Early Risers.

[BSW01]

BoD. I forgot to add that I hope your son’s test goes ok and that his partner gets over this awful virus. 

Thoughts with you all. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by BSW01

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Ozexpatriate]

A strange day today. I had planned to be with friends in Central Oregon this evening for the long weekend. Plans changed leaving me at a bit of a loose end as Winnie the Pooh would say.

 

Intending to be away, I had planned for there not to be any food ready for this evening so dragged myself out. Stopping at the pharmacy and supermarket found me in the rain in the carpark. Plenty of opportunity for mini-rants. A supermarket patron left a trolley in the most otherwise convenient open parking spot. The woman parked next to it literally walked past it twice. I got extra rained on moving it out of my way to park and then move it to it's corral. 

 

The supermarket was busy, as it was the Friday before a long weekend. The usual amount of wrong way trolley drivers were encountered inside.

 

On the way home I stopped at the bank whose driveway was close to a dodge-ems/bumper car attraction. It was close to 4:00pm (now pandemic-era closing time) and the drive through was backed up and blocking parking in front of the ATM (where I was headed). Use of the bank drive-through had dropped off in popularity since the days when paper paycheques were a weekly event for most people, but in the current environment they are popular again, though staff don't seem to be as fast with them as in days of old - perhaps related to some distancing requirements inside the bank.

 

Backing out of the ATM parking I had to reverse aggressively in front of someone wanting the drive through who would otherwise have bottled me in for at least five minutes.

[J. S. Bach]

Good night owl from the Piedmont.

[BR60103]

17 hours ago, Simon G said:

 

Just a word of warning on cheap cables.  I bought an additional cable to charge my iPhone and after working all right for a while, it fried part of the iPhone circuitry, the adapter nearly went up in smoke, probably only being saved by the fact that it tripped out the RCD in the fuse box.  Having said that, when I bought my current HD TV from Currys, they did try to sell me the most expensive HDMI cable, which I politely declined, and am happily using one which cost about a third of the price.

There was a recall here of plug in rechargers or adapters. The ones listed all came from dollar stores.

 

[BR60103]

My version of The Bird Fancyer's Delight looks like Polly's but with a bit less colour.  I can't find it now, but I've seen it this year.

I've bookmarked John's page for later listening.

I was going to watch a celestial conjunction or something at sunset tonight but tomorrow's partly cloudy has come in early.

Today seemed like the hottest day yet this year even if we did have snow 2 weeks ago. We had a walk iin the woods through glades of trilliums.

Sunday is Queen Victoria's birthday but it was celebrated last Monday. It's the monarch's official birthday in Canada.

"The twenty-fourth of May

Is the Queen's birthday

And if you don't give us a holiday

We'll all run away."

And looking for the music book, I found my notebook for the extra, hard math course (called Problems) that I took last year of high school to get out of Pys Ed.

 

[TheQ]

Mooring awl inner Temple Hare, 

6.5 hours of heavily interrupted sleep,  get comfortable, fall asleep,  wake up uncomfortable,  find a better position,  and repeat. 

 

The wind is just below 30mph at the moment,  but is forecast to be mid 30s all day. 

 

Being a bank holiday , it will be interesting the idiot count this weekend. Unfortunately I think it will be high. 

 

Plans for today,  more of yesterday,  IE work on the shed floor till I run out of suitable wood,  more lead casting. 

 

Time to try to get more sleep,  before brown eyes has other ideas.. 

 

 

[polybear]

7 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Fell asleep in front of the telly...……………..it's that interesting these days.

G'night all.

 

Oh I dunno, personally I find the telly to be greatly improved lately.  A lot less reality TV dross, more old films and proper comedy programmes like Porridge.....

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all, with warmest thoughts to BoD, son and son’s partner and to Flavio’s Lucy.

 

Despite the empty diary something else has been cancelled.  Overnight the news broke that Expo EM Autumn has gone the way of all good things.   What will I do with all these free weekends?

 

There are two places left to fill in my list of Top 10 albums.  The ninth slot goes to “Bridge over troubled waters” by Simon and Garfunkel, which is well enough known for no further comment to be required.  The process of elimination to leave one album for the tenth slot was a painful one.  So many artists that I am known to favour have perforce been excluded.  I might just jot down a list of the casualties over the next few days.  It got down to a final three: “Ragged Kingdom” by June Tabor and Oysterband, “None of the above” by Melonious Funk and the winner, “Strangers” by the Young’uns, for the simple reason that from a typically fine selection of Sean Cooney originals brightly shines “Be The Man”, a song which helped to change my life almost two years ago.  It has been so interesting to view the selections and reactions of others, and to be reminded of artists like the Levellers that I really ought to know but have not yet seen.

 

I will do a relief fodder run this morning as I need something for Sunday lunch and a few other oddments.  It can be interesting to compare store layouts, ranges and other amenities with my regular haunt.  I live in hope that one day house arrest will be lifted and supermarket cafes will reopen but I do not advise scanning the horizon with powerful binoculars in the hope of spotting the squadron of airborne pigs.  The cable for my phone charger, by the way, cost a mere £2 from a well-known multiple hardware store.  Due to the nature of the damage which made replacement necessary I may invest in a spare.

 

Envy mode ON: John Coombe Barton saw David Munrow play.  Lucky is putting it mildly!  Envy mode fades but will not switch OFF.

 

It’s still mental health awareness week and it’s still OK to not be OK.  Best wishes to all.

 

Chris

[iL Dottore]

12 hours ago, Tony_S said:

. ...Seriously,  my Robbie was a complete nuisance when we were cooking fish. He normally kept out of the way when food was being prepared unless a high speed leap or pounce was needed to intercept something dropped.  We still remember the look of disgust when he retrieved a sprout. 

When I am cooking (which is every day), both Schotty and Lucy visit the kitchen in their guise as “executive chefs” to ensure standards are maintained. However, they have got their inspection routine down to a fine art: open fridge, get out tomatoes - no dogs; open fridge, get out onions - no dogs; open fridge, get out meat - Canines everywhere.
Your last sentence, Tony, reminded me of an instance in the kitchen when I gave some apple peel to Lucy (she loves apples) and Schotty came in at that very instant - so I also gave him some apple peel - which he snapped up. The look on his face when he realised he had just bitten down on apple peel was utterly priceless.

10 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Sounds a bit like Jim Bakker's "Silver Solution" which he claims is a cure for CoViD-19. (He is being sued in Missouri.)

NPR:

Readers might remember Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and their "Praise The Lord" televangelical ministry in the 1980s. Jim served five years of his jail term and is back on TV selling snake oil.

I’m utterly appalled by these people. I can understand and sympathise with those (how can I put it?) “underinformed” members of the public who turn to the unproven and useless out of fear and desperation, but the filth who peddle such things? They are worse than drug dealers: at least if you “score” some “weed” or “blow” on the street you can be guaranteed some quality time communing with the star people on a different astral plane (or whatever). With these nostrums if you are lucky, they’ll have absolutely no effect, more likely you’ll have unpleasant (or worse) side effects. And the truly evil side of this pushing of nostrums is that with people placing their faith in - basically - quack remedies that do nothing, they delay getting effective or properly palliative treatment (it is considered that Steve Jobs, by relying on “alternative medicine” for his islet cell neuroendocrine tumour, he actually hastened his own death).

Why Bakker and his ilk are not charged with manslaughter is beyond me. Surely performing an action that leads to someone’s death is the definition of manslaughter? (perhaps the “Legal Eagles” on ER can advise/clarify?)

A final thought: any “alternative therapy” that has been proven to be efficacious in rigorous clinical trials is called “medicine”!

9 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

What's going to happen to retail and tourism?

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/05/22/less-summer/

I suspect that COVID-19 will hasten already ongoing changes. Certainly, we will be seeing more of the “contactless” hotels (now, seemingly, confined to the budget and trendy end of the market) whereby booking and payment is done online and check in is done by machine and you take care of your own luggage.
 

We are likely to see the end of very cheap flights: people who will put up with Mr O’Leary’s shenanigans before COVID-19 for the sake of a cheap flight, may draw the line having to do so whilst masked (on board) and socially distanced (on the ground). First and Business Class travel are likely to survive, cheap economy class? I’m not so sure.

 

I also think that there are a few destinations, in order to recover some semblance of previous tourist income, that could insist on both a visitor’s fee/charge/tariff and limited numbers of tourists per day/week. Venice and Barcelona spring to mind (and both would benefit, in many ways, from such a scheme).

 

Of course, I could be totally wrong; AstraZeneca or Moderna or another company may come up with a safe and effective vaccine, vaccination “passports” become the new requirement for any sort of travel, most people get vaccinated and the yearly waves of influenza & Covid-19 cull the elderly, infirm, unlucky and anti-vaxxers...

7 hours ago, newbryford said:

Marmite....

Wonderful taste....

= oxymoron alert

7 hours ago, Chris116 said:

But it does taste wonderful if you have working taste buds!

Fight, fight! 

 

Have a splendid Saturday

 

iD

Edited May 23, 2020 by iL Dottore

[iL Dottore]

19 minutes ago, chrisf said:

.....Despite the empty diary something else has been cancelled.  Overnight the news broke that Expo EM Autumn has gone the way of all good things.   What will I do with all these free weekends?

Model?

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Why Bakker and his ilk are not charged with manslaughter is beyond me. Surely performing an action that leads to someone’s death is the definition of manslaughter? (perhaps the “Legal Eagles” on ER can advise/clarify?)

Missouri has filed a "temporary restraining order" and New York has sent a "cease and desist" letter. 

 

It's bad enough that this snake oil activity is going on, but meanwhile the holder of the highest office in the land is touting a malaria treatment that, according to published studies, has little efficacy as either a CoViD-19 prophylactic or treatment, and may actually be harmful in some cases.

[Barry O]

Ey up?

Been chuckinitdarn here and we still hace a hoolie going on.

 

I have stopped worrying about what the future looks like. Why? What will be will be...que sera!

 

Today being a Saturday I should be umpiring. Guess what? I am not missing this at all.

 

Things to do, mugatea to be drunk, time to kick start Saturday!

Stay safe, very positive thought to BoD and his family!

 

Baz

[Barry O]

7 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Marmite....

Wonderful taste....

 

= oxymoron alert

Golf..a great sport

 

= oxymoron alert...

 

Waste of a good walk some may say...

 

Baz

[iL Dottore]

5 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Missouri has filed a "temporary restraining order" and New York has sent a "cease and desist" letter. 

 

It's bad enough that this snake oil activity is going on, but meanwhile the holder of the highest office in the land is touting a malaria treatment that, according to published studies, has little efficacy as either a CoViD-19 prophylactic or treatment, and may actually be harmful in some cases.

I read that in your original post (and thanks for the updates/further links). But a restraining order and a “cease and desist” letter are miles away from being banged up for fraud, manslaughter or other serious offence (which, I would argue, could apply to the selling of such nostrums).

 

As for the orange one, who - with any semblance of a functional brain and regardless of political affiliation - gives any credence to his tweets and utterances after his recent performance(s)?

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, iL Dottore said:

As for the orange one, who - with any semblance of a functional brain and regardless of political affiliation - gives any credence to his tweets and utterances after his recent performance(s)?

We shall see come November 4. While his opponent has a nationwide lead in the low double digits, the electoral college may produce surprises like it did in 2016. The POTUS has a very high approval rating amongst his supporters, though not overall.

 

The partisan divide on non-political questions like "how quickly do you think the US will recover economically" are dramatic. Pew Research recently conducted a survey on trust in medical scientists and scientists in general. There is a stark partisan divide in the results.

I find data from Pew (who break down demographics in many dimensions, including education, political affiliation, age and religious affiliation) quite fascinating. It is insightful.

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

I never expected POTUS to last six months given all the past "baggage", constant gaffes, etc. But here he is, more than three years later and behaving in ever more extraordinary fashion. This morning he is trying to ride roughshod over the constitution of the union (which is what got him elected on a minority vote through the electoral college) by over-ruling State Governors. Nobody seems in the least surprised or shocked.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Sunny here with clear blue skies.  It's breezy and according to my phone app it's already 13°C.  There may be some showers later.

Some beer was delivered yesterday so I need not panic for a few days.  More should arrive today with Sainsbury's order.

I've started unpacking locos and am currently sorting by region.  When I started in this hobby a few years ago my preference was for things Eastern followed by Midland.  Since joining RMweb and subsequently visiting Didcot and meeting a couple of ERs I appear to have become brainwashed so Western stock is now in the majority and Southern has now caught up with the other two.  There is no hope for me!

Tea has been taken to Her Bossness who is now stirring.  I think a four letter word beginning with W will be uttered after breakfast but whether we act on it or not will depend on how my hip is feeling.  At the moment it doesn't want to go anywhere.

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited May 23, 2020 by grandadbob

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

I never expected POTUS to last six months ...

Barring impeachment he has a four year term, which depending on the outcome of November 3, may end on January 20, 2021.

 

1 minute ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

Nobody seems in the least surprised or shocked.

It is our new normal.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, grandadbob said:

... I appear to have become brainwashed so Western stock is now in the majority and Southern has now caught up with the other two. 

As is proper.

[roundhouse]

51 minutes ago, Barry O said:

 

I have stopped worrying about what the future looks like. Why? What will be will be...que sera!

 

rant on>

I try to and have some good days but when you listen to people like 'Pretty Awful' it gets me in a bad mood (its the manner in which she puts it across more than the actual restrictions) followed by this mornings annoucement that one particular advisor  breaks their own rules by driving all the way from London to Durham during the lockdown and even more so when they were suspected of having the virus - I am now really wound up and very anti establishment at the moment. Why should we not break the rules (which I am not advocating) when those in power frequently do and this is another reason to be glad that I am not working for anyone at present where so many  enforce 'do as I say not as I do' and even more so when they even tell you that they can but you can't which I have had a few times by bosses over the years.

I feel  for anyone with kids having to make the decision whether they are to go back to school or not.

<rant off - I think

 

Today we are going for a longish walk to Reigate which an empty growler that won't be once we leave the brewery. Hopefully there wont be much of a queue at the next stop, a bakery that also does its own beers but we will just be picking up fresh bread that I will then have to resist eating before we get home - butter spoils it!

 

Last night to calm me down we finished off all the draught ale form Kissingate brewery and I ran a few trains spent time in the garden

Edited May 23, 2020 by roundhouse

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a rather damp and dreary Charente.  First off, BoD, i hopecthst things go OK with your family and the tests/outcomes.

Flavio, positive thoughts towards Lucy.  

 

Here it's raining and may well be most of the day.  Various inside tasks have been suggested.  Yesterday it was not good news at the swimming pool dealers, new liners forvourvpool are not available.  The decision has been made to purchase a new one.  The odd thing us that pools, above ground type, are quite cheap. It cost us more to sort out a proper safe electricity supply than to buy the pool.  The decision has been made by management to buy a new one of a slightly different design.  Thecold one will modtly be recycled. The walls will make 4 substantial compost bins. The liner will become an extra thick groundsheet for the new one. Very little will go to waste.  Overall the depreciation works out at €250 per annum, which is OK.  However I will not suggest buying any more loco kits for a while.

 

Apart from that not a lot is on the agenda so I will wish you all a good day/afternoon/night etc.

 

Bon Courage.

 

Jamie

 

 

 

[roundhouse]

6 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

As is proper.

No chance for me then with 48 Bulleid light pacifics plus many other Southern region locos. I think that I sold my last Western region OO scale loco last year