What's made you smile today?

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What's made you smile today?

Even though I am originally from northern Wisconsin, I have a soft Midwestern 'twang' because I've lived in northern Illinois most of my life. That is, until I get with friends and family from up nort. My wife and youngest kid can't understand me when that happens. The oldest went to college in Ashland, Wisconsin, on the shores of Lake Superior and had four years of immersion in that dialect, so she at least gets the gist of it.

Here's a couple for ya ta enjoy, eh! The last one is a take on Siri and Scottish accents.


 
Thanks for those. Maybe because I've spent quite some time over your side of the pond I actually found I could follow your videos quite easily. Where I was brought up in the Scottish borders we speak like this:

In fact that river - The Tweed - runs right past the bottom field where I was brought up and the video was shot probably about 5 miles from there.

As a contrast here's a Glasgow accent:

Could you follow what he was saying?

As everywhere I suppose, these very strong accents are being diluted as people travel more so the youngsters tend to speak with more neutral accents and everywhere there are international "trendy" words creeping in.
I have to admit my borders accent does tend to "thicken" when I'm back down there with my brother or even when just speaking to another person I meet with a borders accent.

If you want to hear some of the most indecipherable British accents try looking on you tube for "English West Country Accents" Mrs J's sister lives down there and even after over 40 years of regularly holidaying there we still have trouble understanding some of the older country folk!
 
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Busy on Saturday and was out all day yesterday at granddaughter's birthday party so haven't really paid any attention to the garden for several days. This maorning I made a cup of tea and went for a wee wander round, mainly to see how the bedding plants - geraniums, lobelia, petunias etc - in my half whisky barrels are settling in. Then I suddenly noticed the peonies which have all of a sudden come into glorious bloom:

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Just behind it is my biggest Hydrangea which is bursting with promise - you can see the many nascent flower heads which will soon be a riot of colour

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Then, turning round to look at the plants on the other side of my shed, there's another smaller Peony I planted a couple of years ago which is giving the bigger plant in the other border a good run for it's money:

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Oh how I do enjoy my garden. Think I'll make a cup of tea and just go out and sit on my garden bench for a half hour or so!
 
I’m flying home tomorrow from my next to last work trip. On and off, I’ve spent almost four weeks in southern Mexico since mid May. Actually, in Valladolid, Yucatán. Pretty little tourist town. It caters mostly to Canadians and Europeans. My coworker and I were probably the only Americans, aka gringos, in town. My fellow countrymen rarely venture out of Cancun. They don’t know what they’re missing. Wonderful place.

The job here was an absolute nightmare owing to the fact that my management team still hasn’t learned that cutting costs up front usually costs a whole hell of a lot more on the back end. Suffice it to say, three people, including myself, said the equipment should not be shipped because it wasn’t ready. One fcukwit, who doesn’t even know how to put the key in switch, overrode all of us. Mind you, I have 20 years on this clown and have built over 200 of these machines between ‘97 and ‘16. His “crew” have built five since ‘17 and every one has been an absolute POS. Two have been returned by one customer.

The above reads like a “What Made You Grumpy” thread but, it’s just the lead in. I’m retired as of 30 June. Yay! On 27 June, I, and the rest of the Field Service staff have been requested, nay, required, to attend this years international sales meeting at the US corporate headquarters. The first time ever that we’ve been asked to attend one of these things. We’ve been requested because we see every shortcut taken in production and the end result is that we are rebuilding new equipment in the field before it can commissioned. As such, we as a group, are gunning for bear and forcing International to fix this mess on this side of the pond. If it means reorganizing the cesspit or sacking everyone and starting over, so be it.

So for my last four days at this outfit, I may be forcing them to fire me. I don’t think I’ve been this thrilled since I got married.🤠
 
Oh Yes! Go for it man! It's a wonderfully liberating feeling when you are able to tell it like it is with no fear of "reprisals" later! I've only once done this which ultimately resulted in me being invited to resign but I survived by dragging things out for so long that my chief protagonist actually resigned instead! I'd had a number of awkward official face to faces with this individual and I decided it had to either end or escalate so, as this individual had me in for another "silly" infringement and was starting to regale me I interrupted by saying that I was offended by the way I was being made to feel like a naughty child and was going to leave now. I then walked out. I never had another meeting and the whole sorry mess just seemed to be forgotten. It was all so "silly" because the whole thing was over a "storm in a tea cup" anyway.
 
I’m flying home tomorrow from my next to last work trip.
My hat is off to you for persisting with them they dont seem worth the effort. I hope you make it to retirement without giving in to the management ********* who seem not to appreciate someone who clearly cares more than do they! I hit 65 today and cant conceive of how anyone works at this age, even less how they keep it buttoned up to the last day!
I’m flying home tomorrow from my next to last work trip. On and off, I’ve spent almost four weeks in southern Mexico since mid May. Actually, in Valladolid, Yucatán. Pretty little tourist town. It caters mostly to Canadians and Europeans. My coworker and I were probably the only Americans, aka gringos, in town. My fellow countrymen rarely venture out of Cancun. They don’t know what they’re missing. Wonderful place.

The job here was an absolute nightmare owing to the fact that my management team still hasn’t learned that cutting costs up front usually costs a whole hell of a lot more on the back end. Suffice it to say, three people, including myself, said the equipment should not be shipped because it wasn’t ready. One fcukwit, who doesn’t even know how to put the key in switch, overrode all of us. Mind you, I have 20 years on this clown and have built over 200 of these machines between ‘97 and ‘16. His “crew” have built five since ‘17 and every one has been an absolute POS. Two have been returned by one customer.

The above reads like a “What Made You Grumpy” thread but, it’s just the lead in. I’m retired as of 30 June. Yay! On 27 June, I, and the rest of the Field Service staff have been requested, nay, required, to attend this years international sales meeting at the US corporate headquarters. The first time ever that we’ve been asked to attend one of these things. We’ve been requested because we see every shortcut taken in production and the end result is that we are rebuilding new equipment in the field before it can commissioned. As such, we as a group, are gunning for bear and forcing International to fix this mess on this side of the pond. If it means reorganizing the cesspit or sacking everyone and starting over, so be it.

So for my last four days at this outfit, I may be forcing them to fire me. I don’t think I’ve been this thrilled since I got married.🤠
 
Been a bear of a week this week/month/year.

So for my amusement I've been encouraging a colleagues direct reports to refer to themselves in the third person in their self-assessment mid years.

May have laid it on a bit thick when I suggested "The mighty Kevin has achieved many things your tiny mind cannot comprehend, however it is self-evident that the mighty Kevin is exceeding in his role".
 
Took a cycle ride along the River Teign. Grey mullet are clearly visible through the crystal clear waters. Salmon and sea trout are seen between October and January so I'll have to head up there again later in the year.
 
Steaming home late last night on country roads. Approaching a village, in the gutter below the 30 signs were two eyes reflecting at me. Too close together for a cat, but about small cat size. Slowing a lot more, there in my headlights was either a stoat or large weasel. Darker colour fur than I expected, more like a Pine Marten, but they are supposed to be very rare.

It seemed a happy creature, sat up, with a pretty face, watched me go gently by. Hopefully it doesn't get squashed.
 
This Tuesday just past, after taking my granddaughter to school we (Mrs J and I) took the wee lad to Gore Glen Country Park. It's about 15 minutes drive from where my boy lives and I'd noticed the wee sign at the roadside off the A7 which is the Galashiels road we travel when going down to visit my brother.

Anyway, Gore Glen Country Park: https://scotlandstartshere.com/point-of-interest/gore-glen-woodland-park/ turned out to be a lovely quite wild place. A small surfaced car park and a network of whin paths. Only one other car parked up and no cafe or coffee stall, nothing in fact except the glorious countryside, just my sort of place. We set off on the path down the hill and soon came to a well built bridge over the relatively recently reopened Borders Railway. This caused considerable excitement as he was hoping we might see a train. Of course the strike was on that day so there was no chance of that. We continued on, winding our way down into the valley on the "switchback" path - it's quite steep in places and the footing can be a little difficult due to the loose whin surface, I was thankful for my new walking shoes. After a while we started to hear the river and about 10 minutes later we came out on a slightly bigger and more used looking path that ran alongside the river. We wandered down stream a wee distance and found a rocky area where shallow water ran around between the rocks. "Ganny" sat herself down on the bank and us two chaps went out, stepping from stone to stone to a small dry land area in the river where we threw stones into the river and played Poo Sticks, but without the bridge.

After a while we walked back up the hill, which is pretty steep and left the two of us somewhat out of breath although the wee chap - he's not yet 3 - was running rings round us! Lots of "Busy Bees" in the wild flowers at the path side and stingy nettles to teach him to avoid. He found a nice big gnarly stick which had to come home with us. We saw a couple of water voles (I think) and other small creatures scuttling across the path as we walked which was probably because in all the time we were there we only saw two other groups of people.

We had a lovely time and will be taking him back in the near future, School holidays are coming up soon so maybe his older sister would like to tag along and we'll be able to distract her from her social media!
 
Reading a BBC report on Toyota recalling their bZ4X electric cars due to "concerns about loose wheels", I love the Toyota spokesperson's downplaying of the problem: "If a wheel detaches from the vehicle while driving, it could result in a loss of vehicle control, increasing the risk of a crash".

Catchy model name too !

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61919424
 
Fitted a new toilet seat which has been on my "to do" list for about 18 months.

I can already see "Well Mr RB45...if that's the level of your DIY god help you" but no allow me to expand slightly.

3 years ago we got a new toilet, the seat was a little loose but liveable pretty much from day one.

Unfortunately my wife had picked an enclosed cistern/flush pipe toilet. So there was precisely zero access to the fixings. I know what you're thinking "But it'll be a top fit toilet seat! only an absolute moron would fit a standard toilet seat to a toilet of that design".

But he did...and there we were, with a toilet seat that could not be either loosened or tightened without dismantling the whole damn toilet.

Anyway it was starting to get bad and to be honest the plan was along the lines of "let it fall off fit the correct seat for the application" but no wife had other ideas.

Anywho managed to unscrew the seat and lid and in a stroke of luck holding the rubber washer against the hole managed I could back the nut holding the hinge off until it fell off into the back of the toilet never to be seen again. Luckily he'd done them up only finger tight otherwise I'd have been at it with a saw/drill. He'd not trimmed the bolt to length either so had to wind out about 7 inches of thread..nearly lost the will to live.

Anyway, correct seat fitted tightened up...off the to do list. New seat fitting time 5 mins...old seat removal 45 minutes.
 
Toilets? Oh dear, toilets! I seem to have been involved in a lot of toilet repairs this past year, probably because my boy's didn't want "strangers" in their house during covid - or could it just be that Dad's very cheap?

It kicked off with my younger boy's, which is an older design where the cistern is on the wall a wee way above the bit you sit on with a right angled pipe connecting the cistern to the base unit. The seal in the base unit was leaking so this pipe had to be removed, seal replaced with a new one and the pipe refitted. The original seal type has been "improved" with a new plastic seal which prevented the pipe from being refitted with out removing the cistern from the wall so the bottom end of the pipe could be refitted to the base unit first. Annoying because the supply pipe had to be disconnected and then, yes you guessed it, it leaked when the water was switched back on so I had to go to the hardware store and buy another sealing washer for the supply pipe!

Then there was my older boy's syphon change. So what? simple I hear you say. Well yes, but, his is a built in concealed cistern so most of the vanity unit had to be dismantled to do that one! I tell you folks, don't go for concealed cisterns!

Then there was our own downstairs loo. The flush had been needing two or three tries before it would actually flush. I've had this before and I know it's the flimsy plastic diaphragm in the flushing unit which will be damaged so either the diaphragm or syphon complete needs changing. To do this means the syphon has to be removed. It's not a horrendous task on ours as we have close coupled cisterns but it does mean emptying the cistern before you disconnect the supply pipe and overflow and then dismantling the cistern from the base. Our builders, in their infinite wisdom, decided to use gate valves for isolating valves on the toilets and I hate them because they used cheap "nasty" components so they don't properly stop the flow. I've now taken to just bunging the roof tank of our gravity system instead!

Anyway, we'd been living with this dodgy flush for a month or more when my pal who services my boiler rang up to say a service was due and he could come round the next day to do it if that suited? So he arrived, fresh from another job, and immediately asked if he could use our loo. Of course said I. When he emerged he said "you need a new syphon in that you know". Yes I know, just haven't got round to it yet. "I'll do it for you when I've finished the boiler, just spread something out on the hall carpet so I can work there" So I got an old tarp out my shed. When he'd finished the boiler service he popped out to his van and returned with a syphon " these are good ones because if we ever need to do this again you don't need to strip the whole thing down to get at the big nut that holds the syphon in place, which means you don't need to remove the cistern from the base for access - any chance of a cup of coffee?" By the time I'd made his coffee - cuppaccino actually - and taken it through to him I was astonished to see he already had the cistern on the floor taking the old syphon out. Within minutes he had the new syphon fitted, a new "spongy" rubber seal fitted to the connection between the base and cistern and was reassembling the whole thing. The whole job was done in about 20 minutes flat! Takes me best part of a morning and that's only if the plumber's merchant has the parts I need!

He didn't seem to charge me very much either, but I think he likes to know he can call on me if something goes wrong with his car or van - he's a one man business. Here's a few pictures of the "close coupled" toilet:

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The fixings under the rim - you can see that they haven't shortened the seat fixing bolts on mine either. Doubt if they'll ever unscrew! Behind the seat screw you can see the screw that hold the cistern to the base which luckily came undone no bother:

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And finally here's the new syphon. Look carefully at the front and you can see a wee yellow "plug". To remove the syphon unit you just lever this plug out and lift the syphon unit off it's base - wonderfully simple. I'll be using this type of syphon on the upstairs if I ever need to:

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By the way he also put a new washer valve in the ball cock for me too, what a man!
 
With you all the vay in hidden cisterns Jock. MAd way to things. Maybe in offices where it makes cleaning easier but def not for the home unless exceptionally well designed and engineered for access. My sword of Damacles I fitted my doughters toilet worngly and it wil be a pig to remove for any maintenance. Im just hoping she moves before any is needed....
 
Noop shifted 1.5 tonnes of fire briquettes in threee loads yesterday. It really does not flinch with this weight on board. Brakes and power are all more than up to the job and its stability is excellent barely even notice the trailers hooked up. Its all down the back lanes of Norfolk and pretty low speed but the competence of this car still gives me a huge smile when it shines out yet again.
 
Toilets? Oh dear, toilets!

I tell you folks, don't go for concealed cisterns!
A friend of ours has a house where the roof extends down to cover most of the upstairs, making it look like a bungalow with rooms in the roof, but is a proper house. However, because of the roof slope in all rooms, the upstairs loo has a concealed cistern, in the roof. For service, it is done from outside, by taking a set of tiles off the roof. Strangely, it is difficult to flush, and the ball valve leaks a little.
 
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