The things we do, in the name of science…
Last year, I mentioned the Swiss autoroute vignette & the difficulty in removing it after use.
Not to mention the impossibility of removing it in one piece to use on another car or another windscreen (which is illegal anyway).
http://2cv67blog.blogspot.com/2009/08/vignettes.html
Yet the windscreen professionals managed to transfer my old one to my new screen, apparently intact.
I meant to ask them how, but never did.
Googling furiously, I found suggestions about illicit use of hair-driers…
Having bought my 2010 vignette, the time had come to test my new, if fragmentary, knowledge.
After checking carefully that there were no Swiss observation drones hovering nearby (and also that DS was not looking) I smuggled the hair drier from the bathroom & a thin, flexible table-knife from the kitchen, out to the car-port.
Using only the merest of heat & fan settings (& wondering vaguely if there was any risk of cracking the screen) I warmed the 2009 vignette up & easily slid the knife blade behind it.
Removing it in one piece (& apparently fit for hypothetical further service) was a proverbial piece of cake.
Certainly quicker & easier than the usual cold scraping, even if you don't want to re-use it.
C.Q.F.D.
Parting thot: "Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
I just bought a pair of gardening gloves.
Purchases don't get much simpler than that, do they?
When I got them home, the first task was to remove the 2 stout staples holding them together – strong enough to need pliers.
Then I put my hand in, as you would, only to spike it on what turned out to be an electromagnetic anti-theft tag in the form of a strip of wire.
Next attempt came up against a wad of paper.
Not a ball of tissue paper like you find at the end of new shoes, but a many-folded sheet of A4 paper.
Covered both sides in very small print…
The instructions!
For gloves?
Actually, there were less instructions than I at first imagined, as they were repeated in F, GB, D, NL, I, E, P, DK, SF, S & N with only about 13 closely-packed lines for each.
Curious, I did actually read them, just in case I had been missing out, all my life, on how to wear gloves properly.
Well, no.
I think common sense would tell me to avoid putting gloves on very dirty hands.
To throw them away if they have holes.
Not to expect leather gloves to keep me warm if wet.
To keep them somewhere dry & at a reasonable temperature.
But thanks anyway.
There was some valuable information on their rating for abrasion, slicing, tearing, perforation, cold-convection, cold-contact & waterproofing.
But that would have been more useful on the label, than stapled inside the gloves & inaccessible until you get them home, wouldn't it?
I looked & it wasn't.
OK, this whole post, so far, has been just a cheap poke at somebody giving me a bit too much information, and of course I would rather have too much than not enough & I can't really complain about one sheet of paper, so I won't.
Really, the multi-lingual gloves instructions merely kicked me into starting a piece I have had in mind for some time, about the waste of paper in multi-lingual instruction books in general.
I have in front of me, the instructions for my Bosch electric drill.
104 pages.
The English section is 6 ½ pages total…
The rest is the same thing (presumably) in German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek & Turkish.
Of course, I do understand the logistical reasons for this.
I can also see that the Bosch book is printed on recycled paper & I am certain they have done their sums & that this is the cheapest solution.
But it is still a waste.
Multiplied by all the stuff being sold everywhere.
And if we all learned Esperanto?
Parting thot: "Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in a few words." - Apocrypha
Do you, in other countries, need doctor's certificates before you can take part in any remotely-physical activity?
I seem to remember flying gliders in UK (some decades back…) on the strength of a simple declaration that I didn't suffer from epilepsy or anything else likely to put me or anybody else in danger.
Maybe things are not so simple now.
Certainly in France, you need a specific doctor's certificate before you can join in any kind of activity.
These are the medical certificate conditions for paragliding (I won't translate them, but you get the idea):
CONDITIONS MEDICALES ET CONTRE-INDICATIONS RELATIVES ET DEFINITIVES
Système Nerveux :
- Intégrité des fonctions anatomiques, motrices, sensibilités superficielle, profonde, et proprioceptivité respectées.
- Emotivité compatible avec le Vol Libre et la traction.
Contre indications : Toute affection entraînant un défaut de maîtrise. Certaines sont définitives. A l’exception du Cerf Volant y compris de traction (Kite),
- les séquelles d’affections cérébrales ou méningées, traumatiques ou non, du fait du risque majoré d’oedème cérébral hypoxique d’altitude.
De même toute altération ou perte de conscience d’origine connue (épilepsie) est une contre indication absolue jusqu’à leur disparition clinique et/ou électrique, sans traitement depuis deux ans.
- Toute altération ou perte de conscience d’origine inconnue mais habituelle (malaise vagal, spasmophilie) est une contre indication absolue jusqu’à disparition clinique depuis deux ans.
- Tout syndrome psychiatrique connu et traité, ou dépisté lors de l’examen est incompatible avec ce sport aérien (aucun handicap psychique invalidant).
Il en est de même pour toute intoxication : alcoolique, toxique ou médicamenteuse. NB : Il faut recommander aux pilotes de s’interdire l’emploi non contrôlé des médicaments sédatifs ou excitants. Y compris quand ils ne sont par perçus comme tels : les antalgiques codéinés, les antitussifs, les antiallergiques, certains anti-inflammatoires ou décontracturants musculaires. Le praticien devra prendre en compte cet item lors de la prescription et informer le pilote de leur longue durée d’élimination et de leur potentialisation entre eux, par l’hypoxie, la déshydratation, la fatigue et par l’alcool.
Appareil Locomoteur : Intégrité anatomique ou fonctionnelle des 4 membres. Contre indications :
- Instabilité de l’épaule post traumatique non opérée et non stabilisée, A l’exception Cerf Volant y compris de traction (Kite), ou la CI est à apprécier individuellement en fonction de l’intensité de la pratique :
- Altération de la proprioceptivité des membres inférieurs (non rétablie en post traumatique, en particulier)
- Hernies, éventrations, jusqu’à consolidation post-chirurgicale, instabilité rachidienne, matériel d’ostéosynthèse rachidien en place.
NB : Evaluer la nécessité d’ôter certains matériels d’ostéosynthèse pouvant entraîner une aggravation en cas de nouvel accident, lors de l’ablation tenir compte du délai de consolidation.
Appareil Cardio-Vasculaire :
- Etat compatible avec effort prolongé (test de Ruffier), d’intensité moyenne (isométrique) et des sollicitations brèves mais submaximales.
ECG : recommandé dès 35 ans, obligatoire après 50 ans et en cas de facteurs de risques familiaux ou personnels (obésité, cholestérol, tabagisme) ainsi qu’anomalie clinique connue ou suspectée.
- TEST D’EFFORT : recommandé dès 40 ans, obligatoire pour toute anomalie clinique, électrique, tensionnelle ou lors du test de Ruffier.
Contre indications à l’exception du Cerf Volant (pour le kite, à apprécier en fonction de l’intensité de la pratique) :
- Troubles de l’hémostase (inné, acquis ou médicamenteux) (pour le kite, à apprécier en fonction de l’intensité de la pratique), Contre indications à l’exception du Cerf Volant y compris de traction (Kite),:
- HTA et cardiopathies non stabilisées, arythmogènes ou non,
- Atteintes vasculaires périphériques susceptibles d’être aggravées par la compression de sangles des harnais et des sellettes
Appareil Respiratoire : Capacité d’effort (idem cardio-vasculaire) et tolérance à l’hypoxie d’altitude (sauf pour le kite)
Contre indications à l’exception du Cerf Volant y compris de traction (Kite),: insuffisance respiratoire symptomatique, emphysème, antécédents de pneumothorax non opéré, affections pleuropulmonaires évolutives.
Affections Endocriniennes et Métaboliques : Admissibilité des problèmes endocriniens n’entraînant pas de malaise ou perte de connaissance (diabète équilibré, hypothyroïdie compensée).
Contre indications à l’exception du Cerf Volant :
- Diabète instable susceptible de malaises
Contre indications à l’exception du Cerf Volant y compris de traction (Kite):
- corticothérapie au long cours et insuffisance surrénalienne.
ORL : Entendre la voix chuchotée à 1 mètre.
Contre indications : - Vertiges vrais et troubles de l’équilibre (test de Romberg) non stabilisés,
Contre indications à l’exception du Cerf Volant y compris de traction (Kite):
- Catarrhe tubaire, otites moyennes aiguës et otites chroniques non aérées.
Par analogie, les inflammations dentaires sous amalgames (pulpite barotraumatique).
Aptitude Visuelle : Champ visuel normal - une vision corrigée à 09/10e en binoculaire et une acuité des deux yeux non corrigée à 2/10e minimum.
L’astigmatisme horizontal doit être normal ou bien corrigé (lignes électriques).
La vergence et la vision du relief doivent être normales.
Les dyschromatopsies sont admises.
Contre indications à l’exception du cerf volant : Décollement rétinien non stabilisé (surveillance trimestrielle puis annuelle).
NB : Système anti-perte des lunettes recommandé ainsi que verres neutres protecteurs pour les porteurs de lentilles ou verres cornéens.
Divers : Vaccination antitétanique obligatoire, anti-hépatite B recommandée.
A l’exception du Cerf Volant y compris de traction (Kite) : Groupage sanguin (2 déterminations) à jour.
When I see that lot, I am surprised to find hundreds of quite ordinary-looking specimens actually flying every weekend!
DS needs a certificate before she can join in the village gym class.
We both need another one to go walking (!!!) with the local rambling group.
I have to think this is overkill.
Parting thot: "I think my favorite sport in the Olympics is the one in which you make your way through the snow, you stop, you shoot a gun, and then you continue on. In most of the world, it is known as the biathlon, except in New York City, where it is known as winter." - Michael Ventre
Saying you expect something to happen "Quand les poules auront les dents", literally "when hens have teeth" is a pretty common French way of saying "never".
Nearer to the idea of "if pigs could fly" than to "rare as hens teeth".
Parting thot: "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." – Albert Einstein
One of the minor adventures in planning our future California trip has been the projected flight over The Grand Canyon.
Yes, I know, The Grand Canyon is not quite in California, but if you have a small enough map it doesn't seem that much of a detour & a pity to miss while you are so near.
Anyway, many people, including unknowns on travel forums & even actual friends, have unanimously (& that's rare) recommended seeing The GC from a helicopter.
Digging around, I found that:
There are several organisations running various helicopter flights (see below).
25 minute flights are expensive & longer flights are very expensive.
There are several organisations (including some of the above) running light aircraft flights.
You seem to get about 50 minutes, starting from the same airport, travel further (good) but a bit higher (bad?).
They are cheaper than helicopter flights (reasonable as helicopters are notoriously expensive to run).
They mainly seem to use twin-engined planes with 3-abreast or 4-abreast seating, so visibility (the whole point!!) may not be very good for some in the middle or for anybody looking/photographing through the propellers.
Air Grand Canyon offers 50-60 minute flights in single-engined planes where "Everyone Gets a Window Seat!" & they are cheaper than anybody else.
http://www.airgrandcanyon.com/
Too good to be true?
Probably…
After some hesitation, partly because, with all the power of Google, I could not find a single forum report of anybody actually using Air Grand Canyon, & partly because their site seems to describe 3 different flight paths but then the booking form doesn't use any of those 3 flight path names, I eventually decided to go for it, & booked for the time & date we wanted – no problem.
Our credit-card account was soon debited with the right amount, but I did not receive the expected & promised Reservation Confirmation.
I e-mailed them on one of the 3 addresses on their site, but the mail was bounced back with:
"I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. The mail system : host mx.papillon.com[209.136.187.9] said: 550 Requested action was not taken because this server doesn't handle mail for that user"
The other 2 addresses gave the same result.
They all still do.
I tried the phone number on the site, but it rang for 3 minutes with no answer.
Ten times in succession over a couple of days…
I cannot find any other phone number (except a 1-800 one) or any postal address (except a PO box) for AGC.
I did find a related news article about embezzlement:
http://media.www.eraunews.com/media/storage/paper917/news/2008/10/01/News/Skyschool.Closes.Doors-3458077.shtml
Eventually, I contacted the Arizona Department of Transportation - Airport authority, who were extremely helpful & confirmed that AGC is really a bona-fide company & is really operating from the expected airport.
Phew!
They suggested my connection problems might be due to 3ft of snow at the airport, but I respectfully doubt that.
Surprisingly for me, but apparently not for them, they said that reservations are being handled by Grand Canyon Airlines, one of the above competitors.
I contacted GCA about my lack of confirmation from AGC & got a rapid reply with confirmation!
The rapid & friendly reply was under the header "Papillon Airways Inc." – another of the above "competitors" and included the line "Thank you for choosing Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines" – yet another "competitor"…
Encouraged by that success, I asked which airline I would be flying with & for confirmation that the flight would be in a single-engined plane where "Everyone gets a window seat".
That seemed to be taking things too far & replies ceased…
So I am anything but confident in what I have booked & paid for!
The confirmation mail does say "Most tours can be changed or cancelled without penalty" & I am quite tempted, but on the other hand, having struggled so far, I really want to see what's at the end.
Watch this space…
http://www.airgrandcanyon.com/
http://www.grandcanyonairlines.com/
http://www.scenic.com/
http://www.papillon.com/
http://www.maverickhelicopter.com/
Parting thot: "If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen." - Erasmus
As previously reported, we got 'hooked' on solar panels last year.
http://2cv67blog.blogspot.com/2009/08/photovoltaic-1.html
http://2cv67blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/loft-story.html
Having decided to go for a 3kW installation (the sweet spot under current taxation rules) we found (hopefully) a good, small, local, specialist to do the installing.
There followed an anxious time while we waited for the mini-planning-permission you need for solar panels here.
Basically it is just a declaration of what you intend to do, with illustrations, which you submit to the Mairie.
If nobody says "no" in a month – you are OK.
Except we are within 500 metres of an ancient monument, so our declaration also has to not get a "no" from the ABF (Architecte des Batiments de France) which is more problematic.
As expected, part-way through the month, the ABF sent a standard letter saying they were giving themselves an extra month to think about it…
But after 2 months, taking us just into 2010, no news = good news & we were off!
Next hurdle was getting a quote from ES-R (Electricité de Strasbourg – Réseau) for the actual grid connection.
It was only about then that I realized we were not actually connected to the famous EDF but to a local offshoot.
That turned out to be significant, as ES-R have stricter safety rules than EDF.
Our electricity comes in (& will go out) via a cable through the roof, across the road & from pole to pole until it meets the underground bit at the end of the road.
But ES-R insists on being able to cut any power I generate, without needing to come onto my property…
This is understandable, in that they need to be able to neutralize the grid to work on it, but EDF will accept fuses on the pole or maybe switches outside the house.
ES-R makes me run all my 3kW out to the front gate & back again, so they can switch it off from the road.
After that, the installation started on 25th January & finished (except for the grid connection) on 2nd Feb with light snow & temperatures down to -8°C.
Installation included:
Taking off a spare chimney which would have shaded the panels
Removing 345 tiles
Covering that space with special ribbed high-density-polyethylene sheet which is now our only waterproofing…
http://www.ubbinksolaire.com/IMG/pdf/systeme-integre-ubbink.pdf
Fixing aluminium rails to the rafters, through the waterproof plastic sheeting (er…).
Fitting the 15 solar panels to the rails
Running the DC cables across the loft, down part of the roof, through 2 concrete floors, down a wall in the pantry, along the ceiling in the basement & to the new inverter.
Installing an inverter, a main junction box, DC circuit breaker & surge protection, AC circuit breaker & surge protection, and a board for 2 of our 3 future new meters.
Running AC cables all round the basement & garage, through the wall, under the mint bed, under the driveway paving stones and up to ES-R's circuit breaker at the gate, and back.
A short test run showing 40 Watts near dusk.
So what's left?
Mainly waiting for ES-R to come & install their meters & throw their switch.
That could take who-knows-how-long but best estimate is a month.
Also, disposing of 4 probably-asbestos-cement panels from around the fallen chimney…
Parting thot: "I'm not a doctor and I don't know the technical terminology, but I do know that sunshine activates our happiness glands." - Jessi Lane Adams
I mentioned last year that I was getting a garden shredder, planning to install a photovoltaic system on the roof and preparing a trip to California.
All those little jobs expanded to fill my available time & left none for messing with blogs.
Hopefully things have calmed down a bit now so I can blog anew.
In November I explained I wanted a Bosch AXT 25TC garden shredder & that it was over 500€ here, but under £300 (330€ then) in UK.
http://2cv67blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/garden-shred.html
Weighing up the pro's (cost) & con's (internet jiggery-pokery, possible shipping damage, difficulty if needing guarantee work) I decided that it was worth getting it in UK.
I had established that the vendor (Lawson-HIS) really existed & rapidly answered e-mails.
I have, or at least had, a positive impression of Bosch's ability to design & make tools needing little guarantee attention.
A robust-looking garden shredder was not exactly a delicate thing as far as shipping was concerned.
I was seriously wrong on the last item or two.
The shredder was dispatched via City Link & arrived by UPS, which sounded good to me.
The big cardboard box had a slight nick in one side but was otherwise OK so I signed for it with little hesitation.
In assembling it, I noticed a plastic adjusting knob (where the box was nicked) was broken, but thought that could be fixed somehow.
Then another plastic knob seemed damaged, but still worked.
I was relieved to find that the shredder did shred & very well & very quietly too – just as intended.
But it was a bit rough to move around – one of the wheels rubbing intermittently on the frame.
Closer inspection showed the wheel was broken & the axle bent!
By that time, it was dawning on me that the box, though nearly intact, must have been dropped to have caused so much damage on one side.
So I carefully checked the shredder over – and under.
Oh disaster! – One of the main castings was broken in 2 places!
Hasty e-mail to Lawson-HIS with explanatory photos.
Rapid & encouraging reply.
I volunteered to repair the shredder if they could supply the parts (saving double shipping & maybe same-again damage…).
They quickly supplied an illustrated parts list & I picked out the parts I needed – not easy as there were several errors in the Bosch document.
It then took nearly 2 months for Bosch to supply the parts.
Stripping & rebuilding was nothing like as simple as I would have expected for a piece of garden equipment, but finally it is back together & working again.
Lessons?
I appreciated the helpful attitude of Lawson-HIS, though of course I would rather have just received a perfect shredder.
Even reputable delivery services like City Link & UPS don't treat your stuff as you would treat it yourself.
You can't estimate the condition of the contents by looking at the outside of the package.
Even Bosch fails to design equipment which will withstand predictable handling damage in shipping.
If Bosch wants to contest this, I will happily watch as they drop a dozen shredders in boxes onto concrete floors from standard test heights in random orientations!
Very happily!
I shall have to readjust my decision-point for internet purchases as I underestimated the probability & severity of shipping damage.
The considerable combined economic mass of internet sales corporations needs to put some money & effort into developing a reliable & economical delivery network.
That is a necessary extension of the internet.
Parting thot: "Prevention is better than cure." - Erasmus
I have mixed feelings about Google.
On the one hand, they provide some amazing services - free.
On the other hand, they have so much information & so much analytical power, that if/when it gets into the wrong hands it could mean serious trouble for individuals, populations or even nations.
Imagine Hitler or Stalin with Google power…
I love their Search facility – it seems too good & too fast to be true.
We have just got used to it now & take it for granted, but if you can remember what searching was like before…
Well, it was like it still is in my Microsoft XP computer's internal searcher – you put in the search term & watch while it checks through all your quarter-million files before throwing up results in no ranked order.
Or more likely fails to find anything if you made the slightest error in input.
Before Google, we used to say "Junk in – junk out" but now you stand a good chance of finding what you want even if you can't spell it.
So I no longer use MS internal search, but prefer Google Desktop Search, which is instant & brilliant, including e-mails & web-pages as well as the boring MS stuff.
On the other hand, I don't doubt that everything on my computer could now be read & analyzed (& maybe changed or deleted) by Google if they or their successors wanted.
Back on the 'good' side – I can easily live with their unobtrusive & relevant advertising, which I even sometimes follow up, whereas twinkling banners & pop-ups on other sites invariably cause me to leave as soon as possible.
Having tried lots of free photo-handling applications, I keep coming back to (Google) Picasa as being just right for me.
Others do some things better (& I do use others for those some things) but for run-of-the-mill straightening, cropping, tuning, arranging, viewing & exporting, it meets my requirements well.
I particularly like the fact that it never modifies the original photos (unless you ask it to) but saves all the modifications in little supplementary files.
Very comforting & uses less space than competitors which, if you want to preserve an original, need to create another full-sized variant to modify.
But if you ever need help, be prepared for a long & frustrating struggle & lots of forum time.
For on-line maps, I remember starting happily with Mappy, then Mapquest, Michelin, Map24 & MultiMap, but now I nearly always find myself using Google Maps.
The others have irritating inadequacies or cover the page with adverts.
When I heard about Google's Street View project, aiming to let anyone look at any street in the world, I thought it sounded impossibly vast & rather pointless.
Now, it covers enormous & increasing areas (even our off-the-beaten-path village) and I am surprised to find I use it frequently.
For instance to get a preview of turning points when planning a route.
In urban situations, I can easily memorise the appearance of critical junctions, where trying to memorise & then read street names would never work.
I could always get a GPS navigation system, but am too mean to pay the map-updating costs.
When I started thinking about a blog, I looked into the various possibilities and (Google) Blogger came out as the obvious simplest to set up & go.
Others may offer more flexibility, but Blogger is more user-friendly for Dummies.
So, it sounds like I am a Google fan?
Well, yes; I am both a satisfied user of many of their free services, and an admirer of their imagination, determination & sheer firepower in tackling pharaonic projects like Street View & Google Books.
I think they have accelerated technological development wherever they have chosen to go.
And no; although I am naïve enough to believe that Google's current management is well-meaning, I see great potential danger when their capabilities fall into less-well-meaning hands, as seems inevitable.
I come from a land of bayonet-fitting light bulbs.
Never gave it a thought.
In France, some light fittings are bayonet (called B22) but most are screw-in (small-diameter E14 or large-diameter E27).
With the B22, the 240 volt Live & Neutral connections go via the 2 little solder blobs on the end of the bulb, while the metal casing may be earthed, with luck, or more likely just "floating".
Fine!
With the screw-ins, the 240v Live is connected to the single solder blob & the Neutral to the metal threaded case.
Er…
That means that as you insert the bulb & screw it in, your fingers are almost certainly touching the metal thread, which is in electrical contact with what should be the Neutral line of your home electrical circuit.
At that point, you want to be VERY sure that every previous owner, electrician, non-electrician & handyman has been careful to make all the wiring connections in your house in the right order.
Otherwise you are holding 240 volts.
If, as is more than likely, your light bulb is in some kind of mobile fitting (table lamp etc) then it will almost certainly have a 2-pin plug.
That means that whether the bulb case is Live or Neutral depends on which way you happen to have put the symmetrical plug in the socket.
50:50…
That's French Russian Roulette!
Of course, you would never try to change a light bulb without unplugging the appliance, or cutting the power at the fuse-box, would you?
With screw fittings, I certainly wouldn't!
Don't forget that simply switching off is not enough.
Who knows which wire the switch is in?
Parting thot: "Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom." - Phyllis Theroux
The long march to California is still in the early-planning phase, or at least in the early-learning & early-setting-up phases.
Another hurdle behind us today - I got our ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) clearance from the US Department of Homeland Security.
This is something you still need before you can get near the USA, even if you qualify for the Visa-Waiver Program.
Can't really complain, as it is free & only takes a few minutes.
The application procedure, on-line, didn't seem terribly in-depth somehow.
• Name?
• Birthday?
• Sex?
• e-mail?
• Country where you live?
• Passport number & dates?
• Arriving flight number?
OK – there was a trick question at the end where you had to give the passport number a second time…
I suppose that filters out a few undesirables.
Then there were some really searching questions.
But I didn't have to think very hard before answering, for instance:
• between 1933 and 1945 were you involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?
• are you seeking entry to engage in criminal or immoral activities?
• are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide?
If you have recently kicked the genocide habit, then presumably you are OK…
They must feel a whole lot more secure in The Homeland now they are protected by cunning questions like those!
Wonder how much they paid somebody to come up with that lot?
And do they pay somebody to read the answers?
Imagine the joy when he gets a "Yes"!
Parting thot: "Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers." - Tony Robbins
Oh, by the way; in case any Homeland Security personnel are reading this – it is meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue-in-cheek). Thanks, guys!
We are planning a short trip to the west coast.
Of California, that is…
It is obviously going to be a rich source of inspiration for this blog.
An early item on the agenda was booking flights.
Scottish-based relatives who are heading to the same place at the same time, but got organized first, told us their best buy had been with Air France (surprise!) via Paris (!) booking through KLM, so it looked as though we were well placed to start.
Try as I would, I could find no good-value flights that way.
Or anywhere via Paris or any French airport.
After a lot of searching, my best shot was with British Airways, from Frankfurt via Heathrow!
This is crazy.
I can only think they must get some kind of subsidy from the Mafia for adding helpful baggage-snatching stops.
Or they are building-in some slack for future CO2 reduction...
Having found my best buy on Opodo UK site, I got through all the purchasing procedure, only to find they would not accept my UK-bank Visa debit card without a UK address.
Same result with my French-bank International MasterCard.
I phoned Opodo who told me that with non-UK addresses, they only accept American Express or International Visa.
Unbelievable.
I then tried the French Opodo site, but surprisingly it did not offer the same flights or anything very appealing.
In desperation, I found the German Opodo site did offer the same attractive flights, but 10% more expensive than UK.
That was still the best I could do, so we are now booked (unless my somewhat-sketchy German has betrayed me, that is).
European transparency still has a way to go…
Parting thot: "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." – Albert Einstein
It all started with stains on the ceiling & it finished with…
…well, ask me again in 20 years.
The damp stains on the landing ceiling, just after an exceptional downpour, obviously implied a leaking roof, so I climbed up into the loft space above & saw the leak where a chimney goes through the tiles, but couldn't work out why there was a leak.
Even a little roof leak makes you feel terribly weak & vulnerable these days, so I called out the nearest roof specialist, who quickly diagnosed & fixed some badly-fitting cut-away tiles round the chimney & some zinc flashing which needed re-shaping.
Seems to be OK so far, but it had seemed OK for 20 years before the big downpour too…
While they were looking, they also persuaded me I should have all the moss & lichen removed, which had just looked picturesque before, but apparently was a grave danger for my tiles and a potential cause of leaks.
Who knows?
Good salesmen anyway…
They even noticed I had a decent bit of roof just crying out for photovoltaic panels.
Which they also install.
Dubious at first, I dug a lot deeper into that one, found that current tax rules are very favourable & eventually did decide to go for a 3 kW installation.
But after consulting 20 specialists, I gave the job to somebody else, not the ones who first suggested it.
Officially kicked off last week, there are still a lot of hurdles to clear, or hoops to jump through, before the project is accepted.
Particularly the Historic Monuments Authority.
If all goes well, it could be installed early next year & in production late spring.
And paying back the initial outlay after 8 years.
And continuing to feed the grid & provide income for 20 years total.
I will cover this in separate posts.
While I was up in the loft looking at the initial leaks, I was reminded of something I already knew, but didn't want to think about.
The roof insulation was a disaster.
The original owner had insulated all the roof space with rolls of fibreglass on tarred-paper backing sheets, stapled up under the 45° rafters.
In the part of the loft above the landing & bedrooms, quite a lot of that insulation was either torn, or hanging uselessly, or already fallen onto the joists & plasterboard ceilings below.
Moving about up there was very hazardous, with fibreglass hanging down and with no floor to walk on – just hidden joists with plasterboard ceiling between, waiting for unwary feet to pass through.
We also have 3 huge walk-in storage areas, beside the first-floor bedrooms, under the lower half of the rafters, and these areas were also insulated with the same fibreglass stapled to the rafters.
Although that insulation had not fallen off, it was extremely delicate & meant that any activity in the storage spaces had to avoid tearing the paper.
So we got several quotes for removing the old insulation & putting in something more effective & less fragile.
To cut a long story short, we now have thick insulation above the bedrooms & landing ceilings, under walkable boarding on the joists.
And robust boarding supporting & protecting the insulation under the rafters in the walk-in storage areas.
It is probably more effective & certainly a lot more convenient than before.
It did involve emptying all the storage areas though.
20 years of accumulated junk…
A perfect illustration of a variant of Parkinson's law: "Stuff expands to fill the space available".
As we pulled all that stuff out & stacked it to the ceiling in nearby fortunately-now-little-used bedrooms, we resolved to not, under any circumstances, put it all back afterwards!
So we have spent the last several weeks sifting through a mountain of old stuff and separating it into 3 fairly equal lots – keep, give, scrap.
"Keep" was supposed to be only what we thought we really were likely to want to use some time, but we soon realized there were useless things of sentimental value we definitely did want to keep.
But not too many…
"Give" included everything which could be of any value to anybody.
After our previous disappointing experience with Emmaus Strasbourg, we found another Emmaus at Mundolsheim, who took our Espace-full of bric-a-brac quite happily, without ostensibly throwing any of it away, not while we were there anyway.
"Scrap" was not as simple as that.
It involved dismantling as much as possible, to separate all the various categories of recyclable material, then a couple of runs with Espace & trailer to the dechetterie.
The results of that tidying-up are so satisfactory, that we are now attacking all the other, numerous, stacks of "might come in useful one day" stuff we have everywhere.
This will take some time.
And partly explains the paucity of recent posts here.
Parting thot: "Junk is something you throw away three weeks before you need it." - Anon
Another little gem in French which makes you wonder how other languages can manage without an equivalent.
Literally, bilan translates as "balance" or "balance sheet" or "end of year statement" or just "result".
It derives from the Latin for balance or scales.
But it is in very common use, and invaluable, as meaning "the end result, having weighed up all the positives & negatives".
Such a fundamental & frequent concept…
English needs a single word for that.
Parting thot: "Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about." - Benjamin Lee Whorf
I have been thinking about getting a garden shredder.
Not to shred DS's floral borders or ravage next-door's gnomes, but to deal with all our loppings & prunings.
With a big collection of trees & bushes, this is not a negligible item.
At the moment, everything above compostable size has to be trailered to the dechetterie, where I am a frequent flyer.
Shredder fanciers reckon that not only do shredders make your piles (of branches) disappear, but that the result can then be used to make good compost, especially mixed with grass cuttings which should not otherwise be added over-enthusiastically to the compost heap (particularly not when DS is looking).
Beyond that, the shreddies can be spread on flower beds, where they look tidy, keep down weeds & retain moisture, reducing the need for watering.
Sounds too good to be true.
Which it is.
They forget to mention the noise, the painful slowness, the need to wear all sorts of protection, the doubtful ecological "bilan" (no good translation for that), the frequent jammings, the need for resharpening, the fact that stringy stuff stops the cutter by wrapping round it & hard wood stops the cutter dead, or that the output can be anywhere between mush & chunks.
I learned all that several years ago when I first got interested & borrowed one.
I learned it again last year when my neighbour bought one, then a second, and now passes his loppings through both in succession...
So logically, I should just forget the whole thing & keep on trucking, or trailering.
But logic is boring.
I have let myself be persuaded that the latest & greatest new Bosch AXT 25TC shredder has reached an acceptable level of performance.
It even won a Glee prize (Look it up), for what that is worth.
Unfortunately, there is the price.
Bosch mention 499.99€ & our local DIY store has it for just over 500€.
No way.
Surprisingly, I couldn't find it significantly cheaper on Internet in France, Germany or Belgium.
Then I looked in UK & it is all over the place at less than £300, which is not much more than 330€ at today's rate.
Plus post & packing, of course, for a 30 kg packet.
And that is the point of this post, following on from the previous one about the growing significance of shipping costs for Internet shopping.
I sorted out the half-dozen sites with the lowest take-away prices, around £280, then started digging for shipping costs.
Even within UK, shipping varied between free & impossible (to outlying places).
Not surprisingly, several UK sites do not ship to France.
For the others, the charge varied between £46 & £17.
£17 has to sound reasonable for 30 kg from UK to France, especially compared with 17€ for 48 gm from Germany to France (see previous post).
So I ordered a shredder from Garden Centre On Line, for £279.99 + £17.99 = £297.98
Actually, I ordered it on a Saturday by internet & paid by debit card from a UK account.
I have their confirmation of the amounts.
But the transaction failed because (& that took a long time to trace) our UK bank has been slightly mis-spelling our address for the last 20 years.
Just doubling an "L" which, coming from Lloyds, might have been a natural mistake or an in-joke.
In all that time, nobody had ever noticed & it had never mattered, but for on-line transactions, it matters.
So, after straightening out Lloyds, I had to order it again by phone, still at the same price, and the £297.98 was debited on Monday.
Imagine my surprise, as they say, to get an e-mail on Friday, saying: "Hi, Thank you for your order unfortunately the shipping cost for this item to France is 117.99GBP leaving a balance of £100GBP to pay please advise if you wish to ahead with this purchase and pay the additional shipping. Regards, Customer Service"
Having imagined my surprise, you can now easily imagine my reply, which certainly did not include paying another £100.
I would be interested to find out just what happened there, but I never will.
Next on my shredder-shop list was Lawson-HIS, so I checked their site again & it really did say £281.75 + £17 shipping (up to 30 kg, whereas Bosch says it weighs 30.5 kg).
I e-mailed for confirmation & they confirmed £281.75 + £17.08 = £298.83
Dubious, I asked them to please recheck the weight & shipping charges, which they did, so I ordered it from them.
My conclusions are that shipping charges can vary wildly.
That some sellers (the ones who ship free & publicise that clearly on every page) have understood the significance.
That others still have a lot of catching-up to do.
That there is a big potential for a very efficient distribution system, which has not been invented yet.
Parting thot: "The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck." - Tony Robbins
One of several reasons for not updating this blog much recently, is that my PC has a temperature.
In the beginning, I thought I was hearing the fan more often, then I was sure I was hearing it more often & faster, then it seemed to be running fast most of the time, then I started to get spontaneous shut-downs.
Hard to ignore it any longer.
I opened the PC & hoovered all the fluff out, especially round the CPU, but it didn't make much difference.
I downloaded a free thing called SpeedFan which lets me monitor various fan speeds & associated temperatures.
It soon became obvious that the CPU fan was not starting up correctly, but I found that I could trick it into starting by rebooting after getting to a certain critical temperature.
That kept me happy for a while.
Running with the PC case open, I could see what the fan was doing & also found I could kick-start it by poking it with a sharp stick after again getting to the critical temperature.
That's how I am running today, with the case open, one eye on the temperature gauge & a sharp stick close at hand…
All of which is just a lead-in.
Without being able to diagnose things further, I felt the best move might be to replace the CPU fan.
Surcouf in Strasbourg, who supplied the PC originally, failed to answer several requests about it.
I managed to find the reference (thanks to a helpful forum) and even located an exact replacement on internet, at GNLA in Germany.
Amazingly, once you can find one, a new fan costs only 6.99€ but when I tried to buy one, the shipping charge was an additional 17€.
For a 46gm item.
Digging deeper, I found another one (new) on eBay France, sold from Germany again, at only 3.90€ plus 10€ shipping.
Hopefully that may fix my problem, if & when it ever arrives, that is…
The point of this post is to highlight the disproportionate influence of shipping in "modern" internet shopping.
When is hardware delivery going to catch up with the rest of the "free & immediate" search & buy process which is suddenly available to us & already seems so natural?
In speed & especially in cost?
I suppose it is a bit of a "chicken & egg" problem, in that there is potentially a huge market volume, waiting for a radically more efficient delivery system, waiting for a volume market to be really there.
Surely letter delivery must be shrivelling up these days, just as hardware delivery is pent up to explode?
Sounds like the sort of challenge Google might take on…
Heaven help the post offices & parcel carriers if they ever do!
Parting thot: "Nowadays the rage for possession has got to such a pitch that there is nothing in the realm of nature, whether sacred or profane, out of which profit cannot be squeezed." - Erasmus
The Brompton (folding bike) has come into its own this week.
We had a bit of anticyclonic Indian Summer, with no wind, lots of sun, blue skies, colourful trees & pleasant (12°C) temperatures.
Actually, I find even 12°C too cold for "normal" cycling as I sweat going uphill then freeze going back down again.
No doubt there are high-tech clothes which can deal with that, but I don't have them.
On the other hand, I find it simple to wear enough to keep warm on the flat.
Especially wearing my rucksack on the front as a wind-break.
Of course, wearing a rucksack backwards while riding a black banana with tiny wheels does cause some mirth among the natives, notably adolescent ones…
Anyway, that's why I look for flattish places to ride, especially when it's cold.Which rules out starting & finishing at home, but leaves lots of possible trips along canals & disused railways, cheating by taking the bike there & back by car.
A good ride on Thursday started in Saverne, leaving the car in the free car park opposite the (now out of season, but still picturesque) marina.When walking, we usually have to leave the car in isolated lay-bys or clearings, which always seems like asking for trouble, but with the bike it is easier to find a near-enough busy car-park.
From there, you can hardly fail to follow the Marne-Rhine canal up to the surprisingly-deep & usually-busy lock in the town centre & westwards to Lutzelbourg (if you come to Strasbourg, you went the wrong way).
There are good views if you climb to Lutzelbourg Castle, which is in ruins but is being extensively tidied up.
I gave them a miss this time on my flat ride.
There were plenty of good views at ground level.
Particularly brightly-coloured boats & trees reflected in calm canal water.
Next stop after Lutzelbourg, on our usual car-tourist-visitor trip, is the famous "Inclined Plane" boat lift at Arzviller.
This is the short-&-sharp method for boats to deal with the Col de Saverne.
But on a bike, you get the option of following the previous (now derelict) canal as it winds gently up through 17 now-gateless locks with 17 mostly-deserted lock-keeper's cottages.
Only 45 metres climb on 4 km of well-surfaced track (important with little Brompton wheels) brings you up to the level of the top of the inclined plane.
Apparently, before the inclined plane was opened in 1969, that used to take all day in a barge.
If you ride along the top canal to the inclined plane, you can look down it, but not walk or ride down beside it, unless you ignore the very large notice telling you not to use the nice little road there…
At the bottom, you are on the canal-side cycle-track back to Saverne again.
And home for tea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-Arzviller_inclined_plane
http://pistes-cyclables-alsace.chez-alice.fr/marne/marne.html
Parting thot: "It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important." – Martin Luther King
I managed a 25 km ride on my new Brompton, without scalping my ankles.
But the concentration required, to keep my ankles out all the time & to pre-select then execute all those compound gear-shifts, meant I didn't really see much of the scenery.
OK – I was watching for gravel, pebbles, pot-holes & gullies too.
Honestly, it went much better than you could reasonably expect for a little folder on 16" wheels.
Soon noticed the saddle position was not quite high enough or far enough back, but there was sufficient adjustment available to fix that by inverting the saddle-clamp & sliding the saddle back.
Should be OK now.
While I was under there, I noticed the saddle has real old-fashioned saddle-bag fixing holes.
I think I will try filling-in or padding the little wheels so they are more ankle-friendly.
If that is not enough, then it may be a hacksaw job…
Reading the handbook a bit more, I notice they recommend new handlebars every 5000 miles because of potential metal fatigue in the aluminium.
Hope they are just protecting their *** (U.S.) / **** (U.K.).
Bought & fitted a "Zefal Spin" mirror.
I have a Zefal Cyclop on my normal bike & it has been very satisfactory where lots of other mirrors vibrate too much due to flimsy stems or fittings.
The Spin uses the same solid pivot system but with a smaller head.
That suits the smaller everything else of a Brompton (see illustration) but may prove too small in use.
Time will tell.
The Brompton will be a severe test for anti-vibration qualities!
One curiosity I have noticed is that if I back-pedal even slightly, then I can wheel the bike backwards without the pedals rotating any more…
Is this a cunning piece of design or a pending freewheel disaster?
Certainly it is very convenient to be able to manoeuvre the bike without the pedals moving.
If it had been a deliberate feature, I would have expected it to be mentioned somewhere.
Googling draws a blank.
I would like to know how this works (it sounds impossible) & why they do it without mentioning it.
Parting thot: "When it comes to sports I am not particularly interested. Generally speaking, I look upon them as dangerous and tiring activities performed by people with whom I share nothing except the right to trial by jury." - Fran Lebowitz
