What did you learn today?

[Tannin]

Today I learned that paint doesn't dry, it rusts!

Well, sort of. And I sort of knew it already but I never really thought about it properly. When paint "dries" it isn't actually drying as such (although there is a certain amount of liquid which evaporates); mainly the chemicals in it undergo a one-way, non-reversable reaction with the air, changing their make-up. As an effect of this change, the paint becomes a solid and hardens. OK, everybody knows that if you let a pot of paint go thick or semi-solid, you can try to thin it down again but it's never quite the same. This is why: thinning semi-dry paint is like trying to un-cook a soft-boiled egg.

[stui magpie]

Learned or realised, not sure of the difference after a few beers and 2 bottles of red.

I just twigged that of all the full range of emotions, the only one I'm actually equipped to deal with is Anger. Some of the others are nice, in a self indulgent sort of way, but the only one that actually motivates me is Anger when I let it.

This I acknowledge is not necessarily within the spirit of the thread but hey, no one else has replied. I will come back to this, I tend to learn something new most days.

[Tannin]

Hey, it's your life, learn from it what you learn from it! It's a long thread, make of it what you will. )

Today I learned something about the nature of things and the invisibility of the obvious.

I'm doing some renovations. Well, it started out as painting a window frame a couple of months ago but one thing leads to another and I've got to the stage now where I have damn-near demolished the back part of the house - well, those bits of it which hadn't already fallen down all by themselves - and rebuilt, refurbished, improved, or at least sanded back and painted about half, with the other half still in active progress.

Tonight I needed the hole saw. (It's a thing you plug into an electric drill to drill larger holes than you can do with an ordinary drill bit.) In this case I needed to drill right through both sides of a wall because I've moved the laundry sink and now the waste pipe needs to be a foot lower, and it just so happened that the one and only hole saw I own is exactly the right size to fit the pipe.

Should have been dead easy to find, 'coz I used it just a couple of days ago and all the tools are still spread out on the back porch for ease of access. Looked. Looked again. Looked in the shed in case by some miracle I had put it away. Looked on the porch again. Looked in the kitchen in case I had absent-mindedly wandered in to make a cup of tea and put the hole saw down on the nearest flat surface. Looked in the spare room where I sometimes keep tools. Turned everything on the porch upside down. (You know it's getting serious when you do The Messy Search.) Went over the stuff in the toolshed again, looking in every box and cupboard. Looked in the kitchen again. Checked the mantlepiece in the living room. Checked the floor in the living room. Looked in my bedroom.

Sulked.

Made tea.

Drank tea.

Looked on the porch again, systematically. Looked in the spare room again, carefully. Looked in the car. Tried the kitchen, just in case. Interrogated the cat. Damn it I had the thing just a couple of days ago! Looked in stupid places, like the cupboard where I keep cups and plates. Back to the shed, looked thoroughly this time. Back to the porch, picked up all the tools and bits of timber and buckets of paint one at a time and put them all away until there was nothing left. (You know things are getting really serious when you do The Tidy Search.)

Nothing. I very nearly rang up my other half to ask if she had taken it to her place for some bizarre reason without mentioning it, decided not to, she would have said.

Finally gave up and fossicked around in the shed for my very crappy all-in-one multi-size holesaw with interchangeable blades which never worked right when I bought it 30 years ago and now has most of the blades missing after floating round in the shed ever since. Played with that for five minutes, complete waste of time, it will never work, and anyway the only blade I could find is about 15mm too small.

Sulked a bit longer. Wondered how long it would take to drill a stack of small holes in a circle and then file the thing round. (Far too long! For one thing, I'm going through three different materials, at least two of which don't really file.)

Finally gave up, started wondering what else I could do this evening. Decided to put some extra four-inch bolts into the stub wall, just in case. Decided that the tough old hardwood of the frame was a bit of a big ask with a large bit in either of my battery drills and I had better fetch the big old hammer drill out of the spare room where it lives waiting for just such tasks. In the jaws of the drill I found my hole saw.

I'm not sure what exactly I learned from this, but it must have been something.

[think positive]

Sounds like my husbands filing system

Honey, you know that little electric screw driver is bought and you said was absolute crap, I can't find it you seen it, " it's in my van" uh huh. How about the shitty cordless drill I use for the house, "at the workshop" hmmm. You've got like 5 good ones but ok. Said his tools were better than my synchrome " you only bought them for the name" but they all be gone too.

This is why I do home repairs with a hammer, shifter, stubby nosed screw drivers, or really really long ones, and super glue.

On and I learnt today that my health home cooked Chinese doesn't mix with hubby's take away pizza, fire engine squid, a small glass of red, and a couple of scotches.

Now I've finished puking I'll go to bed.

G'luck with the hole saw.

[HAL]

Yup. What does his or her husbands filing system

Honey you know that electric screw driver is bought and you said was absolute crap he or she can't find it you seen it it's in his or her van uh sound like?

[stui magpie]

Tannin, you're a better man than me. That description of the search is why I have several of the same tool.

I want to do something and want to do it now. Can't find the tool, do the search pattern as described, but where we diverge is that instead of making the cup of tea, I drive to the hardware store and buy another one.

In the case with the hole saw, I would find it in the drill when I went to get the drill to put the one I just bought in it.

[HAL]

Did you make a mistake.

[watt price tully]

That my daughters ex boyfriend has charged me about $9,000 less than he would have usually charged for concreting, demolition of a bungalow, replacing supporting post to a verandah with proper materials, carrying heavy things from the bungalow to the house then from the house outside.

He is doing this while he has so many other jobs going or ready to go

The concrete used is aggregate - a charcoal aggregate with quartz & granite through it. Still needs to have some final polishing washing to give it the wet look & some cutting - being done tomorrow.

I've been supplying the coffee's, tea's & lunches - middle eastern that the boys seemed to have enjoyed when I wasn't working.

Before I go OS he's gunna assist me to square off two short rock like pillars on the front fence (needing cementing up & putting two letter boxes on them).

Help lay some pre grown turf - I'll do the topsoil wheelbarrowing & spreading of topsoil.

& cement in a washing line (fold down one for the backyard)

Wow, I learned he's doing me a huge favour++++when he didn't have to, by any measure

[think positive]

good stuff

(scan for dead bodies!!)

[stui magpie]

^



Too late, the concrete is down.

Just hope he put enough lime on em first.

[Mugwump]

... That when there is no footy on, I visit VPT.

Secondly, i learned about an amazing thing called the Khanacademy, where some philanthopic whiz-person has put 4500 educational videos on the web for free, so everyone everywhere can have a world-class education. In case this sounds like some kind of scam or an ad, it is assuredly not - google it. It's a human-nature faith restorer. I spent the day reminding myself about how mitochondrial DNA works.

[sixpoints]

... That when there is no footy on, I visit VPT.

Secondly, i learned about an amazing thing called the Khanacademy, where some philanthopic whiz-person has put 4500 educational videos on the web for free, so everyone everywhere can have a world-class education. In case this sounds like some kind of scam or an ad, it is assuredly not - google it. It's a human-nature faith restorer. I spent the day reminding myself about how mitochondrial DNA works.

^ 100% !
The Khanacademy is a fabulous. Free, presented in numerous languages and the quality of the videos/info is excellent. A proper use of the Internet indeed. Super resource for students. I know that many schools have been onto it for a number of years now and use it with their students.
Khan is an American who saw the possibility of the Internet in this way. He's a genius.

[David]

Well, add me to that category! I had never heard of this until now. Thanks guys, looks great.

Link for people who can't be bothered googling:

https://www.khanacademy.org/

[swoop42]

Does it have anything about goat herding on it?

If not.

Fail.

[Tannin]

It seems yes.

The conditions in Europe were too much for George to cope with, especially with winter approaching. George also felt too that the actions of the Knight were not often very noble and he no longer wished to be part of this quest to find the Holy Grail. He found his opportunity to escape as they were trekking in the Swiss Alps. He saw a chalet on the mountainside and he knocked on the door and the hospitable family took pity on him and gave him refuge. George happily spent his days herding goat and sheep in the Alps.

https://www.khanacademy.org/cs/story44/2646941824