respublica

Italian Fest Day 1

Yes, I took a deep breath yesterday and headed up to the Italian Fest. For years I worked with Pat Tottleben as chairman of the souvenier stand. When we moved over to the seminary campus I gave that up although we did normally go to the Fest. It's a different time, I knew very few people who were walking around or working at the festival. But even at noon the crowds were heavy. This gave me some anxiety due to the possibility of a Covid breakout. Maybe worry over nothing, but this could end up being a super spreader since the percentage of Madison County people vaccinated is not quite 48 percent.

I know this sounds overly dramatic, but we've made it this far and I want to continue staying safe.

Anyhow, the day was beautiful, and everyone was in a good humor, enjoying the return of this big event. We will probably go to the parade today. I got caught in the corner of a picture taken by the Fest photographer at the grape stomp. I was taking my own photos.

I got there early, just as the opening ceremonies began. The street was not crowded at all and I walked the 3 blocks to see what was what for this year. But during the grape stomp I climbed up onto the main stage and took a picture from that vantage point and was absolutely shocked at how big the crowd had grown. The crowd was the size of what afternoons and early evening looked like in the past. I knew then this was going to be a major deal this year.

This lawsuit is for the birds

Over the years there have been many frivolous lawsuits, but this one takes the cake.

"Anyone who purchased chicken in Missouri or Illinois from Jan. 1, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2020 could be eligible to receive money."  Who didn't?

If you bought chicken from the grocery store over the last decade, you could be in line for a cut of a $181 million class-action settlement.

A number of poultry producers were sued and accused of conspiring to restrict the supply and fix the price of chicken.

 

Seriously? This would involve almost everyone in the country. However the absurdity comes when all us chicken buyers realize the effort involved in being a beneficiary of this money would be more trouble than the money would be worth. And the payout would be almost nothing, except for the lawyers.

 

Banking changes

When we first moved to Collinsville back in 1981, we chose Home Federal Savings and Loan as our bank and have continued with them all these years. But in recent times the name and ownership has changed. It went from Home Federal to Best Hometown Bank to its current, 1st National Bank of Waterloo.

We haven't noticed too much difference except most if not all of the employees are different from the earlier manifestations of that bank. However, I've been frustrated since late last week with the drive-up ATM machine being "Temporarily out of service."

It was down Friday and it was still down yesterday. There are times I want to carry cash instead of using my debit card for smaller purchases and this is driving me nuts. The other day I ended up using the ATM at what used to be named the Bank of Edwardsville but is now something which starts with a B. It worked thankfully. But what heck is going on with our ATM?

The season is changing

All of a sudden we can feel the summer gradually changing to fall. It's been cool in the mornings and the light leaves earlier in the evening. I noticed a big drop off in the number of hummingbirds we have around our feeders and the tomatoes are looking weary.

If only the raccoons packed up their bags and headed south for the winter.

Emissions testing

A few weeks ago I received a postcard notice reminding me that I needed to get a new license plate sticker. This was to be done in conjunction with an emissions test. Ugh. The issue for me was the emissions test. It's a bit of a hassle since there are very few places which are certified by the state to perform this test. Granite City (Pontoon Beach) or Swansea (Fairview Heights). Nothing in Collinsville. You'd think as populated as St. Clair and Madison Counties are, there would be more options.

In any event I head off to Swansea this morning to get this over with. But. I called the Air Team business with a question, all I got was a very long recorded message telling me to go to their website and everything I needed to know or do was there. Except there was no option for talking to someone which I wanted to do because not everything was actually on the site.

While my mailed card said we needed an emissions test, the website told me it was not needed. So before I make the trip, I wanted to know which of the two was correct. In the end, I'm making the trip and am interested in just why the contradiction.

Bermuda Grass

Our planting beds in the backyard developed a infestation of Bermuda Grass this year. We've never had this before and it is darn vicious. It pretty much takes over with underground roots which spread like a web. Finding something which will kill it without killing other things is tricky. One Saturday we were listening to the Garden Hotline with Mike Miller on KMOX when someone called in and said getting a product with Fusilade would work well.

But. Finding this product is the hard part, stores selling herbicides don't have this generally. You can buy it online, but I was amazed at the cost of it, over 100 dollars. I'm not sure I want to spend that much money and am trying to find something else. This darn grass has been growing between everything in the back garden. Not in the normal lawn however. I believe it got its start in the straw I bought and used to cover the potato plants.

Tree removal/trimming

We have several trees in our back and side yard that need work. Two just have to come down, one being a Bradford Pear which is not a good tree to have since they are very fragile. It is in the back of our yard very near the power lines and in front of a neighbors house. Tricky business getting in there to get it taken down. The problem is it's pretty hard to get tree guys, it seems they have a lot of work scheduled.

The other tree that needs taken down is a older, blue spruce which is dying. Every time we think we may get someone to do the work, along comes a major storm which drops trees on other properties and ties up the tree companies.

Heading home is hard

We are heading back to Collinsville this morning after 3 days along the Huzzah. But, it seems like every trip we have to pile up more stuff into the car than we came with. Why is this? We bring our trash back with us which is bulkier than when it was in its original form. Dirty clothes take up more room than the clean ones. This stresses me out trying to get it all into the car while Dale is not bothered at all.

He spent some time over the weekend trimming out some trees and today he started early clipping branches from them one small piece after another.

I'll be happy to be home this time.

What's the deal with Vinegar?

When I was in Schnucks this morning I looked for vinegar which we need. I must have gone up and down most of the food aisles 3 times and couldn't find the vinegar. Finally I went back to the relish aisle and found the vinegar shelves were empty, How is this possible? Of all things a run on vinegar? Or is this a shipping issue? But still, how much vinegar goes out the door normally?

It's so weird, the things grocery stores are out of.

Planning meals is an effort

I needed to pick up food ingredients for the next 3 nights we will be at the Huzzah. I decided Friday would be air fryer chicken breast tenders, seasoned and shredded when done. They will go on good buns. I prefer Brioche buns most of the time, they have a nice flavor and aren't too hard/crunchy or too bland. I use Code 3 Spices to season just about everything these days and have several versions of them. Some fruit or a vegetable to alongside.

Where I had to do some checking was the Saturday meal which is going to be pulled pork. I put the slow cooker in the car already, but needed to refresh my memory on how to do this. I use the Coke version poured over it. Some people like Dr. Pepper or Root Beer. The sugar in these flavor the pork a lot. More Code 3 spices rubbed all over before the Coke. When it is fork tender after 8 or so hours, it gets pulled apart and then tossed with Barbecue sauce and left to simmer another hour or so. Hopefully there will be some left over for Sunday lunch. I did not buy a huge pork since it's just the two of us.

Sunday night will be light since we leave early the next morning. BLT's.

I'll go to Kruta's in the morning, nothing better than having some of their items around and they freeze really well.

 

Maryville to hold mobile DMV event

If you are in Madison County and need to renew your drivers license or get stickers of some sort, then next Tuesday (September 14 from 10-2) you will be able to do this in Maryville. It will be a mobile event. You can also get license plate stickers.  Mobile event is not a drive through, it just means some sort of office trailer will be on site.

This is good news for anyone who dreads the wait time and travel distance at brick and mortar facilities. The one thing not a part of this is getting a Real ID.

Last Man Standing

For the past year we have gotten into the habit of watching the Last Man Standing TV show which features Tim Allen. For some reason this program was not on our radar before the Covid shutdown, but we have found this to be one of the funnier series on television. The series is on CMT and tonight for instance, there are 8 if them in a row beginning at 3 in the afternoon. We normally watch the ones at 6 and 6:30.

We find the programs laugh out loud funny which is something we don't come across very often. Tim Allen was best known as Tim the Tool Man Taylor back in the old days, but his character on Last Man Standing is just as good as are those who play his family members.

Certainly this is much better than all the cable news and current sitcoms are just weird.

The bookshelf windows keep on coming

While still living on the seminary campus, Dale rescued a lot of original faculty homes windows. These were taken out in order for new windows to be put in. The old ones date back to when the houses were built, probably in the 1920's. He did not want them destroyed and so kept pulling them out of the big dumpsters and stacking them up in the basement of the home we lived in. This saving of the windows caught on with others who themselves got some. One of those was Jonathon Parker who owns Parkers Table wine shop near the campus. He had purchased an old firefighters look-out building near Maryville, Illinois and was planning on turning it into something.

Anyway, Dale has restored a number of these windows and did attach them to the bookshelves he built in our Collinsville basement. He has a way to go since he has a lot of books and a lot of bookshelves. He does most of the work in the garage which has no seen a car in it for decades. It was turned into Dale's workshop and partly my lawn equipment storage area.

The past few days he has gone back to work on one of the old windows, stripping the old paint, framing it up, and putting the hinges back on.

Here is a look at the progress. The latest window will need painting now, which may or may not be left to me.

A true man cave, books, tv, small fridge, computer.

Famous Actresses?

I came across a story with a headline which made me read through it. The headline was: "Here Are 10 of the Most Famous Actresses from Illinois". Tell me if you are from Illinois you wouldn't read this.

In any event except for Betty White, born in Oak Park, I did not recognize the names or faces of any of the other 9. To be honest, I pay almost no attention to Hollywood, movies or even many TV shows these days. Even so, I'd have thought I'd know more than one. We recently watched the movie, Field of Dreams, with one of the Illinois actresses (Amy Madigan) playing the role of the wife of the field builder. She didn't leave much of a mark on my memory I'm sorry to say.

Here is the list if you want to see how many you know.

New alert

As if we don't have enough confusing and unsettling warnings coming from our news outlets, here is another.

The Farmers Almanac tells us we need to prepare for the longest and coldest winter in years. They say this winter in Missouri and Illinois, specifically, it's going to be "cold, snowy" and feature "several storms."

My question is, "Is the Farmers Almanac normally correct in its predictions? Does anyone actually fact check them after a season ends?

Someone had way too much time on his hands

The FTC, Federal Trade Commission, is investigating why so many ice cream machines in various McDonald's are constantly broken. The FTC!  "The FTC wants to learn how suppliers and equipment are reviewed, and whether or not restaurant owners are allowed to work on the machines in their own stores."

There is also a 24-year-old ice cream fan fed up with McDonald’s oft-broken machines managed to reverse-engineer the McDonald’s app to create a map of every broken soft serve machine in the United States.

This is hard to take in. The FTC and a computer guru care enough about McDonald's ice cream machines to go to this much trouble. I have never given a thought to having ice cream at McDonald's but it seems many have.

Here is the map that guy put together. Click to enlarge.

How many of us in Southwest Illinois have been vaccinated

A very interesting round-up of vaccination percentages by city/town on the Illinois side of St. Louis. This is a fairly complete listing of all the towns. The worst percentage is in East St. Louis and towns in that vicinity. All in the 20's percentile. The highest percentages are in St. Libory, New Memphis, Radom,Hamel, and Maryville, all in the 60's percentile.

Collinsville is at 47 percent, sort of in the middle.

When it comes to advice they can't get their act together

Last week a medical report from the American Heart Association concluded that drinking 3 glasses of red wine a day can help maintain healthy blood pressure levels as well as other health benefits.

This morning this from Dr. Gregory Marcus, a professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of California San Francisco: "Having one glass of wine or a can of beer immediately raises the risk of experiencing atrial fibrillation, or AFib, an irregular heartbeat that can sometimes be fatal, a new study shows."

So which is it guys? And the medical experts often wonder why we are skeptical.

A Doctor's Warning

Now here is a headline that had me reading the entire article. "I'm a Doctor and Warn You Not to Go Here Anymore".

That "I'm a Doctor" business is rather arrogant and is used to make us more likely to follow this advice. The problem is, his warning pretty much makes it impossible to go anywhere. His list of places to avoid mean we can't do anything. Here is what he wrote:

Don't go to...

Indoor dining

Avoid Public transportation

Avoid Churches

Nail salons

Don't do in person shopping

 

 

It just figures the day we need to pick up coffee

We are out of coffee. Each morning I make a normal pot of ground coffee and today I realized if we want this tomorrow, I'll have to go to the store. So what news do I see?

"Coffee prices haven't been this high in 4 years"

Of course. This is due to Brazil's drought and frost. This country is a major producer of coffee beans, the largest in the world.