Contrast all this with the straight species like in my woods. Last year, many young trees were bent right to the ground under snow load. With acres of these trees to deal with, I'm not out there shaking snow off! Nor need I be. This species developed to withstand heavy snow, long before any of us were around to notice. The species can form multiple leaders. It can, when tipped by the wind, form new vertical leaders out of what had been side branches. But its main form is to be a single-leader tree, not unlike a spruce or fir in general structure. But yeah, some of those cultivars will open up like an over-ripe banana. And true also, some of the distortions caused by being weighted down for long periods by ice and snow can permanently change the orientation of individual stems. +oM

Total hijack here, but I lost my electronic car key with house key on it before Christmas. I knew it had fallen out of my pocket at work somewhere between the parking lot and the main doors. We had sooooo much snow this winter, I didn't have a hope of finding it. The school where I teach is in a very bad area of town and I've been worrying all this time that someone would find it and steal the car (and then find our address in the glove box and let themselves in our house). Not to mention the $350 replacement cost of the key. Well, it has finally started to melt here and as we were walking to the car yesterday, my daughter gave a yell, leaned down and picked the keys out of a half melted snow bank - and they still work!!!

We have always named every one of our vehicles, even before we were married. They become part of the family, so why not name them. Hubby's car is a brown volvo wagon, so Brownie is its name. My car is a bright yellow Ford Scion named Tweety. He's my "Tweety Mobile" and has Tweety decals on the doors, Tweety floormats and license plate frame, and Tweety things inside.

Orchid, we've owned many mazdas (we being he and I when was married). Daddy loves them too. Great cars. The current car is a Miata. I have loved that gal to death! It's one of the reasons I haven't let go. I say she's better than therapy. Toss the top down and off we go. Ah. My friend and I fight over whether your hair is supposed to whip wildly in the wind (me!) or you should wear a ball cap (him, in his saab), but whichever you pick, a convertible is just fun. Even being a girly girl, I have no qualms about pulling out the brush at the end of the ride. Lucky I have straight hair, that may help keep it reasonable. chi, I totally agree with you. I think most of us buy a car outside of our financial grasp. My car payment (not gas, insurance, upkeep) was something like $300 a month and that was 23 years ago. Why? I hadn't paid off the Eclipse before trading. I learned the very hard way, car payments are killer. I've told my son, instead, save what you'd pay in payments until you have enough for the car. Why didn't anyone tell me that at 14 years old (or to begin saving at 8 years old)? Maybe I'd never have had car payments, but then again, maybe I would've. He won't. He likes riding the bus. He can read, play games on his tablet, and save his bucks. I'd ride the bus except it's really hard to get errands run without a car. Grocery shopping especially!