Early Risers.

[Compound2632]

24 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

You do need to be a bit more specific, dear fellow. We need the units so that we can commiserate accordingly. 

 

quantity = numerical value x unit of measurement

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Fahrenheit?

Celsius?

Kelvin?
Rankine?

Delisle?

Newton?
or

Réaumur?

Delisle* and Réaumur were new to me. Having looked up Réaumur, Wikipedia helpfully introduced me to another one I hadn't known - this time Danish, the Rømer scale (the freezing point of pure water being 7.5 degrees and the boiling point of water as 60 degrees) -  which is as barking as Fahrenheit.

 

* Which apparently goes backwards.

 

In SI units, kelvins are not degrees per se. They are, well, kelvins. 90 kelvins is abbreviated as 90 K, not 90°K.

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[polybear]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Except sadly Bouncer the dog who died of cancer in 1993 and received more tributes  from around the world than any of the human cast,  says wikipedia.

 

And the only one that could act as well....

 

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I've had almost 2 tonnes of water-logged mud and clay  sitting in 6 or 7 huge builders bags on my kerbside, the waste from doing landscaping over the last few months. Have been meaning to be  getting around to hiring a skip to get rid of it but keep finding funner things to spend the $450 on.

 

Came home last night to find the local council boys doing the bi-yearly kerbside cleanup where you can  leave out oversized items (mattresses, furniture etc)  for free pickup had taken it all away. I knew the cleanup was on but never imagined they'd take it.

 

Caught up with them down the road on my way to work this morning where they were continuing their round and stopped to thank them . "No worries, bloody heavy but - put the weight of the truck right up!"

 

I'll send them  an online gift card later so they can score a carton of beer, (or alternatively a decent red if thats more their thing).

 

Australia - The opposite of a rant !     (Number 2).

 

 

 

If the lid of the wheelie bin isn't COMPLETELY closed the guys won't empty it, full stop.  I recall the days when we had proper Dust Carts with blokes standing on the back and metal dustbins; they'd also take stuff like a Mattress with no trouble whatsoever.

 

6 hours ago, Darlington_Shed said:

Having surrendered myself to the tender mercies of a physioterrorist since I returned, I am happy to report that the knee is improving. Slowly.

 

 

Not sure what is the scariest - the treatment or the bill at the end.  Hang on, yes I do - the bill, definitely the bill....

 

Bear here.....

Job 1:  Bung some self-leveller in the floor trench; I'm kinda thinking that I'll do the job in two parts - fill the trench, wait a few days for that to dry then a second pour to level the area with the surrounding tiles.  With luck that should help prevent any risk of cracking because of differential drying times.  Hopefully.

Then I've decided that emptying the cupboard under the stairs is a good plan so I can give the cupboard a smarten up as required (paint, architrave around the new doorframe, maybe new skirting?).  I'll also be able to clean the stuff hidden under there and maybe dispose or re-home some of it as well, with any luck.

 

In other news:

Bear discovered the battery on the iphone thingy was down to 2% just as I set off to the warehouse & JL yesterday; hooking it up to the Bearmobile seemed like a plan - which is the first time ever despite the BM being 4.5 years old.  Finding the usb connector thingy was the first challenge....

Then the radio display showed "ipod".  Huh?  Then after a while it displayed "Error".  All Bear wanted was Radio 2.  Where's a Puppers when you need them?

 

And finally....

Seems that the kickball fans are calling for a Bank Holiday on Monday if England win the footie on Sunday.....FFS.  It seems the Gov. have said No.....

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, brianusa said:

Another over 90 old degrees in GH!  Another one tomorrow  and until the weekend when it breaks and back to the normal 70 or so. ...

 Leave the A/C on for a while yet to cool the upstairs!

I wish. Am still hoping Monday will see my forced air fan fixed. In the meantime, I'm running portable fans to try to shift some thermal mass before bedtime. Tonight it is still 81°F / 27°C inside well after midnight.

 

When I do get to bed, I will leave the windows and blinds open but around 5:00am will be awoken by the lightening sky*, at which point I will close the windows and (blackout) blinds to get more sleep.

 

* sunrise is 5:51am, with nautical twilight at 4:32am and civil twilight at 5:16am.

 

Here we won't see pleasant temperatures until Monday. From a local television station (in °F):

 

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well the water has stopped falling from the sky, it must have stopped some time ago, as the garden path is almost dry. Sheila is busy getting herself ready for her Zumba class, so I’m keeping out of the way! My services are required as a chauffeur this morning, once I’ve dropped Sheila off at the church hall, I shall go a fill the car up with petrol. Then I shall spend the rest of the morning in the workshop. 

 

This afternoon I have an appointment for a scan for an abdominal aortic aneurysm, so I will have to have a slightly reduced size meal at dinner time, not that I have a huge meal anyway! Needless to say, Charlie won’t becoming round today, which is a bit of a disappointment, but ho hum. 

 

Back later. 

 

Brian

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Very little on BBC breakfast except the Commonwealth Games or on the news for that matter. Weather forecast is much the same as with possibly some rain on Sunday but nowhere near as much as required. Now off to run a bath, be back later.

[Dave Hunt]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

I got a surprise yesterday.  I app,ied for my new passport on 8th July and was told to expect it in 11 weeks.  The process however was easy.  Yesterday, 19 days later my shiny new one was delivered.  Good service in less than 3 weeks.

 

Me too. I applied a month ago via the post office and was told that the quoted timescale for renewals was ten to sixteen weeks but much to my amazement it was only three weeks. Efficiency from a government department, whatever next?

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

News just breaking, Bernard Cribbens died this morning at 93 years of age RIP.

[Winslow Boy]

10 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Me too. I applied a month ago via the post office and was told that the quoted timescale for renewals was ten to sixteen weeks but much to my amazement it was only three weeks. Efficiency from a government department, whatever next?

 

Dave

 

That is because when the 'media' got 'bored' ie. s couldn't be a.......d to find some proper news due to the summer holidays they decided that the passport office needed a good kicking so laid into them about how long it was taking to get a passport. This was despite the majority of people actually getting them within the timeframe.  Some politicians chimed in as it suited there agenda - civil service not up to scratch too many working from home yiddah, yiddah.

[DaveF]

Yesterday was something of an "odds and ends day" spent catching up on various things.  It didn't start too well when when my smart speakers decided that they would not play Classic FM or anything else from Global Player - so I listened to Radio 3 instead.  Later on they worked again - it's not the first time, doubtless some sort of glitch in the system.

 

I did some gardening, cutting down the perennial geraniums in the front garden to get a second flush of leaves - sometimes they flower again but I think it's too dry this year.  I also tidied up the roses, weeded and put weedkiller on some plants between the joints of the concrete on my drive.  Then I tidied up the back garden.  Later on I spent time working on photos I took on Tuesday but they didn't all get done, so that is a job for today.

 

In the afternon I went into town and bought two books - one on philosophy (an outline history) and one on Mathematics with a few problems to solve just for fun.  Somehow I also acquired  a jigsaw puzzle.  I did remember what I originally went to get - some small polythene bags for putting individual items of Mum's jewellery in when I get around to having them valued.  If I get the rings mixed up it would be difficult to work out which is which - at present they are neatly in her jewellery box along with a list and a key to where they are.  I called in to the estate agents to give them a bit of information they needed and then went to the flat to check it - perhaps as well as the electoral roll form had been delivered.  When I got home I rang the helpline and got it sorted out to say the flat is currently empty since Mum died and to get her name removed from the electoral register.   It took less than three minutes from dialling to completing the call.

 

I went to the beach for a walk, it was very grey and misty with a few spots of rain and a chilly southeasterly wind and the waves were big enough for surfing.  It looked more like November than July!

 

When I got home there was an e mail from the solicitor asking me to check some information for the flat sale so that took a little while to do, hopefully in the next day or so they'll get back to me to let me know if that is all they need.

 

David

Edited July 28, 2022 by DaveF

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

 

In other news:

Bear discovered the battery on the iphone thingy was down to 2% just as I set off to the warehouse & JL yesterday; hooking it up to the Bearmobile seemed like a plan - which is the first time ever despite the BM being 4.5 years old.  Finding the usb connector thingy was the first challenge....

Then the radio display showed "ipod".  Huh?  Then after a while it displayed "Error".  All Bear wanted was Radio 2.  Where's a Puppers when you need them?

 

.

Our radio in the car also won't do anything except read the gadget on the usb if there is something plugged in.. it also won't charge anything either..

[simontaylor484]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

News just breaking, Bernard Cribbens died this morning at 93 years of age RIP.

He was very much a fixture of my childhood fronting Jackanory

 

 

[Tony_S]

36 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Our radio in the car also won't do anything except read the gadget on the usb if there is something plugged in.. it also won't charge anything either..

Both my phone and car do a “what do want to do with this device” conversation. The car can deal with iOS and Android devices differently. One option is to just use the USB sockets for charging. If I do plug a usb stick with music on the car will use the Gracenote online database to get track names etc.  I usually only listen to Greatest Hits Radio now which is aimed at those who find Radio 2 too exciting. 

[New Haven Neil]

Morning - just.

 

Lazy start to the day then wasted an hour on you toob.  No outside excitement this morning due to rain.  Yes, hosepipe ban begins tomorrow, 2 inches of rain this morning, with full-on thunderstorm which is rare here.  It was about the noisiest I can recall here, it was right overhead.

 

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

And the only one that could act as well....

Don't make me come up there!

[PupCam]

Morning All!

 

Very sorry to see the legend Bernard Cribbins has died at the ripe old age of 93.    

 

Mention of him always conjures up images of holes in the road, the Railway Children and Hotel Inspectors for me although others will have different memories.

 

In Other News

 

1) Just got back from a 3 mile hoof over the fields.  Broken sunshine and a nice cool breeze so it must have done Puppers some good 🤞 although I need to extend my range!

 

2) Yesterday I got a small temping job.   I got a job as an unpaid medical admin person, no, really!     

 

I thought I'd best bite the bullet and try and get to the bottom of the "missing MRI scan referral to one of the big London hospitals" problem.    After 3 or 4 false starts the switchboard managed to put me in touch with somebody who at least knew of the consultant who was then able to look up and pass on to me the number for their medical secretary.     A call to said number was then made but unfortunately the person I wanted to speak to was off sick.   However ...... the very helpful lady I spoke to asked me to explain the situation to see if she could help. Having explained that after nearly a year of waiting a referral letter had finally been sent in June to them and that I had a copy of it.   Unfortunately their copy seems to have gone into the "In Tray" and then been buried under the weight of other post as it hasn't been processed and consequently I do not appear on their system.  She asked if I could possibly Email a copy to her and she would deal with it.    Luckily I have a scanner so  I scanned and then Emailed the letter to her at ~15:30.   By 17:00 I had a reply from her saying she had received it, processed it and that I should hear from them shortly regarding an appointment.   

 

So, three cheers and a very big thank you to "Helen"!   👏

 

Why the blazes hospitals don't rely on Emails for such communications rather than bits of recycled paper in this day and age heaven only knows!  

      ( ....... that might have the makings of a rant)

 

3) And another bit of good news yesterday, will it ever stop I wonder?   

 

Investigating the discrepancy between the Sidereal time calculated by my Arduino software and the value produced by this website  https://www.localsiderealtime.com/     I stumbled on a very comprehensive library (pre-written code) of useful astronomical functions there for the taking.    After a quick squint at the source code it is clear that the chap who produced it really knows his onions stars and nebula.   As calculating Sidereal time is a fundamental requirement for astronomy obviously the library includes a function that perform this task.    

 

The Puppers' code was re-visited and all the previous Sidereal code was removed and replaced by the suitably integrated new library code.      When first run the code returned a Sidereal time only ~10 seconds different from the website.     Having left the code running and the telescope mount tracking all night the difference between the Sidereal times this morning was still ~10 seconds so that's all jolly fine!   

 

The Sidereal time is used to calculate the "Hour Angle" of an object which you may recall is effectively the direction of that object from your location at any instant (and is therefore constantly changing).    Once the telescope mount is correctly pointed in the direction of the object it should then continue to track it.    However overnight the actual position of the mount had dropped back by about "10 minutes" which is equivalent to a pointing error of ~1.3% so that's the next problem to solve.      An obvious candidate is of course the mount's motor drive.    This is  a stepper motor driven reduction gearbox the final stage of which is a worm gear driving a worm wheel ~ 3" in diameter.     I would have hoped that being stepper motor driven the speed would have been far more accurately controlled than the previous versions that used a battery powered, bog standard dc motor for drive.   

 

I mustn't forget I own a budget telescope ......🤣

 

Anyway, look at the time it's almost Munch Time!

 

TTFNQ

 

Alan

 

 

 

[Tony_S]

We have had hedgehogs installed on the remaining gutters today. The front lawn was considered perfectly ok for the cherry picker truck. This was good because originally it was planned to use a neighbours drive but they are in Turkey and their drive has vehicles on it. Our lawn is probably as stable as our front drive anyway. The finishing touches are being applied by use of a ladder from the garage (flat) roof. The gutters were really grubby and full of gritty moss. 
Tony

[polybear]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

News just breaking, Bernard Cribbens died this morning at 93 years of age RIP.

 

A.K.A. Tufty, Great Uncle Bulgaria, Tobermory, Madame Cholet, Orinoco, Wellington, Tomsk, Bungo...

😭

(from back in the days when TV programmes were really worth watching)

[polybear]

Bear here....

A busy morning.....mucho sorting, re-locating of boxed-up stuff from the lounge to various other locations and stashing of timber offcuts into the loft.  The bin guys have been and gone - those that empty the wheelie bins really, really earn their gronkits - they were absolutely flying, which would explain why the Avenue looks like The Somme afterwards.

Then it was mixing up some SL Floor Compound for the trench; I mixed half a bag (10Kg) as a guess - which turned out to be "numerous" Kg too much.  Turdycurses.  A bit unavoidable unfortunately - you don't get long to work with it (20 mins) so mixing up a second batch starts to get complicated as all the tools and buckets etc. need cleaning PDQ.  It does mean that I still have more than enough (and some) for the second application (a 3mm deep skim) in 3 days or so.

Right, the next job is to attack the cupboard under the stairs.....

 

In other news.....

Whilst waiting to enter SnoozyBearland whilst laying in my pit last night I pondered the Leather Leccy Recliner I saw in the Marie Curie Shop yesterday; I knew it was a DFS jobbie and was around the £800 mark when new.  My Beary suspicions kinda think that DFS want a fair wedge of profit on that even after they've paid for the shops, staff, delivery, warehouse & staff, Head Office etc. - which leaves nottahuge amount left to actually make a leather chair with a steel frame, motor mechanism, battery, etc;  I arrived at the conclusion that it would make more sense to consider such a purchase in slower time and test drive numerous models etc. from sources with a better reputation that DFS (who seem to have a real Marmite reputation - the 'web can be a real eye-opener when it comes to DFS).

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

However ...... the very helpful lady I spoke to asked me to explain the situation to see if she could help.

 

This is how I always tried to run my NHS department back in the day. 

 

The staff I inherited thought they were 'too busy to do other people's jobs', but with some cajoling and demonstration they (mostly, bar one - another story!) came to realise that if everyone did that, everyone got a better result - the patient, themselves when dealing with other departments, etc.  That other departments could possibly help with their/our c*ck ups hadn't dawned on them if they worked in the same way.  Reciprocal working, who would have thought....all one NHS team?  I used to wonder sometimes.  I like to think I left a legacy of what nowadays is called mindfulness, back then it was just being helpful and considerate.

 

When I came to the Youth Justice Team here, getting the 'alleged' partners (Police, Social Services and Education) to help each other and work together was much the same, The Police and Social Services I got working together great, Education never really 'got it' and faded away.  Their loss.  or more truthfully, the kids in their care's loss.

 

Counts as a rant.

 

Award presentation way back from the Lieutenant Governor (Queen's representative here) but not with any representation from education staff, even the NHS got in to help by then with a full time senior nurse, but....no education help.

 

NHN far left back row, thinner, darker, lighter then!   🤣

 

 

[grandadbob]

A'noon.

The day seems to be progressing slowly but noisily as within a couple of hundred yards at most there are no less than 4 large loft extensions being done.  Three can be seen from our back garden whilst the fourth is just out of sight behind some trees but we can still hear them.  All of these seem to have workers conversing loudly in foreign tongues, well actually they are shouting most of the time and between them they've got enough kangos, drills, grinders, power saws and nail guns to rebuild a war zone.

Bin lorries came and went adding to the cacophony but there was a quiet interlude with our very nice and helpful  young Sainsbury's driver who kept restacking all the totes so that I didn't have to bend down which pleased The Back no end.  Only one item unavailable out of 106 ordered so that wasn't too bad.  Still waiting for Amazon booze delivery but that is on its way.

Some Shark wielding has been done but there is,  I'm told, lots more to do before our visitors arrive at the weekend.  Yes dear, of course, you can rely on my hindrance assistance. 🤪

Tonight Abbie is flying home after 4 weeks in Crete and will be coming to see us on Sunday.  Her flight isn't due into Stansted until 01.25 so ex SiL Steve is picking her up.  At least the traffic won't be bad at that time in the morning.  On Tuesday she's off to Spain with her siblings and Steve for 10 days and then returns to Crete until the end of August/beginning of September when she'll go back to her proper job.  By all accounts she's having a great time.  What it is to be young and carefree.  I know I was young once (Yep, honest Guv)  but not so sure about when I was last carefree!  Ah, just remembered,  it was the day I retired.

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by grandadbob
Spelling

[simontaylor484]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Bear here....

A busy morning.....mucho sorting, re-locating of boxed-up stuff from the lounge to various other locations and stashing of timber offcuts into the loft.  The bin guys have been and gone - those that empty the wheelie bins really, really earn their gronkits - they were absolutely flying, which would explain why the Avenue looks like The Somme afterwards.

Then it was mixing up some SL Floor Compound for the trench; I mixed half a bag (10Kg) as a guess - which turned out to be "numerous" Kg too much.  Turdycurses.  A bit unavoidable unfortunately - you don't get long to work with it (20 mins) so mixing up a second batch starts to get complicated as all the tools and buckets etc. need cleaning PDQ.  It does mean that I still have more than enough (and some) for the second application (a 3mm deep skim) in 3 days or so.

Right, the next job is to attack the cupboard under the stairs.....

 

In other news.....

Whilst waiting to enter SnoozyBearland whilst laying in my pit last night I pondered the Leather Leccy Recliner I saw in the Marie Curie Shop yesterday; I knew it was a DFS jobbie and was around the £800 mark when new.  My Beary suspicions kinda think that DFS want a fair wedge of profit on that even after they've paid for the shops, staff, delivery, warehouse & staff, Head Office etc. - which leaves nottahuge amount left to actually make a leather chair with a steel frame, motor mechanism, battery, etc;  I arrived at the conclusion that it would make more sense to consider such a purchase in slower time and test drive numerous models etc. from sources with a better reputation that DFS (who seem to have a real Marmite reputation - the 'web can be a real eye-opener when it comes to DFS).

DFS the land of the never ending sale

The annoying adverts when it was Northern upholstery were always a laugh in our house

By the time they were paid for you would be left with French polished firewood

Edited July 28, 2022 by simontaylor484
Further thoughts

[Ian Abel]

7 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

News just breaking, Bernard Cribbens died this morning at 93 years of age RIP.

RIP - a really like much of his acting, however, have mixed feelings about the man.

In real life - I delivered newspapers to him for about 5 years, in my yoof - he was a miserable buqqer. He complained incessantly both about his paper delivery AND the postie performance. Didn't matter what he'd asked us to do, it was never right even following his requests to the letter. 😡

His wife was an angel and the ONLY one of the two who had a good word to say and also the only one who ever handed out the traditional Christmas box or even a reasonable "hello" if she happened to be out.

Charlie Drake frequently stating "Charles Drake, Weybridge" on the TV and radio, also lived on my route and both he and his wife were charming nice people.

 

BIN day - quiet for some reason, maybe they put silencers on the trucks this week! Handled anyway, so that's the important part.

 

Yesterday not a lot, moderate work duties and some "TV management" for the Mrs and one of the great nieces as they wanted to watch a couple of films in the afternoon.

 

Today, Jemma will be over for dinner and dropping off Whitney before leaving for a late evening start to a 4-day trip.

 

Weather is delightful, at present, 13C at BIN time, sunny a nice breeze blowing, high of only 24 later. Sadly, no rain expected for at least 4 days.

 

Tally ho.

[simontaylor484]

Bit of a mess about day trying to sort out her ladyships medication. Then shopping 

As the bin had been emptied I took the opportunity to clean the slime from the bottom of the bin a lovely job not.

 

[polybear]

Bear here.....

A busy afternoon emptying the cupboard under the stairs and then wiping everything with a damp cloth to remove dust.  Now I need to decide what to do about the cupboard itself:

 

Plan A:  Fill any cracks etc. plus a general tidy up with filler as required; re-paint the skirting; fit some architrave around the frame & paint; paint walls & "ceiling".

 

Plan B:  Do the filling etc.; scrap the skirting; lining paper on the walls; fit & paint new architrave & skirting; paint walls & ceiling.

 

Plan A is the sensible option - it's a f. cupboard after all, that'll be full of "stuff" and the door closed for 99.999999% of it's existence.  But Plan B does have some attraction. Ponder mode engaged......

 

Bear's Thought For The Day:

All this long-term hot weather isn't gonna be doing houses much good - Bear predicts some subsidence claims kicking in at some point as a result.  As a minimum it'll certainly have a cosmetic effect on many houses, especially in the South East (London Clay n' all that).