h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Someone was having an outdoor party in the vicinity last night. Had to listen to my ipod to drown the sound out when trying to sleep.

I wish someone would explain to radio DJs that Alan Partridge was a spoof, not a role-model.

Teasswill, American Neighbours?
I have commented that July 5th appears to be ** National Hangover Day ** for all USAians

Could have been any sort of celebration. Just loud music penetrating the neighbourhood - couldn't identify the location. Probably just taking advantage of the hot weather to party outdoors.

not so PH for me. Summer. Specifically days when the temperature is over 25°C. I just can't handle it (and it's been at least 10° over that all week here).

And then the other thing that is a PH is people saying, when I moan about the heat is "oh but I bet you moan about wind/rain/snow/fog" - well, actually no. I don't.

We just don't seem to get much comfortable warmth - this morning it was wet & chilly, then as soon as it brightened up & I went out to do some gardening the temp jumped up to too hot for much effort.
Did manage to destruct some ivy in the shade. Now got a great heap to dispose of.

Sho, I know what you mean about the heat. For anybody with MS, high temperatures are bad news. Lately I've had to spend most of the time indoors. I haven't even been able to go for a walk.

I look back with nostalgia to our holiday in Egypt in 2000. It was the last major holiday before MS struck. Temperatures hit 50C, but I was able to cope. Couldn't do it now. In fact, a couple of hours in Stratford-upon-Avon on Friday (temperatures in the mid-high 20s) left me so worn out that I couldn't do anything on Saturday.

Last week's scorcher was a tad warm for my liking, but I must have adjusted quickly because I was in a fleece today when the thermometer was reading a mere 21c. It's the larger variations I find difficult, rather than any particular temperature.

Nice today to enjoy a cooling breeze - winds aren't usually enjoyable in Britain.

kudos to you, CD, 50°C would reduce me to a gibbering wreck. I don't really mind the cold, I'm a Yorkshire lass anyway,

another PH: the guys in my office who put the aircon on as soon as they arrive at 7:15 (I get in at around 7:40) and put it at 20°C. Then moan when I suggest we should wait until it's nearly unbearable, then only have it a few degrees cooler than outside.

Now I have a horrible throat/ear thing and I'm convinced it's because of the huge differences in temperature I've had to put up with.

Yes that's horrid, air con so cool you need a cardigan. I am glad I've got air con in my car, but I only use it briefly to take the edge off the heat.

Did watch (and listen to) some questionable fireworks last night, persons unknown, north of the north branch of the All American Canal, about a mile away in the open desert, getting happy with sky rockets and concussion bombs.

No harm done and little potential for it so long as they were reasonably careful about their own safety.




A not so petty hate, drunken shooters getting happy with firearms on the Canal Road (which runs along a segment of the course of the old Santa Fe Trail) spilling loose ammunition on the unpaved roadbed, with the consequence that if one runs over a cartidge with a wheeled vehicle, one gets a flat.

I've a friend who owns a substantial property on the frontage and he and I used to go out and police the roadway in front of his place for brass and unexpended ammo as a regular thing July 5 and January 1.

Thankfully, no incidents locally of the type this 4th that I'm aware of.




Both those dates are for me, like Fridays the 13th, non-drinking days.

I'd rather be in condition to respond to an emergency rather than in a condition making me a reasonable suspected contributer to one.




Other, related, not so petty hates, people who respond to wilderness conditions with relaxed inhibitions on careless and criminal misconduct, rather than increased care.

Fired off a half dozen rounds from my flint-lock blunderbuss - nothing in the barrel but powder - a loud bang but nothing dangerous



F S

...Both those dates......(the 4th of July and New Year's Eve)...

You US types do realise don't you, how bizarre a concept it is for anyone in most other countries, that ordinary folk just wander around shooting guns at random In the UK it is perfectly possible, and indeed quite likely to go through your entire life and never so much as hear a gunshot for real, let alone see or hold a gun.

A few years ago I was summoned to court to sit on a jury panel. The first part of of the trial is to allow the lawyers of the prosecution and defence to ask the potential jurors a series of questions to determine if they can be fair in their judgement.

This was a case that involved the defendant possessing a gun. One of the lawyers asked if anyone on the Jury panel owned a gun. Under the penalty of perjury I, of course, raised my hand. He then started asking me what types of guns I owned. As I started to explain the judge interrupted and asked me how many I owned. I asked him how accurate a number he required, as that could take a bit of time to calculate. He said is it more or less than a dozen? I replied that it was somewhere in that vacinity.

I think I was excused from that trial.

If you are ever in the neighbourhood I will be happy to let you play with a few, under proper supervision

F S

ITIWBS, is it an offence to be drunk in charge of a firearm?

>>In the UK it is perfectly possible, and indeed quite likely to go through your entire life and never so much as hear a gunshot for real, let alone see or hold a gun

It's not quite that rare to see them, winnoch2. There are plenty of guns in London, outside every embassy, and apparently every armed police unit gets called out daily; also at airports and even train stations (Eurostar).

ITIWBS, is it an offence to be drunk in charge of a firearm?

My first five years were spent mostly on the family farm in southwest Oklahoma.

Guns were a part of it, first with a farmer's orientation and next with a sportsman's.

My father and maternal grandfather were both avid hunters.

I've neither a gun phobia or fetish.

They're tools and nothing more or less.




During my army years (23) my principle military job was arms maintainance and ammunition control, though I did work in other supply, administration and logistics tasks.

I'm accustomed to strict standards of weapons control and politicked for mandatory training and certification in firearms safety and law for private gun owners and users before the current California state programs in that area were implemented.

I do object very strongly to people who use weapons carelessly or unlawfully.

In such a case people lose the right to possess and use arms.




The most recent thing I've done that way was an agricultural pest control job, where on account a severe dought, there was a major rabbit migration, wild hares even invading urban inner city areas and being run over in the streets.

The farm where I was working was a Christmas tree farm and the rabbits were devouring newly planted trees, something they won't ordinarily touch.

Almost all of the migrating rabbits were both starving and sick.

I'd go out every evening just before sundown and knock of 6 to 12 rabbits per night with a 14 guage shotgun over the course of the migration.

There were limitations to what I could do.

No shot could be aimed so that it might leave the property.

That's an important fundamental principle of firearms safety.

Know where that shot is going to go and always have a safe backstop.

There was one rabbit that consistantly escaped by means of skylining itself on a rocky knoll.

That made the shot illegal, since it could have potentially left the property.

Probably one of the local rabbits anyway, with a den there.

If the rabbits were healthy I fed them to the dogs.

Otherwise, I buried them.

One of the resident cats stole a rabbit* a day from the back of my pickup truck.

The resident kit fox accounted for at least three rabbits by means of its own devices.

Though nearly all of the first season trees were gnawed within an inch or less of the ground, the planting survived and recovered,nthough later I needed to take out a considerable number of more mature trees that had been partially girdled by the rabbits and contracted a plant disease.




Under current California, one needs to have a firearms dealer's license to buy or sell firearms.

There are several legal hunts in the district where I live, which is mostly wilderness, with considerable agricultural development and a little urban sprawl.

To hunt, one needs a hunting license, tags for the specific animals one means to hunt and one is also required to attend a law enforcement seminar on firearms law and safety and game laws.




An important fundamental, guns and alcohol do not mix, any more than automotive vehicles and alcohol.




*The species of rabbit was the cotton tailed desert hare with only half the ovetall dimensions of an average housecat.

Most rabbit varieties are considerably larger.

You non-US types do realize, don't you, that ordinary Americans don't just wander around RANDOMLY shooting guns.

...

Don't you?

...

Sometimes we wonder

Sometimes, unfortunately, there is reason to wonder.

For a time, it was policy for LAPD police officers to park under a fwy overpass at midnight, New Years Eve, on account of the large number of people discharging firearms into the air.

A public education campaign has gotten a considerable abatement of the problem.