respublica

It's Covid advice weekend

Partnering with the post below, this article warns us of 6 places we still should not go if we want to steer clear of potential Covid germs. I'm a sucker for this sort of thing and these 6 things basically mean not going anywhere. They run the gamut of everything from crowded indoor events to in-door dining to bars, theaters, churches and public transportation.

About the only thing we've done is go to church and I doubt we will stop going. The others, well, we miss going out to dinner but haven't yet.

How to tell the difference

This article tells us how to tell the difference between a cold or allergies and Covid. This comes at the right time since Fall is a big time for allergies what with leaves drying and falling and other summer plants dying and giving off mold etc. The other day I was pulling out euonymous vines and it wasn't until I'd finished that I remembered in past years I was really allergic to this plant. So I worried I may get set upon again and not know if it was the allergy or Covid. Or, maybe what would people around me think. Thankfully nothing happened this time.

But, the main difference in symptoms is with Covid you quickly lose you sense of smell and/or taste while with a cold or allergies most often not.  The article advises that if you aren't sure, do the smell test. Go around the house/fridge and smell stuff.

Odd, but advice is often that way.

It's Fall and the vegetables know it

As much a I hate to do this, it seems to be time to start pulling out most of our spent vegetable plants. We've had a banner year and I hate to see all this go. It has been so great to go out to the backyard and pluck off some beautiful tomatoes and herbs for dinner. Not to mention the fantastic yield we had earlier of onions and potatoes and radishes and lettuce and garlic. Everything did so well, but my favorite was probably the potatoes. They produced well and the taste was just out of this world. Thankfully I still have some stored in a dark, cool place in the basement. I peeled and frozen quite a few Roma Tomatoes for winter as well as some Keller's sweet corn.

A couple of weeks ago I planted some more radish seeds and they are now growing really well. We also have 3 more cantaloupes and they are close to ripe. Oh, and, for some reason we found more potato plants popping up, probably from some pieces of the original group. I read up on this and learned that fall potatoes should actually bear, even though their leaves won't go brown when ready as they do in spring. Probably be smaller as well, but I'm pretty excited to find out.

But, as the annual flowers and vegetable stems get pulled out, the city yard waste pick-up guy is going to hate us.

Seasons change

Yesterday was the first day of Fall. Good-bye summer and with it the longer days. Oddly, we won't be changing our clocks back an hour until November 7th at 2 a.m. But, no matter how we try to keep longer daylight, we can't fool Mother Nature. It will be dark earlier whatever we do.

A Blast From the Past

This morning I noticed a hanger on the hook in the bathroom. It has been there for a few days after Dale took his suit off of it and never came back to it. But today I took a good look at it because it's a really nice hanger, red and new looking. It was the name on the hanger which gave me pause: Imber's Men's Wear.

Now isn't that a blast from the past. Imber's has been long gone on Collinsville's Main Street but the nice hanger still exists.

KInd of cool, but also sort of sad thinking about all the places which are now gone.

Who doesn't have Creeping Charlie

We have had Creeping Charlie weed in our yard for years. We also had a ton of it in our yard on the seminary campus. It is the very devil of weeds, growing close to the ground with roots which spread out under ground forever. Pull a bunch out and the rest just laugh because they know the next day it will all be back. So this story headline made me click the link.

"How to make sure Creeping Charlie doesn't overrun your garden."

I have learned over many years of dealing with this darn stuff, there is no good way to stop this intrusive weed. But, I read the story anyway and just laughed at the first piece of advice.

"The best option is to fence off your garden. It doesn’t need to be a particularly large fence, but it does need to extend several inches underground, to keep out creeping charlie’s roots. It also needs to be solid, since creeping charlie can grow through gaps. Any material will do. You can even make your own fence from cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil, or go the more aesthetically pleasing route and get a solid wooden fence that you can paint."

Not going to happen. So, they then said if you aren't going to do a fence, then try herbicides. But, herbicides kill everything else as well so maybe not. Then maybe pulling out as many as you see growing above ground. The dig up all the soil to get the roots.

My experience is pulling is fine, it works for about a week before more are back, we never get to the source and digging up the whole yard is not an option. Years ago I did come across something which kills it-20 Mule Team Borax. It sure did work, but the area around it was worse for wear.  So, in the end, the only way to keep ahead of it in an actual vegetable or flower garden is to make time each week to pull the darn stuff out. In the lawn, forget it.

Here is some of our Creeping Charlie. It's in the shade along a stone wall and I just don't care. Lawn mowing keeps it sort of close to the ground.

"This" turned out to be not singular

A story headline this morning read, "The Price of This Household Item is Soaring".

I'm a sucker for this sort of thing since I shop for household items every week. But it turned out that the soaring price item was every item you can think of, 50 actually. Everything is seeing a price increase.

Don't we know it. But the number one item with the most increase is rental cars and trucks.

Harvest Moon

Yesterday I read that during the evening we'd be seeing the rise of the full Harvest Moon. I went outside with my camera around the time this should begin happening and it was a spectacular sight. But, unless I'd had my tripod set up photos don't turn out really well. It came up in the east which is diagonal to our house. Our block does not sit square to the world unlike so many which were built square.

This morning I decided to see which direction our house actually faces, front and back. Turned on my iphone's compass and first stood in the middle of our back deck. It faced 222 Southwest. I have no idea what the numbers mean, I guess I skipped that part in school.

Aiming from the middle of our front porch the reading was: 42 northeast

Oddly, I aimed diagonally across the street from the middle of our porch, the compass facing the power pole on the Legion's pavillion and saw that direction was perfect North.

Last night's moon was 106 East, at least from our vantage point.

How many places in Collinsville are actually square to the world?

 

A bit of this and that

We have been really impressed with Collinsville's City Scoop monthly news mailing. This month was especially good, great color photos, lots of information. Kudos to whoever is putting this together these days.

I grieve over the fact that our house is situated in such a direction that we are never able to see a rainbow. Too many big bushy trees blocking the sky in our neighborhood to see a rainbow.

It would be a huge benefit if we could find a way to kill Bermuda grass without endangering other plants. Pulling this is the gardening version of the Greek mythology story of Sisyphus being punished by having to push a giant boulder up a steep hill. When he neared the top, the rock would roll back down and he had to start again and again.

On that same Bermuda grass issue, there seems to be no product that will kill it without harming other things.

One of the harder things to do is put a new key on that darn circular key ring. Many fingernails have cracked while trying to pry the sides of the ring open enough to slide on the new key or take an old one off. Someone suggested using a small staple remover to open up the ring. Sounds like a great idea.

We still have a few Hummingbirds hanging around and it concerns me. Most have headed off to wherever they go for the winter, but these smaller ones don't seem to have gotten the message.

 

This is one old fashioned word

I was reading a news column this morning and halfway through the writer stopped me with the use of the word "athwart". Now I don't know about anyone else, but the definition of this rarely used word escaped me. The sentence said in part, "too often it has stood athwart history."

I looked up athwart. And the definition given kind of made me laugh because I just can't imagine most of us using the word. The most general definition is "side to side". "From one side to another, across." "a long counter thrown athwart the entrance."

"The stars which shoot athwart the night.""after it enters the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane is predicted to advance athwart to the Texas coastline."

I mean, who says stuff like this? In any event I stopped reading and moved on to something else. So my best guess as to what the writer was indicating was, the group changed their opinions from one thing to another too often.

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.