Patsy we got a bit over a half inch of rain yesterday [got a trace on that previous rain] don't know yet if they are going to lower our fire level yet. Probably not, half an inch isn't much.

Jim I have a HP 70somethingC. I use one black cartige every approx. 2 1/2 reams of paper. [don't use the color which I think only has a little yellow left]. I always print on DRAFT black, until it starts fading [approx. that last .5 ream] when I put it on regular black.

Phone calls -- I use callwave as an answering system for my computer, so I know who calls and they can leave a message when I am using the computer. Callwave has caller ID. I've been getting weird phone numbers lately -- like 115616934118 -- they vary but always have the 11 start. No message. No name just the 'number'. I googled it and just got UPC code possibilities [no actual products]. So why are UPC codes calling me?

Jim next time they call you and say it isn't a survey, see if you can get their name. And a number -- 'oops, got to go to a dr app. give me a number I can call you there.'. Then report them on the DONOTCALL list - assuming you are registered. They aren't allowed to do that. even using 'survey' phone calls to start a pitch for whatever.

lookwhatbobfound I remember seeing that tree [twice I think]. Yesterday the news said it was thought the tree was set on fire. Now they seem to be saying it wasn't. Maybe that bit of rain we got started a hot compost going and the tree set itself on fire. Has to be a lot of dry dead wood in it. Very sad.

aeg I love that boat word problem! torture kids with it all the time [the version I use is corn, chickens, fox, farmer.

casinokat Liked the 60 minute section on your DGS. Very good. And he seems happy and thriving. Don't let anyone push him to get his phd [even if he wants it]. Some other poor kid will be pushed stressfully by his/her parents to do better. Children that age should go at their own speeds, fast or slow. Your son and DIL are great.

Liz "External Use Only" we've had some trouble with 'products' labeled 'External Use Only' here in FLA. Bath salts -- were really designer drugs. And designer drugs of the MaryJane super variety sold as incense. Killing kids. Laws changed, 'they' change the chemical makeups. Sherifs are starting to 'ignore' the law and just telling the quick stop type stores to stop 'stocking' such. Have gotten many owners to agree [however willingly]. Last week I think a store worker was arrested [owner says store didn't have it but it was there with the cigs] and stuff cleared off. Police just let the lawyers argue the issues afterwards and are happy with getting it off the shelves. Of course, the stores [often connected to gas stations] are shut down for a day or so too, making the often absentee owners unhappy. But the technique has really managed to cut down on sales and deaths. [and pushed up the costs cutting back on those who can buy it]. And given a chance for laws to be updated, and then new technically changed items to appear.

Epson salts are great for palm trees and sago palms [sagos are proper palms].

Downton Abby -- just saw the second one. At the end, they had an ad for that 'new updated' sherlock holmes. Showed clips from the orignal show, so maybe they are planning on re-running that before the new ones. Hope there are knew ones. Liked that show.

DOWNTON ABBEY -- sigh. I 'watched' it last night. Use rabbit ears. when the wind blows the wrong way, don't get certain channels. Or when the television company lowers their power. [Don't have channel 8 right now even though the wind is the same, cheap station, always used to be the best station.] Anyway, I watched Downton Abbey with regular breaking ups [I hate HD, used to be if things were fuzzy you could still hear things....]. PBS station. PBS station has 4 channels here. I could get the other 3 PBS channels BETTER than the main one with DOWNTON ABBEY on it. arrgh. well, I at least know more or less what happened. need to find out when it is rerun [mind you that station was fine tonight....arrgghhh].

@headlinehill -- Janice -- Margery Allingham wrote the campion books.

lookwhatbobfound -- I've been selling stuff that's obviously going to colleges/universities this week. [5 items, one really nicely priced] Best week on Amazon for me in a goodly while.
I've sold children's books to school libraries and county libraries. When I was employed at the HIllsborough County Library system, if a book was 'lost' the parent was given the option of paying $X amount or buying a replacement book. The librarians would help the parents find the book on Ebay or Amazon or ABE; and would make sure it was comparable to the lost book. The parent would buy the book and it would be addressed directly to the library. So either a library is trying to stretch funds buying used books, or it is a replacement for a lost book.

Bedtime. Good Night All!

Jean

Oh, I remember the Champion series. That was a good one. And the Jeeves [ok, it isn't a mystery] series.

Irene Stephanie Plum -- I suspect it depends more on which ones you have -- because some do depend more on [or tell more about previous ones] than others. You probably should read One for the Money first to get the proper set up. some of the others can be read out of order, I suppose.

Like the M.C. BEATON books. and if you want to go retro, Father Brown mysteries are another choice. [and don't forget Agatha Christie]. And I just finished THREE SILENT THINGS by Margaret Mayhew. Cottage in Frog's end, can't get much cozier than that.

Rusty seems to have recovered. He checked out my jeans the other day and acted normal after that. Picked a bunch of sour oranges for him at a neighbors -- He loves citrus.

Got a phone call to make -- I have call wave. Be back.

Got a sale on Amazon and I need to wrap up. Taking Mother to a dr. appt. so don't need to walk down to the mailbox. Clear blue skys. Pretty outside.

Outdoor dog and cat still happy in the backyard. Garage holding heat nice. Some towels drying in there now.

Good Night Everyone

Prejudice -- Back when my Dad was getting his Master's in International Studies, I went with to some professors party, most were professors -- was youngest person there, a freshman. All were polite, but not like I was even close to being in their conversation interest zones. Well, so I was sitting at one place and there were three professors behind me talking. approx. grist condensed.
Prof #1 [male white American] -- What, why are you bothering with that student number mess?
Prof #2 [female American] -- I don't know what I am going to do, there is this one student I can't stand and I've figured out what number matches him. Going to have to have my assistant do his papers. But why are you bothering?
Prof #3 [black african with a pleasant accent] - I know, but I had to start it this year.
Prof #1 and 2 -- why?
Prof #3 -- I was taking my car to get it checked this summer. Took it to my garage. My mechanic was gone, moved. A new mechanic was introduced to me. Said none of the scheduled times worked for me. Drove off went to another shop. Another mechanic. It wasn't until I was paying that I realized that I didn't want the replacement mechanic to work on my car. He was American black but looked pure - name of some tribe -
one or the other Prof -- So? Why?
Prof #3 -- name of some tribe are considered lazy, clumby, incompetent, cheats by my tribe, and a few others. I see the different tribes in the American blacks all the time. Without thinking or realizing it I took my business elsewhere. So now I am using student numbers to identify papers just like everyone else. Don't want to knock down grades just because of raised biases I'm doing without thinking.

Rusty [see avatar pix] is going to have to go into deep therapy. I was raking some more maple leaves for the chicken coop [it upsets them if you put in too much at once]. Rusty was supervising on his side of the fence. I bent down to scoop more leaves for the garbage can I was carrying them in. Riiiiiiiiip, went my work jeans only a few feet from his face. They now have joined the rag pile. Poor Rusty thinks my clothes are my skin/fur and he had a worried expression on his face.

Joanne Jhill -- yep, they have preduices everywhere. Mother said an older officers wife had a little chat with them[other wives] before they went over. Said the Germans had to put everyone in a racial groups and that was left over from all those years of Hitler controlled schooling. Well, racial 'groups' mean one thing to Americans and another to Germans. It took my mother awhile before she figured it out. She was always being called an Englanderin [female English Person] and sort of ignored that because her father came over in 1905 at 4 years old. We always lived off base; she sort of thought it was because they thought it was politer to call her English than American.
Then a distant german cousin lady was visiting from my Father's side of the family. She commented, with extreme amazement in her voice in a mix of german and english to my mother "How could an englanderin have two such beautiful german children". Apparently, my brother and I both qualfied in the German 'box' of identities. That's when my mother 'got it'.

WAR HORSE -- thanks for the info, not that I am going to see the link to avoid the spoilers. I know they can train well [when they want to and the ASPCA really regulates things now.] but someone like spieberg can make things so real.

GERMANY -- My german grandparents talked about how worthless money was after WWI [they came here approx. 1906, but relatives were still there, some coming over here after WWI]. The 'wheelbarrel of money to buy anything'. But also remember them saying it wasn't worth it for farmers to sell anything. That even if a small potato sold for thousands of marks, you couldn't buy anything with the money once you sold the potato -- which you at least could eat. Also remember them saying how they tried and tried to get various relatives to come to America after Hitler got in power to 'be safe' and how the remaining relatives in Germany said 'everything is going to be fine over here now'. Some of those relatives no one was able to figure out what happened to them after the war.

Today's project was cleaning the Chicken Coop. They aren't overly thrilled. Chickens don't like change.

And the correct series name for this series is No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Have you ever noticed that. Most series list the books in order by the author; plus other books by the author in the front. But not Large Print books. Don't they think Large Print readers what to know whatelse the author wrote?

On November 22, 1963 -- I was 7 years old. I remember seeing 'a bad man shot on TV' which would have been Oswald. I assume that I saw the actual event, but don't know how much they replayed it.

Frontal Lobes and brain development. for milliena girls have become mothers well before the age of 21 [and multiple times]. And the young men warriors. You can say all you want about 'it takes a village' but brain development doesn't have much to do with anything at one time in our history. Not when the average life expectancy was in the mid-thirties. For most of history the bulk of the population had non-functioning brains [unconnected frontal lobes] which is probably why history is the way it was.

A mild, maybe connected, digression. Most of the girls were married off to older men [i.e. proven survivors and maybe even having a functional brain]. Many cultures didn't even think men should marry until a older [functional brain] age. So is that an evolutionary aspect -- did all these girls marrying older men promote later functional brain development and thus pass those genes on to their offspring? Did that cause the later brain development to even take longer, since early brain development was selected for? Was this good or bad? Maybe the expanded brains we humans have is due to long brain development time.

DON'T TRUST ANYONE UNDER TWENTYFIVE.

[I picked 25 because that is the age that car insurance companies generally start lower rates for the good male drivers.]

TOTALLY DIFFERENT -- was in the line at the grocery store and briefly passed my eyes over the celebrity/tabloid mags. And had to to back and read one. I thought it said Bertram Russel and couldn't believe it [it was actually 'betrayed Russel'].

Found on the NEW SHELVES at the library today the latest #1 Detective Agency book.

Lookwhatbobfound whereas we rotten Floridians, who will have highs in the mid 80's today aren't bothering reading.

diana Love you work. thanks for showing them.

CAT FOOD CAN TABS -- mother has trouble with the tab cans. I've bought a few different types of openers over the years and one really worked for her. We have two. One in the kitchen and one in the garage [for dog and cat food cans].

http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/pull%20ring%20can%20opener?_dmd=1&_sop=12&clk_rvr_id=286477653961&MT_ID=70&crlp=7618057840_1&tt_encode=raw&geo_id=1&keyword=pull+ring+can+opener&adgroup_id=2140727200

It is the ring pull can opener that has the black hand grip part. I found them in the grocery store [Publix] in the pet and soup aisles.
or the top picture on this google page to the right.http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=pull+ring+can+opener&pbx=1&oq=pull+ring+can+opener&aq=0&aqi=g1g-v1&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=3128l6462l0l11019l20l10l0l0l0l0l2194l4211l9-2l2l0&fp=1&biw=1024&bih=541&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&cad=b

Mim! Good to hear you are back home. If God wanted leaves raked up off the lawn he would have fixed it so they would fall directly in the trash can/compost heap/fire pit. Which isn't to say that God doesn't send winds to blow the leaves away upon occassion.

ACEOS ACEOS ACEOS
we liked to see some ACEOS

Jack liked the Anne Beattie blog. I get why mantels are de rigor for literary writing. But incandesent lighting and, particularly, refidgerators isignificance is lost on me. [but then a lot is].

I have finished my 1493: Uncovering the new world columbus created.
Now I have to find a copy of 1491 and a couple of other interesting sounding books.

MIM let everyone else wait on your for a change [and a few days] and take care of yourself.

I have been working on a long text. Occassionally saving and renaming. A1, A2 and so on. Well, I was working on A4, then sometime I started working on A3 again. Well, I have revisions in both. How can I meld them together? I can't seem to yet do a 'side by side' to see where the differences are. I can make columns, but I can't seem to run the two texts one down each column. talking about mroe than 30,000 words. Going to eat lunch and may just have to go back and forth between windows to see any changes....

Had a short rain this morning. Still humid they promise it will dry out.

wellington laurie hunting season proper starts thanksgiving weekend here. But I think the bowmen and musket hunters are already allowed to hunt. A fair amount of shooting by either target practice or poachers but not as much as previous years.

BREAKFAST -- morning person. got to have it. Cereal in milk with a glass of water on the side. rice crispies. corn flakes. total. Childhood favorite was Alphabets.

POETRY UPDATE -- well after ignoring the SIDEWALK book on Monday, both boys declared it was their favorite; grabbing and fighting over it. [or the author was, can't tell with their wording]. Showed them how to use the index to find their favorite poems. Their method of reading poetry is to say everything as one long slurred word. Sigh.
I used one of the 'tricks' to break that up. You read a poem with a stop watch, three or four times working on improving your speed and removing mistakes. If you don't slur you go faster and the words were much more understandable. enunciation is good.

Also, there was one poem which they wanted me to read. Found out why. It contained the word 'hell' As a place. In the paul bunyan poem. I read it -- using the ...... to show how the author wanted the poem read [they totally ignore any punctuation marks] and happily read 'hell' to their slightly bugged out eyes each time it appeared.

Fifth grade boys are so cute. Do know better than to pick a poem that uses the word 'breast' though [think whatshisname's TREES] with boys.

GETTYSBURG ADDRESS is working well. Reading boy didn't remember what 'perish' meant [and probably some of the other words we had gone over on Monday]. Since I read it the first time, Reading Boy enunciates even the hard words. He originally said he didn't want to do it again. Then I said, 'OK, it really is a sixth grade level...' he didn't let me finish and started reading.

Fifth grade boys are so cute.

Reading Boy's favorite poem was For Sale [about selling a little sister]. He has two younger sisters.

Can you imagine the small size of milking machine? [No way you could hand milk an almond]. Or do they grow supersized almonds now? [think genetic engineering, nuclear plant radiation.] Frankenalmonds

Going to be a warm day here in sunny florida.

Happy Birthday Dan!

Good Night Laurie and Maureen.

I hauled my Sidewalk book [which I didn't find on a sidewalk] and both boys ignored it. I tutor two boys back to back [they are friends] one in reading and the other in math. I take papers and things [mazes] plus AR books to keep the other one occupied [translation, not distrubting things too bad]. They were both interested in the book on Pearl Harbor [book level 5.7 I think] and flipped through it asking questions. That translates as, they will start reading it but have to play hard to get. 8^)

I read the Sidewalk book but won't pull anything out of it yet because so far The Gettysburg Address has the boy's attention. We worked on word means [and multiple meanings] and why the Address was given, the Civil War, answered questions about it and Lincoln. For the first sentence he went from reading it in 30 odd seconds with errors to 15 seconds with no errors. [we use a stop watch upon occassion, boys in particular like that. I had to read the whole thing and be timed]. Then we went on to other things.

Didn't recognize Robert Service until I checked the what he wrote and remembered the Mcgraw and cremation poems. [don't remember them as rhyming so I must have read them before 9th grade as 'stories'].

Laurie he 'gets' rap, but it is considered 'black' music form and there is a bit of historic friction between the poor black and poor white and poor mexican in the neighborhood [add to that mexican rap is considered drug/gang music]. tensions have gone down and things have improved, but it might be too black for him. [unfortunately, I get rap easier than most poetry]. I have considered taping him [he has a bit of a vanity streak in him].

carol will check those sites next.

Jim The book has the old notation. I didn't know there was a New one. egads.

The math boy spent some time with the book [winning chess for beginners or something like that] the deliberately stuck it under the Sidewalk book [which wasn't found on a sidewalk] and watched Reading boy to see if he'd get it out. Reading boy naturally didn't. [don't you love 5th grade boys!].

Reading Boy is the one I taught chess to last spring. Along with a high school girl that wanted to learn. After playing each separately with the other watching until they more or less figured out properly how the pieces moved, I would play both at the same time [like a grand master!!!!] after spotting each their choice of bishops or rooks, and helping say a first grader with reading or math. Reading Boy learned humility [he needed to] then the advantages of using multi pieces in actions at once. High School Girl learned to concentrate and plan ahead. Both learned slowly to be a bit more aggressive in their actions. By the time summer vacation started both had beat me -- abet with the missing bishops and rooks on my part.
Before you are impressed, I am not a good player. On the computer I can best the computer on level 1 most of the time but level 2 out thinks me [and the computer won't spot me pieces] but then I don't concentrate and treat playing chess as just another multitasking item because I am on dial up and things load slowly.

Reading boy has taught Math boy some chess. After the Fcats I will do the chess matches again.

***
striped chicken?
****

Oh, I am presently reading 1493 -- a very interesting book, non-fiction, about 1/4 the way in.

One teacher once made me memorize Ozmandiaz -- I think in fifth grade. Well before I 'grasped' rhyming. I do remember it having a beat. I remember being introduced to shakespears sonnets, but didn't like the fact the beats weren't strong. but that would have been shortly after I figured out Dr. Seus. Of course, by then I finally figured out limericks [which had been completely confusing].

Have been following along with everything.

Belated Happy Birthday Maureen!

Glad you are being taken well care of grano.

Anyway, as a reasonable mentally deranged person [I have brain connection problems, these are not self induced derangements]. Anyway, I am tutoring again. And a 5th grade boy I am tutoring is having difficulties improving his reading fluency. I've done my normal tricks. He is improving [but frankly not as much as I think he his capable of]. English is basically a second language to him [though his spanish is probably atroicious]. My normal procedures at this point is to move into poetry. BUT what sort of poetry would a 5th grade boy like???? With girls I bounce back and forth between seveeral poets [I've found robert frost works well. -- me and poetry are not fluent. Remember my brain connection problems. I did not 'get' rhymes/poetry until 9th grade. I could 'get' the beat but the rhyme aspect missed me to then. I just learned 'tricks' to cover for it. Anyway, in 9th grade I figured out hymns were 'poems' and that Dr. Seus finally rhymed and was fun to read -- it did not rhyme before that to me. Of course, I do NOT hear sounds generally when I read. I have to force myself to hear sounds when reading poetry silently. So it is a lot of work. But prior to 9th grade I did not hear the rhymes outloud either.]

Anyway -- you guys KNOW poetry.

It has to be shortish. And various ones in case something doesn't HIT. Or we just change to a new poem to variety.

He is a boy from a fairly macho culture but likes the idea of being a gentleman and playing chess. He has lost interest in 'fiction' stuff and we have been focused on non-fiction readings and science in particular. He has improved nicely on the vowel beginning words [where I have found the esl have the most difficulty with] and hardly pauses before 'organic', 'ignite', 'extinguish', 'inital' and so on. And frankly, some of the stuff he is reading is sixth grade science. [he does have problems with comparisions of stuff but we're working on that].

essentially he is reading outloud at say 60% of where he should be. something with a nice strong beat a couple/three of hundred to develope a 'flow/beat' would probably do the trick.

HELP short male poems needed.

Anyway. I do not think this boy will go for Frost. In fact, for tomorrow I am going to print a copy of the Gettysburg address to kick up his reading fluency a notch. [I have noticed that 'official' speech like things also work well. And there are some great words there to work on increasing his vocabulary.

Rose Haldol, frankly, doesn't work for older adults [at least who haven't had it prescribed at earlier dates in their lives] [but them I am not a doctor and don't pretend to be one, just personal observations]. Know of 5 or so cases it caused more trouble than it solved. [ditto with paxil or something like that, with three cases I personally know of. Seniors frankly need a geriattic experience doctor or pysch doctor for the meds that work for them.

Now, I took care of my Father who did have senile dementia [with a nice selection of meds for that] and during a couple of hospitalizations whatever the hospital ever gave him either made him violent or didn't faze him [I'm speaking of non-pysch meds; rather pain or sleep meds].

Anesthics -- My great aunt halicinated etc after her gall bladder surgery [approx 83 yo] and again after a hip replacement. It took 2 days each time before she stopped seeing little children, a refridgerator, deceased relatives, etc. After the hip surgery she did have anxiety issues for several weeks afterwards. The doctor really didn't want to prescribe anything as he was more worried about side effects/bad reactions/over-medicating.

Her doctors at the time considered it a post-op matter and they were right. Now, she really wasn't on much in the way of pain killers [curiously she showed minimal pain after both surgeries and healed amazedly fast].

Just remembered, not only did the underwear have to be clean, with no holes, but it should be matching!

Liz yes, most of the time are acorns are big [not like northern acorns] and fat. the present crop seems wimpy. It will be a bad year for the squirrels, possums, deer and everything else that eats them. [Including a Rusty who likes acorns but doesn't have to depend upon them].

Haven't seen any wooly caterpilars yet. But there have been fewer butterflies of all kinds this year. Not as many wild flowers.

Dan otherdawg -- I think this is our third year of drought. We get wet spots but not enough to break the drought. So everything gets gradually drier and drier. And winter and spring are our dry seasons on top of which.

bookleaves --- small acorns. smaller stuff for animals to eat [less inside because the whole acorn is small]. Smaller acorns. Less water. Smaller acorns generally also mean fewer acorns. All the critters that depend on them will have less to eat this fall, winter and spring.

carol -- clean underwear with NO HOLES! That's what I always hear.

Agree about the potential for a dry nasty winter Patsy grano9 . The acorns started falling this week. They are very small. Not a good sign.

I can't stand lima beans either. But I have had butter beans cooked like fresh green beans and they weren't too bad. Picked young.

laurie/wellington I've been having mushrooms growing all over the place. look like the portabellas and they grow enormous. Don't dare touch them though. Farmers call these pasture mushrooms. There are two types. One very delicious and edible. One which causes hallicentory effects and possibly death if too much is eaten. No one says how to tell the difference. I am sure there is a way, but no one wants kids going into pastures. Not parents or medical sorts. Nor farmers who probably worry more about lawsuits from some bull 'dealing' with a tresspasser before they even get to the mushrooms.

So what does anyone think? Will all that money the various BIG BANKS/Government Banks put into Greece's banks work? Or is it more good money gone down the drain. It definitely is good money no longer available to loan to someone who might actually use it productively.

Sold an oldie out of print paperback for a nice price on Amazon last night. Hero from otherwhen by williams. 2nd printing. $18.18 [I was in one of my let's make odd price endings moods]. Don't go rushing out looking for one because it sat there forever before selling. But it also doesn't take much space.

stamphick Read the editorial. Didn't have to sign in. Interesting to say the least. It is the website's responsibilty to police the honesty of their users not the government. I suspect that case where a 'The woman had been part of a group that set up a MySpace profile using a fake picture. ' might be related to that business where the girl killed herself because her 'boyfriend' who was internet figment dumped her. Or not. Perhaps just to develope presceisdence for the next case. Just the law over reaching itself in trying to figure out how to deal with the brave new world of the internet.

Going to teach a neighbor how to download and see what is wrong with her printer today.

Off to move the chickens.

Where are libraries dying? Ours have people standing waiting for the doors to open [and then have to be chased out] and it's not just because of the computers. They are quite busy, how much of that is due to the shorter hours they cut the libraries here in Pasco County and how much are due to 'it is cheaper to check out than to buy' is another matter. They did get wifi in the libraries and now folks sit out in the cars doing the computer bit even [so those folks aren't counted with the people who do go through the doors].

All purpose rant about newspapers Read MoreHide

lludwig Glad to hear you have good water again.

FALL even though it was 92 or so, the humidity was around 45, so that is the start of Fall for us.

Have started doing my homework help at the migrant center. Won't be officially tutoring until October [for money]. "What letter is this?" She didn't know. We did something else and I went back to it. She guessed 'd'. I wrote the first part of the alphabet for her. It was 'b'. And, yes, she flips most everything but I don't think it is dyslexia [there is a retired teacher expert there who doesn't think so either] just a lack of exposure to writing numbers and letters. The girl is in first grade. And we've mostly been working on unflipping her numbers which are getting better.

Birds I saw something white at the far end of his pasture. Thought it might be a plastic bag [you don't want them around cattle or horses, though less of a problem for bovines than equines]. It was one of his cattle egrets. Dead. Head/neck twisted funny, but it wasn't worked at by a hawk or owl. No high wires. I don't know how those die 'naturally'. Mildly wonder if it tried to take on a mocassin or rattlesnake.

Off to fix supper.

devonia/ttg Hi! Give me a day or two to build into reading about that day. All these visual images on TV haven't been easy. But I do think I should re-read the BB.

kathleen/lludwig your hot water heater doesn't have a spigot somewhere around the bottom? Good to hear no water in your place.

Beth Whats his name John whatever came on the ebay book board chat. First saying it was going to be closed...whenever... then it got moved to early August... and the last [or maybe second to last time he was there] he said it was going to be closed in September. There might be a link at where ever it was being discussed, but I can't remember where that was. I'll wander about ebay looking. Nothing on TV but Obama talking.

Thoughts for all you getting that rain from Lee. We are soggy here in FLA [neighbors chicken coop area under a few inches of water -- they resolved that by dumped wheelbarrel loads of mulch [from when the road tree trimmers were doing the street] so now the chickens are walking above the water. Being 'flat' we have 'sheet flow' flooding which can mean the water flows everywhere at whatever depth the present rain situation is. In actually, here, it is just standing water in the 'lower' areas of our flatness -- and in the case of the neighbors, overflow from their pond. Rusty lost one of his favorite 'wallow' places by a maple tree and there are other areas under an inch or squeshy amount of water all around.

You poor folks up north have uneven ground, so all your water starts running off in a rush, cutting into roads, bridges and finally really overflowing streams and rivers. Please take care up there.

Nancy Too Old 2 Tap if your outside porch doesn't get much rain [and particuarly if there is any floor covering, try using 24 mule team borateen [or boric acid] sprinkled around. That is great at killing fleas where they hid. And if you vacuum it up it keeps killing them in the vacuum and then the trash. [it kills other insects too -- it used to the be old standby for the snowbirds being sprinkled around the house when they would leave. I've dumped it in the carpet [and furniture] in the past during infestations. As a further note, should you 'brave' giving the cats a bath. Use boreteen in the water [you really don't even need to use any type of soap/flea product]. The boreteen kills fleas and is a GREAT for itching [I know this from fire ant and mosquoto bites].

lludwig note I used the full name 24 mule name in honor of the 'two mutes/mules'. And I read it as 'mules' too originally. In fact, I was thinking when I initally read it -- the old 'one dog town' phrase.

jcorn sympathies on the loss of your mother. It is now just over 10 years since my father died.

News -- Ebay has decided to remove the CHATS. They keep changing the actual deadline. Fortunately, Curt [the blessed webmaster] set up this lovely site for us and for a bunch of other boards -- see the side bar. Ebay's reasoning was that their system no longer supported the old Chat boards. But if so, then why are they continually delaying the end of times? Probably no conspiracy theory, just ebay lack of competence even in the wiping out of a whole ebay culture [which will probably not do them any real good]. The old Board Board, though, as you see is pretty much dead. Even a few weeks ago it was still popping along. Very glad you are here.

MIM we have been worried about you. You've been in my thoughts and prayers. Keep posting and reading.

Also, it helps if you drain out the hot water heater occassionally. Did the down stairs one this spring. Gets any crude deposits out that might have settled in [or rusted from the inside of the tank].

beth in FLA we are FLAT. Yes, they use towers, but they use pumps also to keep the pressure up. [they also use pumps in lift stations to move the sewage too, a whole nother issue]. The main water source for Tampa, south of me, is a resevoir which draws from the hillsborough river. Pinellas county, where I used to live, got all of its water from other counties. In great big monster pipes -- basketball players might have to stand on tipie toe to touch the top. and those pipes move the water underground. then pumps pump it up into towers, or just push it into the regular lines.

After Andrew, one of the big problems getting the sewer and water going again [I knew someone from Church who was a city worker spent months over there helping them get things working again] was that salt water had pretty much gummed up the whole sewer and water pumping systems and everything had to be replaced -- and then they didn't have the power, used generators. He and two others left Pinellas with a truck towing a large generator and fuel for it. Had all sorts of replacement parts. Then they found out what had really happened [the news didn't get out fast]. He emptied the truck out in a dry damaged/shot pump station they found and sent it back for whole pumping systems while starting to work on fixing that. Plus, they kept getting their generator 'liberated' for this or that need. He didn't mind, because they generally put the generator to good use, but it continually kept his work from being done.