No posts in June…Well, that is because June sucked.All month brought things breaking down – some could be repaired while
others required high end new purchases (like a stove).There were injuries and sickness (NOT
Covid!).There was (and is) surging
Covid cases in state and county… while people act like it is 2019.Salud at Whole Foods is permanently closed
and is not making good on the points earned by volunteers (thanks so much Bezos
– NOT!).The art gallery I’m part of
lost their building, tho thankfully we are still going on with borrowed venues
until we have a new gallery home.
Yeah, I was depressed.
But the worst thing was the sad realization that people I
know are going to get sick and maybe die because they are idiots or were around
idiots. People who think it is “just a
flu” or a hoax. That wearing a mask is a
violation of their civil liberties. That
social distancing is unconstitutional.
“Friends” who thought it was OK to snark and insult me
because I wear a mask. Guess they weren’t
friends after all and sure aren’t any more…
I don’t care what you believe but do not think you are getting on my
Facebook page and slamming me.
Seriously!
Enough of that!
In June...
The tomatoes were ripe and so delicious.
I started working on my genealogy again.
The turkey hens came back to hang out in the yard.
I like my new stove!
So June has now passed. It's time to improve the attitude and get on with life.
We have acquired a used Toro push mower to keep up the areas closest to the house. I knew we needed to have some oil, as those little engines get so hot. But I wasn't sure what to get. So I checked at their web site and it said to use "detergent SAE 10W30". That's it. I assumed that meant car oil but I wasn't sure. So I followed the web site link for info. It was a Facebook page. So I messaged my question from there. Got a immediate robo reply that they don't answer questions there (!!!) and gave an email address to send to. OK... On 30 April I emailed this:
"I was given a Toro model 16775 push mower. On your
spec page it says the oil to use is “detergent SAE 10W30. Is this the
same stuff as goes in the car?"
On 5 May I recieved this reply: "Thank you for contacting The Toro Company. Your machine uses a high detergent SAE 10W-30 Motor Oil,
which helps resists rust, oxidation, wear, corrosion and will also
fight against the creation of sludge and deposits. If you search for
"Detergent SAE 10W30 oil" online, you will find various brands who
make this oil.
Hope this helps!
Regards, Toro Consumer Service"
Seriously?? I contact their customer service. They repeat what I told them... then tell me to go find my answer in a random internet search. Then give me a chirpy little "hope this helps". Hope WHAT helps?
My reply was "No, this didn’t help. You repeated what I said and
said to look online. Very lame. BTW, the question was “Is this the
same oil as used in a car?”
Methinks perhaps with 'customer service' like this, when I do purchase new lawn equipment it will NOT be Toro.
There was a really hard to believe (yet not so much... ) article in the paper recently. It was about radioactive ore stored at a visitor site at the Grand Canyon (I am really glad we skipped the museum on our visit there in 2004).
"For nearly two decades at the Grand Canyon in Arizona,
tourists, employees, and children on tours passed by three paint buckets stored
in the National Park's museum collection building, unaware that they were being
exposed to radiation.
Although federal officials learned last year that the
five-gallon containers were brimming with uranium ore, then removed the
radioactive specimens, the park's safety director alleges nothing was done to
warn park workers or the public that they might have been exposed to unsafe
levels of radiation.
In a rogue email sent to all Park Service employees on
Feb. 4, Elston "Swede" Stephenson — the safety, health and wellness
manager — described the alleged cover-up as "a top management
failure" and warned of possible health consequences.
"If you were in the Museum Collections Building (2C)
between the year 2000 and June 18, 2018, you were 'exposed' to uranium by
OSHA's definition," Stephenson wrote.
...
Stephenson said the containers were stored next to a
taxidermy exhibit, where children on tours sometimes stopped for presentations,
sitting next to uranium for 30 minutes or more. By his calculation, those
children could have received radiation dosages in excess of federal safety
standards within three seconds, and adults could have suffered dangerous
exposure in less than a half-minute.
...
Stephenson said the uranium threat was discovered in
March 2018 by the teenage son of a park employee who happened to be a Geiger
counter enthusiast, and brought a device
to the museum collection room.
Workers immediately moved the buckets to another location
in the building, he said, but nothing else was done.
(The oh-so-safe method the buckets of highly radioactive ore was removed by OSHA officials...)
A few months later, Stephenson said, he was assisting
with a safety audit when employees told him about the uranium. As a former Army
helicopter pilot who later worked as a safety manager in the Navy, Stephenson
said he knew it was "bad mojo" and instantly called a National Parks
specialist in Colorado. ...
Stephenson said technicians concealed the radiation
readings from him and dumped the ore into Orphan Mine, an old uranium dig that
is considered a potential Superfund site below the Rim, about two miles from
Grand Canyon Village.
Stephenson said he drove to Phoenix in November and filed
a report with OSHA, which sent inspectors to the museum building in yellow
protective suits.
Stephenson said they detected a low-level site within the
building and traced it to the three buckets, which Park Service technicians had
inexplicably returned to the building after dumping their contents.
"You could hear their meters going off,"
Stephenson said."
...
Story by: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2019/02/18/grand-canyon-tourists-exposed-radiation-safety-manager-says/2905358002/ Another place we skipped visiting in '04 was the Trinity Bomb site. "On July 16, 1945, one week after the establishment of
White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated
in the north-central portion of the missile range, approximately 60 miles north
of White Sands National Monument. By
1953, much of the radioactivity had subsided (Really? What about all the stuff we do NOT know about radiation?), and the first Trinity Site open
house was held in September of that year.
In 1965, Army officials erected a monument on Ground
Zero. In 1975, the National Park Service designated Trinity Site as a National
Historic Landmark. The landmark includes base camp, where the scientists and
support group lived; the McDonald ranch house, where the plutonium core was
assembled; as well as Ground Zero.
Today, visits to the site are sponsored by the Alamogordo
Chamber of Commerce and WSMR on the first Saturdays of April and October."
Are you kidding me???!!! No. No, no, no.
Now take a minute or few to look at this video. It explains a lot and you'll get a few shocks too...
I am feeling very blessed and thankful right now. The time it takes you to blink twice could be
the difference between life and death... at the hand of someone else.
(Most of these photos were taken the day after the event. To settle myself, I needed to return to the site.)
Thursday afternoon we were heading along a country
highway to a meeting. It was drizzling
rain. We were in an area where the road
in a bit of a saddle (two small hills with a low place in the middle).
A car comes FLYING (guessing doing about 80-90 mph) over
the hill towards us and loses control. It slams into the dirt embankment to the
west then spins straight towards us. Himself felt compelled to hit the gas
instead of the brakes... had he not, the car would have T boned us HARD on his
side. As it was, it just barely missed our back end as it spun past. I really thought it would hit.
After just missing us, the car spun back across the highway. It jumped to the ditch and proceeded down that for several hundred feet. Right by the orange sign on the left, as I watched she crossed back over the highway spinning and side hopping. That is our car sitting opposite of the side road she crossed.
I was standing next to the orange sign photoing towards the gravel road she crossed. Here's where she came in to the opposite ditch sideways and side hopping. The marks are really crazy.
She went broadside into an 'L' shaped board
fence...taking out 35 feet worth (5 of 6 panels).
(Taken day of wreck)
Continued sideways across the connecting gravel
road and into a field.
(Photo taken next day)
In total, the car traveled about 780 feet once it lost control. (Himself says that at 60 mph you can travel from goal to goal in 3 seconds). He figures it took only 7-9 seconds from start to finish.
The car was shedding pieces from where it hit the fence to about halfway across the field.
Himself standing where the car came to rest. As we were turning around, the driver was trying to drive
out of the field. Fortunately, the car gave out.
Notice the board in his hand...
(photo from day of wreck)
That is where it came from...
It is an impaled piece of the fence!! Thankfully there was no one else in the car but there were toys in the back seat...
When we got back there (parking opposite on a farm road alongside the
highway) the driver chippie was walking around her car saying over and over
"I'll fix the fence" and "Don't call the cops!".
A LOT of people were on their cell phones calling the
cops.
As we left, there was a very very unhappy looking Amish
man driving his tractor down to see the mess she'd made out of his fence and field. (He did a fantastic job cleaning up the mess!)
The other day I was fixing a couple quick grilled cheese sandwiches and musing on how much the recipe has changed for Velveeta.
It used to be really, really tasty AND inexpensive. Now, it's meh. I wish I could go back to the '70s and get a loaf made from the old recipe!
That got Himself and I talking about what foods we miss because they were changed beyond recognition or don't exist at all anymore.
Pinwheels. These were one of the 'snack' cookies we'd get at snack time in kindergarten. They've changed so much and have gotten SO expensive for just a smear of chocolate.
I think you can still find these at certain places. The BEST tho were the Kroger store brand called "Freezer Pleezers.
Extinct.
Why Planters...why?
WAY better than the current 'cake in a cup' stuff. Especially that chocolate chip cake variety! MMmmmm!
Old fashioned wieners. When I was in elementary school Mom worked next to a meat market that had the best link wieners.
Weird and fun. The drink was actually pretty darn good. The balls are tapioca balls, same as in bubble tea.
Himself said he missing the bubble gum that used to be in with trading cards.
He also like Black Jack gum.
And of course there are the old days when Cracker Jacks really had toys in them.
I think nature has April mixed up with March. "In like a lion"...
'Wet' is coming two ways. When it is not snowing, there's probably a thunderstorm happening.
We haven't had to go to our storm shelter (tho we have taken Persia down just in case ~ you just don't want to be chasing a cat down when you have to take shelter).
Today there are no snacks being prepared. The TV is off.
There will be no Super Bowl here at The Sticks.
Because I am totally disgusted by the 'players' of the NFL and not one penny will be accorded to them out of this household. That anthem is about this COUNTRY and not about any politician or grievance.
