onetrack

Gee, I'd never have recognised him. The poor old fella has been diagnosed with dementia since 2019. If that's what driving Fords does to you, I'm never driving a Ford again!! 😄

Interesting snippets about Earl Holliman - he never married (might've been the reason he lived so long? 😄 ) - he worked as an aircraft assembler at North American Aviation - and he put his age up by a year to join the military during WW2. When his true age was discovered, he was discharged - then he signed up again, as soon as he was of legal age! His Dad was a dirt-poor Louisiana farmer named Frost, who died before he was born. His poverty-stricken mother, left with TEN kids (!!) then had to give up seven of them for adoption. Earl was adopted by an oil-field worker and his wife - Earl & Velma Holliman. Fortunately, his adopted parents provided a happy and inspirational upbringing. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0391096/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Went and saw the Wailers play a bit of reggae on Sunday 17th November, in a local pub, the Rosemount (North Perth). They weren't too bad, but not a patch on Bob Marley and the original Wailers. Then last Saturday, we went to the local Astor Theatre in Mt Lawley (built 1914, but renovated to classic Art Deco in 1939) to see Dancing in the Shadows of Motown, tribute show. Once again, not too bad, but only a shadow of the original Motown singers and bands. I was a bit disappointed that they only sang a handful of the leading classic Motown hits, and sang a lot of lesser hits. In both shows, and especially at the Motown show, I was less than impressed by a lighting controller who insisted on constantly flashing the stage lights into the faces of the crowd - and not just old-style stage lights, but pulsating, dazzling LED lights. It was extremely annoying and I don't recall any shows where this happened previously. SMWBO ended up feeling a little nauseated from all the dazzling and flashing, and had to get up and go outside to recover, about 20 mins before the show ended. But the crowd (a good mix of young and old - and some really old people!) loved the show, and a whole heap of people got up and danced - mostly women and the girls, it seemed. The blokes must have all been too arthritic, or had two left feet.

Bed and Breakfast?

It seems most Trump voters have extremely short memories. Trump promised the world last time, but failed to deliver on many of the things he said he'd do. This time around, it's simply a vengeance and retribution Govt. https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/?ruling=true

I had my eyes tested on Saturday and they're fine - but I couldn't see those circles for love nor money. I had to find the image in a Reddit discussion, to see where they were. It was only when they were pointed out, that I could see them. But I have to move my face close to the screen to see them, sitting back at a normal distance, they totally disappear again.

The big problem with a lot of legislation is that they use a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. I don't believe a blanket ban is practical, is needed, nor will the legislation have the intended effect. What IS needed is intensive parenting and education of slovenly parents to ensure that children only watch and see things on social media that are positive or at least neutral for them. Easy access to hard core and deeply perverted porn is one thing that needs to be addressed for under-16's - too many youngsters are getting their sex education from this crap, and thinking that treating women simply as walking holes on two legs is normal.

Here in the West, we've always been pretty conservative about age requirements for driving. I can recall a lot of East-West operators who wouldn't employ East-West drivers until they were aged 25. It was all about maturity and responsibility when you're in charge of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of truck and trailers, and when also a long way from home, and things are going pear-shaped, and mature decisions have to be made.

I'd say a lot more than "Oh!" if I sighted a UFO.

I was driving to work on farms full time, from the farmhouse we were renting, from when I was just over 16. When I was 17, the brother took me into town, where the crusty old Sgt (Anthony Westerside) took me through three traffic knowledge questions (I got 2 of them wrong!), and he then took me for a drive around town, in the EH Holden ute - and through the only stop sign in town! I knew enough to stop completely at the stop sign. When we got back to the cop shop, he just said, "You've been driving for a while, haven't you?". I replied "Yes", not sure if he'd meant I was showing some modest driving skills for my age - or if he'd seen or heard of me driving around the Shire! Small towns generate a lot of small talk! But he said no more, and wrote out my licence. At 18 I started driving our IH R190 prime mover and low loader around, hauling our D6C dozer around the local area - and you weren't supposed to be driving a truck until you were 20! The day I turned 20, I went and got my truck endorsement.

I have no desire to share a quiet camping getaway in a caravan park, with a bunch of yapping, badly trained pooches! It's bad enough around here at home! The number of dogs that yap and howl all day in the city is atrocious. People go out all day and leave the dogs alone and they get frustrated and bored and bark their heads off at any sound. The neighbours over the road have a dachshund. They're nervous wrecks, that breed. This dachshund starts barking with his annoying gruff little bark, at any sound, the minute his owners go out. I reckon people should have to be tested and checked to be able to own dogs, just like a firearms licence.

The coldest day I can ever recall, I was working at Mt Beaumont, about 90kms E of Esperance. It was July 1984 and I was operating an open cab dozer, digging a new farm dam, and a potent Southerly wind was blowing straight off the Antarctic ice. Esperance had a maximum of 8° that day, and I swear it was -18° where I was - on a Southerly-sloping, bare patch of cleared farmland, where the wind could pick up speed. I was wearing jeans, shirt, heavy woollen jumper, overalls, and big gloves and I can still feel that cold to this day!! I can also recall a friend telling me about visiting Chicago in mid-Winter, and when he went outside it was -14°F. He said you had to be careful about taking big deep breaths, or you could develop ice particles in your lungs. They can shove that climate, I don't understand how anyone can live in it.

Now the right wing media are making a huge noise about Chalmers budget blowout - $5B more than estimated. The RW media know this is a big stick to beat Labor with - "Labor can't manage the countrys finances! - only the Libs can!"

I thought for sure, the item would be an ashtray! I've still got a manual vehicle with a regular cable operated handbrake between the seats. It's simple and gives no trouble. Stepdaughters Subaru's (Outback previously, now a Forrester) have electronic handbrakes. I don't like them, too much potential for electrical problems, and they're basically a cost-saving idea.

I watched a rat dive into a hole containing a confined space, in the bottom of a clay pot in the garden. I ensured he was still there, and inserted the garden hose into the hole while I held the pot horizontal, filling the confined space right up with water. I held the pot in that position for at least 5 mins and was convinced a drowned rat would fall out when I dropped the pot back down in a vertical position. To my utter amazement, as the water poured out of the hole, a very wet, but still very alive, rat, came tearing out on the flood of water and ran away into some hidey hole in the garden!! I reckon the bugger must have had a breathing apparatus to fit a rat, hidden in that pot!! They are the ultimate survivors - they reckon only rats and cockroaches will survive all-out nuclear war.

Hold your tongue.

The problems associated with scammers, crooks, con-artists, online bullying, and all internet crimes, could easily be solved by ensuring that anonymity cannot be part of your online presence. The crims, bullies and scammers enjoy the anonymity of the internet, as it provides them with cover they can use, to avoid recriminations and penalties.

Mum.

Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield, the Righteous Bros.

One of the reasons I don't post photos of my face or any identifying features, or what I'm doing, or where I live, on social media - is because it's simply giving vital information freely to criminals, anywhere in the world. Even when I give personal details to companies, Govt Depts, and other organisations - and they solemnly declare that they have the best encrypted security going, and they treat my personal details with unparalleled care - it usually all ends up in the hands of scammers, crims and con-artists. The media have a lot to answer for, stealing peoples photos off their social media, and broadcasting them globally in salacious and often untrue articles in their mastheads and subsidiaries.

I can generally always find a cool spot when it's stinking hot, but when I'm cold, I get chilled to the bone, and can't get warm, no matter what. I've worked in Marble Bar, worked North, East and South of Kalgoorlie, and seen plenty of 50° days, with no wind. You need to drink plenty of water, and wet yourself down regularly. It's when you get a stinking hot Nth-Easterly wind out of the Centre in mid-Summer, that you learn all about HOT! I've seen 47° in Perth, and that feels hotter than 50° in the Outback.

The thing is, American law enforcement will reach out to any country in the world to arrest you on American law charges - even Trumped-up ones.

Britain did suffer very badly as a result of WW2, but a lot of was poor planning, and poor political leadership. Harsh economic policies of the time were hard on the vast majority of the population. Australia sent dozens and dozens of shiploads of free food to Britain in the late 1940's and early 1950's, to prevent mass starvation. This, at a time when there was still food rationing in Australia.

No chance of dragging any prefab dongas in there, I'll wager! I bet it was all built from local materials, and what could be flown in by chopper! And I'm guessing it rained 350 days of the year, too?

Yeah, I remember those Elross work vans, dreadful cramped things they were. For mobile accommodation, we had several big Viscount Supreme vans, 27 footers and triaxle, they were quite comfortable. On the gold mine we owned, 60kms N of Norseman, we had 4 fettlers cabins we'd bought from a disused narrow-gauge siding, made redundant when the standard gauge was put through in 1971-72. These were solidly built, timber-framed, 3 room buildings, about 14' x 40' (4.2M x 12M). We got the whole lot for about $200 from memory, jacked them up, and loaded them onto a house transporting trailer owned by Noel Little from Kalgoorlie, and transported them about 20km N to the mine, and positioned them in a square layout. They were great buildings, very comfortable and roomy. Two were built in 1907 when the narrow-gauge line was first installed - but they were still in good condition in 1972 - and the other two were built later, possibly in the 1940's. They provided us with lots of accommodation on the mine, and when we were doing mining/exploration contracting in the area. Unfortunately, we installed a kero fridge in one of the newer buildings and it caught fire, and burnt that building to the ground. Luckily, the brother was nearby when it happened, mid-morning, and he managed to contain the fire to that one building. Bloody kero fridges were responsible for a lot of house fires. Quite a devastating loss, unfortunately - and we lost a beaut, vintage classic, "Icy Ball" ammonia, wooden-chest refrigerator from the 1920's, in the fire. I think it was a Crossley. Quite rare, I've never seen one anywhere else.