Running Bear's September 2025 Coffee Shop

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Good Morning All. Clear and a chilly 64°. Well, chilly for us, probably warm to you mid-westerners! Pleasant days coming up with cooler nights in the low 50's. No rain in the 10 day forecast. Yesterday's morning thunderstorms ended up leaving me with 0.4" in the gauge...totally soaked in even though the ground is still wet from Sunday night's storms.

It's weekly grocery trek day for us. I have a new batch of coupons from Kroger that are definitely geared to our purchasing habits. They DO track everything that we buy through their membership program. Not sure at this time whether or not we're stopping elsewhere or not, matter of fact, I don't know yet whether my wife is going along. Other planned activity today includes the damn dishwasher and another round with the mower this afternoon. I need to plan on winterizing and covering the pool in the next few days.

Yesterday's visit to the cardiologist's nurse practitioner went well. She was impressed with the BP reading of 130/58, although I was concerned with the lower than usual second number. She's still concerned with the Cholesterol number of 170 because the LDL was a bit high at 110; but she has finally accepted the fact that I will not take statin drugs.

As expected, I just spent a short time out in the train shed yesterday. Today will be the same. I finished sorting out about 2 dozen trees and I will be scouting the best locations for them. I need lots more but I want to use these where it counts the most right now. Then I did a maintenance inspection of an intermodal train that has been parked on the farthest back staging track on the east wall, track #12. It seems that my resident lizard (posted a couple of weeks ago) has been traveling along the top of the containers and also between the track and the wall. There were a number of lizard droppings on the containers and behind them. They're very distinctive and do not resemble rodent droppings. I also found some bent and broken ladders that I may or may not be able to fix on the plastic cars. There's 16 well cars in this train, so it will occupy some more time. I just cleaned yesterday, setting the repairs aside for today.

Michael - It's amazing that the old-fashioned weathermen from the 60's were more accurate with their forecasts than the new guys today with all of their computer models! In my area, the NWS is absolutely horrible regarding bad weather. Easy for them to predict hot and dry for us during August, but they missed the severity of last Sunday's storm here in a major way.
Troy - Regarding your morning rant. First, I don't believe that people should be mixing business with politics, but it is becoming commonplace lately. I also am not familiar with the NMRA situation except for what you posted this morning and a couple of weeks ago. It seems like she is promoting conservative causes? So what's the difference between that and the liberal leaning promotions of Bud Light and Target a few years ago??? Rhetorical question only.
Mikey -
PNKFLOYD said:
I believe I have posted on the forum more in the past 30 days than all the previous months of this year. Time for me to shut up for awhile.
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It's been great to see so much from you. You're the only active member from Alabama left that I can follow. Your work is outstanding.

Everyone have a great day today.
 
Dawn says, "I guess you will be reading this afternoon?"

My Ships Monthly magazine has arrived.
Then the book I have been waiting for ---


IMG_0682.JPEG



Now waiting for two books on American Aircraft Carriers and three books on American Railroading.
 


santafewillie said:
130/58, although I was concerned with the lower than usual second number.
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No worries, Willie, your Diastolic blood pressure is good.

Since I have been having trouble with low blood pressure, I was introduced to Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP). It is a key measurement used to assess how well blood is flowing through your arteries and reaching vital organs like the brain, heart, and kidneys.

It represents the average pressure in your arteries during one complete heartbeat cycle, not just the highs and lows you see in standard blood pressure readings.

MAP gives a more stable and meaningful picture of circulatory health than just systolic/diastolic numbers alone.
  • MAP ≥ 60 mmHg is typically needed to ensure adequate blood flow to organs.
  • MAP between 70–100 mmHg is considered normal and healthy.
  • MAP > 100 mmHg may indicate high pressure and risk for heart or kidney damage.
  • MAP < 60 mmHg can signal poor perfusion, risking organ failure or shock.
Your 130/58 calculates to an MAP of 82 mmHg - close to the center of the normal and healthy range!

Mine was (113/73) = 87 mmHg this morning, we are both in the normal and healthy range!

www.mdcalc.com

Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP)

The Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP) calculates mean arterial pressure from measured systolic and diastolic blood pressure values.
www.mdcalc.com www.mdcalc.com
 
Good morning Crew. 52f degrees now but the guessers have written 75 down for later. Less than a 10% chance of rain until around noon on Saturday when it climbs to a 28% chance. I better get the g/s to cut the grass today as we will probably get one of those miraculous “pop up” storms! Can you see I have little faith in the National Weather Service. I know the NWS was gutted by the doge purge in February and even though nationally they restored some positions they did not in Wisconsin.

NMRA has been a joke for years and though President Gordy has tried nothing really has changed. Change in the NMRA has to come from the local and regional chapters and that’s where the crusty old timers are entrenched. I’ve followed the various attempts over at the MRH forums where it starts off as a decent conversation where it evolves to getting the thread locked. Joe Fugate, owner of the MRH borg has tried a few times in those threads to pump up participation into the NMRA but most of the responders are in the old crusty age group that has been in the NMRA and left never to return again. ( like me) The digital magazine versus the paper thing was a topic at MRH and other places and that always confused me. Why in this day and age would you want a paper monthly magazine that is a drain on resources of the group ( NMRA) you want to support? After all those forums are digital. Personally I think if the NMRA had a forum they’d be better off.

Karl, I was going to respectfully disagree with you on the MMR degree program. But after re-reading your statement I can’t totally disagree. I personally know 3 local MMR degree holders and 3 others I know as Facebook friends that I have met at least twice including the most recently past president of the NMRA. None of them are self absorbed a..holes. They are wonderful gentlemen that would go out of their way to help someone on model railroading. They want to help if you ask for help. They do not come across as know it alls! I have met a few others online that use the MMR initials in their signatures and I just laugh at that. Those are the self absorbed a..holes that come across as better than you and me. I stay away from involvement with them. My wife has a PhD and you would never know it as except in professional educational settings she doesn’t use it.

Has the NMRA outlived its usefulness? I’m not sure but I don’t spend much time thinking about it except when reading threads and replying like this about it online. I did not renew in 1976 because at age 24 I was told by the local Chicago area district I belonged to I “ needed to earn my stripes” before I would be listened to.

Troy, 100% agree with you. I had never heard of Lucy before Lionel went after her because he has always been a self absorbed a..hole and she is a woman in a man’s hobby. I met Lionel a few years ago for a gathering at the Rochelle, Il railroad park pavilion. After meeting him I stopped listening to his podcast after I realized what an ass he was and how totally unprepared and unprofessional he was when interviewing Scott Thornton on his podcast. I had been following Lucy ever since until maybe August when she wrote something I thought stepped over her responsibilities in a comment made by one of her followers on FB. I dropped her then

The breakfast out yesterday surprised me as being exceptional. (It never was there before) Today we are heading to lunch as we use the coupons that expire after 9/30. These coupons and those we will use the next 5 days are for places we’ve been and are on the “we go only if we have a coupon” list of places. Nothing exceptionally good or bad just not places I want to spend full dollar.

I went to the grandson’s hockey practice early because I was his and a teammates ride home. I was standing next to the high school head coach, the President of the youth hockey association who was the High school head coach a couple years ago and my friend the coach of the UW Women’s hockey team. They were checking out the players when one of them said to me #6 is your grandson right? Yep, and he said he’s very good. Made me smile

Enjoy your day
 
TLOC said:
Has the NMRA outlived its usefulness? I’m not sure but I don’t spend much time thinking about it except when reading threads and replying like this about it online. I did not renew in 1976 because at age 24 I was told by the local Chicago area district I belonged to I “ needed to earn my stripes” before I would be listened to.
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WOW!!! If that is there attitude no wonder people are leaving/not renewing etc..

It is the same with some MR Clubs. I was a member of a local organisation. I offered my help, but as a new member it was refused. The few members preferred to drink tea, talk and do nothing on the layouts. I can do that at home, so resigned.
 
santafewillie said:
Troy - Regarding your morning rant. First, I don't believe that people should be mixing business with politics, but it is becoming commonplace lately. I also am not familiar with the NMRA situation except for what you posted this morning and a couple of weeks ago. It seems like she is promoting conservative causes? So what's the difference between that and the liberal leaning promotions of Bud Light and Target a few years ago??? Rhetorical question only.
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I'm confused. Who was promoting Bud Light and Target? the NMRA? Are those businesses? or 501 organizations with conservative agendas?

In this case the LucyNMRA page was posting political memes and quotes from Mr. Kirk.

There is a huge difference between sharing vids of a business selling products (without regard to who they donate money to, or advertise to), and posting quotes from a Political figure about political topics.
 
As I promised earlier, here is a picture of the weathered boxcar I worked on this morning.
The clear coat I used took away a lot of the weathering. I may have to go back and add more grime.
weathered GT.jpg


It has been fun trying to do more by doing less, dry brushing and light washes do change the looks of the car without obscuring details.
The body behind has no weathering.
 


Bruette said:
I don't

I don't know about Target, but Bud Light had a questionable advertising campaign push a progressive agenda that cost them the spot as the number one selling beer in America.
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The Trans person in their advertising?

That's a business making a decision about whether they wanted to sell beer to trans people. Same with the gay folks in Target's advertising.

In the NMRA case, was it a business decision from the top to embrace the political stance and dialog of Mr. Kirk after his death? Or was it someone adjacent to the NMRA (independent contractor) that took that stance on page she closely linked to the NMRA.

From a Comms perspective, comparing them is apples and bananas. One is decisions by the top levels of a company about advertising, the other is an employee making a stand with the company identity right behind her.

I'd be happy to chat about any of those issues in DMs or emails. Going farther here will bring down the banhammer.
 
santafewillie said:
Yesterday's visit to the cardiologist's nurse practitioner went well. She was impressed with the BP reading of 130/58, although I was concerned with the lower than usual second number. She's still concerned with the Cholesterol number of 170 because the LDL was a bit high at 110; but she has finally accepted the fact that I will not take statin drugs.
Click to expand...
What's with that 58 Willie? Swal
 
Good Morning All!
44F @ 66% cloudy and dreary. Might get to 80F later.

As to the NMRA, I have been a member twice. Well, I guess letting the subscription drop does not make me a two timer.... Anyway, when I went to sign up again a year or so ago, I got to thinking - $75.00 for 4 installments? What do I get out of this, I mean - is it worth it? I am pretty sure I would not buy something off the shelve every quarter for ~$19.00 for 8 to 10 pages. Most of that is musings of the officers and such; not much real railroading/model stuff.

I have been following the 'new and improved' idea of how the mag should work and the cost. It looks like the price will be lower and the content will go up. Time will tell on that. I think MMR is a pretty good carrot to dangle, but once you realize what it entails, probably not worth it unless you are creating something to sell and can use MMR for marketing. Don't get me wrong, there are excellent folks out there as MRR's, but that does not elevate them above any other modeler, exceptional or otherwise.

I have found I just do not like most digital media that is not interactive. I tried MRH digital when it first hit the ether. Was fun for about 4 months. MR digital is pretty much the same. NMRA digital just isn't me. I take a physical stack of mags with me when I go out train chasing and either catch up on new stuff, or reflect on the old stuff. Yes, I am one that likes to hold stuff in my hands to read at times. I still do GNRHS, NPRHA and MR mag as paper. GN is still the best in my eyes, seems that there is 3 times the content of NP. MR offered a really cheap 4 year signup just before FireCrown took over, so am waiting on what they do with it; still have 2.5 years to go so that should give them a chance to make it better. Time will again tell on that.

L8r
 
I've been on the radio since my earlier post. Don't know if any of you are amateur radio operators, but 10 meters is finally wide open this morning. It hasn't been this good since about this time last year.

I made contacts into Kuwait, Scotland, Italy, Austria, and Key Largo this morning. There were several other operators I couldn't reach or couldn't break in for. Very good morning on the radio.

The gal I spoke with in Aberdeen breeds and raises Arabian horses. Pretty cool. Her name was Leigh-Ann Mitchell, MM6BOQ.

I operate with 100 watts and a 40-10 meter long-wire antenna.

More contacts into Serbia, Slovakia, and Italy.
 
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