Objects in the fog

 

 A bit of a rant. Why do so many drivers fail to look over the front when they get into their cars? If it's misty, put your lights on! DIPPED beam, not parking lights. It is an offence to actually be on the move with parking lights on. In certain lighting conditions, parking lights can make a vehicle harder to see. Even manufacturers are realising that many of their customers are so thick that modern cars are fitted with 'lackwit lights' to avoid them being driven with their side lights only. How many drivers have ever looked in their mirrors and wondered if their vehicle is as visible (or not) as the one behind? And how many realise that it is an offence to use fog lights at night? And how many don't use their indicators? Are they so busy driving that operating a small lever is beyond them? Lackwits, the lot of them.

Memories

 

I have some odd recollections. When I was young, in the days when everything was in black and white. We had a family tradition. Pinky and Perky (Ok, greyey and greyer ) on the TV, the sound of the ice cream van, Dad nipping out to get the Sunday treat. One disastrous evening, just before 'TinTin' (Hergés Adventures Of) the TV refused to form a picture. Sound, ok, after the valves had warmed up, but no picture. Mum didn't know what was wrong, but thought the tube had blown, and Dad who worked late (well, late to a 5 year old) would know what to do when he got home. Dr Who was even more frightening without pictures.

Now, do you remember the old plastic hose pipe? The green stuff with sharpish ribs along it? The stuff that went brittle, and burst so easily? Well I thought that Dad would get a bit of that and a couple of those shiny things (jubilee clips, as it turns out) and fix the telly. You know, replace the tube.  

A year later, we didn't have to worry about a  telly that wouldn't work, because we had bought a farm in the wilds of North Yorkshire. No electricity for the next 13 years, and no time to watch the thing anyway.

Swimming

One of us in this picture can swim.

Monday, our littlest goes swimming. She is doing quite well, back stroke is coming on nicely. Now I cannot  swim well, being mostly self taught. Mainly by falling in the beck fully clothed, in the middle of winter, wearing  school uniform. I found that a form of doggy paddle with added flounder seemed to be reasonably successful in the prevention of drowning or taking in water. Actually, the beck wasn't very deep. Only a few feet. It also wasn't very clean, what with the odd sheep widdling in it, then falling in and drowning.

All in all, the weekly trip to the local pool is quite a civilised way of learning to swim.

Spice

It's a funny world. Who would have thought? Saudia giving women the vote, you'd think the oil, and therefore the money, is running out and the kingdom is expecting it's own 'Arab spring' in the near future? Having more of your population 'on board' as were, may divert some of the bitterness heading their way. 

NASA manages to loose a satellite, variously measured as being the size of a bus, 6 tons/tonnes, or something. Now would that be a Leyland double decker, a Bendybus or one of those little things that are not much bigger than a Minibus? Not that I would want any one of them to fall on my head, though I suspect a bendybus would fall to pieces long before it got to ground. Thinking about that, I suspect it would have fallen to pieces before launch.

It has always bugged me when the meeja make comparisons; it's the size of a football pitch they say. Well, all I know about football is; that a bunch of cretins that are given way much too money for their worth kick a ball about, or if its American football throw about. Neither pitch size do I have a clue about. One other thing. How can anything be 10 times smaller? Or 1000 times smaller? Surely it would be one tenth or one thousandth the size?

And finally did CERN break the ' light barrier' ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/life-and-physics/2011/sep/24/1?newsfeed=true ) with neutrinos? Actually, two things come out of this, one is the obvious one; things that shouldn't travel in excess of 'C' can, but more importantly, if the timing part of the experiment had worked as expected, would it have been scrutinised so much. I wonder how many other experiments ought to have shown anomalous results but haven't?

Going nowhere

 

A busy street scene in rural Flatshire.

I have the great fortune to work in two large conurbations. One is the County City the other an ex industrial town. Both have a rich history. Both have connections pre-Roman, both played huge roles during the world wars. One as a manufacturer,  the other as a supplier of the raw materials. And yet, between them is the farm land, the bread basket of England, (well potatoes and beet basket, but that doesn't sound right) Peaceful, colourful and has a hidden past. One that it should be proud of, and in a quiet way, it is. Thousands of people defended this "Perfidious Albion" from here. 55,000 of those lost their lives. The Cold War was fought from here. Lightnings to protect our airspace, Project Emily for retaliation, and the superb Valiant, Victor and Vulcan for deterrence. Fortunately none ever were used in anger in their intended role, although the 'Black Buck' operations did use the Victors as tankers and the Vulcan as a conventional bomber. Memorials dot the landscape, places of peace now, the signs of war buried, runways dug up, the hangars used for storage of crops, given back to the potatoes and beets.

Piston Broke..

Well, here's a pretty pass. Driving over the bleak North Yorkshire moors: Engine fires normally. Engine makes loud rasping noise. Cock, hook, and look under the bonnet. Engine still present. In fact everything looks normal. Engine ticking over Ok. Noise only becomes appalling at anything above tick-over. Only option to proceed with the few remaining horses. It was all down hill from there. It was a 1 in 4 hill. Visit to aged parent slightly spoiled by replacing above gasket (with one with fewer holes), instead of sipping tea, and gassing.
Still and all, no harm done and the car is running fine.

Things seen in the sky

 

I have always been fascinated by aeroplanes. There is something wonderful about being able to fly on silent wings, to look down at the patchwork of fields and hedges, and wonder where the hell you are going to land due to a lack of a; thermals and b; planning. The field you had chosen to lob into now has a herd of cattle in it, let out after milking. Now, cows are quite placid beasts. Well usually. However, landing a glider amongst them is not usually going to end well. Even if you avoid the perambulating milk bars, and pull off a good landing (Definition: A good landing is one you walk away from. A really good landing; the a/c is reusable) there are additional problems. Cows are nosy. Fact. Hence the expression. A fully grown cow weighs a lot, (moos a lot too. Ok, I am being polite here) and having one walking on your wing does tend to scratch the gel-coat. Unless your a/c is wood and fabric. Then  she will not only put her hoofs through the wing, but she will probably eat it. They love the taste of the dope. All the fabric is doped, so if you can imagine a 'Keil Kraft' model being unmade by a herd of cows, you have just about grasped the enormity of the problem. Running out of height and ideas, I landed in the adjacent ploughed field.

Friday! Wheee...

Ok, it's the end of the week. Sort of. Well, if I don't get called out over the weekend, though to be honest, it's sometimes better to be called out than to be dragged around Tesco. (Other purveyors of  shopping stuffs are available)

I like Autumn, the colours are amazing. Yesterday, with the sky being so blue, contrasting with the grey of today. My youngest found a Sycamore leaf which has most of the colours of the rainbow plus brown. I know it's just chemical changes in the leaf, but it's still pretty.

Wednesday.

Been having a bit of a Puzzle. Imagine a computer network. There are 6 computes running through a gateway to the interwebs. For some reason totally unknown, last week, accessing certain web sites caused the gateway to crash with the following BSOD STOP:- 0x00000007F (0x00000000D.... it didn't matter which computer was tried, the instant the page began to load, BSOD! ( no, not one of 'those' sites either, Inspector Gadget to be precise). Now today, someone suggested using a different browser. I usually use 'Firefox', but I tried connecting through my laptop using ' *cough* 'ie  *cough* and it worked. So I tried 'Firefox' again, and that worked too. Bizarre.  

Computers, who'd have them? 

Friday

It's funny, I have always been a bit ambivalent about Fridays. Though to be honest, I prefer them to Sundays. At least when you get up on Friday, the weekend is 'just around the corner'. Now that sort of statement always bothers me. It's a like; 'In the long run', 'at the end of the day', etc. Place holders that waste time and mean nothing. For those that haven't worked it out, this is the long run. The only one you'll get. (that you will be aware of).
 Back to Friday. I prefer the anticipation of the weekend more than the actuality. I mean, who wants to go to Tesco every Saturday? Sunday is usually filled with all the things that need to be fixed for Monday ('cos on Friday, I couldn't be bothered) plus anything else that has come up, ie: The things that break on a Saturday. Last week, the Toilet decided not to be one. A trip to Wikes (other DIY emporia are available) and some English Pounds later and a LOT of swearing, we now have a loo that flushes at the push of a button. Unfortunately, in the mean time the living room ceiling got a tad soggy,. Still and all, no one died. And the loo carpet is spotless. (Having spent a whole week outside (in the rain)).