Celebrating Positives (offset of the Gripes Thread)

[spacesailor]

Positive 

It's great to be out of your nappy .

spacesailor

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

Positive 

It's great to be out of your nappy .

spacesailor

spacey, once you are over the recovery period, those core strength exercises help a lot. I don't know what the 'take it easy' period is for a re-bore, but with the prostate biopsies I've had, I was banned from strenuous activities for six weeks post op. Mainly for the risk of recurrent bleeding I think.

[Jerry_Atrick]

@octave, let us know how the  train ride goes.

[octave]

33 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

@octave, let us know how the  train ride goes.

Not bad, but as Mrs Octave said it is not exactly the Orient Express but quite a nice way to travel.  We will probably do it again.

[spacesailor]

Oops, only 17 days & I'm ready to climb my ladder. 

Looked at my chainsaw but decided ' later ' , maybe .

So got in & mowed the lawn .

Damm " fruitbat " munching through my ' guava ' chased it out with a spotlight.  But I think I'm wasting my time.

I hung a plastic ' redbelly black snake ' in the fig tree .

 . Will it scare the bat off , LoL

spacesailor

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

1 hour ago, octave said:

Not bad, but as Mrs Octave said it is not exactly the Orient Express but quite a nice way to travel.  We will probably do it again.

I am going to post into the reno thread, but things are moving qickly now... Which means, hopefully around 6 - 9 months and I will be Australia bound (I know.. I have been planning this for years, but it is finally coming ot fruition. As we are likely to be located in the inner burbs of Mlebourne, our intention is not to buy a car, but use public transport and bicycles where we can; At $10.50 a pop, we intend to use the regional trains to go places; and would like to use the interstate trains for interstate stuff.

 

If we need to use a car, we'll hire one..

 

We'll see how far we get without one. The plan was to fly out of Essendon as it is a tram and 10 minute walk to the terminal building. But it doesn't look like there are any non-commercial schools that hireplanes to private flyers, so may have to reonsider that idea. Moorabbin can be go to by taking a train, I think it is to Mentone or Cheltenham or somewhere like that, and then a rather (in those days) unreliable bus towards Dingley. But, my brother has a spare car that I can borrow to get to Moorabbin (not sure it would go much further than that).

 

 

Edited April 15 by Jerry_Atrick

[old man emu]

8 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

As we are likely to be located in the inner burbs of Mlebourne,

Did you know that we have this thing called the NBN which is used to connect quickly to the World Wide Web? It means that a person does not have to live in the ancient centre of cities. People even choose to live in rural villages and are able to communicate as quickly as if they were in the centre of a city's CBD.

[old man emu]

Here's something from the Sixties that will lighten your spirits. It's long, but but it'll give you a positive vibe.

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

15 hours ago, old man emu said:

Did you know that we have this thing called the NBN which is used to connect quickly to the World Wide Web? It means that a person does not have to live in the ancient centre of cities. People even choose to live in rural villages and are able to communicate as quickly as if they were in the centre of a city's CBD.

I do.. but it's bl@@dy expensive.. and slow... 😉

 

If it were up to me, I would be in the NSW Riverina district/Victorian area near there. I think the best I could hope for was the Bellarine or Mornington Peninsula, but even that was quashed by a majority vote. Also, my daughter finishes her equivalent of HSC/VCE in June and wants to do a gap year. Having her in Aus is very much going to mean being close to the bright lights and action, no doubt. She intends to come back here to do her degree, but I am going to try and convince her that Aus is better. So, will be takling her to the leafy pastures of Parkville/Carlton to Melb Uni, anbd Maybe LaTrobe at Bundoora, which is a hike from the city centre.

 

And of course, they want ready access to all the mod cons (con being the operative word) cities offer...

 

I don't have much of a say in it at the moment.

[pmccarthy]

We put five kids through university in Melbourne without having to live there. I would be in the Riverina given a choice, but SWMBO likes central Vic.

[spacesailor]

NBN.

WE CHANGED COMPULSORY. 

From Optus .

We have not yet made one month without a breakdown or maintenance stoppage. 

And no reduction for loss of service. It also takes out the phone .

spacesailor

[willedoo]

I'm on NBN fixed wireless. The internet works good as the tower is only about 1.5 klm away. As far as the landline is concerned, I never use it. I don't even know what my own number is as it changed when it went to the NBN fixed wireless.

[red750]

Our landline runs via the NBN through service provider TPG. We don't answer the landline when it rings, it's either a telemarketer or scammer. 

[nomadpete]

Happy Days.

 

We don't have complex needs and this (to us) is luxury. Surrounded by state of the art, heavy modern caravans we still have a warm dry bed at night, and a lightweight box to tow around, without the hassles the other's seem to have. Staying in a lovely quiet park near the seaside at Scamander. The bicycle cost a tenner at the tip shop and after using it for my daily exercise all week, it goes back there. Keep life simple - it's more fun.

Edited April 17 by nomadpete

[old man emu]

And I bet when you are out on the highway that little van isn't a moveable aluminium traffic barrier.

[nomadpete]

Well, we don't exceed speed limits but do get held up behind convoys of wheeled Taj Mahals trundling along the highways.

[spacesailor]

Those " Taj Mahals  are speed limited by Bureaucratic limits .

spacesailor

 

[old man emu]

24 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

Those " Taj Mahals  are speed limited by Bureaucratic limits .spacesailor

 

Those "bureaucratic limits" are for once imposed to prevent untrained and inexperienced operators killing themselves and others as a result of incorrect weight distribution and/or exceeding the combination's gross weight. If ever the epithet "road hog" suited a driver, it suits very many of these operators. 

[spacesailor]

" untrained and inexperienced operators " .

Some ' operators ' are ex truck drivers.  With the best experience they obtained before retirement. 

A lifetime of driving,  without " Causing " an accident. 

Plus 50 years of operating a car & trailer combination. 

Without killing myself , should count for something. 

But  alas Bureaucratic rules,  take presidence over logic .

If regulated to 100 kph ( 60 mph ) on the motor-way .

Stop pushing them to go faster . Just because you're allowed 110 kph .

spacesailor

 

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, spacesailor said:

50 years of operating a car & trailer combination. 

Without killing myself , should count for something. 

It does. That puts that person in the tiny, "trained and experienced operator" group. As for the rest of the newly retired pen pushers ....

[willedoo]

Driving a loaded semi-trailer is a lot easier than towing a caravan. A semi usually tracks fairly straight and level and doesn't get the wobbles up like caravans. A semi trailer has the advantage of length and centre of gravity keeping things nice and calm. A badly loaded caravan can turn into a nightmare. The only similar problem you will have with trucks is if you are pulling a triple. If you're not careful, the front and rear trailers can fight with the middle one, causing the middle one to start swaying. Like a bunch of naughty kids that don't play well together. Or so I've been told; I've only pulled doubles. I'd assume a B double pulling a dog trailer would behave a lot better than a traditional triple.

[spacesailor]

Untamed trailer!.

In NZ a company , made a tow hitch with a large friction disc to combat swaying when towing .

I went to their demo .

And . The caravan was badly loaded,  with almost flat tyres . Without their hitch , it was ' deadly ' .  With that hitch it was like everything was corrected .

I wonder what happened to it , as not found by Google. 

spacesailor

[nomadpete]

C'mon.

Discipline please.

 

Show me a Positive to Celebrate.

[old man emu]

As you know, my dwelling has been unoccupied for some time and is surrounded by grazing paddocks. Mice have made use of it, but now I want them out. Their previous generations have made points of entry into the wall frames, so there is an unpleasant smell, as well as noise as they scamper about. The usual trapping means are not very effective and prove that the second mouse gets the cheese. However, I have come across a very effective means of trapping them.

 

Do you remember the story of Br'er Rabbit and the Tar baby? Well I found something similar.

They are simply a tray filled with a very sticky material. When the mouse puts a paw on to the sticky stuff it is stuck and cannot pull away, no matter how much it struggles. To increase the effectiveness of the process, I bait the trap with some peanut butter, which mice seem to love. After a mouse traps itself, it will squeak, which acts like an alarm. I just pick up the trap and mouse and drop them in a bucket of water where the mouse drowns in a few moments. This quick kill stops the mouse from imbedding itself in the sticky stuff too much, and it can be pulled off using, ironically, a pair of rat-nosed pliers. Then the trap can be put to work again, and again and again.

 

The first night I set out four traps and caught five or six mice between sunset and when I went to bed. Last night I caught two before bed and one overnight. I can't say that I have a plague-like infestation. I think the ones I caught are about all there are. If I keep setting out the traps for a week or two, I think I will have a win. 

 

Unfortunately for you Victorians and Tasmanians, these traps are only available to licensed pest exterminators.

[pmccarthy]

Here is a positive. The little glow light (size of a bean) that I found a week ago is still glowing. Enough to light the inside of the van at night. I don’t know how many days it had been glowing before I found it.