Since this thread is about mountain lions in NY I will repeat this post here---November 2011 I saw a large dead red cat on left shoulder of Southbound I-81 just after the Whitney pt exit. The face was rounded-a cross between a raccoon kind of face and a domestic cat.-sweet/round face very long rope like (thickish) tail w.straight fur-curved around towards the front- height of a St. Barnard but thin build like a Dane. The legs were long. The color was solid orange red. I was traveling at 65mph and by the time I had processed what I saw it was too late to easily pull over. I was very surprised. I posted a description of what I had seen on Topix in the hope someone else had seen it and could let me know what it was. All I got was a few snide comments. Then I found this: "05-05-2011, 06:48 PM #1 Crokit crokit Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 158 Mountain lion sighting First, let me state that I have all my faculties, excellent eye sight, and am not given to exaggerations. Today, while traveling south on Interstate 81, between Syracuse and Binghamton, I saw a Mountain Lion / Cougar/Panther, pick your noun.!! 100% positive, absolutely no doubt. There is ZERO chance that it was anything else. The only other thing it could have possibly been ( other than a live mountain lion/cougar/panther ) is a full body mount of a mountain lion/cougar/panther and someone pulling a prank. It was less than 100yds off the West side of the road, sitting on top of a section of rock/cliff that the highway had been cut through. It was sitting on it's haunches, leaning forward, ears forward, looking down onto/across the highway. It was about 30-40 feet above the highway. Just before the " Castle creek 1 mile " highway sign. When I screamed " holy F%^K, a mountain lion, scaring the S#$T out my buddy who was driving almost lost control at 75 mph. An absolutely beautiful animal, well muscled, excellent specimen. Up until now, when ever I've seen reports of sightings, I've taken them with a grain of salt. No more! Anyone know of any other recent reported sightings in that area? Wldnerness: Can you put me in touch with any of the state Dec/Rangers/etc from that area?" And my post on Topix was as follows: Justwondering East Syracuse, NY 1 huge red fox, moutain lion or lynx on I-81 (S) near Castle Creek Nov 9, 2011 Did any see a dead huge cat like animal on the southbound side of I-81 about a mile closer to Syracuse then the exit for Castle Creek. It was on the left lying an its side, obviously dead and huge. If you did see it, or heard someone else talking about it, what was it? It looked like it had a body like a mountain lion, a long tail with long fur-not bushy and a face that was rounder like a lynx.Its color was pretty uniformly red-not mixed or strips or anything like that. I was moving too fast and, once I had processed what I saw, I had gone too far to see it. Apparently someone picked it up, probably for its fur, because it was gone soon thereafter. I saw it at around 10:40am Tuesday morning. If you did not see it but are familiar with the wild life around there, any ideas? Any information would be appreciated. Hunters and Wild life experts,(to those needing to be sarcastic, save it), what do you think? These two sightings are at identical places. I do not believe that they are both mirages. Also, if the one I saw was young--it would not have been as visible to a driver on I-81 6 months earlier. The one I saw was not so big that it would have been very visible to drivers if it were on the top of a hill. That means that the one I saw could have been the adolescent offspring of the one seen by the earlier poster. If so, maybe there is a den nearby. I know exactly where I saw the dead animal so a wildlife person or ranger could easily investigate. If the other poster saw the parent in May and I saw a dead adolescent one in November I bet that there is one that has set up a residence in the area.

Yvette, I've had the same problem with Mossimo. The colors have also faded wicked fast IME - I bought about a dozen last year, short- and long-sleeved, after DH *ahem* cleaned out my dresser. (He does the laundry, and sometimes if he deems something too ratty to continue wearing he'll dispose of it, informing me that he has done so and that it's time for me to go get a new "whatever".) We have a front-loader washer and use a very tiny bit of detergent, and other clothes don't fade anywhere near as fast, even the $10 Docker knockoffs I get DH - he rips the pockets by catching them on the chair arms at work and gets that weird worn-out spot where his wallet is in his back pocket even in the expensive brand-name pants, so why spend 4x more to have a brand tag on his butt? (My Mossimo swimsuits are also disintegrating after about 7 months. When they went on clearance last summer I bought a pile of tops and bottoms - I only wear tankinis - to rotate at my twice-weekly pool sessions, so I never had to wear one suit more often than once every few weeks. Seams and hems are unraveling, patterns are fading and the lycra's getting those weird loopy rough bits in wear areas like under the arms and on the seat. I got sent home one day last week because my suit top was stretched enough that one of the "girls" kept popping out! Into the trash it went. Luckily it wasn't a favorite. I'll keep buying them when they go on clearance because getting a plus-size two-piece suit for under $20 is pretty good, and the $80-100 suits haven't held out a whole lot longer, but I really do hate throwing clothes out after a matter of months.) I never pay full price for Land's End anything though. Clearance department only for me! roselvr, that's why I have a lot of 3/4 sleeve things. :-) I inherited the "gorilla body" from my father - long torso with a barrel chest, no butt, long arms, short legs. I'm an old-fashioned freak, I want my pants waist at my actual waist. If they're below my waist I feel like I always need to hike 'em up. (I have a bad case of White Girl Butt and what hips I have are up at the pelvic crest, not down by the hip joint like most women's, so there's nothing to hold lower-cut pants up!)

I know there is some genuine need. I see so many people claiming that they don't have money. What they really don't have is the sense to live their lives or use their money wisely or to build up and save money where they can. Bad decisions snowball into even worse events. I've started becoming less sympathetic. I applied myself in high school, went to college, didn't sleep around and have illegitimate kids. I worked for several years and then quit to be a SAHM. My three kids all have the same father that I married before I got pregnant. For several years, I bought clothes and other items at garage sales and thrift stores to save money. I clipped coupons and used them to buy sale products or bought generic when it was cheaper. Our habits got us through the financially tougher years until we could start building up to more financial stability. I hope we don't have even financially tougher years ahead of us. We are trying to prepare for that also. Even if we can afford it, we don't buy the latest and greatest. We only bought the big screen tvs after our old 19" ones broke. I'm not against helping someone in need. I'm not truly seeing a lot of need. I'm seeing people with a lot of want.

Oh geez, I forgot that one. At the last place I worked, the high school summer workers/staff couldn't clean the bathrooms due to health and safety regulations. Wonder if many kids know that . . . "Geez Mom, I'd like to clean the bathroom but it's against state health regulations . . . " Note, the common household cleaners of bleach and ammonia are also disinfectants but both come with safety warnings and are actually quite dangerous. But so are some of the chemicals and apparatus used in HS science classes, so I dunno . . . it's complicated . . . Edited to add that it is not against state health regulations, it's against state occupational safety regulations. I'm not sure all the ins and outs and the specific ages. I knew at one time and there is a guideline sheet for employers on it, but I haven't perused it for a while.