Is getting out of bed long before dawn to go the track before even the first coffee of the day count as an accomplishment?

When I moved into my fixer-upper house 23+ years ago I did install Ethernet into every location I thought would be useful. Some of the locations proved to be less useful than thought (wrong wall, etc) and the phone copper installed over the same routes proved to be a total waste — should have been an extra Ethernet.…

No, actually, please tell me what your line of work IS. I’ve clearly picked a nonproductive career path — nary a single nude ever showed up.

For some reason the VOLUME of the room means nothing? The mounting height? My neighbor has what one might call a chalet-A-frame hybrid home and the volume of the main space is incredibly large compared to the floor area. It would seem to me that, to efficiently move air around, the fan would need to be larger the…

Some microwaves are made to fit into tight spaces. I purchased a Sharp R-930 microwave/convection oven along with its purpose-built mounting kit and installed it in a very tight totally enclosed space above the counter. The mounting kit allows ventilation and fills the space around the unit. It has been running for…

Gee, just what I wanted! A way to torture any guests in the smallest room in the house with MY selection of music. Perfect for the passive-aggressive host.

It’s fine. Just not for breakfast...

Pasta serving size is invariably given by weight with 4oz being the most common number given. I don’t even own a pasta spoon and have never seen one but I am able to grab spaghetti from the container and know by feel that I’m within maybe 0.2oz of the correct amount as verified by my ever-present scale. Anyway, how do…

Hey, more power to ‘em. Maybe someone should be promoting mixing 20-Mule Team with Clorox to simultaneously cure their arthritis and prevent COVID in a single dose. Or maybe the sooner the idiots weed themselves from the gene pool the better...

I buy reliable new vehicles for cash and keep them for a goodly number of years. My first Mazda MX-5 Miata was with me for 15 years while others have lasted 10-or-so because I take exceptionally good care of all of my vehicles. I cannot imagine that I could buy an already-old vehicle with an unknown maintenance and…

Well, I did it more than once as a small child picking apples from the abandoned orchard that was our back garden and I’m 75 years old now so it certainly didn’t hurt me. As for how I’d feel now — meh.

Which ignores the fact than when it is 90+ degrees outside opening the windows will only ever “cool” the car down to 90+ degrees. The only respite is that a torrent of hot air will make you sweat like mad and that might make you feel marginally cooler. Of course the torrent of noise comes along with the air fraying…

If you are clever you will be using a dish brush and won’t be sticking your hands in the water. If you do that you can have the water as hot as your kettle can produce. I find that a dash of dish soap and some 93-degree (c) water in my still-hot fry pans and a few swipes with the brush will leave them sparkling clean…

There are many solutions. My favorite solution IS a solution: hydrogen peroxide. Once you’ve done the boiling water trick and made sure that the trap is not blocked simply pour in “40 volume” hydrogen peroxide available at any beauty supply store. Usually a half liter of the stuff is enough for even a large shower…

Good idea. And while you’re at it fill a bag with chicken stock cubes too -- ever so useful while cooking.

Well, I’m an old’n (75) and have been a Subaru Outback driver for 15 years now but I’m seriously considering a 2023 Prime AWD. Subaru may just have lost my loyalty by totally screwing up their attempt at hybridization. A more lame vehicle than that particular Subie would be hard to imagine.

I did the incandescent-to-LED switch starting very early on finally finishing up with eight outdoor flood lights under the eaves of my old house a few years ago. Those took so long since, at 16-feet up I was hesitant to change them myself. I still have two halogen bulbs in the house but only because they are on…

“Throw Out”? Why throw out? I happened to have two unopened jars in my pantry and just took them down to the Kroger where I bought them this morning. Despite only having a receipt for the purchase of one of them they gave be a full refund, no questions asked and it took maybe five minutes. Sure, for me it isn’t a…

Why peroxide? The good 12% stuff would probably work well but it is difficult to come by and costs a good bit. How about soaking in a good stiff solution of laundry bleach instead? As long as the dishes are well-rinsed or take a trip through the washer afterward I can see no contamination problem.

Sure, buy a new car if you can pay cash for it and plan to keep it for at least a decade. If you can’t pay cash for it then you don’t really need it and it will be nothing but a burden.