It really is true for me that I learn something new everyday. As I write this on Friday, I've learned two new things: both very different, but both very interesting in my opinion.
The first is that guns used in crimes in Mississippi County may well end up in a washer or dryer or filing cabinet or hot water heater or even the large tanks we use here at the Courier for ink storage.
I'll explain.
I went this morning to Nucor Hickman and watched as officers from the Mississippi County Sheriff's Department unloaded hundreds of handguns and rifles into a bin at the steel mill. These are guns that were either used to commit crimes and confiscated from criminals, or recovered and weren't claimed or broken or damaged in some way.
As they explained it to me, the guns cannot be legally sold again, so they can't auction them off as surplus property. Plus, it would be a huge liability issue. So off to Nucor they go, where J.D. Harris and his colleagues literally melt the guns down as they do other scrap steel and turn it into their steel coils.
The steel coils go all over the world to be turned into other things, such as the appliances and things I mentioned before. I think that's pretty cool.
The second thing I learned today was that my favorite cereal, Cheerios, has been around a lot longer than I thought. On Friday, General Mills celebrated Cheerios' 70th birthday!
I had no idea. I knew that I have always enjoyed the little hard doughnuts and that my favorite way to eat them is after they get a bit soft but before they get soggy. It's all about how you move them around in the milk, I've learned. I also don't want any sugar in them. I like them best with banana slices, but often just have them plain. Sugar just ruins them. (Did you hear that, Kevin?)
Cheerios were created in Buffalo, N.Y. I always wrongly assumed they were made in Michigan with the other cereals. I've been to Buffalo. If I had known Cheerios were made there, I would have tried to see the manufacturing process and maybe tried to snag me some free ones while I was there.
Cheerios not only taste good, but they're good for you, too. Originally called "Cheerioats," the cereal has oat fiber and almost no sugar other than the carbohydrates. As you may not know, carbohydrates turn into sugar. As a diabetic, I have to watch my carb intake. So when I began a turn toward a healthier diet recently, I included Cheerios instead of Oreos.
I know, they don't taste the same, but they sound similar and both go with milk. And since I've switched, my A1C test has dropped more than a point. That is very good, as evidenced by my doctor doing the "happy dance" last week.
Stevie Ray and Sparky don't really care that I've switched to Cheerios at bedtime. They are only concerned that they get my cereal bowl after I'm through with it. It's hilarious to see those two both trying to fit their heads into the bowl to get the milk remnants! Sparky usually wins because her head is smaller. Plus, Sparky will pick the bowl up and trot off with it. She's a stinkier, that's for sure. But we wouldn't have it any other way.
The two older cats don't fight with the pups over the cereal bowl, but the youngest one, Punky, will. She and Sparky have become arch-rivals over a cereal bowl or a milk glass, or pretty much anything else! Sparky usually wins, but not before a great deal of growling, hissing, scratching and high-pitched screeching on both their parts. It can get a bit loud, and irritating at times (most of the time), but it's all part of life in our house.
I wouldn't have it any other way!
dhilton@blythevillecourier.com