respublica

Important products for gray hair.

I'm not going to hide this, I have gray hair. lots of it. So this headline had me click the link to see just what gray hair needs. My first thought was they'd be products to hide gray hair, something I"m not especially interested in doing. But, no, it seems as though graying hair has special needs to avoid thinning and drying out. I have not had either of these issues so, we'll see. They recommend using coconut oil for moisture, purple shampoo to alleviate hair turning yellow which I do not believe is much of an issue, toners to alleviate dullness, color extending shampoos to brighten hair, Leave in treatments ( I have no idea what the are), quality styling tools (no thank you), bristle brushes to smooth out tangles and serum to get rid of frizz.

So this strikes me as rather nutty, I plan to just continue doing what a normally do, wash and dry my hair and forget it.

Birds and more birds

All of a sudden we've noticed huge numbers of birds flying diagonally across our backyard, over our house and on into the distance. All of which meant this article about thousands of birds flying in unison near Maschoutah recently. It's an amazing video, hopefully the Belleville paper will let the link work.

Tiny Town Time

All of a sudden it's time to get our Christmas Tiny Town out into the yard. But first it is a matter of getting all the parts to the town out of the storage place and checking to see if any repairs are needed. But we did get all the lighted animals home and they are on the front porch waiting to go.

An inexplicable crash

Our daughter lives in Montgomery County, Maryland and over the weekend they lost power to their home as did 85,000 other county residents. The power was out for most of the night, but I believe it's finally been restored this morning. This happened when a small plane crashed into a local power line tower on Saturday. Two people were in the plane and suffered serious, but not life threatening injuries.

Not having power is rather miserable and cold at this time of year. I still haven't heard how the plane managed to hit a major power area but i did read power finally came back this morning.

A Thanksgiving Truism

Thanksgiving is one holiday when having two ovens is a necessity and most of us do not have two.

Illinois eatilng laws

This kind of made me laugh. Headline: "Is it legal to eat while driving in Illinois?"

Before reading the answer, I basically thought, if it's Illinois laws, who knows. But the answer is....

Illinois banned using handheld devices in 2019, which was also the year the state made its distracted driving laws a moving violation.

A ticket for distracted driving is reported to your car insurance company and can increase your rates.

However, there is no law that says you can’t eat a cheeseburger while driving.

 

News I didn't want to see

After some years of being told that Ibuprofen is a much better anti-inflammatory medicine than aspirin, now we're told that this product can make things worse. According to those who tested this on people found joint inflammation and cartilage quality got worse over the next four years compared to a group of 793 controls who did not take the drugs.

I gave up aspirin for aches and pains in my knees for Ibuprofen because experts and my husband believed it was much safer and worked better. As soon as I saw this story last week I stopped with the Ibuprofen and went back to aspirin especially at night.

Seriously, how much can we really believe when it comes to things like this. Doctors have been prescribing the Advil type pain killers for some time as they believed it was better than plain old aspirin. Now what will these doctors be recommending. It's hard to know what to believe anymore.

The Cost of Everything

With Thanksgiving this week I've been watching the price of food very closely and most everything is way higher than last year. I'd bet the main reason for this has been a year of crazy high gas prices. Most anything we need is affected by fuel costs, everything from the planting of crops to the delivery of crops to stores. Also the manufacture and shipping of canned goods and frozen foods have been affected by the price of gas.

When we were down in the Huzzah last week gas prices were in the 3 dollar range some in the upper 3's others in the low 3's. This is nothing to cheer about although we did since they were better than we'd been living with for over a year.

In the end, the grocery stores probably won't be lowering prices too much until shipping and growing things level out. We are used to big grocery bills but not at all able to justify many of the things we would like to have. I'd hope if gas does come down, prices on other things will too. But, I'd guess many places would like to keep the higher prices for better profits.

All those old forgotten photos

A couple of years ago Vince Herr noticed that I was interested in photography and Collinsville and Holy Cross. He was something of a hobby photographer in his years and dealt mainly with slides. He photographed many Holy Cross and other Collinsville scenes in color. One year when we were at the funeral home, he came down from upstairs and handed me several slide boxes of his and wanted me to have them.

Over the years I looked at them by holding them up to a window or a light. I really wanted to see them bigger and in print or digital, but time passed and life entered in and I kind of forgot them. Recently I've been on a Holy Cross committee working on how to celebrate the anniversary of the church and these slides popped into my head. Maybe they will be of some interest.

A couple of years ago I bought a little machine which turns slides into digital. I did a few of the churches ladies from years ago making apple butter outside the school. Yesterday when I was ready to look at some of the slides, I could not find the bracket that goes into the machine with the slides in it. I have the bracket for negatives, but the slide one has disappeared. So what does a person do? That person goes to Amazon and has them send me a new slide bracket. Comes today.

Here is one of Vince's slides from an older year of making apple butter. The Catsup bottle shows in the background.

Bird feeding time

All of a sudden it has gotten really cold, kind of unusual for this area. It's not normally in the 20's or low 30's with a bracing wind in November. Too many high winds this fall around here as well. So I've been back to feeding the birds and they seem really appreciative. We began using only hot pepper bird seed last winter and continuing right now. This type of seed is not liked by squirrels but the birds are fine with it. I doubt I'll ever use any other kind.

I've already filled one feeder 3 times in the last ten days so we know it's pretty cold.

Driving in St. Louis

I came across this Facebook post today about how weird St. Louis is in relation to driving directions and other unique mapping. The list is just below, but I would add one more. St. Louis and MODOT are not nearly as good at clearing winter highways than IDOT does just across the river. IDOT is so much better and efficient. To read each page you'll have to click each one to enlarge the print.

Big trucks

Dale and I left for the Huzzah cabin on Friday around noon after the snow stopped falling and the sun came out. The first issue we saw was on 55/70 right on the north edge of Collinsville. A number of semi's had skidded into the guard rails and stopped all traffic heading west. One of the trucks was hanging half over the rails. We saw this before we got to the interstate at 157 and saw traffic at a stand still and so headed for the highway entrance at Black Lane. Nothing was coming from the east because of the truck accidents so we got right on at that point.

The same day a semi crashed into a school bus in Chicago carrying players and coaches from a high school hockey team. 16 were injured, 3 critically. After being hit, the bus flipped onto its side, ejecting at least one student, while the driver kept driving until he careened into a ditch off the freeway an eighth of a mile from the crash site, police said.

The semi driver was arrested later that day for driving drunk. He ran a red light and crashed into a school bus carrying an out-of-state high school hockey team, knocking it onto its side and leaving more than a dozen people on board with injuries.

This is one of the awful issues with semi's and as we headed down 44 there was one semi after another in all lanes speeding along, often passing other semi's and cars. They dominate the highways. It's a very dangerous time to share the road with these trucks which have become way too tall, way too wide and way too long. Anyone who passes or gets passed by a tractor trailer these day knows how small and vulnerable we are in a car.

Sharing the road going and coming, even on Sunday afternoon, was nerve wracking. I know full well they are driving these trucks above the speed limits. My opinion is there just has to be some plan in place to cut the size of these trucks down and do more to slow them down.. Anyone in a car is not going to do well if one skids into you. But they now own our interstates and this is not a good thing at all. And, when they get into cities the space they take up on normal streets in just beyond belief.

The truck driver in Chicago was drunk and driving what could well be termed a vehicle weapon.

Maybe a new time for Morning Joe

We watch the Morning Joe cable news program most mornings from 5 to 6 a.m. We mainly do this to see just how over-bearing Joe can be and to see how his wife Mika is acting. On election night the Morning Joe crew was on during prime time in front of a raucous live audience. This was only watchable for a short time because Joe and crew were really over acting and playing to a hugely partisan audience which kept applauding  and cheering until it became just too much. News reporting should really not be like watching a basketball game.

In any event the powers that be at MSNBC are considering giving  Morning Joe a once a month prime time special.  We will probably watch only a couple times if what went on Tuesday night becomes the norm for them at night. This could well be a test run for MSNBC and Morning Joe to see if they can bring in better ratings at night and if so, make it permanent on every weeknight. I get the impression Joe and Mika are getting weary of having to be up and out in the middle of the night for their current program.

Cable news ratings still have FOX News getting the largest viewership with MSNBC in second but pretty far behind and CNN well back in last place.

 

 

Another crime now being publicized

As if we don't hear enough about crime of all kinds happening in our cities, along comes a new one becoming popular with thieves. This is getting robbed while you're pumping gas. The bad guys pull up to a pump next to you, one jumps out and opens one of your car doors and grabs anything which looks valuable-a bag, a purse etc.

I guess it will pay too be attentive. maybe lock the car doors while out pumping, or just don't have anything in sight.

 

News I did not want to read

It seems there is an outbreak of Listeria in several states including Illinois which has as its source grocery store deli meats and cheese.

"Deli counters and food processing facilities can be a common source of listeria infection, the CDC said, as listeria can easily spread between food and equipment or surfaces and can be hard to remove."

But the oddest part of this story is this: "Most of the people identified in the outbreak so far are of Eastern European descent or speak Russian, the CDC said."

I don't know quite what to make of all this except the outbreak seems to be small.

NO is an important word tomorrow (Updated)

Home rule stays in place in Collinsville after yesterday's election rejected those who wanted it gone. 5,442-2,106   This is a huge relief.

I've been mentally obsessing over tomorrow's elections, most specifically the item dealing with Home Rule. The question for voters will be a yes or no question-Should Collinsville cease being a home rule unit.

The city has done very well with Home Rule so why is there an entity which got this on the ballot and who is pushing ending it. It seems is a couple of realtor associations which want this gone and got it on the ballot. So I ask, "what benefit is losing home rule to realtors?" There must be more money for them and probably a lessening of property up keep ordinances. Without Home Rule, Collinsville will be more subject the state of Illinois and frankly, who wants this? Realtor groups must believe they can more easily lobby the state to get what most benefits them.

When we drive around town and see signs which read: Vote Yes to end Home Rule, they are often in front of rental property and vacant lots. This tells me a lot about who is behind this.

It frustrates me to even think of how things will change if we lost Home Rule after tomorrow. The city will lose the sales tax which has funded its public works, fire and police. Public works has the responsibility to run the streets department, water department and sewer plant. All of these have been excellent and kept this town running well and looking good.  Losing this money will mean these departments will have to be funded through property taxes which also means our property taxes will rise.

Why would anyone be in favor of this? I can't get my head around subjecting ourselves to what realtor associations want or more state of Illinois interference. And here's the thing. No local voter should go for this. Back to the question. Who benefits if Home Rule is defeated? Not the people of Collinsville.

If after tomorrow we lose Home rule, anyone who voted in favor of this better not be up at city hall complaining about a rise in their real estate tax.

Vote NO to keep Home Rule. The ballot is a weird negative, voting no means keeping Home Rule. Vote Yes if you want to put more money in the pockets of Realtors.

 

None Stop Car Thefts

KMOV News in St. Louis did some car theft tracking numbers and even though we hear and read about this type of crime every day, the numbers are shocking.

78 so far in Richmond Heights. 1981 in unincorporated St. Louis County. In the city of St. Louis 3656 so far this year.

A St. Louis police spokesman said, "We have found that many of the offenders stealing vehicles are juveniles. When it comes to juveniles and the crime of auto theft, the crime is not considered a serious enough offense by the Family Court to keep the juvenile in custody. They are following a point system, outlined in state statute, to make that decision. Juveniles are promptly released once arrested, and return to commit the same crimes since there is little to no consequence for their behavior."

Richmond Heights, Police Chief Gerry Rohr echoes that concern.

“Zero incentive to not be a repeat car criminal."

I'm not sure if similar car thefts are taking place in the Metro East, but if not, it probably won't be long before they do happen. Unless the Illinois side is much more likely to have consequences on the books.

This is one crazy idea

Story headline: "Can You Use a Leaf Blower to Clean Your Dryer Vent?"

My first thought was "oh no way." And, the explanation of how to do this did not change my mind. If you've ever used a leaf blower you know a good amount of force comes out of it. I could just picture the vent hose flying all over the laundry room. But, if anyone wants to try this, here is how they explain.

First thing was what you must have or not have with your dryer:

A removable grill on the outside. This must be removed or else the lint being expelled will become trapped and compacted at the front of the grill, causing a blockage. This can be especially dangerous, as dryers are a leading cause of house fires in the US. Our is under the front porch against the foundation. No way it is removable. I do reach under there with a vent lint brush occasionally to get lint out as much as I can.

And, only use this on vent tubing which can be formed into a straight line. If the first two things are what you have, here is what you can do.

Remove the outside grill cover. Unplug the dryer and remove the tube from the back and straighten it out into a line. Fasten the leaf blower to the tubing with air duct tape. (who knew?) Then, use the blower's lowest power setting first, working upwards in strength in 30 second to one minute bursts until all lint has been expelled.

I cannot even imagine doing this. I'd much prefer taking the old vent hose off and putting on a new one, or hiring someone to hang the new one.

I can just imagine going to the basement and doing this and Dale upstairs hearing the leaf blower start up down there.

 

In news other than our tech issues

Yesterday Dale and I went to Walgreens and received a Covid booster and a flu shot. To be honest, I was not thrilled about getting both at once, but Dale felt it just fine, medical experts had no problem with it, Dale said.

So far so good as far as any after affects besides two rather sore upper arms. No fever or chills as have occurred in other flu shots. Hopefully we're done with all this for a while. What a ridiculous week this has been so far and it's only Tuesday.

What a week this is

First it was this blog host doing updating or something to their entire system so that no one using Typepad could use their site. After 2 days they are finally back. This morning when I went to turn on my laptop, nothing happened. Black screen nothing would turn it on.

I tried several things including picking it up and turning it upside down for a bit. Nothing. I unplugged, waited, turned the power back on. Nothing.

Finally the screen returned with the news of a microsoft update which I never agreed to. This must have been a very long update and frankly, all these updates for every little and big thing are frustrating the heck out of me.