Running Bear's November 2022 Coffee Shop

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My Mom would sing this on Christmas Eve as she prepared for Christmas.
I picked Dean Martins version because he was one of her favorites. I now have her Dean Martin Christmas CD I got for her many years ago.
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That is why I bought this set years ago when it first came out.
 


Morning all,

24° and cloudy this morning, high later of 30°. At least I'm not in the Buffalo NY area. I will say I don't miss the lake effect snowfall I experienced in Western Michigan as a youth.

Not much yet going on this morning. Short day. Hopefully get some train time in this weekend. 3 holiday shortened days next week (3-8 hour days) and then off until December 5th. Then 2 weeks full schedule and then 3 weeks of figuring out my hours as we have the 23rd and 26th off for Christmas and the 2nd off for New Year's.
 


Plumpers, interesting name for people. I'm inclined to think they help ya put on weight.
Cold morning here in Virginia. Homeless are hating life about now.
The PWMRC club is set up in a library up in Manassas, VA this weekend, so I'll go up there today and run trains for awhile.
The VP&C club will be setting up in the Richmond, VA science museum this Sunday so I'll go down there to help move stuff around. They'll be set up for the whole week, so I'll prolly go down there a couple or few times to support the activity.
Heading up to Detroit on Thanksgiving Day for my nieces wedding on Friday, the day after T'day. I'll head back home on Saturday to avoid the highway crowds. This will be my first long trip in the Tesla. Will see how things work for recharging along the turnpike through PA and OH. My range is a little over 300 miles, but with heater on that will get knocked down quite a bit.
 
Plumpers, interesting name for people. I'm inclined to think they help ya put on weight.
Cold morning here in Virginia. Homeless are hating life about now.
The PWMRC club is set up in a library up in Manassas, VA this weekend, so I'll go up there today and run trains for awhile.
The VP&C club will be setting up in the Richmond, VA science museum this Sunday so I'll go down there to help move stuff around. They'll be set up for the whole week, so I'll prolly go down there a couple or few times to support the activity.
Heading up to Detroit on Thanksgiving Day for my nieces wedding on Friday, the day after T'day. I'll head back home on Saturday to avoid the highway crowds. This will be my first long trip in the Tesla. Will see how things work for recharging along the turnpike through PA and OH. My range is a little over 300 miles, but with heater on that will get knocked down quite a bit.
I planned a trip for a Tesla last Spring to Texas down I35 most of the way. There were lots of charging stations out there. We ended up taking the gas SUV though. But basically it was drive 4 hours, charge for an hour and then charge overnight at the hotels. We like to meanader making a overnight trip into 3 nights. That was the difficult part and deciding factor, as few of the Holiday Inn Expresses have charging stations yet, at least along I35
 
Good Morning All. Mostly clear and 36°. Wind just shifted from the north so clouds are coming and the high today will be just 44° after a stunning 61°, wind-free day yesterday. Not much change in the forecast for the next ten days after today. Low 30's at night, low 60's during the day. They have removed the rain from the Thanksgiving Day forecast.

Yesterday's weekly grocery trek went off without a hitch. The store was slightly crowded but there was no one in the manned checkout lane when I got there. There was no bagger either, but I know how to do that, better than many others. I need my cold and frozen stuff bagged separately from canned goods so it can travel in the cooler w/ice pack since it may be over an hour before I get home. Scored my second free turkey, this one 15 pounds; last week was a 16 pounder. Prime rib was on sale so I got one of those as well. Gasoline in town was down to $2.84/gal, an early Christmas gift from the refineries. Or maybe it came from the rapidly shrinking Strategic Oil Reserve.
After getting home, I emptied the dishwasher and did a load of laundry before making chicken quesadillas for supper.

While today won't be as pleasant as the last few or the next few, I intend to get back to splitting wood. Garden clean up will also resume now that it has dried out a bit from the rain Monday. Supper tonight will be pot roast in the slow cooker all day long. Wife started making Thanksgiving pies yesterday and made two huge batches of cornbread for making Southern style cornbread dressing. This year I am hosting the family Thanksgiving celebration for just 40 folks. We're going to have it at my #2 daughter's home since my house isn't big enough and is 75 miles away for everyone. Due to Covid, we haven't had the traditional celebration since 2019 when we had 52 guests. I am having to rent 20 chairs from the party supply rental agency, but we have enough tables and wine glasses for everyone. I am cooking one turkey, my son in law is cooking the other. Besides the cornbread dressing and a couple of pies, we're also making "real" cranberry sauce and English peas. Other participants have had their food/drink assignments for a week already.

No Christmas music in the SFW house yet. I am not sure why! o_O However the Hallmark channel seems to be on most of the afternoons!

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding yesterday's post.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I mapped out and measured the space for my structures in my latest project. I added road striping to the road out front and added the RR crossing stencil. Then I did some additional ballast on the rail spur and started the ground cover and parking lot around Fred & Reds Hamburgers.
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IMG_2490.JPG

Some touch up is needed on the road.
More coming soon.

Patrick -
Loved the Star Trek vignette from SNL. Those shows were much funnier IMO than the new ones. I know I've become a grumpy old man...lol
That may be because they didn't have to be so "woke" or politically correct back then. But I confess that I can't stay up that late any more.
Snowman - Thank you for the personal comment. Fortunately I have the space to have built a train shed and don't have any vehicles or tools in the way. I enjoy what I am doing and I like to help others as well.
Tom O - There's not a lot of Tesla's in Texas. There seems to be some charging stations, none more than 3-4 miles away from Interstates. Sherrel sent me a video last week showing an hour+ long line waiting to get into a charging station in CA on Highway 101 between LA and San Francisco. In Denton there is a station with four chargers and I have never seen a customer there; nor at any of the ones we have seen while driving. I have personally never even seen a Tesla on the road or driveway here in the oil patch state of Texas. Maybe if I went to the high school parking lot over near SMU, (ritzy part of town), I might see one. I have nothing against them, I just don't see them ruling the world in my lifetime.

It's got to be someone's birthday every day, so today is Mickey Mouse's birthday. Happy 94th Mickey.
Everybody have a great day, and an awesome weekend.
 
Good morning from crispy cold So. Central Wisconsin.
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Winter in Wisconsin has arrived before it’s time.

Dinner is out tonight but we are looking for a new place for Friday night Fish fry.

Had the brief team meeting at 6:45 this morning. All is good. Nope, I have not spoken to the SIL about the job.

After dickering since August a friend has commissioned a 30” x 88” module of a small Kraft paper mill. It is based on the one in Biron, Wi across the river from the now shuttered monster sized New Page mill in Wisconsin Rapids. He took one of Rob Chant‘s small layouts and drew it onto the 30” x 88”. Has hundreds of detail pictures and gave it to me in August. We have discussed it on and off since. So my week day afternoons from 1-5 for the next month I have something to do. Yesterday he called and said let’s do it. He purchased a custom 3way switch from a track builder. That, the pictures and the plans are what he is supplying. It should take me about 40 hours to build but told him New Years, he wanted Xmas. New Years it is, which gives me time without rushing. You guys know I take too many pictures and so does he. I can’t post any pictures until he approves them but he really doesn’t want any posted before he has the module. That was one of our points of discussion. Terry told me a few weeks ago I was being silly. If I really wanted to build this thing, just agree. I agreed in a Monday email and we finalized the plans on the phone last night. I have everything except the 2” foam for the base. This afternoon, I will build the frame from 1/2” wide plywood cut to 2.75“ x the needed length. 2” foam glued on top to that. Plenty strong and very light. If the roads clear this morning from the ice I will stop at the Habitat Re-store for the foam.

I pulled out the pulp tank kits, 2 superior paper mill kits for walls and tanks and a boatload of Evergreen styrene from my stash. While I normally build my own pipe stands called bents I did last week order from Steel Mill Modelers Supply some of his pipe bents for my paper mill. I will use those here but did try to triple my order in a email last night. I am going to enjoy this…
 
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Good Morning All. Mostly clear and 36°. Wind just shifted from the north so clouds are coming and the high today will be just 44° after a stunning 61°, wind-free day yesterday. Not much change in the forecast for the next ten days after today. Low 30's at night, low 60's during the day. They have removed the rain from the Thanksgiving Day forecast.

Yesterday's weekly grocery trek went off without a hitch. The store was slightly crowded but there was no one in the manned checkout lane when I got there. There was no bagger either, but I know how to do that, better than many others. I need my cold and frozen stuff bagged separately from canned goods so it can travel in the cooler w/ice pack since it may be over an hour before I get home. Scored my second free turkey, this one 15 pounds; last week was a 16 pounder. Prime rib was on sale so I got one of those as well. Gasoline in town was down to $2.84/gal, an early Christmas gift from the refineries. Or maybe it came from the rapidly shrinking Strategic Oil Reserve.
After getting home, I emptied the dishwasher and did a load of laundry before making chicken quesadillas for supper.

While today won't be as pleasant as the last few or the next few, I intend to get back to splitting wood. Garden clean up will also resume now that it has dried out a bit from the rain Monday. Supper tonight will be pot roast in the slow cooker all day long. Wife started making Thanksgiving pies yesterday and made two huge batches of cornbread for making Southern style cornbread dressing. This year I am hosting the family Thanksgiving celebration for just 40 folks. We're going to have it at my #2 daughter's home since my house isn't big enough and is 75 miles away for everyone. Due to Covid, we haven't had the traditional celebration since 2019 when we had 52 guests. I am having to rent 20 chairs from the party supply rental agency, but we have enough tables and wine glasses for everyone. I am cooking one turkey, my son in law is cooking the other. Besides the cornbread dressing and a couple of pies, we're also making "real" cranberry sauce and English peas. Other participants have had their food/drink assignments for a week already.

No Christmas music in the SFW house yet. I am not sure why! o_O However the Hallmark channel seems to be on most of the afternoons!

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding yesterday's post.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I mapped out and measured the space for my structures in my latest project. I added road striping to the road out front and added the RR crossing stencil. Then I did some additional ballast on the rail spur and started the ground cover and parking lot around Fred & Reds Hamburgers.
View attachment 156186
View attachment 156187
Some touch up is needed on the road.
More coming soon.

Patrick -

That may be because they didn't have to be so "woke" or politically correct back then. But I confess that I can't stay up that late any more.
Snowman - Thank you for the personal comment. Fortunately I have the space to have built a train shed and don't have any vehicles or tools in the way. I enjoy what I am doing and I like to help others as well.
Tom O - There's not a lot of Tesla's in Texas. There seems to be some charging stations, none more than 3-4 miles away from Interstates. Sherrel sent me a video last week showing an hour+ long line waiting to get into a charging station in CA on Highway 101 between LA and San Francisco. In Denton there is a station with four chargers and I have never seen a customer there; nor at any of the ones we have seen while driving. I have personally never even seen a Tesla on the road or driveway here in the oil patch state of Texas. Maybe if I went to the high school parking lot over near SMU, (ritzy part of town), I might see one. I have nothing against them, I just don't see them ruling the world in my lifetime.

It's got to be someone's birthday every day, so today is Mickey Mouse's birthday. Happy 94th Mickey.
Everybody have a great day, and an awesome weekend.
Willie, take a trip over to the state of Austin! Tesla vehicles are seen all over that city/state. Yes, I know, Austin is an entirely different Texas.

In the liberal leaning Dane County Wisconsin, (our county) there are chargers at movie theater parking lots, grocery stores, a few gas stations and at least 4 stand alone charging areas with 20+ chargers installed by the electric utility company.

Personally, I don’t see the EV’s taking over the driving world especially in the USA market. No matter what any administration does Americans like to drive and you can’t just get out and roam in a EV. If the charging infrastructure is even 30% there in 12 years, a miracle IMO will have happened. IMO the upper 10% is pushing for electrics because they can afford it, the other 90% is going to be taken for a ride (screwed). That upper 10% take planes for their long distance trips. Terry the tree hugger finally is understanding the damage to other parts of the world EV batteries are doing now and going to be doing. That light bulb got brighter when she pre-ordered the Tesla roadster and the deposit was greater then what an average wage earner could afford. Plus, she is not giving up the sound and power of a SUV that gets 14 mpg
 
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