Early Risers.

[polybear]

3 hours ago, DaveF said:

I do get periods like this, always after a period of stress - though I'm not sure what the stress was.  I've also had a couple of migraines, thay also only appear after stress.  It may just be that I am at last starting to throw stuff out which came home from the flat and moving on from the past yeaar of sorting things out concerning Mum's estate.

 

 

Bear has been actively down-sizing where possible - some of which includes Momma Bear's possessions;  I take the view that it's a good thing as I can control it's destination, whereas if I were to suddenly choke on a massive slice of LDC then some herbert might just take the easy way out and skip the lot.  That's one of Bear's very (VERY) great worries, incidentally.

 

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I had a bit of a laugh in the hotel. They're obviously very proud of their efforts to save the world and reduce GHG emissions, something which should be applauded. So why do they deliver bottles of Italian still water to the room every day, is there something wrong with tap water in Denmark?

 

It'd be worth casually asking them**; could it be an Italian company but actually made in Denmark?

 

**It might just get them to have a re-think.

[The White Rabbit]

Afternoon all. Tail down at the moment, as an aged relative has dropped me in it... again ... and I'm getting very sick of it and the way the world expects me to deal with others' problems and failings. So apologies if I've missed anyone's news/posts lately. I'm now off to look up techniques for committing suicide by choking on treacle tart, might be one of the 'better' ways to exit... 

[Hroth]

 

Just had my ears lowered.

 

Feeling rather lightheaded....

 

[Tony_S]

12 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

by choking on treacle tart, might be one of the 'better' ways to exit... 

I can’t accurately remember when I last had treacle tart, could well have been at school. My and Aditi’s diabetes is well enough controlled to allow some dessert treats but I think treacle tart would be a step too far. My brother’s late wife once told me her final task before she gave up work in food technology was to design a diet sticky toffee pudding. She wasn’t able to! It was the commuting rather than the task that caused her to leave that job though. 

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear has been actively down-sizing where possible - some of which includes Momma Bear's possessions;  I take the view that it's a good thing as I can control it's destination, whereas if I were to suddenly choke on a massive slice of LDC then some herbert might just take the easy way out and skip the lot.  That's one of Bear's very (VERY) great worries, incidentally.

Being a month and a day off of my 75th birthday I've been giving some thought to what will happen to some of my stuff when I do kick the bucket. I have already given some away to a good home but there's a lot of stuff to sort out. I'm making lists of various items and there's a lot before I start on the books and models.

[TheQ]

This bit should have been posted 5 hours ago..

 

Mooring Awl 

4 hours sleep, woke with a painful back. Several periods of sleep followed, waking each time with a painful back.

 

Ben I'd like out now Collie, appeared. We've been on a gentle patrol, he found a tennis ball on the way back so of course wanted to play. Dull grey welkin, not too warm, north easterly breeze.

 

The Vernier calipers were put to use, the bolts and screws of the loom were measured.

Short carriage bolts, 8 mm shaft, 9 mm thread, 93mm long,

Long carriage bolts, 8 mm Shaft, 9 mm thread, 139 mm long,

Screws, slotted, 4mm shaft, 42 mm long.

All mild steel and rusty.

Some bolts screw into captive plates inside the wood.

None of which correspond to any bolt or screw I can find, so I can't replace those going into the plates.

 

The  missing bolt, and those that can  be, will be replaced these with something without rust.

The screws will be replaced by stainless though I'll have to drill out a broken original.

I'm considering fitting bearings in a couple of moving parts, the original is metal shaft on wood, which after 60 to 70 years are showing signs of wear and elongated holes. More measurements for that are required.

 

5 hours later

Afternoon Awl, 

Much measuring, much looking at the one diagram / photo of this loom I've found.

 

Parts ordered,

I've gone for 10mm carriage bolts, and suitable self lubricating bearings.

Discovered various metal brackets were gold/ brass coloured, therefore ordered real brass screws. 

Broken bit epoxied then clamped.

Beeswaxed all woodwork that isn't being painted.

Painted all wood not beeswaxed. That order is correct, it was chosen so any splashes of paint wiped easily off the fresh beeswax.

 

All painted bits now sitting out side in the lack of sun drying.

Ben is now a Blue not Merle Collie, on return from his long walk he immediately rubbed himself against the wet paint.

 

My turn to caused a delay, an eye lid inspection while cogitating.

 

Result of the cogitate? The loom we have is not 1951 to 1959...

Having found a photo...

It's ...

 

1925 to 1932 model with some later parts from a  1932 to 35 model. So I suspect it's actually built originally in 1932. There are some removable/ breakable/ loseable parts which are 1960-80s 

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by TheQ

[AndyID]

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Still a bit nippy but at least its dry. Forecasters are saying that it will warm up for the weekend thankfully. Interesting item on You-Tube'

 

Interesting flora, the one shaped like a bottle brush intrigues me, tree shrub or cacti?

 

I think it's a yucca bloom.

[DaveF]

A quiet day today, at least so far.

 

I had a 45 minute walk round the field in the estate today and saw a couple of people I know and haven't seen for a while.  I got back home and sorted out some photos which was followed by coffee.  While I had coffee I read fairly recent magazine I'd been given produced by the Northumberland Wildlife Trust which was very interesting, it makes me think I might join as there was a lot of common sense in what they are doing, unlike most newspaper headlines - for example clearly stating that not everywhere should have trees, some areas should be heath, moor, grass and so on.  A welcome change for much of what is said in the media, including TV.  I also started to read the latest magazine from Beamish Museum which I recieve as I am a friend.

 

Then I did a bit in the kitchen.  I have found a home for various items from the flat which have been sitting on top of a cupboard for a very long time.  I noticed that I seem to have a lot of face masks, thin gloves and Covid tests - Mum's carers used to give them to me as well as the ones I bought.  After my usual Tuesday salad I finished tidying the kitchen and realised that I felt very tired, so I had a nap - I probably needed one through not sleeping well last night.  

 

When I woke I gave the car a good clean, it was covered in a slightly sticky yellow powder, pollen off trees somewhere not too far away.  You have to wash it which loosens it and then use more water to actually get rid of it, or as it dries it sticks back on again.  Then a quick cup of tea and a cherry bakewell -I should probably avoid them as I am a bit allergic to some nuts but have not come to any harm yet.  

 

Lastly I've done a bit more in the garden so the garden wheelie bin is nicely full and ready to be collected tomorrow morning.  Next will be a sandwich, a read and Maigret in French on TPTV.  I hope I sleep better tonight.

 

David

Edited June 6, 2023 by DaveF

[southern42]

 ' afternoon all from red dragon land.

 

Still sunny. Some rain at the weekend according to the pine cone predictors. In the meantime, I have been watering the pot plants and hibiscus.

 

As to anything else, notalot, except for completing the twiddly bits to the first line and a half of the new flute song. When I can match up one twiddly bit with one from an earlier song it gives me a bit of confidence - telling me I "already know it" but linking it up to what comes before or after is not always as easy....but I persevere. Only another eleven and a half lines to go. That is only half the story. Then it should be typically played at double my current speed, if not a whole lot faster. One can dream...

 

 

[PupCam]

Afternoon All

 

A walk was walked this morning.   I need to do more walking, more regularly but this was a(nother) good start.  I just need to keep at it!

 

I dug over the bed where the Pampass grass was, extracting roots and debris as they emerged.   It will need a good few iterations!

 

Cogitation mode has been engaged with some thoughts on investigating the case of the dodgy magneto drive sealing on the Beeza.   The timing cover will have to be removed as will the mag pinion using a simple puller.  Then the magdyno assembly will have to be unstrapped so that I can try and work out if there's a simple way of getting the shaft concentric once again in order to give the lip seal a fighting chance.   I know they used this method of mounting for 30+ years but to my eyes it's still a crude and rubbish design.

 

My mind then wandered whilst still in cogitation mode to thoughts of building a dual axis tracking mount for the telescope and using the camera for both imaging and guiding.   The existing mount is cheap, cheerful and not very good (it is a budget telescope after all) and I have a slack handful of reasonable size ball-races, the two optical encoders for the Astronomy Gadget, a number of stepper motors and might even have some chunks of Ali that might be suitably employed.   Research has commenced ........  another project in the offing then  🙄

 

I had a request from the hospital to join a medical study and received the 32 pages of notes describing it and the implications.   After reading it I decided not to "join in the fun";  I actually fall just outside one of  the key criteria  so can't anyway but also it's 5+ years study, I'm just about to start a whole load more medication anyway, I'm already involved in two other studies (I figured it was a good way to give something back for my life-saving treatment over recent years) and finally some of the very common side effects I already suffer from and have no desire to make them even worse! 

 

Oh yes, a small Moanette.   Someone, sorry I can't remember who, posted a link to the PDK website the other day.   This is a website I've not visited before and despite being extremely dated and clunky in its operation (that might be an understatement) I found numerous  extremely tempting products, mostly apple green in colour and mostly costing very approximately one Deltic each that is taking all of my willpower to prevent me from adding to the metaphorical basket.    I do wish they hadn't!!!! 🤣

 

It seems I'm now required to produce one of "my salads" to go with a bunch of prawns swimming in mayonnaise and some new potates.

 

TTFNQ

 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

 

I think it's a yucca bloom.

Phil should be able to see them in Essex. We haven’t got one but we can see a few in nearby gardens. Not flowering yet. 

[jamie92208]

9 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

The modern equivalent of looking for people who are saluted by underlings, wear a better class of uniform and are armed with a pistol is tracking data and emissions, which is a good indicator of where decision centres are, force size etc and can act as a bomb magnet. I remember being told by RN officers it really didn't matter that much if signal traffic was encrypted and unreadable, they could tell a lot just by monitoring gibberish signals. And radars are very much a two edged sword, they are essential for ground based air defence but are also probably the ultimate missile magnet if not used cleverly.

I believe that it's called traffic analysis. Gordon Welchman was the high priest of it at Bletchley Park and he probably produced as much usable as the more famous code breakers.  His work was kept very highly classified. 

9 hours ago, pH said:

There was an unfortunate incident here where the raised body on a truck hit a metal pedestrian bridge over a road. It brought a section of the bridge down on the truck cab, crushing it and killing the driver.

This was discussed at length on another thread but I can't remember whether it was TNM or Level crossing Stupidity.  The simple answer is that there is a need for tippers to be able to move with the body up but the concesus was that it would be relatively easy to fit some sort of speed interlock.  A footbridge over Wellington Road in Leeds was taken out like that.a replacement steel Span was later just dropped onto the two abutments with ramps to get up to the new deck  level. It's been there at least 18 years to my knowledge. 

 

Jamie

[PeterBB]

15 hours ago, DaveF said:

 

When I woke I gave the car a good clean, it was covered in a slightly sticky yellow powder, pollen off trees somewhere not too far away.  You have to wash it which loosens it and then use more water to actually get rid of it, or as it dries it sticks back on again.  

 

Lastly I've done a bit more in the garden so the garden wheelie bin is nicely full and ready to be collected tomorrow morning.  Next will be a sandwich, a read and Maigret in French on TPTV.  I hope I sleep better tonight.

 

David

Can go with this as we have a fairly old (well developed) sycamore that while lovely is also a pain.  This last year have knowingly counted over 5000 seedlings and still finding many 'mini trees' added to this at present is the 'bossom' which is fairly large, blows in the wins, covers everything is sticky and then driess hard but still feels sticky when trying to remove e.g.from window sills - the joys of having a lovely tree in your garden.

Edited June 7, 2023 by PeterBB

[The Lurker]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

.a replacement steel Span was later just dropped onto the two abutments with ramps to get up to the new deck  level. It's been there at least 18 years to my knowledge. 

 

Jamie

It’s got some way to go to catch up with the temporary Bailey bridge put in after the St John’s crash in 1957; it’s still in use today - my train went over it and down the Tanners Hill Flydown this morning.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

I think it's a yucca bloom.

These ones:

 

 

Andy's guess of yucca is good - see Chaparral yucca and this one from the same area.

 

The presenter was very careful to pick a nice spring day. (At least what passes for Spring in L.A. County - though in fairness, the San Gabriel Mountains have a 'real' winter and spring.

 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Coombe Barton]

... Covid Enquiry is requesting more messages from others, including Nicola Sturgeon ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/06/06/continuing-down-more-slowly-and-more-people-in-the-spotlight/

[polybear]

6 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

Afternoon all. Tail down at the moment, as an aged relative has dropped me in it... again ... and I'm getting very sick of it and the way the world expects me to deal with others' problems and failings. So apologies if I've missed anyone's news/posts lately. I'm now off to look up techniques for committing suicide by choking on treacle tart, might be one of the 'better' ways to exit... 

 

Hang in there Bunny.....we're here....

 

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

Oh yes, a small Moanette.   Someone, sorry I can't remember who, posted a link to the PDK website the other day.   This is a website I've not visited before and despite being extremely dated and clunky in its operation (that might be an understatement) I found numerous  extremely tempting products, mostly apple green in colour and mostly costing very approximately one Deltic each that is taking all of my willpower to prevent me from adding to the metaphorical basket.    I do wish they hadn't!!!! 🤣

 

 

Other sites are available...

Is there a particular "product" that Puppers has desires on?

 

Bear here.....

A reasonably productive day today - setting up the Saw Table was achieved without incident, as was cutting the architrave to width (not always an easy task cos' the length of the architrave far exceeds the length of the cutting fence on the saw table, meaning it's all too easy to get the item being cut slightly "on the p1ss" at some point during proceedings and end up with a wonky cut ).  Fortunately all went well - and Bear's paws remained "unmodified" as well.  Tick.

Buddy over the road visited for an hour after din dins to relieve Bear of a couple of boxes of frozen chicken nuggets (purchased as a part of the freezer deals the Co-op often have - the other four items capable of keeping Bear more than happy).  Then it was time to fit a couple of bits of skirting and dado rail (all fully painted etc.) to the landing - all went well.  Another Tick.  I've still to cut, paint and fit a couple of lengths of beading to tidy up a corner architrave, as well as add a few squirts of splurge here & there in order to finish off the Landing.

I also received an email to tell me that the glass panels for closing off the area below the Bannister Hand Rail are soon to be delivered - though the selected day isn't ideal; it seems they'll deliver to a neighbour if Bear isn't home so all is not lost.  I took in a big parcel** for NNNND today - so brownie points were earned and hopefully will be redeemed in kind.

 

(**A Gazebo, apparently - they were called Tents when Bear was a Cub).

 

In other news....

A rather nice young lady called at Bear Towers today 😁 to ask if I was interested in having the windows in Bear Castle cleaned on a regular basis (not by her, sadly...).  When I asked how much she replied that front & back would be twenty five notes** - but when Bear said it'd only be the front (expecting half price) she said it'd probably be fifteen notes....

 

(**But if they've not been cleaned for a long time/or it's the first visit then it may well be a double charge.....yeah, right.....).

 

Now Bear's last Window Cleaner (just before Covid) was doing the front of the house for something like 7 or 8 quid;  at the prices mentioned today I reckon I'll stay with the "weathered finish" - but thanks all the same.  I reckon a decent Window Cleaner can easily do 3 houses in an hour without trying too hard, so at twenty five quid a time that's a nice little earner. 

 

BG

[Andy Hayter]

36 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

These ones:

 

 

Andy's guess of yucca is good - see Chaparral yucca and this one from the same area.

 

The presenter was very careful to pick a nice spring day. (At least what passes for Spring in L.A. County - though in fairness, the San Gabriel Mountains have a 'real' winter and spring.

 

 

Indeed.  We have a Yucca in the garden that flowers most years now - although not the same species as in the video.  It has survived happily when daytime high temperatures have been -17C.   And until the last few years, regular overnight temperatures in the minus teens centigrade during winter.  

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. A bit late but I've just finished dinner, toad in the hole with some veg. Done some shopping today, not much as I'm planning a big shop later in the week.

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

Andy's guess of yucca is good - see Chaparral yucca and this one from the same area.

 

 

 I was reasonably sure it was. We were in Southern California for six years and in Arizona for seven years. 😄

[figworthy]

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I believe that it's called traffic analysis. Gordon Welchman was the high priest of it at Bletchley Park and he probably produced as much usable as the more famous code breakers.  His work was kept very highly classified. 

 

 

I haven't a clue about modern messaging, but back in Welchman's day, whilst the messages were in code, the call signs (who was sending, and who it was for) wasn't,  Between the call signs and a bit of RDF, you could work out quite a lot of information.

 

Adrian

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Other sites are available...

Is there a particular "product" that Puppers has desires on?

 

No but I'm a sucker for an unmutilated P2 for example .

[jamie92208]

26 minutes ago, figworthy said:

 

I haven't a clue about modern messaging, but back in Welchman's day, whilst the messages were in code, the call signs (who was sending, and who it was for) wasn't,  Between the call signs and a bit of RDF, you could work out quite a lot of information.

 

Adrian

I can't remember all of ibut he realised that simply the volume, timing and location of traffic could tell a lot. He ended up working in the US I think. 

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

The Ukrainians monitored mobile phone traffic  then lobbed a bomb or two where the traffic was most intense.

 

Evening Awl,

Just back from the MRC,

Muddling none.

Debriefing on show lots.

Mentioned I was setting up a computer at home to do all the treasurers duties, and a voice piped up....

Why not use the club one! What club one? says several people.

The one on the shelf donated before COVID...

Then said person goes fetches.

An hour and a half charging and it was still running an hour and a half unplugged.

Its a Dell laptop running XP, weighs a ton, with a metal casing, so I guess it's a "ruggedized" one. Anyway I've brought it home to investigate and see if it will run the required software.

I know it does need a CR2032, as it throws a wobbly on boot up, but I've got a new CR2032 on the pc shelf.

 

Also arrived a letter at the club containing the 20 + digit code I have to type in, along with the 20+ digit code they emailed me, so that I can take over the bank account as treasurer, meanwhile they've taken the old treasurer off the list totally, though he's now chairman and second signatory. So once I'm into the system I have to re-enable his access.

 

Muggachoccy to finish then I'll be gone.

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Is that the time??? Yes it is, I must be slowing down due to old age. Still a bit of time to do Farcebook before bedtime.