IrishAyes
IrishAyes's JournalWARNING!
1/8/2014 WARNING: If you put more than the tiniest bit of de-icing salt in an open ice-jammed exit pipe, you're likely to compound your problems rather than solve them. IT CLUMPS. ONLY USE NON-TOXIC LIQUID ANTI-FREEZE. I'll never forgive myself if my bad advice causes anyone else more problems than they started with.
UPDATE WARNING
1/8/2014 WARNING: If you put more than the tiniest bit of de-icing salt in an open ice-jammed exit pipe, you're likely to compound your problems rather than solve them. IT CLUMPS. ONLY USE NON-TOXIC LIQUID ANTI-FREEZE. I'll never forgive myself if my bad advice causes anyone else more problems than they started with.
The people who pitch hissy fits and/or quit the team when they don't get what
they want when they want, are big losers; and sometimes I think worse for the cause than openly declared enemies.
Great OP. Enjoyed reading all.
And praise to long-range thinkers who can see beyond their belly buttons. Short-sightedness often reflects the laziest and most sordid parts of human nature. We listen to the latter at our own doom.
I didn't want anyone from either group to miss it, I love it that much. Never know what you'll
find just browsing; remember to bookmark it for later.
So far I think the de-icing salt is working, even though more slowly than I'd prefer. My turkey baster will only go so far down the pipe to suck up water. Every so often I'll go and check, and there'll be more water in the pipe. Except for the times I get impatient and pour boiling water down there, and siphon it out a couple hours later, the water must come from melting ice. Hopefully. That's the only thing that makes sense to me. Sooner or later enough ice will melt to let water go through on its merry way instead of back up the pipe.
X-Post from DIY (UPDATE 1/8 WARNING BELOW)
1/8/2014 WARNING: If you put more than the tiniest bit of de-icing salt in an open ice-jammed exit pipe, you're likely to compound your problems rather than solve them. IT CLUMPS. ONLY USE NON-TOXIC LIQUID ANTI-FREEZE. I'll never forgive myself if my bad advice causes anyone else more problems than they started with.
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Since DIY (done right) is the soul of thrift and efficiency, I thought I should share an excellent website I found with this group as well.
Removeandreplace.com - where I grew giddy just reading the subject titles. One especially good tip I picked up about telemarketers who ignore the DO NOT CALL list; when you're talking to them, press and hold down the number 9 pad on your phone. This sends a message to the other phone to remove you from their call list. I imagine it would work with legal callers such as charities and political organizations too, if indeed it works at all. Worth a try. Lots of other good stuff there too.
In this extra hard winter, my notorious washing machine exit pipe trap managed to form another ice jam. The previous successful methods did nothing to help. Then I found the most remarkable solution: de-icing salt, preferably the non-toxic kind. That's guaranteed to find its way to the ice jam and undo it. I'm so happy after almost a week of no laundry that I feel like doing a Snoopy jig. In a couple days when I can get to the store, my woes will be over. After that, when severe freezes threaten, a half cup of non-toxic RV antifreeze to nestle in the trap will keep it safe. What a relief.
(update) The ice melt salt is in the exit pipe now. Hope it works its magic soon. If not I'll be reduced to using a public laundromat, both expensive and disagreeable to me. Even when adding a bit of vinegar to the rinse, I don't feel they're all that sanitary. I don't use public pools either, no matter how much chlorine they use, you know what some people are gonna do.
DU's always being open is lovely and helpful.
That way those of us who love people but enjoy cyber company more than the other kind, can always find someone to share time with. We're not concerned about intruding or being intruded upon. My ideal percentage of face time is probably half an hour max per day, and I'm just as content when it's less. I think it's partly because my working years were so hectic and stressful that now I enjoy thinking of others and visiting online, maybe even on the phone a bit now and then; but if I don't see anyone face to face for a few days, it doesn't bother me. I used to volunteer a lot when younger, but there's precious little to do here. I started helping at the food bank once, but even there people fought among themselves so much it left a bad taste in my mouth. So now I stay home with my dogs and computer as much as possible. There's always plenty to do, especially in warm weather.
Not like the movies, no....
But even if the tree was a Linus, it was still a tree - and ours. If you consider child-made decorations beautiful, fine. We did have an heirloom creche scene, but otherwise it was homemade kid stuff. Beautiful presents? By the standards of the day and our station in life, yes; largely career military families, most of us barely middle class if that when you consider family size. In our family every kid got a complete new set of clothes to wear to Mass and one major toy. Love, yes, although we tended to be a scrappy bunch when Dad was away on a tour of duty. I guess we were mostly happy because we didn't really know another way of life.
Now I don't really mind spending the holidays alone because of lifelong habits. As Dear Abby used to say, better to be alone than to wish you were. I'm happy with who and what I am at this age; it's uncomfortable when other people try to fit me into their own preconceived notions. I can wish them the best and bid them a fond farewell.
If a conversation has bored you into brain freeze, you're not entirely responsible for what
pops out of your mouth unbidden. Are you??? Frankly, there's only so much medical history and minutia of the lives of people I don't know and will never meet, that I can take. Maybe it beats political rants, though, so I should be grateful. Or pecking other people to pieces - especially moi. My family's gone now, but when they were alive I adored some and tried to stay as far away from the others as possible. One good thing about fractious Irish clans, however - usually like hangs with like, because it seems a lot of us feel the same way. What I loved was people who knew family history back to Ireland and could carry on at fascinating length about all the feuds and such. I also found that the less I said, the more I'd hear.
The smarter thing would've been for me to note the appearances and later get just their
segments online w/o being subjected to the surrounding mess. I swear, people I used to like a lot now tend to drive me batty. Except for Donna Brazille, Rachel Maddow, and Bill Moyers. Wouldn't I love to have Joseph Campbell and Paul Wellstone back. Bet a lot of us would.
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Gender: FemaleHome country: US
Current location: retired to MidWest
Member since: Mon Feb 18, 2013, 10:15 PM
Number of posts: 6,151