Yes, our summers, if you can get enough water, tend to make things grow like mad! My Sabal Palmettos are a little slower than my Minors, but they grow more than one might think. Sun seems to help out a lot also. I've seen Sabal Palmettos out in the woods, under big Oaks and they do tend to grow very slow, the ones out in the sun light, grow much faster! My Sabal Minors put out a lot of growth last year. Here's a few pics of some other stuff that I'm growing... 15 footer (overall) transplanted a few months back and starting to push out some growth. Another Sabal Louisiana, about the same size as the other. A Sabal Minor with a young Sabal Palmetto in the background. Here's one of the same Sabal Minor showing the flower spike coming up. Can you see the coffee grounds all over it? This one had an attack of scale last fall. It's now scale free after several treatments of pouring the grounds, mixed with water, all over the palm and putting quite a bit around it and in the center where the spear pushes up. Here's 1 of 7 Slash Pines that I have growing. Look at all of that new growth! It's about 8ft tall right now with all of the new growth.

Amy, the lyrics you came up with are sad to me, but thanks for stopping in and sharing them. They sound lonely. Are you lonely over there? What kinds of social activites are you indulging in? Do you still have the home helper to take you out to the stores and galleries? And have you had any new ideas on canvas? I remember you were thinking of painting the small Hawaiian homes and broken down trucks beside them --some local flavor. That was a cool idea. What about your web site ---- ? I know these are a lot of questions, but I am curious about your forward movement. I think about you all the time..... Raeanne~ Geez! How'd the guy's fire start? Having things burn always makes me feel really strange. I really enjoy controlled fire, but fires that destroy are so irreversible. You lose so much of your life's history when a fire takes the things you've worked for and cherished. The photos and memories are virtually lost and there is so much to rebuild. However, speaking from experience, a fire is a time when you find out who your true friends are, so it is an excellent eye-opener for the New Year. I hope the community pulls together for him and shows him the spirit of hope! I've only just read the latest couple of posts, so I'll read more and be back to relax later. All in-laws left yesterday, so we took down the tree, decorations, and will drive them to storage to day. Also, gotta go to the transfer station with all the garbage and recycling. Then, off to the grocery to refill the pantry and get the kids lined up for school to start tomorrow! Whew! Happy New Year!

My Ds might be the same way (he's only 10, so no parking tickets yet, but forgetting his lunchbox or his homework at school - though never a book!). He is continually reading - even if we're going somewhere - we were taking the kids to a 6pm show at the circus 35-40 minutes away and he had to take a book in the car! I don't know how he can read in the car - I always got motion sickness when I tried. I think he stays up late at night reading and that's why he's so tired in the AM - send him to bed b/t 8:30-9pm, get him up at 7, and he's dragging. When he was about 4 (in preschool, but I forget whether it was PS1 or PS2 - he went for 2 yrs) he explained to his teacher how cell phones worked - he had seen the towers, asked about the antennas, and so I told him the basics. She was impressed - but that's what you get when you have an engineer and a computer geek for parents! He was always asking questions. Now of course he thinks Mom's the dumbest person on earth, always wants Dad to help him with homework - I had to convince him the other night that I really did know how to add fractions! Though by the time he gets to calculus I might need to brush up. DD is just more interested in animals and flowers than technology - and I'm not good at biology/botany so I have a hard time answering her questions.

Yes, I think you are correct in that I'm usually very trusting of people. It's not my nature to look for the worst in people and I'd like to think that people will treat me the way that I treat them. However, in the past few years my husband has taught me a valuable lesson in what happens when you are too trusting. When I look back on some of the different situations that have happened I can't believe that it totally slip past me or how deceitful he is as a person. I trusted him to move money out of my checking account to pay monthly expenses until one day when I was trying to make a purchase and the clerk informed me that my debit card was declined. My first thought was my account must have been hacked. On my way home to figure out what had happened I remember how during the past few weeks he kept reminding me that I was spending a lot of money. I only spent what I knew that I could afford to spend and never more than what I was making. His statements should have been a clue. When I went online to view my banking account I saw where he had transfer more than $30,000.00 out of my account over a period of year and half without consulting me. Hence the "you're spending a lot lately". I never really checked my account because I always knew that I had a pretty good cushion for what I wanted to spend. My spending was nothing more than a visit to Walmart every now and then and I knew with the amount of money that I make (retired Federal employee and now a government contractor making six figures) that I really never had to worry about my card being declined. When I confronted him about it the first thing he yelled was "I pay the house note out of my check'! There was about an ounce of truth to his statement with the exception that the money was first transferred from my account to his account and then of course he paid the house note but using my money. What a snake in the dirt! At that point I really just wanted to know what was going on with him so I was willing to sit down and discuss the situation with him but he got angry and slapped me across my face. He told me that I had repeated to him that I didn't really need to know what was going on with the budget just as long as everything was paid and on time. That was his excuse for not telling me that he was taking money out of my account. Well needless to say when he put his hands on me I used his cane and beat the crap out of him. No one, and I mean no one is allowed to touch me in that way and every since that night we have not shared a bed. I knew then that the marriage was pretty much over for me. That happened last March and I'm still trying to figure out how to get out. It can't be that difficult because people do it all the time. I think I need a some sort of life coach to help me to navigate all of the changes that I'll need to make. The other thing that I noticed is that he no longer takes his mom and sister out to dinner and movies anymore and he's not offering to guy rounds when he visits a bar. REALLY?? When I look back at the time that I've spent with him and various situations that are questionable I realize how he's been lying to me all these years. I've had people question me about his comments and how they say he bashes me behind my back. Oh well, I'm sure you're probably bore and have heard enough of me. Thanks for your time. Pam (forgive all errors in this almost book that I've written. I'm writing this while on my break so I don't have much time to proofread.)