Looks like DTV is trying; they added a Disney Jr channel today; also did something with baseball. I'm liking Viacom less & less every day... On its own page, Viacom took a bit of a cheap shot Wednesday afternoon, posting an image of Nickelodeon cartoon favorite SpongeBob SquarePants with this text: "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? I don't know. I have DirecTV." DTV If this dispute were over pennies, it wouldnt be happening. We dont think a $1 billion bonus to buy channels whose ratings are faltering is any pittance. Contrary to what Viacom has been saying, they indeed have been at the center of many programming disputes in the past with Time Warner Cable, Brighthouse Networks, and DISH. Do these spots ring any bells? They sound familiar to us A lot has changed in the seven years since Viacom and DIRECTV last renewed their agreement. More than 5.2 million more families have come to DIRECTV, making it the most popular video provider in the Americas with 19.9 million homes in the U.S. alone. Ratings for many of Viacoms networks have plummeted and Viacom has shunned its pay television businesses to become one of the most prolific providers of free Internet video. Sanford Bernstein reports the one out of every five former Nickelodeon families are watching online. DIRECTV will always pay fair market value for any service, but when performance declines, youre not entitled to a huge raise. Just ask the families were trying to serve. DIRECTV will do what it takes to defend our customers when we believe programmers are trying to take advantage of them. Some channel owners feel theyre entitled to get exorbitant raises every year, even when the value of their programming doesnt warrant it. Whether its Viacom or anyone else, when they try to extract more money from their viewers without justification, they shouldnt be surprised when we push back.

Interesting, Ida. After I retired, I too started a healing journey. I wanted to rediscover who I was after being defined 24/7 by where I worked for over 30 years. This whole thread has triggered a ton of thoughts so in no particular order, I'll jot them here. I pursued MBSR: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction which was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and is based on mindful meditation from buddhism. He is retired now from UMass Medical school where he developed this program as a way to help patients deal with chronic pain. Buddhism is really a philosophy that is compatible with religions and need not be a replacement but can be a companion. MBSR is taught in a secular and scientific way, giving us tools to understand stress, what causes it, and how to handle it. There are many different meditation practices, but I found theirs to be targeted at my high stress levels at the time and easy to learn as they use guided meditations. I have since enjoyed many different types of meditation. I strongly recommend guided meditations for anyone who is struggling with the process. It helps one maintain focus and calls back the wandering mind. A wandering mind is what everyone has and is perfectly normal and part of the process. It is not a sign that "I can't meditate." Free podcasts are available with specific themes at Meditation Oasis on line which I've enjoyed. Also youtube is chock full of meditations of various sorts and good to play with (lately I've been doing chakra with singing bowls). Over time I've found different types of meditations are helpful depending upon where I'm at and what I need. Meditation is not a goal to achieve or a place to go. It is not a state of tranquility or bliss. It is a practice. It is becoming aware of what is happening right now...even if what is happening right now is negative such as stress, anxiety, fear, pain, worry, etc. It is noticing without doing anything about it, without judging, but with compassion and curiosity. (I believe it was Eckhart Tolle who talked of addiction and said the first thing of course is to admit you have a problem, but the second most important thing is to feel what you are feeling...this is the heart of meditation...experience what is there for you in this moment.) I've enjoyed listening meditations very much...you become an antenna to receive whatever sounds are there for you, pleasant and unpleasant, just noticing what is there without judgment, with equanimity. You can remember hearing sounds in the past, you can anticipate hearing sounds in the future, but you can only actually hear them in the present moment. And as *all* sounds are part of your present moment, I've found myself becoming increasingly imperturbable during these sessions...much harder to be distracted. Yes to Pema Chodron. For those looking to deal with grief, I highly recommend Maria Sirois, "A Short Course in Happiness After Loss". She is a wonderful woman ...I was fortunate enough to attend one of her seminars ...and her book helped me a lot. I will also recommend "The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have" by Mark Nepo. Also "The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself" by Michael A. Singer. Another I found very interesting was "Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama" by Daniel Goleman. Many of these types of authors I found watching Oprah's Super Soul Sunday where she interviewed the authors. There is a difference between religion and spirituality. "“Everything in the past is memory and everything in the future is imagination. Those are both illusions – memories are unreliable and we just speculate about the future. The only thing that's completely real is this one instant of the present – and that's constantly changing from imagination to memory." -- Jeffrey Deaver "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one." -- Albert Einstein

Ah ha. I have the same issue on my newly finished deck. Took me a while to work this out. Initially I thought a tree limb fell and damaged the deck but later my wife caught the culprit eating the PVC deck edge. We have Timberteck grey ash for the center thats not PVC. So far they appear to have left that alone, but the AZEK DARK HICKORY SOLID is getting eaten on the exterior corner the most. I will have to work out how to add this aluminum channel. Sigh.

I see. i’m in zone 10a so most of my plants are out all winter. Moving as many plants as you have makes for a lot of work. We got dumped with a ton of rain this last winter, and i figured a few plants would rot, but nothing did.