Running Bear's June 2024 Coffee Shop

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Good morning all!

Not sure what's on the agenda for today yet. still way to early to worry about that! Weather wise, its pretty dull. We had our share of rain yesterday. It rained off and on most of the day.

Got both faucets replaced yesterday. It was one of the few plumbing repairs that didn't require several trips to the hardware store for fittings or what not.

We have 2 TVs in the house. One is in the main living room. The wife is the only one who watches TV in there, and its always for a couple of hours at night only. The second living room where my daughter and I hang out has one but its rarely ever on. I get most of my entertainment from watching YouTube how tos and what not from my PC that is housed in the second living room. Just have no interest in watching TV like I used too. Plus we dumped cable several years ago and went to streaming on Netflix, and Hulu. We have never had a TV in bedrooms

Have a great Saturday everyone!.
 
santafewillie said:
Yesterday, Tom O mentioned that there was no TV in the train room. That got me to thinking. All 52 years that we have been married, we have only had one TV in the house. It does change every 6-7 years to a bigger one. Kids were never allowed to have one in their rooms. My daughter #1 has 7 of them including 3 that are in two different outdoor seating areas and around her pool! Daughter #2 has 6, but none outdoors. Last time I was at son's old house, he had 6 including one outside by his pool. What's wrong with me???;)
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In my house growing up, the TV was always on for noise. I can't watch. I focus on the visual/auditory. Wife and I stopped watching TV shows together a long time ago. We do an occasional holiday movie we've seen before many times.

Wife has a TV upstairs, I have one downstairs. But mine is almost always streaming music that can go in the background. Cool Smooth jazz.

Troy - Happy Birthday to your wife.
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She thanks you!

I don't think that politics has as much to do with the younger generation's pessimistic views, as their own expectations from life. Most of us here did not grow up with the proverbial silver spoon, we learned early on that we had to work to be happy and successful. For example, I see too many kids nowadays that expect to earn a paycheck while sitting on their couch at home instead of going in to an office. The same ones who borrowed money for college and now want someone else to pay it back for them.
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Actually, there is polytics. I'll tread carefully to keep it generic.

That generation is mad that our generations wasted the wealth of the nation on wars, on corporate welfare, etc.

Both my daughter and her BF work mostly from home (she's about 50/50) - My wife is 100% work from home. Going to the office means more miles on the care, more time stuck in traffic (for my wife, we'd have to move away from our mothers another 2+ hours).

Daughters BF has an EE bachelors from Purdue, and a ton of school debt. He's close to paying off the original principal, if not already past that point. So far, I'm not sure if congress has passed a program for school-debt forgiveness he could use. Our daughter, has three years of college that we paid for, so no debt there.

A lot of the college repayment talking points come down to getting folks to make knee jerk reactions. The "have someone else pay for it" is usually not the case. Most of the loans seeking forgiveness under the congressionally approved programs are usually connected to a repayment requirement that gets most if not all of the borrowed amount repaid. It's the interest that is usually in the foregiven pile.

One person I saw interviewed, a Navy Vet who'd maxed out or went beyond her GI Bill level of reimbursement for her graduate degree, had a horror story. She'd already more than paid back the principle, and was trying to get a program passed in the 90s to kick in for forgiveness. Since the Fed govt now owns school loans, and hires corporate entities to oversee those repayments, said vet wanted to get her MA debt forgiven since she qualified under the program our congress passed a few decades ago. (IF memory serves, it was for vets, first responders, and teachers.... pay for 10 years and stay current/good on the loan, then apply for the forgiveness.)

Set up the repayment plan, made all of her payments on time. Applied for the forgiveness, DENIED. It took three years to get an answer to why she was denied. The corporate entity overseeing her loan set up the monthly payments rounding down. they needed to round up. She was 12 cents short every year to be in good graces - despite making every payment on time.

I remember hearing that the Fed Govt taking over student loans was to make it more fair and stop the predatory lending. I'm not finding that to be the case.
 
Good morning, all! Need I say it, hot and very humid here in Houston. Heat index well into the 100's. Nothing to report from the hobo camp.

Troy - birthday wishes to your wife.
Willie - Lake Willie, couldn't find it on my Texas road map. Now I got to figure out how to fold it back up.
TomO - I have never had a TV in our bedroom as bedrooms are for sleeping and something else that I can’t remember! That's where the dresser is kept. You know socks and underwear in the dresser, shirts and pants in the closet. You get dressed in the bedroom.

TV's, we have 3. One is never turned on, one sees about an hour's use each day and the third about 30 minutes.
Trains - I did run a couple of loco's around for an hour.

STAY SAFE
LATER
 


Good (late) afternoon all. The showers have not materialised (yet). A glass of Scotch please, Flo. No ice.

Took the grandchildren to the Aircraft/Transport Museum as requested by them. It is really a Military and Transport one with the variety of exhibits.
There are tanks my father fought in during WW2. There are aircraft my son flew in at the time of the Falklands War. (He remained in the U.K. at the time.) I felt 'old' seeing some modern hardware. :eek:

Televisions. I never had one until I was 29 years of age. Only ever had one in the house since, until recently. We bought a 'cheap' one for the grandkids.

Saving for a Pension. Always did since started working. Never regretted it. Never wanted to be unemployed. Have been twice. Hated it.
What annoys me is those who do not want to work, want what I and my kind, have. My DiL is one of them. She believes when we pass on she and our son will get our house. 😁 (No. No. No.) Needless to say she and my son are not saving for a decent life in retirement. My daughter and SiL on the other hand have very good pensions.
 
TLOC said:
How is Veryl doing? How’s the layout?

I see Allen has posted some runbys you shoot yesterday! Now I need to watch them.
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Allen said Veryl was in the hospitol for a couple days. Not clear on what the issue was. Should be back home now.
The WDHS layout is still a major master piece. Most work is still being focused in the Laramie area. Other maintenance always take up time between Lenny and Allen to do.
I'll be going back there next week a couple times to run trains and do more video recording. I brought along one of my Centenials (Athearn Genesis) to run over it and a couple of the new SD70Ace locos that Athearn just released.
 
This is priceless! This should be our new Illinois state motto! Yet our gas tax is going up again

You know, to pay for more road projects...🤣

1719689664079.png
 
D&J RailRoad said:
Allen said Veryl was in the hospitol for a couple days. Not clear on what the issue was. Should be back home now.
The WDHS layout is still a major master piece. Most work is still being focused in the Laramie area. Other maintenance always take up time between Lenny and Allen to do.
I'll be going back there next week a couple times to run trains and do more video recording. I brought along one of my Centenials (Athearn Genesis) to run over it and a couple of the new SD70Ace locos that Athearn just released.
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Well, you just told me their names, which is more than V did.
He said he might give the whole shebang to the two of them after he's gone--when I asked him about it a few years back he said he hadn't even thought about it.
So has it become now an actual free-standing museum?
Having recently gone through the rigors of club politics and management yourself I'll guess you would know more about it than I do
That said, if you have his ear yourself, or know anyone else who does, but might not have thought of it...he needs to write a will a NOW, and he needs to specify clearly the lot and building go to both of them. Otherwise State estate laws will probably govern. . . .and the property will be sold. . .and his masterwork lost.
 
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Bragging rights time: My nephew will take his white coat ceremony in mid-August at Columbia, and his sister will have her own a few days later at Penn.
Both have part scholarships, although he gave up FULL RIDES at both NYU and Penn to opt for Columbia.
Oh well. Bad financial decision, but Columbia and Georgetown DO look good on a resume I guess.
Mom wants to live long enough to see them both "become doctors," but I just can't find it in me, somehow, to tell her they are only both starting out on med-school, not finishing their journies. They won't actually be doctors for a few more years. . . .
Mom herself is actively dying. It's a process, and typically takes a month. If she can get the extra two weeks too, so she see them get their coats going in, I will be grateful.
 
76°, and cloudy, Wind from the South. None of the predicted rain has developed, yet.
Orioles lead 5-4 over Texas, in the 7th. National telecast on Fox was unwatchable...Play by Play commentators favor Texas, and don't have a clue about Baltimore (Team or city).
Almost July. Early fireworks have started in the neighborhood...this is the warmup.
 


So, this Chernobyl Humidifier popped up on my Facebook feed today. I was thinking it might be close to HO scale based on the size of the power cord. But a look at the actual ad, makes it look more like Z scale.

www.etsy.com

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant With Smoke Effect Humidifier and Lighting - Etsy

This Table Lamps item by Alpaca3D has 1784 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Ukraine. Listed on Sep 3, 2024
www.etsy.com www.etsy.com

1719711905078.png
 
Snowman said:
Well, you just told me their names, which is more than V did.
He said he might give the whole shebang to the two of them after he's gone--when I asked him about it a few years back he said he hadn't even thought about it.
So has it become now an actual free-standing museum?
Having recently gone through the rigors of club politics and management yourself I'll guess you would know more about it than I do
That said, if you have his ear yourself, or know anyone else who does, but might not have thought of it...he needs to write a will a NOW, a b d he needs to specify clearly the l a lot and building go to both of them. Otherwise State estate laws will probably govern. . . .and the property will be sold. . .and his masterwork lost.
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I'm sure he knows he needs to take care of that stuff and his daughter seems pretty much on top of things too.
 
Jim 68cuda said:
So, this Chernobyl Humidifier popped up on my Facebook feed today. I was thinking it might be close to HO scale based on the size of the power cord. But a look at the actual ad, makes it look more like Z scale.

www.etsy.com

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant With Smoke Effect Humidifier and Lighting - Etsy

This Table Lamps item by Alpaca3D has 1784 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Ukraine. Listed on Sep 3, 2024
www.etsy.com www.etsy.com

View attachment 192847
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Definitely tiny

Doesn't mean you can't model it yourself. And put some radioactive glow in the dark wildlife around it.
 
Jim 68cuda said:
So, this Chernobyl Humidifier popped up on my Facebook feed today. I was thinking it might be close to HO scale based on the size of the power cord. But a look at the actual ad, makes it look more like Z scale.

www.etsy.com

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant With Smoke Effect Humidifier and Lighting - Etsy

This Table Lamps item by Alpaca3D has 1784 favorites from Etsy shoppers. Ships from Ukraine. Listed on Sep 3, 2024
www.etsy.com www.etsy.com

View attachment 192847
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Just about the right size to cover my wallet at night. Or bank statement. . . .
Sadly.
 
Good morning. It's clearish and 76.
I've returned from spending a pre-July 4th weekend with my kid in Deland. Since the day it in the middle of the week this year, and we both have to work that day anyway, we decided to get together now. Among the activities was a trip to Colonial Photo & Hobby. Once again, I made no purchases there, since they have everything closed up in cases, and almost impossible to view anything I might want without a store associate physically removing trays of product from behind the counter for me to look at. From the part of town they're in, I'm sure they've suffered losses from theft, but when you have to wait for somebody to come around, ask what you want, and they have to wait while you look, and decide (or not) if you want to purchase anything on that shelf before putting it back away, and removing another one for browsing, well.. I can see why Curt doesn't really buy much there. I did go in needing one thing, which of course they didn't have, but offered to order it for me.
 


Ahhhh... a week before the official Troy-day, and the birthday rewards are already gathering in the restaurant apps

It's going to be a good week ... except for the redneck blow everything up day, when the cat and I hide in the basement to keep his nerves under control.
 
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