Bimbo wipes out Sara Lee

Today. we went out to the "used bread" store on Silver Lake Road to stock up on our favorite English Muffin Toasting Bread. The stuff is perfect for breakfast toast, French toast, grilled cheese sandwiches and BLT's. Since we use it almost exclusively, we like to keep plenty on hand. The price at the local grocery stores is close to $4.00--the price at the outlet store is half that much.

                                                                                                                                         

                     (They're small loaves so they don't last long.)
When we got to the Sara Lee Bakery Outlet, there was a handwritten sign on the door that the tiny store will be closing on December 14th. We picked up six loaves of the wonderful stuff and asked the lady at the cash register it they were just moving to a new location. She said that a Mexican Corporation called Bimbo Baking had bought out Sara Lee and they were closing all the outlet stores. (Bimbo also bought out Hostess when they went bankrupt and the famous Twinkies were off the market for a while.)

This is the store where we buy big bags of outdated bread to feed the wildlife in the wooded lot. But more than that, it's the store where charities buy bread to make sandwiches for homeless people. It's the store where many elderly and folks on food stamps go to extend their food budget. I can well imagine that there are customers of that store who have had to rely on it for a large part of their diet.

I don't know who will step in and make up for the loss of the last remaining bakery outlets in the Twin Cities. It will be a hardship on a lot of people--and even worse, this comes at the same time that Food Stamp benefits are being reduced. It seems like the poor just can't catch a break!

The Zombie Effect

I've been feeling really dragged out in recent weeks. I have low energy and I'm headachy, dizzy, unable to concentrate and irritable.

I'm especially lethargic today. So, I'm lying on the couch thinking about what changes I've made in the last several months that may be causing it. I got to thinking about my sleep therapist appointment several months ago.

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea back in 2000 and I've been using a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine ever since.

                                    (This is not me.)
After getting a newer machine recently, the sleep therapist asked me if I had trouble with my mouth drying out during the night. When I said I sometimes did, she suggested that I switch from taking Benadryl (a decongestant and sleep aid) to Melatonin at bedtime. I've been taking it for a month now.

I just googled Melatonin side effects and got a shock. The information provided by a doctor on the Mayo Clinic site said that the dose for a sleep aid should be .5 mg and for bigger problems like jet lag, it should be 3 to 5 mg. I checked the bottle of melatonin to see the dosage I'm taking and it's a whopping 10 mg! Why would they even sell it in such high doses?

No wonder I'm feeling like a zombie (don't tell John Gray!). Needless to say, I'm going off the Melatonin now!

I hope to be feeling chirpier in a few days and then I can contact the company that sells the nasty stuff!

If Volvo made computers, just think!

A 72-year-old man from New York is in the home stretch to reach 3 million miles on his '66 Volvo P1800S. He paid $4,150 back in 1966 for the red two-door car. He plans to travel this summer and get the 34,000 additional miles racked up. 

Just think if all manufacturers made such enduring products!

                               (With a nod to Owl Wood!)                 

Die, Rachel, Die!

The headline, dated April 1st, reads, "FTC pulls the plug on rogue telemarketing operation".  I cheered that at long last, our national nightmare is over! Never again would "Rachel of Card-holder Services" be harassing hundreds of thousands of decent citizens.

The news story goes on to state the despicable Asia Pacific Telecom company that has bombarded the US population with 2.6 billion recorded calls has reached a settlement to cease operations. The company was fined a measly $5.3 million and ordered to turn over all their assets. They were also ordered to properly dispose of all the phone numbers they had taken illegally from the National Do Not Call Registry.

Rachel at Card-holder Services is marketing "worthless debt-reduction services" according to the Federal Trade Commission. I know, because she calls me regularly. The automated phone message prompts you to press three if you want to discontinue calls. Of course, this is just a ruse to let them know an actual person has answered and not a machine. There is a prompt to press one if you want to talk to an agent. In desperation, I tried that several times and asked the "agents" to please remove my number from their call list. They would just hang up on me. So, for years I have just laid down the phone and walked away.

Yes, I said years! It's utterly ridiculous how ineffectual the FTC has been in shutting down this nasty operation that flagrantly defies the law and bilks thousands of people with worthless services. If you want to see how big the problem has been, just Google "Rachel at Card-Holder Services".

So, I was elated that the FTC had, at long last, done their job and protected us from the ongoing harassing and obnoxious calls. Until I got another call from Rachel a little while ago! Aarrrgh!

How I fumigated my bathroom--A serious story (Re-post)

 I don't have any sense of smell. I wasn't always this way; when I was a kid my mom would always ask me to smell the milk if she thought it had turned. She had lost her sense of smell so I guess it runs in the family.

Because I can't smell, whenever I'm cleaning I worry that everything reeks and I must take special pains to freshen it up. This is in addition to getting rid of cobwebs from a thriving population of house spiders--but I digress.

Case in point: Cleaning the bathroom.

I poured an ample amount of blue liquid stuff in the toilet to let it "steep" while I scrubbed the bathtub and sink. When I mopped the floor, I noticed that the plastic caddy that holds the toilet brush had water sitting in it. Since it was likely that the water might smell, I poured the water into the toilet.

Now this is the stupid, serious part. Just to make absolutely, positively sure the caddy didn't smell, I decided to rinse it out with some bleach. I swished the bleach around and then poured it into the blue water in the toilet.

It took a minute before my fractured olfactories began to sense the fumes. My nose actually starting burning. I quickly turned on the ceiling fan and got out of there, closing the door behind me.

I knew that you should never mix ammonia and chlorine bleach. In fact, I once read of a woman who died while cleaning her unventilated bathroom. So I inspected the label on the toilet cleaner to see if it contained ammonia (which I never would have expected). It wasn't listed on the contents. But, in tiny 8-pt letters on the back, it said not to mix it with bleach.

C'mon! That should be in BIG RED letters on the front!

It wasn't until late evening that I could open the door to the bathroom again. But, by golly, there was nary a spider in there. I hope they died quickly and painlessly.

I don't hate or fear spiders and generally try to co-exist with them. I practice catch and release whenever necessary--like a really big, obnoxious-looking spider. I'm not heartless, after all.

FUN FACT: No matter where you are in the world, there is probably a spider within six feet.

(When I originally posted this, Pearl commented, "That is NOT a fun fact!")

What you should know...

I enjoy reading a wide variety of blogs. All of them offer humor or sharing, different slants on the world and often provide real facts and knowledge.

Case in point:  The Equalizer/Frances Cerra Whittlesey

The writer is a consumer advocate and activist. She has written several recent articles on the scandal of unnecessary hysterectomies and the devastating after-effects it can have on women's health and happiness.

I was shocked at what she has to say.