Today I shall be Mainly...

[Sue]

Morning

I wish we didn't have to go out Stanley but we have to go to Cleckheaton. My cousin can only help today, Lily will only be there this morning. Both have to be at work tomorrow. We shall set out after rush hour. One thing we know is the M62 gets priority for road clearance, i think slow and steady travel is the way. I doubt we will be back until after lunch. Needless to say I will miss pilates and yoga today. This afternoon I shall continue with my Christmas sewing.

Have a good day, stay warm

[Big Kev]

Working today so won't be leaving the house, hopefully this will thaw today

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[Stanley]

It'll be better today than yesterday Sue. You'll take care and be safe....
Not a lot of sign of a thaw until this evening when rain might take it all away for us.
The excitement at the moment is that R4 is off air after a fire alarm interrupted them. They are playing iPlayer stuff.....

Later.... I have had a good couple of hours working on the fitting of the cylinder to the bed. Slow but sure!

[Sue]

It took 1 hour 45 minutes to get there. The climb on the M62 for the lorries slowed everything down. There was twice as much snow here than there. The journey back, plus chair and a few other things, took the usual 40 minutes. A thaw had set in up there but here it is still 0 degrees and is much the same from when we left here. Art this evening is cancelled as the lady with the key can’t get off her road. I wasn’t going anyway ! The chair is now safe in the garage and we have an offer of a bigger trailer to go back for the mobility scooter . We need to move fast as we thing we will have to get a house clearance in Within the next 10 days or so. We picked up so e useful letters and brought home kitchen appliances that Lily does not want and are too good for house clearance. Copy death certificates have arrived so now we CAN redirect the post before the flat is emptied. Progress if slow is faster than the last 8 weeks

[Stanley]

Good, that sounds like a successful trip Sue. It's thawing here and I have just been out, I could swear there is a very fine mizzle, you can feel it but not see it. I have little doubt it will all have gone in the morning.

[Stanley]

Shed for two hours and bookie watch will not be stopped by the cold but quite possibly the rain as it's much milder and all the snow has gone down here....

[Sue]

Morning

9 degrees, damp and no snow, which is good as we have to go back to Cleckheaton today. Yesterday we did not get a chance to search for any other paperwork. Lily wanted to chat to me and I had to do a bit of grief counselling amongst other things. She has gone back to Wolverhampton today and the flat is empty so we can search without offending her. We also need some instruction books and missing electric cables for some kitchen equipment that we removed. Lily did not want them, so we are offering them to the family. We need to also ensure that everything that should be removed before the house clearance, has been removed. It should be a fairly quick trip there and back but we will wait till after rush hour. The M62 in that section is classed as the busiest motorway in the UK even busier than the M25. It really is a horrific journey in rush hour.

I have completed my Christmas sewing and my toile for my jacket so my sewing has been put away for a week until I see Maxine again. I have also completed my Christmas and birthday shopping for the season . My Christmas cards have come back from the printers, and as far as I can tell they have been printed for free as they reported a ‘run’ error to me which they corrected but refunded my money anyway. The card list has been chopped again but so many of the cards are sent to elderly relatives and friends who we like to keep in touch with. I shall write their accompanying letters today.

This evening is pilates and yoga. My body is in need of a good stretch , the cold weather has really brought on the aches and pains

Have a good day all

[Stanley]

Morning Sue, that sounds like a plan as usual! I get my exercise mainly in the shed and freely admit I need more but I'm not complaining about aches and pains, I'm just glad to be here!



I've been working on my cylinder. I have the lids done and now I'm working on the steam chest and of course eventually, the valve. Slow quiet progress without mistakes.

[Wendyf]

Today my Black Friday purchase arrived! After many years of using and loving my Dyson vacuum I finally admitted that it was beyond repair. I have bought a Shark. Its unpacked and up and running but will take a bit of getting used to! First issue, it has a "dust cup" which holds very little dust, I'll have to empty it every five minutes .

[Stanley]

Such a traumatic event! Getting a different vacuum cleaner should be ranked with bereavement and divorce in the scale of life events. I wish you well with it Ma'am....
I'm looking forwards to the shed and more quiet careful work on the steam chest and valve. Not too sure about bookie watch, the forecast gives sunny intervals and showers, I shall take it as it comes but want to walk as I didn't bother yesterday, it was wet and horrible.

[Sue]

Morning

What a dark morning! I have to be out by 8.30 as I have a hair appointment across town at 9.00. Bob is off to Cleckheaton with a friend who has access to a big trailer. They are bringing the disability scooter back and then we can send the second of our two letters asking people to reclaim their good in lieu of outstanding payments. We shall go on Saturday and clear out cupboards and drawers of food, junk, consumables etc. I shall clean bathroom and kitchen , then it should all be ready for house clearance.

My visit to the hairdressers should cheer me up. I have no other plans except pilates at the studio this evening. I may write those Christmas letters!

Have a good day everyone

[Stanley]

Morning Sue.... Good luck with the day! Console yourself with the fact that you haven't started the day with a major mistake. Not terminal but bloody annoying! I shall reveal all later.....



Installing the studs for the steam chest. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot actually if you get hypnotised by the process and quietly do accurate work and steady progress. What I did was forget to swap the clearance drill for the tapping drill so all the holes in my cylinder are too big! Deep joy!
It can be retrieved of course, upgrade the studs from 4BA to 2BA. I shall punish myself by making the studs but have also ordered some 2BA studding, it is never wasted and I am going to live forever!

[Stanley]

I shall be in the shed. I'm quite depressed actually about my unforced error yesterday. No getting away from it, I'm getting old and I shan't get rid of the small black cloud hovering over me until the new studs are made, fitted and I can move on. It can be a very unforgiving game making stuff with your hands.....
Bookie watch looks to be on, we are promised a clear cold day.

[Sue]

Morning

I know that feeling Stanley. Remember the yellow top I was making two years ago. I made mistake after mistake. Eventually I cut the buttons off and sold the fabric when I sold a bag full of scraps on Facebook Market place 2 months ago . I felt such a failure, but you will bounce back . We have all been there, Bob too. I have a box of UFOs, unfinished objects that have been cast aside in disgust at my own stupidity. Errors happen and are not to do with age. You do well with what you do, I am always impressed. Only two days ago I spent two hours embroidering a gift bag for an Amazon gift card for Christmas. When the cards came it is far too small, I had used the small setting instead of the medium setting on the machine Agh!

Its a beautiful sunrise, an artists dream. In fact I shall be painting one just like it this afternoon. I have an online workshop 12.30 till 4.00 today with Jeremy Ford . This morning I have pilates as my Thursday morning art has finished till January. We just do three 10 weeks terms in the year. I was sorting out my stuff last night for Jeremys class when I could not find my gouache paints anywhere. I used them last at a Jeremy class in Shaw the day we went to France at the start of the pandemic. Thus the paints went with me as we went to the ferry straight from the class. I think the paints must be in France. Anyway we braved the evening rush hour drove across Rochdale to the Range where luckily they had a small box of assorted colours. Not the best make but they will do for today.

So thats it, pilates and art and daylight over. Bob will have a walk to post his letters re the mobility scooter now residing in our garage. My poor car has been ejected no doubt he will go in the workshop afterwards . Have a good day all . Its going to be cold

[Stanley]

Thanks Sue, and Bob came on shed matters to commiserate as well. If you have a look you'll see that the gremlins attacked from another direction but as far as the fastening is concerned we have a success. I am a much happier bunny....

[Stanley]

Susan and I aren't setting off today as Jess is on the verge of giving birth. We will have fish and chips here. I shall be doing my weekly shop and will try to get an hour in in the shed.
I have to be in for the gas man so I'm not sure about the rest of the day, it depends when the gas man cometh....

[Sue]

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Morning

Its a cold damp, dark start to the day although the snow that fell during the night has almost gone. Its dance exercise this morning and being Friday its lunch with Wendy and Keith in Todmorden. Bob has a model engineers meeting this evening and as football is on TV I shall busy myself with Christmassy jobs.

It was a lovely art workshop yesterday and good to see Jeremy . He has not done any zoom classes for several months as he has been busy moving, downsizing from a large 4 bed stone house to a smaller bungalow. There he does not yet have a studio so I don’t know where he was zooming from but he said it was cold, and he had a cold too. I enjoyed the painting and although the paints I bought from the RANGE at the last minute were not the best, they did hold up and produce a half decent picture.

So thats it, have a good day. Enjoy your fish and chips Stanley, at least you will be warm and dry .

[Stanley]

Yes Sue but only by chance. The thermostat packed up yesterday and I lost heat. I lit the stove and survived. This morning as I passed the stat i knocked it hard out of frustration and the heat came on. It's obviously defective so I haven't cancelled the gas man. I need a new thermostat.
I've done an hour in the shed and the weekly shop. Back in a minute or two with a pic.



I have a new lid with no bits broken out of it!

[plaques]

I have a new lid with no bits broken out of it! What happened to Jonny's ruling not to put studs in corner plates?

[Stanley]

Think about it Ken, not enough room to have two holes Katie corner so you have to have a simple hole pattern like this.

[Stanley]

Hoping for a more normal day than yesterday when I spent all day waiting for the gas man.

[Sue]

Morning

I hope your heating is fixed Stanley.

Today is Bacup market, then its back home and a quick change of clothes into cleaning gear before we drive to Cleckheaton to clean the flat and sort out the rubbish etc. We hoped we would be by ourselves but it seems Lily is turning up in a hired car to collect the rest of her stuff. That is good provided I am allowed to clean and sort and am not expected to sit down and talk to her all day. It sounds harsh but we had it all planned. Now we may have to make a return trip on Monday if we don’t get finished. Hopefully we will be back home by 6.00 pm

Have a good day

[Stanley]

I hope your day works out as you expected. Other people can be distracting when you have a clear plan.
As for heating we are back to normal Sue thanks. I am finding out what setting on the thermostat is my ideal. It's calibrated slightly different to my old one. I think I have it somewhere near right now....
I've had a couple of hours in the shed... Back with a pic shortly.



A quiet 2 hours work and my cylinder now has six 2BA studs made with my own fair hands....

[Gloria]

Yesterday we had a nice trip along the A59 to Skipton which was quite busy. Lunch in Bizzie Lizzies overlooking the canal, that, for the first time we’ve ever seen it, was quiet. Then a shop for pies and some Christmas presents, then home via Earby and Colne doing a round trip. I love our odd Skipton Friday days out.

[PanBiker]

It's a "we" thing today. It's our 45th wedding anniversary. It was a lot colder on the 4th December 1976, hard frost for nearly a fortnight, everything was frozen solid. Heating was on full bore in Carleton Church but you could still see your breath.