The true old times are dead (1/72 92 Squadron Lightning F.2)

[Space Ranger]

20 hours ago, Rob G said:

Re the Subies, I can but submit my 2009 WRX for inspection - 250 000km on it, doesn't use oil. Most of its mileage has been long distance work, no idling/slow driving in the city, so that may be a factor. Regular oil changes with top grade oil, and no need to idle/warm up the engine before driving may also contribute. 

The wife and I are the proud owners of a 2018 Subaru Outback, bought new in October 2017, with all options except the bigger engine. It’s the best car we’ve ever owned together and certainly the best I’ve ever owned. The only problem, if you can call it that, is that it’s smarter than both of us! I have yet to get completely through the extremely comprehensive owner’s manual. We use it primarily for around-town travel. In fact, I refer to it as our $40,000 grocery-getter!

[Mr T]

Thinking of cars and engines, we once had a Vauxhall/Opel Zafira. Not the world's worse car except a) it drank oil, apparently it was the same with any of the 1.6 and 1.8 petrol engines. b) the drain holes from the front scuttle underneath the bonnet blocked, thus creating a sloshing sound after heavy weather. Easily fixed with a screwdriver. On Cavaliers, if the drain holes blocked and the water overflowed it went all over the ECU those leaving the owner with a £600 (2008 prices) bill. 

In 2012 the Zafira caught fire when some of the wiring shorted. 

[jackroadkill]

36 minutes ago, Mr T said:

the front scuttle underneath the bonnet blocked

 

My friend's son had a very lovely mk1 Golf Cabriolet with the same problem - the first he knew of it was when he pumped the footwells full of water as he put the blower on!

[Galligraphics]

13 hours ago, Mr T said:

we once had a Vauxhall/Opel Zafira. Not the world's worse car except a) it drank oil, apparently it was the same with any of the 1.6 and 1.8 petrol engines. b) the drain holes from the front scuttle underneath the bonnet blocked, thus creating a sloshing sound after heavy weather.

I had a Zafira for a while. The only real issue I had with it was that, in icy weather, the water that somehow seeped into the handbrake cable froze solid. This gripped the cable meaning it was impossible to release the handbrake… In cold weather I had to remember to leave the handbrake off and the car in gear. There was the odd occasion when I had to drive down the road very slowly accompanied by the smell of burning brakes…

[johnd]

On 05/01/2023 at 20:32, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Personally I’d like an mint condition 1970’s Mk.1 or Mk.2 Escort. I just like the way they look. Though being as big as I am I may need to rip out the drivers seat and sit in back. 

My first car was a Mk.1 Escort. A friend of a friend had replaced the 1100  engine with a 1300 (brakes were left alone though) and he didn't like the white paint so sprayed it to look like a Mexico rally car. It was fairly easy to spot it wasn't one (standard wheels, arches etc) but it did fool a surprising number of people.

 

My favourite was when I was in the left lane at lights and a car drew up alongside, and sat there, engine revving. Eventually, I looked over and the driver was looking my way so I nodded. When the lights changed, he went haring off down the road at quite a speed and with a fair bit of smoke. I turned left.

[Steve Coombs]

On 1/6/2023 at 8:27 PM, Mr T said:

Thinking of cars and engines, we once had a Vauxhall/Opel Zafira.

I had one of the early Opel Zafiras, when it was obvious my daughter Alex was on the way and we needed a car to seat five conveniently plus have space for baby stuff. At the time, I was working with the TEZ team at Opel Rüsselsheim, who had done design work for it. Though I wasn't a direct Opel employee, the guys on the team had a word with their colleagues on the production line in Bochum and were able to tell me the precise time my car would be built and made sure it wasn't an end-of-shift effort or Monday morning 'special'. A lovely, comfortable vehicle, though prone to getting wing mirrors clipped when driving into the garage, which wasn't terribly wide.

[Space Ranger]

On 12/30/2022 at 7:49 PM, Procopius said:

 

They do, however, as I live in this large-scale social experiment across the waters, I order from them direct. In fact, I used one of their seats for this build!

I mentioned Hannants for the sake of those living in the U. of K. I live in what some refer to as “Baja Oklahoma,” otherwise known as AbbottPatrickstan.

[Steve Coombs]

It's gone a bit quiet here...

[Galligraphics]

3 hours ago, Steve Coombs said:

It's gone a bit quiet here...

It was probably all that talk about Zafiras and Escorts that confused people...

[perdu]

I remember when it was all hedgehogs around here...

[Procopius]

Sorry fellows. I've been absolutely swamped. I'm trying to be a good dad and an adequate husband and an acceptably mediocre employee, and it's just possible thanks to my medications, which only work if I get enough sleep, which means that my days are: wake up, make breakfast for everyone, pack lunches for the boys, make sure the boys get dressed, make Mrs P her coffee, get the boys out the door, turnaround and get ready for work, work, finish work and immediately start making dinner, feed everyone, clean up dinner, get the boys bathed/flossed/brushed/into pajamas, read to the boys, go downstairs and clean up dinner, get more bananas if we've run out, which is weirdly often, and then go to bed so I can do it again the next day. I'd be lying if I said I got any sort of joy out of this, or if it didn't feel incredibly pointless. 

[perdu]

But there are still hedgehogs, in spirit at last.

 

No fun being The Dad PC as we almost all know to our sorrow.

 

Keep doing what you are, you do not need us nagging at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

But of course we're still about if you need an unburden sesh.

 

👍

[Terry1954]

13 hours ago, Procopius said:

Sorry fellows. I've been absolutely swamped. I'm trying to be a good dad and an adequate husband and an acceptably mediocre employee, and it's just possible thanks to my medications, which only work if I get enough sleep, which means that my days are: wake up, make breakfast for everyone, pack lunches for the boys, make sure the boys get dressed, make Mrs P her coffee, get the boys out the door, turnaround and get ready for work, work, finish work and immediately start making dinner, feed everyone, clean up dinner, get the boys bathed/flossed/brushed/into pajamas, read to the boys, go downstairs and clean up dinner, get more bananas if we've run out, which is weirdly often, and then go to bed so I can do it again the next day. I'd be lying if I said I got any sort of joy out of this, or if it didn't feel incredibly pointless. 

 

I avoided using the sad emoticon Edward, just a very understanding like!

 

Hang on in there, you are doing fine!

 

Terry

[gingerbob]

Thanks for checking in, though- I'd been beginning to worry about you!

[Navy Bird]

23 hours ago, Procopius said:

I'd be lying if I said I got any sort of joy out of this, or if it didn't feel incredibly pointless. 

 

Don't feel sad or see parenting as pointless. You are helping mould your progeny into upstanding human beings who will eventually contribute to society in meaningful ways. Is it hard? Yes. Will you always succeed? No. Do your best - it takes a long time and it's difficult work. When they reach adulthood you can be rightly proud of your achievement, no matter how big or small. Then you can rest - no, wait. Then you can start all over with your grandkids.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Mr T]

I'm with Navy Bird with this, you are supporting your family, and yes it seems like it is never ending and pointless, but at so many levels it isn't. You are setting an example to your children (Mrs T often comes home with stories from colleagues of husbands at home who do nothing to help around the house and are incapable of looking after themselves), about parenting and responsibility. My circumstances are different, as I have ended up doing the domestic stuff while Mrs T is still at work and my children are adults and one has flown the nest. I sometimes get a bit bored with it, but it is a golden opportunity to listen to what I like with no one else around, and there us a certain pride in being able to cook stuff etc. 

[Steve Coombs]

On 1/25/2023 at 7:53 PM, Navy Bird said:

When they reach adulthood you can be rightly proud of your achievement, no matter how big or small. Then you can rest - no, wait. Then you can start all over with your grandkids.   

The advantage of grandkids is that you can hand them back to their parents at the end of the day!

[Navy Bird]

7 minutes ago, Steve Coombs said:

The advantage of grandkids is that you can hand them back to their parents at the end of the day!

 

That would be nice. In my case, though, both of my daughters and one of my son-in-laws work at the hospital so night shifts are always in their schedule. We have separate bedrooms here for the grandkids since they stay overnight often. But that's OK - it means Carter (my 6-year old grandson) pulls his chair up to the workbench right alongside of me until it's his bedtime. The almighty works in mysterious ways...     

 

Cheers,

Bill

[jackroadkill]

16 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

it means Carter (my 6-year old grandson) pulls his chair up to the workbench right alongside of me until it's his bedtime.

 

That's grand - you really can't buy that sort of thing.  I helped my boy (boy?  He's 22, somehow) replace his brake discs and pads last week and it was some of the best time we've ever spent together.

[Navy Bird]

11 minutes ago, jackroadkill said:

 

That's grand - you really can't buy that sort of thing.  I helped my boy (boy?  He's 22, somehow) replace his brake discs and pads last week and it was some of the best time we've ever spent together.

 

Great stuff. My son is almost 41, and our quality time consists of pub crawls. That's not a bad thing, is it?    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[perdu]

That is very true, my 50+ son came with me to Le Mans last year.

 

Although his interest in motor sport is non-existent we had a great time in Normandy after the race and he jumped on a train to visit Paris on the Saturday of the race beginning.

 

The best thing is when we and my grandson do the pub crawls together.

 

Wouldn't a pub crawl with them and a great grandson be something else huh?

[Gondor44]

On 1/24/2023 at 7:31 PM, Procopius said:

Sorry fellows. I've been absolutely swamped. I'm trying to be a good dad and an adequate husband and an acceptably mediocre employee, and it's just possible thanks to my medications, which only work if I get enough sleep, which means that my days are: wake up, make breakfast for everyone, pack lunches for the boys, make sure the boys get dressed, make Mrs P her coffee, get the boys out the door, turnaround and get ready for work, work, finish work and immediately start making dinner, feed everyone, clean up dinner, get the boys bathed/flossed/brushed/into pajamas, read to the boys, go downstairs and clean up dinner, get more bananas if we've run out, which is weirdly often, and then go to bed so I can do it again the next day. I'd be lying if I said I got any sort of joy out of this, or if it didn't feel incredibly pointless. 

 

And I thought I had it bad being a cat dad and wondering if he came home in the mornings befor I go to work so I know he is safe

 

Gondor

[Dave Wilko]

On 1/7/2023 at 2:38 PM, johnd said:

My first car was a Mk.1 Escort. A friend of a friend had replaced the 1100  engine with a 1300 (brakes were left alone though) and he didn't like the white paint so sprayed it to look like a Mexico rally car. It was fairly easy to spot it wasn't one (standard wheels, arches etc) but it did fool a surprising number of people.

 

My favourite was when I was in the left lane at lights and a car drew up alongside, and sat there, engine revving. Eventually, I looked over and the driver was looking my way so I nodded. When the lights changed, he went haring off down the road at quite a speed and with a fair bit of smoke. I turned left.

One had a similar experience oneself after visiting a local "Sunday Spectator" rally stage of the RAC Rally back in the 80's.

 

We(brother in law and self) were travelling home from the stage on a dual carriageway toward a petrol station just up ahead

and a set of traffic lights a half mile distant.

John Haugland in the "works" Skoda Estelle appeared wanting to pull out onto the carriageway from the petrol station

(unbeknown to us it was Skoda's service point)heading for the M6,so one let him out in front of us to follow him to the traffic lights

where he would take a left turn to the M6.

Sitting in the left lane on a red light(we were right behind also heading for the M6 back to Sandbach and home)listening to the Skoda's

high idle "beat",cue a red Escort XR3i.

The Escort stopped in the right lane at the lights and sat there,engine revving.

The green light comes on,the Skoda shot off,a couple of quick gear changes and puffs of smoke and he's gone,Mr XR3i however was still there,spinning his front tyres........

He thought he could beat the little Skoda,completely forgetting it's a works rally car,light,powerful(130bhp),low geared for acceleration

(one believes it was the 130LR Group B model)needless to say BIL and self had a really good laugh............

[Procopius]

Sorry chaps, still utterly swamped. Grant has been sick this week, and thanks to his terrible asthma, every cold is potentially life-threatening. On Monday I drove him to Urgent Care at 8 PM, and today, as he's been insufficiently responsive to oral steroids, he's now in the ER ($325 just to walk in the door with my health insurance) with Mrs P, receiving oxygen treatments. January-February are unquestionably my least favourite months of the year, invariably one disaster after another, and no matter how much I try to be ready for them, it's never enough. I'm supposed to leave for New Orleans for work tomorrow, but if Grant doesn't improve, I don't see how I can go and live with myself, and that means missing some big opportunities to maybe finally get my position upgraded. I had informed my boss I wanted a raise and would outline why I deserved it at my performance review well in advance, did so, was told I needed to wait a few months because HR was doing a salary review, then after doing that, was told that I really needed to have asked for a raise at my performance review. Kafkaesque. Meanwhile, my subordinate, of whom my boss has repeatedly mentioned he thought had a "cushy" job* and strongly implied she was overpaid, received an offer for a position that paid $12,000 more than we paid her (and by extension, more than I'm paid, we had a minimal pay gap), and left us last week, meaning I have twice as much work to do. To add insult to injury, she also negotiated an even higher salary at her new place. 

 

Right now is just a time to be endured. Nothing more can be expected from it. I'm doing my best.

 

 

 

* My position is this: Our job doesn't have to be arduous to be worth the salaries we're paid, and the idea it needs to be miserable to be worth money is really wrong-footed. What we're paying for is the ability to be confident that someone isn't going to make fools out of us inadvertently in front of the entire world. Also, quite frankly, casual Twitter users have no idea how soul-destroying reading it for a living is. As a manager, I try not to get upset about stuff we can easily fix, especially if we can learn from it, and I try to be really accommodating of mental health issues, having so many myself. Similarly, when my deputy asked me for a raise, I made that my primary focus and kept her appraised at every step of the process. 

[Mr T]

Sorry to hear of the dreadful time you are having. I hope Grant recovers quickly. Although my professional experience of ill children was limited, I do recall how frightening it could be and how quickly they became ill. Mrs T is always ultra cautious when she has a child to see in the surgery.