respublica

Block This Caller

For months I've been inundated with calls and texts from various health insurance providers wanting my business. I have no idea how I got onto all these lists but it drives me crazy. They never give up. At some point I began blocking and deleting these numbers, but it does not stop. So this article caught my eye this morning. "How to Block a phone number on your iphone."

Go the the recents tab on the iphone and then tap the 'i" on the right for each number. This should give you the option to "block this caller". Do the same for irritating texts from the same groups.

Well nuts. This is the same technique I've been using all along and the problem is this does not block the number from calling again and again. All it does on the iPhone is silence the call so I don't hear it coming in. I want a way to actually not let their calls come through.

I know this is not an uncommon issue for others because we were at some event recently where a few people were also exasperated by this. It seems these health insurers have an open door to be total pests.

A Berry Good Time

In 2020 when we moved back to Collinsville one of the first things Dale planted in the back garden was strawberries. I confess I was skeptical about ever seeing any fruit because we tried them while at the seminary and this house back many years ago and not much came of them.

But this spring we have an almost never ending bounty of strawberries. I feared the local wild animals would scarf them up or peck them up, but this has happened very infrequently.  I've been picking a bunch the past few days. Here are some I picked this morning with many more still waiting. It's just such a thrill.

Good sized too.

 

 

It's that Oak Strings time of year

This really is a really bad year for Oak tree seed strings falling all over the place. I can't remember when we've been so ankle deep in these things. They're on the lawn, the driveway, the roof, the street, in our neighbors' yards. A total mess. Yesterday I filled two leaf bags full of them and this morning they are all over the place again. I swept another bag and then looked up at our roof. Oh, man, our gutters are going to need a cleaning as soon as it looks like there is an end to this. Hopefully today's predicted storms will not cause a gutter overflow.

Not only are they a mess, any movement over them by people, wind or cars causes dust to fall on everything.

I wish we'd had this tree taken down last fall like we had 4 other trees.

Our across the street neighbor's truck covered in this dust.

At last a local news outlet

Ever since the Collinsville Herald-Journal went out of business and the Belleville New Democrat pretty much stopped bothering with any news except from wire services, there has been no real way to find out what is going on locally.

But now comes a fairly recent addition to news where we live and that is the Collinsville Daily News. This news source has a website as well as the good use of Facebook. Finally there are news stories for Collinsville and the surrounding area. They even have the obituaries, local sports and civic news.  I hope they don't end up going the route the Belleville paper went by insisting on subscribing to read the stories. With the BND it is just not worth it. One the other hand, if the Collinsville Daily News finds they must do this, I may break down and subscribe if they stay local.

One plate for Illinois?

There was an Illinois House bill introduced recently which would do away with state drivers having two license plates. It would only require a plate on the rear of cars. Twenty states already have this in place and Illinois is somewhat behind the curve. It is likely the front plate is not necessary.

According to those promoting this bill, it would save the state 800,000 dollars a year in plate production.

Leather free leather

This sounds very weird to me, maybe in years to come it will be as common place as table salt.

Animal-free leather is coming. Supposedly. "Would you ever wear shoes made from “grape leather”? Or gloves in “cactus leather”? What about a “kombucha leather” jacket and a mushroom leather bag?" With the drive towards more sustainable fashion, the burgeoning world of animal-free “alt leathers” is becoming increasingly mainstream.

What is going on with at least one company is shoes made with a leather-like material created from grape skins left over from wine-making.

So-called “plant-based leather” promises great benefits for the planet. Not only is Lerins upcycling an existing waste stream (as is also the case for “leathers” made from apples, bananas and pineapples), it’s also disconnecting from the cattle industry, and in doing so, avoids the issues of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and animal welfare.

You just never know.

Shaving cream! What can't it do?

Leave it to England's Mrs Finch the cleaning expert to come up with another way to clean the brown burned on mess found on most oven windows. I plan to try this today since I've tried many other methods to little success.

Spray shaving cream onto the door and leave it for an hour or so and then clear it off. Some people say it's great to remove it with a ball of silver foil while others just use a microfiber cloth or sponge. Whichever, most rave about how well this cleans the oven glass.

So, I've borrowed Dale's can of shaving cream and will have a go at this today.

UPDATE: This did not work for our oven window

Update This

We seem to be in the season when every single app and computer program wants us to update. It's driving us over the edge. Many times I just ignore the "update now" notice because it takes too long and I have to dig around to find the user name and/or password for each one. Then after updating nothing is the same as I was used to.

Today Dale was wasn't able to use his Group Me app which he uses to get together on line with friends who are all base all fans. He was told he needed to update his system but he does not use this on the computer but on his phone. Neither the Group Me app or his phone needed updating. This means we have no idea why he is not able to participate.

As wonderful as computers and iphones are, these update interruptions are a pain.

The latest cable news ratings

I find this fascinating not only for the breakdown in how many viewers watch each of the 3 cable networks, but the headline seems weird.

Cable News Ratings Wednesday May 4: MSNBC Nearly Doubles CNN Across Prime Time — Even Without Maddow

I guess this is shocking, but the actual numbers come with this: Fox News continued its long-held dominance as the most-watched network in cable news.The distance between the three networks was on stark display, particularly across prime time on Wednesday night. CNN brought in an average of 654,000 total viewers, while MSNBC did almost double that with an average of 1.27 million total viewers. Fox News more than doubled MSNBC with a total of 2.82 million total viewers across prime time

I guess the fact that CNN is rapidly losing ground among news viewers is quite surprising. It isn't surprising that Fox News is still way ahead in viewership. Many people won't like this and have all kinds of reasons why this is, mostly partisan. Each week day we make a practice of watching each of the cable networks at some point during the day but we never, ever watch prime time cable news. Talk about rampant partisanship on each one.

The main point to note is that of the three, Fox News programs almost always has experts/guests/partisans with different opinions/views. The other two networks do not. Like Fox or not, at least you get a counterpoint.

The entire ratings list is here and is quite interesting.

Now they've come for our bananas

It's frustrating to wake up in the morning and read a really annoying article on a food to avoid. And not just any food, but bananas. My habit is to have a banana along with something else every morning. We always have them because they are good and have long been known as a fruit which is good for you. So here we go with food scientists who have decided to ruin one more food product.

"Eating a banana on an empty stomach first thing in the morning isn’t a great idea. Your body naturally boosts your blood sugar in the morning and if you are not diabetic, your body will make more insulin to balance out your blood sugar. For this reason, morning (or on an empty stomach) is not the best time to eat high simple carbohydrate and low fiber foods such as bananas.”

This sounds like gobbledy gook to me but there is more. "That’s not to say you can never eat bananas though. It’s just best to pair them with other foods and eat them at the right time to avoid an unintended sugar spike-fatigue effect."   like eat them at night. Sorry, I save my eating for day time.

I won't give up my banana routine. The hardest thing about getting bananas is buying the ones that are not too green or brown. Getting the right kind of ripeness takes some planning.

Swarms and swarms coming to Illinois

According to bug experts who track these things, those of us living in Illinois are in for it this summer.  We will be seeing unusually large swarms of gnats.

"While these are not insects that bite or sting, they are a complete annoyance and make any outdoor task unenjoyable. What makes it worse is that the sheer number of swarms are already the largest many experts have ever seen and warm spring weather hasn't even really arrived yet."

The most valuable part of this article is the recommendation of how to keep away from you as many gnats as possible and I agree totally with this. Get a bottle of Vanilla Body Spray and use it when outside. We found this worked amazingly when we lived on the seminary campus and were working outside with the grounds crews. You can find this at Walgreens, Walmart and probably anywhere body spray is found. Get some now before there is a run on it and none will be available. I checked the Collinsville Walgreen's website and they have some available out on 157. Probably also the Belt Line store. Amazon has it as well. 

Happy picnics my fellow Illinoisans. This article actually has some humor in it which may ease the annoyance.

Spring Things

Every day I've been waking up and hoping we will finally get some warm, sunny weather. This has been a strange and cold spring. Here we are in May with temperatures that feel more like late March.

In any event we've been planting the garden knowing that one of these days it will get sunny and warm enough to get some real growth. I had to laugh at two pieces of garden advice which showed up in two back to back stories.

The first gave advice on how to keep snakes out of the garden, a problem we haven't had at least so far. The advice was to avoid mulching the garden, snakes like settling down underneath mulch. On the heels of this came advice on how to keep weeds out of the garden. Mulch the garden!  The issue then becomes which do you hate more, snakes or weeds. Mulch keeps weeds out but lets snakes in.

Gardening is not without its issues..

This must have been written by a competitor

The headline which had me click the link: Things You Should Never Buy at Home Depot

It turns out you should not buy almost anything at Home Depot which is absurd. Maybe someone from Lowes wrote this. Just kidding but it has to come from somewhere like this.

Marigolds!

Frankly I have often found Marigolds rather annoying. They have a fairly bad smell and they take constant dead-heading to keep them going. But, reading this today it pinged something in my memory bank and I will be getting marigolds today. I will put them around our tomatoes and strawberries and maybe most of the others. Some French marigolds have more potency than others.

"When it comes to using these flowers as a form of pest repellent, there’s a good reason to be planting those golden beauties next to your edible plants, and scientific research has confirmed it." There are kinds of articles on marigolds and pest control as well as some skeptics. But I do believe they can help deter many.

This leafy annual is known for its bold flower heads which emit a strong, spicy aroma.

The unique smell lingers in the air and has a natural insecticidal property, which is thought to reduce pests such as whitefly, blackfly and other aphids.

Whiteflies are also easily deterred by the natural secretion of limonene from marigold plants.

The bright yellow and golden hue of marigold plants is particularly attractive to pollinators, but it can also attract natural predators for unwanted pests.

Cleaning

Traditionally spring cleaning was a big thing and today I realized just why. There is dust everywhere, I mean everywhere. And it's most likely coming from all of the spring flowering trees and plant pollen aided by lots of windy days. It also could be because we haven't had much rain lately to cut dust back. I have to dust most every day and our front porch is just covered with dust this morning. It was most likely dusty yesterday but I ignored it. This job will require a hose. I'd like to order some rain too.

But beyond dust, there is the matter of everyday things that get dirty...like the inside of the oven. This task is the worst. However, a new suggestion popped up today for cleaning the oven. Get yourself some melamine foam, especially the Scrub Daddy. What is that? Most of us have a Magic Eraser sitting in a drawer somewhere, the Scrub Daddy is this on steroids. Experts claim it cleans the inside of the oven better than anything else. I do have Magic Erasers around and they work amazingly on many things, problem is I too often forget about them.

The cost of having to eat

This headline was one I just could not ignore.

These Grocery Items Are About to Skyrocket in Price.

Tell me if you came across this you wouldn't stop to read the article, we all have to eat. In any event I'll save you the time with the answer. Every grocery item is going to cost more. Nothing was left out.

1. Fruits and vegetables. And there may be fewer of them available.
2. Dairy products. We've all been eating more of them which means, for some reason, the prices will rise. That'll stop us.
3. Eggs. Bird flu outbreaks
4. Beef, veal, and other red meat. I honestly have never seen much veal in meat cases.
5. Chicken. Bird flu again
6. Fish. No reason given

Maybe man can live on bread alone.

Vegetables to plant in May

Tomorrow is May! Finally. April seemed interminable to me. In any case the garden experts are now telling us what vegetables we should be planting now. Actually, I've already planted a number of vegetables, especially those which do well when it's still chilly. Potatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts, onions, sweet peas, cauliflower, and quite a few herbs.

But I am really ready to plunk in the tomato plants and peppers I've purchased as well as beans and cantalope. I have several types of tomato plants, the slicer type, plum, and red and yellow cherry tomatoes. I love the yellow cherry tomatoes they give a burst of flavor in your mouth. Since our yard is small, I don't have tons of each of these, since they all grow big, it will be plenty for us and give some away.

Planting time is here!

But the article from the expert on what vegetables to plant are kind of strange. No mention of tomatoes, she must be up north somewhere. Some I've never heard of. She advised planting a lot of the root vegetables like Rootabagas, beets, pumpkins, baby corn, and squashes. Then she got into vegetables I've not heard of and will probably never plant. Callaloo I would not know what to do with. Cranberry beans are pretty but I"m not sure they are meant to be eaten, just look pretty.

Photos of all her recommendations are at this link

So...

Has anyone else noticed a conversational trend in which a person answers a question from another person by starting with the word--So? I'm hearing this all the time these days.

"Anything happen at work today?"  "So"...

How do you keep the pie crust from burning?  "So"...

"How did it go with the doctor?  "So"...

"Who let the dog out?"  "So"...

When did this become a thing?

My favorite story of the week

Park County Colorado authorities were on the look-out for what was thought to be a pack of wolves on the prowl. The animals were filmed on a phone camera some distance away and there was sound of howling and growling.

But after investigators arrived, they learned the wild animals turned out to be five St. Bernards who had gotten loose from their owners home. It seems they were good escape artists who often left home.

What I wouldn't give to run into a pack of St. Bernards! I love those big guys. When I was in high school we had a neighbor across the street who owned a St. Bernard they named Blossom. This guy was a hoot and if he saw us in our yard, here he would come to visit. We played and took him home later. As it happened I frequently babysat for the kids in Blossom's house and got to be with him more often.

They are big cuddly duddlies.

More advice from "experts"

Some one out there always knows what's best and this link a good example of people who don't live like us. Granted there is a lot of truth in some of this, but not all.

An expert in home things has put up a list of 10 things we should get rid of "right now" because they are just taking up space. Some I agree with, I'm an obsessive "get rid of it" person. I especially agree with getting rid of some of the many coffee mugs. We have way too many, most being give-a-ways at some function or other.