July 1 - 6, 2024 - New Blog Feature/Window Treatments/Lot Number Remake/Sun Shade Bracket/Ear Muff Repair/Tongs Handle

I started a blog to memorialize our trip in Homer to Alaska starting in May of 2015. The blog has changed over time, hopefully for the better. My goal is to keep the blog interesting. With that in mind I am adding a new feature starting with this blog. I will start each blog with a "funny", or "thought-provoking" saying, cartoon, or quote. I will call it "My Blog Reflection". If readers don't like it, I can easily discontinue it. Give me feedback.

My Blog Reflection

"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."

Samuel Ullman

July 1, 2024 - New Windows Means New Window Coverings:

In November of 2023 we had all new front window installed on the house. The original wood and aluminum clad windows were falling apart, leaking, glass cracked, etc. Those windows came with blinds built in so we did not need window treatment. The new windows do not have this feature so we had to decide on what to purchase. While in Florida for the winter we took time to choose what we wanted. 

We decided on heavy-duty roller shades, like you see in commercial applications. Considering their cost, we opted to pay $200.00 to have the company measure and install the three shades. If I measured wrong, or installed them wrong, we would be stuck with a very expensive mistake. Having someone else do it also saved me having to find help when it came time to install them. All of my friends are as old as I am and none of us are good on ladders anymore. LOL 

There was over a month delay between picking the fabric and color we wanted from samples, measurement, the shades being manufactured, delivery, and installation. The shades were installed on July 1st. Here is a picture of how each window looked before and after.

Bedroom before with a sheet clamped on for privacy once we were home:

Bedroom after:

Dining Room before:

Dining Room after:

Garage before:

Garage after:

We are quite pleased with the look, the material we picked, and the quality of the shades. The installer told us they have a lifetime warranty. I wonder what that really means. I did register for the warranty online. We are still deciding if we want to put fan shades on the semi-circle windows.

July 2nd:

After cutting the grass I noticed that the truck license expired in June. When we purchased the truck last June we had to have it inspected and could only get a license for one year because it was a "new to us" vehicle. Why that would matter I have no idea? Anyway, it was too late in the day to make a trip to the license office. 

July 3rd:

I went to the license office first thing in the morning and was advised that, due to the age of the truck, I had to have it inspected in order to renew the license. I informed her that I just had it inspected last year. She told me it didn't matter. I had to have it inspected again. I made an appointment for an inspection on Monday. Urrrrgh!

Once back home I loaded the lawnmower on the trailer and went out to the lake lot to cut the grass. While there I noticed that our lot number sign was literally falling apart. We need to have this number posted for 911. This was the mounting board after I removed the numbers to re-use them. It lasted ten years so no complaint here.

For the new sign I used a piece of very dense pine wood I had on hand from a prior project. I cut each end on an angle for a little added "pizzaz". I then painted it with two coats of exterior enamel paint. I also repainted the letters black to help them "pop out". I will mount it the next time I go out to the lot.

The city fireworks scheduled for July 3rd were cancelled due to severe thunderstorms predicted. It was a good call. Around 5:00 p.m. the storm moved in with pouring rain and a lot of thunder and lightning. We got 3.5 inches of rain out of it. The fireworks were rescheduled for July 6th.

July 4th:

The 4th was a really hot and humid day after the storms. We had no plans for the day so I decided to fabricate a second bracket for the sun shade on the deck. I determined that I needed two extension brackets because the poles the sun shade hangs from are not square to each other due to the configuration of the deck. I made a bracket in the spring for one pole thinking it would be enough. It wasn't. I needed an extension on two diagonal poles. 

I pulled the welder outside and set everything up to weld a new bracket. This bracket would be made from a curved piece of metal, which mounts to the metal pole, welded to a metal extension. I was ready to start welding when I dropped my welding helmet on the garage floor. This apparently caused one of the plastic straps to break. (Did I mention I hate plastic?) Here is a picture of the broken strap. The knob in the middle adjusts the strap to my head.

The broken strap wraps around the back of my head. A twist of the center knob holds the helmet firmly on my head. With the helmet firmly in place I can lift the helmet when not welding and pull it down when welding. With this strap broken their is no way to use the helmet unless I held it place. I am not a good welder and certainly I am not good at holding the helmet with one hand and trying to weld with the other. The strap had to be fixed if I wanted to weld this day. Here was my solution. I superglued the strap to hold it in place as I drilled holes and bolted a piece of pipe strap over the break. It's not pretty but it's functional.

The problem with the fix is that the adjustment knob can no longer tighten the strap on the repaired side. As a result the helmet was floppy on my head. Fortunately, I was able to make a couple of other adjustments on the other helmet straps to get the helmet to stay on my head for a quick project like this.

Here is a picture of the bracket after it was welded and painted to match the pole.

Here is a picture of the bracket installed.

July 5th:

All seemed well with the new bracket until we got 3.5 inches of rain over night. In the morning I found the bracket bent bent down and pulled inward from the weight of the wet sun shade. The sun shade itself wasn't even connected anymore. The turnbuckle fell off. I neglected to take a picture. 

It was now back to the drawing board. In looking at how the weight of the wet sun shade pulled the bracket, it was clear that I needed to make two changes. The first was that I needed to weld on a piece of metal so that the entire bracket could not pull downward. (The arrow on the left in the picture points to this piece.) The second was that I needed to weld on a support piece from where the bracket is bolted to the pole out on the arm. This will keep the portion of the bracket on the pole from further bending with the weight of the shade. (The arrow on the right in the picture points to this piece.) Here is the beefed up bracket installed.  I believe it will withstand wind and rain. Time will tell.

July 6th:

I have a long pair of tongs that I have used for several years for grilling and now griddling as well. The silicon handles have begun to deteriorate and become quite sticky. 

I looked online and it was suggested that to clean the silicone handles you should wash them in dish soap, then rinse with alcohol. I tried this and it made them worse. I also read that significant "stickiness" was a sign that the handle material was were shot and needed to be replaced. These tongs are from China with no name on them so a handle replacement was out of the question. I don't like to throw good things away so I decided to make wooden handles.

I was using the table saw for this project when my ear muffs fell apart! A plastic tab on each side of each muff holds the headpiece on. The tab on one side of each muff had worn or broken off. Here is a picture of the tabs that the head piece hooks to. You can see the wider part that held the head piece on deteriorated and broke off.

I looked online and a new pair of earmuffs like these now costs $34.00. There is nothing else wrong with them.  As I said earlier, I don't like to throw away items if I don't have to. I decided to attempt a repair.

When the head piece is attached to the plastic tab on each side of the ear muff, it must be able to swivel as you put the ear muffs on and adjust them to your head. Drilling slowly and carefully I was able to drill a small hole in each tab and insert a screw and washer to hold the head piece bracket in place. Here is a picture of my repair. It should outlast me. I don't know what it is lately with all my equipment falling apart. Just old, like me, I guess.

Once this repair was made I was able to complete the work on the wooden handles for the tongs. After I cut the pieces and sanded them I sprayed them with several coats of clear enamel. After the enamel dried I mounted them on the tongs with bolts. The wooden handles will work great but we will no longer put them in the dishwasher. 

In the evening we went with friends, Carlene and John, to the postponed 4th of July Perryville fireworks at the park. It was a pleasant evening to sit out and we greatly enjoyed the display. I won't bore you with picture of fireworks.