Running Bear's May 2022 Coffee Shop

[bnsf971]

Are Youse All ready for some more "Ranch" News? There is still "No Peace In The Valley" here - lol.

I took the RV down to the place that did the rewire from the varmint damage and after a few tests the problem was found,
O.K. - The buckle on the passenger side seat was the problem. One has been ordered - from the East Coast if you can believe that - and will take 4-5 days to get here. I am beginning to understand those folks who do not want electronics installed on their automobiles. Why should the seat belt buckle have anything to do with the airbag?

I could write a book about the continuing verbal war going on (mainly one-sided from the younger one).
Sort of too sleepy after last night, so I will try and make some notes later on.
Need to feed the pups - it is their time they are saying!

Maybe I can find a baseball game to put on the Tellie and fall asleep?

The reason a seat belt buckle affects the airbags is because modern airbags won’t deploy properly if the seat belt isn’t buckled. Several people, including a friend of mine, were killed by deploying airbags when their seat belt wasn’t buckled. A relatively minor accident became a fatality when an airbag deployed against an unsecured person, breaking their neck.

 

[TLOC]

The primary reason for No Mow May is to help the bee and pollinating-insect population survive and grow during a critical time early in the season. With the expanding use of pesticides and other causes, the honeybee population has been devastated in some areas to the point where farmers are having to import bees to pollinate their crops. There are now even businesses that specialize in transporting colonies of bees around the country, "renting" them out to farms one at a time. I remember seeing a semi truck on the highway about a year ago with a bunch of crates on a flatbed, all covered with clear plastic sheeting. As I passed by, I realized there were tons of bees crawling under the plastic, it was a flatbed filled with beehives. I remember thinking, "That would make an interesting wreck."

The idea behind No Mow May was to have individual homeowners help give the local bee/insect population a boost by allowing some vegetation to flower for one month. Only a few houses or lawns doesn't make a difference, but when a whole county or town does it, that's a lot of additional acreage available for bees to feed as the growing season is starting. It just might help in areas where agriculture is a significant part of the economy...such as Wisconsin.

Great and thanks for the information. Too bad that the local public hasn’t been informed of that. We have been informed that the county if all followed No Mow May would save 7% in fuel costs for the month. No doubt the bees need the help. The bees are definitely important.

 

[santafewillie]

The reason a seat belt buckle affects the airbags is because modern airbags won’t deploy properly if the seat belt isn’t buckled. Several people, including a friend of mine, were killed by deploying airbags when their seat belt wasn’t buckled. A relatively minor accident became a fatality when an airbag deployed against an unsecured person, breaking their neck.

Darwin at work.

 

[TLOC]

Darwin at work.

Yep, and then the attorneys.

 

[McLeod]

The primary reason for No Mow May is to help the bee and pollinating-insect population survive and grow during a critical time early in the season. With the expanding use of pesticides and other causes, the honeybee population has been devastated in some areas to the point where farmers are having to import bees to pollinate their crops. There are now even businesses that specialize in transporting colonies of bees around the country, "renting" them out to farms one at a time. I remember seeing a semi truck on the highway about a year ago with a bunch of crates on a flatbed, all covered with clear plastic sheeting. As I passed by, I realized there were tons of bees crawling under the plastic, it was a flatbed filled with beehives. I remember thinking, "That would make an interesting wreck."

The idea behind No Mow May was to have individual homeowners help give the local bee/insect population a boost by allowing some vegetation to flower for one month. Only a few houses or lawns doesn't make a difference, but when a whole county or town does it, that's a lot of additional acreage available for bees to feed as the growing season is starting. It just might help in areas where agriculture is a significant part of the economy...such as Wisconsin.

Skyliner
I didn't go out and murder dandelions today, just because of that posted message. The bees are important. Therefore, the dandelions have a stay of execution until sometime in June.
The neighbour across the street had a pile of dandelion corpses laying on his lawn. Apparently, he didn't get the message. He must have dug out at least 50 today.

 

[TLOC]

Dinner out tonight was strange. We eat normally between 6 and 6:45pm. Tonight when I called they had an opening for 8 at 6:50 or for 2 at 5:20, yep 5:20. Called the daughter, they were going out with friends, so called the restaurant again and took the 5:20 time. The bar was packed which is strange for this place. The waitress who knew us said you do realize it is the Memorial Day weekend. She said they opened at 11am for lunch and there was a line to get in.

6 priests, all 70+ of age walked in with us and a funny group of guys they were. The Catholic Diocese of Madison retirement Village is walking distance from the eatery. They had our whole side of the restaurant laughing. At 5:30 sitting there for dinner Terry says you know we might be the youngest folks in here right now. I looked around and told, at least I was the youngest.

Other than visiting Brat Fest tomorrow we will be grilling.

I am in the train room relaxing on my recliner watching paint dry and figuring out my next move in here. No NBA tonight but there is a NHL hockey game, Blues and Avalanche. If it is 1/2 as exciting as the 2 games yesterday it will be great.

I know many of you guys are not Facebook people. But this week I continued to remove myself from many places I was a member of. I only do model railroading groups on FB. Dropped 6 buy/sell groups, now down to just 3. I dropped every “friend” in the past week that posted politics, guns or about the issue over in Europe.

Online, I now am down to visiting daily 3 Model Railroading forums. Here, Railroad-line.com and the MRH forums where I usually but not always am a lurker. I stopped Model Railroader magazine I think 3 years ago after subscribing for 35+ years. When Tony Koester quit as the editor of RMC is when I stopped subscribing to that magazine. Current editor, Otto while a super guy isn’t enough for me to buy the magazine.

Rambling…

have a great night

 

[Jaz avalley]

View attachment 146564
Nom Nom Nom

5 miles one way. Dine-in, order at counter, mom & pop place. Less than $20 for a large pie, 2 fountain drinks, and we brought half of it home for tomorrow.

homemade Keto cauliflower base pizza yes a tad crisp but cooked to taste, and a usual dessert,

 

[MikeInHubCity]

A brief moment inside my head:

The world can't be flat. If it was, my cat would have already knocked everything off.

So I accept that it's round... But if the World suddenly stopped spinning, would we all fall over?
(the above is in jest... I know that would be apocalyptic, and people would die almost instantly)

Perhaps solar systems are really just atoms to a much larger being. Would that make Galaxies, like molecules to them?


OK, carry on. Nothing to see here.

Jeff- that’s only in the Ford Galaxie. If time marches on, is that in 4/4 or 6/8 time?

Are Youse All ready for some more "Ranch" News? There is still "No Peace In The Valley" here - lol.

I took the RV down to the place that did the rewire from the varmint damage and after a few tests the problem was found,
O.K. - The buckle on the passenger side seat was the problem. One has been ordered - from the East Coast if you can believe that - and will take 4-5 days to get here. I am beginning to understand those folks who do not want electronics installed on their automobiles. Why should the seat belt buckle have anything to do with the airbag?

I could write a book about the continuing verbal war going on (mainly one-sided from the younger one).
Sort of too sleepy after last night, so I will try and make some notes later on.
Need to feed the pups - it is their time they are saying!

Maybe I can find a baseball game to put on the Tellie and fall asleep?

Sherrel- there could possibly be a sensor in the circuit that tells the CPU whether(or not) the passenger seat is occupied, so that it knows to deploy only the driver’s airbag(in the event of a crash) if the passenger seat is unoccupied.

 

[troyphoto]

Morning all... I may be giving up the evening wine/adult beverage glass

I'm in the Eastern US time zone. That's New York City time.

(New York City? - Yep, New York City - bonus points if can name the commercial product that used that phrasing in their commercials a decade or two ago)

I normally make it to bed by 9:30p and asleep by 10. Last night was an hour earlier.

Last night was half-an-hour ahead of that. Asleep at 9:30p

Now I'm awake. But yawning. Had to relocate to the recliner in the basement to get the yawns to start. Been awake for an hour already.

Need to adjust my sleep patterns to be later by two hours at least. Too many activities this summer fall where I need to be awake later.

Cutting out the booze will be the first experiment. Other suggestions welcome.

Now, I'm about to turn off the lights, adjust the pillow and the cat, and attempt a few more hours of shut-eye.

 

[troyphoto]

And the yawns didn't last long. Took the glasses off, knocked back the recliner, and the brain engaged again. Plotting world domination or such (actually going over a gaming tournament I'm running in a couple of weeks).

So, I've poured a finger or two of scotch into a rocks glass, and am hoping that helps in about 20 min.

 

[bnsf971]

Sherrel- there could possibly be a sensor in the circuit that tells the CPU whether(or not) the passenger seat is occupied, so that it knows to deploy only the driver’s airbag(in the event of a crash) if the passenger seat is unoccupied.

There are sensors in the seat to tell the airbag module if the seat is occupied, as well as a sensor to tell if the seatbelt is buckled.

 

[2Tracks]

Welcome to the end of May! Wow, where did 5 months go?
Good morning everyone! I hope all are doing well. Haven't been here so much, been concentrating on the layout. Bench work is not far from being done, finishing up on the painting of the shelf sections.
A couple of fallen flags passing the house a couple of days ago'

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

 

[TLOC]

Good morning Crew. The day so far, awake for 18 minutes, looks good so far. We have full sunshine but I see to the south a line of clouds coming this way. 17% chance of rain so being outside today with a high of 75f degrees should be fine, it’s 52 now.

Flowers to plant and mulch to spread. I hate this weekend. I am the labor for everything except planting the plants but I do spread the mulch. It also has become a 2 day event as I age, she doesn’t seem to. Married for 45 going on 46 in September and together for 51. I think every year but 2 or 3 that is what we have done this weekend but many years in that past we also planted the veggies. This year those have been done since whenever the time changed as all veggies are in the covered walkway between the house and stables.

I have been happily working on weathering and adding lights to the east side of my Paper Mill complex. I also am back to playing with the Grain terminal building.

The digestor building is at the bench as of 9 last night

The main headhouse building for the Grain terminal. It hopefully gets primed today

Troy, I am confused! Surprise there. Was last night just a bad unusual for you sleep night? Or where you trying to stay awake and then when it was time to sleep you couldn’t? Not getting sleep is miserable. I know a bunch of things that didn’t help me get to sleep during my anxiety months of December 2021 and January 2022. I tried booze, sex, pills, cold remedies, not drinking soda after dinner, then no soda at dinner. Look online at “Immersion Therapy”. Recommended by my Behavioral Health Therapist and damn if it didn’t work for me. YMMV

enjoy the day

 

[bnsf971]

I have it on good authority today is Louis' birthday.
Happy birthday!

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

Troy: Pick up the Pace.

Louis: Happy Birthday.

Not much going on yet. Some overnight showers left about a half inch of rain.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Around here it's clear and 66°, headed back into the mid-90's for a few days. High yesterday was only 87°. Wind returns in a few hours, and will be in the 20+mph range until Wednesday, then thunderstorms and slightly cooler temperatures for a few more days.

Typo in yesterday's post regarding the low-carb burger buns at Aldi, they were $5 and not $20. Not sure what i was thinking.

Started the weekend with grilling last night, but just did burgers, and grilled some hot dogs to reheat for lunches this week. Tonight we go to Dallas to The Olive Garden for my grandsons' birthdays. They are both back to back today and tomorrow. Hmmmh! They live less than five miles from Discount Model Trains, maybe a stop along the way. Olive Garden was their choice for birthday dinner.

I am amused by all of the dandelion talk here yesterday. I am in the camp of leave them be. Being an organic gardener, I realize the value that they are to bees. If they are present when I mow, they get mowed, but they will be back eventually. I don't use poisons. They don't thrive in the parts of the yard that the Bermuda grass controls, but there are many in the road easement out front where I don't mow. Are they weeds? Or are they wildflowers? They offer some variety to the wheat field next door and the hay field across the road. And my own hayfield as well. I do not eat them though.

Speaking of my hayfield, it's looking fine this morning and is almost as tall as me.

At the edge of the hayfield is a small wildflower patch with Yellow Cornflowers and Purple Horsemint growing right now.

And while I was out there this morning, I picked this.

First one of the season.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I made some more progress painting figures. Nothing special to show, completed five that were already partially done and worked on about a dozen more. I paint one color at a time on the three dozen on my palette and I painted three colors yesterday. Some more are almost ready.
Ran a few trains in between and struggled with a boxcar that seemed to derail at every switch. I finally removed it and found a sagging coupler that was snagging on the rails. Fixed it and it ran flawlessly again. As usual for this time of year, I cleaned some mini-cobwebs from the plows on the lead engines after the first run on each level.
I don't really have any new pictures of the layout this morning and I need to get into the garden early to spread mulch and pick onions. They will be small this year since I planted five weeks late due to having pneumonia in February. So the archives will wait until tomorrow.

Ken - Hope that your back is feeling better so you can go on the ride.
Tom O - OK, You got me with "cararobi". What the heck is that?
Cherry tomatoes - I love them, but if I plant only one plant, it will not survive, so I plant two and I am overwhelmed!
Troy - My Amazon problem is that they keep delivering my neighbors packages to me. Their new house was just moved in about two months ago, and the first driver that delivered to them, delivered to my house and pinged in my location in error. I have received several more in the interim. I wasn't able to catch a driver to correct it until last Friday, but he failed. We get a different driver for every delivery - high turnover I guess. The next one on Saturday was a bit belligerent even though I didn't accuse him of anything, just said wrong house. He got very defensive about their location instructions which I said were wrong. Wouldn't be an issue if we didn't live over a quarter mile drive from one another! Just try to find a phone number to call to correct this - impossible; and the drivers would not give me their dispatcher's phone number. However maybe the belligerent guy actually fixed this since I have not had another delivery since then - or maybe they haven't had another order.
Louis - Happy Birthday.

Everybody have a great day. Of course it's National Hamburger Day after I had them last night. It is also National Brisket Day for something different. Be safe this weekend.

 

[bnsf971]

I just experienced a pretty sleazy deal on Amazon. Amazon "suggested" a Kindle book for me, based on my reading history. I looked at the ad for the book, and pretty much the only thing I saw was "buy now", with no price. Led to believe the book was free, since there was no price, I clicked "buy now". Lo and behold, after the purchase, I got a receipt emailed, showing how much the book cost.
It was *not* free. I returned to view my order, which now clearly showed the purchase price I paid. I found the original "suggested book" area, and looked very, very, VERY closely. Finally, down in the fine print at the bottom of the page, I found the price.
It's pretty sad a multi-billion dollar company has to resort to such tactics to sell a 99 cent book.

 

[Boris]

Good morning.
67° cloudy with fog and an occasional shower. A very damp start for the weekend. By tomorrow, the seasonal merchants along the coast will be crying about how bad the season is.

I am very stiff and sore. must have over extended myself yesterday, gardening in the morning, and dragging boxes of model railroad stuff to find what I was looking for. The Meloxicam will kick in any time now, and I'll go shower.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOUIS !

Colorado advances, and the St. Louis Blues head for the golf course. Carolina has a chance of sending the Gotham Rags to their country club today.

Yankees @ Tampa Bay last night. Good game, under three hours, Yanks win 2-0. Mets rained out. I think the Nationals were also rained out. Orioles beat the Red Sox in a defensive battle @ Fenway, 12-8.

Transformation of the unfinished Reading yard into a CNJ facility. RSD-4 on the drill job,and a SD 35 and a FM Trainmaster on the Pit.

 

[TLOC]

Good Morning All. Around here it's clear and 66°, headed back into the mid-90's for a few days. High yesterday was only 87°. Wind returns in a few hours, and will be in the 20+mph range until Wednesday, then thunderstorms and slightly cooler temperatures for a few more days.

Typo in yesterday's post regarding the low-carb burger buns at Aldi, they were $5 and not $20. Not sure what i was thinking.

Started the weekend with grilling last night, but just did burgers, and grilled some hot dogs to reheat for lunches this week. Tonight we go to Dallas to The Olive Garden for my grandsons' birthdays. They are both back to back today and tomorrow. Hmmmh! They live less than five miles from Discount Model Trains, maybe a stop along the way. Olive Garden was their choice for birthday dinner.

I am amused by all of the dandelion talk here yesterday. I am in the camp of leave them be. Being an organic gardener, I realize the value that they are to bees. If they are present when I mow, they get mowed, but they will be back eventually. I don't use poisons. They don't thrive in the parts of the yard that the Bermuda grass controls, but there are many in the road easement out front where I don't mow. Are they weeds? Or are they wildflowers? They offer some variety to the wheat field next door and the hay field across the road. And my own hayfield as well. I do not eat them though.
View attachment 146576
Speaking of my hayfield, it's looking fine this morning and is almost as tall as me.
View attachment 146577
At the edge of the hayfield is a small wildflower patch with Yellow Cornflowers and Purple Horsemint growing right now.
View attachment 146578
View attachment 146582
View attachment 146580
And while I was out there this morning, I picked this.
View attachment 146581
First one of the season.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I made some more progress painting figures. Nothing special to show, completed five that were already partially done and worked on about a dozen more. I paint one color at a time on the three dozen on my palette and I painted three colors yesterday. Some more are almost ready.
Ran a few trains in between and struggled with a boxcar that seemed to derail at every switch. I finally removed it and found a sagging coupler that was snagging on the rails. Fixed it and it ran flawlessly again. As usual for this time of year, I cleaned some mini-cobwebs from the plows on the lead engines after the first run on each level.
I don't really have any new pictures of the layout this morning and I need to get into the garden early to spread mulch and pick onions. They will be small this year since I planted five weeks late due to having pneumonia in February. So the archives will wait until tomorrow.

Ken - Hope that your back is feeling better so you can go on the ride.
Tom O - OK, You got me with "cararobi". What the heck is that?
Cherry tomatoes - I love them, but if I plant only one plant, it will not survive, so I plant two and I am overwhelmed!
Troy - My Amazon problem is that they keep delivering my neighbors packages to me. Their new house was just moved in about two months ago, and the first driver that delivered to them, delivered to my house and pinged in my location in error. I have received several more in the interim. I wasn't able to catch a driver to correct it until last Friday, but he failed. We get a different driver for every delivery - high turnover I guess. The next one on Saturday was a bit belligerent even though I didn't accuse him of anything, just said wrong house. He got very defensive about their location instructions which I said were wrong. Wouldn't be an issue if we didn't live over a quarter mile drive from one another! Just try to find a phone number to call to correct this - impossible; and the drivers would not give me their dispatcher's phone number. However maybe the belligerent guy actually fixed this since I have not had another delivery since then - or maybe they haven't had another order.
Louis - Happy Birthday.

Everybody have a great day. Of course it's National Hamburger Day after I had them last night. It is also National Brisket Day for something different. Be safe this weekend.

Sorry I spelled it wrong

excellent if not too woody and eaten with a dash of salt, we prefer it raw

 

[Boris]

Are they weeds? Or are they wildflowers?

Willie: I suppose this is one of those categories that depends on the beholder's perspective. Around here the consensus is weeds.