IÂm getting the WIND up here too this time, Dan! It got BAD around midnite last nite and has kept up ever since! I keep looking at the neighborÂs BIG, OLD cottonwoods that overhang my back fence, and waiting for one of those huge limbs to break off and land on my house! A huge limb did break off the OLD cottonwood at the last place I lived. It missed the house, but my (little) dog had just walked out of the back slider to pee when it came crashing down, and she ran straight back in! I donÂt think she went out to pee again for a week after that happened! ;-) The neighborÂs trees make me nervous here every time it gets windy! Last time I was renting! This time I own it! I spent the weekend playingÂI mean workingÂin the yard. It wasnÂt shoveling, but this time it really was work! I cut more of the lower limbs off of one of the junipers in my back yard, and another whole "layer" of limbs off of the BIG pine in the front yard. I need to keep it cut high enough that the grass will keep growing under itÂthe snow always pulls the ends of the branches down further, and IÂm now cutting limbs high enough up that I have to be most of the way up to the top of a step ladder to do it! Big job for a little (olde) person! Did most of it on SundayÂand IÂm still sore! Had to do it now because it was "bulk trash pickup" time, and I didnÂt want to have to try to cut all the limbs up small enough to put them in the dumpster later! Nice to have it done tho! Still have a bunch of digging out perennials type "playing" to do, that IÂd actually enjoy if it werenÂt for that cottonwood root maze thatÂs everywhere in my yard! Wish I had a transporter to transport the rootsÂand the treesÂinto deep space! Skybird

John-g: 2006 Ranger Reg cab,3Ltr,auto,LB. Picking it up tomorrow, (errrrr, maybe the burned out shell?!!) What I don't like about the Ranger is the pick list. You can't mix and match things such as trim. You are kept within that package's option list even though most of the parts are small and interchangeable within packages, and are 15 minute bolt off/ons in the service bay. Another is the "Pick and Choose" courtesy option list that has various trim components listed around 2-400 bucks, what a joke. With this you can pick anything you want up to 1000$. They had a chromed spider rim which I thought would look nice rather than the stock rim, and I picked 3 other options as well, totalled 930$. I felt pretty good about it. After looking closely, it said 400$ bucks "each" for th e rims. So that means for 1000$, and if you don't pick anything else, you get to buy 2 Rims?!!! Am I buying a 2006 Ford Rickshaw? Like my granddaughter says .....Duhhhh! When I looked at the dealer, he gave me that, "Hey, don't blame me, I didn't make up the promotion" look on his face. Another thing is, you will note that none of the basic packages really shines. What I mean by that is everything is painted, or two tone with flat black, unless you go to the top XLT models, then you get a chrome grille. There is no hint of chrome that makes you proud. What shines if anything is a steel silver painted wheel. How long I plan to use it? Well I'm 60 now, and I keep trucks until they're in the same condition as John Candy's rental car in the movie "Boats,Planes and Automobiles". So my trucks go for a good 10 years. I just brought my 86 Comanche to the scrap yard today, and everything worked on it. Fix my own cars, except inner engine components. I bought it in 97. I'm on a tight pension budget, so I guess it'll be the last one, and it will outlive me. Andy

Hi Julie from Denver, I just went running on the trail here as the health club is shut down because of the Corona Virus. So I go out there and this old man told me I had better stop the jogging and this women put her hand on her hip and told me I am just showing off. Thank you for your kind post. It's overwhelming to pay all this money for a house and realize early on I have to move, sell the house, pay the big realtor fees, pay movers. But, I made a mistake and no one knows these things until they live in these places. Yes, Devorah could not attack me fast enough. She can't do the math of how old my parents would be and goes on to say my mother must have been raped at 13 and then says I am an ageist, right after I said she would blame me for what she is doing. This is the thing too, like if they hit your car, you are the bad guy somehow. If you jog, you are the bad guy. If they attack you for no reason, no matter how vile and you can see they are lying, they blame you. I think these older people in the sheltered communities where everyone is old and everyone is white, they have no ability to take responsibility for their actions. I think it is because they have been here for 20 years, they know everyone so they can simply gossip about the newcomer and control the situation. The HOA becomes a weapon people can use to mess with you. I bet I will be hearing from the HOA that it is not okay to run on the "walking" trails soon enough. Yes, I am glad I figured this out early on and I am happy to be leaving. I'm moving to an apartment in Midtown Sacramento May 5th. I'm happy to get out of here but obviously not happy to have to put the home on the market and deal with realtors and movers and all. Are you moving out of the senior community you are living in?

Well I'm NOT a blue person. Indoors I have NO blue. My husband doesn't understand this. I have no idea why I feel this way. Outdoors things are different! I have a blue/yellow/white garden bed which I love. Yes, delphineums, catananche, campanulas, baptisia and more, are mixed with trollius, coreopsis moonbeam, peony Claire de Lune and low growing white clematis and aquilegia. It is a big mix and wouldn't be any fun at all without the blue! There are loads of clematis that are purple or blue/purple, but also some very nice blues I think. You do get into the question of "what is blue?" My husband and I think this could well be a male/female issue! Also, by saying a flower is blue, perhaps a catalogue gains more sales? * Posted by: coolbeans (My Page) on Sat, Feb 2, 02 at 13:12 This is my VERY favorite thread, and I totally agree with all those who feel that there is just "something" about blue flowers; they ARE magical, they ARE very special; and they make me happier than any other color flower. Don't know why...I just started a flat full of Bluebird delphinium seeds I saved from my one lonely plant last year. A bunch of them germinated, so now I can't wait to have a huge stand of them! Maybe they won't bloom this year, but maybe they will. And also "true blue" penstemons, I'm trying for the first time. I can't get enough of this precious color. * Posted by: Anne_Marie_Alb (My Page) on Tue, Feb 5, 02 at 17:47 WOW....... Did anyone realize that this thread started almost 5 years ago... on Feb. 15, 1997!!!!! I am amazed it has survived that long. Probably, the oldest thread still on the top page! I wonder if "Clare B" (who started the thread) is still an active member of the Garden Web!!! I personally love blue flowers (I mean blue, and not purple, which I also like). I can't believe how many blue flowers I am starting from seeds this year... and that was just a pure coincidence! I also love RED flowers.. Maybe, I should start a "red flower" thread! I will first check the archives! * Posted by: Clare (My Page) on Thu, Feb 7, 02 at 20:34 Yes, Ann_Marie, I am still here! I will be a bit sad to see this thread fade away when it hits the 100 posts mark. After that, the threads are closed. I don't think I have any true blue flowers still. "Victoria Blue" Salvia is the closest thing. I use it a lot. It is such a heavy, long bloomer, and about one in twenty of them will survive winter here. Just wish I could predict which would survive so that I could save seed from those alone and perhaps work up a more hardy strain. By the way, the Hydrangeas in Memphis, Tennessee are incredible. Some are so saturated blue that I'd have to call them navy. * Posted by: Dswan (My Page) on Sat, Feb 9, 02 at 22:37 I'm going to add to this extremely long thread only because there really is something to true blue. I grow from seed a very difficult plant to propagate called Penstemon cyananthus or Wasatch Penstemon. I cold stratify and plant these every year in hopes of gettting one or two in my garden every year. Absolutely gorgeous. * Posted by: Rosa (My Page) on Mon, Mar 11, 02 at 10:24 Did no one mention Gentians-now those are blue! (along with my favorite penstemson of course-some are indeed blue). * Posted by: pineshade7b ) on Mon, Apr 15, 02 at 11:02 i agree with gloria mc coy. i love blue and green , they are my favorite colors in anything. just look in my house and closets. blue..ocean, blue jeans, my own eyes are blue and my husband's are green. many reasons to answer -why blue. although i do not "hyperventilate" , if i should go into a nursery and ask for a blue -flowering plant and the staff looks down their nose at me, i'll know now that they are only doing it because they think I'M a snob. until i adopted gardening as a serious hobby i had no idea that blue was a "snob" color. i just naturally began to look into flowers in the colors i liked personally. you learn something new everyday. i would have been hurt and confused to walk into a nursery and be looked at like a pariah, what did i say? now i know, thanks clare. * Posted by: DesertGardner (My Page) on Fri, Apr 19, 02 at 12:38 Wow - I never knew there was such a controversy over the color blue in the garden. After reading all the posts, I now understand why some gardeners prefer the color. And I have to say that I've never met any gardeners whom I would consider snobbish. Most of them are really quite down to earth! (if you pardon the expression...) I recently tried planting a red, white and blue flower bed, with 'Victoria Blue' Salvia being my blue color. It's a little too purple and doesn't look right as a "patriotic" design. I will probably tear out the red and white and keep the "blue" (purple) since it seems to like this desert heat. Someone mentioned black flowers, and I remembered seeing black pansies in the most recent Burpee catalog. They're a beautiful velvety black with a spot of yellow in the center. I think I'll plant some this winter, and start an obsession with black flowers! (just kidding Clare...) -Kara [* Posted by: yeona_sky (My Page) on Mon, Jun 24, 02 at 0:37 I just bought a blue poppy and am nervously watching its progress. My success with blues has been an up hill battle, but that hasn't changed my desire to spotlight it in my garden. Why blue?, again it's a passion with me. Clare, I hope you get the last word on this thread, and I hope you understand Why blue, a little better. * Posted by: Duster (My Page) on Wed, Jun 26, 02 at 23:56 I agree with the many others about getting annoyed when purple is referred to as blue. Maybe that's why I take up the cause of truly blue flowers! 99% of my Delphiniums are the true electric blue ones. I'd love one of the Himalayan Poppies but just not right for my little yard. I like the blue flowers, rather than the blue foliage plants. And no, blue is NOT my favorite color - I have nothing blue in my home decor. I just like the uniqueness of the TRUE blue and my stubbornness to get people to stop calling it purple!!!!