I have been bit 4 different times by spiders since I have moved to Alabama. And every time I was playing in the plants, but at different houses!! It swells up a huge area, turns a dark purplish-red and burns like crazy!! And takes about 4 days to get over the worst- I usually end up going to bed for a day or two cause it hurts to move the affected limbs. It doesn't have a pus-type head, just a tiny blister looking spot where the bite occurred. I never see the same type of spider twice, so I can't figure out who the villian is- LOL!!. But I refuse to be driven back in the house by some little creepy-crawly!!!! Garfield needs to smack my spiders!! LOL!!

Well, it seems there is something larger and more ominous at work here. The trees in our yard, almost all of the oaks, are dead or dying. There must be something like 8 or 9 totally dead and that many more now in various stages of disease. They all seem infested with galls once they finally keel over, but I have read that galls don't kill a tree and assume then that this is a consequence of the disease and not a cause. We procrastinated about having the service come in and take the hazard trees out and now I am glad we did because it's going to be an ongoing thing. I guess the only recourse is to call someone from the agricultural extension office about coming out to check for blight or oak wilt or something, and from what I have read about these diseases there is really not much that can be done. Like I have mentioned before, our yard is not like a tree here and a tree there interspersed with grass---it's nothing BUT trees. 20 acres of them to be exact. But that's getting ready to change because regardless of the cause, when these dying ones are down the canopy is sure going to be different. I've become a shade-loving creature and that will certainly be a big change. I wonder what is happening here. And if it's oak wilt,any diseased tree can pass the pathogen on to the next through the roots, so we could possibly be looking at a huge loss of trees here.

dukerdawg; hang in there. I lost my mother 2 1/2 years ago and I lost my son two months ago. My mother died at the age of 60 and I felt she was dealt a bad hand. You name it she had it. Diabetes, kidney failure, high blood pressure, emphezema and suffered several strokes. My dad is getting by a little better since we lost her. The family gets together once a week for a potluck on the weekends and get everyone together including the grandchildren. My son is now buried next to my mom. My boy was 20 years old when he was killed in an accident last December. I thought losing my mother was very tough, but my friend losing a child takes the cake. My son was born on Christmas and he was to turn 21. I now have a bigger hole in my heart and I am taking it day by day. Hang in there my friend, they say it gets easier in time. We will see...

Alexr- I memorized "Abou Ben Adhem" for my 6th grade class because my mom told me SHE had memorized it for school, too! My parents are in their 80s and now live in Florida after a lifetime in NYC. I had a typical NYC 1960s childhood- stay at home mom, 4-room apartment, shared a bedroom with my sister, dad worked two jobs. My mom was definitely not a cook. The only vegetable I ever saw came out of a can or a frozen food package. But my mom put a hot meal on the table every night at 6:00pm- mostly red meat and potatoes. She had a regular routine- Monday was steak, Tuesday was spaghetti and meatballs, Wednesday was stew, Thursday was lamb chops, and Friday was chicken, and for special occasions- pot roast! Saturday was potluck, deli, or Chinese food, and Sunday we visited our grandparents for chicken soup and boiled chicken & mashed potatoes dinner- with a "dumb waiter" in the kitchen! But my mom was always ready for homework projects- loved to help us with costumes, dioramas, book reports. We always played word games at dinner and danced with my dad after dinner every night- anyone remember the Bossa Nova? Every Weekend we went on a "show & tell" outing, so my sister and I would have something to share with our class on Monday. We visited every free museum and historic site in the city with our Brownie Starflash camera. My dad always thought my mom was beautiful. She was a petite red head, and even though she's totally grey now, he still refers to her as the "red head". My mom has never spent a penny without okaying it with my dad first. And he always tells her to buy whatever she wants, but he likes to see her model the outfits first. We all watched the one TV in the living room together- I remember seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan in 1964! My dad loved to buy us toys, and my shared bedroom was overflowing with hula hoops, roller skates, Ginny dolls, Barbie dolls, Slinky, Lionel trains, board games, and 45rpm records. I was a lucky girl!