A treasured moment in my life was the chance to sit down and talk with Adelma Simmons shortly before her death. The conversation was wide ranging and, of course, included the phenomenon of gardening as a hobby in the 80's. As Mrs. Simmons is undoubtedly the author who brought herbs out of the closet and into the mainstream, her comments suprised me. Though she encouraged anyone with a pen to give it a shot, her concern was that the garden book world would be overrun with "fluff" and little substance. This prophecy seems to have come full circle. There are just so many "how to design a border" books that one can read and gain from. Publishers took full advantage of the surge in interest and flooded the market for a quick buck. I really think that this is why there is a decline. Those of us who are serious gardeners (serious enough to "talk" about it on a daily basis with webfriends) will always buy anything that's there of interest. But the backyard hobbiest only wants one or two coffee table books, not anything of substance. So, while book sales may be declining, it could be that there's not a lot out there to buy that hasn't been rehashed many times before. You're right, Ginny, everyone wants to see their name in print and publishers take full advantage to make a quick buck despite the quality. I admit that I have stopped buying gardening books en masse. I don't have the room, nor the time, to read 10 or 15 new books at a clip. Substance seems to be what's missing. "How To's" have given way to "look how lovely this is." The "lovely" books rarely mention the financial part of designing and implementing a full-blown garden worthy of publication. So, IMHO, while I feel for the writers whose rights are contracted away, and I feel for those of us with this plant passion who can't get enough, I give Amy all the credit in the world for doing an ad hoc "market survey" and not putting out pages for the sake of putting out pages. And, I truly still believe, that the masses sway the market. The decline in sales is a perfect example of this. People still have money, people still have interest, and now the publishers need to catch up. Martie

Thanks so much for the link. Not only did I find a post I really wanted the infomation on, but found other forms I did't know were there. So thanks once again, for showing me a new place on the web I will enjoy checking out now and then.

No, it wasn't 5 seconds! LOL Not even close! Plus, I had to wait for someone ahead of me and I waited until I nearly collapsed, probably 10-15 min, then got a wheelchair and sat in one for another 5-10 min anyway while she got hers. She even apologized for how long it was taking but I said it wasn't her fault. The machine in the video is like the one I used. The screen gave a progress report on a little line graph similar to installing software or updates on a computer. I watched as it was printing the label, probably 45 sec to a minute, then about the same as it was "applying label", releasing bottle took about a minute, then for it to actually drop the bottle probably took another minute. One prescription was 2 bottles. (Blister packs inside a prescription bottle. I was thinking at first it would be loaded from behind, in a secure area, but from the video, it's not. What a labor intense thing that would be! Can't tell if it automatically rotates stock or not, if not, you'd essentially need to remove all stock, then back-load the new items, counting what you have of old stock to put back, essentially 100 times, all the while it would be open and vulnerable to robbery. I suppose they might just close off the area to semi-secure it but if someone wanted it, it could be easy pickings and not even have the slowdown of a traditional pharmacy. As for security, the pharmacies at other hospitals I've seen are far more secure than this machine, especially considering low-staffing. The little hole with bullet-resistant glass with the shuffle tray and a heavy locked door for access to the people and drugs, plus a heavy locked door to enter the area anyway. Late night you'd get "buzzed" in. Lindsey_CA, not sure if the risk factor you mentioned is employee theft, but this to me is a much higher potential risk of a stocker slipping a bottle or two into a pocket. There may be electronic features of the machine to verify the number of bottles put in and it would have to match what's sent, etc, but there's also a quick substitution of an empty bottle possibility. I'd be much more confident of the security of the traditional pharmacy than the vending machine. The more I think of it, the more I like the idea of it as an option. However, I'm sure many on Medicare would not want to use it for the cost factor. I'm pretty sure it's more expensive than a big name pharmacy. And of course, yes there's those who need it immediately and don't want to make a separate stop, cost be d@mned. And the time factor would be offset by the added time to go to another location. The point about counseling is a good one. Over the past few years and seeing the incompetence, malfeasance and downright malpractice of nursing homes I have become very obsessive about checking for interactions on medications. One of the meds prescribed at the hospital has the following warning from drugs.com, but no warning on the bottle and no accompanying paperwork. "...may reduce (effects) in some patients...combining these medications can increase the risk of a rare but serious condition...which may include symptoms such as confusion, hallucination, seizure, extreme changes in blood pressure, increased heart rate, fever, excessive sweating, shivering or shaking, blurred vision, muscle spasm or stiffness, tremor, incoordination, stomach cramp, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea." Granted to cover backsides they may overemphasize things but then again considering the drug interactions and effects that have found to be serious to deadly, I tend to want as much info as I can get on them. The pharmacy I usually use has a printout attached to each med and if I have not had a drug prescribed before the pharmacist is nearly insistent to point out anything serious. And the cover bottles with warning stickers too.

Well, it's not exactly brilliant, but the food shortages I've encountered in the grocery stores (much better now than two weeks ago), have made me much more aware of how much I waste. Normally, I will grab a paper towel to wipe up a spill or polish the faucet or whatever, without a thought. Now, I'm getting into the habit of using my old, retired dish towels for this purpose. We've always been pretty good about not wasting food, but I'm becoming even more vigilant these past couple of weeks. More meal planning, more using up things that are in the fridge and all with an eye towards less waste. While we are not yet low on TP, I am becoming more aware of how much I use. Rather than just pull a big wad off of the roll, I'm trying to use about half what I usually do and our rolls of TP are lasting twice as long. When this is all over, I am going to make an effort to retain these new habits as they are good for my wallet and good for the environment. Heh, I'm turning into my grandmother who was a young homemaker during the depression years...