The Vent and Rant Thread

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Yeah, they have a cat door that leads to a tunnel, the other end of which terminates in a screened porch with padded and carpeted lounging platforms that I built for them. They love it out there.

wow, that's like cat paradise. i wish i had the space to build something like that for my cats.

[nekokami]

I'm back to thinking I want to go live at Ricky's house. As a cat.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

wow, that's like cat paradise. i wish i had the space to build something like that for my cats.

surely you must have a window-ledge .... swimming bath spring-boards come to mind .... well caged in of course ....

[DixieGal]

Today's cafeteria menu:

1. Great big globs of greasy grimey gopher meat
2. Contaminated monkey meat
3. Little dirty birdy feet

I forgot the spoon!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by nekokami

I'm back to thinking I want to go live at Ricky's house. As a cat.

yep. it's the good life.

[DixieGal]

Not me! Her cats have to be psychotic, injured, or diseased to get a pass into that haven. But I sure would like to have a sunning setup like that in people size!

[pdurrant]

The flat wheels are easy to explain actually. The leaves reduce friction between the track and the wheels. So when the brakes go on, the wheels are quickly stopped by the brakes, but the train isn't, so it slides along the track. It's this sliding of wheel against track that causes flat points.

It's the same in the UK - they used to cut down any trees growing alongside railway lines. No trees long the sides of the railway -> not many leaves on the railway lines. Not any more....

Originally Posted by Slite

It's incredible that the fact that the trees dropping their leaves in autumn (duuuhhh) manages to create chaos every single year, because the wheels of the trains keep slipping on the wet leaves, and because of that develop "flat spots".

I just can't get that equation through my head. Leaves = soft, train wheels = hard ... How the blazes can leaves on the track cause the wheels of the train to develop flat spots??????

[radioflyertoo]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The flat wheels are easy to explain actually. The leaves reduce friction between the track and the wheels. So when the brakes go on, the wheels are quickly stopped by the brakes, but the train isn't, so it slides along the track. It's this sliding of wheel against track that causes flat points.

It's the same in the UK - they used to cut down any trees growing alongside railway lines. No trees long the sides of the railway -> not many leaves on the railway lines. Not any more....

So the leaf wears away and the locked wheel will not return to turning as it would be if the leaf was not there. Hence the flat spot. Friction is an interesting concept. It's amazing the trouble or fun differenting coeffcient's of friction can cause.

[Patricia]

Yes, it's the time of year when we in the UK also get trains delayed because of leaves on the line. I do find it very irritating that this isn't planned for. Doesn't Network Rail realise that autumn tends to occur on an annual basis?

[radioflyertoo]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Yes, it's the time of year when we in the UK also get trains delayed because of leaves on the line. I do find it very irritating that this isn't planned for. Doesn't Network Rail realise that autumn tends to occur on an annual basis?

That would be too easy especially if the if those in charge are similar to across the pond.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Yeah, they have a cat door that leads to a tunnel, the other end of which terminates in a screened porch with padded and carpeted lounging platforms that I built for them. They love it out there.

This is a photo of the porch (that's Kevin on the platform) that I submitted to the company that makes the black plastic part of the platforms.

If (more likely when) we get cats again I am doing something like that!

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

When I was still travelling by overground train, there was a theory going about that the rail company ran short-length trains in autumn because the extra weight would help stop the train skidding on wet leaves. It was given some credence on the one occasion a full length train failed to stop in time for a station - it missed it by well over a carriage length!

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Yeah, they have a cat door that leads to a tunnel, the other end of which terminates in a screened porch with padded and carpeted lounging platforms that I built for them. They love it out there.

This is a photo of the porch (that's Kevin on the platform) that I submitted to the company that makes the black plastic part of the platforms.

Wow!! Your cats live better than I do!

Well, it *sounds* good anyway. May not be entirely true. Anyway -- great cat quarters!

[LazyScot]

Why do News Reports have to keep treating us as if we are suffering from a mathematical impossibility of a negative IQ? I don't need a stupid, annoying, silly graphic to explain something that they've been explaining, in inane detail I might add, for weeks, in a tone of a "specialist" report imparting some great secret of the universe on me. And why can't they just do it from the studio -- do they really think I imagine they are making it up if they don't stand in front of something to do with the story.

Oh great; and now they're back on the US elections.

I'm going to bed with an e-book...

[badgoodDeb]

Yeah. I've found it works best to NOT turn my TV on. Just read; snuggle shih tzus; cross stitch. The world keeps on turning, and my stomach stops churning.