respublica

This is one of those days..

It's so cold

So windy

So gloomy

Being outside or even wanting to drive anywhere to shop or anything else is not even considered.  I do worry about the wind, it's so strong it's blowing our heavy recycling can across the yard stopped only by the fence. And slamming our doors shut. HonestIy, the wind is so loud it sounds like a plane coming in for a landing. Really hope the it dies down sooner than later.

We've done a big nothing so far today and it's kind of nice actually. I cleaned out the refrigerator, washed the shelves and now very little is in there and it looks so good. We've watched basketball, a movie, worked on a jigsaw puzzle and walked Ferdie. We will make stuffed peppers for dinner and call it a day in front of the TV.

Here is my puzzle so far, it's a cool look at St. Louis

Getting snow off your car

With another snow event heading for St. Louis local news stories are giving advice on how to get it off your car. If you have a garage you can stop reading. Whatever you do don't use brooms, brushes, shovels or ice scrapers, all of them will damage your car's finish. What the KSDK story recommends is a tool we already have and used to get a foot of snow off of our cars last week.

Get a good foam brush with a nonabrasive, freeze-resistant polyethylene head covering a recessed hard-plastic scraper, along with a telescoping handle. I bought one of these several years ago at Rural King during a winter when we seemed to always be getting snow. This works perfectly. It is a sturdy foam, wide scraper and the handle does telescope. It can be used to push or pull the snow off much more efficiently than anything else, especially hands covered in leather gloves, another tip from KSDK.

It's probable auto parts stores may carry this, if not find a Rural King or use Amazon. It's a good thing to have on hand when you really need it.

Parting your hair in the middle, do you care?

It seems the current style for many women is parting hair in the middle and it has become something of a debate which brought about an article titled, "How, When, and Why did Middle Parts Become Cool?"

Wow. I'm going to pay more attention to women I come across and take note of where the hair is parted. When I see photos of women with long hair parted in the middle a memory of the 60's washes over me. Hair parts in general have brought about many fashion stories these days: "What your hair part says about your personality", "How to find the perfect part for your hair shape", "Are you parting your hair the wrong way", and on and on.

I am really out of it when it comes to this sort of thing, I had no idea parting hair was such a debate. However, there was a time when my hair was parted in the middle. Can't say I'd go back to that time.

Roomba thefts?

This story is short on details, but fascinating nonetheless. A thief, (at least one thief) has been going into Walmart stores on the south side of Chicago and stealing Roomba vacs. Roombas are those round vacuums which work on their own, moving about rooms without the help of a human.

What caught my eye was the absence of much detail and the first sentence which described the thief as "visiting" several Walmarts in order to steal the Roombas. Visiting is an odd choice of words. In any event, it seems to me it's hard to steal from Walmart or any big store these days what with all the video cameras watching every aisle. The fact that this guy could go into more than one Walmart and get away with several Roombas each time is surprising.

And, is there a big market for Roombas I haven't heard of that makes stealing them sellable? A second story from Chicago says, "after each incident the offender or offenders enter the Walmart and remove or attempt to remove Roombas from store shelves." Cover your bases on this story for sure. Again, though, are there cameras in these stores or not. They should be able to show if it's one guy or more than one guy, if a Roomba was removed or not.

 

This tweet made me laugh. The original tweet was from the New York Post which stated, "Experts unveil plans to overhaul the world's diet."

Then came the retweet with this comment from Jon Gabriel: "World unveils plans to ignore experts."

Love it.

One good thing about all this snow

There haven't been any reports of mattresses or ladders hitting our highways. I mean, seriously, though, who would have decided this week would have been a good time to haul around a mattress.

Tuesday morning I drove out to Kirkwood on 44 and was really surprised and happy to see that most vehicles on the roads were free of all the snow. There were only a handful of cars with snow mattresses on the roof.

More snow

Honestly there was a time when I loved snow, but now I've come to dread it. This past weekend's foot of snow was physically and psychologically demanding. It was made worse by having a dog who is old and gimpy which made finding a place he could do his business was impossible. He couldn't get over the huge hills of plowed and snow blown snow, much less maneuver through the deep snow beyond that.

The forecast of maybe 3-6 more inches coupled with around zero temperatures is too much to take in especially since enough of the firsts snow has shrunk or melted and we've had a bit of normalcy.

I truly hope the weather people are wrong.

Good for you food versus good tasting food

Here's a story which begins like this: "Most people eat some combination of food that is good for them and food that tastes good. Finding the balance between the two is a lifelong journey."

I had to chuckle at this statement which pretty much lays out what we all often believe and that is food which is healthy and good for your doesn't taste very satisfying. At least someone in the food world came out and admitted it.

 

Machine laundry folder

This is an unexpected invention, but fascinating as well as expensive. The annual Consumer Electronics Show began last week and all kinds of new products were on display including a laundry folder, The Foldimate. Yes, a machine which will fold your laundry! Who wouldn't want one of these?

"You manually insert items of clothing into the Foldimate by clipping them in, but that's all you'll need to do. About five seconds later the machine spits them out at the bottom and makes a bell noise when it's complete.  The company estimates you can fold a whole load of laundry in five minutes."

This machine is not for sale yet, probably by the end of the year and will cost 980 dollars!  I'm sure we won't be rushing out to buy one right away or even ever. But, it's nice to consider something which will fold clothes neatly.

The story link does have an interesting video of how to fold clothes correctly and quickly by hand. This I found very helpful.

Ferdie has not been thrilled with this big snow

An ordinary snow of a couple of inches fills Ferdie's heart with joy, but this big one, not so much. It's so hard for him to slog through the deep snow to find a place to do his business and the slick spots hurt his poor old knees. It's tough to get old as humans, but the same is true for dogs.

What you might want to know about Bill Barr

Bill Barr, President Trump's new nominee for Attorney General,  will be questioned by members of the senate this week. As it happens, his daughter Meg mentioned in the story, works with our daughter in the senate. The write-up on Barr is interesting, something more than we normally get about people in DC.  A good way to get some information when listening to the news reports on the hearing.

A mattress of snow

The miserable winter storm which hit on Friday and Saturday moved on leaving us with almost a foot of heavy snow. Not only have we dealt with clearing roads and driveways and sidewalks, but folks, we have to clean the mess off of our cars. Leaving all the snow and crusty ice on the car sides, front, back and top is like driving around with a loaded gun. When the car is moving down the road sections of that ice and snow fly off and can easily smash into the window of the car behind. It's very scary.

And, it is so hard to clean off the roof of a car that many people just give up. This is, as someone wrote, driving with an untied mattress of snow on top of your car. And we know how easily ordinary mattress fall off. Don't be that person who's ice snow hits another car.

It's illegal and fine-able in a few states to drive with snow on your car. Unfortunately Missouri and Illinois are not one of those states, at least from the lists I've found.

According to KSDK in St. Louis, It may not be illegal to drive with an uncleaned car, if snow slides from your roof to your windshield or windows and you are in an accident you can be found responsible for not taking proper precautions for weather conditions. If the snow were to freeze over and then become dislodged and cause an accident, you would likely be held liable for any damage.

Our cars were a nightmare of ten plus inches of crusty snow. Yesterday I got my truck mostly cleared off with a bit more to go. We work on Dale's today and it is going to be no fun unless it warms up outside.

Dale's today

Mine today

 

So it was going to snow they said

And they were right! What a snow which fell yesterday and last night. We knew early on this snow would be trouble for Ferdie. We walked him before dinner and although he initially had a happy roll in the snow, it wasn't long before the snow built up between the pads of his feet and turned into painful ice balls. He kept laying down and refusing to move until I came and pulled the compacted snow and ice out from between his toes. We came across some campus kids who greeted us and Ferdie and had some fun sledding down the hill behind their apartments.

This morning we woke to find our front door blocked by a big mound of snow which had slid off the roof. The campus buildings have steep, slate roofs which catch the snow, but then suddenly loosen it all and it roars down like thunder and hits the ground below. You don't want to stand under any roof line here.

The front door, impassible and that is a heavy, icy mound.

The back has the same issue and you can see the roof line where snow had been.

It's hard to tell from this angle but the back door is blocked big time. Many of our bushes have taken big hits as well.

Dale shoveled out a path from our kitchen door by the driveway so we could get out.

Get to the store!

Here in St. Louis we are under a winter storm warning, predicted snow totals keep changing upward and the last I heard was we could set a record of 12 plus inches. If you know me, you know I'm sort of skeptical, but like most (everyone) around here, I went to the store. We will most likely only be stuck inside one day at most no matter how much snow falls, but it's nice to know we have some fun food around.

This morning I went to the nearby Schnucks before 7 and it was pretty easy to shop right then, but yesterday must have been quite the day in that store because a lot of shelves were empty and there was no ground beef at all, not even in the special butcher area. Then I went to Walmart for the size dog treats Ferdie needed and I was in and out very quickly. It pays to go early. I still need to gas up my car, Dale used it this week and left it pretty empty.

And then over to the wine shop. :)

Sunrise sunset

It's interesting watching the time of sunrise and sunset . It's not something I pay much attention to in the summer since daylight lasts a long time most days. But right now, at the beginning of official winter and in the fall, I do take note. Once the first day of winter comes, each day sees sunset coming a minute later than the day before. But the mornings do not come earlier for some time. Actually it's darker in the mornings longer than you'd expect. We may think the days are getting longer when winter comes, but only at the back end.

If you have to drive east in the morning or west in the afternoon, it's good to know when the sun will be at the worst spot on the windshield. I've learned when heading east to church on the interstate on Sundays that 20 or so minutes after the official time of sunrise is the worst. That is when the sun is up far enough that even the car visor will not shade the blinding sun ball which stares right into the lower middle of the window. I always hope for a cloudy start to Sundays.

The scariest moments I've had driving were when the timing was such that I drove into the sun and could not see a thing.

The Triscuit saga for 2019

I was in Schnucks today and of course...

The original kind were gone, just a gaping hole. All the other flavored Triscuits are plentiful. I just don't get this, it happens so often you'd think stores might re-think the amount of each type they order. Very few of the weird flavors ever move unless they're being given away.

5-7 inches of snow

All the talk on local news this morning is the coming major snow event-5-7 before it ends on Saturday. I've lived in St. Louis long enough to be tentatively skeptical because so many of these forecasts over the years have not materialized. We'll see. For sure Schnucks will be doing a big business today and I hate to admit I'll be there too. It's Dale's birthday and I want to pick up things to make a nice dinner for him. In this case, salmon and green vegetables which he likes and I'm not ordinarily a big fish person. But it's his day so I'll make him happy. 

I even picked up a Kruta Bakery garlic bread yesterday so, let it snow.

No In-N-Out burgers for us

So many of us who have been in California or Texas and had an In-N-Out burger wish the company would set up a shop near us here in St. Louis. Or Chicago or New York or wherever we live. But it won't happen. Thank you Rand for sending the link to a story laying out just why this company won't be expanding beyond their current home bases. There are 4 reasons for this:

1. They use only fresh beef, not frozen, which means they want to stay close to their two patty making distribution centers in Ballwin Park, California and Dallas Texas. Surprisingly this fresh policy also means no shop has freezers or microwaves

2.Exclusivity: Everything has more appeal when it's not available to everyone, and the exclusivity of In-N-Out is what has helped the restaurant gain such a rabid following.

3. Competition: The eastern part of the country has their share of good burger places, mainly Shake Shack and Five Guys and In-N-Out wants to be the main thing.

4. No Franchising: In-N-Out is a family-owned company that doesn't believe in franchising. A large-scale expansion without franchising would require a massive amount of up-front capital from the company. Plus, franchising takes away the oversight so important to the family.

I'd be curious as to whether these same reasons may apply to Portillos and why they won't come to St. Louis. I don't know if Portillo's is franchised, but if it is, why won't they come here?  I just looked it up and Portillo's is not franchised, at least it seems so. Similar to In-N-Out.

American Gothic 2019 version

I don't want to get all political, but this really made me laugh because it's too perfect. The original photo of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer during their response to the president's address last night has been all over the place, but it took just one guy on Twitter to have me realize what the image reminded me of.  

via @thefunnymuggle

 

A new year, new tally

And so 2019 begins:

Mattresses 1

Ladders 1