Running Bear's July 2026 Coffee Shop

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Good morning from Wisconsin. It’s 69f degrees heading to 86. The WeatherChannel says there is 0% chance of rain till 7pm when is soars to a staggering 1% chance.

This morning around 10 I will head over to the new digs to inspect the progress of the bathroom installs! Terry is coming along as we will decide on colors or more precisely she will tell me what she picked! I may take some pictures of the canvases. Still not sure about that but you guys are an encouraging group! Currently I have none. We are close to the move in.

Still no model railroading of any kind since our return. The new shop has been setup since before we left but the desire and 3 mile distance has been an issue. When we move this week it will be about a 75’ walk! I think the desire will reappear. I did promise myself, the 2 good friends who do most of the driving and Terry that I will not help at any layout work sessions during July. So far so good! Being in California helped!

Enjoy the day
 
Good morning all!

A little hazy and humid again this morning. Currently its 70F with the expected high to reach around 85F. A couple of degrees warmer than
yesterday which didn't actually feel that bad with the high humidity. We never received the rain yesterday that was predicted for the afternoon.

Today is weekly grocery stock up and the cars need topping off. Tonight we will attend a baptism for my Nephews son after 4:00 mass,
My daughter is going to be his Godmother, so she is thrilled about that. We will then go to a cookout at their place.

Not much else going on at the moment.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 75° here on the farm. Forecast calls for only 98° today after just 97° yesterday. It was the third day in a row that the NWS had predicted triple digits and Mother Nature didn't cooperate. Cooler, cloudier weather ahead with highs starting tomorrow in the low-90's if the forecast is close to being right. The rain chance is still there, but keeps shifting from day to day.

I managed to mow for about 45 minutes yesterday and got nearly an acre of the front yard done before 10:00. Still have an area in the NE corner that needs to be done before I can start on the south side. Stopped where I did because I had to pick up the tree trimmings from earlier in the week before I could proceed. That called for a dip in the pool afterward.
Nothing special on the agenda today besides maybe more mowing. I emptied my last full gas can into the mower yesterday and I can generally get 2.5 hours of mowing done per can. So time to go fill them back up.

OK, I am now getting concerned about Patrick. It's been 3 weeks since he has posted anything. It probably isn't vacation because he wouldn't take that much time off work. I hope that all is well.

I continued with structure cleaning out in the train shed yesterday. It's actually going quite well since all of the current project buildings got a really thorough cleaning immediately after the tornado a couple of years ago. Another detail similar to what I posted about yesterday, that will probably never be seen by anyone but me, is present on the next structure over from the between the buildings scene that I posted. Buck's Book Store is the place, a kit from Smalltown USA.
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The table came from a details box, but all of the books were scratch-built. Unfortunately only the rear of the building is visible from the aisle unless you look in from another angle.
1783773510371.png

While I am in this area, I am going to redo that parking lot. I also intend to add a fence between it and the main line. I originally was going to make it a chain-link one, but I have now decided to use Bar Mills "Insta-Fence" instead. It will take 6 sections; the first two are currently on the workbench waiting for glue to dry before trimming.
1783773789705.jpeg


Troy - Good to see that you haven't forgotten the layout.

Lead guitarist Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi is 67 today.

Everyone have a great Saturday.
 


bnsf971 said:
A Slurpee can be refreshing on a hot day like nearly all of us have been experiencing lately, but I don't think I'll drive to a 7-11 just to get one.
Click to expand...
Don't know how many are in Florida, but....

If you have a Casey's near you you can get a free Slushee (their version of the Slurpee) every Friday with their app. I try and get one every week since we have one in town.
 
73°F/72°F this morning. Good day everyone. High is supposed to be only 82°F, but under cloudy skies and very good chances of rain throughout the day.

Not much going on here today. There was a plane crash about 20 miles from here late Thursday night. A Beech Baron twin went down in a thunderstorm. Killed both aboard. They were in a really remote wooded area and didn't find them until after 0700 Friday morning. The second last ADS-B report was 55 KIAS (stalled it) at 3000 FPM rate of descent. The last report was 7000 FPM rate of descent at 180 KIAS. I don't imagine there was very much wreckage that was recognizable as an aircraft except maybe the engines.

My mushrooms opened overnight, but one fell over. Probably from the pounding rain last night. It really poured here for awhile before I went to bed. These aren't the variety of Amanita that I thought they were, so I have to get my field guides out again and search for it. I think by tomorrow, the caps will probably end up concave with the gills exposed along the edges.

Mush004.jpg
Mush006.jpg
 


So, here is a sticky situation for my 11 year old granddaughter. Several incidents have occurred over the last few weeks that were unconnected until the end. First, her best friend, same age, same class in school; was out with her mother while Mom got her nails done at a salon. Bestie asked if she could go next door to the grocery store and buy some snacks to keep in her room for friends. OK until Mom looked at probably over $30 worth of snacks. Where did you get that much money??? OH, I've been saving for a while. The next week, bestie's Mom gets a text from another friends Mom, asking whether she knew that her daughter was waving a $100 bill around in front of a few other friends (granddaughter not among them), at a swim park. Mom felt like the other Mom was mistaken until she later forwarded a video to her. When confronted, bestie denied it all. Bestie's Mom talked to her husband about it and he admitted that his Mom had given him an envelope full of $100's in it for his recent birthday; but he didn't know if any were missing because he didn't count them, but just stuffed them into his wallet. They re-confronted bestie again, this time armed with the video and she admitted to taking one from his wallet. She apparently returned it to them.
Meanwhile, totally unrelated at the time, my granddaughter had asked her Mom whether she had taken any money from her piggy bank, because she thought that there was more in it than she counted. My daughter said no and had Dad come in her room and move furniture to look for it in case it had dropped out. Nothing.
My daughter and family knew nothing about the bestie's incidents until bestie's Mom came over to discuss their issues with my daughter. My daughter has a Master's degree in child development with troubled children as her primary focus. She has been successfully employed in this field for about 20 years now. Bestie's Mom's real problem besides her daughter stealing from Dad, is that she is the Principal at the local elementary school, while Dad is the Athletic Director at a middle school nearby. This stuff doesn't need to be spread about! The woman who had contacted her was a good friend from the PTA at the elementary school but kept everything quiet between them. Not sure if any of the other little girls said anything to their parents or not.
It was during the initial conversation with my daughter that she remembered the missing money from the piggy bank and brought that up. Bestie's Mom went home and confronted her about my granddaughter's missing money and the initial suspicious trip to the grocery store. She denied it at first, but then came clean and admitted that she knew the combination to the piggy bank and had removed some money from it a few weeks earlier than any of the other incidents.
In the end, she is not allowed to visit my granddaughter unescorted, and cannot be left in her room alone. Both Moms agreed. My granddaughter is crushed! Not because of the missing money, but because bestie is in so much trouble!
That's how an 11 year old's mind works!
 
I just slid into the forum between bot #1704 and bot #1705.
I just had internet installed at my trailer at the lake. It was 76 F at 8 am when the installer started and 91 F when he left at 11:15.
He was soaked through, had his pants legs rolled up to his knees and his shirt unbuttoned.
I had the door unlocked for him and the A/C going for his inside work.

Earlier this week, I mentioned I found some vehicle kits to assemble. Here is a little progress.
20260711_104824.jpg


The first new car my parents bought was a baby blue 1951 Studebaker.
I learned to drive in a black and white '57 Chevy 210 model ( 283 V-8 engine with a 4 barrel) with silver inset fender panels. The Impala had gold panels ( like this model) and the110 had no panels, just painted fender sides.
The '41 Chrysler police car and the jeep were in the same unsealed package. Police car partially painted but no wheels. That I will have to figure out and add the POLICE decals.
The blue pickup is a '35 Hudson.
Somehow, I wound up with 3 1940 Fords, the one without a hood did have an engine to show off.
Some times, when you acquire used and left over stuff, you get surprises, too.

Y'all have a great weekend.
 
Good afternoon. It's 104 on my front porch, with a thunderstorm incoming.
I've had an interesting couple of days at Casa Gomez. First, yesterday the speaker in my Intermountain SD45 went *pfft*. I checked with my LHS, and they had a suitable replacement in stock, so I planned to head over there this morning.
This morning, I turn on my desktop computer, and discovered the graphics card had gone *pfft*. I screwed around with it for about an hour, finally installing an HDMI cable in place of the Display Port cable, Voila! I had video again! I ordered a replacement cable, which should be here in about an hour. Then, the computer restarted to complete an update, and again--no video. After screwing around with it for another hour, I found out if I started the computer, waited for the keyboard to light up, then plug the video cable in, it would work. After some more testing, I've come to the conclusion my high-end (when it was made, it was really $$$) graphics card has bit the dust. I installed a lower-end one I have laying around, and the computer is working again like it should, with no musical video cable shenanigans. I'll probably leave this card in it, unless another better one falls in my lap.
Then, I decided to run trains again.
Until the rear traction tires fell off the Challenger.
Sigh...
I rummaged through my parts box, and found some tires for my Kato Big Boy I bought when I bought the engine. If anybody else has this happen to them, the traction tires for an N scale Kato Big Boy will fit an N scale Athearn Challenger. The Challenger is now on the layout, but I'm about to shut everything down because of the impending electrical storm.
 
bnsf971 said :
Then, I decided to run trains again.
Until the rear traction tires fell off the Challenger.
Sigh...
I found a place on the internet that sells all kinds of traction tires, different diameters, widths and thickness. I ordered some about a year ago and sorry, without doing an in depth search in my stash boxes, I can't remember the name of the place. Prices are reasonable.
I think it was Calumet Trains. Hope this helps.

John
 


RhB Michael said:
73°F/72°F this morning. Good day everyone. High is supposed to be only 82°F, but under cloudy skies and very good chances of rain throughout the day.

Not much going on here today. There was a plane crash about 20 miles from here late Thursday night. A Beech Baron twin went down in a thunderstorm. Killed both aboard. They were in a really remote wooded area and didn't find them until after 0700 Friday morning. The second last ADS-B report was 55 KIAS (stalled it) at 3000 FPM rate of descent. The last report was 7000 FPM rate of descent at 180 KIAS. I don't imagine there was very much wreckage that was recognizable as an aircraft except maybe the engines.

My mushrooms opened overnight, but one fell over. Probably from the pounding rain last night. It really poured here for awhile before I went to bed. These aren't the variety of Amanita that I thought they were, so I have to get my field guides out again and search for it. I think by tomorrow, the caps will probably end up concave with the gills exposed along the edges.

View attachment 269615View attachment 269616
Click to expand...
Is that the crash near Waterloo, Illinois?
 
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