Running Bear's June 2026 Coffee Shop

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Good morning gentlemen. Up in Brooklyn today; delivery and pickup. A few days ago i was driving the truck through Philly and just happened to be in the right spot at the right time:
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Northbound to New York has just left 30th Street Station and is picking up speed along Squilkill Expressway. Tomorrow the Big Boy will be entering Pennsylvania (again) and stopping in Scranton. Time to plan a photo spot along the way.
 
Good morning all!

Happy Friday!

A much calmer day today weather wise than the last couple. We dodged a bullet last night by about 30 miles. Seemed the really severe
weather developed just a little to the east of us. We did get a pretty heavy thunderstorm but nothing severe from it in our immediate
area, Currently 52F with the high heading up to around 80F under mostly sunny skies.

Just a few things to do around the house this morning then when it dries out some later it will be mowing if I so feel inclined. The brown
grass has really taken off again with all the rain and thunderstorms.

Not much else going on at the moment.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Well, howdy there internet peeps and those with appetites

It's Troy again.

Right after I posted yesterday about the wife's doctor visit, the email from the editor showed up. You might recall that her old macbook went tits-up right as she began my edit. So we had a major delay getting the book back.

I ran the revision pass on what she returned, finishing about 8pm, and sent it back to her for a final review. My first wave of beta readers got it as well. I know they'll find the same typos as the editor, but we're in a time crunch to get it out. This book has to be uploaded by the 17th in one retailer, and by the 22nd in the others, for a release date of the 27th.

So, we're under the gun on this one. But, we'll make it!

A nice day on tap for today. High in the low 80s (f-degrees) and mostly sunny. Might do some patio sitting.

Wife has to run to the lab, and to find xrays.

i'm on laundry duty, and maybe a grocery run.

More updates as warranted.
 


69°F/67°F this morning at 0645. A big difference from yesterday morning at this time. Hopefully the dewpoint will continue to fall as the day progresses. I opened the windows this morning and the air is crisp and cool. Not really much drier, but hopefully that's yet to come.

I hope you all have a great Freitag!

Servus!
 
Good morning Crew! A dry day coming to So. Central Wi after a rather wet damaging week so far with just over 5.5” in my rain gauge with 2.5” roughly added yesterday in a series of 2 events at 11am and 3pm. The wind put lots of trees down in my area. The property has 2 big oak trees laying across the fence. That will get cleaned up this weekend. The wet lands has maybe 3’ of water over 24 acres up from maybe 6” and the most water out there in years. There were lots of ducks and geese out there after dinner last night. I was checking the property out giving the 2 grandkids a ride in one of the ATV’s that I have not driven for over a year at least! Thankfully we no longer board horses so it’s not a critical chore to fix the fence. It’s also why we no longer fly the drones everyday to check the fence lines.

It’s 56f degrees heading to 80.

We made a decision with the realtor and price. If we get the price any of the 3 realtors who came to the house say it can be sold for I’ll be shocked but thrilled. Sign goes on the lawn 6/30/2026!

I am heading north to a layout work session at 8am. 3 more Fridays until the groups invitational starts. 14 layouts and a couple hundred invites over 3 days.

For you space guys who want a piece of SpaceX (SPCX) today is your day. $135 for 1 share of non voting stock with no dividend coming. Still some investors think it’s going to be the next Berkshire-B (BRK-B) stock but Musk is no Buffett IMO. Right now our agreed decision to buy is not today but maybe in 6 months. I will say not at all when that time comes. Terry says we will see which means she will buy it. Best to you on your investment strategies.

I started making some wire armature trees for the layout of the paper mill I am building for a friend. The last 3 years I have been trying to get a decent Weeping or Trembling Aspen tree for another friend’s PNW layout. They have been ok. The paper mill is another PNW layout and these are looking better to me. If they really are I will take pictures to post. I build in groves of 21 and right now I have the trunks of 84. It’s the branches that have not looked great to me but these feel better. I won’t know until I have leaf on them. I will split them between layouts.

Enjoy your day
 
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TLOC said:
Good morning Crew! A dry day coming to So. Central Wi after a rather wet damaging week so far with just over 5.5” in my rain gauge with 2.5” roughly added yesterday in a series of 2 events at 11am and 3pm. The wind put lots of trees down in my area. The property has 2 big oak trees laying across the fence. That will get cleaned up this weekend. The wet lands has maybe 3’ of water over 24 acres up from maybe 6” and the most water out there in years. There were lots of ducks and geese out there after dinner last night. I was checking the property out giving the 2 grandkids a ride in one of the ATV’s that I have not driven for over a year at least! Thankfully we no longer board horses so it’s not a critical chore to fix the fence. It’s also why we no longer fly the drones everyday to check the fence lines.
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One wonders. Up til now, the house you're in has always been your "bug out" location when building or buying another property and your old digs got sold.

Will you be setting up a tent in the daughter's back yard while the new place is built? Purchasing a Class A and heading to Florida for the Winter? I hear there is a good fix-it guy down there who likes trains.
 


Good Morning All. Cloudy and 78°; not supposed to warm up too much from there. Current forecast reads as follows.
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Haven't noticed that "with a possible rumble of thunder" phrase in there before! But overall a cooler day than the past few. But unless there is a pop-up rain cell, that 100% looks iffy. Currently there's a thunderstorm over in SE Oklahoma and it's moving east over Arkansas. Look out Kevin.

Went on the grocery trek yesterday without incident, except for the usual stupid or inattentive drivers that abound in Denton. As I posted last night, gas prices came down 15¢/gal overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. Filled up the Lexus.

Back on the mower today weather permitting. Don't have anything else actually planned, but there's always something to do.

No train shed time yesterday. But I did order some Father's Day Sale stuff from ScaleTrains. They're running a special of buy one GP30U and get an 86' boxcar for free. I ordered two of each. These will be my first ScaleTrains freight cars, so I am looking forward to seeing and using them. I already have 25 of their engines on the layout. All items are on their surplus shelf and will ship immediately.

Tom O - I've noticed "overall blah" hitting more often these days.
I'm hoping that the SpaceX IPO lifts the whole market today. I don't intend to buy and probably never will anyway.
Karl -
kbkchooch said:
The cat will sit in the window and watch the lightning. So is the cat brave or stupid?
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Probably neither, just curious.
Troy - Good luck with the latest book.

Everyone have a fabulous Friday.
 
Dewpoint has fallen to 58°F now. It's going to be a beautiful day here. Going to cut the grass in about an hour. I hope it's dried out more than it was 30 minutes ago.

Willow and I are going to walk up to the pharmacy to pick up scripts after lunch and maybe swing by the package store while we're out. Undecided about that yet though.

More storms possible tomorrow.
 
RhB Michael said:
Dewpoint has fallen to 58°F now. It's going to be a beautiful day here. Going to cut the grass in about an hour. I hope it's dried out more than it was 30 minutes ago.
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Ours has fallen off since this morning as well. I was out attending to an overfull pool and with as much rain as we have had, I shocked it.

Its still way to spongy for me to mow but I hope I can at least get the visible front done later this afternoon. Don't really care if the back
doesn't get done till tomorrow.

Enjoy your walk!
 
Wife got her xrays done this morning. Labs this afternoon.

Her Xray tech was late 20s, with Hashimotos (thyroid disease) and RA. That's the combo that shares genetic markers. So the two combine often in the same person. Wife has both... but had a complete thyroidectomy many years ago.

She told my wife that she's worse off with storms that approach then break and go around the city of Fort Wayne. Like last night's storms.

Yep, wife feels like crap today. Extra aches and pains.

She informed me it's a pizza night. That will at least taste good. Not sure if it will cure what ails her.
 
Good morning folks, 79 here already heading for only 90 today with rain on the way in. Doorbell rang early, was the guy who mows our lawn, we will wait to next week to get him to mow. Then the doorbell rings again, and it is our Niece with a young lady we have known all her life and her kids, they had been at a local camp and were leaving out, so we got to meet the kids and get a hug from Mom. A very nice surprise and way to start the day. My Missus is making us a late breakfast now and I am working on my first pot of coffee.
All you with furry family give them an ear scritch for me.
@troyphoto best of luck with the editing.
 
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Grass cut and trimmed in 55 minutes today. No stops and no breaks. Stamina is finally coming back and I'm not even winded very much. Still soaked though as the yard isn't shaded until around 1300. Well, it starts at 1300 and by 1500 the entire back yard is shaded, but I hate cutting grass in the afternoon. It's just another chore I have to wait half the day to do and by the time that time rolls around I'm apt not to do it at all.

Now cooling off and then to start lunch in a bit.
 
Wife's blood work is drawn
Just a bone density scan yet to get, and that has been scheduled for two weeks from today. Doc seemed more interested in the blood workup and xrays, though. Hopefully those will be enough for the doc to start a treatment plan.

in other news, today was clean the fans day.

I drug our three upstairs box fans outside. All are different styles, but they're the same. motor moves the blades, makes air move. This time of year we use them to blow the cool air from the portable AC in the guest bedroom. Our upstairs where the bedrooms are is consistently 10 to 15degrees warmer than the main level during the summer.

So we have the air movers.

And it's amazing how much faster they run when I take them outside and disassemble them. Grates and blades get hosed off. The motors get the air compressor blow out. Dust bunnies everywhere!

Then reassemble. And they seem to be ready for Mach 1 afterward!

So I do this every year now, and haven't had to replace a fan in a long while.
 


troyphoto said:
they seem to be ready for Mach 1 afterward!
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I don't know about Mach 1, but a box fan that’s cleaned regularly can last years longer than one that’s never opened up.

A clean fan runs cooler, quieter, and smoother. Dust forces it to work harder, which creates more heat and shortens its lifespan. Giving it a thorough cleaning removes the extra load, restores airflow and balance, and lets motor run the way it was meant to.

Well done sir!
 
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