Ask the Woodchucks: June 13, 2019

Our fans in the bathrooms are rather noisy. Broan has new replacement fans that are supposed to be quieter and move more air. Have you had any experience with these and are they easy to replace?

Time is not really of the essence

Several years ago Annamarie and I left the confines of our home and headed for a warmer climate so we could thaw out for a few weeks. All well and good. We left Illinois on February 19th, at which time it was still Central Standard Time.

Along the way we crossed into the Eastern Standard Time zone, which means we lose an hour, so when the clock now says it’s 4 P.M., my body still thinks it’s 3 P.M., which I guess isn’t that big of a deal.

Rocketman: a crowd pleaser

How does one fully encapsulate a life in two hours? I am completely baffled as to how to work that out properly. All the many nuances that make up one’s experience, what do you leave in and how do you remove the rest? Then you have to add music onto that, to boot. Some musical biopics hit the mark while others just fall into the same clichés that would you would find in a Behind the Music television special. “Rocketman” splits the difference.

Lunch in a garden

Spring is in the air, tra-la, tra-la. Nancy’s mind turns to thoughts of . . . landscaping. She gave me a reprieve for the last two years due to my bionic knee and hip replacements. As a result, all of our perennials somehow turned into annuals. It was now time for me to pay the piper. We took a ride to our local nursery and began looking in the “no watering required and impossible to kill” plant section. After hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of dollars spent on “supposed” perennials, and a must have concrete smiley face sculpture for another couple hundred dollars, the two of us and our wallets were both running on empty. In keeping with the garden theme, we decided to have lunch at Lily Garden Restaurant in Lake in the Hills.

Ask an Angel: June 13, 2019

Are there services available for seniors who live alone and need a little help? Can I arrange temporary care without having to sign my dad up for long-term care?

Pondering the potential of a pee-poll

My buddy Jack is a high school science teacher — the kind of teacher you wish you had when you were in school. That’s because he goes out of his way to make science real and interesting in an everyday way.

Take his asparagus study, for example.

I know it is hard enough to remember what we had for breakfast somedays, much less what we were all doing 4 months ago. For the vast majority of us, though, the answer to both questions would be we were at home.

Skating past the winter of “Game of Thrones”

It’s here at last — the final season of “Game of Thrones!” Winter is here, when we’ll finally find out if things will end up happily or disastrously for…for…

OK, I’m faking it, because I’ve only seen a couple episodes of GoT over the past seven years or so. But I’ve read plenty about it — or at least just enough to know that it’s cool to call it GoT.

When shrimp fly

If you know Nancy, you will agree that she is known for her soft spoken, calm demeanor (NOT)!!! This was evident one day when she was in her kitchen cleaning up after lunch. Looking under the sink she noticed a puddle of water where there shouldn’t be one. She got hysterical and immediately started putting up the yellow “caution” tape around the perimeter of her kitchen.

Avengers: Endgame: A Marvel-ous Conclusion

I will say it. I am a superhero fan. So for those you aren’t, turn away. But for those are or are into thoughtful plotting and character, we may proceed. I will not deny that there has been a glut of these films out there from both camps. However this film is not devoid of …

A river runs through it

River cruises are on the “wish list” for a large number of Del Webbers. While many have fulfilled that dream and continue to do so, others, still dreaming or making plans.

Ask the Woodchucks: May 16, 2019

Another reader wrote in with additional information on Wet and Forget. A recent reader noted “I have a half-gallon of Wet and Forget left plus the gallon sprayer but being 5-foot-1-inch tall, I just can’t get high enough to remove it and only doing the bottom 1/4 looks awful. Ladder? No way.”

Ask an Angel: May 16, 2019

With Memorial Day quickly approaching, how can we honor and support my dad, while keeping our family tradition alive?

An Easter mystery: The case of the sketchy sleigh-coon

Easter this year was my first full-contact, no-holds-barred Easter in a long time.

It’s not that Easters didn’t “happen” for me over the past several years. But this was the first one in years that I spent in the good old-fashioned way: inundated by an infestation of kids.

When it’s HOT, HOT, HOT

As we all know, this year Sun City is celebrating its 20th anniversary. To kick off this celebration, historian Jake Marino gave a lecture in the Drendel ballroom chronicling the history and growth of Huntley from its inception. After this, there was an SCCAH Board introduction and dedication of a commemorative bench. With all this pomp and circumstance, and in spite of the free cake, we worked up a huge appetite. Jim wanted to celebrate our nine years here in Del Webb and take me for a “hot” lunch date (a “nooner” had a much different meaning years ago)! We wound up going to 750° Cucina Rustica in Cary.

Talking facts about annuals with Carol Scheffler

For today’s column, we are talking with Carol Scheffler, a sales assistant at Ron Clesen’s Ornamental Plants, Inc. RCOP is a wholesale grower of high quality annual flowers and plants.

Us – A new kind of horror

Horror has been greatly maligned, much like comedy, as not worthy of the lofty goals set out by drama. It isn’t hard to see why when the majority of the genre has been reduced to jump scares and overuse of gore. Which is why the emergence of a collection of scary films designed to serve as allegory has been so refreshing.

Ask the Woodchucks: Shower temperature adjustment

While taking a shower the other night, I noticed that the water temperature was not as hot as I like it even though the handle was turned all the way up. I wrote about this problem and how to adjust the temperature years ago but I could not remember how to do it.

Ask an Angel: May 2, 2019

My dad, who’s turning 85 in July, had a fall at home, which sent him to the hospital. After a few days in the hospital, he seems like his old self and is antsy to return home. His doctor referred him to a short-term rehabilitation facility upon discharge from the hospital. My sister and I have been touring nearby facilities and feel like dad doesn’t belong here. Why would his doctor recommend a short-term rehabilitation stay and how does this process work?

The problem with picking the perfect super power

My son Dave and the grandkids spent last weekend at my house, and over breakfast we got around to talking about all the important things, like what kind of super power we’d like to have.

My grandson Jack jumped immediately to telekinesis, the power to move objects with his mind. “Well,” I said, “of course we’ll have to have some limits to our powers, right? I mean, I’d hate to find that you plunked the moon into my back yard.”

“OK,” he said, “what are my limits?”