However, mixing hydrogen peroxide and vinegar can create peracetic acid, which
is toxic.
No one takes the time to figure out if things are true or false before the pass them on.
AARGH!
Five years ago today: "I'm Ready For My Closeup, Mr. DeMille"
The orders are placed online. I volunteered to coordinate the order distribution. That means I pick up the calendars at the printer, print out the invoice, and put the orders into an appropriate size bag/mailing envelope/box. The local orders get picked up, and the others are mailed.
Since the beginning of September I have fulfilled dozens of orders with only one problem. It was a doozie.
The errant order was for both shipped and local calendars. When I was packaging them I flip-flopped the numbers, and instead of mailing one I mailed ten! I didn't realized my mistake until the woman who was picking up the local order contacted me to ask why there was only one small package instead of the larger one she was expecting. I was embarrassed, but the woman was considerate about my faux pas.
Ultimately, she took the correct number of calendars from my inventory, and asked her out-of-town friend to refuse the large package so it would come back to me. I put the friend's mailing information on the singleton package and sent it on its way.
Today the postal carrier dropped off the incorrectly mailed package, which
looked like it had been through a lot. The plastic envelope had ripped, so the
Post Office placed everything in a Damaged Mail plastic bag and used quite a
bit of tape to close everything up. When I took the calendars out of the
packaging I noticed that a couple had come apart at the top where they were
glued together, but I think that can be fixed.
I can guarantee I won't make the same mistake a second time!
Five years ago: Just Me, Myself, And I
We combined our trip to the bakery with some other errands. It was a beautiful day, so after the last stop we left the car and walked the rest of the way. Earlier in the day Tony had wondered out loud what the most popular coffee drink was. I asked my friend Google, who suggested an article called "The Most Popular Coffee Drinks: Comparing Data for Countries Worldwide" on the Coffeeness website. In the interest of international affairs, instead of getting a cup of black coffee we both ordered a cappuccino (which is the most popular coffee drink in 24 countries).
It didn't take long for the associate to have our drinks ready. I enjoyed the perfect combination of espresso and steamed milk with a thick layer of milk form on top, and thanks to the caffeine I was extra energetic on the walk back to the car.
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This weekend Tony and I attended a fellowship convention at a resort halfway across the state. It was a lovely event. This morning we checked out of the hotel before today's events started, so as soon as things wrapped up we said our goodbyes and hit the road.
Halfway home I was ready for my afternoon cup of coffee. Tony researched the options at the next exit...two gas stations and a local bakery/deli. Guess which one we chose?
The bakery was getting ready to close for the day, so the associate let us fill our large travel mugs for the price of a small. We also purchased a large homemade chocolate cookie to share. Between the caffeine, chocolate, and sugar I had enough energy for the rest of the drive.
Five years ago today: WHY Is It So Hot?
My recent retreat ended on Sunday. On Monday the director sent an email to the team members reminding us about a wrap-up meeting on Thursday night.
The first two responses came quickly--an enthusiastic "I'll be there!" and "Sorry, but I'll be out of town visiting family." The third response was two hours later, and said "Sorry, but I tested positive for COVID". After that, between Monday and Wednesday three other women reported they were also positive.
(For some reason, the past two years the women's fall retreat has turned into a super-spreader event. The men's spring version of the same retreat has had no problems. It's not fair.)
I have had no symptoms. If I had contracted COVID from the retreat, the last day it could have happened was Sunday, so according to CDC guidelines that is my Day 0. Today is Day 5. Following the same guidelines, as long as I am symptom-free I can go about my business as long as I wear a mask in large groups.
Hubby Tony and I are scheduled to attend a fellowship convention this weekend.
I waffled over the Thursday wrap-up meeting. Should go and be around others who might be asymptomatic for the virus (and maybe start my clock over again) or stay home in respect for the weekend people?
Thursday morning a team member sent a message that she was not attending the wrap-up, because she going out of town soon and avoiding large crowds. That gave me permission to do the same. I responded to the group with my regrets.
This morning my suitcase includes masks and COVID tests. Just in case. It's a new world.
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A woman saw three old men sitting outside her house for a long time. The woman went outside and said, "I don't know you, but I saw you sitting here. You must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat."
One of them asked, "Is the man of the house at home?"
She replied, "No."
"Then we cannot come in." said the men.
The woman went inside. When her husband came home she told him all that had happened. He told his wife to go and ask those men to come in and have some food.
She went out and told them, "My husband is home. He is inviting you to come inside and have some food with us."
They replied, "We do not go inside a house together."
When she asked why, one of the old men pointed to one of his friends and said, "His name is Wealth. If he goes with you, your home will be filled with wealth always." Then pointing to the second old man he said, "He is Success. If he goes with you, you will always be successful in any endeavor you start." He then introduced himself as Love, and said "If I go with you, then your home will always be filled with love."
Then Love told the woman to go in and discuss with her husband which one of them they wanted in their home.
Her husband was overjoyed hearing about the men and said, "Let’s invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth."
His wife disagreed and said, "Why don’t we invite Success?"
Their daughter was listening to them and suggested, "Wouldn’t it be better if we invite Love in our home? Then our home will be filled with love forever." Her parents agreed.
The woman again went out and said, "Love, please come in and be our guest."
Love got up and started walking toward the house. Just then the other two also got up and started following him.
The woman asked, "You said you cannot all can come together. I invited only Love. Why are you all coming in?"
The old men replied, "If you had invited Wealth or Success then the other two would have stayed outside, but since you invite Love, wherever he goes, we go with him."
Wherever there is Love, Wealth and Success will follow."
~~Author unknown~~
Five years ago: Childhood Clutter Clearing
The Memorial's website described the exhibit, which came from the National World War II Museum, as:
Ghost Army: The Combat Con Artists of World War II explores the story of the US Army’s 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, a top-secret unit who waged war with inflatable tanks and vehicles, fake radio traffic, sound effects, and even phony generals. This carefully selected group of artists, engineers, professional soldiers, and draftees—armed with nothing heavier than .50 caliber machine guns—saved thousands of lives and played an important part in Allied victory in World War II.
There is no free parking around the museum, but several blocks of on-street spots were reserved for attendees. Tony and I got there early and walked around downtown until it was time to go in. The event started with opening remarks in the auditorium, including from the
daughter of one of the Ghost Army members who had St. Louis connections
After the remarks there were three options to choose from. We could go immediately to the exhibit on the basement level, stay in the auditorium and watch a PBS documentary from 2013 called The Ghost Army, or go down to the hall and partake of the complimentary breakfast. We chose the last option, which was a nice buffet that included an egg casserole, pancakes, fried potatoes, bacon, sausage patties, and fresh fruit.
We took seats at one of the large round tables, and were soon joined by others. After we finished eating we walked back to the auditorium, and joined the video in progress. It moved back and forth between interviews with Ghost Army members and historical perspectives. I learned that the unit operated all over Europe, and used four tactics to confuse the Nazis:
Information about the Ghost Army was classified until 1996. In 2022 members were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
After the video Tony and I went down to the actual exhibit, which had written, audio, and three-dimension components. There were quite a few docents to answer questions and provide additional information.
The exhibit will be there until the middle
of January. If you're in the local area you should really think about going.
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Unit insignia sticker |
It was great to be away, but also great to get home. I chose to turn off my phone for the weekend and came home to a slew of emails in my inboxes and dozens of posts in my reader. In addition to electronic clutter there is also a pile of retreat paperwork to wade through because as the weekend went on I just tossed things in a pile to bring home instead of organizing it onsite.
I know I will eventually wade through everything.....starting tomorrow 😫.
Five years ago today: Life Lessons For Aging
By the time you read this I will have left for a weekend retreat organized by a group of women from my church. The event officially starts tonight, but the organizing team gets there early to set up. (Last year, you may remember I tried to do the same thing, but ended up being exposed to COVID and backing out at the last minute.)
We've been planning the retreat since July, but this past week has been a flurry of last-minute activities for me. One of those activities was packing. By the time I was ready to load the car one corner of my bedroom was filled with multiple piles of things to take-clothes appropriate for this weekend's warm weather and cover up options in case the conference room or bedroom is chilly, snacks for the snack room and paperwork for some of the activities, and just-in-case items like a flashlight.
It will be a real accomplishment if I didn't forget anything!
Life with him hasn't been without challenges, though. Eventually we noticed that Pimento's nails were getting long. With our previous cats we had a procedure for nail cutting. Tony got to be the cat holder and I wielded the clipper. We tried the same procedure with Pimento. It didn't go well. By the time I finished the first paw Tony had a couple of large scratches on his arm and let the cat go free.
Later the same day Pimento made his peace with Tony and cuddled up with him daily on the couch. He avoided me like the plague. If I tried to pet him he'd just run away. After several days of being snubbed I started daily laser pointer play sessions with treats at the end. Slowly Pimento's attitude changed. Instead of running from me immediately he'd let me give him a pet or two before he would slink away.
Last night Tony was out for the evening. I was sitting on the couch when
Pimento walked by and looked like he wanted to socialize. I had no
expectations but encouraged him to come up. Before I knew it he was curled up
on my lap.
Unfortunately, just about the time he got situated I realized it would have been better if I had gone to the bathroom first. We stayed on the couch for a half hour until I really had to pee. When I moved the cat jumped off my lap onto the floor, where he gave me the stink eye before sauntering off.
I headed to the AARP
Staying Sharp
site, logged in, and chose the learning activity called Building
Resilience.
The introduction said:
"Resilience means having the ability to rebound from hardship and approach each day with determination that you’ll do more than survive, you’ll thrive. Some resilience comes from within, but you can learn ways to build resilience through practice. This challenge will allow you to explore tools you learn about boosting your resilience."
The activity started with a pretest. After the pretest there were ten sections, each organized the same way. There was a video, then written information to back the video up. The third step had some practical suggestions for applying the information. After all the modules there was an opportunity to take the quiz again.
I actually learned a lot about how to become more resilient, and I'm glad I
did it.
The other day I received an email from the restaurant. Every other restaurant
birthday offer I've received in my inbox has been for a menu item. This one
was for a pitcher of beer.
I'm not inclined to drive across town to take advantage of a coupon for a pitcher of beer, but the more I thought about the promotion the more clever it seemed.
The people that don't drink, or would prefer another alcoholic beverage, won't show up to redeem it but the restaurant can still claim they offered something. The beer drinkers will show up, claim their pitcher, and probably order food to go with it. The restaurant will recoup more than the cost of the beer. Either way the restaurant wins.
Five years ago: Flies Be Gone!
When we started making regular trips out that way in 2016 we were almost always able to find a non-stop flight. However, in the past few years Southwest (our preferred airline) has fewer of them, meaning that we have to change planes somewhere. This latest flight is no exception. On the way home, in order to get a departure time that got us to St. Louis at a reasonable hour we chose to go through Dallas.
This morning Tony got a message that the airline had made a change in the trip due to flight schedule shifts. That's usually bad news, but this time we struck gold! The departure time is an hour later and we actually arrive earlier. Why? THEY CHANGED US TO A NON-STOP FLIGHT!
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The change email messages always end with a boilerplate statement that if the
change works for us we don't need to do anything. However, I am going to
do something....which is cross my fingers and pray that the change doesn't get
re-modified between now and then.
Right now I have so many commitments I don't know if I'm coming or going.
Logically, the last thing I needed was to add another thing to the busy
schedule, but today a morning trip the Botanical Garden with Hubby Tony ended
up being just what I needed. After walking through the grounds I came away
relaxed and ready to jump into everything that was waiting for me.
Twenty minutes after the Garden's doors opened I was parking the car in a
almost-full lot. There was a large group milling around the entrance area, and
when I got closer I noticed it was related to some type of event, but Tony and
I walked past the mess and went straight to the ticket-scanning booth in the
lobby.
Once we were in the garden, I was surprised to see that as full as the parking
lot was there were very few people walking along the paths. The temperature
was still cool, and perfect for a morning stroll.
We stopped to see this statue of a young girl. The sign next to it said it was
entitled Cora. It indicated that the model was three years old, and the
sculptor got her to hold the pose by mounting a television to the studio
ceiling.
The huge Japanese garden area was practically empty, with only two groups of
people visible. One was three women who told us that they walked in the garden
every Tuesday. The other was a mother and her children feeding the ducks and
koi fish from the bridge. The rest of the large area was calm and serene.
The Chinese garden moon gate always makes me feel more relaxed.
Five years ago: Freaking Bizarre
I didn't see anyone who looked like they might be benefiting from the extra calm, but when I left I saw a sign that said the hours were intended to be calmer for those with sensory sensitivities, autism, and PTSD. I know many of those conditions are hidden, and I could have been the only non-affected one in the store.
Five years ago: There's A Guy For That
In my experience, the flavor and texture of most colored peppers is interchangeable, and depends on if they were allowed to completely ripen on the plant or picked early. I have no experience with white or purple varieties. However, I found that the purple ones had thick, crisp flesh and a sweet taste. The white one was crisp, but there wasn't much sweetness to it.
If I ever see another white one I would buy it again and see if it's any different.
Five years ago: Many Hands Make It Fun
In the early 2000s, Son Tony went to college at a university three hours northeast of St. Louis. There were two routes that would get us there. One went north and then east; the second took us east and then north.
Whenever I took the north/east route (or came home via that way) I would see a brown tourist sign advertising the presence of the Mother Jones monument at the Mt. Olive exit. I knew that was a left-leaning magazine. The internet was much less robust back then, but I was able to learn that Mother Jones the person had some type of connection to union activity. I always thought about detouring to see the monument, but it was never convenient, and after Son Tony graduated there was little reason to go that direction.
However, when Hubby Tony made our recent trip to Chicago one of the Route 66 attractions we stopped at was only a couple of miles from that Mother Jones monument. I was able to cross it off of my list of things to visit.
Mary Harris Jones (AKA Mother Jones) was a labor organizer and activist who co-founded the Labor unionist trade union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, collqually named the Wobblies). She is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery alongside eight miners who died in the 1898 Battle of Virden mining riot.
We followed the signs that led to the Union Miners Cemetery, parked the car,
and walked towards the monument at the back of the cemetery. The monument had
an oval bas-relief portrait of Mother Jones flanked by two miners dressed in
their work clothes. (One of the miners had a cloth bandana tied around his
neck, which was a nice added touch by someone.)
In front of the monument was the grave and tombstone of Mother Jones.
There was no one else in the cemetery, and it was very peaceful. Tony and I read the placards, but we didn't linger. The day was hot and the sun intense.
Ations
If we meet and I say, “Hi,”
That’s a salutation.
If you ask me how I feel,
That’s a consideration.
If we stop and talk a while,
That’s a conversation.
If we understand each other,
That’s a communication.
If we argue, scream, and fight,
That’s an altercation.
If later we apologize,
That’s reconciliation.
If we help each other home.
That’s a cooperation.
And all these actions added up
Make Civilization.
(And if I say this is a wonderful poem,
Is that exaggeration?)
Often I want to compose an email that straddles the line between business and personal. Even if it's a professional message, if I know the person well I sometimes include an emoji. That's easy to do on a phone or tablet, because all you have to do is click on the icon. On bigger devices, not so much.
But I recently learned that there's a way to use shortcuts to have an emoji keyboard pop up on a real computer. On a Mac the sequence of keys is Control + Command + Space. On Windows its Windows logo key + . (period).
Five years ago: DisconnectThat led to a conversation about the fashion rule about not wearing white after Labor Day in the United States and where it started. By this time his assistant had entered the room, but none of us had an answer to the question. I decided to come home and ask my friend Google if it did. I learned that there was no definitive answer, but several sources provided parts of one.
The Farmer's Almanac had a couple of thoughts. The first was that lightweight fabrics like cotton and linen are neutral-colored in their natural state, and reflect light, so they were cooler in summer heat. Another was that wealthy people were able to vacation in places were light, breezy clothes were appropriate (and have the means to have a second wardrobe when things cooled off). The ability to box up white clothes turned into a sign of sophistication.
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It's too hot to go outside. Instead I stayed in the air conditioning and went through my phone's photo app looking for interesting ones to post. Here ya go.
The theory is that caffeine works by blocking a neurotransmitter called adenosine (aka "tiredness" chamical). It takes 20 minutes for caffeine to enter your bloodstream, so by napping during that window you wake up both restored and stimulated.
An effective coffee nap is most beneficial in the early- to mid-afternoon. That's late enough in the day that the body has built up a supply of adenosine, but early enough that the caffeine won't interfere with nighttime sleeping.
I tested out the coffee nap theory this afternoon. At 1:15 pm I carried my cell phone and afternoon cup of coffee into the bedroom. After I turned on the ceiling fan to circulate the air and the radio to provide a little background noise I got comfortable in bed, slurped the coffee down, and used my phone to set a timer for 20 minutes.
At first I was convinced I wasn't going to fall asleep, but when the timer
went off it took me a while to figure out what the noise was and turn it off.
Often when I nap it takes me ten minutes to fully wake up and get out of bed,
but today there was no wake up period. I was able to hop out of bed and go
about my business with extra energy.
Five years ago: Clean, Clean, Clean
Yesterday, exactly 14 days later, I received a call from one of the research associates. She thanked me for my time and effort, and said that at this time I am not eligible to continue (but that may change as investigators review more data).
This is a double blind study, where individual test results are hidden from both the participant and the researchers. However, the associate did tell me that if the test had discovered something horrible they would have reached out to my doctor.
Even though I won't be traveling to have imaging tests done I am able to participate the study's online portion. I'm not sure exactly how that will work but I've enrolled. I guess I'll find out soon.
The pleasant temperatures have meant that Hubby Tony and I are back to walking outside. Last night we went to the grocery store to purchase a couple of items. We were halfway there when I saw something yellow on a flat-topped fence post.
When I got closer, I saw the yellow thing was a mustard bottle that had words written on it.
When I got right next to the bottle I saw the words were alluding to the
biblical Parable of the Mustard Seed, along with the books, chapters, and
verses where you can find it.
In case you're not familiar with the parable, it says (Matthew 13:31-32):
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.
It would be interesting to know the bottle's backstory. Who felt compelled to put their sentiments out into the universe, and why did they pick that particular place?
Five years ago today: MLS4TheLou
Blogger seems to have changed things up since the last time I was there. Halfway down there was a list of my most-visited posts. I was amazed at how many times some of them have been viewed.
(I can't find the author of this. If you know please pass on the information.)
I had spent an hour in the bank with my dad because he had to transfer some money. While we were waiting for the banker I said, "Dad, why don't we activate your internet banking?"
'Why would I do that?' he asked.
'Well, then you won't have to spend an hour here for things like transfers. You can even do your shopping online. Everything will be so easy!"
He asked, "If I do that, I won't have to step out of the house?"
"Yes!" I said. "Amazon delivers everything."
His answer left me tongue-tied. He said:
"Since I entered this bank today, I have met four of my friends. I have chatted with the staff who know me well. I like to come to the bank. I have enough time; it is the physical touch that I crave.
"Two years ago, I got sick. The owner from the produce market came to see me, sat by my bedside, and cried. When your mom fell down a few days back on her morning walk, our grocer saw her and immediately got his car to rush her home because he knows where I live.
"Would I have that human touch if I did everything online? Why would I want everything delivered to me and force me to interact with just my computer? I like to know the person that I'm dealing with and not just the seller. It creates bonds of relationships. Does Amazon deliver all this as well?'
Spend time with people, not with devices.
The goal is to start at the first frame and walk along reading the pages. However, I'm usually scurrying into the building for a fitness class and don't take the time. Today, thanks to light traffic I had a couple extra minutes and did exactly what the installers intended.
After crossing the street from the parking lot I doubled back to the start of the walk. (The frames are covered in glass, and it was hard to get a good photo without a reflection, but I did my best.)
The last frame said another story will be coming soon. I can't wait to see
what it is.
I was going through the latest batch of spam and deleting the comments, but got carried away and deleted an actual comment by an actual person who reads here. I was horrified, because I knew there was no way to undo the mistake.
Or was there?
I started poking around on the internet and came up with an interesting solution. I have my Blogger settings configured so that when someone leave a comment I receive an email that lets me know who left it (their name and URL), on which post, what they said, and the date they said it. I also have my blog's settings such that anyone, including anonymous users, can leave a comment.
Undoing my mistake was relatively easy. I opened the post with the missing comment and chose to comment with a name/URL. Instead of using my own information I added the lost commenter's name and blog address, copied and pasted the comment as received via email, then hit Publish.
Seconds later the information appeared on the post. The time stamp wasn't correct, but I doubt anyone would notice.
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A normal trip to Chicago would take somewhere between 5-5
1/2 hours. We added three hours to that, because we hopped on and off the
Interstate to search out things that were originally on Route 66.
Many of the cities we stopped at had banners or signs:
During our trip we visited quaint restaurants and had some good local food:
In every city we stopped to see the attractions our guidebook pointed out. Some of them included:
Thursday morning we left town shortly after breakfast, and except for a bathroom break and stop for lunch drove straight through. It was good to get the first glimpse of the top of the Gateway Arch-that meant we were almost home.
In two weeks I will hear from the researchers, who will let me know if they're interested in me participating in a longer term study. I have no idea what will happen. I'm keeping the Route 66 guidebook and map, just in case. We just scratched the surface of Route 66 things to see. If I do end up making additional trips to Chicago I want to pick a new set of experiences.
Five years ago: Revamping Lamps
In honor of the day I made this post 😁. I also made time to read all of the posts that showed up in my reader, then visited each site and left a comment.
The Video Fest website describes their mission as "Bringing the joy of cat videos to the masses and raising money for cats in need". At each city they partner with local shelters and donate a portion of the ticket sales to them. In St. Louis the shelter was Tenth Life (which is the organization we foster for).
It was held at the
Hi-Pointe Theater, which dates from the 1920s and is the oldest continuously operating
single-screen movie theater in the St. Louis area. Tony and I got there right
when the doors opened, but there were already several groups of people ahead
of us. The event was great for people watching. I love cats, but don't feel
the need to wear cat-themed clothing or headbands with attached cat ears like
many people who came into the theater. One 20-something young lady even had a
huge stuffed cat tail attached to the waistband of her jeans!
Right on time the house lights dimmed. After a series of vintage ads and PSAs about theater etiquette there were several coming attractions trailers before the main event. The Video Fest was a compilation reel of cat videos, all made and submitted by cat lovers, which were grouped by theme-drama, adventure, comedy, documentary, and musicals. Except for the documentaries most of the videos were very short (less than a minute). The audience laughed, groaned, and 'awwed' as one through the event.
All too soon the ending credits came up and the event was over.
Five years ago today: Tasty Tasting Menu Meal
This morning when we rolled out of bed Hubby Tony and I had been married for one additional year. Forty-four years ago we said I Do and started our life together.
We had a great time celebrating the day. The first official activity was to head to the the Fox Theater box office. I think we're some of the few people who haven't seen the musical Hamilton live, but now we have tickets for it in early September.
On the way down to the Fox we stopped in the Central West End. I always enjoy walking around the historic neighborhood and looking at the mansions. It was starting to heat up, but we chose the streets with most shade and it wasn't too bad.
After getting the tickets we came home to recharge, then headed out for errands and lunch. Earlier in the week a new restaurant opened a couple of miles from our house. Porano is a fast-casual place operated by Gerard Craft, a local chef who has won multiple awards, including the James Beard Foundation Best Chef-Midwest in 2015. We have been to several of Craft's other restaurants and all have been outstanding.
After looking at the menu online, I knew I knew my meal would include farro (which hardly ever shows up at restaurants). My 'build your own' bowl contained a layer of the grain and topped with pulled pork, red sauce, sweet peppers, and Parmesan cheese. Tony chose a Mediterranean pasta with roasted red pepper sauce, tofu, green olives, and slivered almonds. We added a salad to share.
While we were ordering I casually mentioned to the cashier we were celebrating our anniversary. The manager was standing there, and near the end of our meal he came over to the table and asked if we would like a cookie or gelato pop on him. We both chose gelato. It was a lovely end to the meal.
After the morning full excitement we headed home. The baseball Cardinals were in Chicago and had a day game against the Cubs. Tony turned on the TV and we settled in. However, offensively it was all Cubs and I quickly lost interest.
I wasn't planning on cooking dinner on this special day. Fortunately, the American Greetings website informed me that the modern gift for a 44th anniversary is groceries, which I interpreted to mean that a frozen pizza worked. Tony put the meal together.
After my exam was finished I headed to the strip mall across the street that
has a branch of a Schnucks, a local, family run grocery store. As I walked
across the parking lot I remembered that about a year ago the store announced
they were offering 'smart' shopping carts in select stores, and this branch
was one of them. In the lobby I saw rows of conventional carts on one side and
a small selection of "Caper Carts" on the other. I decided to try one out.
The cart looked like a regular cart with a touchscreen and pay station
attached to the handle. The screen offered a tutorial, where I learned
the important points of using it. As I put an item into the cart I had
make sure of the sensors in the corners of the basket scanned the
barcode. For things without a barcode, like produce, there was an option
to type the PLU code into the touchscreen. The scale in the basket
automatically calculated the weight of the produce.
The screen showed me the available sales and coupons, what I had put
into the cart, and a running total of the cost. When I had all of my
items I checked out using the attached pay terminal, and had the option of
having a receipt emailed of texted to me.
I enjoyed the novelty of trying something new, but not everything on the cart worked well. Putting in a produce PLU was a clunky process, because it took several seconds for each numeral to be recognized by the cart. When I tried to add a loaf of bread from the clearance rack (where the store had attached an additional bar code over the original one) the cart never picked up the new information. It kept asking me if I had added something to my cart, and if so I should make sure to scan it first. I ultimately put the loaf of bread back on the shelf.
Five years ago today: Author Unkown
The dog days are the period during which the star Dog Star Sirius (the brightest star in the sky after the Sun and part of the constellation Canis Major) rises at the same time as the sun in the Northern Hemisphere, which happens for the 40 days between July 3 and August 11.
The event has been noted by civilizations starting with the Ancient Egyptians. The Greeks gave the star its name, and the Romans blamed the star for the extra heat that happened at that time of the year. Now we have a much more scientific explanation for the occurrence, but the expression has stuck around.
And here's a song that always reminds me of the dog days. Enjoy!
You may remember that I completed a Parkinson's Disease smell test and submitted my results online. I figured I was done with the procedure, but then I received an email from a researcher at the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) Study at Indiana University. She asked if I would be available for a call from their team about the next step in the study. I was.
During the call I found out the study is enrolling people both with and without Parkinson's. I was chosen because of the results of the smell text, my age, and sex. No specific result details were given, but they asked if I was interested in completing a DaTscan diagnostic imaging test for research purposes. I was.
I figured that with the excellent research hospitals in St. Louis I would be commuting across town for the test, but the closest facility is in Chicago. In early August Hubby Tony and I will travel to the Windy City. I will spend the better part of one day testing, then we come home the next day. All expenses will be reimbursed.
I'm looking forward to it.
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