WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Stanley]

I shall have a look Peter....
I know they are trying to protect your engine but how bloody annoying to be immobilised when all it is is a bum sensor. Good job you weren't on a really important mission! All down to catering for the LCD who never look at a temperature gauge!

[Stanley]

I've just opened the Met Office weather forecast and it seems they have changed their mind. The snow they forecast isn't going to happen...

[Big Kev]

I know they are trying to protect your engine but how bloody annoying to be immobilised when all it is is a bum sensor. Good job you weren't on a really important mission! All down to catering for the LCD who never look at a temperature gauge!

The new sensor won't be here until tomorrow so no trip to the office for me, I'm sure I'll manage

The garage replaced the thermostat and serviced the car today, they started it to bring it up to temperature to test the thermostat and the engine cut out again. It was plugged into the diagnostic machine at the time and the faulty sensor showed the exhaust at 900C, that's why the ECU shut it down.

[Gloria]

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IMG_5523.jpeg

[Stanley]

Good luck to Bob!
Kev, I don't understand why a hot exhaust shut the engine down..... running red hot is nothing new for exhausts, that's why they rust so badly!
The old Albion Reiver six wheelers had a very short exhaust system and a hard working engine. They ran red hot and a blue flame out of the pipe. You saw them regularly at night. And that was a diesel of course, cooler running that petrol or TVO.

[Big Kev]

Kev, I don't understand why a hot exhaust shut the engine down..... running red hot is nothing new for exhausts, that's why they rust so badly!
The old Albion Reiver six wheelers had a very short exhaust system and a hard working engine. They ran red hot and a blue flame out of the pipe. You saw them regularly at night. And that was a diesel of course, cooler running that petrol or TVO.

Too hot apparently...

[Stanley]

[Big Kev]

According to the font of all knowledge (Google), normal operation is 500-700F. The sensor was incorrectly reporting 900C, around 1600F.

[Tizer]

900C is within the range (700-1400C) of volcanic magma!

What grabbed my attention this morning is that when I googled to find the temperature range of magma every entry was a US web site, yet my location shown at the bottom of the page was Taunton UK. As Tripps would say, spooky!

[Stanley]

THIS BBC report of the results of the inquiry into the appeal by 'Captain Tom' for the NHS grabbed me.
The family of renowned pandemic fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore damaged public trust in charities by refusing to donate any of the £1.4m received from his book deal, a long-awaited report has found. The Charity Commission said his daughter and son-in-law displayed a "pattern of behaviour" in which they benefited personally from the Captain Tom Foundation and people "would understandably feel misled". The World War Two veteran became a household name during the first Covid-19 lockdown, by walking up and down his driveway in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire. The £38.9m raised by Capt Sir Tom for NHS Charities Together, as a result of his efforts, did not form part of the commission's inquiry, and all of that sum went to NHS charities. Capt Sir Tom's family said they had been treated "unfairly and unjustly".
The rest of the report is worth reading and is a shameful record of greed and acquisitiveness. I doubt if Captain Tom would be amused....

Perhaps it's worth recording here that when I was fundraising for Ellenroad I had contact with many charities and was struck by the salaries and perks that went to the people running them. It seemed obvious that in many cases this was excessive. The sort of behaviour detailed in this report may not be as rare as some would wish us to believe.

[Tizer]

On Monday I ordered three S/H books from 2 sellers on Abebooks. Got quick confirmations. The pair of books is with Royal Mail and due this morning and the single book is reported as with Royal Mail. I'm impressed with the seller of the single book - they're based at Boat of Garten in the Cairngorms!

[PanBiker]

Our boiler is faulty and it's bloody cold!

Started yesterday with no hot water or CH. Checking the boiler the reset light was flashing, pressure was OK so I reset it. It cycled and the CH fired up OK and we were back up and running. I shoved the stat onto override to warm the house up. All OK until mid afternoon when I noticed the rads had gone off which shouldn't happen on override! Blu light flashing now on the boiler and a reset made no difference. II suspected the condensate pipe as we have quite long run outside and have had that freeze up on occasion which trips the boiler. I have a disconnect option on the pipe under the boiler so I ran it into a bucket directly below and tried another reset with no joy.

During the pipe re routing operation I managed the pull the steam iron off the shelf above in the pantry and get a bash on the head. It broke the skin but thankfully missed the dents from my craniotomy, bled profusely for a little while until I got a big plaster on it. Not concussed or anything which was another bonus.

I gave up the ghost at this point though as I have done all I could.

I have switched the boiler off as it gives a horrible groaning noise when it tries to cycle.

I have called the cavalry for assistance.

I have cancelled my blood donor appointment for today as I am bound to fall foul of the senior nurse in charge of the session. Broken skin and all that which will mean I will have to tick a yes box on the medical screening. I would almost certainly get bounced. Not driving to Burnley to find out.

[Big Kev]

Someone certainly has it in for you today Ian, the iron falling on your head definitely topped it off. Hopefully your boiler man can get to you soon and sort it.

[Big Kev]

900C is within the range (700-1400C) of volcanic magma!

Definitely a faulty sensor or I would have been on fire The guys at MPH in Earby did well to identify the one sensor that was at fault as the diagnostic software doesn't show which one it is, it just returns the reported temperature. The thermostat housing was also replaced (more expensive than the faulty sensor) and a service. The oil was nearly as much as the sensor

Sensor £58
Thermostat housing £165 (an expensive bit of plastic)
Oil £48
4 hours labour £200
plus the other bits associated with a service left a hole in my wallet but it could have been a lot worse. One of the potential sensors is £200, fortunately it was the cheaper one.

[PanBiker]

Hopefully your boiler man can get to you soon and sort it.

I emailed our plumbers last night and I had a reply this morning. Gas Engineer is fully booked for today but we have a slot booked for tomorrow morning.

We can live with that as we have a Trustee meeting tonight. I will be popping round shortly to put the heating on at the centre. We can have a couple of hours in the warm round there tonight with a brew and biscuits to accompany the business meeting.

We have supplementary heating for the front room so we'll not freeze.

[Big Kev]

Middle offspring will be on Drystone Radio tonight, between 10 and 11, discussing the band Umatic and their songs. There will be plenty of music too

[PanBiker]

We have decided to do an online meeting tonight so I have moved the heating to the computer end of the house. Brew and biscuit's in the making.

[Stanley]

"On Monday I ordered three S/H books"
Oh dear Peter. I thought you said you had stopped buying books and advised the use of inter-library loan.....
Ian, what a catalogue of disasters! Luckiest escape was avoiding serious harm from the iron. I hope things go better today, miserable being without heat!

[PanBiker]

It's The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist tonight at Unity Hall, (Formerly the ILP Institute) on Vernon Street in Nelson. It's a one man magic lantern show from Townsend Productions as in the clip below. We have tickets and hope we can get to the car and off the croft to get on to see it. Cant stand up in the back yard at the moment!

[Stanley]

A great book..... I hope you get to see the performance.

Remember me saying I had taken insurance against ice by buying two packs of salt at the Co-op? I salted the yard when they forecast snow and it isn't icy.

[Tizer]

Oh dear Peter. I thought you said you had stopped buying books and advised the use of inter-library loan.....

I don't recall saying or writing that. I'm continuously reading books, both fiction and non-fiction, when they are available from our local library and I use inter-library loan when the local place doesn't have a title on their shelves. Also I frequently buy S/H books online and sometimes when the library sells off old books (usually for 50p!). I rarely need to buy a brand new book.

[PanBiker]

We got a message from the organiser of the Unity Hall event tonight. She says the roads and pavements to the venue in Vernon Street have not been gritted and are extremely treacherous. Good enough for us so we have said that we will donate our tickets which will be held on the door to anyone local who can make it. Discretion the better part of valour. Too late when you have taken a fall and broken something. I have had the car out today. Coming home later onto our local skid pan, AKA The Croft would have been a bit of a problem so best plan I reckon.

We were both looking forward to the production as we have seen the company before when he presented "Behold Ye Ramblers" which was excellent.

Townsend Productions

[Stanley]

That was a hard but good decision Ian. Very much on my mind. I did a shop at the Co-op earlier in the week when it was cold but dry underfoot and therefore safe. I haven't been out since and won't be doing so until Monday at the earliest. A fall can make a big difference to your life!
How's the boiler saga going on? Are you any nearer having heat?

[Tizer]

Now, these really do deserve the name `sinkhole'!...
`China's giant sinkholes are a tourist hit - but ancient forests inside are at risk' BBC

I see a thumbnail link on the BBC to an article titled `Atmospheric river dumps snow and record rain on California'. The caption to the photo says: The weather event occurs when water evaporates into the air and is carried along by the wind. I think we simply would call that rain!

[PanBiker]

How's the boiler saga going on? Are you any nearer having heat?

A diary reorganisation at our Plumbers and Tom will be with us on Tuesday. He already had two installs on his list to be done before Christmas.

We have borrowed an electric radiator from the centre which is rarely used. So we now have two heat sources to go at so manageable in the short term.

It felt a lot warmer this morning with the thaw and the change to rain.