Running Bear's July 2025 Coffee Shop

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Good morning from the Midwest of the good old USA. Another nice start to a Summer day in Wisconsin. 71f degrees now flowing gently into the high 80’s with a possible touch of 90. The wind is slight at 3mph. The dewpoint is 61 and it’s rather comfortable on the north porch.

Troy thanks for the history on the War of Northern Agression. Gettysburg always intrigued me. I should visit again before I no longer can. I definitely could see California trying to break away but for economic reasons. We have had a tendency though since Covid to stay west of the Mississippi River, the Southwest or plain old Wisconsin for our travels.

Terry has an easy Bone Density test this morning. However the normally 15 minute drive per Maps is 40 minutes because the 2 main roads leading to the clinic are closed this week. We have to tour through Campus coming from the east going west. Or we can come into the clinic via a western route that actually takes us ridiculously north. Utilities and railroad tracks are being heavily worked on this week since last Saturday until next Monday. It’s been explained that this being 4th of July celebration week it’s a less disruptive time. The UW Health main hospital complex and Clinics, the VA hospital and the American Family Children’s Hospital complexes are all on the very western edge of Campus and the traffic patterns are a mess. It’s a great area normally but this week it reads like a cluster..k. Terry found out watching the Monday evening news. Then yesterday an email from the clinic reminding her of possible traffic interruptions.

Maybe 1 or 2 Farmers Markets after the visit

I inspected last night 12 of 48 tanks cars but I did not prep them for weathering. I’ll do some more tonight. I did get pictures later from the client, thankfully no graffiti and just a few tags but not on every car. He does want the hazmat placard changed all to oil but will send me the decals for #1267. The 12 inspected last night I will go back and remove the numbers on there now before starting the next inspection tonight. Removing decals goes either very fast or becomes a real PITA. I’m hoping for fast and no breakage.

Have a good day
 


It's a cool 68f in Sandstone MN, heading for 88.

I got my half of the lawn mowed yesterday, as well as many small and medium sized projects.

Was successful at cutting out and assembling the cupolas for the new warehouse, also began gluing on the tin.

Willie: good to hear about Chet!


I had a rant about southeasteaners but decided a lot of my feelings there are best left unspoken.

Dave LASM
 
Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 75° and the forecast from the ever-unreliable NWS has changed again. It actually changed in the last 2 hours, now calling for rain for today through Friday, with highs in the mid-80's. Current radar shows showers about 20 miles north and extending into Oklahoma. But it is moving north, unlike our regular pattern from the northwest.

A day at home today after 2 days of medical appointments. Ophthalmologist visit yesterday went OK, eyesight is still 20/20, but some scar tissue has developed in my right eye from the cataract surgery a couple of years ago. I need to schedule a short laser surgery to fix it. They wanted to do it tomorrow, but I am going to wait another week or so before doing it. My wife is going to have hers done (for the third time) next week, I have to chauffeur, and I still need time to catch up on things around here after losing 2 days to this week's medical appointments. Even though the surgery is only expected to last 10 minutes, they do dilate the eyes which takes a half day to recover from, like yesterday.
Eventually yesterday, I was able to mow some more before getting my daily dose of the pool.
Today's tasks will depend on what the weather does, I always have someplace that I can mow and I have firewood to gather and stack.

Train shed time yesterday was all running trains, since my eyes were still partially dilated and detail work was near impossible. I hope to make it up today.

It was hard to catch up with the 77 posts made yesterday, that's quite a few.

Patrick - I'm not a big Buc-ees fan either, although they have clean restrooms. The problem is that it takes a good walk to get to them and there are a lot of folks that just meander around and get in the way. Plus, their locations are really not optimal for us when we travel. For someone who is traveling , they are just right to hop-scotch from one to the next, but for us, the first one is just 30 miles away which is too soon to stop at when we go on a trip.
Louis - Yep! Bubba's family moved onto an adjoining property to mine in 1982 when he was 12 years old. After high school, he moved away for a while, but still in the area, married and about 12 years ago he moved back into a trailer on his dad's property. His given name is Aubrey, but he has been called Bubba ever since I have known him. He has his own small business repairing 4-wheelers and anything with a small gasoline engine in his back yard right now. His shop disappeared in the tornado last year.
Insomniville - Good luck to your Dad with his Mohs surgery. I understand that it has a high success rate.
Troy - That advice for anyone moving to the South is right on the mark. Some more so than others.
John - I hadn't heard of Haskell TX since college in the 70's. I had a suitemate in the dorm from there.
Chad - That chart is gun owners per 100 residents.

Today is National Disco Day. Somehow I missed that phase of life.
Everyone have a great Wednesday.
 
Mornin' all. Well, afternoon in y'all's frame of reference...

It's 94F/50% on the patio right now. If it keeps getting hotter, I'm going to have to start spending my morning inside. Because, y'now, that doesn't happen every year here in Texas...

Got the camera mounted yesterday, but didn't get the cover finished, and that's going to be critical. Can't aim the thing without the proper mount, which will be on the cover. Hacking it with tape lasted for total of about 45 seconds.

Whether I get to that today... we'll see. I have something slick in mind, which means a lot of design work, and there are other things on the TODO list today.

Parents are coming up here tomorrow for Dad's Mohs surgery, so I need to straighten up the house; if he's feeling up to it, they'll probably stop in for lunch. I did some of that last night, but I really need to vacuum and mop and all those other time consuming things. I've been a little too lazy lately.

Oh, and need to make appointments for other preventative medical checks. Forgot to do that yesterday...

Haven't heard the fireworks start up here yet, which is unusual. I'm sure the next few evenings will be noisy. The good local shows are generally visible from my pool, so I might be doing that again on the fourth.

Off to get my day started and my house fit for company. Have a good day, folks!

Basal and squamous cell carcinomas if caught early are routine. Cut out enough tissue and your done.

My MOHs was a quick 10 minutes. Dr did a great job and there is no visible scar. I did need the pain meds for about the first 24 hours. It was right between the ear and jaw line.

I've had 3 squamous on my face/head. One MOHs, One radiation, and one last week that he just cut out before the biopsy came back.(positive)
 
Good evening. I heard earlier this evening that Ray Tinkler, staff member here known as tootnkumin, passed away June 15. At his request, there will be no memorial service.

​

Sad news indeed.

To me he was "King Toot". He had a vast knowledge of several subjects. His posts were not only informative they were often humorous. His sense of humor was a sure sign of his supreme intelligence. Which was matched only by the gracious way he treated everyone.

He will be missed.

Thank you, Terry, for letting us know.
 
Good afternoon all!

Pretty nice day weather wise. The high is only supposed to hit 86F. It was sunny this morning but the clouds have moved in
and the winds have picked up.

I was on earlier, but had a whole list of things to do today. I have now accomplished most of them.

Worked for a while on the layout last night, suppose I better snap some photos and update the build thread.

Not much else exciting going on in my neck of the woods.

Have a safe day everyone!
 


Good day to all..........

I was woke up (awakened ?) this morning about 9 am by the engine roaring on a crop duster. Same thing happened about three weeks ago. I am guessing the the flyover three weeks ago was something with fertilizer included as my yard is growing by leaps and bounds since being mowed two weeks ago. Off and on rain/sunshine for several days probably helped the growth spurt. Crop dusting is a circus act around here with all the wind generators to dodge.

Gonna cook up some grits with cheese for breakfast/lunch. For some reason that sounds pretty good today. Of all the items I have had for breakfast, I have never had a yearning for beans for breakfast. I usually only eat canned pork and beans about twice a year and always in the evening.

Not much planned today. I have some "want to" but not much energy happening. Maybe a burst of energy will surprise me later today. I hate these days as I have plenty to do but just get tired thinking about it. At my age, I can't afford to miss getting something accomplished as my days are becoming more precious and few as time goes on. The red spray paint arrived yesterday that I picked for my Champion Packing Company project and I hoped to get the brick pieces painted........maybe later.

I have never set foot in a Buc-ees as there are none in my neck of the woods. I have heard they are supposed to have good BBQ beef. Maybe some day..........

Have a great afternoon......John
 
My apologies if I missed but, you get that drone in the air yet?

Curious to see how you like it. Its something I would love to get into someday.
I love flying my drone and checking out the sights in my area. It's not nearly the same as my grandson's residential neighborhood where he knew where all of the pools were and all of the topless (and less) girls were sunbathing! He told me not to tell his mom.
 
Good nice afternoon. Terry did her visit to the Clinic and we made it 10 minutes before her scheduled time. The streets while chopped up weren’t that bad. Media over reaction at its best.

Drones. All the years I have owned them I never thought of flying over the neighborhood and checking out the pools. Geez, I must be getting old

Buc-ee’s! You’ve seen 1 you have seen them all. The closest one we stop at until they finish building the one 30 miles from us in Deforest, Wisconsin is actually the one on I35 near Willie, near the race track. We stop now mainly for the bathrooms (exceptionally clean) and (competitive priced) gas. The bakery is very good but the beef jerky is excellent. On the way back we will stop to buy jerky, the spicer the better. Both the SIL and granddaughter love spicy jerky. There are 2 others between that one in Denton and the son now in Wimberley but since I fill up in Denton there is generally no other need to stop.

I have this afternoon removed the hazmat markings on the 12 tank cars I inspected yesterday. 99% Isopropyl Alcohol, 1 drop, 1/2 minute and a cotton tip and off they came. Inspection and removal on 12 more tankers tonight.

I did make an offer yesterday on the farm for sale going with Terry’s more generous numbers than mine. This morning it was rejected with no counter, they want full asking price. They will be back in a year or so…
 
Afternoon, folks. It's 96F/43% on the patio, and the forecast says we'll have rain in a couple of hours... I would laugh, but the clouds do look a bit ominous. They're claiming we're going to get half an inch a day for the next few days.

My dad did his surgery, and it was fairly easy apparently; took a couple of hours, but most of that was waiting. They got here earlier than expected and stuck around until lunch; we went to get a nice Mexican meal at a local place that we like. Yum.

On the other hand, I finally got my backlog of cleaning done yesterday, and got up earlier than expected today on top of it, so now I'm exhausted. I'm likely to go take a nap, and then -- if I'm lucky -- I'll do the work needed to get the camera project finally finished. Might be tomorrow though, we'll see.

Happy Wednesday!
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps and those checking out their neighbors' pools. It's Troy again.

Just got back from Margarita Wednesday at the local burrito place. I had my usual cup of queso dip with the chips. Wife had a margarita.

I was finishing up my character bases today, and realized the dude that's supposed to ride one of the big Drake lizards didn't fit with the round base attached to his feet. I removed the base, glued some magnets in place on the drake platform, and on his tootsies.

To make sure I've got the polarity correct and he doesn't jump off the big lizard, I used my handy magnet stick.
Screenshot 2025-07-02 at 6.22.06 PM.png


It's a plastic rod, with a magnet glued to each end. One end I painted yellow and added three stripes. That's the down end. The stands that multiple soldiers fit into has 3 or 4 holes. So three stripes = Stand or Down. The white end with the opposite polarity goes UP. So in this case, up is the bottom of the dude's little tootsies. White end to his toes. Yellow end down onto the platform where he stands.
Screenshot 2025-07-02 at 4.52.22 PM.png


Put a drop of glue on his foot. Put the magnet on the white end of the stick. Press magnet to foot. Slide the metal tube down to touch the magnet (it's aluminum) and pull the stick up through the tube. That keeps the magnet in the glue instead of following the stick.

Screenshot 2025-07-02 at 4.30.09 PM.png


And here is "Removable Ray" standing on his mount, ready to sling his big chain at the enemy.

Screenshot 2025-07-02 at 4.30.37 PM.png
 
It is has been a steamy day and Culligan came to remove their water softener that we have been renting. It came to $47 per month. I bought a Morton softener at Menards for 459 plus got the 11% off coupon, in about 9 months we will have paid for it in lieu of rent.

I sweated up a bit while installing our new one, and only one run to the hardware store. Nice we live only 5 miles for errands like that.


Some will see I am making progress on the Crex warehouse. I have a really nice place on the layout for it, another building scheduled to accompany it, and some space left for some other structures. We plan on driving over to Grantsburg to check out their history center to get some ideas. They have been in communication with me about my project. That is a nice thing about small towns...

It is full sun outside. We are headed off to Bible study then will be watching a little Law and Order, season three, episode 7.

Have a good night and sound sleep all,

Dave LASM
 
Troy - You know, I never got into the war-gaming hobby in any way. I can't see it ever happening either. But I really have to admire the way that you paint and otherwise decorate those figures. Great job. I can't wait to see what you eventually do with N scale models and scenery. Hopefully it will happen soon.
 
Troy - You know, I never got into the war-gaming hobby in any way. I can't see it ever happening either. But I really have to admire the way that you paint and otherwise decorate those figures. Great job. I can't wait to see what you eventually do with N scale models and scenery. Hopefully it will happen soon.
As I tell my wife, Summer is for gaming, winter is for railroad.
 


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