The "I'm Such a Fecking Div" Thread

[PaulF]

I was told by my piano salesman that I needed to keep the humidity level in the piano room at at least 50% for the purposes of the 5 year guarantee. During the recent, and other, cold snaps it's been as low as 40%, but I have a humidifier in there for such eventualities. It's not a big device in a room about 3.5 * 3.5 * 2.5, so a fair bit of volume. It seems to bring the level up by 3 or 4% overnight.

Fortunately, the piano is a Blüthner, which I understand to be one of the more stable makes when it comes to tuning etc. It's still in tune despite the dry, cold spell.

With my guitars I notice the change in tuning more when humidity and/or temperature change so I imagine it’s more acute with a piano not least because I can retune in a minute or so whereas as it’s non-trivial for a piano.

[Kim]

Eexactly.  Cold air holds less moisture than warm air (hence relative humidity).  When the weather gets cold, the outdoor air is heated more to reach the same indoor temperature, but the total amount of moisture remains the same, so the relative humidity drops.

And we get static shocks when we put the blanket over the parrot's cage at night.

A chum told me years ago that since the shock you feel is really your muscles contracting, if you clench your fist tightly and earth yourself through a knuckle a static shock won't jolt you. It works.

Not sure about the importance of muscles in that process, but knuckles (and for that matter, elbows) have a lot fewer nerve endings than the usual fingertips.

The other way to avoid a painful zap is to earth yourself through a sufficiently high resistance, to keep the current down.

[T42]

Eexactly.  Cold air holds less moisture than warm air (hence relative humidity).  When the weather gets cold, the outdoor air is heated more to reach the same indoor temperature, but the total amount of moisture remains the same, so the relative humidity drops.

And we get static shocks when we put the blanket over the parrot's cage at night.

A chum told me years ago that since the shock you feel is really your muscles contracting, if you clench your fist tightly and earth yourself through a knuckle a static shock won't jolt you. It works.

Not sure about the importance of muscles in that process, but knuckles (and for that matter, elbows) have a lot fewer nerve endings than the usual fingertips.

The other way to avoid a painful zap is to earth yourself through a sufficiently high resistance, to keep the current down.

Think Galvani & frogs' legs.

[Kim]

Oh, electricity certainly makes muscles contract, but (ov-divvery) having had various flavours of electric shocks over the years I'd argue that it's perfectly capable of hurting without muscle involvement.  Stick your thumb across the terminals of a charged capacitor if you don't believe me.

[Mr Larrington]

“Bollocksbollocksbollocks!” cried Mr Larrington.  “The Great Hall PC has BSOD'd just after starting its backup, which means I have to reboot the target NAS in order to delete the lock file wot stops it trying to run two backsup at once!”

Mr Larrington logs into MyCloud.com and reboots said NAS, before realising that the PC backups go, in fact, to a completely different NAS.  MOAR swearing ensues.

[T42]

Oh, electricity certainly makes muscles contract, but (ov-divvery) having had various flavours of electric shocks over the years I'd argue that it's perfectly capable of hurting without muscle involvement.  Stick your thumb across the terminals of a charged capacitor if you don't believe me.

Certainly, but the kind of charge you usually build up in whisking clothing etc. about is far below microwave capacitor levels, so that discharging it through a clenched fist works very well.

My dad was on the QC line at Ferranti's during the war, and he used to gleefully recount how a favourite joke was to charge up a capacitor and leave it on the belt for the packing johnnies to find.

[robgul]

Servicing a customer's bike today (horrible Mongoose "MTB" . .  but hey, it's money) - new cables required all round ..... fitted brakes, fine .... fitted gears and managed to run the RH shifter to the front mech and vice versa     - fortunately managed to salavage the cables and swap them over.

I must have done hundreds and hundreds of cable swaps - this was a first!    My excuse is the way that three cables are weirdly routed along the top of the top-tube.

[T42]

I've been ignoring those warnings about always washing lettuce, etc. for years - "that's why there's acid in our guts".  Wednesday evening I had a ham & lettuce sandwich, and around 2am I decorated our landing floor in a manner reminiscent of Jackson Pollock.  Couldn't look a lettuce in the eye last night.

[robgul]

I created a garden drip-watering system     - achieved by driving a screw into the MDPE pipe that runs from the house to the tap by the greenhouse      

I was in the process of building some fencing . . .  quick trip to Toolstation to buy a pipe coupling and fixed with the join concealed behind the new fencing.   At least it wasn't the adjacent power cable (steel-wire armoured) !

[Paul]

Guess who forgot to replace the cap on the coolant reservoir?

[Tim Hall]

I have a saddle pack thing that flits between the Pretty Bike and the Bloo bike. It has sufficient gubbins in it to get me home. CO2 wotsit, spare cartridges for same, spare tubes, spanner, fixer for tbe use of, nitrile gloves,  three cable ties, tyre levers, multitool, bit of colgate tube to use as a tyre boot.

I had reason to delve in it today, where I discovered the CO2 wotsit in my case I did not have. Goodness knows how many rides I've done with it missing, fortunately without need to use it.

Durano plus FTW

[T42]

...bit of colgate tube to use as a tyre boot.

Haven't heard that one before.  Will give it a go. Ta!

I had reason to delve in it today, where I discovered the CO2 wotsit in my case I did not have. Goodness knows how many rides I've done with it missing, fortunately without need to use it.

First time I had a flat after my broken collar-bone healed I had to flag down another cyclist and ask him to pump up my tyre for me.  That's when I discovered CO2 wotsits.

Next flat around I discovered why they said not to use them with bare hands. Wow.

[Kim]

While we're on the subject, in case this lesson is of benefit to someone in similar circumstances, I was half way through limping home from the Forest of Dean with a full camping load and collapsed suspension^[1] (onna Sunday, past several MTB shops that were all closed), when I finally realised that the CO2 wotsit that I'd been diligently carrying around in case of emergencies would be able to deliver the requisite number of pissys in a way that my trusty Road Morph couldn't.


_{[1] Probably due to excessive Comedy Off-Roading the previous day with a leaky air shock.  Later fixed by the replacement of seals and fresh schmoo.}

[citoyen]

I was aiming to get into work early today. Arrived at the station in plenty of time for 6.48 train.

In fact, I got here just in time to see it pulling away from the platform at its scheduled time of 6.38.

[quixoticgeek]

I ordered an audio book on CD.

I then realised I don't own a CD player... Or a CD-ROM drive. Or dvd drive... Or any means to read it...

J

[PeteB99]

Me and the hospital yesterday

Booked in for a check up on my leg. Nurse says it's going fairly well but you'll need to take the meds for another couple of weeks. She sends an electronic note to the pharmacy and gives me a collection number. I trudge off to the pharmacy and wait. After some numbers after mine had been announced I went over to the serving hatch to check I was in the system. Oh says the lady it's just arrived and hands me a brown paper bag with a few boxes of the expected size in it.

Got home and looked at the bag - shit it's got the wrong name on it, ring the hospital up and they send round a taxi to collect the wrong stuff and deliver mine. Pharmacy manager rings up and is very apologetic.

I know they shouldn't have given me the wrong medicine but I'm a div for not checking the name on the label when I was handed the bag.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Me and the hospital yesterday

Booked in for a check up on my leg. Nurse says it's going fairly well but you'll need to take the meds for another couple of weeks. She sends an electronic note to the pharmacy and gives me a collection number. I trudge off to the pharmacy and wait. After some numbers after mine had been announced I went over to the serving hatch to check I was in the system. Oh says the lady it's just arrived and hands me a brown paper bag with a few boxes of the expected size in it.

Got home and looked at the bag - shit it's got the wrong name on it, ring the hospital up and they send round a taxi to collect the wrong stuff and deliver mine. Pharmacy manager rings up and is very apologetic.

I know they shouldn't have given me the wrong medicine but I'm a div for not checking the name on the label when I was handed the bag.

That's a shockingly bad screw up by the pharmacy.

[robgul]

Me and the hospital yesterday

Booked in for a check up on my leg. Nurse says it's going fairly well but you'll need to take the meds for another couple of weeks. She sends an electronic note to the pharmacy and gives me a collection number. I trudge off to the pharmacy and wait. After some numbers after mine had been announced I went over to the serving hatch to check I was in the system. Oh says the lady it's just arrived and hands me a brown paper bag with a few boxes of the expected size in it.

Got home and looked at the bag - shit it's got the wrong name on it, ring the hospital up and they send round a taxi to collect the wrong stuff and deliver mine. Pharmacy manager rings up and is very apologetic.

I know they shouldn't have given me the wrong medicine but I'm a div for not checking the name on the label when I was handed the bag.

That's a shockingly bad screw up by the pharmacy.

Indeed it was - the pharmacy I use ALWAYS asks for my address despite the fact that I'm first name terms with most of the staff

[PeteB99]

This was the hospital pharmacy not the local high street one so it didn't have my address on it. The name on the bag was similar to mine but they should have checked it (and so should I)

[chrisbainbridge]

That should have generated an IR1 as a never event but the pharmacy is probably outsourced.

[rafletcher]

I collected my new-to-me car today. First job on getting home was to change the key fob batteries, just in case. This is a palaver. Slide tiny knob to release one side cover. Then push tab to release other side cover. Then open battery compartment, and swap battery. Reassemble. Test. Oh, neither is working. Return old battery. Now working. Hmmm. Examine new battery. Remove insulating paper from the negative side  . Reinstall new battery.

[Mr Larrington]

As per ushul I turned the thermostat down last night before retiring to my pit…

…except I didn’t and the boiler spent many hours and much wonga vainly trying to raise the temperature of the hall to 17 degrees

Note to self: get wireless replacement gadget while you can still afford it.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I've been working on gettings legs back to a state where I could start jogging again.

Yesterday I moved a bulky, heavy cabinet to the upstairs. Got it on foot of stair, realised I'd have to flip it end for end to get it round the turn.

So, backed up and started to turn it - left hand couldn't take the strain, sudden lunge and flip before I dropped it. Strained my hamstrings.

As my wife reminded me, I'm too old for that sort of thing. If I'd just put it down and tipped it one end up, I wouldn't have hurt myself.

[T42]

Put a new blade-guide & blade on the chainsaw. Bit of a fiddly PITA but managed it.  Job well done, patted self on back.

Glanced at old guide & blade. Er...

Took blade off again, put it back the right way round.

[The Family Cyclist]

Put a new blade-guide & blade on the chainsaw. Bit of a fiddly PITA but managed it.  Job well done, patted self on back.

Glanced at old guide & blade. Er...

Took blade off again, put it back the right way round.

Having done a lot they do get easier with a knack, I've also seen too many with the chain back to front when bought from DIY places and generally refused to touch them when brought into the place I worked where we sold decent ones which went out assembled and tested

Also and excuse me if telling to suck eggs but the guide bar can usually be flipped for more life/even wear