# Cleaning up .... YOU



## NBeener (Sep 16, 2009)

My shop's in the basement, but … the more I thought about it … the more I realized … pretty much no matter where your shop is … you CAN'T just come in the house without doing something about the 4% of a tree you've still got on your shoes, your clothes, your hair, in your ears, your nose, your navel, etc.

So I began wondering …

How do YOU keep the mess from your shop from becoming the mess in your home … when you come in from the garage, when you come up the stairs, when you come back in from your stand-alone (lucky dawg !) shop, or … when you come home from your shop-place-of-business ??

So far, I've taken a very few steps (in addition to decent DC and two shop air-filtration units, AND … generally … cleaning the shop, before I leave), and that's really NOT quite enough:

1) I use my ShopVac, with the "upholstery brush," and vacuum ME, as well as I can;

2) I turn the compressor on myself-low PSI-and just blow the dust off-eyes and mouth closed, and never directly at my face or ears;

3) Shop-specific shoes. Change INTO them downstairs, and leave them downstairs, when I'm ready to head back up;

4) No slop sink in THIS shop-planning one for the next shop-but the laundry room is at the top of the stairs, so …. pumice/citrus/GoJo type soap and a scrub brush, for finishing messes. Drop the clothes in the laundry room, if necessary.

It's good, but it ain't perfect.

Any other routines … to help keep peace in the home ? ;-)


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## Eric_S (Aug 26, 2009)

Good topic.

I have a seperate pair of shoes for woodworking that don't go past the laundry/mud room. I go in there, take off my shoes, and put the other pair on before going in the garage and then when I come back into the house I take them off before entering. I consider this room the equivalent of those middle rooms between normal environments and clean rooms lol. This really helps keep the dust where it should be…in the shop.

For clothing I kind of just shake it off. I also have a full apron Ren made for me that also has a little bit of a collar to protect shavings from hitting my neck or going down my shirt when I'm using the lathe. She used a nice outside liner of nylon that helps brush off shavings very easily.

I notice most of the shavings I bring in are in my hair so I started shaking that out before coming in as well.

Thats about it.


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## Woodwrecker (Aug 11, 2008)

Man O Man, you are much better trained then I am Neil.
I do about half of what you do, and suffer a good yelling at occasionally! LOL
Interesting topic.
Thanks!


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## mark88 (Jun 8, 2009)

yea….i just grin n bare it…for the effort it takes to keep the dust in the shop and out the house, I'd rather just get yelled at. lol


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## LoneTreeCreations (May 27, 2010)

That's very considerate of you.

What I did was opened my dust collection system and mixed up all the
layers of different colored sawdust contained in the can.
I extracted about 1/2" cup of the sawdust mixture and inserted
it into a ziploc sandwich bag and sealed it up.
I then put the bag in my pocket and proceeded to get in my Jeep
and drive.
After entering the "Carpets of Dalton" store in my hometown,
I promptly asked the salesman to inspect my package of sawdust mix.
After he got a good look, he pointed out a few different brands
of carpeting that where exactly the same color as my sawdust.
After scheduling the new carpet installation, I stopped by
Walmart and purchased a Dyson vacuum cleaner. The problem
has been taken care of.


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## patron (Apr 2, 2009)

air blower is all i know neil

as you saw 
it doesn't make up for shop cleaning


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## hairy (Sep 23, 2008)

The only thing I would add is rubber gloves. That pretty much negates the need for the scrub brush.


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

you can´t beat the naturelaws Neil …...
nothing can stop the scream from a women who had cleaned the house the same day
she discover how much dust and dirt we bring in the house 
and here after you will here about it all the time you make another failiuer just an octave higher 
tone than usual and 12 db higher

take care
Dennis


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## jbertelson (Sep 26, 2009)

I don't collect too much dust on me, I wear rubber gloves for the painting and stuff, and have steadily improving dust collection. I do sweep, nearly every day, sometimes more than one time a day.

No shoes in our house, so I slip into shop shoes when I get there, and out of them before leaving.

My TS is still the biggest issue, but finishing the DC on it is the next project in a row…..............


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## SPalm (Oct 9, 2007)

My shop is also in the basement.
I always work in bare feet, so that negates the shoe problem.

My DC and shopvacs seem to work quite well, so this is never really a problem.

Steve

Edit: I do wear a shop apron. And vinyl gloves when finishing.


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## grizzman (May 10, 2009)

man steve, i dont know how in the world you do it in bare feet…you must have a really clean shop to begin with..i wear my shoes that i wear every day everywhere…...i use to wear boots, but there heavy on my weakened legs , from serious back problems…so i do the blowing off , but if you look at my side of the bed…you will see saw dust on the sheet…its just the way it is here…but i do usually shower before i get to involved with getting into the bed…but i do like the dust in a bag and the buying of new carpet that matches…thats great…well neil good luck with your methods of cleanliness…if nothing else here…i might try to blow myself off more consistent…well see…....im like the guy on charlie brown…there is a cloud of dust around me all the time…


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## Chipncut (Aug 18, 2006)

*I try to vacuum myself off the best I can.

I don't think blowing the dust off is very healthy, it drives it into your skin,

& the dust goes airborne, it will end up throughout your whole house.*


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## reggiek (Jun 12, 2009)

I wear a pair of coveralls in my shop….and an apron when I am turning…...I got into the habit when I did alot of tile and brick work….keeps the clothes free of mortar and grout…..I then carried that on to my shop. I have several pairs…a few for painting and finishing…..a couple for the yard…..ones I wear when just puttering in the shop….etc…etc….you can get them pretty inexpensively from the uniform places or Wallyworld. When done for the day….I blow myself off with the compressed air….strip off the coveralls and wallah….able to go into the house without a fuss.


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## JJohnston (May 22, 2009)

I live alone.


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## Beginningwoodworker (May 5, 2008)

My shop is not attached to house so it dont get much cleaning.


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## Tedstor (Mar 12, 2011)

I sometimes make the mistake of wearing crocs in the shop. They're very comfy, but wood debris seems make its way into the interior of the shoe and clings for dear life to the soles. Of course, tracking the debris into the house is enevitable. I bought a bunch of 2-3" paintbrushes from HF a few months ago. They were ~.50. They're worthless for paint, but work great for cleaning machines. I probably need to hang one next to the door so I can use it to brush myself/shoes before entering the house.


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## DMIHOMECENTER (Mar 5, 2011)

Tennis shoes always and nothing sticks to them.

The very little saw dust that does not make it into the DC (from the miter saw and table saw, mainly) gets blown out the garage door with my Craftsman C3 160 MPH blower, then I shut the door again. I do that at the end of every productive day. So far, I have only used the Dust Right floor attachment 3 or 4 times.

I'm hoping the Ridgid Jointer/Planer due tomorrow will not be messy even hooked to DC, but if it is, I'll just roll it out the door to use it on non-rainy days.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

SPalm Bare feet? Are you kidding us? Even my Arkansas friends wear shoes now days! LOL


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## grizzman (May 10, 2009)

now come on guys..remember were talking wood shops here…not some room where miss prissy lives…these are shops where men are men…lol…maybe we should were high heels so our toe nails and the paint job they have dont become marred…i was thinking of painting a table saw into my big toe nail…and my wig, will of coarse not have any gray hairs…i hope when the saws go on were not in a fright as to where the dust will blow…LOL,,,,great subject neil….some of these comments remind me of the anal retentive guy on saturday night…every little mess he swept into a paper bag…folded it closed and then carefully disposed of it into the trash can…lol….....some days when i leave my stand alone shop…its a royal mess…...and so am i…i come in and shower it off…clothes go into the laundry…and i can smile cus i know ive got a real shop…where men can be men…....


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## Tedstor (Mar 12, 2011)

Grizz- My shop always looks like a jobsite. Thats not a problem. The problem starts when I track sawdust and wood chips into the house where it settles on the floor, stairs, and furniture. Its a problem that is usually pointed out by my wife…...aka miss prissy. 
You must not be married…..or have a really understanding wife ;LOL;


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

I have a pair of shop / lawn shoes that don't see the inside of the house. And I typically change clothes right off.


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## SPalm (Oct 9, 2007)

I sh** thee not..


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## Bluepine38 (Dec 14, 2009)

I usually do not have trouble tracking dust, etc. into the house, the problem was the dust getting on her
new Dodge Caravan, Bianchi Volpe, and Gary Fisher mountain bike. A dust collector with a Thein seperator
on both the 4" and the 2-1/2" hoses as well as on the shop vac and an air filter set up stopped that problem,
and probably helped my lungs quite a bit also. Now I just have to build that new shop. SPalm, do you at
least wear socks when you are finishing?


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## bubinga (Feb 5, 2011)

I use one thing that BLOWS ! a shop vac, and one thing that SUCKS ! a shop vac
When it is not to hot I were a shop coat, of thin material that covers me mostly, that I remove, Da
I make rabbit ears with my front pants pockets, to get the crap out, when I don't were the shop coat
And I do were the pants in my house !


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## tedth66 (Sep 1, 2009)

I stand in front of my Rigid 1600CFM carpet blower and blow the dust off of me (hair, clothes, etc…) and out the garage door.


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## DMIHOMECENTER (Mar 5, 2011)

Yeah, it's a man's cave. Have a beer or some coffee. Fire that Marlboro up, I don't care. But there's an ash tray, ya hear? You spit on my floor and you will understand Godsmack.

The work shop where we make a living is usually a suitable picture for the words messy, strewn, discombobulated, and sometimes even "squalor". In defense, our jobs overlap and we clean when we can (or when we have to). I spend a good bit of time finding stuff for the guys because it isn't where it belongs. I personally don't clean it because I didn't make the mess, but get it done any time I'm ready.

My shop here at the house is totally opposite. Jobs don't overlap much (unless I want them to) and it's one phase after another. The three minutes it takes me to blow it out is a small price to pay. It's small enough that everything is almost within reach, so it is easy to put stuff back when I'm done with it. My PC is here in the shop. It and my lungs get the whatever the DC doesn't.

Yep, there's a lot of real estate between OCD and "you pig, there's a special place in hell for you". I get within throw-up distance of both extremes every day.


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## bubinga (Feb 5, 2011)

David : what the f are you talking about my friend ?
Subject: cleaning your ass off ,so you don't bring it in the house


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## DMIHOMECENTER (Mar 5, 2011)

lol I was responding to grizzman's implication that clean was sissy. I see where he's coming from.

I know what the thread is about, but my point is that if the shop isn't a mess, then I am not a mess. (and vice versa). I get to see both versions most days at work and then at the home shop. That's all I'm trying to say.

Maybe when this shop is more than 6 mos old it'll be more manly. Who knows? ;=)


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## ellen35 (Jan 1, 2009)

I have sneakers with these funny looking soles that don't pick up wood chips and I simply keep a rug in front of the door to the house (which I try to vacuum at least every 2 days). As for my clothes… I just hope everything sticks long enough for me to change and then I turn them inside out until wash day.
I tried vacuuming myself but it took too long ;-)


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## ShopTinker (Oct 27, 2010)

I try to clean myself off with vac & blown air as good as I can and I don't think it's to much of a problem. But now that I think about it, it might be. My wife likes to draw house plans, almost every night for 30 years she's set with a pad of graph paper and drawn-out different types of dream houses.

For the last year every "dream house" plan has a nice workshop for me. Looking over the plans I've noticed that every work shop has it's own bathroom and refrigerator. That will cut down the trips into the house. I have to walk across a three car garage to get from the workshop into the house. I enter the house through or near a a large mudroom/laundry room with a shower.

Maybe that should tell me something.


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## miles125 (Jun 8, 2007)

A 150 psi air nozzle is your friend.


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## Chipncut (Aug 18, 2006)

*It's no use having fancy dust collectors if you're going to blow the fine

"most dangerous dust" into the air when you're done working.

That's my 2 cents worth.*


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## bluekingfisher (Mar 30, 2010)

Good post Neil,

My shop is stand alone, I tend to stand outside and beat myself with an old towel, what I don't get off there comes into the house for the good lady to hoover up with the Dyson. I never get any complaints from her, not ever! I guess I'm just a lucky Dawg!!


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

I am lucky enough to be in a whole new category. I'm am married. I wouldn't say though that I have an understanding wife as much as I have a wife who has given up. The spot on the carpet where I pull my boots off I think now has more wood fibers there than carpet fibers. I still get griped at about it from time to time. She then proceeds to hug me with love while wondering out loud what to do about me. 
I think the one thing I've seen the missus get the most upset about was the sawdust in my pant pockets that once stopped up the drain screen on the washing machine. So I do check my pockets now for hitchhikers before going to the house. 
The only time it really gives me personally problems though is when I get down and have work to do in the shop that I can do in my wheel chair. It is unbelievable the amount of scroll saw dust (very fine) that can get down under your butt area while sitting at a scroll saw for several hours sitting in a wheel chair. Now THAT one (I think because of the sheer amount of it) I did get my butt chewed out about.


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

I just walk into the house with curls falling off me, my dog polices them up, and we both get in trouble.


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## craftsman on the lake (Dec 27, 2008)

I hear ya.

I tell the wife as I mozy in from the shop to the living room easy chair. "You know hon how you like my Man smell? Well, the smell of wood intermingled with that is better than all the Old Spice cologne in the world. Git me a Moxie will ya?" 
(Moxie is Maine's state drink dontcha know.)

After that It's like a Cialiis commercial. You know, the one with the two bathtubs. Sawdust has been a hoot from my perspective!


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Craftsman … ive had Moxie … ewwww that stuff tastes like tree bark. What ive done to combat my the dust that my wife really dosent care for is we bought a Roomba, which is a robotic vaccuum. Between the sawdust i track upstairs and our yellow lab's dog hair, $200 was well spent. I send it off every morning before work, it does its tour around the house and takes itself back to the charging station when its about to die. Keeps me in good graces.


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## NBeener (Sep 16, 2009)

Some great ideas, some great posts, some great thoughts, and-both as always, and as expected-a huge diversity of methods.

I love it !!!

*Dick*: never thought about the fact that blowing the dust off, away, around, and about might defeat many of the health-protective measures that I/we sweat about.

Vacuuming it is !!!

Most of you probably don't rack up as many OTHER negatives with your respective spouses as I do, so … I really have to pick and choose my battles, and-as the primary housekeeper in my house-I'm only hurting myself when *I* play Pigpen (that's the one, *Grizz*) ;-)


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## retiredandtired (Mar 10, 2011)

I have been married 43 years and I never forget who cooks. Put your shoes on the wrong and the dust just slides off. Turn clothes wrong side out, when she does the the laundry there is no dust to be seen. I tried washing my hands in the sink after mechanicing all day, she finnaly caught me putting my hands in my pockets. Since I stayed in the toy poodle dog house with the dog for at time I made my mine up as what to do. Now I just wash up, strip down and make a mad dash to the house. All is not lovely but I don't get any a-eating for coming in the house drippind dust or grease. Good luck.


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## NBeener (Sep 16, 2009)

David:

This thread is worthless without at least a couple of pictures :-D


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## craftsman on the lake (Dec 27, 2008)

Actually, I use a tack cloth to remove dust from wood I'm about to finish. You can use it on yourself too.

Process: combine a small mixture of alcohol and shellac. soak a rag in it. Hang it up and let it dry.

Next use the tack cloth to collect the dust off yourself and clothes by rubbing it all over you. It's sticky residue will collect all of the fine particles. Enter the house smelling like an old paint rag. You'll be asked to keep the sawdust next time. Problem solved.


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## devann (Jan 11, 2011)

My 2¢. This is it. I blow myself off with the compressor and wipe my feet. That's about it.








This one is my brother's. No pictures of mine yet.
Have to suck the sawdust out of the pockets sometimes.


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## DMIHOMECENTER (Mar 5, 2011)

+1 on the Roomba. We call ours Mr. French. Those under 50 will have no idea where that came from. ;=)


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

David mentioned turning his clothes inside out. Now that just goes to show that we each have our own household problems. My wife would be on my tail like white on rice if I put my laundry in the basket inside out. She hates having to turn clothes to fold after the wash and dry cycle. We have a large family, us and eight kids, she says she has enough laundry chores withouth the extra step of turning clothes right side out.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

my husband was a mechanic - far worse than woodworking - and when we built on an addition to the house, I put a bathroom at the back door that includes a shower and washer/dryer … strip down, shower, toss the clothes right into the washing machine. 
Perfect.

Unfortunately he, (nor Rick) ever followed the plan.


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## NBeener (Sep 16, 2009)

Wow, did THAT take me back … Jody … Sissy … Buffy … Uncle Bill !!

47, but … an old soul ;-)


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## Bluepine38 (Dec 14, 2009)

MsDebbieP, your mistake was the shower only, I was informed by an old mechanic, that a proper mechanics bath
would start with a tub bath of solvent or gasoline, than follow with a rinse in a hot shower. He was working
on one of the early GM diesels, that were a converted gas engine and after 20,000 or more miles seemed to
coat themselves with diesel and oil and were a mess to work on even after we ran then through recon for an
engine wash.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

I done mechanic work for thirteen years. 
Back then, my wife had me strip down on the back porch. I had a clean pair of flip flops (sandles if you call them that) that I wore between there and the bath room. We had an old washer on the back porch that was only for my work clothes. If you wahsed them with other clothes it would ruin the other clothes. 
As for the bath, lava soap, scrub brush, drain the dirty water, clean tub, run new water, then bath again. After all that, if it had been an especially rough day, stand up and shower. 
I have worked on a few diesels that got me so filthy that the wife made me scrub down first outside under a water hose. She bought me some disposable overalls to go over my regular clothes, but true mechanics dive in without thinking about that sort of thing.


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## tyskkvinna (Mar 23, 2010)

I just use the air hose. It seems to work well enough for me..  And I get pretty dusty.. my sawdust is generally pretty fine and everywhere.


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## Chipncut (Aug 18, 2006)

*Neil!

Thank you for acknowledging my vacuuming suggestion.

I hope the rest of the Jocks start doing the same.*


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## Woodwrecker (Aug 11, 2008)

William, 8 kids?!
There is a special place waiting for you in Heaven my friend!


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## lightweightladylefty (Mar 27, 2008)

Neil,

We built the shop with a full bath to alleviate any dust problem in the house H-O-W-E-V-E-R . . . 
I find myself returning to the house numerous times a day to get something I forgot or do something I forgot to do, etc. and obviously, I'm not going to waste precious shop time to go through all that time-consuming clean-up to just run into the house for a brief time S-O-O-O . . .
I wear a lightweight nylon jacket on which I sewed the pockets shut. If my jeans and shoes are coated with dust, I try to remember to vacuum myself. Then when I get to the house door, I take off the jacket and slap it against the concrete a half dozen times to get the thickest off. The jacket gets hung into a cabinet next to the door which I turned into a small closet for our shop clothes.

Hubby is pretty good when working in the shop, but when he's out chainsawing, it's a different story. He ends up with wood chips everywhere. Even though he wears boots, his sox are always full of wood chips. (The wood chips are much more tolerable than the smell of gas/oil mix from the chainsaw.)

We try to stay off the better furniture with our sawdust, but the carpet gets plenty on it. (It just adds to all the pebbles that get tracked in!) . . . So we just buy new carpet-always matching the latest wood dust fashion!

I'm blessed to have a very understanding husband who doesn't nag me about my sawdust!


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## grizzman (May 10, 2009)

ididnt you read what william said, when he got to the back porch he had so strip down 
so what do you think happens between the strip down and the next stop….this would explain 8 kids..william must have finally gotten smart when hr saw how many kids he had and finally put 2 +2 together…ask him now…i bet they have a different routine now…lol…....


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

You're absolutely correct Grizz.
These days, our "love life" goes like this.
We go to bed at night and I roll over and ask:
"Wanna fool around?" 
She says:
"I'm tired, f**k you."


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## oopsboardstretchrplz (May 24, 2011)

a


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