I love the rain! It is the freaky, high winds that disturb me. I used to love to see the wind blow, but that was before we lost all our big trees. When 40' trees bend over, that is SCARY! I'm soo tired of the power losses. Every day that it rains, we lose our electricity.. Doesn't bode well for hurricane time! I'm getting a sensor for the house that will call us if the temps get too high. If my dogs die from heatstroke from a power loss, I'm afraid of what I will do to FPL.. A good friend (a vet) came home from work one Monday last month to find her house an oven, and her 2 year old French Bulldog dead from heatstroke. Her other 3 (collapsed) were saved with emergency care. Her Mastiffs on the porch were fine-they had gone swimming in the morning, were wet, so were left on the screened-in porch with fans running. Her central A/C had failed. She had no way of knowing, until she got home. She now has a sensor. If you have pets, and work, consider getting a Sensaphone so you will know when temps get dangerously high, or there is a fire or water damage. I flat out do not trust FPL to keep the power on! Lisa Here is a link that might be useful: Sensaphone

I got 3 inches of the white stuff. Not to bad. I do not know for sure where it is going to come up at. That is why I am waiting for it to show its face so I can dig it up and put it in a new bed that I am doing. Plus I got about 10 pots to my Aunt last year and then she decides to move back to Florida this spring and I am going to dig hers up and bring over to my house. All she told me it was back by where her fence and swing were. So will have to wait on that too. Stephanie Kay

I'm afraid to look at mine. I could really use them today for a couple port tips i'm planning to roast/braise, (storm-a-comin') I've had some do just that...turn pale and brittle. I tossed them and restocked. Now in the fridge downstairs, lost and forgotten. Probably should have been in the freezer.

Your cell phone bill. Let's talk about that as an example. You have UNLIMITED use of the internet, emails and texting. Right? Wrong. I pay per minute! LOL The more I use, the more I pay. And FWIW, my cell bill runs $2-$10/month. I have prepaid and currently have 240 minutes available and need to add time next month. And there you go again... "google it"! LOL This thread is the one getting "silly"! Sheesh. Joyful, I certainly agree with your basic premise on the highway analogy but that brings up another issue: Should not the "boonies" pay for their highways, phone lines, electric lines and maintenance and not the city folk? Higher populated areas subsidize the boonies. Go back to Rural Electrification project where the rural areas were first brought electricity. The cost was borne by the "richer" city dwellers since the cost per person in the rural areas were prohibitive to the people there if they were required to pay their own way. Not unlike hurricane Katrina, Rita and the like. Those costs were borne by the country as a whole rather than making the people pay their way there. That's not right. Local Government Aid (LGA) distributes state monies to different areas, smaller areas get a benefit at the cost of the bigger areas. Does a city person get a benefit from the boonies having electricity, telephone, cable TV or the like? Seldom. There's no doubt that there's inequities in billings. I get charged basically the same for garbage/recycling/refuse as the Octowench would. I don't put my garbage can out every week. Is that fair? No, but practicality dictates that there's not going to be a fair way. They average it out to save money in other ways. People without kids in school should not have to pay school taxes if you want to be fair, but the ones with the families have controlled politics to give themselves that benefit. Most people have a certain level they reach on usage of many things, whether phone, internet, garbage, sewer or the like so to make things easier, appease the masses and the like, they average it out and the unrecognized minorities wind up paying more. At the farm, I have to pay ditch tax. My property does not benefit from the ditch. Why should I have to pay it? Because the ones who benefit cry and rationalize it that everyone should pay... and then say "google it!" ;) Should I pay the same vehicle license fees as someone who drives 10 times what I do? Is that fair? Again, practicality ease come into play. I get no benefit from a sports stadium. Should I have to pay for it? I could go on and on but won't. I'm just amused to see that the power of prayer is taking second place (or further down) to the power of petition now! :D E pluribus taxem, eh?