8 minute read
PremierGarage
IF YOU already have a PremierGarage durable floor in your garage, you’ve taken an important step in having a cleaner, more attractive home.
PremierGarage floor coatings are popular for their durability, slip- and stain-resistant properties, as well as ease of cleaning. Learning how to care for and clean a garage floor will ensure long-term function and satisfaction with your floor.
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Step 1: Clear the Floor of Loose Debris
Remove anything that is sitting on the garage floor so the entire floor is exposed. Sweep or shop vac the floor to remove dirt, sand, and other debris. Make sure to clean under cabinets, work benches, and appliances. In preparation for step two, place small plastic baggies over the garage infrared door sensors to they don’t get wet.
Step 2: Clean the Floor
The best way to clean the floor is by using a mop. A heavy-duty cotton mop is recommended, and a rolling bucket will make the task easier sine you’ll want to rinse the mop as you go section by section. Take extra care as you work, since enough water on any floor will make it slippery.
Cleaning solutions that will clean while protecting the finish include ammonia. Just mix five ounces of clear ammonia per gallon of water. Also, a diluted solution of a degreaser like Simple Green mixed with one-half cup per gallon of water cleans well.
Step 3: Rinse and Dry
Use a hose and spray nozzle to rinse the floor. Your garage floor will have a natural slope from the back of the garage to the driveway, so start at the highest point at the back to spray and rinse. Be careful under cabinets to limit splashing water onto wood components. Hose the back and sides of the floor to the middle, and then out the door. To quickly dry the floor and ensure no standing puddles of water remain, use a floor squeegee (18 or 24 inches to speed things up) or a clean street broom to move any water out of the garage, using the same back-and-sides-to-middle routine. Remove the plastic baggies from the garage door sensors and you’re done!
If you haven’t had a PremierGarage floor installed, consider the benefits: • Increases the resale value of your home. • Improves safety with a floor that is slip-, impact-, and heat-resistant and brightens the area with increased light reflectivity. • Opens up new activities in your garage.
It could double as a children’s play area or hobby nook.
Call PremierGarage of Knoxville and discover the affordability of transforming your garage floor.
PremierGarage
865.947.8686 PremierGarage.com/Knoxville
Participants learning how to create beautiful flower arrangements.
Flowers After Hours at Random Acts of Flowers
RANDOM ACTS of Flowers’ Flowers After Hours events are a fun and educational way to celebrate a special event, enjoy a friends night out, or meet new people while spending some meaningful time together helping others.
Flowers After Hours participants enjoy hands-on floral instruction from a professional florist before having the opportunity to create one floral arrangement to take home and to create additional arrangements that will be delivered to individuals in local healthcare facilities. Flowers After Hours is an opportunity for people to get together at the Random Acts of Flowers’ workshop to share an evening of fun, fellowship, and flower arranging - all while providing bouquets to those in local healthcare facilities that need a moment of encouragement and a personal moment of kindness.
The dates and the times for the Flowers After Hours classes are posted on our website and on Facebook. The $45 ticket price includes vases, flowers, and instruction. Coffee, water, soft drinks, and light appetizers will be provided. Given that this is an “after hours” event, it is BYOB for participants 21 and over. To find out more and get your tickets, visit RAFKnoxville.org.
Interested in booking a private Flowers After Hours event for a birthday party, wedding shower, company teambuilding, or other occasion? If so, we would be happy to accommodate your needs. Please call 865-633-9082 or email Mick Reed at Mick@RAFKnoxville.org. We can work with your timeline and schedule an evening that works best for you and your group!
Your participation in Flowers After Hours helps us deliver smiles to our recipients - and to you!
For more information on making a donation, having a Random Acts of Flowers event, or volunteering, call 865-633-9082, email info@RAFKnoxville.org, or visit RAFKnoxville.org.
EDGAR WINTER
BROTHER JOHNNY AND MORE
BY RANDY PATTERSON, BOOMEROCITY.COM
BABY BOOMERS who were even just passively listening to music back in their youth will remember songs like “Free Ride” and the monster (pun intended) hit “Frankenstein.” For any artist to enjoy two huge hits would be the dream of their lifetime. Those two songs fulfilled such a dream for Edgar Winter via his band at that time, The Edgar Winter Group (featuring the late, great Ronnie Montrose on guitar). And while those two songs have secured solid spots on the soundtrack of baby boomers' youth, there is much more to Edgar Winter.
Edgar is the younger brother of the late blues great Johnny Winter. Both boys were born with albinism. The odds that two children would be born with albinism to the same parents at the time were allegedly a million to one. Being albino in the rough and tumble town of Beaumont, Texas, created an inseparable bond between them. In addition to finding solace in each other as brothers and friends, they also found a refuge in music. Johnny became passionate about learning the guitar, and Edgar became proficient playing various instruments and in reading and writing music.
After the aforementioned hits (featured on the band’s acclaimed debut album They Only Come Out At Night), the group released a second album titled Shock Treatment, featuring the founder of The McCoys (“Hang On Sloopy”) and guitarist Rick Derringer, who later recorded “Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo” and “Still Alive and Well.” That began a lifelong friendship between Rick and the Winter brothers that lasted until Johnny’s passing and to this day with Edgar. It is through that friendship, and my early interview with Rick, that I was introduced to the Winter brothers (first to Edgar and later to Johnny).
Sadly, Johnny passed away eight years ago while on tour near Zurich, Switzerland, from what is felt to have been emphysema and pneumonia. There was immediate pressure placed on Edgar to put out an album to commemorate his brother’s life and career. Edgar had resisted that pressure until recently.
The album is appropriately titled Brother Johnny, wherein Edgar is joined by such amazing artists as Billy Gibbons, Michael McDonald, Derek Trucks, Keb Mo’, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Walsh, Ringo Starr, Steve Lukather, and several others. It was about that album that I connected with Edgar via Zoom. He shared the backstory about what led up to him recording the album so many years after his big brother’s passing.
“Shortly after Johnny’s passing, I was approached by several people with the idea of doing a tribute, and it just didn’t feel right,” he said. “It just felt like an exploitation of his name used to sell records for other purposes than what I intended, and that was not something that I wanted to be a part of. But as years went by and I started to play more shows, it became really evident to me that it was Johnny’s true and loyal fans that really wanted this to happen.
“I asked my wife, Monique, about it. Monique and I have been married now for 43 years. I trust her intuition more than my analytical thinking in many cases. She said, ‘Well, you’re always talking about how Johnny’s your all-time musical hero, and you wouldn’t be where you are were it not for him.’”
Once Edgar decided that the time - and reason - was right for a tribute album, he began the process of determining which songs should be recorded for it.
“The first question in my mind was should I just do a straight-ahead blues record in honor of Johnny’s memory and the legacy he left behind? Or should it be more of a personal tribute from me to my brother, based on a lot of my own particular musical preferences?
“I decided that it should be a balance of both. There are some obscure songs on there. Obviously, ‘Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo,’ ‘Alive and Well’ - songs that everybody knows and loves. And then there are a lot of songs that Johnny popularized like ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ and ‘Highway 61’ that were not songs that he wrote. I expected that it might be a difficult album to make. I knew it was going to wind up as being highly emotional and stir up a lot of memories. But it really turned out to be a joyous experience beyond my expectations... but it was very cathartic.”
The interview is quite extensive with a lot of territory covered, including Edgar and Johnny’s performance at the original Woodstock and Edgar currently performing as part of Ringo’s All Starr Band. You can view it all at Boomerocity.com. The album, Brother Johnny, is available wherever you purchase or stream your music.
Randy’s first interview was at the tender age of 13 with none other than Col. Tom Parker. Thirty-six years later he founded the webzine, Boomerocity.com, and has conducted close to 200 interviews with some of the most interesting people in music.