home confinement

Re #96

How many of us ended up with a shore Bosun like Bill as I know mine loved gardening. That finger of hers was deadly. Just like a bosun would point at what was to be done then disappear from sight until the job was done. Now that she is housebound and has been for years the garden is getting to how I like it. One council tree on the footpath and one bottle brush tree in the back yard. Under half the yard is grass and the rest is concrete with a huge dog house installed that can take three cars and storage. Followed advice from the old geezer that said? When building a dog house make it the best one you can.

Well we're all different I suppose Les, my wife enjoyed the garden but not gardening, it was only later in life that I had the time to work in
the garden. When I came ashore 1960 I worked on building sites, road building gangs and even a milk round, when I met the girl I wanted
to marry I Knew it was time to knuckle down. After we married we moved out of London to a new life in Essex, I wanted to buy our own
property so had to get a serious job to be able to get a mortgage. I applied for the GPO Telephones which was then part of the Civil Service,
I was stationed at Basildon new town, most of the blokes there were from the GPO in London and this was their ticket for a corporation house
in the new town, the GPo became Post office Telephones and was the privatised and renamed British Telecom, I ended up working there for 30
years, it was the perfect time to be there as there was new Telephone Exchanges being built in Basildon and the adjacent towns which were all
very rural and needed new telephone networks, my first job was on the cabling gangs, from there I moved around learning different skills that
would serve me well in my private life eg electrics, plumbing and bricklaying, I became a cable jointer which involved a lot of learning, I had to
go on courses for a month at a time and all the time there was new stuff to be learnt. I used to work night shifts in underground jointing chambers
for 13 hours a night 7 nights a week for 6 or 7 weeks at a time, the money was very good indeed and I used it to pay off my mortgage in half the
time. Once the house was paid for I eased off the overtime, I was in my early 40s and the time was right. I put my energy into my home and made
improvements such as new bathroom and kitchen, I made a new staircase from mahogany and built a garage with a workshop. Up until then my only interest and time for the garden was to keep it tidy, in our Depot the lads had started a garden club, they had been given the use of a very large shed where they kept compost, plants and different garden requisites , they were all quite competitive in a friendly way and the banter reminded me of life in the MN, and that's how I got interested in gardening, I bought a greenhouse and the rest is history :). I had 48 happy years with my wife and was
planning for a world cruise to celebrate our 50 years of marriage but it wasn't to be as I lost her to cancer 10 years ago.

Well what an afternoon I have had. My eldest daughter told me about some ' smart plugs ' which work with Amazon's Alexa switching lights, fans etc on and off from a voice command. Sounded just the thing for me and my beloved. Its a right pain having to get up and down switching the lights on and off, especially if its done at the wall socket as once down there to switch off or on for that matter, it takes some time and pain to get back up again. They arrived promptly this lunchtime and then the fun started. First I had to download an App and then I had to program the smart plug using the App and the Alexa App. These wizz kids now days would have probably done this in minutes but me no - an hour and a half for two plugs.

Firstly I had to download the App and try and understand how it worked :confused:. Then I had to decipher the instructions which came with the plugs which was hard enough however the fact that the printing was that small that I had to use a magnifying glass to read them only served to complicate matters. Then I had to rig up an extension lead to plug the plug into whilst I programmed it. Well after five wrong attempts and three refusals to be programmed, I got one done. I tested it and hey presto it worked, oh wonder of wonders. " Alexa switch the light on " - click and there was light - " Alexa switch the light off " click and off went the light. Brilliant.

Plug number two is going to be a doddle I thought. No chance, whatsoever. In all my joy of success, I had forgotten the sequence of the programming. So off we went again, only three wrong attempts this time but six, yes six refusals to be programmed, :smashPC: it turned out that I was too slow in carrying out the programming moves and it was timing out. Oh well, wise after the event.

So I now have voice command lights, does anyone know where I can get an App that peels me a grape :bigsmile:

Sounds a brilliant tool Chris, not wishing to put the mockers on it, but what if the dreaded "Frog in the Throat" or even Laryngitis
was to strike :rolleyes:, just kidding mate, but you never know do you;) . , forget I even said it, but it may be a good idea to get
some :)Strepsils, have a great evening :)

I have the Google equilent of Alexa
One night last week lost the sound on the TV, no messages to say there was a problem. Got the controller, sound had switched down to Zero on its own. Reset the sound, Google announces we have problem.
Sometimes it responds to TV, with a voice message, don't understand that command.
Vic

To keep herself occupied during the lock down her indoors has taken up painting.
She is very good, and now only has the lounge to finish.

Apparently the Virus will not survive in temperatures much above 25 degrees.
One senior 'person' in USA suggested that if we could find a way to heat the inside of the body with some device it would kill the virus.

I thought long and hard about how we could do that, then I had an idea.

A torch with a globe that give off more heat than light.
This could be inserted into the rear end, maybe with a bit of Vaseline or similar.

Not sure if it would ill the virus, but there would at least be light at the end of the tunnel!!

victoria if you hire a cement mixer and lets the stones roll around with acetone mixed with the water that will bring them up brand new? kitchen cabinets clean with turps or white spirit ? johns handy hints:p jp

Re #104

I wonder how it survives 37*C

I've been thinking about social contact and how it is affecting us all and economically as well. Almost every industry and profession is affected. Take what is sometimes referred to as the 'oldest profession', prostitution. The poor girls (and sometimes 'boys') must be finding it difficult to continue with what they do best. I can hardly see their pimps furloughing them,(although I expect most of them have been well furloughed) and you won't see too many of them queuing outside the benefits office for a handout. There is also a social and moral aspect to this. Those who may have promiscuous leanings might think twice about the risks involved and consider other means of 'social contact'. Gilly

Be careful when out shopping with your wife or partner.
We came home earlier, removed our face masks and it
was the wrong her indoors!

Not testing the supermarket returns policy until maybe
next week.

Keith.