Thursday, March 12, 2009
My PC has the wobbles again
Started the day with a crash on take-off. That is to say, towards the end of the boot sequence one finds that the cursor has frozen on the screen. Something that happens from time to time, and has always (so far) been cleared by powering down and starting again.
Screen a bit shaky again. Rather odd colours. But that seems to happen from time to time too. Maybe time I retired it - it being an elderly - at least four years old that is - CRT display. It does seem very big and clumsy compared with what most everybody else has, but the last time I tried to trade it in for a second hand flat screen, the flat screen refused to play. Complained about drivers or something, well beyond my competance to fix. So we stick with the CRT for the moment.
And then, for once in a while, the Blogger software threw a wobbly. It announced after I had supplied by password that there was something wrong with my security settings for Javascripts. Helpfully provided instructions on what to do about this. Followed instructions and found that the thing that I was supposed to be enabling was enabled already. Backed out to find myself at the Blogger home page and here we are. Let's home it doesn't happen again.
Yesterday, being a Wednesday, is gents. day and I get to do the cooking. So last week it was a very fine cow chop, the best bit of beef we have had for a while. This was lucky as we had pushed the boat out a bit. Had mashed swede as well as brussells sprouts and rice, and a decent bottle of red wine. All went down very well. Brussells sprouts remarkable for their size - perhaps 4cm in diameter - and their pallor. But they tasted OK. No cow chops available yesterday, and perhaps best not to repeat anyway, so settled for steak and kidney. Variations there included adding some thinly sliced celery towards the end of the proceedings, some coarsely chopped mushrooms at the end of the proceedings and thickening with corn flour. This last gave the dish the texture and taste of the filling in the better class of fish and chip shop pies and I was not altogether sure that this was a good thing in the context of DIY steak and kidney not in a pie. Gave it an unwanted smoothness. But it all well down with commendable speed, so perhaps the answer is to halve the amount of corn flour next time around. Oddly enough, years ago, I used to be the big fan of thickening and BH was not. Now things are moving into reverse.
Yesterday was also the day of the shed, the felt on its roof having been in a bit of a state for some time and the inside was starting to get wet in places. Confused to find that there were two sorts of roofing felt, a bottom coat and a top coat. Don't remember about messing about in that way in the past. Pleased to find that one roll of top coat at 10m was just right to give me the three lengths I needed for the shed. No large amount of waste from having to buy two rolls. But shocked to find that the roll cost nearly £50. I am sure I paid something more like £15 last time - but perhaps that was a long time ago.
When I come to remove the old felt, I find that it is a good deal thinner than the new felt. Seems unlikely for all the thinning to be down to fading away in the wind and the rain, so perhaps I have bought a better class of felt this time. The catch being that the fat felt does not fold as neatly at the thin at the corners, expecially for the tight folds needed at each end of the shed ridge. Then I find that the green slate chippings have not been painted on a two inch strip along one edge, and I can't hid all such edges, as both edges on the last sheet have to show. Will that edge rot in the summers' sun? Not too big a deal, as there is a big overlap at that point and the sheet underneath, complete with its green slate chippings, can take the strain.
Now the shed abuts the end of the garage, one gable on the boundary fence, the other gable facing into the patio. I find that the felt has been nailed down on the garage side, something that I don't think could have been down with the garage in place. Has this felt been there for the life of the shed, which must be around twenty years? I know the felt has been patched from time to time over the years as I remember removing the fascia boards to do it. But I do not remember fiddling around nailing on the garage side. Which might just about be possible but would have been very fiddly and I would have thought I would have remembered. Anyway, being keen to do the job right, observe that I can remove the roof panels by the simple expendient of removing two screws for each panel. So go for on the garage side, only to find that I have sunk a additional three inch screw on that side through the top of the thing. I can't remember doing that either. Can only think that it was moving about in the wind at some point. Will I remember the bother of getting the three inch screw out again in years to come?
Get the roof panel off and fix the felt on the garage side. Panel was quite heavy in the first place - maybe nine feet by four feet - and now a good few pounds heavier; but too impatient to wait for help and push the thing back up somehow.
Get the other two lengths on and stand back to admire the work. Not that chuffed. Hard to get the felt down completely evenly and the overall effect is a bit wavy and untidy. So decide to go in for new fascia boards which will cover up most of the evil. Plus our new neighbours will get the benefit of fascia boards on their side, these having been missing for years. A bit of an eyesore but the last neighbours never said anything. Perhaps there was enough wrong with their (rented) house without them bothering about the end of my shed. New fascia boards now up, even including a little bit of trim to hide the join and the fold at the ridge. Even including a bit of cuprinol. I dare say, after a week or so, I will forget all the little snags and be pleased with the result. But not quite there yet. Just the same as decorating inside from that point of view.
Screen a bit shaky again. Rather odd colours. But that seems to happen from time to time too. Maybe time I retired it - it being an elderly - at least four years old that is - CRT display. It does seem very big and clumsy compared with what most everybody else has, but the last time I tried to trade it in for a second hand flat screen, the flat screen refused to play. Complained about drivers or something, well beyond my competance to fix. So we stick with the CRT for the moment.
And then, for once in a while, the Blogger software threw a wobbly. It announced after I had supplied by password that there was something wrong with my security settings for Javascripts. Helpfully provided instructions on what to do about this. Followed instructions and found that the thing that I was supposed to be enabling was enabled already. Backed out to find myself at the Blogger home page and here we are. Let's home it doesn't happen again.
Yesterday, being a Wednesday, is gents. day and I get to do the cooking. So last week it was a very fine cow chop, the best bit of beef we have had for a while. This was lucky as we had pushed the boat out a bit. Had mashed swede as well as brussells sprouts and rice, and a decent bottle of red wine. All went down very well. Brussells sprouts remarkable for their size - perhaps 4cm in diameter - and their pallor. But they tasted OK. No cow chops available yesterday, and perhaps best not to repeat anyway, so settled for steak and kidney. Variations there included adding some thinly sliced celery towards the end of the proceedings, some coarsely chopped mushrooms at the end of the proceedings and thickening with corn flour. This last gave the dish the texture and taste of the filling in the better class of fish and chip shop pies and I was not altogether sure that this was a good thing in the context of DIY steak and kidney not in a pie. Gave it an unwanted smoothness. But it all well down with commendable speed, so perhaps the answer is to halve the amount of corn flour next time around. Oddly enough, years ago, I used to be the big fan of thickening and BH was not. Now things are moving into reverse.
Yesterday was also the day of the shed, the felt on its roof having been in a bit of a state for some time and the inside was starting to get wet in places. Confused to find that there were two sorts of roofing felt, a bottom coat and a top coat. Don't remember about messing about in that way in the past. Pleased to find that one roll of top coat at 10m was just right to give me the three lengths I needed for the shed. No large amount of waste from having to buy two rolls. But shocked to find that the roll cost nearly £50. I am sure I paid something more like £15 last time - but perhaps that was a long time ago.
When I come to remove the old felt, I find that it is a good deal thinner than the new felt. Seems unlikely for all the thinning to be down to fading away in the wind and the rain, so perhaps I have bought a better class of felt this time. The catch being that the fat felt does not fold as neatly at the thin at the corners, expecially for the tight folds needed at each end of the shed ridge. Then I find that the green slate chippings have not been painted on a two inch strip along one edge, and I can't hid all such edges, as both edges on the last sheet have to show. Will that edge rot in the summers' sun? Not too big a deal, as there is a big overlap at that point and the sheet underneath, complete with its green slate chippings, can take the strain.
Now the shed abuts the end of the garage, one gable on the boundary fence, the other gable facing into the patio. I find that the felt has been nailed down on the garage side, something that I don't think could have been down with the garage in place. Has this felt been there for the life of the shed, which must be around twenty years? I know the felt has been patched from time to time over the years as I remember removing the fascia boards to do it. But I do not remember fiddling around nailing on the garage side. Which might just about be possible but would have been very fiddly and I would have thought I would have remembered. Anyway, being keen to do the job right, observe that I can remove the roof panels by the simple expendient of removing two screws for each panel. So go for on the garage side, only to find that I have sunk a additional three inch screw on that side through the top of the thing. I can't remember doing that either. Can only think that it was moving about in the wind at some point. Will I remember the bother of getting the three inch screw out again in years to come?
Get the roof panel off and fix the felt on the garage side. Panel was quite heavy in the first place - maybe nine feet by four feet - and now a good few pounds heavier; but too impatient to wait for help and push the thing back up somehow.
Get the other two lengths on and stand back to admire the work. Not that chuffed. Hard to get the felt down completely evenly and the overall effect is a bit wavy and untidy. So decide to go in for new fascia boards which will cover up most of the evil. Plus our new neighbours will get the benefit of fascia boards on their side, these having been missing for years. A bit of an eyesore but the last neighbours never said anything. Perhaps there was enough wrong with their (rented) house without them bothering about the end of my shed. New fascia boards now up, even including a little bit of trim to hide the join and the fold at the ridge. Even including a bit of cuprinol. I dare say, after a week or so, I will forget all the little snags and be pleased with the result. But not quite there yet. Just the same as decorating inside from that point of view.
# posted by Jim @ 2:26 AM 
