Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

It's nice to be back. It was a bit of a shock to realize how truly time consuming time online here can be.

 

I'm guessing that everyone with an avatar photograph needed to reload an image. It's a pity about losing 12 months of photographs. Perhaps I will try to recover some of them, but I doubt I will be very thorough about it.

[BlackRat]

Well, looks like we are back, not sure it’s a good thing tho… I actually managed to get lots of things done!
 

Hope everyone is safe and well.

[BoD]

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

For those below and others that I haven't been able to contact.

@Gwiwer

@iL Dottore @TheQ

@tetsudofan

@polybear

@BoD

Glad to be back. FYI I opened a Facebook group called 'The Diversion Line'  for those missing their daily dose of RMweb. I opened it only a few days ago and it will remain open for another week or two and then I will archive it. If you haven't joined please do although it will soon be defunct it will be there if RMweb was to go down again.

We would probably break Facebook too.

[J. S. Bach]

6 minutes ago, BoD said:

We would probably break Facebook too.

Especially now that I am on there!

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Inevitably, but the challenge is in not dying from it, rather than living with it. Measles is almost entirely preventable*. Locally, influenza cases are rising but they were effectively zero over the last couple of seasons due to CoViD pandemic measures.

 

* Two doses of MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles; one dose is about 93% effective. (US CDC)

 

< snipped

 

 

 

I agree - however the anti-vaxxer nutters have resulted in a lot of people not having their kids take the MMR, with the resultant re-emergence of measles as a major threat in recent times.  There was a panic here last year (or 2020??) with a lot of measles in schools.  Needless.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

4 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

We've got to get on living with it folks, just like measles or flu.

Inevitably, but the challenge is in not dying from it, rather than living with it

The big debate between Dr. SWMBO and myself and the one which sometimes ends with a harrumph.  

 

My opinion - it's something to live with now and we are as protected as we reasonably can be.  The days of masks and antisocial distancing are over (for the UK at least) and who didn't expect a slight rise in the numbers infected as we all went back to work or tried to return to our previously-normal ways of life?  The numbers aren't huge and are manageable.  The so-called wave doesn't appear to be anywhere near as big as some sources suggest it is and is more of a ripple.  The infection isn't severe in most cases largely because we are well protected.  Yes there are hospital cases and deaths but these are at rather lower levels than seen in the two major waves.  I remain wary but not worried and - to date - have yet to test positive despite working normally and closely with many other people throughout.  I'm not invincible but I am protected and I may catch it just as I may catch a cold or flu at some stage; on balance I am unlikely to be seriously troubled if I do.

 

Her opinion - the current round of infection / reinfection is the biggest and most serious wave so far with as many as 1 in 11 in parts of the UK allegedly infected.  No-one should be out and about without good reason.  The statistics point to this being the biggest wave so far and worse to come.   There may never come a time when guests can come indoors or we can remove masks, public transport and public places are unsafe without stringent precautions and enforcement.  If I catch it I'm as good as a goner.  

 

Poles apart.  Both sides attempt to support our arguments with statistics.  There are stats and stats and there are more and less reliable sources and interpretations.  The UK Government's own numbers show that infection rates are falling in many areas already and where they are still rising the rise is mostly tiny numbers.  I honestly don't see how anyone can extrapolate that as many as 1:11 is infected from those numbers.  I continue to feel as though I am banging my head on a brick wall in even trying to advance any other opinion than hers; she is "right because (she) is the scientist".  In my scientific training we questioned, queried and investigated before advancing a theory and still didn't claim it to be the right answer.  

 

I am totally over not being able to invite anyone round for so much as a muggertea and would do so tomorrow given a level playing field.  

 

And I picked up our last free box of test kits today.  

[TheSignalEngineer]

What a strange week we've had.

Covid positive as I reported a few days ago and no Rmweb so modelling had to be undertaken to pass the time in the isolation wing.

Suddenly the isolation wing became the staff quarters as Anne tested positive just as I was recovering, so the modelling was somewhat curtailed as domestic duties increased. Fortunately both cases were mild so now both negative and back to slightly more normal life. 

Bit of a bu$$er about the photos. Seems to be very random as some of my stuff from when I first joined is missing but some 2021 stuff is still there. Some I can identify so will try to put back if I get the urge to do so.

Meanwhile stay safe everyone, after all the forum isn't quite a matter of life or death but has been a big support to a lot of us during a trying time.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[polybear]

5 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I have a smart meter, just as well as its impossible to read my gas meter where it is.

 

Bear has a smart meter - only it's not very smart (a.k.a. bvggered....).  I've finally convinced Eon that (a) it is bvggered, (b) I'm not making it up/paranoid/dunno what I'm talking about and (c) do need a new one.  Which is currently planned for June......

 

Meter photos were taken today - and new readings uploaded with somewhat of a fight.  Of course they responded with "Are you sure that's right, cos' last time the gas reading was higher than it is now?"  Yep - that's cos' last time you estimated the reading - cos' you couldn't communicate with the Un-smart meter.....

 

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I really like @TheQ and @Tony_S new Avatars.

 

Bear rather likes NHN's new Avatar.  There's something about a Donk that makes a Bear smile.....

As for Bear's Avatar - well he's MIA

 

Bear here.....

Well two new door frames** are installed   

(Ok, so there's no architrave yet.  Or Door Jambs.  Or paint......)

Lots and lots of dado rail, picture rail and architrave were delivered at the start of the week; Bear sent a snottogram to point out that their priming and undercoating had something to be desired - they agreed and refunded the extra cost.  Quite right too.

 

And then Bear spent days - literally - measuring/planning/pondering/worrying/questioning how to install the picture rail and at what height.  All complicated by the fact that two door frames and the window are all at different heights and all play a part in the positioning of the picture rail.  Eventually I decided that having picture rail in the first place was a mistake after all - if only I'd decided that BEFORE I spent a hundred and thirty notes on the bluddy stuff.  Turdycurses.  Fortunately the dodgy paint refund was £96 so I'm not down too much; I'll ebay the rail and get a wedge back, though it may take a few weeks cos' it'll be collect only.

The dodgy paint finish is now't to worry about - basically there is evidence of mdf grinning thru' in places, as well as a lumpy build-up on some edges in places.  A quick sand and an extra coat of mdf primer will sort it.

 

So now I'm into final wall prep before I can seal them with, er, sealer and then papering them with Wallrock Lining Paper (bluddy strong stuff that worked rather well in the Kitchen).  Still lots and lots to do but at least there's some hope on the horizon at last....

[Sidecar Racer]

18 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Bear rather likes NHN's new Avatar.  There's something about a Donk that makes a Bear smile.....

 

 

 Well different strokes as the saying go's .

 

[polybear]

Well after taking a speed-read of Andy Y's Accident Report it appears that Bear's Avatar is not only MIA, but now Missing, Presumed Dead in Hyperspace 

RIP, my little furry friend

Fortunately he's actually safe and well and scoffin' LDC at Bear Towers.

It seems that something like a year's worth of photos may have been lost from the site too, which is a bit of a blow for all those useful build threads etc. etc. - though some info may be accessed/recovered via the Wayback Machine (thanks to Martin W. for reminding Bear of that site):

https://web.archive.org/web/*/rmweb.co.uk/community/

 

[Mike Bellamy]

6 hours ago, Barry O said:

nope it seems hit and miss but some of mine from 2013 have gone awol..  could be a while putting some pictures back in...

 

4 hours ago, BoD said:

You are correct.   I’ve just had a look back at my thread and there seems no rhyme or reason as to which images are showing and which aren’t.  Hopefully it may just  be (apart from the last year, which we know about) that the database is still being repopulated/rebuilt.

 

From what Andy has said elsewhere, it may be several days before the volume of photos are processed and transferred from the back-up. The problem will then be the last 12 months or so as they were backed up on part of the hardware that failed and cannot be recovered.

.

[Tony_S]

26 minutes ago, polybear said:

As for Bear's Avatar - well he's MIA

Are you sure he isn’t hiding in our guest bedroom cupboard

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Tony_S

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

... the anti-vaxxer nutters have resulted in a lot of people not having their kids take the MMR, with the resultant re-emergence of measles as a major threat in recent times.  There was a panic here last year (or 2020??) with a lot of measles in schools.

Yes. There was a (fairly) major measles outbreak in the US in 2019 locally in the Portland conurbation (actually Vancouver, WA) and in New York which was substantially larger. Both of them involved personal belief exemptions to vaccination.

 

Regarding the local outbreak:

Quote

None of the 59 patients identified as of February 16, 2019 had received their complete set of two MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccinations

 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

And we’re back on line again, many yanks to Andy Y and the team for making it happen.

 

Well, I’ve been busy in the intervening 10 days or so since I last posted. I finally managed to get a bit of time in the workshop and I’ve rebuilt the motor mechanism for the turntable. The drive wheel I made from an off cut of plywood has had a brass collar fitted in the centre, which has a grub screw fitted to secure the drive wheel to the main shaft. A new motor/gearbox was then fitted with a small pulley wheel and finally the drive belt added. The drive wheel and pulley give me approximately an 11:1 ratio, which equates to the turntable taking about 1 1/2 minutes to do a full revolution. Once it was all put back together and some slight adjusted were carried out, I was very pleased with the fact that there was no longer any back lash and the turntable starts immediately when the direction has been changed, it’s also much quieter too! 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[BR60103]

I was just getting used to having an extra hour and a half each night to read.

 

We have just had (or are just about to have) the restrictions eased, but most people in commercial establishments are still masked.

Our neighbours booked their second booster shot online and found when they went that to get it they needed a note from their doctor.  

 "We went to our vaccine clinic today and saw 4 people ready to register clients and 5 people to give the vaccine. There was one person getting the vaccine. "

 

(We had gone last week and found out in person).

 

[iL Dottore]

Good morning all,

 

I’m up relatively early this morning, just couldn’t stay asleep (falling asleep in front of the television, well YouTube, didn’t help either).
 

During The Great RMWeb 2022 Blackout (as it may or may not be remembered as), I found myself looking at YouTube videos on the home cinema system and in particular three types of YouTube videos: woodworking videos, videos that instruct one how to make different types of Pâtisserie and videos that show how food is produced on an industrial scale. The latter are particularly fascinating, one particularly impressive machine featured was a meat slicer that sliced a whole ham into equally sized slices in a matter of seconds. another fascinating video was of a cake production line which started off with raw ingredients and ended up with a guillotine type machine slicing the cake into serving sized slices. 
 

Mrs iD has returned to the mountains with the doggies and, as with her last foray into the Alps, I will be doing some serious reorganisation of some part of the house. I have absolutely no idea why I am unable to do such clearances/reorganisations when she is here.
 

I’ll be getting my “doggy fix“ in her absence when a lawyer acquaintance of ours stops by this weekend with her two Kooikerhondje for a short walk. The walk will be, of necessity, short as of her two dogs - Lucy and Eileen – Lucy is pushing 14 and is deaf and partially blind and a little bit arthritic (but such an sweet little dog). I had never heard of the Kooikerhondje breed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kooikerhondje) before we met our lawyer acquaintance,  but they are incredibly endearing dogs but sadly, like most breeds with a small genetic base, have a tendency towards certain genetic diseases (usually avoidable if breeders are responsible and test the dogs before breeding them).

 

And whilst on the topic of “genetically unfit“ (and to comment on the recent posts about CoVID), one of the surprising revelations of the pandemic is how many people are genetically unfit inasmuch as many supposedly young, fit and healthy individuals died of the disease. I remember reading at least one paper by researchers who investigated why supposedly young and fit people were dying of the disease and found that such individuals had a genetic deficiency in one of the very many signalling pathways of the immune system. The high incidence of obesity, Type II diabetes, hypertension, alcohol abuse and tobacco use (especially in the UK and the US) is also another worry revealed (or highlighted) by the pandemic

 

A further, even more frightening, revelation from the pandemic was how incredibly ignorant most people are about science, medicine, statistics and even how their own body works. And I’m not talking about MD/PhD level Nobel Prize winning knowledge either, just a basic understanding (hands up all those ERs who know where their liver is situated in their body).

 

Now that the workshop has been reorganised and refurbished, my weekend mission (should I choose to accept it) is to go through the drawers and start cataloguing what’s actually in them - labelling the drawers as I go. 

 

And on that slightly better organised note I wish you a pleasant POETS day

[Barry O]

WHITE RABBITS!

 

Ey up!

 

Still got a bit of snow laid about outside this morning. Waiting for a bus to get back from town was a tad chilly.. but with the use of my trusty face mask I kept my nose warm.. great!

 

Got a bit of muddling to do today..nothing too taxing.

 

Time for my mugatea and a browse through RMWeb land..

 

Have a good day!

 

Baz

[NGT6 1315]

Moaning awl. The Long Night is Over, it seems!

 

Still in a difficult state of mind re work in particular. I might be better able to go into detail later as Annika will need to be off to the kindergarten soon, but for the moment: We're currently working on finding a solution for reducing my driving obligations, though this may require a bit of time to implement and might, I suspect, be possible only in stages. Which is what I myself absolutely want but still, it's a frellin' nuisance I rather could do without.

 

Be safe, everyone...

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

Unable to sleep, I came downstairs before midnight, took a couple of pink pills, and eventually got about 5 hours sleep.

 

Ben the currently snoring Collie, is what I would call medium cuddly. He only comes for a cuddle if he wants something or needs reassurance.

Our previous Border Collie, Duke was a roughy toughy farm Collie, cuddles were not his thing.

Amber one of our rough Collies would take a cuddle from anyone.

While Baron our Blue Merle collie was devoted to SWMBO and would always be cuddled up to her if he had the chance.

 

Ben is showing his age now, one day last week he looked at the stairs to go up with me and SWMBOs morning cuppotea. He refused and looked sad. Another day he put his forepaws on the bottom step and took a while before deciding to go up.

 

I suspect I may have had covid. At the end of the weekend of launching Blue Moon, I felt really rough, but thought it was reaction to the work carried out.

Now a week later I suddenly find I smell everything better, I hadn't noticed a loss of smell or taste at the time, but now my nose is now most sensitive to smells.

 

Ben has taken me for a short stroll round the garden, he's not impressed by the high winds of yesterday and today. 

 

Unfortunately the move to the new site hasn't helped on the android tablet, while speed is better we still have the video taking a quarter of the screen I can't get rid of. Though today it's up on the top right half under the internet bar.

 

Plans for the day,

I have to make a temporary hatch cover to replace the one that went missing from the motorboat.

Then, modify the jib club for Blue Moon.

Any time after that will be in the mobile home working on the TV / heater cabinet.

 

Shortly I'll make a muggacoffee and breakfast..

Bye for now.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a cool Charente  where there was ice on the cars when I went to let the hens out.  Whilst we were offline egg production has soared from zero in February to an average of 3 per day. In the warm spell last week they were running straight out of the hen hut and down the outside run as soon as I let them out.  Today the came out slowly but went to the treats box where the tops from yesterdays strawberries  had been placed.  I need to go to the silo and get a new sack of feed today.

 

It's good to be back online though I may not get as much muddling done now.  Yesterday was warm to start with but got wet and cold. About 150 litres of rainwater went into the new irrigation tank,  it's now about half full.  Today it is cool but the sun is now out.  We forgot to bring the lemon tree in last night. It's now warming up in the hall.  There are three nearly fully formed lemons on it.

 

Not a lot else to report but good to see most people back. 

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Frost is visible on the shed roof.

The change in energy prices was instantly visible on our meter monitor this morning. Mainly increased standing charges.  Our new direct debit is a bit more but they do seem to have taken in to account our significantly reduced electricity usage since December. 
The mysterious delivery of a pack of lateral flow tests I hadn’t ordered was explained yesterday. I had an email explaining that as a vulnerable person I should use a lateral flow rest if I thought I may have Covid, and if positive I would be prescribed anti virals. Previously I had been sent a PCR test which would have been used to order the medication. 
Tony