Early Risers.

[Dave Hunt]

A curate's egg sort of a day. Due to a change of management decisions the Christmas card extravaganza this morning was put on hold in favour of some administrative niff naff and trivia (a good thing in my jaundiced view) then we had a very nice lunch out (another good thing). Then we went for Jill's hospital appointment that turned into a bad thing as she was told that she has to have an operation sometime in the new year and has been somewhat down ever since. Hence this evening has been something of a damp squib and she ended up deciding to have an early night so I'm just having a small libation of Scottish happy juice before I too seek the land of nod.

 

Judging by the posts on here, though, I'm far from being the only ER who has not had a totally successful/satisfactory day. With luck we'll all have better ones tomorrow, though, and my thoughts are with you.

 

Got a 2020 diary from a friend and started putting next year's known events in it, starting with the ER Bazfest at Derby in May - something definitely to look forward to. 

 

Goodnight all, sweet dreams.

 

Dave 

[tigerburnie]

Evening all, damp and foggy day, but mild, had a run into Dundee to spend copious amounts of modelling tokens on stuff for santa to deliver to grandkids, a job well done, not a huge amount to get to finish the job too.

[Barry O]

Evening all.

 

Busy day with various bits completed.

 

As water has been flowing down the street and the garden is really well flooded her indoors emailed our 3 local councillors. Two responded, the third fron a different party hasn't bothered.  Result is ..a big hole has been dug in the roas. Traffic lights have been added. BUT the water is still flowing.

 

Tomorrow should see a coffee and quick natter with Jamie.

Sleep well all!

 

Positive thoughts to all who ail especially Sharron and Debs.

Baz

[Barry O]

Oops..forgot..

Goodnight all!

Baz

[J. S. Bach]

On 25/11/2019 at 11:46, PeterBB said:

Just reminded me - seen in a Walsall car 'showroom' some time ago - a pink car with the registration plate K1NKY

K1NKY is a US amateur radio callsign.

[Tony_S]

Evening all.

Not a lot happening. 
We watched the first part of War of the Worlds. Of course Aditi asked “ok, what is wrong with the train?”.

 I am waiting for some bread to finish baking. We are off south tomorrow, south of the river at least. Bexley to be precise. One of Aditi’s former colleagues is on maternity leave so we will be going for lunch and to admire the new baby. Sat nav predicts a 35 minute journey, I look forward to seeing how accurate that turns out to be. 
Aditi is giving a presentation about Quebec City to her French group tomorrow evening.  This was enough to finally get me to sort out lots of images from phones and cameras into something more organised.  Moving all those images about showed a few limitations of my main PC but it got there in the end. Aditi had a photo of me eating poutine in Quebec but I swapped it for one of her which I am sure will amuse her tomorrow evening. 
Tony

[BSW01]

33 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Evening all.

Not a lot happening. 
We watched the first part of War of the Worlds. Of course Aditi asked “ok, what is wrong with the train?”.

 

Funnily enough I was asked the very same question!

Edited November 26, 2019 by BSW01

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Today’s shopping trip was, erm, expensive, but no hum, there are no pockets in shrouds! However, on the plus side, when we got back home, the MERG order I placed yesterday afternoon was on the doormat, now that’s what I call service.

 

Whilst Sheila was out this afternoon, I made a huge pan of corned beef hash and we had a bowl each for tea. The rest (5 tubs, each holding 2 portions) has been put into suitable containers and frozen.

 

I also found time this afternoon to plan the layout for the CDU for the point control circuit. I just need to plan one for the 555 timer now, something to do tomorrow. 

 

Goodnight all 

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The new watch only took 20 minutes to get enough charge to get started. Tomorrow I will have to study the destructions to work it properly, and find out how to adjust the metal strap. 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[J. S. Bach]

Nighty-night from the Piedmont.

[Ozexpatriate]

A day of many contrasts today. Weather was chilly and grey. There was snow to the east and south* but we had only a little rain.

 

* Yet another "bomb cyclone" / cyclogenesis bomb where pressure drops ≥24 mb in 24 hours.

 

A little DIY project was accomplished today. I installed a drawer pull (as a hook to hang clothes) on my ironing cupboard. A simple job?  One might think, but not so. Care was taken to drill a hole the exact size required in the proper place. (The power drill only wiggled off target by a tiny little bit.) I noticed that the drawer pull had a metal spike next to the threaded hole to prevent it from rotating.  I did not expect this wrinkle and attempted to accommodate it. By trying two different orientations, both times when finally tightened (being very careful to keep the hook vertical through the process) resulted in a crooked hook. I eventually corrected it, but not without a tiny but visible scar on the surface of the cupboard.

 

In another respect it was a truly red letter day in the Ozexpatriate Hermitage. In place of a loft I have a purpose built room in the top of my house intended for a certain hobby. This room adds an extra 50% to the floor space (and the mortgage). When newly constructed I nicknamed this room the "ballroom" in honour of it's open space and simulated wood flooring. The ballroom has been a sad space with no dancing* - a source of much frustration to me.  Today the former little wallflowers are now dancing sweetly in 4' x 8' (temporary) circuits!!

 

* A metaphorical term in deference to the awl.

 

So not blown motors, blown controllers, shorts, general grime or other possible suspects but a bad (purchased) power connection. All is well.

 

Late in the day, I went to the really, really nice grocery shop in the posh suburb today for cheeses and fig jam to bring to Thanksgiving dinner. Amongst its many attractions this shop contains a mother lode of barrel aged beers. One very well known brewer from central Oregon offered three versions of essentially a similar stout (with varying extra ingredients) in three different barrels - American Oak, Sherry casks and Port casks.  I was also happy to find a beer from Michigan that impressed at "the Little Woody" - a summer barrel-aged brewfest in Bend, Oregon. I spent a very surprising amount to partly fill just three paper sacks*.  At that point I remembered why I don't usually go there even though it is quite wonderful**.  The 45 minute parking limit for most of the spaces is a deterrent too.

 

* Unlike most shops this one charges $0.10 for each paper bag, proportionally when double bagged.

** Their butchery had sausages emblazoned with the Union Flag and labeled "Bangers". I will have to try that some time. As research, you understand.

 

Before leaving for the groceries I forgot to defrost the ground meat I had intended to use  for pasta sauce. I could have done a vegetarian pasta sauce but grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup sufficed. Pasta tomorrow - so long as I remember to pull the ground beef and pork out of the freezer.

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by Ozexpatriate

[leopardml2341]

Morning, or at least that's what the clock says.

 

It's raining heavily here in South Derbyshire which is probably why I'm awake when I really shouldn't be, ho hum; the alarm clock allows me another two hours usually.

 

So what to do?

 

Cuppa and some tr@in p@rn methinks.

 

G'night. 

[jamie92208]

A true ER today for nonapparent reason.  I got to our friends in the old village about 4pm after having a pleasant hour with Rachel and a smiling and gurgling Emily. The main purpose of the trip is to put a small house that No2 son lived in on the market. That process was started, along with some other tasks. More to do today including meeting Baz in Leeds and collecting my train tickets for a trip to London tomorrow.

 

As to registrations, Nottingham used to have RA, so BRA38D and other such combinations were not issued. They also had NN and IIRC ANN1 was given to a certain princess in the days when she was collecting speeding tickets in her Reliant Scimitar GTE.

 

Jamie

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It's chucking it down this morning!  When we left for work, it was just drizzling but that has now turned to reasonably heavy rain.

 

7 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

K1NKY is a US amateur radio callsign. 

 

It is, but it is registered to an Amateur who lives in Queens County, NYC and therefore he probably isn't in Walsall (although who knows?!?)

 

Time for a coffee!  Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all

 

I need another box of tissues.  The sad tale, and the cries, of Lewis the koala really got to me yesterday and I can’t begin to imagine what his brave rescuer, Toni Doherty, must be feeling.  Over 350 koalas perished in the fire, which also pretty much took out their habitat, and at the end of the day an endangered species is that much more endangered.  Next time there is a bush fire, and it will come, there may well be other acts of heroism, but none quite like this one.  RIP Lewis.

 

Yesterday I gave the slow cooker another trial.  I need to get more of a feel for what cooks on low and what cooks on high.  I used high when I should have used low and was quite alarmed when the slow cooker started rattling!  Selecting low cured the rattle, thank goodness.  It was a chicken recipe which I shall use again and turned out well despite the silly mistake.

 

Today I should have the haircut which I fully intended to have on Monday but forgot.  Whilst in town it would be a good idea to post the three seasonal greetings cards which are destined overseas.   In the evening is the HMRS meeting at Bletchley where those attending are expected to show off work in progress.  I know what I will take and have a fair idea of what to say about it.  On the way there it will be opportune to book some tickets for concerts at The Stables.  One, with Lucy Ward, is sooner than I thought – Sunday night to be precise.  I’ve not seen her for years and look forward to catching up.

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

* Unlike most shops this one charges $0.10 for each paper bag, proportionally when double bagged.

 

 

Nope. Not going there. No siree!  No chance. Must resist.

[Ozexpatriate]

20 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Nope. Not going there. No siree!  No chance. Must resist.

Some Oregon cities (at least Bend for sure) have already banned single-use plastic grocery bags.  The state legislature passed a ban on single-use grocery bags going into effect in January 2020. There are exemptions for things like meat, fish and dry cleaning, etc. Retail establishments will be charging $0.05 per paper bag at that time.

 

I reuse the "single-use" plastic bags for kitchen garbage. At this point I have quite a stash of them., though I did recently recycle a bunch that were cluttering up the pantry. It will be interesting to see how long it will take me to use them up. 

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by Ozexpatriate

[roundhouse]

Good morning from another wet one. Apparently it rained very hard here but after a few pints of Harveys Old the a few more pints of various winter ales last night, I slept through the heavy rain. My other half didnt. Dropping her off at the station 10 minutes ago there is a lot of water on the roads.

 

Off to Mums at some point and maybe the timber merchants to get baseboard materials for the new layout.

 

Whilst I am not looking forward ot the Great White Worms tomorrow, I am looking forward to lunchtime.

Edited November 27, 2019 by roundhouse

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare, 1103/689

A not so good nights sleep, 3.5 hours then a long awake period of my brain going round and round the same loop of toolbox design.

 

Moorings? yes is may as well be,  04:00 someone turned on a fire hose for a while on the conservatory roof, after that it reduced to just Chuckinitdarn. the road outside is over normal levels as the mud from the beet harvest is blocking some of the exits for water. There were 3 sections right across the road just on our lane and several more beyond.. Even in Norwich where they have drains it was across the roads and over the pavements..

 

Ben the You must be joking Collie, hid in his cage and didn't go to the living room door to see me leaving..

 

SWMBO brought back 3 wooden window blinds for £2 each, one of which we have a use for, the glass door in  a certain shed.. I suspect one of the others will provide some nice dividers in a tool box, actually there might be two tool boxes, I may well make a second for my solder station and it's associated bits and pieces..

 

* paper sacks* come in a variety of sizes, and to me a sack would carry 25kg of spuds.. so Ozexpatriate image appears to be of a very good days shopping..

 

Time to, go down to the lab and hopefully finish the current major equipment..

[Ozexpatriate]

The wind has now picked up outside. It is cold and we should see freezing temperatures overnight but snow is not forecast locally. We are on the northern fringes of the "bomb cyclone" winter storm dumping snow, rain and wind on Southern Oregon and Northern California today.

 

The interstate (I5) is closed heading south into California in the Siskiyou Pass. The mountain passes are a mess.

 

I don't think the bins will blow away, though while I was outside replacing the battery in the garage door keypad I thought the lights had flickered. (I was holding a torch / flashlight so assumed the flicker was me randomly pointing the torch around.) By the time I came indoors again the microwave clock had reset and the cable set top box was rebooting, so I assume we had some kind of power glitch.  

[AndyID]

Despite living out in the sticks we are fortunate to have a pretty good internet service here. A lot of friends and neighbors quite nearby don't. The data service comes over our TV cable connection. Unfortunately the data service interferes with the TV service. When the data modem is connected there is intermittent interference (pixelization) on the telly, but it stops immediately when I turn off the modem. Disabling the Wi-Fi router makes no difference.

 

MrsID captured some of the evidence on video but I think the time has finally come when I'll have to do battle with the cable company. That's likely to take about five hours on the phone. Sigh.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, AndyID said:

I'll have to do battle with the cable company. That's likely to take about five hours on the phone.

Truly tormenting. The checklist is so tiresome: "are any of your connections loose?" "Are you sure?" (They ask this even when they can ping the unit!) And then they insist on sending a technician who will be there sometime between December and March.

 

Is yours a local cable provider or a large national company? I don't experience issues using WiFi and HD television at the same time.

 

I did have signal integrity issues with the slave video decoder in my bedroom - now fixed. My interpretation was that my newly built wiring was so clean that termination reflections were not attenuated, creating noise on the line. 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Been chuckinitdarn all night here.

Garden awash..lots of water running down the road outside..despite the "workers" looking into the hole they dug yesterday.

Pump will be brought out and set to work shortly, parcel to pack and post then off for a proper Italian Coffee with Jamie. I may conduct some shopping to get her indoors a present for later in December.

 

Tonight is club night. Preparations for our move into bigger clubrooms has to start.

 

Grab the day and make it happen good people!

 

Thoughts are with all ERs especially those who ail.

 

Baz