Interesting reading all the above...I am in the yard mowing business and this elderly lady had always moved her plants out in the spring and placed them on a old well house. She would take care of them all year and move them back in in the winter. She passed away last year in september.Her relatives live all away in a different state. I was asked to continue mowing for them until the end of the year by the estate. I kept looking at the plants setting there everytime I was there even watered them a couple times.There was a varigated spider plant,a Easter cactus, arrowhead plant and a few I did know the names.. The family had boarded the place up. Any way to make a short story shorter a hard freeze was forecasted for a few nights..and I thought about those flowers and went there and got them and brought them home..I have enjoyed them. And now after a year the estate has been sold...etc.. Did I do wrong..Did I save a life, Would the old lady be proud of me,?? OK I am confessing..what do you'll think?

I've had pretty good luck with the few nurseries I've tried. Usually the prices are so much higher, I just go to the end of season sales, but when I can't find a plant I really want, then I go to the nurseries. Perhaps part of the problem is that many people probably like plants, which is why they start a nursery...however, people buy plants and that's how you stay in business. Raising beautiful plants would be only half the challenge...you have to be able to sell them. I'm sure there's a lot of frustration, when people like myself compare their prices to the big box stores...but that's going to happen. Like any business, you have to be able to work with people and explain why these plants are superior, better quality, better choices, whatever...and taking the time to help people with their gardens would be something that might bring them back repeatedly, even if prices are a little higher. There's usually a better selection, too. This year, I've had great luck with Northland Rosarium, very nice customer service and beautiful roses. They even offer classes about roses! Some other nurseries I've tried haven't had such nice customer service, but still adequate. However, another nursery I went to with my mom had beautiful plants (and I bought some) but we would have stayed longer if an employee had not been using the VERY loud leaf blower right by the building. He was out there at least 20 minutes, (we even asked the employees at the register if he would be much longer, but they didn't seem to get a clue) so my mom and I grabbed a few plants and left. There may have been some great plants out there, but we couldn't take the noise. Seems they could do that type of thing BEFORE they open...but that's just me :)

"Cousin marriage has genetic aspects that do not arise in the case of other marriage-related political and social issues like interracial marriage. This is because married couples possessing higher than normal consanguinity have, on average, an increased chance of sharing genes for recessive traits. Consanguinity means the amount of shared (identical) DNA, the genetic material. The percentage of consanguinity between any two individuals decreases fourfold as the most recent common ancestor recedes one generation. To cite some examples, first cousins have four times the consanguinity of second cousins, while first cousins once removed have half that of first cousins. Rare double first cousins have twice that of first cousins and are as related as half-siblings." "In April 2002, the Journal of Genetic Counseling released a report which estimated the average risk of birth defects in a child born of first cousins at 1.72.8% over an average base risk for non-cousin couples of 3%, or about the same as that of any woman over age 40.[176] In terms of mortality, a 1994 study found a mean excess pre-reproductive mortality rate of 4.4%,[177] While another study published in 2009 suggests the rate may be closer to 3.5%.[2] Put differently, first-cousin marriage entails a similar increased risk of birth defects and mortality as a woman faces when she gives birth at age 41 rather than at 30.[178] Critics argue that banning first-cousin marriages would make as much sense as trying to ban childbearing by older women. After repeated generations of cousin marriage the actual genetic relationship between two people is closer than the most immediate relationship would suggest. In Pakistan, where there has been cousin marriage for generations and the current rate may exceed 50%, one study estimated infant mortality at 12.7 percent for married double first cousins, 7.9 percent for first cousins, 9.2 percent for first cousins once removed/double second cousins, 6.9 percent for second cousins, and 5.1 percent among nonconsanguineous progeny. Among double first cousin progeny, 41.2 percent of prereproductive deaths were associated with the expression of detrimental recessive genes, with equivalent values of 26.0, 14.9, and 8.1 percent for first cousins, first cousins once removed/double second cousins, and second cousins respectively.[179] Even in the absence of preferential consanguinity, alleles that are rare in large populations can randomly increase to high frequency in small groups within a few generations due to the founder effect and accelerated genetic drift in a breeding pool of restricted size.[180] For example because the entire Amish population is descended from only a few hundred 18th century German-Swiss settlers, the average coefficient of inbreeding between two random Amish is higher than between two non-Amish second cousins.[181] First-cousin marriage is taboo among Amish but they still suffer from several rare genetic disorders. In Ohio's Geagua County, Amish make up only about 10 percent of the population but represent half the special needs cases. In one debilitating seizure disorder the worldwide total of 12 cases is exclusively Amish.[182] Similar disorders have been found in the highly polygynous FLDS, who do allow first-cousin marriage and of whom 75 to 80 percent are related to two 1930s founders.[183][184]" from Wikipedia

In this province it's against the law to block an intersection while waiting at a red light ... but quite a few ignore that rule. I don't know about a fairly heavily used entry, as from a shopping plaza ... but quite a few of us say that it's only common courtesy to leave a space, for traffic to turn left to go in the opposite direction to that which you're going. The issue that deters many, though, is the fact that quite a few will turn right into the empty space, ahead of you ... and you were on the road before they were, so should get priority. Oh, well ... you win a few ... and you lose a few! Sometimes when I hold a door into a store open for someone coming just behind me and they thank me, I say,"You're welcome ... and I figure that, being retired ... I have more time than you do!". ole joyfuelled ... who doesn't have much gas to spare