Broithe

I walked home a couple of hours before that. A minute or so into the kilometre that it takes to get home, I was engulfed in a veritable blizzard. It was of such theatrical proportions that several of the local Brazilian community felt obliged to video the event. It only lasted about fifteen minutes, but if it had gone on for a few hours, it would have been a significant thing, probably surpassing the wind event in people's minds here. We still had the aftermath of it into the afternoon of Saturday, with any hard surfaces being very entertaining to travel over.

Whilst I can see why there is a push in that direction, especially for urban housing, I do like the idea of "multiple sources". Power cuts in urban areas will generally be fixed more quickly. I have the (wood-fired) stove in the shed - and an open fire in the house, this is little used and I will fit an inset stove one day, which might see a bit more use from it. Oil-fired Stanley in the kitchen for heating the house, although that does require the electrical supply for it to burn. Gas cookers in the house and shed, from LPG bottles, plus a few camping burners, if things get really desperate. A 'mains failure' light in the shed and in the house - it's fairly dark here, if everything goes* on a dark night. A few torches scattered around. I'm very close to the local substation and, for historical reasons, the spur that I'm on actually only supplies here and one other house, which I can't see clearly from here. Occasionally in the past, it was only just the two of us, but the offending item was eventually replaced and we've had no issue since then. * A year ago next week, I fitted a motor-driven timer for the light in the hall, this is calibrated to turn the light on at sunset, and a cam alters the time to automatically follow the variations of the sunset through the course of the year. This is still operating bang on time, so I know there has been no power cut in that time, even for a few minutes when I've not been here. In fact, I think it is at least four years since the power last went off, apart from when the meter was changed.

Post-Éowyn scenery for those who are doing modern-image Scottish layouts.

I thought I had seen that in Sleaford, but I wasn't sure and was waiting for confirmation. I remember thinking that it did look quite nice.

I've survived pretty much completely unscathed. Not even a blip with the electricity. No damage as such, but the windows are covered in sand. It's still fairly windy, with occasional really gusty minutes, so I'll leave the precautions in place for now. Power off all around the area here, but a lot seem to be coming back on quite quickly. A great number of trees down on roads in the area and very little traffic passing by. I've only been out of the gate to look up and down the road, to see if there is anything to be aware of. I've contacted the (even more) elderly neighbours, to see if anything is needed, but they're all in much the same boat as me, so all is well here.

Thursday is my standard shopping day, so I'm stocked up for a week+. I've got the shed nice and warm, in case I need it as a lifeboat. The house is oil heated, but having a tank of oil is little use if the electricity to run the burner drops out. Cooking is bottled gas in the house and the shed, so I'll be OK, as long as the roofs stay on. I always keep a few gallons of water straight from the pipe, but there is a large tank in the roof for bulk supplies, if the storage bottles run out. The practice run before Christmas was handy, a lot of the 'battened down' stuff from that is still in place, having not been needed since. I'm well inland and in a fairly sheltered location - I had no effects in the last big storm, but this one looks a bit more violent still. The wheelbarrows are upside down, with blocks on, and the outside worktable has been demolished and placed in a sheltered spot. My nice new drain in the road has a small mud dam, which forms a large puddle. I'll go out now and clear that, while the rain is stopped. All I've got left to do then is worry...

And less addictive...

Putting an 'E' in your whiskey is frowned upon by some people in uniform - and it ruins the effect, if you're taking it as a nightcap. Years ago, on the Big Island, there used to be 'E' stamps, for letters to the rest of the EU and a few other places. If you bought them, rather than stamps with the price on, then they were still usable after the price went up, as it did regularly did, so I used to get batches and keep a few in stock. One day, having bought some with a payment process that was hugely complicated, I realised, an hour later, than I didn't have the stamps, having, I presumed, left them on the counter in all the unnecessary confusion. So, I called in on my way back and got in the inevitable queue. By the time my turn at the counter came, there was a queue behind me, as well. I asked the woman behind the counter "Did I drop those Es in here this morning?" Unbeknownst to me, the chap behind me in the queue was an off-duty copper, so things got even more complicated then - eventually, I did go home with my stamps...

Well, this is not the picture I was referring to above, but it does show a (presumably) earlier tower, still there after the 'new' one was constructed. https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000305110 And it was round... The date given is 1960. The picture I think I remember may show the same tower there on its own, but in virtually a silhouette view, so maybe I just surmised that it was rectangular...

It's been looking a bit dodgy for many years now, and was fenced off a long time ago. An unplanned self-demolition would have been problematic for the adjacent buildings. This was it in 2008. There was a lot of spalling and resultant exposed reinforcement bars. I did once come across a photo with a poor view of the earlier tower, a smaller and rectangular affair. None of the potential suspects that I have grilled can remember the earlier one or even the round one being built.

You should have gone when it was snowing..?

It works fine for me in Windows 11 and Chrome - if that is of any help to anyone.

I don't see what the fuss is about...

And, of course, out of the mainstream, there was Never Say Navan Again. An actor, retiring to live in his hometown, finds himself involved in a real-life race against time to save the world. There is a real cliff-hanger part, where a critical website becomes unavailable for a few hours, but all is well in the end.

Thunderballsbridge.

Interesting video, full of yellow things. https://x.com/IrishRail/status/1880249830574027075

As long as your donkey passes the methane emission test...

Wishing you a happy retirement*. * And expecting Portadown to have more Portaupdates...

This is, I am told, a satellite picture from earlier today.

Mmm, mine came from eBay. Maybe Jeff is a bit short of cash and worried about being able to afford my commission?

I've just come past Ballybrophy and it's still Christmassy around there.

If you're speaking to Jeff, tell him I don't mind if my commission on this sale arrives in pounds or euros.

That would be Child's play to anyone with a High enough IQ.

The dinosaur remains an enigma. The box was not sealed, so it could have been put in there by the seller, if it wasn't inserted by Tamiya themselves. Maybe it is a homage to the illustrator of this book..?

It has struck me that, once fully assembled, the only remaining loose piece is whichever of the two collets is not in current use. This seems likely to be a location issue whenever a swap might be necessary. Two possible solutions seem plausible. 1, With a suitable piece of soft tubing, the spare could be located in one of the recessed screw holes at the top. 2, A deeper and more secure bespoke storage hole could be created in the empty space above the motor. Or 3, It could just hang from the trigger guard on a piece of string... (That will do for now.)