Running Bear's July 2026 Coffee Shop

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good Tuesday morning, Coffee Shop! It's 70°F (21°C) and partly cloudy.

Weather:
Mostly cloudy toward daybreak then becoming partly cloudy. Scattered showers and thunderstorms toward daybreak. Highs in the mid 80s. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph becoming northwest late this afternoon. Gusts up to 25 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent.

Have a great day!

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's 78 and clear.
I used my graphing multimeter in record mode for about 20 minutes yesterday when I got home. I operated a couple of engines, alone then MUed, light engine, and pulling a train. I saw no anomalies, and no power spikes or drops.
When I talked to the support person at Piko, he asked me if I used a Digitrax system. Not any more, I use NCE, why? He said most of the issues they've had with decoders was on Digitrax systems. I supposed the first two got pushed to the breaking point by the old system, and they failed just because they were teetering on the edge. I have no answer for the brand-new decoder that failed.

 

[troyphoto]

Well, howdy there internet peeps and those keeping the magic blue smoke on the inside of your electronics.

It's Troy again.

Woke up at 4am with a weather headache. Yep. the pesky rain clouds are moving through. But we're in the scattered zone, so it's not knocking much of the smoke down.

Still, not being in the red on the air quality is good enough for now. I can at least do short walks with it in the orange zone. If it gets to the yellow zone, I can do my normal mile.

In other news, last night was the HOA meeting where they finalized the new rules and regulations. The only problem is their grandfathering clause for things approved by previous boards that don't meet current standards is set to expire on any old "major renovation"... but that term is not defined.

The community is in the middle of a 7 year plan to reside all the buildings, and redo the gutters. Buildings range from 2 units to 10 units in one building. Does having the siding replaced by the HOA constitute a "Major Renovation"? What about having the HOA replace the privacy fence between each unit's patio?

Or sale of the unit. That triggers it as well.

The board president's only response was "well... I researched and that's a standard grandfather clause for a community of our size..."

Me: "So, when I sell my unit, I'm on the hook for replacing a 2-lite window, back to a 3-lite window, because a previous board screwed up and approved the request?"

President: "I don't see us making that request of you..."

Me: Will you still be on the board when I sell? What's stopping the later board from making that demand?

President: "But it's a standard grandfather clause..."

Me: It only takes one small amendment to change the wording to protect the residents

President: "But it's a standard grandfather clause..."

He's generally a decent guy. Retired professor. We'd get along great ... but he's stuck between me and the more controlling board members who will take advantage of the loophole to force others to remake the community in their own image. You might recall those are the "NO CHAIRS ON YOUR FRONT STOOPS" crowd.

Before you suggest ditching HOAs, wife has made it clear that she wants to continue living in a condo so we don't have to worry about exterior maintenance. With her RA, she knows that I kick the bucket, she's not going to be able to do stuff herself. Snow removal and crass cutting are things she wants off her plate.

I treat it as just another level of government bureaucracy I have to deal with.

Looks like I'll be running for a seat on the board this winter. I warned them of that. The chair police will definitely run a couple of guys to try to get an advantage on the board.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang!

Looking at 73° under partly cloudy skies, cloud cover should thicken up during the day with a high temp of 87°. Then it looks like thunderstorms on or about the drive home.
Fun, fun, fun.

BBL

 

[troyphoto]

Also: For you N-Scalers, I've updated pricing on the Peco turnouts and the building kits in my sell-off thread:

Thread 'Troy's N-Scale Sell OFF'

May 27, 2026

Greetings.
I decided to switch to HO, and am selling off what I have in N-scale.

I'll do several posts, so scroll down to see more. My Direct Messages are open, so hit me up if you want to purchase:

Rules:
Offers considered, be reasonable.
Buyer pays shipping, taxes etc
Payment via PayPal preferred. Will also accept Venmo

Prefer to ship within the Continental US. Outside of that, buyer will pay all fees etc for importing.
I will pay shipping (within Continental US) on orders totally $200 or more.

Note: I never had an operating layout, so "how's it run" questions cannot be...

• troyphoto
• Replies: 7
• Forum: Model Railroad Items for Sale or Trade

 

[TLOC]

Good morning from our non HOA address. The So Central Wisconsin smoke haze has diminished as the AQI only reads 51 which means I can go outside on the deck! The temperature is 70f degrees going to 78 and that also means things can get done outside!

Terry has a couple hundred bucks worth of flowers and perennials at the nursery a couple miles away. We will pick them up and along with the grandkids help today we will plant them.

The severe storms possible yesterday missed us by many miles at 8pm. So many miles per the WeatherChannel radar they disappeared from the screen at 7 last night. They just dissipated. There at 6 and gone at 7, the rain would have been useful

I have 30 of the needed 25 birch tree wire armatures cut to length. I usually add 10% to a tree build but decided to do more for just in case cases! Today I will form the trunks by twisting the wires together.

Last week I asked the daughter if I could pave the gravel driveway and she said it’s not in their budget. Said I would handle it! She said fine but concrete not asphalt. Ouch! So the concrete guy came out yesterday and gave us a decent discounted price (he is a weathering client, the intermodal guy who‘s daughter does the custom graffiti). He also quoted the path between the daughter’s house and where we are above the stables and her offices because Terry asked him to. He normally is 6-8 weeks out but a job he had scheduled is about 6 weeks behind so next week they will be here for 3 days for the driveway. The path to concrete thing morphed into a landscape project when he and Terry started talking. The daughter and her hubby then joined in on that when it became involved. Some additional hardscape projects were discussed . While we are not paying rent or even utilities here I am I guess going to pay in other ways! All I wanted was to pave the driveway because I dislike gravel driveways, less gravel kick up and dust with asphalt but no…

The SIL texted me later saying even he was blindsided by the girls ideas. Oh well happy wife occasionally very happy Tom

Enjoy the day

 

[RhB Michael]

79°F/76°F this morning at 0730. Good morning.

This is supposed to be the last day for the heat warning. The dewpoint is supposed to crash overnight with the arrival of a dry cold front. There was a line of thunderstorms coming out of Iowa last night, but as expected, they dissipated before arriving in the St. Louis area. Patchy showers to the west that are going away too.

Grass cutting scheduled tomorrow with the lower dewpoints expected. The rear of the back yard has finally grown enough that I can see where I'm cutting, and in front of that, and the front yard hasn't gotten out of hand yet. The heat and lack of rain has done nothing to slow grass growth. Maybe I should cut it shorter.

Nothing on my plate today. I might chuck a few pieces of clothing in the washer, but it's not critical if I don't.

Have a safe day! Servus!

 

[rgeiter]

Another one found me at work. Found in the parking lot under a car. Probably hitched a ride from somewhere. Now safe and sound with me. Seems to be about 4 weeks old. Off to the vet today.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and 74°, expecting that high to be 104° later today. We did manage to briefly hit 100° yesterday, for our first triple-digit day of the year. That's the forecast for the foreseeable future. AQI has moved up to 51, from the industrial pollution emanating from the Dallas/Ft Worth area to the south with no real wind except a light breeze from that area, blowing the smog into but not out of our area.

I did take advantage of the lack of wind to do burn trash yesterday, after thoroughly mowing (scalping) the area around the burn barrel. We're not under a burn ban yet, but are probably pretty close. Other routine tasks both in and out of the house were done. Today looks to be more of the same. Pool at 89° is warmish but still refreshing.

Out in the train shed, I have an issue that I cannot resolve. A couple of days ago, I noted that the door wasn't completely shut, but cracked open about 1/2". Not sure how long it was like that or whether or not it had been opened wider at any point. Since then I have noted freight cars tipped over here and there. The only connection is that they are always in front of windows, and always on the upper level. I'm pretty sure that a bird made its way inside while the door was not tightly closed, but I have not seen it while I am inside. Some days, I find structures moved a bit and trees uprooted as well. It's annoying that I cannot find the culprit. I am now assuming that I will have to wait for it to die before I locate it. So far, nothing has been damaged, but I feel that the antagonist may soon get more desperate and flail about more wildly. The joys of living in the country.

Chet -

Even used a few colorful words in the process.

An ex-sailor using colorful words? I never would have imagined.
Bill - Kind of a sparse breakfast this morning!

Musician formerly known as Cat Stevens is 78 today.

Everyone have a great Tuesday.

 

[migalyto]

Good morning all!

Currently a breezy 78F. The high is supposed to be around 83F. After today we have several days of really nice Midwest weather where
the highs will be in the low to mid 70s. I do have some yard work to get to, so that will be the time.

Not a whole lot going on around here. Just a stray load of laundry and collect the garbage/recycle bins from the curb when the truck
rolls around later this morning. I should mow since our storms came earlier than what was predicted by several hours. I'm thinking it
will go till tomorrow. We do have a volleyball tournament tonight for my daughter high school league. will be glad when that's done
next week.

Have a safe day everyone!

 

[NWP Dave]

Good Morning All. Clear and 74°, expecting that high to be 104° later today. We did manage to briefly hit 100° yesterday, for our first triple-digit day of the year. That's the forecast for the foreseeable future. AQI has moved up to 51, from the industrial pollution emanating from the Dallas/Ft Worth area to the south with no real wind except a light breeze from that area, blowing the smog into but not out of our area.

I did take advantage of the lack of wind to do burn trash yesterday, after thoroughly mowing (scalping) the area around the burn barrel. We're not under a burn ban yet, but are probably pretty close. Other routine tasks both in and out of the house were done. Today looks to be more of the same. Pool at 89° is warmish but still refreshing.

Out in the train shed, I have an issue that I cannot resolve. A couple of days ago, I noted that the door wasn't completely shut, but cracked open about 1/2". Not sure how long it was like that or whether or not it had been opened wider at any point. Since then I have noted freight cars tipped over here and there. The only connection is that they are always in front of windows, and always on the upper level. I'm pretty sure that a bird made its way inside while the door was not tightly closed, but I have not seen it while I am inside. Some days, I find structures moved a bit and trees uprooted as well. It's annoying that I cannot find the culprit. I am now assuming that I will have to wait for it to die before I locate it. So far, nothing has been damaged, but I feel that the antagonist may soon get more desperate and flail about more wildly. The joys of living in the country.

Chet -

An ex-sailor using colorful words? I never would have imagined.
Bill - Kind of a sparse breakfast this morning!

Musician formerly known as Cat Stevens is 78 today.

Everyone have a great Tuesday.

We has a similar event years ago on the Sonoma Mountain RR layout. Both of us came at separate times asking what the heck is the other doing.
Turned out mice had invaded and made dinner out all of the Woodland Scenics fine leaf foliage trees and brush on the layout. They ate the branches/stick parts leaving only the green foam. Mice were eliminated.

 

[montanan]

Good Morning, or not as good as expected. Got my order in from modeltrainsnstuff and so much for the ballast. They sent fine ballast which is more or less sand, like the ballast Miley sent. too fine for track and I probably have enough that Mikey sent that I'll use in front of the businesses and homes. That new ballast will most likely end up in the trash bin. Doesn't make any sense to ship it back withj shipping cost being what they are.

I had mentioned that I needed a pin vise to try to drill starter holes for spikes for laying flex track. our local ACE hardware wanted $29 or so for one so I passed and used contact cement. It worked just fine as I won't be running any trains on that track. I found 2 pin vises shortly after the track was glued down and found a 3rd one the other day in of all places, my tool chest.

Found this drawer on a parts chest of a dozen or so drawers.

There it was with the wooden handle at the bottom of the photo. I think I have too many tools. My son has all sorts of tools I gave him when I moved such as a compound miter saw, table saw, plainer, and a number of power hand tools. I had a bad habit of not finding a tool I was looking for and going out and buying another. They add up.

Without any ballast I was going to use some of that fine ballast for gravel parking areas or put down some ground cover, but I would like to have an eye dropper to have better control of where glue is put down. Wednesday is my shopping day so I can pick one up tomorrow.

Willie - Don't forget that besides 6 years in the Navy, I also had 7 years working as a cop to fine tune my vocabulary.

I appreciate the comments on how my little project is coming along. I found that age has slowed me down some, mainly due to eyesight. Getting older may also have an effect.

Chadbag - It sounds like you might be an underdog.

Troy - I used to think I had no musical talent until my son told me that I have a great stereo system.

Going to post a few more photos from the archives.

The A unit in the front is a Genesis but the B unit and following A unit I had custom painted.

Gotta run, LATER

 

[DeaconKC]

Good morning folks, 89 here already with a HI of 104, gonna hit 99 here this afternoon supposed to have a HI of 115! Yikes.
Anyway, we got everything planned to get done yesterday done, so today is simply gonna be stay indoors in the AC. Had a cute little Bachmann engine arrive yesterday, one of the newer stuff with better gears. G'nephew Lucas showed up yesterday evening, usual starving 14 year old, so he had leftover spaghetti with us. Aaaaaand, he has discovered girls. He's talking with one he met at camp, her name is Addie.
My Missus decided to make us a quiche for late breakfast, this always leaves leftovers, so that is well appreciated.
Bob congrats on your parking lot find, he seems quite happy with his new place.
Chet, I love that wood handle pin vise. My ancient one died a few years ago and I replaced it with an Army Painter one that is really nice.
You guys have a great day.

 

[santafewillie]

Turned out mice had invaded and made dinner out all of the Woodland Scenics fine leaf foliage trees and brush on the layout. They ate the branches/stick parts leaving only the green foam. Mice were eliminated.

Been there before. Eliminated that issue a few years ago. I have a habit of being in the train shed with the door open during pleasant times of the year, and they were sneaking in. I currently have 3-4 mouse traps in strategic positions, but haven't caught any since before Covid. Birds don't normally approach while I'm in there with the door open, due to the high volume from the iPod docking station.

 

[migalyto]

Been there before. Eliminated that issue a few years ago. I have a habit of being in the train shed with the door open during pleasant times of the year, and they were sneaking in. I currently have 3-4 mouse traps in strategic positions, but haven't caught any since before Covid. Birds don't normally approach while I'm in there with the door open, due to the high volume from the iPod docking station.

Is it possible you have a snake residing in there somewhere? It might explain the no mice.

 

[Bruette]

<announce voice> It's the 7 year old league and it's a pop-up fly into right field. Troy is running to get under it. Mitt in the air. He's got this— Ooooow! right over the top of the glove and right between the eyes. He's down.

Don't worry folks, his mother beat the coaches to poor fella. He's sitting up. No. blood, but they're walking him off the field.

You did well, you got underneath the ball. I blame your coach for not teaching you to look under your glove, not over it. And mom running on the field... I don't know which is worse, you have my sympathy.

Sports aren’t for everyone. I tried to share my love of baseball with every player I coached, but some just weren’t interested. One of my fondest memories is sitting with a little boy at tee-ball whose mom was eager for him to be an athlete, even though it just wasn’t in him. At first, he was reluctant to come to practice, but eventually he was hurrying his mom so they could be on time. I’d have my coaches start practice while I sat with him as he ate his Pop-Tarts. He always offered me one. We chatted about cartoons, computers, he was brilliant, and anything else he felt like discussing. Baseball just never came up. When he finished his breakfast, he would give me his best effort in whatever drill I asked hm to do. The little fella couldn't catch a cold and wasn't strong enough to hit the ball past the pitcher's mound, but he learned to takeoff out of the batter's box immediately and he enjoyed running. He usually beat the throw, that often went past the first basemen. It's T-Ball everybody bats, inning over.

As long as every player was having fun, I considered that a success.

Ive made my position clear concerning coaching travel baseball; it wasn't for me. I played travel baseball as a kid. My coaches paid my way until I got a paper route.

 

[DeaconKC]

 

[Bruette]

high volume from the iPod docking station.

If it is too loud, you are too old. Well done young man!

My wife warns I’ll ruin my hearing, but I’m already legally deaf; what’s left to ruin? I might miss some notes in a song, but I make sure I can feel every beat!

Seems to be about 4 weeks old.

God Bless you! What is the little one's name?

 

[chadbag]

Clarification: When I said each kid had to do a sport and play an instrument, it didn’t need to be a team sport. In our case they both swam on a swim team but swimming is more an individual endeavor you do with your team. You’re mostly striving to better your times. Getting points at a meet is a bonus. At least now we looked at it.

My daughter’s only and last game of the Junior Olympics tournament just finished. They won in a shootout. It was 8-4 going into the second half and the other team had a good run and got 4 so it was 8-8 at the end of regulation.

Went to a shootout out. Each team has 5 players who take a shot, alternating. Our team went first and the girl bobbled it and so lost her shot. Their team shot and missed. We got the next 3 and they got 1 of the next 3 so once they couldn’t mathematically make it they stopped. So we won the shoot out 3-1.

It was a team we had beaten in the first day seed round.

So now we have the rest of the day (it’s 11am in California). Hopefully I can get a nap in but I suspect that those on the team not flying out today will do some sort of team activity. We may try and visit the Newport Beach LDS Temple this evening. I’ve not been there before.

We five home tomorrow. It’s about 9.75 hours of driving plus stops. About 670 miles.

We had to get some gas yesterday and found a Costco about 1 mile from the pool the match was at. 5.039. But compared to the normal station $5.39-5.89 I’ve seen I’ll take it. We got gas on Friday at the St George Costco at $3.89. And a top up on Friday at $4.49 in Vegas at ARCO.

I’ll top up at a different (cheaper I think) Costco and hope to make it to St. George before needing more gas.

It’s been fun. Some disappointments and some victories. Last year they were in the bronze bracket and this year in the silver bracket so it was a good improvement. Unfortunately my daughter is aging out of youth polo. So that was her last game.

The club’s 12u coed team was 8th in their bracket which is pretty good. (I think that’s what I heard).

We watched another Texas team win right before our game. They beat the team that had beaten us last night.

 

[kbkchooch]

Calzone from Ledo's. Best 6 dollar lunch in town (on Tuesdays)