A Different After Dinner Drink

During the cool weather part of the year I often drink a cup of herbal or decaffeinated tea in the evening. I enjoy trying new flavors. The last time I was in a fancy tea shop I saw something called barley tea on the shelf.

The associate explained the roasted barley drink was a popular in many Asian countries, particularly Japan, China, and Korea. She said it had no caffeine, and many people find the drink coffee-like in taste. When I found a small bag of Apple Barley teabags in the clearance section I decided to bring it home and give it a try.

I brew my tea a cup at a time, and I'm sure a purist would shudder at my method. After my favorite mug is filled with water I add a tea bag, heat the mug in the microwave, and then let the tea brew for a few minutes before pulling the bag out.

The barley tea is nothing like the light and minty chamomile combinations, invigorating ginger blends,  or the tart and fruity hibiscus-based mixtures I usually drink, but it's a nice change of pace. Its flavor is slightly bitter, toasty, and nutty and the apple taste is barely noticeable.

 How about you? Are you a tea drinker? Have you ever had barley tea (and if so, what did you think of it)?

Five years ago today: Worth A Watch

Commandments for seniors

I'm sure you've heard the old saying "April showers bring May flowers". If that's true, the atmospheric river of rain we're scheduled to get this weekend should mean that there will be blooms everywhere! Newsweek quotes AccuWeather meteorologists, who say that a "1,000-mile swath through the central U.S. could see four months' worth of rain in only five days this week".

While I hunker down inside and stay dry, here are some funnies to ponder:

• The ability to speak several languages is an asset, but the ability to keep your mouth shut in any language is priceless.

• Just once, I want the prompt for username and password to say, “Close enough.”

• Becoming an adult is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.

• I hate it when I can’t figure out how to operate the iPad and my tech support guy is asleep. He’s 5 and it’s past his bedtime.

• Why do I have to press one for English when you're just going to transfer me to someone I can't understand anyway?

• You don't need anger management. You need people to stop irritating you.

• Even duct tape can't fix stupid – but it sure does muffle the sound.

• Talk to yourself. There are times when you need expert advice.

• Aging has slowed you down, but it hasn't shut you up.

Dawning

Almost a month ago when I rolled out of bed, before Daylight Savings Time started for the year, there was a tiny bit of brightness coming through the blinds. After the time shift, the bedroom went back to being completely dark first thing in the morning. However, I knew that eventually the longer days would come back.

Wikimedia Commons

And they did. Last Saturday I was almost able to find my clothes in the dresser using just natural light, and according to WillyWeather, today's first light was even six minutes earlier than that, so the room was even incrementally brighter. I thought that was exciting, and so did the newly-returned birds I heard chirping outside.

Five years ago today: Take One, Leave One

Meet Me At The Park

A couple of weeks ago the cat rescue Hubby Tony and I foster through offered volunteers the opportunity to attend this afternoon's St. Louis City SC Major League Soccer game as part of the team's community appreciation program. The team just began playing in 2023, and we haven't had a chance to see a match yet. We jumped at the opportunity.

However, for the past few days the meteorologists were warning about potential severe weather in the afternoon (heavy rain, strong wind, very large hail, and possible tornadoes). To us the key word was potential, so we decided not to worry about it. However we did decide to utilize a parking garage some distance away and travel downtown on the Metrolink light rail to keep the car safe just in case the forecasters were correct.

Soccer games don't stop for normal precipitation, and umbrellas are banned in the stadium, so we both brought rain jackets. It was a good thing we did, because on the walk to the stadium it started raining. We pulled out the jackets. Ten minutes later it stopped, and by the time the game started it was sunny. I realized that I hadn't used sunscreen and worried about burning.

I decided to wear a cat shelter logo shirt, but was in the tiny minority that did not have some type of City logo clothing on. However, the shirt was a nice way for other volunteers to identify me. Today's opponent was Austin, represented on the scoreboard as ATX. Tony eventually figured out the initials stood for Austin Texas. Our seats were close to the diehard fan supporters section, where the groups waved flags, sang, chanted, and beat drums during the entire game.

After the first half City was down by one goal. Ten minutes into the second half an announcement was made that there was thunder in the area and play would stop until it passed. The total delay ended up being about 50 minutes. After the game resumed City tried their best, but lost the game 0-1. Tony and I agreed we still had a great time.

Five years ago today: Rules From The Male Side

You're Getting Old!

I was recently introduced to the entertaining website You're Getting Old!, which offers all types of facts about a person's age. The process starts by inputting a birth date:

I found out that I was 24,182 days old. In addition to reading about facts about historical and cultural events that have taken place during my my life I also found out that:

• My age in days equaled those of the singer Adele plus the actress Kristen Stewart added together.

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 24,177 days ago on October 31st, 1892 (which is nearer to my birth date than today).

• Over the years, I've had 2,211 candles on my birthday cakes.

• The moon has orbited the earth 885 times since I was born.

• Out of 100,000 people born on the same day as I was, approximately 78,719 are still living

Five years ago today: Adventures In Yoga, Virtually

It Was Beautiful Day To Learn Something

Last Friday I was reading the calendar section of the paper and saw that Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum was having a Medal of Honor walking tour today. The event description on the cemetary website said:

Join us at the Arboretum on Medal of Honor Day for our special walking tour. During this two-hour walking tour, you will visit the graves of the 10 Medal of Honor recipients laid to rest at Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum.  At each grave, their accomplishments will be read aloud from the submissions made to secure their accommodation. Attendees will carry flags to each burial location and be part of honoring these 10 heroes of our country.

There was nothing on the calendar, so Hubby Tony and I decided to go.

By the time the tour started at 1:30 pm it was sunny and warm enough to just need a fleece jacket. There were approximately 20 people on the tour, and most looked to be approximately my age. I learned that today was one of the two times each year that the medal recipients had the American and Medal of Honor flags next to their graves refreshed. (The other is on Veteran's Day.)

As the tour left the gathering building each person grabbed a flag (either American or Medal of Honor). At each grave, someone carrying an American flag placed it on the left of the tombstone and someone carrying a Medal of Honor flag did the same thing on the right. The tour guide read the official proclamation that listed their accomplishments and provided extra information.

The vast majority of Medal of Honor recipients at the cemetery fought in the Civil War, but there was one from World War I and one from the U.S.-Korean Conflict of 1871, which I hadn't heard of before. At the end of the walk the group dispersed with no fanfare. 

I can't speak for anyone else, but I was glad to have had the opportunity to combine a nice walk with a little bit of history.

Five years ago today: Let There Be Light

I Found A Government Worker Who Gave A Hoot!

It was almost a month ago that I mailed information to Medicare to prove that I had prescription coverage in 2024.

The USPS Priority envelope I sent was supposed to be delivered within five days. On Day Four I checked the USPS website and the envelope was still in transit. I got the same result on Day Five and Day Seven. On Day Ten the message changed to tell me that they weren't sure when the envelope would actually be delivered.

The lack of mailing success and the reported snafus in the federal workforce made me quite pessimistic that anything would get done. Mike left a comment on the original post, which said "I think the government workers that might get fired don't give a hoot right now." My reply was "I agree. However, I have my fingers crossed that I might find the one who does."

Two days ago I received an envelope from my secondary insurance company. I removed the enclosed letter and began reading.... 

In case it's not big enough, the letter says:

Beneficiary Notice of Late Enrollment Penalty Adjustment Report

Medicare notified us that your late enrollment penalty was recently removed. We are writing to notify you of this change and to confirm the late enrollment penalty has been removed.

I was so happy I did a little happy dance in the kitchen, then filed the letter in case I need to prove everything again some time in the future.

Five years ago today: I Am A Cat And I Sleep Wherever I Want

Plant Kingdom Propagation

Last spring Hubby Tony and I went to our city's farmer's market on opening day. There was a band playing, plants and produce for sale, vendors giving out samples. I spun a wheel of chance and won a small starter pot of mint plant.

Near the end of our visit Tony and I were sitting on a retaining wall listening to the music. I looked down and saw several sedum (stonecrop) leaves laying on the ground. I figured I the fallen leaves were fair game and knew they were easy to propagate. I picked them up and brought them home.

Back at the condo, I discovered I had gotten rid of all my flower pots, but I punched some holes in two recycled plastic containers and added soil. The mint went in one container. In the other I laid the sedum leaves on top of the soil. A month later some of the sedum leaves had shriveled up and died, but several had started growing tiny roots. All summer I watered the plants when I remembered to, and when I went out of town I took the containers down to my neighbor's deck.

Surprisingly, the mint never took off. The sedum plants grew, and when a big rainstorm came through a couple of leaves were knocked off and started growing themselves. At the end of the season I had to figure out what to do with the plants. The condo doesn't have any good place for house plants, and I knew there wasn't enough sun for the mint, but since sedum is sometimes grown as a house plant I decided to bring the pot inside and see what happened. It's made it through, but at this point is looking pretty scraggly.

Today, of course, is the first day of spring. Thanks to some above average temperatures a different variety of sedum in the living retaining wall across the street from our building has started to green up for the year. However, since the average last frost date for the area is April 7th I'm going to leave my fabricated houseplant inside until then. I think it will be happy to feel Nature.

Five years ago today: Virtual Fun

Where In The World?

This afternoon I was doing a puzzle where all of the answers were names of countries. There was a list of county names, and the goal was to fit them together on a crossword puzzle grid. Reading down the list most of the countries were familiar, but down near the bottom of the list I saw Tuvalu, which I had never heard of.

A quick internet search told me that Tuvalu is an island country in the Pacific Ocean, about midway between Hawaii and Australia. I started wondering how many other countries I didn't know.

According to the United Nations there are 195 recognized countries in the world. (Two of them are non-members-Vatican City and the State of Palestine.) To find out the country names I scrolled down the list on the World Countries List and found 11 that were new to me.

• Comoros, Djibouti, Mayotte, and Reunion Island are in the Eastern Africa region.
• Guadaloupe is in the Lesser Antiles/Caribbean region
• Kiribati and the Northern Mariana Islands are in the Micronesia/Oceania region
• Pitcairn Island and Wallis and Futuna Islands are in the Polynesia/Oceania region
• Tokelau is in the Oceania/Australia region
• And the Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark in Northern Europe
  

Five years ago: The Wearing Of The Green

What A Week!

Every time I've turned around this week there's another notable date on the calendar!

March 11-National COVID-19 Day (The day that the World Health Organization declared COVID a global pandemic. Not exactly a celebratory event, but this meme showed up in my Facebook memories today and still makes me laugh.)

March 14-Pi Day (A celebration of π, the mathematical symbol used to represent a the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter)

Also March 14-314 Day (The original area code for St. Louis is 314, so on this day the city's uniqueness is celebrated)

March 15-Ides of March (The day Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE)

March 17-St. Patrick's Day (A celebration of the patron saint of Ireland. The area hosts two parades-one yesterday and another tomorrow.)

Five years ago: The New (Temporary) Normal