"I dunno about that one Justalurker, when I look at both the X-300 and X-500 specs, the X-500 is 3" longer overall (75" vs 72"), and the wheel-base is 51.2" vs 49.4" for the X-300" Look at the parts lists... the frame on the X500 and the X300 both sub to part # AM137099. you the hood is also the same. "With a 48" deck, the X-300 weighs 616 lbs, vs the X-500 at 760 lbs. No doubt though, the X-500's larger tires/wheels, larger engine and trans-axle, account for some of the 144 lb difference" Wheels, tires, K72 with larger oil capacity and 1" axles, larger engine, and the two piece body on the X500 instead of the smaller one piece body on the X300. "The X-500 is also 3" wider (approx), but that's probably due to the wider rear wheels/tires" X500 has hubs on the rear axles with bolt-on rims AND the offset of the 12" rims.

I am here tonight for a favor. I am in need of quick prayers for my 24 year old daughter. She went to the emergency room yesterday because she first started having stabbing pains in her chest then her left side began tingling and she was dizzy and had difficulty concentrating. She was tested for stroke and bloodclot and when they could not find anything, sent her home. Her pain went away but not the tingling. I took her to the chiropractor and she didn't do any work on her because just simply looking at her and her reactions to certain tests made the chiro ask me to take her back to the er. I took her to a different hospital and they have admitted her. I know someone asked if MS was in the family and I do have a cousin. They are doing an MRI tomorrow and after reading the symptoms tonight, realize that Elizabeth has several of them and they even mentioned some patients had pains described as stabbing which is how this started. I am scared for my daughter and pray that MS is not the problem. Please keep her in your prayers and I will keep you posted. Thanks Margo

punk...you are too funny! Mr. O. statement....gee! & 'Auntie' ... omgosh, some may think we need some extra lovin' care here! (or that we have too much time on our hands!) & I know you definitely DON'T!!! (me either!) Let's just 'smile' & 'nod' ...& I'm more the 'gr'mommy type than a 'mommy' anymore. You're the peppy 'mommy' here! LOL! Just had to give you a hard time & purplemoon, too ...as she told us above.... "Good thing I never promised you guys anything about sanity." LOL! Jeanne S.

Nancy, Gold is better than plain brown. Honestly, anything is better than plain brown. Around Thursday or so I noticed green leaves falling from some trees---they didn't even turn brown first. I think our trees are confused. Why wouldn't they be? Every week they are exposed to lows in the 30s and highs in the 90s. How they even know what season we are in at this point is beyond me. Currently it is 90 degrees at our Mesonet station and 89 at our house. There's reports of haziness and smoke in the air, but none of us are spotting any plumes of smoke, so I think that, as the rumored cold front moves across the state, it may be pushing smoke, fog, haze, smog, dust or whatever ahead of it. There was a 1,700 acre wildfire in the county west of us yesterday and it looked like smoke was hanging over the river this morning, so maybe it is that. Our gold foliage peaked around Thursday or Friday and is going to a dull golden brown today. I believe the hard freeze we had a few days ago has really impacted the tree foliage. Further south in Texas where the freeze didn't happen or at least was not as prolonged as it was here, they have better foliage color than we do right now. At least 3 or 4 of the red oaks in the yeard near our house have some red, and our big red oak near the road, which is my favorite tree, is beginning to show some red. It probably will peak next week though it is hard to tell in this weather. We turned back the clocks at bedtime last night so at least we'd be in sync with the rest of the area when we woke up today. It didn't matter what time the clock was showing---I woke up at the same time I do every single day, even if the clock showed it was an hour earlier. My body clock gets pretty firmly set on a time and doesn't really care what the clock says. It takes me at least a month to adjust to a time change and then before you know it, we're springing forward or falling back all over again. Jennifer, I'm glad you feel a little better today and hope you didn't cough your way through making the announcement at church. Hot and windy, hot and windy, hot and windy. It feels more like earliest September than early November. Chris sent me a text about a half-hour ago---a shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, near San Antonio, TX. Word is several people were shot, including children, before police arrived and took out the shooter. He said he had heard 15 people were down, but I haven't seen any firm number on any media yet, and often early report are erroneous. It just seems to me like the world has gone mad---it is sad when people are not safe in church. And, in a state like Texas with open carry, it is unfortunate someone in that church wasn't armed because perhaps they could have stopped the shooter. It seems wrong to carry a gun to church, but we cannot kid ourselves---these shootings can happen anywhere any more. I'd like to be working in the garden, but all the swarms are still out there---Asian lady bugs, wasps, bees, yellow jackets....so I'm indoors. Oh, and the fire ants and harvester ants all are out and scurrying around. I guess maybe they are busy storing up provisions for winter. Dawn