I'm not sure why you are so surprised by this, or look for a clinical diagnosis. Its an interesting case, that you describe, and a very very sad one for all concerned but it sounds perfectly normal, to me. Because as you describe it it is not, in fact, the case that the items in question had only a sentimental value for their rightful owner. They had a (negative) sentimental value for the thief, as well. Many, if not most, objects that an individual can collect have, at bottom, a sentimental or emotional value--and that is true even for such things that are easily replaced such as tvs or radios. One thing those things can symbolize is ownership itself, home, comfort, recreation, stability. Many years ago I read a book called "uncoupling" which was a (to my mind not very good) sociological study of divorcing couples. One thing the sociologist found was that people fought very hard over the disposition of even such massproduced, easily replacable, and often totally-worthless from a resale point of view mechanical objects like stereos. People routinely fight over particular copies of books that they could easily afford to replace just as they fight over the disposition of pets and children which can not be replaced or valued. The thief in your story valued something that is inherently non monetary--power and control (however illusory) over her friend/relative. She excercised that control secretly, like a wealthy collector who buys a stolen item that he can never show and gloats over it privately. To her it reset a social or emotional balance with the rightful owner. I've seen this kind of emotional theft and violence a million times in my life--its no different from someone reaching over and taking a bite of food off your plate without asking. Its as much a violation of your privacy and your personal space, its as much a hostile act, just using the medium of these "trivial" things--but no ring or signed book can ever be truly trivial. Don't we all save things for sentimental reasons that have no economic value? I saved a cheap alarm clock that my grandmother gave me because it was the last thing she gave me before she died. If someone had stolen it and held on to it to hurt me I wouldn't be surprised, but I'd have the last laugh because the theft of a cheap alarm clock doesn't alter my relationship with my grandmother at all. I don't mean to dismiss your concern, I just don't think this is a clinical case--its not kleptomania (it doesn't sound like) because its not random, impulsive, or compulsive. Its very targeted. It sounds like ordinary spite, taken to extra-ordinary levels. abfab

My god, there's so much nonsense in this thread I don't know where to begin. (qualification: major in biology, minor in chemistry at top 50 ranked US university) There is: HARDNESS as used in the WATER TREATMENT FIELD, which means presence of (non-precipitable) alkaline earth metal cations (Ca, Mg, mainly) - these cause soap scum and can make skin seem dry to some people There is Total Dissolved Solids: which is the sum of all dissolved ions and organic molecules, whether ionized or stable colloids suspended in the water (like milk) Of course there are degrees of softness and hardness! Arguably there are 2 types of softness: water that has gone through a softener has the same overall TDS, but the water "feels" softer and doesn't cause limescale in a washing machine because the Calcium & Magnesium were replaced by Na or K (sodium or potassium) which do not form scale so easily and do not form soap scum at all. Then there's water that has gone through an RO unit and literally had most of the TDS of any type removed. This water is also soft and handles very similarly to resin-softened water. "Any RO, regardless of brand, will become unhappy if it is fed water with any hardness because hardness can not be filtered out by the pre filters of the RO and will foul the membrane." this isn't true at all - modern RO membranes do just fine with moderately hard (i.e., containing reasonable amounts of Calcium and Magnesium) water. I ran one for years on a municipal water supply that definitely left soap scum in the shower and measured over 200ppm of TDS, much of which was Ca according to their quality reports. Yes, if you want the membrane to last longer, it would be better to feed it softened water...i.e., Ca/Mg replaced with Na/K. But the membranes aren't very expensive compared to the cost of buying the amount of pure water they can produce...a $40 membrane will easily produce at least 800 gallons of water, which at the going rate of distilled water would be almost $800. I think I've gotten at least 2000 out of mine before I replaced them - that has taken me 3-5 years, and then only under a presumption they would fail soon. "What baffles me is why the filters would get clogged with such a soft input water." Yes, even if they were really junky filters, it doesn't make sense. But the softness is only part of the picture, if you had large (relatively) particles of some kinds of dirt in the water, they might not contribute to TDS depending on the way it was measured. Is it possible you had a leak in the supply line to your house or the muni. water had a leak at some point that let a lot of particulates in? I had a leak a few years ago in my line from the street and it clogged up my pre-filter, but not quite that quickly. The funny thing is many people insist softened water leaves their skin "smoother" because there's no "soap scum" on it, but this is usually just because the detergent, bodywash, or soap they used is not completely removed. In contrast, the combinations of cations AND anions in hard water both push more of the organic molecules off, and convert some of the remaining to a harder precipitate. Frankly, I can't stand the feeling of being in a place with really soft water like the Gulf Coast, that leaves my skin all slimy after a shower. Just a question of what you grew up with, I suppose. This can be seen quite easily by further rinsing the skin with a weak acid dissolved in deionized water. This will truly push the detergent molecules off and give you an impression of what your skin really feels like with nothing on it but pure H20. Glass has a similar way of holding charged organic ions which is why all scientific laboratories give their glassware a final acid rinse. I know, I used to work in one. "Also, if you used a saddle valve for the water supply to the RO that should be eliminated as they are MASSIVE water leaks waiting to happen." I do agree with this. I believe all of these start leaking sooner or later. I've been happy with John Guest part ASVPP2, which, in the ultimate irony of ridiculous stupid regulatory obstruction, is not permitted on drinking water systems because it isn't certified lead free, even though the absolutely minute amount of lead it might release over 20 year would be filtered out by...you guessed it...the reverse osmosis membrane. There's surely more lead in 75% of US municipal water supplies on a per unit faucet basis than will ever be released by such a miniscule piece of brass. BTW all this "alkalinize for health" stuff cracks me up. If you drink any municipal water, you're drinking water with a ph of 8 or above. They make it that way so that it won't dissolve pipes. Then look at all the supplemental calcium added to various foods. I really don't think there's a need to add even more to your water. In that case, why not just drink your municipal water which already has some calcium after passing it through a much cheaper carbon or KDF filter to get the chlorine flavor banished? Part of the whole reason SOME coffee & tea purists, for example, use RO water is because they believe the calcium ions interfere with the brewing process. It's like, what the %#^@ is the point of an RO unit that then turns around and makes the water non-RO? Is the Calcium they add FCC/USP grade? There's a lot of cheap raw ingredients coming from China that are contaminated with heavy metals! This post was edited by davidrt28 on Thu, Jan 16, 14 at 16:09

Well, that Intellicast map is based on the NOAA map -- same data, but it calls itself a "Watering Needs Map". That's amusing, because it directly contradicts the advice you're getting here, which is that watering needs are dictated by soil moisture and plant stress and NOT by an average rainfall map. So Intellicast is perpetuating that misunderstanding with that title, probably because they don't have any responsible gardeners within a stones throw of them. Also because they want their map to sound more useful. Sure, if you don't have a finger to stick in your soil, and if you can't see your plants, I guess an online rainfall map might be the best strategy to figure out when to water (which I guess you'd be doing in a control station in a windowless room of your house?) It's just data, folks, and the data is pretty accurate. It's just not the data you need to do a good job.

Oh, well, I ran out of garden space at my house.... Not really. My Italian-born-and-reared husband reached retirement age and we wanted to live outside the U.S. for a couple of years, which in our financial situation meant working. DH's brother-in-law offered him a job--typical Italian nepotism--so off we went. In a first wave of enthusiasm for Italy we bought an old farm, realized at the end of the two years that we had to choose between Italy or the U.S. as our permanent residence, and chose to stay in Italy. We came here in 2000. Our daughter, who was a year old when we came, has grown up here, but speaking English at home and enjoying long vacations in the U.S. with her American relatives, so that she has had the benefit of a bicultural upbringing.