Running Bear's October 2023 Coffee Shop

[MikeInHubCity]

There are color changes but it’s not much and they are not vibrant in Ann Arbor. The trees though are dropping their leaves like crazy.

Not in AA, but we’re about a weekish from peak here in the Hub City area of the Badger State.

 

[TrucTrain55]

Thanks for all the “likes” and comments today. Willie nice updates on the layout. Hope to get some new pics off the layouts soon well good night everyone be safe.

 

[chessie_system3]

Evening fellers. I hope everyone is doing well. Coming to the end of our short heat wave here. Back to fall weather this weekend. I received my order today from hornby. They carry the airfix kits that I enjoy putting together. I'll be adding a FW190 to my list. But first I'll finish my P51. I haven't forgotten about my trains either. I cleaned my track. It is still horrible running in some spots. The warpage is terrible. I don't or rather haven't had the heart to tear it down. I'll probably procrastinate the tear down until the last moment. Anyways. That's all I have for now. I'll stop by again when I get a chance.

 

[santafewillie]

Golly! It appears that the rain finally came here. In less than 30 minutes, the temperature dropped from 88° to 68°, wind switched from the NW at around 20 mph and 2.0" of rain is in the gauge at the Weather Underground station a mile away. I'm not going out to check my gauge yet since it is also hailing just a little bit, and I don't want to get my hair wet! This is a much needed event, although it may be too late for some of my susceptible trees. It may even put a little water in my pond depending on how much runoff I get from the hayfield.

 

[Boris]

Good evening. 57° and clear with a bit of smoke in the air. Listening to JS Bach Brandenburg Concerto #5, as I write this. Haven't listened to Bach in decades. Very relaxing.

Today, was absolutely great. 81°, sunny and clear. A hint of smoke haze in the air to mar perfection. We did not get to our walk today, as first son called from Korea this morning. He has cleared the Battalion, and has his travel orders. He will fly commercial, direct to Dallas - Ft. Worth, then connect Dallas to Syracuse. Since he is flying East past the dateline, the entire trip will take place on the 9th. Long day! We were on the phone for over 90 minutes.

We had to go to the mall to make a return, so we walked over 1 mile making the rounds. After a late lunch, a long nap.
After dinner, I did get to glue down most of the road crossing.

I listened to the Miami - Phillies game. The Phils won their series 7-1, and now go to Atlanta to play and hopefully knock off the Braves. I think this will be a best of five series. Baltimore doesn't play until Saturday. Meanwhile, the Devils beat the Rangers 5-2. One more against the Islanders to end the pre-season. They open on Friday the 13th, against the Red Wings, who looked pretty good against the Caps and beat Pittsburgh tonight.

 

[MikeInHubCity]

Good evening. 57° and clear with a bit of smoke in the air. Listening to JS Bach Brandenburg Concerto #5, as I write this. Haven't listened to Bach in decades. Very relaxing.

Today, was absolutely great. 81°, sunny and clear. A hint of smoke haze in the air to mar perfection. We did not get to our walk today, as first son called from Korea this morning. He has cleared the Battalion, and has his travel orders. He will fly commercial, direct to Dallas - Ft. Worth, then connect Dallas to Syracuse. Since he is flying East past the dateline, the entire trip will take place on the 9th. Long day! We were on the phone for over 90 minutes.

We had to go to the mall to make a return, so we walked over 1 mile making the rounds. After a late lunch, a long nap.
After dinner, I did get to glue down most of the road crossing.

I listened to the Miami - Phillies game. The Phils won their series 7-1, and now go to Atlanta to play and hopefully knock off the Braves. I think this will be a best of five series. Baltimore doesn't play until Saturday. Meanwhile, the Devils beat the Rangers 5-2. One more against the Islanders to end the pre-season. They open on Friday the 13th, against the Red Wings, who looked pretty good against the Caps and beat Pittsburgh tonight.

Joe- all 4 Division Series begin on Saturday. Baltimore & Houston on Fox; LA & Atlanta on TBS.

 

[Smudge617]

For our Diesel and Steamer fans.

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

56° and clear with an expected high of 82°. Supposed to get a cold front through late today and tomorrow's high in the low to mid 60's. Possibility of patchy frost in the area with a low of 36° Saturday morning.

Off tomorrow as I have to do my monthly Saturday server updates. Should take a bit less time as I have shut down completely 4 servers, so fewer updates to have to deal with.

Back at it as I have an email to get sent.

BBL

 

[TrucTrain55]

Good Morning all 65° with drizzle in the Ozark Foothills. Finally got some rain yesterday after a dry spell my garden is done thinking about planting some onions sets just to get rid of what I have left. Time to go and Dump Truckin might be a short day with the rain coming in.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 67°. As I posted last evening, the rains finally came, the second wave left another 1.5" for a total of 3.5" in just under 3 hours. It has all moved east and south now, watch out Hughie, it's coming at you. Cooler today with a high of 83° today and tomorrow. Then the real cool front arrives Friday night with a high of only 70° on Saturday. Maybe 49° Saturday night. Back into the 80's on Sunday. The ground here was so dry, that all 3.5" soaked in immediately, there's no puddles his morning and no evidence of any runoff. I will have to check my pond after daylight.

Yesterday turned out to be a beautiful day. I sawed up another tree that died this summer, it could possibly be firewood in the late winter instead of having to dry for next fall. Afterward surprisingly, the pool water temperature was still 82°, thus giving me an extra unexpected day to enjoy it. Another great thing about yesterday was that I resumed my normal diet after two days of restrictions. Most important was BEER! I cut short my trip in the train shed to enjoy a couple while in the pool. I also grilled hamburgers just prior to the rain coming. Had to watch the weather radar for that, otherwise it would have been spaghetti and meatballs made inside.
Granddog showed up a day early yesterday for a week's visit. I don't know where my daughter and family are going to be, but I think that they are actually only going to be gone over the weekend. I'll have to ask.

Today of course is the weekly grocery trek. It was interesting when I was in town Tuesday at the doctor's office. Gasoline prices had dropped another nickel per gallon. Did someone release more oil from the reserves???

Another productive day out in the train shed yesterday. I did more ground foam and cleaned up all of the cars at the liquor store.

I ended up cutting things short out there to use the pool earlier to beat the rain.

Karl - Are you sure that the dogs did it? Maybe it was the cat and the doggie just rescued a leftover piece.
Tom O -

Sex, money or politics at work?

Sex - Braggarts (Imagined I believe)
Money - Lack of
Politics - General bitching from those that didn't vote anyway.
Todd -

List employee's broken down by sex:

I don't know that I have ever been broken down by sex!
Curt -

The only thing I can think of is it's about how to use the monitoring equipment.

I suspected that but I couldn't resist asking.

Another musical birthday today, Steve Miller is 80 years old today and still rocking albeit a little more slowly. He's playing six concerts from late October through December.

Everyone have a fine day.

 

[chadbag]

My Athearn Genesis SD 70ACe in UP WP Heritage Locomotive has finally cleared UK customs, it'll be delivered Fri/Sat now I've paid £46 customs charge, sometimes I hate dealing with companies in the US.

I don't think it is the US companies that are the problem... HM Customs Service* seems to be the issue you have...

* or whatever its called

 

[Boris]

Good morning.

Maybe it was the cat and the doggie just rescued a leftover piece.

Kittys don't do things like that, they wear halos

Did someone release more oil from the reserves???

Don't think so...oil has recently been in a selloff. Investors fear a recession...

Joe- all 4 Division Series begin on Saturday. Baltimore & Houston on Fox; LA & Atlanta on TBS

Great! I get to see the Orioles, unless Fox 5 elects to show the other game like usual. Phillies on Sirius Radio.

Getting ready to go for our walk in the park.

 

[Smudge617]

I don't think it is the US companies that are the problem... HM Customs Service* seems to be the issue you have...

* or whatever its called

It was more of a tongue in cheek remark, I've dealt enough times with US companies to know that they are obeying US and UK custom regulations, it's just that if I buy from a company, the package is always marked as "Merchandise" which is correct, but at the same time it's incorrect, it's the slight difference in the definition of "Merchandise" in this context in the UK, Merchandise means that I'm importing something for re-sale, which attracts a higher % of import tax, which is incorrect as I'm importing it for personnel use, which attracts a lower %.

When TomO sent the cars he weathered for me plus a few other bits and pieces, same as MikeGTW and Dave has, I still had to pay import tax, but although value-wise the stuff TomO sent was greater, I paid about 35% less than I have for the Loco simply because it wasn't marked as Merchandise, because rightly, it's for my personnel use, not re-sale.

 

[chadbag]

It was more of a tongue in cheek remark, I've dealt enough times with US companies to know that they are obeying US and UK custom regulations, it's just that if I buy from a company, the package is always marked as "Merchandise" which is correct, but at the same time it's incorrect, it's the slight difference in the definition of "Merchandise" in this context in the UK, Merchandise means that I'm importing something for re-sale, which attracts a higher % of import tax, which is incorrect as I'm importing it for personnel use, which attracts a lower %.

When TomO sent the cars he weathered for me plus a few other bits and pieces, same as MikeGTW and Dave has, I still had to pay import tax, but although value-wise the stuff TomO sent was greater, I paid about 35% less than I have for the Loco simply because it wasn't marked as Merchandise, because rightly, it's for my personnel use, not re-sale.

Can you add notes to the orders to not mark it "merchandise" but rather "personal purchase" or something?

This is an interesting distinction.

 

[Patrick]

Willie: Gas dropped here as well. Down to $3.59 as of this morning, but a neighboring town I had to be in yesterday, (Mexican restaurant we drive 15 miles one way to get food from), is having a gas war. I filled up for $2.94\gallon with the 3 cent Kroger discount.

 

[Smudge617]

Can you add notes to the orders to not mark it "merchandise" but rather "personal purchase" or something?

This is an interesting distinction.

No, it's always somewhere on the Web page they state "goods will be marked as Merchandise", no exceptions.

We speak the same language, but at the same time, we don't.

 

[TLOC]

Hello from Ann Arbor, Mi where today has been a real cluster..k!

Went out to pack the car at 6 this morning and lo and behold, there is no car! My 2022 Jetta, a nothing fancy but practical car is missing! Security video from the complex show a towing company that says we Specialize in Repos was seen with my car and another going out of the gated community gates. Since the car was paid for when I purchased it that’s not the reason it’s gone. The police have the video and just called saying there is no towing company by the name shown in the video. They believe the car was stolen. Duh!

So off to the airport we tried to do. Newly heightened security at the front gate refused entry to the Uber driver as the gate keepers didn’t recognize my name. Uber driver went away and then texted us. We had to walk to the gate and got picked up there. Lost only 30 minutes or so. Now the flight has been delayed. Did I mention, clusterf..k…

We are heading home

 

[ctclibby]

Hello from Ann Arbor, Mi where today has been a real cluster..k!

Went out to pack the car at 6 this morning and lo and behold, there is no car! My 2022 Jetta, a nothing fancy but practical car is missing! Security video from the complex show a towing company that says we Specialize in Repos was seen with my car and another going out of the gated community gates. Since the car was paid for when I purchased it that’s not the reason it’s gone. The police have the video and just called saying there is no towing company by the name shown in the video. They believe the car was stolen. Duh!

So off to the airport we tried to do. Newly heightened security at the front gate refused entry to the Uber driver as the gate keepers didn’t recognize my name. Uber driver went away and then texted us. We had to walk to the gate and got picked up there. Lost only 30 minutes or so. Now the flight has been delayed. Did I mention, clusterf..k…

We are heading home

Gawd Tom: You have been having a bi tch of a time lately. Now we have 'Virtual Towing Companies' manned by ...hmmm; you guess. Just as bad as SanFran with the nimrods using powered inflatables to steal the smaller boats. They pull the power from the inflatable, then sink it and take off in the stolen boat. Geesh - so there is a tow truck hidden in some building somewhere while your car gets parted or re-licensed. Can't see this being a 'one of' type of crap.

 

[bnsf971]

Supposedly gas use is way down, so demand is down, and prices will drop.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good morning, all! Willie your rain has arrived. The thunderstorms seem to be staying to the east, mostly over Galveston Bay. Certainly, welcomed rain as lawns were really looking bad in the neighborhood.

TomO - That had to a sickening feeling, to walk out suitcase in hand only to find your car gone.
Smudge - language, there are 3 to's in the English language. How do you spell tos'? (sic)

Gas at the nearby discount station $2.86, around $3.11 elsewhere.

Maybe soon switch later this afternoon.

STAY SAFE
LATER