I'm sure I've seen case of a single escalator, which for energy efficiency stays dormant but activates when someone triggers a sensor at one of the ends, so the direction of travel depends on who gets there first
My curtain rail. Yesterday, I thought I'd got it right. Moved all the stuff against the wall below the window on to the bed. I took all the little widgets that fit between the wall fittings and the rail and slid them on to the rail, then snapped them on to the wall fittings. Triumph! Put all the stuff back.
This morning, I got the curtains, and slid the first curtain on. Fine. Then the second. And, as I went to tighten up the stop hook on the end, the rail peeled off the widgets again, and the curtain slid off on to the furniture again.
I could cry.
It has been stable for many, many years, until this one. First the fittings pulling out of the wall, now the little widgets not holding the rail. Glue is going to be applied.
With not wanting to go shopping, getting a totally different system would be problematical. I need hands on examination of the kit on offer. I need a rail which will be able to curve round 90 degrees, so plastic of some sort. But not so thermoplastic that high air temperatures (assuming that has been the problem) will affect its performance.
With the exception of the dining room, we have had to replace every curtain track in the house due to plastic fatigue. (The brackets broke off pulling the curtains.) This was particularly "fun" when doing the bay window.
I saw some bendable metal tracks, but for the length I need, they would come in sections, and one variety stated that the curtains would not move past the join. The other was silent on that subject online, so I would need to look in store - and the cases are still going up round here.
I hadn't thought of plastic fatigue, only mine. Next attempt will involve superglue.
My window is oddly sat in the house design. At one end it abuts the party wall, at the other it is close to six inches from the other wall of the room. I like having big windows and don't like covering up a significant amount of glass with curtains.
When I moved in, there were slatted blinds, which obviously avoided that problem, but made the room feel like a clinic. so I fixed up the curtains I brought with me, which are quite light. The track runs from the party wall, and then curves round to end on the other wall, with the curtain against the wall, not the window.
This, not by design, has another advantage. I like having the curtains open at night so I can see the stars. Someone has had installed a security light on a local footpath which shines in, but it shines on the dark curtain, so isn't a problem.
Look, I'm weird.
But I have just worked out why this year. Being a bit elderly, I have fallen into the custom of an afternoon nap. The window facing west, the sun shines in, and this year, particularly bright and hot. So I draw the curtain. The track has had more use than hitherto.
I bought blinds for the two windows in our bathroom. After a huge kerfuffle Mr Puzzler managed to get one up, not without making a horrible mess in the wall and indenting the vinyl floor. Fortunately this is the window which is overlooked by the neighbours. The other window defeated him, but at least it is not overlooked. The wall still bears the scars of his attempts. His explanation was that after breaking three drill bits, he gave up.
It does make me wary of getting an expensive firm in, to make a similar mess, if the walls are that impenetrable.
I bought blinds for the two windows in our bathroom. After a huge kerfuffle Mr Puzzler managed to get one up, not without making a horrible mess in the wall and indenting the vinyl floor. Fortunately this is the window which is overlooked by the neighbours. The other window defeated him, but at least it is not overlooked. The wall still bears the scars of his attempts. His explanation was that after breaking three drill bits, he gave up.
It does make me wary of getting an expensive firm in, to make a similar mess, if the walls are that impenetrable.
I hesitate to recommend it, at least without experimenting on a piece of wall that is otherwise hidden, but there are now various makes of Very Strong Glue available which might work...
We have a separate plastic track for each side of the curtains. Looking up, there are bits of wood attached to the ceiling at the point where the curtains fall to miss the windowsill. The fixing blocks are then screwed into the underside of those. Mr Dragon refuses to replace it should it ever be pulled down.
Oh and concrete/hard brick lintels is why we have a hammer drill.
I have a very expensive rail with cord system in the study, also with a 90 degree bend for the same reason, and to support a heavy curtain from my parents' home. It is only about 130 cm long along the window part, and was fitted by John Lewis people. I may have to go that way.
We have reached the stage where we will do almost anything to avoid drilling holes in our cottage. You just can never tell what sort of wall you'll find behind the plaster - either it's granite, or equally possibly, some awful crumbly material.
Hence, when I finally decided I could no longer bear the hideous wooden blind (?pinoleum?) at the long, low kitchen window, especially as we hadn't actually used it in three years, I persuaded Mr S to buy a roller blind 50 cm deep and 184 cm wide. When it arrived we stripped the material from the blind and threw away all the fittings; removed the wooden blind from its batten and threw that away; then cut the material and fastened it to the same batten with our SiL's heavy duty staple gun.
Result: one very pretty, if rather expensive, pelmet, and no additional holes!
Fatigue is a particular problem for plastics exposed to the sun.
I don't think it is fatigue in the usual engineering sense (repetitive reversing stress failure). Rather, I think there are chemical changes in the material that eventually cause embrittlement. This is sometimes seen in old plastic storage containers that will shatter when dropped. (Also parts of older cars - see thread elsewhere regarding Fiats...)
We have a separate plastic track for each side of the curtains. Looking up, there are bits of wood attached to the ceiling at the point where the curtains fall to miss the windowsill. The fixing blocks are then screwed into the underside of those. Mr Dragon refuses to replace it should it ever be pulled down.
Oh and concrete/hard brick lintels is why we have a hammer drill.
Regular hammer drill alone won't do them. You need one of those feck-off great SRS things.
Mr Alba refuses to attack window lintels any more, after the destruction of a number of Very Expensive but Apparently Suitable bits of kit.
Plus the mangling of an already arthritic hand.
Oh, the expletive count (mangled drill bits, jerry rigged curtain rails, curtains suddenly hitting the floor at 4am) until I bit the bullet and bought the SDS. It's like manhandling a rocket launcher though; absolutely huge.
It's just a more powerful connection between the chuck and the bit. A conventional chuck relies entirely on friction, resulting in bits spinning around if there's more friction being created by the bit in its hole than between the bit and the chuck. SDS uses splines to eliminate slippage in the chuck. This in turn allows the motor to be more powerful, which means that (a) you can drill in situations where the friction would be too high and the bit would slip in a conventional chuck, and (b) you can drill stuff that a regular drill just can't make any headway on because it can't spin fast enough.
Roughly, to the best of my understanding. As to sub-types, it's a go down to B&Q* and pay your money and take your choice
*Other DIY and power tool retail sources are available.
@Firenze That sounds like Thrips and, yes, anti-histamines won't work. I tend to scratch to remove the crust on top of the bite and then dab on an over-the-counter remedy called something like after bite: stings like *&%#@! but the relief is bliss.
Surely everyone's granny used calamine lotion on them, which is partly zinc ointment, and which is what the Romans used. It's still my most trusted remedy for the smaller stinging beasties, though tea tree oil is very good if you can stand the smell.
The person, presumably young, who, when opening an envelope and taking out a form completed on both sides of the paper, failed to notice that there were in fact two sides and only scanned in the face of the paper. This resulted in an e-mail request for a second form to be completed and phone call to point out that form had been completed!! As a friend pointed out, everyone expects everything to be on line which doesn't involve holding said bits of paper! :)
Surely everyone's granny used calamine lotion on them, which is partly zinc ointment, and which is what the Romans used. It's still my most trusted remedy for the smaller stinging beasties, though tea tree oil is very good if you can stand the smell.
I have some tea tree oil with lavender (a much nicer smell, though YMMV).
TICTH the colleague who set up a retroactive automatic email reply. I have now received individual responses on at least a year's worth of messages I sent to him.
TICTH the colleague who set up a retroactive automatic email reply. I have now received individual responses on at least a year's worth of messages I sent to him.
My work email system informed me last week that an email I had sent had been deleted unread. I sent the email in 2009.
TICTH the colleague who set up a retroactive automatic email reply. I have now received individual responses on at least a year's worth of messages I sent to him.
I didn't even know that was possible. The chaos this would cause in my employer's august organisation if people knew this was a thing - auto-replies create enough sound and fury at this time of year anyway.
TICTH the colleague who set up a retroactive automatic email reply. I have now received individual responses on at least a year's worth of messages I sent to him.
I didn't even know that was possible. The chaos this would cause in my employer's august organisation if people knew this was a thing - auto-replies create enough sound and fury at this time of year anyway.
TICTH the colleague who set up a retroactive automatic email reply. I have now received individual responses on at least a year's worth of messages I sent to him.
I didn't even know that was possible. The chaos this would cause in my employer's august organisation if people knew this was a thing - auto-replies create enough sound and fury at this time of year anyway.
It is possible to use the power for good; if I don't get through everything I need to before leaving the office, I will sometimes set it retroactively just for a few hours so people at least get a response and I can walk away guilt-free. But it sounds like at your org even that wouldn't be considered "for good." I figure auto-replies are more for me and my guilt than the other person.
I’ve been on an email group where someone set up an auto reply on their account. Someone posted to the list which set off the auto reply. That reply was then automatically sent out to the list which triggered the auto reply again. The list ballooned very rapidly to over ten thousand emails as the auto reply kept replying to its own posts on the list. We ended up contacting their office to get the auto reply to stop replying to the list address.
TICTH cancelled trains again. There are two trains which are usually convenient for me - one at 17:08 and one at 17:15 - and today they were both cancelled, resulting in a very pissed-off* piglet.
* and soggy - it was coming down in stair-rods when I was walking to Waverley.
TICH whoever decided (presumably from boredom in the absence of any customers late yesterday evening) to take up all the covid distancing markings from the floor of the nearby Sainsbury's convenience store - but omitted/forgot/couldn't be bothered to clean up the adhesive residue from the floor.
Being very familiar with the layout and the rules, I had long stopped looking at the black and yellow striped tape, so only noticed its absence when my foot stuck to the floor - and also stuck to the floor wherever I trod thereafter because my shoe was now contaminated with sticky gloop.
Comments
This morning, I got the curtains, and slid the first curtain on. Fine. Then the second. And, as I went to tighten up the stop hook on the end, the rail peeled off the widgets again, and the curtain slid off on to the furniture again.
I could cry.
It has been stable for many, many years, until this one. First the fittings pulling out of the wall, now the little widgets not holding the rail. Glue is going to be applied.
With not wanting to go shopping, getting a totally different system would be problematical. I need hands on examination of the kit on offer. I need a rail which will be able to curve round 90 degrees, so plastic of some sort. But not so thermoplastic that high air temperatures (assuming that has been the problem) will affect its performance.
There is a specialist blinds firm in this area, but I don't know if they do curtains as such.
I too remember those plastic rails, but we haven't had any lo these 30 years...
I hadn't thought of plastic fatigue, only mine. Next attempt will involve superglue.
My window is oddly sat in the house design. At one end it abuts the party wall, at the other it is close to six inches from the other wall of the room. I like having big windows and don't like covering up a significant amount of glass with curtains.
When I moved in, there were slatted blinds, which obviously avoided that problem, but made the room feel like a clinic. so I fixed up the curtains I brought with me, which are quite light. The track runs from the party wall, and then curves round to end on the other wall, with the curtain against the wall, not the window.
This, not by design, has another advantage. I like having the curtains open at night so I can see the stars. Someone has had installed a security light on a local footpath which shines in, but it shines on the dark curtain, so isn't a problem.
Look, I'm weird.
But I have just worked out why this year. Being a bit elderly, I have fallen into the custom of an afternoon nap. The window facing west, the sun shines in, and this year, particularly bright and hot. So I draw the curtain. The track has had more use than hitherto.
We are either ignoring the problem or CTH. Either way the curtains can’t be used, so this does require action
Thanks, you may well have said that!
It does make me wary of getting an expensive firm in, to make a similar mess, if the walls are that impenetrable.
I hesitate to recommend it, at least without experimenting on a piece of wall that is otherwise hidden, but there are now various makes of Very Strong Glue available which might work...
Oh and concrete/hard brick lintels is why we have a hammer drill.
Hence, when I finally decided I could no longer bear the hideous wooden blind (?pinoleum?) at the long, low kitchen window, especially as we hadn't actually used it in three years, I persuaded Mr S to buy a roller blind 50 cm deep and 184 cm wide. When it arrived we stripped the material from the blind and threw away all the fittings; removed the wooden blind from its batten and threw that away; then cut the material and fastened it to the same batten with our SiL's heavy duty staple gun.
Result: one very pretty, if rather expensive, pelmet, and no additional holes!
I don't think it is fatigue in the usual engineering sense (repetitive reversing stress failure). Rather, I think there are chemical changes in the material that eventually cause embrittlement. This is sometimes seen in old plastic storage containers that will shatter when dropped. (Also parts of older cars - see thread elsewhere regarding Fiats...)
Regular hammer drill alone won't do them. You need one of those feck-off great SRS things.
Plus the mangling of an already arthritic hand.
Oh, the expletive count (mangled drill bits, jerry rigged curtain rails, curtains suddenly hitting the floor at 4am) until I bit the bullet and bought the SDS. It's like manhandling a rocket launcher though; absolutely huge.
Roughly, to the best of my understanding. As to sub-types, it's a go down to B&Q* and pay your money and take your choice
*Other DIY and power tool retail sources are available.
Sounds fabulous though….
Think we are in the market for discovering A Person Wot Does such things
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kb0ooQKbflM
I have some tea tree oil with lavender (a much nicer smell, though YMMV).
Have you read, marked, learned, inwardly digested, and deleted them?
My work email system informed me last week that an email I had sent had been deleted unread. I sent the email in 2009.
I didn't even know that was possible. The chaos this would cause in my employer's august organisation if people knew this was a thing - auto-replies create enough sound and fury at this time of year anyway.
And reported to HR?
It might get better in September then!
It is possible to use the power for good; if I don't get through everything I need to before leaving the office, I will sometimes set it retroactively just for a few hours so people at least get a response and I can walk away guilt-free. But it sounds like at your org even that wouldn't be considered "for good." I figure auto-replies are more for me and my guilt than the other person.
* and soggy - it was coming down in stair-rods when I was walking to Waverley.
Being very familiar with the layout and the rules, I had long stopped looking at the black and yellow striped tape, so only noticed its absence when my foot stuck to the floor - and also stuck to the floor wherever I trod thereafter because my shoe was now contaminated with sticky gloop.