Running Bear's January 2026 Coffee Shop

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!

15° under cloudy skies, are we getting to a daytime high of 33° precipitation comes tomorrow in what form we have no idea. Some say rain some say sleet, some say snow. I am reminded of a line from the first Ghostbusters film. Choose the destructor!

Thank God it’s flipping Friday!

 

[migalyto]

Good morning all!

Happy Friday!

Currently 26F with an expected high of 35F. A little light snow is falling With the wind it feels like 6F. Had about a 1/2" of snow fall overnight.
Probably most of it will be gone by this afternoon so no need to do the driveway.

No basketball game tonight so another night off to play with trains!

Not much else going on yet.

Have a safe day everyone!

 

[troyphoto]

Well, howdy there internet peeps and those busting ghosts!

Here's the latest unit assembled and painted. My demonic hosts of Zuul want a word with the busters...

It's laundry day.

Cat peed on the landing rug again. Not sure what is going on. I've got one more litter box to put back into rotation. That's not a good spot for the box, on the landing, but we'll see if I can get him calmed down again.

visit with niece went well last evening. She looks rough due to the Crohn's disease. I forgot that she had a large part of her bowel removed and is living with an ileostomy bag. She's also lost a lot of teeth (common with both meth users and crohn's... I don't think she's on meth with her disability income, but...)

Afterwards we stopped at the local Giordano's pizza across from the hospital. It was an off night for the restaurant. Our favorite pie, the Parmesian crust thick pizza wasn't on the menu. We asked the server, and he said it's request only for now. The deep dish is too much for us, and we're not a fan of cracker thin and crispy. So, we got the parm crust.

Wife said it was a step down in flavor, and I thought it was baked a bit too long. Still acceptable, but not usual standards.

But the couple behind us were a treat!... they ordered pasta and a pizza, but evidently the server didn't hear that they wanted the pizza to go. It all arrived together. Then they ordered dessert. When he brought the bill, they finally pointed out that the pizza was supposed to be "to go", even though they each ate a slice of the deep dish...

They ended up with a free pizza, and free dessert.

I smell a manipulator skunk. Why didn't they send the "to go" pizza back when he brought it out to the table? Why didn't they mention it when they added desert? Hmmmmmm...

Below is our pizza. We didn't ask for a discount, and tipped the normal 20%. We'll try again in a few weeks, and see if the pizza goes back to normal level of flavor, and ours was a one off. But after our server dealing with the couple behind us, I wasn't going to make his night any rougher with a "It's not quite the same..." I'll chalk this one up to it being an off night in the kitchen.

 

[bnsf971]

Temp has dipped to 29, and there was ice on the windshield of the car when I left home. I had to wait a few minutes for the defroster to work, since my “Summer formula” washer fluid froze to the windshield as soon as it sprayed.

 

[TLOC]

Good Flipping Friday from the snowy So Central Wisconsin. It snowed during the UW Badger Men’s hockey game while we were there and it must have snowed overnight again. We had maybe a 1” of the greasy white stuff on the road driving home last night and the weather reporter on the radio said it was done. She was incorrect. I went out at 5am and there was at least 3” on the sidewalks. Used the blower instead of the shovel! Took maybe 30 minutes. Must protect those who sh.. on my grass and those who walk them

Game was boring, even Terry mentioned the dump and chase the puck strategy by both teams was boring. Lost 3-4 and our every other year visit to watch the Badger Men play hockey is fulfilled. They sure didn’t play like a #2 ranked team.

Wall #1 called Harborside is finished. I added the magnets to hold it to the concrete pillar it’s going to hide after midnight this morning. Wall 3 or the paper mill side is about 1/3 done and the main turbine hall viewing wall is just pieces gathered.i will work on wall #3 this morning. Walls 1 and 3 are 19” long and 14.25” high. Wall #2 is 10’ long and 14.25” high but is the window wall to see the turbine hall behind them. Hoping to get it looking like this Ai enhanced picture

But currently looking like this on the bench

I need 1st to deliver 30 more autoracks and 86’ high cubes for custom graffiti. My hands now are too shaky at times to draw graffiti. The artist I use is the girl who once she got her driver license 7 years ago would drop off and pick up her dad’s autoracks that I weathered and sometimes added graffiti but always tags. She’d hang around the studio or train room and sometimes study, race slot cars with the grandson or as she went to college would do her drawings. She wanted to be a graphic artist but her dad was paying for her business school. That contentious at times but she got along with Terry and both grandkids when we had them. So I showed her how I painted graffiti, she asked to do a few of her dad’s. By time she finished his tenth car she was better than me. She’s been doing custom graffiti for me for at least 4 years. I deliver them to her studio where she now has her graphic arts business and paints. She says she’s doing fine along with a few days a week learning daddy’s business. She does huge landscape paintings and does the Wisconsin Art Fair circuit in the Summer. Always finds time for any custom graffiti for me. From 3 pieces to this order of 40 she says she will do them. She also is a great house sitter and would sometimes watch the grandkids for the daughter.

The work session 45 minutes north has just been cancelled due to the snow. Too scary to drive the roads this morning. The layout owner used to own a school bus company so I think he knows bad roads

The Fish Fry Friday a Wisconsin tradition like no other is going to be a new to us place depending on the weather. If the weather says no we will carefully drive 1/2 mile down the hill to our back up FFF place

Be well

 

[Bruette]

 

[RhB Michael]

31°F here already at 0750. Heading to 43°F today. It never got out of the 30s yesterday and barely above freezing. I mis-read the forecast for yesterday.

Back to the Doctor today to see how the pressure is doing. She might dilate my eyes today. Won't know until I get there. She wants to see if the additional drops are having any effect on my left eye.

Stay safe this weekend! Servus!

 

[NYC_George]

Norton and McAfee are at the bottom of the list for anti-virus.
Try Malwarebytes or ESET. Both are around $89 per year for 3 computers. I use both and no virus for 30 years or so.
These two are what I use and they work for me.

A friend of mine uses Avast and says he swears by it, however he had a virus issue about two years ago.....go figure.

Hope this helps......John

John I'm not wasting any more money on virus protection. I download Microsoft Defender form their store. It's free and they say it works but I had to remove MacAfee before I could install it. MacAfee used my canceled debt card to take money out of my Chase Bank checking account. So I'm done with MacAfee, Norton and maybe Chase for their scam like tactics. Swal

 

[RhB Michael]

I have never had a virus, worm, trojan, or other malicious problem using MS Defender, and their prior security services with other O/Ss.

 

[Bruette]

Computer viruses are like digital vampires, lurking in the shadows of the internet until they’re invited in, only to drain your system’s lifeblood and leave chaos in their wake.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 41°, probably won't hit but 58° due to the cold front coming in just before noon. Cold (48°) tomorrow, warm on Sunday (63°) then cold (48°) on Monday. May get into the upper-teens Saturday night. Back to mild weather on Tuesday but still no rain or snow in sight.

We made the weekly grocery trek yesterday without incident. For the second week in a row, there wasn't very many customers there, which is why I go when I do. Dishwasher, lunch and nap after that. And because I let the fire go completely out in the wood-burning heater, I was able to get out the chimney sweeping equipment and brush out the creosote that had built up. There's been a greater build-up this season because of the frequent start/stops this season. Letting the fire go out leads to smoldering embers which contributes to the creosote build-up. Too much and some minor amount of smoke gets out the door when it's loaded up; which has been beginning to happen. My three year old rotary brush is a whole lot easier than climbing on the roof and cramming the old wire brush up and down like I did for 40 years! I have paid a chimney sweep to do it before getting the rotary brush since my wife is against me getting on the roof any more. Some years I can go for the whole season with only one cleaning, some years like this one require a mid-season cleaning besides the spring or fall cleaning.
Topped the day off by grilling a rib-eye that we got off the "manager's special" shelf at the grocery store yesterday.

I don't have any definite plans for today. I expect my wife to have something for me to do though.
I'm skipping the train show down in Plano this weekend. I have spent my self-imposed budget when I bought 10 ScaleTrains engines in the last 4 months. Then the visit to Discount earlier this week!

Out in the train shed yesterday, I ran trains most of the time. I re-positioned the two farm buildings that I have been working on, the house and barn. Not a lot to do there but here's what the place looks like now.

I also worked on the US Postal truck that I bought earlier in the week at the LHS.

An array of mirrors needed to be installed.

They're tiny but I finally got them all installed, no help from Walther's unclear instructions, which stated to just install mirrors.

I was unsuccessful finding the stash of postal employees which I have somewhere. I first want to see if I have one that can be trimmed down and put into the driver's seat. Barring that, I have numerous locations where I could park the truck and stage a postman nearby.

John - Certainly you have applied for and received the Texas over age 65 property tax exemption by now? Your property taxes should not have gone up that much!
Michael - I only get the self-promoting ads from AdBlock when I reboot the computer and it updates. I normally don't turn my desktop off for 2-3 weeks at a time. A few minutes ago, I found that I have Microsoft Defender on this machine as well.

Everyone have a fantastic Friday

 

[RhB Michael]

That's the same as I do, and yes, that browser window opens after an update. Lately, the updates have been coming very frequently, or they are just nagging me. I never check to see if it's updated. Set and forget, until they start annoying me.

 

[Marlin39]

And because I let the fire go completely out in the wood-burning heater, I was able to get out the chimney sweeping equipment and brush out the creosote that had built up. There's been a greater build-up this season because of the frequent start/stops this season. Letting the fire go out leads to smoldering embers which contributes to the creosote build-up. Too much and some minor amount of smoke gets out the door when it's loaded up; which has been beginning to happen. My three year old rotary brush is a whole lot easier than climbing on the roof and cramming the old wire brush up and down like I did for 40 years! I have paid a chimney sweep to do it before getting the rotary brush since my wife is against me getting on the roof any more. Some years I can go for the whole season with only one cleaning, some years like this one require a mid-season cleaning besides the spring or fall cleaning.
Topped the day off by grilling a rib-eye that we got off the "manager's special" shelf at the grocery store yesterday.

The 4 years we were in the Sierras I paid for a chimney sweep to come out. I used to get on the roof and clean out the gutters, but my wife just wasn't comfortable with me up there shoving a brush down the chimney pipe.

I only burned Black, White, and Madrone Oak, but 2-3 cords annually did build up some creosote. The sweep we hired would have me look up into the flue before and after his work. He sealed off the fireplace so no dust go in. When he was done the fireplace and chimney were spotless. A real professional and I think it was $150 that included a certification of being fire safe.

I have seen flue fires. It looked like a jet engine blasting out of the chimney cap.

 

[2Tracks]

Well, howdy there internet peeps and those busting ghosts!

Here's the latest unit assembled and painted. My demonic hosts of Zuul want a word with the busters...
View attachment 254535

It's laundry day.

Cat peed on the landing rug again. Not sure what is going on. I've got one more litter box to put back into rotation. That's not a good spot for the box, on the landing, but we'll see if I can get him calmed down again.

visit with niece went well last evening. She looks rough due to the Crohn's disease. I forgot that she had a large part of her bowel removed and is living with an ileostomy bag. She's also lost a lot of teeth (common with both meth users and crohn's... I don't think she's on meth with her disability income, but...)

Afterwards we stopped at the local Giordano's pizza across from the hospital. It was an off night for the restaurant. Our favorite pie, the Parmesian crust thick pizza wasn't on the menu. We asked the server, and he said it's request only for now. The deep dish is too much for us, and we're not a fan of cracker thin and crispy. So, we got the parm crust.

Wife said it was a step down in flavor, and I thought it was baked a bit too long. Still acceptable, but not usual standards.

But the couple behind us were a treat!... they ordered pasta and a pizza, but evidently the server didn't hear that they wanted the pizza to go. It all arrived together. Then they ordered dessert. When he brought the bill, they finally pointed out that the pizza was supposed to be "to go", even though they each ate a slice of the deep dish...

They ended up with a free pizza, and free dessert.

I smell a manipulator skunk. Why didn't they send the "to go" pizza back when he brought it out to the table? Why didn't they mention it when they added desert? Hmmmmmm...

Below is our pizza. We didn't ask for a discount, and tipped the normal 20%. We'll try again in a few weeks, and see if the pizza goes back to normal level of flavor, and ours was a one off. But after our server dealing with the couple behind us, I wasn't going to make his night any rougher with a "It's not quite the same..." I'll chalk this one up to it being an off night in the kitchen.

View attachment 254537

Well Troy, I like that kind of crust...crunchy....at least around the outside anyway

 

[TLOC]

The 4 years we were in the Sierras I paid for a chimney sweep to come out. I used to get on the roof and clean out the gutters, but my wife just wasn't comfortable with me up there shoving a brush down the chimney pipe.

I only burned Black, White, and Madrone Oak, but 2-3 cords annually did build up some creosote. The sweep we hired would have me look up into the flue before and after his work. He sealed off the fireplace so no dust go in. When he was done the fireplace and chimney were spotless. A real professional and I think it was $150 that included a certification of being fire safe.

I have seen flue fires. It looked like a jet engine blasting out of the chimney cap.

They have a roar to them also. They did a demo in our town a few years ago when the FD was trying to get wood fireplaces banned.

Had a neighbor up north lose his house to a chimney fire. Funny how he was out in driveway watching the chimney and didn’t call the volunteer Fire Department which was a 20 minutes drive to us after the guys got to the station. Not until he saw flames coming through the garage walls did he call from a different neighbor’s house. By time the FD got there the house was engulfed. Everyone a week later in the neighborhood knew what he had done. Boy was that disgusting and never spoke or even waved to him again. No cell phones back then.

 

[TLOC]

Well, howdy there internet peeps and those busting ghosts!

Here's the latest unit assembled and painted. My demonic hosts of Zuul want a word with the busters...
View attachment 254535

It's laundry day.

Cat peed on the landing rug again. Not sure what is going on. I've got one more litter box to put back into rotation. That's not a good spot for the box, on the landing, but we'll see if I can get him calmed down again.

visit with niece went well last evening. She looks rough due to the Crohn's disease. I forgot that she had a large part of her bowel removed and is living with an ileostomy bag. She's also lost a lot of teeth (common with both meth users and crohn's... I don't think she's on meth with her disability income, but...)

Afterwards we stopped at the local Giordano's pizza across from the hospital. It was an off night for the restaurant. Our favorite pie, the Parmesian crust thick pizza wasn't on the menu. We asked the server, and he said it's request only for now. The deep dish is too much for us, and we're not a fan of cracker thin and crispy. So, we got the parm crust.

Wife said it was a step down in flavor, and I thought it was baked a bit too long. Still acceptable, but not usual standards.

But the couple behind us were a treat!... they ordered pasta and a pizza, but evidently the server didn't hear that they wanted the pizza to go. It all arrived together. Then they ordered dessert. When he brought the bill, they finally pointed out that the pizza was supposed to be "to go", even though they each ate a slice of the deep dish...

They ended up with a free pizza, and free dessert.

I smell a manipulator skunk. Why didn't they send the "to go" pizza back when he brought it out to the table? Why didn't they mention it when they added desert? Hmmmmmm...

Below is our pizza. We didn't ask for a discount, and tipped the normal 20%. We'll try again in a few weeks, and see if the pizza goes back to normal level of flavor, and ours was a one off. But after our server dealing with the couple behind us, I wasn't going to make his night any rougher with a "It's not quite the same..." I'll chalk this one up to it being an off night in the kitchen.

View attachment 254537

Looks good to me. But then any pizza does. It’s great you can eat pizza whenever you or the wife wants. My diabetes says no but once every couple months I’ll ignore the advice. Growing up in Chicago and then the suburb we had great pizza choices but not until going to Numerous Uno downtown while in College did I try a deep dish. Give me a thin Chicago style but not a cracker crust and I’m in heaven

 

[TLOC]

Good morning. Back from the delivery to my graffiti artist. She did the10 autoracks I dropped off Monday and I was not expecting that. Thankfully she takes PayPal so all was good as I normally pay cash. They were faded before I delivered them. Just going to add some kick up spray on these 10

Ran the snowblower again over the sidewalks, mailbox and driveway as the plow came through again and covered between the sidewalk and curb with about 6” near the curb and 2” by the sidewalk.

Resting then will shower, have a really late breakfast unless popcorn counts. Then to the train room

Have a super day

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good morning, all! The weather roller coaster continues here in H-Town. Yesterday we were 58, today has predictions of 75, and tomorrow mid 50's. Our first freeze may occur this weekend.

Maybe 30 years ago I tried to have my own business. I was a chimney sweep for about 5 years. What I found was that many people down here had no idea they needed their chimneys cleaned. Using a fireplace here is sporadic, (see roller coaster) so cleaning once a year might not be necessary but certainly inspected.

If I ate pizza as often as Troy, I believe I would have pizza burnout.

An orange potato, thank you Marco, you made my coffee come out my nose.

Should see some train time today. I order this yesterday.

STAY SAFE
LATER

 

[AirbrushNo5]

Local industrial spur today…the guy working the cars gave me

 

[RhB Michael]

That was the fastest eye appointment yet. I showed up about 15 minutes early and was out of there before my scheduled appointment time of 1300.

All the tech did today was take pictures of the inside of my eye. The doctor didn't even check pressures like I thought she would.

I'm glad they are only five blocks up the street. If I had driven 30 miles for that I might not be so happy about a five minute appointment.