Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Twosugars is playing catchup with ERs I think - he's tagged a few of my posts from a week or two back!

 

John also tagged a few a couple days ago.

I saw BoD making an entry a couple of days ago.

 

Jamie

Edited June 2, 2020 by jamie92208

[Coombe Barton]

Happy Anniversary Jamie and Beth.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

I had a good night’s sleep , woke up, made tea, took medication and went back to sleep. Woke up after agitated dream (queuing for some sort of medical test).

A couple of parcels are due today, both items are for me. After much confusion of my brain today (before breakfast) I think I have ordered the correct hex/Allen keys for various tiny metric grub screws. Same day delivery was offers but I declined, cant cope with too much excitement in one day. 
Tony

 

[tigerburnie]

Morning(just) Happy Anniversary to those who have...………….are...………….or about to celebrate, it's our 40th at the end of the month, this lockdown just might save me a fortune in muddling tokens(I do however think the escape might only be temporary ).

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, NGT6 1315 said:

Moaning awl. My choice of words is caused by insufficient caffeine levels! 

 

Thank you for the reminder, I will now go brew up a cuppamud.

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 ...snip...Bad cops that remain unpunished make the professional life of good cops much, much harder and much more dangerous.  ...snip...

Cheers

iD

As I said to friend just the other day on the same subject: "One bent badge tarnishes the whole department.".

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Phantom chirps

 

Watching late night television this evening I heard the plaintive chirp of a dying smoke detector battery. Pleased that I heard it before going to sleep I wandered down the hall to better isolate which smoke detector it was from. No dice.

 

Back into my bedroom and there it was again. I muted the television to better isolate the sound and wandered down the hall again. No dice.

 

With the sound back on, there it was again. I started to wonder if the smoke detector in question was in the home of the person being interviewed on television. An hour after that interview ended, and no more chirps, I am (almost) convinced that was the case. (I occasionally think I hear a chirp. I know there are *some* batteries to replace, just not which ones.)

 

In these days of remote meetings, it occurs to me that it might be funny to play the smoke detector chirp on a conference call and observe chaos ensue as everybody tries to figure out if they have a dying battery.

I just replace all of the batteries at the same time. When the first one chirps, they all go.

[PhilJ W]

Just had a bit of bad news. One of our SEERS members passed away last night. Whether or not it was due to covid 19 or not I cannot say. He was in his 80's and had been ill for some time.

[J. S. Bach]

26 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Thank you for the reminder, I will now go brew up a cuppamud.

It just finished brewing, full-strength, no de-caf; I need to wake up!

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all,

 

Happy anniversary to Beth and Jamie - and many more of them (interesting to see that Beth's going away outfit was based around jeans - quite fashionable by then I think).  Fortunately - in some respects - our 43rd was well within lockdown time so a considerable restaurant bill was avoided although we did open a bottle of champagne - which we had been gifted by a departing French neighbour, and very good it was too.

 

Sister Diabolic said yesterday that in terms of infection outdoors is. much safer than in and idealy with proper social dstancing but avoid anybody who coughs (presumably that all includes sneezes?).  Certainly seems that the virus has spread far more effectively where peiople have been ina. group or congregation singing if some reports are any guide.

 

Today we (she) have Tesco'd - I stayed outside watching teh train go by - three times, which meant that she was in the shop for a few minutes over half an hour.  Next comes teh big expedition as we are off to Root One for some compost and to get soem stuff to treeat potati o blight - alas the weather is just right for the spread of the latter.  The café will no doub t be shut, i wonder if they do takeaway breakfasts?  And the garden lavender is starting to flower so I'll try to get some pics - in one place out front all teh plants are seklf-seeders which are on gravel laid on top of some allegedly weed resistant matting and the ground underneath is absolutely carp.  So just like southern Franc e I get teh distinct impression that lavender can do really well on rubbish 'soil'.

 

Have a good day one and all. (I've been in touch with GDB who is playing trains but I've heard nthing from KZ having PM'd him some days back)

[Gwiwer]

Afternoon all and a Happy Anniversary to Beth and Jamie from a couple who are mere beginners - approaching our 25th such event.  

 

Another fine day though with a slight edge of fresh breeze about the gills and a little more cloud.  We are promised there "might be" some rain in coming days.  We are only "promised" a 50% chance and no-one is saying how much.  Any which falls may be welcomed though I am wary of what  I wish for!  

 

Eyes playing up today after several days-worth of very high to severe pollen counts.  I am going to rest them under a compress of camomile in a while but laundry and dishes must be attended to first.  

 

Unscheduled daytime eyelid inspection also calls for some soothing music.  I shall have to trawl through the nether regions of the phone - or maybe the computer as it holds a different selection - for something appropriate to a sunny but itchy afternoon!  

 

Chrisf and others might be interested to learn that my employer is marking Pride Month despite events having been canned.  Today saw the launch into traffic of a freshly-repainted 444019 in the two-tone grey livery which has attracted mixed reviews adorned with rainbow stripes at each end in a style similar to that seen on other trains and which has also attracted a few mixed reviews.  Its formal launch was nearly upset by a trespasser on the line at Earlsfield which might have caused everything to stop for a long time.  The person in question must have come when called because things were moving again within ten minutes.  Darwin Award nomination therefore cancelled.  C0ckwomble Award given instead.  

[PhilJ W]

This is not  political, you will see why when you reach the last line.

 

[NGT6 1315]

On 01/06/2020 at 12:12, The Stationmaster said:

Probably to serve as a sort of check rail?

Mike, I asked a guy I know in the PW section. He‘s still acquiring qualifications in this field as he transferred to permanent way not that long ago, but based on his detail knowledge at this point he confirms girder rail is frequently used in turning loops to provide an equivalent to a check rail even if a loop isn‘t built with paved-in track, essentially for simplicity. There are minimum curve radii to be observed as well, which he says he‘d have to read up on, though.

 

Furthermore, girder rail is often laid in open track sections to avoid having to switch between roadbed designs, such as when an open section between two paved-in sections is not very long. There are, broadly speaking, three different roadbed configurations for open track, paved-in and grass-set track, with further differences also existing between older and newer rail profiles and sleeper types.

[Tony_S]

Happy Anniversary to Beth and Jamie.

When Aditi and I got married neither of us had a car driving licence. So, the honeymoon was a Sunday afternoon at Maldon with some friends who hadn’t gone back after the wedding. They had only found out about the wedding (all short notice, married by licence) on Friday night. They rushed out, hired a car and drove down from Liverpool, arriving just before we set off for the registry office on Saturday morning. Like us, they were back at work on the Monday. The numbers are quite big now but it will be 43 years in a few weeks. 
Tony

[TheQ]

58 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

This is not  political, you will see why when you reach the last line.

 

That would be right.... our regatta week is due to start August the 1st...

[Simon G]

Happy Anniversary to Jamie and Beth.  We are a little behind as our 39th is later this month.  I am already thinking about a family get together next year for our 40th.

 

It is a little cooler today, as there is a little cloud cover.  Still warm though, so weedkilling on back lawn has been done.  Last night we watched the ITV programme with Alan Titchmarsh on growing your own fruit and veg.  One little tip I have copied today was to use some old carpet underlay instead of straw to keep strawberries off the ground.  I do have a load of straw drying out to use just now, but the underlay idea seemed quick and easy.  If it works OK, I have more old underlay in the loft to use next year.

[BoD]

Good afternoon.

Happy anniversary to Jamie and Beth.

 

 

I'm fine but the son's partner has not improved and it is now 12 days since she first tested positive.  In fact she has developed a chest infection and mild palpitations.  They have prescribed antibiotics to fight the infection, if that is what it is.  She is very tired and is spending a lot of time in bed sleeping.  She is being watched closely by son.  A good friend of hers who is one of the other carers at the care home was rushed to hospital the other day with breathing difficulties.. She seems ok but the won't let her out until her sats? (02 saturation levels?? ) have improved.  I'm guessing here at the meanings.

 

We are now shopping/catering for three households and trying to keep safe at the same time.  I know we aren't the only ones going through this and some are, or have been, affected a lot worse than this but it's worrying,  and it hits hard when it is so close to home.

 

Then there are others  who endanger themselves and others by going to crowded beaches and jumping of cliffs. May I borrow some suitable words used elsewhere in ERs?   My levels of tolerance are not particularly high at the moment, although we did see my daughter and her husband for a few minutes yesterday after ten weeks and at more than recommended distances. That cheered us up a little bit.  The occasion was such that I was nearly tempted to let Mrs BoD loose with the hair shears. Nearly tempted, you will note.

 

Stay safe,  stay well.

 

 

Edited June 2, 2020 by BoD

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just got in from collecting my old computer, all sorted and ready to go, I'm still using the 'spare' at the moment as I will have to recover a lot stuff like passwords before I start using it. The fan seems to be working OK on this machine now so fingers crossed.

[J. S. Bach]

4 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

It just finished brewing, full-strength, no de-caf; I need to wake up!

I woke up alright, I am still wired!Listening to Midnight In Moscow right now and kind of bouncing around in time with it!Better off if I had had some

[Ian Abel]

Happy Anniversary Jamie and Beth...

 

Good morning all, set to be a scorcher here, will document that later.

 

More peaceful here as things start to take on a better perspective. The "real" peaceful protesters/neighborhoods are recovering and getting much more support from leaders in general.

The biggest arsehat in the community, one Bob Kroll, the head of the police union, has forever been a force for evil here and it's expected and even outright stated by a former mayor of Minneapolis and former Police Chief, that he's a cancer on the community and given a more free will most of the police wouldn't re-elect him, he's just a bully who incites violence. More now calling for his resignation in light of an inflammatory letter he wrote yesterday, suggesting MORE force should be used on protesters and lambasting everyone in sight!

We'll see where that goes, but so many people speaking out publicly should help.

 

Curfew now reduced to 10PM to 4Am last night and tonight, and our governor one of the several that gave the orange-goon-in-the-white-house stern words for his approach to things. 

 

Not much else happening here, work is starting to build again.

Jemma back out to NY today for another 7 days of sitting waiting to be "called", meanwhile we dog-sit Whitney

 

Weather, already 26 when we got up, headed for 33 and humid with late afternoon thunderstorms expected. Welcome to Minnesota!

 

Stay safe and well everyone.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Ian Abel

[iL Dottore]

11 hours ago, AndyID said:

....I use it for things like chain-saws and lawn mowers that are only used intermittently. Over time petrol laced with ethanol tries to dilute itself with water from the atmosphere and that tends to burglar things up no end.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to store the petrol/ethanol mix in a sealed, air tight container and fill up the chainsaw, lawnmower etc., just before using? In that way you can use the cheaper mix.
Many years ago (Chemistry at Uni?), I was told that even high octane petrol degrades very quickly once exposed to air (which apparently happens when you fill a petrol tank). So - it would seem - all those zombie apocalypse films have got it dead wrong (no pun intended) when the survivors siphon fuel from abandoned cars several months after the fall of civilisation and then zoom off to safety in their vehicle, just a few seconds from being over run by the ravenous zombie hordes...

9 hours ago, chrisf said:

Greetings one and all

....I realised yesterday that I am not at all familiar with some of the territory that I will cover if and when various train trips come to fruition...

Hmm! Yesterday you spoke about “thinking outside the box” regarding your trip planning. Well, I started cogitating and came up with an utterly brilliant idea! 

Remember in 50s/60s you had various Air Ferries, whereby you drove your car into a Bristol Type 170 Freighter, took your seat in the cabin and a little while later  you would be in Ostend or Rotterdam or Calais, ready for your onward journey?  Well, you could do something similar with a train excursion: you hire the Antonov An-225 Mriya (which can easily take two Mark 1 carriages with space to spare), route your excursion train to the relevant airport train station, load the Antonov, fly to your chosen destination (South of Italy, Canada, Australia, wherever) offload the carriages to the airport railway station at the other end, hook up your locomotive, board the train and off you go.

Simples!

9 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

It is my opinion that shouty groups of people (protesting, ...., yelling at the ref/ump, cheering for the home team...) are the most dangerous places for infection....

Infection? Honestly? Those are dangerous places FULL STOP

7 hours ago, Barry O said:

...It is our 41st anniversary as well this year....

41 years! You’re not pulling my leg are you? You write so young...  

7 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

I wrote high end not high capacity!

Oh, I don’t know. Given how far from the ground the hippopotamus excretory sphincter is located, “high end” would, I think, be very appropriate!

7 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

...reception at BR Railwaymans' Social Club and three days honeymoon in London...

Maybe it’s because I am, more or less, a Londoner Mike, but I can’t see London as a honeymoon destination: Edinburgh? yes, Dublin? certainly, Paris? definitely! But London?  I suppose (he says dubiously) there are indeed romantic locations in London. Trouble is, at the moment I can’t think of any (unless you subscribe to “the romance of train travel“ and have marked  Waterloo Station, Paddington Station and Victoria Station as places suitable for re-enacting Brief Encounter or the like) 

6 hours ago, AndrewC said:

...My work week is now 11 minutes old. What a bunch of arsebadger c*ntpuffin hoofw*nking bungle*unty c*ckwombles....

Oh go on Andrew, unburden yourself, you are amongst friends, do tell us what you really think about your colleagues.

4 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Morning(just) Happy Anniversary to those who have...………….are...………….or about to celebrate, it's our 40th at the end of the month, this lockdown just might save me a fortune in muddling tokens...

Oh dear. My dear tiger, I think you may be under a misapprehension as to what will happen to your unused muddling tokens.  You are coming up to a 4-decade / round number anniversary, this - of course – must be celebrated by diverting as many muddling tokens as possible (short of incurring penury) towards a grandly impressive excursion, celebration or gift (or even all three at once) suitable for impressing and placating SWMBO.  Failure to do so, combined with forgetfulness regarding time, day, date, place and meteorological conditions of where you exchanged vows, will result in your life becoming exquisitely and painfully “interesting“ 

Congratulations, by the way!

1 hour ago, NGT6 1315 said:

...There are, broadly speaking, three different roadbed configurations for open track, paved-in and grass-set track, with further differences also existing between older and newer rail profiles and sleeper types.

Try modelling that in 2mm Finescale 

 

Have an amusing and entertaining evening, boys and girls. See you tomorrow.

 

iD

[chrisf]

35 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

Hmm! Yesterday you spoke about “thinking outside the box” regarding your trip planning. Well, I started cogitating and came up with an utterly brilliant idea! 

Remember in 50s/60s you had various Air Ferries, whereby you drove your car into a Bristol Type 170 Freighter, took your seat in the cabin and a little while later  you would be in Ostend or Rotterdam or Calais, ready for your onward journey?  Well, you could do something similar with a train excursion: you hire the Antonov An-225 Mriya (which can easily take two Mark 1 carriages with space to spare), route your excursion train to the relevant airport train station, load the Antonov, fly to your chosen destination (South of Italy, Canada, Australia, wherever) offload the carriages to the airport railway station at the other end, hook up your locomotive, board the train and off you go.

Simples!

 

 

Think of the bureaucracy ...

 

Chris

[The Stationmaster]

Root One excellently organised social distancing wise with nice little notices inverted flowerpots as the distance markers plus the staff also well organised and a one way system for the punters in the indoor area.  Most punters also being alert and sensible although a few idiots clearly didn't know the difference between 2 metres and 2 feet.  Worst non-compliers with recommended apparel seemed to be middle aged men carrying rather too much weight - presumably they drink half a dozen pints of sanitiser before bed every night and being - by the look of them - horny handed sons of toil regard gloves as something intended only for wimps and Lady Bracknell (if they've actually heard of her).

 

It was clear from the return drive through Wallingford that whoever else might or might not have gone back to skool teenagers of the female gender much prefer to walk around the town in what might politely  be described as excessively short shorts.  Another serious hazard on the roads was the number of cyclists about who perhaps don't realise that increased numbers of motorised conveyances are now out to play, or are actually going somewhere, which decided me to avoid the back doubles on the way home in fear of coming across them all across the road immediately round a blind bend.

[The Stationmaster]

2 minutes ago, chrisf said:

 

Think of the bureaucracy ...

 

Chris

And the problems if the aircraft landed in northern Queensland when it reached Australia

[jamie92208]

9 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

G'day all,

 

Happy anniversary to Beth and Jamie - and many more of them (interesting to see that Beth's going away outfit was based around jeans - quite fashionable by then I think).  

That was the third outfit of the day, the wedding dress, then a blue corduroy skirt and jacket, then into more comfortable attire once we had booked in at the hotel and removed all the confetti. I managed with a suit for the first two but had also gone to jeans by the time that photo was taken.  32 waist jeans in those days. Certainly not today.

 

Jamie

Edited June 2, 2020 by jamie92208