Early Risers.

[TheQ]

Evening awl, 

The parcel arrived about 15 minutes later,  strangely with a British driver.. 

 

Nothing to do with parallel bits of metal,  unless they are double threaded screws.. 

 

Of course research has shown the earliest livery for the MSWJR for the carriages is believed to be ... Chocolate and cream...  The GWR livery was technically chocolate and white,  but then coated with several layers of varnish which gave it the cream colour. The white carriage rooves lasting as long as it took to push them out of the paint shop before starting to dirty to grey unless you're in the Hawksworth era when they started grey in the first place. I wonder if anyone in the smaller common scales has done that, ..white covered in varnish. 

 

I was summoned to find out why the mixer/ slicer / grinder wasn't working.... 

 

The fuse was missing,  now I have hundreds of fuses in a box and there's a selection in a drawer for SWMBO to use.  So why did she borrow one for something else? And what did she use it on?

 

Anyway a large amount of sage and onion stuffing has been made with fresh sage from the garden, it will be cooked tomorrow as SWMBO is having a cooking day.. 

 

I'll be outdoor shelving again using freshly delivered screws. Ben will have to make a decision,  outside with me or hang around at the door of the kitchen hoping for a windfall.. 

 

The tiny radar had it's Last top piece fitted to the aerial,  it was then filled and sanded. 

I've been trying to decide the curvature of the aerial from photos, then I remembered.. Basic radar theory, you need to reflect the signals back the the wave guide horns....  Ruler and bit of string time tomorrow.

 

Choccy has been drunk.

 

Good night awl... 

 

[J. S. Bach]

2 minutes ago, TheQ said:

 ...snip... I wonder if anyone in the smaller common scales has done that, ..white covered in varnish.  ...snip...

It was very common here in O, especially before and just after the war. The car on the left is varnished, the right one is not.

[AndyID]

9 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

I think the phrase was "NOT wrapped too tight", or at least the version I heard when working in the States with the Navy and USAF was.

 

 

I've only ever heard it used in the over-tensioned sense. It may be a reference to undergarments that are a couple of sizes too small.

 

Conceivably it might also have origins in the telephone and computer industry. At one time the connections on crossbar switches and computer backplanes were made by wrapping wires around rectangular posts. If the tension was correct the wire made a series of gastight mechanical welds to the post.

 

But then again....

[Barry O]

This painting malarky is tiring. More to do tomorrow. Perhaps i need a trip to Barney or Bish to check my eyesight??

Baz

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Not had chance to read all the posts, seems most have been having a good day, except perhaps Baz. I had to go into work this morning  to sort an order issue out which took till lunchtime then we had to take some groceries to mils so combined that with daily walk so didn’t get back until 6. Tea, check bank statements and then watered the garden. Where did the day go? 

Goodnight

Robert 

[laurenceb]

13 hours ago, The Lurker said:

Right, back again between calls.

 

The other piece of news from the Lurker household is that Younger Lurker has now mastered how to tie a shoelace. This is a task that we all mastered when small - for him it is a fairly major achievement with his reduced fine motor skills and reduced ability to visualise the process. He hasn't got double knots yet but even so it's good news.

 

 

I think I about 12 before I mastered shoelaces, In those days you were just thick if you had problems with simple tasks. I sometimes wonder how life would have gone if my autism had been found then

And congratulations to Younger Lurker

Edited May 27, 2020 by laurenceb

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[laurenceb]

9 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I thought that one peeled the orange BEFORE one ate it!

Perhaps she is related to those people who hold their soldering irons by the hot end,

Night awl

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

A large box (2.75 cf) just arrived for only 0.42 cf of soft, fairly indestructible contents. Of course there were also inflatable plastic pillows inside. An extra five sets of what I purchased could probably have fit with room to spare.

 

Summer is on it's way for the next few days. We're headed for 28°C today and north of 30°C for the next two days. Right now it is a scintillating 23°C with cloudless deep blue skies. Very pleasant with open windows and fans right now, but I might be tempted to crank the A/C later in the day.

 

I went out to bring the bins in but the recycling truck has not yet visited. They may have a double round after the Memorial Day holiday on Monday.

 

I have things to do and should get a move on but I will wait to see if the manned Dragon/Falcon 9 mission launches in little more than an hour from now. The countdown clock is running and the weather looks clear enough.

 

Another countdown clock you might keep an eye on  -  Broncos vs Eels in the  restarted NRL tonight if you can get it there.

[Ozexpatriate]

14 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Broncos vs Eels in the  restarted NRL tonight

My Dad will be watching.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well it’s been absolutely glorious today, but I’m glad I wasn’t working in it. This morning’s telephone consultation went well and I was informed that my PSA has once again risen, but the rate seems to have slowed a little, my new reading is now 10.7. To low to start calling me in for scans, tests etc, as they wouldn’t be able to see anything for certain, so it’s a case of carrying on playing the waiting game and I go back in 3 months time and do it all again. 

 

As for the rest of the day, a short while after the call ended I set off for the Trafford Centre and found there was no queue, I even managed to get everything on my shopping list too. There was even more good news at the butchers, not only did I manage to get a pastie, but as of tomorrow they will start serving 2 customers in the shop, with one standing at each end of the counter. There will, no doubt still be a large queue there (a testament to the quality of there products), but they will hopefully move at lot quicker than they do at present. 

 

After dinner I got on the phone to the big orange DIY shed to enquire about my paint order, I was eventually told it would be 27 June before they can schedule a delivery. So I decided to cancel the order, however, the young lad I was chatting to, was unable to cancel the order, I had to go to the store and cancel it in person, a fecking ridiculous system if you ask me! But before I set off to cancel the order, I earned a few brownie points by fixing the recently made peg board on one of the middle walls, along with a wooden heart, again made from offcuts, Sheila is absolutely delighted with them both!

 

 

I then set off to the big orange DIY shed, only to be confronted by a HUUUUUUUGE queue, had I not wanted to cancel the order and get a refund, I’d have turned round and driven back home. Thankfully the queue moved very and I was inside at customer services in about 15 minutes. I spoke to a very helpful young lady and she was able to sort out the problem, hopefully I should receive an email confirming the cancellation tomorrow. Once home, I earned a few more brownie points by emptying the vacuum cleaner!

 

Goodnight all 

[AndyID]

Definitely beer-thirty. As my learned friend on the left has already mentioned the weather is pretty fabby here in Interlaken (not the one in Switzerland - the one in Idaho).

 

We've had quite a lot of rain recently and now that it has warmed up a bit it is now greener than The Emerald Isle. I've managed to force the lawn-moaner for a second pass through the weed sanctuary. I'd have at it with the field-mower attached to the tractor but it's a bit too tight for that since we fenced it for the dogs and I'm not sure it's a brilliant idea to put that much weight on the septic drain-field.

 

This Sierra Nevada Torpedo stuff is jolly good. I may have to have a short lie-down.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

3 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Orwell and Asimov - parallels.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/05/27/bread-and-ducks/

One divergence in respect of those two is that in our neck of the woods we don't have a pub named after Asimov - but we have got one named after George Orwell. (although admittedly such naming is an aberration of relatively recent years as said pub was for many years prior to that called The White Hart. 

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, BSW01 said:

 

 

 

That looks suspiciously like an IKEA bedside cabinet (I'm not sure of the official Swedish name but even if I did I doubt if I'd be able to pronounce it properly.) I know this because we have two of 'em (plus the chest of drawers and the tallboy).

[AndyID]

4 hours ago, Chris116 said:

I am happy to look and then ignore but another member of the family objects so I have to do something to stay on here!

 

I'm not sure if they are still available but there used to be "privacy screens" that you could attach to your monitor. They limited the viewing angle so that it was only possible to see what was on the screen if you were looking straight at it. Viewed from the side the monitor just looked black.

[J. S. Bach]

Good night owl from the Piedmont.

[BR60103]

We managed early shopping for plants and then to the bookstore (first time in months) for the February copy of BRM which I hadn't picked up the last time I was there. We were kitted out in mask and rubber gloves and BRM was duly washed down with soap and water. Then we added some plants to the front garden, im between the tree roots. SWMBO is a dismayed that the bird seed has started to sprout there.

Then some re-arranging in my storage room. We think our neighbour may have had a flood (various recamation trucks out front) and she is worried that I have stuff on low open shelves.

 

The reason that there are so many more songs about unrequited love is that those with requited love are too busy moving the furniture.

 

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare, 

6.5 hours sleep so far but interrupted several times. 

 

Weird dreams again. 

 

Wire wrapping,  that's a blast from the past,  I was taught to do wire wrapping,  and worked on equipment with it till 1988. It literally could be a pain, working on the back of one of those racks.  Thousands of sharp spikes sticking out at the back,  and you're trying to get in there to find the broken wire or trace a signal. 

 

We're supposed to be quiet cool here today,  with an easterly wind. This week I and many others would be carefully studying the wind for the Three Rivers Race. 

Unusually it looks like a solid easterly for the whole weekend,  fairly light at 10 to 15mph, so 100 tacking boats till the river Ant,  which itself would be easy with beam winds as would be South Walsham dyke.  Then hard tacking to Thurne mouth. Easy down to the lower Bure buoy and back to Womack dyke then long tack short tack  in the narrow rivers either side of Potter Heigham. to the turn to Hickling near Martham boatyard. 

After that just about the test of they way home would involve, a easy run home. 

 

Time to err. I don't know , I don't feel. Like sleeping. 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheQ]

Ben the insistent Collie has been patrolled,  it's cool out there,  blue skies and with the easterly wind cold enough to bring the heating on. 

Ben's alarm clock has been blown by SWMBO getting up two hours earlier than normal. 

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

My monthly phone bill alert created more interest than I expected.  By clicking the e-mail in a different place I was able to read the bill, download it and put it with all the others.  Taking broadband, landline and mobile together it comes to about £57, which it does every month give or take.  I suspect that there is scope for savings given that I make very little use of either telephone for outgoing calls but what it might be is not obvious right now.

 

I did a bit of outline planning yesterday for another crazy train trip.  Anything more than daydreaming on paper is futile in present circumstances.  The idea of going by rail to Marrakech won’t go away but realistically it will have to wait until 2022.  The principal tool is the Man in Seat 61 website but I can’t work out how to get from London to Madrid in one day.  Despite what the site says I don’t think it is possible and I don’t think it matters anyway.

 

Flavio, as Mike Stationmaster has already stated, it should not be Mrs Trellis.  Brenda from Bristol famously exclaimed “What? Another one?” on TV when told, IIRC, that the 2017 general election had just been announced.  Mrs Trellis from North Wales is not only the writer of letters in ISIHAC but the nickname given to a regular writer of letters to MRJ.

 

After the eight o’clock clap tonight there is a programme on BBC1 dealing with mental health issues in footballers and featuring Prince William.  If the programme that HRH presented last year is anything to go by, watching it will be a wise investment in time on the part of anyone with less than perfect mental health.  We are more numerous than you might think.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Wire wrapping,  that's a blast from the past ...

I'm trying to remember where I encountered a wire wrap gun. It might have been university, though there were a number of odd tools that I had in my possession in my first job. I distinctly remember a diecast, spring-loaded pistol grip on the wire wrap gun. I have to admit the memory is a bit foggy. Anyone remember the book "The Soul of a New Machine"  about the Data General 32 bit "Eagle"? If I'm not mistaken the "Eagle" was a wire wrap implementation, though I may be mistaking it with the 16 bit "Nova" and "Eclipse" machines.

 

I don't know what happened to my paper tape correction tool. (A tool and die set, connected with a metal chain, to correct bad bits, or "dimpled chads" on a paper tape used to control machinery.) It's not in my collection of ancient electronic bits and bobs. This was not a tool I had to use professionally, but more of a "found" item.

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[AndyID]

17 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Ben's alarm clock has been blown by SWMBO getting up two hours earlier than normal. 

 

I don't wear my wrist-watch much these days but I happened  to notice it seemed to be running an hour late. I thought the battery might be failing until I twigged.