respublica

Have any 2 dollar bills?

There was a time when he had quite a few 2 dollar bills reasons I can't remember. It may have been we got them from my dad or Dale's dad. I do know we did not use them much because many store clerks had no idea if they were real money. I do believe I'm going to check and see if we have a box or drawer somewhere with the 2 dollar bills because it now appears they could be worth a lot of money.

Things we should clear out of our bedrooms

We don't often take a close look at our bedrooms. I know I am in this room when I go to sleep and when I get up. Maybe come back later in the day to change clothes for going out somewhere. So I found this interesting and most of it we do in our room. When I go to bed I just don't want to be surrounded by clutter, it makes it hard to sleep. Here is the advice in this article.

"Ideally, your bedroom will be a sanctuary that allows you to rest deeply. It's amazing how our belongings can "talk" to us."

Don't have piles of clothes on the floor or bedroom chairs or other surfaces.

Don't have paper clutter: mail, newspapers, books, folders

Trinkets on shelves, nightstands. These can be knickknacks, perfume bottles, etc. Knickknacks drive me nuts, one always leads to another and another.

Too much furniture

Stuffed dust catchers such as too many pillows or heavy curtains. At one time a decorating trend was to have all sizes of throw pillows on beds after it was made. They always had to be moved during the night.

Let's See

Ever have a time when you lay your glasses down but need to see something in the distance right now? Well here is a trick that may help for that moment in time.

Make an OK sign with your hand but make the hole between your thumb and forefinger as small as possible. Looking through that tiny hole should help you see much clearer.

How to clear filmy glasses

Recently I've been obsessed with the number of our drinking glasses which have developed a cloudy film. Nothing I tried got rid of this. It's certainly hard water deposits which just will not go away. So I spent a good amount of time searching for answers to this problem which seems to be fairly common. Most advised using vinegar and I tried that but it did not move the needle so to speak. Others suggested soap, warm water and one of those kitchen scrubber things. That did not work either.

Then I came across a new suggestion-Denture cleaning tablets of all things. This sounded weird enough to actually work so off I went to get a box of these tablets and tried a few glasses following the directions.

I do believe this works! At least on the 3 glasses I experimented with. Pretty amazing. Fill a rubber tub or sink with warm water, drop a few tablets in and stir them all around. Then drop the glasses in and let them soak for 2 or 3 hours. After that, rinse and wash each one with some mild dish soap. Keeping them in the tablet water for some time is key.

I was pretty amazed and am doing a bunch more today.

A Fish Story

The Belleville paper has a list of many Friday Fish Fries going on in the Metro East during this Lenten season. Fish fries are well liked by many people, I may be one of the few people in the world who does not like fish at all. Dale loves fish and I feel sorry for him now and then as I don't fix fish for dinner very often. You can season fish every which way but I still feel like I have a mouth full of spare change. However at this time of year almost every restaurant offers Friday fish. So we are going out to eat tonight so he can get fish and I'll get a burger and fries.

What is eye-opening is the huge number of American Legions and VFW's which have Friday fish. I know from watching our American Legion parking lot across the street is how many people come. You can get fish about any place on Lenten Fridays and Good Friday will be huge for this.

A news story I just love

"For the second time this month, a bear escaped from the Saint Louis Zoo. Ben the bear was able to fiddle with some steel mesh to get a cable to give way, allowing him to escape. The bear was very calm the whole time we saw him. Just looked like he was having fun.” 

I realize bears are not cuddly puppies but I have admiration for his desire to get out of his confinement and just walk around for a change of scenery. Don't we all get cabin fever once in a while?

Migrating birds

It's rather fascinating to watch scores of birds fly over our house every morning between 6:30 and 7. You can hear them before you see them, chirping and squeaking as the fly all together. Then at the end of the afternoon they head back to where they came from. I've been sort of interested in why they do this.

They are small birds, probably startlings or some such and leave their nighttime roosting sites to feed somewhere else during the day. Staying together is a protection device against predators. I have no idea where they end up during the day but it must be a place with a good food source.

One more thing I don't understand

More and more recently I've been seeing Venmo as an option for paying for things. I have no idea what Venmo is or how it pays or why it's better than a checking account and a debit card. I googled it and still don't understand the positives.

Call me old, but if you do, list the positives of Venmo.

More insufferable modern advances

Every thing these days seems to be tinkered with to make it safer. Too often trying to figure out how to use the new item is a mystery. Too many safety features are put into even the most simple of things. For example, recently Dale needed a new one gallon gas can to use with his old milk truck. Why he needed this for that is a mystery to me. Now let me just say right here, I have been doing lawn work for decades, not just our own yard, but many yards as well as helping on the seminary grounds when we lived there.

So I am not a stranger to gas cans, but this new type is ridiculous. Neither of us can figure out how to enable the spout to actually pour out the gas. We aren't stupid, but this has us stumped and annoyed. The worst part is, I am guessing new environmental laws forbid selling the traditional cans. I have no plan to ever get rid of the 3 old type cans we have. Problem here is Dale needed a fresh can.

Here is what this darn thing looks like.

It's not as simple as taking the red cap off the white spout.

There are a couple of mysterious things which have to be done at the same time and there there is another button top which does what we don't know.

It looks as if we have to do two our things at once to get the gas flowing. Nuts to that. Dale has decided to unscrew the main black thing attached to the can, take out the whole thing and go buy a funnel

One Downside of technology

I'm one of those people who has appreciated the creation of the internet and computers. At first it was mainly just a joy not to have to use a typewriter for doing things. But when the online world came about it was even more fun and often helpful.

But now I am pretty much just sick and tired of the constant "update" messages. Not only do these updates happen all the time with various programs and take waiting time, they also often mess up how I use the programs. Some useful things are gone or hidden, new things to learn are showing up. And, having to refill passwords is the worst.

So of course I woke up today and found my laptop would not go to my normal places until I allowed it to update to the latest Windows version. The message told me once I agree to the update it will start in the background so I can continue what I've been doing.  But when it is all downloaded, a restart will be necessary. And after that will come the issues I am sure. Nothing will look or act the same.