The Anchorage, Part 3

[Terre]

You've probably heard everything from it being the worst idea in the last 1000 years to it being the best one.
At least the pigeons don't try to talk your ears off.

 

[Terre]

Good afternoon.
The heater in my car died this morning while I was trying to get it warmed up to drive to work. I'll be leaving it at the shop tomorrow morning so they can try to diagnose it.Since the fan works but no heat comes out they most likely will need to order parts which means it will get fixed next week sometime.

 

[DanaTA]

Too bad. I hate car troubles! I hope it isn't too costly.

Dana

 

[Mythocentric]

Not the way to have fun Terre! Not been having much fun myself lately due to a (very expensive) and ultimately useless computer. Around 18 months ago now I was in need of a new workstation for graphics stuff, so off I went and ended up paying somewhere in the region of $2000 US for an all singing, all dancing set-up from a manufacturer I've used in the past. Guess what? About three weeks after the warranty ran out the hard drive committed suicide. The thing that narks me is that I was actually in the process of backing everything up to external hard drives at the time. Fortunately, all my 3D models were on another external drive but my music (a lifetimes collection) and my photos (ditto) and artwork (double ditto) weren't. Ouch! Sad to say, it appears that it would cost more to recover files from the hard drive than it would to buy another computer so that's most of my music, including some very rare blues albums transcribed from vinyl, lost forever. Just to rub salt into the wound, the suppliers and the manufacturers (both I regret to say US companies with more lawyers on their books than employee's) are too busy arguing over who is responsible for replacing it than actually doing anything about it. Latest word is that my lawyer (a long-time friend and QC) has informed them that he will keep the claim active and simply sue the survivors when they've finished playing silly buggers! Interestingly enough, the laptop I'm using now came from the same manufacturer, a basic 500Gb hd, about 12 years old and still going strong after I literally dug it out of storage. It seems that standards have dropped a long way in the last few years!

 

[Terre]

@Mythocentric : Ouch. I hope you can come up with a way to save that music but don't know of any way to do so that isn't expensive.

@DanaTA : Thanks. So do I. At least it died at the end of this week instead of at the beginning when temps were worse.

 

[Terre]

Good evening.

 

[Mythocentric]

Good evemorn...err thingy Terre!

Shock news from Morecambe today. No rain for over 24 hours!!!!!!! We're expecting 'those in power' to announce a local emergency and hosepipe ban any moment now. We've even heard that the fish which normally tend to wander along the Promenade (due to strange mutations caused by the near vicinity of the nuclear power stations at Heysham and Sellafield) have been seen throwing themselves back into the water to escape the horrible conditions......

OK! I might be exaggerating just a tad here but it has been bloomin' cold here today. I went to the shop earlier and there were definitely some sneaky little chilly zephyrs finding their way up the old trouser legs.

THINKS: Time to sit quietly with an icepack and a cup of hot, strong coffee! END OF THINKS.

 

[Terre]

@Mythocentric
Been very cold some here but a mild winter so far in general for us.

 

[Mythocentric]

Hummm! Just noticed a strange bias in my last post. I mentioned Sellafield, the nuclear power plant which is on the coast over the Bay (about 30 miles away as the crow flies) and has long been the subject of controversy, notably from our local contingent of snowflake do-gooders who regularly have a stand outside the shopping centre where they ernestly urge people to get behind them and finally let the 'Man' know that 'we' (read they) are not going to stand for it and the damage it is doing to us and the environment any longer. Meanwhile, just two miles down the coast at Heysham, we have...(drum roll)...a nuclear power plant which, in sheer output, is actually larger than Sellafield. Yet from our snowflake friends we had heard not a zit, whit, muffled whisper or even a sausage about same! In short...zilch! Now I'm beginning to wonder here if it could possibly be due to said (nuclear) power plant being responsible for supplying their homes (which tend to be in the highly desirable enclaves along the banks of the River Lune!) with light, heat, indeed all their power needs as it does for most of north-west Lancashire.

 

[Terre]

That certainly is a possibility.

 

[Terre]

Reminds me of something that happened in a nearby state some years ago. A group of activists had convinced mechanics shops to find ways to collect and recycle used motor oil. This idea was coming along rather well and a growing amount was being handled that way. Then another group of activists wanted to get motor oil declared a hazardous waste. under Federal law hazardous waste can't be recycled. I remember hoping that the second group would lose the fight as the first idea was actually reducing the pollution problem presented by the used oil.
Boy does my minds go off on weird tracks that have nothing to do with whatever is being discussed sometimes.

 

[Mythocentric]

Nowt wrong with minds going off on weird tracks Terre...

...going off on weird tracks is how some of the worlds greatest inventions have come about.

Like for instance...

errr...

Self-propelled garden gnomes?

...............................Next post, please!

Four sugars in mine please and make it strong...

 

[Terre]

LOL

 

[Mythocentric]

Ha! Does Ya think I was joking about the garden gnome? I have a lifelong friend called Paul who, many moons ago was into applying technology to, shall we say, stuff you normally wouldn't think about. In between attending Teacher Training College in Loughborough, to which he commuted on a WW2 era Velocette hard-tail motorcycle painted blushing pink wearing an ensemble of leather flying jacket, jodhpurs, fur-lined boots, leather flying helmet and goggles, Paul liked to keep his hands and mind busy. Amongst his creations was a cube-shaped chair with carpet slung deckchair style, built completely out of 1-inch square tubing. Now, I'm not saying that it was uncomfortable but after ten minutes you could guarantee that the backs of your knees would be screaming for mercy and a further ten minutes would see you dragging yourself across the floor on your elbows praying for the pain to go away, or (preferably) your legs to fall off. The Spanish Inquisition would have loved it! Another notable item of his was his bed, complete with brass head and footboards and suspended from the ceiling. It was reached by a rope ladder, the use of which was often the cause of great hilarity, especially given the amount of wacky-baccy we yoofs tended to imbibe during those heady student days. On a more useful note, Paul also built some of the amps and fuzz boxes (you weren't a proper guitarist in those days if you didn't have a fuzz box!) for the band, aka The Stuart Houghton Band, which tended to expire at frequent, random intervals complete with accompanying electrical fireworks. (An essential item of stage equipment at the time was a bucket of sand!) Also notable was an electrical coil he designed which was a college project and which was taken up by a local firm because he'd managed to pack twice as much wire into a coil no bigger than their own product. A result we thought, until his father, an optician and magistrate decided to take an interest and discovered that our mate was about to get ripped-off big time! The highlight of his creations though (and I bet you thought I was never going to get to it!) was when he turned up with a plastic garden gnome he'd found on a stall in the then new indoor market. A few days later said gnome departed again (with Paul) in the direction of Loughborough. Weeks later, it returned to great acclaim from the collection of strange persons who hung around his apartment, when we discovered that the gnome was no longer a static object but was now a radio-controlled source of fun and mayhem! It even had a little flashing red light on the end of it's fishing rod. Of course, we had to put it to use and in rapid order, we carried out practice sessions and tests until finally, the day dawned. Let the fun begin! The following Saturday found Paul, myself and his sister (the first unsuspecting victim who assured us that being pursued through the flat by a garden gnome was indeed, somewhat scary) in the bay window of his apartment which was above a shop overlooking a busy thoroughfare just off the town centre. OK! So the sight of a garden gnome sitting in a shop doorway was not all that weird, a bit unusual yes but not all that weird. It's when it suddenly started following you along the street that it got a little strange, and there may have been a few palpitations when our victims realised what the source of that little red, flashing light was. We actually managed to get away with it for a few days until sad to say, some hero decided to intervene by kicking our gnome into the middle of the road where it met its end beneath the wheels of a passing car. Just to add insult to injury he then proceeded to hurl threats up at us, explaining just how he'd deal with us should we dare to come down and face him like men. We did and the heroics faltered when he found himself confronted by two enraged hippies complete with Mario death-stares! Perhaps, fortunately (for us) we were joined by the motorist who'd killed poor gnome and who wanted to know who was responsible for his punctured tyre. Like the men we were, Paul and myself immediately pointed at the hero and proclaimed, "He is!" After which we scarpered as fast as our little legs could carry us! Heady days indeed! As a point of interest, Paul went on to become headmaster of one of the UK's leading Grammar schools, so we weren't completely the lost cause some of our older contemporaries accused us of being!

 

[Terre]

You guys had a lot of fun.

 

[DanaTA]

I could see that story unfolding in a situation comedy on TV! Or better, a movie.

Dana

 

[Mythocentric]

Ah! The heady days of studenthood Terre and Dana! The world was a much more interesting place for sure, especially the Sixties! Away from home for the first time and free. Knowing famous people before they were famous (I wonder if Roger Waters remembers us helping to carry their gear out to the van after the gig at Gorleston Floral Hall [A mostly wooden structure about twice the size of your average scout hut!]). A most interesting place with fascinating harmonics due to those wooden walls. Circular with a low, veranda-style raised section around the walls with the stage set into the wall. The bar, unfortunately, was down the lane about 20o yards away in the local boozer. It was also the best place to hear the music if the harmonic distortion wasn't your thing. I also recall that us 'orrible louts (i.e. anyone with hair longer than a freshly cropped wheat field. We're talking Straw Dogs country here!) weren't allowed inside and were served through a hatch at the back of the bar. Hanging out with the sort of people whose fathers would have had us horse-whipped off the ancestral estate just a few months previously. Though come to think of it, those people became the ones who would have had us horse-whipped off the estate a few years on had we dared to remind them of their youthful peccadillo's before they inherited. Being tutored at RCA by people who would become some of the most influential visual artists of our time. Storm Thorgerson was and remains to this day a revered figure to us all. Living in London and being able to buy a cup of coffee without a mortgage. Come to think of it, if we ever decided to tell all, most of us who survive would probably end up in the nick given some of our antics. That is if the Snowflake Brigade even allowed us to get it as far as the scripting stage because the one thing you can be assured of is that we were most definitely not even remotely PC*.

* In those days PC meant Police Constable and we were on friendly terms with most of the guys at our local manor. Why it all went tits-up is a whole other tale!

 

[Terre]

Yup. You guys had fun.

 

[DanaTA]

I just graduated high school in 1971. Not to say that junior and senior year weren't fun. Plenty of partying, jamming with my friend Lenny, and playing for guests in my room after we smoked. I had a homemade bass amp that a friend loaned to me. It had a low power Realistic amp, with a bass speaker mounted face down onto a tower of wood that had channels in it. Someone made that for him. It worked pretty well, and was just right for playing along with my Sears Silvertone portable stereo turntable. I'd put on a little Led Zeppelin show for my friends. They seemed to enjoy the show.

Dana

 

[Terre]

You had fun too.