Early Risers.

[J. S. Bach]

At a rest area on I-95 northbound near Jacksonville, FL:

 

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

At a rest area on I-95 northbound near Jacksonville, FL:

 

i think the Australian version should have the words " poisonous snakes "replaced with the word "Everything."..

Mooring Awl inner Temple Hare, 

Six hours reasonable sleep so far, No chance of more..

Ben the snoring Collie, opened his eyes when I arrived, but then closed them again.

 

We've had it confirmed SWMBOs brother and wife will arrive Saturday, so building works this weekend seem unlikely.

 

As for problems with the site, the most common is it getting stuck when loading a post, it happens here at home or work on Android or PC. Same with loosing a current part typed post, or an old several days ago post needed clearing from the editor.

 

Years  ago grass snakes I saw, quite often, in Wiltshire on the edge of Salisbury plain but never any real snakes. Here in Norfolk in the soggy Broads area, I've never seen a grass snake, but have seen other snakes, mostly near or actually in the rivers...

 

While researching something on boats I came across the boat pictured below.

The GOS 16 keelboat. A Spanish design, so quite why its name is measure in feet, not metres I have no idea.

The GOS 16 is 4.95M LOA, 1.02M beam, 0.93M draft displacement 275Kg +2 crew say 475 Kg

Blue Moon is 4.87M LOA, 1.2M beam, 0.965M Draft.displacement 400Kg + 1 crew say 500Kg, If BM was still for two crew I'd have had to reduce the ballast by the required amount.

Both have a near vertical bow, both have a retrousee stern.
I designed Blue Moon in 1996, the GOS 16 date is 2004...
I think BM has about twice the sail area, but she'll need that to sail on tree lined Broads.

Very similar.

 

Time to.. lie back and relax till I have to get up in 10 minutes..

Ah did some research, it's probably 16 ish Spanish PIE . Spain went metric in 1852, so they've got long memories. Prior to that every small area or town had its own measurement sizes but using the same names, hence their enthusiasm for early standard metrification.

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by TheQ

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

Mike Stationmaster, many thanks for your observations about Sidmouth.  I’m there for the folk festival and after its cancellation last year I am thankful that there will be at least an attempt at one this year, albeit rather scaled down.  The hotel room that I have chosen is at the back of quite a well appointed hotel, the Kingswood, and less expensive than the other one – yes, really – that was on offer.  Bear in mind that my normal Sidmouth accommodation is a tent.  It is a bit Spartan but nine nights under canvas is, I find, good for the soul, if not necessarily the small of the back.  This year there will not be the usual festival campsite and it is far from clear yet whether there will be a substitute.  Normally I strike camp early on the Saturday morning, stuff everything in the back of the car and head for RailWells.  This year it looks as though I will be going straight home.

 

Yesterday was a distinct improvement over the day before.  By 10.30 am I had successfully purchased ticket for the two concerts that weren’t already sold out and can only hope that more for the remaining five will be made available nearer the time.  If I had bought my concert tickets before finding a hotel I could easily have ended up dossing on the beach, which is composed largely of shingle and therefore not as comfortable as it might be.  I shudder to think how much time this exercise has consumed.  If everything works as it should, the task of buying seven concert tickets would occupy but a few minutes.  The problems caused by the additional security which on-line purchases such as this are now deemed to merit took no fewer than four member of the credit card company’s customer service team to overcome and goodness knows how many hours.  At least peace has now broken out between my credit card and the Festival webshite, but for how long?

 

I remembered just in time that I have an appointment this morning for my Zoladex jab.  This will involve something akin to a commando raid on Stalag Surgery so as to gain entry despite the resistance mounted by Checkpoint Charlene.  Who dares wins?

 

Best wishes to all, and especially the sick and missing.

 

Chris

[iL Dottore]

Morning All,

AWOL for a bit as the Vet and I are trying to find the cause of the atypical and intermittent chest pain I’ve been having. I’ve already had a lung function test, blood work and a chest x-ray (all done at the GP’s office on Wednesday) I’m booked for a stress test for next Wednesday (a great day: first the dentist and then the cardiologist - what fun) then I’m back to the “Boy Doctor” for an ultrasound of the gall bladder (not the usual thing, but the chest pain is weird and very atypical), followed by a review of the test results. I’m fairly sanguine about the outcome: it will be what it will be, best find out now and deal with it...

 

Speaking of dealing with things, I see that Mr P Bear is not handling the loss of his supply of cheap Co-Op LDC terribly well. I have little sympathy: firstly, a cake that cheap is likely to be mostly synthetic with artificial flavouring and palm oil instead of butter in the ingredients - so no gastronomic loss there; secondly, having shown his skill and prowess in installing a new kitchen, making a homemade LDC should be child’s play (cub’s play?) in comparison.
 

After a bit of a hiatus, I’ll be back baking this weekend - a rhubarb crumble cake is on the cards.

 

Interesting the posts about snakes, I find them fascinating and often beautiful animals. One of the elective courses I took at university was herpetology (the study of reptiles) and I learnt a lot about them. Strangely enough, although I have no problems in handling (non-venomous) snakes - having handled both grass snakes and a (well fed) boa constrictor - I can’t bring myself to handle either frogs or toads - slimly little bu99ers (and some S American frogs are very toxic indeed).

 

When I was in Australia, I learnt something very interesting about venomous snakes: firstly many species have very short fangs, which means a thick leather boot will protect you from being bitten, secondly, and more surprisingly, frequently when a venomous snake bites you to protect itself it will not inject venom. The reason being the production of venom costs the snake energy, energy that must be reclaimed by eating the prey that the snake’s venom was used to kill. A very large animal (including humans) could not be eaten by the snake and therefore injecting the venom into a large animal would be a significant loss of valuable energy reserves possibly making the difference, in such a hostile environment, between life and death for the snake. However, I certainly wouldn’t abandon good “protection-from-snake-bite” practices, no matter how “too big to be eaten” I may be to snakes.

 

A final thought about snakes: just like many species of wild animals that are potentially very dangerous, if not habituated to humans (like those poor bears fed by stupid tourists), they will tend to avoid you as much as possible.  So creeping through the undergrowth silently is not a terribly good survival strategy (for the most part, I’m sure the intrepid jungle explorers amongst us can come up with exceptions).

 

Mrs iD is currently KO from the aftermath of her second Moderna vaccine jab, (nothing terribly consequential, just a headache and fatigue) so I am now off to take the dogs for their walk and drop the car off for a quick service. I may be some time...

 

Enjoy POETS day

 

iD

Edited May 28, 2021 by iL Dottore
Typo

[polybear]

8 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

I got to 23seconds of @monkeysarefun video and had to give up. I get a similar feeling watching those free climbers up tower cranes with no ropes 

 

The following video was shown on a TV programme last night, after the ten o'clock news and on one of those scary video programmes; how on earth the guy managed to hang on I'll never know:

 

 

 

8 hours ago, Tony_S said:

On one occasion his boss decided to observe and froze a couple of hundred feet up. My brother roped him firmly to the mast, carried on , remounted the aerial and returned to liberate his boss. 

 

An ideal moment to ask for a pay rise me thinks.....

 

7 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

This was in the days when your dad would chase them around trying to hit them with a shovel, now we are more enlightened and as a bonus snake bites have gone down, mainly due to blokes no longer chasing them around  trying to hit them with a shovel and getting bitten in the process. 

 

Bear's persuader of choice would be flame-thrower, though perhaps not indoors.

 

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

The problems caused by the additional security which on-line purchases such as this are now deemed to merit took no fewer than four member of the credit card company’s customer service team to overcome and goodness knows how many hours.  At least peace has now broken out between my credit card and the Festival webshite, but for how long?

 

 

 

Bear can recommend Halifax Clarity credit cards - they are particularly useful abroad as they have no ATM fees and a pretty much perfect exchange rate, unlike many other CC's.  They come highly recommended (and for some years) by MSE.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

As part  of our "volunteer" involvement in the use of vaccines to help with reducing the impact of covid we are off to donate some blood for an antibodies test today. This involves a trip into Bradford as the only place they could find for these tests is a couple of rooms in a mental health unit. Hopefully all will go well.

 

A Blackbird is busy singing merrily.. the temperature is on the up!

 

I can touch or hold most animals and insects no problem (even from a young age my party trick has been to help carry bees out of enclosed spaces in my hands)  but I am, for some reason, trying to avoid venomous snakes.

 

Nice to hear that Laurenceb has overcome his interwebby problems.

 

Now, time for my mugatea and get ready for my blood letting!

 

Fingers crossed for all ERs (and their relatives) with health concerns!

 

Baz

Edited May 28, 2021 by Barry O

[polybear]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Speaking of dealing with things, I see that Mr P Bear is not handling the loss of his supply of cheap Co-Op LDC terribly well. I have little sympathy: firstly, a cake that cheap is likely to be mostly synthetic with artificial flavouring and palm oil instead of butter in the ingredients - so no gastronomic loss there;

 

Bear bears (see what I did there?) grudges better than anyone else I know.  And on the subject of home-made LDC, Sqdn. Ldr. Hunt has kindly provided a certain Bear with a recipe for LDC just a soon as Bear has a functioning kitchen once more.  Insofar as artificial cr@p in foods, Bear caught the tail-end of a TV programme last night whereby the reporter spent 28 days living off a diet of junk food (actually referred to as "ultra processed foods").  The results were such that Bear decided to Google UPF's this morning, to see what should be avoided.  Well, good luck adopting that policy, cos' it seems that the vast majority of what we eat now falls into that category, so unless you live life eating certified organic lettuce you've got no chance.

 

And on the subject of Kitchens, there is a danger that Bear *may* have a working oven later today (TBC) or tomorrow; work has started on the first of two base unit corner trims (one of which is next to the oven housing, so has to be completed and secured before the oven is fitted) and is so far proving to be a little easier (though still time-consuming) than Bear had feared.  Today's plan is to get both CT's done, followed by adding a worktop support at the rear of the oven unit that I'd overlooked.  Then I need to refit the corner unit blanking panels....and add some extra fixings between adjacent units in both corners of the "U" layout, and......

After reading that it looks like the oven will be tomorrow after all.....

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

i think the Australian version should have the words " poisonous snakes "replaced with the word "Everything."..

Strictly speaking we wouldn't have that sign at all.The difference between "poisonous" and"venomous" is something every little  vegemiter learns sooner or later, as in:

 

"Mum, Susan just got bitten by a poisonous snake"

 

"No,monkesarefun, Susan just got bitten by a venomous snake, poison is something you drink!"

[AndrewC]

Moaning all. Off on a jolly up the A1 today. Finally get to visit the offspring. First time in nearly 6 months. 

 

I'm sure I've told this story before about the neighbour when I was around 14. He was a retired geologist. His son and boa came to live with them for a while. I had a basement bedroom with a ground level window. He had the opposite window with no fence to separate. More than once on a hot night the snake would escape and I'd find him coiled up either on the end of my bed or somewhere in the bedroom. First time was a bit of a fright, after that it became rather fun. 

 

No snakes to be seen in the boring borough unless you count the local politicians. Back in Calgary you'd get garter snakes along the railway lines for some reason. Rattlers were rare but still present further south towards the Montana border. I don't think there has ever been a rattler sighting north of Milk River. Then again with climate change, I wouldn't be surprised to see them migrate further north. The micro climate of the bad lands around Drumheller means that some things like scorpions can still survive and have done for millions of years. Never go fossil hunting without gloves.  

 

Enjoy the day. 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a sunny place. Yesterday was so warm I even put shorts and sandals on in the afternoon.  Beth was not impressed.  A lot of the G word got done  and preparations are underway to commission the  pool.

Today there wil be more unspecified garden work then an afternoon trainspotting has been allowed. Sounds like a good plan to me. Best wishes to all our ailing ER's the lustbof which now includes Captain Cynical.  Hope that things improve for all of you.

 

 

Jamie

Edited May 28, 2021 by jamie92208

[Andrew P]

The Sun is out

The Sky is blue

No time to finish this

I need a .................................

 

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

[jonny777]

9 hours ago, Tony_S said:

There are some interesting videos of aerial riggers going up some really high communications towers. My brother used to be a telecoms engineer. In the UK he wasn’t required to go up really tall towers (though he had been out on the microwave horns on the former Post Office tower). He said the videos don’t really reflect the real movement as he towers move in the wind too. 

 

They are not the only things to move in high winds. I think most buildings are designed to move, in order to reduce stresses in undesirable areas of the structure. 

 

I know that when I worked on the 12th floor (top floor) of an office block, if there were winds gusting 60-70mph and we sat on our office chairs with our feet off the floor, we could feel the movement through the chairs. It could be quite un-nerving, and not made any less so by the strange 'hum' that the building seemed to produce on very windy days. 

 

I hate to think what life is like towards the top of the Shard in stormy weather, especially as the top floors would likely been in the low cloud, and therefore nothing would be visible out of the windows. 

[The Lurker]

16 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

I think if I were in your shoes Lurker I would have run a mile i hate the sight of snakes (Or lizard in this case) they make me feel sick. I saw a Mojave green snake shot on tv the other night it was justified due to imminent danger to human life. It's jaws kept opening to strike in its death throes. Uuurgh

I realised I didn't have too much of a problem with snakes when I was around seven and we visited a snake temple in Penang. The place was literally crawling with defanged pit vipers (they were bright green). I was encouraged to hold a snake (which I was not keen on). 

 

My younger sister, on the other hand, was taken round the back of the temple to chuck up!

 

having quickly searched, it appears to still exist today. Here's a link (look away Simon)

 

http://www.penang.ws/penang-attractions/penang-snake-temple.htm

 

[The Lurker]

14 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Having consulted the Waitrose website Bear's choice would be this one, based on appearance - being the wrong side of five quid means it'd stay on the shelf though (the Co-op LDC was three quid, occasionally 2-25 when on offer).

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/no1-lemon-lime-drizzle-cake/528559-497798-497799

 

 

Younger Lurker only gets the essential one (£2.16). He likes the drizzle and is not so fussed about icing!

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup where the sun is out and the sky is blue but unlike AndrewP I have time to finish this....!

 

It's my last day of work before a week off, which coincides with half term. No particular plans but I had so much holiday brought forward from last year I thought I had better use some. I am told they will be less generous with allowing holiday carry forwards for next year; shame really as we want to try to have a holiday abroad next year.

 

I agree with Mike on the daftness of the Alexa advert with Pompeii. What I also spotted is that they have given the Roman an Italian accent; not quite "what a mistake-a to make-a" but on the way there.

 

Sorry to read that il Dottore has had to visit the vets; hopefully explanations will be forthcoming in short order.

 

And now...some more work!

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

It’s not quite as sunny as yesterday’s, but it’s a little warmer, already 12C. Apart from visiting the butchers and the Trafford Centre, I’m not planning on doing very much today, a day of resting, reading and research I think. However, I do need to water the freshly planted camomile, but that won’t take long. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian 

[Coombe Barton]

Moving office buildings;

On 2nd April 1990 I was sitting on a desk on the top - second floor - of the then new Powys County Council buildings in Llandrindod Wells when the Bishop's Castle earthquake struck. The desk swayed and there was a rumbling.

We were conducting a Wide Area Network test at the time across the whole of Powys. That ended.

My thoughts at the time

1. Hey, it's an earthquake
2. Hope this building stays up

Just across from where I was sat the architect who designed the building, so I knew who to blame if it didn't.

 

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It is a pleasant morning here, getting a bit cloudier though. 
I have to go over to Canvey for a blood test. Nothing to do with my heart or IBD, diabetes checkup this time. During the three months since the last one I have lost weight, stopped eating certain items and been on medication. Hopefully this will be reflected in the result. I need to book an appointment for a diabetic review once I have had the blood test. 
Aditi has been making do with cafetière coffee since Wednesday but her new coffee machine is arriving this afternoon. Our grocery delivery is arriving at lunchtime too. Quite a lot of excitement for a Friday. 
Aditi’s brother and his family will be visiting MiL tomorrow. She doesn’t know yet as she would have insisted on making all kinds of special food and then have been too tired to enjoy the visit. We can’t go as it would make it three households but I am sure there will be photos or videos. MiL does know she is going to Sussex on Sunday to see her grandson and fiancée’s new house. I hope she doesn’t start her “advice” about dogs. She is a bit obsessed with their desire for a dog. 
Tony
 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Tony_S

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not much trouble from Arthur Itis at the moment but his sidekick Si Attica is determined to make up for it. In the meantime a stretch out on the bed might bring some relief.

[Adam88]

7 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

At a rest area on I-95 northbound near Jacksonville, FL:

 

 

It is usually said that snakes are only poisonous if they are not prepared and cooked properly before being eaten.

 

[leopardml2341]

(Late) mornin' all.

 

Late checking in due to the annoyance that is work .

Quite pleasant weatherwise here in South Derbyshire today.

 

But, one of the advantages of WFH is that I can do other things as well.......

 

Time to hang out laundry - cue rain, despite what the forecast says .

 

Later, I'm going to take a short cycle ride to meet a friend for coffee and cake - cue more rain.

Edited May 28, 2021 by leopardml2341

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

Sorry to read that il Dottore has had to visit the vets; hopefully explanations will be forthcoming in short order.

 

And now...some more work!

I think we will need to be worried if there are reports of Mrs ID suddenly  wanting to find and check life insurance policies.

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

One for Coombe Barton I suspect.. Lies dam lies and statistics.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/business/deprivation-mapped-for-every-area-of-norfolk-8004836

 

Areas of deprivation, for example Wroxham and Hoveton, Wroxham Light Blue, Hoveton  light red.

The difference ? Wroxham  is THE place to buy a home, Hoveton across the river isn't .

Is Hoveton Deprived? no, Is it low income yes..

Both Hoveton and Wroxham are almost 100% occupier own properties with Hoveton having a higher percentage of retirees therefore less income .. If you look to the right around Ludham very similar, mostly retirees, with a few poorly paid farm worker / tourism workers..

 

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Si Attica has quietened down but is still hanging around. Problem is that there are things to do that require a bit of bending which is when he tries to jump in.