Not to worry; I don't have any good habits

Thanks pal ♥️

Renaissance Festival

I've always wanted to go to one of these, not only to see jousting but also to eat a big ole chunk of meat off the bone like Homer does in the Iliad, but it seems like something only the US does, despite not having any medieval history whatsoever!

One of my radiators was leaking slightly from the valve^[I overtightened it because I thought tighter is better, but it looks like I warped the olive], so I thought I would take it off and have another go with a fresh olive. Other than the usual fun of water leaking everywhere ^[despite draining, and bleeding, and getting soot onto nice tea towels], one problem immediately arose: I can't get the olive off. So I order an Olive Tool / Brass Puller, whilst the radiator lies on the floor for a day^[I'm wearing ski socks and christmas sweaters to overcome the lack of heating].

The tool arrives, I use the 15mm attachment on the small side and it slides the olive off of that side no problem. I use the 22mm attachment on the big side and.... it's 1mm too big? Wait, what?

It turns out I was a ruddy fool for expecting my radiator to conform to modern sizes. One side uses 15mm, the other side uses the 1/2" patriotic standard:

So I'm waiting a few days now for this somewhat harder to find tool to arrive, whilst the weather ticks ever colder and wetter, and I question the existence of my hybrid radiator -- the confused love child of two worlds.

I feel like I say this every week, but, I hate plumbing.

As someone who is primarily nocturnal, I don't pity you - all your good habits go out of the window as soon as your body is desynced with the general population

It's heartbreaking watching your parents grow old. Strength to you for keeping your spirits high

Yep, our parents become our children eventually...

I hope things smooth out for your Dad sooner rather than later!

And everytime I go to London I see less reasons to be there and more reasons to stay away... although it does have good social / alcohol events 😉

It's been somewhat busy.

My mother in law booked a last minute holiday for her and my wife for 4 nights from last Saturday, so it was just me and the kids until Wednesday. At the same time I came down with a cold which gave me banging headache on Saturday. My dad told me the bank had locked his account due to suspected fraud happening and he was unable to access his money, and he didn't have the means to verify his identity. Had to go around in circles with his bank as they wanted him to go into his branch to sort it out, but he has virtually no mobility and other issues so getting into the branch would be impossible. Lot's and lots of stress around that.

At the same time we sorted out some respite care for him at a care home which he went into on Monday, but of course with him being locked out of his bank account, he couldn't pay, so I had to pay the lump sum upfront, and that shit ain't cheap!

Wife came back early hours Wednesday morning and I was immediatly off to London for a couple of nights for a works event, which honestly was a great break. Drank lots and had a good laugh with my colleagues. Hired a bike for a bit on the Friday morning and experienced first hand how bad London cyclists are (again). Like holy shit, these people have an actual death wish? I felt like I was shaking my head every 30 seconds at what I was constantly witnessing!

Still busy trying to make my dad comfortable at his care home, as he's a big chap and everything is geared up for little old ladies, so he's sat on the worlds most uncomfortable seat whilst we try and buy him a proper chair he can sit in.

Had the week off work to become nocturnal and teach our little one to sleep better. Pure hell, I don't even think it's made much of a difference. My mates in the group chat were sending me videos of their babies falling asleep easily. Bastards.

Overall, not too bad. Its fall where I live the weather is pleasant and the scenery is breathtaking. I got to see a high school football game and go to a Renaissance Festival.

2 weeks travelling for work with 1 week's holiday in between... then last week was work as normal, catching up on emails:

How was yours?

Oh for sure. I saw a youtube short of a plumber recently and he was wearing shinpads and kneecaps like he was going into battle, and it just made sense

I’ve done a fair bit of plumbing with mixed results and variable levels of damage in the end. Always when, not if. The thing that really irks me is that it’s never straightforward, and in most cases you end up working in a really uncomfortable position, cue back pain the next day.

It was a good week :-)

Plumbing is something I said I'd never touch, until I finally saw an expert do it and realised two things:

1. No such thing as a perfect job, it will definitely leak. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in 2 years, but 5+ years? When, not if.
2. Those plasticy gimmicky push-fit fittings and their weak bendy pipes are - no joke - the industry standard.

I think just have at it, see how it goes, and curse yourself for not having the exact tool to solve the exact problem

My shower tails are behind a stud wall, and it's a wall I will have to replace at some point anyway, so I'm thinking of just having a little wooden hatch there for ease of access to the shower tail in the future because of Rule #1

You’ve been rather busy!

I have a shower water leak investigation awaiting when I get back home. I hate everything plumbing, so I’m working on my excuses to avoid doing it.

The dog did.

Ooh I envy you. North Wales is beautiful and I had such a great time at the Southstack Lighthouse bird sanctuary

I read the Wikipedia link and I still don’t understand what this is. It doesn’t ring a bell from my childhood.

Mrw I found out she didn't really fly the plane much to my surprise 😭

It was an old UK children's TV program. Featuring a white plane with polka dots on it flying about the country. Wonder if they still do it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Outside

No it was a viral advertising campaign during the 60s for the baudy CarryOn films.

It encouraged people to strip down to their undergarments and leave their houses if they saw the plane, and if you didn't and someone saw you, then you got "dobbed" on which is sort of like teabagging but more civilized

What’s the ‘come outside’ plane? Was that a wwii thing?

e: these responses are diametrically opposed. Was it a children’s thing or an NSFW adult thing? I am so confused now.

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DIY

spoiler Garden Neighbour and I telepathically linked and met at the back of our respective gardens power tools in hand. Not a word was exchanged, but I ripped out my back panel and drilled some plywood in place to keep the fox out^[I don't mind fox shit in my garden, but I do mind it repeatedly right on back door step, the smug bastards.], and he started putting animal spikes on the back ledge. Pulled up two small trees there too which had been growing sideways, previously providing them with plenty of cover. :::

Front

Finished the wall after a 6 month hiatus. It was my second go at bricklaying, and I did a neater job this time, but still a pretty sloppy one. Thankfully it was only the posts this time, and I'm just glad it's finished. I gave them a shake this morning and they're holding solid. Didn't fall down the trap shaking the other bricks loose first to establish a "solid base"^[no such thing as a solid base in a brick wall. If one brick is loose, you strengthen the ones around it, and it in turn will be strengthened. You could make a society out of this.]. I'm just glad it's done, and am now thinking about planting some good native hedges to keep the road noise out. I'm thinking a combination of hawthorn, rosehip, and (evergreen) western red cedar.

Chimney

It's started to get cold again and I've got an internal chimney shaft that's blocked off at the top, but still radiates heat away. I shoved some spare fibreglass insulation up there and around the fireplace cavity, and then shoved a chimney balloon up there and inflated it to allow for some air flow ^[spraying expanding foam and blocking off the chimney shaft completely was my first idea, but this can lead to mould and musty smells. Better to allow some airflow, but restricted.], but to keep the warm air primarily at ground level. Then I shoved a chimney sheep above the fireplace and called it a day.

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Electrics

spoiler Printer
The Voron is getting there. I've finally got the damn thing assembled and am now trying to get the components to talk to each other. Having fun with a multimeter, and determining what is ground and what isn't, since the people who make these damn printers don't seem to understand what's useful to document and what's not. I had to pinout the display via I2C just to check the damn thing was working at all, because none of the LEDs or backlights were working and it apparently cannot be directly programmed via USB. I'm now at the stage where I've got most things wired up except two Endstops which seem to be causing shorting, but I'm debugging it slowly. :::

Crimping

Got myself a real nice set of Engineer PA-06 JST crimpers, and Engineer PA-09 wire strippers, and then a cheap ferrule crimper, and oh god I practically jizz myself every time I use them. So satisfying to cut different lengths of wire to custom size, crimp pins and headers on them and shove them into things. Oooooh yeeaeeaaah. Plus learning how to take apart a JST plug by rubbing the contacts, and then strengthening them by pulling their flaps up.

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For the past six weeks I’ve been a lot more away from home than there, mostly for work. I’m away again, but at least this time it’s with wife and the dogs on holiday. Here is hoping North Wales in late September gives us a few dry spells to enjoy the spectacular walks on offer.

Mainly jet lag recovery after a long-haul holiday to Malaysia and Singapore. Seemed to spend the time we were there jet lagged and recovered just soon enough for a 13-hour flight back and another dose of it!

In other news, my broken iPod Classic was returned repaired; the fridge died while we were away, so I had to buy a new one, and I'm trying to set up an overpowered NAS that I prolly don't really need.