Today I have for you a collection of mostly useful or “lite” links. NO politics. Enjoy.
- Looking like spring here. But if you’re still in the merciless grip of winter, here’s an EZ windshield defroster. Just two ingredients. Whips up in seconds.*
- How to make sliding barn door for inside your house. I’ve been thinking of something like this, myself.
- How to use a large 3D printer to … print yourself a smaller 3D printer!
- Some people take the expression “losing your marbles” a tad too literally
- For book nerds or statistics nerds only: “The Gone Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on the Train.” An analysis of how so many novels recently came to have “girl” in the title and how male novelists are unkinder to their “girls” than women novelists are.
- This mall — “worth” $143 million 10 years ago — just sold for a hundred bux. And you and I missed out on the deal. (Yet another sign of how healthy the retail economy is.)
- Celebrities and their animal counterparts. A nice, equal-opportunity mocking.
- Fun critter comix.
*Today’s “nooz you can use” items are courtesy of MSJ, who regularly compiles these useful things and shares them with prepper and DIY friend.
Marbles? A bunch of womyn lost theirs in WashDC. Griped at the wrong folks. Should have gone to the Saudi embassy.
The corrections at the bottom of the mall article are hilarious!
“This story has been corrected to show Wells Fargo Bank acted as a trustee, it didn’t buy the mall, and it was the mall, not the bank, that was auctioned off.”
I’d kinda like to see how it was originally written 🙂
That sliding barn door, either one or two of them, would make a nice-looking closet door in a modern or traditional setting, and without taking space from the closet itself.
critter comix are the best! Bookmarked. 🙂
Making a Ripple. http://www.kansas.com/news/nation-world/article128286869.html
Marbles aren’t so bad. Came on the scene on I-10 after a semi spread a load of roofing nails across the eastbound lanes. A dozen cars/SUVs/pickups and several larger vehicles had two or more flat tires. It was way out in West Texas, and there probably weren’t more than one or two wreckers within 100 miles.
The deicer is nifty. I wonder if it works on driveways…
The “January Thaw” that we’ve been enduring has resulted in temps hanging right around freezing for a couple of weeks, coupled with a bit of rain instead of snow, got us 2″ ice rink quality ice on our driveway. Even 4 wheel drive was useless in getting my Tahoe into the garage. Maybe my garden sprayer with a couple gallons of the alcohol mixture….
Salt water works very well, and costs a whole lot less than rubbing alcohol.
Funny you should mention the sliding “barn” door right now. My neighbor did something like this in her house (you can buy the hardware on Amazon) and I’m planning exactly the same thing on my new bedroom addition I hope to complete this year. Just the one door, not two that split.
The advantage being, in a very small space, it doesn’t swing out and you don’t lose any/much wall space for many uses.
“The advantage being, in a very small space, it doesn’t swing out and you don’t lose any/much wall space for many uses.”
Yep. And you don’t have to reframe the wall to fit a pocket door. Glad the link and its timing were useful for you.
I’m also thinking about the one-door option rather than two; I’d also go for a little less of a barn look in my case.
My only question about that de-icer is: what does it do to the rest of the car in the long-term? Otherwise it looks great.
“My only question about that de-icer is: what does it do to the rest of the car in the long-term? Otherwise it looks great.”
An alcohol mix shouldn’t do anything in the long term since it evaporates so quickly. IIRC alcohol is the main ingredient in commercial de-icers and lock defrosters, in any case.
Now, ML’s salt-water suggestion I might try on a frozen driveway (though plain salt works fine and doesn’t add more liquid to freeze), but I don’t think I’d try the salt-water cure on the vehicle itself.
“Salt water works very well …” – MamaLiberty, 01242017, 4:12am
Yes, but having lived in the northeast all my life, I know it also works very well at eating away at our precious vehicle body metals (Dr. Strangelove quote similarity intentional). And, most alcohols are flammable, and toxic to animals.
May I suggest instead:
– Propylene Glycol (legal to buy, and safe for people & environment);
– Hair dryer or heat gun (don’t forget a heavy-duty extension cord);
– Solar-panel-powered heater (goes over top of side window like a old-style car-hop tray).
– Remote-control vehicle starter (for the lazy person like me who wants an easier way of doing things).
The salt water works on larger areas of concrete or wood because it is already dissolved. I’ve not had any luck with dry salt or the bagged deicer here, since they just sit on top. Requires far more salt or whatever that other stuff is, and it takes a while to do anything. Salt water isn’t going to work with thick ice, obviously, and might make the ice worse then, but for a thin layer it is an instant cure. I use a cold salt water on the windshield too, again for a thin layer and not in extreme cold weather. I’m too short and don’t have enough strength in my arms to do much good with any sort of scraper, so I came to the salt water thing as a last resort when I absolutely have to go out.
What I bought recently, however, may give me a much better option. It is a thick black plastic with magnets embedded. It is placed across the windshield and secured with the magnets. They don’t stick to the plastic parts of the car body, of course, but there may be enough metal in the frame to make it work. If the wind blows it off… the magnets might be heavy enough to keep the whole thing from blowing away. 🙂
We’ll find out as soon as I can brush the 4 inches of snow off the car… and shovel a path out to where it sits in the driveway. LOL Not happening today.
The mall wasn’t the only thing in the bill of sale for $100. There was the $143 million note owed to Wells Fargo. So Wells bought their own note and the mall that secured it. Had anyone else bought it, they would still owe Wells Fargo.
So the actual prices was closer to $143,000,100. It’s unlikely Wells will ever see the full amount repaid, but they will end up with far more than $100.
Damn reality. Ruins a good story again. 😉
I did know that, S. Thank you. But it remains a sign of the times that no actual mall developer was interested in working out some kind of a deal with Wells Fargo to take the mall on for a fraction of what was owed. The suburban mall is dead. And you know, ultimately … good riddance.