Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Once again the sun is shining and the sky is blue, there are however a few clouds about, but they are white and very high up. Today I’ll be spending most of it in the garden, there is some dead heading to do and some weeding as well. I also want to plant some geraniums under the box hedge at the front, but I’ll trim the hedge first. 

 

We also have a ‘Boots’ own brand blood pressure monitor, which, when reading the information leaflet that came with it is made by Omron! Very easy to use and so far has proved to be quite accurate too. 

 

Time to head of outside, stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Sunny and wall to wall blue sky here .  It will be hot with temperatures up possibly up to 29°C.

I bought an Omron BP monitor as that is (I think) what our doctor uses and the pharmacy recommended it although mine is only a basic version which doesn't keep records.  I believe I am (just about) capable  enough to make a note of readings with pen and paper.

Yesterday was very enjoyable, particularly the Leicester v Northampton rugby match which I'm sure TB would have enjoyed.

F! was quite "entertaining" as well.  

I only had one beer yesterday and am avoiding drinking it in the week as I'm attempting to lose weight.  I've also cut down on wine and various fattening foodstuffs. This has resulted in me mislaying 2.5 lbs last week so i must be doing something right.

Today I'll be getting rid of some of our tomato plants that are past their sell by date.  Still got some with plenty of fruit on though.

Have a good one.

T.O Matolover.

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Just as well I got in some fresh milk yesterday. The carton that I had been using had gone off this morning and had to go down the sink. I could never get the hang of checking my pulse by the wrist but I found I could find a pulse at the back of my jawbone just below the ear, at least I have a pulse. I have hundreds of slides and photographs that I would like to put in digital form so the tips about a scanner are very useful. I suppose I'll have to get on with the gardening now, I've run out of excuses not to, be back later.

[BokStein]

Good morning on my last Monday of annual leave! (Back to the grindstone next Monday!)

 

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

 

Thank you, Barry, that's interesting.  I will check it out, though I see no reason to buy such a thing when I don't want it.  My initial view is that if the surgery want me to check my own BP they can jolly well supply the necessary machinery.  I would prefer the services of a skilled operator as well but one cannot have everything.

 

Chris

 

As many have said, the commercially available sphygmomanometers compare well (and are often from the same manufacturer) to those used by your surgery. As for the need for a skilled operator, not necessary! Fasten the cuff between shoulder and elbow, tube to machine to the inside of the elbow and press the button. When it stops, reach for pencil and paper and record the Systolic and Diastolic pressures and the pulse. Job done.

 

Using, as you put it, "the services of a skilled operator" opens you to the dreaded "White Coat" Syndrome which usually results in a high reading!

[southern42]

7 hours ago, pH said:

Apparently,  Vancouver’s air quality yesterday was second worst only to Portland in North American cities. And I was working in the yard this afternoon (nothing strenuous) and I could actually feel my teeth gritty.

 

However, this is just comment. In no way am I comparing our situation to that of people in the path of these fires. Thoughts are with them.

 

Rather, I think, you are giving us an idea of what it is like.  The only time I can remember a gritty feeling here was a few summers ago when the weather system came up from the North African desert and covered everything in a thin layer of dust.  Not pleasant.  Fire?  When I was still at school, our next-door neighbour had a fire in the sitting room.  She invited Mum and myself in to see the damage at lunchtime.  Inside, it was black, and dark even though the curtains  were open. Outside, it was white with snow on the ground.  I went back to school for the afternoon's art lesson (in hindsight, in a state of distress)  and my portrayal of the topic ( I do not remember what it was) became more and more governed by fire.  But small childhood incidents help to appreciate how so much more dreadful it is on such a massive scale.

 

5 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

In Portland we live in hope that rain on Monday evening and into Tuesday will help.

 

Today saw the combination of heavy fog combined with smoke. Visibility is very low. The increased humidity and lack of wind are helping with containing the wildfires, but not helping air quality. At least it is not hot and it is possible to close up homes and not run air conditioning. Portlanders have been confined to quarters since Thursday morning - which while frustrating, is better than those whose homes have either been destroyed or intact but exposed to opportunistic looters roaming the evacuated towns. Deputy Sheriffs have stepped up patrols and made several arrests.

 

Like the rest of Western Oregon, we continue to have the worst air quality on the planet. We'll see what tomorrow (night) brings.

 

Thoughts for everyone on the Western coast.

 

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

Sunny here up in the North West Leeds Highlands. 

 

snip...

 

England cricketers are determined to get my heart racing...another dragging of victory out of the jaws of defeat yesterday!

Have a great day today! Positive thoughts to all ERs.

 

Baz

 

I stayed up to watch the tv highlights, at least ways to see England batting.  I was only going to watch the beginning, but the fours and sixes kept me up!  Shame I could not manage the rest of it...

 

Belated birthday wishes to Beth.

 

Fitt and  Elfie stumbling along.

 

Take care and play safe. 

_________

Best wishes

'Er Indoors out of the Pollen

Aaaah.....chooooo00

Edited September 14, 2020 by southern42

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all,

 

Original post duly vanished so start again.  Nice and warm and sunny outside but skirting boards coming off all over the place indoors  preparatory to having little tents erected at the foot of the walls ready to start actually extracting (hopefully) moisture from the walls.

 

This site would seem to give Chrisf the details about how to proceed in dealing with his surgery but it looks as if you have to start with them when making a complaint -

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-to-complain-if-youre-unhappy-with-your-gp-or-gp-surgery

 

Incidentally according to the headline in today's DT the Govt has told GPs to get on with face-to-face consultations so maybe, at last, other surgeries will actually catch up with ours?

 

As far as the new Covid restrictions are concerned they are perhaps very much like everything else before the medioa get their ignorant paws in them and start sopouting their own version.  As ever in my book you start with the official version.  thus Dave H'dad is covered - and doesn't count in the six, neither does the bloke here currently removing skirting boards as fast as he can go.  Here are the real words and as ever it pays to read the exceptions -

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing/coronavirus-covid-19-meeting-with-others-safely-social-distancing

 

RMweb seems relatively sane today - or at least the bits I have so far looked at are very light on the idiot scale and I've got newly downloaded French aeroplane manufacture created freebie program to play with (the English version but it's all pictograms so I can just about understand it).

 

Have a good day one and all and stay safe.

 

Edited September 14, 2020 by The Stationmaster

[simontaylor484]

Good Afternoon all

Finally managed to get a convid test for youngest got to go to Bradford for it 50 mile round trip at least the car will get a run out. Even though he got a bug. My better half spoke to school this morning apparently there are a few kids off with similar waiting for tests 

[Winslow Boy]

Nice and sunny here on the 'uplands' of north Manchester and set to continue for several more days if the seaweed wranglers are to be believed. Washing day to today so stripping of the beds has commenced.

 

May I ask Brian (  BSW01) if what he is planting is geraniums aka cranesbill as he states or rather pelagoriums? If it is the later I would urge caution as if they are not planted in a very sheltered place they won't survive through to next year. I have known of pelagoriums that have gone on for several years outside but only if they were fortunate enough to experience very benign winters.

 

On that note I will sign off as lunch beckons.

[Gwiwer]

17 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The PH recently extended his Cluckingham Pallis. 

What has happened to Muddy Hollow (Rear)???  It appears to have become under-used and has grassed itself over

 

15 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

there are whole groups of people going around without face masks and not socially distancing and the majority seem to be under thirty

This is exactly what we find and have found nearly every day through the House of Fun.  Groups / gangs of late-teens / twenty-somethings probably just out of school and not into either employment of any form of further education roaming around aimlessly or destined for Thorpe Park.  Few wear face-coverings by which I mean many wear chin-cloths and most of the rest have nothing to restrain their breath at all.  If one in a group is correctly wearing something it seems to count for the entire group.  

 

They are the exception rather than the rule when the network is taken as a whole.  They mysteriously vanish seconds before the British Transport Police appear.  Only the BTP have authority to enquire why they are facially under-dressed, to remind them of the law and (if deemed necessary) to remove them from railway premises.  The issue with the latter is that two or three officers removing one person then face the combined wrath of the rest of the gang which is a potential flash-point.  Did I mention that nearly all such groups comprise of darker-skinned males?  

 

Today there was no appreciable change in attitude, vibe nor enforcement.  I was questioned a couple of times as to why we were allowing "groups" of more than six people to wait for a train; we cannot determine who is within a group and who is not and when there are perhaps 100 people waiting there will be some gathered closer together.  Around the doors, for example, because there is no other way to safely board the train.  It's a case - as it always has been - of using common sense.  And as it always has also been there is a small minority for whom common sense is "Not required on voyage."  

 

15 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

some like Rick are excused from wearing them

Exempt (1) on medical grounds and (2) because transport workers are specifically exempted under the law.  But I currently sport a small clear-plastic beard-protector which is better than nothing and which sits away from my face not, therefore, triggering the panic / asthmatic response that a soft covering may do.  

 

 

[simontaylor484]

Soundd like there has been a bad crash on the m25 near heathrow report of truck on fire.  Just flashed up on breaking news on the phone

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

What has happened to Muddy Hollow (Rear)???  It appears to have become under-used and has grassed itself over

The picture was not taken at the Hippodrome but at the PH's new residence.

 

Muddy Hollow (Rear ) was decommissioned late last year when a series of drainage pits was dug, and our neighbour to the rear, replaced the old ditch with a pipe and the foundations for a drainage pool for the run off from his new house (Run off into natural drainage being preferred to putting it into the water companies sewage system).

 

Where there was a muddy desolate waste land is now the foundations for an extended veg plot, and a very nice stock fence which has been planted with fruit bushes.

 

But fear not because MH (F) is alive and well and even after the recent dry spell has a soggy bottom that even Paul Hollywood could be proud of.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[BokStein]

13 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Soundd like there has been a bad crash on the m25 near heathrow report of truck on fire.  Just flashed up on breaking news on the phone

 

Junction 15 with the M4 does not look happy on Google's traffic map!

Edited September 14, 2020 by BokStein

[BSW01]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

May I ask Brian (  BSW01) if what he is planting is geraniums aka cranesbill as he states or rather pelagoriums? If it is the later I would urge caution as if they are not planted in a very sheltered place they won't survive through to next year. I have known of pelagoriums that have gone on for several years outside but only if they were fortunate enough to experience very benign winters.

Fear not, it is a hardy geranium which I've been growing on in a pot for about a year or so. It's now big enough to plant out. 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Morning all,

 

As I’m slowly settling into the new routine of online school then in person school, I have found myself with more time for posting, so I think I can manage sporadic posts during the week. This being one of them. The big news is it’s finally cooling down here in northeast Oklahoma, it got down to 60 degrees on Friday night, that hadn’t happened since March. In other news the clock seen below needs fiddling with, its running 35 min slow. And sadly it has lost the small key to turn the shaft which adjusts the pendulum tension though a series of bevel gears.  Said clock was made in the U.K. in probably the 1880s and given to my great great grandparents in New Orleans as I believe a wedding present. So instead of using a key I have to leaver it over very very carefully with an screwdriver.
 

The house next door is moving along quite fast, under the watchful eye of Fangio the cat. I think about half of it has the insulation board in, but I also don’t get to see the front. 

 

stay healthy,

 

Douglas 

 

Edited September 14, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works
forgot something

[Erichill16]

Afternoon, having my lunch break Busy be back later

robert. 

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

even after the recent dry spell has a soggy bottom

TMI      

[Winslow Boy]

I'm pleased to note that at least one other ER has succumbed to that most mighty of diseases called gardening and is able to distinguish his cranes bills. 

 

Speaking of such I have several of these hardy  geraniums in the, or should that be on the estate that is Winslow Towers and would heartily recommend them to others as they as tough as old boots and floriferous  as well. Mine are still producing flowers as I type having easily been doing so for the last few months.

 

On that note I must leave you as the second batch of washing beckons. - pah.

Edited September 14, 2020 by Winslow Boy

[Ian Abel]

19 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

The PH recently extended his Cluckingham Pallis. 

 

I'm definitely NOT showing this to Meagan, she'll want to take over their entire back garden with chickens!

[Ian Abel]

10 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Rum, ginger beer and wine? Sounds nasty.

Well, separated with a reasonable time-delay, of course 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. This will ring a bell with many ER's:-

 

[Tony_S]

2 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

I'm definitely NOT showing this to Meagan, she'll want to take over their entire back garden with chickens!

Aditi has always wanted chickens. However she knows it isn’t really possible here. We have been on holiday and chickens running about are a major attraction. 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

Sounds like there has been a bad crash on the m25 near Heathrow report of truck on fire.  Just flashed up on breaking news on the phone

There was a fatal bin lorry crash in Kidbrook this morning:-

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-one-dead-child-11-22678924

[Ian Abel]

Moanday...

 

Well, managed to get the chicken coop all "wired up".

Spent most of Sunday on that task. Required adding a weatherproof outlet box on the outside of the garage, followed by a distribution box on the coop. Meagan very happy with the result and is now off looking for even more fancy stuff for her chickens!

 

We were well knackered time we got home yesterday what with the Mrs doing her fund-raising committee work at our church "Welcome Back Sunday", a usual event at the beginning of September.

This year with the pandemic, it was anything BUT USUAL. They arranged a one-way drive-through system in the parking lot, and parishioners (suitably masked up) drove through a series of stalls where various committees, ministries and outreach program members all offered their welcomes and information on how to participate with the Zoom programs currently offered.

The fund-raising Cabaret committee managed to sell $40,000. worth of raffle tickets, truly a miracle as they were "praying" they'd maybe manage close to $20,000. !!

 

Anyone have a comment on the program "The Goes Wrong Show"?

We were looking for something entertaining last evening and ran across this, watched two shows and it's definitely about as slap-stick and farcical as is possible. We warmed more after the second one, but maybe it's still too over the top??

 

12 and overcast first thing, headed for maybe 24 later with clearing skies.

 

Onward...

[The Stationmaster]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Aditi has always wanted chickens. However she knows it isn’t really possible here. We have been on holiday and chickens running about are a major attraction. 

I do lie to see chicken running about but we also decided that it would be a major imposition on them whenever we are away so we decided against it - plus of courses foxes are about.  However I still enjoy seeing one a plate, nicely roast.

[BokStein]

11 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

I do lie to see chicken running about but we also decided that it would be a major imposition on them whenever we are away so we decided against it - plus of courses foxes are about.  However I still enjoy seeing one a plate, nicely roast.

 

Eggsactly!