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Post by Phalon on Oct 20, 2016 16:34:12 GMT -6
DIY. Do It Yourself. Drive It Yourself, in Joxie's case (how's that going for you, Joxie? Haven't heard anything in a while.) Don't Injure Yourself (in Hubs' case). Then of course, there's the all-too-common DIYAWYH - Did It Yourself, and Wish You Hadn't.
Time to share. Live and Let DIY.
My latest project materials list:
Two old wood drawers.
A poem.
A couple of birds.
Black spray paint.
Worcestershire sauce.
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 20, 2016 16:43:37 GMT -6
Haven't been back on the highway yet.  Anytime someone mentions it I get a hot flash and start sweating. Yes ... I know it's all in my head ... but how to get it out? 
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Post by Phalon on Oct 20, 2016 16:48:54 GMT -6
Practice.
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 20, 2016 17:24:34 GMT -6
 That's not what I wanted to hear. 
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Post by stepper on Oct 20, 2016 20:38:57 GMT -6
She's right - practice until it's boring, then stretch it a bit further. You don't have to drive to town today, but you need to drive, so do what you talked about. Drive in the country and, more or less, just go around the block. Repeatedly. I think what's making you have a hot flash is the fear of going further - like to town, so don't do that. Stick to circling the block. Eventually, expand the country drive, or drive the block one way, hook a Uie, and drive it going the opposite direction. Can you get to the church and stay on country roads? Try that drive a couple times and see how it goes.
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 20, 2016 20:52:30 GMT -6
My Church is on my road. It's a straight drive once I pull out of the driveway. The highway is a short distance past the Church. The Uie could be the Church parking lot.
I think my sister is waiting for my car to get low on gas. Then I'll have to drive to fill it up. Another thing that scares the crap out of me. Only did it once, with my sister's help. I've got the Eco light lit on my car, so it will take longer to need gas than it would have normally. I checked to see how far it is to drive from Mom's house to mine. Pulling out of her driveway the mileage had a .0, and when I pulled into my garage it was a .3, so it ain't a big distance. Shorter if I drove straight across the field.
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Post by stepper on Oct 20, 2016 22:00:48 GMT -6
There are a limited number of steps to filling a tank. Do the gas stations around you allow unattended 24 hour service? Meaning you can do your own thing at your pace with no one watching? Pay by credit card? Pop the cover to the tank, unscrew/remove the gas cap/pull the nozzle off the pump and put it in the hole/select your fuel/squeeze the handle. It'll stop automatically.
reverse the process. Drive yourself back home.
If you are really all that nervous about it, pull up to the pump and go inside. Tell them you've only pumped gas once and don't want to make a mess - would one of them come help you?
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 20, 2016 22:12:43 GMT -6
My sister would most likely be with me when I fill up. And maybe I'll get her to ride on fill up trips until I get comfortable with it. I don't really know if the pumps keep working after the place closes or not.
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Post by stepper on Oct 21, 2016 14:44:15 GMT -6
Having done it once, you know you are capable of driving around and filling the tank. Just keep at it until it doesn't bother so much.
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 21, 2016 16:42:48 GMT -6
I think I finally have the seat part like I like it. I lowered the seat all the way down and found a thick/firm half pillow at WalMart. My heel touches the floorboard off and on, in flip flops and flat sandals. Still might put a thin board/cardboard beneath the mat to see how it will work out. 
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Post by Phalon on Oct 22, 2016 5:07:01 GMT -6
Joxie, maybe it'll make you less nervous if you just remember when you're filling the tank, that there is really nothing you can do wrong (as long as you get the nozzle completely in the hole). You can't overfill the tank; when it's full, the pumps shuts off, and no more gas will come out of the nozzle. The digital screens on the pump even walk you through the steps pretty much. Even the diesel nozzles are designed not to fit in a vehicle that doesn't use diesel fuel, so there is no concern about putting the "wrong" gas into your car. My heel never touches the floorboard. <shrugs> It's just the way it is, and doesn't bother me. Dropped off my latest projects to the woman's shop yesterday morning on my way to work....just in time for Harvest Fest weekend. Something I had in my head for a couple of months, but didn't get around doing until last weekend, finishing them up on Thursday. Kinda like the way they turned out:  |
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Post by stepper on Oct 22, 2016 11:07:33 GMT -6
How do you keep your hand steady with the Imp helping you? I'd imagine she's getting pretty excited by now. And Worcestershire sauce? Was that for the birds?
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 22, 2016 20:20:07 GMT -6
Joxie, maybe it'll make you less nervous if you just remember when you're filling the tank, that there is really nothing you can do wrong (as long as you get the nozzle completely in the hole). You can't overfill the tank; when it's full, the pumps shuts off, and no more gas will come out of the nozzle. The digital screens on the pump even walk you through the steps pretty much.
Yeah. The 'shut off' is what I learned about when my Sister had me fill the gas tank on Mom's truck. I'm glad it's easier. I still sort of freeze up and make it far more complicated than it really is. It's just me making a mountain out of a mole hill. Once I get used to it then I'll look back and kick myself for acting like a big baby.
Now, this I wasn't aware of, and one of my fears when doing it all alone. Good to know.
Okay. Then it's just me sabotaging myself once again to have an excuse to not drive on the highway. Good to know. I am happy with the new pillow I got at WalMart, so the seating situation is resolved.  Don't tell anyone. 
Nice.
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Post by Phalon on Oct 23, 2016 7:15:27 GMT -6
I either send her and Cockatrice out to play in the cemetery, or wait until she's asleep curled up at my feet, softly purring. I once sent her out for supplies, but learned my lesson with that one after she came back with a live raven, who drove me nuts rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
The poem I used, of course, is Poe's "The Raven".
It was an afterthought; I wanted to age the paper, and Worcestershire sauce is what was handy.
Like a lot of things, all it'll take is a couple of times to get used to it.
Lips are sealed.
Since I'm here, Step, and doing laundry at the same time, I'm reminded of something I meant to ask regarding your DIY tie endeavor. Why the heck did you wash a white tie with dark colors?
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Post by stepper on Oct 23, 2016 12:51:01 GMT -6
You have an ingrained fear - you can overcome that. Phalon is still right - "all it'll take is a couple of times to get used to it." Your personal experience as an adult will help you overcome your memories from when you were younger. There's no one who is going to yell at you anymore - everyone is on your side here.
IIRC, the handles for diesel pumps are the only ones that are green.
I found out there are exceptions - Mobil stations being one of them. Maybe it goes state by state, I really don't know. What you want to do is check your local stations for which one is diesel so you know for sure. In most of the states, diesel pumps have green handles.
Thought I mentioned this before, but I used warm water (not hot), and I used Calgon which I thought was gentle and safe, and I'd already tested this the week before on other ties and it worked fine. I only hesitated a moment thinking maybe I should do the white tie by itself, but after it worked so well the previous week I just put it in with the other couple of ties. As I said, one of them bled blue, but I didn't catch that fact until it was way too late. The white tie was the only one that seems to have been affected - the other two were fine when rinsed and dried. I bought a new one last week, but it shouldn’t have been necessary. I should have done that one by itself.
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Post by Mini Mia on Oct 23, 2016 21:14:47 GMT -6
I hate when you've done something once or twice with no ill effects, and then the crap hits the fan. Like you're supposed to know it was bound to happen at some point.
Yeah. Okay. I've been prolonging this. I wonder how long I can keep it up? Maybe until it snows and then I'll have a legitimate reason?
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Post by Phalon on Oct 24, 2016 4:34:36 GMT -6
They're green here too. The nozzle is also bigger. When LX was first got her driving permit, she was pumping gas; she filled the tank a least once before, said she knew how to do it, so I sat in the car. She opened the car door, and said the nozzle wouldn't fit - it's a good thing! I almost had a heart-attack when I saw what she'd been trying to do.
Sorry. You did mention that, but I assumed you were talking about testing it to see if it got the ties clean.
Whites separate, delicates, hand-washables, and colors in cold water, Mom always said. I've always done it that way. Actually, we wash nearly everything in cold water - it saves energy. The only time I use warm or hot is when someone has been sick; I feel hot water would kill most lingering sick germs.
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Post by stepper on Oct 24, 2016 17:02:27 GMT -6
White stuff, excluding the obvious such as silk or my ties, goes in hot water here. Plus a dash of Clorox and OxiClean. Jeans and nearly everything else get cold.
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Post by Phalon on Oct 28, 2016 6:19:40 GMT -6
Step, I'm not arguing with you - just trying to save you some money. Silk should never be washed in hot water! Here are some tips for washing silk, or other delicate fabrics. www.cleanipedia.com/gb/laundry-washing/wash-silkNevermind! Just reread your sentence - the first time around I saw "including" instead of "excluding"! Still, cold water is best for your ties, and the site has some great tips on how to get them clean (without the danger of bleeding) for the next time you wash. |
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Post by stepper on Oct 28, 2016 20:00:11 GMT -6
This is one of those times when you should and that's what friends are for...silk in hot water? That'd be a horrible mess wouldn't it?
"Here's some silks you father bought in Japan right after WW-II. They were my present when he came home and have always meant so much to me."
"They look a bit dirty - how about I clean them for you?"
The tips are timely - it's time to start on the Snoopy and Peanuts ties next.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 7, 2016 7:22:23 GMT -6
Speaking of which, a welcome back to your avatar! Have you ever got ballpoint pen marks on your ties...or any other clothing for that matter? A tip from Mom - use hairspray to remove it (testing first in an inconspicuous area). It really works. Hairspray also removes anything sticky off almost any surface, and is less expensive than "Goof Off". Does "I've had" mean you've paid to have them done? I know you've said you don't have a creative bone in your body, but recovering chairs is more of a fix-it type thing, don't you think? It is honestly one of the easiest DIY projects there is....as long as you can wrap a present, you can recover chair cushions. I've done it a couple of times, and though I'm not using the dining room as a dining room anymore, I'm going to recover a couple of the chair cushions for extra seating at the kitchen table, and another for a small desk in the once-dining-room-now-sitting-room. Of course, if you can't wrap a present decently, leave the chair cushion recovering to a professional...  I rescued this gossip bench from the trash a couple of months ago. The seat had been recovered multiple times, and the reupholstery job is atrocious - whoever did it, did not bother to take off the multiple layers of fabric. I think the seat is impractical - I was going to redo it to sell. Hubs likes it, and dragged it out of the garage....and into the sitting room....where I will drag it down to the basement to gather dust until I get around to doing something with it. |
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 7, 2016 17:23:38 GMT -6
DIY. Do It Yourself. Drive It Yourself, in Joxie's case (how's that going for you, Joxie? Haven't heard anything in a while.)
Okay. Just sharing so it's find-able:
whooshorg.proboards.com/post/143927/thread
Very little color here, other than the browns. A few trees are showing hints of yellow, but not much else. I didn't think to look today, too nerve wracking a day today to even take notice.
I did ask the investor today about starting a 'publishing/film' business and he said he'd inquire around and see what he could learn/find out and get back to me. I had to drop off some paperwork for Mom's estate, so killed two birds with one stone. It is a 13.8 mile drive through three small towns and a killer curve. Plus his driveway is a dangerous one to pull out of, having a wee hill to the left of it. It's enough of a hill to make it hard to see if any traffic is coming.
Before stopping in with the investor I stopped by the insurance place to close Mom's home insurance account, which I thought was done when my sister and I opened an account of Mom's ... our place back in August. It seems someone overlooked having me sign the paperwork to close Moms. All done with it now. An 8.1 mile drive, but it's on the same highway, in the same direction, so it is included in the 13.8 miles.
Stopped by the phone company after visiting with the investor. It is 7.9 miles from home, just off the highway. I put Mom's phone number in my name. Keeping it because my Straight Talk phone [has] little to no service at Mom's house and using her home phone in case of emergencies should something happen while I'm there.
Last stop was the grocery store. It is 8.0 miles from home. It's further off the highway than the phone company. Then home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
Why, yes. Yes, I did. Thanks for asking.
  
And I did it all by my lonesome! 
My bil took last week as a vacation, and he and my sister did some cleaning up in their house. Cleaning out their children's old rooms and fixing them up for the grandkids. (Plus my bil cut down some trees and drug them out of the pond area.) My sister thinks she pulled something, and she's been laid up since then. I texted her over the weekend that Thursday would be Mom's dog's last can of food, and I waited for her to say when was best for her to go shopping, plus doing all the executor jobs I needed to do. ... She never did.
So, this morning, around 10am, I texted her to see if she was feeling better. At 2pm I texted that I guess she wasn't. She texted back that she wasn't. So, I called Mother Hen, and got her answering machine. So, I got dressed and took off down my road. As I was driving I was wondering how far I was going to get, and was I really going to do this. Drove past the Church, and figured I guess I was going to do this.  I think I felt I'd be less nervous all alone, than if I had someone with me.
The phone company and grocery store are in the same town as the insurance company, but they were off the highway, so I figured I'd get them on the way back from the investment company, as they'd be a right turn that way, and not a left one. The whole time I was in the grocery store I kept telling myself, "I can't believe I'm here ... I _can't_ believe I'm here." And then it reminded me I wasn't home yet.
So, I get home and unload my groceries, and as I'm putting them away I get a text from my sister informing me a package for me was left on her front porch. (It was the literature for Sunday School, since I inherited Mom's treasury job, and buying literature is part of that job. ... And only _one_ UPS driver knows I'm behind my sister's house and to follow the gravel driveway around my sister's garage to get to me. If I do decide to move into my Mom's house, at least I'll get deliveries on _my_ front porch.  )
I texted I'd pick it up when I went to feed Mom's cat. I stopped off at her house first, and I handed her the grocery receipt and told her to frame it. She gave me a weird look and said, "Okay?!" And then she unfolded it and saw what it was and was like: "What! You could have called me and I would have rode along." "I thought of calling to see if you wanted to ride along, but, you aren't feeling good, so I thought you wouldn't want to, and you'd try to talk me out of it."
She's very proud of me. I told her she's going to have to cook me a meal. But I am going to have her ride with me when I fill up the gas tank. It's about 1/4 full right now. Later on I texted her that I just ate _the_ best ham sandwich ever ... as I had bought it at the deli in the grocery store ... and that if I die of a heart attack during the night, it's from all the rapid beating it did for the two hours I was out and about getting things done. If I'm MIA tomorrow, you can place your bets on the cause.
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Post by stepper on Nov 7, 2016 22:20:46 GMT -6
I'll blank out again after Christmas, but I decided at least for now, I want the Avatar showing again.
Yes - I've had the random ink mark on a shirt or two.
What I have is called "Goo Gone". Depending on the surface - I can't recall using this on fabric - but for sticky (like removing scotch tape sticky from a fridge door) I've had luck using lighter fluid. The stuff you'd put in a Zippo lighter and comes in a tin - that stuff.
Yes, I paid to have them done. Without a lot of detail it comes down to this: time. What I haven't got is a lot of spare time. I don't know about my skill level here - yes I can wrap Christmas presents and do a decent job, but there are times when you can tell the wrapping wasn't the result of stopping by a department store customer service area. This is again usually the result of not having time. I don't have time to shop for or look for the right size box for present X which is oddly shaped, so the oddly shaped thing is oddly wrapped. For instance, I bought my niece and nephew a good sized tin of Life Savers. The tin had an exterior that looked like a large Life Saver package - inside of it was 9-10 packs of candy - the Five Flavor, Butter Rum, Cherry, and another one I think. Anyway, the tin was round with a flat top and bottom, and it made noise when shaken, so I wrapped them just the way they were. The ends were not as neat and pretty as they could have been and a box would have helped immensely, but who has time to find that size of box?
So could I do seats and seat backs? Possibly - if I could get the time. Would they be done well enough? I won't know unless I get time to try it.
We need someone to rewrite the "Go Cubbies Go" to "Go Joxcie Go"!
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 7, 2016 23:28:34 GMT -6
Ooh! Yeah. Forget the Cubs.
BTW: After trying to find the invisible dot for your avatar way back when, I added it as the 'default' avatar for all new members. So, when you're ready to go back to no avatar it should be a whole lot easier for you to do.
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Post by stepper on Nov 8, 2016 20:59:29 GMT -6
I appreciate that Joxcee.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 9, 2016 4:30:06 GMT -6
You're very welcome.
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Post by Phalon on Nov 9, 2016 5:38:17 GMT -6
Oh. I thought that for some reason you couldn't get an avatar to show. I didn't realize you wanted it blank.
I didn't mean to imply to use "Goof Off", "Goo Gone", or other similar products on fabrics; I think they'd be too harsh. What I meant is that hairspray works to get out pen marks from fabric, and sticky things from both fabric and other surfaces. Our dining room floor for example, was covered during the entire renovation with heavy paper taped down with blue construction tape (a bit heavier than blue painter's tape). When they took it off at the end, there was one strip that left a sticky residue. I tried everything I had in my cleaning arsenal, but nothing worked, until I remembered the hairspray trick.
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Post by stepper on Nov 11, 2016 19:44:28 GMT -6
I had that problem when I left some blue painters tape up too long. I got distracted and when I got back to the second coat the tape was a bit too stuck - took a lot of work.
Ever try this on plastic? Steppet was doing something years ago and put duct tape on the plastic over the timer on the microwave. It had been there a while when I decided to clean it up. It's much better but there is still a slight residue/filmy area.
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Post by Mini Mia on Nov 11, 2016 22:41:56 GMT -6
Looks like I'm gonna have to drive again. Last can of dog food is Sunday, and my sister is too miserable to do much of anything. She can't even allow clothes to touch the site. I might have my BIL go fill up the car and practice once my sister is back to normal.
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Post by stepper on Nov 11, 2016 22:47:56 GMT -6
My sympathies to your sister. As for driving - you can do that. And you can fill the tank. Stop telling yourself it's scary - just take your time - pay attention to what you are doing - and you'll be fine. I wish I could come help you. We'd go to multiple stations - pump a couple dollars worth - go to another station and do it again - and again - and again. By the end of the day you'd be a bored expert.
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