This tree does fantastic in my area, the Northern species atleast. The catalpa worm does not range in my area and these trees are blemish-free all year up here. A Chinese species has been planted in the area with pronged leaves and is seeding slightly, as evidence by the young trees around, but those small plants donÂt survive a really dry summer usually, but there are atleast 3 juvenile plants that are 15 feet tall now. Mature plants are very hardy here. Also pretty, but I prefer the northern.

Mike I love tall guys roflmao. I wonder what they see way up there?? Glad you are still bored. Well...wish you weren't but it is to our advantage :-) First year growing MG trees and I just love them! Funny thou on how different they also grow depending on where they are located at. In the ground or pots...all day sun or more shade. Lucy

"Just wait until you have to pack up all that crap and move it." My SIL just bought a retirement home so they are decluttering their current house as a preparation for selling it--she keeps telling me she can't believe how much STUFF she's got to get rid of. When I go to their house I always admire how it looks nicely organized and without extraneous things all over. However, I also admire her tons of closets and storage space which she says leads to keeping, you guessed it, all that stuff LOL. I've decided I will play a mental game this summer and pretend we have to move; maybe that will be my motivation to get rid of much unnecessary and unused stuff in our house! I use the holidays and shopping for gifts to satisfy any yen I may have to be a retail hunter/gatherer. The past few years I increasingly feel as if I am gorging myself after staying on a careful and healthy diet; by the time January comes I feel so psychically bloated from all the shopping /buying that I need another year to rest up and recover! It's interesting to me to watch my young adult daughter who is setting up her first home. She loveslovesloves Home Goods, Marshalls, Pier 1 etc. And when I go with her I usually find stuff I could easily buy. I have a rule that I can't take anything from those places home the day I see it. That usually short circuits the purchase, I'm rarely motivated enough to fight the traffic and crowds to go back a second time!

Oh my word! What an ordeal. I had a go around w/Cox this last week. They charge outrageously if you have to have them out. We had an amplifier plug/box thingy that either overheated and the plastic fell apart, or it got blown out by a power surge. It's a part they give you to set up your computer/router/internet stuff. Key word: SELF SERVICE. I took a pic of it and went into the store to see if I could get a replacement. Store #1 suggested I go to store #2. Nope none there either. But the assistant manager was extremely helpful, added the $5.00 insurance to my bill, and lowered it as well, set up an appointment for a technician to come out and assured me that I would NOT have to pay for the tech guy to come out and replace the box. (plug on one end goes into wall, another goes into the computer, and then it plugs into the battery backup/surge protector. Not complicated.) I get an email saying the tech person is coming on Monday and it'll cost $100. (Just like the manager said I would....and not to worry.) Bill comes next week. I got billed $100 for the tech AND they jacked up my internet charge $20. #@XX^%$ I called the 800 #. Went through robo-hell, pushed all the numbers finally get to the right department, and they were closed. Didn't know they closed at all. So I did the online chat thing.... "We sent you an email saying it would cost $100 so there's nothing we can do." Yeah well you also told me I wouldn't be charged. All this time, they kept telling my "your time is golden" and "your important to us" yadda yadda.... If my time is so "golden" why is this so difficult to resolve?? So I made a trip back to store #2. The young lady took the $100 charge off, undid whatever was done to raise my internet charge, and worked some magic and lowered my bill $40. I am a happy camper. At the moment. We'll see what the next bill brings.