Early Risers.

[BR60103]

I think the problem is confusion between cardinal and ordinal numbers, (to say nothing of the episcopal and papal ones).

If you say the umpteenth decade since a certain event B, then the decade begins on the first day of a year ending in digit 1, and the initial digits are umpteen minus 1.

If you say the decade of the 1920s, then it is all years 192x.

 

I am going to define my decades from our last move, which was in April 2013.

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

... Its impossible to convey the enormity of the fires and their impact here, Not just to the poor people who have had to either rush from their homes with just what they can carry, or fight a wall of flame 50 metres high with a garden hose, but on every day life. ...

 

We've had 2 years of drought - I've had less than a third of average rainfall this year and everything is completely dry. ...

 

We really do need some rain.

It is hard to convey. Summer of 2018 was pretty horrible up and down the west coast of North America. In the Camp Fire alone there were 85 casualties and the town of Paradise, CA was completely destroyed. (Often fires will destroy some homes but leave others.) Locally the Eagle Creek fire in 2017 left us with orange skies and ashfall. The wildfires on the US west coast have been bad enough, but affected an order of magnitude less land that this year's fires in Australia.

 

5 hours ago, brianusa said:

 The sad part is will there be any changes made to combat this perennial problem for Australia.

I think this is far worse than the "perennial" problem, much like California wildfires of the last three years have been worse than the historical, perennial wildfire problem there. 

 

4 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

The scary thought is that this MAY be the new normal. Maybe it won't rain like it used to. Sydney is down to around 40% water, scheduled to run dry in 18 months if the drought doesn't shift.

We may become the first city that cannot be lived in due to a changing climate.

It is a scary thought but not unreasonable. We are now behind our normal rainfall by about 6.81" since the beginning of October (about 51% of "normal"). This is over the wettest part of the year. We won't make it up next summer when it doesn't normally rain. (If it did, it would be catastrophic since the snowpack is our reservoir and heavy mountain rain in the spring can melt it all.)

 

Australia is the canary in the coal mine (no pun intended) for climate change. The impact of heat in Australia is greatest because the earth's closest approach to the sun during it's orbit (perihelion) occurs on January 5, coinciding with the southern hemisphere summer. This, in part, is why the hottest temperature records (related to climate change) can be the worst in Australia, while climate change deniers in the northern hemisphere scoff at notional global "warming" every time it snows.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

I hope all ERs (especially our Australian ones) are safe and well.

 

Our outdoor pond is slowly dring out..now its just a very muddy hollow. I just wish we could send our rainfall to Oz to help out withthe drought for a week or two.

 

Nowt much planned for today. I am down to my last two stock boxes of couplings to be checked. Woooppppiiiidddddoooo!

 

Plans have been made to meet an ER tomorrow..hope it all works! News later.

 

Mugatea is here so TTFN!

Baz

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from The Charente.   A bit damp here and we've no signal on the set top box. I may have to climb a ladder later.  Coffee and breakfast has been had and there are some phone calls to make.  After that possibly a shopping trip.  Some painting, hopefully, as the undercoat hadn't fully dried yesterday.  If it has then the shutters need turning over for the fronts to be undercoated.

 

Horrible news from Australia.  We didn't see any of the interior when we were there apart from north if Cairns and everything was cloudy when we were flying. However as has already been said I can't imagine the trauma of losing a house and all it's contents.  

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Hare, 1067/666, yes the number of the beast, though there is some thought that the number of the beast should be 616 and was mis-translated.

A poor nights sleep in that it was very broken up..

 

A somewhat surprised Ben the alarm clock Collie saw me getting up at 05:00ish, so he ran upstairs to tell SWMBO,  who wasn't impressed...As I didn't arrive with the morning cup of tea for another 30minutes..

 

Ben also came outside with me but didn't leave my side, so I took him back to the house and he was most disappointed to  go inside and see me leave him..

 

I've arrived at my lab desk to find a nice new monitor, problem is the wireless mouse doesn't work, I wonder where the dongle is now, sitting still in the back of the old monitor..

 

Also on my desk is a new 1G ohm Resistor, so the reference for that measurement is settling.

 

Two major systems are due next week, I'm trying to persuade them to give one of them to me today.

 

1.0001789 G Ohms Reference

 

That was the longest I've had off from work in 18 years, as I prefer to take smaller chunks, with just 666 working days till permanent holiday? I was considering my approach to the future , this longer break shows I am no longer capable of repeated days of physical work. So scheduling physical work interspersed with muddling may be important..

 

1.0000410 G Ohms UUT

 

This computer is being very slow, as it catches up with virus checks etc, the email box was full of virus checks failed to run / SAP system not updated, and various things that don't like the PC being turned off.

 

Time to.. sit and wait for the reference resistor to settle again..

 

Ps found the old monitor as it hadn't yet been disposed of as it requires being written off, found dongle plug in , it's now installed in the back of this monitor..

 

1.0001775 G Ohms Reference 

 

So the true value of the UUT works out to be 0.999996 G Ohms. I'll remeasure again tomorrow and the next day..

[BoD]

Morning all

 

The sky is providing a strange pink light this morning.  
Thankfully nothing to do with fires.

Stay safe wherever you are.

[BSW01]

 

Good morning everyone 

 

It was still dark when I got up earlier and it isn’t quite fully light yet, there are a few clouds but some large blue patches are now becoming visible, there is also a slight chance of rain later.

 

Once Sheila has left for her Zumba class, I’ll be on my own for the morning, so my plan is to potter about inside the house, as I have to listen out for the door, so that I can take delivery of a package that’s due any time! So my plan is to make a start on building the MERG kits that arrived just before Christmas, as I can sit at the dining room table. Other than that there isn’t a lot else planned. 

 

Enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

A grey day here and it is forecast to stay like that. Warm for the time of year with the temperature rising to the heady heights of  10°C

Still aching all over so yet another disturbed night.

Today I am informed that we need to shop. It seems "we" need to lose weight and as "we" have a new recipe book with healthy eating recipes various extra (probably ludicrously expensive) ingredients for them need to be purchased along with other stuff. I'll just humour her for now.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Kingzance]

The younger relation of Ben the xxxxxxx Collie has been showing consistency, for the third night running I have been awoken to allow him outside three times. Roll on Saturday night when his normal minders return and hopefully are willing to re-home him. Significant cloud coverage and it is generally moving in a northeasterly direction. Precipitation is not expected and, unlike for Aussie friends and family, it is not prayed for here.

 

Apart from walking the dog, today will mainly see pre-assembly of further LED floodlights and perhaps their installation at Herbie’s manor/estate IICBA. We may dig out one or two of the many “eat well whilst starving” celebrity publications in the kitchen book cupboard as I hope to enter next year’s festive season at least 7Kg less than I started this decade. I suspect that the famed (or infamous) cabbage soup diet may make the occasional appearance. I have resisted baking a new loaf for the next few days too.

 

Congratulations to The Stationmaster for his latest orbit, enjoy a good few more of them. Thoughts with those unable to take full advantage of Baz’s carpeing admonishments and those who support others. Does seize the decade translate into “carpe decedence”?

[monkeysarefun]

[Barry O]

happy Birthday Mike!

 

Baz

[Ohmisterporter]

Just popped in to wish everyone a happy, healthy and above all safe 2020. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Happy birthday Mike. A bit late on parade this morning, didn't even wake up until quarter past eight. Donk and others will be pleased to know that I will not be giving the soft toys to the SFYT's (Small Furry Yapping Terrorists) so they will have to carry on biting peoples ankles. Instead they are being added to the items to be donated to the B17 trust. The soft toys are 'Angry Birds' characters from a movie of the same name (that I haven't even heard of). Hears wishing all of you a happy and prosperous new year, bye for now.

[PhilJ W]

This has just been posted on another thread:>>

5 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

Everybody thought that somebody would do the job, but nobody did ...

 

(Always make sure you disconnect the corridor connector before you disconnect the loco...)

 

 

I can't see how they connected them in the first place. Pullman corridor connection on the locomotive and the old LMS one on the Stove R. For that matter why bother connecting them when on a preserved railway?

[laurenceb]

Birthday greetings Mike

Mornin awl

[grandadbob]

Many Happy Returns Mike! 

[Happy Hippo]

54 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

This has just been posted on another thread:>>

I can't see how they connected them in the first place. Pullman corridor connection on the locomotive and the old LMS one on the Stove R. For that matter why bother connecting them when on a preserved railway?

I once had 'a quiet word' to an individual working on a heritage line where he had uncoupled, but had not undone the steam heating nor the vacuum pipes first.

 

I had thought it a good idea to point this out very quietly, as that would have been rather embarrassing.

 

I got a 'gob full' for my pains, which was unfortunate, as my travelling companion then became involved.  He was a member of the Railway Inspectorate, who took a much dimmer view of the process. 

[5 C]

Apparently New Year's Eve was two days ago, but that didn't stop fireworks being set off last night too. It didn't particularly bother me, but it definitely bothered the small yappy dog that has recently moved into the next road. It yaps at all times of the day and night, at anything and everything. In spite of its location, the area in which I live is incredibly quiet. Sometimes you really can hear a pin drop, so the continual and probably unnecessary barking really stands out.

 

The summit of the ironing mountain was successfully reached at 8.30 last night, leaving this morning free for a supermarket shop and an unexpected minor celebrity spot in The Range (Dominic Byrne of the Chris Moyles Breakfast Show if you're interested).

 

This afternoon will see a few more domestic chores, followed by continued efforts to diagnose a cheaply acquired non-runner. It's a connection issue, so some gentle probing with the multimeter will be needed.

 

Whatever else happens, excess energy will be released later at a Body Combat class.

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, 5 C said:

at a Body Combat class.

My body seems to be in more of a civil disobedience state than combat ready. 

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

This has just been posted on another thread:>>

I can't see how they connected them in the first place. Pullman corridor connection on the locomotive and the old LMS one on the Stove R. For that matter why bother connecting them when on a preserved railway?

That is an absolute classic and its fun (when it shouldn't be) to see the heritage sector can do the job as badly as some sloppy Shunters could in the real world.  What has has happened is that the gangway adaptor on the Standard Gangway on the Stove R has somehow been clipped to the Pullman Gangway on the A4's tender - and it wasn't unclipped before they were parted although fortunately not much damage done although finding new parts might not be easy.  Last time I saw it happen was over 35 years ago when one of my idiot Shunters forget to unclip the (Standard) gangways between two vehicles before parting them.  Happily the gangways appeared to suffer no damage - mainly because while they held together.  But considerably less happily they pulled the entire end out of one of the vehicle bodies so were left with a Syphon G with a great big hole at one end which meant it was condemned on the spot.

 

Being a year old so far feels no different and it would seem that my dear son has managed to chose an appropriate card in that respect (below).  A celebratory event, hopefully at someone else's expense has been arranged and apparently involves water  (but nothing to do with our annual seaborne adventures).   All will be divulged tomorrow - assuming I survive.

 

Enjoy the rest of your day one and all and for those living in Aus, especially NSW and Vic I hope the wind does not turn against you.

 

[Tony_S]

Happy (real not Facebook) Birthday, Mike.  Whatever the celebration is I hope you enjoy it. 
Tony

[Tony_S]

I was trying to recall if we had ever had early January activities involving water and the only ones I can think of would be getting wet hosing down a very muddy spaniel in the back garden. Normally I would let Robbie through the side gate into the back garden and let him run around if he wished. However if I kept him on the lead he knew what was going to happen. He didn’t make a fuss but made sure I got wet too. 
Tony

[Debs.]

9 hours ago, Barry O said:

Plans have been made to meet an ER tomorrow..hope it all works! News later.

Don't keep us all in suspenders....

[jamie92208]

2 minutes ago, Debs. said:

Don't keep us all in suspenders....

TMI  Debs.

 

Jamie

[81C]

Afternoon All

Happy birthday Mike ,

The weather sorry didn't look today. 

 

I've been running round like a blue #rse fly, talking of #rses I texted the slapped one  to say she needs to get her post redirecting form filled in and sent 

in by today all I got back was a Kevin mode "I know" I said I was trying to be helpful  you sh!t bag get a life.

 

I spent most of the day at the flat measuring and planning what goes where so yes it will all fit in god knows what I'm going to do with all the railway stuff just leave it in a stack till I can deal with it.

SiL was impressed with the size of the flat I should be able to have decent size parties there slapped #rse never liked parties, she it bought a maisonette which I looked at, an Ideal place to kill cats.

Chatted to Blondie today she is checking on here baby sitting chores and we are on the razzle later next week same goes for Lady Hazelmere out for a posh dinner I hope. 

I can see Les Dawson doing his stuff when Debs mentions Webbing. 

It's dinner time I wonder what box is going to go ding tonight, must get on S.T Arhvin.