[Richard]

Thank you Tippon, though the whole debacle took another turn to the evil side on Friday. The oncologist rang my wife later Friday to ask about a couple of missing reports he needed before he could get her to sign off on the start of treatment. After three weeks of trying one department has failed to respond and is thus holding up the start of urgent treatment. The other is the one with the appointment screw up. Sadly it was too late on Friday to take action but unless there are some speedy responses on Monday morning I feel the need for urgent and very direct action. Things could all too easily start to get ugly very soon.

[Richard]

Perhaps I am part of the reason why Homegroup has been discontinued, I never used it with my network. My network has been through many changes over about 20 plus years as different versions of the OS hit the ground, sometimes limping rather than running. However, I have always been based on the network method \\name of pc\resource required

I believe that some of the more recent changes have come about because of paranoia over security, as accessing resources on a networked PC has required an increase in the permissions to be granted. I recently had to update the permissions on several of my devices. Getting my daughter’s PC to access the ‘Public Shared’ devices on the server, – which had previously been set up was a permissions pain – and her PC is the only one still on 1709.

Uploading files to an external network only to download them to a device a few feet away is a time consuming waste of effort.

At least the network appears to recognise the printers – though the mishmash of different screens needed to allow items of similar types to be found is a pain. Just because the Bluetooth loudspeakers for the TV also have a network connection is not a great reason for my PC to list them as a resource. The network does allow access to recorded material on the PVRs with little restriction, which can be useful sometimes.

[Richard]

Sorry to learn the latest update, I am sure that it was not what you wanted to hear. At least they are proposing the standard action. Though I was not clear whether they are planning to remove the lymph node or if that has already gone. My wife’s is a triple negative invasive cancer, (plus several others’ in waiting’ it is not always nice to have a few spares). It is already in the nearest lymph node so she has either 4 courses or 8 courses of chemo, it is not yet decided which due to her other co-morbidity issues. Then a month’s break and then the operation(s). So it does not really matter what the summer/autumn is like, we know how were are going to be spending the coming months until November/December.

The appointment system is still crap, last week we had a call telling her she had an appointment on Tuesday,yes said SWMBO I am seeing the oncologist at that time. Oh the hospital said we better rebook this one. Today a latter turned up for the last Tuesday double booked appointment. So SWMBO rang them up, yes you did not turn up for your appointment the non-system said. SWMBO pointed out that last week she told them she was being double booked and could they reschedule the appointment, at that time they said they would. However dumbo did not bother to follow through. Now we need to get  that matter sorted out – pronto.

Bob, I hope your lot mange things rather better!

[Richard]

I did the same sort of thing with my old HP laser printer, that had a couple of obscure capacitors that gave up on life from time to time, but I gave up on the machine in the end. It was satisfying to do the work and return it to service. Its replacement was faster but no obsolete and I have another laser upstairs and that is fastest of all though my printing needs are now greatly reduced.

[Richard]

It is good that you can both get out and about again and of course getting into and out of the car is an important part of that task!

I tried to start my wife’s car at the weekend so the battery had to be recharged again to get it going. I took it out on Sunday as it has not been very much used for a while – it has now done less than an average 200 miles per annum over its six year life.  It will be a while before SWMBO is back in the driving seat once more; the various things she is already taking put driving out of the question. It is always one step forward and at least one back, so a passenger she will be for some months. I now have an automated reminder to take her car out once a week.

I looked at the i20 and i30 but ended up buying the Ceed when I needed something fast, as it was in stock and ready to go within days. Sadly the Hyundai dealer did not appear interested in selling anything. Their sales people, (or perhaps it was just a lonely hearts club) were more interested in talking to each other than dealing with me.

[Richard]

Oncology? Ah you mean what is fast becoming second home… My wife is now getting calls from sundry support people which all makes things come more clearly into focus. We got the parking permit yesterday. I might laminate it as I feel it will be getting a lot of use.

You have the right attitude, deal positively and treat it as a day out, which it is come hail or shine. I am, going to suggest that it could be a precautionary course for you, or a discussion of options for your post operative management.

[Richard]

Bob, I trust you are still able to enjoy good weather today. With us it is slightly cooler but at just about 22 degrees it is far from being unpleasant and the garden can get some more attention. It certainly needs the efforts as everything is really growing with the mixture of warm, wet, and hot sunny days.

[Richard]

I went to work thousands of miles from where I went to one school and found that one of those who arrived there had been in the year above me at the small school we both attended. He went on to another carer, became a minister and died very young. Not a coincidence really just an example of how small the world can be.

[Richard]

Wow, it was in the high 20s here up to 29 at times which made the trips to the hospital a warm affair even with all of the windows and doors of the unit open.

Now it has dropped – to 23.4 in the garden and very sticky. The dogs quite like it while trying to stop the lawn floating away by lying out flat.

[Richard]

Ammonium Sulpahamate was for years a great weed killer until the EU, or rather I understand the Irish contingent wanted some extra tests that were expensive and not supported by other members. It can still be used as a composting accelerator but not as a herbicide/weedkiller on open ground. It has a interesting property of breaking down over a bit of time, 3 ~6 months to provide a nitrogen based fertiliser making it  great for the clearance of land that will be used for cultivation and so it is still widely used – but only outside of the EU. Sodium chlorate is another good weed killer though that can have other uses which are not so well appreciated by most people. Its persistence is far greater than the sulphamate so it is not so well suited to land for cultivation and it may leach into ground water where it will be stable and poisonous for some considerable time. Neither is currently licensed for use within the EU, though all weed killers beat the heck out of hand work when your hands are fairly crap.

Resolva contains di-ammonium glyphosate along with other packaging components to achieve its active status. So both Roundup and Resolva are essentially similar apart from detals of their formulations and neither appear to be very long lasting.

I hold no truck for either Monsanto or Merck so I am not aiming to support any such enterprise. All such products can have undesirable effects if misused, e.g by using them as drinks or hand lotions or breathing in fumes etc.

Sadly such uses have been tried either accidentally or by intent.

[Richard]

I did it last night, well evening as the dogs were not boarding with us last night. The weeds I hit do not look well today so hopefully it will work for you. It is now down to 20 degrees, so a good time to hit the little green nasty things.

[Richard]

Bob,  the older cars were, or appeared to be, easier to work on with minimal tools, though of course that should not have been something to affect your operation. I saw his latest show, thanks PM, but while he got there and clearly helped the project to arrive I felt that the editing glossed over and left a little to be desired with several of the interesting bits left out. Not his fault and his hallmark side talks on why and how to do things was still there. I always thought he was as keen to impart knowledge on how to get things done as he was to do the job. The was the best part for me, though my doing much days are somewhat passed now. I did spend time this morning trying to restore the plastic headlight covers, a thankless task I found. I am not sure if they are as good as they could or should be but time and my energy ran out so I wrapped things up and headed out again. I don’t thing I could pull an engine out in just over an hour without a hoist or pit and single handed any more!

[Richard]

Bob, good news, keep up progressing.

[Richard]

I found that on at least one machine, but over a short-ish period it speeded up and all was back to slight;y faster than before. One machine, my wife’s, would not automatically hibernate, but it does now after  the update. Most of the new cruft is of zero benefit and some has already been processed to the waste bin.

[Richard]

If you count the down loading and the initial installing it does take a longish time. If you start the timing from the ‘do it now’ stage three machines took up to 30 minutes and the slowest one took about 40 minutes and yes, three or four reboots happened with all of my machines.

[Richard]

We were going to a family holiday location on the coast, perhaps 15 years back and I am not really sure why we were near Cardiff at the time. Travelling >150 miles to a location well beyond those served by buses or trains with a family including a dog and luggage was not an activity for public (putrid?) transport.

Though two out of three of us now have a bus pass, neither I nor our daughter have used them since it was renewed, the bus is just not a usable option for most journeys. The park and ride is sort of OK in Cambridge at least to get to Addenbrooks Hospital, but watch out for the operating times, it is useless in the evening. Our daughter has no putrid sorry public transport, (putrid or otherwise) to get from the train station to work tomorrow Bank Holiday Monday, so must walk to get there for 07:15.

My wife was offered a wait list place for clinics in London with indefinite wait lists or one more accessible place 22 miles across country. London did not get the vote. Spending a whole day travelling for an appointment is not our idea of fun. In the past we travelled to Great Ormond Street (who always managed to lose the patient notes) and other hospitals with the kids; it was grim by train and bus even when we were more mobile.

To me now cities are pretty much all the same Madrid, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, London, (now one of the worst), Cardiff, Bristol, Plymouth, Tokyo, Yokohama, (though we drove there), even Dhaka Bangladesh, big, crowded and unpleasant. Ottawa was a trifle better though we flew there and the transport we needed (a) worked and (b) had helpful staff and friendly people. Washington was OKish, though the taxis were something else and the drivers were a unique breed but someone else was paying.

[Richard]

How many of the false IDs were where the wetware had failed to update the log of wanted persons? The last time I read a review of data, which was a while ago, people who had either been arrested or recently cleared were not a high priority for removal from the manual lists so the automatic hardware kept finding matches for them.

I have neither the desire or capacity to visit Cardiff; it is just another big city with crowds and traffic and damn all else to say about the matter. The traffic was horrible years back so another good reason to avoid the city

[Richard]

Yes the fly out side panel is a bit sensitive sometimes, but today either it or me is a little better. I used to think that composing space is a bit short then, today I found the box can be stretched downwards to make it a little more useful sized. It is amazing what can learn if you live long enough.

[Richard]

Good luck with all of those issues, pain control can be and is a real problem for some. You will find some people will swear by a certain treatment while others simply swear at it because it is useless – for them. I have heard exercise can help some sufferers, but sometimes the stupid places that hurt make that a challenging option. I have it in some toes, it makes all sorts of movements an issue when it wants to try me. Still what with dog walking, supermarket smash ‘n grab, trips round hospital car parks plus the corridors I am now well past the 10,000 steps target for the day. It feels like it too.

[Richard]

I have never hired a car in Europe, too many tales of woe have assaulted my ears. Many years ago I bought a car in Italy and drove it round Europe but hat was before credit cards and the like. Exchange controls were still an issue, so bouncing into Italy with 100,000 lira notes was not really supposed to be on; we had one each but luckily did not get stopped at the border. Apart from that I think it was travellers’ cheques with the odd dollop of cash. I know we had a continuous drive across Germany, France and sSouthern England on the last day as the funds were running low. The ONLY place were were ever stopped was Sussex, at 03:00 in a police road block. They rarely got drivers with a Middle Eastern driving license, an IDP, a UK license, Italian log book and insurance issued via a Middle East agent. plus UK passports. They did not read Italian but noticed the plates did match the number in the book, so we were soon on our way.

Like Bob, that is not an experience I expect to repeat, the insurance would kill the idea straight off the bat.

[Author]

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