[QUOTE=Uncwilly;308969]I received an e-mail from the Red Cross. Blood supplies are critically low. Worst in about 20 years. Please go and give NOW.[/QUOTE]It happens that I gave last Wednesday.

[quote]If you are A+, B+, or AB+ please consider giving platelets.[/quote]As O+ I'm always asked to give double red cells, and I do.

When I was younger, I didn't give much thought to blood donation, but after my father required many transfusions during his final decline, I decided I owed it to society to donate regularly as long as I was eligible.

(I should add that my father gave regularly all his adult life, starting when he was in the Army and continuing as he worked for a large-enough employer so that the Bloodmobile went there every eight weeks. I don't hope to match his 20-gallon pin, but I'll do my part now.)

I'm somewhere around 7 gallons, but I doubt I will make it to 20. I don't give frequently enough.

You're happy, I'm happy, we're all happy!
 

A couple of reasons to be happy:

1) About 5 weeks ago someone abandoned a bicycle against our front wall. The bike was a bit scruffy, had a rusty chain and under-inflated but new-looking tyres. I carted it down to the Cambridge cop-shop and took home a receipt. The rule in these parts is that if lost property isn't reclaimed in 4 weeks the finder is allowed another two weeks to take it off their hands, otherwise it's sent off to auction with the proceeds going to the police beer fund. I now own a perfectly usable bike which cost me nothing but a bit of effort to pump up the tyres and some transportation in the back of the car.

2) The local FreeCycle network is very active and I often donate junk I don't want and collect other people's junk which they don't want. A few days ago my advert for a sillyscope was answered by someone with dual-channel 35MHz model going spare. Unfortunately it didn't have any probes but another chap provided me with a couple earlier today. He had a garage full of kit, including spectrometers, lasers, vacuum pumps and any number of circuit boards, most of which he'd rescued from skips, --- or "dumpsters" as our colonial cousins appear to call them. (incidentally, I've acquired a remarkably large amount of useful and/or valuable stuff likewise over the years. FreeCycle is the interweb version of the same mechanism.) Anyway, he had rescued a slightly buggered-about 2" diameter Plossl eyepiece which he sold me for £10, which is perhaps as much as 5% of the real second-hand price.


Paul

Trickcycling
 

Back in 1974, I was dating my wife-to-be who was friends with a physicist/cyclist friend at QMC (he married her sister).

I was moved to buy a Dawes Galaxy for the (then) princely sum of £300.

I succeeded in running into the the back of a parked car, incurring ~ £300
quids worth of damage: (frame, forks, front wheel et al).
NO PROBLEM.
Took out some house insurance (£5 extra for a bike).
They coughed up like a lamb.
Took the bike with me on moves to Norwich and MK circa 1993.
Unfortunately someone then nicked it.

C'est la vie.

David





[QUOTE=xilman;309288]A couple of reasons to be happy:

1) About 5 weeks ago someone abandoned a bicycle against our front wall. The bike was a bit scruffy, had a rusty chain and under-inflated but new-looking tyres. I carted it down to the Cambridge cop-shop and took home a receipt. The rule in these parts is that if lost property isn't reclaimed in 4 weeks the finder is allowed another two weeks to take it off their hands, otherwise it's sent off to auction with the proceeds going to the police beer fund. I now own a perfectly usable bike which cost me nothing but a bit of effort to pump up the tyres and some transportation in the back of the car.

2) The local FreeCycle network is very active and I often donate junk I don't want and collect other people's junk which they don't want. A few days ago my advert for a sillyscope was answered by someone with dual-channel 35MHz model going spare. Unfortunately it didn't have any probes but another chap provided me with a couple earlier today. He had a garage full of kit, including spectrometers, lasers, vacuum pumps and any number of circuit boards, most of which he'd rescued from skips, --- or "dumpsters" as our colonial cousins appear to call them. (incidentally, I've acquired a remarkably large amount of useful and/or valuable stuff likewise over the years. FreeCycle is the interweb version of the same mechanism.) Anyway, he had rescued a slightly buggered-about 2" diameter Plossl eyepiece which he sold me for £10, which is perhaps as much as 5% of the real second-hand price.


Paul[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=xilman;309288]Anyway, he had rescued a slightly buggered-about 2" diameter Plossl eyepiece which he sold me for £10, which is perhaps as much as 5% of the real second-hand price.
[/QUOTE]W.o.w.

[QUOTE=xilman;309288]AAnyway, he had rescued a slightly buggered-about 2" diameter Plossl eyepiece which he sold me for £10, which is perhaps as much as 5% of the real second-hand price.[/QUOTE]Just done a bit of research. It's a 55mm focal length Televue Plössl and is retailing at £205 to £215 new. So my price estimate was on the high side for a used item but even so a bargain at £10.


Paul

I got three stars in every level of [I]Angry Birds Seasons HD[/I] yesterday. :smile:

Haha, I got 3 ducks on the one with the crocodile for every (demo) level some time ago (ok, few of them I had to play many times :blush:), then it asked me to pay 1 dollar to get another 200 levels or so. I did not. Who the hack is paying money for that stuff?

Just noticed I'm (exactly) top 10% lifetime.[SIZE=1]



[/SIZE][SIZE=1]Overall[/SIZE][SIZE=1]1611[/SIZE][SIZE=1]/16110[/SIZE][SIZE=1] 3299.1948GhzDays[/SIZE][SIZE=1]122744Count[/SIZE]

A [COLOR="SeaGreen"]green[/COLOR] ET_ looks perfect! :alien:

Too bad there isn't a smiley with a flying saucer... :smile:

Luigi

I got a new job this past July. :smile: