Member postings for Mike

Martin, I was just about to make that point. My wife is an insulin-injecting diabetic, and an excess of sugar makes her feel tired, grumpy, and thirsty, but it is not so dangerous as a hypo, which requires an immediate dose of sugar. Sweet fruit juice (sweetened with sugar, not chemicals) is quite effective, and the recovery is quite rapid.

I've had this thing. I didn't pass out, but was so dizzy I couldn't stand up or walk, and had to crawl for two days. Also had to ask the doc to make a house call, as I couldn't drive or board the bus. It was an inner ear infection, easily treatable, and it has never recurred. But do get it checked because the doc told me there are two types - the simple type I had, or a permanent type which can recur at any time. Not that I wish to spread gloom...…….

In the late 1960s, Halfords sold a pink hand cleaner called "That Stuff", which worked far better than Swarfega. I haven't seen any on sale in the UK for years, but a quick "Google" reveals it is still being made in the USA. A friend of mine who regularly got bitumen on his hands, being employed in the roofing trade, used to make his own Swarfega-like hand cleanser by mixing green Fairy Liquid with paraffin - and it really did work. As an angler, I find that lemon-scented washing up liquid kills fishy smalls better than anything. This smell-killing quality is probably why they make citrus-smelling industrial hand cleansers. When I was a sub-editor on a newspaper over 40 years ago, I noted that compositors swore by Boraxo for removing printer's ink.

A lot of people in our stroke survivors' group have mobility problems, and they use a thing called a rollator - like a zimmer with wheels and a folding seat. Our group recently bought three - two new ones made of aluminium tube, and an all but useless second-hand one in steel tube. The steel one is so heavy even a fit person would knacker their back lifting it out of a car boot. As a person whose walking is a bit dodgy these days, I road-tested all three around the village, and found the aluminium ones brilliant. You can even add a shopping basket to them.

A pal who is a retired toolroom engineer always calls these engineering adhesives/threadlockers "the bad engineer's friend." But then, he calls my copies of Model Engineer "Toytown Engineering", so maybe he isn't such a good pal after all.....

Until recently I put great faith in McAfee. For me it went right back to the early days when I had a subscription to Dr Solomons (remember it?) who used to mail me a floppy disc every month. Then McAfee took over Dr Solomons, and I stayed with them. Then, a few months ago, I got a virus - fortunately more of a nuisance than a danger - and I had to call out a local computer consultant. He used Malwarebytes, and I was amazed at the c...p it discovered on my hard disc. So that was the end of McAfee for me. I installed Malwarebytes. The experience has been good so far - touch wood. As Dave says - eternal vigilance!

Back in the 1960s, when I was living in digs, my landlady complained she was getting shocks off her electric cooker. I went to the fuse box to pull the fuse, and found the cartridge had been replaced with a cut-down 6-inch nail. When I asked who had done such a stupid thing, she said it was her son, and he'd done it because six months previously the cooker kept blowing fuses. Another close shave...….

Neil, perhaps I'm an eccentric when it comes to the English language. Only a couple of days ago I had a somewhat heated discussion with my wife about what she will refer to as our "electric bill." To me it's our electricity bill, and pretty horrendous it is, too. However, don't let be side-track an interesting debate.

The problem now is that Loctite is not the only range of engineering adhesives performing similar functions. If we have to use a single word, then let it be "bonded", although it tells us little because there are so many bonding agents in use, from comparatively weak shellac to some of the toughest grades of - well - Loctite. If I want to do a job similar to one described on this forum, I want as much information as possible, and a phrase like "Bonded with Loctite 272 or its equivalent" tells the full story. Sorry, Neil, but I do not think one word is ever going to do. Above all, let us not start using nouns as verbs. When I was a newspaper editor, my favourite hate was the made-up verb "to showcase", and in my publication it was banned.

Last time I saw a hornet was in a fishing hut near Invergarry, over15 years ago. I get a lot of queen wasps in a somewhat dilapidated wooden garage next to my workshop on the Moray Firth. Could it be that they are attracted by rotting wood for nest building? Anyway, they get swatted as soon as they appear, but haven't seen any so far this year. One year, when I forgot to check, I had a big paper nest nearly as big as a football hanging from the rafters.

Thanks, Dave. My condition isn't quite like yours, in that it is thought that one person in 200 is a carrier, but it takes two carriers to produce a child which has haemochromatosis. Before my regular visits to Nurse Dracula I had a little less than 50 grams of iron in my body, instead of the usual 3.5. Led me to joke that if I stood too close to an electrical field I might become a giant fridge magnet. Not so in reality - the iron s in the form of compounds. Two bits of good news: Nurse Dracula doesn't want to see me for three weeks and, better still, red wine is good for the condition in that the tannin it contains helps stop the iron being deposited in your liver. I'm still trying to find a doctor who will prescribe a daily dose of cabernet sauvignon.... Oh, and Neil: Nurse Dracula has a much nicer personality than a leech.

Dave, I wish it was! In fact, it's a gift from my parents. Could be fun to have a medical condition that few people can pronounce, if it wasn't so unpleasant. I know it's not swarf because most of my turning has been done with non-ferrous metals!

ChrisH: I've now acquired a "Grumpy Old Men's Club" T-shirt like yours. My wife thinks it is appropriate because I have inherited haemochromatosis - a huge excess of iron in my body which makes me grumpy, outspoken and opinionated. It's treated by removing a unit of blood, at first every week and, later, every fortnight. Saw "Nurse Dracula" in the hospital to be bled this morning, and she thinks it ought to be the official T-shirt of the Haemochromatosis Society!

Hope my wife doesn't see ChrisH's pictures, or she will be sending for the Grumpy Old Men's Club T-shirt as a present for me Today I've been struggling to remove the rusty old hinges from my garage/workshop doors. Problem is that when I put the hinges on about 15 years ago I filled in the heads of the Phillips screws with Araldite, hoping to discourage anyone who fancied breaking in by removing the screws. Problem is couldn't use heat to destroy the Araldite for fear of setting either the doors or the doorposts alight. Finally got the answer: put a cutting disc in the angle grinder and make a cut that goes through the centre of the screw head. It can then be unscrewed with a large conventional screwdriver.

Also a lot from different sources on Amazon, including 10 for 47p from China. Bad news is that these are one-use items, and reviewers say they must be used just damp, because they are water-soluble. Among the good ones, I see Flash are selling them, but there are plenty of cheaper alternatives which get good reviews.

When my dad was in the electricity supply business in the 1960s and 1970s, they considerably extended the life of poles which had been in service for a few years by injecting them. A spiked collar was put around the pole, and an injection of what my dad described as "an evil-smelling yellow substance" was injected through the spikes. Speaking of tanalised timber, my original workshop at my home in Lincolnshire was made of tanalised pine. The company that built it said they couldn't work with the timber until at least two weeks after treatment because of the danger of arsenic poisoning. The building was guaranteed for 40 years, and if I look at my old address on Google Earth I see that it has been demolished some time in the last two years. It was built around 45 years ago, but the last time I saw it when I visited my old home town, the house's owners had allowed it to get covered in moss and fungus, and had failed to renew the felted roof.. I think that if it had been looked after properly it would still be standing.

I'd agree about creosote preserving wood, but a possible warning: I once used it on exterior-quality plywood, and it caused it to de-laminate. Of course, it could have been a dodgy sheet of plywood. Any thoughts, gentlemen?

Thanks, Dave - I guessed it was something like that. After the first call, several weeks ago, my broadband was not cut off. I do wish people would call, rather than use recordings, then I would have the pleasure of giving them the classic advice which is all to do with sex and travel! Nevertheless, I just wonder how many old codgers like me get taken in by these scams.

Today I had a phone call from 01541-182786 - a recorded voice telling me that my broadband service had been "compromised", and unless I pressed 1 to speak to a technician, the service would be cut off in 24 hours. This is the second time I have received this call, although the first voice was American rather than English. It's clearly some kind of scam, but I can't work out what it is. Anyone else had a similar call? 

Sorry-I've put this in the wrong place - it should have gone in What did you do Today.

Edited By Mike on 10/05/2018 16:29:25

Edited By Mike on 10/05/2018 16:44:11

On August 3 1945 I was stung on my right hand by a hornet. How do I remember an incident when I was 4? Because it was the day my sister was born. I was told in later years the swelling was spectacular I think I got as much attention as the new baby!

Edited By Mike on 10/05/2018 09:04:18