and today i have mostly been...

[Doggy]

Commendable husbandry sir.

Suspecting my car insurance was about due for renewal, I did some digging this evening and discovered it was set to auto-renew on Wednesday with Tosco for the princely sum of £340, a significant hike since last year.

Tried Direct Line, (worse), then a couple of comparison sites and wound up with a quote from Tosco for £232. Go figure.
Could have got it for 3p less with Shiela's Wheels, but the excess was £100 more.

So now I've got to ring 'em tomorrow to say I'm not renewing it, cos I've renewed it. Clear?

[Welly]

I bet when they see you're one of those annoying "existing customers" that offer will fall flat on its arse......

[Doggy]

Already paid for & docs issued so I'd say a contract exists. I'll give 'em a bell....


All sorted. Needless to say, they would have matched any comparable quote.
I may have wasted 3p.

[steve_earwig]

It's probably well spent, if only for eace of mind. Imagine the fight you'd have to get the difference back...

Hey chaps, guess what day it is
IuHl_LD0EdQ

And today I have mostly been... digging a big hole, sifting through rubble, breaking up big lumps of concrete with a sledgehammer, stuffing it in the hole. And gardening. I is knackered

[Doggy]

Remember that drill driver I resolved to try fixing? Fiddled with the screwdriver/drill/hammer selector....click.....working perfectly again.

Changed the oil+filter/air filter/fuel filter on the camper over the weekend for the princely sum of £50.

You can't lose them all.

[steve_earwig]

Oh yes. See? It's always worth having a look. Is the selector mechanical or electronic? I presume mechanical, on my little cheapy it's possible to get it not all the way into gear, meaning it selects both

Are we all sick of cat videos? Well tough

I've got some sad news, and some good news.

I didn't want to post about it at the time because of all the other crap going on but we lost little Michelle a couple of weeks back: one day she was fine, the next she just sort of faded away. We had her at the vet's in the morning because there was obviously something wrong, she was dehydrated, couldn't keep anything down and had a low temperature. She got the usual, anti-emetics, something for apatite and a load of fluids and we put her in the bedroom with two heaters going and a blanket, I thought she'd rallied in the afternoon but in the evening she stopped moving about, leaked everywhere and died. My wife was pretty upset, me less so, I guess I just didn't know her that well. She's been sent to the veterinary faculty for autopsy as we'd all like to know what happened. She'd just been vaccinated the week before, which was probably unfortunate as it wouldn't have come into effect for a couple of weeks and may even have made her more susceptible.

Still waiting on the faculty, Mirela (our vet) reckons the length of time means it wasn't anything obvious and now they're onto tissue culture etc.

And now the good news:
ppSw7fKeeEo
These wandered in about a week back, very probably Michelle's brothers (2nd litter - I'd already seen them while I was looking for Archie a few weeks ago). Both de-flead and -wormed, Ben (blue collar for ease of identification) had an eye infection but that's all cleared up and they'll be vaccinated in 2 weeks (we lost enough cats this year).

And we now have TEN cats

[Doggy]

It's a mechanical selector - bizarrely not the fwd/rev but the one that selects between hammer/drill/screwdriver settings.

Sorry to hear about Michelle, but you've now got 10 catz
2 more and you'll be needing some inspiration form this guy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bunker_Gilbreth_Sr.

[steve_earwig]

Most cordless jobbies just reverse the polarity (or the phase probably) for reverse. Gear selection needs to be a bit more "hands on". Although it could probably be done too with pwm.

Sorry to hear about Michelle,

Thanks, although I'm pretty good now

but you've now got 10 catz

I asked Mirela if we were mad for having so many cats, she says no, she has clients with more, e.g. 14, 16.

2 more and you'll be needing some inspiration form this guy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bunker_Gilbreth_Sr.

Link no worky, Searchy searchy... Ah scientific management, you mean I need 12 cats to produce model T Fords? Or do you mean the dying at 55 thing?

[Welly]

Indeed, sorry to hear about the cat

What's your preferred method for flea and worming treatments?

We use tablets for fleas (concealed in cooked chicken)

And recently tried a chocolate-flavoured worming 'milk' which they both devoured but it's hard to tell if it works unless you see a worm in some sick or something, you never see where your outdoor cats sh*t, not on my property anyway, and not that I'd wish to inspect it for wormage.

Sorry to any readers eating just now

[steve_earwig]

A tablet for fleas? Getting pills into cats is usually pretty hard so that seems a bit silly.

You might be able to tell if the milk works by how much they eat. Maybe.

Fypryst for fleas (cheaper than Frontline). We usually get some of the big dog ampoules and use a syringe to measure it out 'cos it works out cheaper that way.

Caniverm for worms, it's a pill. You will need 2 people, plastic tweezers, a box of plasters and an ambulance on speeddial...

I did get some Stronghold a while back, it's a liquid that's meant to do everything. It's rather pricey though.

[Welly]

A tablet for fleas? Getting pills into cats is usually pretty hard so that seems a bit silly.

We find it quite easy to do; a few pieces of cooked chicken dressed with those very small dried cat treats and one of the chicken pieces concealing the tablet (or half a tablet) they don't seem to notice as they're busy snaffling up all the bits and bobs...

[steve_earwig]

If only - all our cats (past and present) have a knack of greedily scoffing down everything, just leaving the pill behind.

Scooter too, even if it's hidden inside a lump of ham or something - "snaffle, snaffle, ptuij"

We have a COD for Michelle, although it's not as useful as Mirela would like. Loads of tests she says were obviously unnecessary, followed by a description of symptoms. It's the same as putting "heart failure" on a human's autopsy report, true but unhelpful. Anyway, reading between the lines, it was panleukopenia again, same as Frankie, so it looks like we have a carrier in the vicinity. Obviously this means we're going to have to be very careful with Bill and Ben until they're fulliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii88888-ćččččččččččččččččččččččččč (thankyou Ben) fully covered by their vaccinations.

[Doggy]

Results must be frustrating and a worry for you, (though hopefully not as pricey as here).
How long till the sprogs are in the clear?

[steve_earwig]

Vaccinations should be around the 29th, then it's 2-3 more weeks until it comes into full effect. They don't show any inclination to go far from the kitchen at the moment, but that could always change.

395Kn for the tests, that's 45 of your Bexitstani pounds. Ouch. Still, you could probably add an 0 to the end of that where you are...

[Welly]

ANY visit to the highwaymen, sorry Veterinarian Operatives in the UK results in many pounds of monies, like a fucktonne of money