What's made you smile today?

[PuntoHowTo]

I suspect quite a bit of the 2g network will be long gone by 2033 - some bits have already gone as some equipment is not being replaced when it fails. (It's not being made any more and the manufacturer no longer exists). AFAIK so far this is only a reduction in capacity, but I guess once the holes in coverage get big enough, some things will stop working.

Ofcom keeps sending out random updates on the subject (which I have unsubscribed from, but still get!)
Just did a quick search of a fairly recent one and came up with:
"In particular the Government is giving consideration to the requirements of key services
ahead of switch-off, including eCall and smart meters. "
Sadly, this does not fill me with much confidence, but maybe that's because I am a cynical old git...

There are possibly older or off patent eCall cars that use 2/3G only I did see that there was some suggestion of killing off 2g sooner.
Avanci seem to suggest 80-85% are compliant with the standards to still 15-20% who may not be using 4G, I think that is more likely to be the much older cars, usually before the standards are finally firmly settled. So by 2033 they may all be in scrap yards anyway?

The “official” switch off is 2033, then again we still have the analogue radio services fm am etc that we’re supposed to be switched off ages ago. I think they announce these things in the hope it will push people to update, encourage people to upgrade older tech but one thing that it’s going to massively affect is the million old people with a pay as you go Nokia 3110 they're had from new, and have no intention to update in case they have an emergency.

 

[StevenRB45]

Concerned parent approaches my wife "did you hear what such and such said yesterday?" "No" "She said the C U word.."

My wife being my wife... "For f***ks sake".

Sometimes I do wonder why we're allowed out in public...

 

[Cheest]

The fuel mileage on the new to me pickup is making me smile.
When I filled up Friday night, the Distance to Empty was 435 miles. Meh, comparable to the Chevy. I didn’t reset the trip odometer, only because I didn’t know how to.
It was about a thirty mile drive home. Drove about thirty miles worth of errands Saturday, took in the grandsons hockey game on Sunday which was about a hundred mile round trip. Didn’t drive it Monday. Tuesday, I drove it to a job in Indiana, only because my Jeep had a hiccup; now fixed. That was over two hundred miles. Met my soon to be former boss for breakfast where he lives. That’s about a forty mile round trip. The fuel was at about 3/8 of a tank, so I filled up. The DTE jumped from 435 miles to 648. This time I reset the trip odometer.
We had the other grandsons soccer game last night and I checked the trip odometer on the way home. Jeez, 26 mpg average on the current tank. On the Chev’s best day, it only got 20 mpg. The Jeep gets even worse than that. So, the Ford may even be better on fuel than Mrs.Cheest’s Renegade.
We’re driving to Maine for the Thanksmas holiday (combined Thanksgiving and Christmas). I think we’re taking the truck.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

The fuel mileage on the new to me pickup is making me smile.
When I filled up Friday night, the Distance to Empty was 435 miles. Meh, comparable to the Chevy. I didn’t reset the trip odometer, only because I didn’t know how to.
It was about a thirty mile drive home. Drove about thirty miles worth of errands Saturday, took in the grandsons hockey game on Sunday which was about a hundred mile round trip. Didn’t drive it Monday. Tuesday, I drove it to a job in Indiana, only because my Jeep had a hiccup; now fixed. That was over two hundred miles. Met my soon to be former boss for breakfast where he lives. That’s about a forty mile round trip. The fuel was at about 3/8 of a tank, so I filled up. The DTE jumped from 435 miles to 648. This time I reset the trip odometer.
We had the other grandsons soccer game last night and I checked the trip odometer on the way home. Jeez, 26 mpg average on the current tank. On the Chev’s best day, it only got 20 mpg. The Jeep gets even worse than that. So, the Ford may even be better on fuel than Mrs.Cheest’s Renegade.
We’re driving to Maine for the Thanksmas holiday (combined Thanksgiving and Christmas). I think we’re taking the truck.

Always have to put this in the context that U.S. gallons are smaller than ours. Don't thing it's going to look as spectacular as my 999cc Ibiza manages though no matter what size the gallon is.

 

[Cheest]

Always have to put this in the context that U.S. gallons are smaller than ours. Don't thing it's going to look as spectacular as my 999cc Ibiza manages though no matter what size the gallon is.

Or my 45 year old Honda CX500.

 

[Cheest]

Ural parts came today.

Weather is crappy, I'm fighting an Owen shared head cold and I have to go back to Indiana tomorrow for most of the day. Hopefully I can start putting it back together late tomorrow or Saturday morning.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

I may have just agreed to buy another fiat….

Smiling but like this —>

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

I have 2 more pics to share before I go . I don't know if either have been posted on FIAT forum before but I don't think so .
I'm going to waffle on for a bit but it will all make sense .
The first pic ,if it's not obvious is of my old Barchetta ,pic taken on this day 4 years ago , 12/10/2019 at around 11pm to midnight .It had to be that late as I drove up onto the low pavement to take the pic at the bottom of the steps to the building ,with no pedestrians around in a deserted area ,the rest area at the most northern point of the A22 Autostrada at Brennero ,1/2 a mile north through the short tunnel and you are in Austria . The rest area is a bit odd ,large car park ,no petrol station , a counter inside for food and drink and the rest of the large building is an Eco museum ,slightly odd place to have it on a motorway .
That was my 2nd long trip to Italy in 2019 ,in 3 weeks I had seen the Gran Premio Nuvolari .the Monza historic , 2 separate days of Ferraris at Imola [Clienti XX and Racing days] a day of Alfa Romeo racing at circuit of Varano , visited Dallara and Museo Nicolis near Verona ,

Rally Pistoia and Rally Due Valli and I finished off with a visit to Autoworld in Brussels for an exhibition of Zagato cars . A very full and satisfying trip .
This was at the time my final road trip but who foresaw the next 3 years of Covid insanity ?
I had to give it another try ,so I bought the Panda and to justify the purchase the road trip had to happen .
The meltdown on the trip down meant I binned off 4 out of 6 of the events I wanted to go to and also after an unsatisfactory day around Modena in which the car was broken into I made my way home ,driving the entire length of the A22 ,stopped twice for dinner and rest arriving fairly late at Brennero . A quite unsatisfactory road trip which promised much more which went unfulfilled .
Where I recreated the pic with the new old car ,on 22/06/2023

The insurance renewal notice has arrived ,the road tax reminder has arrived and the MOT expires on the 26th . I won't be paying for any of those and will park the car in the garage for an undetermined period .I will disconnect the battery and drain the mucky coolant out .

The only thing these 2 cars have in common is a FIAT badge and too many stickers .
I wanted to go to the Auto e Moto d'Epoca big classic car show in Bologna end of this month but I don't have the mental capacity to do this .
I've now inserted the Panda pic in the wrong place ,can't even get that right .

 

[bugsymike]

I may have just agreed to buy another fiat….

Smiling but like this —>

If that is an, "I am not quite sure I should have bought it face?"
If so, it reminds me of some years ago traveling to look at/buy a Humber Super Snipe, as soon as I got out of my car I realised the Humber was a piece of sh*t .
So there am I walking around the car thinking how can I get out of this with honour to both sides?
I came up with the idea of offering an insultingly low price, to which the owner would say "no way!" So I could walk away, unfortunately the guy took a big breath and said OK! So I was stuck with the car, deal done.
The price was £150, the same car these days in worse condition would be over £1500.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

If that is an, "I am not quite sure I should have bought it face?"
If so, it reminds me of some years ago traveling to look at/buy a Humber Super Snipe, as soon as I got out of my car I realised the Humber was a piece of sh*t .
So there am I walking around the car thinking how can I get out of this with honour to both sides?
I came up with the idea of offering an insultingly low price, to which the owner would say "no way!" So I could walk away, unfortunately the guy took a big breath and said OK! So I was stuck with the car, deal done.
The price was £150, the same car these days in worse condition would be over £1500.

That is a "given my history with fiat's I really shouldn't keep buying them" face.

I think the car is good I have seen many many pictures but to all intents and purposes I have bought it sight unseen and have a very long 150 mile walk home if it turns out to be not as expected.

The Plus side is, that the agreed in principle price is very good for the car and there is potential for the value to shoot up in the next few years.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Just had a quick look on the
BBC i player
Advertising a 4th series of
Crash Detectives.. Fascinating and Scary in equal measure

Being roads familiar to me brings it home a bit too

Just watched one of these iPlayer where a L322 Range Rover Vogue was completely ripped in half after hitting a tree at >100mph. terrifying to consider the forces involved in that one.

 

[bugsymike]

Just watched one of these iPlayer where a L322 Range Rover Vogue was completely ripped in half after hitting a tree at >100mph. terrifying to consider the forces involved in that one.

When you see some photos it is amazing people survive and yet other ones that look quite minor can be fatal.
Nearly fifty years ago pre seat belt laws I crashed a Mk1 Ford Cortina, I would say entirely my fault, the car ended up head on in to a farm entrance stone pillar they hang the big gate on.
All four doors , all four wings, all four wheels, the bonnet, the roof, the boot, O/S sill, radiator, bell housing, when it was lifted to tow away we found the propshaft had pushed the diff bending the solid rear axle so that both rear wheels faced towards the middle of the car, in fact the only straight panel was the N/S sill. Luckily for me my damage was a broken nose and a couple of cracked ribs. They say "the devil looks after his own"

 

[PuntoHowTo]

"the devil looks after his own"

I should be sorted then lol

 

[StevenRB45]

Just watched one of these iPlayer where a L322 Range Rover Vogue was completely ripped in half after hitting a tree at >100mph. terrifying to consider the forces involved in that one.

I've watched all of them at various points and I think remember this one..

While each one is I'm sure for the family a tragedy, and some of them are incredibly unlucky..others are absolutely Darwin award winners and in that particular case at least it was just him and he hit no one else.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

While each one is I'm sure for the family a tragedy, and some of them are incredibly unlucky..others are absolutely Darwin award winners

this one was very much the latter, driving at over 100mph while impaired with drink and drugs in his system. Some would call it inevitable. An no he didn’t survive. The car was so badly damaged they didn’t need to cut him out.

 

[StevenRB45]

Having gone through them in the past the main message I took from them was if you're leaving the road and don't happen to find one of those nice deformable blocks crash testing suggests are everywhere the only things that matter are if you're wearing a seatbelt, the angle/speed you hit something at and what you hit.

Safety rating doesn't really matter if the car is in multiple pieces..

 

[portland_bill]

Just been out to the bin. Moving gently along the lid of the wheelie bin, is a tiny snail. It's shell is about the size of a pea. To get there, it has scaled the side of the bin, from the ground. Such a feat for such a tiny creature, with no reward at the end of it, and the return journey to look forward to.
I wonder why it started the journey, and how long ago. I wish it well.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Yesterday I did some "serious" gardening getting things tidied up ready for the winter. Cut the grass, did the edges and pulled up the worst of the weeds. Then took the hedge cutter to my big weeping birch which I'm training to look like a monster sized mushroom and trimmed up several other shrubs including 4 in my elderly neighbour's garden. Had a really good sweep up, put "stuff" in the shed and locked the shed. Now, you need to know my shed is VERY secure with one master lock and steel flatstock bars top and bottom of the door with padlocks, all of which I had just locked as I thought I'd finished. Walking back to the back door I spotted that the geraniums in the tubs needed dead heading so I started taking off the dead heads with their stalks - the way you do. I transferred these to my left hand as I went and built up quite a bunch. Then went round the front and did them too. So I ended up with quite a fistful of foliage in my left hand. Walked over to the garden waste bin, threw them in, went inside the house, had a wash and changed out of my gardening clothes and sat in the living room waiting for my tea (Scottish terminology for supper taken early) After the meal I went to make a cup of tea for us both.

But, oh damn, no milk in the fridge. Not to worry though as I have an old fridge in the garage which we usually keep some spare milk in so I opened the connecting door from the house to the garage and as I stepped through I just happened to glance at the nail I keep the shed key on - Oh. No key. Oh dear, where can it be? I spent probably the next three quarters of an hour looking everywhere I could think of for it, including an outside search with torch - it was dark by now - all to no avail. Went to bed telling myself it would turn up and not to worry. In the morning I repeated the search, which was easier now it was daylight, but still no sign of the keys anywhere. I was beginning to think I was going to have to take the angle grinder to the padlocks and thinking "where haven't I looked" when I suddenly thought "wonder if I could have dropped them in the bin"? So lifted the garden bin lid, moved the geranium heads to one side and there they were. I must have had them in my left hand as I was collecting all the dead heads and just chucked the whole lot in the bin having forgotten the keys were in that hand too.

Although I didn't think it was funny at the time I can now see the funny side but am just slightly worried. Is this the first signs of dementia or something similar? Somewhat strangely I'm surprised I'm not actually feeling too upset by it, I was more upset by the thought I might have to ruin two perfectly good padlocks.

 

[varesecrazy]

Jock..
I put my Uno key in the Skip at the local Landfill /recycling civic amenity.. I was 35

Obviously I couldn't drive away..
It was perched on a ledge of 'junk' and in plain sight. easily retrievable

I don't put the key in my hand anymore


I don't think it's too big a concern

 

[bugsymike]

Although I didn't think it was funny at the time I can now see the funny side but am just slightly worried. Is this the first signs of dementia or something similar? Somewhat strangely I'm surprised I'm not actually feeling too upset by it, I was more upset by the thought I might have to ruin two perfectly good padlocks.

Many times I have been working on my car, needed a different tool walked down the drive to the garage and forgotten what I had gone there for.
The worrying thing is I can remember the valve clearances for cars I serviced in 1969 and not always what I had for breakfast the day before and I only rotate a choice of three things, porridge, Shreddies and Weetabix .