Mrs. Fix It – While Everyone Else Is Sleeping

During my not so stellar week at the end of February, I learned two other tricks in addition to removing vaseline from a mischievous toddler’s hair.

1) How to Improve White Discoloration on Plastic Eyeglass Frames

My last two pairs of eyeglasses have had plastic tortoise shell frames. I love the look; however, plastic frames are a pain in the butt for two reasons. First, they lose shape quickly. This is a real problem for me since I apparently have a small head (my frames previous to this were children’s size and boasted of a Harry Potter emblem- enough said). The constant pushing of glasses back onto nose contributes to the second problem- deterioration of the plastic. Apparently, most plastic frames are made of a substance called cellulose acetate. Things like body oils, perspiration, UV rays and heat can cause the plasticizers to rise to the surface of the frame coating them with a milky white discoloration. This is what eventually led to me getting new frames a few years ago as the old ones were so discolored that they were unwearable. Unwearable until a certain toddler mutilated my new frames. Now I have no choice but to wear these sorry looking frames.

A google search led me to several possible solutions. There was a suggestion to sand the frames at the discolored areas. I was not brave enough for such a permanent solution so kept looking. That is when I came upon a theory that plastic frames need to be reconditioned regularly like you would wax your skis or care for the leather interior of your car. Among the suggested lubricants for the job were Amor All, Vaseline (you must be kidding), Jojoba oil, WD-40 and lanolin. Of those, I had lanolin on hand (leftover nipple cream). Here is what my glasses looked like after applying lanolin and leaving them to sit overnight.

Definite improvement. There is just a small amount of white discoloration where the frame sits on the bridge of my nose. I noticed the white started coming back in other areas in less than 24 hours so applied some more lanolin later that night. Here is how they look now.

No more white! Yea! This is the good news. The bad news is that under certain circumstances (like when I wear my glasses while working in the heated swimming pool at work), the white returns. Fortunately, it goes away within a few hours and I reapply lanolin whenever it looks like I need to. My week was beginning to look up.

For more reading on this topic:

2) What To Do If Phone Gets Wet and Your Speakers Stop Working

So in stupor while getting in bed, I knocked over a glass of water/juice on my nightstand. This is where my iPhone was sitting and I thought I swept it up before there was any significant damage. There were a few drops of water on the screen. I wiped them off, plugged my phone in and continued on to bed. Big mistake. The next morning, while the hubby was frantically trying to get a hold of me, I picked up the phone and heard nothing on the other end. I noticed that the phone was indicating that my head phones were in so I put them in and could hear perfectly. I could also hear fine if I put my phone on speaker phone. I called and made an appointment with the Apple Genius bar expecting to have to replace my phone. But I also found there was plenty of advice-some good, some bad- on the world wide web.

The first thing I tried was putting it in the freezer for 90 seconds. I am not sure where I found this suggestion, but I later read that you should never freeze your phone or put a hairdryer to it. Luckily, it did nothing. Onto the next solution, cleaning the headphone jack with a q-tip. Here is a link to a video clip explaining this. Apparently, it works wonders for many. I was not so lucky. I was about to give up in despair when I called my little sister and she said I should power down my phone and stick it in a bag of rice. This did the trick and my phone was working fine in no time. God forbid if there’s a next time, I’ll stick a piece of tape over the charger jack so I don’t have to pick rice out of it, lol. Thanks little sis. I will be holding out a little longer before getting a new phone.