respublica

Long long trucks

I've noticed recently that beer delivery trucks are getting longer and longer. With the local American Legion across our street having beer brought in every couple of days that the Coors truck is almost as long as the building is wide. And, this morning a Budweiser truck came through and is almost as big. It's no fun to be on the interstate around all those type of trucks and other trucks are as tall as they are long. And, there are millions of them on our interstates.

Is half a roll better?

We use a lot of paper towels around here. I use them for everything practically-cleaning the counters, windows, clearing drip spots from the floor, drying fruit and vegetables I wash and on and on.We go through a lot of paper towels. Somehow using a dish cloth several times over seems unsanitary and using it just once and tossing it in the washer seems a waste. Paper towels do the job. But it gets expensive, the cost of these has gone up just like everything else. So this article caught my eye.

"Woman Cuts Paper Towel Roll in Half and Swears it Saves Her Money."

Along with the article is a Tik Tok video of her doing just that. However it struck me as pretty hard to do and without a really good knife this could be ragged. This does not mean I won't test this with one of our rolls. The knife should be sharp and I wonder if using a good knife may dull it. So we shall see.

The least helpful advice for lower back pain

I admit I now have lower back stiffness and discomfort. It began around the time we moved back to Collinsville and I point to two reasons, age not being one of them. I have been sitting way to much since moving back, reading, sitting at the computer or tv. This story headline attracted me but the first thing on back issues I read was a word I've never heard of. Psoas!

Now I had to take anatomy in College and read various articles on physical things fairly regularly but have never come across the word, psoas. It appears to be the name for a deep hip flexor that connects to the spine and extends down to our femur. The Femur is the longest and strongest bone in our bodies and attaches to the hip and knee. Sitting a lot causes this flexor to tighten and shorten causes problems.

The advice for helping back stiffness and pain is to get going and stretch the Psoas. I honestly do not know quite how to do this, but do know that stretching the lower back muscles and knees does help a lot. I often lay on the couch and lift by legs and hold position and can feel the back loosen. Maybe what I'm doing has something to do with the unheard of Psoas, but I'll keep doing what I'm doing.

The exercises shown in this article are kind of too much for me, but I may try a couple.

Sorry Apples

These days we are now buying and consuming more bananas than apples, oranges, strawberries and etc. An apple a day is no longer in vogue, while bananas have become one of the best fruits for health and ease of eating.

I have been eating an banana every morning for years, it's part of my daily routine. They are loaded with important vitamins and minerals, especially Potassium which is  crucial for muscle  function and overall bodily functions. 

The only issue with bananas is I can only buy a few at a time, they over ripen quite quickly and I am not wanting to make banana bread every week to use them up. This means heading to the store several times a week.  If you go to the grocery store regularly you'll probably notice that there is always someone in front of the bananas, taking a fair amount of time looking for those with the perfect amount of ripeness. But not too ripe. Too many banana shoppers feel it necessary to pick up bunches, put them back, repeat. They also regularly pull apart a large bunch because they don't want 8, only 4. I am just as bad as anyone. It takes me a few minutes of staring at the bananas to decide on just the right bunch.

Yes, we have no bananas does not apply to most of us.

Glad we don't live in Evanston

The City of Evanston, Illinois, has enacted a new ordinance which outlaws leaf blowers. Gas powered blowers will be illegal beginning April 1. However electric blowers will be allowed. This is going to be a problem for those residents who pay for law service which probably is mot in that city. We have a battery powered blower and it works well for us, but we don't have a huge tree filled yard.

Evanston-based landscaping companies registered with the city may be eligible for grants of up to $3,000 to assist with the purchase of electric-powered leaf blowers.

I will say, though, when you live near a place which has multiply lawn service people showing up, all with trimmers and blowers it can be deafening. Best to run over most of the leave with a mower, but they are load as well. Evanston hasn't gotten around to outlawing mowers yet.

Short and to the point

Came across this and it spoke to me.

"Look around at your clutter. All that clutter used to be money. All that money used to be time."

Jupiter and Venus

Remember the song from the 60's by the 5th Dimension? This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius when Jupiter aligns with Mars? That song popped into my head this morning as I read a news story about tomorrow morning's alignment of Jupiter and Venus. One has nothing to do with the other, but the song is staying in my head. Anyway...

"A Venus Jupiter conjunction is expected to take place overnight into the early morning hours of March 2, according to NASA. Its peak will be around 6 a.m. Thursday. It is expected to be an amazing sight."  These are the two brightest planets in the solar system and will appear to be right next to each other.

EarthSky says the closest pairing will happen shortly after sunset Wednesday, and by looking west, viewers should see Jupiter on the left and Venus on the right.They will appear close throughout the night. On March 2, the two planets will still be close each other, but Venus will be northwest of where Jupiter appears in the sky. 

I am going to check this out tomorrow morning even though I've never had all that much luck checking things in the sky.

 

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.