No government regulations are complete without a thicket of bureaucracy to support them. Like "Cap and Trade", EPA permits juggling of numbers by OEMs of OPE to meet or achieve compliance with the standards. Similar to what began in the 1970's regarding automotive fuel economy standards (Corporate Average Fuel Economy or CAFE for short), corporate averaging across a range of engines will be allowed under the rules known as ABT (Averging, Banking, Trading). Considering the relatively small volume of emissions coming from OPE, I have the opinion that the entire thing is more about tapping into another money well to feed government coffers than it is about reducing any emissions. With all the new emissions standards going into effect, I predict that there will come a day when owners of OPE will be required to purchase a "Certificate of Compliance" annually after passing a mandated emissions test administered by the government. Possibly the professional and commercial lawn service folks would be targeted first followed by the home owner sector. "Honey, I'll be back later. I have to take the lawn mower and the weed eater to the test center and see if they pass or not and then run over to the courthouse to get this year's operating permit." Anybody got a reliable crystal ball?? Here is a link that might be useful: Of course there's a bureaucracy

Happened just today! DH and I were cleaning up the garage after emptying out a storage shed. Mostly it entailed moving fairly large pieces of furniture up to the second floor. "lift it up!", "lift WHAT up to where?", "lift your side UP", "you mean just up?", "I said UP! How is that complicated?!?", "up, & turn it to the wall, you mean?", "JUST LIFT IT UP!!!" ks toolgirl....were you there? listening? :-) only thing is....he sometimes doesn't even answer my questions....just does his thing and it is up to me to guess what we are doing. My usual refrain is ..."talk to me...tell me what we are doing". Really drives me crazy as I am a teacher and used to giving direction. A teacher he is NOT! lavender...now on to the subject! When we originally bought our home, we planned to build a garage. Even measured to be sure we could build the size garage we wanted and checked with city hall. We did not build the garage right away, took almost 8 years. But over that time we totally changed our ideas and built a garage that fit our home and time period (1800's)so much better than what we would have built originally. Also built it in a different location than we had originally planned. So we are very glad we didn't do that! (build the garage when we first moved in)

On our Panama Canal cruise last year on a Celebrity ship, you could not walk into any dining area without sanitizing. There were machines at every door and if you walked past one, a porter would hold out a giant squirt bottle of the stuff. A serious Novovirus outbreak typically results in the ship being emptied, and the cruise cancelled or on hold while the ship is scrubbed top to bottom. Shigellosis is another outbreak that will clear an entire ship. Nasty stuff, I was deathly ill back in 1979 after a trip to Mexico City (a private land tour) where I picked up Shigella. I was hospitalized for a week and out of work for several months. Jodi-

so, i'm a newbie as well. but from what i've learned, they need to be in a well-draining mix. i use better gro orchid mix and the gulber orchid mix. both are available at home depot, etc. and it's working well for my clandestina. these mixes are inexpensive - $5 or so. the first time i planted the clandestina, i add potting soil and it started to yellow within 2 days. so i repotted into the orchid mix and the yellowing stopped. i also have coconut coir i bought from a nursery that i haven't used. i also have volcanic rock/pumice. some people might use this as a mix - together. one thing i've learned is that the mix can be incredibly simple and basic. one grower told me he uses sawdust, or something like that. you can literally just use a natural mulch. you just need some bark and a fertilizer. that's it. but search on the forum for potting medium for hoyas. there are threads.