Running Bear's October 2026 Coffee Shop

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In the ten minutes or so since the above post, it started raining.

Yesterday, I took advantage of the extra day off I had from using a PTO day, and performed some maintenance around the house.
First, I had noticed the cabinet where I keep my hand appliances (toaster, air fryer, etc) is significantly warmer than the surrounding cabinetry, so I investigated. After I killed the wasps and sprayed multiple nests with bug killer, I discovered the entire panel where the cabinet is located doesn't have any insulation. So, I ripped apart the back of the cabinet and added some R13 insulation, and closed everything back up. The cabinet now smells like bug spray, but at least it isn't an auxiliary food warmer now.
I then moved outdoors to perform some touch-up paint work on some of the trim around where I had fixed a roof leak a couple of months ago. As I was painting, I noticed an inordinate number of wasps flying around the area, and investigated. I found a large active nest of them on the underside of a palmetto frond less than two feet from where I had been working on the trim, and it was covered in wasps. Have I ever mentioned I am allergic to wasp and bee stings? So I went back inside and found the can of spray I had exterminated the wasps "inside" the house, and, standing as far away as possible, sprayed the remaining bug spray on the nest. To say the wasps were disturbed would be an understatement. I was about 10 feet away when I blasted them, and immediately departed the area at top speed, heading back inside. The wasps flew around the nest for several hours, trying to sting anything that came near. Luckily, "anything" was the side of my house, and the side of the neighbors' house. But still..
I ordered another can of spray, which will be here before noon. Where the nest is, I can open a window, hose them down, and shut the window, without going near them again.
Next, I'm going to replace a weird two-wire style outlet with a standard outlet, so I can plug in 120v equipment that has a separate ground, instead of having to use a grounding adapter.
 
Good morning gang!

50° currently outside with an expected high of only 60°. Windy conditions should make it feel like 45° later today.
The wind will be a double edge sword, as they will help to dry last night rain up so I can cut the grass, but they won’t make it feel much colder.
Gotta get off here for now, the plumber is coming at 7 AM to replace the pressure tank in the basement that has now started peeing on the floor.
The joys of homeownership!
BBL
 


In the ten minutes or so since the above post, it started raining.

Yesterday, I took advantage of the extra day off I had from using a PTO day, and performed some maintenance around the house.
First, I had noticed the cabinet where I keep my hand appliances (toaster, air fryer, etc) is significantly warmer than the surrounding cabinetry, so I investigated. After I killed the wasps and sprayed multiple nests with bug killer, I discovered the entire panel where the cabinet is located doesn't have any insulation. So, I ripped apart the back of the cabinet and added some R13 insulation, and closed everything back up. The cabinet now smells like bug spray, but at least it isn't an auxiliary food warmer now.
I then moved outdoors to perform some touch-up paint work on some of the trim around where I had fixed a roof leak a couple of months ago. As I was painting, I noticed an inordinate number of wasps flying around the area, and investigated. I found a large active nest of them on the underside of a palmetto frond less than two feet from where I had been working on the trim, and it was covered in wasps. Have I ever mentioned I am allergic to wasp and bee stings? So I went back inside and found the can of spray I had exterminated the wasps "inside" the house, and, standing as far away as possible, sprayed the remaining bug spray on the nest. To say the wasps were disturbed would be an understatement. I was about 10 feet away when I blasted them, and immediately departed the area at top speed, heading back inside. The wasps flew around the nest for several hours, trying to sting anything that came near. Luckily, "anything" was the side of my house, and the side of the neighbors' house. But still..
I ordered another can of spray, which will be here before noon. Where the nest is, I can open a window, hose them down, and shut the window, without going near them again.
Next, I'm going to replace a weird two-wire style outlet with a standard outlet, so I can plug in 120v equipment that has a separate ground, instead of having to use a grounding adapter.
Terry Isn't home ownership an adventure? We had almost the same cabinet issue except ours was a colder than the rest. Ya different climate. Was able to put in R19 so it is good to go.

Bee/Wasp/Hornet - I was also allergic to their stings and was deathly afraid of them in my early teens. Got the shot sequences and they don't bother be as much. Still react if stung, but it does not put me down.

This has been a bad 'bee' year and think we are holding up the market on the ACE insect killer. Stuff sprays ~15ft horizontal, ~10ft up but ya still have to have an escape route.

Define 'weird' two-wire outlet? Is there a Earth ground in the box or just 2 wire?

L8r
 
day off I had from using a PTO day
Man, you must be moving up in the world if they didn't make you work on a PTO! haha

Sounds like a good, productive day!

I was looking for the idiots who used a bottle rocket on a wasp nest, but looks like youztube either got rid of it or age restricted it. Anyway, found that brake cleaner seems to work good, but you need a stick thing that can spray it.
 
Define 'weird' two-wire outlet? Is there a Earth ground in the box or just 2 wire?
It's an outlet that only will accept two-prong plugs, rather than the standard outlets that have the two prongs plus ground. In an area that has a lot more lightning than most, I want everything to be grounded properly, rather than the "ground through the outlet box" that never seems to be grounded.
 
This is what I have:

IMG_0030.jpeg

This is what I need:

IMG_0031.jpeg
 
I was stuck with installing crew into my Rapido Pannier tank since the body comes off in order to access the electronics. I plan to install a headlight later and didn't want the crew to be breaking off all the time. I mentioned this on another forum and a response was to use black tac. I hadn't thought of that and used blue tac that I have.
BLUETAC PADS.jpeg


And viola! Removable crew!
PANNIER DRIVER.jpeg

PANNIER FIREMAN.jpeg


This is the value that I get out of hobby forums. The sharing of ideas.
 
I was stuck with installing crew into my Rapido Pannier tank since the body comes off in order to access the electronics. I plan to install a headlight later and didn't want the crew to be breaking off all the time. I mentioned this on another forum and a response was to use black tac. I hadn't thought of that and used blue tac that I have.
View attachment 275764

And viola! Removable crew!
View attachment 275765
View attachment 275766

This is the value that I get out of hobby forums. The sharing of ideas.
Are you installing DCC in that?
If you are, and feel masochistic, you can add a firebox flickering light in it.
 


Good morning all!

Going to be a cool day weather wise. Currently its a sunny 35F. High is expected to top out at 56F. I still am wearing shorts with a sweatshirt. Just
cant get the jeans out yet. Don't need them yet since it will be back in the upper 60s low 70s all next week.

Usual Saturday grocery run, car fill ups, and laundry today. Dog goes to the groomer to get scrubbed up at 9:30am.

Not much else going on.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Morning folks, been a few weeks since I posted. It's currently 50 and sunny. I have no idea what the plans are today; either my dad and I will go watch some vintage drag racing, ooor my aunt and cousin are coming into town. Nothing's been said yet.

Speaking of my dad and I, two Saturdays ago we went over to Temple for the vintage tractor show they have, we try to make it every year. Around the grounds are a bunch of parted-out tractors and implements and just plain junk, though this old Cotton Belt trailer was one of the things that caught my eye!

cotton_belt_trailer.jpg
 
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Good Morning All. Clear and 43°, much chillier than it normally gets here for this time of year. High today in the mid-60's than a return to normal weather tomorrow and lower-80's later in the week. Inside, it remained at 69°, perfectly fine. I don't recall it ever reaching the freezing point here in October.

The fierce north wind dried the place out before noon yesterday, after Thursday night's rain, thus enabling me to do more yardwork outside than I expected. Grass is growing again and I mowed near the house. Gathered up more firewood that I cut up last winter but didn't stack it yet. The capacity for my Carts Vermont Model 26 is 400 lbs, or ~13.5 cu ft, theoretically a 6-day supply if the weather isn't too severe. Real handy since I don't have a tow-behind trailer for my yard tractor.

Today will start with the unstoppable dishwasher before I start some laundry. By the time that's done, it will probably have warmed up enough to get outside for a while, where there's no shortage of tasks.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I continued with building #1 of the Trackside Jamboree kit. Cut and painted some of the outside wall trim and flipped the walls over to prime the other side. Also painted all of the doors and windows. Ran trains while waiting for paint to dry.

Swal - Bacon may not be the best dietary choice for a healthy life, but at some point one must balance eating healthy versus eating what really tastes good. Disclaimer: I probably only eat 1-2 strips of bacon every 2 weeks, but would eat a whole lot more if it wasn't for the salt and nitrate content.
Shortwrench - A vendor that frequents train shows in the Dallas area bought a gallon sized Ziploc with about 500 axles with plastic wheels from me for $10. So there must be a market somewhere for them. I still had plenty at home to make scrap piles out of.
Hughie - Re: The Santa Fe TX school shooting still pisses me off when I think of it. The fact that the parents of the shooter got off scot-free, even though the gun(s) belonged to his father. And they also claimed that they weren't aware of their son's mental issues. Enough said.

Musical birthdays of note today include Gary Puckett of the Union Gap, who is 84 today. The late Turtles guitarist Jim Tucker, was born on this day in 1946. Not in my musical genre, but Alan Jackson is 68 today.

Everyone out there have a great Saturday.
 
I think you'll find the BS at a much greater level elsewhere
I don't know of any forum that tolerates posting about politics or religion, unless of course those are the focus of the forum(s).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good morning folks. 44°F with a nip in the air this AM. The wind has petered out so all that is left now is cool. Frost advisory for tomorrow morning has been issued. I believe they issued one for this morning too at the last second, but it's too warm even out here in the sticks for frost. I heard the furnace start around 0630 set on 68°F and then fell asleep again.

I found that the window in my den did not close all the way last night. I have five coax cables and a heavy ground wire coming in that window with a thick piece of foam weather stripping to seal the bottom, but I didn't push hard enough to seal the bottom against the inside of the sill plate. Gotta see what's up with that and fix it today before it really gets cold.

Neighbor wasn't home overnight so I slept all the way through the night until 0730 this morning. That hasn't happened in over half a year at least. And that was after turning in at 2245 last evening.

It was cold and cloudy and showery whilst standing outside grilling meat yesterday. I didn't expect the rain, but I just moved the grill closer to the man door in the garage and stood inside until it stopped. The meat was almost finished anyway so it was no big deal.

Supposed to rise to 60°F today and steadily rising to the upper 70°Fs by next Saturday. We'll see what happens. Their Magic 8-Ball really doesn't have that kind of range to know for sure what's happening tomorrow let alone a week from today.

Have a great Autumn weekend!

Servus!
 
Good morning Crew though we now seem to be missing 1. I understand frustration with the forum at times and we all know I have pushed the political boundaries but I truly respect the job Terry does (I wouldn’t do it) and the place Bob operates for us. Rules are rules. Though I am a gun owner and have a concealed carry license I feel a bit out of touch with the gun owners here. But you know if there is something you don’t like or a photo you don’t want to see just move along. KUSOJIJI wrote it best:

This is the value that I get out of hobby forums. The sharing of ideas.

I wholeheartedly agree but RUNNING BEARS DINER is a free for all of chat within the forum rules

That said. My Terry is still frustrated and yes I over reacted yesterday because my best friend, lover and rock of my life is collapsing and she’s never been like this even during her past family dramas. I’ve had cancer 2 times and 2 thankfully minor strokes. She’s been there and I feel I’ve failed her this week because she doesn’t know if she has lung cancer or not but the doctors were pretty emphatic (42 years smoking) that they believe she does. I thought just getting her out of the house for her nails would help and though eventually it did my comments at first went over wrong. I appreciate you guys reading and responding. Her procedure is scheduled for 8am Monday and we are to be there at 6 for check in. Her doctor to perform the procedure yesterday called in sick!

We both went to hockey last night on campus with the grandson as the backup if Terry decided not to go. The plan was she’d be in the hospital last night. But since we hadn’t given the tickets away she went. We had a good time especially after the sleep skating Badger Women woke up in the 3rd period and blew open a 1-1 game winning 5-1. With an unrealistic #1 ranking coming into the season with 9 rookie freshmen on the roster and missing 3 players at the National Canadian team tryouts and our senior captain out with a broken hand they lost to OSU #2 last weekend. I still think the #2 ranking is unrealistic but they beat #15 last night. Hopefully again this afternoon at 2.

We had our 1st hard freeze last night with a low of 28f degrees. Currently 30 going to 54. Dry the next 10 days per the WeatherChannel app forecast

I looked at my purchases from the LHS after we got home from hockey last night at 10. Wow, what was I thinking? I can live with the paint choices and decoders but I needed more locomotives and scenery items like another hole in my head

Tomorrow is my return to the paper mill build in my thread about building a paper mill for a friend. I will update the thread as I move forward. It’s been quite a few months. Last night I wrote a list (couldn’t sleep) at 2 just to update myself where I am on all my commission work and projects for friends. The shop at 2 in the morning was a quiet erie place! Right now the tree project for the UP of Michigan layout are 100% formed up and leafed out with maybe 40 needing just some touch up. There are over 300 trees completed by the tree team on my shelf to transport after the ground cover is installed. 2 paper mills for commission work have structures completed but need some finished painting and some need weathering completed. I have 2 diesel commissions left to weather and bill out by 11/15. The PNW paper mill ( thread for a friend) is a custom non commission job for a good friend. I have 4 bridge kits to build, paint and weather. 2 for the friends PNW layout and 2 for the UP Michigan layout. The PNW is going to try to complete the scenic painting of the back drop the paper mill structures will stand against and in front of by 11/1. Other than me driving 15 minutes to his house occasionally until the New Year I have cancelled all the OPS Sessions I had signed up for. Just 3 work sessions at the UP Michigan layout for me the rest of the year. Terry wants me busy and not hovering over her after her after the surgery so I am lined up pretty well. Her best friend will come to stay for some time to help out and is a similar personality to Terry and a retired nurse. We will tell the son and daughter my brother and sister and only her youngest brother after the surgery is done. Not my choice but it’s her decision. My family has a tendency to fill waiting rooms during surgeries so we will wait until after.

Long live the forum and its followers

Enjoy your day
 
Good morning Crew though we now seem to be missing 1. I understand frustration with the forum at times and we all know I have pushed the political boundaries but I truly respect the job Terry does (I wouldn’t do it) and the place Bob operates for us. Rules are rules. Though I am a gun owner and have a concealed carry license I feel a bit out of touch with the gun owners here. But you know if there is something you don’t like or a photo you don’t want to see just move along. KUSOJIJI wrote it best:

This is the value that I get out of hobby forums. The sharing of ideas.

I wholeheartedly agree but RUNNING BEARS DINER is a free for all of chat within the forum rules

That said. My Terry is still frustrated and yes I over reacted yesterday because my best friend, lover and rock of my life is collapsing and she’s never been like this even during her past family dramas. I’ve had cancer 2 times and 2 thankfully minor strokes. She’s been there and I feel I’ve failed her this week because she doesn’t know if she has lung cancer or not but the doctors were pretty emphatic (42 years smoking) that they believe she does. I thought just getting her out of the house for her nails would help and though eventually it did my comments at first went over wrong. I appreciate you guys reading and responding. Her procedure is scheduled for 8am Monday and we are to be there at 6 for check in. Her doctor to perform the procedure yesterday called in sick!

We both went to hockey last night on campus with the grandson as the backup if Terry decided not to go. The plan was she’d be in the hospital last night. But since we hadn’t given the tickets away she went. We had a good time especially after the sleep skating Badger Women woke up in the 3rd period and blew open a 1-1 game winning 5-1. With an unrealistic #1 ranking coming into the season with 9 rookie freshmen on the roster and missing 3 players at the National Canadian team tryouts and our senior captain out with a broken hand they lost to OSU #2 last weekend. I still think the #2 ranking is unrealistic but they beat #15 last night. Hopefully again this afternoon at 2.

We had our 1st hard freeze last night with a low of 28f degrees. Currently 30 going to 54. Dry the next 10 days per the WeatherChannel app forecast

I looked at my purchases from the LHS after we got home from hockey last night at 10. Wow, what was I thinking? I can live with the paint choices and decoders but I needed more locomotives and scenery items like another hole in my head

Tomorrow is my return to the paper mill build in my thread about building a paper mill for a friend. I will update the thread as I move forward. It’s been quite a few months. Last night I wrote a list (couldn’t sleep) at 2 just to update myself where I am on all my commission work and projects for friends. The shop at 2 in the morning was a quiet erie place! Right now the tree project for the UP of Michigan layout are 100% formed up and leafed out with maybe 40 needing just some touch up. There are over 300 trees completed by the tree team on my shelf to transport after the ground cover is installed. 2 paper mills for commission work have structures completed but need some finished painting and some need weathering completed. I have 2 diesel commissions left to weather and bill out by 11/15. The PNW paper mill ( thread for a friend) is a custom non commission job for a good friend. I have 4 bridge kits to build, paint and weather. 2 for the friends PNW layout and 2 for the UP Michigan layout. The PNW is going to try to complete the scenic painting of the back drop the paper mill structures will stand against and in front of by 11/1. Other than me driving 15 minutes to his house occasionally until the New Year I have cancelled all the OPS Sessions I had signed up for. Just 3 work sessions at the UP Michigan layout for me the rest of the year. Terry wants me busy and not hovering over her after her after the surgery so I am lined up pretty well. Her best friend will come to stay for some time to help out and is a similar personality to Terry and a retired nurse. We will tell the son and daughter my brother and sister and only her youngest brother after the surgery is done. Not my choice but it’s her decision. My family has a tendency to fill waiting rooms during surgeries so we will wait until after.

Long live the forum and its followers

Enjoy your day
I know you're being strong for her. BTDT with Nicki a half dozen times over the last 5 years.
 
David (Marlin) - BTDT had me thinking for a minute, since around the DFW area, there is a dumpster rental company called Been There Dump That, which confused me. I should have caught on earlier.

BTW - I wonder what happened to our other David who was on his trans-Pacific voyage on the container ship???
 


Unless it is compensated by an increase in Medicare premiums, resulting in a decrease in net!
Is there any such thing as a real "Average SS Recipient"?

Last year was 2.8%, this year, 3.6% this year. Only politicians and the media think that's a large increase.
 




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