Early Risers.

[Barry O]

Good afternoon.

We have had bits of rain on and off all day. No painting of unmentionable people carrying objects has been carried out. Pah! It is now blowing a hoolie here.

 

BoD baggsy PM..i am not good seeing anyones blood apart from my own.

 

In other news I have at last located the items I had misplaced...in the box I lookedin first!

 

Enjoy the rest of the day!

Baz

[pH]

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Our friends in Connecticut had strictly “indoor cats”.  They allegedly would have been coyote snacks if left outside. 

 

True - there are 'Cat missing' posters regularly put up around here. 

[Ian Abel]

Afternoon all.

Very enjoyable "virtual happy hour" with our good friends. Only down-side was starting wine-o'clock at 5:30 resulted in the Mrs being ready to crash by about 8:30

 

Today, wouldn't you know it - the client NEEDS some changes made for reports that are supposed to be presented to the board first thing Monday. So, even with a "stay home/work-from-home" and many folks taking advantage of less work, I have to blqqdy WORK today

 

Not that we'd actually do much else I guess, raining here so not going to walk any.

 

6 and rain, due for 9 as a high.

 

Take care everyone.

[AndyID]

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

This sort of thing has never been about productivity or communication, but all about status and the need to establish authority and to control people (even though a recent study from Harvard Business school not only showed that open plan/hot desking/cubicle farms are actually counterproductive and decrease efficiency/interaction/productivity). This, like many bad business ideas, comes to us from the US. Oddly enough, for a supposedly egalitarian country, the Americans are incredibly sensitive to the pecking order within a business. Office/No Office, makes decisions/not allowed to make decisions, parks near the front door/parks at the back of the parking lot, etc., etc.  I remember an instance when our newly promoted head of department (for the European affiliate of an American company) moved into a corner office without explicit and specific permission from HQ in New York. To say that this ruffled a few American feathers further up the food chain in NY is an understatement (and don't get me started on a US Company - Swiss Company joint collaboration on a project that I took part in, suffice to say that decision making in the Swiss Company was pushed down to lowest possible level [i.e. at the level of the people doing the work] whereas our counterparts in the American team had to push decision making up the food chain... Needless to say this resulted in delays in decision making when (far too often) the senior VP for this or that couldn't be found [a.k.a. "no available slots in his/her schedule"] and the Swiss team had to sit around and twiddle our thumbs as we couldn't progress without "buy-in" from the US team....)

Jobs, Musk, Zuckerberg, Gates, etc. may all superficially pay lip service to "an open and progressive company culture" - but you don't see them hot desking or having to negotiate for a "quiet space" in order to get work done/have a confidential meeting. And as for the American mantra of "profit at any cost...."

 

Before I retired I worked for several US corporations in the US. Three of them were actually acquired by European companies during that time.

 

That generally made things worse.

[AndyID]

6 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Our friends in Connecticut had strictly “indoor cats”.  They allegedly would have been coyote snacks if left outside. 

 

As we discovered. I heard it but it's probably just as well I didn't see it.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I was a bit miffed last Sunday when I switched the TV on to get the news/weather only to find that they'd moved it from its scheduled slot to an earlier time. The same this afternoon, I switched on at 6:40, the scheduled time expecting the news only to find that it had already been broadcast. To make matters worse the program that was on in place, a repeat of an old 'Mastermind' program could easily be put on at an earlier time even if it made the news a bit later. 

[brianusa]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Breaking news, a cat has been found to have the coronavirus. If it was a dog it would be bad enough but how do you isolate a cat? Best thing would be to distance yourself from any animal.

Now we really have a problem!  It is likely most cat people will ignore any potential infection and and carry on as normal

     Brian.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

Three of them were actually acquired by European companies during that time.

 

That generally made things worse.

With my most recent employer that was my experience as well. The acquiring company was German.

[brianusa]

12 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I was optimistic that might still be possible and would not entirely give up on the possibility though we need to see a peak in case rate. We are not there yet. With some increased testing (still not enough for everyone) the confirmed case rate is increasing rapidly right now.

 

COVID-19 seems to have burned through Wuhan in about 4 months - depending on when you start counting. Here in Oregon we are a month or so in. The Oregon Health Authority formed their incident response team on January 21. Our first local case occurred on February 28. The first of several escalating executive orders was issued by the Governor on March 8. I can see some relaxing of circumstances by the 4th of July, but admittedly that's a hopeful outlook.

 

I have that dreadful feeling that we may be discussing this very point in October

     Brian.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, brianusa said:

It is likely most cat people will ignore any potential infection and and carry on as normal

You know the cats will!

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, roundhouse said:

Two car dealers have moved all their cars off the forecourt.

Automobile manufacturers have a adapted the new normal very quickly with their advertising.

 

Many major manufacturers are offering deferred payment terms (I've seen 120 days) along with remote buying and home delivery in their television advertising. 

 

I don't know what is like "on the ground" for the car dealerships. I expect most of their sales people are at home, but the service departments are open. I imagine, like many consumer businesses, seasonal results would be down.

[Ian Abel]

Well...

 

To cap a day spent mostly waiting for responses as I "work" to get things changed for the client, in true MinneSNOWTA style, we've now been issues a Winter Weather Advisory.

It's raining now, but the advisory is from 9PM tonight until 9AM Sunday, wet snow expected 1-5 inches locally and winds gusting to 35mph.

Not sure exactly where we'll be in the path of the weather but right now looks like we are probably going to be in the midst of it if the current track continues!

 

Batten down the hatches, it's going to be wine-o'clock rather soon IMHO!

[grandadbob]

 Evenin' each,

The Boss is still very much under the weather. I made some vegetable soup for lunch and at least she had a small bowl of that but nothing much else.  She didn't fancy anything tonight though.

She did cheer up a bit this evening  as we've just had a mammoth one hour Facetime session with kids and grandkids. They all seem to be OK considering.

Aussie Cabernet Sauvignon is tonight's slurp. I'm rationing myself and managing to make a bottle last 3 nights instead of the usual 2.

I'm shortly going to make a take over bid for the TV and watch a dvd  (if I can find something I fancy) I can guarantee that if I like it The Boss won't but never mind, she's had the remote all flippin' day!

[Ozexpatriate]

Baby Shark joins the fight against COVID-19 to encourage kiddies to wash their hands.

 

Click. If you dare. Thar be ear worms!

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I caught up on the news on I-player, then caught up with the Repair Shop, I wish I had the skills of those guys. Now to catch up on Farcebook, be back later.

[newbryford]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Baby Shark joins the fight against COVID-19 to encourage kiddies to wash their hands.

 

Click. If you dare. Thar be ear worms!

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

NOT.

 

(Passed onto workmates for their annoyance)

[jamie92208]

Evening all.   Some muddling got done this afternoon and evening and it's a little warmer tonight than last night. When I came back from the shed the moon was much closer to Venus but no orange colour.  

I did however manage to check last nights pictures.  This was my best effort. And despite my best efforts the system won't display the picture the right way up.  The moon should be at the bottom.

 

Hope everyone is well out there and that Mrs GDB improves, also that BB is OK.

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Goodnight al!

Baz

[Coombe Barton]

Warm tootsies.

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/03/28/my-lum-is-reeking/

[tigerburnie]

G'night all and remember the clocks go forward tonight

[Dave Hunt]

Spent much of this morning making a large pan of scouse (well, I am a Liverpudlian) for tonight's dinner and another several portions for the freezer. After that I managed to get down to the workshop for a couple of hours working on the la**ut. High spot of the day, though, was receipt of a package from the guys on Fraggle Rock - ordered on Thursday and here 48 hours later despite the current circumstances. Thanks Neil and the gang for your efforts; much appreciated.

 

Tomorrow will be partially devoted to making a batch of marmalade, carrying out some domestic task orders and possibly some more muddling. With there being an hour less in the day it could be tricky cramming all that in.

 

Stay safe and well everyone and hopes for Mrs. GDB's and Bill's improvement.

 

Dave 

Edited March 28, 2020 by Dave Hunt

[Erichill16]

Day of relative rest, went for walk am them did some paperwork in the afternoon and an hours modelling this evening. Was feeling a bit better earlier but after listening to Steven Nolan and Five Live things have gone down hill. Much thinking needed as how to operate pharmacy next week. Me thinks not much sleep tonight. 

How easy will it be to train people up whilst maintaining a 2m distance ? 

How can I show a new delivery man the ropes if he has to be 2m away? Train him up using a stretch limo?

Got to laugh. ( haven’t you?)

good night

Robert

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

The weather never really improved today, but at least it stayed dry, despite looking like it was going to rain at any time. Anyway, I managed to repot two small hydrangeas into two slightly larger pot to the ones that they’d been in and I finally managed to get my perennial sweet peas in the ground. I bit more tidying up was done and about a dozen pots of biennial plants that were potted up last year and didn’t grow, were emptied. We have a trough which has a small rosemary plant in it, it was slightly off centre, so I moved it into the middle and then added two smaller rosemary plants, one either side to make it a little more symmetrical. I also re-sited the planters on the patio which I’d removed yesterday when I applied the sealant to the patio. 

 

Once I’d packed up for the day, I came in and had a closer look at the four non-working relay boards I tested yesterday. I spotted the faults on two of these straight away, one had a wire disconnected from one of the relay contacts and the other I’d fitted one of the capacitors the wrong way round, oops. Both were easily rectified and once done they worked perfectly. The next one needed the contact micro switch adjusting slightly and then that too worked ok. The last was a bit of a head scratcher, I removed the two nylon securing screws and it worked ok. Refitted then and it once again failed to operate, so I slide a small piece of wood (a small piece of an ice lolly stick) between the base of the relay and the circuit board, refitted the screws and it worked perfectly, I’m not sure why, as there are 5 others with the exact same relay that work ok without the piece of wood, but hey ho.

 

I’ve just spent the last 20 minutes resetting clocks and watches ready for tonight time change, I think they’re all done now with the exception the workshop and the car, but I’ll do them tomorrow morning. 

 

Goodnight all

[newbryford]

10 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Day of relative rest, went for walk am them did some paperwork in the afternoon and an hours modelling this evening. Was feeling a bit better earlier but after listening to Steven Nolan and Five Live things have gone down hill. Much thinking needed as how to operate pharmacy next week. Me thinks not much sleep tonight. 

How easy will it be to train people up whilst maintaining a 2m distance ? 

How can I show a new delivery man the ropes if he has to be 2m away? Train him up using a stretch limo?

Got to laugh. ( haven’t you?)

good night

Robert

 

 

There seem to be routines coming to the fore where the delivery person puts the package down and walks away to a safe distance.

Royal Mail have already implemented a "no-signature" rule :

In order to protect both our people and customers as much as possible, we are minimising contact during delivery.  We will not be handing over our hand-held devices to customers to capture signatures but instead log the name of the person accepting the item.  Additionally, for all customers where we need to deliver any item that won’t fit through your letterbox, we will place your item at your door. Having knocked on your door, we will then step aside to a safe distance while you retrieve your item. This will ensure your item is delivered securely rather than being left outside. 

 

I visited my local (well-stocked) SPAR as part of my daily walk this evening. Not easy to maintain a 2m distance when the staff stand behind a narrow counter. I tried to stand back after placing my items to be scanned through the till.

In-store staff (like yourself) are the ones at greater exposure to risk. You have my utmost sympathy.

 

We all need longer arms.......

 

[newbryford]

2 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

 

 

I’ve just spent the last 20 minutes resetting clocks and watches ready for tonight time change, I think they’re all done now with the exception the workshop and the car, but I’ll do them tomorrow morning. 

 

Goodnight all

 

Oh carp - clocks going forward.

That means one hour less lie-in...