Hi everyone...Thanks so much for listenenig to what happened. Here's is the follow up. I took all of your advice except for one, and called to speak to the owner since it is a family buisness, and little did the manager know, I know the familiy. I spoke to the owner and expalained what had happened. He said that one of his workers had made him aware of what happened too, and he felt awful about it. He even said that I should work there, since I am more in tune to his infected plants than his own help is, and that he would have less aggrivations if his plants were thrown out when they are beyond help. In fact he thought the Citrus I bought were thrown out, because he also was aware of the mites they had, but didn't know the manager was still selling them!.. He also said that he knows me personally and that alot of his people who work there like me, not that that matters, since any customer should be treated fairly. But also that I am a wonderful loyal cutomer. He is sending me a HUGE gift certificate to make up for all the gas, unjust treatment , and any promblems this may have caused me. I told him I will use it to purchase Landscaping plants since I am hesitant to even walk back into the garden shop. He asked me not to stay away, but when I am comfortable, to come back, since there is going to be some big changes. Sorry pirate girl, I never back after getting bugs SEVERAL times, it was only my second visit since my first bad experience with pests. I always give someone a chance. I figured after the first time they knew of their insect promblem, they would be more in tune with this and by the time 5 months rolled by, it would of been addressed. But now I learned my lesson.:-) Thankyou so much for caring Toni,mr_subjunctive, greattigerdane,and pirate_girl. It's good to know you all! :-) You all gave me the courage to handle a situation appropiatly, and with insight.

Lpink, the verb "to be" in Russian exists only in the infinitive form and is never conjugated and almost never used. Perhaps that's where it came from. I have a lot of pet peeves about British English - the main one being that they almost always add "and" after "try" instead of "to". They will say, "Try and do better," instead of "Try to do better." When "and" is added, the "try" part is unnecessary since the possibility of failure is not considered. They don't make this mistake in the past tense, however. I do like the way the British pronounce the word "water", as it is spelled, instead of the way Americans do, as if it were spelled with a "d". I've observed a number of ways that the phrase "isn't it" from "innit" from Cockneys to "iddinit" in the American South. I've also heard "I'm going to" pronounced a number of ways from "I'm gonna" to "Imonna" to "Imo" or "Ima". That one amuses me, but I hate it when people who are giving demonstrations (especially chefs) start a sentence with "What I'm going to do next is I'm going to..." instead of starting with "Next I'm going to..." I tend not to like to hear too many sentences starting with "what" unless they are questions. I will change channels in the middle of a show when I hear that sentence structure twice. I'm not too bothered by "My bad," but then I always thought it was "'m I bad", a contraction for "Am I bad." I like it when a stranger says "How are you", which is more common now than "How do you do," but has the same meaning/function of being a polite pleasantry. In Mexico City, everyone I would meet in a social setting would say, "Hola, que tal?" which means "Hi, how's it going?" and an appropriate response was "Que tal?" This was common among the upper class in Mexico City, but if I said it to the more common people from more remote areas, they would say that I sounded like a Mexico City snob. Lars

joyful, >> Your job (maybe "succession of jobs/employment positions") haven't been downsized to offshore, I assume? Au contrare, never assume! I'm in the IT industry and have been since the late 70's. Ever hear of "mainframes" (DOS/VSE, VM, MVS) .... my industry has been through enormous changes and is a poster child for not only downsizing but offshoring, rightsizing, partnering etal. It's caught many by surprise. Fortunately, I've not been one of them due in large part to my "diversification". I've adapted, embraced the underlying changes and have developed "new" skills that are much harder to outsource. In the IT industry those are client-facing expertise, business area management, negotiation, contract management, busines intelligence/analytics etc. >> where will the money come from, and how will it come to us, for us to buy the stuff? In the US we are poor savers hence the need for investment capital is met my foreign investment. The U.S. economy is throwing off high investment returns that attract foreign capital from around the globe (where free-market capitalism, continues to spread at a breathtaking pace). That fuels business expansion and jobs. The average monthly job creation over the past two years is running at 179,000, more than five times the GM layoff total. >> where's the money to come from to pay my pension (s)? ..Sure glad I'm not a retiree from Enron! Unfortunately many companys will not survive, even those that are today successful. Those that have all their eggs in a single basket that is dependent on OTHERS (co pension, SS etc) may want to think of taking a lump sum distribution as opposed to a lifetimme annuity. Unfortunately it appears our current courts are allowing companies to walk-away from pensions as part of reorganization and dumping the obligations on the PBGC. Legislation requiring 3rd party management (similar to 401k's) may be the only answer. In the US defined benefit plans (pensions) are going the way of the dodo. Bob

A few anecdotal stories about someone who was vaccinated and still contracted Covid (even died from it) do not contradict huge amounts of data from all over the world showing that this is RARE. The data shows that vaccinated people can contract Covid, but that most have few to no symptoms, and that even fewer vaccinated individuals requiring hospitalization die of Covid. (A prime reason for masking is because vaccinated people DO get the virus without knowing it -- because they have no symptoms. These people become unwitting spreaders of the virus. Everyone needs to mask.) BTW, people do not get 'double vaccinated'. Most vaccines are administered in two doses over a one month time frame. The vaccines DO protect people from serious illness and death from Covid. It isn't surprising that boosters will be needed to continue the protection. Vaccines can't be overly strong if they are to be safe for the general public. This virus is being fought even as it develops. Anti-vaxxers are providing Covid plenty of host bodies, allowing it to mutate --refining and improving its ability to infect and kill.