Like Living in a Snow Globe

This is all the snow we got, but it was enough to close school. Our school closes when one of the bigger schools closes, and the big school got lots of snow. This is cold-air snow, tiny flakes and lots of them, plus a little wind to blow it around, brr.

In the center picture, the mourning dove says, "Brrr! I am not leaving this birdfeeder!"

I'd like to say I sat before the soapstone stove ("I am not leaving this woodstove!") and knitted all day, but that's not true. What I actually did was disassemble the switch box of an old box fan we bought at a sale this fall. I can't tell you what brand it is, because all it says is "Automatic Thermocontrol".

It's a three-speed light blue reversing fan, and can be set to turn on and off at various temperatures. The "In/Out" button, and the "Off/Low/Med/High" buttons moved, but they were very sticky. I drilled out the rivets and took the switch box apart.

Inside, the switch consisted of five strips of "circuit-board stuff", plus a spacer. There was black gunk in between some of the strips, so I kept them in order and cleaned both sides of each strip with rubbing alcohol. I cleaned the switch box ("Ark-Less Switch", that's a comfort), cleaned the button contacts, and puzzled out how to put the strips back in the box.

Short sentence ("puzzled out how to put the strips back in the box"), but a long process. I knew which order they went in, and which way they had to be oriented in the box, but it took some fiddling to get the stops at the bottom aligned exactly how they had to be in order for the buttons to work.

I love this fan. It weighs a ton (read: my 111-pound dog cannot knock it over). The grills are metal, not plastic that breaks after a couple of years of use. It has a thermostat, and is reversible. And it has lovely rounded corners. The white plastic handle on the top is reinforced through the center with a strip of spring steel. You just don't find fans made like that any more.

Any knitting today? Yes, I did knit a couple of rows of the blue waffle scarf, and I am almost finished with repeat 10 of the Pi shawl. I hope to get more knitting done tonight, after plackis (potato pancakes) and sausages. Yum!

"I am not leaving this plate!"