Kitz Forum
Chat => Chit Chat => Topic started by: Weaver on January 07, 2020, 07:29:12 AM
-
Rain hammering on the bedroom window now, loud despite the sound insulation provided by the double glazing.its cold and there are strong winds from the south. Janet was going to Inverness today but cancelled it as she was frightened at the thought if driving back in this kit on her own. Having had a massive accident on the route back homeward some years back has I suspect rather diminished her self-confidence. She is going to do the Inverness trip another day. Car is at the doctor’s. Many years of wear and tear needed attention. She has had so many years of driving with me as co-pilot, or the other way round. The last trip I drove was to Baile Átha Cliath (Dublin) and back, in my 997 gen ii (named ‘The Blue Thing’) and then I drove no more. But it’s familiarity that gives confidence, when you have driven for over twenty years with your partner.
My typing may be a little off. Right now, Thomas is lying on top of my right shoulder/arm so I have lost the use of my right hand for typing and I’m reduced to using my left only. Pangur Bàn is under the duvet by Janet’s chin meanwhile, so we have a cat each. Pangur Bàn made noises of distress when Thomas came up on the bed to see me, but Janet reassured Pangur and offered him protection, not that there was ever any risk. I have slowly managed to manoeuvre Thomas without causing offence so that he’s on my elbow now, rather than on my shoulder, and my right hand is again usable even though my right arm is not.
My hands are so cold. Can’t find my electric hand warmer - perhaps gone onto the floor.
-
Despite all that you still seem to be typing better than I have been lately.
-
Sorry to hear that Alex. I do have assistance from Apple’s context-driven word auto-suggest and spelling correction though. That helps, a lot. Apart from when I am typing non-English languages, in which case I have to fight the thing like the Jǫrmungandr, the Miðgarðs ormr wrestled by Thor, which encircles the world. He feels the need to fight the monster, but without it, after its total destruction, we are all lost.
-
Re Janet’s trip. I had a pretty big accident myself circa 15 years ago, both cars spectacularly written off. Thankfully no serious injuries, just cuts and grazes and lumps and bumps, albeit some of the lumps were a bit big. Completely non fault but that was irrelevant - the other guy made a mistake, and everybody makes mistakes, it hurt just as much regardless of fault.
It didn’t put me off driving at all, quite the reverse as I’d got to experience the airbags, seat belts, crumple zones and other safety kit, and to witness how well it all worked. But it did leave me with the realisation that, whenever we embark on a journey, there is a very real statistical risk that something unfortunate may happen. Especially prominent in the mind in the weather conditions described... I also am inclined these days to occasionally just ‘opt out’.
-
Janet ended up writing a car off after parking it up in the branches of a tree in the dark. She doesn’t like doing the Inverness run in the dark after that. Thank goodness for safety devices and mobile phones.
Weather station at the north end of Skye recorded 75 mph winds today. A dashcam in Inverness shows a children’s’ trampoline some 2m across roughly, from a garden, blowing around in the middle of a main road. The crazy weather is all gone now completely so the trip is on for Wed morning instead.
-
Here is the link (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-51028414/trampoline-drivers-surprised-in-culloden-after-high-winds) (from the BBC web-site) to a brief, 12 second, video clip of a trampoline on the road in Culloden.
-
Well done. Janet had showed me that clip.
Winds wild again now, after a little pause, and now it has all started again.
-
Here is the link (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-51028414/trampoline-drivers-surprised-in-culloden-after-high-winds) (from the BBC web-site) to a brief, 12 second, video clip of a trampoline on the road in Culloden.
I’d be ‘hopping mad’ if my car had been damaged by that thing. ::)
-
Ridiculous rain tonight. Thomas has just come in soaking wet and freezing cold, not that he cares; he’s incredible tough. He is curled up by my arm, purring.
All through the night lightning storms to the west then to the north of the Western Isles have been triggering my hardware lightning sensor. I have the alert radius set way too low for there to be any alarm events in my lightning app - I generally have the radius set to about 80 miles, enough to only reach west out to Uibhist or south to the southern end of Eilean Mhuile - but I can see the flashes on the map in the app if I zoom out, and on the web map at http://map.blitzortung.org/#3.96/61.55/-2.43
-
Crazy wild wind today. Lightning storms are to the south of us now, all further south than the Hebrides and just nearly hitting the West Coast of Ireland - should be visible out to the west if you’re on land in Ireland now. The northernmost end of that lightning storm is no further north than Dún na nGall now and the southernmost end is sort of level with Cornwall- further south than Ireland anyway.
-
I think the strong winds are heading south as well. I just got a sms from the power company telling me the Met have released a yellow warning of high winds and there is a chance the power might go out.
I hate the bad weather :(
Hows the weather where you are today Weaver?
-
Very wild, with 101mph gust recorded in the Hebrides I forget whether it was north Skye or Uibhist. Lightning storms last night, unplugged modems in time so no kit damaged but two lines now dead.
-
Rain hammering on bedroom window all day, from the south or south west. Raining for weeks constantly. A huge pond in the field as usual but now a record contender. The donkeys don’t like having to go through swamp when coming out of their stable to get to the good ground in the field.
-
The rain continues to be horizontal but with a little break today, a window of a few hours.
-
With your location, you are fortunate that flooding would not be possible. At least all precipitation flows downhill, to the shoreline.
-
Indeed, in the highlands the sheer amount of rain tests the ground and clears the paths for water constantly. The only real danger is mudslides like that one at Gleann Cuaiche on the mainland some while back, which was discussed in an earlier thread.
There is an enormous pond to the west of the house which forms whenever there is sustained rain. It’s at its maximum possible extent now and is probably draining straight towards the patch where my neighbour is building his new house. But the water all carries on past me as there’s a very small rise on the east side if the house diverting water to the south before it heads away downhill. Unfortunately we have no ducks at the moment to enjoy the pond; I miss seeing them, but the fox was way too fond of them so I’m loath to risk it again much as I long for their perpetually cheerful company.
-
The only real danger is mudslides like that one at Gleann Cuaiche on the mainland some while back, which was discussed in an earlier thread.
Ah, yes. The mudslide that "took out" a electricity pylon, a while back.
-
Well remembered! Thank you ;D
-
Rain had finally reduced the last couple of days. No longer torrential anyway. But today it was ridiculous at times and it’s raining now, hitting the bedroom window as I write this.
I’m glad the ground is not frozen anyway. That brings the risk of loss of water because of frozen delivery pipes from the borehole and the main water storage tank up on the bank - which provides ‘head’.