Winning on a Tuesday morning while enjoying a coffee.

Cheers.

Monday evening and hot. Triple digit heat next three days.

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Posting after collaring 2 out of 3 cats, Grace accepts the Green collar now cause Chitty has one like hers and both are belled, go figure, I need to get a red breakaway collar for Sylvester asap.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

Who bells the cat?

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Who bells the cat?

I did, I belled 2 of my 3 cats with cat collars, this would have been all 3, but I had only bought 3 at one time instead of 5, as Grace bit thru 1 completely destroying that collar and halfway thru the collar she's now wearing. Today they were laying around and I decided to see if Chitty would wear one, then Grace.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

We reached 11C (felt like 6C) here today with periods of sunshine between periods of drizzle which continue on this evening, but I did get another load of firewood dropped off so that I can continue on working downstairs as an antarctic blast is due to hit tomorrow.

I did get my usual Hump Day domestic duties out of the way today (which also caught up for last week, as I was busy catching up with other stuff then) as tomorrow I'll have to be in town at the quack's having a few more pieces taken out again. Luckily the bits that he's already taken out of me so far you'd be very hard pressed to spot.

Anyhow as the temp drops and there's nothing on the TV worth watching I think that I'll snuggle down with a book for the night.

Cheers.

Hell's bells... What did we find in here??!!!


So... I've been 'investigating' an abomination of pipework that has fallen victim to change and improvements and for the sake of going a bit more modern and eco and...

Ok, so nothing much as this is only some cooling pipework with the biggest stuff a mere 22mm diameter. Except...

First adventure was to get the access panels off the lump from a few decades ago... No movement. Looking carefully showed that over the years, things had moved a little to now have the enclosure resting on the panels themselves... And ofcause there is no access to get any leverage or anything in to lift the thing... I'll admit to some brute force and leverage with a big screwdriver to 'flex' the panels out...

Then, lo and behold the abomination within!

Thus came a good and deeply thoughtful pause for thought as to how to 'fix' that lot!!

And yay! A scheme has been devised, a handful of new pipe fittings are about to be ordered, and we can perform a beautiful technical tidy-up. Easy!!

For a good bonus, we are going to make use of the heat that at present is wastefully always thrown away. Worse still, that 'waste' heat was doubly costly if the chiller kicked into the cooling circuit.

What a positive difference a little thoughtfulness makes.


And for a further thought... Why is it that we seem to suffer a repeated story of a forever mess from almost all the various fitters that come and go to do their little bit?...

My thought is that the biggest problem is that of "no time to think", or all-too-likely an inability to think even, coupled with an infinite bucket of bits, and no cares for costs or mess or maintenance, so that every job becomes a 'bang it in quick' and just keep adding adapters until something (randomly) fits...

Instead, a good hot brew and a pause for thought is a fantastic excuse to plan the job properly to give a neatly efficient result.

Looking forward to trying that out later this week!


All good fun!

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Winning on a damp Hump Day morning as I wait for the jug to boil.

Cheers.

[url] And for a further thought... Why is it that we seem to suffer a repeated story of a forever mess from almost all the various fitters that come and go to do their little bit?...[/url]

Or one or more of the "fitters" was running a little scam. Some time ago I worked on a site which had several occupants, and the "plumbing" and "heating" were shared between the occupants, but the maintenance each unit was paid directly by the occupant. The "fitter" (very loose term) would arrive to "do a job" in each of three or four of the units. He would park his van in the vehicle park where the security crew couldn't see it. He would book into the first unit and stay there for a few minutes, then head of "to get something from his van", and book into the next unit....rinse, repeat, then would saunter back to the first unit carrying something - which wasn't exactly what he needed, so of he would stroll and end up at the second unit, and so on. This would continue for the rest of the day (or more). At the end of the day he would sign out from the units in turn, always heading back to his van. Each unit would then be billed a whole day for his time on site..... All went well until there was an accident in one of the units, which landed him in hospital (not his fault, a machine operator did something wrong). Come the end of the day the other units are looking for him and he's nowhere to be found on site, but his van is still there, and his fiddle is blown wide open. When the dust settled a new maintenance company was employed, and our bills were more than halved, despite their hourly rate being slightly higher.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

My electric bill was up, but not as as much as last year, this year $172.80(06/2024), last year $180.62(06/2023) I saved $7.82, whoopee I'm filthy rich in some parts of the world just not here, with gas(methane) this month at $14.89 which is almost half that of last year @ $28.56, some changes have happened since 2023, I completed the insulation around the a/c unit, my gas water heater died just after I bought my car in Nov 2023 after 20yrs of service, plus the gas furnace is off cause of the park doing gas pipe maintenance a few months later, and I have acquired since Dec 5th 2023 an EV that is plugged in 24/7 which I bought and I am expecting a 3rd Goodyear Integrity tire for, better than the Vrated cheap crap Achilles tires the dealer foisted upon me when I bought the car, My EV doesn't like Vrated tires, one front Achilles tire had a bubble in the sidewall, tires here need to be at 32psi so when running they'll stay at or near the recommended 35psi.

The insulation I installed around the house window a/c unit has dropped the insect egress down to zero unless they fly in the front door. Next month I'm expecting an electric bill of near $194.48 since come August that is what the bill was like back in 2023, though the August bill could be less, but I'll see when we get there. My rent check is in the managers office as of July 1st, I'm anticipating in August a bill of $667.99, September @ $745.71 cause of past bills and the recent rent increase, yeah I can handle the it, the bill should go down in October to about $707.61 or so and maybe the bill will go down some in September too.

I made ready the connection for charging my EV with 20 Amps of power @ 240v instead of @ 120v, but I still don't have the adapter cable finished or the 25' 14-50 power cord or the two 14-50 outlets installed back to back with the outside one in a weather proof box in either Green, or Black, or Gray, or the 22" of 6awg and 8awg cables that I need in Black, Red, White, Green, that is 22" of each of the 4 wire colors, 8awg is for the Green and White cables only, the other two carry 120v each and use 6awg wire, Green is ground and White is neutral here.

Temp inside is 80F, outside is 107 and Sunny, chance of rain? Zero.

The 28lb bag of World's Best cat litter was dropped off by FedEx at the bottom of the steps outside, so I got out my handy luggage cart and hauled the box up 4 steps and then inside.

Grace is still wearing her collar and Chitty is wearing his after I loosened the collar a bit.

The tire is next for delivery on the 8th, and the litterbox is later for the moment as FedEx hasn't said when the box will get here, only that they have the box.

My relatives are stopping by and taking me out to lunch on my birthday on July 6th, I'll be 64yrs old then, though I still don't look or sound like it.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

He went to the lawyer school of billing.

Winning now that I'm back home and ready for some lunch.

Cheers.

He went to the lawyer school of billing

Lol.

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are we there yet?

Don’t make me pull over. Lol.

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Winning in the wee hours of a Thorsday morning.

Cheers.

Waking up after a early afternoon cat nap win.

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Posting in 109F temps with the car a/c on, the car says it's 116.

My GF is going in the store to buy a bag of charcoal.

The navy blue 24x18x10" litterbox arrived today, Grace and the cats should be able to see it, next the tire on Monday, also by FedEx.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

After a blowy 6C (felt like 1C) start here today we're now at 10C (feels like 4C) after going to the supermarket, putting a load of washing on and watering my veggie tubs as I enjoy my last coffee for the morning before bringing some more firewood inside, then going to the post office to pay a bill to be topped off by a few beers for LLB before returning home.

Cheers.

Number 2 cat(Sylvester) is inspecting Number 1's(Grace) box, while Number 3(Chitty, CCBB) looks on.

My car said it had 61 miles when I started the car today, only 21 to go to be EPA accurate with crap tires,
better tires are going on 3 wheels next week, the 4th in August, better tires should increase my range
as the stock tires are T speed rated for 118 mph rather than V rated 149 mph tires on there now.

Yes I'm home inside drinking what is left of a tart Hawaiian Punch slushy from McDonalds.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST