Early Risers.

[Coombe Barton]

... let the antibodies generate ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/04/30/second-jab-today/

[polybear]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

Carpet in the loft!    How very posh!  

 

That's not the Polybear I recall ......

 

That's Pupper's card well and truly marked....

 

In other news:

The new smart plug arrived today, though not early enough to test in the shed.  It's now set up though - a PITA job involving downloading Apps and all that rollox.  Took bl00dy ages, but now working with Alexa.

 

The kitchen delivery slot has now been confirmed as being sat/sun - seems it may cross both days as it's on a multi-drop run.  FFS.  And delivery is anywhere between 8am and 10pm.  Mark my words - Bears' delivery will at 10pm on Sunday....in the rain....

Just so long as everything turns up safely and is undamaged and with no issues.  What are the chances?  Hmm.....

So Bear will need an early start tomorrow in order to clear space for storage (out goes the sink and worktop....).

 

Apart from that job - and testing of the new shed smart plug - the rest of the day is designated as another MIUAIGA day.

 

[leopardml2341]

Nowt much to report from South Derbyshire; goodnight all.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Not been about much for a couple of days so commiserations and jubilations as appropriate.

Been busy on the find a builder willing to quote front and spent a bit of time at the wheel tappers and shunters club.

Took Syd for a walk while SWMBO took Mil and Mils sister for second covid jab.

Not much else to report other than SWMBO and myself have still got the cold.

Fancy an early night to goodnight and enjoy your bank holiday weekend.

Robert

[PhilJ W]

This looks very useful.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/839776488/habilis-workbench-handmade-wooden?ref=shop_home_recs_1&frs=1&crt=1&fbclid=IwAR3T1kE9pagDbHdkCO9Lm4g8Ge_MHtNm9-7chM-W4GGS3ninlBSDl_czTOU

[TheSignalEngineer]

Bit cold here today. Mrs SE had a hospital appointment this morning.  Nothing unknown or not under control found so she was relieved.

Sunny this afternoon on the allotment and fortunately the wind was being blocked by a building to the northest of my plot so shirt sleeve order for the duration. Let's see what tomorrow brings as I think three days in hiding may be required as all the c*ckwombles head for the hillsand clog up our roads. May even have to resort to some muddling when the G word is finished.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

After I’d put the cake in the oven, I decided to walk to our local bookshop and place an order. I’d got 3 books on my list, 2 she was able to order whilst I was in the shop, the third she said she’d need to speak to her supplier as it wasn’t on any list she could order from (it’s a book from HMRS). She said that she’ll let me know if she can get hold of it. Thankfully the weather stayed dry whilst I went for my walk, but by early evening it was chuckinitdarn. 

 

Later this afternoon, as sheila and I were sat having a drink, one of my former apprentices rang me. I’d actually rang her this morning, but her phone went straight to answering service, I left a short message saying I’ll try her again next week, but she called me instead, it turned out that she was in a meeting in Birmingham. We chatted for about 20 minutes or so, mainly about work and my former colleagues etc. It’s always nice to hear from her, she’s a great girl and she was very supportive when I was first diagnosed with cancer. She has done very well for herself, she’s now in charge of all the apprenticeship accessing and auditing, throughout the whole company, so I think I must have done something right.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Barry O]

@BSW01  might be easier to try and order it direct from the HMRS.. some of us on here are members...

 

Baz

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

Baz

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[BR60103]

The cartoon in the May Model Railroader involves stair lifts.

 

We did the changeover from winter to summer clothes today. Then I brought in the pansies as it may freeze tonight.

 

I've lived with heating of FAG as the realtors call it (forged air gas) most of my life. I moved into an apartment building with radiators once and the girl that told me about it said that in winter I should turn off the radiators and adjust the temperature by opening the windows.  I was just above the furnace room.

 

[iL Dottore]

17 hours ago, polybear said:

....Bear predicts the Housing Market is heading for breakdown - the prices will rise to a point where no-one can afford anything (at least not where they want to live) and no-one will drop prices because they'd end up in negative equity.

(Source: Bear's Crystal Ball)...

If that’s true and if the pound continues its downward trajectory, with the combination of a cheap pound and falling property prices then in a year or two I could sell one of my old pushbikes and buy Kensington (or a reasonable chunk thereof).

 

I don’t think it will be long before there is one to one parity between the pound and the Swiss franc. Which will be good news for me, making my future trips to London cheaper AND more luxurious (more bang for the buck, so to speak); but certainly not good news for ChrisF, John DMJ and others who regularly holiday in Switzerland.

16 hours ago, BlackRat said:

...Ohhhhhh you English and your humor......... thats $750 !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Mrs BR said it was the only time she has truly seem me speechless.

 

I was kept locked up (basically) till the insurance sorted things about an hour and a bit later.

 

Three cheers for the NHS!!!!

13 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Welcome to the US "normal" in health care rob-you-blind! 

it's driven by the for-profit mindset of insurance companies, even with my excellent health insurance that pays for a huge amount of any health care needs including regulars checkups and prescriptions, the charges, all designed to maximize what the health INDUSTRY make, are outrageous!

I know it’s very fashionable to be extremely scathing about the American health care system (or non-system really, given that every state does it differently).  But there are a few things people who do not work, or have not worked, in the US health system do not realise: firstly (and probably the most important thing) is that malpractice premiums are absolutely astronomical (and of course this has to be paid for..).

 

This is because Americans - aided and abetted by a huge army of (quite literally) ambulance chasing lawyers - will sue doctors at the drop of a hat. The cost of malpractice insurance varies according to speciality: obstetrics and gynaecology being amongst the most expensive specialties to insure. I have heard of yearly premiums for OB/GYN practitioners heading past the $1million mark.  This in turn means that in some areas of the US certain medical specialties just do not exist as no one can afford to practice that specialty due to the high malpractice insurance costs.

Another aspect of this litigious approach by the American patient is that US doctors have to practice defensive medicine-in other words do lots of tests that are not really clinically necessary but are done to show any ambulance chasing lawyers and juries that all bases were covered when the patient was being treated (I remember, decades ago working as a paramedic, that I brought into the ER a patient with an open compound fracture of the humerus. I knew it was broken, the patient certainly knew it was broken and the ER doctor on call [an acquaintance]  knew it was broken, but a diagnosis of fracture could not be made without an x-ray [there are other reasons why in this situation an x-ray is useful, but diagnosis I would argue is low down on the list]).  The cost of such defensive medicine obviously pushes up the price of treatment.

The last point I want to make about the US system is, once you get past the atrocious costs (which vary from state to state and even from city to city within a state), then outcomes of treatment are incredibly good. And for many diseases - especially in oncology - outcomes are much better than the average outcomes for that disease that the NHS delivers.

 

The above is not extol the US medical system or rubbish the NHS, far from it (and to be honest I think the system that we have in Switzerland is superior to both the US system and to the NHS in terms of cost, accessibility and outcomes), but to point out there is more to the eye wateringly astronomical health care costs in the US than meets the eye.

9 hours ago, PupCam said:

Carpet in the loft!    How very posh!  

I wonder what Puppers would make of me? My loft has Parque flooring, central heating, doubles as a home office/second TV room/guest bedroom and has an ensuite bathroom. Would I be classified as über-posh (or even aristocratic?).

 

I was going to try my hand today at making individual Paris Brest (choux pastry rings filled with a praline cream, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris–Brest) but I then remembered that I have a club event starting at 1 pm. So I will only have time to make the praline this morning, which I will then turn into the praline cream tomorrow.

 

Enjoy the weekend!

Edited May 1, 2021 by iL Dottore
Typo

[polybear]

1 hour ago, BR60103 said:

The cartoon in the May Model Railroader involves stair lifts.

 

Bear is picturing the basis for a massive "Nelevator" style vertical l*co storage system. ....

 

1 hour ago, BR60103 said:

I moved into an apartment building with radiators once and the girl that told me about it said that in winter I should turn off the radiators and adjust the temperature by opening the windows.  I was just above the furnace room.

 

 

The price is right....

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I know it’s very fashionable to be extremely scathing about the American health care system (or non-system really, given that every state does it differently).  But there are a few things people who do not work, or have not worked, in the US health system do not realise: firstly (and probably the most important thing) is that malpractice premiums are absolutely astronomical (and of course this has to be paid for..).

 

Bear can see an opening for uninsured (or only the barest minimum insurance) and the doc gets the patient to sign an all-encompassing disclaimer in the event of malpractice; they get cheap treatment as a result.

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I wonder what Puppers would make of me? My loft has Parque flooring, central heating, doubles as a home office/second TV room/guest bedroom and has an ensuite bathroom. Would I be classified as über-posh (or even aristocratic?).

 

Borderline Royalty...

 

 

[Erichill16]

16 hours ago, BlackRat said:

 

Then led into (what I later realised was a secure room) and lady clerk is typing away and asks me will I pay cash, for a 50% discount......Yes of course I will.

 

 

Always looks a bit ‘odd’ when you can get 50% discount for cash for professional services, rather than going through the insurance company. You can almost smell a rat in the system.

[polybear]

13 hours ago, PupCam said:

Excellent, you are back to full strength!

 

Bear was briefly tempted by the dark side of the Force....

(Whilst typing that Bear was trying to picture Puppers with a Light Sabre.  Let's call it a work in progress....)

 

In other news:

Bear was up at the crazy hour of 05:30 in order to be up and running for a supposedly potential kitchen delivery slot starting at 0800.  Now I know it's not gonna happen - and you know it's not gonna happen - but Murphy's Laws are strong, and once you start down the Murphy path, forever will it dominate your destiny.....

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl Inner Temple Hare,

1 hour plus 5.5 hours sleep, there would have been more, but for some reason Ben the I'm worried Collie came up to see us. Didn't find out what upset him, but let him out for a splash and dash at 04:30ish. Been answering questions about a type of dinghy I used to have, on an American forum since then.

About 23:00 last night there was a sudden huge downpour, which was the previous wake up..

 

I investigated a loft ladder sometime back, but the shape of space up there was all wrong for an unmentionable purpose. Chimney  breasts either side of the hallway, mean crawling through a 3ft high triangle either side to get to useable space.

The loft rafter spacing is also very narrow, so major surgery would be required. It's a project well down the priority of things.

 

I was most impressed with the lift Dick Strawbridge installed, about 4 floors built into one of those little round turrets so beloved of French Château.

 

You would have major  problems fitting a vertical lift in this house. There is no room in the hall ways, the best room to use upstairs is the worst downstairs, the kitchen.

In either other room the lift would force the double bed into a corner..

 

We have a stair lift in the boat shed.. no not fitted, that's where I left it after it was recovered from SWMBOs aunt and uncles house. There are sockets from this house previously having a stairlift fitted.

 

The main stairs need rebuilding, they are safe enough for the moment but are cracking up.  I'm intending to rebuild them with slide out units under the stairs the full depth to the wall, maybe 18inches wide, the full height in each case. For the storage of Shoes, boots, coats, vacuum cleaners etc.

Once that is done the stair lift will be fitted before we need it.

 

Time,  I think, to wave some bacon at a pan..

 

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, BSW01 said:

Good evening everyone 

 

After I’d put the cake in the oven, I decided to walk to our local bookshop and place an order. I’d got 3 books on my list, 2 she was able to order whilst I was in the shop, the third she said she’d need to speak to her supplier as it wasn’t on any list she could order from (it’s a book from HMRS). She said that she’ll let me know if she can get hold of it. Thankfully the weather stayed dry whilst I went for my walk, but by early evening it was chuckinitdarn. 

 

As Baz has waid, you may need to go direct to the HMRS. Having been involved in transport publishing for a charity, I can understand  why many such organizations don't sell through the trade. One wholesaler  used to demand %65 discount to stock our books and that meant it was uneconomical to use them. As Baz said, several of us are members of HMRS.

 

 

Anyway, we spent a lotbof yesterday waiting for the garage to call about the car. Whilst that happenned I was able to listen to our new water butt filling up. That was good to see.  I rang the garage after lunch and surprise surprise they were just making up the bill.  We got there an hour later and my words were 'ow much'.  €245 for a battery.  Apparently if stop start is fitted, which it is, the batteries are twice the normal price and havea life of about 4 years.  Pah and double pah.  At least Beth has her car back.  Some sticky chocolate cake from a friend helped the mood.  My wallet is in mourning, but we did get all theckeys back and they did let us off the €99  charge for the CT.  Feedback will ge interesting.

 

Anyway happy May day to you all.  As well as it being a bank holiday for us it's Emily's 2nd birthday so I will bid you all farewell and go get ready for a phone call to the birthday girl.

 

Jamie

[Andrew P]

The bright thing was up well before me this morning but the forecast is dull and orrid by lunch time, so I'll throw some water over my self and see if I still feel like venturing out for a walk, or stay by the radiator and have an early breakfast.

 

A quick check last evening, and yesterdays wood painting doesn't look to bad, probably another coat or two once the patchy weather gives way to a proper summers day.

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and well.

 

Time for my morning exercise.  tomorrow I may try it out of the chair.

Edited May 1, 2021 by Andrew P

[Barry O]

White Rabbits! For it is the First of May. 

 

I do hope @chrisfhad an enjoyable sunrise drink!

no more coal or wet logs to be sold.. does that include the big pile of wood next door have in what is left of their back garden?

 

Her indoors has been awake for ages so made my mugatea. May be a good idea to drink it!

have as good a day as you can!

positive thoughts to all ERs and, hopefully, we will hear positive news from our missing ones.

 

Baz

[leopardml2341]

25 minutes ago, TheQ said:

......but for some reason Ben the I'm worried Collie came up to see us. Didn't find out what upset him, but let him out for a splash and dash at 04:30ish.

Methinks it must have been a  'dog world global' thing as Bingley wanted out at about the same time.

 

I too have been mostly awake since then, burdened by all the things I have to do, with little motivation to start (due no doubt to unsubstantiated thoughts of things going wrong)  or enough time to do them.......

 

Cuppa time methinks, might help!

Edited May 1, 2021 by leopardml2341

[JohnDMJ]

Good Morning, and Happy May 1st, to all!

 

Semi-rhetorical question: Is today the International Day of Distress Calls (May Day) or is this term actually the French exclamation "m'aider"?

 

Answers on a post card scheduled to arrive on Star Wars Day!

Edited May 1, 2021 by JohnDMJ

[New Haven Neil]

Rushing. Late.

 

Laters!