I think we have used every kind of hose reel, hanger, pot, etc. ever produced. And you know what we like the best? We keep a hose at every spigot and neatly coil it flat on the ground behind a bush each time we use it. Neat, handy, and honestly the least effort, in our opinion. The problem with reels is how heavy they get as they fill up, thus making your arms increasingly more tired as you get near the end of the job. By coiling it on the ground there is no weight on your arms. (The battery powered ones run out of power remarkably fast, and who wants to make a special trip inside to hunt for more batteries that you may or may not have?....This of course, tells you a bit about how organized I am about such details.:)

Steve, I will have to take a look when I get home..lol By the way, I have yet to go to Logees..When I do, I will notify you for sure..:-)

Wildchild, I think you're exactly right. (And that's brave of you to say, too.) My sister is bipolar, too. She is pretty good about taking her meds and staying in treatment, but the doctors have always had a hard time treating her. She is depressed most of the time, with periods of mania. She's tried virtually every drug they use to treat bipolar, plus several rounds of electroconvulsive therapy. Susan_on, that quote from Drew Pinsky was a lightning bolt for me. That's *exactly* what I think about her. She doesn't bring the problems on herself (kidney stones, car accident where the other driver was cited, etc.), but she is pleased when something happens, because it gets her attention and narcotic drugs. It's hard to judge someone else's level of pain, but I always wonder. For example, right now, there's something wrong with her hip. The doctors thought it might have been fractured, but it wasn't, and they are thinking it's just a pulled muscle. I watch her - it's painful for her to walk, and she has to adjust herself to sit comfortably, but she'll watch television for hours without pain. It doesn't seem any worse to me than when my hip bursitis flares up - quite painful, but certainly bearable. It would never occur to me to use narcotics for my bursitis, but she immediately reaches for them. Sue, yes, she's tried to get to the root of the pain. It isn't any one thing. At one point it was her shoulder. She had surgery, it got better ... and then there were kidney stones. They passed, she got better ... and then something happened to her hip. She goes to the doctor, does physical therapy, tries alternative therapies, but something else always goes wrong. And she always asks for something for the pain. I'm not at all convinced that getting rid of the pain would take care of the problem. In fact, I'm pretty much convinced otherwise. I don't know that she's physically addicted, simply because she doesn't get enough of the medication. She certainly has a tolerance to narcotic pain meds, but so does anyone who takes them long-term, addicted or not. She misses the drugs when they're gone, but never has any sort of detoxing symptoms. (I'm intimately familiar with those, from watching my addicted clients when they get locked up without their drugs.) She won't agree to hospitalization or treatment of any kind, and she's not at a point where she could be forced. She goes to work every day, her daughter is well cared-for (by me, when she's on a drug binge), she keeps her doctor appointments. No court would find that she was a danger to herself, and I don't really want to do that, anyway. I've spent a lot of years trying to save her from herself, and finally got it through my head that it's not helpful. Linda_in_Iowa, I spoke to my doctor yesterday, and she recommended the same thing as you did. I've got the name of a pain clinic, and I suggested that she go. We'll see.

normally no...but this week has been a killer...my lips are chapped and hurting...and my thumbs both have splits...I usually lather on Lanolin grease I got thru Amazon and sleep in gloves...that clears it up in a couple of days...Hubby ordered four huge bottles of Amlactin for Christmas...he uses it and we sent a bottle to his Mother and gave the other ones to the kids...it doesn't work for me...I got a bottle subscribed a few years ago and hubster ended up using it...Now that its on Amazon he loves it! There is a lanolin grease called Lansinoh you can find at some drugstores and also back in the baby department at Walmart...its sold for nursing mothers...lather some of that on your hands and sleep in gloves...you'll be amazed at the results! I think every one of our bodies are different and you just have to keep searching till you find what works for you!!