Early Risers.

[Coombe Barton]

... a new virus is affecting people working from home  ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/12/10/sixth-highest-daily-case-count/

[polybear]

Bear spent the day working - as predicted - on yet more battening for the boxing in of pipework; the vast majority is done now - just 3 or 4 cross-pieces to do before covering with plasterboard.

I do have a bit of a ponderance in that the brick fireplace (basically a decorative brick wall built in front of the lower part of the chimney breast) overhangs the latter at each end by 60mm or so.  Now since I'm boxing in the pipework on the left side this will effectively look like the chimney breast is a bit wider (there should be a seamless joint once plastered); as a consequence the fireplace will no longer look "centred" on the chimney breast as there will no longer be a 60mm overhang on the left - it'll be pretty much flush.  One option would be to add a boxed-in section on the right side to match; the other option is to live with it until such time as the back boiler dies, at which point the boiler, fire and fireplace will be removed and so the issue disappears.  Any thoughts?

 

A friend is currently waiting for the RAC to arrive - she and her daughter are sitting in a car park in Letchworth with a car that won't start.  The first ETA was EIGHT HOURS ; it's now dropped to 3.5 hours.  They're taking the p1ss.

 

And finally.....

Bear's Anger of the Day.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59610091

A suspended sentence and £550 quid fine?  Call that justice?  I can think of better justice....

As for the "victim surcharge" - I hope our little furry friend gets to spend it on his favourite yummy goodies....

[grandadbob]

Evenin' each,

Quite an emotional day for us as we said goodbye to a very close and dear friend.  The service was of the Humanist variety but the Eulogy was fantastic insomuch that it was done by Jill.  How she held it together with barely a tremor I don't know but she managed it and raised a few laughs whilst talking about their 45 years together.  Apart from Jill and their children and grandchildren Nigel's biggest love was fast cars (he had a few over the years) and motor racing.  If F1 was on the TV that took priority.  There were a few "audible smiles" when the opening bars of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" were played.  A few people looked puzzled but after about 3 minutes when "that" bass line came in the place erupted in laughter.  There were about 80 people present but the chapel holds about double that so it wasn't too crowded. Everybody was invited back to the house for the wake but we declined as did a few others because it would have been a bit much.  As Jill said to us afterwards we've plenty of time to get together in the New Year.  One of my abiding memories I've got of him is him sitting at a desk at the NRM in York "building a loco!" 

 

 

RIP Nigel,  I'm going to miss you.

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by grandadbob

[Erichill16]

10 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

I I And finally.....

Bear's Anger of the Day.....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59610091

A suspended sentence and £550 quid fine?  Call that justice?  I can think of better justice....

As for the "victim surcharge" - I hope our little furry friend gets to spend it on his favourite yummy goodies....

I just can’t believe some people, they want putting on a dessert island and left to rot.

I understand some people don’t like/want pets but how can you change your attitude once you’ve decided you’re going to be responsible for one. Un-****ing believe. Makes me sick. 

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, TheQ said:

There is a long list of banned items of weaponry on the HMG website, all are listed as totally banned with no justification for carrying them. It includes...

Having occasionally purchased from catalogues, I receive a stupendous amount of catalogues in the mail. Several of these offer many of the knives on your list available for mail order. (There are some states to which such items cannot be shipped.)

 

Most of knives offered are predominantly folding hunting knives - obviously there are legitimate applications for knives in field dressing animals like deer, (and field butchering items like bone saws and skinning knives are similarly available) - and decorative "Bowie" knives clearly intended for collectors, but I used to be surprised to see things like swordsticks (the walking canes holding a rapier) and other edged weapons explicitly intended for harming humans so readily (and openly) available.

 

It's not like you have to visit the back of a shady shop to attain such things.

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[Tony_S]

54 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

I just can’t believe some people

I was reading today about a woman who poisoned her neighbour's dog by chucking poisoned meat into their garden. She then attempted to steal the cctv camera that had recorded her actions. Suspended sentence and various fines and community service. No one knows why she did it. Possibly like that “cat in bin” woman from a few years ago.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, Tony_S said:

I was reading today about a woman who poisoned her neighbour's dog by chucking poisoned meat into their garden.

Western states are having problems with people poisoning wolves. Wild wolves were critically endangered and have been successfully reintroduced into the wild - with growing populations.

 

A quick search located this Guardian article on killings in Oregon.

[Ian Abel]

10 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I used to be surprised to see things like swordsticks (the walking canes holding a rapier) and other edged weapons explicitly intended for harming humans so readily available.

C'mon  

In the land of the Walmart-style stores where their questions likely are "do you want a million rounds of ammo to go with your 10 AR-15-style rifles...", something on the order of an edged weapon is rather passe!  

Edited December 10, 2021 by Ian Abel

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, Erichill16 said:

... they want putting on a dessert island

I would think that @polybear would love to be put on a dessert island - so long as lemon drizzle cake was on offer.

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

3 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

... something with an edged weapon is rather passe!  

Yes and no. Per Oregon Law:

 

Offenses Against Public Order

ORS 166.240
Carrying of concealed weapons

Quote

 

(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, any person who carries concealed upon the person any knife having a blade that projects or swings into position by force of a spring or by centrifugal force, any dirk, dagger, ice pick, slungshot, metal knuckles, or any similar instrument by the use of which injury could be inflicted upon the person or property of any other person, commits a Class B misdemeanor.

 

[Tony_S]

We are having a problem with the dishwasher. At the end of a programme it sometimes produces an error code and  some red led illumination. Some of the short programmes are erratic. I cleaned all the filters except for the one at the tap end of the water inlet hose. I thought I had better check this as if we do need a call out I could confirm I had checked everything. Except I couldn’t remove the hose. The hose end has a big device attached to turn off the water if the machine leaks. The fixing would not budge. I thought perhaps because it was all a tight fit next to the sink. So,I was planning to cut an rearrange the plumbing layout. About an hour later I was looking at a photo of the part when I realised I had been completely stupid. I had been turning the nut the wrong way. So I returned to the task, easily removed everything and the filter was completely clean anyway! So As a last resort I have reset the machine to factory defaults to see what happens. I suspect we will phone up next week to get it sorted. The parts are all available but not cheap so a fixed price repair option seems safest. 
I have just about stopped remarking I can’t believe how stupid I was. 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. 

11 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Western states are having problems with people poisoning wolves. Wild wolves were critically endangered and have been successfully reintroduced into the wild - with growing populations.

 

A quick search located this Guardian article on killings in Oregon.

I understand that many farmers were and are opposed to the re-introduction of wolves so its not at all surprising to hear of attempts to poison them. 

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, Erichill16 said:

.....  but how can you change your attitude once you’ve decided you’re going to be responsible for one. Un-****ing believe. Makes me sick. 

 

Because they didn't decide to be responsible (they don't have the intellectual ability to make such decisions) they decided they wanted a fashion accessory.    Then either they got tired of the fashion or the fashion changed so they were then left  with a redundant "item" to be disposed of, seemingly in any old way they thought might amuse their tiny minds.

 

@polybear is correct, that isn't justice and your suggested justice sounds much more sensible.    I might change it from a dessert island, as that has romantic connotations of a mini paradise and go straight for abandoning them in the middle of the largest, most hostile desert and tell them to walk home.     If they make it hopefully they will have learnt a lesson, if not oh well never mind .....

 

Whilst we on the subject of furry friends.   I'm glad the poorly canines seem to be making progress.

 

In Other News

 

Carpet down so I can now declare the hallway and stair d*c"r@t#ng is finished (and I have to say looks rather nice)

 

The AJ stayed in the garage as drugs were collected on my behalf by Mrs Puppers whilst Puppers had to take a trip down to the shed to find a bit of timber to make an emergency replacement floorboard as the "slightly flexible" board under the hall carpet was found to actually cracked into numerous pieces that would have used more glue and reinforcing than was sensible.     Fortunately an old, disassembled bookcase produced a piece of timber that was absolutely spot on so just needed to be cut to size and slotted in

 

As the sky was clear early evening and the moon was out I decided to whip out the Newtonian Reflector (an early Chrimbo present) and have a first gawp at the moon.    

 

Well ....... WOW!   

 

It was only a very quick go and the equatorial mount was not setup correctly so pointing was by trial and lots of error but I got there and it it was well worth it.    

Two points worthy of note:

 

1) How fantastic it is to directly see the surface detail of the moon

2) How perishing cold it was this evening!

 

Me thinks I might be turning up a suitable adapter for the telescope camera I bought as the imaging device for the homebuilt telecine machine I made a couple of years back.    I'll be able to dust off the old SkyCap software and use it how its meant to be used (stacking) and not just as a convenient frame grabber for the telecine machine.     Hopefully that will enable me to capture some images of heavenly bodies (better watch out where I'm pointing the telescope!) to share with ERs.

 

Top of the list for tomorrow;   Take the downstairs doors off and remove 2mm or 3mm from each of them so that we can actually shut them now the new, deeper door thresholds are in place.

 

Alan

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by PupCam
Superfluous 's'

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. 

I understand that many farmers were and are opposed to the re-introduction of wolves so its not at all surprising to hear of attempts to poison them. 

A few years ago there were reports of dogs being poisoned in one of the parks in Benfleet. At first   It was assume to be someone who hated dogs or dog owners. It turned out to be someone who was putting poisoned meat out to get rid of foxes coming into their garden. They had the error of their ways pointed out. 

[PupCam]

6 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

So As a last resort I have reset the machine to factory defaults to see what happens. I suspect we will phone up next week to get it sorted. The parts are all available but not cheap so a fixed price repair option seems safest. 
I have just about stopped remarking I can’t believe how stupid I was. 

 

I would be Googling for common problems with the specific make and model  of dishwasher.    

Forewarned is forearmed and assists the BS detector so that BS can in fact be confirmed and thus you can be on your guard for unnecessarily inflated repair costs.  

 

"Yes mate, you need a complete new processor board and shockafluster"    Err no, I think its quite likely that I just need a new door microswitch ....

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, PupCam said:

most hostile dessert

Not Lemon Drizzle Cake then?

[Ozexpatriate]

5 minutes ago, PupCam said:

As the sky was clear early evening and the moon was out I decided to whip out the Newtonian Reflector (an early Chrimbo present) and have a first gawp at the moon.   

Last night's setting moon was very impressive - even for a waxing crescent. Looking at the 'daylight' boundary is really interesting.

 

I had a glimpse of it as I turned out the lights for the evening. Even a pair of handheld binoculars makes a huge difference and even small telescopes make it remarkable.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Not Lemon Drizzle Cake then?

Angry rice pudding?

[PupCam]

Just now, Tony_S said:

Not Lemon Drizzle Cake then?

 

That puts a whole new new light on the subject, let the Stewards of the Bar drown in a huge vat of pink blamanche.   Would save all that tedious travel to a far off desert!

 

[PhilJ W]

11 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Because they didn't decide to be responsible (they don't have the intellectual ability to make such decisions) they decided they wanted a fashion accessory.    Then either they got tired of the fashion or the fashion changed so they were then left  with a redundant "item" to be disposed of, seemingly in any old way they thought might amuse their tiny minds.

 

@polybear is correct, that isn't justice and your suggested justice sounds much more sensible.    I might change it from a dessert island, as that has romantic connotations of a mini paradise and go straight for abandoning them in the middle of the largest, most hostile dessert and tell them to walk home.     If they make it hopefully they will have learnt a lesson, if not oh well never mind .....

Desert islands are not necessarily in the tropics. There's a few in Antarctica for instance.

[brianusa]

This is the usual us -v- them that crops up every now and again.  Encroaching civilisation has a lot to do with it, city dwellers don't like to see dead wolves lying around whether shot or poisoned.  Ranchers on the other hand will quite happily show gory pictures of dead lambs and sheep after attacks by dogs and wolves.  So the wolf lovers have a hard time sadly as the wolves are magnificent animals and deserve their range but unfortunately its the same range that the sheepmen  need to raise their flocks. 

      Brian.

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Googling for common problems with the specific make and model  of dishwasher

Already done that. I just trying to eliminate any of the non expensive options. If it does need fixing I will get the manufacturer’s repair service to do it. Even the really good local repair service don’t repair this make, and suggest the manufacturer. Setting the machine to factory defaults was a bit like my Lenz DCC system reset involving pressing a button many times, 19 for the dishwasher. It was 20 something on the DCC unit. 
Tony

[pH]

We had a mouse problem in the carport i.e. outside the house. I was going to use poison inside boxes with small entry holes to avoid larger animals like squirrels being affected. One of our sons pointed out that poison doesn’t act instantaneously and a mouse could die out in the open and be eaten by a hunting bird, which would in turn be poisoned. So I used mechanical traps instead. 

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, pH said:

One of our sons pointed out that poison doesn’t act instantaneously and a mouse could die out in the open and be eaten by a hunting bird, which would in turn be poisoned. So I used mechanical traps instead. 

That's the best way. (A lot less convenient than those little plastic bait boxes, but more thoughtful and considerate to the ecosystem.)

[polybear]

52 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I would think that @polybear would love to be put on a dessert island - so long as lemon drizzle cake was on offer.

 

 

Hmm....LDC & Custard.  Or Ice Cream.....

 

36 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I have just about stopped remarking I can’t believe how stupid I was. 

 

We've all been there.  Too many times to mention....

 

32 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Carpet down so I can now declare the hallway and stair d*c"r@t#ng is finished (and I have to say looks rather nice)

 

Show-off 

 

25 minutes ago, PupCam said:

I would be Googling for common problems with the specific make and model  of dishwasher.    

Forewarned is forearmed and assists the BS detector so that BS can in fact be confirmed and thus you can be on your guard for unnecessarily inflated repair costs.  

 

 

These could be useful:

https://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/help/fault-codes/dishwasher-fault-codes

https://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/forums/