Running Bear's March 2026 Coffee Shop

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TLOC said:
The joys of retirement. At least you are not painting the interior!

I hope you took the niece to the Public Market in the 3rd ward!
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Yeah I have people for that now. Did my share of painting and drywall back in the day(s) in two other houses. I decided to leave it to younger guys, especially with the cathedral ceilings in the living room and sun room. I have also retired from climbing ladders for anything else but changing light bulbs! I also had Leaf Filter done on my gutters. Definitely too old to climb around on the roof!

With regards to plumbers, yes, it was worth the money. Every DIY plumbing job I ever did resulted in extra trips to Home Depot or wherever to get parts to fix something I broke, or buy a tool, or whatever. The frustration factor was too high! Like Sheriff Andy Taylor told Aunt Bee long ago "Call the man!" 🤣
 
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Morning all,

40° and cloudy. Storms overnight brought us 0.6" of the wet stuff. High today of 58°. Yesterday we hit 95° beating the old record.

I mismeasured the master bath. I knew that the "glued" on mirror was going to be too wide as we we're replacing a 32" base with a 30" base cabinet. I also knew I had a little too much height and thought it was only about 1/2". So I changed tack and put the new base on the subfloor like the original base was. Top of the cabinet is 1/4" below the mirror. Great, now what. The only thing, remove the mirror, so expecting the worst, I removed the 2 decorative screw clamps at the top and ran a utility knife along the paint line and ran a 4" putty knife along the free side. Thing just popped off the wall in one piece. So now the wife is thinking we may just have the thing cut down and put back up. Would be easy enough if we can find someone to cut it.

Expecting the flooring installers at any time.

BBL
 
Patrick said:
Morning all,

40° and cloudy. Storms overnight brought us 0.6" of the wet stuff. High today of 58°. Yesterday we hit 95° beating the old record.

I mismeasured the master bath. I knew that the "glued" on mirror was going to be too wide as we we're replacing a 32" base with a 30" base cabinet. I also knew I had a little too much height and thought it was only about 1/2". So I changed tack and put the new base on the subfloor like the original base was. Top of the cabinet is 1/4" below the mirror. Great, now what. The only thing, remove the mirror, so expecting the worst, I removed the 2 decorative screw clamps at the top and ran a utility knife along the paint line and ran a 4" putty knife along the free side. Thing just popped off the wall in one piece. So now the wife is thinking we may just have the thing cut down and put back up. Would be easy enough if we can find someone to cut it.

Expecting the flooring installers at any time.

BBL
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I've got a similar wall to wall mirror in my "guest bath" that I use since we rarely have guests.

I want to replace the old make up countertop with a real vanity and sink top. So the mirror HAS to come out.

I did the same in the wife's bathroom, and ended up cutting the old mirror into foot square sections and sending them out in the trash.

For my bath, I think I'll head to Hobby Lobby find a cool frame to fit with whatever decor we settle on, and cut down and mount the mirror in the frame, then hang that.
 
Good Morning All. Light fog and 63°. The calm before the big cold front around 10ish this morning. Expecting 30 mph winds from the north to drop temperatures to an overnight low around 50°. And surprise! They have added a 40% chance of rain around sundown today. I know that you Mid-Westerners are chuckling about 50° being the low for two days, but this is North Central Texas and that shouldn't happen! If the rain actually materializes, it will be welcome even though it will spur additional yard growth.

Our weekly grocery trek went well yesterday, no surprises. Gas about town had actually fallen in price to $3.49/gal; still a dollar more than it was just 4 weeks ago. Wife wanted to stop at Jersey Mike's to pick up sandwiches for lunch. Based on someone here in the Coffee Shop, I believe that it was Karl's recommendation, I got the "Big Kahuna" cheesesteak sandwich. Wow! It was great. Looks like I will get that instead of the #13 that I usually get for now on. I had actually never looked at their offerings of hot sandwiches before. Rest of the day was mainly honey do stuff while I did laundry.
Today will be more of the same boring household routines. I expect to do some work on the compost pile for the Tomato planting next week. Going to give the A/C a rest after using it all week long.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I plodded along with the layout upgrade. The plan to find something for that back corner has led to a sub-project of rehabbing that old LifeLike General Store. Took some time yesterday to really clean it up and remove some of the signs that were no longer legible. Noted that the roof is two different colors. Don't know whether one piece faded at a different rate or what.
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Close up of the unusable signs.
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Signs removed and roof painted . Some faded signs remain.
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Can't find any "General Store" signs among the 1000's that I have in the drawer so I might just have to make one on the computer. I'm going to keep on looking. I do have a "Nehi" sign for the LH side of the steps. Not sure what I will do about the missing handrail on the steps. As I posted above, one project leads to another, and another etc.

Troy - Some signs on that LifeLike structure are going to be replaced.
David (Marlin) - You're getting good advice from your brother regarding the different fertilizer mixes to use on the garden. For leafy greens that like Nitrogen, I rotate them in rows that were planted with legumes the season before. If I recall, you use containers so that may not be practical for you.
Trailrider - I have found that the easiest way to post pictures on this forum, is to open the file on your computer, copy the thumbnail and then paste directly in the reply box here. The "Insert Image" icon works well also, but it is a few extra steps.

Everybody have a fun Friday.
 
For those who care..........

Dash Crofts, the Texas-born singer behind 1970s soft-rock classics Summer Breeze and Diamond Girl as half of Seals & Crofts, died Wednesday at 87 from complications of heart surgery.

I never was a big fan at all but Texas born carries a bit of weight.

John
 
Good afternoon folks, 57 here and drizzly. A blustery day as Pooh Bear would say. Hopefully the breezes will hold up over the weekend as my club is running the Arkansas State Black Powder Championship. When the wind is till the smoke clouds let the smoke hang and is is very tough to shoot quickly. Dropped the van off for it's new tires this morning and Lady C picked me up and we went to lunch for BBQ. Small local place with excellent food and service. Got a little Bachmann rail cleaning car I have to get a truck put back under so the Ruptured Duck can haul it around the layout, most of the trackage is easy to reach to keep clean, but there are two sections that even with the liftout are difficult to reach. Question now becomes, so I repaint the car or just leave it as a bright yellow BN car. Y'all have a great day.
 


For you Texas folks:
A Texas State trooper pulled a car over on I-10 about 62 miles west of Kerrville Texas. When the trooper asked the driver why he was speeding, the driver said he was a Magician and Juggler and was on his way to West Texas to do a show for the Shrine Circus. He didn't want to be late.
The trooper told the driver he was fascinated by juggling and said if the driver would do a little juggling for him then he wouldn't give him a ticket. He told the trooper he had sent his equipment ahead and didn't have anything to juggle.
The trooper said he had some flares in the trunk and asked if he could juggle them. The juggler said he could, so the trooper got 5 flares, lit them and handed them to him.
While the man was juggling, a car pulled in behind the State Troopers car. A drunken good old boy from Ingram Texas got out, watched the performance, then went over to the Trooper's car, opened the rear door and got in. The trooper observed him and went over to the State car, opened the door asking the drunk what he thought he was doing.
The drunk replied, “You might as well take my butt to jail, cause there ain't no way I can pass that test.”
 
Good afternoon to all.................

I haven't posted much lately, just been busy. So here is an update if your interested.

Wednesday night of last week (Mar 18) my son came to visit for 3 days. His birthday was several days before but he could not get off work any earlier. I got out my red sporty car, which I don't drive to often, on Thursday so we could cruise some country roads. I removed the battery tender and the car cranked up as it should. We drove to a nearby town and stopped to grab a soda. When we got back in the car, the battery was dead. The date on my Interstate battery was 4-19. The battery was 7 years old. Jump start did not work so the dude who was helping me said let me call a friend, at the nearby NAPA store and see if he has a battery. Sure nuff he had one. He asked me where I was located and told me he could deliver the battery as he only lived a block from where I was and he was going to close in about 15 minutes anyway. He also had the tools I needed to replace the battery. Battery replaced and we were on our way again. Let me say I was blessed to find some really nice folks willing to help. The auto parts guy Bobby, and the other dude that had jumper cables and called Bobby for me Ben, were just over the top nice. Small town folks seem to be way more helpful than folks did when I lived in Dallas.
Friday we went to Texas Road House to celebrate my sons birthday, bought gas at Sams, went looking around at the Academy Sports store and picked up the table I had ordered from Home Depot. We got the table set up Friday evening and we partially unboxed my new 3D printer. A Saturday morning breakfast and some time to visit a bit before he left around 5 pm. And yes, Thursday evening we had some time in the train room and my son was amazed at the work I had done. He wants to come back out for my birthday in May.

Saturday night and Sunday, I finished my drafting job of the stair re-do. I scanned and E-mailed the drawings to my customer and I am glad that project is done.

Spent Monday in town making several stops. I spent some time watching an unboxing/setup video on my 3D printer and got it up and going. I have not installed any filament yet but hope to do something next week. In setting up my printer, I had some issue hooking up to my wi-fi and had to call tech support at the "tin can and string" co-op phone company. The tech guy was very helpful and let me know I had a different password than the one I thought I had. He stayed on the line until all was working as it should.

Tuesday I was feeling tired but made it to the county court house to pay property taxes, stopped at the post office and then dropped off some garbage at the county dumpster.

Did not do too much Wednesday just a bit of cooking and clean-up.

On Thursday I got out the DJI MIni Pro 4 drone I purchased about 9 months or so ago. Some of you may remember I could not get my controller to hook up to my wi-fi and I thought there was something wrong with the drone/controller and I just packed it away. But after having a similar problem in hooking up my 3D printer to my wi-fi, I had some second thoughts. I charged up the batteries and in setting up the RC-2 controller I used the new password I got from the phone tech guy on Monday, and as if a miracle, it all worked. I set up my account and the controller communicates with the drone as it should. I was going to try it out today but is cold, windy and a bit of rain every now and then.

A while back, I ordered 4 sets of Tahoe Model Works, USRA 50 Ton Andrews trucks for some freight car kits I have. I received the trucks last week. Two of the packages had the correct trucks but the two others had the wrong trucks in the pack. This was a miss-packaging error at Tahoe. The owner of the place where I ordered the trucks from just had heart surgery and isn't up to searching his stock for the correct trucks. So I offered to just return the two sets that were wrong back to him and he can just refund my money. He agreed, so I will be sending that package out tomorrow. Its always something.

I hope to get something accomplished today with my railroad. I have several irons in the fire and need to finish something.

Well there you go.
Take care....John
 
A few days ago we were talking about Yes. This is the 2014 lineup where we did a meet and greet and had front row seats for the Mesa Arizona show. This is the one from that tour that they made used to make a LIVE CD and DVD.

Unfortunately, Chris Squire died less than a year later in June 2015 and Alan White died in May 2022...

I'm the obvious one. The young fellow is my son. He's the one that was recently in Japan doing the missionary work -- we went at Thanksgiving to get him. there when he was done. He and I are both bass players so we stood next to Squire for our group pics. I have anotehr version of this pic where he and I switch places.


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I have to brag on myself, no nap this afternoon!
To make a long story short, a church couple need a wheelchair walkway from the ramp 78 feet to the end of the road for handicap transportation to doctor appointments. When the yard is wet, she has trouble getting the wheelchair up the hill thru the mud.
After contacting 11 concrete contractors, two responded with the least quote at about $3000, over our church budget. The more reasonable price of about $600 in materials for a wood boardwalk.
On monday, I required a 3 hour nap when I got home. This is being done by three 80+ yro men working 3.5 to 4 hours a day.
boardwalk.jpg

This is where we started this morning and finished at 64 feet today. We will finish on Monday with another 6 feet of lowering incline to the ground. i have been cutting the wet pressure treated 2 x 4s to length and the weight is about 5 pounds each fully wet. My shoulders and back ache.

I discovered that when Home Depot loaded the 130 pieces of 2 x 4 s into my old pickup with a tow motor, they bent the middle of the tailgate about 2 inches. I don't know if the tailgate will close. As soon as I get all the lumber out of the truck, I will b headed back to Home Depot to talk to a manager.
 
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Just came back in from feeding my two goldfish. George the black moor is funny in that he'll be the first on site as he's used to me. He'll find the food first and then get a mouthful. The other fish, a red and white pop-eye (also blind as a bat like George) sniffs around and locates the food. What he ends up finding is that George has parked his fat a@@ on top of the food! Its so funny.

As far as his white mass ailment, I think I cured that. He just has one errant scale that needs to be replaced. About a month ago, I noticed that he was looking fat althought I reduced their food to every other day since the water was freezing and they were sluggish. First thought was dropsy, which for me, has had a 100% mortality rate. I had tried all the drugs in the past and none had worked.

This time, I tried an epsom salt bath. 10 minutes in the solution. First time, he looked dead, floating on the top. I waited a week and then gave him his second bath. This time, he was doing his humpback whale impression, hanging in the middle of the jar with his head straight down.

Well, I think I cured him as he no longer is sporting the fluffy look. He's still happy to see me, eats well and hogs the food.
 
Kusojiji said:
Just came back in from feeding my two goldfish. George the black moor is funny in that he'll be the first on site as he's used to me. He'll find the food first and then get a mouthful. The other fish, a red and white pop-eye (also blind as a bat like George) sniffs around and locates the food. What he ends up finding is that George has parked his fat a@@ on top of the food! Its so funny.
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Are we talking like "large" Koi fish type goldfish?
 
Nope, George is a black moor.
GEORGE.jpg


He didn't like living in this tank. He scrubbed all his scales off on one side one time. I had to take all the sharp stuff out and medicate against bacteria. Then while I was treating him for tail fungus, I accidentally broke his tail, so he's been through a lot. He's been much better in the pond outside, which is just a plastic box, the type used to mix cement. About 20 gallons.

Yeah, Koi would be awesome but they need too much room.
 


KUSO: Back in late 2019 when I was convincing my wife we needed to move from LA back to Indiana to get her out from under a bad boss, I started looking at hobbies. Once we knew we had the place, and wife was committed, I was reallllly looking at getting reef tank going in the basement. Since I knew I had a basement.

My father always had aquariums while I grew up... but he was terrible on maintenance. Something about working two jobs in the 70s and 80s gave him no time for anything other than eat and sleep.

In college I had freshwater tanks with a variety of fish. Nothing too adventurous. So a reef tank sounded about right...

But then I came to my senses. A model railroad was more my speed, and we see how fast that is moving six years later. ;)
 
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