respublica

Local Olympic news

I've been sort of frustrated by the lack of reporting on the US Olympic Volley-Ball team. It's been difficult to find results much less any stories on this team, it takes a lot of searching. I am most disappointed in the local news outlets which must not realize there is a local woman playing on this team, Michelle Bartsch-Hackley.

Last night I was looking for score updates and didn't find any, but thanks to Frank posting on Facebook I learned they had won their match against Italy and are now in the quarterfinals. I checked his Facebook page when I woke up in the  middle of the night and there was the result. Channel 5 in St. Louis had a paragraph this morning but I the other channels had nothing. It's frustrating. We could have watched it but still haven't figured out how to do the streaming from apps.

Plenty of stories on the women's soccer team's loss.

 

Melons!

I was pretty over the top this morning when I spied a couple of Cantaloupes I'd planted. After watch the vines grow and flower most of the summer I'd about given up on seeing any fruit, mostly because no bees were around to pollinate them.

But here is one of the cantaloupes, the other is just as big and I'm hoping we'll find more from now on. I put a ball of twine nest to it to show size comparison

 

Until today I never realized there was a "u'" in cantaloupe.

 

This old saying seems perfect for our time

You know the old joke: A man was driven to the roof of his house by a flood. He was afraid he was going to die and prayed to the Lord to save him. A boat came by and offered help, so did a helicopter. He turned both down because he believed the Lord would save him. He died. In heaven he asked God why he hadn't saved him from the flood. God responded, "I sent the boat and the helicopter!"

A good vaccine (and maybe mask) metaphor.

This has been tech week. Also a garden explostion

For some reason several of our websites, mostly Dale's) had issues which would not let us update or post. It seems like something is going on with regard to changes in security, but the hosts do not make it easy to get things up and running again.

He has a blog which is really not publicized because I keep it to add each day's Meyer Minute he writes so as to keep an archive. This website needed his credit card updated since his had expired. This is normally easy to take care of, but for some reason it just would not do it. Since I take care of this sort of thing for him, I sent in a "ticket" with the problem to the hosting company. Thankfully they remotely fixed this and he's back up and running.

But, there was also an issue with the list server he uses to send out a mass mailing for his Meyer Minute. We have never had a problem with this company in all the many years we've used them. The best thing about Dundee is when you call someone answers the phone immediately. We got that straightened out. It seems the internet is not all that secure anymore so I was given a different way to get on the server.

Dale has also had a heck of a time with his MLB app. It stopped working and if you know Dale, you know he loves baseball and likes to watch White Sox games on his Ipad through MLB. I've emailed them, received a vague response which did not help. So in this case MLB will not work for him.

In other news, our vegetables have really gone crazy. Especially the tomatoes. I have several varieties and they all are producing big time with no bad spots on any of them. It's kind of a miracle. I finished digging the last of the potatoes this week and they are all just as fine looking as the tomatoes.

Now for something cool and edible

So tired of the news and all the upsets that this bit of ice cream information gave some relief. It's fun and not to be taken too seriously. "What your favorite flavor of ice cream says about your personality."

Most likely this is just made up baloney to take our minds off who's vaccinated and who is not. But hey, I'll take it.  My go to ice cream is always chocolate and the darker the better. The best dark chocolate I've found is Jeni's. But it is not sold around here except at Straub's and Whole Foods. Neither of which is in the Metro East.

I am partial to Haagen Dazs Double Belgian Chocolate Chip, but I can only find it at the Edwardsville Dierbergs. Our local Schnucks only carries the plain chocolate which I buy but it's really bland. The Double Belgian does not have chips as the name suggests but shaved chocolate which is much easier to eat than actual chocolate chips.

In any event this means I am: "more likely to be dramatic, lively, charming, flirtatious, seductive and gullible."  Not terribly true, but it is just for fun.

 

Masks, are we there again?

Yesterday afternoon while in the Collinsville Schnucks I suddenly realized many other shoppers were wearing masks. It got me to wondering if the St. Louis County mandate for grocery stores had the Schnucks company applying it to all their stores. Or, maybe I missed a Madison County edict.

I still don't know the answer, but there is a part of me is rather glad to see this mask wearing again especially with the growing numbers of people with the new variance. Our country is in a crazy time once again with anger, frustration and just plain exhaustion with the Covid which will just not go away.

I still believe the problems came when those who would not be vaccinated took off their masks at the same time those who were vaccinated were allowed to do this. This action should not have been implemented until there was doable way to check this easily at any venue.

St. Louis area counties with the most Covid cases

This is depressing for us in Illinois. The most St. Louis area counties covid cases recently are found in 5 Metro East counties.

1. Clinton
2. Monroe
3. Bond
4. Jersey
5. Madison

What is the deal here Illinois? St. Clair is in 8th place which is somewhat better than the others. Washington County was not listed for some reason and that county is certainly in the St. Louis tv viewing area.

The Best News

Now here is a study I can cheer. Eating a bar of milk chocolate in the morning has tons of health benefits for older women but actually for everyone. It needs to be eaten within an hour of waking up, however. Not the greatest time for a candy bar. But hey, chocolate is good anytime. Just ask all the people who buy Kruta Bakery's chocolate donuts.

I'm heading to my Snicker's bar right now.

Talking hedge Trimmers

This is one of those days when I walked around the yard and realized we needed to trim our bushes. We have a bunch of Yews which need cutting back as well as a couple of other types. But of course we somehow left our better trimmer over at the seminary when we moved. All we have is an old old Homelight that is super dull and needs an extension cord. I am very over dragging an extension cord around and plugging and unplugging whenever I change parts of the yard.

So I went online to see what is out there that is a well made hedge trimmer. I decided on the DeWalt 22 inch battery driven model. I was thrilled to see that Ace carried this trimmer so I went right over. Problem was, sadly, they had one left but it did not come with a battery. I mean, seriously? And they did not have a battery to purchase separately. I can't blame them too much, they seem to have sold a ton of yard equipment this spring/summer so lot of empty shelves.

I went over to Home Depot and they had what I wanted, at least I thought so. Quite a few of these DeWalts on the shelves, none with the battery. What is with this? Anyway, thankfully a really nice and helpful woman working in that area came along and asked if she could help. I explained the issue, she took out her store product computer and found they had four of what I wanted.

After some looking at her handheld computer she learned the battery included types were on the very top two shelves. This is not the lightest thing and in a long box. I had no idea how we would get it down and she was not a big person. But she said, this will be easy. I'll be right back with a big ladder. Whoa. The ladder turned out, thankfully, to be a huge, orange, thing that was more like a moveable set of stairs with a flat piece at the top. She wheeled it over, climbed up, juggled the box until she had a good grip and came down to my cart.

This was amazing. Still I wonder what the purpose is of selling a product that needs a battery and not including it. Or, stocking boxes of the battery.

Anyway, this is a great looking and feeling machine. The battery is charging in the kitchen counter and I can't wait to use it today, hot or not.

Self Check-out lanes

Quite often I come across posts from people who are angry about the growing number of stores with self check-out lanes. They are very emphatic about "never using them". Sometimes the reason is their concern about people losing jobs because of this or, they just hate bagging their own things and the process is confusing.

Frankly, I like those lanes and never use any other way of checking out in any store that has them. The lines are shorter and I never have an overflowing cart of things anyway. When I do, say at Thanksgiving, I go to a lane with a checker. Many  days our local Schnucks has a long line of carts stretching halfway down the front of the store for people checkers. Why wait.

But there are issues with checker lanes as well. A couple of weeks ago the local Schnucks had the self check out lanes closed and I had to use the checker lane. This is fine, the workers are usually very friendly. But what frustrates me is how little they will put in each plastic bag. Sometimes only one thing. The paper bags seem almost non-existent at our store and if seen have to be asked for. Why is this? Other Schnucks' have paper bags even at the self check area.

So much more can be put in paper bags and actually, baggers could put a lot more in plastic bags as well. Why they don't is beyond me. I've come home with endless plastic bags of things during those times. Doing it myself, I get a lot more items in each bag.

The problem at some places which have gone to self check, there often isn't enough room to put things until we're finished.

 

Thankful we keep manuals

I don't know you but so many times I'm working with some lawn equipment or washer/dryer/fridge/TV and something goes a bit wrong or something needs replacing. Half the time I am sure I know how to do it and the other half of the time I'm shown to be wrong.

This is especially true for replacement filters of any kind as well as grass trimmer cutting line and spark plugs.

Today is my day to get more string line into my Echo trimmer. I like the Echo, they work well and don't cost as much as the slightly more professional Stihl. I have two of these Echos, one is the straight shaft with a sting line that gets wound up in its compartment. The other has a curved and shorter shaft. The shorter one has string line comes in cut pieces about 8-9 inches long. When they shorten up after use they need two new ones inserted into the round thing.

What I had forgotten is how to get what is left of the spent ends out. Thankfully Google is around and I found a guy doing a short video doing this. This process has to be done often because string does break off. I like it for certain jobs and I brought it with us to the Huzzah and left the more professional one in Collinsville.

 

Thanks MoDOT

Wouldn't you just know the weekend we are heading to the Huzzah, MoDOT would be making botch all of I-44. We debated staying put, but Dale really wants to go down there, it's his happy place.

It will be near 100 degrees which is bearable along the river, but boy, how does MoDOT think it's acceptable for the crews to be working in that heat. Hopefully much will be done at night.

The thing is about highway work, if they publicize the highway will close at 8 tonight, you just know it will be mostly closed all day. If Dale would get his Zoom work done soon, we could get out of hear before afternoon rush hour out on 44 makes things really snarled up.

A short vent

Here is my conclusion as to why the Coronavirus and it's cousin the Delta Variant have begun spreading again. When people began getting vaccinated in fairly large numbers, the mask mandates relaxed. Signs were put up and news stories shared the new rule that "if you are vaccinated you don't need to wear a mask." Stores all have this notice.

But. Here is what bugged me. There was no way to have to prove this. Which lead to everyone taking off their masks, vaccinated or not. You just had to know that many people shopping in grocery stores, going out to eat or to bars, or to ballgames etc etc, were not vaccinated and did not wear a mask. And so it spread.

It would have been difficult to make any public place check this. But I am not going to be convinced that everyone taking off masks isn't part of the reason we are back in this position again. We took pictures of our vaccination card and keep them on our phones thinking we might have to show proof. No one has ever asked.

Virus on the move again

Just when we relaxed a bit over this Covid worry, here it comes again. The news is all over this virus once again and it is troublesome. Supposedly we who have been vaccinated don't have much to fear. We may get a small version, like a mild cold, but nothing which would hospitalize us. However, we could spread it unknowingly to someone we pass in a store who isn't vaccinated.

What shocks me is how low a percentage of people in many Missouri counties have ignored the vaccine. Our new cottage down in Crawford County is in a county where only 22 percent have been vaccinated. We are isolated from people where we are, but it will take some nerve to go into any store for provisions. And, Crawford is on the cusp of Covid traveling east big time.

Compare this to our own Madison County, Illinois which has 55 percent vaccinated. Not perfect and should be better, but at least it makes us a bit more secure. The comparison to other Illinois counties is interesting. In the Chicago area the percentages are in the 60's percentile. Cook County is 68 percent and DuPage County where I grew up is 75 percent. Here is a link to all Illinois counties. 

The lowest counties in Illinois with some in the 30's and 40's are in rural areas. Only one county is in the 20's, Alexander at 20 percent. This place is the southern most country in Illinois, bounded on the west by the Mississippi River, county seat is Cairo.

Because of the new outbreaks, mask mandates are being talked about once again. The Madison County Board recently had a meeting on mask wearing for kids when they head back to school. Because of lots of parental input against any mandate, the board decided to leave this issue to individual school districts.

A gmail issue

We honestly don't know where to find the information we need to get Dale's gmail working. Last night he got out his older ipad while looking for an app he'd downloaded on it. He needed some information he'd highlighted from some book he'd put on this ipad and wanted to email it to himself.

But that device would not accept the currrent gmail password so he changed it.  But, when he got back to his phone and larger/newer ipad, these would not accept the new password.

I haven't found anything from google on what the deal is and how to fix it. He really needs gmail to work on his iphone.  Why is everything so difficult? Why is it working on one device but not the others.

Update one hour later. I finally got his two devices back on gmail. It was trial and error, hunt and peck until I finally got it.

Make your bed

I came across a link to a University of Texas commencement speech given by Admiral William Mc Kraven in 2014. It is one great speech unlike so many other commencement speeches and worth listening to all the way through. But at the 4:44 mark or so, he gave great advice and reasons for it. Make your bed first thing in the morning. "It's a simple and mundane task, but if you make your bed first thing, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and encourage you to do another task."

Not an earth changing thing to do, but he is so right. I can't think of too many things that bother me as much as seeing an unmade bed at 2 in the afternoon. I believe we even sleep better then coming night if we get into a bed which has been smoothed out and made up.

In any event, the entire speech is worth a listen.

So many things to ponder

We are living in a very bewildering time. Every day something new comes along or things abruptly change. Cable news hosts spend as much time criticizing or making fun of, the hosts on other cable networks. Who's right? Who knows?

The Covid seems to be back with a vengeance or is it? Will we soon be back in our masks? If things are getting bad again I would have no real problem with the mask but I don't want to be the only one in the store wearing one. Other people would probably think I was unvacinated. This Covid nightmare will just not go away.

Then there is this. The city of Ozark, Missouri, now wants to reduce light pollution by enacting an ordinance to end the existence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive artificial lighting. This applies generally to street lighting which that city believes is light pollution which they believe can have several consequences such as washing out starlight in the night sky, interferes with astronomical research, disrupts ecosystems, and can have adverse health effects.

This has to be a first and seems more than a little over the top. They want all of that type of lighting to be pointing down, not up. It is just one more thing to ponder and wonder about.

Frankly I'm thankful to have various vegetables I've planted to concern myself with and not worry about what's happening beyond our yard.

Our refrigerator is freezing our produce

I just can't figure out why the fruit/vegetables I put into the produce drawer keep freezing. We've unfortunately lost too many of these items which had me going through all kinds of advice from Google and the manual. But the manual does not address this so I was left with guys who put up YouTube videos working on this issue.

So far it seems some side by side refrigerators with a bottom freezer have a sensor which should not be blocked by food. That is often the cause of freezing. I could not find anything like this in ours although I did find the air vent on the back wall which I moved things away from.

I also emptied the ice maker drawer since it sits right below the vegetable crisper drawer. That alone makes no sense since the ice chills the bottom of the produce section. I can't keep doing this so there has to be another explanation.

About that envelope

Did you know there is a way of opening an envelope that doesn't require a letter opener or make a mess? I was skeptical until I went through some of our junk mail which hadn't been opened and it does work. It's maybe something I'll do from now on or not.

1. Tear open the back of the left corner of the envelope. 2 Then pull down vertically along the left side about an inch wide. Voila, you can just slide the contents out.

A great time of year for food

This is ground zero month for mountains of fresh fruit and vegetables. Tomatoes are abundant, as are peppers, sweet corn and most everything else including the new peach crop. The local produce can't be beat at this time of year.