Thanks for the explanation Jon which, I must admit, I could never have imagined being the justification. You certainly have my sympathies. Maybe get a cat??

The bonnet was open because we have a mouse problem in the garage.  We were advised to leave the bonnets open to discourage the mice from using the area around the engine as a nice, warm, dark place to camp out.  That was following one taking up residence in my wife's car and chewing through a bunch of wires hidden in a hard to reach area which in turn cost USD650 to find and rewire.  Apparently the issue is that some manufacturers use wiring with a soybean-based insulation that the mice here love.

Someone's gotta do it so it may as well be me..........

"Why was the bonnet open while he was working on the HVAC which then allowed him to put the breaker where he put it?"

Actually more than "unhappy".  A couple of weeks ago I had the HVAC system replaced as the old one was continually losing refrigerant as the manufacturer kept using copper coils instead of the current standard of aluminium (there was a class action suit about this but, we fell outside the applicable range).  The "team" that did the replacement did OK, including changing the breaker for the air handler from 30A to 25A.

I went to close the bonnet on the car closest to the circuit panel and it wouldn't close completely.  After a couple of slams, it closed to the safety latch, but then wouldn't open back up.  Thinking the latch was defective on this 23-year old car, I strapped the bonnet down and booked it in to the local mechanic to have them sort it out.

After half an hour he called (laughing) and said the problem was a 30A breaker sitting on the radiator that was preventing the bonnet closing and that was what had jammed everything up.  Total cost USD85 because the HVAC bozo put the removed breaker in the engine bay of a car.

Yes, I know I should have looked closer, but ....

Jon

Yeah, feels like it but it'll depend where you are and what media you're exposed to; just search for some Telegraph articles to get an idea of what I mean.
I really do need to stop reading road.cc though, their business model now seems to partly rely on highlighting everything bad that is happening to a cyclist somewhere to generate anger and engagement.

Now of course I appreciate this is very local to me but the village/region I live also appears to have a few people in community positions that appear to be quite anti-cyclist, which does get you wondering if it can be like this in a region that's renowned for it's mountain biking facilities what is it like elsewhere?

Hmmm, I don't want to start a war here on this thread but that's an interesting phrase you used there Newportnobby: "least transgression".

I appreciate we all make mistakes and we don't really want to live in a surveillance state but even as a car driver I'm shocked by what I often see. I drive less than I used to but there seems to have been a real increase in the number of people oblivious to their responsibilities when driving and willing to do dangerous/impatient overtakes of any kind of vehicle, many people still using mobile phones/texting while driving, ridiculous speeding, just general aggressive driving, red light jumping by anyone, yes cyclists included and my pet-peeve, people happy to drift way over white lines often on blind bends.

That in itself isn't anti-cyclist obviously but it doesn't make anyone any safer.

I do wonder if the rise of sat-nav has made us all less willing to accept there will often be delays, more likely to cut things to fine and get frustrated when they 'get stuck' behind a cyclist/tractor/bus/slower driver/roadworks etc.
I wonder if people drove more calmly when they didn't know for sure how long a journey 'should' take or they had to navigate as they went with maps and road signs?

Plus we're probably all driving more, further and on busier roads than we used to.

Quote from: njee20 on September 04, 2024, 10:31:48 AMThat last point's an interesting one. Do you think so? Whilst there's an insistence in the media on depicting a 'war' between motorists and cyclists I wouldn't say it's escalating or heightened at the moment.

And that insistence in the media is mainly there owing to certain so called "celebs" (e.g. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Vine) going round with their helmet cams on so the least transgression by anyone other than cyclists is immediately highlighted

That last point's an interesting one. Do you think so? Whilst there's an insistence in the media on depicting a 'war' between motorists and cyclists I wouldn't say it's escalating or heightened at the moment.

So many reasons...

Yes, the Olympic/Paralympics, there's an interesting Vuelta going on, Eurosport don't have the rights so they won't have been promoting it, there's been all kinds of funding problems in the last couple of years which probably created a lot of uncertainty about the race even happening, it feels like there's been a general ramping-up of the bike vs car culture war here in the UK so there's probably that too.

Sylvia's growing understanding of the world of trains had sharpened her awareness, attuning her to the rhythms and sounds of the railway. For weeks, she had felt a strange tingling in her fingertips whenever she neared running water, but she had dismissed it as imagination. Sometimes, out of the corner of her eye, she caught glimpses of vague, wavering silhouettes near streams or ponds, but they always vanished when she turned to look. These odd sensations and fleeting visions were pieces of a puzzle she could not yet understand – hints of a hidden power stirring within her, waiting for the right moment to reveal itself.

One fateful afternoon, as Sylvia and Rusty took their usual stroll along the Castle grounds, the distant chug of an approaching train caught her attention. She paused, watching intently as a heavily laden goods train laboured up the steep incline towards the caverns beneath Trevelver Castle. The locomotive's laboured breaths echoed across the landscape, each exhalation of steam a testament to its burden. The acrid smell of coal smoke and warm oil mixed with the sweet scent of wildflowers, creating an oddly comforting aroma.

As the train crawled past, Sylvia's keen eyes spotted something alarming – an axlebox under one of the ammunition vans glowed an ominous cherry red, with tendrils of evil-smelling smoke curling upward. Her heart leapt into her throat, pulse quickening. Memories of Stationmaster Treskerby's warnings about overheated axleboxes causing derailments flashed through her mind. She could picture the dangers: derailment, explosion, catastrophe in the caverns under the Castle.

Time seemed to slow. The world around Sylvia faded away, leaving only her, the train, and the imminent disaster. Indecision raged within her – should she run for help? Signal the guard? But there was not time. Without conscious thought, her focus shifted to a nearby stream, the tingling in her fingertips intensifying to an almost painful degree.

Quote from: Malc on September 04, 2024, 12:16:15 AMI ordered some kippers by post ............

At this point I was thinking this post should probably be in the Groaners thread