respublica

Clacking car

All a sudden when I turn the heat on in the car a loud clacking noise starts up. Clack Clack Clack. It doesn't go away if I turn the fan off. I googled it but got no real answer. I'd bet it's something with the fan, but my worry is can I drive it safely? Or will part of the fan break off and go through the radiator?

After the car ran for while and warmed up, the clacking stopped. My real issue is that we have no knowledge of any car repair places here in town and I don't feel comfortable driving it over to St. Louis to the repair shop we've used before.

Inauguration Day

This day will be different from other Inaugurations due to the Covid restrictions. No crowds seated at the Washington Mall, no afternoon parade, no Ball at night. I'm sure there are plans in place to make this as memorable as possible and we wlll watch most of it as we always have. As I wrote in another post we had the opportunity to attend on of these for George W Bush's first inaugural. Lizzie and Darren were able to go to two Inaugural balls, 2005 and 2009, I believe. So here are a couple of family archive photos. As many years a Katie has been out there,  don't see any indication she ever went to any inaugurals.

Lizzie standing in a chilly drizzle in 2001, the year we were there. No such thing as digital photos then, this is from a print.

2005

2009

 

Trying to make sense of the Covid Vaccine

I have to be upfront. I really want to get the vaccine. However the logistics for this are looking hit and miss or, maybe, very difficult. My sense is many of us want this shot and the supply is unknown. I've signed up with the Madison County Department of Health which will communicate when we will get an appointment. This is fine, but the difficulty is the need for a second shot within a certain time frame and I haven't heard how this will be handled.

There are more than one Covid vaccines out there, which one will be available in our area? How many weeks between shots? Now I read another vaccine has appeared which is a one shot and done. Who will get this version?

In any event I'd guess the numbers of those wanting this will be sky high in every community which will surely necessitate those in charge finding a way to get this done as simply and efficiently as possible. And be prepared ahead of time for any possibility that might come up.

Watching the Inaugural Tommorow?

Here is a pretty complete summary of what will be happening when. It will be very different from past inaugurals due to Covid, much will be virtual and the crowds will be much less. Security will be tighter than ever before.

But, it's always fascinating to watch. We were able to attend George W Bush's first inaugural because our daughter Elizabeth was working for the House at that time and that day is something I remember very clearly. As with so many recent changes in the presidency, there had been controversy and anger ahead of it. Bush was coming off the tight election against Al Gore and feelings were still raw. But, the ceremonies went off well as did the rest of the day. Except for a light rain and chilly temperatures.

What I remember the most was how difficult it was to get out of the Washington Mall at the conclusion. There were so many people we could barely move and it was a real effort to keep from losing other family members.

In spite of all this, it was a remarkable experience.

This year we have another daughter (Katie) working out in DC but all staff have been ordered to stay home and work this week.

Too many clothes

Since we've moved back to Collinsville into a much smaller house, I've discovered that Dale has way too many clothes. I mean, way too many, most of which were not noticeable at the seminary because that house had closets everywhere. Two in our bedroom, 3 in the hallway down from the bedroom, and big closets in the other 3 bedrooms. And that is just the second floor, the main floor had multiple closets as well.

I have no idea how to manage all his slacks, jeans, shirts, underwear, sweaters, dress shirts, suits, ties and on and on. I attempted to try things over the weekend but I'm at a loss as to what type of storage things will stow these things as well as look decent. We do not have space for more dressers, but some sort of nice storage bin or box or basket would help. After scrolling through many websites I learn most places don't keep these things in store, but use delivery. I'd really like to see these things in real time before I buy them. They may be much smaller than they look or even look awful.

And, trying to look at websites these days means having to be interrupted multiple times by big ads covering the screen. Cooking sites are just as bad as store websites with this practice.

In any event, I plan to go looking and see if I can find anything.

January

We were talking the other day about how long the days seem during this Covid time. But, it also seems that the days are long but the weeks are short. And that brings us to January 2021. I read this last night and it seems about right.

"This January is not Januarying like the other January’s januaried."

Two dog stories

Yesterday Katie, Charlie and the two boys got a new puppy. They already have a young Aussie Doodle who they love and learned of a puppy of the same breed coming available. I thought, oh boy, two young, energetic, loveable, huggable, Aussie Doodles. After not quite 24 hours, Dottie the puppy and Sydney the veteran, have had a blast.  Want to know the most amazing thing about this new puppy? The place they adopted here from was the same person who sold them Sydney a couple of years ago. She brought up the file and learned that these dogs are actual sisters! Not from the same litter but they have the same father and mother. How cool is that?

One the ride home from the adoption.

And meeting Sydney for the first time both dogs take a big sniff in the grass.

Then a solo walk to learn the surroundings

Then a bit of snuggling with the boys.

It's a really good thing Katie and Charlie have to work from home next week, the energy level in the house will be off the charts.

And, one more dog story. A man in Portland Oregon was taking his Christmas lights off his roof-line when he turned around and saw his Golden Retriever had climbed up the ladder and was standing with him on the roof! His security camera caught the whole thing he noticed later. But, how to get the dog down the ladder? The man somehow carried him. Goldens are kind of like this, they want to be with their people.

Glasses Fog Up?

Since the Covid hit and masks have been required, I've had an issue with my glasses fogging up as soon as I walked into the grocery store. I've had to just take them off because the fog took a long time to go away. But this week I found a way to keep this from happening.

When I leave for the store I tuck my mask and glasses inside my coat/jacket so they stay warm while I drive. Now admittedly I can see without them, my glasses are mostly for close up/reading things. When I get to the store I put the mask on before I walk in and leave the glasses inside my jacket until I get into the warm store. Believe it or not, no fogging up at all. This really makes grocery shopping so much easier these days. No more squinting through fog to read labels.

I don't know if this will work in the hot summer months when we go from hot air into chilly air conditioning, but for now it works.

A Day in DC

This is what our daughter worked among this week as she went about her senate staff duties.

Snow day? Maybe

The weather reports this morning are kind of 50-50 about this area having its first snowfall of the season. Maybe yes, or no. But it sure looks and feels like snow and as much as I like the pretty snow, Dale has to drive to his mother's today in east central Illinois and snow would not be fun.

But I did go to the garage and put our snow shovel on the front porch just in case and in other years when I've done this it kept the snow away. So we'll see.

New and maybe better things

I read about two products this morning that I am tempted to try and get. Actually, the first I did order because I noticed it was sold out everywhere and will be back in stock the first week in February.

This product is stained glass light bulbs. It sounds odd but we all have lamps in places that aren't for reading and this sounds beautiful. Here is what the reviewer wrote: "These stained glass light bulbs instantly change the atmosphere of a room and cast a warm multi-colored glow on the walls and ceiling if you’re using an exposed bulb. Online commenters compare the light that emits from these bulbs to a beautiful sunset. They also transform plain white lampshades into works of art."

I'm a sucker for such things, especially our living room lamp with a white shade. Unfortunately none of the sellers have any in stock, this must have been a big Christmas seller.

The second product I read about was a coated pan from the Material Company. I'm always trying to find a good fry or saute pan and the review was off the charts with praise.  Here is part of what she wrote: "I will spare you the suspense and say right away that I am still incredibly happy with my Coated Pan. Over the course of this last year I’ve used it on an almost-daily basis to make eggs of all kinds (including frittatas, as the pan can go into a 500-degree oven), pan-fried tofu, pancakes, sautéed cinnamon-butter apple slices (my son’s favorite), quesadillas, and more."  More praise at the link.

I'm just not sure I'm going to jump right in for this, but I'm keeping it on my list.

 

Another use for bubble wrap

We used a lot of bubble wrap this year to use on breakable items during our move. I also bought some more last week to wrap up fragile Christmas figures. It's amazing to go to Home Depot or Walmart and see the big rolls of this stuff and I was thankful for it. But now I read there is still one more thing this can be used for. Putting on drafty windows.

We probably all have a window or two that lets cold air through and makes it uncomfortable to sit near as well as hiking up the heating bill. This seems much easier than trying to use the window plastic which is often used. That product is like plastic wrap for food, you cut a piece and before you move one step it has folded over on itself.

Here is how to use the bubble wrap.

Get a roll of bubble wrap wide enough to fit whatever window needs it. It doesn't matter what size the bubbles are. Cut a piece to fit the window to all four edges, spray the window with water from a spray bottle, put the wrap bubble side toward the outside, and press it in.

Supposedly come spring, it will come right off without leaving any residue behind and can be re-used.

What else can you do with hand sanitizer?

Now this is an advice story I did not expect to see. It seems there are many uses for hand sanitizer beyond using it to de-germ your hands. Oddly after all these months, the advice begins with dematologists recommending we not over use it on our hands because it really dries the skin. Frankly, I can live with the dry hands and a bit of moisturizer, but that's just me.

Anyway, here are some other things we can use on our extra sanitizer. Some of these gave me pause to reflect on just how potent this stuff is.

It cuts right through tarnish on silver, so polish away if you still have silver.

It cleans your glasses

Use in place of deodorant. Sorry, no way.

Use it on acne and bug bites.

Use it as a dry shampoo.  I mean, seriously?

Clean hairspray off your mirror. Hairspray is never on our mirrors as I never use hairspray. But wait, I just realized Dale uses hairspray.

Clean your make-up brushes

Remove permanent marker from a white board or clothes.

Pre-treat laundry stains

Remove sticky labels. This is something I'm going to try, those labels are a bear to clear off.

Remove a bandaid without the sticking

Clean your phone screen, keyboard and mouse. I use the alcohol wipes for this job.

And my favorite, wipe down a public toilet seat! No way at all I'm doing this. I'm not even going near a public toilet.

Remove nail polish.

Get rid of fingerprints on stainless steel appliances. I may try this.

And, clean your diamond ring.

Here we have been using this stuff probably daily and did not realize how harsh it really is. There must be a push to start getting us buying sanitizer again because stores are loaded with it these days.

 

 

 

 

 

In case you were wondering...

The color of the year for 2021 according to Etsy is...

Sky Blue which sort of means we are looking forward to bluer skies ahead. The company can also make this choice since they have seen a 40 percent increase in searches for light blue or sky blue things.

Here's hoping this optimism holds true.

And speaking of blue skies, we have a great one today and it looks perfect for hanging sheets out to dry.

 

No Roku HGTV

When I went up to bed last night I turned on the TV to watch HGTV which I normally do. That TV is hooked into Roku and for some reason HGTV would not come on. The title ;page showed up and then it disappeared. This morning I went to our basement TV and tried it there and the same thing happened. I'm wondering if HGTV has cut the cord with this device and am pretty sorry about the loss.

However, I was able to get this channel by going through the Spectrum app, but it still makes no sense. I'm going to try a couple of other channels to see if the same thing has happened.

How do you cook?

I was fairly amazed while reading this article on cooking mistakes since I was pretty sure I knew my way around the kitchen. To be fair to myself, I do many of them correctly, but do not do just as many. I do think I'll probably pick up a cast iron skillet the next time I'm out. I use non-stick pans most of the time because that is what we have even the type which are glazed but still sort of iron-ish.

And, I admit to using olive oil most of the time when cooking. It's low smoke point makes it wrong for many things, I see. And I never use a kitchen scale and don't know anyone who does.

The other night for Dale's birthday I made filet mignons for dinner and since it was cold outside I did not want to be out on the deck grilling. I used advice I've seen over the years on how best to cook these pieces of steak. I browned them in a skillet first to seal in the juices and finished them in the oven to however done they needed to be. Dale kept talking about how tender and juicy they were, the best he's ever had. Even the next day, finishing the leftovers, he marveled at how tender they still were.

Lesson learned and another reason to get a new cast iron skillet.

 

This and that

We had something of a busy weekend getting all of our Tiny Town buildings taken out of the front yard and over to the storage unit we've rented. But, Dale being Dale, is never content with just one part of a job. He decided that he is going to redo a couple of the buildings and put hinges on them so they will just fold up for storing. I'm ok with this as some of them already have feature, but it just seem lately that all he is doing is carpentry of one sort or another.

It keeps him busy, so there's that.

I have to go to the dentist this morning and I've been obsessing about this all weekend. It's just for the bi-annual check up and cleaning and with the Covid still roaring around, I'd really rather not do this. Why go into any medical office if you don't have to these days? But, I'm going to take a deep breath and go, hoping there is not any covid in that building. I get the impression they have more than a few cancellations which makes sense.

I've been trying for an hour today to get Dale's Meyer Minute email up onto the list server to get sent out, but the list server seems to be down. I'm hoping they are just doing normal maintenance and not part of the internet world which has been removed this weekend. This isn't a political server so hopefully....

I'm trying a new recipe tonight, one my daughter sent to me. She said her whole family snarfed this down so fast and this is unusual for a house of boys trying something new. It is a new version of chicken salad called Jalapeno Popper Chicken Salad. It looks good, easy to fix and a variation of the tried and true. One ingredient called for is a tablespoon of Avocado Oil which I don't have and I'd bet is expensive especially if you rarely use it. So, I'm sticking with olive oil. The best part of this recipe is it can be eaten as a sandwich, on lettuce, or even pita or tortillas/

Extension cords are a mess

We have a lot of extension cords of all sizes and colors which we've acquired over the years to use with our outdoor Christmas scenes. But the problem always comes after it's time to put everything away. How to store those cords. How to wind them up so that they don't come apart. Do we hang them? Or do we fold them in some way to lay them in boxes? I've seen them folded up in a figure 8's and in circles. Some are wound up around one arm and others around a piece of wood. But none of these work for me, the cords always seem to have life of their own and come apart.

I know some guys who wind them up and then secure them with those zip ties. While I use zip ties for things once in a while but pretty much hate them. They are awkward to zip and you need a scissors or utility knife to undo them.

So what is the best way to put away extension cords? Today is my day to do this and it's been cold out so I'd guess they are really stiff.

A come back food

According to people who track this sort of thing there is one food which has made a big come back during the covid months. Bologna. Or, as we say, Boloney. This meat is cheap, can be made for sandwiches and eaten cold or fried and grilled.

I confess we haven't had bologna even once, but I can understand it's appeal especially with kids in the house.

 

Life enters in and it's a worry

Today we're going to take all the Christmas things down and put them away. A very mundane task which will help take away the memory of yesterday for a few hours. Yes, what happened in DC yesterday was horrifying, made worse by having a daughter being in the senate offices all day and into the night. We heard from her early on in the day and again in the early afternoon as she was locked up with her boss in his office. But that was it. We knew she had to stay well into the night until all the voting ended which was pretty late to try and make a way home. You think this isn't worrisome?

Which I worried about as would most anyone. This was not the first time she'd been at work in the Capitol when scary demonstrations broke out right in her building and on the streets outside. It's become much too common and each one gets worst than the one before.

So I hope to stop thinking about this for a while today.