Your day apart from gardening

[Sean Regan]

Checked on-line the local authorities planning site, as I do each week and was glad to find that the planning application for the huge extension of the adjoining semi, proposed back in April, has been refused.

 

[Sean Regan]

Bit of a pain yesterday, I was cleaning my car and I noticed the off-side front tyre was a bit flat, so I got out my little 12v air pump and attempted to inflate it. The problem with these little pumps is that if you've not had to inflate a tyre for a while, they struggle to "unstick" the valve. So it got a bit flatter.
No problem I'll phone the RAC. Got an automated message, "go on-line," it'll be quicker. So I did on my laptop. It wanted a load of information and then said they were very busy and it would be at least a couple of hours. So I didn't bother, I changed the wheel myself. Not that many people do that these days (especially people like me who are 83). For me, it wasn't a problem, even though those on a Honda CRV are big wheels.
I've always carried the bar and a socket from my vintage socket set. Plus a big ring spanner.
The wheel brace supplied by car manufacturers these days is very "Mick Mouse," quite short so you can't get much leverage. With my socket bar and the ring spanner looped over the end of it I've a couple of feet of leverage, so I was able to undo the wheel nuts. No way would have been possible with the tool supplied with the car.
When you have your car serviced, if they remove a wheel and replace it, they often do the nuts up with an air gun, so unless it has torque settings, they are really on.

I checked all the tyres and found although they all had more than legal tread depths, three had cracks in the tread, something that happens with tyres due to age, but they are safe to drive. So I rang Kwik-Fit and ordered four. I called in on the way from golf this afternoon and had them fitted.

 

[pepper]

Made some pasta sauce to use up some of the tomatoes, peppers etc and canned them. Also made some pickled corn and canned that. The corn I didn't grow but the farmers are selling it everywhere now, there is so much it's almost being given away so must have been a good year for it. I will also need to start drying out the dill. I guess that stuff isn't really apart from the garden lol. A buddy stopped by and had a beer, smoked a joint and took a jar of my pasta sauce lol.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

No way would have been possible with the tool supplied with the car.

It is usually possible if you get the bar horizontal and stamp on it, even when they have used an airgun. Wear decent shoes.

 

[Sean Regan]

It is usually possible if you get the bar horizontal and stamp on it, even when they have used an airgun. Wear decent shoes.

It may be with some jacks provided with particular models. But some have very short bars. I used to have a cruciform wheel brace with my old Mk 3 Cortina GXL, but that supplied with my Honda is a dinky little one that goes in a little bag and fits in a space with the jack, behind the inner liner of the side of the boot.

 

[Sean Regan]

This small Shark vac we recently bought just for the kitchen has had to be moved to just inside the cupboard under the stairs.

My wife talked me into buying this Shark Hydrovac. It arrived today.

"Apparently," it's ideal for small kitchens. It will clean the laminate as well as the mats we have in front of the oven and back door (which we don't use) and the big one in front of the washing machine and fridge/freezer.
With her MS it'll be much easier to use than the big "Vax Smart Wash," we have that we keep in the little bedroom upstairs, that's really only for carpets.

It's been a "dear do" this month as I bought four new tyres for the car yesterday...... Still it's only money.

 

[Tazzo]

Spent a couple of hours in the forest, luckily only two deer keds landed on me.. so it was quite pleasant trip.
Cleaning those blueberries will be tomorrows job.

 

[Sean Regan]

Another problem today, my mobile phone packed up, it's a ten year-old "dumb phone."

Went into the O2 shop, they had a couple but would have to order one.
Do you know those folding Galaxy phones that advertisements suggest you're missing out if you've not got one, are over £1000?
I've worked out why so many people wander around with their smart-phone in their hand or have it on restaurant table in front of them and keep glancing at it, they are all expecting a text telling them they've won the lottery,

Anyway, I bought one in Argos a Doro for £59.99. Adequate for emergencies. Just got to programme in a few numbers.

 

[Sean Regan]

I may have mentioned this before.
With people who play golf, a "hole in one" is a rarity.
Some who've played golf all their life have never have one. A friend who died three years ago had six.
For casual golfers, just getting it on the green on a par three is hard enough for many, but from there, pars and birdies aren't uncommon. In the 25 years I've played golf, I've had two hole in ones.

But even this has to be qualified.

On most courses there are four par threes.
I play three times a week, some of my friends play more frequently.
So in a week, I have 12 opportunities of getting a hole in one.
At a conservative estimate, say playing 120 times a year allowing for days I don't play as it's chucking it down, that's 480 chances a year.
In 25 years, I've had 12,000 chances, but I've still had only had two hole in ones.

I played today. On a long par four, where I'd had a poor second shot. I was left with 160 yds to the pin. My third shot pitched on the green and rolled into the hole. No it wasn't a hole in one, but in my mind, it was as good as one. Sheer luck of course.

 

[Sean Regan]

I had a problem with my camera yesterday.

I have a Panasonic Lumix LX15. It does all sorts of stuff, half of which I don't use or have never bothered to understand.
I use Panasonic's "Photofun" programme to upload photos from it. The same programme as I used for the previous Lumix camera.
But last night it wouldn't transfer any from the camera, it said there was a fault and the programme would have to close. Wasn't that big a deal, I just took the card out of the camera and put it in my laptop and uploaded it anyway.

I searched the internet and quickly found an answer to the problem I'd posted from a camera users' message board. I'd apparently ignored and update. They provided the Panasonic link for it.
Found it, only had to enter the serial number of my camera and it downloaded it so it's working again.
It did more than that, I used to put the cards from the trail cams in my laptop, find them in "documents," then download the photos. Now, as soon as I put the card in the laptop, it automatically downloads the pictures and puts them in a file in, "documents."

Mind you, I'd have been just as happy carrying as before.

 

[LouisFerdinand]

I attended Sunday School and church.

 

[Sean Regan]

Sorted out the Combi central heating.

It had a bit of a leak a year ago. I say a leak, it was probably just a couple of cupful's of water over several months, not enough to show anywhere. Small leaks can occur when the system is running, usually from radiator connections and they can evaporate without noticing, but that's enough for it to register on the pressure gauge. If the pressure gets too low the heating won't come on.

So I added some Sentinel to it. That cured it.

Sentinel is a very frequently used cure. It beats having the floorboards up to look for it and there's no guarantee you'll find one.

I checked the pressure gauge a few days ago when we put the central heating back on after the summer and it had lost a bit of water, so I topped it up. I checked it again yesterday and it had lost a bit more. So I bought some Sentinel.
It can be a bit fiddly to add, although anyone should be able to do it.

We have this tall heated towel rail in the bathroom, we had it changed from a smaller one about three years ago. (It may be the source of the leak). There are two plugs on each side of the top of the rail. I just needed the two valves at the bottom turning off and one of the plugs removing and a bit of garden hose inserted. Just a question of putting it down two or three feet, putting your finger over the end and drawing it up, whilst pointing it at a bucket and it will syphon, let it run until you've drained as much water as the amount of sealant you're going to put in.
A kitchen funnel inserted in the plug's hole stops you spilling any sealant.

A case of then replacing the bung, turning on the valves and doing a bit of a bleed.
Then the heating can be turned on when required. No more than a ten minute job.

I'd imagine you'd get no change out of £100 if you called out a plumber to do it.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Went for my flu flu jab down the village hall. last year we parked and queued, but they had changed their system. Instead of giving out fifteen appointments every quarter of an hour they had given an appointment to one person each minute, mine was 4.53. They told me there had been no queues all day, and, "No, don't park sir, just drive round, he'll give you it in the car. "

 

[Sean Regan]

I got round to cleaning the inside of the front bedroom windows. It's a pain as there's yards of net and pencil pleat full length heavy brocade thermal lined drape curtains. It's also a bay window.
So consequently they don't get cleaned that often. We don't open any windows in this room so that helps keep the nets clean.
The silicone between the double glazing and the wooden window sill, was looking a bit tired and discoloured in places, so I decided to replace it. To get at the windows I had to take down both sets of curtains. Removing the silicone and then cleaning everything down could have caused a bit of a mess. So after ripping out the old silicone, then wiping everything down with a strong cleaner and yards of paper towel, I was able to mask up the frame and apply the silicone. It took two hours but worth the effort.

 

[Sean Regan]

I found a space for this set of Ninja kitchen knives my wife bought on a shopping channel that arrived this morning.

The stand has an impressive knife sharpener on one side, so I can only assume they must blunt easily, if this is so necessary. "My thoughts weren't appreciated."