Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXVII


Late Good Morning Everyone. Another ho-hum beautiful day in the Southland (of CA that is)! 63 degrees as we speak headed towards the low 90's - it was a tad warmer than expected yesterday at 97. There is no moisture in the atmosphere this time of year around here - humidity will be, more than likely in the mid 20's.

I think that maybe I finally broke the chain! Have been sleeping a little better and feeling sooo much better - just an occasional twinge of hurt in my chest area where before I felt that the doctors had forgot a tool, or two, or didn't put something back together properly. Monday we will make the journey to the city and see what the surgeons have learned from the prior CT Scan. I sort of been thinking that if there was a problem that they would have called pronto! Kaiser is good about that - I have had several calls from the surgeons asking about my condition in the past. Also, t seems that I have been able to swallow easier - If so, that means that the "blocked off" aneurysm has shrunk in size and not pressing against the esophagus as before. Anyway, fingers and toes x'ed!

Enjoying all the photos and posts! Have to collect all the dog poo from the yard before the mowing guy shows up.
Here's what looks to be an "organized" scrap/recycle yard - it's huge!

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Good morning guys, 69 and sunshine. On our way to Lake Superior for a day of boating!

Sherrel--- really nice to hear that you are feeling better!
 
Good morning. Starting off at 56 degrees with a high in the mid 80's. Lotsa smoke. It will probably be around until the snow starts flying and mother nature puts all of the fires out.

Garry
- That is an impressive photo. What an addition to your layout. Outstanding.

Willie
- Nice photo. Looks like a nice neighborhood you have there.

Ken D&J
- Enjoyed the videos. You'll probably find the headset you put away as soon as you get a new one. I well know how that goes.

Getting ready to get working on the back deck while it is still half way cool. Hoping we can get it finished this weekend and have the construction dumpster hauled off. Was down in the train room for a while figuring out what to bring to the club in Livingston tonight. Think I'll run some of my DC equipment for a change.

My son and his wife just showed up so it's time to get to work outside.

Here's a quick rail photo for the day.

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I'm outta here, Later
 
Louis - As Joe said, "interesting plan". Who is going to pay for it? My opinion and it applies to every city, not just Baltimore is that families need to come back together and take responsibility for how they live and the values that they teach their children. It's not the government or the school's responsibility.

In an ideal world, Willie, you are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world any longer. In retrospect, the utopian idealism of the Great Society, has created a parallel universe consisting of parents who do not know how to parent, and schools that cannot teach, and government that only regulates, but does not govern. And, to make matters worse, this statement applies to all demographics, not any one particular group or class of people. I see it all the time, observing the middle class "broken families" that surround my residence. How, can one parent, when he or she only has the kids every other week? Everything is just so mechanical. This week you are a full time parent, next week you are childless. Public Schools are required to teach so many mandated programs to create "awareness", that important stuff like language, math and science studies are reduced in importance. If you want your kids to learn them, hire a tutor... As we heard from the millionaire welfare recipients in Lakewood, Private School is Expensive... If a millionaire cannot afford private school, what chance does a single mother working two part time, minimum wage jobs have of providing her kids with a good education?

The whole system is broken, and it's going to take more than some tough talking politician to fix the problem. And it is going to cost a lot of money. Not a pleasant prospect, but neither are all the killings and gang activity that concern so many people.

Yesterday evening, the big local story carried by the NYC NBC outlet, was about how Charter School teachers lack the sophisticated training that public school teachers possess. It was a piece slanted toward the opinion of the head of the NYC Teachers Union, which along with NYC's Mayor, want to abolish Charter schools. The reason Charter Schools were developed, was/is that Private Schools are unaffordable, and Public Schools are not doing their job. WTF? Something is not right here. Incidentally, next story concerned another senseless murder.

Don't know the answer, I do know what we are doing now, doesn't work.
 
Good evening .

Louis .... Sadly, Baltimore is not the only major US city with crime problems. ... Also, you are right about credit is not free money. ...I Like the old Popeye cartoons.... Pass the spinach, please.

....

Now, I am back to running trains on the mainline under the new bridges as well as starting to operate over the bridges.

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Garry, crime and drugs are not confined to any area or even to big cities. Rural West Virginia has been hard hit by the opioid epidemic. Where you find drugs, you will find other crimes. Now that doctors have tightened up on opioid prescriptions we will see the spread of heroine and the crime that goes with it.

There is nothing more desperate than an opioid addict going through withdrawal.

Nothing in life is free. I tell my kids; do whatever you like, take whatever you want, but sooner or later you pay and always with interest. Make wise choices, consider the consequences and it's not all about the money. Always do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not for any other reason.

Popeye was the reason I ate so much spinach as a kid and I still loves me spinach!

Great photo of a fantastic scene, truly an inspirational masterpiece.

Congratulations on your boat! I agree that on paper it may not be a wise investment, but what value can you place on fun? I think you made a wise move, have fun my friend!

I had a railroader friend, who used to be a DC cop. When ever he disagreed with something I had proposed, he would respond with one word, "Interesting". I believe the Mayor is well intentioned, but is either naive or unwilling to confront the reality of a drug dependent underclass population prone to violence.

Education and even jobs do not prevent people from drug addiction. Worked with this well liked conductor, a good and efficient worker, living in what is considered an affluent suburb, who was found dead, in his truck, with his head smashed in, somewhere in the Bronx, the victim of a drug deal gone bad. No one knew he had a problem. This was before random drug testing was instituted. Point is he was very functional, but his drug use, cost him his life. To this day, it's probably one of the many unsolved and forgotten homicides in NYC.
For what it's worth, neither does decent housing. It's cool to do drugs, and until we figure out how to make it not cool, it will continue to consume lives.

Big part of Baltimore's problem, (or for that matter, any other place), is that for a large segment of the population, there is no future. There is no prospect to climb out of the poverty rut, no escape from the culture of failure. Free tuition to the local college is great, and attaining a degree is wonderful, but if that degree doesn't get you a worthwhile job, what good is the education? Housing, yes, that's important, but if all low income housing is clustered together, we haven't advanced from the "projects", and "vertical slums" of the 1950s, and we all know what happened with that concept.

People living in urban neighborhoods, isolated from other sections, by culture or race, or religion, do not interact well outside of their environment. They attract attention, by being anti social. People from isolated environments, should they find employment, find they don't know how to relate to people of a different race, culture, or religion. They frequently leave the job and retreat to the more comfortable atmosphere of familiar surroundings. These are the issues,that the political leaders should be working on.

Mayor's plan, is "Interesting", but I'm not sure it will work any better than the last mayor's plan.

Boris that was brilliant! Unfortunately as you say I doubt this plan will have any more impact on violence than any plan that came before it. Stop and frisk was found to be effective, but unconstitutional. Whether it is crime or even terrorism we should never compromise our American values. If we do comprise we have surrendered our free country.

The necessity to survive is often the motivation to be involved in the drug trade. That quickly morphs into greed. Many of these guys could easily perform well in college, but when you are already making thousands per week, often per day why would they bother to go to college?

.
Louis - As Joe said, "interesting plan". Who is going to pay for it? My opinion and it applies to every city, not just Baltimore is that families need to come back together and take responsibility for how they live and the values that they teach their children. It's not the government or the school's responsibility.
Sorry to hear about the keyboard

Willie in a city already facing a budget shortfall of 23 million dollars, as of the last I read, you are absolutely on target, who will pay for this?

Personal responsibility is not only lacking in the inner cities, it is an epidemic facing the entire country! Most people only need to look in the mirror to find the cause of their troubles. If we don't like what we have, do something different.

I heard this at my first sales meeting; "If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten" That stuck with me and it's proof you can learn from anybody. The man who said that was latter arrested by the FBI for interstate fraud, but that does not diminish the value of what he said.

Late Good Morning Everyone. Another ho-hum beautiful day in the Southland (of CA that is)! 63 degrees as we speak headed towards the low 90's - it was a tad warmer than expected yesterday at 97. There is no moisture in the atmosphere this time of year around here - humidity will be, more than likely in the mid 20's.

I think that maybe I finally broke the chain! Have been sleeping a little better and feeling sooo much better - just an occasional twinge of hurt in my chest area where before I felt that the doctors had forgot a tool, or two, or didn't put something back together properly. Monday we will make the journey to the city and see what the surgeons have learned from the prior CT Scan. I sort of been thinking that if there was a problem that they would have called pronto! Kaiser is good about that - I have had several calls from the surgeons asking about my condition in the past. Also, t seems that I have been able to swallow easier - If so, that means that the "blocked off" aneurysm has shrunk in size and not pressing against the esophagus as before. Anyway, fingers and toes x'ed!

Enjoying all the photos and posts! Have to collect all the dog poo from the yard before the mowing guy shows up.
Here's what looks to be an "organized" scrap/recycle yard - it's huge!

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Sherrel I am very happy to hear your good news!

My grandsons and I call your task "poop patrol" they spot the poop and I pick it up.

Great pictures!
 
In an ideal world, Willie, you are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world any longer. In retrospect, the utopian idealism of the Great Society, has created a parallel universe consisting of parents who do not know how to parent, and schools that cannot teach, and government that only regulates, but does not govern. And, to make matters worse, this statement applies to all demographics, not any one particular group or class of people. I see it all the time, observing the middle class "broken families" that surround my residence. How, can one parent, when he or she only has the kids every other week? Everything is just so mechanical. This week you are a full time parent, next week you are childless. Public Schools are required to teach so many mandated programs to create "awareness", that important stuff like language, math and science studies are reduced in importance. If you want your kids to learn them, hire a tutor... As we heard from the millionaire welfare recipients in Lakewood, Private School is Expensive... If a millionaire cannot afford private school, what chance does a single mother working two part time, minimum wage jobs have of providing her kids with a good education?

The whole system is broken, and it's going to take more than some tough talking politician to fix the problem. And it is going to cost a lot of money. Not a pleasant prospect, but neither are all the killings and gang activity that concern so many people.

Yesterday evening, the big local story carried by the NYC NBC outlet, was about how Charter School teachers lack the sophisticated training that public school teachers possess. It was a piece slanted toward the opinion of the head of the NYC Teachers Union, which along with NYC's Mayor, want to abolish Charter schools. The reason Charter Schools were developed, was/is that Private Schools are unaffordable, and Public Schools are not doing their job. WTF? Something is not right here. Incidentally, next story concerned another senseless murder.

Don't know the answer, I do know what we are doing now, doesn't work.

Boris, I could not agree more!

As you may or may not know I am the product of a single Mother. I never even knew my father until I was over 30. When I did get to know my father I did not like him. The more I got to know him the less I liked him.

I was raised by the neighbors who lived up stairs from my Mom's apartment. They took me in to live with them when I was 2 months old. They were both born in the 19th century. They were Nanny and Jack to me. Jack died less than 3 weeks from my ninth birthday. Nanny lived 19 more years and never swayed in her unconditional love for me. Thank God for my Nanny and Jack!

When I was 11 my mother insisted I come back to live with her. That was when I went astray. Until I found out I had gotten a girl pregnant, later to be my first wife. When my first child was born I was 22, I turned my life around. I was able to do so because of the things I learned from Nanny and Jack. I was terrified for the first and only time in my adult life. I thought "how can I be a good father?" My only answer was to try to be like Jack. Had I not learned his morals and had his examples I believe I would have failed miserably.

I don't blame my Mom or my schools for my going astray, they both did what they could for me. My Mom was overwhelmed working 2-3 jobs and never had any support from any man, not even her father. School was easy for me. I had already learned how to read before first grade from reading the newspaper with Jack. (Do you remember the News American?) I learned basic math with Jack from the backs of baseball cards and baseball/football/basketball statistics in the newspaper.

My grandsons go to a charter school, I think their school does a very good job. It's the highest rated elementary on the east side of Baltimore. If you can believe ratings. There were no charter schools for my kids. I sent mine to catholic schools.

Schools should focus more on reading. If you can read you can learn anything. I like the idea of Pre-K for all children. For many reasons parents are not preparing their children for school.

I don't know what all the answers are either, but I do feel the problems begin before children set foot in any school.
 
Howdy..

Chet and Louis ... thanks for commenting on my scene .

Louis.. I did not intend to say the addiction problems are confined to cities. I am familiar with such problems in rural areas. You might be interested in knowing my wife and I volunteered to work with a church sponsored program in KY to help people overcome personal problems. Among the problems were cases with addictions. Sadly many cases began with childhood difficulties. You shared some of your own childhood experiences and I can understand that would be very challenging. We participated in that program for several years even though neither of us ever had such problems as addictions. We no longer are volunteers , but we feel we were blessed because we did that.
 
Afternoon All,

I had a good time at visiting Doug's layout today. The owner built a separate building and the layout is 3 levels (4 in one section) and occupies 28' x 30'. Pictures do not begin to do it justice. While I was there Phil called me to remember to take pictures...which was a good thing, I had forgotten! After getting home I put in window "glass", blinds and glued the 4 walls together on my project. Tomorrow I will try to build the roof (removable).

Garry- Excellent picture. I really like the area under the bridges.

VA Ken- Nice videos. I like the one with the E8's best.

Sherrel- Prayers for good results on your tests. Neat junk yard.

Chet- Another nice track photo.

Joe- Am I the only one that thinks we are rapidly approaching a tipping point in our society/country?

Louis- I'm glad your grandsons have good schools. Our local school district seems to be more concerned about pushing a social agenda than teaching what the kids need to succeed.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Curt.. Thanks for the comments. Society need not be at a tipping point, but large numbers of people should question the wisdom of turning from God . Government can't solve problems like this. ... Your friend has a nice layout

Ken D & J ... I like the Daylight videos .
 
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Good afternoon gang!

Today was pressure wash the back stairwell day. I'm not sure what got wetter, the stairwell or me!

Terry Got a package today, looks as great as it runs. Thanks ! And for the rest of you all who might have reservations (if any) about buying from Terry. Just do it. His stuff is better than described, and his prices are great!:cool:

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Part of Baltimore's murder issue is that the criminals have the gun, but the citizens don't, due to the states concealed carry laws. Damn near impossible for a regular person to get. So the bad guys do their thing with no fear that the next guy may shoot back. I've gotten to the point that if it's inside the Beltway, f*ck it, I aint goin. And remember kids,images (4).jpg

L8ter gang, time for a nap
 
Good afternoon gang!

Today was pressure wash the back stairwell day. I'm not sure what got wetter, the stairwell or me!


L8ter gang, time for a nap

Ohhhh, another victim of the power wash idea. The wood will look great when it's done but what ya don't know about is all the preservative that you just drilled out of the wood. Next year or the year after, you'll start to see the wood splitting and falling apart as the ravages of the weather now are able to penetrate the wood. Insects now have access to the surface layers of the wood to fill their little bellies.
People use the pressure washer to clean up their driveways too. Looks great when it's all done, but next year, they see the surface of the concrete start to scale off and the gravel filler is exposed. They don't know that the power washing drove the lime out of the concrete. Lime is what holds it all together. Just like on your basement walls, ya might see a white kind of powder. That's signs of a water problem as the ground water is washing the lime out of the masonry mix and leaving brittle wall behind.
 
Curt: I liked the photos, that's one awesome layout. I don't know if we are at a tipping point. I am concerned about what I see as the deterioration of our society, but I don't have any answers.
 
Ohhhh, another victim of the power wash idea. The wood will look great when it's done but what ya don't know about is all the preservative that you just drilled out of the wood. Next year or the year after, you'll start to see the wood splitting and falling apart as the ravages of the weather now are able to penetrate the wood. Insects now have access to the surface layers of the wood to fill their little bellies.
People use the pressure washer to clean up their driveways too. Looks great when it's all done, but next year, they see the surface of the concrete start to scale off and the gravel filler is exposed. They don't know that the power washing drove the lime out of the concrete. Lime is what holds it all together. Just like on your basement walls, ya might see a white kind of powder. That's signs of a water problem as the ground water is washing the lime out of the masonry mix and leaving brittle wall behind.

No white stuff here, just a green algae that forms on the walls and steps over the course of a year. High pressure water and bleach knock the stuffings out of it til next year. Not enough sunshine and a wet spring & summer are to blame. Stuff is VERY slipper when wet! :eek:
 
Sherrel:The recycle facility is one of those should be modeled facilities. I'm also happy to hear you are beginning to feel better.

I actually spent some time operating my layout today, Still a lot of work to do, and for what ever reason, I can't get started on the work.

It's still very cloudy and unpleasant around here, tomorrow is supposed to be nice.
 
Today was pressure wash the back stairwell day. I'm not sure what got wetter, the stairwell or me!

Terry Got a package today, looks as great as it runs. Thanks ! And for the rest of you all who might have reservations (if any) about buying from Terry. Just do it. His stuff is better than described, and his prices are great!:cool:

I'll 2nd that Karl!
Seems like his stuff runs better than just out of the factory.
 
Howdy..

Chet and Louis ... thanks for commenting on my scene .

Louis.. I did not intend to say the addiction problems are confined to cities. I am familiar with such problems in rural areas. You might be interested in knowing my wife and I volunteered to work with a church sponsored program in KY to help people overcome personal problems. Among the problems were cases with addictions. Sadly many cases began with childhood difficulties. You shared some of your own childhood experiences and I can understand that would be very challenging. We participated in that program for several years even though neither of us ever had such problems as addictions. We no longer are volunteers , but we feel we were blessed because we did that.

Garry you and your wife will never know the full extent of your help, but I can tell you it can be immense. For people facing struggles it is comforting to know others care.

When I was in hospital the 2nd time I had a customer that owned a trucking company, a very busy man. Everyday for over 2 weeks he came to visit me, to pray with me. I thought he was a bit crazy, I never doubted I would get better. Knowing how much he cared to take time from his busy day was comforting and I will never forget it. I just held his hand and listened to him passionately praying, being a catholic I thought "these protestants pray differently than we do". I don't even know what denomination he was and it does not matter, but I knew God was listing just the same.

By the way I did not know of any challenges until I was 11. I thought I was the happiest kid in the world. I have tried to recreate that family environment for my kids. With my second wife by myside it has been easy. I'm as happy now as I was when I was that happy little boy.

The road you travel is not as important as where you end up. Along that road it is comforting to know people care and it can make a big difference which way we decide to go.

Afternoon All,

I had a good time at visiting Doug's layout today. The owner built a separate building and the layout is 3 levels (4 in one section) and occupies 28' x 30'. Pictures do not begin to do it justice. While I was there Phil called me to remember to take pictures...which was a good thing, I had forgotten! After getting home I put in window "glass", blinds and glued the 4 walls together on my project. Tomorrow I will try to build the roof (removable).


Louis- I'm glad your grandsons have good schools. Our local school district seems to be more concerned about pushing a social agenda than teaching what the kids need to succeed.

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I hope everyone has a good night.

Curt I am glad too, school is vital!

Tell Phil I said hello and thank him for reminding you to take pictures, I enjoyed seeing them!


I'll 2nd that Karl!
Seems like his stuff runs better than just out of the factory.

Make that 3!
 



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