A friend who gardened with me at a school garden would not thin....claimed it was "playing God". Instead, she let me do the thinning and made some comments about me being God. We had a serious talk and put a stop to that talk. She now understands that many of the veggies will never produce a decent harvest if we don't thin. But, I am the one who must do most of the thinning, just without any unwelcome comments. You say: "i didn't have the heart to thin the summer squash, zukes, and tomatoes... so i'm gonna be dropping them off on door steps in the middle of the night! " If those plants are seriously crowded they will have poor or no yield and there will be nothing to drop off anywhere. Crowding of some plants also gives a greater chance of fungal and other disease. You may want to tough it out and thin some more....or get a gardening friend to do it for you :) I don't like to "waste seeds" (aka "thin") much myself and make my own seed tapes for radish, carrot, and some other small seeds. I'll space them about twice as thick as I want them. If everything germinates there is some thinning to do yet, but not near what I'd need to do if I direct planted with my clumsy fingers.

And I'm almost as good with my own proofreading... Just as I hit the button to submit the message I noticed that I said 'summer sail' when I most definitely meant 'summer sale'.... although a sail might be nice too :-)

I have a hard time remembering--imagine THAT--exactly when I started into peri-meno... I think it was around 1995.. it was almost like I woke up one morning and the term "Change of life" had a whole new meaning..Life as I had known it, had certainly changed alright...nothing was the same..I had these overwhelming feelings of impending doom... just knew everything was going to make me DIE..anxiety attacks 24/7.. knew I had cancer in various places, detached retina..that one was a bout with ocular migraines... vertigo---KNEW that one was a brain tumour..blood pressure sky rocketed... heart palps... cholesterol jumped... hot flashes..phantom cramps..flooding.. then nothing for months then floods..and about a gazillion other things including, but not limited to hair in places I didn't want it and none in places I did... looking back, I guess I was/am one of the "lucky" ones... most of these symptoms were brought under control fairly quickly with a combination of diet, exercise, supplements ( B 100 complex, vit E, and a calcium/ magnesium).. and a better understanding of what was happening to my body...and how THAT affected my emotions and mind..for instance the B vitamins help regulate your hormones.. stress will deplete the body of them...was I stressed? you betcha... also I stumbled across an article about breathing correctly, and realized that much of the time I was stressed out, I was either holding my breath or breathng completely wrong.. thus contributing to the endless cycle of anxiety... learning to stop looking at everything as a huge outside force that was going to KILL me also helped LOL. that came by getting out and DOING things.. getting some fresh air and thinking about other things..I had gotten pretty self-posessed. Little by little the symptoms faded and I was left with a larger bra size, a few (?) extra pounds, still those pesky chin hairs.. an occasional hot flash..although almost NEVER in the winter when I could have used them...and the begining of an appreciation for this next chapter in life.. I just passed the "official "17 months bleed free, so I guess that means I'm there..I was able to go through these years without the benefit(?) of HRT.. but I realize that everyone is different and for some women HRT is the answer to getting through this time... what ever works is my belief.. nothing is written in stone on this one.. except I think the basics... drink plenty of water, get some form of exercise daily, get sleep when you can--I started taking naps again--and find somethng to laugh about often..seriously..laughing releases chemicals in your brain that make you feel better.. might be something to the old addage.."Laugh all your troubles away".. hang in there ..there is light at the end of the tunnel... sorry this ended up being so long, I do tend to run on sometimes.. Judy

I don't know which is funniest. They are all good but I laughed out loud with Q:Someone has told me that menopause is mentioned in the Bible... Is that true? Where is it? A:Yes. Matthew 14:92: "And Mary rode Joseph's ass all the way to Egypt ...." Thanks for this and I'm passing it on.