The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

PasturesNew

Bl00dy smoke detector has started "chirping", it needs a new battery.

But, I have a genius plan

Firstly I need to get a battery. I have batteries that will fit, but they are 3-4 years old, so it's best to get a new one...

Then, I discovered there's a local "helping old people" group that do things like changing lightbulbs for old people who can't do it themselves... and the charge is £2 I believe (from memory)....

Old people .... bizarrely, their age definition starts 8 years younger than I am, so I'm well in their remit

I'll get the battery .... get the steps out of the shed .... then get geared up to giving them a call.... *deep breaths, deep breaths*... I hate the "unexpected" ... so not sure if they will do it, still do it, have somebody that can do it ... etc.

Shop opens in 2 hours where I can buy a battery, so "no rush just yet", but the chirping's already got my anxiety levels high.

EDIT: Well, that went as well as expected. Dud.... like all "helpful organisations" they're not actually able to help much. Googled for the name I thought it was - was given a different organisation name. Googled them and only came up with a mobile number.

Meanwhile I've had a bath, got dressed, looked for the instruction booklet (in case required) and didn't find it. All the time chirp, chirp, chirp....

So, I phoned... not got the batteries yet, but I phoned the number. Woman driving says she's not sure who to contact, it's her organisation but not her - and she's driving at the moment. She'll have to find out who sorts it out and gave me another organisation's name, but said the woman might be out. And, their organisation, you have to go through an application process and be approved/processed before you can use them.

So ... looks like I'll have to actually find somebody else....

*sighs*

Tip: Never buy a house with a hard wired system as you can't simply smash it off the ceiling to shut it up and go out and buy a new one

EDIT: Getting it sorted, but at a cost! Put a shout out on local Facebook and a chap round the corner responded, so I phoned.... he wanted an hour's labour ... so I asked how much and he said £30 (plus the cost of the batteries), so I said "can't afford it" and he then offered to do it for nothing .... so I said I'd give him £10. He's local and will be passing my house 5x today at least (he said) ....

That's the trouble with modern life.... everybody's working on "an hour's labour" as a minimum price.... in Ye Olden Days there'd be plenty of people willing to do it for free - and many others happy to take £5-10 off your hands. Now it's harder to find anybody and everybody quotes a standard "call out fee of an hour" or "hour's labour" for everything.

PasturesNew

Ah, well done Sue - it appears I missed all the Great Events there!

He'll soon be home and getting under your mum's feet...

SingleSue

Pyxis wrote: »

Great news, Sue, and fingers glued crossed that continues.

As others have said, look after yourself........ apart from the fact that you don't want to make yourself ill, you won't be any use to anyone if you push yourself too hard and go flopbot. :A

I am so going to use that saying, it's brilliant!

SingleSue

Dad is now back on the vascular ward, being his normal stubborn, flirty and naughty self. He's confined to his bed at the moment but that hasn't stopped him trying to come up with excuses as to why he should be allowed out of bed and at times, trying to be out of bed. He drove his critical care nurse crazy, she had told him not to try to stand without her, the next thing she knew (he had waited until she had her back turned), he was out and getting in the seat next to the bed. When we turned up to see him yesterday he was attempting to get back into bed, we told him off, his nurse told him off but he again completely ignored all of us and in the process tripped over his catheter...his wee bag was as a result, rather red when we left him last night (everyone is hoping the blood in the wee is damage to his important member from trying to move around rather than anything else but he does have stage 3 kidney disease too)

It's not an elderly thing either, dad has always been this impossible/naughty/not doing as he is told when in hospital but then it was that character that got him out of hospital and back to work (albeit not in his old career) after his big accident in 1972 when everyone was telling him he wouldn't be able to.

He scuppered himself by being naughty when he had his heart attack, he had reached the final bay before being discharged and was due to go home that day or the next when he missed the paper lady coming round, so what did he do? Did he speak to a nurse? Call one of us to bring a paper up? Go without? Nope, he went chasing after the lady, collapsed and ended up back in the original bay by the nurses station and had to start the process again!

He still has drains and a catheter in so it is not exactly as if he can get very far anyway!

Cakeguts

PasturesNew wrote: »

Bl00dy smoke detector has started "chirping", it needs a new battery.

But, I have a genius plan

Firstly I need to get a battery. I have batteries that will fit, but they are 3-4 years old, so it's best to get a new one...

Then, I discovered there's a local "helping old people" group that do things like changing lightbulbs for old people who can't do it themselves... and the charge is £2 I believe (from memory)....

Old people .... bizarrely, their age definition starts 8 years younger than I am, so I'm well in their remit

I'll get the battery .... get the steps out of the shed .... then get geared up to giving them a call.... *deep breaths, deep breaths*... I hate the "unexpected" ... so not sure if they will do it, still do it, have somebody that can do it ... etc.

Shop opens in 2 hours where I can buy a battery, so "no rush just yet", but the chirping's already got my anxiety levels high.

EDIT: Well, that went as well as expected. Dud.... like all "helpful organisations" they're not actually able to help much. Googled for the name I thought it was - was given a different organisation name. Googled them and only came up with a mobile number.

Meanwhile I've had a bath, got dressed, looked for the instruction booklet (in case required) and didn't find it. All the time chirp, chirp, chirp....

So, I phoned... not got the batteries yet, but I phoned the number. Woman driving says she's not sure who to contact, it's her organisation but not her - and she's driving at the moment. She'll have to find out who sorts it out and gave me another organisation's name, but said the woman might be out. And, their organisation, you have to go through an application process and be approved/processed before you can use them.

So ... looks like I'll have to actually find somebody else....

*sighs*

Tip: Never buy a house with a hard wired system as you can't simply smash it off the ceiling to shut it up and go out and buy a new one

EDIT: Getting it sorted, but at a cost! Put a shout out on local Facebook and a chap round the corner responded, so I phoned.... he wanted an hour's labour ... so I asked how much and he said £30 (plus the cost of the batteries), so I said "can't afford it" and he then offered to do it for nothing .... so I said I'd give him £10. He's local and will be passing my house 5x today at least (he said) ....

That's the trouble with modern life.... everybody's working on "an hour's labour" as a minimum price.... in Ye Olden Days there'd be plenty of people willing to do it for free - and many others happy to take £5-10 off your hands. Now it's harder to find anybody and everybody quotes a standard "call out fee of an hour" or "hour's labour" for everything.

If I lived near you I would have done it for free apart from one teensy weensy problemette. I am banned by everyone I know from going up ladders of any sort. The last time I did that I ended up in a knee splint for around 5 months and it still isn't back to normal 3 years later. Hence the ban they don't want me to do the other one in.


Latest thing is I am trying to buy 2nd hand music stands on ebay my usual supplier because they are cheaper and if they break I can just bin them and buy another. Recycling and all that. Anyway it is important to always erect a music stand correctly because if you don't you put strain on the rivets in the middle of the top of the stand and if these break because of the design the ledge that you put the music on drops down and basically you have a broken stand. So one of the ways to ensure that the rivets in the middle of the stand have a much reduced life span is to put the stand up so that instead of the top being oblong it is a sort of forced triangle shape with bits left over next the music ledge which by this time are bent that should actually be at the corners of the top of the oblong shape that it should be.



There I am looking on ebay and there were at least 6 music stands being advertised for sale with the pictures showing this strange triangle shape of the top. There were also pictures of lots of other examples of music stands that had been erected correctly. I am then contacting all the sellers of the now bent and potentially broken music stands to tell them that they have broken them putting the up hopefully so that someone doesn't buy one of these with the now suspect rivets.


So the moral of this is be very sure about what you are buying on ebay before you bid. If I didn't know how to put up a music stand I might well have bought one of these now broken stands. It also shows up pretty well that some sellers do not know how something they are selling works and can in fact break it in the process of photographing it to put on ebay.

GDB2222

It's easy to shin up a ladder and replace a battery. The only trouble is that they often stick smoke alarms right at the top of the stairs, so if you fall off you'll do yourself some serious damage.

Personally, when I fit them, I compromise and put the alarm on the wall where it can easily be reached, rather than the ceiling. It may not be quite so effective at detecting smoke, but it's a heck of a lot more effective than one where the battery has gone flat.

Jackmydad

Cakeguts wrote: »

If I lived near you I would have done it for free apart from one teensy weensy problemette. I am banned by everyone I know from going up ladders of any sort. The last time I did that I ended up in a knee splint for around 5 months and it still isn't back to normal 3 years later. Hence the ban they don't want me to do the other one in.


Latest thing is I am trying to buy 2nd hand music stands on ebay my usual supplier because they are cheaper and if they break I can just bin them and buy another. Recycling and all that. Anyway it is important to always erect a music stand correctly because if you don't you put strain on the rivets in the middle of the top of the stand and if these break because of the design the ledge that you put the music on drops down and basically you have a broken stand. So one of the ways to ensure that the rivets in the middle of the stand have a much reduced life span is to put the stand up so that instead of the top being oblong it is a sort of forced triangle shape with bits left over next the music ledge which by this time are bent that should actually be at the corners of the top of the oblong shape that it should be.



There I am looking on ebay and there were at least 6 music stands being advertised for sale with the pictures showing this strange triangle shape of the top. There were also pictures of lots of other examples of music stands that had been erected correctly. I am then contacting all the sellers of the now bent and potentially broken music stands to tell them that they have broken them putting the up hopefully so that someone doesn't buy one of these with the now suspect rivets.


So the moral of this is be very sure about what you are buying on ebay before you bid. If I didn't know how to put up a music stand I might well have bought one of these now broken stands. It also shows up pretty well that some sellers do not know how something they are selling works and can in fact break it in the process of photographing it to put on ebay.

Could be a market for music stands with repaired / replaced rivet?

Spirit_2

hjd wrote: »

Got back home after a trip to the USA. .

Sorry to read of the loss of your Mum.

Spirit_2

vivatifosi wrote: »

I wonder what sort of look you would get if you turned up on the forecourt to refill your hovercraft. Thanks, that thought will amuse me all day.

There was a restriction on the deeds of our last house so we were unable to keep a Hovercraft.

Was never a real problem for us.

LydiaJ

SingleSue wrote: »

I am so going to use that saying, it's brilliant!

"Going flopbot" was one of the afflictions of one Tricki Woo, a canine patient of James Herriot's, as described by his overindulgent owner, a Mrs Pumphrey.

silvercar wrote: »

SUe, please look after yourself!

What silvercar said.

Very glad to hear your dad is doing so well so far, Sue. :j