Running Bear's July 2026 Coffee Shop

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Good morning from So Central Wisconsin where the smoke has temporarily been cleanse from our skies. Air Quality Index has us at 62 that the NWS says is moderate. There’s no smell and that by itself is wonderful! It’s 77f degrees heading only to 87! Hooray to Mother Nature. I looked out the window after doing the morning rituals which for me include testing the glucose, hopping on the scale and the 1st of 3 daily blood pressure readings. Then decided since the air is breathable to sit on the small deck here at the new place. Sitting there I thought I got dropped on by a bird or birds. I did not, it’s was a rain shower! It ended quickly though.

No track painting as my 2 helpers did not show yesterday.

So friend John Mueller, me and Bob the layout owner sat down to discuss the turn back curve at the entrance to the layout room. About 18’ of single track main on each level and about 12” deep on the lower level and 8” deep on the upper level needs to represent the wooded areas of Neguanee, Michigan (upper level):which is located in the UP or upper peninsula to those that thought UP always means Union Pacific. I will handle the track painting and trees, John will handle the land forms and ground covers. John and his CNW Northern Memories have appeared many times in model railroader over the last few years. John is a modest humble guy but his scenery is stunning. His scene creation is outstanding and I feel pretty good about working with him. We did get the cardboard webbing strips hot glued in on the upper deck yesterday. He’s going to lead on this and I’ll play helper except for the tree building. That’s mine except for the conifers that Bob the owner had some nice ones that he gave John 2 boxes to sort through. As a guess we are thinking 200 to 250 trees on each level but 1 level at a time and we are starting on the upper level. The tree mix is 70% hardwoods and 30% conifers. The hard woods will basically be weeping or trembling Aspens, white birch and maples. The tree mix is based on research yesterday afternoon and evening and agreed with by Bob and John about 10 last night. The US Forest Service has an unreal amount of data online. I have a number for heights of the tree species I’ll be building. This will be a nice scene

The granddaughter via her animal husbandry class at school will be showing some animals at the County Fair in Madison today at 2 to 3. If the air quality stays decent Terry can come with her little oxygen cylinder if she needs it. If it had been Friday Terry could not have gone as the AQI was 290 and higher from breakfast to dinner. Around dinner time the southern winds really picked up into the teens and blew the smoke away!

The granddaughter was our 1st official visitor as she and her Summer “watcher” rode the e-scooters down to see us around 4 yesterday afternoon. They picked flowers from her mom’s garden for us.They came for popsicles.

Enjoy your day
 
Good morning gang!

Well. I think it is morning. The clock says it is, but we can't see the sun at all. Even after having a 4 am thunderstorm the smoke is still thick!

Currently it is 73°, heading to 87°, the AQI says 171-unhealthy. Hopefully some late afternoon thunderstorms coming from the south will kick the smoke out of here. Brought the wife's car to work today. The damn tire pressure sensor on the right front died, might as well replace them all and get it over with.

Need more coffee, BBL
 


Grandpa is doing fine and recovering in the hospital. His femur was broken and that is the extent of his injuries.

Where did you read that he may not survive?
From a wildlife photographer I follow. He had posted pics of bison and gotten comments about the guy. The information there was "broken pelvis and other injuries and may not survive". It seems conflicting reports were issued or maybe the injuries grew in the telling. I'm glad to hear it's less severe. Still not funny though. 🤷‍♀️
 
Morning All! 77 in the Brew City, going to 88. How about that? A day where we don't get into the 90's! 57 air quality this morning. Looks like we're getting a reprieve from the smoke and haze. That was a good piece of advice to run the house fan constantly. We got a little rain which helped. I found some proper sized numbers for the F units and got the nose numbers done. Now all that's left is the number boards on the lead unit. These early ABBA sets were treated as one locomotive, so no numbers on the B units and both A's carried the same number. No position designation as with the Santa Fe's L-A-B-C lettering. I found a good pic to base weathering on:

F units Prototype.jpg


Enjoy your weekend!
 
I just finished watching the Orioles take the first of a three-game set with the Astros, 3-2. I expected this to be a fun series to watch, and the first game did not disappoint me. And I'll be damned if the Astros didn't wear their Orange Jerseys!

It is always a pleasure to watch Jose Altuve. The little man is one of my favorites!

José Altuve is the smallest MVP in modern MLB history.​

At 5'6", he is:
  • the shortest MVP winner since the award was created in 1931
  • one of the shortest everyday players of the modern era
  • the shortest player ever to win three batting titles, an MVP, and multiple World Series rings!
And he didn’t just win MVP — he dominated:
  • 2017 AL MVP
  • .346 average
  • 204 hits
  • 24 homeruns
  • 32 steals
  • 8.3 WAR
Jose Altuve has won enough awards to fill up a warehouse! Gold glove Award, Hank Arron Award, Lou Gehrig Award, 2-time MLB Players Choice Player of the Year (that is a big one!), 9-time All-Star, 7-time Silver Slugger and many more!

He’s a walking reminder that baseball isn’t about size - it’s about skill, instincts, and heart.
 
Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 76° in my backyard. Mother Nature has gifted us with an AQI of 33 this morning, thankfully we don't get Canadian smoke. High temperature will return to the mid-90's today and tomorrow with triple digits predicted for the rest of the 10 day forecast, reaching maybe 105° by mid-week. I'll take the heat over the smoke or humidity any day! Some rain would be nice, but probably not until October.

Another insignificant day around here yesterday. I did mow on one side of the pond, which is rapidly receding. It will be dry by month's end. A load of laundry and some indoor home maintenance rounded out the day. Wife cooked some beef short ribs and smashed cauliflower for supper.
Today will start with the dishwasher and I need to do pool maintenance, topping it up and re-balancing the chemicals.

Split my time out in the train shed yesterday, between re-assembling the small TOFC yard and working on structures in downtown Ft Wish.
1784380902308.jpeg

Decided to finally work on the area in the center of the turnaround blob. The tallest structure on my layout is the Walther's kit, Ashmore Hotel. Next to it is a Bachmann kit of a bus station.
1784380971825.jpeg

Note that I haven't done the road striping yet.
1784380987101.jpeg

1784380999140.jpeg

The hotel isn't exactly to scale, it's actually a bit undersized. It stands at a scale 88' tall despite the ground floor being a scale 15'. After removing everything , I am in the process of painting all of the alley and driveway areas a concrete color before proceeding. I knew at the time when I initially built this area, that I should have done the ground before adding the upper level; but in my zeal to get trains running, I didn't. I now am paying for it by having to lean in under the upper level to do the work. In my defense, I did not have the bus station at the time and had different structures there.

Troy - Happy Anniversary.
Bill - I love the band name, "The Flying Toasters". Should be a fun event.

Martha Reeves of Martha & the Vandellas is 85 today and still going strong.

Everyone have a super Saturday. Watch that AQI if there's smoke in your area.
 
Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 76° in my backyard. Mother Nature has gifted us with an AQI of 33 this morning, thankfully we don't get Canadian smoke. High temperature will return to the mid-90's today and tomorrow with triple digits predicted for the rest of the 10 day forecast, reaching maybe 105° by mid-week. I'll take the heat over the smoke or humidity any day! Some rain would be nice, but probably not until October.

Another insignificant day around here yesterday. I did mow on one side of the pond, which is rapidly receding. It will be dry by month's end. A load of laundry and some indoor home maintenance rounded out the day. Wife cooked some beef short ribs and smashed cauliflower for supper.
Today will start with the dishwasher and I need to do pool maintenance, topping it up and re-balancing the chemicals.

Split my time out in the train shed yesterday, between re-assembling the small TOFC yard and working on structures in downtown Ft Wish.
View attachment 270118
Decided to finally work on the area in the center of the turnaround blob. The tallest structure on my layout is the Walther's kit, Ashmore Hotel. Next to it is a Bachmann kit of a bus station.
View attachment 270119
Note that I haven't done the road striping yet.
View attachment 270120
View attachment 270121
The hotel isn't exactly to scale, it's actually a bit undersized. It stands at a scale 88' tall despite the ground floor being a scale 15'. After removing everything , I am in the process of painting all of the alley and driveway areas a concrete color before proceeding. I knew at the time when I initially built this area, that I should have done the ground before adding the upper level; but in my zeal to get trains running, I didn't. I now am paying for it by having to lean in under the upper level to do the work. In my defense, I did not have the bus station at the time and had different structures there.

Troy - Happy Anniversary.
Bill - I love the band name, "The Flying Toasters". Should be a fun event.

Martha Reeves of Martha & the Vandellas is 85 today and still going strong.

Everyone have a super Saturday. Watch that AQI if there's smoke in your area.
 
Good morning from So Central Wisconsin where the smoke has temporarily been cleanse from our skies. Air Quality Index has us at 62 that the NWS says is moderate. There’s no smell and that by itself is wonderful! It’s 77f degrees heading only to 87! Hooray to Mother Nature. I looked out the window after doing the morning rituals which for me include testing the glucose, hopping on the scale and the 1st of 3 daily blood pressure readings. Then decided since the air is breathable to sit on the small deck here at the new place. Sitting there I thought I got dropped on by a bird or birds. I did not, it’s was a rain shower! It ended quickly though.

No track painting as my 2 helpers did not show yesterday.

So friend John Mueller, me and Bob the layout owner sat down to discuss the turn back curve at the entrance to the layout room. About 18’ of single track main on each level and about 12” deep on the lower level and 8” deep on the upper level needs to represent the wooded areas of Neguanee, Michigan (upper level):which is located in the UP or upper peninsula to those that thought UP always means Union Pacific. I will handle the track painting and trees, John will handle the land forms and ground covers. John and his CNW Northern Memories have appeared many times in model railroader over the last few years. John is a modest humble guy but his scenery is stunning. His scene creation is outstanding and I feel pretty good about working with him. We did get the cardboard webbing strips hot glued in on the upper deck yesterday. He’s going to lead on this and I’ll play helper except for the tree building. That’s mine except for the conifers that Bob the owner had some nice ones that he gave John 2 boxes to sort through. As a guess we are thinking 200 to 250 trees on each level but 1 level at a time and we are starting on the upper level. The tree mix is 70% hardwoods and 30% conifers. The hard woods will basically be weeping or trembling Aspens, white birch and maples. The tree mix is based on research yesterday afternoon and evening and agreed with by Bob and John about 10 last night. The US Forest Service has an unreal amount of data online. I have a number for heights of the tree species I’ll be building. This will be a nice scene

The granddaughter via her animal husbandry class at school will be showing some animals at the County Fair in Madison today at 2 to 3. If the air quality stays decent Terry can come with her little oxygen cylinder if she needs it. If it had been Friday Terry could not have gone as the AQI was 290 and higher from breakfast to dinner. Around dinner time the southern winds really picked up into the teens and blew the smoke away!

The granddaughter was our 1st official visitor as she and her Summer “watcher” rode the e-scooters down to see us around 4 yesterday afternoon. They picked flowers from her mom’s garden for us.They came for popsicles.

Enjoy your day
I forget, the "new place" is at your daughter's stables? or vineyard?

And you have property to build on close by?

You've moved so much I forget where you're at now.
 


Good morning all!

Forum was acting wonky again earlier so I figured I would try later.

Much better air quality today than yesterday. No where near as hazy and stagnant. I was out around the pool earlier this morning and there is
a really nice breeze blowing. Currently its 84F and the high is supposed to top out at somewhere around 91F there is a 33% chance of a pop
up thunderstorm later this afternoon.

Usual Saturday stuff today. Weekly grocery trip, fill the wife's car up for the week, and some laundry. I may wait till tomorrow to mow its going
to be a little bit cooer.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
I forget, the "new place" is at your daughter's stables? or vineyard?

And you have property to build on close by?

You've moved so much I forget where you're at now.
We are on the daughter’s 10 acres, above the stables which are sort of attached to her workshop/office, my modeling shop and meeting hall.

Yes we still have 360 acres we can build on though the girls have chosen the new if it happens place to be near and overlooking the wetlands of the property. I think they love mosquitos. Hey the last place we lived in twice once for 2 years then a 5 year gap and then almost 2.5 this last time
 
Good morning folks, 87 here heading for 95. Sunny and will be in the upper 90s to triple digits here for the next 10 days, with a slight chance of rain next week. Lady C is finishing getting ready to go help at a wedding for some good friend's daughter today. I will leave a bit later. They are a really sweet couple, she is a little bit of a very lovable ditz and thankfully he is a guy with a ton of common sense and patience.
Did a little bit of modeling last night, re-did the trim paint on a freight station to better match the pre-painted passenger station I had. Of course it was much easier to paint that trim before assembly, but was still able to get the trim redone. Also got the paint finished on a Milwaukee Road caboose that will get it's decals tonight.
Well, I guess I will go and get ready for tonight. Best wishes to all of you good luck to the young ladies in the water polo!
 
Good morning. The heat is on today through at least Tuesday. 81°F/76°F currently, with heat index to top 100°F today. It's tolerable in the shade with a light breeze if you have a wiping towel for your forehead, face, and neck, but it's not very pleasant.

The only reason I spend any time in this mess is that Willow needs exercise. Other than that, we're inside in the A/C.

Except that today I'm going to fire up the grill for a few pork steaks and lose a pound or two in the process.

Have a safe weekend. Servus!
 
Mid 80s and somewhat humid here in Fullerton where the first game for her will be. There is a game going on right now. Luckily the “stands” are covered so we’re not in direct sun. Most of the schools and clubs seem to play outside here. In Utah it’s almost always indoors. So they will have to deal with sun.
 
The team hotel is in Santa Ana but the first game was here in Fullerton. Basically a 5 mile drive up the road next to where we are staying (Worldmark Dolphin Cove). So we lucked out there. Both games today are here and maybe a third depending on how they do. Today are the games to set the seeding.
 


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