Running Bear's May 2023 Coffee Shop.

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Afternoon All,

Last night was horrible due to a flare up of my neuropathy. It lasted from 2-5 am, then I slept until 8 am getting up feeling tired. Today I did a couple of chores then I planted yesterday's trees. After that I cut out and trimmed 19 more trees. This lot when finished will bring my total of 108 from the box I got several days ago. I think I'll get 150+ out of the box. That would be around 42 cents per trunk and branches. Tomorrow is laundry day, and I should have the trees done. Tuesday we are having a toilet replaced upstairs. MOH says you aren't carrying it upstairs (I have replaced toilets before) so we're paying for it. Sigh...it's only money.

Louis- Interesting Chessie paint scheme. The second bus looks like a Greyhound. My favorite recent western is Open Range. IMO it's outstanding.

TomO- I'm married so I get the happy wife thing.

Troy- That is an outstanding Civil War movie. I have always been interested in both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.

Christian- Nice action on the NCCRR. You might be able to add a 40' car to consist. Great 1:1 steam video.

Tom- Sounds like your near future is pretty well planned out.

Karl- Hope you had fun at the hobby shops.

Todd- I know it's hard to stop on a project that you are working on, but you have to take breaks. I'm glad you were OK.

Willie- Great signage and detailing.

Guy- Stay safe and great closeup shots.

Smudge-I'm beginning to wonder if any there are any trains that don't derail.

I hope everyone has a good day.
 
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Oooops,🤫
Sumtin follered me home from the hobby shop!
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Shush now! 🤫🤫🤫🤫😁
 
Good evening. I think the rain has finally ended. Total rainfall, 0.91", temperature range 52° to 68°, currently 67° with fog.
Orioles and Phillies won, the Mets were postponed due to rain. The Preakness result was disappointing. The 'Canes and Cats are tied 1-1 late in the 2nd period. Not listening tonight. Might watch Vegas vs Stars on ABC 2 3PM tomorrow. Did a little work in the train room this afternoon, before dinner. mostly clean-up. Sometimes it's overwhelming. Too many unfinished projects...
New York closed Harlem Valley, Hudson River and Kings Point Mental illness hospitals around 1984.
George: Jersey and Pennsylvania did the same...it's called "Creating awareness", and was sold as saving tax payers money...in reality it was a mistake. Another mistake of that era was "Privatization". "Deregulation" was a third mistake. Isn't hindsight wonderful?

CR 22137 Repaint 05_21_23 Metuchen.jpg - Final.jpg

Final paint scheme for the ME-2 Cabin (formerly LI-26). The cabin was repainted on the Pit Track at Metuchen,NJ, former Ford Yard, by Conrail mechanical forces. Rich Carl photo on May 20, 2023.
 
George: Jersey and Pennsylvania did the same...it's called "Creating awareness", and was sold as saving tax payers money...in reality it was a mistake. Another mistake of that era was "Privatization". "Deregulation" was a third mistake. Isn't hindsight wonderful?
It was also sold to the public as "mainstreaming" mentally challenged people. I believe that it was successful for a small handful of people, but many were better off with daily care, housing, feeding and medications. It's now costing a whole lot more than the original institutions were costing.
 


Not being political here but stating facts, Austin is one of our "liberal" cities here in Texas. What you saw seems to be the norm, sadly, in most liberal cities. The University of Texas is in Austin........liberalism abounds.
Facts are facts and Austin like Madison, Wi. near our home has homeless and it’s an issue. Doesn’t matter if it‘s liberalism as Madison like Austin is a bastion of liberals in an otherwise conservative state. It’s not an either side of the aisle issue, it’s an American issue that needs to be resolved. That’s not political it fact
 
It was also sold to the public as "mainstreaming" mentally challenged people. I believe that it was successful for a small handful of people, but many were better off with daily care, housing, feeding and medications. It's now costing a whole lot more than the original institutions were costing.
People with any kind of challenge need help. You cannot “throw” them on the street and expect them to get better. It’s the same with “main streaming” kids at school that need help. Not be put in a classroom and be ignored but continually passed on to the next grade? That’s not mainstreaming that’s filing them away and doing nothing to help them
 
It was also sold to the public as "mainstreaming" mentally challenged people.
True! The social battles of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s revisited. My memory tells me that then First Mother, Rose Kennedy, was an original advocate of "mainstreaming"...believe that she had a mentally challenged child, and that motivated her advocacy. Could be wrong, that was along time ago.
We could also blame the balance the budget, for a tax cut crowd, as these installations were very expensive to run, and prone to allegations of patient abuse.

It's like the selling of paperless everything, as good for the environment, when it just saved billers paper and postage. Or the infamous Jersey plastic bag ban, which saves retailers a bundle over time. I used to recycle bags for cleaning the cat box, now I have to buy small trash bags...

Nothing is as it's presented.
 
Evening all,

Got some more of the dollhouse cut, planted a hosta that the wife got for mother's day, sprayed the apple and peach trees. I also watered the garden.

Look close you may see my corn coming up:

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Corn and 2nd row of beans only been in a week. Main row of beans only about 3 weeks out. Littlest tomato was only 3" tall when the neighbor gave it to me. Cucumbers are bush type and were just seedlings without main leaves yet when planted. So far everything going good.

Thought for the day:
Being 20 in the 70's was more fun than being 70 in the 20's.
 
I just watched a YouTube video a few days ago about railroad access to the Harlem Valley Hospital and surrounding area. Very interesting as some history of the hospital was included. I believe the property is now owned by a university in California.
John The place had a golf course attached to it. Being my mother worked there I could join for $50.00. Great deal back in the 60's. When it closed, they were going to sell the golf course to a land developer. The members convinced the state to keep the course open and the membership ran the place. Around 1995 a developer bought all of it 28 building and the golf course. We rented the golf course from them until about 7 years ago when the South Korea religious cult Sun Moon bought the whole place 28 building and golf course. They kicked us all out. They keep the course open for only about 4 people. They never play 18 holes. I hear they play about 4 holes and quit. What a waste.
Swal
 


As I mentioned, our Wednesady pour was successful. A few places need a little extra concrete but all in all we are good to go. The frames will set the roof beams this week Tuesday or Wednesday.

The day after the pourm the guy who I hired whose been helping me with his son and who led the pour brought his drone down and took some shots...

The non aerial shots are from today (Sunday) -- they show most of the outer bracing and strapping and stuff removed.

Friday and Saturday my son and I worked on putting the yellow bracing back in their racks (the ones not used or already taken down -- ones supporting strucures newly poured will remain up a few more days while the concrete continues to set). We also did a ton of clean up and filled our dumpster with foam and scraps of lumber and chunks of concrete and plastic sheeting we used to protect the floor from concrete spills and splatters. We also mixed uyp 1/2 a bag of concrete I had in the basement (the other half absorbed water from the winter and was hard) and mixed in 1/4 of a new bag -- the hired help and dropped off some bags Friday but for some reason didn't get to putting it in where small areas needed it and one bag had broken open so we scooped up most of that to use with our other stuff -- all together we got about 4-4.25 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket and we did one of the places that was missing some plus filled in a few depressions on some other walls that had minor areas to add in a little. Mostly where we had used boards to be able to fill in on the angle of the roof line and the vibrating didn't quite get it all pushed in every where under the board.

Tomorrow (Monday) I have a guy coming buy to make an estimate and sell us on his garage coating product and service. We need to get our garage floor coated and "waterproofed" so we don't get water leakage into the basement space underneath the garage. This place uses something called "polyurea" and they claim it is the best thing since sliced bread. We're see what they say and what their cost estimates are.

Does anyone know anything about this "polyurea" coating vs the traditional "epoxy" type coatings most garage coating places try and sell you on?

I'm also going to have him show me and estimate their cheapest solution for our store room and my work rooms in the basement. Don't know if I'll have the money for that area of the house but want to get an estimate to see as it will be easier now than later and would like to get something done to those places we're not going to put flooring on...

Done shots from Thursday:

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Todays exterior shots after removal of some of bracing/strapping/support joists etc:

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