Running Bear's October 2024 Coffee Shop

[Bill Tidler Jr.]

Good morning! It's 50° in Tipton.

 

[bnsf971]

Good morning. It's 65 and clear.

 

[troyphoto]

Well, howdy there internet peeps... and those who were proud union members.

It's Troy again.

Great time watching the demos of the new game yesterday. After I spent a morning gluing my fingers to things I didn't want them glued to. Seems I've got a bottle of THIN super glue. That stuff goes everywhere.

I was putting magnetic sheet on the bottom of gaming bases. The idea being to line my storage bins with sheet steel, then the minis wouldn't shift during transport.

And I made the mistake of using the thin glue with scrap pieces of magnet sheet on some of the larger bases. Gah! With that thin glue, it's tough to tell when you've touched it with bare skin. Then, WHAM, you're pulling off skin as you try to seperate from the product you're gluing.

Have to run to Target today for the odds and ends trip.

When it comes to shopping, I stopped going to Kroger/Ralphs brand stores because of their reliance on me needing to use their website (digital coupons) or their app in store for digital coupons. They want to change my behavior to fit their model of tracking customers. So I switched to a regional chain. Only one kroger trip a month for two or three things I can't get at the other store.

I remember purchasing an Isuzu truck soon after Suburu/Isuzu opened a plant here in Indiana. Purchased a Honda about the time Honda opened a plant here. We liked the cars, but it was easy to avoid brands that didn't have local plants. Didn't have to be a full assembly plant. Just knowing that X Y or Z parts were employing people in my state helped my wife and I take a look at the auto market.

Musk is a nutter. I don't want to give any of my money to him. He sold PayPal many years ago. I don't use Starlink (unless I'm on a cruise ship and that's the only option for connection)

I am on X (Twitter) but don't pay fees to him. Mostly I'm there to follow the politics and breaking news. But that has changed dramatically under him. So, many people not of his political ilk have to be very very careful about posting there. Death threats and Swatting have been known to occur if certain segments of Muskites don't like one's stances.

Musk is about to ditch the Hard-Block function. On every other social media platform, a hard block means the blocked entity does not get to view any of your profile. Musk has publicly said he wants that feature gone. Just "Mute" other's responses, so you don't have to see them.

Women are especially worried. They may have a violent Ex, or stalkers (especially in the political climate). Having a bunch of violent wacka-doodles with the ability to see their profile, even if closed, and all of their posts, is a security concern, especially for women. But, in Musk-world, that doesn't matter.

So, yeah, I'm avoiding erratic Musk companies.

 

[kbkchooch]

Good morning gang.

45° this morning under clear skies looking for a high today of 77°.

Well, the staycation has come and gone, and today I have to return to the shop. Wahhh!!!

BBL

 

[NorthBrit]

Those are really spacious accommodations for a cruise ship.

That's a very good sized balcony. The last cruise we went on the balcony was less that half as deep as the one you were showing.

For a cruise ship built in 1988 the 'Balmoral' has amazing sized cabins/suites; much larger than most modern ships. Even the balconies are much bigger.

As for the 1950s cabins? They were more spacious than most cruise ships we have travelled on. Granted there were no balconies then. They were unheard of.

Balmoral

Some pictures taken by Dawn as we cruised the coast of Norway.

Troll Mountain

Snow-capped Mountains

Back later

 

[D&J RailRoad]

looks cold. (shrug, as I wrap my hands around my cup of coffee).

 

[NorthBrit]

looks cold. (shrug, as I wrap my hands around my cup of coffee).

It was, Ken. The wearing warm clothing to go on deck was a priority.

An amazing journey I have always wanted to do.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Clear and still a bit nippy at 53°; not quite as warm as the forecast called for. I see rain in the forecast for 10/30, but that's a long way away.

A busy morning in store. Need to return the rental car on the way to taking my wife to the doctor to have her ribs checked out. The appointment is at 11:45, so that kind of ruins the whole day. But it is the soonest that we could get it and it is important. In reality, all he can really do, is to send her to the X-ray place for now. From what I know and have read, the main treatment is painkillers and icing. However recovery can be 1-2 months.

Here are a few pictures from the indoor G scale layout at Traintastic, that we saw last week on the trip.

Looks like we have a causality at the site of a trestle rebuild.

Here are a couple of a European-themed layout.

I have about 60 from this museum that I haven't completely sorted out. Some are real crappy and I am going to delete them. The Plexiglass protectors in front of many displays, reflected light and did other funny stuff.

Todd - Nope! I had no intention of accepting their $500 check yet. His insurance company spoke to my wife separately and did not make any offer since she told them that she was going to the doctor before discussing any settlement. Medicare will be paying for everything right now. They have the right to ask/sue for reimbursement from his insurance company. At this point, our insurance company is handling everything with his insurance company.
Patrick - The Hallmark movie channel is a staple in our house. Christmas is year-round there. But it makes the wife happy, so I don't fight it. I haven't watched TV since the mid-90's anyway, except for an occasional news or financial program on Fox Business.
Terry - Awesome pair of rain/flooding videos. I wish all of those people well.

Nothing special today, no rock & roll birthdays. Everyone have a great Monday.

 

[troyphoto]

Since there are no R&R birthdays to speak of,

How about Actor Carrie Fisher (RIP) and Author Ursula K. Le Guin (RIP) both born Oct 21

 

[John from Indiana]

That's a really cool photo.

Imagine if you had a bunch of space, how fun would that be to model?

You would need a long layout that's for sure; but it could include many different buildings...It would seem like a fun layout if I had the space...I've got 30 feet now; but don't think that's enough. But a great idea though

 

[John from Indiana]

Here are a few pictures from the indoor G scale layout at Traintastic, that we saw last week on the trip.
View attachment 202210

INDOOR G SCALE!! That must be a very huge indoors

 

[ctclibby]

Good Morning All!

58F @ 68% and partly. Weather guessers were saying high 20's to mid 30's overnight. Ya, well - good guess. It was still 61F at 0200!

Finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with all the 'get ready for winter' stuff. Today I plant the gray water septic and drain field, and get it covered up. Still need to insulate the bottom of our French Door which could be a pain. Also, riding mower needs to be parked under the lean-to then battery out, and move the Blazer away from the lean-to as I don't want a bunch of snow sliding on her and battery out. Not looking forward to sticking the leaf blower on the input of the pellet stoves to blow them out. Probably will disconnect the exhaust stack and stick a shop vac on the stove to get ( hopefully ) the crap that gets blown out. Will try that in the Train Cave 1st, as I can just imaging what Maria will say/do/freak out if something is not sealed up good and that tiny soot gets blown around.

Expedition fix was pretty easy, only heard two juicy words, although Dave had to stand on his head for the most part; now have forced air in the interior! Oh, and the local car parts shops had the blower and resistor/magic module for upwards of $270. Ebay was between $100 and $175 with 4 - 6 day delivery. Amazon came through again. $58 for both and 2 day delivery. Wife is happy.

For all of you Muskters - x.com was the PayPal site circa 1998. Gee, guess what it points to now? Before that easy payment method, we waited for the check/mo from the buyer. I did a ton of dumpster diving South of Woodenville, Wa and came up with a lot of small items that you could 'bulk' sell. I finally just started shipping when the buyer told me the 'check is in the mail' as that was better than having a bunch of ready to ship boxes laying around waiting. Back then, never got burnt - lucky? Maybe, people were more honest? Probably. PayPal has quite the history. Google it.

Was complaining to Maria the other day about 'having' to get stuff done ( my words, not hers ). Was getting pretty tired of that and wanted to do stuff that I want to do. I actually started thinking about train stuff, went out yesterday for a bit and am still amazed of how many boxes of 'stuff' I need to deal with. That will take time as you probably all know. Decided to reconfigure the Helix as I do not need space for 26 20ft trains ( 49 10ft trains ), but want double track for continuous running, still with up/down storage. Can still use the same base/rise/run so that is not an issue and now the space would allow for 13/20ft 24/10ft trains. That enough? Hmmm. Also want to incorporate a 'fueling facility' somewhat like Hauser, Id except the fueling locations will be on each end, not in the middle. That also will give me room to stage some trains. Prototypical? Nope, but will work. Now I need to reconfigure the track plan and squeeze in 24ft somewhere. Never ending, isn't it?

Later

 

[chessie_system3]

Morning fellers. I hope all is well with everyone. I really wish I could stop by here more often. Just caught up on the daily hustle of life. Started some small train projects here recently. I've had to adjust how I do my modeling. My son is now showing interest in trains. So much so that if I go down just to change out laundry he's on the steps wondering if it's "train time". He doesn't see trains like the most of us do. He needs the play factor. I don't have much in the way of that. I do allow him to play with the vehicles on the layout. I figure they don't cost an arm and a leg so should he break one then I can easily replace it. However I have decided to resurrect some of my older stuff. I figure if I can get more robust not highly detailed stuff brought back to life then he can take those on. I'm working on a blue box GP35 that I'm putting back together after years of being in a box. As well as a life like GP38. The life like with the pan cake motor is surprisingly a decent runner after some wheel cleaning and lube. It needs traction tires though. These locomotives don't need to be fancy but just run. Now to add some actual working facilities to the mix and I have play value for my son to explore and have fun with. I've been all over eBay searching for what ever I can find that isn't overly priced. This is quite a chore though as these items are usually from companies that aren't around anymore and the sellers are selling them as rare items. The joys of eBay. That's all I have for now. I'll stop by again when I get a chance. Hope everyone has a good day.

 

[santafewillie]

John -
The Museum itself is over 50,000 sq ft indoors. This is about 4x the amount of space of the old museum that they moved from 2 years ago. Sadly, to me at least, is the fact that at least half of that space is now an event center for kid's birthdays and stuff. They make a lot of money from that part. One of the members told me that they have at least as much in storage as they have on display, when I asked about some stuff that I used to see. The G scale layout that I showed is about 700 sq ft. The European layout is around 160 sq ft.

 

[migalyto]

You would need a long layout that's for sure; but it could include many different buildings...It would seem like a fun layout if I had the space...I've got 30 feet now; but don't think that's enough. But a great idea though

Yes it would take a ton of space on a layout. My thought was more of just that scene being the entire layout. You could spend hours switching out cars.

 

[NorthBrit]

Good afternoon all. Flo. Afternoon tea with an extra scone and jam, please.

Younger granddaughter visiting after school. She will be dressing up for Halloween to go with the Brownies. They are going to an Old People's Home 'to scare the residents'???

Tesla. Daughter drives such a car. She seems to like it. Personally I do not want any make of electric car. I prefer a petrol driven one.

It has been a few weeks since I have been in the train room. Other things are dominating my time. New purchases and gifts of rolling stock have arrived, so I must make time.

 

[chadbag]

Good morning. My watch says 50F at 945am. It was around 44F when I got up this morning. Whole week is supposedly sunny in mid 60s to low 70s. We'll see. I'll take it.

I also updated my chili recipe above -- forgot to add I put in a little cocoa powder for depth.

 

[Boris]

From what I remember, those things worked against her becoming a museum ship, as so many of her spaces contained classified equipment, and the government wanted to control access long after everything on board had become obsolete.

Around 1953, political pressure from somewhere, caused the Maritime Administration to begin phasing out subsidies to private steamship operators, like US Lines, and eliminate the subsidies to shipbuilders. It also started the process of reflagging the merchant fleet to cheaper third world countries and crews instead of unionized American crews. With few exceptions, unsubsidized Trans Atlantic, service declined from that point.
When the United States was no longer viable, as an unsubsidized US Flag Liner. it was sold to foreign interests who took it to a ship yard in Turkey where two of the four fast engines and boilers were removed,as part of a plan to make it a cruise liner When those interest went broke, it was going to the breakers, until the Preservationists got involved.
If there was a lot of classified material on board, then like the NS Savannah, it would have been reclaimed and placed in the James River with the rest of the ghosts of our Maritime past. (US Lines didn't dissolve until the late 1980s. By that time the SS America and their other passenger Liners were retired).
This was strictly a case where "Financial Interests" under the guise of "Free Enterprise", placed their business interest above the need for the US to maintain a Merchant Navy, instead of relying on foreign ships.

 

[Boris]

On trips to Manhattan, along Riverside Drive you could see the ocean liners. Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and United States.

The Times and The Herald Tribune, would publish the scheduled arrival and departure times and piers where these fantastic ships sailed from. I had a front porch view of Sun Shipbuilding's #1 Dry Dock, when growing up. Amazing what went there for repairs.

 

[NorthBrit]

The Times and The Herald Tribune, would publish the scheduled arrival and departure times and piers where these fantastic ships sailed from. I had a front porch view of Sun Shipbuilding's #1 Dry Dock, when growing up. Amazing what went there for repairs.

A sight to see; ships on 'Luxury Liner Row'.