Hi everyone! Celeste, first I want to tell you how much I enjoyed your article in the current Heritage Rose Groups newletter. I wish I could do the same thing: wind in my hair, holding on tight, and exploring the highways and byways with my sweet husband via motorcycle, sounds like a lot of fun. Too bad I am scared to death of motorcycles!!! (I cannot believe I just admitted that on this forum!!!) I have loved roses since early childhood, due to my mother's love of them, and spending some time with her in her "garden" (well, just a suburban yard, really, but when you are a preschooler, the whole world is bigger, you know?). I have had small gardens at each home I have lived in, and even when I was young and single, I would at least have houseplants and a rose or two in a large pot out on the patio or deck of my apartments. My husband Johnny and I married in 1996, and he knew from my small pot ghetto at the time that a larger garden would be inevitable once we bought a home together. Although he is not a gardener by nature, he is very much an outdoorsman, and he was content that I would want a nice big garden. Whether it was roses, other flowers, or vegetables would not have interested him at all. We bought our home in 1999, and before we had moved in, the garden plans were beginning inside my head. As soon as we had made this older house habitable inside, I changed my focus to the outside... Being the nice guy that Johnny is, he took my planning and excitement in stride. He could be counted upon to dig some holes, and assist with maintenence. But no way would he help pick what roses and other plants to buy, or help choose where to plant them: "You just tell me where to dig, and I will dig" mentality, lol. I joined the Texas Rose Rustlers, and Johnny has been sweet enough to tag along with me to the meetings. After all, how many times have I gone with him to the deer camp, or out fishing, etc, just so we could spend some time together? He met several men in that club that are avid gardeners of every description, particularly rose gardening. He listened to the speakers at each meeting, he joined in the socialization, he made friends with all the sweet older ladies that think of him as one of the nicest guys they have met... and before you knew it, he was asking questions, becoming curious about soil science, propagation, hybridization, and even would love to try his hand at growing roses from seed. Several years and hundreds of planting holes later, Johnny still doesn't consider himself a gardener. He leaves that distinction to me. He is the gardener's helper in his mind. He has lots of pictures of me in the garden that he loves, and I know it is not just that the pictures are of his wife! I think one would have to be heartless to spend so much time caring for the earth and not be able to develop an abiding love for the plants that you have nurtured! And anyone that knows Johnny, knows that he is a man with a very big, very happy and loving heart! Does he get teased for gardening with me? Not that I have ever heard. Would it bother him? I doubt it. He is pretty strong minded, and can hold his own in any circumstances (except for needles.... he nearly passed out during a minor procedure once, but that is a tale for a different sort of forum!) I wonder what sort of folks would think it odd for a man to garden? Maybe I am naive, but gardening is pretty common here in Texas. Lots of us come from Farming roots. And there are generations of hybridizers to look to for the nobility of the art of gardening. How many of the founding fathers of the United States were gentleman farmers before they were called to become patriots? I doubt they *only* grew their cash crops, but probably also grew things that they fancied. ... That reminds me that Thomas Jefferson was just such a man. His garden journals still exist, and he was, I think, the original American "Master Gardener"! Maybe there are problems with people's thinking nowadays, to disparage a man for being agrarian, rather than just a hunter-gatherer! Seems to me that agriculture was a step up on the evolutionary pathway. My final thoughts: Anyone that is foolish enough to question the masculinity of a male gardener is deserving of having a whiskey barrel full of compost, or a trash can full of fermented alfalfa tea dumped on their head! And anyone that stops to think about it will realize that rose gardening ain't for sissies! Most roses have big, mean thorns, and they bite. Anybody that would laugh at a guy that wrestles Mermaid without fear is lacking in brainpower. And last but not least, as Poodlepup knows, men that grow roses... yeah, they're hot! And most of them don't even know it! Allison

I retire to early, and missed it again. Tinmantu, no criticism is due. You should be angry. It was deceptive about the phone. So I guess you are "helping out" by paying it. Unless, they would like to? I have a niece, who has taken the same steps. Quit school, at 17, no car, no job. Basically, because of my sister's choosen disruptive lifestyle. My niece has been in trouble with the law, is on probation, etc. I have been asked many times for loans,hmmm, how are you going to pay it back, no answer, co-signing. My answer as bad as it makes me feel is NO. Do you know they find another way? Sometimes it is my mother, which angers me even more. My sister got a huge refund from the IRS because she had not filed in years. She told my mom who she has "borrowed" from for years she would get to her, but this money would pay this and that, sorry, you will have to wait. My mother is retired, on a limited income. She will do without necessities sometimes...GRRRRRRRRR. And did without to help. My mother is now saying NO, and they all still survive. Amazing! As far as college, your daughter can find her own way. I did. If she truly wants, work jobs, student loans, and desire, she can. If and when, she proves herself, you could offer to pay some. I would wait to see if it really happens. I had offered my nieces help through college, both have not taken me up on it or proved any inclination to go. I cannot choose my family, I just choose how I deal with them.

functionthenlook, it was "ward clerk" initially. Somewhere along the line "ward" transitioned to "unit". This was how I worked my way through college at first, later as an EKG technician. Both jobs no longer existed in the hospitals by the time I finished my career - simple EKGs were done (usually incorrectly, I might add) by the patient care technicians and after EMRs developed to a certain point, nurses were on their own to answer phones, handle paperwork, process orders and so forth.

I remember my husband and three of his friends dressing up in iconic Shania outfits from her videos and performing this song for another buddy who was celebrating his 50th birthday and a real Shania fan.