Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Peoplesoft (never been on the sharp end of this carp before) has to be the most USER HOSTILE software I've ever seen!

I venture to suggest that the home grown interface to SAP that my old employer used to apply for PTO might have been worse. It was integrated, but it was horrible.

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Well the Red Arrers got re routed, no show here sadly, ...

I had a personal air show this morning. As I was out walking, a pair of F15s from the Oregon Air National Guard in Portland did a moderately low altitude* circle above my neighbourhood, a couple of times directly overhead.

 

* It was hard to judge but probably less than 500m. There were low scattered clouds and they were beneath the cloud ceiling. High enough that it wasn't worth trying to photograph them with my telephone.

 

11 hours ago, grandadbob said:

It's really peaceful here  with the shouting and arguing in several foreign tongues, the clatter of scaffold tubes and boards, power drills, hammering and sawing from 3 different sites.  The scaffold lorry has now been joined by a large lorry full of timber so his engine will be revving in a moment when he gets his Hiab working.

The sounds of summer here have been full of workers. A lot of roofers with their nail guns, but mostly crews cutting down trees and feeding them into woodchippers. The neighbourhood had many relatively mature maples which do not seem to have fared well between the tandem of the ice storm and extreme heat wave. Several have died.

 

Yesterday my next door neighbour removed concrete pavers from his hardscaped terraced patio. All morning was accompanied by the crash of concrete pavers being dumped into a trailer along with occasional concrete grinding. Today I see that the hardscape is replaced with artificial turf. That installation was quiet. Probably not a choice I would have made, but it's not my house.

[leopardml2341]

It's going to rain, how do I know.

 

I've just put some paint on the well deck of my narrow boat

 

Goodnight all, try to stay cool.

[Coombe Barton]

... and hearing from the Moodle Fairy ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/07/21/next-slide-please/

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis is getting active, might be some rain on the way then. 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Do you know what code lead and width is being used? (I assume the original lead can't be re-used).  And is it genuine lead, or lead substitute?  Bearing in mind the overlaps that does sound cheap to this Bear, as the best part of a ton could go on the lead alone.  I'm assuming the roofer is "known" and not asking for cash up front....

 

I don't think they use lead now.  When next doors extension was re-roofed a couple of years ago the flashing was plastic and moulded with the aid of a hot air gun.

[simontaylor484]

3 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis is getting active, might be some rain on the way then. 

I don't think they use lead now.  When next doors extension was re-roofed a couple of years ago the flashing was plastic and moulded with the aid of a hot air gun.

Lead is still used also stainless steel and there is also flashband that is a lead substitute that requires a primer on some surfaces otherwise it's self adhesive 

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Barry O]

I have a few bits of lead flashing which were surplus to requirements when we had the roof retiled. Great for weighting items we don't mention here..

 

Baz

Edited July 22, 2021 by Barry O

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

It’s been another scorcheroo here, temperature reaching 30C this afternoon. But we had a great day, it was also nice meeting up with our friends again, it had been a long time, but worth the wait. 

 

We came home as usual, laden down with more plants for the garden. The RHS extended the opening hours by 1 hour, so were there a lot longer than usual, not getting home until just after 6:30. Just as we got in, Vickie called telling us Ian will have to delay the plastering for 24 hours as he has to take Ava to the orthodontist at hospital for some dental casts. It has actually done us a favour as it now means I can spend tomorrow morning in the garden, planting all our latest purchases. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[monkeysarefun]

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

I can certainly empathise with that.  Many summer days (and a few nowhere near summer) in the Melbourne area were hazy from bushfire smoke

 

Occasionally smoke would settle as fog does and give rise to an eerie earthy-yellow colour to the atmosphere. You wouldn’t see much. Grey-black fine ash would fall and cover everything. And the smell ….. burned bush smells dreadful. 
 

Stay-home warnings were one thing but when it’s smokey and 35C outside or stuffy and 30C inside it can be a tough call. Plus you don’t get time off work for a smoke-day. 

 

The smoke from the last bushfires here meant airborne particulate matter readings  went off the charts, it was more deadly than the actual fires, heres some excerpts from some sciency websites.

 

You couldnt go outside without choking on smoke.  One thing though -  it got us used to wearing masks, even in 45 plus degrees heat. . Although not mandated, masks were pretty much universal, no complaints about them when you can actually see the danger, unlike the virus I guess for many people.

 

Masks were very hard to come by by February 2020 due to the fires, the viruses arrival shortly after meant we had a critical shortage for health workers at the start of the pandemic.

 

Under the Air Quality Index (AQI), which measures pollution levels in the air, readings of 100 to 149 are considered poor, 150 to 199 rates as very poor, and measurements of 200 or above are deemed hazardous to health.

On Tuesday, several regions in Sydney rated above 400, some scored over 1,000, and at least two breached the 2,000 AQI threshold, with the inner west suburb of Rozelle, only a few kilometres west of the city centre, recording a phenomenal AQI reading of 2,552, almost 13 times the hazardous level.

 

The smoke from the Australian bushfires killed 12 times more people than the fires themselves, according to research published earlier this month in the Medical Journal of Australia. 

Earlier this year, wildfires ravaged parts of Australia for several months. 

 

Researchers from the University of Tasmania have used standard methods to estimate the excess health burden during the 19 weeks of continuous fire activity in the states most severely affected by smoke

The researchers estimated the exposure to particulate matter (PM2.5) in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, between 1 October 2019 and 10 February 2020 and then compared this to published population and health data that could be attributed to bushfire smoke exposure ..from the Australian Bureau of Statistics

The wildfires directly killed 33 people, but the researchers have found that the smoke had a much greater effect. 

They estimated that the bushfire smoke was responsible for 417 excess deaths, 1124 hospitalisations for cardiovascular problems and 2027 hospitalisations for respiratory problems. 

[TheSignalEngineer]

10 hours ago, Barry O said:

Hope the grandsons continue to enjoy cricket 

Sam was a bit deflated tonight. The team lost. He was last man out 10 runs short of the target with 17 balls still left caught of a lifter from a lad who has played in the county U13 team and one of the club adult teams. 

 

Having said that we were appalled by the behaviour of the opposition. It started with intimidation with abusive and foul language. They were aggressive towards our umpire and after 5 overs it got so bad that their team manager took them off to read the riot act. That calmed it down for a while but a few overs later he had to do it again. It wasn't helped by their umpire giving one of our team out LBW. He's a left hander and was hit on the thigh pad by a lad bowling right arm over the wicket. It pitched outside leg stump. The poor lad came off totally bemused by the decision. I just hope they will learn from it and come back stronger. I think that when a competition gets to this stage the county board needs to have proper umpires, after all, the outcome of the U13 championship depended on the results tonight.

 

That's the last competitive match for either of them this season, although they have a few friendlies lined up. In the u11 league playing on pairs rules Sam was ranked 3rd for bowling and Thomas 4th despite only being just 9. Sam was 4th highest run scorer. Thomas has confused the stats machine by playing six times and not being dismissed

[leopardml2341]

Awake, but I shouldn't be  especially when the alarm is set for 05:30.

 

Cuppa being cosumed in an effort to break the 'awake/shouldn't be' thought cycle .

 

Goodnigh (again).

 

[laurenceb]

Know the feelin sleep a long way off

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

Area Group lunch was enjoyable yesterday.  Finding the venue was not.  Many wrong turnings were taken before the pub stopped nestling in the hedgerows and revealed itself.  I had taken all feasible precautions against becoming lost, by entering the postcode of the venue into Google Maps and printing the result.  At times it was necessary for me to pause my less than headlong rush through the Hertfordshire countryside to consult the map, only to be on the receiving end of ill-mannered honking from the driver of a car that was too close to my rear bumper.  I waved cheerily at the offender, deploying a selection of fingers rather than the full set.  Eventually I found the venue and at precisely the appointed time.  Phew.

 

While I was driving in ever decreasing circles the radio was relaying PMQs, or Hansard’s Half Hour as I like to call it.  It is so much better to view the spectacle on TV and at home.  Much better when driving is my choice of music.  It had been a long time since I had driven far enough to warrant putting a CD into the player.  Heading south on the M1 I had the accompaniment of the album “Purgatory” by Maddie Morris, which is too good to be used as audio wallpaper.  My homeward run was made more pleasant by the sound of the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir.  I stumbled on the title track, “Something Inside So Strong”, on YouTube.  It is a fine rendition of Labi Siffre’s 1983 hit and a current favourite.

 

We have been discussing banks.  As a precaution against further branch closures I will be taking a hefty supply of cash to Sidmouth, since I do not wish to spend all day queuing at the town’s one remaining cashpoint.  I will need a modest supply of £5 notes and £2 coins for “donations” in respect of admission to non-ticketed events.  Obtaining them from my local branch of Barclays could be interesting.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris   

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Still too hot. Didn't go to bed until 12.45 and had a poor night's sleep so was up at 5.30. Another hot sunny day forecast with the small chance of the odd heavy shower this afternoon.

Nicki had her op yesterday and the latest news we had yesterday evening was that everything went well and she's OK.

Went to a BBQ at 1500 hrs and came home at midnight!  Only seven of us there but a great time was had, especially as an old friend and neighbour who moved to the South Coast was visiting.  His old house is the one two doors away having a loft extension built. 

We walked past the huge scaffold on the other house being extended and I am completely puzzled as to why someone would spend half a million quid on a property in good nick, rip it to pieces and then spend many more thousands on alterations to make it bigger.  Why not buy the right sized place to start with?

Another lottery win last night, two lucky dips and £30. Things are looking up.  Just waiting to hear from Sainsbury's if we've "won" everything we ordered for delivery today.

Have a good one,
Bob.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning, couldn't get back to sleep after a loo visit at 06.00 so got up anyway.  The farmers were up before me and a lorry load of straw bales has just gone past.  

 

Yesterday started well as did the car, thank goodness, then nipped out to arrange for our fosse to be emptied. It's filling up faster as the grey water from both bathrooms now goes into it.  We are going to look in to having a proper septic tank system installed.  

 

Anyway after that I made my sandwiches and headed off to Poitiers and spent two pleasant and productive hours in the multi storey car park at the station, watching trains, eating my lunch and reading my first Jo Nesbo book.  I am already starting to enjoy the latter.  Then up to the airport to meet our friends.  They arrived on time with mountains of luggage plus three small pink terrorists (SPT's) 2 6 yr olds and a 2.5 yr old young lady. It took an hour to sort out their hire car. One company had i creased their price by €1000 the day before so Andy had booked with a different  company.  No permanent rep at the airport but she eventually arrived and we all set off back. Half the luggage had to go in my car. I had gone to take them their three child seats.  

 

We got back to their house, that they'd never seen. They bought a very run down farm and farmhouse and have had the barns and house converted into a 6 bedroom house. Very modern. However due to Covid they've been stuck in Chicago, where Andy works,. As they were all friends we got roped in to do the snagging and pool maintenance.

 

Anyway i got them there and was going to leave them to it, when a plaintive 2.5yr old voice came from the car, "I want Jamie to stay".  How could I resist.  

 

 

I got them settled in an then got home. After tea Beth and I spent a good hour in the pool before watering the plants and watching a bit of telly.

 

Not a lot on the agenda today but the ironing needs doing.  This afternoon  may well be relaxing in the pool time.

 

Regards to ALL plus of course  sundry and al, whoever he is.

 

Jamie

Edited July 22, 2021 by jamie92208

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Turned chilly in the night here.

 

Woken by thecwelcome sound of an airliner takingnoff bound for Amsterdam (or Hamster Jam as the Herbeets called it)

Club members returned to the club rooms last night. Very socialy distanced.. good.. work was attempted but it was a tad warm.

 

Today sees herself shopping at moreasons then volunteering at the Due Ryder shop then off to play recorders.

 

As for me.. well I need to edge the lawn and clean the car before it gets too warm.. or I could solder wires onto some strips of nickel silver we will see.

 

Stay safe!

Hoping our myriad of "missing" ERs are ok.

 

Baz

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Hare, 500/313

 A remarkably good nights sleep, 1 hour + 2 hours + 3 hours + 1/2 hour..

 

I this company has a similar IT section to those that have acquired Ians, every piece of software is unrelated to the next, requires different standards of password, the only common thing  is they need changing every 6 weeks..

 

Lights on on the car this morning, not for darkness because it was bright blue above.. But for a heavy mist being lifted from the fields by the sun and drifting across the roads.. The car had a heavy dew on it, more than enough to ruin any fresh paint on a narrow boat. Now Blue Moon is past that point as 99% of any painting left is on hatches and bits that can be taken into the workshop. One advantage of our new desk area is that it has windows, I can see out to where I park and check If I've left the lights on...

 

Banks? what's one of those? they have closed those along with the building societies in our nearest town, and the next has one left on reduced hours, so I need to take a day off work to use it. We do have a post office, as that's also the local postal distribution point for the area.

Me thinks Amazon in MK must be struggling because of pings... Some thing I ordered a couple of days ago which said order before 21:00 for next day delivery, is due to arrive today.. It hadn't left MK when I checked last night.. As long as it's here for the weekend as it's bits for the boat..

 

Of boat, the "Keep Left" Buoy is  now in residence by the boat , it needs a sand down, dents bashes filling , painting, and a new  pair of ropes, one rope secures a weight below the buoy to keep it upright , the other rope secures it to the concrete weight that secures it to the river bed,

 

 if you wonder where the off cuts of lead  from rooves go.. try Ebay.. There is several KG of roofing lead in the keel of Blue Moon, and an A4  sheet left over for.....  er um something unmentionable . The roofers get more money on ebay, than going to a scrappy..

 

Time I went and did some work...

[polybear]

8 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Lead is still used also stainless steel and there is also flashband that is a lead substitute that requires a primer on some surfaces otherwise it's self adhesive 

 

 

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Arthur Itis is getting active, might be some rain on the way then. 

I don't think they use lead now.  When next doors extension was re-roofed a couple of years ago the flashing was plastic and moulded with the aid of a hot air gun.

 

Personally I'm a fan of Lead - applied correctly it lasts for many, many years (assuming the fairies don't claim it, of course).  Lead substitute was invented partially to avoid the problem of theft IIRC.  The idea of plastic doesn't appeal somehow, though I couldn't explain why - just a feeling.  As for flashband - absolute junk that lasts all of 5 minutes.

It could be that the existing lead is quite happily re-usable and just needs re-fixing in the wall etc.?

Whatever happens, it's worth reclaiming the old lead and taking it down the scrappies - current price is over a £1/kg

 

6 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Having said that we were appalled by the behaviour of the opposition. It started with intimidation with abusive and foul language. They were aggressive towards our umpire and after 5 overs it got so bad that their team manager took them off to read the riot act. That calmed it down for a while but a few overs later he had to do it again.

 

 

And these are U13's?  Delightful.  The Umpires should've gave them a warning - any more of this and you'll be disqualified, period.  If they think they can get away with that at their ages then when they get to late teens they'll be real trouble.

 

24 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

We walked past the huge scaffold on the other house being extended and I am completely puzzled as to why someone would spend half a million quid on a property in good nick, rip it to pieces and then spend many more thousands on alterations to make it bigger.  Why not buy the right sized place to start with?

 

It gets really funny when they spend more altering the house than can be recovered when they sell, forgetting that many roads have a natural house price "ceiling" that is difficult to break, no matter how good the house is.  Having a million quid house in a road of other houses worth half that - and surrounded by white vans on their drives - rarely works.  The previous owner of the house next door to mine came unstuck that way - it was repossessed IIRC.

 

Right, Bear has an appointment with a paint roller....

[Natalie]

A rarity for me, a genuinely early visit although to be strictly correct I am not an early riser as such as I got up at 3pm yesterday and haven't been to bed yet.

 

I decided to go shopping at 0300- just a 3 mile walk along main roads that our dear county council have deemed to not be as worthy of lighting as those touristy and theatrical areas in the south of the county which retain lit streets.

 

The walk I can normally do in an hour but my knees, feet and inability to breathe meant it took two hours which included a 30 minute break on a random bench as the light came up. Some time was spent staring at some object in the sky which had two lights but seemed to just hang there or move very slowly about but not really changing position. Maybe we are being watched by those who are "out there." The rest was very welcome and reminded me of when I used to work nights in the boxes and during the summer the rising of the sun was always a welcomed highlight. Working in an A&E Department later you tended not to have a clue what was going on outside...

 

Return was by bus and am now resting with a cup of tea,  slice o bread adorned with peanut butter whilst nosing at a programme about unmentionables. ..

 

Soon the heat and sun/uv light will ramp up and the stinging eyes will add to the sniffy nose, nausea and headache that accompany this awful (to me) hot weather. Just a side effect of being allergic to ultraviolet light (not sure which version). 

 

Trust that all (including those who are missing for whatever reason) are well and enjoy their day doing their chosen/allocated activity be it to locate and consume LDC, observe how not to build/ alter houses, a bit of boat work (how is it going to be taken to the water? Surely there is a film to be made about it), dealing with new companies who seem to have the IT knowledge and common sense of a slug or those simply just chilling and enjoying the company of those dear to them. Special thoughts to those concerned about loved ones undergoing medical procedures. I trust that they are well cared for and that the ddesired outcome is achieved without much distress to all concerned. 

 

Apologies to anyone that I have forgotten.

 

Time to go and shut the evil fiery gas globule out as it is starting to intrude. High time someone chucked a bucket of water over it- maybe those over possessed of monetary wealth from exploiting the name of rivers could do that instead of their vanity projects of trying to claim to be astronauts but without having  the knowledge and skill of the real deal..

 

Time to shut up now as I am getting near to building the metaphorical wall and that could get political...

 

Best wishes

 

Nat

 

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by Natalie

[New Haven Neil]

Morning all, nice to see Natalie pop in.

 

A cool 17c again, but 28 ish preguessed for later, hayfever will no doubt ruin my day.  Mrs NHN has a massage after work, so apres that we will probably go down to the beach for a plodge in the cooling water.

 

Not sure what the tasks for the day are, but washing work tops for the 'boss' will likely feature.  A house-husband's work is never done.