Early Risers.

[BoD]

Afternoon all.  I’m still using the tradesman's entrance.*

 

Hope all are well. If not, get well soon.  Positive thoughts to those who need them.

Cataract op seems to have gone well and it only took a day or two for eye to settle.  Having had the other one done a few years ago, I no longer need to wear spectacles.  I still find myself trying to adjust them or push them up my nose even though they are not there.  Having worn them for over fifty years it is hardly surprising.  Downside is I will need reading glasses and you are advised to wait six weeks before having a test.  Tried some light muddling earlier and it was a no go.  Close vision is blurred. I have to read at nearly arms length too

 

* I suppose tradesman is no longer pc. It has to be tradesperson or trader I suppose.  I hate the term batter now in use in cricket. I guess Baz is just grateful that the term is umpire rather than umpsman or he would now be known to one and all as an umper.

 

[pH]

8 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

I always thought the weakness of the baccalaureate system was that a mathematical genius (say) with poor skills in one of the other required subjects would be lost to the world of maths.

I know of exactly that situation which, fortunately, turned out well. We had a pupil at high school who was brilliant at maths. He applied to a university who required a pass in a high school English course for admission. This guy just could not get a pass - he even stayed on for a seventh year trying, which was absolutely unheard of. So he went to a tech college instead. While he was there, the college became a university, and he graduated with a university degree. He then went to do a PhD at the university which had refused his original application. The last I heard of him, he was a maths lecturer at that university!

 

(Edit - just out of interest, I googled to see if there was anything on his career after that. He now has a D.Sc. and is a “Professor/Eminent Professor” at a US university.)

Edited May 23, 2022 by pH

[polybear]

8 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

A sledgehammer? Running it over with your car?

 

Nothing quite so archaic - in fact somewhat more complicated, sadly. Don't go getting your hopes up.....

 

7 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Can I send over some of my marking?

 

5 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

@Barry O & @Coombe Barton yes by all means, but my marking parameters 'may'  😉 be different to yours.  I suspect the politics essays in particular will be on the receiving end of vitriol..⚡💥🤬....from a neutral Manx point of view, politically.  We have our own jokers here.

 

 

 

Bear is available too (usual rates - i.e. oodles); any student named Tarquin or Ophelia could be in for a rough time though......🤣

 

Bear here.....

Bear gone.....

 

 

[Ian Abel]

On 21/05/2022 at 03:18, DaveF said:

 

I've never posted in Early Risers before, but there has to be a first time for everything.

 

Those who look at my photo thread with know that my Mum died last Sunday, 15th May, at the age of 97, after a couple of weeks in hospital.  She had become very weak and had problems eating and drinking, in the end her consultant and I agreed that the best thing for her was to let her die quietly in the palliative care unit.  The treatments attempted had simply not worked.  She had ulcerative colitis, pulmonary fibrosis, severe osteoarthritis and a lot of  pain, along with very poor circulation.

 

I've read a lot about experiences of the NHS and social services in ER's, I thought you might be interested in how Mum and I got on with it.  My apologies for the lengthy post.

 

Twice in the last 12 months I had to get an emergency ambulance.  Both times it arived in less than 10 minutes.   The first time Mum was then taken to NTEC at Cramlington, our local specialist A&E only hospital which has consultants 24/7, it's the only one in the NHS.  It's 10 minutes from home  The first time she was examined on arrival about 2p.m., by 4p.m. she had been given blood, had a body scan and been diagnosed with a painless bleeding duodenal ulcer and was in a single room.  Early the next morning it was dealt with.  She was then moved to the local general hospital, Wansbeck, for a lengthy recovery in their rehab unit. This hospital is 15 minutes from home.

 

The second time, on 30th April she arrived at NTEC around 1.30, within 30 minutes she was in a single room and investigations were underway, including a head scan.  Once again after a few days she was moved to Wansbeck where she stayed until she died.

 

When she rang for a GP it was usually around 9a.m.  By selecting the right option she used to bypass the coronavirus warning, the phone was almost always answered on the second ring.  If it was urgent a GP always rang her back within 2 hours, for less urgent things always by 4p.m.  Visits from a GP were always at lunchtime  between morning and afternoon surgery on the day of the phone call.

 

For ordinary repeat prescriptions the pharmacy always rang or texted to give a delivery time.  For urgent medication the pharmacy always rang to say when the medication was ready to be collected.

 

Her care at home was arranged by her Care Manager using a local compnay, though Mum did pay for it.  She had 2 carers, 4 times a day.  They gave excellent service.  Her flat was close to their office, about once a week one of the managers visited her to check everything was OK.  Her carers often bought her small gifts - soap, nice chocolates etc.

 

After she died I rang her Care Manager on the Monday evening and left her a message.  The next morning at 8.45 a.m. she rang me to say she had checked that everything was OK at the hospital, she had cancelled the care package and made sure I knew how to obtain a refund of any care charges for care Mum had not had.  She had also arranged for the local Joint Equipment Loan Service to contact me to arrange removal of the bed, stand aid and many other items.

 

The next day the items were removed, along with the stair lift which was from a local company.  The following day the care company came to collect all their bits and pieces, along with some spare stuff of Mum's which they could use for other clients.  Valley Care, the local service for elderly people also came to remove the emergency call button Mum had round her neck and other equipment.

 

I don't think we could have had much better care.  It seems to be well organised in Northumberland.

 

David

Sorry for your loss David, and a welcome to ERs. You'll find a wealth of friendly caring folks here, especially compassionate in times of need.

 

On 21/05/2022 at 16:17, petethemole said:

I've just come back from the emergency vets clinic having just said farewell to Tigger.  He had developed a massive blood clot that affected both legs and had lowered his temperature to a dangerous level.  He wasn't expected to last 24 hours and was in pain so it was the kindest thing to do.  I stroked him as he passed but Martyn was too upset to stay in the room.  

Sorry to hear this Pete, losing a family member pet is always so very hard. Wish there was a way to know they understand how we feel about them and are hopefully easing any pain they are in.

 

Monday - I wonder where the weekend went 🤔

 

Friday evening a very pleasant dinner/drinks (not necessarily in THAT order!!) with our travelling companions. Can't believe it's now seven years since are trip to the UK and the canal barge holiday - we were reminiscing and wondering if we can ever make it for another.

 

Saturday - having volunteered to host the neighborhood happy hour, much of the day spent in getting the place "presentable" in the eyes of the Mrs! 

Planning on the inaugural "patio gathering" we re-arranged and were ready as follows;

 

that's when our wonderful weather took over, time everyone gathered we managed 30 minutes outside attempting to overcome the dropping temperature with blankets and sweaters. Gave up after the temperature decided to drop to around 9C, and retreated to the porch instead. Still went wonderfully well, in spite of vacating the outside.

 

Sunday - after many suggestions/prompts the past several months, that I should have a TV on the porch, to watch baseball games and also enjoy our evening fare without having to descend to the basement family room, obtained such a "device" - Samsung 50" 4K Ultra HD Smart TV. Rather a pleasant one and they seem to be dropping in price rapidly, at least over here, was $100 off regular price..

So spent time obtaining/mounting/setup. Good way to recover from the prior evening "consumption of comestibles".

 

Also, crossed the 700 mile mark on my Nordictrack bike - onward towards a fitter me.

 

Jemma over late afternoon, back from her trip, to pick up Whitney. Had some news that we didn't even know was in the offing - she had bid to move up to the Boeing 767-400 aircraft, and has been accepted. Will start training sometime in the next 200 days, as scheduling allows. Will fulfill her dream to fly big jets internationally.

Delta use them for a large number of their international flights out of JFK (she'll be based back there, so back to commuting for work!) as well as various medium/long-haul internal flights warranting higher load factors.

 

5 and sunny first thing, and YAY headed for 18 and NO chance or pleut for a change.

 

On with the day/week.

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by Ian Abel

[PupCam]

Afternoon all, Puppers is back!

 

On 22/05/2022 at 16:21, polybear said:

No sign of Puppers @PupCam for a few days - I guess fixing a pc using an arduino (look, tablet, if Bear wanted that word to say radio or archive then that's wot he f.well would've typed, wouldn't he?? So p1ss off and stop interfering....), an occur NO NO NO - OFFCUT - DIDN'T YOU LISTEN?? of Balsa Wood and a 1/4" WE NO NO NO W.W. Bolt is proving harder than he first hoped.

 

Well, to be technically correct, Puppers' PC is back - Puppers has been here all along.      Fortunately it was just the  power supply that decided it had had enough and went belly up.      A new one was sourced and replaced the defunct jobbie with the assistance of Junior Puppers - well, he's far more interested in and knowledgable about PC hardware  these days.   Over the years they have gone from devices of intense fascination to mere tools that, when they cease to work, give Puppers the right 'ump to quote a Bear of this Parish.     

  

10 hours ago, chrisf said:

When I have some I sprinkle it over my cereal.  In my extreme youth I knew it as Bemax.  It was made then in a factory on the north bank of the Thames between Chiswick and Hammersmith.

 

Ah Bemax!     A child-hood favourite of Puppers'; sprinkled liberally on top of a mashed-up banana together with a little sugar and cold milk.    We knew how to live in the '60s!

 

32 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

 

 

Mr Connelly is one of Puppers' favourite comedians of all time.   I know some dislike the extremes of language but having spent my entire working life in engineering, it's nothing new and is more than made up for by his amazing powers of observation and presentation.      Being a man over 50 I also find that I live my life by one of his rules; "Men over 50 should never pass by  a working toilet".   How very true ......

 

In Other News

 

Whilst I've been "away" I've completed another lap of the sun and "celebrated" (I use the term very loosely!) the first anniversary of my "Great Inconvenience".  I'm hoping to celebrate many more such anniversaries before I finally expire just like my PC's power supply did.

 

We went for a little trip the other day over to the Natural History Museum in Tring.    The last time we visited was probably over 40 years ago.   I was amazed to bump into @polybear whilst we were there although for some strange reason he wouldn't come out from behind the window to say hello.

 

 

I have to say I'd forgotten what an amazing collection it is although I was somewhat disappointed to note that the museum apparently felt the need to apologise for the collection and worked very hard to explain the context in which the collection was originally assembled.    It's simple, as Terry Wogan would have said, "Different times".    Still, if it saves the precious collection from the nutters of the "Dead Animal and Statue Toppling Liberation Front" (or whoever) trying to damage or deface the exhibits sobeit.   

Of course, its success rather depends on whether the nutters from the DASTLF  can actually read!

 

TTFNQ

 

Alan

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

... Marking, marking, marking. I noticed myself investigating the fridge more whilst doing that, so gave myself a slap on the wrist. … Honest. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2022/05/23/contrasts-in-numbers-contrasts-in-age/
 

[simontaylor484]

I did lose count on the Billy Connolly clip how many stars are no longer with us. And there were a fair few that I hadn't a clue who they were.

[petethemole]

Try this for a list; I don't know if it's complete.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0189377/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

Being a man over 50 I also find that I live my life by one of his rules; "Men over 50 should never pass by  a working toilet".   How very true ......

Three rules for the over-50s:-

 

1.  Never trust a fart

2.  Never walk past a toilet without visiting

3.  Never waste an ere*tion

 

How true.  

Edited May 23, 2022 by Gwiwer

[Ozexpatriate]

10 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

... what a hypocrite

Irony impaired.

 

It is the intersection of willful ignorance, abandonment of critical thinking and the embrace of cognitive dissonance as a philosophy. I'd go further but that would violate our 'no politics' guideline.

[Ozexpatriate]

15 hours ago, pH said:

Our neighbour has sent us a couple of videos from their front door camera, both taken in clear daylight.

The first is of a black bear crossing their front yard and going into the school grounds behind their house.  ...

 

The second is ... a bobcat in the woods behind our houses, ... It comes out of the school grounds, walks down the neighbour’s drive, out onto the front street and out of shot.

We don't have bears in suburban Portland, but there are big cougars on the east side. The ubiquity of door bell cameras is evidence.

11 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

In the news this morning: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/23/urban-coyotes-us-suburbs-dallas - an inevitable result of humans and wildlife bumping against each other? 

No. Its a result of not reflexively killing every living thing that moves and then deciding whether it is edible, but rather seeking a better coexistence. It obviously can be problematic if wild animals get too comfortable in close proximity to humans and there are human-proximate food sources.

 

I remember a coyote loping down the sidewalk of a busy four lane sub-arterial road in southern Orange County, California 30 years ago.

 

6 hours ago, sncf231e said:

I woke up at 5 a.m. today and looked outside, this is what I saw:

[Deer video]

Nice! My friends who live in Central Oregon (on a golf course) have resident deer. The deer and fawns are constantly in their yard. (Less so the bucks, though my friends have to keep bird feeders above the reach of their antlers. Ladders are involved.)

 

I occasionally see deer locally (usually only near sunrise or sunset).

6 hours ago, woodenhead said:

... a lovely sight.

Indeed!

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

I've taken to asking the robocallers when answering the telephone: "Are you a robot?".

 

The call usually terminates at their end.

 

Today one said "Yes. Ha, ha, ha." and went silent, so I hung up.

[Ozexpatriate]

11 hours ago, TheQ said:

Bunnahabhain meaning mouth of the river, Abhain pronounced Avan =  Avon= river

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Bunnahabhain Is also a very good one (and a staple of the whisky cupboard).

I initially struggled for context with @TheQ's post - beyond the etymological background. I had to look it up.

 

[andyram]

Evening all and generic greetings, best wishes and supportive thoughts as appropriate. Today I can sympathise with John (CB) because my day has taken on a similar theme. It may be a day away from the shop but it began with marking, interspersed with laundry and use of the kettle, more marking, more  laundry, more kettle and then more marking. 
 There was a brief escape late morning to deliver an order to a customer and then a diversion to the pet shop for food for my wife’s pet rats! 
 The afternoon saw more marking, a trip to the Post Office to despatch more shop orders before returning home in time for an online interview. The candidate failed to show up so I did manage a couple of minutes shunting a couple of wagons on the current work in progress layout. Not that much work is taking place on the model although being out of storage in the garage is a small step forward.

This evening I may partake in a beer in front of the tv. Back to the shop tomorrow.

 

Take care.

 

Andy

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

Most decent countries have pretty insipid anthems (like ours without the verse about knavish trcks)  Those that have properly rousing national anthems have (or have had) particularly lousy governments. Russia, Germany and France come immediately to mind - the latter two in the have had category the former very much in the has a rotten government category  (current slogan .''Imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever''-

Many have (or had) unpleasantness in them.

3 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Billy Connelly : National Anthem - YouTube ... one of his funnier sketches about National Anthems.

I liked his reference to this (unadopted?) verse:

 

Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,
May by thy mighty aid,
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
and like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush,
God save the King.

 

It puts me in mind of this verse from "The Defence of Fort M'Henry" aka "The Star Spangled Banner"

 

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

 

I doubt it is often sung.

 

The highlighted part is also very confusing. It would make more literal sense in the context of Hessians and slaves fighting for the British in the revolutionary war, but not so much the war of 1812 - the focus of the poem. Unsurprisingly, it appears to be metaphorical:

Quote

... slave and hireling were each used in a pejorative fashion to describe free people carrying out the wishes of a more powerful person

 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon/evening all from Estuary-Land. Overdid the eyelid inspection this afternoon, in fact I thought it was even later until I heard the thunder which was why it was so dark. No sign of the foxes today but I could hear them last night, they have probably found somewhere a bit dryer. The muntjac deer seem to be absent lately, just the occasional call. I have a bit of wildlife of my own, in the bathroom, an enormous black spider that hides under the bath, I had noticed the absence of moths lately.

[PhilJ W]

Mention of coyotes brought to mind the tragic death of Taylor Mitchell.

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Sorry for your loss David, and a welcome to ERs. You'll find a wealth of friendly caring folks here, especially compassionate in times of need.

Exactly what he said.  

[J. S. Bach]

31 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 ...snip... It puts me in mind of this verse from "The Defence of Fort M'Henry" aka "The Star Spangled Banner"

 

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

 

I doubt it is often sung.

 

 ...snip...

 

I would hazard a guess that better than 75% of Americans do not know the second, third, or fourth verses.

[monkeysarefun]

7 hours ago, sncf231e said:

I woke up at 5 a.m. today and looked outside, this is what I saw:

 

Regards

Fred

 

 

 

 

G'day Santa! I've been really good this year, can I have a powerchip for the ute please?

 

 

5 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

 

I'm not a fan of our anthem, though not because of any offence being taken to the words. Despite not being musical at all, I would prefer a more upbeat and uplifting tune. I think a lot of tunes are much older than many of us realise, with some tunes being reused for new words.

 

 

FOr our anthem  Adam Hills  once made an attempt at using a new tune for the old words, using "Working Class Man" by Jimmy Barnes (kind of an Ausssie Bruce Springsteen but drunker) in order to appeal to the modern Australian.

 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

That will no doubt gain roars of approval from many but was correct spelling and grammar what you were actually asked to test? Would you, for example, judge a phsicist's knowledge of quantum theory by the neatness of their handwriting? I always thought the weakness of the baccalaureate system was that a mathematical genius (say) with poor skills in one of the other required subjects would be lost to the world of maths. Fair enough if your tests were formative ones aiming to find areas of strength and weakness but if they were exams on which future careers depdended then not so fair.

 

After 6 months of physio and western medicine (and the prediction  of an operation) did absolutely nothing for a shoulder injury I had , it  got to the point I couldnt lift my arm above the horizontal. As a last resort someone suggested a Chinese massage therapist they used so I gave him a go. From the very first visit the pain had gone down around 10% and in 6 weeks of weekly visits I was completely  fixed.

The guy was a top Chinese medicine practitioner and surgeon back in China, but had to leave there. He has attempted to be allowed to practice medicine here but has failed his Australian medical board interview  or whatever the process is  3 times because they judge his English written and spoken language skills are too poor, even though I found him perfectly understandable.

 

The only gig he could get in the medical field was as a massage practitioner (which he was obviously really good at - I wont be going to physios as a first resort again).

 

I recommend him to everyone who mentions they need to go to a physio or chiro as a brilliant alternative, and talk him up in reviews etc, hopefully life comes good for him, he's too good to waste.

 

4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Nothing quite so archaic - in fact somewhat more complicated, sadly. Don't go getting your hopes up.....

 

 

 

 

 

Being you you've obviously established a root connection onto the tablet, hacked its kernel and modified the system calls to use a .dll of your own creation that bypasses the tablets internal AI.

Edited May 23, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

10 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

75% of Americans do not know the second, third, or fourth verses

Or maybe even that the verses exist.

[Tony_S]

18 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Being you you've obviously established a root connection onto the tablet, hacked its kernel and modified the system calls to use a .dll of your own creation that bypasses the tablets internal AI.

Perhaps Pupcam’s Arduino homework had paid off at last. 

[PeterBB]

On 20/05/2022 at 14:48, Barry O said:

Yes her indoors missed her retire at 60 by a few months but has now achieved her new retirement date. I assumed that @PeterBBwas commenting on the chorus in the media regarding delays to pension payments. 

 

Baz

Sorry to have confused.  The point was the rising of the retirement age  and 'age' was meant to signify that someone (true case) has to reach 'qualifying age' and as that someone has not received a penny from the state viz - the double misfortune for a parent to die as they became redundant and for then at the critical stage to be over the 'limit' has caused them severe problems as with learning difficulties they have never been able to get another job.  When they finally get their pension they will be, hopefully, able to live rather than survive.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.