Okay, so the tension that was adjusted was on the main spring in my garage door. Did you know that modern garage door openers are designed to have a precise adjustment of the main spring to balance the weight of the door so that the actual door opener has the least work possible? I knew it in theory, but having a garage service tech from 225 Garage Door Repair Thornton check over my door was…Read More

I’m a healthy guy but according to actuarial tables and statistics, I should probably be suffering from a long-term ailment and be taking a couple of pills every morning. So far, so good. But being over 50, it does mean that my health insurance ends up being painfully expensive, and doubly so since I’m self-employed and don’t have a company or organization underwriting some of the cost. To put it into numbers, my individual health…Read More

I like doing dishes, I don’t even mind vacuuming or cleaning windows and mirrors. But laundry? That’s the real chore if you ask me, and it’s endless; our clothes are in a slow death spiral from the first time you bring them home, a cycle of wear and get dirty, wash and break down the fibers, repeat. Eventually, they end up threadbare, tear or just look awful, so it’s time to replace them, a sometimes…Read More

I live in suburbia. In fact, I’m so deep in suburbia that I’m not only on my local Homeowners Association board, I’m the President of the HOA. Turns out it’s not much work and as an HOA we’re more focused on building community and helping out our neighbors, but everyone on the ‘hood still has that great symbol of suburban life: Grass. Should we all xeriscape? Probably. Have any of us taken that step? No….Read More

I’ll admit that in the early days of my parenting adventure, father’s day was typified by cliché gifts like ties and cologne. Odd, really, since I wear a tie about once every decade and cologne? Really? I don’t even know if I own any at this point. Even when I worked in an office, a dress shirt and jeans was very much my uniform de jour. Still, as any adult learns early on, being able…Read More

This shop has been compensated by Inmar Intelligence and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #HealthierToes At various times I’ve had a house full of athletes. From basketball to volleyball, gym visits to yoga, my family is active and we all strive to avoid the dreaded world of the couch potato. There are a lot of benefits to being physically active, of course, but there are some dangers that lurk too, some healthy living…Read More

Considering that we spend approximately one-third of our lives sleeping (at least in an ideal world) it’s remarkably difficult to test out mattresses, understand the differences between mattress technologies, and end up with a great mattress on your bed. Furniture shopping is worse, so if you want to get a great bed frame to pair with your mattress, it’s an even more challenging task. It’s hard to say why this is the case; people spend…Read More

Living in the ‘burbs, I have grass in both the front and back yard of my house. As does every one of my neighbors. It’s a curious aspect of suburban life, the desire to pretend the big housing complex construction project didn’t eradicate a field and replace it with driveways and roads. Be that as it may, however, there is something delightful about a thick, plush, healthy green yard. Unfortunately, I’ve learned over the years…Read More

While I spend inordinate amounts of time staring at computer screens and TV screens, I read quite a bit too. This is typically split between listening to audio books while driving, ebooks on my iPad Mini and physical books, though this year I’ve eschewed the Kindle and Apple iBooks route in preference to printed, physical copies. Most come from my public library, which has a great hold and pickup system, but I buy lots of…Read More

While I hardly view myself as any sort of fashion icon – and 10x during this working at home phase during the ‘rona – I do get men’s fashion and lifestyle companies reaching out to see if I’d like to check out their gear. Always much appreciated and what guy can’t up their fashion game, even if just a little bit? So when the site Trendhim invited me to find something in their catalog, I…Read More

Okay, so maybe there aren’t any pirates involved, but seriously, when you hear the word “loot” don’t you think of scurvy pirates, cutlasses, the skull and crossbones, and all of that other mythological pirate gear? Of course you do! The modern version of boarding a ship and stealing their treasure – one that will get you in a lot less trouble with the law – is Loot Crate. The company ships over a dozen different…Read More

I was over at my buddy’s house a few weeks ago and he had some colorful cardboard tubes on the counter in his kitchen. They were a selection of Keurig coffee cups — called “K-Cups” — from a company called Cask & Kettle. But the difference is they included alcohol in their mixes. Chris had three of their four varieties: Irish Coffee, Mexican Coffee and Hot Blonde Coffee. The one missing from his lineup was…Read More

No way around it, people are getting shaggy hair during quarantine with everything closed down. If you’ve been dying your hair, well, now we know about it. If you’re a bored teen or 20-something you might have decided to do a home dye and see how it goes, as my kids have done. Plenty of guys have pulled out the clippers and given themselves a buzz cut or similar, and there are even running jokes…Read More

Though I have always enjoyed a good whisky and have even traveled to whisky distilleries Speyside in Scotland, my actual knowledge of whisky has been based purely on taste, not on actually knowing about the liquor. What differentiates the various regions and what nations around the world offer a great whisky or “whiskey”? Is it a good idea to add a wee bit of water to a just poured whisky or is that a tacky…Read More

It was a curious thing; I was sitting at the local Peet’s coffee shop, working on my laptop when someone’s phone rang with an odd ringtone and she looked down. In quick succession most all of the other phones in the room buzzed or rang. Then my phone lit up too: I dutifully looked down, read the notification and promptly forgot it. Considering he was in Denver when this happened and I was getting an…Read More

You can order a pizza with just your voice through the Amazon Alexa system but can you order beer to go with that pizza pie? Yes, if you’ve installed the Handoff skill and are in their service area! I gave their new alcohol delivery service a try and here’s how things worked out… First, though, let me say that as a tech help writer and videographer, I spend a lot of time talking about how…Read More

Paid promotion for Disney. All opinions are mine alone. #CelebrateMARVEL I loved comic books as a kid. What child doesn’t dream of being a hero and having friends who are heroes too? Few companies have realized the concept of contemporary hero better than MARVEL, and whether you’re a fan of their original material or some of the cool new characters that populate the MARVEL Universe, it’s all good fun. The company history is colorful too,…Read More

I don’t mind mowing my front and back yard. Too much. I mean, I’d like to think that it’s a chore for my kids, but their schedules and a general lack of enthusiasm for the task means that while the front might be mowed every few weeks, the back yard can get to be as thick and unwieldy as a jungle between mows. Which is why when I had the chance to work with the…Read More

We’re just a few days away from Father’s Day, which means there are droves of kids who are kind of clueless about what their dads like and are buying ties, cologne, shaving kits or other highly promoted products that are going to be received with a slight grimace. Gifting, it turns out, is somewhat of an art and involves knowing the recipient pretty well to know what they like and what they like to receive…Read More

The wine industry has gone through huge changes in the last twenty years as lots of tech billionaires have decided that having a vineyard is a nice hobby project. Consolidation has hit too, so there are some really big beverage conglomerates that own dozens of different labels. Even a single winery might now have multiple labels for their different target demographics or beverage price points. Agricultural science has offered a different energy too, as more…Read More

I can’t deny it, I spend a lot of darn time staring at computer screens. Not only that, but it’s quite often my MacBook Pro screen set to full brightness to ensure I’m seeing correct colors when editing photographs or video footage. Accurate it may be, but I’m seeing colors and frequencies that don’t appear in nature and it’s no surprise that I get eye fatigue after a few hours or sometimes faster. Sure, I…Read More