1--The bad news is that the local postmaster who has been so helpful in the past is no longer there. He is no longer employed by the USPS....sigh 2--This AM I called about making an appointment with the person in charge. I spoke with the 'officer in charge'. When I asked his name, he gave me his first name, and would not give me his last name. Why would he have refused me that info? 3--I explained that I had several padded mailers that I had received in and they were unopened, and the customers who had sent them had been overcharged. I was wanting to bring them in, and have him (or anyone for that matter) inspect them and determine that they had indeed been overcharged. I explained that I then wanted a signed piece of paper saying that they were overcharged. He said he could not help me and gave me the telephone number of Consumer Affairs in Louisville. Well, I know from talking to someone down there a while back that there was at that time no Consumer Affairs Manager and that NO ONE was even an acting manager. gggrrrrrrrr........ 4--This week I received in a bubblie from Williamsport OH 46134 that was overcharged. It weighed .7 OZ yet was charged $1.05, which is for a 2 OZ large envelope. That means that either the clerk failed to weigh it, or else their scale needs calibration, thus is overcharging a lot of customers. I got a tel# for that PO, and when I called it, I get a non working # recording.........ggggrrrrrrr.........shot down on getting that done. 5--I was on the phone probably 30 minutes or so this AM with the USPS complaint #, getting 3 separate complaints filed. I have the confirmation numbers on all 3 of them and someone is supposed to call me back within 2 business days. Yeah right. I'm not holding my breath on that one. On the one report that was filed for overcharge, I have asked that the overcharge be sent to me. I wonder how they are going to handle that. shall I go on? Anyway, I this AM I learned about Restricted Delivery. Below is the info on that. Restricted Delivery Be sure your mail gets into the right hands. When you want your mail to reach a specific recipient, use Restricted Delivery. Sometimes, you might have private or highly classified documents that you require to be seen only by the addressee. Restricted Delivery ensures that your mail is only delivered to the person you specify, or to the person authorized in writing to sign for intended recipient. I just checked and the cost on a 13 OZ First Class Parcel, sent Certified, with Restricted Delivery signature and signed receipt of the person that accepted it being sent back to me would be less than $11. The exact amount escapes me now. What a bargain, huh, if the Parcel gets to someone who does their job? I have started to compose my letter to The Honorable John E. Potter..but will have to abandon that until I am feeling better. Postmaster General U.S. Postal Service 475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW Washington, DC 20260-0010 I also found an email address for him this AM, not that anyone would even really read any of the complaint emails and actually respond. I found the addy at the Answers.com site, so don't put much faith in it being up to date or valid. E-mail: pmgceo@usps.gov Light bulb moment. I can try taking in the overcharged envelopes, (one at a time might be best) along with an email from the member who sent them and they can authorize me to file for and collect the overcharged amount. I would think that would generate paperwork and that paperwork could then be used as additional evidence (proof) of the 2 year 9 month old problems of post offices across the US overcharging.

Hi Annie! Yes, I think I see buds already! I am in heaven. Shoukd I take a pic so you can tell me? Oh, I can't wait for this one to bloom! Robert, privately e-mail. Let me work something out to send you:-) You WON this contest. Rosey, trust me when I tell you, I didn't kill any plants because I had no room? What I have never killed off any plumeria because of a lack of room, in fcat they require no room, except that is if you want to bring them into bloom by starting early and leafing them out. I got tired of all the work to get them to bloom and the bugs associated with them. I never had enough HOT sun to do them justice and if I started them early in the spring, I was always scared to put them anywhere near my other plants because they would infect them with bad pests. In fact, one year, I had put them in my greenhouse, the only place for warmth, and they infected all my plants with Thrips, Spider mites, and other maggots all at once. Never again. Now,if I can't put certain trouble plants in my grenhouse, or plant rooms and be safe, then I avoid certian ones. I do have just teh special ones given to me that sit on a heat mat under lights far away from the rest of my plants. Now, I play it safe.:-) Mike

Wow adobesunlight, very inspiring. My mom has a lot of "stuff" and I tend to be that way at times too. My MIL was the complete opposite, everything was very simple and clean. I find myself trying to be the happy medium in between, lol. Before my MIL died, she said to me, "Once you throw it out or give it away you will never think about it again." And you know what? I didn't want to hear it at the time, but she's right! Everytime I question getting rid of something (we are talking clutter here, not important stuff like photos etc.) I think to myself, will I ever think about (insert object here) again? 99% of the time the answer is no. Last night I had some major breakthroughs. I got both the kids rooms back to square one, folded all (and there was a ton) the clean laundry and put it away, and then I cleaned out all the toybins/toychest in the living room. We don't have a playroom, so part of the living room is a sort of a playroom. It was amazing how many toys I went through. I gave a bunch of them away to Goodwill, and the kids haven't even noticed! It is a great feeling to have all the toys organized and fitting neatly in their baskets. I tend to feel that the toys get out of control quickly, so I am working a bit harder on that. With the toys they don't play with weeded out, things will be easier to pick up as well. I have a new rule too: small toys or toys with lots of parts need to be kept in the bedrooms, not the living room. I think it will make everyone's lives easier. My next project is attacking the clutter that has accumulated on my bureau. I need to get the master bedroom a bit more organized, and more inviting and restful. Good luck to everyone making progress out there. This forum is always makes me feel better!

Nobody refered to aquatic life Henry, it really is not worthy of you to put statements out of context, even more to use a snippet of one's sentence just in order to pursue a pet subject. I was responding to the poster regularly using malathion and who is 'really apprehensive with using abemectin which I've heard is particularly dangerous to humans'. Do you disagree with my premise? One would be pushed to find a pesticide or herbicide not harmful to some form of aquatic life. Is malathion preferable in your most humble opinion in the context of this discussion? Abamectin containing pesticides, a byproduct of the fermentation of a naturally occuring soil bacterium, have been judged suitable for garden use in their labeled concentrations, by any number of government authorities worldwide due to comparatively limited (although far from non-existent if you eat the darn thing) potential for toxicity to mammals (human amongst them), and comparatively limited persistence on edibles. With organophosphates the situation is the reverse. What exactly is your point? That no pesticide use is preferable to any pesticide use from the point of view of harmful sideffects to nature in general? Thank you very much, that point is I think well taken by now by the majority of gardeners in the western world. When comparing toxicity levels linked to below, it is important to consider effective concentrations used in pesticide products containing these drastic ingredients. You are not spraying nor buying pure abamectin. An ingredient is labeled according to the weight of pure ingredient required for acute toxicity per unit of weight of test subject, not according to the actual potential for exposure. The latter is evaluated in risk assesments which result in a product being registered or rejected. This is important to keep in mind. Standard abamectin concentrates for spraying are 1.8% and these concentrates are further typically diluted to 1ml/lt (that is 1:1000) before spraying. Malathion concentrates are typically 50% or more afaik and these are diluted to about 1-2Tbsp / gallon (1Tbsp per gallon is about 4ml/lt) which results in orders of magnitude more concentration of malathion, if I'm not mistaken with my rough mental metric conversions, than abamectin when spraying. Extoxnet Abamectin Extoxnet Malathion Furthermore, abamectin is mainly absorbed if taken through the oral tract, something improbable if applied properly and if one does not want to commit suicide, while malathion is very readily absorbed through the skin, mucous membranes and lungs which makes take up much more probable in the case of the casual (i.e. careless) gardener use. On top of that, no teratogenicity or carcinogenicity has been reported, to my knowldege, for avermectins in contrast to organophosphates including malathion. To top these, the selectivity of abamectin is much higher than malathion which is considered a broad spectrum insectide. Exposure to high levels of avermectins have been shown to affect human male sperm. Btw, in terms of action, abamectin does not seem to be plant systemic in the proper sense of the word ( i.e. it is not translocated in significant concentrations through the whole plant as, for example, imidacloprid is). It does exhibit some local translaminar action (i.e. it can penetrate young leaf tissue). Hence, once dry it does provide some protection against sap sucking mites and some insects but seems to be fairly safe for bees and other pollinators. It is highly toxic to bees when still wet or when sprayed on blooms. In this respect it is similar to spinosad. Do not drink the contents of an abamectin pesticide bottle or any other pesticide for that matter...