A Merry Christmas to all Members and Guests. Also best wishes for 2023.

I've noticed that there's fewer people in my street putting their Christmas lights out this year and not sure why. Even the world's biggest reindeer hasn't been unpacked at the house around the corner from BP Naremburn. Hopefully it is not a reflection on the general mood. Even for the non-religious, it's a welcome break from the routine and I hope everyone enjoys it.

Yes, Merry Christmas and New Year to everyone.

My christmas lights are always up, but they only get turned on during November and December. I'm too lazy to take them down.
We had a few nice displays in the streets around here, but it does seem to be a little less widespread than before. Perhaps it's due to the cost of electricity nowadays.

Its difficult to have a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year the way things are going. Just do your best.

I have historical data by way of the Farm income tax data which stores everything as it all happens with two independent accounts.

Its really no wonder Christmas is going down market. My Christmas will be with neighbours not family.

I would support the theory on power prices. This is the price we pay for the new religion whilst abandoning the old.

Merry Christmas to all.

What with being smoked in from bush fires (at times couldn't see full size trees over the back) fence, "Covided" in, and having Covid (not severe thanks to four shots and antiviral capsules), this Christmas is clear - no floods where I live I am grateful to say. So first family Christmas for two years.

Christmas is mainly for kids so always have some lights up at this time for them - wrapped around a hedge, have given up ladders now for that purpose. Several neighbours have something up, but no grand displays.

A mighty thanks to all the emergency responders, medical services and others for the several major crises they have had to deal with over the last few years - and are still dealing with.

With the bushfires here I did make a point of taking happy snaps. With a compromised respiratory system, the smoke was not at all helpful.

As long as we keep being led by the mobs we are the country is going to full astern. with everything: Especially rural, falling to pieces

Sent Brad two photos, one of a pyro cumulus cloud forming, Jan 11 2020; and moving in from the left of the other one the smoke density building, from it collapsing on the 17th. Addendum Mt Buffalo SE the other into the sun West

I've been through floods and fires, living in the concrete jungle and in the bush. It's a couple of things that will never truly go away unfortunately, no matter how well-equipped our fire brigades are. I am old enough to remember the days when bushfire was fought with shovels, hessian bags and knapsacks. In reality, one could empty their bladder about as well as a knapsack would work and the tankers used today are not only safer but more effective.

As for mobile reception, it is amazing that in this day and age, it can still be a problem. A place called Hill End, in the NSW Central West - a place I camp at often - has zero Telstra and Vodafone reception but Optus is available on 4G at the same speed as a big city. In the camping area, the NPWS has set up a smart antenna for Telstra but it is only 3G - great for voice calls, when the antenna is working, but will not carry data signals these days. It is hard to imagine why Telstra and TPG want to team up and share base stations when they both have networks suffering from poor reception in so many tourist destinations, of which Hill End is one.

I have recently purchased a satellite phone. Because the calls connect to a satellite rather than a mobile network there is always a signal but line of sight to the 'bird' is very important. The cost of calls and data are also extortionate, similar to what mobile calls costed back in the days when only Telecom offered coverage. This rules out social interaction, pretty much reserving the phone for emergencies, which is my justification for having it.

Unfortunately Telstra has become a cash cow and offers neither a service, or a customer service, its all about greed and zero about people.

Blackspot funding I consider a racket, as it is actually sponsoring Telstra with taxpayers money to build infrastructure that affects that magic black line. I have still got 3G as 4G is hopeless. and the phone is currently on a colinear antenna. Not one of their super expensive ones.

The nearest Telstra tower is 8km to my Eastern side and the radiators are pointed down as per normal. However, its at 140m AMSL and I am at 150m AMSL and field strength is marginal. Therefore signal for the phone and a Nielsen device comes from a tower on a hill near Beechworth 40km away.

I have a letter from Telstra, basically pointing out that even after this issue appearing with the dawn of digital Mobile: They have no intention of addressing this issue.

I felt better today (seems that eating Pink Lady apples helps with sciatica pain, more effective than pain killer tablets).

So I went for a walk around the neighbourhood, as this will be the best night for christmas lights. There were a few more houses with lights than I had noticed previously. Fruit bats flew high overhead on their nightly migration from Parramatta Park to somewhere south-east. The old manx cat that lives at the bottom of the street came out to greet me. And here and there children were running and shouting happily. A scene of serenity.

Being so hot today (and the next few days), there's many more flying insects around.

As for mobile reception, my telephone is an old 3G model, and the tower is on the hill just behind my place - within walking distance. So of course the signal strength is always full scale. Even if it stopped working, my hillside view gives line of sight to many more phone towers.

As you can see in the photo the first photo is looking toward Mount Buffalo. There are at least three Telstra towers in the arc of that picture there is another to the south of me and north of Glenrowan. Logically its in culdesac instead of on an adjacent knoll where it would not have cut out several potential customers. Prior to it you virtually had to move to the service centre on the Hume Freeway where the connection was to Mount Buller.

The hilly country around here makes reception worse & unstable. But nobody cares, as its only the bush & not going to make a huge profit.

Nth Gippsland is looking more like the Wimera these days, it used to be green.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year from the USA.

This was my grandma's house and Xmas tree in 1951

Image Link

I added an image link to your post, as it appears your server doesn't permit hotlinking.

The photo reminds me of a silly question I asked my parents when I was young - I wanted to know if people could only see in black and white before coloured television came out.

There is such a thing as a colour monochrome and that image is damn close. Naturally a compromised respiratory system did not appreciate it and the swampy air conditioner, thought it was a chemical scrubber. Its amazing just how much dirt & rubbish it accumulates.

Most are designed for the city. The one operating at the moment has had to have a flywire screen put around it to stop it sucking in bugs & leaves etc. and using that to block the bleeder & such up. Internal filtering is the second one I have had where its hopeless.

At some stage I will put an irrigation type screen filter on it like I did to the other one. Clearly not designed for Australian Rural areas. Plumbing is not much better within. Refitting the feeder hose to the water distributing fan leaves a lot to be desired & it should have had (now has) an elbow in the pipe to that fan as, it kinked on the bend, cutting of the water to the pads.

Love it!

My favourite though:

"Grandpa - were there dinosaurs when you were little?"

Or a couple of week back when 7 yo GS drops his handball into the gutter alongside the car and it rolls into the stormwater drain pit.

Grandpa, (despite recent bilateral knee replacement, a 2/3 disc and a torn rotator cuff in left shoulder) gets down on his knees to lift the grate of the pit. Manages a 20cm lift when shoulder gives out.

8 yo GD: "Grandpa! Let me do it!" Whereupon she does, seemingly effortlessly, and 7 yo GS climbs down the ladder to retrieve his ball!.

I felt like a dinosaur!