willedoo

Jerry, it could be due to decisions being made in a more rushed manner than they normally would. The government is under political pressure and taking into account their so far very cautious nature, they have a need at the moment to be seen to be doing something. Regardless of whether that's distractions, announcables, policy making on the run or good policy, there's space they need to fill as time to the election is whittling down. Another backdown today was their only very recently announced 25% cut to state disaster funding. That idea only lasted days after a huge backlash from councils in my state, which has the highest disaster cost in the nation. It would have been a nightmare for councils trying to fund that extra amount and also a lot of pressure on the state budget. It's rare for me to ever say anything good about this government, but credit to them where it's due for coming to their senses, listening to the stakeholders and reversing a bad decision. The ABC radio news today seemed to be dominated by the two backdowns, but the disaster funding issue is solved now so that's one less prickle in the government's undies. With 18 months to the election and their polling numbers where they are, we can probably expect a few more bad ideas from them, but the test will be whether they can swallow their pride, correct their mistakes and move on.

I wonder if they'll start chanting "Leave my elevator alone".

I've just been listening to the wireless on the ABC channel and they've been talking about high tech household stuff. Stoves that cost thousands of dollars and self clean at 500 degrees celsius. People using their smart phones to turn on the air con while they're driving home. One bloke can unlock and open his gate from anywhere in the country using his phone. Robot mowers and vacuums, the list goes on. With all this smart technology about, I must be in the dumb category. I still don't have a sealed driveway or running hot water.

NAB are a funny mob. My bank offloaded their credit card service to NAB so my card is with NAB now. If the balance is zero you get emails from them trying to talk you into booking up overseas holidays. Then if you spend even a small amount like four hundred dollars you suddenly get emails asking if you need help to pay it off and offering financial councilling. Weirdos.

They're handy people in a workshop. Al Hackel built most of the motor himself but I think he might have got somebody else to grind the cams. Allan Millyard delves fairly deep into it; he even makes his own carburettors at times.

Kickstarting Al Hackel's 1700cc Wright thumper:

I've often thought of doing something with the R-670 jug that I have. It's in good condition with the valves, rocker gear and rocker covers. I just wish I had two of them, it would make a great three litre v-twin. A nice pot with a lot of character. I've also got a couple of Cyclone 9 pots but they're huge and ugly, much like the Millyard P & W's, so they'll remain as paperweights. Just for a laugh I lined the R-670 pot up in the M-63 Ural frame the other day and it took up most of the available engine space, no room at all for a bottom end.

And not to forget Allan Millyard's five litre Pratt and Whitney v-twin. Also American Al Hackel's custom chopper with a single pot from a Wright R975.

It looks a bit like a three wheeled dragster.

That's a work of art. Pete, I don't think the imagination needs stimulating; it's more the work ethic that needs some stimulation.

It's not about just helping Ukraine, it's also about helping preserve the international rule of law and the principal that it's wrong to take someone else's country by force. I'm not sure if the peanut would understand that concept.

If the Chev was a roller, he'd get $2,500 to $3,000 in a heartbeat. Being on four rolling wheels is a big selling factor. $100 car trailer hire vs hiring a crane truck.

You wouldn't dream of restoring that Chev if you were in your right mind. It's potential is as a ratrod donor body. Get it structurally sound and put it on another chassis. Leave the patina as is, just a wax job to seal it. There's a thousand dollars value just in the front guards and grille. Any maple leaf Chev is rare and very sought after no matter what condition.

I watched the bloke in a lengthy interview and he seems very keen but naive. This idea of moving to the left to take voters away from Labor is bordering on delusion. Logic tells you that any far left voters on the market would already be in the Greens camp. To replace Labor they would have to appeal to the centre left and centre. If the Greens want to get anywhere they have to stop dreaming, and that's what this bloke's doing. I think he'll end up being divisive in their party.

Looking at the photos of the grass under and around the Chev ute, it hasn't been sitting there or dragged there. It looks like it arrived there by crane truck and been plonked on the grass.

It would be a shame to see this one go to the scrapyard, an old Chev maple leaf ute. The seller is looking for offers over $200 to sell by the 10th. or it goes to scrap. I'd buy it myself if it was a roller but it's got no rear wheels and quite likely locked up so it would be a lot of work and stuffing around to pick up.

Lucky it was a fizzer, mostly went north and south. I was hoping for some gentle soaking rain as it's been dry for a while. A big storm deluge on dry soil here causes a lot of erosion. There's just not enough clay colloids in the soil to give it some resistance to water flow. It's mostly decomposed organic matter, nice when damp but powders up in the dry.

The dude seems to believe they can replace Labor by moving further to the left. All I can see him achieving is turning their 12% into 6%.

Comrade Shoebridge is copping a bit of flak for opposing aid to Ukraine: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/shameful-repugnant-greens-under-fire-over-opposition-to-ukraine-military-aid-20261006-p612uq.html

First storm of the season is on it's way. According to the radar we'll get hammered in about 15 minutes time.

Ours was never covered. You just had to try not to get tackled on it. At least it ran crossways to most of the footbal play so there was only the width to contend with.

Pauline's new ad for the Victorian election: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1077490698447338

Speaking of rough and tumble grounds, I well remember our primary school football field. It was a sloped field on the side of a hill and we would play across the slope. If you turned one way you were running uphill, turn the other way you ran downhill. It was just natural grass complete with stones and prickles which wasn't much fun as we all played in bare feet. The field also doubled as the cricket field, so the hard cricket pitch mid-field was an added hazard playing football. It was predictable. There were only two other schools we played. One was a smaller school and the other a larger school. Every time we played the smaller school we won and every time we played the larger school we lost, same result, year after year. These days the football field is fairly normal, excavated out and levelled, hopefully the prickles are gone.

I forgot daylight savings had started and missed more than half of the NRLW grand final on Sunday. I read the start time as 4.00pm and assumed AEST and didn't read the fine print AEDT. Both the men's and women's finals are played at Accor Stadium in Sydney so that's why our tv guide listed the daylight savings start time. Probably a good thing I missed a fair bit of it; our girls got well and truly flogged by the Sydney Roosters. It was a good day for the Sydney Roosters taking out both the men's and women's premierships. Roosters halfback Daly Cherry-Evans played his last NRL match and went out on a high note with a premiership win and the fact it was his one point field goal kick that won the match for the Roosters with a 19-18 win over the Newcastle Knights. He was also the oldest NRL player to ever play in a grand final. There were over 80,000 fans there; I didn't realise Accor Stadium had that capacity.

I think his last activities on both this forum and RecFlying was June 30th., so over three months now.