Running Bear's July 2022 Coffee Shop

[TLOC]

I am back again. All the dew is gone and the orb in the sky is burning quite fiercely. There is not a cloud in the sky and at 9:26AM CST the temperature has climbed to 83f heading to 89. I am thinking at this rate mid 90’s.

Terry came in from riding and started harvesting tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes for tonight’s salads and maybe a billion Roma tomatoes for her homemade sauces. She will be busy for the next few hours. She says since we left No. Central Wisconsin in 2014 this is her best outdoor tomato crop.

I am ready for the son and daughter to pitch their ideas. I even have my questions to piss them off ready before Terry and I say yes we will help. I love to rile up the daughter. The son has figured out my trick but she hasn’t yet. It is still fun for me.

Interesting to me that I have had many inquiries for more pictures

this morning about my Facebook sale of the 3 freight cars but no sale yet. Patience, I know!

 

[chadbag]

While not based in current fact, my perception of Apple is, twice the price for half the power.

LOL.

FYI -- The Apple chips raw power is about double the latest Samsung.

For the record I don't really care what phones people use and they should use the ones they like best. I moved on from platform wars 20 years ago. My comments here are strictly technical.

The Samsung phone range of the S22 models are about the same cost as the equivalent iPhone. They are in the same price ranges. Each phone has its strengths and weaknesses. The iPhone chip however is much more powerful.

 

[troyphoto]

Arrrrrgh! Blech! @#$%^# $%@*#$%

Felt good, went for a walk, and the plantar tendon is all sorts of screaming at me this morning

Rolling the tennis ball, and applying the Voltaren Gel to it. Back to stretching and no exercise for a few days.

I may have to invest in a stationary bike

 

[Bruette]

Troy have you seen a doctor?

Tendons can take weeks to heal. As far as I know rest is the only way for them to heal. Could be different now. Many things changed over the last 35 years.

Worse yet, they can easily tear when they are injured. Guess how I know?

I have never injured the plantar tendon, but a half a dozen others I have.

Talk to a professional, if you have not already.

I hope you feel better soon.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good morning, all! Well, our cool spell, 97, will be replace with 100 plus days for the 8 days.
In no particular order:
Gassed up the truck yesterday, $3.44
Had Android and Iphone, they both made phone calls. As Guy put it "hello/goodbye calls" that's what I use a phone for.
TomO - you sure have the weathering process down.
Troy - happy anniversary
Willie - those tomatoes ain't going to pick themselves.
Guy - it would be a tough decision, a great day fishing or playing with trains. Since it's 100 degrees, and no rainbow trout here, choo choo.
Ken - sad situation. Hopefully it will be worked out sooner than later.
Joe - the O's may be peaking at the right time. I believe, at least on the American side, the pennant goes through Houston.
Jeff - Great dock.

Not a lot of train time. Mostly looking for places to add the little details.

STAY SAFE
LATER

 

[troyphoto]

Troy have you seen a doctor?

Tendons can take weeks to heal. As far as I know rest is the only way for them to heal. Could be different now. Many things changed over the last 35 years.

Worse yet, they can easily tear when they are injured. Guess how I know?

I have never injured the plantar tendon, but a half a dozen others I have.

Talk to a professional, if you have not already.

I hope you feel better soon.

It's an ongoing problem that resurfaces every few years.

The last three docs all said: Rest, Massage, Stretch...

The downside is that I'm due for my annual insurance wellness visit: Bloodwork, body mass index (height, weight, waist size)... and I'm where I was a year ago. As long as I show downward progress on the BMI, the insurance comp doesn't charge a premium (I'm in the obese range at 32BMI)

One year, right before the pandemic, and move back to midwestern food, I was at 29.5. (No surcharge!!!!) But, stress eating with Midwest-sized portions, fresh donuts, lots of good pizza, etc, and I added 30 lbs. Dropped 10 last year. But the next 10 has been a bear to get rid of.

I was waiting until after tonight to go keto for a few weeks and drop the BMI down to 31 or less. But, I need to keep exercising for the weight loss.

Ah well, Salads and yoga for a while.

 

[Bruette]

LOL.

FYI -- The Apple chips raw power is about double the latest Samsung.

For the record I don't really care what phones people use and they should use the ones they like best. I moved on from platform wars 20 years ago. My comments here are strictly technical.

The Samsung phone range of the S22 models are about the same cost as the equivalent iPhone. They are in the same price ranges. Each phone has its strengths and weaknesses. The iPhone chip however is much more powerful.

Thank you, can you post some bench mark results? I did a brief search last week. I did not find any head to head results. Only best I phone or best Android.

As I said "not based in current fact", but I'm glad you found it funny. Its been over 20 years since I was up to date. I no longer make much profit from selling computers or any other devices. No need to keep up.

 

[Bruette]

Oops, I did the conversion wrong, we pay $8.89 for a US gallon.
Your sure your still think your paying too much?

A client was complaining about fuel prices when they reached $4.99/gallon and diesel over $6/gallon. I said to her "now we know what the rest of the world has felt for years"

I have not complained, but it does not make me happy.

Most of my clients rely heavily on fuel. I have heard much complaining from them.

For business this is challenging and will "separate the wheat from the chaff".

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Retrieved my truck. Talked to the adjustor several times today and insurance will cover the repair (not total it) but the repair shop isn't available until mid August. I ordered a set of star keys (larger sizes) so I can unlock the seatbelts and it can be driven. The only thing in the train room was added "deer and bear" to the layout.

Jeff- Nice scratchbuild.

Troy- Happy Anniversary and sorry about your daughter's illness.

Willie- Nice layout scenes. Do the rulers represent potential sidings?

TomO- Sounds like a fun get together. Excellent weathering.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[Bruette]

I've mentioned before, if you initially began using a phone with Android OS, the transition to Apple will be excruciating, and the opposite is true, as well. I've tried to move away from Apple, for several reasons, but Android has turned into an exercise in frustration, no matter how hard I wanted it to happen.

Terry, that is my biggest concern!
I've been thinking of Apple. I read good things about the I phone 13, but I know I don't have time or maybe even the ability to learn something completely different.

 

[Smudge617]

Evening Gent's

As some of you may have seen from my earlier post, I didn't get any sleep last night, so got up and decided to do some railway stuff. I was given a Athearn UP GP9 to repair, nothing much wrong, much ! motor mounts gone, motor held in by wire, bottom clip, brush and spring rattling around in the body, it's been re-motored as well, so the Athearn motor mounts I have don't fit, (silicon is my friend, in this instance).

Got it all done by 4.30am, hard wired a decoder in too, but forgot to remove the old bulb, but the motor and old bulb still work on DCC, so I'm leaving it as it is, not bad for stoopid o'clock in the morning, also made some cab glazing for it too.

Now to find my sleeping tablets for tonight.

 

[chadbag]

Thank you, can you post some bench mark results? I did a brief search last week. I did not find any head to head results. Only best I phone or best Android.

Because you asked:

iPhone 13 is Significantly Faster Than Samsung's New Galaxy S22 in Benchmarks

Samsung's new Galaxy S22 models are some of the fastest Android smartphones ever, but Apple still has the world's fastest mobile processor by a considerable margin. In a Geekbench 5 benchmark test conducted by PCMag, the Galaxy S22 Ultra with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor achieved a...

www.macrumors.com

Galaxy S22 Benchmarked: Apple Still Beats Samsung

While the Samsung Galaxy S22 is the most powerful Android phone we've seen so far, its benchmark results fall behind Apple's iPhone 13 Pro Max.

www.pcmag.com

https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/samsung-galaxy-s22-vs-iphone-13 (especially the benchmark section)


There is more to a phone than just the raw speed and each person has different wants, needs, biases, etc. which will affect which phone they prefer. Which is great. The American way.

My Android phone (for work) is an older Motorola and I cannot for the life of me get my head around how Android works as an interface. It seems bass-ackwards to me. But that is just me. As a disclaimer and to state my biases: I've been using an iPhone since the original came out (though I didn't get one for about 6 months after release). And I earn my living writing software for the iPhone (by choice). I've had a few Android phones over the years as secondary phones and test phones but personally never got used to how their interface was designed. (Personally, knowing how their SW works internally, I greatly prefer the low level iPhone OS and closer-to-the-metal programming languages to the [for most apps] JVM (like) based system for apps and "Linux" base that Android uses).

 

[chadbag]

Gas prices around here have been going down. The "high" for unleaded regular reached about $5.29 at most stations. Then it dropped to $5.13 for a week and then to $5.04 for a day or three and then on Saturday was $4.93 (Murphy was $4.91 -- usually a few pennies cheaper than the average). I'd die to get some of the "cheap" prices some of you are mentioning. While my car is a PHEV and most of my driving is in EV mode, with cheap electricity -- I only slip into gasoline mode on some trips and then just the last bit to get home. Only once a week do I have a longer trip that is mostly gas mode (abut 85 miles round trip). However, the wife's car and the son's car are gasoline and put on a fair amount of miles. I hate filling them up and spending $45 for the son's Fit to $60-$65 for the wife's Jetta when it is on empty.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Well yeah, we should be paying $9 - $10 a gallon. After all, European nations have been paying that for a while. Why shouldn't have to pay that much?
Hot n humid day in Virginia here. Just got back from the cigar lounge. Gotta go out and mulch some more branches in the back yard. Should be able to sweat off a pound or two.

 

[chadbag]

Well yeah, we should be paying $9 - $10 a gallon. After all, European nations have been paying that for a while. Why shouldn't have to pay that much?
Hot n humid day in Virginia here. Just got back from the cigar lounge. Gotta go out and mulch some more branches in the back yard. Should be able to sweat off a pound or two.

Their (European) price is mostly tax. Their base material price shouldn't be that much different. Crude is an international market. Depending on regulatory costs, labor costs, etc. their refined product price could vary from the US since their refiners work under different regulations and labor markets. But that doesn't make up the biggest difference. But the tax does explain the difference.

They have a gas tax and also pay VAT at the sale and their VAT is much higher than US sales taxes (20% plus or minus a few percent depending on country IIRC).

This is a little dated (from 2020) but it talks about the tax on fuel in Europe

How Do Gas Taxes Compare in Europe?

The Netherlands has the highest gas tax in the European Union, followed by Italy, Finland, and Greece. Compare gas taxes in Europe with a new tax map.

taxfoundation.org

 

[Patrick]

They also have more and better public transit options. Can take regular trains across their countries and between nations. No such options in much of the US anymore. Yes I can drive 45 miles and catch a train at either 2 or 4 am everyday, depending on whether I want to go east or west. There used to be an interurban between Wichita and many of the smaller town as much as 60 miles out, but not since the 40's. My grandparents used to talk how they caught the interurban between Grand Haven, MI and Grand Rapids Mi. or Muskegon, MI. No such mode exists anymore. In the large cities and between the large cities of the East coast, they exist somewhat. I know Wichita's busses start running at 6:00a and stop at 6:00p, no overnight busses. Limited service on weekends.

 

[santafewillie]

WILLIE - I corrected a large part of your post that had the "strikeout". FYI

Let's figure out why that happens to begin with. This ain't the first time. I didn't even use strike-out to begin with today.

 

[Bruette]

Because you asked:

iPhone 13 is Significantly Faster Than Samsung's New Galaxy S22 in Benchmarks

Samsung's new Galaxy S22 models are some of the fastest Android smartphones ever, but Apple still has the world's fastest mobile processor by a considerable margin. In a Geekbench 5 benchmark test conducted by PCMag, the Galaxy S22 Ultra with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor achieved a...

www.macrumors.com

Galaxy S22 Benchmarked: Apple Still Beats Samsung

While the Samsung Galaxy S22 is the most powerful Android phone we've seen so far, its benchmark results fall behind Apple's iPhone 13 Pro Max.

www.pcmag.com

https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/samsung-galaxy-s22-vs-iphone-13 (especially the benchmark section)


There is more to a phone than just the raw speed and each person has different wants, needs, biases, etc. which will affect which phone they prefer. Which is great. The American way.

My Android phone (for work) is an older Motorola and I cannot for the life of me get my head around how Android works as an interface. It seems bass-ackwards to me. But that is just me. As a disclaimer and to state my biases: I've been using an iPhone since the original came out (though I didn't get one for about 6 months after release). And I earn my living writing software for the iPhone (by choice). I've had a few Android phones over the years as secondary phones and test phones but personally never got used to how their interface was designed. (Personally, knowing how their SW works internally, I greatly prefer the low level iPhone OS and closer-to-the-metal programming languages to the [for most apps] JVM (like) based system for apps and "Linux" base that Android uses).

Very good! Thank you.

I stand corrected. A perfect example, perception is not always reality.

 

[chadbag]

They also have more and better public transit options. Can take regular trains across their countries and between nations. No such options in much of the US anymore. Yes I can drive 45 miles and catch a train at either 2 or 4 am everyday, depending on whether I want to go east or west. There used to be an interurban between Wichita and many of the smaller town as much as 60 miles out, but not since the 40's. My grandparents used to talk how they caught the interurban between Grand Haven, MI and Grand Rapids Mi. or Muskegon, MI. No such mode exists anymore. In the large cities and between the large cities of the East coast, they exist somewhat. I know Wichita's busses start running at 6:00a and stop at 6:00p, no overnight busses. Limited service on weekends.

Of course, their cities and stuff are much closer together. The US is much more spread out, which makes rail travel not cost efective except in the highly urbanized areas like the Northeast and parts of California, around Chicago, etc. They run some trains in Texas and Florida as well and most citiies will have a light rail or similar inside the urban area. Utah has a single "Runner" (actually called "FrontRunner", but it seems similar services elsewhere like the NM one in the video recently posted, have "Runner" in the name IIRC) commuter rail running heavy rail engines etc that goes about 2 hours worth of N / S highway travel (Ogden to Provo).

 

[Bruette]

Troy, I strained a tendon in my foot 25+ years ago playing baseball. Like the hard head I am I continued to play the next day and partiality tore that same tendon. After several weeks it healed. To this day for seemingly no reason it will flare up. What I have found that works best for me is to keep my foot warm by wearing socks, even to bed. I don't like wearing socks in bed but it does seem to help the flare ups go way.

I don't know if that will help you but it seems to work for me.

Again I hope you feel better soon.