A couple of days ago I found that I could search my father�s mother�s family even further than I could his father�s, and that took me back to South Carolina on the French side of the family. I could go even further back on the father�s side if I wanted to contact my relatives in Switzerland, but I would have to write to them in German, as their English is not so good, for some reason. I might do that at some point; my German is very good, if not modern. Anyway, the other night I had a dream that I was going to a family reunion at some large house in the country, and I hardly knew any of the relatives there. I had a suitcase and traveling gear with me, and I set the suitcase down in the dining room or kitchen. More and more cousins kept arriving, and some of them seemed like sketchy characters, whom I felt I might not be able to trust. The house kept getting bigger also, until it morphed into a warehouse that had lockers in one of the hallways. I put my suitcase in one of the lockers for safe keeping but left my traveling gear in the dining room, unsure of what I should do with it. I thought I should keep some of it with me but was convinced that it was okay in the dining room. I ventured out into other rooms in the warehouse (it had multiple levels), and eventually I discovered that I could no longer find the lockers where I had stored my suitcase. I began to become nervous at this point but told myself that it was just a dream and that I would find everything when I woke up. However, when I tried to find the dining room with the rest of my things, I began to panic and became very lost in the warehouse, having no idea of where I was or where anything was. At that point I decided that I HAD to wake up, but when I did wake up, my pulse was racing, and I felt almost like I was having a panic attack. I can�t tell whether the anxiety was caused by my blood pressure medicine (which seemed to have the opposite effect) or whether it was from the virus I had that was coming back. To calm myself back down, I started reading again. Right now I am reading anthropology books at night to help get to sleep and I am currently in the Upper Pleistocene Epoch, which is one of my favorite periods, but it might be causing me to think too much about my ancestors. I found out yesterday that my health insurance will help pay for psychotherapy, and so I am thinking about looking for a therapist to see if I have issues that I need to resolve. They usually put me on more medication, but that might be okay. I think I have a chemical imbalance that makes me psycho sensitive to certain medications. It might also have something to do with what I eat. I'm not sure how much more I want to find out about my ancestors at this point - I'm sort of afraid they might come back to haunt me. My famaily has been in Texas since it was an independent republic, but that was not so long ago. Lars

I agree with you Ellendi, when you borrow money, it should be paid back based on the agreement but a lot of lenders have changed the terms of those agreements and made it almost impossible for people to repay making the banks even richer. It's a vicious cycle. Some, not all but some of the scenarios we're seeing today involve a lot of good money conscious people, who had every intention of paying their debts and because of circumstances beyond their control, are now forced to make a choice between housing and feeding their family or paying debt. Which would any of us choose in those circumstances? I personally, feel the banks are responsible for a large part of what's going on economically and they should be willing to help those deserving of it by any means they can, but they're not. Instead they are calling loans due, forging foreclosure documents, making more risky transactions, raising rates on people, charging grossly exorbitant fees and the list goes on, so it's very hard to have much empathy, KWIM? BTW, when I say deserving of it, I mean those who are not spend alcoholics abusing a system. With a shortage of jobs and change in the working climate many qualified people can't find work in their own fields and are taking jobs at whatever pay then can get just to keep afloat. If you live in an area that isn't in decline or working in a field where you see a lot more of these scenarios on a daily basis, it's hard to relate but I do and let me tell you, good, hard working people are finding themselves in situations they never dreamed they'd be in and it happened quick. It's horrible and it's scary. In addition to the above, debt Collectors are obligated to follow certain procedures and will often times have no problem breaking the laws to collect because they're betting the person they're contacting isn't aware of their rights. I suspect that that is the case with the caller in the Dave Ramsey conversation.

I can only imagine how much work it is to maintain your garden beds. Wow - that's a LOT! Beautiful and inspiring.

I feel for you bpath. They can be such little stinks. Some of by cats never scratched a thing, but into adorable Siamese tore into everything. I tried catnip on scratch posts, catnip on cardboard -- you name it. I see a couple of solutions. Along the artsy lines, you could take some strands of yarn and attach them to a sort of header to hold them together and then I fix that to the areas that are already gobstoppers (I spoke the word gouged up, but out came gob stoppers – whatever they are). Then the cats can just enjoy the rest of their days playing with already cut sections of yarn and he could be a conversation piece. Yes, another conversation piece. Or you can take something like plaster of Paris or wax and form a sort of shell over that area - like a cast, but in color. You can paint it or add different colors of wax or clay. I just saw one of these amaryllis bulbs in a clay-like "pot" molded over the bulb. It looked great. I bet something like that could actually look kind of cool along the edge of your couch -- like a molded pottery patch. Then there is another solution.