Safe Battery Charging
Last week I shared an EMERGENCY broadcast showing a lithium-ion battery charging on a messy garage workbench. It exploded and started a fire.
Your takeaway should have been these batteries are far more dangerous than you suspect.
Just days ago a neighbor of mine lost their entire detached garage to a fire. It was a complete loss as were all the contents. I talked to the owner just minutes ago and sure enough, he had a big charging station in the garage with multiple chargers plugged in charging power-tool batteries!
My advice is to charge these batteries inside an empty old-fashioned metal garbage can as far away from combustibles as possible. Be sure a working smoke detector is above the garbage can.
Put the lid on the garbage can in case
there is an explosion. Be sure the extension cord doesn't get frayed or cut and short out on the metal can. Use your God-given critical-thinking skills and devise a way to protect the cord, yourself, your loved ones, and your possessions.
Jennifer the T-Rex
Several days ago I received this email from a very nice woman in
Columbus, Ohio. I've never met her but I can tell from her short email she's a VERY NICE woman:
"I miss reading your column in the Columbus Dispatch (Ohio) home section each Sunday. Yes, I still subscribe to the daily home delivery 7 days a week. Call me Jennifer the
dinosaur!"
My reply was a little strong as I suggested she might have been partially responsible for my column being CANCELED. I asked Jennifer if she ever wrote letters to Dispatch editor giving a few examples of how my column saved time and money.
Are you like Jennifer? Do you read my column each week in a paper or digital edition of a
newspaper?
If so, it's VERY IMPORTANT for you to write periodic letters to the editor of the paper. Share how a particular column of mine helped you save money, time, or both.
Without periodic POSITIVE feedback about features, editors CANCEL them because they feel no one likes them.
You need to understand that
editors get a CONSTANT INFLOW of NEGATIVE feedback about all their features. Most editors let this criticism flow off their backs like water off a duck's feathers.
But every now and then there's the straw that breaks the camel's back. Imagine the editor who's having a stressful BAD day. She/he gets a nasty letter from a contractor or product manufacturer that I take to task in my
colum.
The editor does what you'd probably do to STOP the pain: Cancel the Ask the Builder column and no more complaints come in. Easy peasy! Substitute a new puzzle or word game in its place.
You should send these letters for ANYTHING you really like in the paper
be it a comic strip, a puzzle, a cooking feature, etc.
If you don't do this, you'll be having a piece of cheese with your whine just like Jennifer.
Using a Watch as a Compass
My good friend Wayne sent me this tip. You can use a traditional analog watch as a
compass.
Here are three cherished possessions of mine.