Early Risers.

[Gwiwer]

And we’re back. 
 

Tooth rebuilt. No pain at all. Crown not required. And for not much more than the cost of a small powered box on wheels in a hobby of interest. 
 

Quite a good result. 

[simontaylor484]

I was looking for this Gem when Andyram had his encounter with the jogger 

 

Enjoy

Just a shame the title gived it away

Edited March 11, 2021 by simontaylor484
Further thoughts

[PupCam]

8 hours ago, polybear said:

And then at 6, when the alarm went off -

 

WHAT!   What on earth is one of those! 

 

Good heavens Bear - you're retired and no longer need to wake up let alone get up just so that you can race in to "that place"  to claim poll position in the car park.

 

Now, let's have no more talk of such things.   It's bad enough with all this talk of decorating ......

 

Puppers

Edited March 11, 2021 by PupCam

[BoD]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

Personally i think she is a stunner but she has a lot of problems with her own family never mind trying to fit in with the Royals i think this interview is going to blow up in her face and take Harry with her. 

 

We could well end up with another East and West Sussex.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just had a bit of good news, an e-mail from my energy supplier saying they are refunding the overpayment, 500 modelling tokens heading my way. When I  worked the 2001 census I was allocated the street where my dads family lived in the late 30's and where my uncle was born. The house they occupied had been demolished and replaced by modern houses but there were a few older houses opposite. In one of those houses lived an elderly lady. When I went to the door and showed my ID she looked at it and said "Did your dad live on this street at one time?" I answered yes and we then had a good chat. The old lady had been born in the house she was living in. 

[The Lurker]

Well all this talk of census forms and what should come through the door when the post arrived but a census form.

 

Younger Lurker has completed his first day back at school but has managed to lose his trainers after PE, which is stressing him a lot, especially as this means he will have to deal with lost property. That is a lot to cope with when you have ASD + Anxiety.

 

Even the realisation that he had both LDC and Autosport did not seem to have fully calmed him but he will recover an even keel.

 

Our current car is the first one that we have had that is an automatic. I never wanted to switch from manual but I am quite happy with it now. It has a normal handbrake and I guess it has one of those torque induced thingies NHN mentioned because the drive will hold it still on a hill. The start-stop comes on when the brake is fully depressed, unlike the manual version where you of course had to take it out of gear first.

 

I haven't driven a manual car since but we will get Elder Lurker a small car when he gets a bit nearer passing his test, and that will be manual, partly because I don't want him driving a 4 series BMW and partly because I think it will do him good to be competent at driving a manual first. It may all be a little wasted with the move towards electric cars being bound to accelerate as it gathers momentum and reaches some kind of critical mass. It will be interesting to see if I can get back in a manual and drive it easily. Will I remember to use the clutch?!!

[TheQ]

I feel a distinct lack of muddling tokens going on..

Yesterday SWMBO defrosted the fridge freezer. 

Today the fridge bit, (separate compressor) which she didn't touch , appears to have died. I've just played with it,  it's now set on max we'll see what happens . 

 

Today I've finalized the rudder design, which gives the following results in terms of a new evening star at RRP.

All carbon commercially made rudder,  6 or 7 locos.

All glass fibre and stainless steel shaft commercially made, 4 or 5 locos.

Made by me all carbon, 2 locos. (But it's more technically difficult to get right for me so could be an expensive mistake)

Made by me glass fibre and stainless steel shaft... 1/2 a loco..

Oh and I have the stainless steel, the glassfibre so only 1/4 of a loco.

 

Oh and a replacement fridge freezer of the type we want.. just under 3 locos

Edited March 11, 2021 by TheQ

[polybear]

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

My Grandad always used to moan even 20-25 years ago thst all this stuff added to cars was just more to go wrong and it all relied on 1 battery.

 

A wise man, obviously.

 

1 hour ago, simontaylor484 said:

.......Meghan the manipulator. Personally i think she is a stunner but she has a lot of problems with her own family never mind trying to fit in with the Royals i think this interview is going to blow up in her face and take Harry with her. 

 

Harry did admit in the interview that he would still be a part of "The Firm" if Meghan hadn't arrived on the scene.

 

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

Could one from that statement infer that you were very 'devote' and 'faithful' follower.

 

Rumour has it that @PhilJ W was overheard to say "Thank you God" when the young lady opened the door....

 

47 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

WHAT!   What on earth is one of those! 

 

Good heavens Bear - you're retired and no longer need to wake up let alone get up just so that you can race in to "that place"  to claim poll position in the car park.

 

Now, let's have no more talk of such things.   It's bad enough with all this talk of decorating ......

 

Puppers

 

PUPPERS!!    How long have you been lurking, and more importantly did you bring any cake?

For the benefit of others, Pup and Bear worked sorry, were employed by the same firm.  Neither of us were rumbled

 

[polybear]

10 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I feel a distinct lack of muddling tokens going on..

Yesterday SWMBO defrosted the fridge freezer. 

Today the fridge bit, (separate compressor) which she didn't touch , appears to have died. I've just played with it,  it's now set on max we'll see what happens . 

 

 

 

Does the fridge compressor run?  Can you get at the fridge thermostat wiring and by-pass the thermostat such that the compressor runs all the time, thinking the fridge is too warm?  New thermostats are cheap.

Or is it a frost-free jobbie with a microprocessor - then a fix starts getting tricky...

[TheQ]

2 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Does the fridge compressor run?  Can you get at the fridge thermostat wiring and by-pass the thermostat such that the compressor runs all the time, thinking the fridge is too warm?  New thermostats are cheap.

Or is it a frost-free jobbie with a microprocessor - then a fix starts getting tricky...

It's old and ancient 20years old + so definitely no microprocessor, the compressor isn't running, further investigation will have to wait till Saturday, in the meantime, freezer blocks are to be deployed to keep the milk cold.

[simontaylor484]

Lurker i have been in automatic transmission vehicles all day and then had to jump in to the manual car to come home with no ill effects. Even when i had spent 7 hours driving mainly on footpaths it was a sweeper i was driving i hasten to add. The worst i have had was trying to put the ignition keys in because it was centre console mounted like a Saab ps did i mention the sweeper is left hand drive. 

[simontaylor484]

Poly yes i did think my Grandad was a wise man he was an ironfounder and master engineer i miss him dearly

[simontaylor484]

According to C4 news the police officer that has been arrested for murder of this missing girl in Brixton has been taken to hospital witness injuries and is now back in the cells one wonders if he has had a "little accident" at the hands of his colleagues. 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

I dislike displays which suggest I need to shift up or down and I never set a cruise speed.  

I find cruise control very incompatible with a manual gearbox and essentially worthless. Unless you are on an open highway with zero traffic, inevitably you end up needing to use manual control after a short period of time.

 

Adaptive cruise control in an automatic or EV is a nice feature. It will (I think before too long) become pervasive as vehicle autonomy increases.

 

You can always ignore shifter suggestion indicators. I have a simple programmable one that is based on an RPM threshold. I find it a convenient reminder, when highway traffic is unpredictable and heavy traffic clears, that I can upshift in high gear. Boy racers can set it to the red line (or something slightly less).

[The White Rabbit]

Evening everyone. Patchy attendance on ERs so far this week, so apologies to anyone whose birthdays or life events I've missed. I blame the usual four letter word necessary to provide tokens for essential supplies. And the occasional frivolity. 

 

We had our census form through recently, will probably have a look at the weekend. I'm mildly curious as to what new questions there will be. 

 

I prefer cars with a minimum of electronics. Like layouts. Lights, wipers and ventilation, I'm not really bothered about anything else. My first car (built 1983) didn't even have a radio. The second did but I didn't use it much. My father had a car which had an adjustable speed intermittent wipe - that felt like F1 levels of sophistication compared to most I'd driven up until then. I have driven automatics but am firmly prejudiced in favour of manuals. Maybe it's OCD but I like to make the decision as to what gear to use. 

 

The weather today has definitely been the sort to appreciate from behind glass and in front of a warm fire. Hoolies, hail, nearly horizontal rain, even the odd spell of sunshine. A quick trip out to the postbox and then back inside before the timbers started shivering. That's enough fresh air for today... 

[PupCam]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Does the fridge compressor run?  Can you get at the fridge thermostat wiring and by-pass the thermostat such that the compressor runs all the time, thinking the fridge is too warm?  New thermostats are cheap.

Or is it a frost-free jobbie with a microprocessor - then a fix starts getting tricky...

I thought I was in a time warp!

 

Having wasted far too much money replacing the thermostat and far too much time recently building an Arduino based fridge / freezer monitor to make the rubbish old Beko work properly in the cold garage.  Plan A was to provide a little heat to the thermostat to trick it into thinking the ambient temperature was higher than it was and thus cause the Bxxxxx thing to work (some manufactures actual sell a "garage kit" which is precisely that, a little heating element that sits inside the thermostat housing and is wired across the supply) I have to say I'm favouring Plan B.   Forget the thermostat and let the Arduino drive the compressor directly.   Always best to cut out the middle man .......

 

Sorry Bear, no cake yet.   I'll try harder next time

 

Puppers

[Erichill16]

It’s a bit complicated here regarding vehicles.

Our motor caravan is simple, five speed with handbrake between seats.

My works van is a MB Vito, six speed but with extra foot peddle to activate‘hand brake’ To release there’s a release switch on the dashboard, all manual.

SWMBOs car is an automatic with electrically operated hand brake. Do use it very much.

My classic Lotus is four speed manual with an umbrella type hand brake. There’s a lever to pull under the dash.

Four different types of ‘hand brakes’ and if I’m not concentrating I’ve got my hand flailing all over the place when I come to a stop.

Robert

 

 

[PhilJ W]

A lot of people confuse cruise control with auto pilot as in this case.

https://www.suffolkgazette.com/news/motorhome-crash/

[Gwiwer]

10 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

It’s a bit complicated here regarding vehicles.

It was quite interesting driving professionally in a very mixed fleet of buses and coaches.  Some were fully manual with a need to double de-clutch between at least the two lowest gears, some were semi-automatic and a few fully automatic.  Some had mini-sticks to hold a gear but Volvo vehicles had push-buttons.  The Mercedes minibuses had a pull-up (vertically) handbrake which sometimes ended up in your armpit if it was out of adjustment and many others had the small lever angled at you out of a panel somewhere - not by any means always on the same side.  

 

We could be asked to drive anything and in the course of a typical shift would drive two to four different vehicles types which also ranged from 20-seat minibuses to 78-seat 'deckers and sometimes National Express coaches too.  The local private-hire coach fleet, often used for school runs and definitely in need of some TLC, was very tired and some had the most worn and trickiest of manual gearboxes.  With passengers on the back you always got a cheer if you made a noise with the clutch.  The flip-side of that was that a good Merc minibus could be flicked in and out of gear without using the clutch at all by those of use who learned to disengage and engage at the right engine speeds on much older vehicles.  It might not have been best practice but it made for a smooth ride when you could do it.  

 

And then I hopped into my car and drove home.  Manual, pull-up (usual angle) handbrake, left leg usually tired from hours of pumping reluctant clutch pedals and all of me aching from turning the aiming wheel all day long.  

[TheSignalEngineer]

12 hours ago, polybear said:

 

A mate of mine who worked in a cr@p job ("Design Certification" - makes watching paint dry exciting) asked his Boss:

 

"Do you want me three days a week or no days a week?"

 

He won

I had a bit of an issue with a blow-in Project Manager who had been put in charge of our office. He started getting personal with his remarks at a team meeting so I just told him that my bank balance was bigger than my mortgage and I had already decided on the optimum date for the greatest return on early retirement. Had no more problems with him, and he ended up being removed before I left.

His replacement was much better and we had a mutual respect. When a Railtrack Project Manager called one morning insisting that I attend a meeting at Milton Keynes at 1pm that afternoon when I was already in a 10am meeting in Manchester he was told "No, he won't be there and don't get insisting that he drops everything to runs to you. Phone him yourself and ask if and when he can grant you  an audience".

I got my own back a couple of weeks later when we had about 12 unanswered questions on the project. I called a meeting for 1pm on a Friday afternoon at Euston Station insisting that we had answers or I would start reallocating staff to other work. I turned up with the draft minutes already on my laptop, my assistant typed in the agreed answers as we discussed the items and got them printed off all in time for the 4pm train home.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Still tying up some loose ends re. the will. I have just discovered that all assets including bank accounts are frozen when you die*. That means that any costs and fees are down to the executor of the will and they are only repaid after probate has been completed. It seems the best way to avoid it is to take out life insurance, something I have never bothered with as my estate is more than enough to cover funeral and other costs. *This is because some executors have been known to dip their fingers in to the estate.

[PupCam]

21 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

A lot of people confuse cruise control with auto pilot as in this case.

https://www.suffolkgazette.com/news/motorhome-crash/

 

Ideal apocryphal fodder for the Darwin awards    Cretingham so close to Cretinham although that may be how it's pronounced in Suffolk ... 

 

Talking of Suffolk, is it time for another episode of Brian from Melton yet?

[polybear]

Bear's Thought For The Day:

 

Why is everything that tastes yummiest bad for you?

 

Bear must not eat this 95g of Cadburys Choccy in one go....

 

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, The White Rabbit said:

My father had a car which had an adjustable speed intermittent wipe - that felt like F1 levels of sophistication compared to most I'd driven up until then.

I remember when I upgraded from a 1971 Holden Torana to a 1982 Honda Prelude which had an inside light that faded slowly when you shut the door rather than just going  out.  At the time I never imagined cars would be able to  get more hi tech than that. 

[Coombe Barton]

... and a photo from a posh place ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/03/11/decline-has-slowed/