test please delete

[ladymuck]

Morning all

Dull, damp. Not actively precipitating at the moment. Currently 10 degrees with a high of 14 expected. The sun is due to make an appearance too. Barometer down to 1002 mBar.

Much rain in the early hours of this morning. Woke me up around 0540. Then bin lorry related racket around 0730 just before my alarm went off. They weren't collecting my road, I suspect they were using the emergency vehicle access to my road to save driving around the block. It's general refuse collection today. And garden waste but I've not got anything in that bin today.

[NickFitz]

Morning denizens

Grey day out, with evidence of some recent rain or drizzle. Currently 9°C, with 13° likely this afternoon. The barometers are down again at 989/997mB

[DoctorStrangelove]

Morning.

Tuesday.

Damply dry after the deluge yesterday evening with rivers flowing down the gutters on this side of the road.

Sunny.

Blue sky in parts.

Cool in here at 16.7 deg, 16 deg in the kitchen, 14 deg in the leanto.

997.5 mbar, 29.456 in Hg, 748.12 Torr, 14.467 psi, (down from 998 last night), 73% RH (GDR hair), 67% RH (Lidl electric).

Walk (abbreviated) walked in the sunshine.

Back complained in bed last night, thought it had gone out again but seems reasonable this morning.

Meanwhile on the 21st of July 2019 I worked on the living room light fitting and couldn't be arsed to put it back properly. It's still exactly the same today. But I did fix the flickering problem.

Shopping trip to Morrisons in the continuing sunshine, which is relatively warm, the resulting comestibles being duly washed dried sanitised and put away.

Lunch: baked spud etc.

Entertainment: R4 FM currently sounds like a sewing machine which is a bit disturbing. LW is ok but can't be arsed to listen to yet more of TWATO.

Freecell score: 90%, running average: 86%.

Tea: soup etc.

Entertainment: PM <click> Book.

Wheeler Dealers S6 E3&4 Porsche 944T. Unlike yesterday's Spitfire this one is still MOTed and on the road.

Scotland Yard E28 "Crime of Honour (1958)" with the lugubrious Edgar Lustgarten: corpse dredged (literally, via a dredger) from the Thames. Convoluted, this one.

Maigret "No vacation for Maigret (1995)". S5 E1.

Engineering Disasters S3 E1: bridge falling down to incorrectly specified gusset plate after 40 years in use, 7/11 HQ demolition that failed due to the central core being a good deal stronger than they thought, train crash on The Bridge, who knew you could transport artic trailers on a train? And what happens if you don't maintain the sole locking pin mechanism in a gale: it's not good for the passenger train going the other way.

[WTFH]

OK, almost time for a story...

[WTFH]

Here is the story of Mad Max the Spannerhead




Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...




In April we filled out the paperwork to become foster parents through a charity called SpanielAid. The idea is that you will have a dog for 2-3 weeks to evaluate them and establish what sort of home would be suitable for them (e.g. do they like other dogs, what about cats, how good are they on a lead, or around children, etc).

After form filling and a home inspection, we were approved.

We then had the discussion about how to make sure we wouldn't fail as foster parents. If we were going to adopt a dog, what would it be? Answer that question, and then foster the opposite, that way you don't risk holding on to the first dog that comes along.

My answer was that I didn't want a male dog, because they go into the garden and cock their leg on every plant, including herbs, fruit and veg, to mark their territory, so no way was I going to have a male dog as my pet.

With that in mind, we started looking through the list of dogs waiting for foster homes. One dog had been on the list for quite some time. He was still with his owners but they couldn't afford his vet bills. He had issues. I mean, I've taken projects live with fewer issues than he had.

1. Attacked and wounded by another dog when he was 12 weeks old - this has led to issues with barking and aggression towards other dogs.
2. By the time he was 1, his owners had a baby, so his walks were limited
3. Owners lived in a house with a small garden in the centre of a town
4. Had surgery on a knee when he was 3
5. Had surgery to remove a cyst from his chest wall when he was 4
6. Had his tail amputated when he was 5 due to happy tail syndrome
7. Was possibly hit by a car (our vet noticed damage that would be consistent with that)
8. Had no recall - in the letter we received with him we were told never to walk him off the lead, unless it was near the car as you’d never catch him, but he would jump in to the car.
9. Hadn’t been walked properly (our vet described his pads as being as soft as a puppy)
10. Had ringworm and other skin conditions which meant he was half bald and being treated once every 2 weeks with a special shampoo
11. Weighed about 15kg, when for his breed & size he should be 19-22kg.

No one was interested in taking him as he was going to be a lot of work and really needed to be in a house where he could be kept separate, away from other animals and people.




And that’s where we came along. We re-organised our open plan house so that he could live in the kitchen and dining room by moving a sideboard and installing a stair gate. we lifted the rugs in the dining room, so it was all hard floors - easier to hygienically steam clean. He was supposed to be crate trained (i.e. he would sleep in a cage), but we quickly found out that wasn’t true. We had to wear surgical gloves when we touched him, and had to disinfect ourselves and our clothes multiple times a day.

He arrived after spending a day being taken from one car to another, eventually arriving at our house. We had secured the back garden, so after walking him around on the lead for a few minutes we let him off. The first thing he did was to run to the middle of the lawn and stretch on all fours, in an almost yoga-like pose. That’s how he has a pee. He doesn’t cock his leg. He doesn’t scent mark everywhere. He stretches in the middle of the grass.


After taking him to our vet, we discovered that he should be getting the medicated shampoo twice a week, not once every two weeks. The vet advised that for the first 4 weeks we should shower him 3 times a week.
We looked at the food that he was sent with and it was a rather cheap Aldi complete, so we swapped him on to the same food we used to give Millie.

10 days later and his skin was improving, to the point that the vet barely recognised him. It turns out his scabs and hair loss were an allergic reaction to the food. His hair started to grow back, and we could take off the gloves.
We started to take him on walks, and the first thing we taught him was to come back to us when we called him. He gets to run off the lead when he can, but will come back.

We’ve taken him to the beach several times, and it’s hard not to laugh. He dives in to any water, but I think it’s because he only has a stump of a tail now that he isn’t currently balanced when swimming, so a lot of his swimming is almost like treading water, and creating a lot of splashing, but he loves it. He’s put about a kilo on since we got him, and while he’s still under wait, he’s looking healthy and not just skin & bones.




He was a very timid dog, but soon realised we were not to be feared. We realised how empty our house had been without a dog, and it was so good to have one around. As the days went on, we realised that he couldn’t go up for adoption, he was a long-term project for people who could focus just on him, and that he was starting to bond with us. We became Failed Fosters at the first attempt. We’ll maybe try to foster again, once he has really settled in, but not quite yet.




He’s still not good if another dog runs towards him, or barks in his face, but once he gets to know the dog, he’s improving. He’ll never be a dog that chooses to play with others, but if we can get him to the stage that he tolerates them, then he’ll be just like me.




And that is the (slightly) short version of how Mad Max the Spannerhead ended up in Devon.

[NickFitz]

Here is the story of Mad Max the Spannerhead

And that is the (slightly) short version of how Mad Max the Spannerhead ended up in Devon.

[NickFitz]

Lunch has been a Pukka steak slice

[ladymuck]

Dear hive mind, I’m too lazy to find it myself but does anyone have a link to the January is quiet for contractors for reason X, February for reason Y etc

Is it on CUK?

Mebbe this?
https://forums.contractoruk.com/busi...cruitment.html

[ladymuck]

WNFS

[NickFitz]

Tea has been chicken madras with rice and naan

And the opal hunters have finally come full circle! There was one very specific problem with machinery I remembered, and today's episode is that one, so I can stop watching them now

Well, until the new series starts the week after next