Running Bear's May 2023 Coffee Shop.

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Tell me about it! I worked Security at the Preakness 79-81. One year I had to stay with Howard Cosell one year. What a pompous windbag he was! the other years I worked the infield. Saw sights I wont soon forget, including a tent turned into a brothel by 2 enterprising girls.
How cool! Wait, maybe not so cool for the security guys. Those were the days people brought their own drinks, coolers, even kegs!

I saw Codex win the 1980 Preakness. I took my Mom, so I had clubhouse seats. The infield was no place for my Mom.

I met Cossell at Memorial Stadium. I went into the press box to fix the draft beer. You are exactly right! I only talked to him for a few seconds. I can't imagine spending all day with him. You deserve a medal or something.

I did not even like to listen to Cossell do Monday night football. I would turn down the sound and listen to Hank Stram and Jack Buck on the radio.
 
Welp... in addition to the wife's cage, I managed to get my LED strip lights up on the lower deck. Figured the light would help me see my mistakes better. Maybe even sooner. ;)

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Still need to run lights down the Yard Side of the peninsula, but that may wait. I want to see how these work, and if I need to increase the number of strips. I did mix two of the strips. Peninsula to the right looks like it has more daylight look to them (bluer), but both were rated at the same kelvin setting. The LEFT side is getting light from the overheads in the TV area, and that's knocking the color balance out of whack.
 
Good afternoon to layout/squirrel cage/shingler types and the rest of us.

Been once to the Triple Crown in 1984 as we were taking clients to the races. Just looked up the winners and honestly I don’t remember those horses and nope I was not drinking. Lots of partying at those 3 races and IMO a waste of time as they were already clients and not going elsewhere. We did the same for The Indy 500 where we also sponsors on the Menards team cars. I did Indy for 10 years in a roll, hated the crowds and Menard

Golf today was excellent, posted a 73 which was even par for the day. Played a great front nine and the 45 minute or so wait between the ninth and 10th holes messed with the ryhmn I had going, but still very happy. Dinner is in 20 minutes and I will head over, it’s 2 miles away. My partner shot a 69 scratch, 4 under par, he was on fire on the back nine. We should do well in the overall paybacks. One more 18 tomorrow but not part of this charity event. I play with my brother as my partner tomorrow as today’s and yesterday‘s is heading out in the morning on a recruiting trip. we play on a re-furnished course that I guess a pro golfer owns. Not real clear on what we are doing but I said yes.
 


I started my back yard shed roof replacement today. After I got the plywood roof all screwed down I realized I don't no how to shingle it. I have to read up on the process.
Swal
It's pretty simple. The back of the bundle has the directions and the stagger cuts to make. I roofed my house 17yrs ago and had never laid a shingle in my life.

You will handle it just fine!
 
Welp... in addition to the wife's cage, I managed to get my LED strip lights up on the lower deck. Figured the light would help me see my mistakes better. Maybe even sooner. ;)

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Still need to run lights down the Yard Side of the peninsula, but that may wait. I want to see how these work, and if I need to increase the number of strips. I did mix two of the strips. Peninsula to the right looks like it has more daylight look to them (bluer), but both were rated at the same kelvin setting. The LEFT side is getting light from the overheads in the TV area, and that's knocking the color balance out of whack.
If you don't mind sharing, what brand/style/type of strip LEDs did you use on your layout?
 
And I'm up and awake at 02:00

about midnight I woke with my left knee aching. Couldn't get comfortable in bed. Woke a couple more times.

checked the weather and the barometer is climbing. So I hope this is a case of bursitis (aka weather knee).

Took a couple of NSaids and waiting on them to kick in.
 


Good Morning All!

61F @ 76% with rain, flash and booms. Quite a show.

Pix is f2/8 1/60 sec. Modified the shutter speed to 1/10 of sec to show the river of water coming off the roof but the rain stopped before I could take another pix. Rained HARD for about 3 minutes, no hail though. Closest flash/bang was about 2 seconds, so less than 1/2 mile. All the animals were hiding somewhere in the house. Did not wake the wife up though.
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Did not get much done yesterday as I spent time with truck, brand new stove, SMTP server and new Propane CO.

Got truck back yesterday from the fixer. Runs much better. Was surging and MPG was out the window. Has cracks in both exhaust manifolds which sucked air causing the brain to 'dump fuel' because of the high O2, which fouled the plugs big time. O2 sensors are now not connected which makes the brain box run with defaults and I have a 'check engine' light. MPG was better coming home from Troy vs taking it last week which was 1/8 of a tank to run 20 Miles. This is an 89 302V8 auto 4x4 of which we probably will only drive it short distances to pick up stuff, make dump runs ...etc so headers and shortened exhaust are not gonna happen. Would also remove the smog stuff at that time also if we did it. Wife wants something for taking goats to shows so we are looking for something a tad newer. It does run down the road at 65Mph @ <2000Rpm so that is good enough for now.

Stove's oven door would NOT let me put it back on. When I went to change the orifices the door seemed to come off funky - nothing like the Kenmore we had. Even called our local Appliance guy thinking I was trying to do something st00pid. Nope, something wrong with the hinge. HD won't cover warranty even if it is less that 2 weeks from the sale. Had to call GE and get that started with them.

Then I found out that my friend Matt servers went down; he does outgoing mail for me. He is/was down across the board along with primary tel#. Don't know what is going on with that yet. Today will call our local provider and see what they are offering for 'business' class Inet. Or, maybe I can talk them into doing a 'reverse' on my IP so that some of the other MTA's don't bounce from my server.

Wanted to chat with the Propane company about our tank location. It now is a PITA if we need filled in the winter. Have to go through a gate to get to it so moving it outside that gate may happen.

Oh well, today will be better!

Later
 
Good morning gang!

Sunny and 57° with a predicted high of 67° with breezy conditions. The pollen will be a flyin! SWMBO got the boy moved back from college for the summer yesterday. He'll be out looking for summer employment starting today. I told him he can start a lawn service , beginning with ours. That idea went over like a submarine with a screen door. Hey, it was worth a shot!

BBL
 
Huh ????

No idea what you are talking about (specifically) but yeah - people do ignore or delete emails they don't particularly want to get, especially if the email contains criticisms. Like, for example, the Director of Health for the Stueben County NY area. Evidently food poisoning wasn't something that would get her on the front page or the TV so she ignored all correspondence. So much for being a "Public Servant"!!!! And when I complained to Albany about her apathy and ignorance - they ignored me as well!!

I have since found out that there is a thing that you can attach (somehow) to emails that informs you when a person receives and/or opens an email from you. Can't remember what it was though sorry :(
In my morning post yesterday, I relayed the fact that the city manager was upset because there was a perceived problem with the email system. many email systems (especially Microsoft's) allows you to get received and read receipts. Although I always tell my system to not send the receipt. Too many busybody supervisors who think they need to micromanage people...

Now that I really caught up...

Was foggy on the way in this morning but sunny now. Currently 58° and going for a high of 80° later. Supervisor decided to take an additional vacation day, so I'm loosely in charge...Just what I wanted. Hopefully a quiet day to work on the stuff I need to actually get done.

BBL
 
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Good morning from chilled at 44f degrees So.Central Wi. A beautiful cloudless morning but the high for the day might be 68, the wind is at 8mph but there is no wind chill noted on the app. The walk this morning was a brisk 2 miles in 38 minutes.

We are playing an unnamed golf course in Madison today. No carts off the cart paths, so some good walking today. The course “officially” does not open till August but one of the group got us in today. There are 16 of us and 2 of the group are members but they have not seen the new course. I guess they basically started over with this place, so we shall see.

I have some time today before leaving to work at the bench. Not really sure what I might be doing. We drive to Austin next week using Terry’s SUV. We told the son we will be there Friday. We are thinking of leaving Tuesday and stopping at places along the way (that’s normal) for . We have not decided the route. We will be in Austin till the 30th and fly to Pasadena. We were planning to drive but June in the deserts of the Southwest are better traveled in cooler months, IMO. 2-3 nights in Pasadena with my sister and then off to Maui. I plan on 10 days there. The wife and my sister will then be joined by friends coming and going for a few weeks. My brother’s girl friend is looking forward to all the folks coming. She is physically recovered from her cancers operations but mentally is struggling missing breasts and the other organs removed. Terry is thinking since she has no medical appointments till August she will stay. My sister can fly back and forth to Pasadena for a couple of her appointments. The daughter’s family will fly out for at least 10 days in July. Both the daughter and SIL work from home offices so can work anywhere. I guess between soccer ending and hockey Summer camps for the grandson. I know the grandson and SIL will return after the 10 days and I will fly back with them.

They are reporting the last couple days the haze moving into WIsconsin is from Guy’s Canadian forest fires. Funny though today it is crystal clear in the skies with the winds still coming out of the Northwest. The app is saying it’s a jet stream thing!!! Ok…

enjoy the day
 
Good Morning All. Clear and cool at 60°. Continued mild temperatures today and tomorrow.

Full day outside yesterday. I started with assembling and setting up my wife's Mother's Day gift from me. It's a 60"x16"x18" planter box for her flowers and my herbs..
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Setup was easy, but lugging 5 huge bags of potting soil and compost was not totally easy. More will be planted today.
Sunday I mowed the high ground around and behind the train shed, yesterday I did the east yard, which is the largest area-wise. Today I will do the south yard and the back between the house and pool. Probably won't do the west side (the "back 40") this week.
I also received a new toy/tool to make tree pruning easier.
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A battery operated 6" chain saw that I will try out today. Certainly will be easier than continuing to use the 24" clipper that I have used for years.

The broccoli harvest began yesterday when I picked the first two heads from the garden. Elsewhere I started tucking stray tomato branches into their cages before they get totally out of control. That chore will continue today as I move up the row. Today should see more pea-picking as well.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I started a small modeling project.
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I've had this kit for a while and I was considering using it to fill that 4"x11" blank space that I posted the other day. Changed my mind on that because it doesn't really fit the situation. I will use it instead in the area of the Ethanol refinery where it would be more appropriate. The kit is all one color gray, so I began by painting various parts Grimy Black, Black, and dark Gray. Here is the transformer after painting and assembly.
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I roughly painted the base concrete and the fence posts galvanized steel.
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Then the Walther's bugaboo hit, there is always one of those. They supplied 16.5" of fencing material. Problem is that the perimeter is 17.75", thus not enough material. I'll be calling their service department this morning. It's stupid stuff like this that makes many Walther's kits so frustrating to build. I have a chain link fence kit that they also make, but the fencing pattern is different so I don't want to use any of it.

Cars - I don't think that I have ever taken a picture of any of my cars! I drove simple Honda Civics for over 30 years since I commuted 100 miles a day. After retiring, we chose to go with just one vehicle until last month when my wife bought the new to us Lexus and I now have the Accura RDX. She got tired of coordinating with me for vehicle use.
Guy - Ugggh! Get out the face mask again for the forest fire fumes.
Todd - I meant to point out that I really like the track/layout plan. I see lots of places to add industry sidings to keep things busy, as well as lots of room to just run.
Troy - Doesn't that lazy cat keep the squirrels at bay? He needs to earn his keep, especially since you just remodeled his bathroom.
Mike (Migalyto) - I have done both metal and asphalt shingle roofs Both relatively simple, but climbing up the ladder with all of those individual bundles of shingles was a bitch. The metal I could just lean up and then pull it up from above. Any more, and I pay someone else to do it. House needs a new roof right now.

Everybody have a great day.
 


Today we do the last structure concrete pour. Everything at the bonus space level to the roof.

The city inspection (of rebar placement) is in about 3 hours and the pour is in about 5 hours. I’m headed up in a few to get last minute things done. A few places we need to still add rebar and also some beam pockets need to be made.

wish us luck!

these pics are a few days old and the one interior is older scaffolding arrangement.

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