YET *EVEN* MORE things that made you happy today!

[Synistor 303]

They are growing so fast! I swear I saw one wearing a tie and carrying a little briefcase...

Soon they will be booted out of the nest to go and live their own lives. (See, parents, it's not hard!)

[Synistor 303]

I often feed them mealworms.
Put a dish on a table about 5m from the bird box.
I can even sit at that table without scaring them off.
This ia fascinating to see them at half a metre distance.

So a few days ago I was watching the birds and the parents were backwards and forwards so quickly with mealworms that I guessed you must have been feeding them in Germany at the same time I was watching them in Australia. Cool!

[The Bullet]

Aaaand they´re gone.

[Synistor 303]

Checked last night and the nest was empty. It was so fast. But I think they did better this year than last year which may be due to them being fed by their human helper?

[J. Wilhelm]

For Memorial Day weekend: Baked Wagyu Schnitzel! 
Sounds like double herecy, but it's really good! I used flour egg and Italian bread crumbs over round steaks cut in ½ cm slices.

[SeVeNeVeS]

There is "something" about the smell a rain shower produces in hot wheather, nothing else like it, can't explain it............. if you know, then you know what I'm talking about............... a little like sea air but totally different.. more earthy.

Simply wonderful.

[James Harrison]

There is "something" about the smell a rain shower produces in hot wheather, nothing else like it, can't explain it............. if you know, then you know what I'm talking about............... a little like sea air but totally different.. more earthy.

Simply wonderful.

Petrichor.  And I agree, it's bliss. 

[SeVeNeVeS]

There is "something" about the smell a rain shower produces in hot wheather, nothing else like it, can't explain it............. if you know, then you know what I'm talking about............... a little like sea air but totally different.. more earthy.

Simply wonderful.

Petrichor.  And I agree, it's bliss.

Well, there you go, I never knew it had a name.

Learn something new every day. Will have to remember that one.

[James Harrison]

Two hour long thunderstorm with constant rolling thunder and torrential rain. Just the thing after a hot, sticky weekend.

[Synistor 303]

Hope you had a Happy King's Birthday (King of UK). I am amazed at how the (late) Queen of the UK and the King of the UK managed to have their birthdays' on the same day so that we Down Under here could enjoy a long weekend! 

[J. Wilhelm]

Not necessarily something that makes me happy, but it's something interesting you don't see every day.

The Mexican Navy's training sail ship "Cuauhtémoc" sailed up the Thames to pay London a visit.

https://twitter.com/josefagbom/status/1670798998985162756?s=20
https://twitter.com/josefagbom/status/1671256696960995328?s=20
https://twitter.com/Embamexru/status/1671243343714549760?s=20

[rovingjack]

I'm hesitant to say things made me happy, because it feels like it always invites fate to ruin everything... but...

I'm having fun doing game design stuff again. and part of that is creating random generation tables that can create all sorts of things with a few random number generators. I've found 1d4+level to be my new favorite way to build a single table that scales with character growth.

Gonna play with catching up on my dungeon23  parallel challenges.

[Rockula]

We're off to the zoo for a day out.
Meeting up with Klif (Captain Dirigible).

[Sorontar]

I am on holiday and have something fun to do!

My work might have forced me to take a break (it's a weird contract) but I probably wouldn't have taken it otherwise - I always find things I think need to be done at work.

Normally when I have breaks, it is so I have time to do nothing much. However, this time I have a new video game to play - Mars First Logistics, a new Aussie-made game that is like a mix of Technic Lego/Meccano and delivery missions on Mars. The challenge is to to design appropriate vehicles that pick up and delivery the orders. As I get more parts, I can design fancier looking craft. I hope to eventually have enough money and parts to be able to make some biplanes and anything else i can think of. Haven't played much yet, but it has been fun.

Sorontar

[LukeHogbin]

Checked it out on Steam's webstore, sounds like fun. Too bad my computer is a potato from 2012 and wouldn't be able to run it.

[James Harrison]

Something ticked off my bucket list today; hiked the Manifold Way in the Peak District.  Very, very picturesque metalled footpath that meanders between Waterhouses and Hulme End along the route of an abandoned narrow gauge railway (in a somewhat farsighted act, Staffordshire County Council bought the trackbed and turned it into a footpath when the line closed in 1934). 

Well, I say I hiked it, what I mean is I had to hike it both ways.  8 and a half miles each way.  My legs are hurting tonight. 

[Ceir]

Might only be a holiday to me, but...happy Moon Landing Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcDftgR5UQ

[rovingjack]

Might only be a holiday to me, but...happy Moon Landing Day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOcDftgR5UQ

do we moon somebody as part of the celebration?

[Synistor 303]

I have zero memory of the day of the moon landing, because at the time we lived so far in the outback we didn't have TV reception. What I do remember in great detail, was the Apollo 13 'problem'. It was broadcast extensively on ABC radio and I remember leaping off the school bus and tearing home to hear if they had made it around the dark side of the moon.

[Sorontar]

I have just picked up my first pair of prescription glasses. I can now read the forum on my laptop clearly. However, I also have to get used to looking over the glasses to see the tv on the wall five metres away (my vision for that and driving is fine).  My eyes are going to have to used to the rapid change in focus, but hopefully it will stop me feeling like my eyes were half asleep at the start and end of the day when I couldn't focus clearly on my laptop.

Sorontar

[LukeHogbin]

I have just picked up my first pair of prescription glasses. I can now read the forum on my laptop clearly. However, I also have to get used to looking over the glasses to see the tv on the wall five metres away (my vision for that and driving is fine).  My eyes are going to have to used to the rapid change in focus, but hopefully it will stop me feeling like my eyes were half asleep at the start and end of the day when I couldn't focus clearly on my laptop.

Sorontar

Have you considered bifocals ?

[The Bullet]

Bought an old fire-pump.
A Ziegler TS 2/5, built in 1962, powered by the indestructable ILO 152 two-stroke engine.
Some maintenance was required, now she´s running.
Always fascinating for me how well these old things are made.
You can do maintenance with just a single screwdriver and two or three wrenches.
Some parts (like the valce ball of the vacuum unit) are accessible without any tools.
Sensible choice of materiel, thicknesses,...
The old beast still exceeds all performance parameters set for it in the sixties.

So now I have two two-stroke engines, the pump and an old NVA (German national Army) generator which is powered by the legendary Barkas EL 150 Motor.
It came to me with a broken coil and less than 150 hours on the clock. Built in 1974 it is also built to last.

[Sorontar]

Have you considered bifocals ?

As I said, these are my first glasses so I will see how these go for a few years. I am just not used to having to having to take glasses on and off depending on what I am doing (or looking over the glasses). Most of the time it's looking at computer screens so they can stay on, so it isn't worth getting transitional or bifocals.

Sorontar

[Cora Courcelle]

My brother has been discharged from hospital to continue his recovery at home. He was admitted last October.
I am happy 

[J. Wilhelm]

Have you considered bifocals ?

As I said, these are my first glasses so I will see how these go for a few years. I am just not used to having to having to take glasses on and off depending on what I am doing (or looking over the glasses). Most of the time it's looking at computer screens so they can stay on, so it isn't worth getting transitional or bifocals.

Sorontar

It doesn't sound to me like you're at a stage to need bifocals. That's only when you can't focus either far or near, typically in older age.  Not that I'm so old, but let's just say I started wearing glasses for nearsightedness at around 20 years of age and it took me about 30-something years to get to the point where I needed some mild help looking at items *very* close to my face like I need for fine crafts, which I enjoyed doing all of my life - that's just age affecting the flexibility of the natural lens in the eye.

If at well into adult life you can see perfectly any objects far away then all you have to do is correct vision when looking at close objects. Neither eye surgery not bifocals are needed IMO. Pharmacy brought reading glasses do the trick.