Melting Clothes, Daycor Updates, and an Emergency Kit for the One Percent

This week two close friends lost family members, one a mother, the other a brother.   I am so sorry.  Much sympathy to CM (x3) and EP.  Whatever you feel/say/write, I am there with you.  As Anne Lamott wrote, "We are here to see each other through."  

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The past several weeks have been full of minor domestic things gone wrong.  My car (dead battery, replaced by AAA), Jerry's car (brakes), my iPhone (will no longer allow photos to be e-mailed), the boom box in my studio (too much opera lately?).  It's been one thing after another.  But here are two problems we managed to fix ourselves, and I'm passing the remedies along so you, too, can feel thirfty and empowered.

First, toilets.  I know, gross--and a major inconvenience.  Two clogged up several weeks apart, and after a plunger proved to be useless, I googled the problem and came up with this formula.  To my amazement, it worked!  No plumber needed.

•      Pour 1 cup of baking soda and 2 cups of vinegar into the toilet.  This will fizz dramatically.

•      Pour about a half gallon of hot water (the temperature of hot tea) from waist level into the bowl.

•      Let the mixture stand overnight.

•      Flush.

At this point, our toilets were unclogged and functioned perfectly.  Thank-you, WikiHow.

Next up:  a nearly-new Rowenta iron with a plate gummed up with residue from ironing polyester/spandex,  a mess that neither fingernails nor non-abrasive scrubbers could clean up.

Truly magical results

I went back to the internet.  Someone commented that a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser worked, so I tried it.  Voila, no more sticky gunk and no scratches! 

Later I called the Rowenta help line and found out that I should have used the "Synthetics" setting; I had melted the man-made fabric, my bad.  The Magic Eraser treatment was new to him, though. 

Don't they check the internet?

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Following up on my post about trends in  home decor, I was very bucked-up to read in House Beautiful   that white kitchens are back!  Oh, yes!  White counters, appliances, cabinets--once again au courant!  I'm back in style (our kitchen is c. 1999).

Of course, you're more chic if you go with faux-vintage appliances:

I have no idea what these cost, but it's got to be more than your garden variety Whirlpool.

Then I found yet another tarted-up laundry room on a blog:

I'm so missing this gene!  Why would you fill glass-front cabinets with paper towels?   And go to the trouble of papering the walls to look like subway tiles?

Just to give you an idea of my own laundry room and the energy I'm willing to put into its appearance:

Under the house and with a bare light bulb

We ARE thinking of remodeling my bathroom.  Here are my sister and the contractor discussing what can be done:

A 1924 closet turned into a bathroom in the 1960's.  Somewhat better than the laundry room, but with definite issues.

*****

And yet more information on emergency kits.  How about one that includes a monogrammed emergency bag and Earl Grey tea?  All for a mere $375, as documented in the New York Times:

A kit for the one percent.

Scarlett Johansson, who reviewed this kit, said, "If somebody is that concerned with the look of their disaster kit then they're not going to survive the apocalypse.  The zombies are coming for that guy, because he probably tastes like Kobe beef."

Why Are Emergency Survival Kits Hilarious?

To me, anyway.  I always end up laughing.

My studio at the moment

We're having some construction done on the house this week, and there's stuff from the bedroom parked all over my studio.  I can't quilt in there, so I  decamped to the kitchen and made a list of long-procrastinated tasks I could attack.

First, I should update our emergency kit, which in this area means "earthquake kit."  We live two blocks from the notorious Hayward Fault.  Our block has an emergency plan that involves two buried plastic barrels of supplies and all-inclusive emergency staffing assignments (I'm on the newsletter committee). 

Each household is supposed to have an earthquake kit, and Jerry and I have tried, tried, to do the right thing, but we deal with our kit decade-ly.  Our food, water, and batteries are way out of date.  We'd be pathetic in an emergency.

Right now, our "kit" is piled on the floor of the downstairs hall closet:

 Not exactly grab-and-run

Each time our local NPR station has a pledge drive, they offer emergency kits as a bonus if you donate enough money.  I wanted a closer look, so I made a note of the company that supplies this bonus,  Emergencykits.com, and this morning I checked out the website.

Oh, my God, I laughed!  I kept making trips into Jerry's study to tell him about it.  He was not as amused, although he agreed that buying a kit made more sense than using our haphazardly packed bags of stuff.

I studied the various possibilities.

First off, I decided that I'd like a kit that includes a toilet, however sketchy.  That means a bucket with a snap-on toilet lid.   Here's a kit with a bucket toilet, tricked out with supplies for two people for 72 hours:

 The Home Base Emergency Kit, $119.99

With this kit you get packets of food, pouches of water, and a hand-crank/solar radio.  Other items include  "moiste" [stet] towelettes; a Swiss Army-Like Knife (I love the "like") with 17 functions; and duct tape, which is Jerry's fix-it method of choice.

If we think we can't manage to wrest all that out of the front hall closet, we could buy a backpack of stuff and hide it somewhere outdoors (where?).  This kit includes have a 2-person tube tent, which I know would make me claustrophobic, but no toilet.  It weighs 16 pounds, but you can get a rolling backpack, which solves that problem.

The Home Emergency Kit: $109.99

Note the tube tent on the right.

I was all set to order one of these kits, when I thought to check out online reviews.  At Ready Set Go, I found this highly-rated kit, which to my surprise includes a deck of cards.  A deck of cards!  For the truly blase disaster survivor:

 On sale for $119.99.  The glove is very OJ.

I went back to Emergencykits.com and  came across my very favorite item of all,  "The GO Anywhere Portable Toilet," otherwise known as "The PETT."   
 

This item is described as "thoughtfully engineered."  It folds up into a case and weighs only 8 pounds.  Also, "it... can support up to to 500 pounds...It's even stable on uneven ground."  All this for only $69.99.

If modesty is a concern, there's always this option:

The shrouded PETT

When I saw this picture I had to push back from my computer, convulsed with laughter.  I mean, honestly!

Is it black humor?  Lack of imagination? Displaced anxiety?  Maybe what I'd really like to do is empty the hall closet of coats and shoes and load it up with photos, quilts, travel journals, oh, and maybe a few moths for Jerry to fool around with.

Whatever.  I just hope I can wedge my antidepressants into the Hygiene Kit.

Whatever Happened in Iowa, Let's Stay Friends

"My idealistic side loves Bernie. My pragmatic side thinks Hillary is better prepared overall. I think they both have done a great job at bringing hidden issues out in the open. I refuse to put either of them down. There's too much at stake."--my friend Celia on Facebook this morning.

Thanks, Celia.  I needed to be reminded.

 Let's stop putting down either of them, because there IS too much at stake.

On the New York Times website,  articles about Clinton and Sanders are followed by a huge number of comments, and putting down the other candidate is the name of the game. Each morning I scan the comments, bracing myself for criticism of Hillary.  Then I get mad.  Then I scroll down and start distributing "likes" to anyone who criticizes Sanders.  No doubt there are Sanders supporters who are doing the same.

Stupid!  Pointless!

Who's the real enemy?  Small-minded people like Toxic Ted and the rest of that loony brigade.

How about this, instead?

Isn't great that we have two intelligent, committed, sane Democratic candidates to choose from?  People who will appoint a similarly sane, liberal person to the Supreme Court, if necessary. People who will protect the freedom to choose an abortion and the right of gay people to marry.  People who don't deny climate change.  People who don't think people are poor because they're lazy.

 Both candidates have a lot to offer

Either Sanders or Clinton will do a hell of a lot better job than any Republican running for President.  Let's be thankful for that.  Let's be deliberative and weigh the issues.  We can choose whichever candidate we prefer in the primary and then jump the (relatively) low fence to vote for the other in the general election, if necessary.

I'm lecturing myself here.  No more demonizing.  No more payback "likes."  What's at stake isn't my ego or passion or identity--a sister Baby Boomer!-- but the welfare of the country.  Deep breath.