Most Liked HowTo Blogs (280)

I b'lieve it's just to the left of the center of the explosion...kinda like the profile of an alien looking up and to the right.

Does anyone else see this?
If not there - Where the hell's the damned face?!

This'll drive me nuts until I KNOW!

Rubber is a flexible latex product produced from the juice of a rubber tree. In varied process, it's mixed with other chemicals to create different products. The process for a soft latex mattress is different than a rubber tire (tyre) used on a car. Charles Goodyear developed vulcanization in 1839 where he mixed latex, sulfur and heated the mixture to harden the liquid rubber.

Over the years, new uses for rubber were invented. One process is to coat the exterior of a hard plastic object to give it a soft feel without affecting the structure of the inside. I've seen some plastic writing pens with a soft rubberized sleeve to make them comfortable.

One problem with products made with rubber is longevity. Tires have a manufacturing date stamp and people are warned against buying from an unreliable source as many 'new' tires have been been produced years ago and the rubber elasticity declines on an old tire making them unsafe.

I bought an emergency spotlight with a rubberized handle. Never used it. One day before a hurricane, I decided to open the box and try it, only to find the rubber handle was sticky to the touch. I found the rubber feet on my water pic (purchased 2 years ago) leave black marks on the countertop.

My laptop mouse deteriorated within 2 years and I was lucky enough to remove the rubberized surface with 91% rubbing alcohol. I have a very expensive mouse/controller I use in design that has programmable buttons and a 3D wheel. The rubberized surface is also deteriorated and sticky. That was a $300 purchase and they are no longer manufactured. Basically, I'm in trouble if I cannot find a replacement on Amazon or eBay. I dusted the surface with talcum powder so it wouldn't be so sticky and will experiment if I can clean it with alcohol or a solvent to remove the rubberized coating and not destroy the controller.

That said... be cautious of long-term purchases that have a rubberized coating.

The house I'm living in was built 70 years ago and fitted with a septic tank about 10 feet from the back of the house. The city did an upgrade connection to a sewer system shortly before my family purchased it around 60 years ago. The tank remains, but sewer pipe runs over it and connects to a main line at the front of my property. Over the years, we've had very few problems with the system.

The method for sewer lines back then was a series of interconnecting clay pipe in sections (like the photo) about 6 feet long that had a ring of tar to seal the fittings.



Over the years, the ground shifted. Although the pipes were intact, the tar between the joints separated and began to leak. It's not a big problem unless you have a tree near the sewer line where the roots from the tree (seeking water) will grown into the pipe making it crack. The roots continue to grow inside the pipe increasing the chances of things getting snagged, creating a complete blockage.

We had our first issue more than 20 years ago. I called a Roto-Rooter plumbing service to 'snake out' the drain. Unfortunately, he wasn't equipped to do the job. A call to the city got their repair truck and a guy who knew how fix things. The plumbing snake he used had a large diameter rotary cutting head that trimmed off the roots growing within the pipe. The advice was 'get the pipe replaced' as slicing the roots only made them grow back faster. I did and had 30 feet of pipe around the tree replaced with a seamless piece of PVC.

I live on a street and my neighbor lives on an avenue. Their plumbing joins with mine in a "T" connection about 70 feet from the property line. Someone on their side flushed something down the line that blocked up both sewer lines. The city was called and they replaced most of the line with PVC at no charge to either of us.

At least 7 years ago , I did a bathroom renovation and installed a 'new fangled' toilet that uses 1 gallon per flush and (in laboratory tests) can send a load down 50 feet of pipe!
(are you impressed? I know I am) This toilet doesn't clog.

On Sunday, the toilet was backing up. The problem was the sewer and not the toilet. Admittedly, both me and my wife are big users of butt-wipe and go through a mega roll every few days. That was enough to cause a sewer backup. I rarely need to hire people to do repairs that I cannot do and I dumped a gallon of drain opener expecting the problem to be eliminated. Not true. I checked all 3 plumbing cleanouts and see the trouble was in the first 50 feet... the part that hadn't been upgraded.

A trip to Home Depot Wednesday night and a 50 foot plumbing snake had me busy Thanksgiving morning. The clog is gone, my hands are tired of wrestling the snake for an hour, but it's done!

Can we correct typo's on replies on comments ? I make so many lol

or don't see.
As I scroll up and down the list of members and their blogs, there is a 'dot' indicator showing on the profile photo who is online (green dot) of offline (or inactive) with a grey dot.

Some profiles (4 or 5) have no dot at all.

I'm wondering what settings they have to make them living in a dotless society...

Go after what you really love and find a way to make that work for you then you'll be a happy person.
~Tom Petty~

becomes fallible? Somehow can't open in or outmail here. Also, can't read all your wisdom in responses to my rants. I've asked CS to check things. In the mean time, gmail me with UN of George Soros.

I'm thinking of the right tools for the job.
Most of the vacuuming is done in my cleaning project, but the fine dust is more than my shop vac can handle. The whole place needs to be wet swabbed.
Should I get a string mop or a sponge mop with a squeeze handle at a cost of $50 with a bucket.
I ponder...
This is not my area of expertise !
The shop vac does wet or dry but I'm actually thinking to rent a carpet cleaner that sprays water.
A day's rental runs $75 or I can buy my own cleaner and use it as needed.
Hoover has an upright cleaner for $100 and a professional model for $150.
Really designed for carpet it has forced air to dry and I would think it would do the job on tile.
With the hose and upholstery attachment it's possible I could eliminate the need for a mop and bucket.

That said, I could eliminate one bucket off my bucket list!

....hopefully, none of us on CS will recall the days of real live Vaudeville shows. A pretty wild, often raucus, and very non-forgiving time to be a stage artist. Rarely, after coming on stage, a new performer, often a waif-like member of the weaker sex, would freeze on seeing the Globe Theater pit style crowd, or merely be so bad, that the catcalls and ripe veggies began to fly. Usually, two alert stagehands, typically of the stronger sex, would then extend a 20 foot long large pole with big hook on the end, sort of like we see in swimming pools where kids are these days---and then tug her back behind stage. It even worked after he fainted. So it often is for many of us here on CS, in a variety of ways. For me, "social smoker" in the profile gets the hook, for many more than health reasons. Or how about when a response begins with "handsome" or "beautiful", both of which are completely appropriate in time? And, let's go to private mail right away. Most helpful for automatic vetting.

clap your hands...

Is that thunderous applause I hear? I didn't think so.

I see it. I feel it. I know it about myself but I'm seemingly unable to stop it. What I can do though is pause, breathe...and try not to give in to knee-jerk emotional response.

I'm not perfect. Not by a long shot. I want to be a better person. Better than I was a moment ago when I started writing this. Fellow hypocrites, pray with me. I aspire to be less judgmental, more stoic, more understanding, more empathetic, less selfish, more generous. more loving...and if I can't be less hypocritical, I should aspire to keep my f#@*ing mouth shut rather than broadcast to anyone within earshot what an a** I truly am.

Amen