Running Bear's October 2018 Coffee Shop


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Seems that I cannot get a post going in the AM - so will throw out around this time. It has started warming back up with temps reaching the 90 area before the weekend. Things are getting back to normal after the Sana Anna winds. I spent a great deal of time today trying to clean my yard of debris from a tree that no one claims is theirs. I call it a "bean tree"- It produces long slim leaves, is very tall, and millions of seed pods. It sits just outside the wall of my yard and sheds the leaves and "beans" all over my yard and patio - and with the reverse east wind - I get the full effect of everything falling off the tree. I told the HOA at the meeting I had to attend that I wanted something done about it - to which they replied that it was not an association tree as it is on a street that is maintained by the county. I called the county: They sent a man out to look at the tree and he knocked on my door and said, "The county does not own where the tree is ... If the HOA says it is not their tree ... do what you wish with it." I told him that I would make firewood out of it and he replied, "Just don't let it fall on your house in the process."

KARL .. That's a little scary? Believe me, I know how bad hospital beds are. I had my fill of them a couple years ago. Sure hope you just slept crooked and pinched a nerve or two?

Terry - I did not see a post from you this morning? Is everything OK with you?

Toot -- I think you are winning the camera battle!

Willie .. s'matter - wouldn't those "college girls" let you play? You should have told them that you were with "Girls Gone Wild".

Curt - Building's looking good!

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Toot -- I think you are winning the camera battle!

I surely (was that the right spelling, certain I wrote that differently last time?) hope so. This wa supposed to be all done and dusted a week ago so I could get on with the important stuff.
That tree, I'd be more worried about dropping it on those utility boxes, your house I doubt, would cost more to fix/replace. I'd be making sure too, that you get written, signed consent from each authority first. You won't want someone coming along asking after, who approved it's removal. Actually a complaint to the utility services who own those boxes that you're very worried about the tree falling in a storm and knocking out your services, might get it removed for you.

After all, is there a square inch of land in your state that some-one doesn't have a claim on?
 
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Good Morning Everyone. A rather cool 63° and clear here in Gulf Shores AL, our last morning here. Back home it's 53° with a chance of rain. We leave here around 0800 for a two day trip back to HOME SWEET HOME. The usual gas and bathroom stops until Richland MS (birthplace of Elmore James) for lunch at T-Ray's BBQ. It's a town just south of Jackson MS. That will be followed by an early afternoon visit to a historical museum in Vicksburg MS, and an overnight stay in Shreveport LA. Home around noon Friday. The train shed awaits me. Unfortunately cell phones weren't available in that era, so I cannot check in with the townspeople.

Curt -
Willie- Thank you. Safe travels also. It looks like you have your trip planned out by the minute.
It's just my nature and background. As a Scheduling Manager in my old life, timing was the key to successful manufacturing.
Justin - Thanks for the interesting information regarding the coal loading process. I don't model any aspect of coal so I never researched it as well as you have done.
Karl - Sounds like a close call even if they didn't find anything. Stay healthy.
Sherrel - After you get permission from the county and the HOA regarding the tree, check with the local, county and state environmental people, get your OSHA permit, make sure that there are no endangered insects living in the tree, conform with all EPA regulations and finally get permission from Governor Moonbeam before you cut it down. Oh! Be sure to use an environmentally safe, low emissions chainsaw as well. Or just go down to a mid-town corner and hire a couple of "day laborers" to do it.
While on this bureaucratic tirade, I read about a man from Temecula was just released from prison after 20 something years for a crime that he didn't commit; the DA and Sheriff from that time are getting their arms twisted by pointing fingers at anything that moves.

OK guys. Has anyone seen Chet? Haven't seen a post from him since Sunday!
Everybody have a great day.
 
Good morning all. 46 and cloudy out there. Time for coffee.

Nothing new to report from the train room - still working at the Library Book Sale - one more evening tonight, then we're done. We get to shop for books for ourselves and the grandkids, too - I love books, real ones - still don't like reading long passages on a computer screen - just old-fashioned that way, I guess.

Curt - nice progress on that structure build.
Willie - safe travels
Chet - how are things going with you?

Have a good day everyone.
 
Good Morning.

Thanks for all of your thoughtful posts for safe travels.

I drove 630 miles to the Michigan destination in 10 hours . Shelley flew here last week. Both of us drive back in a couple of days . If she is in the car , it takes longer. LOL

I’ll catch up on your posts when I can.

Cheers
 
Good morning. 32 degrees with sunny skies and a forecast high around 60. Sorry I haven't been posting. I've been a bit busy.

I got talked into a renovation project. The couple that we have been bowling with for the past 23 years wanted new flooring. We tore out around 1,600 of carpet and installed new hardwood flooring. I had all of the necessary tools and being that I am retired, I got volunteered for the job. John is also retired so we dove into the job. All of the carpet is gone and all of the flooring is in. I hurt in places I forgot that I had. John is painting all of the trim work today so I have the day off. Being that we have bowling tomorrow night, we probably won't install the trim until next week. I enjoy trim carpentry, but it can be time consuming to get the job done right.

Justin
- Nice to see you have all of the hoppers ready to go. I don't have many. No coal hauling on my layout, but I do have to haul coal in for the steamers.

Curt - Interesting to see that the tree rat got away. Between you and Ray, Hitchcock comes to mind. No bird problems here, but we do have a nice 4 point buck making the rounds to our apple tree trying to get the last of the apples falling on the ground. Drives the dogs nuts. Nice looking building you have going there. Waiting to see the final product on your layout. I do enjoy seeing your work.

Joe - Hope you recover in short order.

David - Nice to see you in here again. It's been a while.

Ray - Looking to see how the camera works. You sure have put a lot of time into it. I think I lucked out. Just put mine in the gondola and puched it around the layout. Workede the first time. Guess even a blind squirrel find a nut once in a while.

Willie - Have a safe trip back home/. Hope you guys enjoyed yourselves.

Karl - Doesn't sound like you had a good Monday. Hope they can figure out what the problem was. Get well soon.

Sherrel - Sounds like the HOA just has it out for you. Firewood sounds like a good solution if you can stack it somewhere that they can't see it.

Garry - Have a safetrip. I know what you mean about having the wife slowing down the progress on the road.

I think I will retreat down to the train room for a while to run trains and get some equipment together to take to the club Saturday. The weather has been quite nice after out snowfall and the pass should be dry. Sure miss the Thursday runs. Still don't care for that pass at night in the dark. So many of the new cars with the high output headlights can be blinding to oncoming traffic. I have been tempted to mount some aircraft landing lights behind the grill.

Here's a rail picture for today.

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Later
 
Good morning Everybody!

I just wanted to stop and say hello.

God bless us Everyone! (Sherrel, Everyone means Everyone! That includes president Trump, I pray for him everyday.)
 
Hey, Louis -- stop by more often! I miss your ramblings.
Supposed to reach 86 today, 88 tomorrow, and 90's for the weekend.


Spousal Unit is searching for her swimming togs as she is on MIL duty until Tuesday, and MIL has a nice pool.

DAVID CA and I talked for 20 min yesterday. He is battling both auto insurance and an internet seller that he bought an engine for his car from and who won't stand by the fact that they sent him the wrong engine and won't refund - - a real nightmare.

I have an insurance problem with the RV that I need to solve as well. I took the RV to Apple Valley to have the Sat TV installed and t fix the Fridge. He had to replace the gas valve + labor was $426 - now the extended warranty we took out on the RV when we purchased it is refusing to cover the Fridge because they were not called first before the work was done. (just another thorn to deal with)

TOOT/Willie .. good suggestions about the tree! I have a plan. Neighbor across the street drives a power truck with a boom on it. He uses it to put up a few Christmas lights in the neighborhood. He has indicated that he will help me take down the tree. When I get around to it - I will get him to help me top it (was topped by someone 5 years ago - now - no-one owns up to it) Then after a while - I will take it down a little at a time and plead ignorance on what happened to it. I'll play some loud music while the chain saw is running at night! So far I have an HD Orange Bucket full of the droppings and it an't done!
Besides, O am down to my last dozen sticks of wood for the fireplace - It will make a nice addition

Safe travels, Garry and Willie!
Where's TERRY?
 
Afternoon All,

Did a couple of errands this morning, then put the 4 main walls together and added some cross bracing on the inside to help maintain shape during handling and stucco. Talked to Phil today and he's doing good. The dishwasher was fixed today and only cost $80 so we're good for the holidays.

Karl- Thank you. I hope you're doing OK now.

Sherrel- Thank you. I would also be concerned about the utility boxes.

Johnny- Thank you. I'm with you about reading real books and not electronic ones. I guess we're dinosaurs.

Garry- Sounds like my wife driving!

Chet- Thank you. I remember put wood flooring in the entire upstairs (except bathrooms) with the help of family and all I can say is ouch:rolleyes:

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Good Afternoon Everyone. Sitting safely in a hotel room (LaQuinta) in Shreveport LA, having completed today's portion of the journey. It's 67° and cloudy. Nice place, elevator 15' from the door where we are parked, room less than 30' from the elevator. Looks like it made it up to 64° back home. Time to take a nap before going out for supper. Unfortunately I forgot to put a beer in the cooler so I have to wait for the freezer to do its magic.
Appreciate everyone's best wishes for a safe journey, it has worked so far.
 
Yes, I'm alive. Busier than a one armed paperhanger.
It isn't helping that Directv merged my account with AT&T, and managed to delete everything, and dealing with that, too.
 
Ray - Looking to see how the camera works. You sure have put a lot of time into it. I think I lucked out. Just put mine in the gondola and puched it around the layout. Workede the first time. Guess even a blind squirrel find a nut once in a while.
's'all your fault, yours sucked me in. When I went looking for one, there were none that looked like it I could find. I guess the makers count on a percentage of duds, that the sales volume covers. I've a long history of sorting them out. I remember the first electric drill I bought after starting work had to be returned for an exchange. If Terry hadn't told me about that software, I would still be flumoxing around. The acid test will come this weekend when I hope to record something there.
 
Good Morning All from Shreveport LA where it is 56° and clear, 56° and cloudy back home where I'll finally be at in a few more hours.

Garry - Likewise here about the trip taking longer when my wife is in the car!
Chet - I know your pain as I did 450 square feet of carpet/tile removal and hardwood replacement just a few years back.
Louis - Hello back to you as well.
Sherrel - Good luck with the tree. Be careful.
Curt -Structure is coming along nicely.

All right, time for a shower before hitting the free breakfast here. Hope to hit the road around 0800. We're on the west side of town so we'll be going away and won't have to deal with incoming rush hour traffic.
Everybody have a great day.
 
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Good morning everyone. 51 and cloudy out there. Supposed to rain today. Time for coffee.

Had another late night last night volunteering at the library book sale. Seven trailer loads of books - can you imagine?! $75,000 in sales in the first two days. Usually they make around $150K for the whole sale, which will end Sunday. These are books culled from the various library branches around town plus donated books from individuals (some of them give their own private libraries for these sales). Nice conversation with other volunteers.

Needless to say, nothing to report from the train room - didn't get home until almost 9, had something to eat, to bed, and now up before dawn and back at the office. Why do I do this? Oh, yeah - to make money to fund my model railroad habit!! Retirement is looking closer and better every day ;)

Willie - Easy drive from Shreveport to the DFW area. Glad your trip has been a safe one.
Curt - more nice progress on the structure.
Terry - you need to rent some anti-Murphy bodyguards!

Have a good day everyone.
 
Morning troops: 47 degrees heading towards 87 for a high which was yesterday's high as well. Of course the sky is cloudless and a deep blue color and SW wind at 5 mph.

Still trying to sweep and vacuum up all the "beans/seeds" that have fallen off that damn tree!

Everyone be careful out there.
 
Good morning y'all. Happy Friday! 50°, sunny and clear this morning. This morning was the first time below freezing, since last spring. Today and tomorrow will be mild, then the temperatures will plunge again.

I have a "follow-up" appointment at my primary doctors. Because my doctor is "away', I will see the "nurse practitioner". However, I do hope to get a prescription issue resolved, and set up an appointment with my long time Doc, as soon as possible. On the way back, I plan on stopping to buy some additional dimensional lumber, so I can finish my benchwork, maybe this weekend ?

Curt: That structure looks real good.
Chet: Very interesting track photo.
Willie: Safe travel on the last leg.
Garry: Likewise, safe travel.
Terry: That is corporate synergy in practice.
Ray: Here's to a successful video run this weekend.
Louis: Yo!

Enjoy your weekend.

Boris
 
Home at last. I'll fix lunch, take a nap and maybe the rain will have stopped (supposed to) when I get up and visit the train shed.
 
Good morning. We started the day off at 39 degrees and should get up into the mid 60's as we did yesterday. Most of the snow is gone with the exception of a few shaded areas.

Sherrel
- What a pain with the extended warranty. There are so many hoops to jump through with many of them that I won't even consider one. Sorry to hear about Dave's problem with getting the wrong engine. Super bummer. Have fun with your droppings.

Curt
- The building is coming along nicely. I am feeling a lot better today. Bowling league tonight. Don't need ant aches slowing me down.

Ray - Sorry. Didn't mean to cause you any problems. looking forward to see what your video looks like.

Willie -
Good move with the hotel. When we travel we always try to find a place to stay that puts us on the right side of town that won't have us playing in traffic when we want to take off in the morning. Travel safely.

Spent a few hours running trains yesterday. Had problems wit this Bachmann switcher that I keep in the town of Churchill.

IMAG0945-1.jpg Does not want to start up. It is a DCC ready and it ran really nice, but rather loud but recently is becoming a problem. Don't know weather to take it apart or chuck it. I like keeping a swither in the town to gather up all of the ourbound cars to the local freight to pick up and to deliver cars to the rail customers after the local drops off loads. This allows the local to move on instead of spending time switching everything out. This town can take two hours for a local to do all of its work. Here are a couple of photo of the cafe in Gallatin Gateway. Looks as busy as the Coffee House.

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May have to put a new roof on it. Scratch built it over 20 years ago and it's looking it's age. I do have some Evergreen metal roofing in my pile of styrene.

Here's a rail picture for today.

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Later
 
CHET - Thanks for the well wishes on my aggravations on the home front issues. Just a part of life that I don't like. I have never bought extended warranties on anything as I figure that it just about works out to a crapshoot of whether it is a good deal or not. "WE" did on the RV - figuring that with the cost of items ie: fridge, generator, A/C, tranny, electrical system, and such that it might be worth it? Guess that I had better take the time and try and recoup my repair bill.

Great looking shots of the doodlebug and I like the "Blue Streak" boxcar! Once saw many of those coming and going through town when growing up. Hmmm ... let me see ... you are going to look in your styrene pile for tin roofing - that makes cents?
 
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