The really boring and totally pointless snippets thread V

[TheGreenAnger]

Sandwiches haing been gobbled up.

No babies' heads in sight. Totally full, on a sugar high!

[larsssnowpharter]

Not long back from a lovely family lunch with my father, his latest wife and both my sisters in celebration of his 99th birthday.

He is still in good form, lives independently and doesn't use a stick. He regaled us with an hilarious story about a dead stick landing at a civil airport. in a Spitfire whose Merlin had given up and dumped oil over the canopy. He slipped on oil getting out and busted his coccyx. And got a date with the nurse who treated him!

[admin2]

lars - can I take this opportunity - as I see you are still 'active' - to remind you that you are at present destined to 'leave' us in 3 days as I have not heard from you since my PM on 5/11. viewtopic.php?f=29&p=351193#p351193

[Wodrick]

To be that active at 99 is grand.

[OFSO]

Heck yes. Well done to the gentleman.

Just back from evening walk to deposit garbage. 13° and a slight breeze - and a cricket chirping. Tomorrow we're forecast falling into a pit of gale and rain, and snow down to 1100m.

[llondel]

Afternoon all, crisp and clear morning here, although it's going to hit 21C this afternoon, allegedly.

Took Faraday to a FastCAT both days this weekend, her favourite sport even though she's slowing down from her peak now. On the plus side, her daughter Lucy has started the sport and is enthusiastic about it. She clocked a respectable 23.67MPH this morning, and has done well enough over a couple of weekends to get her BCAT title.

[Hydromet]

Cloudy, 18c at present, 24c max forecast. Had a nice thunderstorm last night, with a bit of rain that will be good for the garden. Sun is now trying to shine.

[Karearea]

I do not have a sweet tooth a-tall but, to be boring and pointless, I et yesterday a piece of rather delectable chocolate brownie of DD1's.
Can't remember last time I had something sweet. Months ago probably.

Mostly blue skies at the moment, 20°C.

[PHXPhlyer]

Someone might want to buy a lottery ticket, waterproof of course.

Overboard cruise passenger spent hours in Gulf of Mexico before he was rescued
It’s not clear how or when the 28-year-old man went overboard, but Coast Guard officials suggested his rescue was a Thanksgiving miracle.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ov ... -rcna58793

A man who went overboard during a holiday cruise in the Gulf of Mexico was rescued after several hours in the water off New Orleans, authorities said Friday.

The 28-year-old, who was not publicly identified, may have been in the water for at least six hours when he was plucked from the sea Thursday. He was rescued about 20 miles south of Louisiana's Southwest Pass, where the Mississippi River meets the coast, U.S. Coast Guard officials said.

The man's survival was hailed as unlikely and possibly miraculous given the time he may have been in the water. Coast Guard Petty Officer Ryan Graves said the man did not have a flotation device, and survival at sea without one is unlikely.

"It makes it more miraculous that we were able to find him conscious and treading water," Graves said.

The cruise ship passenger man was last seen on board the Mexico-bound Carnival Valor about 11 p.m. Wednesday, Graves said.

Coast Guard rescue crews pulled the man to safety six hours after receiving a 2:30 p.m. Thursday report of a passenger overboard, Graves said.

It's not clear how or when the man went overboard. Carnival Cruise Lines said in a statement that an accidental fall into the water would be rare and physically challenging.

"Cruise ships have safety barriers in all public areas that are regulated by U.S. Coast Guard standards that prevent a guest from falling off," it said Friday. "Guests should never ever climb up on the rails. The only way to go overboard is to purposefully climb up and over the safety barriers."

Night video from Coast Guard aircraft appears to show the man struggling in relatively calm but active seas, where his head dipped below the surface with every wave. The agency said in a statement the passenger was "responsive" when the crew on board a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter reached him.

Surface temperatures in the gulf are roughly 70 degrees, Gross said. Data from coastal monitors, buoys and oil platforms collected by federal forecasters and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography measured water temperatures Friday from 63 degrees near the shore at Southwest Pass, to 70 and higher at sea.

Graves noted that in early October even some of the warmest seasonal waters challenged three men who spent 28 hours at sea, 25 miles off the Louisiana coast, after the boat they were using capsized in rough seas.

The water was warm, he said, but the the trio was beset by signs of hypothermia when they were rescued by Coast Guard crews Oct. 9.

The average October sea temperature near shore at Mobile State Docks, Alabama, is nearly 77; it was slightly higher than 62 there Friday, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.

Experts have suggested survival in water 60 degrees or cooler is not likely after six hours, but warmer water can extend chances of making it. Cold shock, swimming failure, and hypothermia can open the pathways to death, including drowning and cardiac arrest.

PP

[OFSO]

Morning, all. 13° out and 17° in this morning, so heating on for half an hour. Belt of rain and force seven wind headed our way this morning. Yellow alert. We're still very much in drought conditions with local reservoirs at just over 30% capacity. Gym this morning and dentist this afternoon.

[Ibbie]

It's also 13c here. High of 19c suggested.

Off for supplies this morning.

[Woody]

Woody; What is that horrible looking mess swimming in gravy that both you and Tango15 seemingly admire?

it 'aint an Aussie Rump Steak (well done) for sure!!

It’s a steak pudding and was delicious

[OFSO]

My radar app shows two huge areas of precip. closing on us from the North West and the South East. No doubt given the incompetence of the weather gods they will both miss us..... Mme OFSO is sitting outside her studio grinding the Jesmonite surface of larger-then-life fruits for next year's exhibition. Neither the paint, solvents not dust seem to bother her chronic asthma. Peverse woman.

[Wodrick]

G'day,
Crawled up to 17c seaweed 21c.
Just the occasional wispy high cloud, much fewer chemtrails than yesterday.

Visit the mailbox and the dreaded RAV needs Petrol is the agenda.

[OFSO]

Several big trees down on drive from gym. Also two phone poles, rotted through. Lines down across gardens. Never tested, of course. (Part of my training in the GPO in the sixties was regular testing of poles).

[OFSO]

Superficial knowledge:
Before use, telephone poles were placed in a large vacuum tank. The vacuum was released suddenly with a mist of creosote in the tank, which the poles, having been subjected to a vacuum, would ingest. Messy business.
During their upright and vertical lives the creosote would slowly migrate downwards, ending up in the lower end. In rare cases the pole would rot at ground level as the creosote had passed further down.

The preserving properties of creasote were demonstrated when the 40' light was removed outside Free Lane Repeater Station in Leicester (built on the site of a cemetery) and a lady's skull with traces of long red hair still present found in the hole. The lads took her in the pub opposite (sorry, I forget the name) for a drink. This may or may not have been related to the Ghostly Woman seen in the Repeater Station, but that's another story....

[OFSO]

Just tried to find the site of the Repeater Station on Google Maps. Not a trace of it. Five story building where massive cables terminated, amplifiers and filters, on the first floor. Batteries and gensets in the cellar. Telephone exchange on the fourth floor. Manual exchange full of pretty girls, some quite willing, on the top floor. Canteen. All swept away by time.

[Wodrick]

Pole here rotted and fell in wind in about February, it hung on the wires at about 45°.
They came along and removed it, tied the wire together to get some tension in it and departed. No new pole.
Still like that.

[1DC]

Around about 1974 we lost a bloke overboard from one of our ships in the Sombrero Channel (one of the entrances into the Caribbean from the Atlantic). When they realised he was missing and tried to figure out how long he had been gone the Captain turned the ship around, calculated the tides as best he could and started a search. 28 hours from going over the side they found him floating on his back dead ahead and very alive. Lucky guy. Glad nobody gave up the search..
Foggy old day on the Humber. What was supposed to be a quick run into Louth to get a water filter for the fridge turned into a marathon when I mentioned it to herself.We had to wait until she arranged an appointment at the hearing aid shop.At least I was allowed to get my filter first, then a visit to the hearing aid shop to get her H/A's whammied into the app on her telephone so she can adjust them remotely. Then the butchers. Then a bacon sandwich and a coffee(my reward). Then the post office to send a parcel to Oz daughter.Then mixed in with the school run at. the green grocers. Then home. Oh for the simple life..
In my last house we had been to Oz for three months and when we came home we found a telephone pole had been installed in the farm track alongside the house right in line with kitchen window.As it was the only house anywhere near and the pole didn't have to be where it was I rang up to have a moan and ask why it had to go there. Two days later a very nice chap turned up to discuss it and get my point of view, he agreed we had a point and a week later it was moved a further 20 yards down so that it was out of sight. I wonder if they would be so obliging today?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Glad the Captain can calculate tides and currents!
I used to be an RAF sailing expedition leader, part of which involved getting the crew ready for Captaincy themselves one day.
Several times we had the discussion, which I would encourage, as to why the Captain should not simply be thrown overboard by a disagreeable crew.
The conclusion, every time, was that the Captain could calculate tides and currents.