Some people I know get the styrofoam fish boxes from grocery stores. They are small window box size. Then you can deform it to round the edges and look like stone using a heat gun. The idea is faux stone look after you deform then paint. Very stinky bad chemicals when you heat styrofoam tho. I tried it and it bothered me to heat the stuff. My dh was insulating our foundation and then covering the insulation with stucco. He stuccoed my fish box and now its a very light weight planter that looks "real". I want to add some paint cuz I don't love the stucco color but it works very well as a planter is light and free. If you do try to melt styrofoam, do it outside and even then it is nasty. Also want to share hint from another thread of using garden perennials and wild plants in containers. I'm trying it this year in 2 of my pots. Kathy

LuAnn and Lexi, you don't have to be an inexperienced college student to rack up huge debt with easily-gotten credit cards! I know people who are otherwise seemingly successful people who are paralyzed with credit card debt that they acquired while employed. I agree that they should teach consumerism in all high schools. DGS has a "Family Living" class that he has taken for the last three years. They learn to cook, sew, balance a check book, make out a budget -- that sort of thing. At home, we ridicule the commercials (it gives us something to do till our program comes back on) and we talk about how other people manage their money and some of the dumb things they do. I do think there should be more education given about how to resist sales pitches and understanding how credit works. You both have a point in the college thing. I have worked places where they would not even read the resume of someone who was not college educated. I have been on the other side of the coin where non-degreed people were welcomed because they would never expect to be paid very highly. Some of this depends on where you live and what kind of degree you have earned. And yes you do need to have a plan and know what you want to "be", but most kids fresh out of high school have no idea unless their parents pick a career for them and we all know that usually doesn't work out in the end. If you live in an area where there are lots of office buildings then you'd be safe to get a degree in Business Admin or Accounting. If you're in oil country, a degree in Geology might work. If you're near the coast, Marine Biology. If near pharmaceutical laboratories, Chemistry. And so on. It would be so much better if a kid straight out of high school could work for a couple of years and then go to college. But by that time, most of them are married and have brought children into this world. Having a family and the responsibilities that come with it makes it really hard to go to school. Not saying it can't be done, just that it's real hard on everybody. It is up to the individual whether they seek a job that takes advantage of their degree. Anyone can go to work at a fast-food place whether they have a degree or not. And there are times when you need to take whatever job you can get to put food on the table regardless of your experience and education. But a 22-year-old has forty years in which to earn income. That's a long time and surely somewhere along the road, an opportunity is going to come along that will require a degree. As for debt collectors, yes, they're a rude and hateful bunch. But there is no difference in the debt collector trying to collect on a college loan and one trying to collect on a car you couldn't afford on a non-college educated income, or a few loans you took out when you couldn't make ends meet. As for myself, one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't get a degree. For me, it would've made all the difference in the world.

I didn't mean to blame the victims of terrorism. All that I said was that that there would have been a much better chance of those planes never hitting those towers had the U.S. been more even-handed in supporting the Palestinians to develop their lives as they have with Israel, for the last almost 60 years. After all - the Palestinians were there first, with only a few Jews in their midst, prior to 1948. And some who were leaders of Jewish militant groups (let's not use the word "terrorist" - such concepts get in the way of clear thinking, and in such crucial days as we live, clear thinking is vital) that carried out some rather nasty enterprises prior to and about 1948 ... ... later went on to be Prime Minster, President, or whatever, of Israel. Some of the oil-rich Middle Eastern countries could have helped, but didn't - more or else wanting to rub Israel's nose in the mess, possibly. There's enough blame to go around, for sure. It seems to me that we need to take a much longer and more balanced view of life and history. The United States has been badly injured by foreigners only three times during its history ... -the British burned Washington, way back when, -Japan attacked Pearl Harbour - in 1941, but World War II started in 1939 and -some Middle Easterners flew some civilian airliners using civilian jet fuel to destroy two large towers in New York. Which pictures we have seen over and over, hundreds of times, till those pictures are etched on the screen of our minds. At a cost to them of, what - some say something like half a million? Resulting in the U.S. spending billions to build a big security fence. Going deep into debt to do so, to which they are adding huge annual deficits. However... The death toll there was something under 3,000. Which happened getting near to five years (over 1,600 days) ago. As it is, they say that about 25,000 kids die of poor water, poor nutrition, malaria (of which we don't have much in our part of the world, so drug companies with their eye on sales in this area aren't deeply concerned about it) and other diseases, with little medical help and without the necessary education to learn how to cope effectively with some of those issues ... ... every day. Something near 25,000 die ... every day: 1,600 X 25,000 is ... how many? As it is, I am ashamed of my country's lack of concern to help people in other parts of the world get ahead. Our government said years ago that we were going to aim at spending 0.07% (less than 1%) of our GNP to support such projects. We have never come near that (modest) goal. We've fallen back from what we did achieve, a few years ago, when our country was running large deficits. Some of us who feel that such action is needed if we are to develop a healthy world down the line have sought to have our government, supported by the people, honour that commitment. Our country has been adding more to pollution in recent years, rather than cutting back on it, as well. And, as my Dad moved 60 years ago from this area of the country, where he was having breathing problems, to a cleaner area where he enjoyed 40 years go good health (prior to his death, 20 years ago) I have a personal interest in working on those issues, as well. And I'm very thankful that, at age 77, I am enjoying the good health that enables me to work harder at it. Believe me - it's an uphill battle. But we keep at it. Smiling as we go. After all - God's the general ... I'm just a foot soldier. Seems to me God loves the various parts of the world, and the people who inhabit those parts, equally. So - shouldn't I, as well? And - for those who don't believe in God ... ... taking an interest in the welfare of needy parts of the world is a matter of our continued survival. Maybe not for me - but it surely will affect our grandkids. We were surprised by what happened to those towers. Do we feel that we are immune? We aren't. Do we feel that we can build a wall around ourselves that'll be successful in keeping the unwashed horde out? Forget that, as well. The Russians couldn't in Berlin ... Israel can't ... and we can't, either. China doesn't need to throw missles at us. All that they need do is ask us to pay all of those U.S. (and other) bonds that they hold. Which will scuttle the U.S. Dollar. This is a multi-pronged issue. To focus on one portion of it, even though that is a temptation ... is a mistake. Could be a fatal one, for people in our part of the world continuing to enjoy our privileges. History is fluid (and getting more so): civilizations come - civilizations go. Ours isn't carved in stone. Hope you enjoy your weekend. ole joyful

If you don't boss your money ... there's a strong possibility that it'll boss you. For a number of years of my life, I lived in a student dorm, or shared and/or employer-provided housing ... but I knew that on the day that I became fired ... or retired ... I'd be required to provide my own, so needed to make preparations beforehand, and, becoming employed at age 24, the earlier that I started the better. So I made and implemented some plans ... and now, being frugal, am able to live comfortably and in a way that pleases me within my pension income, so the investments are pretty well "play money" ... until they're needed to finance my end-of-life needs ... whatever they may turn out to be. Seventeen years or so into retirement ... how many years do I have ahead, in which I must finance my life? Even with much of my healthcare needs covered - at a pretty well unavoidable cost to me on my income tax bill of about $600.00/year ... and graduated to income : under about 20k taxable income it's nil. Recent anti-testosterone shot, 4 required per year, cost $1,250.00, under $100. out of my pocket. As I don't like hitch-hiking 10 - 16 miles through the snow for groceries and other needs in February, so figure that I can continue in my comfortable farm home at 1/2 - 2/3 cost of an apartment in the city as long as I can continue to merit a licence to drive ... how long may that continue? Ah, but ... they have these self-driving cars available now ... but can you visualize independent ole joyful sitting in the back seat, watching robotized driving of the car ... without chewing his fingernails down to blood-letting? And my tall landlord bent down to look me straight in the eye, and asked whether I had any idea of the astronomical costs that would be involved ... and I told him that I'd have to manage to continue driving while staying here for at least several more years, as I'd have to wait for them to be available used, as I haven't bought a new car in forty years. To me, a farm-raised kid that began that work at age 10 when the hired men went to war, a car is transportation, not a status symbol. Farm-raised kids learn early not to spend all the income as you go: bad years come when there ain't none - but the costs go on. Plus ... how long will I be able to continue in an apartment in the city, before requiring to live in a residential home ... or, much more expensively, in a partial-care ... or, heaven forbid, a *nursing* home? And, I hope, to provide some for my kids (no grands) when I don't need it any more and some charities. And if I choose to be generous to myself or others, it's my asset, I can use it as I please. My servant, if you will. Partial proviso: on loan from God (whom son figures to be a figment of man's imagination). ole joyfuelled