Running Bear's July 2026 Coffee Shop

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Morning all,

Hope not to make it another month or so before I log back in.

Hopefully all are well and I haven't missed anything important.

Been a hectic month and the busy crap still hasn't slowed down.

After the move to the old Senior Center, and a few complaints about the air quality, they evacuated us to various other buildings in the city and now that building is in the hands of the remodeling contractor 5 months early. Taken us a bit to get get everything out and settled. Then we have 2 parks getting added to our IT infrastructure (cameras, access control, wifi, etc.). We have public WiFi available in and around all our building and most parks.

The home front is busy as well, no rhyme or reason. Get home too tired to do anything and then the 3-day weekends tend to be way to short to get anything done other than the mowing, church and laundry. I've got to get some vacation time scheduled, but keep getting denied as we're too busy. Got way to much vacation time building up and I don't find staying home "relaxing".
 
Good morning gang!

66° under sunny skies, looking for a high of 79°.

Stopped at Tim Horton's again this morning, large coffee and a sausage, egg and cheese bagel sammich! Dunkin is now dead in my eyes!

Sadly, I can't go there tomorrow because I will be off from work. I'll travel the opposite direction to do battle with the wholly incompetent staff at my doctors office. Depending how that goes I just may pull my records and move my medical stuff to another Doctor who is in a smaller practice,
Husband and wife, both doctors. They opened a clinic here a few years back and now they have transformed to a full fledged practice. I've used the clinic before and I have been quite satisfied with the results. Well see how that goes.

BBL
 
santafewillie said:
While it wasn't as hot yesterday as it was on Tuesday, it was still hot enough to limit my outdoor activity. My tolerance for the heat has been reduced in the past few years. Pool was still refreshing though.
Click to expand...

Mine too. On the hottest, most humid days I have to pass on the grass cutting. Being retired though does allow me the luxury of cutting it when I want to instead of what my work schedule dictates. I managed to cut and trim yesterday in a little over an hour because the weather was so nice.

If I had to cut this coming Sunday when the heat is on again, it might well take 2+ hours with a couple of breaks. Two things I hate more than just about anything is cutting grass and summer humidity. I've had major cardiac surgery as well, and after 16 years I don't want to tempt fate.
 


Patrick said:
Morning all,

Hope not to make it another month or so before I log back in.

Hopefully all are well and I haven't missed anything important.

Been a hectic month and the busy crap still hasn't slowed down.

After the move to the old Senior Center, and a few complaints about the air quality, they evacuated us to various other buildings in the city and now that building is in the hands of the remodeling contractor 5 months early. Taken us a bit to get get everything out and settled. Then we have 2 parks getting added to our IT infrastructure (cameras, access control, wifi, etc.). We have public WiFi available in and around all our building and most parks.

The home front is busy as well, no rhyme or reason. Get home too tired to do anything and then the 3-day weekends tend to be way to short to get anything done other than the mowing, church and laundry. I've got to get some vacation time scheduled, but keep getting denied as we're too busy. Got way to much vacation time building up and I don't find staying home "relaxing".
Click to expand...
Welcome back Patrick.

We were getting kind of concerned since we hadn't seen you in a while.

Glad all is well, hopefully thing get less hectic for you!
 
Good Morning Again!

Have been playing with Inkscape - lots of learning still to do. Anyway, what do you think of the 1st ( 5th, 6th ... etc ) try?

This is 120 x 120 px.

LogoDrops120.png

I keep trying to add *more* stuff but unsure where it gets too busy. I do think I need a wider gutter between the text and the upper/lower circle. Anybody else use Inkscape? Would I be better off starting at the smallest image needed ( 1" to 1.5" ) for side of Engine? Source is SVG exported to PNG.
Comments, Ideas?

L8r
 
Patrick said:
Morning all,

Hope not to make it another month or so before I log back in.

Hopefully all are well and I haven't missed anything important.

Been a hectic month and the busy crap still hasn't slowed down.

After the move to the old Senior Center, and a few complaints about the air quality, they evacuated us to various other buildings in the city and now that building is in the hands of the remodeling contractor 5 months early. Taken us a bit to get get everything out and settled. Then we have 2 parks getting added to our IT infrastructure (cameras, access control, wifi, etc.). We have public WiFi available in and around all our building and most parks.

The home front is busy as well, no rhyme or reason. Get home too tired to do anything and then the 3-day weekends tend to be way to short to get anything done other than the mowing, church and laundry. I've got to get some vacation time scheduled, but keep getting denied as we're too busy. Got way to much vacation time building up and I don't find staying home "relaxing".
Click to expand...
Welcome back Patrick. We are still the home ground for the bot attacks
 
kbkchooch said:
It's not bad,, I've been outside in and out of hot cars in a black polo and black jeans, and I am barely breaking a sweat at 85°.
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Must be better out there in God's country. It didn't feel so nice to me when i poked my head outside. It wasn't bad when I got home at 8am, by noon, not so nice here in what i like to call the Zoo.

Today is beautiful! It was 67 early this morning and now it is 75 with 50% humidity! I was even able to cut the back yard grass. Go me!

My swollen feet are slowly improving. I looked like a cartoon character with fat-boy feet attached to skinny legs, but as I said they are improving.
 
ctclibby said:
Good Morning Again!

Have been playing with Inkscape - lots of learning still to do. Anyway, what do you think of the 1st ( 5th, 6th ... etc ) try?

This is 120 x 120 px.

View attachment 270492
I keep trying to add *more* stuff but unsure where it gets too busy. I do think I need a wider gutter between the text and the upper/lower circle. Anybody else use Inkscape? Would I be better off starting at the smallest image needed ( 1" to 1.5" ) for side of Engine? Source is SVG exported to PNG.
Comments, Ideas?

L8r
Click to expand...
The earlier the time, the more ornate a logo would be.
If you’re working with a time from the mid 1980s and later, the logo would probably be simplified to the point of just being initials.
 
ctclibby said:
Good Morning Again!

Have been playing with Inkscape - lots of learning still to do. Anyway, what do you think of the 1st ( 5th, 6th ... etc ) try?

This is 120 x 120 px.

View attachment 270492
I keep trying to add *more* stuff but unsure where it gets too busy. I do think I need a wider gutter between the text and the upper/lower circle. Anybody else use Inkscape? Would I be better off starting at the smallest image needed ( 1" to 1.5" ) for side of Engine? Source is SVG exported to PNG.
Comments, Ideas?

L8r
Click to expand...

The background is too dark and the oil well nearly disappears. Try a sky blue background. Or the blue used for the lettering.
 


DeaconKC said:
@chadbag I don't even let silicone caulk near the layout because of it's resistance to take paint. But I'm chicken so there is that to consider.
Click to expand...
Yeah.

I’m not painting my unitrack after fastening it down and I try and use a blob that’s mostly hidden underneath the track.

Not saying my way is best. Latex caulk may be better. It’s just what I figured out and was using.
 
I had an interesting trip last night.
A few days ago, I had internet installed in the house trailer at the lake.
My son in law convinced me to split the bill so he could work from the lake and fish while not working.
The internet was installed and I used the password to connect my cell phone. I wrote down the wi-fi name and password so the family could log on while there. The installer finished the paperwork and both of us left.
A few days later, my daughter and some of her friends were staying at the lake, but could not log onto the net. I came over to the lake for a boat ride and my phone automatically connected. Her phone still would not connect with the password.
Last night, my SIL with his computer and phone, my wife with her computer, her Ipad and phone, and me went to the lake to try to find the problem. My phone did not auto connect this time. Checked all connections and used the password on all devices unsuccessfully.

The SIL called the provider and got a male with a heavy Indian or Pakistani accent. After establishing that my SIL was the bill payer of record, they found that the installer had added an extra letter to the password. When we tried the recorded password, all devices connected. Rather than change the provider's password, we decided to change and use the recorded password. The new password is illogical now and will be harder for someone to hack.
The 3 hour experience resulted in an unhealthy supper of popcorn and ice cream. But, it sure did taste good.
 
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Good morning, all! We are awaiting Bertha's second landfall this afternoon. This is my second Bertha. The first was aboard a 180 foot buoy tender, Gentian, in 1966. Small boats were moved well up into Houston along the Trinity river, but the larger vessels put to sea. The Gulf of Mexico can get very rough and angry. Of a 55 man crew, only 5 of us didn't get seasick. I was standing watches as the Bosum Mate of the Watch as well as Quartermaster of Watch at the same time. I wasn't a Quartermaster.

Sophia most definitely.
I found the AI post very interesting, though I doubt I'll use it.
Patrick - good to see you haven't abandoned us. Hopefully things will slow down for you soon.

AI generated
1784827469608.png


STAY SAFE
LATER
 
PNKFLOYD said:
I had an interesting trip last night.
A few days ago, I had internet installed in the house trailer at the lake.
My son in law convinced me to split the bill so he could work from the lake and fish while not working.
The internet was installed and I used the password to connect my cell phone. I wrote down the wi-fi name and password so the family could log on while there. The installer finished the paperwork and both of us left.
A few days later, my daughter and some of her friends were staying at the lake, but could not log onto the net. I came over to the lake for a boat ride and my phone automatically connected. Her phone still would not connect with the password.
Last night, my SIL with his computer and phone, my wife with her computer, her Ipad and phone, and me went to the lake to try to find the problem. My phone did not auto connect this time. Checked all connections and used the password on all devices unsuccessfully.

The SIL called the provider and got a male with a heavy Indian or Pakistani accent. After establishing that my SIL was the bill payer of record, they found that the installer had added an extra letter to the password. When we tried the recorded password, all devices connected. Rather than change the provider's password, we decided to change and use the recorded password. The new password is illogical now and will be harder for someone to hack.
The 3 hour experience resulted in an unhealthy supper of popcorn and ice cream. But, it sure did taste good.
Click to expand...
The question is did the installer do it by accident or on purpose? I’d change it if possible. To a unique one.
 
We drove home from California yesterday. Two short bathroom breaks and one slightly longer break at Costco in St George. Bathroom, gas, ice cream at the food court and enough time to eat my sandwich and the ice cream. About 10.5 hours total time for about 670 or so miles.

Left California right around 11:35am California time (12:35 pm Utah time) and got home around 11:03pm Utah time.

It was fun to take a short break. Now back to the grind.
 
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@PNKFLOYD popcorn and ice cream? Let's see, corn is a vegetable, ice cream is dairy, so you had a healthy dinner with two of the major food groups.
Patrick, good to see you again, you have been missed.
Well the guys for the bathroom got here early and have been hard at it since. I've peeked in a couple of times and am impressed, they are doing exceptionally good work. Water was only off a couple hours so no major inconvenience. Won a low ball bid on two HO Pennsy K4s in a lot. I only need one, but one is damaged, so it may become a parts donor for someone if it's not too bad to repair. Got a Milwaukee Road caboose decaled and most of the work done on a Woodland Scenics Gas Station, both N scale. Waiting for my Sinclair decals to get here to get it looking complete. And shouldn't need more than a couple hours more paint work on details. A very nice kit, I'm pleased with it, nice to have the detail stuff included.
As soon as the workers finish up I am heading to Church to help herd kids for VBS, but I may be late. I don't want to rush these guys, like I said they are doing a really good job.
 

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Well, howdy there internet peeps, and those with good visual memories

it's Troy again.

I had an OH WOW! moment today.
Let's experiment: Close your eyes. Now think of your favorite loco. Model or real, doesn't matter. Then think of it in bright pink color scheme.

Now, if you did that, did you really see it "in your mind's eye"?

I can't. The visual doesn't exit in my brain. It does a little... but I can't actually picture my mother's face. I remember a photo of her that my sister posts to facbook often. But I remember a swath of color where the light hit the off-white wall turning it yellow. Mom's favorite color was yellow.

I remember her tan recliner, and the brown table next to her. I know what was on it, and I can picture the shapes, but I have to think about the colors and paste them in manually. When I do that, the rest of the mental painting I'm building manually disappears.

Today I saw a video pop up that was an interview with novelist of Andy Weir (The Martian, and Hail Mary). He said he has Aphantasia. Not total, but kind of like me. He can painstakingly build a mental image, but it's a challenge.

The website below has a photo of a horse, and a bunch of sliders to change the photo of a horse to match what you see in you minds eye in the seconds after someone says "Close your eyes and think of a horse"



Here's mine:

Troy's Horse.png


Anyone else have problems seeing "with your mind's eye?"
 
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