respublica

Food search days

In the post below this one, I wrote about my constant search for Mexican Coke, but this one is about Dale's search for something else in the grocery department. He has gotten into the habit of having a Kellogg's Vanilla Protein drink with lunch. These have long been readily available at our Collinsville Schnucks as other stores in that chain. But for weeks they have been out of it which meant I've been searching high and low for them. They come in 4 packs and after trying at least 4 Schnucks stores I've given up. I did find some in Dierbergs, the last carton, on Saturday. Then I happened to be in Walmart and that store had them.

But here's the most shocking thing I learned during this search. Dierberg's charges 9 plus dollars, Schnucks is now charging 8 plus dollars up from 6 and 7 dollars. And Schnucks changed the price at the shelf even though they don't have any.

Walmart's price is 5 something! Will I ever buy this at the grocery stores again? Never. That is a 4 dollar difference in price for the same thing between these 3 stores. Ridiculous.

Once again the search is on

I've mentioned on here before that I am mildly addicted to Mexican Coke-the soda not the illegal stuff. This Coke is made the original way with real sugar not corn syrup and the taste is much better. But it is not available in Collinsville at any store unless you count going to one of the State Park Mexican grocery stores and get it by single 16 ounce bottles. All this means is a trip over to St. Louis in the area near Concordia Seminary. The Schnucks next to St. Mary's hospital almost always has it unless it is temperarily sold out. Or, further up the road, the Dierbergs on Eager Road near Brentwood usually has it. Both these stores carry the Coke in 4 packs of 12 ounce bottles.

The other day I was just about out of this drink and did not feel much like going to St. Louis so I gave in and ordered some from Amazon. The order arrived yesterday (one day wait) and in the box were 6 12 ounce bottles of Mexican Coke each individually wrapped tightly in bubble wrap. It was an interesting sight and even more interesting trying to unwrap each one. But I learned that there is such a thing as bubble wrap with one side having sticky adhesive which gets away from having to use scotch tape to hold it together.

I did not know this type of bubble wrap existed and I plan to try and find some. It will make wrapping up things for shipping so much easier.

I still don't understand why our local grocery stores do not carry the Mexican Coke.

Two views of Paris

Our oldest grandson is in Europe with members of his Lutheran South High School class and he has been sending back photos. Yesterday we received two very different views of Paris. The first was of a gorgeous cathedral, the name of which he neglected to mention. The second picture is of something he called the highlight of the trip-a Nike Store.

Bagging them

For quite a few weeks we've been doing a lot of yard work with most of it being trimming or cutting back bushes and trees. Plus much weed pulling. Weeds are having a field day this spring. All of this means we have had to use lots of brown paper yard waste bags and set them out on the curb for pick-up each Monday. I have to give lots of kudos to the trash guy who picks them up regularly and always in a timely manner. I find most of the bags almost too heavy to lug around and feel guilty but Dale claims it's because I'm a woman. Men are stronger he says, and isn't too heavy for the pick-up guy.

In any event we've used enough of those bags this year that we have come to realize not all are created the same. Some bags turn out to be too thin and tear easily, others are so strong it is hard to open them and keep them open. A couple are just right.

We have purchased them from Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Walmart and Schnucks. Home Depot bags are the hardest to get open and stay open with Ace a close second. Plus Ace bags are kind of thin and tear. Walmart bags open and stay open easily. But surprisingly it is the Schnucks bags which are the best for us. They are strong enough to take what gets put into them and they open easily and stay open.

Today is our yard waste pick-up and I still wonder what the trash hauler guy feels about all of our constant yard waste. Looking at the house from the front it doesn't look like we'd need all those weekly bags. But it's the back and west side which are the culprits.

I am so thankful for this service each week. Today we woke up to high humid heat so much humidity that we can't see out of our windows or doors.

Get rid of this tree

In recent years one particular tree which had been quite popular with homeowners and even cities along right of way is now being either banned or discouraged. I'd bet you even know what this tree is-the Bradford Pear. We were talked into getting one of these by a former Collinsville neighbor many years ago. She had one in her backyard and thought we needed one as well. So we plunked one into the back part of our yard where it grew and grew over the years. It minded its own business for much of that time but last summer it scared me so much I lost sleep.

These trees get huge but also weak and it is not uncommon for limbs to break off and even the whole tree fall over. I watched the American Legion have their Bradford Pears get trimmed way back recently which was a good thing because they had gotten big and were very close to the building.

Last summer we had a bad afternoon storm with big winds and rain and as I sat on our back deck watching I saw the Bradford Pear blowing right and left and forward and back. I was so afraid the storm would cause it to fall  backward across the power lines and onto the house behind us. It didn't thankfully but it was only a matter of time and some weeks later we had it removed along with 3 other trees we had in our yard.

Here is a photo of that Bradford Pear before it came down. Just seeing how big this thing got, still horrifies me.

What is even more amazing is the fact that since this was taken down, this spring the row of Lilacs which had been planted behind it for years finally have blooms. Those lilacs normally had only a few small clusters of flowers, this year they are full of blooms. Just goes to show that some things need light and air more than others.

The early morning light doesn't really show them off as great as they really are.

The papers are still a mystery

One thing we can count on every single day is not knowing if or when we will get our 3 daily papers tossed in the yard. We've finally gotten used to the fact that they will never be here at a regular time, mostly in the afternoon these days. But what we cannot get used to is which papers we will get. I've mentioned before that for years we've gotten the Post-Dispatch, New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

These days we almost never get the right papers and yesterday was a case in point. They came around 3:30 in the afternoon. We got 3, but two were the Belleville News Democrat and one the Post Dispatch. We have never asked to subscribe to the Belleville paper but someone out there in delivery world is insistent that we are going to get this anyway.

We'd just like to know where the hitch is in paper delivery. We've called the main offices several times and got assurances we'd get the right papers, but it doesn't happen. So where is does the trouble come from? Is it all on the guy who delivers or the people who are supposed to let him know? Is it a lack of consistent delivery employees or a lack at some main starting point.

Each morning we play the game of "when will the papers come and which papers will they be?

Yesterday, 3:30 rain and two Bellevilles.

Weeds

All of a sudden the change in seasons and new growth has brought out backyard weeds. We have been debating just how to get rid of them. Dale suggested pulling them by hand which is hard on the knees and back, but then he did not have it in mind for him to do this. I'd have to do it. Spraying some would work, but most are around lawn and perennial plantings which would not be good. At one time we had a tool which as I remember, rolled along and yanked up weeds, but i can't find that. Must have left it at the seminary.

The weeds in the lawn will be taken care of the day I first cut the grass followed by a spreading of weed and feed. That will make little cuts in the weeds and more able to take in the weed killer. But the weeds everywhere else is going to be a literal pain.

Another of Life's little irritants

Recently we received a new cable box from Charter Spectrum because starting April 3 they will be changing over to updated models and our old one would not work. So this morning we decided we better get to replacing the old with the new. Sounds easy, right? Well it wasn't. Or, it was, but it didn't seem that way for an hour. I spent too much time on Spectrum's web site trying to learn how to do this which meant dealing with a lot of gibberish and passwords and etc. I was about out of my mind and this drove Dale crazy. I kept reading the manual and coming up with no good understanding of what was involved.

In the end, Dale finally said, "let's just hook it up and see what happens." That was the correct answer. We put all the cables where they should go, turned on the tv and it came on. Actually it came on to channel 4, just 4 and not at all filling the whole screen. So back to the instructions, this time with the remote. On the screen was the message that it would take 20 minutes or more to finish setting up and so we waited. Then the remote instructions said to push the tv button and then hold down the setup button until the tv button begins blinking.

Good luck with that. But, unfortunately the instructions did not tell me to put the batteries in correctly and I had them in backwards. Once that was rectified, we now have tv like it should be. That's not to say there wasn't a bit of consternation going on around here this morning. I headed over to the Spectrum office to turn in the old box and halfway there the skies opened up and pouring rain came down and got harder and harder when i tried to leave that office.

And that was enough for one day. I will say, though, getting through set up on almost any electronic machine is hard these days. Just try and set the clock on the microwave or oven in one try. That was my second job today, the minute hand display was off. I had to finally look up our manual online to see how to do something as simple as that. It was not at all obvious.

Since all this Dale has spent most of the day in his basement.

And now several hours late it is still pouring and we have Lenten service at 4.

I love trash day

I really really love the day the trash is picked up. It's so nice to have bags out of the house and into the big trash cart and then, the cart emptied. We have great trash haulers here, at least in our neighborhood. We can count on them coming at the same time of the morning each week and they are quite friendly, always with a ready wave if we are outside. Today is our day and I've happily emptied wastebaskets and old stuff from the fridge. Nice and neat here now. I am very much looking forward to next week when the yard waste pickup begins since I've been pulling out spent perennials and old twigs and leaves for a couple of weeks now.

More news harping

I really hate to keep bringing this up, but our newspaper delivery is just awful these days. For 3 days last week the papers miraculously arrived at the time we'd been accustomed to for years. We were amazed and thrilled and hoped that this meant we were back on a normal schedule. But no. The rest of the week we never knew when or if the papers would come, sometimes late afternoon and not all we subscribe to. Saturday, no papers at all and yesterday (Sunday) we got five papers. This morning, nothing again.

There has to be a way to straighten this out to get back to normal. We are seriously considering giving up the paper subscriptions and just going to one of the gas stations which carry our papers. Although, that would be a pain too.