withaveeay

withaveeay, 9 months ago to TeslaMotors

A civilised trip to Inverness today. We did all we needed to do, and as usual, needed a quick supermarket stop. Plugged the car in on arrival, which pretty much topped up the car (80%) for the journey back. No wasted time, no fuss.
#EV

withaveeay, 4 months ago to random

Here we go again - delivery charges.
Good to know that Englandshire does not consider Scotland to be part of "UK Mainland".
"This charge is based on delivery to mainland UK, excluding Scotland, the Scottish Highlands & the Islands where additional shipping charges will apply."

withaveeay, 4 months ago to TeslaMotors

Goth Leo the #EV happy to spend the day asleep, I think.
With luck tomorrow's rain will see all of this go quickly.

withaveeay, 7 months ago to random

After my teaser of a while back, we're briefly back in the hotel so I downloaded my pics.
Here is the first, one of these. Quite apart from the skill of the artist(s), there is some primeval beauty to which one's soul must respond in these images.

withaveeay, 7 months ago to random

Forgot to mention the other day, it would be an outrageously stupid thing to drop the stainless screw from the large jubilee clip that holds the rain guard to the top of the chimney when refitting it after sweeping the chimney, and in disbelief to watch it fall down the roof.
I'm not /saying/ that's what happened, just that it would be a really stupid thing to do.
In other news, anyone have any advice for trying to find a stainless screw in longish grass?

withaveeay, 6 months ago to TeslaMotors

🧵 It's been a photographically interesting evening on a cold crisp night in #Assynt I wanted to do an equalisation charge on Goth Leo the #EV, and also get to grips with his lights, which I will need for the first time this week. So I decided to have dinner at An Cala in Lochinver, leaving the car on charge, and taking a slow walk with my camera.
Some so-so shots coming up, and then in a while, one of Cartier Bresson's "Decisive Moments."
Here's the harbour, looking calm and inviting.

withaveeay, 5 months ago to random

The Last Homely House has never felt spooky at all. But when we had the terriers, they would often lift their heads and their heads in unison would follow something not there.
Now, having said that, we have little battery operated night lights that detect proximity & switch on when required, great for night-time widdles. The night before last, I got to the bathroom and the light was on. It then went off, as expected. Last night, as usual, it only came on after I came in. Herself noticed this too

withaveeay, 1 year ago to random

This is where a quote post would be handy. @danie10 has just posted this link: Fibre-to-the-shack. Yet BT OpenReach, bankrolled by public money for the project, has no plans for anything like this for rural parts of the Highlands. Our MP, MSPs and others utterly disinterested, in spite of holding the purse strings.
Well done South Africa. This is farsighted.
https://gadgeteer.co.za/isizwes-fibre-to-the-shack-in-south-africa-uncapped-100mbps-for-r5-us0-27-a-day/

withaveeay, 9 months ago to random

"UK owners of smart home devices being asked for swathes of personal data"
"This includes smart TVs that ask for users’ viewing habits and a smart washing machine that requires people’s date of birth."
I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you. Who would have thought a path of destroying consumer protections and becoming a flea on the bum of global capitalism would result in this? Still. worth it for blue passports, huh?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/07/uk-owners-of-smart-home-devices-being-asked-for-swathes-of-personal-data

withaveeay, 2 months ago to random

A while back, in response to a horror story from @gcluley about an Amazon order that went badly wrong, I mentioned we were trying Temu for the first time. Some asked to report back about our experience.
The order process was smooth, with an expectation set of a delivery date of last Saturday, 6th. We could track the order at every step, and saw a week earlier that it had arrived in the UK and cleared customs. Then tracking went silent.
Three days later, a box appeared on the tracking page
2/...

withaveeay, 1 year ago to random

11. But when we hit a new stretch of tar, that did not yet have lines painted, the car suddenly beeped loudly, and the wheel twitched strongly to the left. It was not problematic for 2 reasons, 1 being that it was quick and easily caught, and the other is that I won't need laxatives for some time.
    Other than that, it was all a very pleasant drive, and given the road we chose, actually an astonishingly comfortable one.
    We let the salesman know when we returned.
    12/...

withaveeay, 9 months ago to random

So relate to this.
But a creeping danger exists for our generation too, which is why I do the Political Compass test every few years, so ensure I understand any possible changes in my own life.
So far, I am pleased to say that as I age, I go further into the lower left quadrant, but most of my blood family is pretty mush the opposite.
https://www.politicalcompass.org/

withaveeay, 1 year ago to random

Onward.
We knew we'd be lucky if we saw puffins in mid afternoon, but we went anyway. We didn't see any, but we did see large numbers of kittywake, close up.
EDIT: I'm told these are fulmars

withaveeay, 1 year ago to random

Whew! That's the first and hopefully last emergency stop in the new #EV
Some holidaymakers with two big dogs sent some sheep scurrying in panic, one almost into the side of the car (the sheep roam free here). Fortunately I was going very slowly and the car stopped instantly. No damage other than my nerves.
Nothing to do with an EV's silence, but all to do with a panicked sheep.

withaveeay, 5 months ago to random

It looks as though we got off lightly in #StormGerrit yesterday. In spite of hat gust to 89mph and the constant gusting in excess of 70mph, only the little greenhouse was destroyed. This has stood up to countless southerly and westerly gales, as it's located to get shelter from those, but all bets were off yesterday.

withaveeay, 7 months ago to random

OK. I needed to clear away some long branches from Tree. We grew Tree from seed at the millennium, and it now really demands space. Some branches cracked in the recent winds.
I knew I had /something/ to make the job easier, but could not place any suitable power tool, so grabbed my saw, and in just a few short minutes, was standing panting, my fitness deficit putting in a demanding claim. I went back into the house to sweat and recover.
Then I remembered the electric chainsaw in the shed....

withaveeay, 9 months ago to random

As I had time to walk around in Inverness today, I finally did the walk to Clachnaharry Lock, the entrance (or exit) to the Caledonian Canal.
Love that it says it's the gateway to Ireland. That's the helpful way to see one's neighbours.

A canal basin, looking ouot to the Beauly Firth. A building on the far side.

withaveeay, 6 months ago to TeslaMotors

Well now, this is civilised. After a prolonged period of very little solar power so far north, and not much usable wind power (problematic direction) the house battery for our #offgrid system is rather depleted. We don't let it get below 50% state of charge, although we could discharge it to 20%, but that would start damaging it, as we can't then immediately charge it.
Usually this would mean out with the little petrol generator, but today, Goth Leo the #EV is powering the big battery charger.

withaveeay, 9 months ago to random

A strange tale of a Raspberry Pi and two USB peripherals.
I have a little Pi in the battery shed, which does battery voltage, wind & solar input, & battery output monitoring. I found an ancient Model A for this, but the single. slow core, while adequate for the job, was frustrating to work on. I have a few spare Model 3s, so I thought I'd install that. The Model A boots off the SDcard then hands over to a USB root btrfs filesystem. Then there is a USB RS485 adaptor that does the work.
2/...

withaveeay, 10 months ago to random

Hooray!
At last.

withaveeay, 4 months ago to random

People with an interest in the Highlands of Scotland, your attention please.
The Highland Council want to slash services to save money, almost all of which will have a disproportionate ill effect on the rural Highlands. They hope to cut the Countryside Ranger service, mobile libraries and public transport provision, among others.
If you can, please make your views known, esp. if you live the HC region.
Doc here: https://engagehighland.co.uk/29834/widgets/86849/documents/53756
Consulation here: https://engagehighland.co.uk/budget-engagement/surveys/being-more-efficient
Please boost.

withaveeay, 3 months ago to random

The Great Woolstore Re-roofing Project of 2024, a 🧵
I've already cut the sheets to length the other day, so today is fitting day. Here you can see the little jog I set up along the edge, to slot the sheets into, partly to hold them in place at the steep angle of the roof and partly to ensure (hopefully) a reasonably straight edge. Generally I'm not too worried about details, but it needs to be close-ish

withaveeay, 2 months ago to random

A glimpse of what the north west Highlands should look like, if centuries of exploitation and mis-management for narrow aims hadn't denuded the landscape.
https://mastodon.scot/@GetCarter@mastodonapp.uk/112205377349680960
@GetCarter

withaveeay, 26 days ago to random

Herself had to go to the village this morning. On the way back, she had reason to test the brakes on Goth Leo, thanks to someone overtaking on a blind bend on a very steep hill.
Yes, the overtaker was stupidly playing the percentages, but it's possible too that the overtakee had held the car up for miles, a not uncommon, and incredibly frustrating occurrence in summer.
I dislike a dashcam - we should not be part of the surveillance state - but this is why it's becoming a necessary evil. No audio

Dashcam footage of the car going up a steep hill. A hillock on the left makes it a blind bend to the right. As the car turns, two cars are ahead, one overtaking another. Helen has to brake hard and come to a full stop to avoid a collision.

withaveeay, 1 month ago to random

Now that we are safely back home, here's why cities are absolutely un-understandable.
Our friends wanted to take us out to dinner on Saturday. They had been to a restaurant before and thought it was good. It was, or tried to be, French, but, they said, served a tapas-style menu, shared among two. Great, we thought, as we were tired. No decisions to be made.
Wrong!
The waiter listed all the items that were available for the tapas-style, but only pointed out some on the menu, no explanation
2/...