Early Risers.

[Hroth]

25 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I bet it would form a good plot idea for a modern version of Agatha Christie’s “4.50 from Paddington”. 

 

Paddington was one of the pointless answers (which none of the contestants got) in a round about Agatha Christie titles on Pointless this evening!

 

[Coombe Barton]

... Marking, bum on sofa and trying to stop falling asleep when trying to make sense of what the students have put, and proving it’s their own work. Or not as the case may be. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/01/18/covid-down-a-bit-flu-up-a-bit-measles-up-quite-a-bit/

[phil_sutters]

53 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

My late father in law (born 1921) has his first driving experience in a Model T Ford owned by his father.  He can’t have been that old as he was sent away to school when he was about 15. This wasn’t in post WW1 Somerset though but near the  NW frontier of pre partition India. He and his brothers just drove around their compound in  the car. There wasn’t much else to do apparently though they did play cricket with the detachment of soldiers protecting them. 
Tony

The oldest car I remember seeing in day-to-day use was when we lived on Mendip around 1960. I think that it was the local GP, who drove an early Alvis, with a dicky seat and the first Bath registration number FB1.

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

When I saw the GT40 photo my first thought was Phil is far too tall for,one of those. I think I saw a Top Gear (when it was about cars) and Jeremy Clarkson was too tall to fit. I think one of the racing versions had a little dome on the roof to accommodate a tall driver. 

I nowadays couldn't get into one even if it didn't have a roof. In fact there's quite a few normal cars I find difficult if not impossible to get in and out of due to the arthritis. I was seriously thinking of changing my car before the accident because of the high sills.

[Dave Hunt]

Living in hope that all goes well tomorrow as I am going for a pre-op assessment for a spinal decompression operation. The hospital is a specialist orthopaedic one and is splendid place where usually everything from car parking to operations go well so fingers crossed.

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

Best wishes Dave, hope the op goes well.

[Tony_S]

37 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I nowadays couldn't get into one even if it didn't have a roof. In fact there's quite a few normal cars I find difficult if not impossible to get in and out of due to the arthritis. I was seriously thinking of changing my car before the accident because of the high sills.

Mil is quite small and has many arthritis related mobility problems, and uses sticks and walking frames. She has no difficulty getting in and out of my Evoque or,the front seat of Aditi’s Fiesta. She cannot get into the back seat of a Toyota Corolla as the door doesn’t open wide enough.  

[Ozexpatriate]

It continues to rain but temperatures hover just above freezing - perhaps around 1C. The cussedly persistent ice layer remains cussedly persistent, though it is getting a bit more slushy.

 

The arrival of the garbage truck this morning (it did two passes that I saw) did churn some of the ice and slush such that little bits of blacktop are visible. Having said that, I've just watched a large white delivery truck (like a furniture delivery truck, not a "white van man") struggled to get up gentle slope of the hill where I live sideways - the rear tyres spinning and only getting traction by being sideways against the kerb.

 

The driver's mate alighted and placed two empty wheelie bins from the road and onto the grassy verge. The back end of the truck still knocked them over and only missed the street light pole by what had to be inches.

 

Meanwhile the mail carrier in a USPS LLV with rear chains zipped around it. The mail is delivered. I will check it presently.

 

I was hopeful it would be clear enough for me to go to the pharmacy this afternoon. Watching that truck I am not so sure. To get out of the neighbourhood requires traversing a steeper slope than the truck struggled with.

[PhilJ W]

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Mil is quite small and has many arthritis related mobility problems, and uses sticks and walking frames. She has no difficulty getting in and out of my Evoque or,the front seat of Aditi’s Fiesta. She cannot get into the back seat of a Toyota Corolla as the door doesn’t open wide enough.  

I find the same with some Skoda models. I am also beginning to find a problem with high sills as my arthritis deteriorates this is why I wanted to replace my Hyundai. The Vauxhall Zafira I am interested in has wide doors and a low sill.

[Ohmisterporter]

Kath has now had another MRI scan on her head and may need another lumbar puncture. The a&e senior doctor said there was no cancer, so that is a relief. However, there is a "mass" on her adrenal gland that must be removed. If I got the story right, this mass releases hormones that cause the TIA in the head. I may have got this wrong but others here may know better. Thanks for all the support and good wishes they are much appreciated.

Stay safe all.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Interesting side note for fans of EV vehicles, seems they nor their charging stations are built for severe cold.

Many reports of stranded Teslas and charging taking forever IF working at all around the sub-zero midwest!!..

It's not very surprising, given how little batteries like the cold.

 

We've had 158 years of evolution on internal combustion engine-powered automobiles. They were perfectly worthless in such weather until the use of ethylene-glycol antifreeze in radiators. (Which was invented earlier but first marketed for automobiles in 1926.) The block heater, to enable cars not stored in a warmish garage to start in such conditions wasn't patented until 1949.

 

It's living memory for most of us to experience radiator boil-over where automobiles couldn't handle hot weather - a problem now largely resolved.

 

To expect a novel technology (while invented around the same time as the internal combustion engine, but without a century and a half of refinement) to perform as well in all conditions under all circumstances, is unrealistic, such technology refinement takes time.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The mobility aid that arrived yesterday I put into use this afternoon and its made a great difference. It rests in the bath on rubber suction feet, as did it's predecessor.  Removing the old one involved 'unsticking' all four feet which was a problem as when one foot was 'unstuck' you moved onto the next only to find that the first one was stuck again. I resolved the problem by slipping a thin card underneath each foot as it was released. While I was putting the new one in I leant the old one against the tile bathroom wall. When I came to move it the feet had stuck to the tiles! though fortunately not as much as to the bath.

[Hroth]

20 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Removing the old one involved 'unsticking' all four feet which was a problem as when one foot was 'unstuck' you moved onto the next only to find that the first one was stuck again. I resolved the problem by slipping a thin card underneath each foot as it was released.

 

Rather similar to the instructions for removing the body of certain types of model locomotive....

 

[Smiffy2]

This is what I am doing at the moment - making or modding guitars. This one (it's actually a Canadian Stratocaster copy with an alder body) was £40 from the St Raphael Hospice shop. I've replaced the neck, electrics and pickups/pickguard and put new locking tuners on it, so about another £50. You thought Mdl Rlws were expensive fun...
Trouble is I seem to have wired the output jack the wrong way round - pure chimp - and I'll have to redo that tomorrow. But it looks nice...

 

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Interesting side note for fans of EV vehicles, seems they nor their charging stations are built for severe cold.

Many reports of stranded Teslas and charging taking forever IF working at all around the sub-zero midwest!!..

 

 

Hmm, initially when I read this story about how Rolls Royce and Volvo have developed an EV charger that generates its power by burning big piles of wood  I will admit that I was struggling to see how that fits into the "fighting climate change" argument, but I guess if you installed a whole heap of these around there, the warmth from all that burning carbon would help heat the car enough to get the electrons moving around,  so - problem solved.

 

https://electrek.co/2024/01/12/volvo-ce-and-rolls-royce-develop-wood-burning-charger-for-off-grid-evs/

[PupCam]

 

3 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Living in hope that all goes well tomorrow as I am going for a pre-op assessment for a spinal decompression operation. The hospital is a specialist orthopaedic one and is splendid place where usually everything from car parking to operations go well so fingers crossed.

 

Dave

 

Good luck for the pre-op and even more so for the procedure Dave.   

 

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

It's not very surprising, given how little batteries like the cold.

 

We've had 158 years of evolution on internal combustion engine-powered automobiles. They were perfectly worthless in such weather until the use of ethylene-glycol antifreeze in radiators. (Which was invented earlier but first marketed for automobiles in 1926.) The block heater, to enable cars not stored in a warmish garage to start in such conditions wasn't patented until 1949.

 

It's living memory for most of us to experience radiator boil-over where automobiles couldn't handle hot weather - a problem now largely resolved.

 

To expect a novel technology (while invented around the same time as the internal combustion engine, but without a century and a half of refinement) to perform as well in all conditions under all circumstances, is unrealistic, such technology refinement takes time.

 

Well yes that's true to a point ......    BUT

 

If I'd paid, say,  £40K+  for a vehicle that is going to save the planet (it's not by the way) and it fell over "because it got a bit cold" then I'd be well and truly miffed and quite rightly so.       I'd be even more miffed if later it then spontaneously * combusted because the batteries had in effect been mistreated e.g. when they got "a bit cold" / were charged when they were "too cold" / the rate of change of battery temperature was out of spec because it had just been thrashed down the motorway and then got "a bit cold quite quickly" or any other of a myriad of justifications.   

 

*  Note I specifically included the word spontaneously.   Please don't re-ignite (pun intended) the old "discussion" about "Ah yes but petrol cars burn too"  Yes they do but generally only when some other fault has created a fire in the first place igniting the fuel in which case the upholstery also becomes a fuel, the carpets also become a fuel, the rubber tyres also become a fuel etc.   Just like all of the other things listed, the real fuel although volatile does not generally burst into flames of its own accord.

 

Personally I'm quite happy to  let the early-adopters take the smack on the chin (primarily  in the wallet department) to subsidise this development.    I'm very glad that there are folk around  who can just shrug the shoulders when their very expensive new toy packs up and just say "Oh well, not to worry, it's new technology you know, you have to expect these things.   I'll get the bus home."   but I certainly couldn't afford to do so.

 

Testing technology and techniques have moved on considerably since anti-freeze and decent cooling systems came into being.    If so many customer vehicles are failing when operating in the environment they are designed (or should have been designed) to operate in then clearly their development environmental testing was, at best, inadequate.   In the aerospace industry we have been cooking, soaking, freezing, vibrating, statically and dynamically loading, "shouting at" (using high intensity sound to excite structures and systems) and a whole host of other test methods for many decades (including throwing dead chickens at them but that's probably not appropriate in this case).   And when we weren't using the facilities for our own products we often used to use them to test products on behalf of ............ the automotive industry.

 

ION

 

I've spoken to Bear today.  He's still struggling but once again thanks everyone for the good wishes that have been passed on.

 

I note Jupiter and the moon are best buddies this evening.   I should have got the gear out but just haven't got the energy.   Never mind.

 

Night All!

 

 

 

Edited January 18 by PupCam

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

To expect a novel technology (while invented around the same time as the internal combustion engine, but without a century and a half of refinement) to perform as well in all conditions under all circumstances, is unrealistic, such technology refinement takes time.

Unfortunately the unrealistic expectations have been embraced by governments, corporations  and manufacturers who have all participated in a weird dutch auction to see who could  announce that they would switch over to electric vehicles the soonest. 

 

Some of these issues, like adequate charging infrastructure,  or battery maintenance and  safety  - to name just three fundamental ones - can't be equated with occasional mechanical defects that inconvenience only the occupants of that vehicle. 

 

EV's perform well in a niche role where they can be charged at home and do short trips through the day, but assuming that they are in their current (nyuk nyuk!) stage of development  the successful answer to every other vehicle on the road is just Elon Musk gibberish. 

 

I checked some second hand 2021/2022  Teslas for sale last weekend out of curiosity and the majority of them had done well under 10,000km, which seems to bear out the theory that  they are bought as "boutique" second vehicles for those who want to pose rather than drive them seriously, or are indeed bought mainly  by those who do short trips in them , rather than the average 15,500km per year family.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Winslow Boy]

I have an idea. Why don't we all just work from home. 

[Erichill16]

9 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 (solutions.....groan)

 

My friends business has managed to get two of my pet hates into its business name.

 

‘i Bathroom Solutions’ 

 

His name is Kev and he fits bathrooms so why not

 

‘ Kev the bathroom fitter’

 

simples oh no I’m starting with it now!

Edited January 19 by Erichill16
Spelling

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

EV's perform well in a niche role where they can be charged at home and do short trips through the day

Probably 90% of journeys for a very large number of people. Bet it's closer to 99% for many.

 

My V6 is 20 years old and has done less than 100,000 miles. I lived relatively close to work. My longest regular trip was to the airport.

 

Growing up, daily use for the family car was mostly going to the shops. We lived close to a railway station. Dad commuted to work by train as did I for university. For most of my schooling I walked or rode a bicycle.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Some of these issues, like adequate charging infrastructure,  or battery maintenance and  safety  - to name just three fundamental ones

Internal combustion engine-powered vehicles had all the same problems (refueling access, safe handling of fuels etc), gradually resolved over 158 years.

[BR60103]

Mrs. 103 called the doctor's office today about RSV vaccine.  Apparently, we need a prescription and then the vax costs $300.   Each.

 

After some correspondence with the publisher, I managed to renew my RM subscription.  The software does not like out of country postal codes.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

34 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

The software does not like out of country postal codes.

I tried to contribute to one of the RMweb appeals some years back. Everything looked like it worked but my credit card was not charged.