My new oven's touchscreen is a real problem for my mom

I got a new oven with a flat glass touchscreen about three months ago. My mom, who has arthritis, tried to use it when she visited last week and just could not press the small buttons. She said, 'My fingers don't work on this thing.' It hit me that I bought a kitchen tool my own family can't use. I never thought about how touchscreens can be hard for people with shaky hands or poor grip. Has anyone found a good workaround for appliances like this, or brands that still use real knobs?

A neighbor in Portland told me my 10x12 studio was 'too big for the yard' and it really stuck with me.

An old timer at the Montana state fair told me my tong reins were 'too stiff for a working grip' and I've been tapering them differently ever since.

He said, 'You're making them like a crowbar, not a tool,' so now I leave the last three inches much thinner and rounder, which has saved my hands on those eight-hour forge days, but I'm curious if anyone has a different method for reducing hand fatigue?

Shoutout to the old-timer I met at a supply house in Tacoma who showed me a trick with a zip tie and a flashlight

I was struggling to see inside a crowded junction box in a dark attic, and he showed me how to zip-tie a small flashlight to the side of your head so the beam follows your eyes... has anyone else got a good lighting hack for tight spaces?

Just realized my whole house surge protector was fried after a storm last Tuesday

We had a nasty thunderstorm roll through here in Tampa last week, and I heard a loud pop from the garage. Didn't think much of it until yesterday when my garage door opener started acting weird, opening on its own. Checked the panel and sure enough, the little status light on my whole house surge unit was dark. Pulled it out and the internal MOVs were visibly cracked. I installed that Eaton unit myself about four years ago, figured it was set for life. Now I'm looking at a $300 replacement and wondering if I should have been checking it yearly. What's your routine for testing these things, or do you just wait for the light to go out?

Rant: A client told me my video calls looked like I was in a witness protection program

They said my plain white wall in Chiang Mai was so boring it was distracting. Now I keep a small, weird local painting behind me as a talking point, and it actually helps break the ice. What's the strangest thing you've used as a backdrop to seem more human on camera?

Hot take: I thought my old way of rolling tubes was fine until a job in Omaha showed me a better way.

For years, I'd just eyeball the gap and tack it, which led to a lot of rework on the big boiler at the Omaha plant last fall. The foreman there made me use a feeler gauge for every single tube, set at 0.040 inches exactly. It added maybe two minutes per joint, but we had zero leaks on the hydro test. Who else has a simple step they added that saved a ton of headache later?

I used to doubt flexible hours, but letting my team choose their start times improved our output. Celebrating a smooth week!

My handmade covers no longer bubble up thanks to a drying rack hack.

Propping them up at an angle while drying fixed everything.

PSA: I was wrong about quick cooling for small pieces

I always rushed my small glass items out of the kiln to save time. Thought since they were tiny, they didn't need long annealing. Kept finding hairline cracks in my pendants and beads. A fellow blower at a meetup showed me her setup, she soaks everything for at least an hour no matter the size. I tried it on my next batch of marbles, left them in the kiln for ninety minutes. They came out crystal clear with zero stress marks. Now I always give my pieces proper time to cool down slowly. It's made a huge difference in my success rate.