Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, newbryford said:

I'm not over 70, but if the NB household is quarantined, then we have to panic buy DIY supplies.............

 

 

 

I am not over 70 but it seems younger people with certain conditions (not named) may be included.  I may tidy the garage again. Not tidying after the last diy has made it messy. I am starting to do things with my trains again so perhaps not going anywhere wouldn’t be at all bad for me. 
My nephew in Germany said a lot of people in his town are not going out much now. He and his girlfriend can work at home. They were planning to visit her family in Austria next week but border changes may make that impossible. 
 

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

When schools started getting desktop publishing and sophisticated word processors many students found it easy to forge some quite good ID to increase their apparent age. 

 

In my old job in the Youth Justice Team we dealt with a steady stream of those, usually taken off kids by club bouncers - unfortunately one was taken from the hands of the daughter of one of the team!     One embarrassed team member and one severely bollocked daughter, attending an alcohol educational course in lieu of a caution..... 

[pH]

8 hours ago, AndyB said:

Morning all. 

Richard, for what it's worth....

U bend in the kitchen sink got blocked once upon a time.

Sink full of dirty water failing to drain. 

Put a washing up beneath the U bend and proceeded to remove the U bend.

Contents of sink successfully captured in washing up bowl.  

Now what do we normally do with water in the washing up bowl?

Yep. 

Just about got the plug in the sink before it was toooo late.

 

Been there, done that!

[pH]

10 hours ago, Barry O said:

Softer than the corrugated bog paper they used to have in Germany

Baz

 

I'd forgotten about that! 

[NGT6 1315]

Cheers, folks. You all watching Corona-tion Street?  

 

Sheesh, I can't ever seem to keep up with ERs these days, so once again, appy-polly-loggies. Spring is definitely in the air over here, so we started tidying up the garden for the new season.

 

With the country beginning to go into lockdown over COVID, I'm wondering how long it might be until the first confirmed case in our company. Which might then have all sorts of repercussions if a significant number of drivers might have to be quarantined… I had the past week off, so I am curious how things will unfold until Tuesday when I'll be back to work.

 

Dinner's almost ready, so, take care of you and yours.

[BoD]

Evening all

 

Just back from a day playing trains for the National Trust where quite a few volunteers have already decided not to come.  Given the age profile of volunteers I can see the Trust having issues at some of their properties.  One of the layouts we run is aThomas the Tank layout, for children of all ages, but today it has been put out of action because it is automatic in that the trains are set in motion by buttons being pressed.  I guess it’s not such a good idea to have lots of different people pressing the same buttons. Having said that the footfall today was quite a bit less than a normal Sunday.

 

Personally whilst I don’t fit in the age category for self isolation I am in the top two groups of vulnerability when measured by mortality rate. I went to a local model shop yesterday to panic buy replenish stocks but it was closed.  On checking its website, probably should have done so before I went, it has closed as a precaution because many of its customers are elderly.

[Ozexpatriate]

Perhaps things are being served up differently in the UK,  but here the focus is on the "social distancing" concept - meaning no one is imprisoned in their homes unless of course they are actually contagious.

 

There are no restrictions in going out of doors so long as an attempt is made to maintain a distance of 1m - 2m away from people. It is gatherings of people packed in cheek to jowl that have been cancelled. Avoiding activities where strangers touch everything in sight would be recommended.

 

Hiking is a recommended activity.

 

After yesterday's snow, today is bright, sunny and cloudless day though still cool at 4.5°C as the sun approaches the zenith.

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

49 minutes ago, NGT6 1315 said:

Corona-tion Street?

I like it. Coronanation is almost literally correct.

[AndyB]

2 hours ago, PeterBB said:

SWMBO is horrified at the prospect of over 70s quarantine.  She is of the opinion that it will lead to severe frustration and drop in my health and that I will go mad with 'nothing' to do ... might be right.  Have already written an email to our local MP on the subject.

Hold on. You're married and your wife won't find stuff for you to do every day of a 4-stretch? Who is this paragon of enlightenment and tolerance?

 

Got to dash the bathroom needs another coat of paint. Apparently. 

[Tony_S]

MiL lives round the corner from Aditi’s sister who does a lot of day to day support for her, shopping, taking to appointments and so on. SiL is concerned that if she and her husband have to self isolate what will happen to MiL. Aditi of course said MiL could come here, assuming we are ok. We don’t socialise much anyway. Aditi wasn’t amused when I said we could reenact Lenin in the sealed train or her Mum could travel in the car boot If the elderly are quarantined. The reason SiL is concerned is that her husband is a GP in London and some of his patients haven’t been aware of the don’t go and cough on your GP advice. 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Tony_S

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, Tony_S said:

... our friend’s main concern is how her husband will cope without all the sport he watches and listens to. 

It's interesting which disruptions to 'normalcy' are the most immediately apparent.

 

Recognizing the selfishness in such observations (people are dying sooner than they "should" and we had our first COVID-19 fatality here in Portland yesterday - a 70-year old veteran) but the changes to television programming (including sports) have been the most evident to me.

 

It reinforces that I watch too much television (which I already knew) but it's also telling just how much creatures of habit many of us (myself included) like to be. Actually I don't watch the television actively for a lot of the time it is on - it's just in the background which I ascribe mostly to living alone.

[jamie92208]

Well we have had a very su ny day and the temp got up to a healthy 17 this afternoon.   This morning wecwent to thevmarketvas usual. The bars were closed but there werd still plenty of folk around. However notva lot of kissing on both cheeks.  We then bought some flowers for the friends we normally have coffee with in the bar. We then delivered them on our way home and had a cup of coffee there. After lunch rhecwalk was abandoned in favour of grass cutting. Beth has justvrealised that using the hand mower is quite hard work despite it geing self propelled.  I used the tractor for the big areas.  It looks like a lot better but we then ran out of petrol.

 

A nice meal was had and a bottle of bubbly is being finished.  Martin and Katie have had their flights to the US cancelled but can change the dates and rebook.  They seem quite sanguine about it.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Ozexpatriate]

I appreciate the frustration many people have shared with the disruptions to our routines recommended by governmental disease control specialists. I share them too.

 

Yesterday I felt unwell and spiked a mild fever. It was slightly less than 104.4°F / 38°C - which I've seen listed as a reporting threshold. It is now gone. Despite a runny nose (for a long time) and a scratchy throat (which the doctor examined a couple of weeks ago) and an occasional non-productive cough I don't really feel sick.

 

Mostly I think my house needs a good Spring clean.  It was newly constructed and is so airtight for efficiency purposes that it was built with two low volume exhaust fans that run constantly. I need to dust and get some fresh air in. Do I have COVID-19? Probably not. While I have "underlying health issues", I'm under 60 and with the scarcity of testing available in the US, probably don't rate being tested. I did have a 'flu shot this season.

 

We should be careful regarding comparisons between COVID-19 and seasonal influenza or even more irrelevantly, cancer fatalities. I can't back it up with data but suspect that the same COVID-19 vulnerable populations are also the ones most effected by seasonal influenza. It will be interesting to see whether the dramatically disruptive approaches to slow the spread of COVID-19 also have a positive impact on 2019/2020 seasonal influenza numbers.  I for one am content to accept data given by the senior epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control to the US Congress that COVID-19 is at least ten times the lethality of seasonal influenza.

 

Some will look at things with a philosophical "when it's my time, it's my time" approach but a life spent lighting cigarettes at the petrol pump seems more like foolishness than "God's will" to me.

 

To anyone trying the risk tolerance numbers game, I would ask you whether you are willing to fly in a Boeing 737 MAX - after all it's mortality rate is very low, even compared with COVID-19 fatalities to date! There were thousands of flights before two crashed and 128 people died. Of course comparing passenger deaths per miles flown for the MAX versus earlier 737 variants is a different comparison.

 

The same arguments are true of US Railroad companies that dragged their feet over following NTSB and Congressional mandate to implement positive train control. It was cheaper to settle injury lawsuits than implement PTC. Locally this resulted in a fatal derailment by an insufficiently road-trained driver on the inaugural run of a diverted Amtrak Cascades service. That's where comparative numbers games can take us.

 

/rant over

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[J. S. Bach]

A late good afternoon owl from the Piedmont.

 

I confess to going out after church and lunch to Mallwart for a panic-buying session; a hand of bananas and TWO!!! jugs of cat litter!!!!!

[TheSignalEngineer]

4 hours ago, PeterBB said:

SWMBO is horrified at the prospect of over 70s quarantine.  She is of the opinion that it will lead to severe frustration and drop in my health and that I will go mad with 'nothing' to do

No worries there, i've got a hard disk with about 12,000 photos on it I've been meaning to sort through for about three years but other things get in the way, then there's two or three rooms need painting. Oh, and there's about two kilos of ballast need to go down on the layout.

(note to self - get down to Wickes tomorrow and get a big container of PVA.)

[roundhouse]

Just been advised that the East Surrey N gauge show that we were attending with Santa Barbara has been cancelled. No surprise really.

[Barry O]

Who says railway modellers don't have a silly side?

 

Bazj

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Spoke to my brother earlier. He's not as badly affected by the coronavirus as I thought he would be. Surprisingly he does not have to take immune suppressants despite having heart valves from a cow installed. Also the dialysis suite is not in the main hospital but a separate unit. They do monitor his temperature though before the start of each session. I normally shop for fresh food every day, I'm considering doing my shopping late evening/early morning when theres fewer people about, Tess Coes is open 24 hours. Just a thought about shopping, are the supermarket trolleys safe to touch? I do have a box of latex gloves, I think it might be an idea to keep them in the car.

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.

 

Slightly frustrating day at the small railway but a result of sorts was achieved.  And a slightly frustrating day in general as the Orange Army continue to make a good deal of noise digging holes in the level crossing for some reason or another and causing all manner of inconvenience to the local population by splitting the Hill of Strawberries in half.  Access between requires a good mile of additional walking or the ability to negotiate four flights of steps.  

 

SWMBO was going to walk to the river earlier.  She returned unable to do so.  Four flights of steps is more than she can manage.  It seems no consideration was offered for the less-able when they dug up the entire road and railway.  

 

In other news a difference of opinion has arisen.  I will never turn a friend away; SWMBO suggests that we lock down.  There is no reason to lock down and it would prevent me from working so I have to come and go anyway.  The situation is unresolved.  If a friend calls round they are welcome so far as I am concerned; they might actually be in need of friendship or support themselves meaning to turn them away could do far more harm than good.  

 

It's back to the House of Fun in the morning.  The Orange Army suggest they will be finished by 04.00.  That looked unlikely late this afternoon when they had just started what they described as "the morning's jobs".  It may be an entertaining trip to work .....   

 

G'night all.  Sleep well. 

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[Erichill16]

2 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

A late good afternoon owl from the Piedmont.

 

I confess to going out after church and lunch to Mallwart for a panic-buying session; a hand of bananas and TWO!!! jugs of cat litter!!!!!

I’ve been out and bought six cans of dog food and I don’t even have a dog!
regards Robert

[polybear]

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

The reason SiL is concerned is that her husband is a GP in London and some of his patients haven’t been aware of the don’t go and cough on your GP advice. 

 

Some total To55er idiot in Stevenage visited his doc after telling the receptionist he's got a bad leg.  Once in with the doc he says he hasn't got a bad leg but thinks he's got C-19......

Hope he got a lifetime ban and crossed off the books.

[PeterBB]

5 hours ago, 81C said:

Just the job for knocking the clinker off  

That reply grates a little!

[newbryford]

I'm sorted if I have to self-quarantine.

 

 

[pH]

2 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

A late good afternoon owl from the Piedmont.

 

I confess to going out after church and lunch to Mallwart for a panic-buying session; a hand of bananas and TWO!!! jugs of cat litter!!!!!

 

Is that the whole recipe, or are there other ingredients?