respublica

A new mosquito warning

This should not surprise anyone, 2020 has seen pretty much everything. Now comes a warning about killer mosquitoes carrying the Eastern equine encephalitis, EEE, virus. This has been found in 22 Oregon horses and Michigan last year had 25 percent of all human cases.

Michigan officials are urging people to cancel or postpone any outdoor event that takes place at or after dusk.

As if we haven't been urged to be outside to protect ourselves more from the CoronaVirus, now get inside to avoid these darn mosquitoes. At least we haven't had any sighting of the killer mosquitoes around here. I have, though, been bitten a lot by southern Illinois mosquitoes while working in the yard during afternoons lately. Which makes me a bit paranoid and who needs more paranoia right now.

Holes in the ground

All of a sudden i'm seeing holes in our backyard. They are in various areas and have popped up almost over night. I have no idea what is causing them but have to guess it's some sort of animal. But what kind of animal. We have long had a huge hole behind the garage which we know is from a groundhog. Our next door neighbor has the same type of big hole under his deck. We all figure one hole is the groundhog's front door and the other his back door. But these other holes are small but well formed. Rabbit? Too small and I don't think they are from squirrels digging areas to bury nuts. It's a puzzle.

More weird news

The news we get just keeps getting stranger and these stories are no longer confined to The National Examiner type papers. This story is on every mainstream news site.

"Dentist who extracted a tooth while on a hover board has been convicted on dozens of charges." 46 charges to be exact.

How weird we've become.

We're too obsessed with everything

It's probably the fault of the Coronavirus which has given us too much time at home and seeing things which need doing or fixing or needing to be thrown out. To believe stories in media outlets, especially the lifestyle pages, we are now obsessed with purse hangers. One story read:  Did someone say acrylic purse hangers? Beautifully sculptural with a rounded edge to preserve the shape of purse straps.

I don't know who that someone was but purse hangers have never been on the front of my mind. I guess for  many women they are though. "Not only are these purse hangers gorgeous, but you'll never have to worry again about how to store your bags in a way that they're protected yet still easy to see and reach for. Never fall victim again to wearing the same bag every day because you don't see any of the others: this solution will be a win time and time again!"

I get a kick out of this stuff. Mainly because I dislike purses and won't carry one if I can help it. A pocket for my wallet and car keys and that's about it. I often wonder just what so many women put in those huge shoulder bag purses and carry them everywhere.

In any event this new obsession with gorgeous purse hangers mainly seems to be an ad for the Container Store disguised as fashion news.

Hanging the wash out to dry

One thing I've been excited about since moving back to Collinsville was having a clothesline put up in the back yard. Years back we had one and I loved drying bed sheets on it. It was helpful for other clothing things as well although I stick to the dryer for most things. But the weirdest thing about this recently is how awful clothes pins are these days. I went out to get some and had to go to several stores before I even found any. Walmart of course had some and I bought a package of what I thought were the traditional wooden pins. They turned out to be the crappiest things ever. Every third one broke in two pieces as I tried to attach it. So, I went out again and decided the plastic pins which looked like the old fashioned ones would maybe work. But they too broke in two pieces, sometimes just by picking them up.

I was pretty ticked off, what possessed any company to make a product which served a specific function not serve that function at all. I looked on Amazon and saw lots of clothes pins of various types, many of which were the junk I'd already bought. There was one seller which had a beautiful wooden pin made in the old way but the cost was two dollars a pin. I then settled on a set of stainless pins which had good reviews and they came quickly.

They are very strong, the spring is tight and it takes some doing to open it.Dale was amazed at the strength it took to open. Not cheap parts to break in half and the tips have a rubber grip of some sort to give an even better hold. So far I'm loving these although a part of me misses the old time, never break, wooden ones.

 

 

All about the backdrop

With Corona came people working from home and needing to use their computers to meet with co-workers. Zoom meetings and Adobe Connect and other tech programs made this work. And so we've seen myriad faces on the screen all at once. But along with this came the issue of what kind of backdrop would frame our face the best.

Dale and I are always fascinated by the backdrops that news people create for their reporting. Many many reporters choose to have bookshelves behind them with books and a few artifacts for added interest. It seems as though news people use books so that viewers will see them as serious people. Local news people tend to be in their living rooms or even kitchens with the backdrop their outdoor yards. There is one cable news woman who we are convinced is reporting from a small bathroom.

This has actually made watching the news much more interesting as we comment on this or that behind each report. Dale has had to be part of a lot of those type of meetings and while he has more books and bookshelves than a person has a right to have, he has this as his back drop.

But also sometimes this:

But it might be better if he used this

This may add to your fears

UPDATE! I finally finally have an Illinois drivers license. After bailing on the long line in Edwardsville I decided to try Granite City. I'd heard good things about other people's experiences there so why not? It was wonderful...if that sort of thing can be wonderful. There was a bit of a wait, but not long enough to be troublesome. And, the staff working there was the most friendly, most cheerful and most efficient. They knew their jobs and wasted no time all the while staying very upbeat. Also have our new Illinois plates which I put on immediately.

 

I'm finding too many upsetting stories this morning. I apologize for posting them here, but I'm in a mood of sorts because I have to try one more time to get an Illinois drivers license. Last week we went out to Nashville, Illinois to get our new ones, but that was a total bust. Neither of us had what the two women working there would accept. To say it was a frustrated and angry drive home is putting it mildly.

Neither of us still has that ancient pink social security card and that was all they'd take. Dale pointed out the list of acceptable SS documents approved by the state, but nope. They told us to go by one of the SS offices and get a new card. That was a joke. They aren't open for walk-ins, only phone. We stood outside the Belleville SS office which had the lights on and people in there but we could not talk to them. So Dale called from his cell phone on the sidewalk. They told him to make some request in writing and mail it in to get a new card. To say we were pretty beside ourselves was putting it mildly. But when we got home, Dale said, "I'm going up to Edwardsville with my passport and get the license. I had no option because of that darn marriage license. So he did that and had no trouble at all and as it turned out any document we had in Nashville was perfectly fine for the SS number.

In my case it also included having to have an official Cook County marriage license to prove my name was changed from what was on my birth certificate. Honestly, married couples are never given the official county document, we only get the church certificate which isn't accepted. I never, ever had to show a marriage license (official) for any drivers license ever. I went online and ordered ours to be sent expedited (76 dollars) and it came yesterday. So I will try again. Dale had no trouble at all when he went to Edwardsville, got his license, registered to vote, new plates for the truck. No eye test, no sign or written test, in and out.

I'm going to study the rules of the road again before I leave because I don't trust that I'll have as easy a time as he did.

Anyway, here is a link to another fear mongering post put out for our safety. Wash Your Hands Immediately after Touching These Ten Things.

About that onion recall

It just got bigger.

Some weeks ago the story hit the wires that onions were being recalled due to salmonella contamination and onions, especially red onions disappeared from produce shelves. It wasn't long, however, before they reappeared. Now it seems what once was a problem for just a few store chains has now expanded. Not only fresh onions are involved- red, white and yellow but food with onions in it such as dips, sauces etc.

Trader Joes, Walmart, Kroger were known to have sold these onions. So far not Schnucks. But the brand names under which these onions are sold is at the link.

I was curious as to how salmonella gets into onions since vegetables are normally not as susceptible to this as meat is. So I looked it up. It could happen through contamination with animal feces, meat that had not been cleaned from the processing machines, or contaminated water or fertilizer.

 

A new tally!

Even with somewhat less traffic as people are working at home more often, these things are still falling onto St. Louis area highways.

Mattresses 50

Ladders 60

On another travel note in the STL, news this morning. The King bridge was closed for many months for repairs or some such. It recently re-opened and today we learn that today and tomorrow the westbound lane will close from 9-3 and Wednesday and Thursday the eastbound lanes will close from 8-3. For inspections! I mean, seriously? They just spent a long time re-doing that bridge, why weren't inspections done before they opened just a short time ago?

Where are the paper towels

Recently I've looked for paper towels and was surprised to see empty shelves in our local Schnucks. My first thought was: have people begun hoarding them again, do they know something I don't?" Schnucks did have a few rolls but the rolls were as thin as a baseball bat and very cheap looking, off brands. There seemed to be plenty of toilet paper, so why the lack of paper towels.

I did find some at Walmart, but even that store only had a certain amount of packages and lots of empty shelf space. I use paper towels for many things, like cleaning kitchen counters, windows, even the first scrub of dinner pots.

This morning thanks to a story on CNN I learned what the deal is with the paper towel shortage. "Part of the reason for the shortage is people keep hoarding them.  But the shortage could also have something to do with the way companies produce the paper towels. Lean manufacturing, in which companies make only as much product as they believe customers will buy on a given day -- has borne the brunt of the blame for the shortage. Also, you can't make a paper towel with only 99% of the supplies needed to manufacture them. As supply chains freeze up during the pandemic, paper towel companies have been unable to ramp up production because they don't always have access to the materials they need."

Hoarding, manufacturing slow-downs, lack of material.

This is so 2020 where knowing the why of something doesn't make it any easier.

 

A basement story, have a seat

I came across this news story today- "Here's Why Old Houses Have a Random Toilet in the Basement."    The photo accompanying it made me laugh out loud.

The reason I laughed and ran to show Dale this story is this in our basement.

We've been talking about this toilet down there fairly frequently lately. Dale has begun tearing out another wall down there behind and to the right of the toilet. The toilet stands out like a sore thumb. I suggested he get the water back running so he'd not have to come back upstairs. But in the end we aren't sure what is going to happen with it.

It's not quite in the same era as the Pittsburgh Potty written about in the story, but it does have some age and used to be part of an actual bathroom until someone here began tearing everything up.

 

Your Saturday advice

Hints for the week which too often fall into the Captain Obvious column. But here are a few anyway.

It's spider season and the Real Homes website has some advise on how to get rid of them humanely. Frankly, Fall does find us walking into spider webs constantly. They spin their webs on anything and every thing outdoors and try the same indoors. After reading through the whole article waiting for the actual advice on getting rid of spiders in the house, it just came down to "don't clutter and clean well."

Here is another article this morning for women of a certain age-"The Best Colors to Wear if You Want to Look Younger." And who doesn't? Turns out the best color is turquoise or some variation of it. This color supposedly brings out the glow in every skin tone. Here's how to choose the right shade of turquoise: "If you have a lighter skin tone, turn over your arm and look at the veins in your wrist. If they look bluer or greener, find a shade of turquoise that leans toward that color." If you have a darker or medium skin tone, you are in luck, any shade of turquoise will look great on you.

I have tended toward this color in recent years without knowing all the experts recommended it because I saw a lot of that color for sale and as it happens, I have a pair of glasses that color. So I match. I will say I don't think of these colors as turquoise especially, more of a blue green.

Now for food advise from Captain Obvious. "what it actually means when ground beef turns brown."  We all have had that happen, right?

"If the outside of your beef is a different color than the inside, the red outside is due to oxygen interacting with pigments in the meat. If the inside of the meat is gray/brown, it the part which hasn't been exposed to oxygen and it's safe to eat."  I'm not totally convinced of this, but it's the science. However, If you aren't sure it's safe first smell the ground beef and then feel it. We all know what smell bad beef smells like (rotten). Bad ground beef will feel slimy, tacky or sticky. Throw all that away.

More than you needed to know, right?

 

Car hacks

I get sucked into stories which begins with "What you probably don't know, but should know, about...."  The topic could be anything these days, but there is always something we never knew.

Today I came across this one: 35 car Hacks Every Driver Should Know. Of course many of these most of us will never need to use, but some might just be those we can file away in our memory bank just in case.

The first one that interested me was using hand sanitizer to unfreeze door locks. Who doesn't have hand sanitizer right now and if your car doesn't have locks which open with the key fob, this may help come winter. Squirt into the lock area or on the key and for some mysterious reason, the sanitizer will heat up the lock so it can be opened.

And, many of us with the electric or key fob push button locks may one day find the key fob won't click open the locks. It seems many cars have a manual lock hidden under the door handle. Stick the key into that small opening and your door will unlock. I checked our vehicles this morning and my truck does not seem to have this, but Dale's car does. 

And this one I love and it doesn't necessarily have anything specific to cars. When you have to add to remove a key from a key ring it's really hard on the fingers or finger nails. Those darn round rings you have to separate and open a bit to slide a key on or off can be frustrating. Here's the trick. Use one of those small staplers or staple removes to pull the ring open. I'm getting one today.

And there are more at the link. Some we will never use, others may come in handy.

Size matters and size changes

I was just looking at this picture comparing the size of Ferris Wheels in Chicago about 100 years apart. Supposedly railroad cars were used that riders stood in during the 1893 wheel. What a difference. We can see how much more safety minded we are in this day and age.

2160 person capacity back then!

One more travel post

Today Dale and I are going out to replace our Missouri Drivers' license for an Illinois license and this is causing all kinds of mental stress. We've been pouring over the Illinois rules of the road (103 pages!) and are hoping we won't have to sit down and take a test on all this. We know we'll have to be quizzed on road signs and take an eye exam.

When we moved from Illinois to Missouri 15 years ago, it was easy in and out of the drivers license office. An eye exam and sign quiz, that was it. But now we have no idea how much will be involved today and so are hopefully prepared for anything. But 103 pages of rules is almost too much to absorb and so, I least, am stressed. Dale not so much. We do have to bring along a whole packet of proof of everything from social security numbers to birth certificates to marriage license, signature, residency and so forth.

We have heard stories of how long the lines have been near us in Collinsville so we've decided to go to Nashville, Illinois in Washington County for the licenses where it should be less wait time. It could also be true that fewer people may mean more testing because the staff has the time. But that's just the way my mind works and why Dale is the most patient man on earth. We know Nashville, Dale's first church as pastor was in Washington County and we know a lot of people out there still.

This should finally be the last major thing to take care of from this move.

 

These things happen

I've constantly noticed the growing number of semi's on the road these days and I'd argue that they are dominating the highways. Not only are there an increasing number, but that they are way too big. We see them when going back and forth from Collinsville to St. Louis and we were really aware of them heading up to Chicago for our nephew's wedding.

We always feel fortunate to have avoided any incidents involving one of these semi's. But Katie and Charlie and the two boys weren't so lucky. They weren't hurt  in an accident, but found themselves in a 5 or 6 mile total stand-still back-up on the Pennsylvania Turnpike while heading home Sunday. They had no idea what was causing this, but it went on forever. When they finally were able to move, they saw the reason for this, a semi had crashed through the guard rails and ended up hanging over the side of the highway. Click to enlarge the photo

It is hard to say how this happened or where the trailer is the cab was hauling or what happened to the driver. Just awful and probably preventable.

Lane Lines, beautiful lane lines

I know I've posted about this before, this issue with highway lane lines in St. Louis which disappear at night and during rain. Some time back I put up a couple photos I took while we were driving in Virginia and Tennessee which had gorgeously bright lane lines. This weekend while we were in the Chicago suburbs we drove through more beautiful lane lines. Bright Bright Bright!

Why can't MoDOT find this type of highway paint?

I don't get this choice of photo

WTOP, in Washington DC put up a picture with the caption: Apple picking Fauquier County. Does this picture seem kind of creepy to anyone but me?

Of all the apple picking pictures in this country, they chose this? Maybe there is some fad out there I have missed.

The age old dilemma

Now here is a story on old time fashion rules we never thought we'd have to see again. "Is it okay to wear white after Labor Day."

I can totally remember this dress code being, lets say, enforced by peer and parent pressure. Good-bye white slacks, shoes, dresses, etc. On Labor Day pools and white clothes closed for the season. There have been times back in the day when if a girl or woman forget and put on white clothes she was bound to be pointed out for her mistake. For some reason, this rule has not been part of our culture for years and seemed to have quietly slipped away. Now out of nowhere comes this Fox2 story to make us (women) have to rethink it.

I have to believe Fox2 was hard up for news to post over the weekend. But it's not really Fox2's fault, they took this story from an Albany New York news outlet.

I don't know what to think

Frankly, the past two days have been rather bewildering. Not just the news which was certainly crazy. But we have to go to Chicago today so that Dale can marry his nephew, his brother's son, on Sunday. That has been nerve wracking for me since we're doing this while the virus problems are still going on and not knowing what the situation will be. This will be a small wedding with orders to wear a mask except when eating. And no hugging.

But still our kids and grandsons will be there, wanting to do things. It's just a worry I can't shake.

Anyhow between that and Dale constantly doing things in his basement, it's been goofy emotionally. In any event, the basement area with his endless bookshelves is starting to look fairly good. We still have to have all the electrical wire set into the ceiling, but that is for the experts.