I know what you mean, about people not noticing--or if they do notice, it's a "that's nice" kind of thing, no curiosity about this plant or that rose, etc. I guess it's the difference between gardeners and non-gardeners. I notice everything about someone's yard and garden--what they use for edging, what plants they have growing, whether or not they weed, prune and deadhead, various color combinations, and so on. I think we garden folks are hardwired to do that. It's not that I need the approval or a pat on the head for my own garden--I simply find it hard, as an outdoors-and-nature lover, to understand how so many people never seem to care about the visual feasts in front of them--my husband never notices the house nearby that has a hillside of orange poppies that are absolutely breathtaking every May, or the crowds of wildflowers in the unmowed road margins--I am forever pointing out such things. Of course, I never notice the classic cars that pass us by on the road, while he's admiring them and pointing them out to me (and telling me how many cylinders the engine has, or what year they ended production of that model--YAWN!).

Annie, when you start using your walking stick try to switch arms to an equal amount of arm strokes on each side. I used a tall walking stick in my old neighborhood that had miles of trails. You will be surprised at how you can do some serious upper body toning with a light weight stick over time. If you donâÂÂt switch back and forth your upper muscles will become imbalanced and you will become noticeably more toned on one side. Also, try to gripe the stick in a way that disassociates your trapezoids for a nicer look. Unless you have a very long neck over developed trapes donâÂÂt look great on a women in my opinion. It gives more of a head sitting on shoulders look. If you practice with where you are griping you can tone your arms but also tone your back in a way that will give an illusion of a smaller waist. You can also go between using short strokes and very long strokes and use different muscle fibers. . And, of course you already know that you will burn many more calories this way. This post was edited by jterrilynn on Tue, Dec 23, 14 at 12:20

Oh please keep this thread going. It is good to know that I was not the only one taken by the previous owners and stuck with a real big fixer upper. Mine started right after I moved in. July 2001. I noticed that there was always water standing on the floor after taking a shower. I thought ok I will chaulk around tub. That did not work. I kept trying things that I though would fix the problem, but still water on floor. I then went down in the crawl space to look at floor of bathroom. Well to my surprise it was all rotten. They had tried it, seemed, to fix floor but did not put the floor under tub. So tub was leaning inward of the room. So all water just flowed to the floor. Bathroom had to be gutted and floor beams replaced due to rot.Also I found that the window sill in the master bedroom was rotten with a huge hole in sill. I filled with foam to try and keep air out but still I could watch the wind blow the curtain even with plastic over the windows. . Well the next year we found out why. The spare bedroom was so cold and the master was windy. That hole side of the house was eaten up by termites. The spare bedroom out side wall was not even attached to the support beam anymore.You could move it back and forth. You could see from the crawl space that they jerry rigged it to hold the house shingles on. That entailed us getting jacks and jacking up the house on that end and replacing 10x12 support beam and 2x4's up wall. That explained why the house was so cold and my power bill so high. I also had found covered up switch plates that had live wires in them, but did not know where these wires went or what they controlled. Dh went to replace the ceiling fan in kitchen and found that they had used that junction box for everything even the next 2 bedrooms. So many wires attached in one area. Then we had a huge hole cave in and found out that is where the old septic tank was and instead fo getting a contractor to fill it, according to the neighbors, they decided to fill them selves with anything they could find. They had also blocked off the attic vent with cardboard, that I cannot understand why. Reading these posts you wonder why we even get home inspections. I feel now that it is just a money maker scheme. And how they can get away with signing the disclouser form , which I thought we a legal document, and not be held accountable for the damage that was there when they sold the house. Thanbks for letting me vent. Marie

This one: What, I sometimes wonder, would it be like if I lived in a country where winter is a matter of a few chilly days and a few weeks' rain; where the sun is never far away, and the flowers bloom all year long? Anna Neagle I'll never know, and I'm glad I won't As for the rest, Art Buchwald and Tom Petty quotes are all just so spot on.