AsktheBuilder Christmas Issue – 2019
Merry Christmas to you! This is my annual Christmas newsletter and if you're a new subscriber in the past ten days or so, trust me this is not a normal AsktheBuilder.com newsletter.
Give me a few weeks to show you how I can save you time and money with your home improvement projects.
A Special Time - Christmas
You may celebrate Christmas as we do here at my home. If not, I wish you happiness however you choose to observe the days around the winter solstice.
Over the past few months, I started a project where I'm doing a brain dump of my memories of growing up. At this point, I'm just writing stories.
I plan to record some videos as some of the tales are far more suited to that medium.
Christmas at my house growing up was celebrated on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure why it was that way as I never bothered to ask my Mom and Dad. I just knew I got my presents earlier than most of my friends on my street, so I wasn't about to complain!
Some of our gifts were put around the tree days before Christmas. We were told to leave them alone and not touch them. Hah! That's like saying to a cat, "Leave that mouse alone. Don't chase it."
I have clear visions of shaking wrapped boxes, even trying to peek under the seams of the wrapping paper. The desire to discover what was under the colored paper was stronger than the craving for ice-cold water on a blistering August day.
When I was small, our Christmas tree was decorated with the coolest ornaments that glowed and bubbled. They must have been filled with colored alcohol and the heat from an interior light bulb caused the alcohol, or some other liquid, to boil and bubble.
Then for a few years, we had this antiseptic bright silver aluminum tree - I kid you not - that was illuminated by a slowly revolving four-color disc illuminated by a flood light. The colors, I think, were green, red, yellow and blue. It was hideous thinking back on it, but my Dad sure liked it!
When I was about 19 or maybe 20, the CB radio craze was in full swing. I really wanted one of those radios! I remember a long tall thin box that had my name on it leaning against the wall. Surely it was an antenna for the radio that must have been in another box! Yay, I was going to be on the air, breaker breaker!
I couldn't wait to rip off the paper from that tall thin box! When I did, I was so disappointed. It was a 4-foot level. What? Are you kidding me, a silly level? You can't get on the air with a level!
Christmas is a time of traditions for many families. One of mine, and my son does enjoy it too, is boiled shrimp. I really look forward to eating chilled shrimp cocktail with sauce so hot that it rivals lava flowing from a volcano.
I thank my Aunt Margaret for introducing me to this succulent food. CLICK or TAP HERE to read about my first time eating the white crustaceans!
Water Christmas Tree While Away
Two days ago, I recorded a fast video for you. We had to travel for three days and there was no one to water our fresh-cut tree. I knew it would run out of water in a day, so something had to be done.
A month ago, my son helped set up some smart plugs here at the house to control grow lights down in our basement.
He said to Kathy the day before we left, "Have Dad hook up some sort of irrigation system to one of the extra smart plugs."
Bango! That's all the inspiration I needed.
CLICK or TAP HERE to watch how I kept our fresh-cut tree watered while we were 250 miles away!
Taking a Break
I started another tradition about ten years ago where I spend the week between Christmas and New Years planning what's going to happen in the next 51 weeks.
That means you get a break from me for about 12 days or so.
I'll be back in your Inbox after the New Year.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year.
Based on how my 2019 ended, I'm pretty sure 2020 is going to be one of my best years ever. I hope that's how it turns out for you too!
Tim Carter
Founder - www.AsktheBuilder.com
Get Super Clean - www.StainSolver.com
Old Morse Man - www.W3ATB.com
Do It Right, Not Over!
P.S. Is your house COLD? Brrrrrrr. Do you know why? CLICK or TAP HERE and allow me to help you get WARM!