads to clean about 60' of main line, passing siding, an industry siding with three spurs; and a small yard at the engine maintenance facility. Then I vacuumed the whole area including the undeveloped parts of the layout. Nothing of any note there except pounding in a couple of protruding track nails. I'll start on the north wall next before I remove structures and vehicles for individualized cleaning with potential upgrades like interior lights or weathering.
The Ethanol refinery is just on temporary hold until I go to the LHS for additional Pikestuff wall sections.


Tom O -

Buying feed for horses is also expensive and I have been told horses are more finicky about the food then cows. Neither animal though seem to mind eating up the pastures.

Some close friends of ours have raised horses for years, and yes they are finicky about hay. As long as what they are eating is attached to the ground and green, they don't seem to mind. The hay on the other hand has to be high quality and not the coarse stuff. Around here that means Bermuda hay, and not Johnson Grass. Horses will wear out a pasture fast, whereas cows don't normally. Horses teeth are much closer to their lips and nibble the grass much closer to the ground and don't leave enough for it to recover rapidly. You may already know this. Despite buying, raising and selling hundreds of horses over the years, they both had to work jobs to support the horses! He hauled other peoples horses around the country, usually paid in cash, and as a result he only receives about $450/month in Social Security, mainly from various jobs worked while much younger. He still has to haul horses at 75.

I never played D&D.

Everybody have a wonderful day, and if I don't see you again today, have an awesome weekend.

 

[TLOC]

Horses aren’t cheap which is the main reason she has never really complained about my hobby costs. She has had up to 6 at one time and like the clothes she buys the grandkids, I never complain about costs.

 

[Boris]

Geesh! Can you imagine what the engineer was doing? Well, maybe saying? Sh.t sh.t SH.T or use your imagination. I am suprised that the pavement is not broken. That taken in Boseman on the truck cut-off?

Later

Notice the crossbucks and flashers. That's a grade crossing on a diagonal. What they are doing is breaking the ice and snow that acumulates in the flangeways, before attempting to go through with their train. Common practice, especially on light density lines.

 

[Jaz avalley]

Homemade dessert
ok I bought the raspberries
but I made the vanilla icecream
i made the chocolate and nut icecream
and I made the meringue, left over egg whites
all Keto erythritol sugar ZERO calories on the sugar replacement, some xantham gum,some lemon juice, and one batch got some red cochineal food colouring…..and I am enjoying EVERY bite.

oops edit to add picture DOH

 

[chadbag]

I started playing D&D when a friend from school invited me and a few others over to play one afternoon. He had been exposed to it at a summer camp of some sort. This was after the "Basic D&D" book was released as a follow on to the original mid 70s pamphlet books. So we used the Basic set with input from the original. The AD&D Players Handbook and original Monster Manual were also just coming out.

I got hooked and as they released all the AD&D books we got heavily involved all throughout HS. I remember when the original Dungeon Master's Guide was coming out. My parents got it for me for Christmas. I found the hiding spot and had read the whole thing in secret before Santa delivered it.

I have Dragon Magazines going back to really low issue numbers. My friend had bought them and I ended up with them later, and I also subscribed starting with 2 digit issue numbers for many years.

I continued playing after HS with some online by email stuff at work but gradually other things took over my time, though I kept everything for later in life when I would have time again.

I am and always will be an AD&D 1E player. I bought the later 2E but never got into it and skipped everything since until recentyly. In the last couple years I wanted to get my kids interested and saw the latest 5E stuff was a move back to a more AD&D 1E style of play and mechanics. Different in that they simplified and improved stuff, but the same sort of feel and I bought a complete set of basic books (not all the books with adventures but the various "monster" tomes, and "archana", in addition to the basics). My kids and I started playing -- they n ever really got into it but played some -- but it petered out with their other commitments and especially with our house construction. I hope to get back into it once the house is done and we're moved in. I've never bothered much with the add-on adventure, setting, realm, etc books -- either from TSR/WoTC-Hasbro, etc or 3rd parties. So the current bru-haha, which I am just learning about here, probably doesn't mean a lot to me. I'll happily use my existing 1E or 5E stuff and do my thing.

 

[chadbag]

Speaking of the house. Not that much has happened since around Thanksgiving due to the snow and crappy weather. We did get the rebar placed over the suspended slab to get ready to pour the top on it but we've not had a long enough span of good weather to finish up adding a few ties to the rebar (the guys who did it skimped a few places), or trying to get the corner foam blocks in around the garage to hold the top layer concrete on the slab. I was out in Japan for 3 1/2 weeks before Christmas but it was pretty much snow and ice and crappy weather every few days while we were gone.

When we got back we had a ton of water from melting snow, rain, etc in the basement, as well as a lot of snow on the top and garage. Last Saturday we spent the day shoveling as much as possible off. It then rained and melted a ton so that there was up to an inch of water on top but the garage was clear but then it turned to a couple inches of snow a couple days ago and all the water turned into crunchy ice/snow. Yesterday we got a lot of it shoeveled off again and if I can get it dried out with a few days of 38-45F and partly sunny, I want to go around and waterproof the corners where the top subfloor meets the foam as that is where most of the water is dripping into the basement. Also finish the foam around the garage corners to be ready for when we get a break in the weather and can get inspected and poured. I need to install rebar chairs under the rebar to lift it up into where the poured concrete will be but I don't want to do that until right before inspection and pour as it makes it a lot harder to walk around and stuff.

Unfortunately it is supposed to start having "frozen mix", "snow", and "rain" starting Sunday for the next 4 days or so. I have ordered some large tarps that should be here tomorrow to place ver the garage area and also the subfloor, to try and keep the snow and ice off it from direct contact, which should make it easier to clean up and stuff once it stops... The weatehr guessers are unfortunately saying after it leaves us we're back to sub freezing temps :9

We're also going to start moving up by building the main floor walls as much as possible. Until the garage gets poured we can't build those walls up but the rest we should be able to do in part. Last winter was much easier to work in than this winter.

This pic is from last Saturday as we cleaned off the snow that was there from when we were away. A lot had melted as it had been over 1 foot deep at Christmas and a few inches at New Years. Since Saturday, I had cleared a lot more, it had snowed a couple inches, and yesterday we cleaned most of that back up.

 

[Jaz avalley]

I started playing D&D when a friend from school invited me and a few others over to play one afternoon. He had been exposed to it at a summer camp of some sort. This was after the "Basic D&D" book was released as a follow on to the original mid 70s pamphlet books. So we used the Basic set with input from the original. The AD&D Players Handbook and original Monster Manual were also just coming out.

I got hooked and as they released all the AD&D books we got heavily involved all throughout HS. I remember when the original Dungeon Master's Guide was coming out. My parents got it for me for Christmas. I found the hiding spot and had read the whole thing in secret before Santa delivered it.

I have Dragon Magazines going back to really low issue numbers. My friend had bought them and I ended up with them later, and I also subscribed starting with 2 digit issue numbers for many years.

I continued playing after HS with some online by email stuff at work but gradually other things took over my time, though I kept everything for later in life when I would have time again.

I am and always will be an AD&D 1E player. I bought the later 2E but never got into it and skipped everything since until recentyly. In the last couple years I wanted to get my kids interested and saw the latest 5E stuff was a move back to a more AD&D 1E style of play and mechanics. Different in that they simplified and improved stuff, but the same sort of feel and I bought a complete set of basic books (not all the books with adventures but the various "monster" tomes, and "archana", in addition to the basics). My kids and I started playing -- they n ever really got into it but played some -- but it petered out with their other commitments and especially with our house construction. I hope to get back into it once the house is done and we're moved in. I've never bothered much with the add-on adventure, setting, realm, etc books -- either from TSR/WoTC-Hasbro, etc or 3rd parties. So the current bru-haha, which I am just learning about here, probably doesn't mean a lot to me. I'll happily use my existing 1E or 5E stuff and do my thing.

The other loves d and d, my eldest was keen before warhammer,I like painting the character,I would like to be the dungeon master but never get a look in lol
these are sone of my Lord of the rings, I like trying to get the fire element to work, same with the Warhammer, and yes prefer the earlier rules.

 

[troyphoto]

I started playing D&D when a friend from school invited me and a few others over to play one afternoon. He had been exposed to it at a summer camp of some sort. This was after the "Basic D&D" book was released as a follow on to the original mid 70s pamphlet books. So we used the Basic set with input from the original. The AD&D Players Handbook and original Monster Manual were also just coming out.

I got hooked and as they released all the AD&D books we got heavily involved all throughout HS. I remember when the original Dungeon Master's Guide was coming out. My parents got it for me for Christmas. I found the hiding spot and had read the whole thing in secret before Santa delivered it.

I have Dragon Magazines going back to really low issue numbers. My friend had bought them and I ended up with them later, and I also subscribed starting with 2 digit issue numbers for many years.

I continued playing after HS with some online by email stuff at work but gradually other things took over my time, though I kept everything for later in life when I would have time again.

I am and always will be an AD&D 1E player. I bought the later 2E but never got into it and skipped everything since until recentyly. In the last couple years I wanted to get my kids interested and saw the latest 5E stuff was a move back to a more AD&D 1E style of play and mechanics. Different in that they simplified and improved stuff, but the same sort of feel and I bought a complete set of basic books (not all the books with adventures but the various "monster" tomes, and "archana", in addition to the basics). My kids and I started playing -- they n ever really got into it but played some -- but it petered out with their other commitments and especially with our house construction. I hope to get back into it once the house is done and we're moved in. I've never bothered much with the add-on adventure, setting, realm, etc books -- either from TSR/WoTC-Hasbro, etc or 3rd parties. So the current bru-haha, which I am just learning about here, probably doesn't mean a lot to me. I'll happily use my existing 1E or 5E stuff and do my thing.

I used to be ale to THAC0 ... but now I have to look it up.

I've got a friend who still plays D&D Nought. As in Zero version. The first one to get published. I just shake my head, and try to remember if Clerics moved up the THAC0 chart every three levels, or every two?

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Cancelled my morning walk because of rain. It's supposed to get into the 30's this weekend. Did some chores then called several local friends I haven't talked to or seen in a while. I'm not sure what's on the agenda for this weekend.

I've never played a role-playing game. I have played a couple of military strategy games but that was years ago.

Troy- Sounds like a huge amount of money is involved.

TomO- Life constantly is changing, but like you I hate change.

Joe- Very sorry to hear about the costs. That is beyond ridiculous.

Jaz- That looks great.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[santafewillie]

Another sad moment, Robbie Bachman, drummer for Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive died a age 69 Thursday. Jeff Beck has a drummer now.

 

[westtexjohn]

We haven't seen price increases like that here in Utah. Based on my last bill and the handy yearly comparison it seems we were $11.03 last year for the same month and $13.31 this year on a per decatherm basis (but including the flatfees like basic service and taxes as I don't have the straight price per decatherm for last year -- the bill for this year last month says $10.99756). Looking at the bill my numbers don't make sense since the flat fees aren't that much but the comparison chart shows "Decatherms/Day" and "Dollars/Day" from last year and this year, which is how I calculated the $11.03 and $13.31.

Anyway, it appears about 21% increase based on the per day" numbers. Luckily this year the next month's bill will be low as we were gone most of the month and I had the heat set at 55F instead of the 68F (day / 60F night) we normally do plus no one was using hot water so it just maintaned the tank and didn't have to replace any.

 

[westtexjohn]

Tax increases............An excerpt from an e-mail I received today.

Most of them were stuffed into the Inflation Reduction Act, signed late in 2022. Mike Palicz, the director of tax policy for Americans for
Tax Reform, a non-partisan taxpayer watchdog group, has helpfully broken them down..............

• $6.5 Billion Natural Gas Tax

The Palicz analysis calls this a “regressive tax on American oil and gas development” that will drive up household energy costs. The Congressional Budget Office estimated it will increase taxes by $6.5 billion. It leaves out that it also violates a pledge from the 2020 campaign – since restated, frequently – that no American making less than $400,000 per year will see their taxes go up by “one thin dime.”



Administration officials have admitted repeatedly that taxes on energy were included in the pledge. In a letter to Congress, the American Gas Association said the methane tax would be a 17 percent increase on the natural gas bill for an average family.

 

[troyphoto]

Tax increases............An excerpt from an e-mail I received today.

Most of them were stuffed into the Inflation Reduction Act that Biden signed late in 2022. Mike Palicz, the director of tax policy for Americans for
Tax Reform, a non-partisan taxpayer watchdog group, has helpfully broken them down..............

Unfortunately, groups run by Grover Norquist are not "non-partisan"

I'd suggest dropping this line of discussion lest the Politics Ban Hammer come back out.

 

[bnsf971]

It appears Robbie Knieval has also passed away.

 

[truckdad]

It appears Robbie Knieval has also passed away.

Let me guess. Motorcycle incident?

 

[bnsf971]

Let me guess. Motorcycle incident?

Pancreatic cancer. Age 60.

 

[bnsf971]

I'll let y'all watch this slow-motion train wreck over on USPS:
9114902200789987409128
That's the tracking number for my laptop sleeve, still in a swirling vortex of stupidity, and heading back for round 4 (or 5?).