I thought the suggestion to use a different soap to get the waxy layer
off my fingers was a good idea. But I looked at the grocery store
and though they have a big selection of many many things, they didnt'
seem to have a big selection of bar soap. And none of the others
seemed much different from Ivory.

They had much more space devoted to body wash, some of it targeting
men. But that doesn't seem my style, to put it mildly. Plus as a
liquid, a bunch of it would drip off me before I knew it end up
wasted, which I'm sure is one reason they push it.

I decided to try Boraxo Powdered Hand Soap, which is the best
all-around soap but i"ve only used it when my hands are really dirty
or oily. And before I knew it, the really hot weather ended so I'm
not sure if I can have a valid test anymore. Come to think of it,
I didn't see Boraxo anywhere in that aisle, but maybe it's in a
different aisle.
-------

I also had a plan to blow cool air from the basement up to the 2nd
floor. Iit was hard to find a 7" fan with an 8" shrowd, but I
finally did, called li'l blizzard, on Amazon and also Bed Bath and
Beyond. It fit in the laundry chute perfectly, so that everything
went inside the chute but the front have of the grill around the
blades as 1/8" bigger than the opening, and the fan can't fall down
the chute to the basement. I had to separate the base from the fan
but it will be easy enough to put them back togehter again to use the
fan as intended.

It gave a really good blast of air that -- I measured with a good
thermometer -- was at least 10 degrees cooler than the air upstairs,
but unfortunately it didnt' have much effect. The door to my bedroom
was closed and usually the door to the bathroom, but the door to the
3rd bedroom needed work and couldn't shut. So including the 2nd
bedroom, my office, there was a lot to cool.

But the real problem I think is that the laundry chute is right next
to the stairs, and I'm sure half of the air or more fell down the
stairs very soon after getting up here. Open stair wells are more
common than they were 80 years ago, but even our old house built 80 or
so years ago, which could have had a door at the top of the stairs
without anyone downstairs being able to see it, didnt'. But in my
house doors would be somewhere between ugly and out of the question.

So at first I ridiculed the idea but then I considered geting a cheap
8.5" hose from the hall to my office. Well for 25' (I only need 18
or even less) that was $200 to 400 dollars. Hard to believe. I'm
going to call a big company and see if they had something cheaper I
didn't see.

It's hard to believe because a 4" 20' vinyl hose for a clothes dryer
is only 10.50 and an aluminum one 4" 8' is only $11 !! I wonder if
8' is long enough for my situation. Twice the diameter would only
be twice the materials. So they should be able to sell it for $22,
but even the vinyl one I saw was probably better quality, or they just
don't sell millions of them, like dryer hoses. Maybe I can just buy
a 4" one and buy or make some sort of reducer to get from 8.6" down to
4".