Well today was THE day .. my mother had her surgery and came out of it well. The had to remove the one lobe as the growth was cancerous so now we will all have to wait to see what the other tests show if it has spread to her lymph nodes. I dont know why they just didnt remove them at the same time .. oh well I will have to wait to talk with my brother. I am guessing that she will have to have chemo to ensure that the cells are all destroyed. Right now she is in the Critical care unit so the only person who can see her is my dad. I still fell like a poop not being able to be there .. both my bother and I have come to the conclusion that my mom just does not want to inconvenience anyone. But I will be there soon enough. I will leave to go to Sudbury on the 6th .. maybe sooner. I am glad that I didnt go up for Christmas as I came down with the flu a few days ago and just got out of bed today. That wouldnt have been good for my mom. Thank you to everyone for their warm thoughts and prayers. It means alot. Laura

Hi Robo, funny you should resurrect this thread. We were pretty set on getting a Volvo crossover (DS didn't like the Subaru and we were fine with that since it didn't have any real advantage over the Volvo to us), and planning to look in earnest when they got back from their travels. We were out to lunch the day before they left, and DH mentioned a dealer friend he golfs with. I told him that I had checked his sites regularly and the only used SUVs they had were always late model and way more than what we wanted to spend. But I looked again anyway, and there it was. A 2004 BMW X3, over 100k miles. Not what we were planning on, but this dealer is a friend and we already have bought used BMWs from him and trust him. We called from the lunch table, then hurried over, and bought it. There were two other teenage boys in the waiting room with their Dads wanting to look at the same car. All of the other used SUVs they had were only 2-3 yrs old and multiples of the price. Anyway, yes, service is a killer on luxury cars, esp ones far past their prime. The cars we drive are usually still under warranty, but I had an old Benz once and we gave it to my stepson, who drove it 225k miles before selling it. You have to have the cash for the repairs, but actually it was a good deal all in. Hopefully the BMW will be the same. I am actually glad the car is so old and it even has a few dings; I don't want to spoil him. DS, OTOH, is tickled pink to have an X3. Safety wise, it has side airbags as well as front, and a low center of gravity, eg crossover SUV. Having now spent half of what we planned on, I told DS the first 7k of repairs are on us, LOL. In actuality I don't expect him to fully cover the costs of owning and insuring a vehicle; as long as he is a good student and is working at a job too, he is doing what we need him to do. The purpose of the job is to make sure they don't lose sight of the value of a dollar, but with all of the academic, extracurricular and volunteer demands on his time, (not to mention all the travel we do), he can't realistically earn terribly much. Good news is the dealer will give him a job (washing cars). ETA: Good luck to all the new drivers out there!

I rarely notice vehicles of any kind backed into spaces so I paid attention while we were out running errands today. We were at Costco, Home Depot, the grocery stores, a large medical complex and went out to dinner before heading home. All total, I saw four vehicles backed into spaces and all were full size pickups, which is pretty much what I observe anytime I'm out. It makes me wonder if backing into a space is a regional practice not seen in my area or if most people tend to pull forward into a space when parking. Now, what really gets my goat is someone with a large full size pickup or SUV pulling a long trailer who takes up two+ spaces when they park due to the combined length of the vehicle/trailer. It's not the two+ spaces that bugs me; it's that they generally insist on parking near the store entrance and taking up two+ spaces with the butt end of their trailer blocking most of the lane between rows of spaces making it impossible for anyone trying to find a space to drive down the lane. These people are being rude and need to use the rarely used spaces at the edges of the parking lot so that they don't cause parking lot jams. Grrrrrrr... Edit to add that we own a full size 4x4 pickup, but always try to be polite about where and how we park. Hubby is good at backing into tight spaces, but I am a complete and dismal failure especially if any distance is involved.

Well, I’m not a boomer (I’m GenX) but I can guarantee you that there was not that level of casual sex in the late eighties, early nineties when I was in college. Obviously people had sex, but at least among my friends and sorority sisters...it was pretty taboo to have random sex outside the context of some sort of relationship. I am sure there were girls that did, but they were outliers. Maybe they were happy & liberated & doing what they wanted...but the few girls who I was aware of that did this were girls with self-esteem issues. They were treated badly, and it was sad. I really hope you are correct, Robo, and the article is being sensational. I also hope that it isn’t that bad where we live in the SE.