I was wondering today whether they have a cycle too, because it seems that my roses are all leafing out with a lot of new leaves all of a sudden the last few days. It's like they get new growth every few weeks all together and then stop for a while and then do it again.

Maybe I should move all my seedlings into the house and use lights. :-( I've got 3 heaters running at least 12 hrs a day to keep my greenhouse heated (last year there were a few times I actually had 5 heaters going). Husband is starting to complain about the electric bill. haha, ain't no way I'm going to take the time to figure out how much we are spending on those heaters, I'd probably tear down the greenhouse if I actually knew what we were spending. Next year I'm putting up bubble wrap. Pam

What did she "pay" ... well, "agree to pay" for her new car when she bought it two years ago? And how much has she paid over all of those months between then and now? And how much does she still owe? If she goes to buy a new one, how much will the dealer allow her as trade-in on her current car (with the less-than-attractive side) as reduction in price of the new one? She'll be astonished at the amount that the dealer will allow her as trade-in on her car with the caved-in side when she goes to buy her new car. I'll bet that it'll be less than she still owes, probably quite a bit less. So that, if the new car's price may be, say, $18,000. ... ... she may end up owing something like $22,000. on her new loan. On the new car that she paid $18,000. for ... ... but now, even if only a week after she bought it, and without a mark on it, would be worth probably about $14,000. Two thirds of what she owes? Not my idea of a good time! Would she listen if you drew a set of patterns for her, showing (with approximate sizes relative to dollar amounts), of what she paid for her current car, how much she's paid over the 24 months, how much she still owes, how much difference there is between her cost, what she's paid, what it's "worth" now as allowance toward an upgrade, etc. And showing how she's paying so much monthly on her student loan, so much monthly on her car loan, splitting those two payments into principal repayment and interest components, running the interest stream off the edge of the paper, as lost. So - she's working about half of her time monthly for ... ... nothing. But - currently, she's not working, is she? So how does she make car payments? How long before they may repossess it ... ... leaving her walking. Which wouldn't happen if the loan was all liquidated. Working much of her time - to pay someone else rent for the use of their money. And as long as she uses other folks' money ... she'll have to pay rent on it. Which is money that could have stayed in her pocket, had she driven the nearly new car (with the stove-in side) longer ... ... until she's paid off all of the money that she'd borrowed to buy it. Which would mean that the amount that she would be allowed at trade-in would be all hers, instead of mostly (or all - or maybe even more than all) going to pay off the loan that she still owes on the current car. Which would mean that the amount that she would have to borrow on the new car would be much lower. So - if she were paying the same amount per month ... the loan would be paid off in short order. Then she could keep putting that amount away (or most of it) to pay off her student loan faster. Could you draw comparable sized boxes to the amount of value that each item is, with labels, and the proportion of it that's hers, etc.? When we get stuck in a snow bank, we can do a lot of spinning wheels back and forth, with little result. Except burning a lot of gas. Wear and tear on tires. Wasting time. And, if we're not careful, when using an automatic transmission, burning up the transmission. And getting where? Nowhere! And getting not just ourselves, but people sitting in the car with us, more than likely, somewhat bent out of shape with irritability. Smells a lot like this situation, doesn't it? Just some thoughts. Or ... would you call it my whine? ole joyful

It is possible the data is archived somewhere, banks generally have information far, far longer than we could imagine...and if it is, it is probably a very manual, non-standard procedure to get it unarchived. It probably takes a very long time and my guess is it would only be done if the records are needed for a legal matter and likely have to be subpoened. I think a large bank would be more likely to have the records, but a small bank may have less red tape and hassle to locate and provide the records. I suppose you should be hoping for the latter! ;) You could also consider just letting the matter with the family member drop, it was a long time ago. I don't obviously know the story, and I am not asking, but you have to ask yourself if it is worth it.