Running Bear’s August 2019 Coffee Shop


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Good Morning All. 79° and clear. Another heat advisory day today, and that elusive 100° is still in the forecast. I truly think that the Weather Bureau is on vacation and they just left their "standard" August forecast on a loop. Grocery/beer trek went well yesterday and through a combination of factors, I had enough Kroger "fuel points" to save 80¢ a gallon on a 13 gallon fill up while there. Regular gas around here is now at $2.19/gal already. Good day coming up today, I don't have to be anywhere! But the yard needs mowing again after the 1" of rain earlier this week.
I'll take some bacon and blueberry pancakes today Francine. So Flo's taking the day off because turnout is light in the Coffee Shop on Saturday, I have noticed.

Again, another short day in the train shed. I did manage to get the mortar lines and some weathering done on the market structure.
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I am not 100% satisfied with the look, I'll have to make some adjustments if I can. Building is older looking than I wanted it to be. I am also stalled out on the windows. It seems that the wrong window sheet was enclosed in the kit, so I need to contact Woodland Scenics for the correct one.
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Not a panic because I have at least a week of detail painting to go.

Sherrel - That is such a typical story of governmental incompetence. Reminds me of the highway stripe story. Remember when highway stripes glowed at night in the rain? The previous president's administration had the EPA outlaw the manufacture of the chemical in the paint that caused that, so now the stripes don't glow. Some states stockpiled paint, ours didn't!
Phil - Hoping that the recovery goes quickly.
Dave -
Are we just sheep getting sheared?:eek:
When it comes to lawyers, YES! Good luck. Without getting personal, what is the hangup? Seems to be taking really long.
Are these your lawyers?
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Louis -
Thank you Willie, I was not aware of that law or of the expansion of the law. It's good to know, at least all Americans can get minimal assistance in emergency situations. That 60 minutes story I referred to must have been about one of the few private hospitals that don't participate. That's why I prefer to read, I can miss things when listening.
Minor correction, we (anyone paying for health care) are paying for all people without insurance, not just all Americans. Nearly all of the immigrants that I worked with over the years, whether legal or not, used the emergency room as their primary health care doctor, as well as many other low income citizens. Our company offered health insurance whether or not you were a citizen, employees just chose not to use it. What many didn't realize was that they lost a whole day's pay waiting around the emergency rooms due to the overcrowding. If they used our insurance, a visit to a clinic only took a couple of hours at most. That day's lost pay would have covered over two months worth of premiums, as well as the $15 copay at the clinic (sometimes waived).

OK, time to dust off the mower and get started.
Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend.
 
Terry -- That sure sucks! Any chance of opening up another account that is offering zero interest for xx months on balance transfers?

Sherrel .... Watch out for such offers from credit card companies. Read the fine print and you probably see they have an up-front fee of 3% or more. 3% paid instantaneously translates into an equivalent interest rate that is sky high.

Willie .... Your buildings look outstanding .......... Interesting what you said about people with health insurance still going to the ER for minor health problems instead of simply going to a clinic. ... Hospitals do collect from such patients if they can instead of passing on the costs to others.
 
Sherrel .... Watch out for such offers from credit card companies. Read the fine print and you probably see they have an up-front fee of 3% or more. 3% paid instantaneously translates into an equivalent interest rate that is sky high.

Beg to differ, Garry. If a person has a $4k balance then 3% upfront is $120.00 added to his 4k.
If his current interest rate is 17% x $4000 / 12 = a payment of $56.66 on the unpaid balance.
By the third month, he is paying down the balance with NO INTEREST CHARGES ADDED.
 
Good Morning All. 7


Dave -

When it comes to lawyers, YES! Good luck. Without getting personal, what is the hangup? Seems to be taking really long.

.

The problem is with a couple spoiled brothers who didn't get their way. It took one brother 8 months to sign the agreement for arbritation, which was the only avenue for settlement.

They refuse to sign things. Now, even with the judge's ruling, they still have to sign. The lawyer says we have to get a court order to get them to sign because legally they have to sign.

At least the explaining part is over, all the accounts have been aired in public and cross examined and can no longer be questioned.

Thanks for your concern! Dave
 
GOOD MORNING, its Saturday! Had a big week at work and personally but today it will be working on the section house and doing some ground cover on the module.

We are getting ready for a train show next weekend. We have a table and will be displaying the Wyoming module and the Groningen module, along with the photographs of the orginal scenes and other supporting documentation of the recreations.

Also plan on taking a lot of trains for the scenes and maybe sell some stuff that doesn't fit in to the planned layout.

Corny alert! This is for the Rutabaga Days train show in Askov, MN. It is co sponsored by the Twin Cities Model Railroad club, however.

Willie-- you guys have some cheap gas. The lowest price here is 2.39, most at 2.49 to 2.54
The law office is very neat. Your wash job looks fine to me.

Terry-- I gather your credit card company pulled a fast one. We got burned by Capital One about 15 years ago and it is something one does not forget. We were at a 5% interest special offer which they suddenly jacked up to 19%. There was some tiny print in the deal that allowed them to do that, even though we had no late payments.

more later, Dave
 
Terry -- looks like two packages with the same tracking number were sent. IT failure on USPS side I would think.

Jetlag finally hit the family. Friday we were OK, but today we've all been really dragging. Have been useless up to now. I pity my poor wife, who had to go to work today for a 12 hour shift in the ICU. She is on tomorrow as well.
 
Beg to differ, Garry. If a person has a $4k balance then 3% upfront is $120.00 added to his 4k.
If his current interest rate is 17% x $4000 / 12 = a payment of $56.66 on the unpaid balance.
By the third month, he is paying down the balance with NO INTEREST CHARGES ADDED.

As long as you completely pay off the balance before the expiration of the balance transfer 0% rate, the 3% up front can save you money. If you don't get it completely paid off before the balance transfer expires, you'll have paid the 3% and also started paying a hugely quite high "normal" rate. But you still got that 9 or 12 months, or however long the term was on the special balance transfer rate, at a lower cost if you are already paying the higher "normal" rate.
 
Good evening. It thunderstormed earlier, and knocked out our internet. It's currently 80. I spent a lot of my day talking to a supervisor for PP. While it reduced the amount I have to pay every month for now, the resolution is completely unsatisfactory.
 
In other news, I found out Kip Adotta died today at 75.
If you never heard of him, I'm not surprised. He was, however, responsible for this classic, which I think contained what is arguable the most puns in a single song:

 
Jetlag finally hit the family. Friday we were OK, but today we've all been really dragging. Have been useless up to now. I pity my poor wife, who had to go to work today for a 12 hour shift in the ICU. She is on tomorrow as well.

NOT ONlY did you have the jetlag to contend with, but the horrendous flight schedule with that 7 hour layover in LAX. For years I flew a HNL-LAX and a HNL-STL flights - they both were all night and had arrival times around 7 in the morning. I usually was alright the remainder of the day, but was totally useless the following day - wandering around in a "fog" for much of the time. I found the West to East flights much more draining on the body than East to West.
 
NOT ONlY did you have the jetlag to contend with, but the horrendous flight schedule with that 7 hour layover in LAX. For years I flew a HNL-LAX and a HNL-STL flights - they both were all night and had arrival times around 7 in the morning. I usually was alright the remainder of the day, but was totally useless the following day - wandering around in a "fog" for much of the time. I found the West to East flights much more draining on the body than East to West.

Interestingly, the military also found West to East flights more draining than East to West. For the record, that is my experience as well. The military did some studies (in the 80s I believe) with service members going to Europe and coming back from Europe. They found those coming back (E -> W) from Europe recovered faster than those going to Europe W -> E)

We suffer less now than we used to, but coming back from Japan is always harder. We had almost no jet lag going there this time. A little -- like a little extra tired and wanting a nap Sunday afternooon (we got there Friday night). But that was all. Besides immediately adhering to the new location's schedule, and exposing oneself to lots of sunlight in the new place, I read and have found that a little melatonin when you go to bed the first few nights at the new place helps accelerate the process. We did so when we went to Japan and are doing so now. We'll see how long it takes to recover.

7 hours at LAX kind of sucked. The first 2 hours were clearing immigration and customs (a little over an hour) and then we had to basically walk to the other end of the airport for our domestic flight, and when you are tired and hungry, that takes a while. So pretty much the first two hours passed quickly as we were distracted by TODOs. At least the domestic flight to SLC was on time and the pilots did not dick around but flew straight there and we were on the curb loading my dad's Honda Fit with our luggage at the minute the flight was scheduled to arrive.

(As an aside, we fit all 6 suitcases, a roller carry on, and tall thin backpack, and a couple personal backpacks, and a shoulder bag into the Fit. Really amazing to see that all in the small compact car with the rear seat folded. We couldn't fit all that in our bigger Volvo V60 wagon (RIP). Yes we had lots of suitcases -- most went Empty to Japan and get filled with various food items, clothes, toys, etc that are purchased there).
 
(As an aside, we fit all 6 suitcases, a roller carry on, and tall thin backpack, and a couple personal backpacks, and a shoulder bag into the Fit. Really amazing to see that all in the small compact car with the rear seat folded.

Holy Smokes -- Are you telling me that you placed all that plus 3 adults & 3 kids in a Fit?
 
Holy Smokes -- Are you telling me that you placed all that plus 3 adults & 3 kids in a Fit?

Sorry. Only the luggage and my son in the passenger front seat (to keep my dad awake ;) ). My mom picked up the rest of the people in their Accord. We were two adults and a tall 11 year old and a tall 16 year old on the trip and my elderly parents with their cars picking us up.
 
In other news, I found out Kip Adotta died today at 75.
If you never heard of him, I'm not surprised. He was, however, responsible for this classic, which I think contained what is arguable the most puns in a single song:

Thanks for posting the video Terry, It was sad to read the news Friday. And I thought that I was the only one who had ever heard of him. Regularly heard him on the Dr. Demento show in the late 70's - early 80's. I never stayed up late enough to have seen him on TV.:(
 
Good Morning All. 79° and wispy clouds. While we're still under a severe heat advisory, we once again failed to reach that elusive 100° mark that the weather geeks have been predicting. Had a bit of a breeze yesterday which made outdoor activities a little more tolerable, even with 98° temperature. I mowed for almost 90 minutes very early, before the first dip in the pool around 0900.
Sunday special today Flo, Green Eggs and Ham!

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding yesterday's pictures; Garry, Sherrel, Mike, Ken, Dave, Jerome, Chad.

On to the train shed. OK, Garry and Dave both gave a thumbs up to the mortar/wash on the market, so I am leaving it alone. I did make a small change to the front of the structure after looking more closely at it, I changed the painted frame around the door to a concrete frame, that more closely matches the windows.
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I touched up the green after taking the picture.
I then added some dry transfer decals and detail parts to the sides and back of the building.
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Installed the awnings on the front side.
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Spent some time painting many of the other details that came with the kit, and some that I already have that I am adding to the final scene.
Over on the layout, I am having some issues with the testing of the new industry spur that I added last week. I have only tested it with one SD40-2 so far and I get derailing every time. Need to test with other locos as the track itself seems to be OK. It may have to do with a six axle loco and the "S" curve on the diverging leg of a #4 turnout. More testing is on tap.

Dave -
Rutabaga Days train show in Askov, MN
Love it! I looked that up, Rutabaga capital of the world! Didn't know there was such a thing! Oddly, I have tried unsuccessfully to grow rutabagas in my garden several times, just gets too warm here and they go to seed when they're about the size of a small turnip.
Yes, gas tends to be cheap here. The state gas tax is the sixth lowest in the country at 20¢/gallon, and we have a lot of refineries here, thus reducing transportation costs. Compare that tax to CA and PA at over 50¢/gallon. Your prices seem to be pretty reasonable.
Chad - Good luck to your wife and her patients. Whew! Two back to back 12 hour shifts while on jet lag! Hope that someone else is driving her home.

Everybody have a great day.
 
61F at 7:15am. Supposed to hit 92F by 16:00. At least the house cools off a few degrees at night.

Willie — yes back to back 12s are always hard anyway and with the jet lag it is harder. She made it home last night ok and managed to get to bed by 10:30pm. Up at 5:30am but really woke up in the middle of the night with the jet lag. I am praying for her especially today. At least weekends are usually calmer as there are no surgeries scheduled.

I had to get up early as well as I am the executive secretary at church and have two meetings at 6:30am and 7:30am and had to finish the agendas. I am feeling it as well, to a lesser extent. I can take a nap after services though.

I haven’t run any trains in a few months as I was working on the DIY n-scale light board, and then had to get some stuff for the house build next year done, and then finish up day job stuff before we could go to Japan. I may try and clean the dust off the track and run a few things around it this evening.

Gas prices seemed to have gone up in Utah while we were gone. I remember around 2.59 plus or minus before we left and have seen 2.73–2.79 now. Not as bad as earlier in the summer though when it hit 3.20 or so IIRC.
 
Good morning .

Chad ... Welcome back to the USA from your trip. Thanks for sharing your photos of it.

Willie .... Good job with the brick on that building. It will look great when done. .... Regarding fuel prices, KY has lower fuel taxes than bordering states. Therefore, truck stops are located just inside KY near state lines. .... A friend of mine drives through IL on his many trips to Iowa. He never buys gas in IL which has high fuel taxes.

Here are my Athearn Genesis GP7's .

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good Morning - High today is expected to be 86* - The record this date was 98* in 2016.
It sure is a "YOUUGE" difference to the body between 86* and 96*. I used to not mind the heat, but this year I have really noticed the difference. I do not remember when the last time I saw a cloud around here?

I have to "study" today and find all sorts of paper to take to the DMV tomorrow in order to try and get a - what do they call it - a secure driver's license in order to board an airplane. Incidentally, I am going to the DMV office in Needles because the waiting time here locally for an appointment - and all stations within 150 miles - is 3 months and I refuse to stand in line all day trying just to get inside the building. That's OK, I will spend a night, or two, in Laughlin visiting with friends where we had a house for a few years; Also, I will spend a few hours watching some train action in Needles.

WOW, CHAD, you and your family are busier than a one-armed paper hanger! Blessings to you all!
I apologize -- I was thinking that you had 3 kids with you, still -- you had me scratching my head on getting all that luggage into a "FIT". Very fam with that car as the wife and I were looking at them while searching for a vehicle to tow. We wound up finding a 2012 CRV, pristine, with only 52k on it. My BIL has a 2008 one with 320k still going strong!

Willie == Building looks very good with your mortar finish. The signs, awnings and other details sure dress it up nicely.

Always enjoy your photos, Garry, even if I sometimes fail to mention them.

DAVE, That's too bad about the extra expense and grief that some of the other siblings are causing. A shame that they are only costing themselves as well!
Your modeling work is great - looking forward to the day you will be working on your own layout.
 
Good afternoon. Air temp. is 88* but in the sun feels like 98. Overcast sky with the sun playing peek a boo.
Still haven't run a train as to darn hot in garage. Have blood drawn so DR. will have results when I see him for my six month check up. [primary doc, not oncology doc]
Hope everyone doing well. Prayers continuing.
Phil

NEVER PISS OFF THE PEOPLE WHO PREPARE OR SERVE YOUR FOOD.
 
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