Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, AndrewC said:

... a long lost but still bloody funny program. WKRP in Cincinnati. 

 

4 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

One of my favourite funnies from the States.

It's the right time of year to remember the Thanksgiving episode - "Oh the humanity". 

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

I would be careful Chris about those stamps if I were you, upside down placement is considered an offence to the Queen and you could be arrested.

 

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

... many years ago postage stamps were considered invalid if they were affixed upside down.  I wouldn't be surprised if nowadays there are plenty of folk out there who don't have the first clue about which way up is the correct way to affix them ...

 

2 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

i thought putting a stamp on upside down was a sign to the recipient that you were unhappy with them.

There are some US designs that can be difficult to tell which way is up. Without my reading glasses, I know I affixed one of these sideways. It was delivered.

 

And before anyone suggests you can always tell the orientation from the writing, this is a 2020 design.

 

The international stamps are particularly tricky. The designs are not symmetrical either.

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[Gwiwer]

13 hours ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

Wondering what this second lockdown has really done.

I haven't seen a large reduction in traffic on the roads (I'm a key worker so still continue to go to work) like the first time, but I guess people aren't that bothered really.

Opinions and experiences will vary but in my corner of the world it seems to have put more people out of work, generated an increasing level of frustration, impatience, intolerance and disrespect. It has not meaningfully altered the number of people on the streets nor using public transport. 
 

It has produced an increase in youth loitering in groups, often drinking and / or smoking and certainly in numbers larger than the advice allows for. They are bored. They have nowhere to go. Staying home simply doesn’t cut it. And they see no reason to wear face-coverings. 
 

It has not diminished the “social mixing” among households in this immediate area. If anything it has increased with students freely associating with others and our Turkish neighbours having spent the weekend with friends and quite a number of young children all cheerfully running around outside. 
 

Please don’t get me started on today’s developments which effectively tells everyone travelling for Christmas that they have just two days, if going by rail, to travel out and a single day (27th) to all somehow return.  This has not been thought through, the logistics not considered and will very likely lead to horrendous overcrowding, frayed tempers and frustrations being taken out on staff. 
 

If I go any further into an area I have very strong feelings about I risk a ban on political grounds. Instead here’s a tree we saw on tonight’s walk. 
 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I didn't try the venison tonight, I really didn't have enough time so its tomorrow now. Made do with a 'ping' dinner tonight. The ankle has stopped throbbing but a brace of co-codamol just before bed should sort that out. Now to get back to sorting through Farcebook.

[J. S. Bach]

56 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

There are some US designs that can be difficult to tell which way is up.  ...snip...

Try the "inverted Jenny" reprint:

 

https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2013/images/pr13_006-2.png

 

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[Ozexpatriate]

Just now, J. S. Bach said:

Try the "inverted Jenny":

The Inverted Jenny was released as a $2 commemorative stamp in 2013. The re-release is still available. I'm guessing that your link is from the press kit.

 

I imagine FDR had the original in his collection. It was highly desired by collectors.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Not much to report. MY team lost tonight but to a better team and previous to tonight we’d won four out of five so can’t complain. Haven’t done much bookwork recently and it’s getting close to the end of the month so better get cracking tomorrow. 
Been for walk with SWMBO, mil and Syd then had nephews round for tea.

Not had much shed time recently so may try for some but nephews here for breakfast and tea.

Goodnight

Robert

 

[PhilJ W]

One for Polybear and HH.

[NGT6 1315]

@Gwiwer

 

Rick, your post made me think about observations of groups of (mainly) teenagers I watched gather in the park across the next main street, where I’m quite sure restrictions of numbers and households of origin weren’t strictly abided by either. It’s not always easy to tell, even less so with adults, probably - except for checking IDs.

 

It‘s not that I couldn’t understand the need for company per se, of course, and as I mentioned earlier, I fundamentally understand the need of families specifically at least having a minimum of time spent together over Christmas. Simultaneously, I still have major doubts that mingling during the holidays, even within limits somewhat less restrictive, will be a good idea from a medical point of view.

 

All things considered, I admit to continuing to have highly ambivalent feelings about the ability of humans to submit to reason and logic in times of crisis such as the current one. It might be different if those covidiots, even if they in fact are a total minority, weren’t so terribly loud and obsessive, making it difficult to assess how many of the general population might be susceptible to going over the edge.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[PeterBB]

7 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Spent most of the day on phone calls to little result due allegedly to covid

 I wanted a resettlement figure for a loan they have to post it out. 

I want to get stuff sorted out with my enforced retirement Asap then we know our income. 

Some loans may be cheaper to pay off than others Credit cards will be easier to sort out repayment. 

We've been in Covid long enough for the telephone 'excuse' to have been sorted.  Banks and BT must be among the worst.  Also discovered that 'Her Mees' have a telephone number but it is via a separate company that charge over £3 per minute!  That's one way to stop people complaining as it would cost more than a package was worth.

 

 Incidentally on day 4 we gave up with them trying to pick up and took it to a shop  BUT the 'gentleman' shop keeper seemed to have no idea of social distancing and/or the use of a mask and had no surface on whch it could be put down on  for safe transfer.  We have been told that it has been picked up.  Conversely again DPD picked up yesterday pm and have already confirmed delivery of said item.

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

Edited November 24, 2020 by Barry O

[PeterBB]

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Cox are the brand leader in sealant guns. At the price on polybears link it isnt bad if it allows a decent job without getting a brickie in. 

  Although one wonders if you coukd make like an icing bag used for cake decoration out of a piece of plastic sheet 

The 'spout' is hard and long - something that is impossible to fabricate out of a plastic sheet - so easy to push into the space without mess (had to be careful with wording here) - just wish something like that had been available some years ago.

[Simon G]

The wind and rain of this morning persisted for most of the day, but we managed to get out for a short walk, albeit pleased we were wearing full waterproofs.

 

This evening we went into town for the weekly shop.  We prefer an evening shop as the supermarkets are so much quieter, and also there is the chance of getting some bargains.  We came home with too much bread to fit in the freezer, plus some teacakes,  doughnuts and chocolate eclairs.  Cue my occasional gluttony!  Since returning home, I have eaten a toasted tea cake, 3 slices of bread and jam, followed by the 2 chocolate eclairs.  I could have had more, but that really would have been greedy!  I am now feeling happily replete.

 

Goodnight all.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BokStein]

Good (belated) evening!

 

An interesting mix of posts. However, I find myself unnervingly coming out in sympathy with my fellow seasonal traveller, ChrisF when I consider this post:

 

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

Opinions and experiences will vary but in my corner of the world it seems to have put more people out of work, generated an increasing level of frustration, impatience, intolerance and disrespect. It has not meaningfully altered the number of people on the streets nor using public transport. 
 

It has produced an increase in youth loitering in groups, often drinking and / or smoking and certainly in numbers larger than the advice allows for. They are bored. They have nowhere to go. Staying home simply doesn’t cut it. And they see no reason to wear face-coverings. 
 

It has not diminished the “social mixing” among households in this immediate area. If anything it has increased with students freely associating with others and our Turkish neighbours having spent the weekend with friends and quite a number of young children all cheerfully running around outside. 
 

Please don’t get me started on today’s developments which effectively tells everyone travelling for Christmas that they have just two days, if going by rail, to travel out and a single day (27th) to all somehow return.  This has not been thought through, the logistics not considered and will very likely lead to horrendous overcrowding, frayed tempers and frustrations being taken out on staff. 
 

If I go any further into an area I have very strong feelings about I risk a ban on political grounds. Instead here’s a tree we saw on tonight’s walk. 
 

 

I agree, in general, with the thoughts expressed above concerning the restricted travel arrangements and the potential problems in the UK as a result. However, I have grown used to spending the period in a country which has a different take on the time of year and often runs more services on public transport  on 25th, 26th December and 1st January rather than none! (Some services are listed in the timetable as 25 December ONLY!)

[brianusa]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

It has produced an increase in youth loitering in groups, often drinking and / or smoking and certainly in numbers larger than the advice allows for. They are bored. They have nowhere to go.

 

Tempting to write, " so what else is new"?  A lot of my youthful contemporaries fitted that bill; beer was still cheap, as were Woodbines (if one indulged - as most did in those days).  You couldn't drink until you were 18 so pubs then were out, but there was always the pictures.  You dressed up for that then as there were always girls; you ignored the usherette as you headed for the back row! There was always the park, if you couldn't afford the price of admission and perhaps the best one was to borrow Dads car and head for some  country pub where you and your date might not be well known

        Brian.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Another day spent in the cellar, but a bit more progress has been made. I continued to work on the side wall to the left door, I’ve removed all the loose flakey paint, so all that remains to do is get the stubborn bits off. To do that I’ll need to use the steam stripper. So my next task was to set up with the steam stripper, I then made a start removing the final few stubborn bits of paint, the wall below the window is now finished. I just need to finish raking out the old mortar so that I can re-point it. After dinner I started on the wall next to the door, quite a bit was done, but there’s still a fair bit to do. Hopefully finish this bit tomorrow, then I can make a start on the next 5ft section of wall. What I did notice was as I removed some of the paint, it would seem the darker bottom colour went up to about 3ft -3 1/2ft from the floor and not the 12in - 18in I initially thought, what ever it was it’s a bu99er to get off. 

 

Below are 2 photos of the section of wall below the cellar window, showing how it looked before work started and as it is at the moment. 

 

16 November 

 

24 November 

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, NGT6 1315 said:

I fundamentally understand the need of families specifically at least having a minimum of time spent together over Christmas. Simultaneously, I still have major doubts that mingling during the holidays, even within limits somewhat less restrictive, will be a good idea from a medical point of view.

Here in the US we will not only have this concern at Christmas but immediately, with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. The central theme of Thanksgiving (people from multiple households, some of them travelling, gathering in close quarters indoors for hours, unmasked, sharing a meal) has explosive superspreading potential.

 

Daily CoViD-19 diagnoses are increasing exponentially. Even here in Oregon (with masking orders and public gatherings largely prohibited) where our total numbers are below national averages, the shape of the daily diagnosis curve locally matches the national one. Daily diagnosis rates have (roughly) tripled in the last four weeks and show no trend of declining. We set a record of new fatalities today.

 

People are being asked not to host large gatherings that include guests from outside your household but these are resented by many.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night  all

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, NGT6 1315 said:

All things considered, I admit to continuing to have highly ambivalent feelings about the ability of humans to submit to reason and logic in times of crisis such as the current one.

The pandemic will be a rich source of study for psychologists. 

 

Humans don't make decisions based on logic. Our decisions that direct our actions are emotional, made in the amygdala and then rationalized. For those who respond to the pandemic with fear (with the perception that the virus is dangerous), the decision to accept reason and logic is easy. Those who perceive the virus as an abstract, non-existential threat won't have the same response and will act based on other emotional responses like - "the government can't tell me how to live my life" etc.

 

I saw an article the other day comparing requests for people not to gather indoors at the holidays with the Stanford Marshmallow experiment* on delayed gratification.

 

* While this test is not as definitive a test of will power and delayed gratification as it was once represented to be, it remains entertaining and an interesting study on logic and emotion.

 

The State of Oregon started running a new public service announcement commercial on TV which I first saw last night. (I can't find it online yet.) It was a series of block capital questions on a stark yellow background (from memory) along the lines of:

• WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO PROTECT YOUR FAMILY?
• WOULD YOU RUSH INTO A BURNING BUILDING?
• WOULD YOU DIVE INTO A RAGING RIVER?
• WOULD YOU DONATE A KIDNEY?
• WOULD YOU WEAR A MASK?
• WEAR A MASK WHEN YOU VISIT FRIENDS AND FAMILY
• MASKS SAVE LIVES

I found it to be quite effective.

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple hare,

6.5 hours sleep in bed, now on the sofa, not with trying to sleep again as I have to get up soon.

 

The change in the rules for Christmas will not make any difference to us, unless my parents and us are vaccinated first, we will not be heading 400 miles north with the chance of meeting some super spreader between here and there on the half dozen stops required.

My Dad must be near the top of the vaccination list as being over 80 with COPD, Mum won't be far behind, being slightly older. We are are down at the 6th of 7th round of expected vaccinations in a low covid area, I'm not expecting us to be punctured till next year.

 

With that I got a letter yesterday saying they missed my last diabetic eye test in December due to covid?!, But they're not going to do me  this year either..

 

I'm going to start in stage screen and online video call today, UKAS want to see me demonstrate some calibration. I'm not sure what yet,  but I'd better make sure the lab is tidy.

 

Time I moved and got breakfast..

 

 

[Gwiwer]

Morning all. Not a good night was spent. Already time to attend the House of Fun. Stay well