Thank you Christina! I have loved Mr. Lincoln for at least 20 years. I didn't think he would be happy here, but I am going to give him a try. I'm going to plant the own root clone from RU, and also a grafted plant, tend to them, and see how they do. Fredrick Mistral looks amazing, I hope he's happy here also. Others grow JtO successfully in the area, and other Austins do well here. I look forward to the fragrance! I read about Jadis here, looked her up on Help-me-Find, and fell in love. I seem to have a preponderance of pink roses, and decided that it's time to start bringing in other colors. Golden celebration seems to be loved by many people here, and is so pretty, I can't resist. The good Dr. Jumain is such a luscious color, and is growing at least one full zone colder semi locally. What a beautiful rose he is, sigh.. I could go on and on, and I'm sure that it seems I already have, lol. I'm just very excited to be adding these, and other roses in the future. I've been growing OGR's, various rugosa hybrids, and a few modern shrub roses for quite a while, and I just began trying modern roses last year. They seem to be thriving here. Some where a little rough last year, but look great this summer. I'm learning that attentive and regular watering makes a huge difference, as well as various organic amendments and smallish amounts of organic ferts. I love cutting roses and bringing them in the house, this is the first year I've done this, and cannot imagine what took me so long! Thanks for posting, it's so much fun to read what other people think about roses. :)

may 27th at about 1230am i lost a really good friend. and ive been searching for answers everywhere as to why. i found this forum and wanted to share my story. his name was oreo and he was only 5 yrs old. i came home that evening,to him sitting near his food bowl empty. got him the food. went back into the kitchen to find him do a little scurry across the floor. i wasnt really worried at first until i bent down to pet him to see what the problem was and ran into my living room then laid down on his side stretch out all his legs and let out a loud moan meow then it looked like he had trouble breathing and that he was having a siezure. i though he may have been choking i didnt know how to react so i stuck my fingers in his mouth and there was nothing. then his tongue was out of his mouth and i looked at his chest and saw he wasnt breathing anymore. my other cat nudged him with her head then walked away. for some reason i thought more could be done i took him to the emergency vet. but i knew he was already gone. i didnt know that autopsy could be done on animals they didnt offer it to me. does any one have a similar story and know what might have caused this to happen? i can't get this out of my head i relive it everyday and just wonder.

One of the above links had Spain and Italy as countries with the best health care. Both those countries have much higher death rates for coved then the US. And before you go all bry911 on me, that is data taken from when each country began having problems and then the same amount of days from that. I think it was 19 days. Just saying, not everything posted here is fact. First, the U.S. has the best emergent care in the world, largely because that is the only access to care that a significant portion of our population has. In fact, you are looking at the only benefit of a busted system as proof positive we are better. Few people die of dehydration on a fresh water lake, that isn't a testament to the general safety of freshwater lakes. Furthermore, Spain - deaths 4,019, recovered 7,015. - Italy deaths 7,503, recovered 9,362 - U.S. deaths 1,037, recovered 428... Now those numbers are largely meaningless as is comparing a virus on a timeline when countries have drastically different R-naughts. I assure you, your point on the efficacy of the U.S. healthcare system can be made when this is over, there is no need to jump the gun and do it today.

Low numbers of risk affecting LARGE numbers of people, still results in large numbers of problems, even if the risk to any particular individual might vary. This is the bread and butter of public health. And risk and what one considers acceptable is an interesting concept. People parse it many ways. Lots of people do not change their behavior unless the risk is immediate and in their face, hence the reason so many people drink and smoke even though they increase the likelihood that you will have diseases down the line. They often think that whatever complications arise, they will be able to have some happy ending solution at the time. And even then, with complications, many continue to smoke and drink until it kills them. Prevention is easier and less expensive, but it seems to not be something the human race, by and large, is very good at. There are so many examples out their for social policy besides just disease control. Water pollution is another example, it is far easier to prevent water from getting polluted that to get the widely dispersed pollution out once it gets in to the water. Many of use probably owe our existence to our parent's inability to change short term behavior to avoid long term consequences. Not always a bad thing, carpe diem right? Balancing the two factors is wisdom, knowing how to balance practical present needs vs long term rewards. I spend every flu season in fear and dread of getting it, because it makes me sick for months and is a serious negative problem for my life. So covid for me is just an extension of that and I sure envy anyone who thinks they are robust enough for this to not be a problem for them. My Dad is 89 with underlying heart, lung and kidney conditions that are already slowly killing him, so covid or any other type of pneumonia, would finish him off tout suite.