FYI Dan dan the man's man "a" and "light" implies singularity MR teacher man. If it had read without the "a" or "a" + "fixture" or "lights" as in plural then I wouldn't think single. As for these news stories you speak of I don't watch them because the media is full of BS just like some teachers who teach nothing useful in the real world and follow gov. standards which is only good for the gov. and 1% of the public. Back to the subject at hand it depends on the type of lettuce, what you want from them and how deep you can plant them as to the plants still being usable. Personally I would start over with more light and lower temps but I've grown buttercrunch and romaine at 75 and with enough light you can have fresh lettuce for sandwiches for a couple months out of 4-5 plants for an individual to a small family. Also a eastern or western window is good enough light for lettuce seedlings to get a good start and a southern window should provide enough light for mature plants. I keep lights going all winter for tropicals so using the extra room the lights cover to grow lettuce and other veggies is an added bonus for me. 4' fluorescents are much cheaper than smaller models so it just makes sense to buy and use them since overkill is better than not enough.

Great news! See???????? All that frettin fer nothin! LOL Seriously...glad to hear you're well, Dotty. :) Now you can ease the fears of other forum members who might, in the future, post as you first did...

Sometimes I think modern medicine can make us sick, if we're not already! I think antibiotics are VERY hard on our GI tracts. Back in l995 I got a horrible influenza, pneumonia, ear infections and was on antibiotics for 2 months. I developed irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea after that, and I've had it ever since. I'm thinking the antibiotics actually caused some permanent damage. Anyhow........what I would do if I were you would be to really hit the probiotics. Eat yogurt every day with live cultures, and find a really good, reputable probiotic pill and take it 1-2 times a day. I think the antibiotics have killed off your good GI flora. It may take a month or 2 of taking the yogurt and probiotics to notice a difference. Is your fever gone? Those were pretty hard core antibiotics. Maybe you have pseudomembranous enterocolitis? Sometimes people get that from those antibiotics. Can you see a different doc......like an Internal Medicine doc?

I am going to suggest stuck-tape removal a little differently than christophern (as an alternative for you to try). Loosen the tape very slowly from the loose/floppy edge (hopefully you left one) toward the stuck edge -- try do a whole segment or length at a time if you can. This should minimize what comes off at the edge line. For any tape splotches that are totally adhered, use a blade to loosen the far edge and pull off toward the wall edge. Flick off anything that is clealy a peel, sand that with fine grade paper, prime the splotches, paint the spots free hand. In the future -- try priming and first coat of paint with no tape. A little trick is to deposit paint with a good, angled brush (1.5") at your edge line in a perpendicular fashion (yes, crosswise and short strokes for about two feet along your window edge or moulding). Then, gently swipe with the grain (now parallel) along the edge using the side of the brush and WITHOUT reloading your brush and WITHOUT touching the edge itself. This technique will first "deposit" the paint close to your edge via the 1.5" bristles, followed by smoothing the paint along the grain with a normal stroke. Repeat as needed. Never put a loaded brush (bristles or side of brush) close to an edge! Even if you use tape with the above approach, you will rarely get paint on your tape ... if you do it will be light bristle touches during your cross-wise load .... or a swipe wisp with your parallel smooth-outs. In either case, you won't be putting any significant amount of paint onto your tape and the protected adjoining surface (which is usually the culprit for any sticking). Finally, if/when laying tape, use two/three foot segments and run your fingertip LIGHTLY on the edge you are protecting (1/8" or 1/4" adhesion at the most) -- leave the rest flapping loose. The light touch will minimize any chance of the tape stickum penetrating an under coat (which is shouldn't anyway) and the little stuck line (1/8" or so) will minimize the tape edge available for paint-oopsies. Then -- like Christophern said, take the tape up when your top layer is still wet. This post was edited by PinesEverywhere on Wed, May 8, 13 at 8:52