Musings from the Middle: That Musings from the Middle: That Musings from the Middle: That Musings from the Middle: That’’s what I prefer s what I prefer s what I prefer s what I prefer 6 66

Musings from the Middle: That’s what I prefer

by Cathy Allie

It likely began in the air over Los Angeles, when the first smartly dressed TWA flight attendant asked the traveler, “Coffee? Tea? Water? What would you prefer?” The beloved pre-school teacher’s mantra, “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit” got thrown right out the proverbial window, in this case at about 42,000 feet, with that very first mention of a preference. The restaurant industry followed shortly, really aiming to please their customers by allowing almost every preference to be met. Booth or table? Lemon in your ice water? Loaded or plain baked potato? Salad dressing on the side? You say you would like sweetener for your tea? Which of these three kinds would you prefer? Then it was a short leap from restaurants to our own homes. I follow the blog of a really creative mom with three young kids. Luckily none of them are allergic to peanut butter, a lunch staple, but get this: all three kids each prefer a different kind of peanut butter. Never satisfying my curiosity and the very obvious question about how they even knew there were multiple kinds, blogger mom honors their preference. “They are just expressing their individuality,“ she writes. The adults in my life must have gotten individuality confused with being picky brats, which is what they would have called us if we had complained about the peanut butter. Luckily my mom was a good cook, but let me assure you, she wasn’t much interested in our preferences. Maybe the spaghetti had meatballs, maybe it had meat sauce. Sometimes the lima beans had corn mixed in with them, and sometimes they didn’t (which frankly didn’t matter because we didn’t want to eat them anyway). Our sandwiches were cut in rectangular halves, no trimmed crusts and no fancy triangles or star shaped cut outs. If it was baloney day, she chose the cheese, and the only choice we had was mustard or mayo. She didn’t poll us for our preferences on how our egg was going to be cooked at breakfast each morning. If one of us had scrambled eggs (which for some reason still taste better out of Mom’s skillet), all of us had scrambled eggs. I am guessing I would have liked an occasional Ritz cracker rather than a saltine, but we weren’t busy making sure our preferences were known. And we survived quite nicely. Some preferences are naturally easier to honor. When you bake a pan of brownies, somebody usually prefers the crispier edge pieces and somebody prefers the gooier center pieces. It is still all coming from one pan of brownies, and no, I was not tempted to buy the recently advertised all crispy tunnel looking brownie pan. It’s okay for people to have a preference when you are passing a platter of turkey because dark meat and white meat are right there available for the taking. I also support steak houses asking our preference on how done we want our steaks because it is an expensive cut of meat that we are treating ourselves to. My preference for a medium steak probably came from my dad slaving over a charcoal grill and finally giving up, plating it, telling us that is how it was supposed to look, and not asking us to cut into it in case we wanted it cooked a little more. The rumors of people out there who like their steak moo’ing and some who like it charred are surely true. While I personally prefer a medium warm center, I have seen these mavericks in restaurants, sending back their steaks, like Goldilocks rejecting one chair or bed or porridge after another until one is just right. As I age, some of the choices we are offered in the name of honoring preferences kind of wear me out. Case in point, every once in a while the hubs and I pretend we are young and hit up the local site of a nationwide breakfast chain. We always do this on a day we know we can go home and nap off our food coma afterward; and by the way, I prefer the couch with a quilt for a quick nap, and an actual bed with a cotton blanket for anything much over an hour. We get our coffee from the gum snapping waitress, and we each order the house special, which will be likely be delivered on a variety of not so clean looking plates, despite our preference for spotless plates and utensils. Last time we went, I felt a little like I did when Mr. Hile would randomly call on me in Geometry class. “Quadrilateral? “ I would guess, and he would just shake his head, while I silently made plans to go home with Carla to copy her homework again. Back to the greasy spoon. Did I want my hash browns crispy or soft? Bacon, sausage patty, sausage links, or ham? Grits or toast? Eggs over-easy, hard, or scrambled? Waffle or toast? Toast you say? Sourdough, wheat, or white? Real butter or margarine? I was so scared to make a mistake, to one of the questions I just meekly answered, “Yes.” The Flo wannabe stared at me, uncomprehending, then finally looked over at my husband and said, “Do YOU know what she wants?” Luckily, he does, and if it wasn’t what I wanted when it arrives, he will just give me his breakfast and suck it up. Now there’s a guy that was raised not to have a preference, someone to truly love. I guess I should be grateful he preferred me over his other dates. When we married, I knew he was darn near perfect, because he truly didn’t have any discernable preferences at all. He let me choose the side of the bed, which cabinets the plates and glasses went into, even our china pattern. I got to park my car on the right because it was easier to back out of the garage on that side. Then came the day when he unpacked groceries to put them away. How could I have missed this crucial preference of his? Apparently he preferred jamming the cans onto the shelves all willy nilly and unreadable without a lot of effort or any organizational strategy at all. Who doesn’t put soups together? Why were the beans all divided by short condensed milk cans? He has since changed his preference for can arrangement, likely due to my excellent tutelage and example. At least I don’t have something as pedestrian as a dishwasher loading preference. I am so happy when anybody else mentions they will help with dishes, they can load them any darned way they want to. But my friend’s preference about how her dishes go into her dishwasher has caused her a bunch of razzing. One night at a party she was hosting, two of us offered to clean up for her. She finally accepted and just told us to put as much as we could into the dishwasher. She walked into the kitchen when we were about halfway finished with our mission. She froze in her tracks, and we could tell from her look we had somehow gone astray. “Oh…they actually go this way,” she said, and adjusted the plates on the dishwasher’s bottom rack. I started to reorganize the remainder of them, but my co-loader intervened, wanting to know why the other way wouldn’t work. What ensued was a bunch of half-hearted explanations that finally ended with the hostess friend mumbling about the original manufacturer‘s instructions having diagrams of proper loading. In truth, it was just her preference. Through somewhat incoherent cursing, my pal began to rearrange, but as soon as the hostess left the room, she quickly flipped them back. I cannot remember her exact words, but I think she said, “The sun will come up tomorrow whichever way they are loaded, “ or maybe it was, “That’s a load of something…” Sure, there are some preferences that really are important, like high heels or flats, who we spend time with, No. 1 or No. 2 pencils, the type of car we drive, crushed or cubed ice, where we live and work, shaken or stirred, toothpaste flavors. I bet some people think Coke or Pepsi is an important preference. Those of us who have experienced a perfect soda suicide mix know that it doesn’t really matter at all. Preferences should also not be confused with highly distinguished favorites like the month of August, dark rinse jeans, and praline-flavored anything, which have risen to the top after years of testing out other options. They are not simply preferences. They are a way of life. Heading into my landing, let’s circle down the runway back to the airlines, where this whole preference thing started, and where I recently booked some travel for my boss. I selected the carrier, got to note his preference for the flight’s departure and arrival times, where and how much space he would have to stash his carry on, the amount of leg room, and an aisle, center, or window seat. Is this where the joke about you can pick your friends and pick your seat but you shouldn’t pick your friend’s seat goes? When my boss came back from travel, I asked about his flight. “I had great seats both ways, plenty of room to stretch out, and my bag was actually right above me for a change,” he said. I smiled, but inside I was irritated; not with him, but with myself. My boss may not like his trip so much the next time; when I finished my purchase and went to pay, I forgot to save his darned preferences.

Cathy is a retired public school English teacher and Public Information Officer.

Clean, stain, and entertain: easy ways to prep your deck for summer fun

State Wide Pale Ale to benefit Veterans Community Project

Helpful tips from Westlake Ace Hardware

If 2020 taught us anything, it was a renewed appreciation of our homes and how we can make them as comfortable and fun as possible – especially in the summer. With more people spending time in their backyards, decks likely got their fair share of use and might be looking faded and worn from sunlight and moisture. Spring is a great time to treat your deck to a little TLC and prep it for the months ahead. Taking the time now to clean and refinish it means that you’ll be able to extend your outdoor fun well into fall and beyond. Contrary to popular belief, refinishing a deck doesn’t need to take a lot of time and effort. Here are three easy steps from Westlake Ace Hardware on how to spruce up a deck with minimum work and maximum success. 1. Inspect and repair. Reset popped nail heads and replace rusted nails. Remove soft, split, or rotted boards, check rails and steps for loose parts, and repair or replace items as needed. If your deck has multiple stories or extends from the second floor of your house, inspect the underside of it for any problem areas and address those. 2. Scrub and clean. Thoroughly sweep your deck with a broom or clear off debris quickly with the help of a leaf blower. Using a premium deck cleaner product made specifically for the job, scrub by hand with a stiff brush or broom or use a power washer to apply deck cleaner and let it set for 10 minutes before rinsing it off. Pay special attention to corners, upright surfaces, and crevices as you clean the deck. Let the deck dry before staining. Depending on the weather, this may take a few hours or up to a day. 3. Stain and protect. If the deck is sun -damaged and faded, or if you’ve installed new wood floorboards or railings, you will need to apply a stain or a clear water sealer. Using a high-quality brush, roller, paint pad, or sprayer, apply stain or sealer when the air temperature is between 50-80 degrees Fahrenheit – this allows for consistent and even drying. Be sure to stir your stain often as you apply because it contains resins suspended in water to provide deep penetration, color retention, and maximum durability. Cover any nearby plant containers, bushes, or flowers to protect them. A clear water sealer does not color the wood and is designed primarily for protection against moisture. Products that contain both sealer and stain contain pigment that helps protect against damage from sunlight and water. Working from the far corner of the deck to the exit, on 10 to 15 square feet sections of boards at a time, apply the sealer in the same way as you would if applying stain. The sealer should be allowed to dry at least 24 hours after application, so make sure there is no rain in the forecast. Photo courtesy Westlake Ace Hardware Photo courtesy Westlake Ace Hardware Photo courtesy Westlake Ace Hardware Photo courtesy Westlake Ace Hardware

About Westlake Ace Hardware Headquartered in the Kansas City area, 115-year-old Westlake Ace Hardware has been the helpful neighborhood hardware store countless generations have shopped at for power and hand tools, fasteners, paint, plumbing, lawn care, pet, electrical supplies, and BBQ grills and accessories. It has been part of the Ace Hardware Cooperative since 1959, and a whollyowned Ace subsidiary since 2012.

4 Hands Brewing Co. is pleased to announce the launch of their newest philanthropic beer State Wide. The new hazy pale ale with notes of citrus and stone fruit will join City Wide as another 4 Hands beer that gives back to the community. A portion of every State Wide purchase will be donated to Veteran’s Community Project (VCP) who are dedicated to supporting every man and woman who took the oath for our country. Look for the new 16 oz fourpacks of State Wide at retailers across the Show Me State starting on May 4. The new beer label representing the Missouri flag was created by Jason Spencer of Killer Napkins. Founded in 2016 by combat veterans and headquartered in Kansas City, VCP offers an innovative village of tiny houses and outreach assistance that provides inclusive services to aid at-risk and homeless Veterans. For more information, visit www.veteranscommunityproject.org

Photo courtesy 4 Hands Brewing Company Photo courtesy 4 Hands Brewing Company Photo courtesy 4 Hands Brewing Company Photo courtesy 4 Hands Brewing Company

How to drive safely with pets

(StatePoint) Pets are beloved members of many families. In the U.S alone, about 85 million families own a pet. According to the American Pet Products Association, many of us also drive with our furry friends, from quick trips to the veterinarian’s office to longer road trip adventures. A recent national survey by Erie Insurance found that more than half of its respondents plan to take at least one road trip this year and 4% plan on traveling with pets. However, traveling with an animal can be dangerous if appropriate safety measures are not taken. Celebrated in May, this National Pet Month is a good time to brush up on a few safety precautions:

Tips for traveling with a dog: Tips for traveling with a dog: Tips for traveling with a dog: Tips for traveling with a dog: 1. Restrain your pet. A proper restraint will protect your dog if an accident should occur. The Center for Pet Safety recommends using a quality crashtested harness to keep your dog safe. 2. Rein in your pooch. Allowing your dog to stick their head out the window is more dangerous than it seems. It can cause road debris to get into their eyes, nose and mouth and potentially lead to serious injuries. 3. Minimize distractions. Erie Insurance found in its recent national survey that 5% of respondents are distracted by their dog when driving. To avoid disruptions, keep them in the back seat and never allow your dog to sit on your lap. Use a barrier to avoid a dog making its way to the front, and avoid feeding and playing with your dog while driving.

Tips for traveling with a cat: Tips for traveling with a cat: Tips for traveling with a cat: Tips for traveling with a cat: 1. Use a proper carrier. Cats become easily stressed when traveling. To keep them safe and comfortable, you’ll want to place them in a sturdy carrier that provides enough room for them to move around. 2. Practice safe exits. Only let your cat out of the carrier when parked. Make sure your cat is wearing a harness and leash before exiting the vehicle. Should your cat get startled and run, a harness and leash will allow you to rein them in, keeping them out of harm’s way.

General tips for traveling with pets: General tips for traveling with pets: General tips for traveling with pets: General tips for traveling with pets: 1. Never leave a pet in a hot car. Leaving any kind of pet alone in a vehicle is extremely dangerous. According to the Humane Society of the Unites States, a vehicle’s temperature can quickly exceed 120 degrees in warm weather, leaving your pet at risk of brain damage, heat stroke and suffocation. 2. Be prepared in case of emergency. Should anything go wrong, plan to contact a nearby vet. Healthypet.com allows you to search by ZIP code for American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) accredited clinics.

Even when taking appropriate precautions, accidents still happen. An auto insurance policy can protect you financially and provide peace of mind. Some companies, including Erie Insurance, offer coverage to help with vet treatment costs if your pet is hurt in a car accident. “We recognize that pets are a valued part of many families,” said Jon Bloom, vice president of personal auto at Erie Insurance. “This is why we believe it’s so important to include pet coverage in our auto policy.” To protect your beloved companions and your vehicle, talk to an insurance agent or visit ErieInsurance.com. This National Pet Month, be sure you have all the know-how needed to comfortably and safely take any length car trip with your pet.

A straightforward weekend breakfast

(Culinary.net) There are no alarms set and you are cuddled up in bed after a good night’s sleep. It’s late morning and there is nowhere to go, no rushing around to do. No school bus, no work to be done, just relaxing at home with loved ones. However, breakfast is calling your name. Your stomach rumbles as your stumble toward the kitchen. You need something quick and effortless. The kids will be up soon and you know food will be on their minds. When you’re in a pinch, there is nearly nothing better to make than something sweet and filling for a weekend family breakfast. Try these simple and delicious Caramel Sticky Rolls for an easy breakfast for all. The rolls are fluffy, a little crunchy and drizzled with caramel topping. Your family will love it and don’t be surprised if you get a request or two for this breakfast again.

Find more quick weekend recipes at Culinary.net. Caramel Sticky Rolls Caramel Sticky Rolls Caramel Sticky Rolls Caramel Sticky Rolls Servings: 9

Nonstick cooking spray flour, for rolling pastry 1 frozen puff pastry, thawed caramel sauce, divided ½ cup walnuts, chopped powdered sugar

Heat oven to 400 F. Spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle flour on work surface. Flatten pastry sheet and roll into rectangle. Drizzle caramel sauce over pastry and spread within ½ inch of edges. Sprinkle chopped walnuts over caramel sauce. Starting on short end, evenly roll pastry with filling to other end. Cut pastry into nine pieces. Place pastries cut side up into muffin cups.

Bake 22 minutes, or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan to wire rack. Let cool 10 minutes. Drizzle with additional caramel sauce and dust with powdered sugar.

Tick season is here. Here’s why you should save all the critters you find.

by Brittany Callan, The Beacon

Scientists are asking Missouri residents to send them live ticks in the mail in an effort to better understand the diseases spread by the tiny arachnid. Missouri has the highest prevalence in the U.S. of a tick-borne bacterial disease called ehrlichiosis, according to Deborah Hudman, senior researcher at A.T. Still University in northeast Missouri. “Missouri is the tick bite capital of the nation,” said William Stoecker, a dermatologist in Rolla, Missouri. In Hudman’s research in Adair County in northeastern Missouri, she found that 25% of ticks were carrying the bacteria that causes ehrlichiosis. Physicians told her they’ve seen large numbers of patients with tick-borne diseases. And people spending time in the outdoors have noticed higher numbers of ticks. “I surveyed the local residents and they said, ‘I’m pulling more than 26 ticks off of me a year,’” Hudman said. Erin Skornia, 40, resident of Jefferson City, Missouri, has had three different kinds of tick-borne disease. Most recently, she had Rocky Mountain spotted fever. In August, she went to the doctor with neck pain, swollen lymph nodes and rashes on her calves after being bitten by ticks on a jog. Both of her parents also recently had Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Skornia is a botanist and got ehrlichiosis while working on a conservation project in 2015 and Lyme disease in 2009 while mushroom hunting in the Martin City area of Kansas City. Both times, her first symptom was diarrhea. With Lyme disease, Skornia also had a fever, fatigue, emotional issues and swollen lymph nodes. Now, Skornia documents all of her encounters with ticks in a calendar. She also takes precautions against ticks, like treating long socks with permethrin, an insecticide usually used to treat scabies and lice, before going outside. “There is little awareness from people who aren’t outdoorsy people,” Skornia said. “People don’t know about it.” Why Why Why Why ‘ ‘‘ ‘citizen science citizen science citizen science citizen science’ ’ ’ ’ is important is important is important is important and helpful and helpful and helpful and helpful Ticks, which pass disease when latching onto a host, are most active in the Kansas City area from March through September, although they can be found throughout the year. The southern tick-associated rash illness was first described and diagnosed by Missouri physicians. And a host of other tick-borne pathogens can be found in Missouri, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, the Heartland and Bourbon viruses and tularemia. Hudman wants to use “citizen science” to learn more about what kinds of ticks are found in different regions of Missouri and what types of disease they carry. “I am asking every person from the state of Missouri, from all reaches, if they can send me what ticks they interact with,” Hudman said. The new research study is a collaboration between A.T. Still University and the Missouri Department of Conservation. In the Missouri Department of Conservation’s outreach on social media and other platforms, there’s been a lot of concern about ticks. There weren’t any large-scale research studies being done in the state on the topic. Missouri is considered a gap state by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when it comes to knowledge of the prevalence of different pathogens in ticks, Hudman said. “It gets overlooked,” Hudman said. “It took a long time for people to get awareness of Lyme disease. These other tick-borne diseases are very much understudied.” The study counts on members of the public to mail in ticks they find while they’re outdoors. During the first two weeks of the study, Hudman has already received over 800 ticks from 93 counties, out of 114. “The response has been phenomenal,” Hudman said. “People are very interested in this, and they are helping me so much by sending me these ticks.” Citizen science helps researchers solve problems that would be resourceintensive otherwise. The geographic range that the study can get from using citizens is more than what researchers could do on their own. And the budget it would take to hire people to collect ticks from across the state would be unreasonable, Hudman said. It also gives researchers more information about what types of ticks people are naturally interacting with. Citizen science can also raise awareness and make people more invested in research problems. “They are going to be thinking about (ticks) more and looking at them more on their pets, livestock and game,” Hudman said. The researchers will be updating a map throughout the study, where people who have contributed to the study and others will be able to look at the current data.

Tick data will help doctors as well as Tick data will help doctors as well as Tick data will help doctors as well as Tick data will help doctors as well as researchers researchers researchers researchers Hudman hopes the study will provide a baseline of information that currently isn’t available in Missouri at regional and local levels. The study could also be a useful tool for raising awareness in physicians. If a doctor knows a certain type of tick or pathogen is more common in their county, that information could help them when they are ordering a tick panel. “There are a lot of ticks here, and there is also a lot of potential for misdiagnosis going on,” Hudman said. For example, although Rocky Mountain spotted fever gets diagnosed in Adair County, she has never found it in a tick located in the county. Thankfully, the bacterial diseases caused by ticks are treated with the same type of antibiotic, she said. “But it would be nice just to have an accurate picture of what disease is present in which tick species,” Hudman said. Knowing which ticks are around can help physicians make diagnoses, Stoecker said. One example of how it could help is in determining whether to diagnose a patient with southern tick-associated rash illness or Lyme disease, he said. “This is a beautiful project. I think it’s a great idea,” Stoecker said. The study will be running until September 2022, and the map of citizen science tick submissions will be updated weekly. While tick-borne diseases are a concern, the Missouri Department of Conservation wants to make sure that fear of ticks doesn’t stop people from getting outside. “There are a whole lot of health benefits that you get from going outdoors,” said Matt Combes, a supervisor in the department’s ecological health unit. “Get educated about the risks there are and how to prevent them or reduce them. And then continue to enjoy nature.”

The Beacon is an online news outlet based in Kansas City focused on local, indepth journalism in the public interest. http://www.thebeacon.media http://www.thebeacon.media http://www.thebeacon.media http://www.thebeacon.media

Lone star ticks. Photo courtesy of Lone star ticks. Photo courtesy of Lone star ticks. Photo courtesy of Lone star ticks. Photo courtesy of Deborah Hudman. Deborah Hudman. Deborah Hudman. Deborah Hudman.