When my cat got stuck in a tree, & I'd tried for 2 days to get him down, & then it rained & I thought, "That'll do it!", & I went out the next morning & he was still there, howling... I cut down the tree. It was a brittle ugly old hackberry that was distorting the shaped of a nearby pecan anyway. Only I don't know how to "aim" a tree so that it falls where I want it to. This one creaked & moaned & tottered & fell onto my chainsaw, pinching & trapping it. Luckily the tree had sagged against a mulberry tree, & the cat walked into the mulberry & seems to be none the worse. The tree looked funny, but it was stable, & I put in a call to a friend who has a *big* chainsaw, not like my little electric one. While I was somewhere else (work? grocery store?), a neighbor came over to rescue my chainsaw. *He had the best intentions in the world.* He did manage to get the chainsaw out, but the tree fell onto the fence, breaking it as well as breaking 2 other trees, & when I returned home & tried to get it off the fence, it fell into the street, blocking traffic. I had to call the city for help. It really makes me wonder just what kind of shenanigans other people get up to; those guys on the "tree crew" never batted an eye, never gave any indication that cutting down a tree to get a cat, or that having a tree lying on a fence & sticking out into the road, was anything out of the ordinary.

Dawn is SOO GOOOD about letting us know about severe weather, so I wanted to share something that perhaps doesn't get considered. GardenWeb uses some fancy mathematical formula to determine how high a thread is on the page. A thread with no follow up posts stays high on the page for quite some time, and helps to attract the attention of someone signing on. I think high on the page is a great place for Dawn's weather alerts. Please note that once a thread gets a follow up post, it is deemed less significant and begins its journey to the bottom. Yes, posts with TONS of follow ups will stay high, but not those with say 2 or 5 or 9 follow up posts. Therefore, if I, as a grateful person with good intentions, were to post, "Thanks Dawn for the heads up!" the thread would mathematically begin its descent down the page, and I wouldn't really be helping my fellow gardeners. New, relevant information might very well be useful on the same thread, and justify the trade off, so it really is a judgement call. I'm hoping that sharing my thoughts will give us all something to think about. I hope I've written this in a way that isn't offensive to anyone, and will be useful information. With good intentions, Seedmama

Jeanne, I love your tipsy pots with the watering cans and tubs. Your flowers spilling out of them are such a pretty color too. I have the flower pot tipsy stack in my back yard--had to make one when I saw them on the GJ forum back when I first found it--lots of fun ideas over there. I just heard on the news that the Midwest states are getting hit with lots of storms and rain, rain, rain. Makes it hard for farmers to get in the fields and for gardeners to get things planted--we usually have the opposite problem out here--not enough rain and having watering restrictions! Hope you got rested up a bit and that you'll get to go to the Farmer's market. TTYL Luvs

Ok, so for others to think it is weird to read it, imagine how I felt when I first met them. I get that it may sound off the wall, but who could honestly make this up? I have to laugh, my gosh, I WISH it were all a joke. I was so absolutely confused when I met them, not only am I in the beginning stage of my relationship with my now husband, but the confusion with the fact that I AM A GOOD PERSON, and yet, everything I did in their eyes was wrong, and after so much of that you begin to question yourself. It's difficult enough to learn the dynamics of a family, but a family like this is just overwhelming. Like I said, I never met a family like this before. I recently made the cult analogy to my husband as a joke, then I started thinking that their behavior really is cultish. Sylvia, one thing I noticed about the Grandma is she does back down when the other "outsider" (I'll call her "Suzy") in the family stands up to her, but it's short lived. That marriage had years of problems because of the Grandma, and they finally moved out of state. When I first met the family, they'd all talk about the Suzy and bash her constantly, behind her back of course. And I thought, oh my gosh she must be a terrible person. Then, I met her, and she was totally nice to me, and I could tell she felt uncomfortable around the family. That's when things started to click, and I slowly began to realize that Grandma feeds everyone with her negativity, and I think the daughters learned this from the Grandma. So when I finally had the blow up with the sisters, and the family came back to me faulting me and blaming me for how I communicated with them by email, I was so completely frustrated and I went off on a tangent about all the nasty things I felt about this family, and told them how I think they treat people with such disrespect, especially Suzy. My husband grew up with it his whole life, and was so used to it that he never realized it until I started pointing it out. He knew his sisters were rude and warned me, so I don't mean it like he's completely oblivious, but when I asked him if Suzy had ever been rude to him, he said no, and then I started to point out how your family always bashes her, but it never seems justified, then he started to pay attention, and realized much of it was a fabrication from Grandma's negative attitude. Suzy is like me, she isn't really one to conform, though she's not rude either, but everyone has a breaking point. From what I hear, they've had a lot of marital problems and I suspect it's because of Grandma and the family. I mean, come on, anytime you are in the presence of people who whisper when your back is turned, you CAN tell, you can sense it. That's what the sisters have done to me, and I suspect they've learned that from Grandma. I get what everyone is saying about be nice and gently disagree, but they are so persistent it's irritating. And, you can't have a conversation with one person, they all have to chime in together, so it's like you against all of them. When I get frustrated, you can see that I'm frustrated. And they get defensive. I've learned to start walking away, when I can, but sometimes I regret not saying something, and at the same time I don't want to be "that person" at the party who crashed it because she blew her stack. LOL. Lonepiper, I do agree - I'll never be good enough, and my attitude is changing to the idea that if you don't like me for who I am, too bad, get over it. I suppose my distancing myself from them is my way of rebelling. If I get visibly angry with them, I get the "well EXCUSE me" attitude, and then they won't come over for a year, which frustrates my husband that they ostracize us. So, it's a viscious circle. If my husband didn't have a close bond with his family, I could care less, but again, I also have to think of his needs, so I try to be the bigger person. Txnursing, it's not that we let the guilt trip get to us, it's the anger that follows it that I can't stand. It's like dealing with a five year old. The Uncle is the worst. It'll be like this - he'll ask us to come over. My husband will say that we have plans with my family. Then he'll insist on my family coming over. THAT appalls me, as if my whole family is supposed to change their plans because what Uncle has going on is more important or better than what my family could possibly be doing. Seriously, that's his attitude, and he's very pretentious, everything is about "image" and he acts like people want to live his lifestyle of entertaining everyone all the time. Sometimes we just want to sit home and watch a movie. Screw your image if you are a nasty person, right? He doesn't ask us much anymore, but now it's like we've been ostracized. We get invited to family functions, more or less like it's expected of him, but that's it. And, he's given me the cold shoulder since I didn't go up during a holiday and kiss his family's butt after the sister incident - they wanted me to "brush it under the carpet" and swallow my pride once again (oh, and this was an "intervention" that took place at a mutual friends house). I stood my ground, refused to spend the holiday with the family, and this is the end result. My husbands friend said to me at that time, why do you always have to swallow your pride and they just keep treating you like crap and it's supposed to be ok? Honestly, it's reached a point where I'm bordering on despising them, but I think that's a good thing because a healthy attitude in this situation can only be one of, "I don't give a crap" what they think. silversword, your response made me laugh. I wonder what they'd do if I plugged my ears and did the, "la la la la la la la la" as I walk away. *Chuckle*