Running Bear's July 2025 Coffee Shop

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Good morning from a nice start to a Wisconsin day. 73f degrees now heading again to the mid 90’s with heavy storms coming through around 3pm. I’m out on the south deck relaxing until the sun rounds the corner and sends me inside or to the north porch.

The house is quiet as the daughter and family are out overnighting for the weekend at some Madison area lake. They have a former neighbor that are now empty nesters who moved about a month ago. They didn’t go far but purchased a “fixer upper” right on the water directly across the water ( maybe 2 miles) from the UW where their twins daughters are going to school. The “big” adventure started about the time (1pm) when Terry and me headed out to the movie theater. In the few weeks they have been there they have done 3 things. Gutted the complete walk out lower level, the kitchen and added on to the garage (the sellers already had the permits). I was asked to look over the place with them when they were deciding to place an offer on it. Told them if they didn’t offer we would. It’s on a beautiful spot and when the 2 sold their house across from the daughter’s old place they both retired at 53. Neither have any DIY skills but are willing to work, so they have done the demo work. It’s going to be a wonderful and big place.

The movie! As I said yesterday, the 1st one we both deemed worthy enough of actually seeing in the theater since the Tuesday before Mr Trump shutdown the USA because of Covid in March 2020. We both thought it was very good. F1 starring Brad Pitt. The popcorn was yummy and the Milk Duds were sweet. I haven’t had Milk Duds since a movie before Covid. Our total ticket price was $27 for the 2 of us. $14.00 plus $3 handling online. There was an included donation of $5 each ticket. The donation was for the Boys Scouts of America the Wisconsin Council. The popcorn, milk duds and a shared soda total was $24. I chuckled at that! The movie though was worth it to us. Dinner as limited to a restaurant that was open in the area. Many of our truly local (5 mile radius) restaurants are closed for the 3 Summer holidays of Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day weekends. Still the 3rd place online I checked was open. Terry had an excellent perch and I had a split of cod and fried shrimp.

Today! I am heading out for an 8:30 meeting at the Daugherty/SIL place being built. The contractor is moving along very well. There have been no supply problems on this project which I was told is not the case locally for most of the builders. Roofing materials have been in short supply as have 2x4 wood studs. The area concrete contractors per local media reports have been short of workers due to immigration concerns. Our guy and a good weathering client (kind of a jerk) doesn’t have that issue so is rolling along. For the daughter’s place he just has rock wall placements to finish up. All concrete work is completed.

I’ll stay outdoors until the bugs or wet weather drive me indoors. When that happens I do have 1 diesel to add the final matte clear coat to.

Enjoy the day
 
Good Morning All. Cloudy and 74°; radar shows that it's raining here, and the Weather Underground station around the corner says that it's raining there, but nothing is hitting the ground here. Only supposed to warm up to 86° today under cloudy skies all day. Same forecast for tomorrow. Not our typical July weather.
Almost rained here yesterday, got as close as about 2 miles away, forcing me to get out of the pool. It dissipated before getting here and I was still able to fire up the grill. The outflow wind died down just in time. Local fireworks started up around 9:15, not as intense as in the past. Next door, Bubba was finished by 10:00. There was still a few on the north horizon when I looked out the window on the way to bed, but they weren't loud enough to freak out the granddog.
Earlier in the day, I picked Tomatoes and Yellow Squash from the garden. Did more weedeating and mowed some spots with the push mower including the garden perimeter which gets water when I irrigate. Laundry and other household tasks occupied my morning while waiting for the dew to dry. That's another thing that I usually don't have in July, dew to contend with.
It's a combination of dew and possibly some overnight rain that will hold me up this morning, I need to mow the area over the septic leach field. Meanwhile this morning, the dishwasher awaits me and I have some stuff to put back into the attic that I took down last week during my quest for empty canning jars.
Interestingly, the waste service guy was out yesterday emptying the dumpster; and also their serviceman was here to put a plug in the drain hole of that dumpster. I've had it for 2 years and there was never a plug or a problem. But a neighboring rodent discovered it and has been getting in at night and ripping the trash bags up and scattering their contents. I wasn't real concerned since it was all in the trash dumpster. But last week, it started dragging stuff out the hole and leaving it in the yard, some as much as 3' away. My wife also expressed concern that she would open the top and see that rodent staring at her and.... So I called Thursday but certainly wasn't expecting them to bring one out on the 4th of July. This was a dedicated serviceman, not the lift-truck driver!

Out in the train shed yesterday, I finished my track inspection that I started Thursday. All that I found was a couple of dead ladybugs and a dried up dead cricket on the ROW. No train parts. That's always a good thing. I was also able to clean all of the main line with the non-abrasive cleaning pad on my Tidy Track cleaning wand. I'll start on the passing sidings and industry track next. This particular quadrant has two passing sidings. One serving the industrial district and the second one running through town and serving those industries. Both sidings are 16'-18' long; there's probably 36' of industry track. Ten industries total in this town, 7 warehouses, a fuel depot, a fertilizer distributor and a grain elevator with it's own short siding. It's a busy place when I do switching, 6 places with 8 spots get only incoming boxcar loads, two have inbound and outbound loads, the grain elevator is all outbound and the final large warehouse isn't determined yet. I still switch boxcars at it's two spots. It is the Atlas Middlesex Manufacturing kit, and current plans are for eventually kitbashing a second kit to it to double it's size.
Of course after cleaning the track, I had to test run a few trains over it.

Troy - John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both dying on the same day used to fascinate me when I learned of it in like the fourth grade or something. Presidential history was a semi-hobby of mine through my school years. As an assignment in the Catholic high school that I attended, the priest who taught history made us memorize all of the Presidents. I thought "what an easy assignment" since I already knew them all. Then he threw all of us a curve ball when we had a timed pop quiz and had to list them by their initials, backwards! LBJ was the starting point at that time. While I aced the quiz, most of the rest of the class did not complete it in the given time.
Tom O - That's too bad about the shipping mishap. It's not so much about the money, but the time and labor that went into the project.
Joe - Your mention of Caesar Rodney brought back forgotten memories of history. Didn't Joe Biden claim to have witnessed that ride???
Deacon - Interesting about Portillo's. It's been there for a few years now, and my wife has never suggested it. What's your recommendation?
John - The first dozen or so times that I flew my DJI Mini 2 drone, I never flew it out of my direct sight. Now I still limit it to about a half mile until I build up more trust. It has a feature that monitors the distance away from the controller and it's own battery and automatically returns to home when it determines that it's too far away. Haven't tried that feature out yet!

Today is National Bikini Day. Not here though, I refuse to wear one.
Everyone have a wonderful and safe Saturday.
 
Just checked the air quality report.
Screenshot 2025-07-05 at 9.11.54 AM.png


Seems that a lot of smoky fireworks exploding in the sky with a heat dome over us, keeps the smoke down near the ground. It's slowly dispersing, but I'm not going out for my walk until that gets back into the yellow phase. I['m near to the 81 in the circle. My apple watch is showing 125 on a different scale. But both are in the orange. With my asthma, I'm better off inside.

Wife wants to go to Kohls to spend some of her Kohls bucks she gets for spending money there... It's vicious cycle. So I'll probably head to the hobby store while she's shopping. I need paint for armor. I'm running low on "Oily Steel" from Vallejo.

In other news, with the impending birthday, I decided to open up the Tiki Basement Bar again. (no decorations, just rum and juices). Instead of purchasing orgeat, I decided I'd make my own. We've got some Almond milk left over from when my daughter visited (she's got a dairy free diet). So I ordered these on Amazon to make my own orgeat.
Screenshot 2025-07-05 at 9.10.22 AM.png

Pretty expensive for 1/8 tsp each, but I doubt it goes bad quickly. I can do mai tais for the next year!
 


santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Cloudy and 74°; radar shows that it's raining here, and the Weather Underground station around the corner says that it's raining there, but nothing is hitting the ground here. Only supposed to warm up to 86° today under cloudy skies all day. Same forecast for tomorrow. Not our typical July weather.
Almost rained here yesterday, got as close as about 2 miles away, forcing me to get out of the pool. It dissipated before getting here and I was still able to fire up the grill. The outflow wind died down just in time. Local fireworks started up around 9:15, not as intense as in the past. Next door, Bubba was finished by 10:00. There was still a few on the north horizon when I looked out the window on the way to bed, but they weren't loud enough to freak out the granddog.
Earlier in the day, I picked Tomatoes and Yellow Squash from the garden. Did more weedeating and mowed some spots with the push mower including the garden perimeter which gets water when I irrigate. Laundry and other household tasks occupied my morning while waiting for the dew to dry. That's another thing that I usually don't have in July, dew to contend with.
It's a combination of dew and possibly some overnight rain that will hold me up this morning, I need to mow the area over the septic leach field. Meanwhile this morning, the dishwasher awaits me and I have some stuff to put back into the attic that I took down last week during my quest for empty canning jars.
Interestingly, the waste service guy was out yesterday emptying the dumpster; and also their serviceman was here to put a plug in the drain hole of that dumpster. I've had it for 2 years and there was never a plug or a problem. But a neighboring rodent discovered it and has been getting in at night and ripping the trash bags up and scattering their contents. I wasn't real concerned since it was all in the trash dumpster. But last week, it started dragging stuff out the hole and leaving it in the yard, some as much as 3' away. My wife also expressed concern that she would open the top and see that rodent staring at her and.... So I called Thursday but certainly wasn't expecting them to bring one out on the 4th of July. This was a dedicated serviceman, not the lift-truck driver!

Out in the train shed yesterday, I finished my track inspection that I started Thursday. All that I found was a couple of dead ladybugs and a dried up dead cricket on the ROW. No train parts. That's always a good thing. I was also able to clean all of the main line with the non-abrasive cleaning pad on my Tidy Track cleaning wand. I'll start on the passing sidings and industry track next. This particular quadrant has two passing sidings. One serving the industrial district and the second one running through town and serving those industries. Both sidings are 16'-18' long; there's probably 36' of industry track. Ten industries total in this town, 7 warehouses, a fuel depot, a fertilizer distributor and a grain elevator with it's own short siding. It's a busy place when I do switching, 6 places with 8 spots get only incoming boxcar loads, two have inbound and outbound loads, the grain elevator is all outbound and the final large warehouse isn't determined yet. I still switch boxcars at it's two spots. It is the Atlas Middlesex Manufacturing kit, and current plans are for eventually kitbashing a second kit to it to double it's size.
Of course after cleaning the track, I had to test run a few trains over it.

Troy - John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both dying on the same day used to fascinate me when I learned of it in like the fourth grade or something. Presidential history was a semi-hobby of mine through my school years. As an assignment in the Catholic high school that I attended, the priest who taught history made us memorize all of the Presidents. I thought "what an easy assignment" since I already knew them all. Then he threw all of us a curve ball when we had a timed pop quiz and had to list them by their initials, backwards! LBJ was the starting point at that time. While I aced the quiz, most of the rest of the class did not complete it in the given time.
Tom O - That's too bad about the shipping mishap. It's not so much about the money, but the time and labor that went into the project.
Joe - Your mention of Caesar Rodney brought back forgotten memories of history. Didn't Joe Biden claim to have witnessed that ride???
Deacon - Interesting about Portillo's. It's been there for a few years now, and my wife has never suggested it. What's your recommendation?
John - The first dozen or so times that I flew my DJI Mini 2 drone, I never flew it out of my direct sight. Now I still limit it to about a half mile until I build up more trust. It has a feature that monitors the distance away from the controller and it's own battery and automatically returns to home when it determines that it's too far away. Haven't tried that feature out yet!

Today is National Bikini Day. Not here though, I refuse to wear one.
Everyone have a wonderful and safe Saturday.
Click to expand...
While I’m not Deacon I can respond about Portillo’s. A Chicago area founded and still now corporate based restaurant chain. Before it went the franchised way was an excellent source for Chicago style hot dogs, superb salads (the Chinese was to die for) and great Italian beef sandwiches. The SIL was head of their recruiting for 18 months right before and after the buyout. The Chicago area locations are still fantastic according to my palate and Chicago area foodie reviews. The Wisconsin based ones I have been too since the original Portillo family sold out to Berkshire Partners ( not a Buffett owned company) in 2014 except for the Chocolate Chocolate cake suck! YMMV! The 2 in Madison I would not let a dog eat there… Last year after giving the local one another final try I have sworn to never eat there again.

About the broken package shipped via the USPS. I guess it happens but it hasn’t to me before where there was actual damage inside the package. You are right it’s not about the money but I put a lot of time and effort to find what turned out to be broken JB Hunt chassis at an excellent price. My client has told me not to worry about replacing them as he will look for them. I did credit back the weathering charges after speaking on the phone to him. If he returns them I will give full credit but he’s thinking this might be a decent project for him to play with learning some modeling skills.

All our drones now have the return home feature and it has engaged a few times over the last few years. I can remember 2 lost drones because the winds took them of which we recovered 1. We also had 1 drone shot down years ago when we were having poachers on the properties.

Be well
 
My house and I survived the annual neighborhood bombardment last night. They wrapped it up about 2330 so I finally went to bed.

Fireworks are illegal here and the cops look the other way. Not one fireworks call on the radio last night. But it's like that every year here. I don't know why everyone gets a pass on the law around here. I guess because the jail isn't large enough to hold a third of the town.
 
Good morning all!

Another summer Northern Illinois day today. Currently 79F heading up to a high of 90F. Maybe some rain later tonight
as a cold front is supposed to come through and cool the daytime temps off next week.

Neighborhood fireworks ended sometime after 11pm last night, which is pretty typical. Most of the good fireworks
are illegal in Illinois but with as many that usually go off I'm assuming the 1st thru the 4th the police turn a blind
eye, There wont be anymore go off till next year.

not sure what is on the agenda for today. I'm sure the wife has something planned. Wont be able to sit around
idle all day.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Good morning gang!

WW3 was in the neighborhood last night, finally died out around 11 p.m. We stayed in with a quivering dog.

I did get some more work done on the diner yesterday, along with resizing a checkerboard pattern in the puter and printing it out on self adhesive vinyl, courtesy of the wife's Crikut supplies. I didn't steal it, she supplied it! The booths are all ready, but I have ordered a 3D printed bar with stools to replace the "origami" one that comes with the kit. So I am pretty much at a stand still with this until next week (according to USPS) Now I am playing with the Idea for LED lighting inside to show off the detailing.
IMG_1834.jpg
IMG_1834.jpg

I can build the doors and install the glass later if I am bored. Anyone have any HO scale dishes??

BBL
 
logandsawman said:
The shopping channel usually comes in real good and some of the bigger networks, however at 8:45 pm they have the nasty habit of turning down the signals, right towards the end of a program. Drat.
Click to expand...
There is a technical reason for that, I will say atmospheric in nature. We have the same problem. Some of it was caused when over the air telecasts were digitized. The antenna guy on U-Tube talks a lot about it. But locally, I lose Fox (5) and ABC (7), because they went cheap on the changeover. Same with Philly NBC (10), which seems to cut out every time there is a ball game on over the air.

Our Phone service is through Verizon, and I have few complaints. The only reason the monthly bill is high right now, is the wife's I phone 14 was obtained through them. I generally buy ours at Best Buy. Otherwise 2 lines around $ 80 with loyalty and senior discounts. Unlimited 5G. The main reason I stick with Cable internet is bandwidth has a habit of tightening up around here when people are not at work / school. Verizon isn't spending a lot of capital here....but then neither am I.....and probably for the same reason.
 
kbkchooch said:
Anyone have any HO scale dishes??
Click to expand...
I make plates by making very thin slices of the right diameter sprue. I have made standard dinner size and smaller kid's size plates. I make glasses by cutting Evergreen styrene rods into the appropriate height. I believe that I use .015", maybe .020". I'd have to check.
Some plates on the counter and a few stacked next to the grill. Some on the tables are barely visible through the lower windows.
1751729593944.png

No glasses in this picture yet. When I do them, I will dab some red, brown & green paint on the plates in use.
 


migalyto said:
Good morning all!

Another summer Northern Illinois day today. Currently 79F heading up to a high of 90F. Maybe some rain later tonight
as a cold front is supposed to come through and cool the daytime temps off next week.

Neighborhood fireworks ended sometime after 11pm last night, which is pretty typical. Most of the good fireworks
are illegal in Illinois but with as many that usually go off I'm assuming the 1st thru the 4th the police turn a blind
eye, There wont be anymore go off till next year.

not sure what is on the agenda for today. I'm sure the wife has something planned. Wont be able to sit around
idle all day.

Have a safe day everyone!
Click to expand...

All of the legal fireworks in Illinois wouldn't be heard by anyone who wasn't right there with them. Anything else that makes noise, flies, or is otherwise dangerous if not on the ground when set off is illegal.

Rockets, missiles, Roman candles, mortars, bottle rockets, firecrackers are all illegal in Illinois.
 
This was the first 4th that it wasn't Apocalypse Now in our neighborhood. I was asleep by 8:30 and my wife said the rockets red glare was about done by midnight. Usually it goes to 2am. I guess people weren't spending the money at the WA fireworks warehouses this year.

The BOOMS usually start July 1 or 2, but we really didn't hear any before the evening of the 3rd.

We did have a direct overhead ,low fly over (1000') , at a reported 400mph, by 2 OR ANG F15's while walking the dog. We were at the top of our street ~750ft so they were a bit lower.
 
RhB Michael said:
All of the legal fireworks in Illinois wouldn't be heard by anyone who wasn't right there with them. Anything else that makes noise, flies, or is otherwise dangerous if not on the ground when set off is illegal.

Rockets, missiles, Roman candles, mortars, bottle rockets, firecrackers are all illegal in Illinois.
Click to expand...
Same here in MD, but since you can buy them in PA, a quick 40 minute ride from here and you can have a trunk full. The cops have enough on their plate (drunks on the road) than to worry about a few hundred private displays.
 
Kusojiji said:
How's the Zorin Pro working for you? Is it easy to install other programs? This was the reason why I went away from Red Hat. Also, I think they had VMWARE or something like that embedded so that you might be able to run windows type stuff. I used to play around with that a long time ago but haven't tried in the past 10 years...
Click to expand...
Zorin Pro 17 works great for me. The program is easy to download, just follow the directions on the website. You can run Zorin without downloading to your computer, sort of a "test drive" which is pretty neat. As I said, I am going to load it one of my desk top computers instead of using windows 11 most likely in a month or so. My "to do" list seems to grow in spite of me working hard to bring it down to size.
Take care....John
 
kbkchooch said:
Same here in MD, but since you can buy them in PA, a quick 40 minute ride from here and you can have a trunk full. The cops have enough on their plate (drunks on the road) than to worry about a few hundred private displays.
Click to expand...
We always took the quick 66 mile drive up to the Wisconsin border and loaded up.

There were rumors that around the middle of June the Illinois state police would perch up on the overpass
with binoculars and watch for people to come back over the border. In all the years we made the pilgrimage
I never seen it, but some claimed they did. Wouldn't surprise me.

Thankfully I have outgrown that nonsense, but most of my neighbors have not.
 
Had a great night at a Church get together last night. Tons of good food and they even had a water slide and bounce house for the kids. Then a nice fireworks display, altogether a really nice evening.
@santafewillie I grew up on the Chicago area Portillo's and we enjoy the Denton one just fine. As was said the Itialian Beefs are great and the sausage and hotdogs are first class as well. Get the Chocolate Cake....it is so rich even your eyeballs will enjoy it.
 


kbkchooch said:
Same here in MD, but since you can buy them in PA, a quick 40 minute ride from here and you can have a trunk full. The cops have enough on their plate (drunks on the road) than to worry about a few hundred private displays.
Click to expand...

The same thing happens here, they drive 15 minutes across the Chester bridge into Missouri, and what do you think is right there on the approach ramp? Fireworks stands. Even before you get to the first gas station.
 
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