Running Bear's January 2026 Coffee Shop

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Good afternoon folks, 44 here and drizzling rain. Went to work today, but it was so slow and there was plenty of help, so I left early. Decided to take the Missus to lunch with some errands and we had to go by Church to pick up a check [my wife is the bookkeeper] and discovered family there putting away the Christmas stuff. We wound up taking two g'nieces to Sonic and picking up lunch for the others. Ran one additional errand then came home. Might head out to the train room in a bit.
@troyphoto what scale are the minis in Bolt Action?
1:56 or 28mm
 
Evening folks, Happy Friday! Its currently 69 (Nice) with a clear view of the supermoon/Wolf Moon. Just chilling and watching YT tonight.

Along with a couple New Year's Resolutions, I've come up with another goal: create a small HO scale switching layout. I don't have enough room for a full-on layout at the moment, but I do have about 2' x 5' of space I can make available for a mini layout.
 
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I have a few Digiframe kits for Atlas/Kato N scale: SD40/45 - 8, F3/F7 - 4, GP30/35 - 8. Let me know if you want them, no cost.

DIGIFRAMES SD40.jpeg
DIGIFRAME KIT.jpeg
 
I have a lone GP35 that I'd like to eventually put a decoder in. I wonder how much postage would be for one of those frames to get sent to the States?
I just did a test to send a box to lakeview ave, pensacola - just chose a spot from the map, and snail mail will be around $12 for all of it. Why don't I just send you all of them and you can decide what you want to do with them. Otherwise they go in the trash. You can drink a couple of beers for me for payment. PM me your contact info if interested.
 


I just did a test to send a box to lakeview ave, pensacola - just chose a spot from the map, and snail mail will be around $12 for all of it. Why don't I just send you all of them and you can decide what you want to do with them. Otherwise they go in the trash. You can drink a couple of beers for me for payment. PM me your contact info if interested.
I sent you a PM.
Thanks.
 
That's what I do, when I remember to do it. I just hope I remember how to do it
Since the connector plug on the phone is unreliable at best, the fact I was able to do it is a win.
I have an iPhone 16 Pro, and use the connector very occasionally, when I need to transfer files. I've used the connector about a dozen times since I bought the phone a year and a couple of weeks ago. Maybe if I'd use it more, I would have discovered the issue while it was still in warranty.
I do know after this I'm getting the cheapest iPhone they have, since buying the "good" one to keep from having problems didn't work.
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with memory ... chips, banks, or faulty ones

It's Troy again.

Lazy saturday morning. Here's what's on the sound system at the moment. Since we're cruising in about 6 weeks, I'm looking for music to put on the telly with oceanscapes as the graphics. this is mostly Sax and Piano jazz.


I keep trying, and not succeeding at reading fiction.

Something happened to my brain in grad school. I keep trying to get into fiction books. I've started several of Brandon Sanderson's books. They're not bad. Epic fantasy, so they move kinda slow, but that's the genre standard so I expect it.

Been trying with some epic fantasy from the game world of the little miniatures I play... and the same. I can go a couple of chapters, then my mind wanders and I want something else.

But give me a book on the American Civil War, and I can get into it, reading before bed each night. I suspect I could do the same for books on the poly-tics climate or my old interest in Biblical History/Greco-Roman early church History.

I don't "devour" those books but I can keep the momentum going.

I thought it was more the fiction writing part of the brain doesn't want to both write and read fiction at the same time. Even now, when I'm not actively putting words on the pages in my own books, the brain is still wanting to consume non-fiction.

It's been that way since I was in grad school from 2012 to 2015. Something flipped in the brain and I have a tough time reading made up worlds.

hmmmm....

Here's the latest book I started. Heard about it on a ACW podcast and picked it up for the ereader.

Screenshot 2026-01-03 at 5.57.54 AM.png


It intrigued me because the author looks not just at the battle in story-telling form (from the human perspective - not the grognard bullet counting troop order of battle tables that scholarly works can devolve into), but also because he's paying attention to Pres Lincoln and what Washington was facing at this pivotal battle. This is when Lincoln had his Emancipation Proclamation in his pocket, waiting for a win on the battlefield to enact it.

Up to now, I haven't been a fan of Little Mac, (Gen McClellan) due to reading the Stephen Sears books on the ACW. Sears HATES Mac. But the Antietam scholars and guides say that Sears way over reacts about Little Mac. So I'm going to see what others say.

And, even though we'll probably head to Shiloh Battlefield this year, Antietam is one that is at the top of my list to spend some time at.
 
Back in HS, I had 3 girl friends (two words). I went to the bookstore and found a trilogy from Stephen R. Donaldson - the Thomas Covenant series. Well, only one of them enjoyed the books and ended up getting the other 2 books from the other girls. She then told me about the story and got me interested. She let me borrow the books and I then bought my own set. Then came the 2nd trilogy and the 3rd. It did take a few years for the 2nd and 3rd trilogies to come out as he was writing them at the time.

Well, a lot of time has passed and I still have the first two books from the 3rd trilogy. Problem is that I have forgotten the details from the first two trilogies that I can't relate back. I may try to start reading these again and if I can get back into them, the last two books of this series have been out for a while. I guess its a tetrology (just looked it up).
 
Morning ladies and gents

Saturday plans include a morning visit to some relatives then I’ll be scouring the interweb to see if there is a free track layout planning site

More likely I’ll simply be using a protractor and graph paper to check the feasibility of my layout on the table I’ve already built (or just lay some rope on the table and take some measurements
 


Morning all from the UK where it is a tad chilly...
Going to need cake and coffee to warm up before I tackle my newest acquisition, another cheap off Ebay Atlas yellow box series Alco S2.
20260103_114219.jpg

20260103_114133.jpg


An old custom paint job with separately applied grab rails, probably not been used in years, it's a runner but needs a little TLC.

That should distract me from the cold for a while.
 
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