Bill Tidler Jr.
Retired N&W/NS Signalman
Good morning! It's 72°F and cloudy. 
Have a great Wednesday!
Have a great Wednesday!
Running Bear's July 2025 Coffee Shop
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I guess they don't have enough to fill the 12+ hours of the day they are televising news programing. I get most of my news from the broker's newsline during the week. Short excerpts, just enough to know something is going on.
I have a feeling their computers are down. In the past someone actually answered the phone, today it hangs up as soon as it connects.
That got a lot of play while driving my 68 Volkswagen Squareback.
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TLOC
Well-Known Member
Good morning from Wisconsin. It’s 65f degrees feels like 65 and is heading into the high 80’s. The humidity is at 100%, the windows as far as I can see from the south deck are covered with moisture including mine. The dew point is also 65 degrees.
Troy, belated happy birthday
Willie, it is nice to have so many layout choices to operate on. While I haven’t met the miserable layout owner there are I’m told a few. So far the surrounding layout environments have been pretty nice. From raw basements, completed basements, outbuildings, an old converted dairy barn and a chicken barn 48’x250’ they have been pretty nicely finished off. 5 of the layouts have been featured in the 2 major remaining hobby magazines, MR and RMC in the past 3 years. It’s quite the group and occasionally various groups from Eastern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, Northern Wisconsin and the UP, Kansas City, Kansas, Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Denver, Colorado suburbs come up for 2-3 day weekend sessions. Then those same groups will invite us to visit them. Picking from usually 7 layouts they will operate 2 on Friday and Saturday each and 1 Sunday morning. It’s a big network. When I was invited to a few sessions before I joined the group I had heard of round robin operating groups. North Central Wisconsin what little model railroading I knew about was club based. The strange thing to me is these are not all OLD guys, of my rotation of 12 layouts between Madison and LaCrosse 5 of the layouts are being built by guys in their 30’s but most are 50 and 60’s. There are a few 1000’ + mainlines with most being 5 to 700’. There are 3 including mine that are under 75’ of mainline. Now when I pick I look for the type of operations they tun. CTC is great but just give me a switch list and no time clock and I’m fine. This reminds me I need to check the group’s website to see what sessions are open. Last week I signed up for a session the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Enjoy your day
Troy, belated happy birthday
Willie, it is nice to have so many layout choices to operate on. While I haven’t met the miserable layout owner there are I’m told a few. So far the surrounding layout environments have been pretty nice. From raw basements, completed basements, outbuildings, an old converted dairy barn and a chicken barn 48’x250’ they have been pretty nicely finished off. 5 of the layouts have been featured in the 2 major remaining hobby magazines, MR and RMC in the past 3 years. It’s quite the group and occasionally various groups from Eastern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, Northern Wisconsin and the UP, Kansas City, Kansas, Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Denver, Colorado suburbs come up for 2-3 day weekend sessions. Then those same groups will invite us to visit them. Picking from usually 7 layouts they will operate 2 on Friday and Saturday each and 1 Sunday morning. It’s a big network. When I was invited to a few sessions before I joined the group I had heard of round robin operating groups. North Central Wisconsin what little model railroading I knew about was club based. The strange thing to me is these are not all OLD guys, of my rotation of 12 layouts between Madison and LaCrosse 5 of the layouts are being built by guys in their 30’s but most are 50 and 60’s. There are a few 1000’ + mainlines with most being 5 to 700’. There are 3 including mine that are under 75’ of mainline. Now when I pick I look for the type of operations they tun. CTC is great but just give me a switch list and no time clock and I’m fine. This reminds me I need to check the group’s website to see what sessions are open. Last week I signed up for a session the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Enjoy your day
troyphoto
Snarky Old Fart (in training)
Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with donut holes.
It's Troy again.
Got up at 5 this morning. went pee at 4a and couldn't do more than a light doze for a few minutes at a time. So I headed down for coffee.
The shift of moving the polytics off to an app worked well. I avoided the early morning "What Fresh Hell Awaits Us Now" email from the political historian. it's there. I can find it easily enough. But I don't get slapped with it over my cup of yogurt each morning.
Hit the donut shop, then went to get the wedding and anniversary cards.
It's grey and overcast here today. Probably have a nap in the forecast for later. Funny how napping isn't included on the Weather Underground forecast. Probably because of all those budget cuts.
It's Troy again.
Got up at 5 this morning. went pee at 4a and couldn't do more than a light doze for a few minutes at a time. So I headed down for coffee.
The shift of moving the polytics off to an app worked well. I avoided the early morning "What Fresh Hell Awaits Us Now" email from the political historian. it's there. I can find it easily enough. But I don't get slapped with it over my cup of yogurt each morning.
Hit the donut shop, then went to get the wedding and anniversary cards.
It's grey and overcast here today. Probably have a nap in the forecast for later. Funny how napping isn't included on the Weather Underground forecast. Probably because of all those budget cuts.
DeaconKC
Well-Known Member
Good morning, 71 with 97% humidity here right now. Supposed to hit 90. Rain possible today and tomorrow. LadyC is taking4 High Schoolers [our g'niece Emma's crew] to Top Golf in Little Rock today while I am heading to work in a bit. Hope you all have a great day and don't hog the coffee.
migalyto
Well-Known Member
Good morning all!
Happy Hump day to the working folks!
Another very humid day today. Currently the temps are 71F heading to a high of 84F. They have taken the rain out of the forecast.
Guess they figured what we received yesterday was enough, It was a good steady rain from mid morning till early afternoon, but I
don't think it made much of a dent in the dry conditions we have been experiencing.
A few errands and odd jobs around the house today
Did a little more layout work last night. Mainly blending and I did add some more rock castings. I will add some more
photos on my thread later.
Willie-Sorry to hear of your loss. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
Have a safe day everyone.
Happy Hump day to the working folks!
Another very humid day today. Currently the temps are 71F heading to a high of 84F. They have taken the rain out of the forecast.
Guess they figured what we received yesterday was enough, It was a good steady rain from mid morning till early afternoon, but I
don't think it made much of a dent in the dry conditions we have been experiencing.
A few errands and odd jobs around the house today
Did a little more layout work last night. Mainly blending and I did add some more rock castings. I will add some more
photos on my thread later.
Willie-Sorry to hear of your loss. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
Have a safe day everyone.
logandsawman
Northern Pacific history enthusiast
Good morning,
a chilly 55 and the dense fog is just clearing. Earlier, when the wind blew, dew falling from the trees was like rain.
I just found out (after reading something that looked like junk mail) that part of my retirement $ went into a health savings plan (something different from a HSA). However, there seems to be no way to spend it, no bank card, what a disaster. I tried logging in, emailing, and calling on the phone but nothing works. It is a little hard not to by cynical when the eggheads are in charge.
Will be applying a coat of matte finish to the Crex buildings then moving on, not sure what the next project will be. I need some more dwellings on the layout but my fingers are a bit beat up from cutting holes in styrene.
later, Dave LASM
a chilly 55 and the dense fog is just clearing. Earlier, when the wind blew, dew falling from the trees was like rain.
I just found out (after reading something that looked like junk mail) that part of my retirement $ went into a health savings plan (something different from a HSA). However, there seems to be no way to spend it, no bank card, what a disaster. I tried logging in, emailing, and calling on the phone but nothing works. It is a little hard not to by cynical when the eggheads are in charge.
Will be applying a coat of matte finish to the Crex buildings then moving on, not sure what the next project will be. I need some more dwellings on the layout but my fingers are a bit beat up from cutting holes in styrene.
later, Dave LASM
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and only 70°. Rather nice out there this morning, but we're headed for 94° again today. Just getting over an unusual 7 day run in July where the temperature never got over 90°. It will cool off again this weekend if the forecast is to be believed. Isolated showers yesterday didn't make it here, but we went through a major Texas gully-washer yesterday in Denton. Streets and parking lots were flooded everywhere that we went.
Thank you to all who offered condolences to us on the passing of our friend and my wife's cousin. As I posted, both deaths were expected, but both hitting on the same day was unusual.
Ophthalmologist visit yesterday went well. My wife had her follow-up to Monday's procedure and I had the laser surgery to remove the scar tissue from my right eye. Only problem was afterward for the trip home. I had to drive home with one eye dilated because my wife no longer drives in heavy rain like we experienced yesterday. Not a big issue, as I had unexpectedly had to drive home alone with both eyes dilated about a year ago when a visit to the same doctor had them dilated without prior warning. Those flimsy glasses were too dark for me to use. I also learned to drive with one eye closed back in my college days!
That visit kind of split my day, before we went, I did a a load of laundry and I raked up 2 yards of grass clippings for use as mulch in the garden. I'll put that down today and then pick up the remaining piles that are still on the yard. Didn't get home until 4:00 so I went directly to the train shed for a bit.
Forgot to run the dishwasher last night, so topping it off and eventually emptying it are on this morning's agenda.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I tuned up all of the cars for my "maintenance train". I haven't run it in 4-5 years and it missed the overall fleet maintenance project in 2018. I replaced the McHenry couplers on 2 1/2 cars (had already done one end of one), and used some EZ scale couplers that I removed from some other cars. I have not had good luck with the scale couplers interacting with Kadee standard head couplers, so I have been changing them out when necessary. I can use them on this train since it is basically a static train that just gets moved from place to place to provide operating hurdles; without it needing any switching or other moves. I also cleaned the wheels. Seven of the nine cars still have plastic wheels which I won't change for the same non-operating reason. This train will remain on the layout for 2-3 weeks and just move from location to location and then I'll park it for another 2-3 years? No stale grease on a locomotive since I use a GP35 from the local switching pool to operate it.
Joe - Around here, banks have opened a few additional branches, but have eliminated the locations in places like Walmart and supermarkets. The small town of ~9500 people near me where I do banking has 4 regional bank branches and a credit union. We use one of the banks and the CU. And they are all small town friendly and almost all services are free or low cost. While it's not been a problem, they appreciated me giving them a heads up when I wanted to withdraw $9K in cash before.
No political newsletters here. If I want news of any kind, I use MSN to look it up. I have to sometimes get an unbiased view, or opposing views from what my rabid conspiracy believing wife tells me!
Dave - Locating dead animals can be a nuisance sometimes. Once found, I can put them about 50' from the barn where a pair of Black Vultures hang out. Gone in no time. Your grill reminds me of ours when we were first married and couldn't afford the luxury of a Weber yet.
I used the Animals CD from Pink Floyd during my MRI. Dark Side of the Moon is one of a handful of CD's that we still carry in the car as an alternative to Sirius Radio. I also have some classical from Béla Bartók which my wife won't listen to, that I listen to when driving alone.
Everybody have a wonderful Wednesday.
Thank you to all who offered condolences to us on the passing of our friend and my wife's cousin. As I posted, both deaths were expected, but both hitting on the same day was unusual.
Ophthalmologist visit yesterday went well. My wife had her follow-up to Monday's procedure and I had the laser surgery to remove the scar tissue from my right eye. Only problem was afterward for the trip home. I had to drive home with one eye dilated because my wife no longer drives in heavy rain like we experienced yesterday. Not a big issue, as I had unexpectedly had to drive home alone with both eyes dilated about a year ago when a visit to the same doctor had them dilated without prior warning. Those flimsy glasses were too dark for me to use. I also learned to drive with one eye closed back in my college days!
That visit kind of split my day, before we went, I did a a load of laundry and I raked up 2 yards of grass clippings for use as mulch in the garden. I'll put that down today and then pick up the remaining piles that are still on the yard. Didn't get home until 4:00 so I went directly to the train shed for a bit.
Forgot to run the dishwasher last night, so topping it off and eventually emptying it are on this morning's agenda.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I tuned up all of the cars for my "maintenance train". I haven't run it in 4-5 years and it missed the overall fleet maintenance project in 2018. I replaced the McHenry couplers on 2 1/2 cars (had already done one end of one), and used some EZ scale couplers that I removed from some other cars. I have not had good luck with the scale couplers interacting with Kadee standard head couplers, so I have been changing them out when necessary. I can use them on this train since it is basically a static train that just gets moved from place to place to provide operating hurdles; without it needing any switching or other moves. I also cleaned the wheels. Seven of the nine cars still have plastic wheels which I won't change for the same non-operating reason. This train will remain on the layout for 2-3 weeks and just move from location to location and then I'll park it for another 2-3 years? No stale grease on a locomotive since I use a GP35 from the local switching pool to operate it.
Joe - Around here, banks have opened a few additional branches, but have eliminated the locations in places like Walmart and supermarkets. The small town of ~9500 people near me where I do banking has 4 regional bank branches and a credit union. We use one of the banks and the CU. And they are all small town friendly and almost all services are free or low cost. While it's not been a problem, they appreciated me giving them a heads up when I wanted to withdraw $9K in cash before.
No political newsletters here. If I want news of any kind, I use MSN to look it up. I have to sometimes get an unbiased view, or opposing views from what my rabid conspiracy believing wife tells me!
Dave - Locating dead animals can be a nuisance sometimes. Once found, I can put them about 50' from the barn where a pair of Black Vultures hang out. Gone in no time. Your grill reminds me of ours when we were first married and couldn't afford the luxury of a Weber yet.
I used the Animals CD from Pink Floyd during my MRI. Dark Side of the Moon is one of a handful of CD's that we still carry in the car as an alternative to Sirius Radio. I also have some classical from Béla Bartók which my wife won't listen to, that I listen to when driving alone.
Everybody have a wonderful Wednesday.
Well, I guess the intelligence level of the general population is even lower than I thought.
I received notice of a government-mandated recall of packages of peanut butter crackers because the package didn’t say they contained peanuts. If you don’t know peanut butter crackers contain peanuts, you’re an idiot.
I received notice of a government-mandated recall of packages of peanut butter crackers because the package didn’t say they contained peanuts. If you don’t know peanut butter crackers contain peanuts, you’re an idiot.
Boris
Beach Bum
Dave: That's a surprise, eh? There has to be a plan manager or administrator. Try your favorite search engine and look up the plan, or call your former employers HR office.
Boris
Beach Bum
I'm laughing but.....there are a lot of idiots running around.....and working for the government too....
Boris
Beach Bum
That gets more difficult...lately, wife will tell me about breaking News on the Disney Channel, (ABC7), that is three or four days old.I have to sometimes get an unbiased view, or opposing views from what my rabid conspiracy believing wife tells me!
I guess they don't have enough to fill the 12+ hours of the day they are televising news programing. I get most of my news from the broker's newsline during the week. Short excerpts, just enough to know something is going on.
logandsawman
Northern Pacific history enthusiast
This is the Minnesota State Retirement System for state and county workers. I emailed them and have been on their website today.
I have a feeling their computers are down. In the past someone actually answered the phone, today it hangs up as soon as it connects.
logandsawman
Northern Pacific history enthusiast
Animals crossed my mind as well. I had a cassette made with Animals on one side and little known Obscured by the Clouds on the other.Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and only 70°. Rather nice out there this morning, but we're headed for 94° again today. Just getting over an unusual 7 day run in July where the temperature never got over 90°. It will cool off again this weekend if the forecast is to be believed. Isolated showers yesterday didn't make it here, but we went through a major Texas gully-washer yesterday in Denton. Streets and parking lots were flooded everywhere that we went.
Thank you to all who offered condolences to us on the passing of our friend and my wife's cousin. As I posted, both deaths were expected, but both hitting on the same day was unusual.
Ophthalmologist visit yesterday went well. My wife had her follow-up to Monday's procedure and I had the laser surgery to remove the scar tissue from my right eye. Only problem was afterward for the trip home. I had to drive home with one eye dilated because my wife no longer drives in heavy rain like we experienced yesterday. Not a big issue, as I had unexpectedly had to drive home alone with both eyes dilated about a year ago when a visit to the same doctor had them dilated without prior warning. Those flimsy glasses were too dark for me to use. I also learned to drive with one eye closed back in my college days!
That visit kind of split my day, before we went, I did a a load of laundry and I raked up 2 yards of grass clippings for use as mulch in the garden. I'll put that down today and then pick up the remaining piles that are still on the yard. Didn't get home until 4:00 so I went directly to the train shed for a bit.
Forgot to run the dishwasher last night, so topping it off and eventually emptying it are on this morning's agenda.
Out in the train shed yesterday, I tuned up all of the cars for my "maintenance train". I haven't run it in 4-5 years and it missed the overall fleet maintenance project in 2018. I replaced the McHenry couplers on 2 1/2 cars (had already done one end of one), and used some EZ scale couplers that I removed from some other cars. I have not had good luck with the scale couplers interacting with Kadee standard head couplers, so I have been changing them out when necessary. I can use them on this train since it is basically a static train that just gets moved from place to place to provide operating hurdles; without it needing any switching or other moves. I also cleaned the wheels. Seven of the nine cars still have plastic wheels which I won't change for the same non-operating reason. This train will remain on the layout for 2-3 weeks and just move from location to location and then I'll park it for another 2-3 years? No stale grease on a locomotive since I use a GP35 from the local switching pool to operate it.
Joe - Around here, banks have opened a few additional branches, but have eliminated the locations in places like Walmart and supermarkets. The small town of ~9500 people near me where I do banking has 4 regional bank branches and a credit union. We use one of the banks and the CU. And they are all small town friendly and almost all services are free or low cost. While it's not been a problem, they appreciated me giving them a heads up when I wanted to withdraw $9K in cash before.
No political newsletters here. If I want news of any kind, I use MSN to look it up. I have to sometimes get an unbiased view, or opposing views from what my rabid conspiracy believing wife tells me!
Dave - Locating dead animals can be a nuisance sometimes. Once found, I can put them about 50' from the barn where a pair of Black Vultures hang out. Gone in no time. Your grill reminds me of ours when we were first married and couldn't afford the luxury of a Weber yet.
I used the Animals CD from Pink Floyd during my MRI. Dark Side of the Moon is one of a handful of CD's that we still carry in the car as an alternative to Sirius Radio. I also have some classical from Béla Bartók which my wife won't listen to, that I listen to when driving alone.
Everybody have a wonderful Wednesday.
That got a lot of play while driving my 68 Volkswagen Squareback.
migalyto
Well-Known Member
NorthBrit
Well-Known Member
Here in the U.K. it has to say, 'It may contain nuts'. May I point out
Texas Hobo
Well Known Hobo
Good afternoon, all! Cloudy and raining. On the plus side, keeping it cool. Just returned from the dermatologist, and got a clean report. Did freeze a couple of spots. Also, this morning got the cologard report, also negative. So, that's it for doctors and tests till Dec. Might see the train room today.
Willie - condolences and prayers.
STAY SAFE
LATER
Willie - condolences and prayers.
STAY SAFE
LATER
trailrider
Well-Known Member
With all the Breaking News, you'd think somebody would try to fix it!
ctclibby
Well-Known Member
Good Afternoon All!
79F @ 33% partly with wind.
Geesh, 5 pages of the Shop just now. That will teach me NOT to go to the ER. Went in with low BP ( 103/67 ) and the heart moving around in its cage adding and skipping beats here and there. 1st thing ER did was to tell me that I had 'congestive heart failure' and that was after the 1st round of blood draw with results. That sent Maria over the top. Took them almost 8 hours to get me out of ER to a room Monday. At that time they gave me a slow IV push of something to slow my heart down; don't remember the name. Waited almost all day yesterday for the Doc to come in and fill us in. Maria finally went out and stood up the charge nurse about the Doc not seeing me. She said - Doc did his rounds already. So about 1700 in walks the Doc apologizing profusely as apparently I was not on his list. He was able to get a ultrasound done within minutes. We didn't see him until this am with the ultrasound results. Valves good, chambers did not have any hardening and blood was coming and going as designed not letting blood pool in the heart ( possible clots ).
We are not even going to talk about waiting for almost an hour outside of the ER in that tiny waiting room before getting in.
So it all boiled down to 'metastable Afibrillation' ( ?SP ). That means every once in a while; of which I knew about as it has been doing that for *years*. Major cause was dehydration, which caused the low BP along with one of the drugs I was taking since my 3 pass. Seems that Metropol is Rx'd according to weight and had not been modified after I had lost 35ish additional pounds. ( I was 193 this morning, and have not been that low since going into USMC '71 ). Dehydration I was dealing with Sunday night and Monday morning and *thought* I was getting water/gatoraid on the brain. Come Monday almost the same amount of water going in was coming out - you remember the book by 'IP Freely' right?
So now, I am on blood thinners for 30 days, and have a heart monitor strapped to my chest for a week. I still don't quite understand the why of the blood thinner. Anyway I am back to 127/82 which is pretty much my norm. They also cut the Metropol by 1/2.
See my normal Doc on the 18th.
L8r
79F @ 33% partly with wind.
Geesh, 5 pages of the Shop just now. That will teach me NOT to go to the ER. Went in with low BP ( 103/67 ) and the heart moving around in its cage adding and skipping beats here and there. 1st thing ER did was to tell me that I had 'congestive heart failure' and that was after the 1st round of blood draw with results. That sent Maria over the top. Took them almost 8 hours to get me out of ER to a room Monday. At that time they gave me a slow IV push of something to slow my heart down; don't remember the name. Waited almost all day yesterday for the Doc to come in and fill us in. Maria finally went out and stood up the charge nurse about the Doc not seeing me. She said - Doc did his rounds already. So about 1700 in walks the Doc apologizing profusely as apparently I was not on his list. He was able to get a ultrasound done within minutes. We didn't see him until this am with the ultrasound results. Valves good, chambers did not have any hardening and blood was coming and going as designed not letting blood pool in the heart ( possible clots ).
We are not even going to talk about waiting for almost an hour outside of the ER in that tiny waiting room before getting in.
So it all boiled down to 'metastable Afibrillation' ( ?SP ). That means every once in a while; of which I knew about as it has been doing that for *years*. Major cause was dehydration, which caused the low BP along with one of the drugs I was taking since my 3 pass. Seems that Metropol is Rx'd according to weight and had not been modified after I had lost 35ish additional pounds. ( I was 193 this morning, and have not been that low since going into USMC '71 ). Dehydration I was dealing with Sunday night and Monday morning and *thought* I was getting water/gatoraid on the brain. Come Monday almost the same amount of water going in was coming out - you remember the book by 'IP Freely' right?
So now, I am on blood thinners for 30 days, and have a heart monitor strapped to my chest for a week. I still don't quite understand the why of the blood thinner. Anyway I am back to 127/82 which is pretty much my norm. They also cut the Metropol by 1/2.
See my normal Doc on the 18th.
L8r
Last edited:
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