Running Bear's June 2024 Coffee Shop

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It was a great day in the trainroom at 68f degrees, no wind, no rain and the humidity was at 42%. We tried to eat lunch at noon out on the deck where it was 84 degrees, a 12 mpg wind gusting to 25 and humidity at 79%. We ate at the kitchen table as there is no food or drink allowed in the train room. Grilled chicken breast on grilled Kaiser rolls and German potato salad was the menu. I offered pork and beans but that was a 100% no.

While we didn’t accomplish as much as the ambitious plan was this morning we got plenty done. We did not get all the styrene cut and glued down for the paper mill pavement. We tested trains at all kinds of speeds though. The 5’ of rail tear out also did not happen because each of the 3 diesels and the 30 cars we tested went through that offending section very nicely. The 10 offending cars from Sunday were tweaked and were part of the 30. Running 3 separate Athearn Genesis Gp40-2L’s at once only took .6 amps. I consisted 2 commission diesels and those added .3 amps so the Power Cab easily handled the .9 load. I will plug in the NCE SB5 smart booster I think tonight. I have my 3 gp40-2L’s and 5 commission diesel units I want to start up and see how they do. The SB5 addition maybe over kill but the price was good and I prefer to over power than under

One thing done but not on the list was we added the NCE Power Cab PCP to my program track. Its wired and when I want to program just bring over the Power Cab throttle and away I can go…

One of the guys was asking about my intermodal stuff! This current layout is a small switching layout and intermodal is too much for it. I have 3 Kato sets of the Pacer units 1 is lightly weathered, 1 unweathered set and the 3rd one is medium weathered with tags and graffiti. Not sure he liked the prices. I have a unweathered new in the box Altas set and a couple 5 car Walthers sets he turned his interest to.

Interesting we now have winds gusting to 50mph and rain is supposed to be severe over the next hour
 


FAMILY GUY_DOG.png

Good morning! It's 66° in Tipton.
DINER MENU_4.jpg
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Just saw this on the news: Looks like a white buffalo has been born in the wild in Yellowstone. In captivity this occurs enough to not be notable. In the wild it is rare.

Lakota elders are interpreting this as a likely return of a 2000 year old prophecy linked to White Buffalo Calf Woman, who is credited in Lakota lore with teaching the Lakota people how to live and prosper.

www.bbc.com

Rare white bison at Yellowstone evokes Native American prophecy

The story of the white buffalo is key to the religion of many Native American tribes in North America.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
troyphoto said:
Just saw this on the news: Looks like a white buffalo has been born in the wild in Yellowstone. In captivity this occurs enough to not be notable. In the wild it is rare.

Lakota elders are interpreting this as a likely return of a 2000 year old prophecy linked to White Buffalo Calf Woman, who is credited in Lakota lore with teaching the Lakota people how to live and prosper.

www.bbc.com

Rare white bison at Yellowstone evokes Native American prophecy

The story of the white buffalo is key to the religion of many Native American tribes in North America.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
Click to expand...
Now we just have to hope there isn't a sneak surprise of a blue moon this month too. That would likely indicate a full scale snamboozledelectate in the southern hemisphere.
 
TLOC said:
There are guys here writing about it that have gone through it at different times than what NYC_GEORGE is going through now. They were or are in different states. He’s living it now and New York State is after all, New York. It’s different.
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Tom we only had one trust fund set up. My wife put $10,000.00 in a trust fund around 10 years ago. When I turned over all our finances to the lawyer, she said this $10,000 trust has to be changed today. It's an asset. You call the trust and change it to what I have written on the paper. I worked as railroad engineer for 13 years and then spent 25 years pouring concrete floors and walls on 50 story buildings. I'm no expert on trust funds. Pouring concrete maybe, trust funds no. I always assumed trusts were for sibling. We have none it's just my wife and myself.
Swal
 
NYC_George said:
Tom we only had one trust fund set up. My wife put $10,000.00 in a trust fund around 10 years ago. When I turned over all our finances to the lawyer, she said this $10,000 trust has to be changed today. It's an asset. You call the trust and change it to what I have written on the paper. I worked as railroad engineer for 13 years and then spent 25 years pouring concrete floors and walls on 50 story buildings. I'm no expert on trust funds. Pouring concrete maybe, trust funds no. I always assumed trusts were for sibling. We have none it's just my wife and myself.
Swal
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Every state defines things differently. I understand the frustration you are going through must be overwelhming.
 


Saturday is the big yard sale event at Stormville Airport. I plan on selling a lot of stuff there. I had one of my golf buddies and his wife over to look at the jewelry I plan on selling. It was 3 boxes of my mothers, Janes mothers and Janes jewelry. My friend's wife found 3 gold neckless, 3 gold rings, 3 sets of gold earrings that I knew where mixed in somewhere because I gave them to my wife almost 30 years ago. She also found 10 pieces of sterling silver neckless etc. She told me don't be selling these items I set aside at the yard sale. Three years ago I did sell some other gold that was my wife's mother's for $3,500.00 at the We Buy Gold place where we live. I don't know how much this new gold I found is worth, but I be visiting the We Buy Gold place again in a few weeks.

Stromville_Airport_Yard_Sale.JPG
 
Good morning from a thrilling wake up in So. Central Wisconsin. Around 4:15 it felt like the bed and house were shaking. It was just the 60mph gusts of winds. About 4:40 I could hear the thunder off in the distance but at 4:45 it sounded fairly close. A few minutes later I could hear the sirens from Emergency Services in the neighborhood. At 5 the Lightning finally made an appearance across the skies to our south. It was kind of neat looking! At 5:15 the rain started and within a few minutes it was a down pour. At 6 the sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky. 45 minutes later it’s still a cloudless sky and the rain is over Lake Michigan per the WeatherChannel radar.

Currently it’s 66f degrees heading into the mid 80’s, winds at 10mph and the rain is done for the day. The street (we r on a corner) next to us is blocked by a police car! I will walk down the block within the hour to play the nosey neighbor. Out on the south deck re-arranging the wind blown furniture I could hear the ES radio chatter

I go see Tina Turner the Musical at 7:30pm. It should be fun but the parking garages downturn are predicted to be full by 6. The downtown Night Market is tonight and the area will be packed. Dinner will not be downtown tonight! Normally we don’t have Summer tickets to the theater. But this was originally scheduled during the season of Covid and re-scheduled for now

Trains, I’ll be in the room futzing with the pavement in the paper mill. I will pack up the cars tested and tweaked yesterday and bring out 30 more for testing and tweaking if needed. The guys were intending to come back today but 1 cancelled last night, 1 was iffy and I have not heard from him and #3 guy who did the tweaking on the cars yesterday decided he will be working from his own bench. He took my 12 ScaleTrain reefers that roll like lead weights and will “tweak” (his word) to roll as they should for next week some time. He said he was looking forward to the challenge. I am glad he is as I gave up on them…

Enjoy the day
TomO
 
Good Morning All!

47F @ 59% still clear - 75F later as it has been cooling down some.

The bank has been calling me to give me compliments. They say I have an 'outstanding balance'.

Ya know the other day when I posted something about 'return to normal'? Boy, Charlie Daniels must be coming out of Georgia.

1st up - tractor left front went flat. Suspect that I ran over a downed tree with short sharp broken branch sticking up. Used the tractor to 'jack it up' and got it off to take to the tire guy.

2nd - next day went and picked it up and placed it near the tractor. Sh.t happened, cell phone decided to die and we spent 1/2 a day checking out our 3 stores ( Verizone, T-Moble and AT&T ) for the best deal. Called Mint, Consumer Cellular and another, name forgotten. Boy, they are not even close to what their TV ads say. They want gold for those cell phones! Anyway, finally called Verizone and was able to talk them into a new Samsung ( model forgot ) for $200 each ( got one for each of us ). The data plan was the cheapest we could do so we still are hovering at about $90/Mo for the two phones. As as note, we found that AT&T and T-Moble not workie so good in this area, so Verizone is the only game in town. A funny - Consumer Cellular tried to tell me that text over wifi does not work, and never has. Ya, I can watch it happen on the router - from my phone heading for vztext. com. And for those that do not know, you can send eMail to [MyNumber]@vztext.com. I did ask the CC girl if she ever heard about vztext.com - no clue.

3rd - When we got done with all of that I went out to put the small tire back on and found that the right rear was flat. My pnumatic impact wrench had not been used for quite awhile so it was Kaput. So, I went looking for my cheater bar, no joy. Went to Ace for a short piece of 1" inside dia pipe. Dang if they didn't put the power tools on the way back to the plumbing stuff and spotted a Craftsman battey powered Impact driver for $199 with $30 off. Same battery and charger as my current drills and ( little ) impact drivers and because they have done so good, got that one. Again, jacked it up with tractor using the rear stabizer and back hoe bucket. This one was a little tougher as we are talking a 250Lb tire/wheel. Got it off ok, but 'put it in the truck' took two of us to get-r done. Same problem, poked a hole it that one too. Geesh these are 16ply tires. Oh, and the fix it price was almost 4 times the price of the left front.

4th - when picking up the finished tire, the Nissan started screwing up: would not start. Was about 2 miles from home, so went in and called Maria to come and fetch me. Well, decided to try the Nissan again and it started. Made it home and it shut down while sitting where I park it in the driveway; would not start again. Found that my code decoder was nowhere to be seen. Off to NAPA for a new one. Was expecting to pay upwards of $350 for a middle of the line model. Good news, those things are cheaper than ever now. Got an Innova for $139 that does everything but open your beer. Ya, they still lie somewhat, but a bunch better than the older ones. Found that the Crankshaft Position Sensor was Kaput. Sure, that is buried on the block right rear near the firewall.

So today after the tractor is fixed will use it to jack up the Nissan and unbury that sensor. Yes, will put jack stands under while working on it.

Wish me luck

Later
 
Good Morning All. Mostly clear and 70°. The countdown began anew yesterday and we have now gone 36 hours without rain, fingers crossed. The 10 day forecast looks good, highs in the low-90's and overnight lows in the mid to low-70's. Rain is forecast for next Thursday, but that's too far away to be near accurate.

Still doing clean-up here. Yesterday I retrieved a couple more items along the road easement that I missed the first time around. Nothing important, but I did find another metal t-post that blew over 100'. I did drag a couple more pieces of the train shed metal roof out to the roadside ditch; eventually the county will pick up that and all of the trees that they pushed there, when they get ready to mow! I also restarted cutting the older trees that the neighboring farmer left me last fall, which will be the first firewood for next winter season. My downed trees probably won't have aged enough by then, but I shouldn't need any of them. until 2025.

Whooops! It's Thursday again, back to the weekly grocery trek. Other than the drugstore, nothing else is on the itinerary today, at least that I know of yet. Wife may have something in mind.

Another brief day out in the train shed yesterday. After re-planting some of the rebuilt structures on the layout, I started looking for more damage and found Garner's Market. I am not sure how I missed this one on the first look around, other than the fact that it is behind another building. This is a laser-cut wood structure that I got from Chet.
IMG_0286.JPG

IMG_0287.JPG

IMG_0288.JPG

I wish that I had spotted it sooner before the roof dried out extremely warped. I just don't think that it will straighten out with just weight, so I added 5/16" stiffeners.
IMG_0289.JPG

One wall is also warped considerably, but I feel that I can fix it with a corner brace and a ton of Gorilla Super Glue.
IMG_0290.JPG

End view of the same wall with all of the weight on the roof w/bracing.
IMG_0291.JPG

I was only able to get the one end wall off without damaging stuff, but I believe it's enough to allow complete repair.

Tom O - I am jealous that you have a buddy who solders for you. Even though I have been doing it for 40 years, I'm still no good. I have the same opinion regarding the Scaletrains couplers. You would think that by now they would have realized the error of their ways and worked something out with Kadee.
Grizzled - I don't always know if mail is delivered daily to us. Sometimes there's nothing in the mailbox, but I just don't know. Our mailbox is 1.25 miles away, heck it's even in a different county, so I don't have a chance to monitor it. Plus, we don't always check every day.
Mike - Been using the pool for about 2 weeks. Temperature got up to 84° briefly, but has receded to 82° right now. I need to install the shade umbrellas this weekend to keep it from getting too warm, as I lost some of my afternoon shade trees to the tornado. It will get up to 88° in late August even with the shade. Personally I can tolerate 78°, but my wife won't get in until it's at least 82°.
Troy - Unless they are Yellow Jackets, I would leave the wasps alone. They will feast on any aphids that might be attracted to your wife's flowers. Only Yellow Jackets sting.
Ken -
D&J RailRoad said:
Now we just have to hope there isn't a sneak surprise of a blue moon this month too.
Click to expand...
Naw! Not to worry. Next Blue Moon isn't until May of 2026.
Swal - Regarding the gold, just like I recommended for the trains, put it in a box and store it at a trusted friends home, unless you just need the money right now.

Everyone out there have a great Thursday.
 
Good afternoon all. A dry , cloudy day. A bottle of Samuel Adams please, Flo.
Dawn is entertaining her friends, so I am teaboy.

Going through some pictures of ships.

The ship that started me off. British India S.N. Co. 'Uganda' leaving Sunderland in the 1970s.
'Uganda' was originally a cargo passenger liner that could be converted to a troopship in time of war.
No longer required for either job she was converted to a 'Schools Ship' taking schoolchildren on cruises around Europe.
Here she is leaving Sunderland with the childrens' parents waving them off.
Part of the ship had a First Class section for fare paying adults. I did three cruises on 'Uganda' as a fare paying passenger.

Uganda leaving Sunderland.jpg


Seen in Peel Harbour, Isle of Man, 'MV Hebridean Sky'.

MV-Hebridean-Sky-Peel.jpg



Seen at the Port of Tyne on 11th June 24 Regent Seven Seas Cruises 6* ship 'Seven Seas Splendour'
(Trying to get a decent picture at the port is getting harder with more security. People trying to 'take a look at ships' are forced further away.

Seven Seas Splendour Pot of Tyne 11th June 24.jpg
 
santafewillie said:
Swal - Regarding the gold, just like I recommended for the trains, put it in a box and store it at a trusted friends home, unless you just need the money right now.
Click to expand...
No, I don't need the money, Willie. I'm just cleaning out the house of everything in case I have to sell it. I'm loading everything into my truck now. Going downstairs next to see what railroad stuff I want to sell. I think I'll sell half the cars. That's about 50.
Swal
 
Morning folks

Weather is a duplicate of yesterday's-forecast high of 79 and clear sky. Great visit with long time friends yesterday.


NYC_George said:
What planning. I'm not a child I'm my wife's husband. If I put everything in my name that doesn't work in NY. Our lawyer tells me were joined at the hip on the issue of assets. All assets are our assets. You mean I should have gotten a divorcee years ago. I guess that would have solved it.
Swal
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That is the same situation here. Even a divorce wouldn't really solve the problem as all the assets would end up split 50/50 and Medicaid would require spending all that 50% down before they would pay anything. If your residence is your most valuable asset and you are allowed to keep that, a divorce would actually end up costing more. In short, screwed. A great health care system we have.

I hope this works out for you Swal.
 
santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. Mostly clear and 70°. The countdown began anew yesterday and we have now gone 36 hours without rain, fingers crossed. The 10 day forecast looks good, highs in the low-90's and overnight lows in the mid to low-70's. Rain is forecast for next Thursday, but that's too far away to be near accurate.

Still doing clean-up here. Yesterday I retrieved a couple more items along the road easement that I missed the first time around. Nothing important, but I did find another metal t-post that blew over 100'. I did drag a couple more pieces of the train shed metal roof out to the roadside ditch; eventually the county will pick up that and all of the trees that they pushed there, when they get ready to mow! I also restarted cutting the older trees that the neighboring farmer left me last fall, which will be the first firewood for next winter season. My downed trees probably won't have aged enough by then, but I shouldn't need any of them. until 2025.

Whooops! It's Thursday again, back to the weekly grocery trek. Other than the drugstore, nothing else is on the itinerary today, at least that I know of yet. Wife may have something in mind.

Another brief day out in the train shed yesterday. After re-planting some of the rebuilt structures on the layout, I started looking for more damage and found Garner's Market. I am not sure how I missed this one on the first look around, other than the fact that it is behind another building. This is a laser-cut wood structure that I got from Chet.
View attachment 191666
View attachment 191667
View attachment 191668
I wish that I had spotted it sooner before the roof dried out extremely warped. I just don't think that it will straighten out with just weight, so I added 5/16" stiffeners.
View attachment 191669
One wall is also warped considerably, but I feel that I can fix it with a corner brace and a ton of Gorilla Super Glue.
View attachment 191670
End view of the same wall with all of the weight on the roof w/bracing.
View attachment 191671
I was only able to get the one end wall off without damaging stuff, but I believe it's enough to allow complete repair.

Tom O - I am jealous that you have a buddy who solders for you. Even though I have been doing it for 40 years, I'm still no good. I have the same opinion regarding the Scaletrains couplers. You would think that by now they would have realized the error of their ways and worked something out with Kadee.
Grizzled - I don't always know if mail is delivered daily to us. Sometimes there's nothing in the mailbox, but I just don't know. Our mailbox is 1.25 miles away, heck it's even in a different county, so I don't have a chance to monitor it. Plus, we don't always check every day.
Mike - Been using the pool for about 2 weeks. Temperature got up to 84° briefly, but has receded to 82° right now. I need to install the shade umbrellas this weekend to keep it from getting too warm, as I lost some of my afternoon shade trees to the tornado. It will get up to 88° in late August even with the shade. Personally I can tolerate 78°, but my wife won't get in until it's at least 82°.
Troy - Unless they are Yellow Jackets, I would leave the wasps alone. They will feast on any aphids that might be attracted to your wife's flowers. Only Yellow Jackets sting.
Ken -

Naw! Not to worry. Next Blue Moon isn't until May of 2026.
Swal - Regarding the gold, just like I recommended for the trains, put it in a box and store it at a trusted friends home, unless you just need the money right now.

Everyone out there have a great Thursday.
Click to expand...
You will be finding pieces of debris around your property for years. Usually found when your mowing.

Soldering, I’m ok and like you seem to have been doing it forever. Maybe 60 years as I did a Lionel engine wire that came loose and I didn’t have $3.00 to pay the guy to do it. I was maybe 12 years old.

I get some shiny but they do seem to work. The resistance thing though, they are bright and shiny until I weather the track!

Gold! My brother keeps insisting we need gold in the house for in “case of events”. I don’t see it but a discussion with Terry had ensued. She very rarely agrees with the now extreme conservative leaning brother but now agrees we need some. As for the jewelry and Medicaid. I doubt they’d do audit unless it’s self reported or someone tells them it’s being hidden
 


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