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My Four Big Game Changers
I’ve been talking to my family lately about “game changers.” These are developments that improve some area of life, ease difficulty, and boost motivation. I’ve encountered multiple game changers in the last couple of months.
Our Personal Mechanic- We should all have our own Subaru mechanic on call. Until recently, my family has been taking our old Subarus to the dealer. This involves driving to another town and forking over thousands of dollars for repairs. There are telephone calls, trips back and forth, working around a missing car for days, and uncertainty about the bill.
But a few weeks ago, my younger daughter happened to be at a body shop for a mishap that tore off her bumper (her car had been sitting in the parking lot minding its own business when it happened, so it was definitely not her fault). The vehicle was pronounced totaled, but the guy at the shop had pity on my shaken-up daughter and recommended this young mechanic who knew Subarus and was working on starting a business. In a couple of days, this fledgling business owner had not only secured a replacement bumper (“That’s not coming off anytime soon,” he said), but also installed a new radio and rang us up at around $600 for everything.
The real upsides of this arrangement became clear on Friday night when my 2006 Subaru, which has been a money pit ever since we bought it, started making a sound akin to a chain-link fence being dragged behind it. I didn’t dare drive it further–it felt like something was obstructing the wheel. Surely this was serious. I pulled over, jammed on my hazards, and began the routine of calling family members and the insurance company tow service, with my younger daughter quickly circling back and joining me in my cold winter evening plight. “This thing should probably just be totaled,” I said, envisioning more chilly evenings in the glow of the hazards.
However, in spite of the long wait for the tow truck, it was heavenly to see a much smaller fee for a tow to a house just a few miles away. And for the mechanic to promptly answer texts past 8:00 pm, cheerfully inviting us to have the car brought over. Around the time we arrived at our warm house, he called us, and not just to confirm that the vehicle had arrived. He’d already discovered the problem and fixed it–a rock wedged between some plate and the brake.
He quickly agreed to investigate the list of other problems that had been weighing on us, and particularly for the knocking sound that I had thought was complex enough to be a dealer issue. He addressed the problem with the power window right away, however, and charged $40 for the rock and the window when we came to pick up the vehicle less than 24 hours later. We gave him $50 and, since he’d located the culprit behind the knocking noise (I think he said it’s the sway bar) agreed to bring the car back for a $200 dollar fix–as soon as the parts came in from Amazon. One of the best things he did, however, was affirm our choice of vehicle. “That’s a really good car,” he said.
Brooms for Snow- Shoveling the back deck offers advantages of fresh air, exercise, and reflection time. The job can be a pain, however, when there are nooks and crannies that the clumsy shovel just can’t access. The work can be slow, too, taking around thirty minutes in the cold. Enter the brooms. My husband introduced me to the push broom that speeds up the job when we’ve just had an inch or two of dry snow. It’s almost fun gliding across the porch to deposit the load over the edge. And the push broom is great for clearing off the barbecue and ridding the railings of accumulation. However, it wasn’t cutting it for the porch steps or other narrow areas. For those, I discovered that the ordinary little household broom with plastic bristles takes care of everything. Bring on the snow!
Work Gloves for Firewood-I don’t know what I’ve been doing for the past eighteen years that we’ve lived here, but this year I’m wearing good work gloves whilst carrying in firewood from the garage or replenishing the wood stove. The gloves protect my hands from slivers and rough edges and provide traction for large, dense pieces. I’ve gone from an obligatory contributor of a few pieces a day to an enthusiastic wood carrier. I now make a light morning exercise routine out of hauling in two pieces of wood at a time until the basket is piled high for the day. And out of either sweetness or self-interest, my younger daughter bought me a three-pack of Costco work gloves for Christmas.
ESV Study Bible-My older daughter got me a nicely bound, hefty ESV Study Bible for Christmas, and it’s a major game changer—it’s so absorbing and well-written and helpful. She had received one for Christmas herself a couple years ago, and I’d decided I wanted one as well when I noticed diagrams and notes, but had no idea how well done it was until I explored my own copy. Not only does it have maps and illustrations, introductions to books, and explanatory notes under the text, but also a series of interesting articles at the back.
I wanted to ship one to San Diego for use when I’m visiting there (because how many pounds would it add to the luggage?), but was nervous about the price. Then I found this one on Amazon. It doesn’t have a fancy binding or cover or anything, but I think this is the whole thing, and at 64% off it comes to about $20. It arrived at my sister’s house the day after I ordered it. Bible-reading with one of these is like having a professor sitting with you and explaining everything from the big picture to the details. I think I retain the content better when I’ve examined it with these study aids. And I so enjoy relaxing in my recliner late at night, just me and my study Bible in a pool of warm light from the reading lamp.
What has been a game changer for you recently?
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This is a great post.
My newest “game changer” is an immersion blender. I bought it two years ago, and I am like a little kid with a new toy. :) I am still enjoying how easy it is to puree vegetables for soups, gravies, and sauces.
Life is fun. :)
Hmmm. The latest thing is we finally sprung for a side by side UTV. Makes it a lot easier to haul around stuff for the bees and cattle – we recently had someone start keeping some cows on part of our property. They are all getting ready to have calves this month so that’s another new thing for us.
A new pre-owned auto.
The heated steering wheel is a freaking luxury. Holy cow.
Oh, and remote start. When we first bought a car with it, I figured I’d just use it in the winter, but starting the car in the grocery store parking lot in the summer and getting the air conditioning working before you arrive is sublime.
Grandchildren! Got a boy who’s 4, and another boy due in March . . .
Game changer: Sous Vide stick with vacuum sealed steaks.
Oh, I need to edit to add that the gloves also shield my hands when I’m shoving wood into the stove, making me a lot less finicky about keeping the fire going.
Okay. So does the immersion blender break up hard matter, or is it just for soft foods such as cooked vegetables? I got one a few years ago, but don’t get it out very often. I like it, but have found for quick jobs such as blending ranch, an old-fashioned egg beater is easy to clean and can go in the dishwasher. I liked the immersion blender for protein shakes with coconut milk and peanut butter. But I could possibly expand its use. I like it so much better than getting out my Giant Industrial Blender (TM) and having to clean it all up when done.
Do you have a favorite recipe to illustrate your use of this tool?
The Ditto Clipboard Manager. Yes, I know Windows 11 has a clipboard memory feature built-in, but Ditto is better. It’s really handy for pasting in frequently used text strings and you can even assign hot keys to them. You can also use it to convert the case (upper or lower, other variations) of the text while pasting.
When we started heating our old new house with firewood back in 1980, somebody at work trotted out the old saying that firewood warms you twice, once when you’re cutting the splitting the wood, and then again when it’s burning in the stove. I told him that it’s actually three times. The third is when you get burned by the stove when you’re feeding it more wood.
Yup. I was getting pretty jumpy until the gloves came on scene.
I’ll have to look into that!
I will reply at length later since you asked. :) :)
What fun for me to talk about this thing I love! :) :)
I just made some pumpkin soup this past week with pumpkin I froze last October, and my husband asked me twice “Where did you get this soup? It’s amazing!” (He forgot the first time I answered. :) )
I shall return. :) :)
We used to have a wood burning stove. Ugh. A lot of work. I was going to make a joke, that if Sawatdeeka thought gloves were great, wait ’til she discovered central heating. :) :)
I agree with you about the ESV Study Bible.
I discovered sous vide recently. And I now make the world’s tastiest meat (besides my smoked brisket, which was already amazing). My sous vide brisket/LondonBroil/Roast is good that everyone who walks past the fridge reaches in to grab a piece on the go – cold or hot, equally exquisite.
And the amazing thing is that it is SO easy and cheap to make. A powered stick, any bucket, a zip-lock bag and some spices. Total game-changer.
This was a long time ago: Indian food.
Let me also say this: the newest generation of battery powered tools are incredible. Impact wrenches, drills, saws, etc. Huge time savers at home and we now carry all kinds of tools on the fire engine and rescue truck that used to take generators and pumps to operate.
Even the Jaws of Life tools are battery powered now.
Only downside: some hydraulic tools weight 50+ pounds, which can be tough to handle.
You echoed my sentiments about the food processor. I love it, and there are some things it does that nothing else in my kitchen can do. But for pureed fruit or vegetables, I have to work in such small batches that it’s very frustrating. When I cook, I usually make a big batch of whatever it is. Plus, as you said, cleanup is a pain in the neck, even though everything can go into the dishwasher. There are so many parts. I couldn’t cook a lot of things without it, and the immersion blender only does some of the things I used to do with the food processor, so I would miss having it. The immersion blender doesn’t really replace my food processor.
I gave one to my daughters a couple of years ago as a silly Christmas present. One of my daughters doesn’t cook a lot, but her husband and son cook a lot, and they love the blender. My other daughter cooks, and she loves it too. The kids use it mostly for fruit smoothies, of which they have a million combinations.
I use it primarily for two things: to puree vegetables for my gravies and sauces and to puree hearty soups. Tonight, for example, I made a potato, cheddar cheese, onion, and bacon soup, and it came out really well. I boiled the potatoes in chicken broth with some celery stalks. I sauteed the onions and shallots in bacon fat and butter. When the potatoes and celery were cooked, I drained a lot of the broth out of the pan–I left about three inches at the bottom. Then I scooped the sauteed onions and shallots into the potato mixture. I pureed all of that, and then I returned it to stove. When it started to bubble a little bit, I put two cups of grated cheddar cheese, and when that bubbled, I put in about a or a cup and a half of light cream. I served it with broken-up bacon and minced fresh chives. It was really good. That and a salad is a great winter dinner.
I love to make winter soups, and I have a lot of fun with squash and root vegetables. The best recipe for pumpkin soup is King Arthur Flour’s. I’ve made it for years. I use it just as a general guideline, and I sometimes don’t have all the herbs and I never use the garlic in it, but you could if you like garlic and have it around. Same with the fresh ginger. I use some ground ginger because I very seldom have fresh ginger in the house.
Next week I think I will try borscht. :) I’ve never made it before so it will be fun.
I will have to try this sometime. I don’t have a sous vide stick. It sounds like something Gordan Ramsay or Jamie Oliver would use. :)
Cheap on Amazon. pm me for recipes.
Okay, that looks amazing! Wow.
I shall think about this, and when I get one, I’ll pm you for a recipe. Thank you. :)
Here’s one. Take a cheap Coleman cooler and cut out the cup holder for the sous vide. Spatchcock a turkey and put it in a giant ziplock bag. Cook for 20 hrs and brown. Last Thanksgiving…
For me it was a battery powered leaf blower. I use it to blow debris off the front porch, the deck, and the driveway. It will blow wet leaves and seeds out of the gutters. I will use it instead of a broom or shovel to clear light snow off said porch and deck as well as the solar lights around our patio. I also take it with me to the city compost site to clean the back of the truck after hauling a load of branches and such. I’ve also seen people use them to finish drying their car off after going through a car wash.
And indoor bathrooms . . .
Well, we do have central heating. We just need the wood stove, too, so that we don’t run up a big bill with the heat on full blast (we pay about $300 per month keeping the thermostat at 67 degrees; however, my family loves to run various personal heaters while they watch TV, read, etc., and that could be contributing to the cost). The wood stove also helps to really take the chill off on days like today (it’s minus 14 this morning). I think our basement makes our house chilly. The solution is running the woodstove down there, even for a few hours a day, but that stove is kind of hard to manage–it backdrafts, etc. I’ve daydreamed about just flipping a switch to take care of our heat. I am not worthy of my hardy ancestors. But also, without the woodstove, where would I get my exercise?
Wow, that sounds delicious! I’ve made a simple squash soup a couple of times, just experimenting with a roast squash recipe I saw demo’d on a video shorts. I used coconut milk and I’m sure the hand blender came into the picture. The first one I made was really good, but nothing like the rich dish you describe here. I think I must be missing some ways to use the blender. I’ve had this all along, like Dorothy’s ruby slippers. But it’s not an especially powerful one, so maybe it’s mainly for liquids.
You may be right. This is the one I got:
Amazon.com: Cuisinart Smart Stick Two-Speed Hand Blender, Blue: Home & Kitchen
What’s neat about this is that it comes with a 3-cup plastic measuring cup into which you can put some dish detergent and water (just about a cup or so) so that when you are all done blending, you put the blade into the soapy water and run the blender and voila! It is clean! Love doing that, and my grandson does too. :)
Pureeing soup veggies is the most fun I have in my kitchen. :)
I’ve had a couple of lesser battery powered ones, but last fall I bought the most powerful handheld one that EGO makes. It made a big difference in dealing with fall leaves. And yes, I even used it on light snow a couple of times.
Lithion-Ion battery powered tools for yard work and workshop work have been a big game changer for me over the past dozen years. I have chain saws, leaf blowers, lawn mowers, weed wackers, brush cutter, and a lot of the Dewalt line of workshop tools.
But the big game changer in the past couple of years was a thermostatic mixing valve for the shower in our bathroom remodel. One has to be careful with the terminology, as different manufacturers seem to use the terms differently, but for Moen, “ExactTemp” means a valve that reaches and maintains a specified temperature, even while the hot water coming from the hot water heater varies in temperature. So when I take a shower I turn the dial where I want it, and turn the separate volume control on. No more fussing this way or that to get the temperature I want. No more wasting time and water while I try to get it right. Mrs Subcomandante has a different idea of the temperature she wants, and knows where on the dial she will get it.
I can see why these aren’t installed everywhere in new homes, as the valve alone costs about $500, not including the trim or the separate volume control valve, and is way more than what is appropriate for spending on a mediocre-quality old farm house like ours. I think one can go still higher end and get valves that have WiFi controls, but I don’t want complications like that. I got us an unaccustomed luxury that is simple. (A brother in-law who does remodeling says these are more complicated internally than he likes to get involved with, but I didn’t find the installation to be more complicated than I was willing to do.)
It would be hard to go back to a neolithic life style after this.
I hear this. Got an Ego a few months back, and O M G has it changed my life. Without any fuss or muss, I can blow anytime, basically anywhere. Leaves, dust, dirt… even dry snow.