Early Risers.

[pH]

Four to five inches of snow overnight, on top of what was lying already. Now brilliant sunshine with hardly a cloud in the sky.

 

 

 

 

I was supposed to have an early dental appointment this morning. I was out of bed and in the shower when the receptionist phoned (from home, apparently!) to say the clinic staff couldn’t get in to work, so they were cancelling my appointment. 

I’ll still have to shovel the drive, though, as we do have to go out in the car.

 

Edited May 2, 2022 by pH

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Had not a bad day at the toy fair but didn't buy a lot. In fact the one hundred modelling tokens I withdrew have remained intact. The sum total of purchases, two small diecasts and a second hand book on buses making no impact. However all that walking about has awakened Arthur Itis and Si Attica so co-codamol has been deployed. Now to look at the rest of RMweb, be back later.

[New Haven Neil]

Hopping mad.  Not anger, but frustration.

 

Waited a year for an MRI scan and relevant Consultant appointment, on the 4th and 11th January respectively.

 

Cancelled....too many staff on the sick, not hospitalisations (only 7 in hospickle here for covid).  I know its not their fault, but the frustration......pah!

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, pH said:

Four to five inches of snow overnight, on top of what was lying already. Now brilliant sunshine with hardly a cloud in the sky.

Lovely photographs - particularly the morning alpenglow*.  It's nice to have sunshine with deep snow, which can be quite rare in this part of the world (if the sun comes out it usually means lots of melting). More typically here we get fog after snow, which was the case on Tuesday.

 

* Actually it looks like direct sunlight, but I'm sure you know what I mean. 

 

We had one of those sunny melting days yesterday. Early this morning there was an indeterminate but small amount of snow followed by rain. Frosty slush everywhere and more rain forecast under patchy cloud right now.

[simontaylor484]

2 hours ago, 45156 said:

I used to think that I was "good" with electrics - I managed to rewire the lighting circuits in our first bought house, and while I was switching on at the consumer unit, 30747 was stood out in the garden, with her hands over her ears awaiting the bang - which never came - though only half the upstairs lights came on when the switches were operated - another quick trip into the loft found one screw in a joint box which was not tight, and all was well. 

 

THEN came Part P of the building regs, whereby all wiring had to be tested by a qualified electrician, and also a new edition (12th I think) of the electrical wiring regs and I gave up, it was getting too complex.

 

Nowadays, I just believe that the best advice is to leave everything electrical to a qualified person who is up to speed, and also has the knowledge and equipment to check everything out safely.

 

 

We are now on the 18th edition of the electrical regulations.

I work wholly within what part P of the regulations lets me do. 

Most of the jobs I am doing is putting right what an allegedly professional electrician has done. Also in our house too many single gang sockets have been used where doubles would have been better especially in the bedrooms a job that will be remedied in the new year 

[Ozexpatriate]

10 hours ago, Tony_S said:

My neighbour kindly installed gutter guards (hedgehogs) while the solar panel scaffolding was up.

All through the Autumn local television broadcasts a barrage of commercials by installers of semi-covered gutter systems with names like "Gutter Helmet", "Leaf Guard", "Gutter Shield" and "Gutter Shutter". Now that it is winter, they seem to have let up.

 

The combination of plenty of rain with prodigious amounts of fir needles can result in traditional open gutters easily being clogged and systems which rely on surface tension to draw water (but not leaves and needles) into the gutter are aggressively marketed.

 

The other really heavily marketed home improvement (besides what you'd expect like kitchen counters) is durable concrete finishing coatings for people who want to use their garage either as a showroom or for something other than storing cars and junk.

 

Edited December 30, 2021 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

This headline caught my eye:

 

CNN: High-end Champagne shortage could ruin your New Year's Eve

 

I will stipulate that there is nothing like fine Champagne, but there are plenty of enjoyable alternatives. It seems a little over the top to suggest that New Year's would be "ruined" by drinking an alternative. Were that the case it would suggest seriously misplaced priorities.

 

Having said all that, the really cheap stuff (and I'm not talking about regional sparkling wines like Cava or Prosecco) is truly awful and best avoided altogether.

 

[Erichill16]

6 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

One possible thought; these days you can have your prescriptions sent to any pharmacy.   Could you find an independent one who does postal deliveries?  Then you'd possibly get the best "availability" combined with no need to actually collect the things.     Perhaps our resident pharmacist can advise on the best tricks solution to be applied?

 

Alan

If it were me, I wouldn’t go with the posting out idea, it’s one more step where something could go wrong and lead to delays. For example if an item arrives in stock at the pharmacy  on say late Friday afternoon then probably it won’t get posted until Monday and arriving on Tuesday. 
If you stay local, using a pharmacy that has its own delivery van, then you may get said item on Friday afternoon if you need it urgently. If they can’t deliver that quickly, you could always pop round and get it yourself but once it’s been committed to the post well……

PPPP

[pH]

Well, that’s the driveway cleared. There are now two large IKEA snowmen at the bottom of it, one on each side.

[Tony_S]

32 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

prodigious amounts of fir needles

It is moss that blocks gutters and downpipes here. I suppose we should be pleased that it is evidence of clean air. I wonder if the gutter-brushes will discourage the pigeons that like to run along the gutters early in the morning. Pigeons will not like us as we also had pigeon grills fitted to the ends of the solar panels. Otherwise pigeons like to roost in between the panels and roof tiles. This is apparently not a good thing to happen. 

[Erichill16]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

This headline caught my eye:

 

CNN: High-end Champagne shortage could ruin your New Year's Eve

 

I will stipulate that there is nothing like fine Champagne, but there are plenty of enjoyable alternatives. It seems a little over the top to suggest that New Year's would be "ruined" by drinking an alternative. Were that the case it would suggest seriously misplaced priorities.

 

Having said all that, the really cheap stuff (and I'm not talking about regional sparkling wines like Cava or Prosecco) is truly awful and best avoided altogether.

 

Captain Cynical has been quiet recently, been buying up all the champers to celebrate him finishing his consultation work and storing it in his Alpine Redoubt?

Watch  out Poly, he’ll be buying up LDC next. Better get your furry  ar$e down to the Coop pronto!

Edited December 30, 2021 by Erichill16
Spelling

[Coombe Barton]

... moving boxes, big heavy ones. Found some floor. One side of the room is more visible, the other less so. ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2021/12/30/on-tests/

[brianusa]

3 hours ago, pH said:

Four to five inches of snow overnight, on top of what was lying already.

 

 

 

 

 

This could be the view from our back deck, complete with trees.  It will save me posting another.  Even the depth of the snow appears the same while the deck rail could have been built by the same guy who built ours.  Not really!  All snow is supposed to go away soon as the temp rises and all turns to rain in the 40sF. Thats enough snow for me; we haven't had the US mail delivered for the duration.  What happened to "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night", etc, etc, etc?  Hopefully the grocery orders will show up!

     Brian.

Edited December 30, 2021 by brianusa

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Si Attica is still hanging around so more pills will be taken later. Feeling cream crackered so might have an early night.

[Ozexpatriate]

44 minutes ago, brianusa said:

Thats enough snow for me; we haven't had the US mail delivered for the duration.  What happened to "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night", etc, etc, etc? 

That's curious. I wonder why. USPS is usually conscientious about that.

 

Not an issue here. The roads are clear today. All this morning's slush is melted/evaporated and I'm seeing bright sunshine at the moment. Rain was forecast but is yet to materialize.

[monkeysarefun]

7 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

That's curious. I wonder why. USPS is usually conscientious about that.

 

They have still haven't restarted  USPS deliveries to Australia and New Zealand, we still sit in the banned list among the usual places ending in stan.

 

Ive ordered 3 things from the states via Amazon recently, all arrived without any hold up or issue.

Edited December 30, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, monkeysarefun said:

They have still haven't restarted  USPS deliveries to Australia and New Zealand

All my Christmas cards arrived in Australia reasonably quickly - about two weeks. Cards from Australia took three weeks to reach me.

 

It makes me wonder if the issue is related to package handling on the Australia Post end.

[brianusa]

Forgot C/Cards. none have arrived anyway.  No bills either

   Brian

[J. S. Bach]

A late welcome back to Natalie.

 

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[PeterBB]

On 29/12/2021 at 03:54, Ozexpatriate said:

This one?

There are others depending on the definition of "longest" here.

Looks like the Aussies have the contract for long matches.  This one was much later ... my brother is in his late 70s.  Mervyn Rose? comes to mind.

[PeterBB]

On 30/12/2021 at 03:13, Natalie said:

Anyways enough of my sufferings and apologies for the length of the post. I hadn't intended it to be so but I found the words flowed once I started.

Natalie - please do not apologise, its just nice to see you back and with some highly relevant comments on aspects of history.

 

Just miss ad ay or two and hundreds of posts - apologies the I have not read them all.

Edited December 31, 2021 by PeterBB
Time ... goes so quickly

[PeterBB]

On 30/12/2021 at 10:26, Tony_S said:

Are they wall lights? All our ceiling lights are wired through the ceiling rose with a cable to the switch. The only one like yours is a wall mounted lamp.

Had to get rid of the wall mounted lights are a pain and, yes to get rid is difficult because of the wiring and unable to get at the source because of the way this years move (probably our last but hope we have a good few years yet) was wired.  TV aerial wise have still not fathomed and SWMBO wants one in the bedroom - but not keen on knocking holes for wiring and sockets.  The 'chalet' room has a complete laminated floor so floorboards are inaccessible - hence the need for more invasive methods.

 

Electric 12th edition would be really ancient 17 followed quite quickly by 18th now current.  17th acceptable boxes now not acceptable by 18 - all back to metal consumer units etc.  Part P ... cost an arm and a leg for replacement supply to garage  SWMBO said it had to be buried and not overhead - in reality we were in agreement so accepted the additional cost.

 

A year or two back a gas boiler was fitted.  The same guy 'reassesses it' every year but always states that it needs an earth .. why doesn't he just fix it as he charged enough for the HMG 'essential service' for rented property.

Edited December 31, 2021 by PeterBB
Additional information

[Natalie]

20 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Natalie’s back! 

Welcome back N - you were much missed….

Wow thank you Flavio. That's a really nice thing to say.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Too late for my rant.

Not much to report today but had a phone call from the manager to so his wife, a nurse at the local hospital, has tested positive for the ruddy virus. I can see me being a bit busy next week.

Goodnight,

Robert