Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

I spent my formative years on a rough council estate; I've been unshockable for a loooooong time.

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

I spent my formative years on a rough council estate; I've been unshockable for a loooooong time.

Copper wires and a sub-station should still do the job.

boultdj

nuatha wrote: »

And then back down to the gutter. The usual vagaries of this thread, with the odd bits of doom and gloom forecast for good measure.

At the risk of heading on topic, I have/had on of the jump starter power packs that have been mentioned on here several times. A week of car problems started with a flat battery, the jump starter, last tested 1st December 2015 no longer holds charge, its either 6 or 7 years old and sometime in the last few weeks the internal battery has died (which suggests that its been dying for a while and the integral dial is less accurate than it might be).
Looking around it appears that a lot of these things fail between 4-5 years, so I can't complain, and looking at replacements it seems the current fashion is for a powerbank, which can also be used to charge USB devices. Does anyone have any experience of these, or recommendations?

Car troubles continued yesterday, as Herself was leaving work she discovered she had a flat tyre, the compressor she carries wouldn't make any difference. Typically I'd removed the trolley jacks from my car last week and hadn't replaced them. So yesterday was a case of detouring to pick her up and this morning was sorting her tyre - decided it was pointless just putting the spare on, and replaced the tyre. However with a completely flat tyre her car was too low to get a trolley jack under at the relevant point. Meaning three different jacking points were used and both jacks were needed.
Its a lot of faff and I'm not as fit as I was, so I'm considering adding an inflatable bag jack to the tools, again anyone have any experience? (I know I could just call out a breakdown service, but I'd prefer to preserve the illusion of independence and ability a bit longer.)

Car battery charger is on special today at L*dl if that helps.£14 is the cost and it say's it's even got a diagnostics programme and can also be used on motorbikes.

fuddle

Physiological v psychological pondering coming up.

Why do humans walk with their mouths open when walking in blizzards? I have been observing folk this morning with their mouths ajar while wincing as the snow hits their face. I then found myself doing the exact same thing even while pondering the issue!

Common sense says to me that surely in that scenario every orriface possible would be in shut down. Maybe our need to express disgust and discomfort non verbally over rides the need to protect ourself (at the every least our teeth) from cold?

Like I say, just pondering. :cool:

nuatha

boultdj wrote: »

Car battery charger is on special today at L*dl if that helps.£14 is the cost and it say's it's even got a diagnostics programme and can also be used on motorbikes.

Thank you. I have a decent charger.
The jump starter which died was one of these


Which will start a car when the car battery is flat and doesn't need to be near a mains socket in order to work - its effectively a heavy duty car battery in a case with its own jump leads.

I'm considering something like this:

which would at least have the advantage of being smaller and lighter (and be able to charge phones, run laptops etc)

nuatha

fuddle wrote: »

Physiological v psychological pondering coming up.

Why do humans walk with their mouths open when walking in blizzards? I have been observing folk this morning with their mouths ajar while wincing as the snow hits their face. I then found myself doing the exact same thing even while pondering the issue!

Common sense says to me that surely in that scenario every orriface possible would be in shut down. Maybe our need to express disgust and discomfort non verbally over rides the need to protect ourself (at the every least our teeth) from cold?

Like I say, just pondering. :cool:

Maximum air intake?

fuddle

Hmm quite possibly yeah. It is a struggle to walk making progress in those conditions.

[Deleted User]

I wonder if the air that goes into your lungs in very cold weather is warmer quicker if you draw it in via the mouth and maybe it's one of those primal things that are built in?

ivyleaf

nuatha wrote: »

Maximum air intake?

That was my thought too.

boultdj

nuatha wrote: »

Thank you. I have a decent charger.
The jump starter which died was one of these


Which will start a car when the car battery is flat and doesn't need to be near a mains socket in order to work - its effectively a heavy duty car battery in a case with its own jump leads.

I'm considering something like this:

which would at least have the advantage of being smaller and lighter (and be able to charge phones, run laptops etc)

The one on offer is like the bottom picture.