respublica

The car clacking fixed!

As I mentioned a week ago, my truck (Ford Sport Trac) had begun making a loud clacking noise when we drove it. It was fairly nerve-wracking to say the least. Yesterday we had an appointment at Buzz's Auto shop in Collinsville and the cause was determined in minutes and a part acquired. At the end of the day we had the car back! They were terrific and we will certainly go back anytime we have car issues.

The cause was a part we'd never heard of, the Actuator. This sits behind the dash and sends information to the climate control computer and controls the temperature and air direction. Ours had part of it worn out which caused it to make that clacking noise when the heat was turned on. We were given our old Actuator which I may keep on a book shelf just for fun.

This is cheesy but clever

Do you ever buy a block of cheese and only use part of it? Then it is a matter of wrapping up the unused portion so it won't dry out. I've always used plastic wrap, but that darn stuff is tricky and often opens on the ends. So this short hack from Tik Tok is something I may try. You cut off what you will use with the wrapper still on. Slide out that section of cheese from the wrapper and then place the unused part of the wrapper over the leftover cheese section.

I may try this.

On the subject of blocks of cheese I've been wonder for some time why Schnucks has pretty much stopped selling Kraft cheese. Most of their cheese with a few exceptions are now their own house brand. And, if you shop at Schnucks often enough you probably notice most of the products they sell are slowly but surely becoming their own brand. You really have to hunt for brand name pasta among all the Schnucks brands.

Illinois news

Illinois Policy reports that Illinois has lost three times as many residents in the last decade than any other state in the union. "Major reasons Illinoisans are choosing to leave the state are for better housing and employment opportunities, both of which have been hurt by poor public policy choices that have driven up property, income and other taxes in Illinois. Nearly half of Illinoisans have thought about moving away, and they said taxes was their No. 1 reason."

So we didn't move back to Illinois in the best time.

Also,  Madison County has finally reported how the Covid vaccine will be given. Lots of us have been wondering after having registered online but heard nothing since while other states and counties have gotten a head start. It seems it will work like this:

"Madison County Health Department is starting COVID-19 vaccinations this week for those eligible under Phase 1B and next week launches an appointment schedule, both online and by phone, for people who live or work in Madison County who are qualified.

Vaccinations will be by appointment only. The Health Department will launch its online appointment scheduler next week for people who live or work in Madison County and are eligible for Phase 1a or Phase 1b to set up their vaccination appointment.

Phase 1B includes: People who are 65 years old and older or a frontline essential worker in one of the following occupations: First Responders, Educators (congregate child care, pre-kindergarten through 12th grade,) food processing plants, veterinary health, livestock services and agriculture, manufacturing, correction workers and inmates, grocery store workers and shelters/adult day care."

I have to assume that if we, like many others, went online several weeks ago and applied/registered, that we should be hearing about an appointment date. I hope so. Surely we won't have to register a second time to get on the list.

 

We over achieved!

According to a senior meteorologist, the snowfall in our area in the Metro-East/St. Louis over achieved. Forecasts before yesterday's snow began falling, was calling for a dusting or as their newly coined weather term predicted, "Mood Snow."  

Mood snow. now that's a first. The two-four inches was a surprise to the predictors. The Mood Snow they expected is described as snow or flurries that sticks to roofs, grassy surfaces and parked cars but not the roads. I guess this mood thing is the kind of snow that looks pretty but doesn't force us out to clean walks and steps.

So the snow over achieved its predictions which isn't a surprise around here. And, I see by traffic reports this morning that once again MODOT has not done the best job in getting the highways cleared while IDOT has. Some things never change.

Our birds were really after the seed we put out.

How to get somewhat dust free

Dust is so ever present and I don't know why exactly. We now have re-finished hardwood floors instead of carpeting, no drapery, so why do we have so much dust?

There are many reason why this may be so and in our case it probably originates in the basement where Dale is constantly cutting wood or pulling down sections of walls. The dust trickles up through the heating system or even up the stairs. We can change the furnace filters til we're blue in the face, but the dust still comes up to the main floors. This is why I found this article interesting and somewhat helpful.

11 Easy Solutions to Make Your House less Dusty.

The one which made me laugh was this one: 11 ways to make your workshop less dusty.  Ha! Perfect! The funniest was hanging a furnace filter in front of a box fan so that saw dust and other work dust would be sucked by the fan into the filter. I'm going to see if I can talk someone into trying this.

I do believe we need a company to come out and clean our heating ducts.

The 2020 puzzle is finally finished

Yesterday I completed the puzzle I've been working on since New Year's Eve and I am happy and sad at the same time. I love doing these jigsaw puzzles and when they're done, I miss sitting down and working on them. But this was one of the hardest to do until I learned the pieces all have letters on the underside and the cheat sheet has a grid on the back with letters. That had me zooming along.

Now I want to use puzzle glue to keep it together and put it on top of my desk as a work pad. I have the glue but need to find a board or something to put under it so the glue doesn't wreck our dining room table.

The most talented HGTV stars

Like many Americans I've been watching a lot of HGTV during this pandemic era. Actually, I have always been a regular viewer of this network beginning back at its beginning. This article has a bit of information on what many viewers think of the current network stars and programming, ending with who we think are the most talented.

Any guesses? I guessed right even though these two guys are my least favorite mainly because they dominate the programming and I'm tired of them. Yes, it's the Property Brothers.

What's good recently is an influx of new HGTV programs with new people.

The color trend for spring is:

Cocoa Brown! Brown is going to be seen everywhere in the clothing industry this spring and summer. I'm not sure how I feel about this and can't say if it's true since I haven't been shopping in any clothing stores since last January. What I do know is I look terrible in brown.

Modern day jigsaws, who knew?

I've been having the hardest time putting together the 2020 puzzle I got for Christmas which I wrote about here. Once I got all the pieces spread out on the dining room table I realized this was going to be a bear to finish. So many pieces looked alike, white with portions of black letters or too many reds with no real reference as to where they'd go. I started it on New Year's Eve and am still slowly working it. Some days I was happy to have been able to fit 2 or three pieces in place.

Then a couple of days ago Lizzie shows up with Connor to video tape Connor and Dale about a forth coming head shaving for kids with cancer. Before they left, she looks at the puzzle and then says, "You know the back of each piece has a letter don't you?" I did not know this and I further learned that the picture sheet that comes with the puzzle has letter grids on the back! This puzzle has A, B, C, D, E, and F. All this time I could have been separating out the pieces by section and saved a ton of time.

This puzzle is still not easy, but since I learned this I have manage to fill in quite a bit more space. It's a miracle and I just may finish it.

Winter Nature

We received 4 large Amaryllis bulbs before Christmas and I went out and got 4 pots to plant them in. They take some time to grow and flower, but boy, when they do, they are amazing. At the moment these plants are so tall and the flowers so huge, they keep tipping over. I fiddle with them everyday to keep them upright and showy. But it's worth it. Now we are wondering if the bulbs will flower next year. Google it, I told myself. And sure enough they just might re-flower. Here are 3 of them, the 4th is in another room.

 

One other thing new to me. We've been feeding the birds in our backyard since we moved back and came across a seed mix which squirrels do not like and so stay away. I found it in the Wild Birds Unlimited before Christmas and am glad I did. It is a hot pepper seed mix and we get all kinds of birds eating it and no squirrels. I have purchased this seed loose to pour into feeders and also shaped into wreaths and bells and cylinders. All attract the birds. But yesterday the woman helping me replenish our seed at Wild Birds Unlimited gave be a free tub of Bark Butter. I've never heard of this, but it's a mix of peanut butter, suet and something else which you smear onto a tree trunk with a fork and the birds love it. I smeared some on today so we'll see how this goes.