A nice sunny afternoon this past Satur?day took an unusual turn for me. I?ll explain.
Our white Free Press truck had taken on the color of brown from all of the slush and slop from the past snowfalls we experienced in this area.
That part was bad enough but the windows were equally covered with dirt and that becomes a safety issue when you can?t see out. I noticed it especially on the windows of the back of the cab and the front window of the topper.
Since I had never found a good way to clean between the cab and the topper because the distance is so narrow, I thought I would see if I could find a wash mitt on a stick. I ended up at Alco and found something I thought would work, but it looked as though it might not fit between the two windows. Joe said I could take it out to the parking lot and see if it would. I tried it and it got stuck and I barely got it back out. It appeared that after the packaging was removed it would work.
So I headed home to use it before going to the car wash. When I got ready to shove that mitt on a stick in there, I noticed the glass for the front topper window was hanging out of the frame about 3 inches on one side. It was barely holding on to one end of the frame.
My first thought was to take out the bolts holding the topper to the bed of the truck. But taking out the first bolt was too time consuming, so I figured there must be a way to remove it from the inside of the topper and bed.
As I started to remove the sheet-metal screws from the frame, it occurred to me that when I got it loosened the glass would fall out and drop to the ground between the bed and the cab. So I stuck duct tape to the glass and to the inside of the topper in the hope it would hold it up.
Quickly that looked like a dangerous idea so I got some mail bags and stuffed them between the cab and the truck bed so if it fell the bags would catch the window and frame.
That was the ticket for the time being. It allowed me to take out the 26 sheet-metal screws holding the window to the fiberglass shell of the topper.
After the window and frame were set free, I pulled it all out and reassembled the window into the frame by reseating the rubber molding that holds in the window. All was good, but now the question was how to pull the window back into the opening when there is nothing to hold onto.
A light bulb came on momentarily and I threaded in a few of the sheet-metal screws and then used a vice grip to pull the window into the opening by grabbing the screws which then allowed me to put the inside trim back on to hold the entire window assembly in place.
If it hadn?t been sunny and nice, this never would have happened, and I suppose the window would have fallen out before long. I?m guessing a skid of papers must have slid forward and pushed the window out. If your window comes loose someday, don?t call me.
?
Here?s a household tip I learned recently. Maybe most people do it this way, but to keep a set of sheets and pillow cases together in the linen cabinet just put all of the pieces inside one of the pillow cases and it is all there neat and tidy when you?re ready to use them.
Why did I put this in my column? I am wondering myself.
?
A man?s home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.
