Hi maifleur, my wife whom I'm separated from has gardenship of the girls, as I'm not Blood relation to them Here in Missouri they stopped the parenting grand parents program, but we get medicare on them and $200.00 in food stamps to help feed them, that is all we get. If we were foster care parents we could get a lot of help. I love the girls as if they are my own and will not turn my back on them, no matter how bad it gets. I was at the V.A. Clinic and did my monthly weight program and had my Blood taken to see if My blood sugars are where they need to be, they wasn't and I ganined the weight back I had lost from walking. They set me up with some more light stretching exorcises and said I should stay with the cane for balance, so that my upper back and neck will remain strong. I had my depression medicine incressed from 150 milligrams to 300 milligrams and was given a new medication to help with pain at night and help me sleep better. I had my primary care doctor, look at my bruise hip and back and had a couple Xrays done on it. Its still sore along with the muscles that I pulled when falling and the abrasions are starting to heal. I used the neck stretching device every other day for three months and all I got from it was more and more neck pain and Migrains, so now I do a few light neck stretches and hope that will help some. They did have me on a lot of exorcises at first when they found out that surgery was out of the question do to the bone disease, many of which I couldn't do, but some did help a little and I still do them as they help me walk better. As Medicare says I make to much money to get most of the help my wife does which house care and nurse that comes in to look at her feet because she is Diabetic and so on, also if she has to go to the Emergincy Room that is all paid for, My Medicare just pays a little over half of any emergincy room visit. I'm still paying on the last one as my share was $563.00 the total was close to $2,000 so I was luckey there. I don't see how they figure I get to much SSI money as a $1,000 isn't very much to begin with and then I cut that in half to give to my wife ,because we still care for each other, but just can't live together, do to economic reasons and the fact I suffer from bad dreams from the War and can get real mad for no reason at all, so we get along so much better since we parted and I take the kids for the weekend or when ever she needs me to, although having them is really stressful, I do yell some, but most of the time I'm in control. It helps if we all take a long walk while they are with me. I have even salvaged a old computer for them to play on although they won't be able to use the internent. George W. Z5-6 Mo

Hurray! I got my package from Diene today! Diene, you did a fantastic job of selecting plants I don't have. Lavender made the whole box smell delicious. 2 different sedums that I do not have will go in my sedum bed. Yarrow-perfect for cutting. Astilbe for the shade garden. Golden Bleeding Heart- I love it! I also received a lovely natural sand dollar and snail shell, a wind chime and a terrapin as well as seeds for crocosmia, bachelors buttons and stocks. The terrapin is going in the vegetable garden where the living prototype is eating my tomatoes. Maybe they will think the area is too crowded and move on? Vela, I am glad you liked your box. You have been a great hostess! I won't be participating in the next round. I am busy with the wedding, and there is not much in the garden right now that I would feel comfortable digging up; too hot and too mature. With the water restrictions we have been placed under, it is really hard to keep everything going. I will be peeking in now and then to see what everyone receives and how things are going. Late July, early August is a great time to divide iris and daylilies. Hopefully one of you will host a swap then. I have lots of those I need to divide and obligating yourself to a swap is a great motivator. Some photos from this morning: Fuchsia Koralle Shasta Daisy Sunny Side Up a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"> Pentas, Grafitti Pink Morning Glory, Flying Saucers

azinoh- I just want to be a little more 'current'! I feel like a dinosauer with my small paperback book when I know there are newer things out there. No, I wouldn't be any any trouble if pictures didn't show- I really just want medication info and lab values. The doc's use smart phones. I know several years ago the info was on a PDA, but I haven't worked for a few years and want to know what is the current way to access this info. I really don't want to use a phone, because when you work in a hospital everything you use is 'dirty'. I would rather have a seperate, small hand held device that I can download (upload?) info onto. Besides- if I accicidentally leave it in a room or somewhere I won't be leaving my phone at the same time, if that makes sense.

brickeyee wrote: "Ufer grounds can easily be created during the construction of reenforced concrete buildings by ensuring bonding of the reinforcement bars electrically (often by welding them together). When they are buried in concrete you create a very effective earth ground." Under the US National Electrical Code a "concrete encased electrode" is usually required for new construction. The required minimum length is 20 ft and can be 1/2" rebar tie-wired together where necessary. I agree they are good. Ground rods are lousy. brickeyee wrote: "The 'surge suppressor' devices (MOVs being a very common type for this) allow for a connection between wiring and ground/neutral when the voltage exceeds their break-over rating. This has the effect of clamping the voltage on the line to approximately the break over voltage of the device. If the surge current is not very large or very brief the power dissipated in the device (current times break-over voltage times time conducting) will not cause destruction of the device" Maximum service surge current is 10,000A per service wire. Service panel protectors with much higher ratings are readily available. The author of the NIST surge guide looked at the amount of energy that might actually be absorbed in a plug-in protector. Branch circuits were 10m and longer. Power line surges were up to 10,000A (as above). The maximum was a surprisingly small 35 joules (based on US wiring). Plug-in protectors with far higher ratings are readily available. brickeyee wrote: "For MOVs it does cause some localized damage that decreases the ability of the device to carry current the next time it breaks over into conduction." As MOVs absorb surge energy they eventually start to conduct at lower voltages. Eventually they conduct at normal voltages, and go into thermal runaway. (Since 1998 UL has required listed protectors have thermal disconnects to disconnect overheating MOVs.) Far as I know MOVs continue to conduct surge currents up to failure. (Protection is not by absorbing the surge, but some energy is absorbed in the process of protection.) brickeyee wrote: "In the most common description the device is said to 'suppress' or 'shunt' the surge to ground. A poor connection to the source of the surge can result in limited effectiveness, and that includes the path back to earth ground for surges referenced to earth ground. The impedance of the ground path ads to the voltage the clamping device needs to turn on, decreasing its effectiveness at liming the voltage rise." For a power service protector the MOVs are connected line-to-line and line-to-neutral. In US services the neutral is bonded to ground and the earthing electrodes at the service. Unless the wires connecting the MOVs are too long they will function as intended, limiting the voltage between hots and neutral. If the earthing path is higher impedance it means that the power wiring will rise to a higher voltage above 'absolute' earth potential. With significant surge earth current it will rise in any case. Much of the protection is that all wires - power, phone, cable, ... - rise together as explained in another post. The same happens at plug-in protectors. All wires to a set of protected equipment has to go through the protector. The protector limits the voltage on all wires to the ground at the protector. As explained in the IEEE surge guide (starting page 30) the voltage at the protector may rise well above the ground at the service but the voltages between wires to the protected equipment is safe. brickeyee wrote: "Luckily the insulation on the phone lines usually fails around 4,000 to 6,000 volts (line to line of each pair) providing at least an upper limit on what is transmitted for many distances." Interesting - I never saw a breakdown number before. In US services, when service panel busbars reach about 6,000V there is arc-over to the enclosure. After the arc has stabilized the voltage is hundreds of volts. (Since the enclosure is connected to the earthing electrodes that dumps most of the surge energy to earth.) Similarly, 15 and 20A US receptacles will arc-over at about 6,000V. I generally agree with brickeyee. ========================== westom wrote "A 33kv wire fell on local distribution. Electric meters literally exploded up to 30 feet from their pans. My friend properly earthed one 'whole house' protector. Had no damage except to his electric meter." MOVs can conduct thousands of amps for the maybe 100 microseconds of a lightning surge. They will be rapidly destroyed by crossed power lines. No protector will say it can protect from crossed power lines. (UPSs and a few plug-in protectors disconnect on over-voltage and may provide protection.) westom wrote "Surges (ie lightning) may be 20,000 amps." The maximum surge current that has any reasonable probability of occurring is 10,000A per service wire - worst case. There is a reference to it in the IEEE surge guide. westom wrote "A protector is only as effective as its earth ground" Next worst surges to lightning are normal and abnormal utility operations including fault clearing and switching power factor correction capacitors. Many of them are line to neutral, not earth. I agree with brickeyee. Airplanes are regularly hit by lightning and have no earth connection. Understanding the protection is not that difficult.