I did something today I haven’t done in years. I mowed some of the lawn and I used a push mower. Not a gas powered push mower either, an old fashioned push mower.
Yep, I now know for sure, I’m not as young as I used to be. That’s obvious every time I see myself in the mirror. But for some reason that didn’t really make me KNOW.
Notice I said I mowed some of the lawn. I decided I wasn’t ready to die, so I quit while I was still breathing, although I was still breathing hard!
But since I don’t want to be a quitter, I got a cold wet washrag, washed my face and back to mowing. I decided to take a break and went back in the house. My son decided to finish the job so I wouldn’t kick the bucket. (I was almost through, he needn’t have worried!) So now the lawn needed trimming and away I go trimming. This wasn’t bad at all and I am not as hot as I was mowing.
I finished up and came back in the cool house and looked for my wet washrag to mop my face. I looked everywhere and couldn’t find it. Then I remembered where it was. It was on the back of my neck, keeping me cooler.
I told you I am not as young as I used to be and neither is my memory!
Martha
I learned something new yesterday. You can buy pasteurized eggs! When I saw a recipe for silk pie in the newspaper that called for pasteurized eggs, I thought it was a hoax or someone who just didn’t know better. Wouldn’t a pasteurized egg be boiled? After all I think the definition of ‘pasteurize’ is to heat something, usually milk, to a temperature high enough to kill bacteria. Heating an egg to that temperature would surely boil it, right? Maybe not.
Apparently, so goes the theory, you can heat the egg long enough to kill the bacteria and it still won’t be cooked. Since a lot of recipes call for ‘raw’ eggs, this should be a great way to avoid the wicked salmonella that keeps popping up in everything these days.
You can even pasteurize your own eggs yourself! Recipezaar has the method on their site.
There are a lot of entries in Google about pasteurized eggs. Most of them are asking questions about them. But I did find several interesting articles about milk and shell eggs with extended shelf lives.
This article, ULTRAPASTEURIZED & PASTEURIZED FOOD, on Chemical & Engineering News was really the most informative and makes more sense than most.
I buy ultrapasteurized milk. It is also organic and rather pricey, but since the regular milk goes bad long before I use it all and has to be thrown away, I think it is cost effective. But I have never seen pasteurized eggs for sale in any of my local markets. I think it is a good idea though, and maybe they will eventually sell those ’safer’ eggs.
Have you ever bought pasteurized eggs?
Things that have fine print usually/may have stuff you need to know. Most people don’t read the fine print because it’s too hard to read. Some manufacturers/programers hope you won’t read the fine print. I suspect that’s why it’s written in fine print. Sometimes the print is so small you can’t read it without a high powered magnifying glass.
Popular Drugs have a lot of fine print. Mostly about the side affects. On TV they tell you about the side affects, but apparently people don’t listen to the ‘fine print’ either.
The fine print with the things they have to tell you about.
A lot of software has fine print as well. Usually it’s a disclaimer telling you they are not repsonsible if their software trashes your computer. Makes you wonder if it has trashed someone’s computer.
One thing that really gets to me is all of the warnings that are printed in fine print on a lot of consumer products.
Some of those warnings. Apparently the reason for some of these ‘fine prints’ are because some idiot did just what the warning says not to do. The manufacturers have to protect themselves from lawsuits by stupid people.
So be sure to read the fine print! I try but I don’t always have the magnifying glass handy.
Martha
As a general rule the assumption is that change is usually good. Notice I said ‘assumption’.
So far this year I have noticed a number of changes and most of them are not good.
I guess the biggest change is known by the local news pundits as ‘pain at the pump’. Since I am retired and pretty much a stay at home person, that change hasn’t affected me as much as the folks who have to drive to work in order to be able to pay the bills. Where I live public transportation is not generally an option as it is either very limited or not available. This is mostly due to urban sprawl and the fact most of the American people have long had a love affair with the automobile.
Another change is how much the interest rates have gone down. I guess that change is good for some folks, but I suspect it is good mostly for big business and not for the ‘little guys’. The people who carry a lot of credit card debt don’t seem to be benefiting any from the interest rates as not many credit card companies are lowering rates for those folks.
I don’t carry debt on credit cards so that doesn’t affect me. But what does affect me is how much less money I earn on my savings. Another change I could have done without.
A huge unwelcome change is how much more money it takes to buy groceries! Every time I shop for food something or several somethings have gone up in price and not by just a little bit either.
The big box retailers are trying to cut costs and most of them are doing that by cutting employees and as for customer service, that’s practically non-existant now. So the poor customers are left with no one to help them make purchases and sometimes it’s even hard to find someone to take their money. I wonder if those big box retailers realize that all of this ’saving money’ is costing them more money in the long run?
Now the politicians are promising ‘change’. So far all I have heard just makes me wonder, ‘what kind of change?’ I have always laughed at the old joke about ‘how you can tell if a politician is lying, his lips are moving’. I am beginning to think ‘change’ is a bad joke, and the joke is on us.
Martha
I don’t usually like commercials. I suspect most of the viewers of the boob tube feel the same way. However we have all come to realize that commercials are the price we pay for free viewing content.
One of the biggest gripe about commercials is the fact they are so much louder than the programs. Some of them really blast out so that the mute button gets hit immediately. You would think the advertisers would have realized that by now, but it is very apparent they haven’t. I don’t know for sure who is to blame for this blasting of ads, the TV stations or someone else.
Some commercials can be quite entertaining, like some of the Geico and Capitol One ads. Some of the time I even watch those, except after awhile they begin to pall.
But some commercials just go a bit too far and fall into the ‘Quick, hit the mute button’ for most of us. Most of the ‘quick hit the mute button’ are the really obnoxious commercials like ‘Head on’ and there was a Vonage commercial that was really bad. Some more fit this category, but the ones that come to mind now are those terribly annoying commercials that want me to call now and order those junky products. What bargains they are! They will make my life so much easier! And just about all of them are only $19.95 (plus
shipping and handling). But Wait! If I order now, I will get a second product free! (In small print, plus shipping and handling. That makes it NOT free. Most all charge $7.99 for shipping and handling.)
The majority of these products are being touted by a guy named Billy Mays who must think we are all hard of hearing because he is shouting all during this spiel.
I think the mute button has to be one of the better inventions for the television industry. I sure use mine a lot!
Martha
Here’s more proof I was born 40 years too soon!
People under 30 don’t just sleepwalk, they use their cell phones in their sleep. If you don’t believe me just ‘Google’ sleep texting.
That’s something that I find hard to believe, but apparently it’s true. The experts seem to think it’s true. I am not so sure. I have heard that people have been know to drive, eat and do a lot of other things in their sleep. Since I don’t have any of those problems as far as I know, it’s hard for me to understand. (If I do those things in my sleep, how would I know?)
I just don’t understand the need to be ‘connected’ at every waking moment. I do have a cell phone, but it’s turned off most of the time. I have it for emergency use only.
The local news stations tell me I can access the weather news on my cell phone. Sounds handy, but I can do that on my computer. They say I can access the weather on my cell phone when the power goes off. I have a laptop and it runs off a battery when the power goes off.
Personally I don’t want that phone to become like a third part of me. I already have a third extension; my computer! However, when I leave the house I leave the computer at home. If I decide to work in the yard (I do occasionally), the computer is in the house, not attached to my body.
When I go shopping I concentrate on shopping. When I go to bed I certainly don’t take the cell phone to bed with me. I hear a lot of folks do that as well. When I am driving I need to be focused on where I am going and the traffic around me, not yapping on the phone.
Some jerk yapping on his phone changed lanes right in front of me once and I nearly hit him. He didn’t use signals, just pulled over. I hit my brakes and horn at the same time. He just kept yakking. It’s a good thing no one was tail-gateing me or I would have been hit from behind.
I don’t have a problem with other people using cell phones where ever they may be, but I think they shouldn’t use them while driving.
I told you I was born 40 years too soon. If I had been born 40 years later, I probably would have a cell phone attached to me somewhere, more than likely my ear!
Martha
Cell Phones
More proof I was born 40 years too soon!
People under 30 don’t just sleepwalk, they use their cell phones in their sleep. If you don’t believe me just ‘Google’ sleep texting.
That’s something that I find hard to believe, but apparently it’s true. The experts seem to think it’s true. I am not so sure. I have heard that people have been know to drive, eat and do a lot of other things in their sleep. Since I don’t have any of those problems as far as I know, it’s hard for me to understand. (If I do those things in my sleep, how would I know?)
I just don’t understand the need to be ‘connected’ at every waking moment. I do have a cell phone, but it’s turned off most of the time. I have it for emergency use only.
The local news stations tell me I can access the weather news on my cell phone. Sounds handy, but I can do that on my computer. They say I can access the weather on my cell phone when the power goes off. I have a laptop and it runs off a battery when the power goes off.
Personally I don’t want that phone to become like a third part of me. I already have a third extension; my computer! However, when I leave the house I leave the computer at home. If I decide to work in the yard (I do occasionally), the computer is in the house, not attached to my body.
When I go shopping I concentrate on shopping. When I go to bed I certainly don’t take the cell phone to bed with me. I hear a lot of folks do that as well. When I am driving I need to be focused on where I am going and the traffic around me, not yapping on the phone.
Some jerk yapping on his phone changed lanes right in front of me once and I nearly hit him. He didn’t look or use signals, just pulled over and almost hit me. I hit my brakes and horn at the same time. He just kept yakking. It’s a good thing no one was tail-gateing me or I would have been hit from behind.
I don’t have a problem with other people using cell phones where ever they may be, but I think they shouldn’t use them while driving.
I told you I was born 40 years too soon. If I had been born 40 years later, I probably would have a cell phone attached to me somewhere, more than likely my ear!
Martha
The first really important email newsletter, at least for me, was ‘The LangaList‘. This weekly missive by Fred Langa was something I
always looked forward to. He guided me through the ins and outs of fixing Windows problems, helped me make software decisions and just always provided a really good read. It was the first email newsletter I decided was worth paying for and it was worth every penny, plus a whole lot more.
It was with some trepidation when I received word that Fred was joining forces with Brian Livingston of WindowsSecrets (the second email newsletter I had decided was worth paying for). My fears were soon put to rest as Windows Secrets came along and seemed to get better with every issue. Windows Secrets is full of tips about fixing Windows Problems and also contains tidbits of what’s going on in the world of computing. It isn’t the LangaList, but close. I still miss those reader’s sites submitted to the LangaList. I found some real jewels there.
In my latest issue of Windows Secrets the announcement was made, Fred is leaving! So now I will no longer read those articles by Fred, at least not about computers. Fred is looking for new horizons and I hope he finds what he is looking for, as he truly deserves the best.
Maybe not all is lost, Fred does have a blog! But it isn’t about computers. It is about his new challenges which seems to be a lot of fun!
Although I don’t know if I would want to chase tornados, it sure might beat sitting at a computer all the time.
Good luck to you, Fred! Your loyal fans will miss you and a lot of them, like me, will keep up with you by reading your blog!
Martha
Read the fine print, always!
Sometimes I get the feeling that ‘they are out to get us’, ‘they’ meaning retail or service companies. The old saying ‘you get what you pay for’ is not always true any more. Sometimes you get a lot less of what you pay for, and I have been reading instances of folks not getting anything they paid for. (I love The Consumerist!)
Recently a major department store had an ad in my newspaper for a mattress sale. (Mattresses are always on sale somewhere.) I don’t need a new mattress, but the markdown was big enough to catch my eye. The mattresses were for a major brand and the prices were good, even for this retailer. And of course there was the ‘hook’, free delivery, setup and haul away of the old mattress listed in large print.
Except one little thing. There was a minimum purchase of $699 for the free delivery, set up and haul away. I found that very interesting. The sale price of a queen size set was $599, double set was $589 and twin sets $549. If you bought a queen set, which is probably the most purchased these days, the delivery was $65 and haul away $40. The only set that would qualify for the free delivery and haul away was a king size set for $999.
I wonder how many people bought one of these sets using a credit card and didn’t notice the delivery and haul away charges. I am quite sure the retailer was hoping this would happen. If those folks are like a number of my friends, they carry a balance on their cards and probably just pay the required payments when they are due.
There are a number of retail department stores experiencing low sales these days. I don’t suppose they have any idea that legal but deceptive practices like these may just cost them future business.
Martha
For a whole lot of folks there are not enough hours in a day and for another bunch there are too many.
Normally there are 24 hours in a day, except twice a year. The first time a day doesn’t have 24 hours is in the late Winter/early Spring, when the so-called day has 23 hours. Then late in the Fall/early Winter there is a so-called day with 25 hours. The powers that be change the actual dates this happens and who knows when they will change the dates again. When we change our clocks for the exact dates and times. (You probably thought it was the same down through the years, but no, it wasn’t!)
It seems that many years ago, in 1784 to be exact, good ole Ben Franklin wrote a fanciful essay about saving daylight. It was surely written in jest and no one at the time really took it seriously. The people back then seemed to be more endowed with ‘common sense’!
Then in 1916, in an effort to save energy resources, it was decided to actually implement the farce known as ‘Daylight Saving Time’. Perhaps it did save some energy, but the amount of energy saved surely did not compensate for the effect of changing the time on the population. Losing an hour of sleep once a year may not seem like such a big deal, but statistics show there are more traffic accidents on the Monday following the ‘Spring forward’ event. In today’s fast paced world most people don’t get enough sleep as it is and taking a precious hour of slumber away is tantamount to a criminal act. Not to mention all of the aggravation!
A recent study published by Consumer Reports indicates that Daylight Saving Time is actually costing us more money! While we may be saving the cost of lighting, air conditioning and heating cost us more due to the time changes.
However, I doubt the powers that be that make the decisions will even look at the statistics showing the actual cost and will continue to make the population suffer through losing sleep one day a year.
Martha
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