Oh I just hate it when the crayon strikes!

Welcome back!

Oh boy!

welcome back…

You know what’s funny? I thought of you today while in Paradis’ True Value Hardware store in Bar Harbor. And is is funny, in an amusing-isn’t-that-kinda-neat way, not a creepy-why-is-a-lesbian-in-Maine-thinking-of-me-while-she’s-in-the-hardware-store kind of way.

In my enthusiasm to SAFELY remove the aluminum storm windows and their frames, I duct taped the bejeezus out of them. They stayed together perfectly. The parts did not fall of or get mixed around so as to never go back together again properly.

But they got gummy. That particular kind of gummy that only comes from using duct tape on glass, especially if the duct tape had spent the previous year of its life under the seat of my pickup truck. You know the phenomenon.

So I had to get this stuff off. The guy at the store took me out of the solvent aisle and over to the cleaning products aisle, which it should be mentioned is an aisle I have previously NEVER visited.

“This is the stuff” he proclaimed and handed me a small pray bottle, the kind with the trigger like window stuff comes in, only much smaller, like 6 or 8 ounces. The liquid inside was yellow-orange and smelled of citrus. He pledged that it would de-gunk ANYTHING. He once spilled a full can of oil-based paint on a rolled-up antique braided rug. The paint went through every roll, between every crevice, all the way to the center of the roll. He bought a case of this stuff and got the whole thing clean.

The stuff is called De-Solv-it. It cost about six bucks for the bottle and I used barely a quarter cup to de-gooify the glass and the aluminum frames. No nasty smell, no heavy duty gloves, no gas mask. This stuff was a dream.

And it says on the tag: “Works 100% of the time. Even in laundry.”

It claims to work on: price stickers, spaghetti sauce, shoe polish, lipstick, candle wax, grease, wet paint, soap scum, crayon and gum.

The first generation of this stuff was called Orange Solvent and it came out in the 70s. This stuff is absolutely fantastic.

And when I saw the bit about the crayons, I remembered your post and thought I’d pass it along.

Wait a minute – in teeny print there is a phone number. 1-800-877-7771. and a website: http://www.orange-sol.com

Good luck.