Running Bear's January 2019 Coffee Shop


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Good morning everyone. 31 and clear out there. They're saying that the snow that is coming our way Friday evening into Saturday will accumulate. So I dusted off the snow shovels!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. It is today - the big seven-one! MOH and I will eat at a nice restaurant tonight.

Terry - I have experienced difficulty logging in from time to time, often taking three or four attempts, but eventually it goes through.

Nothing to report from the train room. Just keep working on a couple of structure builds and cleaning up some scenery.

Have a good day everyone.
 
Good Morning all,

Clear, and chilly this morning with temps in the upper teens. That wind last night was ferocious. It has diminished some but will be blustery all day.

Have a great day!
 
Morning All
After having temps in the 40's the last few days, I looked outside and there's a inch of snow, 30 degrees, which will be today's high. :(
I'm taking the wife to a doctor appointment this morning. So, the car will get all slopped up. Years ago, I always had a old clunker to drive in the winter, while "her" car sat in the garage. Cost of insurance, etc. keeps me from doing this.
I'll be sitting in the car with the dog, while she's inside. Maybe I'll chase him around the parking lot a little bit. Will probably stop for lunch on the way home. After doing the daily chores, i plan on working on the layout.

I didn't have any problems with the forum until last week. It froze up a couple of times for 5 seconds or so. In the last few days, it's been flickering - not a lot.

Happy Birthday, Johnny!

Everyone have a nice day!

Here's one of my favorite pics, it always brightened up my day. NS Juniata locomotive shop - Altoona.
Juniata locomotive shop.jpg
 
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Good Morning All. 37° and partly cloudy around here this morning. Moderate wintry temperatures for the next ten days, with lows staying above freezing. Still have 100% chance of rain Friday. Mostly household chores yesterday although I did start a pile of recyclable scrap metal by the driveway to take to the scrap dealer sometime this month. Various pieces of copper wire and pipe as well as brass fittings from the bathroom remodels, the defunct washing machine, various pieces of steel from mower/tractor parts replacement, will all be supplemented with aluminum beverage cans and window parts where I make the real money.
Reviewed my property taxes yesterday and discovered that they went down for 2018!:)
Out in the train shed yesterday, it was another mundane day except that it was in the train shed! Continued removing and dusting structures, touching up paint where needed and improving some of the 25+ year old ones. Also spent a little time repainting and otherwise improving some of the Chinese-made figures that I received for Christmas. I have to say that these did not come from a factory where quality control mattered! The figures are OK but the paint job besides being outrageous is rather shoddy. The base color is a pale pink plastic so there are no variances in skin color nor is any exposed skin even painted to begin with. All hair is black. Some of the paint is applied so thickly that it has to be trimmed back with a knife or razor. Paint overruns everywhere. Still it is a fun diversion while I wait for paint or glue to dry on other projects. And just like with Preiser figures, I am trimming off hats, heavy coats and luggage; as well as re-positioning arms.

Johnny - Once again Happy Birthday. Your basement sounds like a great place to be. Better yet, it sounds like you will not be hurting for activities when you retire, whenever that is.
Joe - I know what you mean when you posted "I'm all sorts of happy about this relatively insignificant development, simply because I haven't done anything of this nature in over twenty years,". I have been doing some piddling around on my train inventory database/spreadsheets recently and realized how much I had forgotten since retiring a few years ago and not programing on a daily basis.
Chet -
montanan said:
Willie - Sounds like you have a project on your hands with a 40 foot section of layout and a bunch of building to clean up.
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That's why I have the layout divided like I do, cleaning the entire 330' at one time would be a monumental task that would not get done if I did it all at once. One 40' - 50' section every quarter over two years. Some are real easy and they mostly really don't get "dirty" dirty, but it helps to stay ahead of it. It's always good to find lost or stray parts even though I may not know which car they came from.

Today is National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. Do what you can to show appreciation. My grandfather would buy them a drink at the neighborhood bar in Brooklyn back in the 50's!
Everybody have a great day.
 
Good morning, y'all: it's sunny out, 38° and windy.

santafewillie said:
Reviewed my property taxes yesterday and discovered that they went down for 2018!:)
Click to expand...

Willie: That's great. It happened here once also. When they changed to an annual assessment. Here in Jersey, your property is taxed at 100% of Market Value. The first year that everything was equalized, I appealed my assessment as it was at about $100K above market value. Had to utilize Zillow, and public records plus driving to each comparable address to photograph each subject property, but I won. The next year they sent an appraiser out, and he reduced the value further... My taxes dropped significantly for three years in a row. Now, they are creeping up again.

Louis: AM Radio has become a vast waste land, with all the "yellow journalism" from both extremes of the political spectrum, screaming sports talk hosts, with their first time callers but long time listeners who are idiots, religious broadcasting, foreign language broadcasts, and stations targeting seniors, which are mostly advertisements for health scams. Sports Broadcasts have migrated to FM along with sports talk and political talk. Most radio stations provide syndicated programing with minimal human input. They all seem to go for forty minutes of music, twenty minutes of commercials, and they are synchronized so that you can't skip around to avoid the ads.

Ray and Terry: FWIW, after my comments last night, Win10 did another "update". Little over a year ago, I updated my internet speed to 200 GBPS, and replaced my WIFI router. I have not had an issue with an internet site since these improvements were made. OTOH, Before MB Klein upgraded their server and software, their site was impossible to navigate, because they had a problem. Bob migrated his forums to a new provider with greater bandwidth, within the last year, so in all likelihood it's not the forum. I blame Microsoft, because every time they upgrade, my computer it slows down.

Justin: That's a great photo of the SD18. Shows a lot of detail.

Jim: Great photo of the Locomotive Shop at Altoona.

Boris
 
Good morning, everybody ....

Jim .... That is quite a photo.... A squarehouse instead of a roundhouse ... And three houses next to the turntable....

Greg .... I like the photo from the modular layout.

Justin .... Nice photo of the SD18. Interesting the old unit may be rebuilt.

Terry .... Thanks for contacting Bob....
 
Joe, I think the slowing down is intentional. I have read the “plan” is to force updates on your machine until it slows down to the point of being unusable. At which time you’ll be forced to buy a new one, and rent a Windows subscription.
 
Good morning. 22 degrees to start the day off with clear skies and an expected high in the upper 30's. I did get down to the train room yesterday. The trains are still there.

Had to get out of the house early this morning to take the wife to work after she dropped her car off at the tire shop. I hadn't driven her car since she had a tire rotation and I noticed a vibration which felt like a tire out of balance so we're going to have them look at that and have an allignment done. Noticed a bit of uneven wear starting and figured we should get it taken care of before we ruin a new set of tires. Heading out that early really make me appreciate retirement.

Johnny - 548.gif

Greg - Nice photo. You'll have to take a photo of the mine when you get it done.

Terry - I haven't noticed the forum being slow.

Justin - Nice photo. Thumb up.gif

Jim - Outstanding photo. appl.gif

Willie - That would be quite a project to clean that entire area. I think that is one reason I turned down the wifes offer to let me expand into an unused family room in the basement. The addition of a 12x24 room would have given me a lot more room for the layout and a lot to have to keep clean.

Here's my rail photo for today .

ff74bbb59d94f423bf7bba6f45cb59ce.jpg
One of my favorite paint schemes and locomotives.

Later
 
bnsf971 said:
Joe, I think the slowing down is intentional. I have read the “plan” is to force updates on your machine until it slows down to the point of being unusable. At which time you’ll be forced to buy a new one, and rent a Windows subscription.
Click to expand...

Terry: That would not surprise me one bit. When I do buy another computer, it will either be a Linux Platform or an Apple Platform, if that's the way MS intends to go. Contrary to popular perception, they are not the only game in town.

Boris
 
Good Afternoon Everyone..............windy and cold here.

Today is turning out to be a total waste of time and no time for model railroading. Did the shade hanging project for the new bedroom room windows this morning/afternoon and found that the mounting procedure is not correct and the new brackets had to be cut down to fit the window. Did the first window and the found the slotted end to be too narrow to accept the shade end with the flat shaft. More milling for the Dremel Tool. Then once the two brackets for each side of the shades were installed, the window shades were too large in diameter to fit the new window frames.

Moved the brackets down and reinstalled them.

The Queen bed was in the way and so was the night stand. I can't stand on the bed so I had to "Direct" the wife. Someday she'll learn how to use a screw driver by holding the screw driver straight with the screw, not on an angle. I did remove and install several screws, but my "Cheater" glasses were out of range to see the slotted screws. Finally the work was completed.

Next window replacement will have in the contract that the installer reinstall the blinds or shades!!! No more partial jobs.

Tomorrow the Mrs. wants to go and see a movie. We can watch liberally hundreds of movies with our channel television provider for free. I not a fan of movie theaters due in part to my dealing with theaters in my professional life. The last movie I went to see which wasn't work related was Grease.

Now our God Daughter is visiting with her new baby.

No modeling to report.....

Greg
 
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Afternoon All,

Did some chores then attached the signage to the wood walls. I also built a door for the badly fitting one.

Tomorrow the wife and I are heading over to Cocoa Beach. I'm going to Prototype Rails and she is doing sewing stuff. We'll be back Sunday afternoon.

Justin- I'm surprised that loco still has the Chessie livery on it.

Joe- Thank you.

Toot- She was lucky.

Johnny- Happy Birthday.

Max- Great shot of the Altoona engine facility.

Chet- Nice B&O photo. That is a nice looking paint scheme.

20190109_142606-980x2016.jpg

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Garry said:
"Jim .... That is quite a photo.... A squarehouse instead of a roundhouse ... And three houses next to the turntable...."

That 1st house has got to be in the running for best railfan site.
Their electric bill is probably low as they don't need lights in or outside the house ( courtesy of NS Corp. ) ;)
Ahhh . . . the smell of diesel fumes :)

Chet said:
"Jim - Outstanding photo."

Thanks. But I can't take credit for taking the pic, as my ladder doesn't go up that high! LOL
I'm just the messenger ;):)

CURT
Thank You
 
Boris said:
Contrary to popular perception, they are not the only game in town.
Boris
Click to expand...

Microsoft has known they have competition for some time and has switched it's focus to cloud services. There are no plans to make Windows a subscription service for consumers. Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) has made Microsoft relevant again. I doubt they would do anything to create so much negative publicity for such a small if any gain in profits. Microsoft's profit growth has come from commercial cloud services and Xbox. Windows is becoming a stagnant product and is no longer the focus of Microsoft.
 
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