Thursday 12/12 Caff.

[Upt' North]

It's dark....why am I not still in my cosy pit of fluffed up loveliness? Pffffffftttttt.
I best put the coffee on,.....there, the Dark Italian Roast is ready, help ya'selves.
It's cool, how cool Ethel? Wow that's proper cool. Probably a 29 to 35 sort of day, no wind and it should stay dry. The mist rising over the flooded Till looks pretty in the twilight but I wouldn't of minded missing the spectacle.
What's that Ethel? When? Pffffffftttttt. Apparently we have guests arriving tomorrow for a period? What amount of time does that amount to I wonder.
Also apparently, I am required to be polite, charming and helpful...... .
We'll be off to Longframlington and then Alnwick to get stuff once the sun's up.
After that I'll start to practice my smile, this is gonna hurt.
Av a gud un and remember, smile though your heart is breaking....
Upt.
Pffffffftttttt.

 

[ST1100Y]

G'Day...

3°C, slight wind, scattered clouds ensured fiery skies during sunrise, partial sunny, dry for a change...

some trivia:



Slow day, gives time for slurping my 3in1 mud in peace and do some Inet research... peeved, frustrated though... can't locate my G547 front tires anywhere on this continent...
Still got a set (F + R) in storage, which I'll need to slap on in spring... hope the shortage cures next year...

Found that my GF has a shoe tick, she actually owns 3 pairs of riding boots... what a hoarder...
(will have to polish her new ones tonight, the leather is still quite stiff, a good layer of Hey Sport will improve that...)

Business slows near the end of the year, still kicking out offers, but investors, companies and consumers postpone their decisions till the next fiscal year...

Stuck in traffic last night, fender bender, huge backlog within minutes on that 2-lane bypass... took >1 hr instead my normal 20~25 minutes...
Folks get insane, dark, damp conditions, limited visibility... paired with Xmas frenzy...
Tonight won't be much better, Thursdays are notorious for having the highest volume and most dense traffic of the week... wonder if that's a global symptom...

have a good one yourself!

 

[peterz]

Morning sir and thank you for the coffee start this morning. 31 degrees under cloudy skies here in central NY and staying there for the high. Temps drop during the day with some snow and gusty winds in store for us today. Be safe all. Later!
Peterz

 

[Mr ed]

good morning all. thank you Ray for the coffee. 50F on the dog walk with complete cloud coverage. not one star to see and the moon was just a fuzzy spot behind the clouds. Oh well I guess it's the clouds turn to show off. 76F for the high so I might try to give the car a bath. we will see. nothing else planed for the day as of yet. enjoy the day.

stay safe.

 

[STinner]

 

[ST1100Y]

Totally me prior the Nespresso era...
Hated those 20 minutes wasted with filter drippers in da morning... only to end with a brew that tasted like a kick in the teeth...

 

[ibike2havefun]

Good morning everyone

Thanks for the Italian roast Ray. May good fortune smile upon your impending foray into the world of retail commerce.

Apparently we have guests arriving tomorrow for a period

Is a period longer or shorter than a hyphen? A comma? Semicolon? Quotation mark?

After that I'll start to practice my smile, this is gonna hurt.

And hugs. Don't forget about the hugs. They'll be expected, you know. I'm a tad surprised Dave didn't remind you, but I've got it covered.

Thursdays are notorious for having the highest volume and most dense traffic of the week... wonder if that's a global symptom...

I dunno about Thursdays but when I was commuting it seemed like there were random days every so often where it was declared "everyone go out and drive slowly to block traffic". I never managed to find any particular or specific cause; traffic just oozed and seeped instead of flowing. Very frustrating.

It's a chill 32°F (feels like 18 thanks to an 8 mph SW breeze) and clear in Rockville; sunny skies and a high around 40 are expected. Good day to stay inside.

Yesterday Mrs. Fun needed to take her car in for routine maintenance and she more-or-less insisted that I accompany her so that we could have lunch together at The Cheesecake Factory. "Yes, MA'AM." Even the lunch-size portion was sufficient to make two meals for me.

We arrived almost an hour before the restaurant opened so we filled the time by wandering around the shopping mall that encloses it. We hadn't done that in years, either individually or collectively. It was a virtual ghost town, unlike our memories of holiday shopping nightmares seasons past. The variety of stores seems to have shrunk, and many of the shops I glanced into had a definite "drop in modular" appearance to them: goods containerized in easily-removeable display cases and shelves, little or no "permanent" counters or fixtures, etc. They looked like they could be vacated in a couple of hours. Low cost to set up and operate, equally low to discontinue business. Surprisingly to me, Tesla still had a store there. You can't buy one there, of course, but you're free to look, poke, and prod the display samples. (The Cybertruck is still hideously ugly, by the way.)

Stay safe and well everyone and tell your dear ones you love them.

 

[Obo]

Morning all and thanks for the coffee Ray.

I seem to be caught back up now with who started what, when, where.

It's been a wild last 15hrs with high winds, larger gusts, fire hose rains, thunder, lightening, power outages, skies lit with arcing power line flashes, tree debris all over the roads, cars being blown off roads... but it's a warm 11C currently, but headed downward all day and night to below freezing again.

Hope everyone has a great day, and just like when you were a mischievous child, stays grounded.

Obo.

 

[ST1100Y]

I dunno about Thursdays but when I was commuting it seemed like there were random days every so often where it was declared "everyone go out and drive slowly to block traffic". I never managed to find any particular or specific cause; traffic just oozed and seeped instead of flowing. Very frustrating.

hmm... methinks there are correlations with the (COVID lock-down originated) home-office dwellers and the cult of "work live balance believers"...
So for many the working week now ends with Thursday, then they rush for their errands and home... would explain the double~triple amount of traffic...
Friday OTOH has now rather light traffic during daytime, until the late/r afternoon when they all decide to either invade the shopping cathedrals, or flee the city for their weekend ranges... (only to then clog the roads again upon returning on Sunday afternoon...)

 

[Obo]

hmm... methinks there are correlations with the (COVID lock-down originated) home-office dwellers and the cult of "work live balance believers"...
So for many the working week now ends with Thursday, then they rush for their errands and home... would explain the double~triple amount of traffic...
Friday OTOH has now rather light traffic during daytime, until the late/r afternoon when they all decide to either invade the shopping cathedrals, or flee the city for their weekend ranges... (only to then clog the roads again upon returning on Sunday afternoon...)

The 'Vid basically de-evolved societies so-called "norms."

 

[STooRay]

Thx Ray!
Aaaaaaah guests…….

5˚c/41f, grey, misty, drizzly.

Supervised all day….pfffffffft!

Been for a long walk.
Now to go shopping.

Have a nice one, and remember, when dogs show their teeth, they’re not always smiling…..

Going uphill today was like this

 

[Obo]

And going downhill looked like this....

 

[Peppermint]

Good morning, all, and thanks for the coffee, Ray! Now, remember, be nice.

We're having some pretty unpleasant weather here, too. It's very windy, and the speed at which the clouds are passing my windows bears witness to that. Not tooooo cold yet at 0°C/32°F with a feels-like of -6°C/21°F, but the temps will drop steadily from here and we're in for a very chilly weekend indeed. No precip today (mix of sun and clouds), but the dropping temps will freeze whatever moisture is still around from the two days of firehose rain we just had. Methinks there's going to be a whole lot of slippin' and-a slidin' going on.

Whelp, it's about that time. Hi ho, hi ho and all that. Everyone have a great day, stay safe and go safely.

Patty

 

[Nashcat]

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the hot start, Ray.

Also apparently, I am required to be polite, charming and helpful.....

Good luck with that.

It’s a cold start here, at 25, but should warm up to a sunny 52 by afternoon.

I’m going to cut back on the amount of food in the bird feeders. The little beggars have gotten so fat, they can’t reach the feeder and just stand around noshing on the bits that were dropped on the ground.



John

 

[steve3b3]

Good morning, and thanks for the coffee start, Ray.

It's 33 and partly cloudy, rising to 38 later in the day.
The all-day rain that we got yesterday is gone, and we're left with a few puddles.
The temperature should drop to around 19, tonight.

Yesterday's activities involved the gym, minus the treadmill, and not much else.
I did get out on the deck to remove the screening from the gazebo an bring it into the cellar.
The contractor and his helper were here, installing tile in the shower. They're here, again to continue.
We had dinner at a local restaurant, and my choice was the turkey dinner. I have enough left over for another meal.

Today, I'll try for a gym visit, and general clean-up around the house.
Brenda's not working today and tomorrow, and was talking about some more Christmas shopping.
She says that she's pretty much done training her replacement, and that after next week, her company should be on their own. She can step back into retirement just in time for Christmas.

Enjoy the day,
Steve

 

[ST1100Y]

Apparently we have guests arriving tomorrow for a period? What amount of time does that amount to I wonder.
Also apparently, I am required to be polite, charming and helpful...

The moment I prepare my "EW, PEOPLE..." T-shirt... (of course frowned upon by ze GF... )

OTOH do I get (amused) bonus points for creating 'the pointy TP' prior their arrival...

 

[Obo]

OTOH do I get (amused) bonus points for creating 'the pointy TP' prior their arrival...

It's more fun to put a few drops of glue on a roll or toilet paper and let it harden before installing it. It's impossible to get a complete sheet off until you get below the farthest leeched layer of glue. Yes, I can be an arsehole too.

Oh and Ray, please remind the guest to keep spare teeth out of your loo.

 

[Upt' North]

It's more fun to put a few drops of glue on a roll or toilet paper and let it harden before installing it. It's impossible to get a complete sheet off until you get below the farthest leeched layer of glue. Yes, I can be an arsehole too.

Oh and Ray, please remind the guest to keep spare teeth out of your loo.

Different guests but sound advice. No one wants their arris chomped on.
Although I accept those are my views and others may think otherwise. Weirdo's.
I haven't cracked the smile yet, I'm little bit between the Joker and Hannibal Lecter. I'll persevere.
On the matter of shopping, Alnwick upon the Aln was busy enough today with tourists and shoppers. Americano and Cannoli's almost put a smile on my fizzog.
Remember, turn that frown upside down, pffffffftttttt.

 

[Obo]

**Semi-rant warning** (Really, it's just to make @Capt_Gruuvy feel better about his plights....)


So, as an update to the month or more of car hell saga, and in case I didn't tell y'all.... It's almost like a Star Wars move anthology.


Saga1, my car, bad turbo. blah blah I know I covered that.


Saga2, ditched the car to Thing1, an I bought a brand new one instead. Think I covered that too.


Saga3, Thing2's car needed to come back to be inspected. Couldn't be done in another province. Ended up needing work the local dealer, that we won't normally use, couldn't do. Used our remote preferred dealer... Thing2's car got fixed, for less money and with less work required than the other dealer said it needed. I may have covered this.
We left Thing2 with the Mrs.'s new-ish 2023 to bring home at Christmas during this phase of the saga.


Saga4, the newest story. I think this is new....
The car sent us an alert about a coolant issue on the weekend, and not to drive it. We got it towed to the closest dealer, and guess what it needs? Yup, a new head gasket.
Yes covered under warranty, but that's the good news. The remote dealer can do it 2nd week in January, which means 20 hours of driving to get it back down there, OR we pay the $175 diagnostic fee and get it fixed at our preferred "localish" dealer which is the normal 6 hour driving.
It's already been decided and I've eaten the diagnostic fee, and will be doing a 10hr commute sometime in the next 2 days to take Thing2's car down to her and bring the Mrs.'s car back for service locally.

You know, there's a darned good reason I prefer motorcycles!!

Rant over.

Have a super day! (yet again)

Obo.

 

[Weaselinsuit]

Morning all! Grey and overcast with the promise of rain. 6C right now and that is also apparently the high for the day.

Drove the car in today; the ST was making disturbing noises when the back brake was applied. Clearly, some attention there is required. I'll drop it off at the local shop and get assorted other gremlins remedied.

Obo, that is a tale of woe, hopefully that's the end of it. You may need to reinforce with the various Things to be more carful.....sorry, couldn't resist....it's a sickness....or personality defect....I really auto stop......

I see that the Premier of Alberta has decided to deploy a squad of Sheriffs to patrol the border with the US. Alberta Rangers has a catchy zing to it. Not sure how 51 of them, including a dog and drones, are going to effectively cover a border that long but I'm thinking horses or maybe dirt bikes/quads.

Hope everyone has a day that borders on being great!