Running Bear's September 2026 Coffee Shop

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I just found that the Joint Typhoon Warning Center website includes gugle earth kml/z files, so I gave it a try.
Typhoon 26
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Hurricane 15E
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Hawaii is experiencing flooding from the recent storms, just like Japan.
 
Well howdy there internet peeps and those with facial hair of one sort or another.

It's Troy again.

Here's the status, situation wise, of the mess on my desk.

This is just the Jazz type stuff waiting to be cleaned and ripped. They then go on the shelf and get a play eventually.
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I did get a ProCare disk repair device from the Zon.

Here's the Division Bell prior to Cleaning:

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Two cleaning cycles and a buff cycle got rid of 80% of the scratches.

I'll put it in the player later and try track 8, 9, and 10 to see if they still skip.

I did just order 100 replacement jewel cases. I'd estimate that about half of the cases I want to keep have at least one crack. Some took major damage and have to be replaced. I'm down to three cases that I've salvaged. Definitely going to use that 100 pack in the next few weeks, and might need another pack.
 


I'm running most disks through at least a spray with gentle cleaner and wipe with micro-fiber cloth. Do the same for the jewel cases and the inner tray.

Most of the Jazz has come from Libraries, and aren't abused the way the Rock and Pop are. But there is a need for repair cycles in the ProCare
 
Thursday I had 2 crowns installed on my new dental implants. In preparation for the crowns, I didn't have to have a mold
made for the crowns. Instead they use a scanner about the size of a cordless toothbrush handle to create a digital model
for the lab to make the crowns. I had to go back to have another scan taken because there was a problem with the first scan.
When the crowns came in there was a problem which the dentist couldn't compensate for. Another scan and a new appointment
a week later for new crowns. The second set were a great fit with minimal adjustment. My first crown a couple of years ago involved
packing my mouth with mush to make a mold, resulting in a perfect crown. The electronic model is a leap in technology but sometimes
the old methods withstand the test of time.

I have never encountered a left handed dentist. I wonder how they deal with everything configured for a right hander. Now that I
brought this up, I'm retired and obviously have too much time on my hands.
 
Good morning. 58°F cool degrees here this morning. High of 70°F expected and rain late tonight into tomorrow that is not supposed to amount to anything.

Another day of sitting around healing. Abdominal pain has ceased altogether and I can move now like nothing ever happened. No soreness or stiffness present. Just tubes sticking out of me. I have another CAT with dye scheduled Monday Wednesday to verify my bladder injury has healed and I might get my extra plumbing removed either at that time or a day or two later. If the injury has really healed. The dye will tell.

Have a great Saturday!

Servus!

As for losing weight, I guess those last few meals as well as the sitting around all day, made my pants tighter than it was when I entered the hospital. I will weigh myself tomorrow and see. Either way, I guess the stomach expansion exercises worked...

Imagine my surprise when I got home from the hospital ten pounds heavier than when I was admitted! I hhad fasted 32 hours before surgery, and only had Jell-O the first two days after surgery. What I didn't account for was the constant IV liquid they were pumping into me that my tissues were absorbing like a sponge.

I've finally returned to my pre-admission weight of 153 pounds. It had dropped to 150 for a day before increasing again. Wish it had stayed there.
Your weight will return to normal pretty soon.
 
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Good morning all!

A nice day on tap roday. Currently its a sunny but cool 51F. High is supposed to reach 70F. Looks like low to mid 70s all week till Friday when
rain moves in and drops the temps back in the 60s. Fall is here.

Busy day today. Tonight is Homecoming for my daughter. It will be a flurry of activity. I have to run and get the flowers at 9:30. My wife is taking'
her to get nails done. We have to be at the state park to meet up with her group for pictures at 4:30. Most of the Saturday chores will have to wit
till tomorrow since there wont be time. Just ready for this week to be over.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
Good morning gang!

61° under very cloudy skies, but they feel like temp of 51°. Only looking for a high temp today of 61°. That nor’easter off the coast is going to wreck our weekend. I don’t expect to see the sun again till sometime Tuesday.

I have a few errands to run this morning then settle in for a weekend of model railroading weather.

BBL
 
Good morning from a chilled So. Central Wi. where overnight it dropped to 5c for Troy’s practicing and a promise of 20c later. That’s 42 and 69f degrees and it is 46 out there now. Beautifully cloudless sunny sky though

Real estate! Sale prices usually are set by the comparables found by the real estate agents. That is a huge jump but in today’s market it won’t surprise me if it sells.

I just remembered a train show I was going to with a couple of the guys this week. But one of them is traveling in Michigan this week and the other is biking the trails of Northern Wisconsin. I’m thinking of going. With 2 paper mills and 3 bulk oil companies being built almost any kind of storage tank and vessel are needed. 3d design and printing them is still a bit costly so I could save a few bucks and also catch to the local trends. Over the years I had sold a lot of weathered freight cars at this 2 day show in Monroe, Wi. home to the Swiss Colony catalogues. It’s also home to the Badger State Ethanol Company. It was pretty much duplicated structure by structure by Walthers in the now hard to find Ethanol series in HO scale. Served by the WSOR it helps keep Monroe thriving just over the Illinois state line.

The #1 overrated Wisconsin Badger Women hockey opened the season in a good fashion yesterday in Canton, NY. Beat the St. Laurence team 6-2 after being down 0-2. Their gold metal Olympic winning goalie got hurt early after being down 2 and I’ll blame the referees for that. On the 3rd time crashing the net she got hurt. I’ve watch lots of hockey in my lifetime I have never seen that. Once maybe but not 3 times. The ESPN+ coverage of the game was a disgrace with few replays, announcers destroying player names and the camera not being able to follow the puck. Today it will be on the Big Ten plus network which is usually pretty damn good. I say over rated as they have 9 freshman replacing the graduates who won 3 of the last 4 NCAA championships and lost that 4th game by 0-1. Coach played 7 of them and a transfer. But boy can they skate. It’s too soon to have them ranked #1 and with an injured Olympic goalie they will need to tighten things up. This will be an interesting season.

Enjoy your day
 


Good Morning All. Mostly cloudy and 68° here on the SFW estate. Cooler here than the forecast for the area, and the windows are open for the first time since early June. Still going up to the low-90's for the daytime high this week, with more cloudiness than we've been seeing. That cloudiness has been keeping the pool temperature around 85°, absolutely perfect.

Don't know why, but I slept an incredible 8.5 hours last night with only one pee run. Maybe it's the increase in the dosage of Gabapentin for the spinal stenosis. I was taking 600mg a day prescribed by my PCP, and I am now slowly increasing to 1800mg a day prescribed by the spinal doctor. I am at 1500mg starting Friday. It's no wonder that everyone at my pharmacy knows my name! I'm skipping the train show this weekend in Plano, as I doubt that my stenosis will allow me to attend. The spinal doctor prescribed some Tramadol for me to take if needed, but I wouldn't take that and drive 60 miles each way alone.

Home alone as my wife is off to babysit my granddaughter while her parents are off to Las Vegas for the weekend. I'll find some unexpected chore to do while she's gone and see if she notices when she returns. I'll also make myself Chicken-Fried Steak for supper tonight, something that she won't eat.

Another day of just piddling around out in the train shed yesterday. Did a bit more figure painting and cleaned off two pairs of ScaleTrains SD40-2's. I also took a few pictures of the finished area that I don't know whether I posted yet with all of the recent forum issues. From S to N, starting with the abandoned switch tower.
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The well-walked path from the warehouses across the tracks to Pizzaland.
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The Garage with its assortment of race cars.
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Import Motors.
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And finally the already planted Joe's Radio.
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Troy -
OH, and if I do need to do the surgery, I have to go through the Carrum health network... and there are no docs in my area. It's a 2 or 3 hour drive to get to any of their network.
Wow! Another downside to your already seemingly crappy health insurance. Best wishes though on your treatment.
Todd -
Below is a list of what's available. Serious inquiries only please and don't insult me with your offers.
Do you ship to Texas and would you take a personal check as I don't do PayPal???
John - I think that there was a year that there was no construction on IH35, maybe 1995? I started going to NTSU (now UNT) in 1969 and they were already replacing the Lake Lewisville bridge that was only a few years old at the time. IH635 in Dallas is the same way now.
Shortwrench - For my last crown, they used that scanner instead of the mold stuff. First one didn't fit, so it had to be redone also.

Lots of rock & roll birthdays today, and a few other musical types. Joe Bauer, drummer for The Youngbloods is 85 today; Bryan Ferry, vocalist for Roxy Music is 81; bassist for The Doobie Brothers, Tiran Porter, is 78; and Craig Chaquico, guitarist for Jefferson Starship is 72. The late Olivia Newton-John was born on this day in 1948.

Everyone have a great Saturday.
 
well howdy there internet house hunters and stinky shower takers

It's Troy again.

First sort on the CD haul is done. I miscounted and there were seven of the boxes. I filled 2.25 back up with classical that my wife is sorting through.

Country came to 1/2 a box. Anything my wife doesn't grab (she likes Johnny Cash, and not much else) will go on FB Marketplace for a tenner.

Rap and Hip Hop was barely there. Though I may find more o the second sort of a bunch of stuff I'm not sure of the genre. Didn't want to take the time to look up each artist/album until I knew what I had.

Some disappointments:
Pink Floyd - as already mentioned, Dark Side of the moon was empty. The disk might be in another case. I didn't open them all, but I haven't found it yet. It probably won't be there. This is from a huge haul the seller purchases by the truck load. So who knows where that disk is.

Pink Floyd: The Division Bell had both case and disk, but the disk looked like it went through a nasty divorce. I ran it through my old scratch fixer, then put it in the new CD player. It skipped and stalled on tracks 8,9, and 10. I've got a better scratch fixer showing up tomorrow. One more try with it. If the disk still skips it goes in the trash.

Jesus Christ Superstar: My all time favorite musical. I've got it ripped from before I sold my old CDs and that was one I was hoping to find. I did! -- but only disk two of the brown album. Drat. No disk 1. No movie version of it all. I prefer the brown album, and have the DVD of the movie. So I can listen to the movie soundrack any time via the DVD.

On the sciatica/jelly donut issue, I started doing Nerve Flossing again. That will probably help in a few days. But I'm not pushing that hard yet. The idea is to get the nerve gliding along the path, as I raise and lower my leg, flex the foot. It's been bothering me long enough that the PT said I need to work on "unsticking" the nerve.

Here's a pic of me hitting the angry giant MRI donut that tried to eat me on Tuesday.

View attachment 274346
Is the cat smiling?
 
Ingredients for SFW's Italian Macaroni Salad. I eyeball everything, so don't expect cups/tablespoons/etc.

Elbow Macaroni with a couple of dashes of Olive Oil
Diced Red Bell Pepper
Diced Green Bell Pepper
Diced Red Onion
Diced White Onion - Not normally used but I had a small wedge left in the fridge to get rid of.
Sliced Black Olives
Diced Celery
Diced Pimento Peppers
Diced Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese - I usually use Monterey Jack, but the Cheddar was open, or I'll use Gouda if I'm adventurous.
Diced deli-cut thick Pepperoni slices
Homemade Italian Salad Dressing
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Italian Seasoning
Parsley
Salt & Pepper

I used Red and Green Bell Peppers today, but I sometimes add/substitute Orange or Yellow depending on what I have in the fridge. Onion types are also interchangeable and some ingredients may be left out if needed.
 
Well howdy there internet people of chipper natures.

It's troy again.

Wife and I went out to "the chippy" today.

Not that we have chippies in the US, but I did get Fish-n-chips for lunch at Cheddars Scratch Kitchen

It's 7 pieces of white fish, breaded, with two sides. Fries of course. And I had some broccoli because I care not for the Slaw of the Coles.

Wife had the Chicken Pot Pie she loves, and broccoli as well.

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I actually managed to walk around the big box hardware today (Mendards.) Everytihing I needed to put up my shelves was at the same end of the store. But my sciatic nerve was barking from the walking. I wanted to slow down on the tylenol today. I think I've skipped one dose compared to what I had been taking to supplement the other drugs.

Unfortunately the prefinished (cheap vinyl veneer) shelving boards they stock are either 4 feet (too short) or 8 feet (too long) I needed 6 ft. I already had two in the garage to use. A nice medium grey. And they only had the charcoal grey, or the white grey in stock. Grrrr... got the charcoal so I could have a top shelf.

Then I had to cut each board down to 6 foot.

Took a bunch of books (long form journalism reads, and how to write long form journalism) and a bunch of game books I don't for an old edition of Bolt Action off to Half-Price books after lunch. Got two-pennies shy of $59 for them.

So I purchased a few used CDs. I was disappointed in their selection. It used to be double what they have now. But vinyl LPs have doubled in floor space, since LPs are back in style.

I don't have a turn-table, and I don't want to flip the LPs over to play the other side. Nothing can ruin a jam, sitting in the dark, listening to some mellow album fave like Steely Dan's Aja, and have to rise, stumble to the turntable, flip the album and drop the needle again.

I'll stick with CDs.

Oh, what did I get? Pristine copies of Queen: Greatest Hits 2 (US version), Zep: Houses of the Holy, and Norah Jones: Come Away with me. Zep was the priciest at 9.98. The other two were 6.99.
 
ten pounds heavier
Wow, very surprising! Yeah, I would never have guessed either. Glad you are healing up!!

I weighed myself this morning before taking anything in. I was 62.75 kg and am now 59.95. With my newly hatched pot belly, I'm guessing mostly muscle loss from sitting around. I did do some high lift marching in place, side bends, and trunk twists (nothing that would increase pressure) while watching the youbes of tubes to try to keep the stuff flowing.

Blood pressure did go down over the week, from 140/85 to my last reading at 115/74. I had to ask for some unplugging medicine as I was getting "stuck". The hospital on base made me walk around after my colon resection surgery to prevent getting "stuck". This hospital didn't want me to walk around to keep from jarring my eye. I do remember how to walk smoothly from my marching band days, so I did that and kept the bubble as steady as possible.
 
I had a surprising great day at the swap meet today. I walked in with 3 big dunnage tubs & a few cardboard boxes and walked out with barely enough to fit in half of tub. As usual there were a lot of dealers that were very proud of their stuff and all they did was "show" and not "sell". $25-$35 for Silver Streak, Ambroid, Blue Box, etc kits. I don't think they walked around to see tables with modern RTR Walthers, Atlas, Proto2000 (Bachmann), etc priced at $15 - $20. Yes, I know, their stuff and their rules. I had placed signs behind the freight cars and engines that said, "Reasonable Offers Will Be Considered." Very few made offers because I guess that I had them priced to sell. Half of one table was structures and all, but 2 sold. It was a feeding frenzy the first hour. I did bring back 4 of the 8 engines and the only thing I could think of why they didn't sell was because they weren't the era or the wrong RR.
 


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