#19 Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners

Jim, are you talking about the lung drain? I lie on my side and they go in through a hole in my back. (Ewww.) No gag reflex involved although one does cough reflexively when the lung re-expands. (Ewww.) But fear not, they have ways of getting around any reflex they don't want in the hospital. (Double ewww.)

I might like that soup, although so far I haven't liked anything except Coke. Not much to live on.

I read an article comparing sugar to artificial sweeteners. One of the ways Ray was able to lose 40 pounds (he wanted to) was by switching from Coke to Diet Coke. I can't tolerate artificial sweeteners but I'm really better off with soda water plus juice for flavoring. I have never been really drunk because I go from tipsy to asleep with no intermediate steps. Oh. the conclusion of that article was that artificial sweeteners with whatever real or imagined health risks are worth it because the health risks of excess sugar are well documented and definitely real. I prefer a little real sugar to any amount of fake stuff because it makes me sick.

Hi Gang, :D
Carrie so glad you're feeling better. Well, at least you sound a little better. Can completely understand why you don't feel like eating but the fact that soup sounds good is a start. It sounds like something I had when I had Thai food a couple of times. Some kind of coconut curry Thai soup. Quite good and quite yummy! I'll take your interest in food as a good sign and as a sign you'll be home soon stuffing your face. :D

I agree with you that artificial sweeteners are yucky especially if you're not used to them. I am not a big fan of aspartame but prefer it and find it wholeheartedly less damaging than sugar. As to getting used to it I started with the decrease the sugar method. I did a glass 1/4 diet to 3/4 regular coke. Got used to it. Went to 1/2 diet to 1/2 regular. Then 3/4 diet to 1/4 regular. Then all the way diet. Now if I have regular cola or any soda I go ewwwwwh this is sickening sweet!
Also I am hooked on Stevia. It's a plant. Taste like sugar. Can cook, bake and use it like sugar. Works just like sugar. Except it is all natural, a plant and has 0 calories! It also isn't a chemical like aspartame. Also Splenda isn't too bad because it does have sugar in it. And yes, I do use regular sugar but a 5 pound bag lasts me a year! It all just depends on what I'm cooking, baking or "sweetening". I hate to admit it but for a few baked items (not all) you just can not substitute the sugar.
Without even "dieting" or going Paleo I noticed how much weight I lost without even trying just by getting rid of soda and 90% of the sugar in my diet. Then I noticed how much better I felt! Thus started my little scourge campaign regarding food. Now when I don't eat what I should my body definitely let's me know it in ways I don't like (and most other don't either...LOL)!

Interesting thought: I believe food cravings are our body's way of telling us that we "need" or "have to have" something. Perhaps your "need" for Coke is your body's way of saying I "need" sugar to reset my glucose level and metabolism and create energy and maybe I like the carbonation because it makes my stomach feel good? Have you had your glucose levels checked lately? Or...have you tried eating something else with sugar/naturally sweet like fruit?

Jim and Kay...get with you tomorrow. DH calling. Needs help in kitchen.
Hugs to all,
Agave/TT2C

Agave, they've been checking my blood levels for entertainment! My sugar level is fine. I TOTALLY agree about your "decrease the sugar method." That's how I try to make ANY change, make it so gradual that you don't notice. I'm actually not craving Coke, it's just that I am able to drink it. My favorite beverage is lime soda water + juice of 1/2 lime + 2 ounces (approx.) limeade or lemonade. I'm not worried about switching back from Coke after I can eat again. It's all the things you said, fluid, carbonation, caffeine and sugar.

I got off of Tramadol and Klonipin that way and I switch drugs that way. I learned it from my mother when she switched us to wheat bread from white and low-fat from whole milk. (I just remembered that, and it's not even throwback Thursday!)

Oh, and Agave, I'm not in the hospital any more. I was for a few days at the beginning, but draining the fluid is outpatient and I monitor my O2 level at home. I hope to stay out of the hospital.

Hi Carrie. A :} So glad you're out of hospital and this is just outpatient stuff...even though it isn't fun. Also glad it proves my theory about you don't miss what you don't have and that they truly do put a lot of unnecessary junk in our food. By the way your drink sounds yummy. Have to give it a try and make a pitcher of it when out gardening. As a matter of fact got a couple of limes hanging out in the fridge been wondering what to do with.

O.K. Jim,
Finally can get to you. Husband off to work, dog walked. In regards to prickly pear, yes it is quite a beauty. I only wish it was mine! (Never stops me from pulling up a rock when I can and talking to such old and wise desert survivors).

I live on a street that forms an oval (Zoe has flashbacks) and that belongs to a neighbor on the back half. I pass it daily and just admire it, especially the beautiful fruit. Since the fruit is ripe and the plant has been dropping them I picked one up off the sidewalk. I figured no harm in that. Wrong! Spent a day with tweezers trying to get the little "prickles" out from my palm and fingers. Not painful just itchy. The fruit has a bunch on it that you can't see (eye roll).

So how is your prickly doing? Have you checked any of the other gardening forums to see how to cure this little guy? Shouldn't be hard. May be as simple as cutting the infected pads off at the joints. If the whole cactus is covered then maybe a solution or mix to clean it with is available at a garden center or big box store like Home Depot or Wal-Marts . All I can think of right now is laying down some fine gravel around it to help drain and put some larger fist sized river rocks over that to try and keep as much water out of the roots as possible. Then when it does get dry you can just move aside one or two of the rocks to water when needed. Try to save the guy. As you see they can be quite amazing when they grow; and they do grow relatively quick compared to other cacti. They love the blazing sun!

Cactus are funny. They can grow just about anywhere. Not sure where Alamagordo or Cloud Croft is but here in this are we have 3 seasons. warm, hot, and Hell. If you look on a map of AZ you'll see one area that has this big brown spot with nothing on it. Yep. That's me! (See me waving). I'm equidistant between Tucson and Phoenix. Relatively small city called Casa Grande.
We are what you call the Low Sonoran Desert. Winter evenings are about 40 degrees. I can count on 1 hand the amount of times each winter where it might have dipped into the 30s at night. Average day time temp is in the 50s and 60s. Last November it was in the 80s! Didn't cool down until December through March. Spring is usually 70s through flirting with 90. Summer is 100s to...oh, about 118 degrees for 5 months every day in a row and mind numbingly DRY. You sneeze outside you create a dust storm. (Sound like Kuwait?)

Our next 10 days it's going to be between 104 and 109. Just wait! August, September and October are just the best here never gets below 107! Want to come visit? As natives we don't start whining until it hits 110. So I'll warn you, if you visit air conditioning is perpetually set at 78-80 degrees. "Blasting it" is 77 or 76! This is the standard for most natives.
A lot of times when DH leaves for work at 3:15 a.m. I just shut it off. I'm cold! I still have blankets on the bed! I open the door and enjoy the "warm air" until about noon when it starts to get hot.
Cool nights in my neck of the cacti are in the upper 90s. Usually we don't have humidity but it's been a treat lately. It's been in the mid 30-40% range. Plants are loving it. We aren't. Dog and I love our 3:30 a.m. walks also. No heat, no humidity yet. The "heat lightening" is pretty cool too. Just bounces around from cloud to cloud and lights things up but you know there's no threat of rain. When it rains though look out!
It took me awhile to appreciate the peculiar beauty of this place and the plants and the landscape. It is one you do have to just sit and look at for awhile. Preferably not all day in the sun without a hat on. Then you see flying moneys instead of cacti (LOL). But if you do amazing things, shapes, colors and forms reveal themselves to you. A desert by definition is a dry arid place with little to no rainfall. It is not a dead place. So I began painting it and the plants years ago.
So you're going to miserable until October also? Ugh! Rain and humidity I take it? What a fabulous combo. I think I rather bake. Ummmm..Yeah. I'll take bake. I don't like feeling like I'm having a perpetual hot flash. (LOL)

As for Zoe thank you. Yes she's a pretty girl. She isn't as big as the picture makes her out to be. It is just the angle. She only weighs 68 pounds. Tall and lanky of course. You have to see a picture of her standing or in action. Oh wait, that is an action picture. They give new meaning to the word "retired". I tell people the only time she's a race dog is when you rattle the food bowl. Otherwise she's a 3 dimensional area rug. Best dog I ever owned though. Best temperament, best behaved, and the best house manners I've ever seen in an animal. That of course varies from dog to dog I'm sure just like it varies from person to person. But for the most part it holds true of all Greys.

They recently got a Greyhound dog program in the prison where my husband works as a corrections officer. They have about 10 dogs there presently and he says it has done wonders for the whole place. It is like a blanket of calm has descended. They get the dogs off the Tucson track (still open :{ ) when they're done. Inmates that are the best all the way around in terms of behavior, compliance, completing education, learning skills, not getting in trouble, are the dog handlers. There's also 2 assistant handler per dog. Dog lives in cell right along with inmate.
Now considering a prison cell is 9' x 11' and there's 2 people in there with 2 bunks a toilet and a sink to put a large dog and a rather large dog crate and their food and water bowl in there too shows a lot of willingness on an inmates part to make a sacrifice.
DH said it was amazing to see inmates with gang tattoos who are probably in there for murder going, "Oh doggy, doggy, I love you doggy. Good dog. Yes, you are a good dog." Actually cooing to them. The dogs don't care. They can't read tattoos. They don't know what these people are in there for or even that it's a prison. All they know is somebody is loving me, feeding me, petting me and I'm off the race track and a "pet" now and not just going from kennel to race track, kennel to race track, kennel to race track with no toys, treats, or attention or affection.
The inmates' lives basically revolve around the dogs' not the other way around. when the dog wants to go out they have to take it. They have set play times, out door times, meeting times with the Greyhound people that started the program, professional trainers that teach them about the dogs that come to the prison periodically, etc. All supervised of course. The inmate revolves around this. The dog does not revolve around when they want to watch TV go to rec, take extra art or other classes, play cards, etc. If they miss church because of the dog then they find another time to go that day or week.
It is beneficial in that for once THEIR lives are revolving around someone/something else other than themselves and their wants. They are learning responsibility and how to be unselfish and to care about living things and be considerate of feelings, wants and needs of others. The dogs are also getting ready to be adopted out to good homes. All the dogs they had so far have been adopted and they have gotten new ones to train. :]
My only concern with the program is that when these dogs get into a home they will not be used to being alone. Regular people leave the house and leave the dog alone for periods of time. I wonder how the dogs will react. Also how will the dog react to silence. The prison is a very noisy, and populated environment. Home is not necessarily.
Aside from that, however, the program has worked miracles in the prison its self. Everyone seems happier, calmer, more productive. It doesn't seem to be a distraction. Just a joy.
See...everyone needs a Greyhound!

Also everyone needs a cocktail! I think I could manage the bar order. NO energy drinks for children in my house! They already act like they're on crack, they don't need massive doses of caffeine or sugar to add to it.

Speaking of dogs, time to feed mine. Speaking of cocktails need to take bath and turn into domestic goddess and wait for evening before deciding.
By the way how's the back and the creative use of implements coming along?
Hugs to all,
TT2C/Agave

You’re right, Carrie. I thought they went down the throat with their tubes. It crossed my mind they might enter through the body, but then I thought “No. They wouldn’t pierce the lung tissue. This will teach me to think for myself. Should have Googled it. They did put you under for it, right? It doesn’t sound like something I would want to be awake through.

There was a problem with the bedroom AC yesterday. It was easy to fix, but it made a big mess. A lot of water leaked before we caught the problem. We have a central air conditioning, but I keep a unit in the bedroom because I sleep better in a chilly room. Kay piles on the blankets and complains about the cold when she gets up. Southerners!

How hot is it here? Hot enough that someone stole an AC unit from a church. That’s kind of like stealing a book from the library.

My back’s doing okay. I’ve been furniture surfing in the house instead of always using the walker. Feeling tired from all the appointments the last two days. Kay’s back in the hearing world and I have a new back brace. I hear you about the over-eating when I’m not doing much, Carrie. Trying to time my meds with my meals. Doesn’t having an empty stomach give you problems with medication? I can’t take some of mine on an empty stomach.

Waving, TTC.

(Jim)

Yes Jim, it is really complicated because some of them HAVE to be on a full stomach and the others HAVE to be on an empty stomach.

Unfortunately, one is AWAKE for a thoracentesis! I try not to think about it too much because it is definitely ewww. The first time I was so anxious that my BP was really high, I can't remember exactly but REALLY high, so they gave me an IV sedative and I didn't care so much. The second time I was wide awake. It's done outpatient and you can't eat or drink after midnight, which means my meds schedule gets all messed up. The normal rules about "don't eat this. it's not good for you" are waived when you MUST eat in order for your pills not to give you a bleeding ulcer or to pass through un-absorbed.

Have you folks checked out patientslikeme.com? I find it hard to negotiate but I use it to keep track of when symptoms started and when I was prescribed various things. It's free and really a good idea. Just a little hard to negotiate sometimes.

Hey, Compadres. Hope everyone is having a good day.
That’s an amazing program with the greyhounds, TTC. Greyhounds may be the perfect dogs for it. The breed seems to appeal to people who aren’t ordinarily animal people. My niece worked for animal control and rescue in Houston and somehow she ended up with a homeless greyhound. Kay was going to take it, but it had to stay with her sister until we got a chance to drive to Houston to pick it up. By the time we were ready to make the trip, Kay’s sister had become attached to the dog and didn’t want to give it up. This lady was a model when she was young and an interior designer when she got too old for the runway. She was by no stretch of the imagination a n animal person. It may have helped that the dog was fashion conscious also. It would not leave the house without its headgear on and my SIL was convinced it could tell time because it would bring her the headgear when it was time for their walk.
Sauna summer is still here. Kay says the swamp is after her. It followed her from Florida. I thought we had been living next to a swamp for the last 20 years and said so. The comment got eye rolls from both ladies. We evidently live next to a river marsh which is not to be confused with a swamp. The river has alligators in it. That makes it a swamp to my mind, but Nadi is a certified swamp rat so I guess she’s the expert. South Carolina Lowcountry+Defender of Frogs and other Amphibians+Survivalist=Swamp Rat according to my calculations. Nadi is “the kid” who got the energy drink. It’s a bad sign when you refer to someone in their late 20’s as a kid, isn’t it? She can legally drink Monster and as someone with an energy deficit problem often does. I’m not crazy enough to give a actual child an energy drink. The GC run me ragged as it is. The youngest seems to think I am a jungle gym. Too bad he wasn’t around when I got my grandfather name. I could be Grandpa Jungle Jim instead of GRUMP-Pa Bear Jim.
I should have said White Sands Missile Base. Most people know where that is. Alamogordo is a town nearby and it is at the base of the mountains. Cloud Croft is in the cool mountain heights. It is the reason servicemen like me could bear tours of duty at White Sands. When I thought the heat was unbearable< I could take a mini-vacation to the cool heights. I’m originally from Pennsylvania near Harrisburg and would have described the summers there as hot and humid once upon a time. NM gave me a new definition of hot and this place has given me a new definition of humid. I think it would be best described as a moist Mediterranean kind of environment. The region is sometimes called the Redneck Riviera.
I’ve never thought to ask before, Carrie. Has the Boston area always been home. I remember you mentioning rural childhood experiences in Virginia in an article or post.
Well, the dryer just beeped. Kay brought the dirty laundry basket to the laundry room and announced that was my job for the day. I really shouldn’t have made that cleaning lady comment. lol.
(Jim-the laundryman)

Hi gang:D
What's cookin'? Me and the Agaves that's what! Whopping 107 today. Oh goody. It'll be 107 tomorrow. Bet you can't guess what it'll be the day after. YEP, one oh something. Ah Summer in the desert. Oh well, at least you don't have to shovel it out of the drive or scrape it off the windows. Best part to IT'S SWAMP-PY! Oh goody. For people that are used to 2-5% humidy 30-43% is killing us. I honestly feel like there should be Alligators sunning themselves on the rocks next to my cacti. They go for a good swim in one of the ponds on the golf courses somewhere.
Anyway had to punish myself by being out in the heat doing what I love best. Playing in the dirt and talking to cacti. Put up the tent shade over the Agaves. The sun has been burning them and they've looked very pitiful . :[
Then of course I had to instigate matters and start pecking away at the side area of my house. Narrow spot about 14' long 1'6" wide that borders the walk to my front door. Originally supposed to be succulent bed. Yeah. Right. Succulents in the desert. Either got toasted to a nice nutty brown and had the consistency of potato chips or in vain attempts to resuscitate them the got watered and watered and watered and watered until they turned to black goo.
First gardening lesson: When the wise cactus got done laughing at me he said, "Succulents do not grow out doors in the desert. Look around. Duh!"
So I got "inspired" ( huge eye roll and big sigh) to create what I call a "balloon garden". Basically any little round, odd, rolly-polly, funny and amusing cactus that would stay under 2 feet tall and less than 1 foot wide and flower and basically be "interesting" to look at and amusing. Round-roundish and flowering being the main theme. I figured these types of things could take 107 degree heat. So like an idiot I'm out there in 107 degree heat which humans (normal ones) can't take planting amusing little cacti.
Now that I'm showered and rehydrated......
Yes Greys are indeed special dogs like no others. They're real lookers I think that's how the hook people. Then they get them with that personality. They simple are the sweetest things. They're also very un-dog like. They're not the big touge lolling, slobbering, jumping, panting, manic, bouncing around dog. They're quiet, genteel, calm and have a very regal manner but are quite approachable. I agree with in in that this is probably why people who aren't "dog people" like them. Also they're not the type of dog to inspire fear. You really, really have to work to provoke this animal before it "reacts like a dog".
I'm sure the dog and your SIL complemented each other beautifully. Probably made a lovely pair walking down the street. Got lots of stops and stares. Zoe cleans up well. Has the pretty Martingale collar and fancy leash for fancy occassions. She's very much like me. A natural snob but with a good heart and a down to Earth approachable manner. (Not to mention we're both fabulously good looking...LOL) You said headgear. Did doggy have a tiara? Zoe has a nice elegant red and black beaded Chinese necklace to match her Martingale collar and leash. And yes they CAN tell time. It is "feed me. feed me. walk me. feed me. bed." If you forget they don't. They're incredibly and annoyingly punctual.
It is a cool program at the prison though. I think it is called Second Chance at Life; Fast Dogs for Fast Friends. It is at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, AZ. You can Google some info about it. We got Zoe off the Phoenix track right when she retired just a few months before it closed. The dogs in the prison program are all from Tucson which is still open and running a track.
Uh yeah. Tell the ladies I agree. You live near a swamp. If you got gators you got swamp. You've got hot,steamy, water, amphibians, survivalist skills and gators. You've got swamp! (It's o.k. Out here I got dirt and tumble weeds and people without enough brain power to tell the difference between them.)
Tell Nadine I said she can have an energy drink. She's allowed if she holds it with both hands, uses a coaster and doesn't spill it on the rug! LOL! :D
No someone in their 20s is not a kid although I have to refrain from wanting to say "kid" when thinking about them and speaking to them. They're not "kids". We weren't at that age although we were stupid. I don't think we were as stupid as they are now though. I just find them incredibly infantalised by their parents and are socially retarded (literal and inferred meanings both).
I just try not to add to it by patronizing them, talking down to them or doing the thing that sent me into orbit the most when I was their age....calling them "KID".
I about peed myself laughing the other day. My mother started bickering with me on the phone and she said, "Look here young lady...." I about fell out of the chair from laughing. Young lady? I'm 47. I color my grey hair. I have wrinkles and when I don't wear contact lenses I have on bifocals! Young lady? WOW!!! If it makes her feel better. :D (She's only 21 years older than I)
I think I mainly try to not call young adults "Kids" because I don't want to be my mother. I like my delusions. They make me feel better about my self. But calling 47 year olds "young lady" is a little too delusional even for me.
I like Grandpa Jungle Jim better too. Sounds much more approachable than Grump-pa Bear Jim. I don't have kids so I don't get to be a Grump-ma. So what do they call Kay? My husband either calls me sweetheart, love of his life or raving #$%&* LOL! Dog just knows me as "Mommy". That's cool. As for being crazy enough to give children energy drinks that depends. What child, how soon are they going home and how much I dislike their parents. (You know I'm joking right? I'd never give children energy drinks either. Just sugar.)
I feel bad that I still don't know where White Sand Missile base is. I'll have to Google it. When I was in the Army I was in the desert. Ironically I didn't live in Arizona at the time but was here. I was at Ft. Huachuca doing my AIT.
It's also interesting you mentioned Harrisburg, P.A. I grew up in Youngstown, OH area and went to college in Pittsburgh. My best friend that I met in college was from Mercersburg, P.A. We hooked up again in L.A. later in our mid 20s when we were "kids".
Hope you're keeping that Trollz clean or else you'll be doing the vacuuming too!
Hi Carrie, Hi Kay!
Talk to you all soon.
Hugs,
Agavegirl

Gooooooooood Morning.
Wah...tired already. It's late into my day already. Wrote early as I'll be busy today. Yes, "late into my day already." Think I told you my day starts at 2:00a.m right? Let's see, made breakfast for hubby (yuck..I don't do breakfast), walked dog at 3:30 a.m., have washed and dried 4 loads of laundry. Did the dishes. (Never dry them. Mother tortured me with that as a kid). Answered e.mails. Read computer news both world and local. Sigh.
Do you know some wackadoo in our state who needs a literal on way trip to the nut hut decapitated his girlfriend (who was also a kook), shoved her in a closet, mutilated both dogs,and then decided God would forgive him if he cut off his own arm below the elbow and pulled out his own eyeball. Which he did of course. Gheesh. Now that takes some real determination.
What's crazier is he stayed that way for 2 days until the neighbor came over to check on the woman because he hadn't seen or heard from here the last 2 days. He flipped out when the guy opened the door looking like that.
I mean could you imagine? Want to know what the best part was. Whackadoo asked the guy for a smoke. I can kind of get exactly why he wasn't too keen on having to drive to the
Circle-K to pick up a pack of Camels. So I guess I can empathize with him on that one.(LOL). The neighbor talked to him as calmly as possible without his own eyes popping out of his head until he could go call the police. He was on auto pilot just trying to figure out what the Hell went on.
I mean could you imagine ringing your neighbor's door bell and guess what....? What a way to start the day. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. It was in the news about 2 or 3 days ago. Great stuff for a Law and Order episode or a movie or novel or something.
In one way you want to be so mad at this guy. I'm just so stunned by how fractured this guys mind is I can't be. I think I'd be mad if he just killed her and didn't hurt himself. The fact that he butchered him self and didn't think to alleviate his own suffering for 2 days just really makes me believe he is more mentally sick and out of touch with the world than he is malicious, and twisted.
My husband says there's a guy in prison where he works that just spends his life in Segregation pretty much. No human contact, TV, books, magazines, programs,
Greyhounds :[, etc. He's just nuts. They can't force him by law to take his meds. He won't take them because of the side effects. Thus he can't function in general population, obey rules, go where he should at the appropriate times (class, lunch, rec, etc.). Others either steal from him or he beats them up. He's a pretty big dude. So every infraction earns him a stay in Seg. When he's on his meds DH says he's o.k. to deal with and pretty much keeps to his self. Reads a lot to catch up with the world. Then goes off the meds again. (Can't say I blame him there..chuckle).
I don't think "locking these people up and throwing away the key" is the answer. I think locking them in a mental hospital forever and forcing them by law for their crime to take meds and undergo counseling and treatment is the key. Oh well...such is America. But if I were King for a day...yeah, yeah.
So that was the news I forgot to tell you guys about.
On a brighter note BALLOONS..................Yeah, Balloon garden!!!
I've gotten some really cute little cacti to put on that side of the house working with the balloon garden theme :
--Mammillaria nejapensis (silver arrow cactus)
--Mammillaria mystax
--Mammillaria celesiana (golden pin cushion)
--Parodia Magnifica (yellow spine ball cactus)
--Tichocereus grandiflorus hybrid (torch cactus)
--Trichocereus poco
I already have some Mammillaria fragillus and one mammillaria hahniana (old lady cactus)
Trichocerus has been replaced with the species name Echinopsis. I am excited about the Torch Cactus. If you check the plant file it gets this amazing bloom about the size of an Easter Lilly! I have no idea what color this thing will be but it will be great when it blooms.
I've been able to find all my plants...really little guys right now...for $2.50 to $3.50 each. I think my most expensive 2 so far have been $5.00 and $7.98. So all in all this is a good project for me and very economical. I just keep putzing away at it whenever I see cute little, round, balloon like things. :D
Oh...I'm hoping the H.O.A. (home owners association) hasn't noticed I've been ahem..."foraging" for rocks for this little garden of mine. :D
They're small...o.k. A little bigger than my fist. It's not like I'm lugging boulders back. Besides these things are sitting on the side walks and in the medians in the streets where nobody gives a hoot. I pay my fees therefore I'll rationalize and say I'm entitled to a few "ammenity" rocks since I don't use the kids' play ground or club house and I think I'm the only one that goes around picking up pop cans and throwing out the newspaper and junk mail up when I see it lying around! I also do not let my dog potty anywhere but at home! Very strict on that one.
Hope everyone is well.
Talk to you soon,
Will post pic of garden
Hugs, TTC

Jim, I have lived in Greater Boston since I was 6 months old, so essentially all my life. I went to my mother's parents in Virginia and my father's parents in Maine every summer and they were the gardeners, my father's mother and my mother's brother and his family. Virginia (DC area) was hot and Maine was lovely. I think I enjoyed Virginia more most years.

I am thrilled to announce that yesterday afternoon my doctor's office called me to say that my effusion is almost all better, as of yesterday morning's Xray! Woohoo! I don't have to visit a specialist or have a chest tube or any of the unpleasant alternatives! Our summer doesn't go back to being what it would have been, but almost. YAY! I am so relieved.

Sorry, Agave, not trying to cut you off. You cross-posted.

Carrie, that’s wonderful news! BTW, did you ever get your Shrimp Lo Mein?
Of course, you and Zoe turn heads. You are the AgaveGirl. The word agave means something like admirable or splendid, if I remember right. Did you all have agave (the plant, on your list of food and permaculture plants that grow in the desert? Reading about artificial sweeteners reminded me. Those who can’t tolerate artificial sweeteners, but need to cut back on refined sugar turn to agave nectar because of its low glycemic index. The original peoples of Arizona might not of had much to work with, but you’ve got to give them credit for using what they had to the maximum level. Agave was food, medicine, clothing, rope, soap and even entertainment. The only stringed instrument the First People invented was made with agave fiber and there was pulque. I’m not sure if tequila and mescal were Native American creations or they came later with the Spanish. There, you see. No matter what anyone says, I’m not a know-it-all. lol. A walking encyclopedia of virtually useless knowledge…perhaps.
Jim was prescribed a spinal stimulator that allegedly encourages bones to heal. I hope it is doing some good. He thinks it is a pain to wear all the time. I will be interested to see if they have anything going on with Degenerative Disk Disease at Patients Like Me. I took a quick look at their website. It is certainly a good concept. Real life experience is sorely needed in medicine. Sometimes I suspect I may know more about Marfan’s Syndrome and closely related disorders than the GPs treating me. Hmmmm…maybe I am a know-it-all.
Carrie, if you find yourself eating in Mexico again. The best way to eat cactus pads I am aware of is in salsa.
Have a blessed day.
kay*

Oh, Agave, please tell me the slice and dice wacko was blown away on some mind altering drug and not sober or just drunk or a little toked up.
k*

Hi guys.
You know, you meet more people at 3:00a.m. walking the dog than you do in 3 months. But that's another story.
As for the news I mentioned to you. This "story" gets better and better in terms of it's cast of characters and from a TV drama and/or literary sense. In real life it gets weirder and more pathetic. I mean I'm just so disgusted with AZ more than I am these people that there's simply no reason this had to happen. Here's why according to the latest I read today.
Our victim, Ms Trina Heisch age 49, unfortunately was a bigger whackadoo than her murderer. Oh, did I mention he was her husband? (Forgot to mention DH age 43, was also nude in addition to missing one eye and his fore arm when he answered the door 2 days later for the neighbor. Now I REALLY understand why he asked the neighbor to bum a smoke rather than driving to the Circle-K!)
Anyway it was love at first sight for these 2 nuts in.... you guessed it...the nut house! The loving husband in 2003 stabbed a family member( who lived) and was serving 10 years in a state mental hospital. Wasn't charged because he was just plain nuts. He was a schizophrenic. Can't fix nuts. Put him on meds; did fine.
Our blushing bride Trina, age 49 was also nuts. She was nuttier. She was also serving 15 years in the institute because in 2000, she thought it would be a great idea to stab her sleeping 15 year old son. (Boy lived) Not guilty. She's nuts, bipolar plus, "self medicating meth user because it clears my head" to quote her. Put her on meds. Helped the bipolar issue. She was sure continuing to self medicate though.
Gee, do you think anyone got these two a set of steak knives as a wedding gift?
In 2013 DH (name not released yet) was told to hit the bricks from the mental institute. The records from the AZ Psychiatric Security Review Board believed his mental illness was in remission. (HUH? Mental illness does not go into 'remission'. It gets managed and suppressed with meds. You are always nuts if there's some biological factor. If it is psychological-behavioral-cognitive then you get therapy/intensive counseling for 9 million years until you're cured. IT NEVER GOES INTO REMISSION...IDIOTS!) Anyway these geniuses at the AZ Psych Security Board says, "He's fine. Not a danger to the community or his self as long as he is in residential treatment."
DW is waiting for DH to get out of nut house. So in the interim she's out having a little affair with some heroin addict named Poncho. Poncho, since DW is a functioning meth head, decides to sell her into prostitution to some people who he owes money to. Story does not get elaborated in details in this regards. DW at this time becomes religious nut as well as just being a nut and starts locking herself in closets to pray. Something about a verse in the Bible she takes literally about going into a closet to pray. (Explanation as to why her body was found in the closet when she was murdered.) Also DW tries to check her self back into nut house in their psych ward. They won't take her.
Now a note here. This is the only mental hospital in AZ left that is funded with tax payer dollars. All of the other state and government run ones are shut down so that some money can trickle down into my pocket. (Still waiting by the way. You?) Thus the reason all the nuts like DH and DW are on the streets and can't get back into the nut house, along with the homeless, the poor, the sick, the hungry, the Vets, the animals, the environment, (all of them are making commercials just begging me for .60 cents a day). Ahem...I digress
They won't take DW back into the nut house. Sad. So sad. She knew she needed help and shouldn't have been out and about. If she's crazy and knows this what's the AZ Psychiatric Security Review Board's excuse? The story and the problems could have stopped right here if they had only taken her back. But they don't.
So DH is home now and DW is with him (Poncho got kicked to the curb and picked up by the police for a 2 year old drug crime). Not too clear in paper/articles on computer if DH is doing drugs but on June 7th he said he was on drugs and he was going to harm people. So the hospital sends out a "Crisis Intervention" service. AZ Psych Security Board claims they have no idea what services were given due to patient confidentiality and that they did everything by law to help ensure safety of community. The crisis intervention people claim they suggested the AZ psych people file papers to have DH civilly committed.
In the meantime domestic bliss reigned. Constant calls from the neighbors to 911 about fights, physical altercations in the yard and street, etc. Nice young guy (the neighbor that found DH and discovered the murder) came and checked on them every couple days because he knew they were both nuts and wanted to see that they were o.k. even said this went on constantly. He knew eventually something was going to happen.
Best part of the calls to 911 stopped. One neighbor told the police she stopped calling due to the discouragement and comments she got from the dispatcher about tax payer dollars. So every time an incident occurred the calls tapered off to the point of all most none. There was the one DH made himself on the 7th of June. Then we have this.
Oh...NOW the AZ Psych Security Review Board that wouldn't readmit DW to the hospital and the hospital that couldn't throw DH out fast enough because he was "in remission" claims there was no order to have DH civilly committed as the hospital claims it was going to do per the crisis intervention people.
So that's the story so far in a nutshell :D What a senseless, stupid, waste of human life. All because they wanted to save a few bucks. Hope they feel it's worth it. Now look what it's going to cost them in tax payer money to have their records plowed through and to sit in front of a review board while they point fingers at each other over this matter. I'm just so disgusted by the whole thing.
Those 2 people may have been really sad characters but they were "functional" when in a mental hospital AND on their meds. Had they just been left there as they should have been one would be alive and the other not mutilated and partially blind for no good reason. Both would have been "manage-ably" sane. If not they would be in a place where they could be "managed" for life.
So no, Kay,I am so sorry. I wish I could tell you he was a drugged up psychopath with no conscience who went out on a binge and decided this was just a good thing to do at the moment because he didn't like the reruns on TV. It would make it so much easier to accept.
He's just a nut with a fractured mind who was not getting the help he needed and was shoved out on the street before he should have been if at all. He has a conscience. That's not to say he wasn't using drugs or didn't do drugs but at the time there was no mention of it specifically as being "the reason" for the behavior. Insanity was the reason. DW was a definite drug user. Her being nuts didn't help either.
The fact he said, "God will forgive me" shows he has a moral compass (whichever direction it may point.) To ask for forgiveness means you "know" you did something wrong and show remorse. He didn't say "God told me to act this way." He took responsibility for his own actions. He's just nuts. Defies logic or our need to find a reason to justify his actions but... he's just nuts.
I think perhaps this was his idea of a "final solution", the only one borne out of frustration that he could see that would put an end to their problems. He'll be locked up in a place where he will get help. DW won't have to be denied being locked up and forced into "self-medication" to manage herself and her problems because the one place that could turned her away. She doesn't have anymore problems now. She's dead and with the/her God she loved very much. (I think I mentioned she was religious and prayed a lot in her 'prayer closet').
I can't even be mad at him. He's nuts. Period. I'm mad at this state and these "sane" people here. I just I think it is a sad reflection on AZ, the mental health community, the law enforcement, and on every person here in this state with the attitude that people who are unwell, ill, or unfortunate in life think they're "entitled" to have their care paid for by tax payers. I never knew living with a shred of dignity was an entitlement. I thought it was a fundamental human right.
What irritates me more is when I read the news or watch TV. Everyone talks about how awful it was for themselves or the neighborhood. As if somehow their life is going to be adversely affected by this tragedy. They'll forget about it. They always do when they vote and decide where they want their tax payer dollars go. Ever notice though it is always though same people that say, "It's so awful. I don't know how something like this could of happened." Really? Think about it.
Oh well on the more positive side.....
Carrie,
so happy you're eating or that it sounds like you're eating. Shrimp Lo Mein. Yum! Even better yet no more yucky chest tubes and such and Summer can go back to normal! YIPPEE!!! :D Maine and Virginia. Wow. Can't think of 2 lovelier places to enjoy food, history, gardening, sight seeing, culture, art, shopping, or beaches! Lucky you. Hopefully they were happy childhood experiences and now happy adult ones when you go back to visit. Fall...ohhhh...leaves, pretty colors. I miss Fall. Always was my favorite season. But what are you planning now that Summer seems back in order for you?

Kay,
As for elegance all the credit goes to Zoe. If you saw me in the morning well....let's just say there's work to be done. I get up every morning and get excited. I go "Look! There's someone older than me in the room. Oh. Wait. That's a mirror." LOL! I envy Zoe's ability to roll off of bed, shake, stretch, yawn and look like a million bucks. I'll take the admirable or splendid compliment though. :D Thanks.
Did know a lot of those true and fun facts about our Agave and Aloes. Awesome plants. Most of them are natives of Africa! Go figure how they wound up here. If you have a chance and want to see something neat read up on the Century Plant (A. americanas specifically since there's so many types). Quite amazing. One grows on the other side of the loop from me. I can see it from my back yard. I'll post pic.
Not sure but think Mexicans introduced the Tequila from the Blue Agave and they and the Native American Indians, only 2 indigenous persons in U.S. at time, drank Pulque also. I know Pulque can be made from the Century Plant. Friend on other forum who is in Baja CA (Mexico) told me it is quite an acquired taste and not all that common. Neither of them sound quite tasty as food but I can't help but marvel at all of the uses they had in the other ways you mentioned. Some of those I didn't know. Amazing what one can do with what you have when forced to. Especially in a desert. The more I live in one the more awed I am by what exactly DOES live and thrive here.
As for eating cactus pads I'm not sure what they'd be tasty with. I'll have to ask around or reference some Mexican cook books. Want a recipe if I find one? You and Carrie try it first then let me know. :D (LOL)
Also bummer Jim doesn't like his spinal stimulator. :[ Sounds like it would be uncomfortable to lug around all day. I'm sure it's not huge but just big enough to be uncomfortable if on and especially with the back brace. YUCK.
As for know it all I think you are. In a good way. I couldn't agree with you more about patients knowing more about their experiences, treatments and knowledge of diseases than the doctors. Individually I think I've solved about 70% of my problems through my own research and experimentation on me. Hate to tell you guys but cut my one med Zonisamide by 100mg again. So far it's improved my neuropathy some more as I suspected it would. :D I'm just hoping it doesn't acerbate or increase my seizures. Like I can tell the difference (eye roll). I'm doing good so far. Like I said, I think it's over medication like the excessive use of antibiotics that's making us sick-er.
Try it Kay. It's your health. You do know best! Just don't tell the doctor unless you're right! :D
O.K. I've yammered on sufficiently. Gotta go.
Hope everyone has a wonderful day. Have to clean kitchen and such today.
Hugs to all.
Agavegirl

Hewllo y'all. . .I'm still "here". . .I've been pre-occupied with. . . many things.

Until I returned and read about the grieving , bitter angry disabled syndrome, I thought there was something wrong with me...that it waws a personalality problem of mine that was rare and unusual. I've srtruggled alone through alot of it but there are strill timews when it's so overwheklming, it's berst just to hole up and wait til it passes.

My Tomato Jungle is going like gangbustersd.. .everyday Igive my surplus to 2-3 neighbors, relatives, maintenancde staff...if they can't use them, they help me out by passing the 'maters on to someone THEY know! I've even tried to give some to myu maiolman! (He laughed and told me he's in the same spot: he has over 30 tomato plants!).

Y'all may remember that I live in subsidized housing (thanks to the federal and state governments for shafting their employees. . but that's amnother topic). You'd be surprised to learn that many of my neighvbors here are retired government workers! Anywho....the Exec/ Director retired and the new one is busily "making her mark" with new, draconian rules. My apartment is nice and I've channelled my energy and etc into gardening. . . . . it's the one and only thing I have that I can stillk do, albeit with adaptiopns. This new "regime" has" cut down unexpedctantly the huge oak tree that was making me a front shade garden (which I had mature lenten roses and a finicky Daphne): disaster averted by covering my sun-shy plants with tablecloths for the 3 days it took until my garden helper came and moved them to a new side garden he hastily made. I only lost 3 mature plantws. That waws last fall. They made me wait over the winter for a decision on if/how many tomato/vegetable plants I could plant in my back gard3en: after a 2 1/5 month wait, the new Director arrived with a ruler to personally give me the decision. . . she used the ruler to cut my back garden from 17+ square feet to 7- and purred that she didn't think I had enough room for even one tomato plant, but that I had LOTS of room on my back patio for a few pots or containerws: and my Tomato Jungle was born! The final straw for me came in the middxle of spring (when most who garden have already planneed and purchased for their summer gardens): a new set of planting rules were issued to "save RESIDENTS (I'm a TENANT!!! I pay rent!! Tenants have rights!!!) money buying/planning for their summer garden". Harumph!!!! Only flowers no more than 18 inches were allowed now. . .for the past 3 years, I had followed the old height restriction of 36 inches, so (like many) had flower beds of mature prohibited plants. . plus had ordered/paid for plants that were now prohibited. The ordered plant was traded for future consideration. . . my garden helper transplanted ALL my prize collection of oriental lilies to my grandmother's (who's so pleased to have a new beautiful view) and I scrambled re-doing my summer garden plans (thankfully, I had oversowed on this first indoor seed starting and had over 100 SHORT French Marigold seedlings). And I aedmit, I just let my ol stubborn self take hold then and just BALKED!! The remaining plants (now prohibited) I defiantly left in my garden.

UPSHOT: I am researching WHERE I will move to, once my 99 yr old grandmother dies. I'm thing out West: maybe the San Joaquin Valley of California (I used to live in Stockton) but a small, inland town where the rental prices aren't so high. Wants/don't wants: handicapped friendly, level (non-hilly), temperate weather (NO SNOW!! Not sweltering hot in summer, either ie Death Valley but the high desert of the Sonora Desert was rather nice) and not a bunch of trees everywhere (I have allergies, too). In short, someplace that;s the OPPOSITE of here!

Amargia, I read with interest of yoiur ability to consider a list of handicapped friendly places to consider. (I'm saddened to hear of your being forced to move or accept the unacceptable.) Would you be willing to share the link or sourdce of this info??

BTW, whoever's considering Albequerque, as one who;s lived there, let me clue you in on a few things. It sits in a "bowl", surrounded by higher land, so one can see a "haze" over it several times a year - as the smog routinely gets trapped. It's no where near level (in large parts it is) but has hills (particularly near the center, where most- if not all- the amenities are). The city SPRAWLS: the center is somewhat crowded but as you go further out it beomes sparsely populated even though still within city limits. Since there's little wind movement in that area of AZ, there's often a temperature inversion effect (is that the proper term??) so the city is usually hotter than its surrounding environs. If you still want to consider, it: please GO and look first!!!

Life's too short to have to live under unacceptable conditions. And it's only going to get worse.

BetNC!!! You're back!!! You may have realized that this forum is now available to all, whether or not they are paying members of DG. They figured out that money problems affect people with disabilities disproportionately so this forum is now free.

That reminds me of the fact that SSDI and Social Security are tied to the Cost Of Living Allowance, which tracks the costs of living, rent, healthcare, food, and so on. When the cost of living has risen enough they give social security recipients a COLA raise. So MY costs whch are disproportionately high are: housing. I can't live somewhere cute and cheap, I have to live in this ugly accessible house. I have paid off all the mortgage so I own it outright. I think the Cost Of Living includes rents and mortgages, but if I were not disabled, I would live somewhere very different. Transportation: I might not even have a car; I might live in a city and take the subway everywhere. I definitely wouldn't have a minivan with no passenger seats! Heslthcare: because I have Medicare AND Medicaid, I don't really have any health care costs per se. Of course, I have to pay part of my prescription (and if I weren't disabled, I wouldn't be taking any meds). Also, because I have Medicaid, I am eligible for discounts on my electric bill. OTOH, because I am disabled, I have to pay electricity to charge my wheelchair. I have to pay for PCAs; the idea is that Medicaid pays 100% of the costs, but actual people won't do that job, so I pay a lot of "tips." And when we were in Texas where they don't have Medicaid for me, I was paying out of my pocket for PCAs. Anyway, the point is that the things they check for the Cost Of Living don't reflect the way Seniors and people with disabilities spend their money. And then they skipped it for a bunch of years. There are lots of things , like non-prescription medical supplies, that aren't covered by Medicare/Medicaid and so don't make it into the calculation. Medical gloves. tape, dressing supplies, bowel program supplies, OT home care supplies, all the stuff that you need to buy because of your disability. Anyway. this rant goes on to explain that the federal cost of living figure does not take into account the high cost of being disabled.

"Advocates for seniors say the government’s measure of inflation does not accurately reflect price increases older Americans face because they tend to spend more of their income on health care. Medical costs went up less than in previous years but still outpaced other consumer prices, rising 2.5 percent." that's a quote from the Boston Globe.

COLA is actually based on Consumer Price Index....which may or may not reflect accurately how much it costs to live with a disability. The worst part for me is that SSDI is based on how much I earned when I was 22, 23, 24 and 25! I would have to go back to work full time to increase my benefit at all. :(

Agave, that's crazy, that story from Arizona. Crazy meaning terrifying and awful and scary and wrong, it seems. I usually defer to "authorities" with mental illness, just because I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough. But whoever had the job of going the right thing, did the wrong thing! I'm glad my neighbors don't act like that.

Hi Carrie.
As I said, so happy you're doing well, aren't making trips to the hospital and your Summer is resuming as normal.
I'm glad my neighbors don't act like that either. :D They're crazy in their own socially quasi-acceptable kind of way. But aren't we all?
Somebody just had the misfortune of living next to these people in Phoenix. From the news their place looked nice and respectable. For all we know it could have happened next to you or I or anyone in any nice and respectable neighborhood. Look at the news and the places where "crazy people" do horrible things. Some of them are really nice neighborhoods even very upscale neighborhoods. Fortunately most in AZ are just the regular "crazy" as in "crazy" but harmless. The rest of are just "crazy" in an everyday manic way like the rest of the world. Then there's the one crazy here in AZ who (ahem) sit on rocks and talk to cacti. :D
It is sad. Like I said crazy is just butt nut off the rocker crazy. No other explanation for it. wish I could understand why people got this way or what makes them this way genetically or via circumstances or both. I don't. I just know butt nut off the rocker crazy is crazy. So what do you do with "crazy" when it comes to crime and punishment, treatment, moral and ethical treatment and the responsibility we have as a society that bases its self on "Judeo Christian Biblical" teachings and sets their legal code partialy on the 10 Commandments (Thou shall not steal, cheat, lie, etc).?
I haven't been able to answer these. I do ponder them a lot. I mean why can't people just pull up a rock and have a good talk with a cacti? Instead they just snap. Sandy hook, South Carolina with those people in Bible study, crazy dude here in AZ with his girlfriend. My husband was just telling me about some guy in Ohio in 1961 or 62 who shot his neighbor lady in the head for running her lawnmower at 9:00 at night and then ran her over with it. When asked why he said, "She irritated me and wouldn't quit." All I can say is I'm glad I didn't live next to that dude and I'm glad I got rocks in my yard and not grass (LOL)! Seriously, we've all said, "I'm gonna lose it. Or I'm gonna snap" But what makes someone actually do this? Ever thought about it? I have.
Anyway that what this whole news piece brought to mind. It went from the ridiculous to the sublime all the way around in terms of the senseless of the murder, the murderer himself, the victim, the Psych "security" review board and hospital playing the blame game, and just how people in general feel and think about these kinds of things in AZ, the U.S. and as human beings.
And yes, as someone who talks to other obviously educated, intelligent persons like yourselves who seem to read, think, and feel, I wondered what you thought of all this. Truth is stranger than fiction. I wondered what you made of this situation and these people. I thought maybe one of you could make sense out of it for me.


By the way BetNC your lilies are amazing. Just beautiful. They must be a joy to behold and also to smell. If they are Stargazers I know they are incredibly fragrant and sweet. I don't care where you live I think your home is charming. Nice, neat little brick home that's lovely, well maintained, manicured and has such pretty flowers. Obviously the tenant takes great pride in where they live. You should be proud. Tell them to go kick rocks if they don't like you're flowers.
I'm on SSDI too. Sigh...I'm so tired of it and COLA, and politicians and fighting about the fact they think I and everyone need even less than what we have and what they don't want to cover and how much more THEY need to put in THEIR pockets, etc. (And they wonder why people go nuts?)
My head hurts sometimes from thinking about it and I get very depressed. So, I'm going to find a rock and a cacti and have a chat. It's only a 100 today. Very cool for Summer in AZ standards. Norms now are about 109-112. Beautiful sunset coming on. Zoe is just hanging out. She'll go out with me and just hang out there a little until she wants in. That's the most productive thing I can do.

I look forward to chatting with you all soon. Enjoy the rest of your day and your lovely garden.

Pic#1: Zoe actually vertical! Doing her greeting bow.
Pic#2: "HI! I'm the dog. See me? I'm the dog! Hey! Looking? See me? I'm THE dog!"
Pic#3 I told you cacti are wise. They know, hear and see!
Pic#4 Me actually sitting (on left) on a rock under my one favorite cacti. Quite a monster isn't it! Not my house in background. Just close enough to road figure they don't mind if I just sit there and don't bother things.
Pic #5. Me sitting under a cacti in San Tan Mountain Regional Park. It was only 6 miles from my other house and like the "Redwood forest" of Saguaros, Ocotillos and had amazing views.

Wow, Agave, that is some cactus! I can see how it would have formed some strong opinions about the world. Do you know how old it is? It is amazing to me that some vines can cover a fence in weeks or a tree can last several lifetimes. So I'm wondering about the age of the cactus--is it a young one or an old one? It looks old. And prickly. You look neither old nor prickly. :)

Good Morning Carrie and all,
Hope you're enjoying the oddity pictures (Zoe, me and cacti) :D Thanks for not saying I'm old. Have to disagree with prickly though. (LOL)

Yes, that is quite a cactus isn't it. Probably my favorite in the area. It is in a residential neighborhood on a road just behind the San Tan Mountain Regional Park. There's a few taller in the park but none as "big" around from my estimation nor as "perfectly" formed. To me it just is so iconic of what a Saguaro should be when one closes their eyes and imagines the plant. I have always been so drawn to this one.
At my former house when I had to go to Wal-Mar there was a back road behind the store that led up to this cactus. I never failed to stop and visit it. I would always just park and look at it a few minutes or get out and just stare up at it awhile in awe before going home. People whose yard it sat on the very edge next to the street probably thought I was butt nuts off my rocker. The few times I saw them they actually waved at me though! (LOL)
Figured out I was harmless enough and just enjoying the cactus. Probably had other people gawking at the thing too. Yep. My friend is indeed a BIG boy! Again for scale I'm 5 foot 3 inches. but I'm also sitting on a rock that's probably over two feet tall. I estimate my esteemed friend and teacher to be about 175 years old or more. Closer to 200 and probably nearing the end of his life. :[
His one arm fell off and I don't know why. Looked at it and didn't see any rot or disease. Probably just age or perhaps got hit by lightening. Very common occurrence with these exceedingly old and tall Saguaros. (This happened back East a lot with tall trees.)

O.K. here's some Saguaro cactus facts I learned in 8 years:
I live in a really special place because the Saguaro only grows in the Southern Sonoran Desert which is Southern AZ, Northern Mexico and parts of Baja California in Mexico and even then not everywhere in all these places. It's size is determined by temperature and precipitation. It can grow from sea level to 4,000 feet. When it grows on hills and mountains it grows on South facing slopes. (In the winter we can see the tops of mountains and the snow on them if they're up high!).
The first 8 years of it's life it grows under a "nurse tree" like a Palo Verde, Mesquite or Ironwood using it a shade and protection. It only grows 1 to 1 and a half INCH per year! After this time the nurse tree dies. The cactus does not produce its first flower until age 35. Beautiful huge white-cream bloom that gets pollinated by a bat! It only blooms from April-early June so that's a great time to be out to see them. :D
Also temps are nice here which is why I have all those pics of me in that dusty park in grubby over sized hiking clothes and my old military boots.
At 70 years old the Saguaro is usually 6 and a half feet tall. By age 70-100 it is around 15 to 16 feet tall and is getting it's first arms (aww! Puberty!). If precipitation is low it could take up to 100 years. Now most get arms and some don't ever. They just grow straight up like a pole. The reason for this is unknown. Nothing wrong with the plant. Just a growth pattern.
It isn't a mature adult until it is 125 years old and weighing approximately 6 tons! From age 125 to 200 which is adult it weighs between 3,200 pounds and 4,800 pounds! It has an average height of 40 to 60 feet.
The tallest in the world lives in Maricopa county (next county to mine) and is 78 feet tall and 10 feet around! There's also a Saguaro in Bartlett Lake, AZ which is close to the Carefree and Phoenix area that has 30 plus arms.
This plant will never grow from cuttings. It only grows from seeds. YIKES right as if we have time for that. Its root system is interesting in that it has one center root that is about 2 to 3 feet long and all the rest are very shallow under the soil but spread out horizontally and are as long as the plant is tall. Basically a 40 foot cactus has 40 foot wide roots.
As for the amount of arms they get, the direction they point, etc. nobody knows. That is a mystery. They haven't figured that out. My friend and teacher won't tell me. He said it is a secret all mighty Saguaros must keep as part of their sacred wisdom. They pass it on only to each other.
There's also a $10,000.00 fine and up to 2 years in jail for moving, harming or taking/attempting to take a Saguaro cactus. If you damage it or any part of it, depending upon severity it could be a $2,000.00 to $5,000.00 fine and considered a misdemeanor. It isn't an endangered species but it is a protected one.
Also they have a mutant one(about 1 in every 500) that doesn't grow straight up and then branch off in arms. It grows up and forms a fan at the top and kind of curls around. It is a Cristate or "crested" Saguaro.

So now that you're a Saguaro expert what do you think? Quite a plant! I wish you guys could come and see them. I know you would enjoy them even though you can't get about easily there's plenty to enjoy just driving around and never getting out of the car. Some of the most amazing plants I've seen and photographed are on the sides of roads, in the landscaping of parking lots and subdivision common areas. And as I've shown right in my own neighborhood!
Pic#1 Zoe at our "GreytGathering" that happens in AZ once a year for all owners, rescue organizations, etc. Charity and fundraising event for them. Zoe has on her old racing slick from the track and her pretty red and black necklace. She participated in a "fun run" against other dogs there.
Pic #2 My DH who is 6' 6" standing next to an Ocotillo.
Pic #3 A painting I did of a Saguaro (sold quite well) :D
Pic #4 The inside of a Saguaro when it dies. This is the skeleton. It is actually a tree with the green succulent outer covering over it.
Pic #5 The painting of the Agave that I did. (sold quite well) :D This was what I wanted to put next to my name but I don't have/own an avatar. :(

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1575

That's an article I wrote in 2008 when we sent my daughter off to college. Saguaro cactus are in there, I didn't realize YOUR cactus was a Saguaro. This particular article is notable because of the thumbnail picture (which with the new DG doesn't even appear with the article). We have to be very careful about photos we use in articles that we either took the photo ourselves or that we have permission to use it. We had always been warned about using copyrighted photos or ones that belonged to other people.

When this article was first published, there was a lovely picture of a statuesque Saguaro cactus at sunset in the Sonora desert. I had seen it in a thread and asked the person who posted it if I could use it in an article, She kindly gave me permission to use the picture in the article. When the article ran, not the original time but the second time, somebody Dmailed Terry that their photo had been stolen! A random person, not a DG member, had seen the picture with the article and wanted DG to cease and desist, claiming it was a photo he had taken at sunset of a Saguaro cactus in the Sonora desert. Terry contacted me and I explained that it was someone who had taken the picture herself and specifically given me permission to use it. The quarrel between DG and the other photographer was taken out of my hands! Frankly, the photo in question was A picture of A cactus at sunset. I don't know how one could prove that one had taken this picture and not a different picture. I guess there are ways but I don't know what they are.

But that is my previous association with cactus. Back then I didn't know that they talked! And I didn't recognize Agavegirl's cactus as a Saguaro cactus! C- on cactus understanding. I can explain that the cactus pads I tasted were in the context of a budget all inclusive hotel in Cancun. I was forcing myself to eat the "vegetables" because nothing at this place was really great. I am not likely t run into them again unless in that context, where somebody else is preparing them. So, no salsa.

And thank you for the pictures, Agave!

thanks, Agave...Grannie's lilies (officially "hers") fill up her old rock-walled garden nicely. There are 5-6 varieties, all mixed together the way she wanted thyem. There arte Stargazer, Dizzy, Muscadet and I can't remember all their names; they are all color co-ordinated, different patterns of raspberry and white/cream. Yes, the smell is quite heady when they're in bloom: even up on the second floor where she lives, their aroma wafts thru her open door onto her scredned-in balcony. She likes to sit out there (in her rocking chair - no joke!) and watch the sun come up and admire the view.

I have a funny story about my introduction to saguaro cacti. I was separated from my husband and my daughter was about seven months old (the separation was. . contentious). One night, I told the security guard (hired by my husband to keep tabs on me) that I was going to bed early as I didn't feel well and to not wake me on his rounds. The minute I saw his taillight fade from sight, I turned on all the lights, threw open the door, loaded up my car, grabbed my daughter and hit the highway, headed for my father out in California!! While my baby slept, I drove and drove and drove. My weary brain saw bears, with their hands up, running alongside my car. . .it took me some time to realize they were actually saguaro cacti!

Hi gang.
Carrie sorry to hear about the article and the picture problems. :[
You know, some people aren't happy unless they're just making a problem or taking credit for someone's work they didn't do. I can assure you 100% of all the photos my husband and I take are ours. They're on our digital camera to prove it.
The cactus and botanical parks pamphlets, computer, friends, neighbors, and my wondrous friend in the picture provided me with the facts of Saguaro life you read above. I guess living in AZ a lot about this cactus becomes "common knowledge" to us here. We tend to collect and regurgitate it to others in a proud journalistic fashion since a lot of people aren't real familiar with the intricacies of this plant.
As for pictures,cacti are cacti. A lot of them truly do look alike. Most of the ones I show you are spectacular because they're older, really big, unusual for some reason, strange or they're located in parks. For the most part though they pretty much look the same.
The AZ landscape and sunsets are kind of like the cactus that way too. No matter how pretty they do get monotonous. Sometimes there's not a whole lot of variety in them to distinguish one from another or from who took credit for what picture. It's kind of like beach and ocean scenes.
I will say though with 100% truth either my husband or I took all the photographs I'm showing you including the cactus with the budding arms that look like "googly eyes" :D He's also a Saguaro. Just at a different stage in his life. My teacher is a very wise Saguaro soul indeed. You can't be here approximately 175+ years and not know a thing or 2 about life, people, places and things. Even the youngsters have something to teach at 75+.
YES. Cacti DO talk. Just pull up a comfy rock, sit a spell and be still. He'll start the conversation. If he doesn't just ask him a question and wait for the answer. They're also mighty good listeners. They listen quite intently. Then the next time you visit they usually have something to say back. Either you'll hear them tell you or you've sat in the sun too long with no water. (LOL). Either way I highly recommend the practice. It keeps one sane.

BetNC,
Your Grandma is so lucky to have such a view and wonderful scent to awake to every day and at the end of the day just to sit and relax to. Must be a little like Heaven. How serene. I'm jealous. May not be a talking cactus but I'll take the scent of lilies. One of my favorite smells. How lucky you are to have a Grandma of 99 years. Tell her to get that second rocking chair so you can sit and join her awhile.
That is so funny about the cacti and your drive. At night they do take on rather odd and sometimes scary shapes. A lot definitely do look like animals! I prefer to think of them as my protectors and defenders of the desert. They keep the kooks away. :D

It's very good to hear the doctors gave you thumbs up on the last test, Carrie. I am registering with Patients like Me. The drug industry, doctors and researchers need patient reality checks. The patient tech who handles my back brace said his input caused the manufacturers to change the design. He says he is still a little surprised they looked at his plans and implemented the changes. I guess sometimes we can make a difference.

What bugs me most about the spinal stimulator is the only evidence I have it is doing anything is the light on the controller, but coping with the wires, leads, batteries and belt clip never allow me to forget it is there. It wouldn’t be so irritating if I had some evidence from other patients who have used it that it is worth the trouble.

We’re just glad to have you back. Beth. Okay, I am scratching Albuquerque. Off the list for sure. Besides, who wants to listen to the Bugs Bunny joke the rest of their life. “Naaa, I knew I should have taken the left at Albuquerque. It’s heartening to look at your pics. It’s been raining virtually every day here. Between that and the heat, everything in the garden is turning to mush. The angel’s trumpet bloomed. That was strange. It usually doesn’t bloom until October. Marigolds and zinnias are still hanging in despite everything and the elephant ears are thriving. Echiveria are usually very sensitive to being overwatered, I am amazed at how well they are still doing in ground. Kay’s had her hands full lately and hasn’t got them all potted up yet.

There is an online program called Weird News (Formerly, it’s now What The F--- Is Wrong With You) Florida is something of a joke on there. “Can you guess where this news story is from?” It’s always Florida.) I hadn’t heard the Arizona story, but I think that is only because Weird News refuses to cover stories where anyone gets seriously hurt. That story doesn’t qualify. Why the dogs? Never mind. Trying to get into the mind of an irrational person can put you in the loony bin. Nadi keeps up with Weird News. I asked her why someone with Depression would watch something so depressing. She says it makes her feel sane and smart. Lol.

Okay, so Nadi would never break into a stranger’s house naked and start cooking or try to sneak large numbers of dangerous reptiles into the country by hiding them in her pants to get through customs. That is good for someone her age, but we are encouraging her to set the bar a little higher.

I wish I always knew what the right thing to do for the emotionally and psychologically damaged is. Like most people dealing with chronic pain, I’m on anti-depressants so I am marginally among that number. A little more than marginally some days. Mental hospitals cost, but when the government complains about the expense I can’t help but think about all the money they waste on ridiculous things. Forcing people to take medication is a little scary to me but when someone has been proven to be a danger to society, the civil rights of society should trump those of the individual. I can’t count how many times I’ve had social and mental health case workers tell me their hands were legally tied when what to do looked blatantly obvious to my eyes.

My hat is off to the neighbor of the mental case couple. You can get into some crazy situations by reaching out and I think that is what most people are afraid of. I’ve never felt in physical danger, but I have found myself in some odd situations. I actually don’t have any biological children, but Kay has three daughters and six grandchildren I’m not sure how many kids (Sorry. Young people.) call Kay Mom and me Dude. Kay’s eldest daughter has a drinking and drug problem and most of the young people we sort of inherited because their bio-parents bailed as soon as it was legal have emotional or psychological problems to some degree. (Three have problems serious enough to have landed them in a behavioral medicine ward. None are violent and only a danger to themselves and other people’s sanity.

I’ve really lucked out so far where father/grandfather names are concerned, haven’t I. Dude and Grump-Pa Bear. I hold Nadi responsible for the Dude thing. She almost called me Dad once not long after her father died, but caught herself and turned it into Dude. “Can I borrow the car, Dad….Dude?” It stuck. I’ve been friends with Kay since I was about seven. Her kids have always known me and called me J.W. Since they had two Uncles named Jim. Only the eldest started calling me Dad when Kay and I married late in life. Well, she actually only started calling me Dad after I bailed her out of some legal trouble. (It seemed her behavior was understandable at the time. She destroyed some of her husband’s girlfriend’s stuff. Now, she tells me I was enabling her alcoholism. Who knows). I now define the role of mother and father as the people you can always blame everything on. Ahh, yes, the ties that bind. All the non-biological, heart and hearth kids (sigh. Young people) call me Dude thanks to Nadi’s slip of the tongue. I did draw the line when one of these girls brought her boyfriend here to meet me and he called me “Mr. Dude”.

Kay got stuck with Mimi as her grandmother name. Her eldest GD is named Amymone and Kay originally called her Mimi for short. Amymone decided when she was four she wanted to be called Amy instead. Grandma said, what’s wrong with Mimi. I like it.” Amy replied. “Okay, from now on you can be Mimi and I will be Amy.” All the GC to come followed Amy’s lead and called their grandmother Mimi.

Love all the cacti pix. They are so not-mushy. There’s something green growing on the house. No kidding. We’ll have to break the bleach out tomorrow.

(Jim)

Pix Theses aren't Mush

Something you said reminds me of my daughter (who is now almost 25 and STILL hasn't graduated from college) after her first year away from home. She said "I didn't burn the house down...." We also encourage her to aim higher. I have successfully not burned the house down every single year.

ROFLOL not burning the house down!! I suppose then I'm okay, 'cause it was Granpa who burned the house down! He even got all the stuff he "saved" from the burning house: he put it all outside, all right, but so close to the house that it all burned too!

He DID manage to get his son"s bird and his teenage son out safely.

My Granny was away, off to her daughter's for the birth of her granchile (ME!); she brought her daughter, a toddler (my brother) and a one week old newborn home....to ashes!

And she thought SHE had a surprise for her spouse!!

ROFLOL

Hahahaha that's funny! Glad YOU were saved from the fire, and you were not actually a surprise; they knew she was going to have a baby, right? I'm sorry though; it should have occurred to me that somebody might actually have had a house that burned down. That's me, sticking my pixels in my mouth again.

Hi gang,
Whoo. OMG you guys are so funny. See now I don't feel so bad because I burn things.
And I thought I was bad because I set the BBQ Grill on fire and had to put it out with an extinguisher.! Ruined it and dinner! I forgot...let's say got lazy about cleaning the grease drip pan underneath and well....fire + non stick cooking spray + hot temperature + hot yuck in that pan = WHOOSH! Instant grease fire! Finally got to use the ABC fire extinguisher I've had for years that my mom gave me when my first place got built. Surprised the fired dept. didn't show up from all the white clouds of smoke and the smell.....YUCK! Had the grill been a few feet closer to the house probably would have lit the house up too.
Yikes guys,I was thinking it would be cool if you considered moving to AZ but maybe we should revisit that back yard BBQ idea...especially with the fact that I too set things on fire . I can see the insurance report now: "Yes officer. I'm an Epileptic and I like to drink socially. I was hosting a BBQ for a bunch of my fellow disabled friends who drink socially. I'm not sure how the house burnt down to the ground officer." (LOL)
It is hot enough to burn a house down today with no fuel needed. It's 112 in the shade and this little Agave's arms are tired! Been up since my customary 2:15 a.m. Made breakfast and sent DH to work. Today is his "Friday". He's off the next 2 days. Walked Madam Zoe this morning and already could feel the heat. Usually so nice and cool. Nope. Stifling and just a warning of what was coming with the arrival of the sun. Did my a.m. dishes, scrubbed 2 bathrooms from top to bottom, and did the kitchen floor on hands and knees also.
Didn't putz around with computer or news. Knew I had to get out and get things done before 11:00 a.m. or I'd be dying. So this gal got her new cactus (Mexican Pole Cactus) in the ground. Shame on me for putting it off 2 days. (eye roll). Took about 1/2 hour to dig hole, get t plant out of the pot without hurting it, put it in, get new soil around it and reshuffle landscape rock around it.
Then had to move plants. Put small Prickly Pear where Aloes were. Prickly pear wasn't getting enough sun. They love to be beat on by it and the super high heat. My Aloes were turning a brown-orange. Uhm...I don't think Aloes come in brown-orange. So I swapped spots.Which meant digging new and bigger holes in the yard. Busted a major sweat on that one.
Then I had the back yard its self to water. All my plants were so thirsty. It rained a few days ago but we had so little prior and none since. I also had to water the front yard plants.
I replaced the shade tent for my one Agave. Since it is a pale cream and light green and gets "burnt" in intense sun (It is small in size) I've been covering it so it doesn't singe and burn to a crisp like it had. When it's bigger this won't happen. I then watered my neighbor Shirley's front yard.
Now Shirley is a great old gal and my buddy. She's 81 and sharp as a tack. Still works and does part time bookkeeping and some work as a dispatcher at the local police station! She just had back surgery so she can't bend. That being so I took over her "gardening" duties. No hardship since her plants are amazing and over 20 years old. I enjoy it. She is also great company to me and takes me around when I need to go somewhere. We also just get out once in awhile for fun when husband is at work.
By the time I got done with all of this it was 11:00a.m. I looked and smelled like a barn animal because the temperature was already 107! So I went in (gratefully) took a shower and washed my nasty self and then played Greyhound (lie down with limbs stretched out and eyes half open, barely breath and look like a carcass) until DH got home.
Nice surprise. DH BROUGHT ME HOME FLOWERS! :D
He actually brought me home a nice bouquet of sunflowers. I just love them. Always did. Ladies isn't it the best when your guy brings you flowers? I'm such a sucker for them. Actually like getting flowers better than anything you could buy me. Like them the best when they're for no reason. Today they were for no reason. :D Awwwwww! I'm so lucky. I got such a nice husband. So I dragged my tired carcass up and made dinner. (eye roll). Least I could do. (LOL). Zoe is still playing Greyhound. Not fair.

Jim....Mr. Dude,
It sounds like resistance is futile and you will be assimilated! All those wires and stuff from that spinal monitor has gotta drive you crazy. I had a heart halter monitor once before they could figure out what was wrong with me (take a number and your comment and get in the punchline). Thing was like wearing an accordion. What a major PITA. I feel for you dude.
Don't know much about NM but AZ might be a thought. Yep. It's hot. But that's only a few months out of the year. The rest of the time it's fairly nice. It is "green" in it's own peculiar way as you've seen from the photos. If you want to farm I don't know why it didn't occur to me before. Cotton! They grow tons of cotton here. No joke. It's one of the states 5 "C's": Canyon, copper, citrus, climate, cotton. They still grow plenty of cotton here and after the cotton get's harvested (we even have a few local gins) they plant alfalfa.
It is a fairly rural area but a lot of the houses...most actually...are 1 level and easy therefore for the handicapped to get around. Public access like buses and what not isn't great but that's where friends and others come into play. I've been o.k. Casa Grande is nice in that it hits the mid point in between rural and city. Tucson and Phoenix are both equidistant at about 1 hour. Great things in both especially Tucson medical, social, cultural and art wise. C.G. also has services, activities and rides etc. available to the handicapped. That was something Florence, where I used to live, never did. Just a thought.
And yes, after the first year YOU DO get used to the heat. If it drops below 80 degrees you will have on a sweater or a coat. NO JOKE! Ask my husband. He'll tell you. We honestly don't whine as natives unless it is going to be over 110 degrees. It's dry too. No more "drippy, sticky" stuff except on rare occasion. :D

Everyone here in my neighborhood Casa Grande is normal. The Kook, Mr. Ken Wakefield is a sad case. His name has been released. Mr. Ken Wakefield is the man who committed the murder and is now getting out of the hospital from his self inflicted wounds (arm and eye) and now going to jail. Don't know why he killed the two dogs either. He's just nuts. Like I said there's no other explanation or other thing they can say except "guilty but insane".
I firmly believe everyone has rights and the right to make choices in regards to their own body, health, well being, and choices on such based on THEIR codes of ethics, morals and beliefs. NOT MINE or others. That's not my place to say. I do not know what's better for another person (O.K. I do. Really. Ask my DH. )
I can only speak for or about my self. It isn't about "right" or "wrong" . It is about the right to have the dignity as a human and respect as an equal citizen to make a choice about your medical treatment.
We fight with our doctors all the time about this stuff in regards to our meds, side effects, drug companies, the stuff they push on us, getting tested, etc. That is why people like us are people like us and we pretty much manage our own care with what the doctors saying as background noise. It's the reason I "experiment" with my own meds and see what works. If I listened to my doctors without questions and did what they told me I would honestly be dead now. I have saved my own life because I ignored them and questioned them and researched and experimented.
I feel an exception though is when you're already in a nut house. It is already proven you're a homicidal menace unless you take your meds. It SHOULD NOT be a choice! You're sentenced to a nut house. You're a criminal. You need meds. Your sentence is to TAKE THE MEDS. Period. You don't have a choice. It isn't an option. It isn't open for debate. It is the sentence for your crime and part of your "rehabilitation" and "paying your debt" to society. Debt is an obligation not a choice.
I guess it looks pretty blatantly obvious to my eyes too.
Happily though that is one individual out of millions. Don't let it ruin the whole place for you. Manson never ruined CA for me and crazy lawnmower guy never stopped me from growing up happily in Ohio. Nuts grow everywhere I guess. And yes, most of us are lucky enough to know some good people or make some good neighbors :D (like ones who water your plants when it's 112 degrees :D)
You should be flattered Nadine almost called you "dad". That's a compliment. It doesn't mean she sees you as a replacement for her father just a good stand in. Some man worthy of filling that role of "father". A man she feels close to BUT that has no designs, intents or purpose for her other than what's good for her in her life and what's in her best interest. You most likely provide this for her and it is what she needs. Isn't what we all need? Mimi is o.k. too. Much nicer than "Grandma." "Grandmas" are old. Mimi is still very youthful and very much in tune.
You and Kay sound like you are very much in tune with your young people. That's good.
I guess my not having children has kind of kept me out of forming my own unusual family dynamics. My own from which I hailed are very, very unusual which is why I never did have children. That's another story.
Anyway I rambled. I'm tired. I had such a long day. It's going to be between 109-115 the next 5 days. Oh well, August in the desert.
The flowers were really pretty. Get rid of the green stuff on the house. That's probably mold (same one from Prickly Pear?) Not good for health or property value.
Hugs,
Agavegirl/TTC
Oh...if cacti pics aren't boring you got more fun ones and some of cotton and other interesting stuff. :D

Hi Gang. Waiting for Dawn. Sometimes I wish I were not an L.D. What Kay and some of her blind cohorts call sighted people when they think we aren’t listening. It stands for Light Dependents. Kay can happily garden by the dark of the moon. A habit that will need to change if we move to the suburbs. Can’t have the neighbors thinking I’m like Renfield looking after a gardening vampire. I have absolutely no taste for bugs.

Well, the northern neighbor evidently didn’t believe Kay’s threat. I found a note on my mailbox yesterday unsigned telling me I had to move it. I checked with my post office and was told they had sent no such notice. The postmaster had been called by my neighbor instructing her to tell me to move my mailbox, but the box is exactly where they want it for the safety of their deliverers. The people doing the deliveries need to pull off the main road a little to avoid being rear ended. Drivers come flying down the hill. Since my neighbor doesn’t own the land in question (the power company owns the easement), we will just ignore him and see what happens. The man is a total nut case, but unfortunately one with money and connections. I guess we start prepping to turn Amargia over to T. in CA and her “homegirls.” I guess these nuts thought Kay would not actually do it. It would tear me up if one of those kids got hurt. Any advice, Katiebear? You know better what things are like in CA for people on the street. Weren’t you a social worker in CA at one time? Would we be doing them a kindness or an injustice? I fear we may be turning our problems over to people even less able to handle the situation than we are.

Our household makes a little too much money to qualify for legal aid, but not so much more that we can afford the legal battle. J. or T. would qualify for legal aid and the case is in our favor. I have documentation from the county that they took care of the road when it was dirt and gravel. In this state any road taken care of by tax payers money is henceforth and forever a public road and the first 100 ft. or so belong to Alabama Power by an easement agreement that has been in place since the 1920’s.

Sun’s up. Need to get outside. BBL.

(Jim)

This message was edited Aug 4, 2015 7:56 AM

It's nice to think of owning 100 ft. of road, or even NOT owning it, but I'm trying to get an idea of the scope involved. We won't be moving to AZ, I think, Agave. We just finished moving and never again. Although something like college, where you move every year, or a tour of Europe, where you pack your suitcase every night, does not sound so bad, Moving house though, with out of season clothes and books and art (or near-art) is such a disruptive thing to do! Some people - like Agave, I imagine, keep track of their belongings and clean bathrooms and stuff other than when they are unusually dirty. I mean, there are reasons for a bathroom to get exceptionally dirty, and we clean it then, but routinely, not often, Put it this way, if you ever come to Boston, I'll pay you to clean our bathroom!!!!

NM is nice; my father used to live there. He lived in Santa Fe, which is very pretty and scenic. I could never breathe there; I always felt short of breath. My daughter went to college in Prescott, AZ, which is pretty snd scenic also. I guess you need some mountainousness to alleviate the heat. I remember one particular flight from Boston to DFW. Texas was like 20 degrees hotter than Boston that particular day, but DFW was a comfortable heat, whereas Boston was hideous muggy and awful.

y'ALL KEEP TALKING ABOUT MOVING, QWhich gives me itchy feet!! I'm quite accustomed to moving every few years or so as my fathers were in the Army and, myself in pursduing career-stuff, moved fr4om coast to coast and places in between. For the move I mentioned before (the "bears"), when my father helped unpack my car, he remarked that there was prolly not even enough room left for an envelope!
I DID like living in Las Cruces, the "high desert" of the Sonora desert. The attitude about snow was just right: when one got to missing it, all they had to do was look at the nearbvy mountain or, for those who actually LIKED playing in the cold, wet, white, nasty stuff: go there to Riudoso! Both it and TX were HOT in the summers, but it was a DRY HEAT!!
Because I like my soft, green flowers: I've ruled out AZ and, NM; states that have snow aren't viable candidates, either (states east of the Missisippi River and/or thosein the toop half of the continental US.). Which leaves precious few!! (So I'm picky!! I intend this to be my LAST move!)

For years, I visited relatives who lived in a smaller town, about 1 hour from Tucson - toward the border with Mexico. It was a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Agave girl, your garden of different cacti and succulents sounds amazing. How about some photos?? Dunno about watering a garden to keep it alive: when I was in both NM and TX there was a ban on watering lawns, gardens, washing cars, etc as there were droughts going on. At a conference one summer in WY, someone from another stat3e said everyone could tell who was from TX: we were the ones on the grass, who had taken our shoes off to better wriggle our toes in the lush, soft, green stuff!

Carrielamont, we have similar ideas about cleaning! When we were finalizing must-have requirements prior to truck shopping, my Granny wryly remarked that the floorboard needed to be molded plastic so I could keep it clean just by opening both doors and spraying it with a hose!! She's also been known to say that my ideal house would be one with concrete floors with a big drain in the middle! She and I have two very different ideas of what constitutes "clean". Every year while I was in CA, she would come to visit me and the kids; she'd spend her time cleaning and it'd distress me to no end that she was cleaning on her vacation. So one yeaR, I hired a team of professional house cleaners before her visit; they cleaned EVERYTHING, even did the windows inside and out! Granny arrived and I went off to my daioly classes, self-satisfied that THIS year, she'd HAVE to relax and enjoy her vacation as she'd not ber able to find anything to clean. I came home a few hour later to find her on her knees in the kitchen, happil;y cleaning: she'd pulled the stove out from the wall so she could clean the floor underneath it!! I gave up!!!

Some people are like that, BetNC, but I am not one of them! And even if I were like that, my HUSBAND is worse. I will say "could you pick up that wrapper on the sofa, please?" and he will say "What wrapper? Where? What sofa? Oh. THAT? I didn't even see it."

And we'll be driving down the street and he'll say, "Wow, that's really beautiful," and I will look around for a garden, an actress, an art museum, a cute baby, and it's a MOTORCYCLE! "Oh, you missed it!" Men!

Hi folks. :D
Back. One day had computer problem. Other day had errands and just needed to sleep. Small seizure. Not a big deal. Just a small one where I "spaced out" but didn't fall. Husband felt I wasn't resting enough so he made me lie down.
Wow, sounds like a lot of drama with that farm. No offense. I had directed the moving to AZ comment towards you guys. Sorry if it got mixed in with the message for Carrie about moving or does she reside with you too? I get a little confused still at times.
I just mentioned it because we have farms! Did I mention we have dairy farms too? Yep. Lots of moo cows. :D Lots of "agricultural fragrances" on certain roads when you drive by too (LOL). I've also drove by a place that had bee hives.
Do you have a copy of the original plans (whatever they're called) that show where the property line is? If so this may end the mail box dispute. If it's on your "property" the other guy can go kick rocks and shut up. Also if it is there for safety reasons for the U.S. Post Office he may want to take it up with them. The P.O. is a government office. Federal at that. If that is where THEY want it then your neighbor has NO CHOICE. If he gets nuts get a restraining order. I believe they're free. If not they're cheap. Either way they're effective!
In matters legal I have no advice to give. Things that do spring to mind is "Grandfather clause." Applicable in terms of your road? Eminent Domain is another. Oh well, those are my "stabs in the dark".

Uhmmm....keeping track of belongings, debatable. Keeping the bathrooms clean definitely! My bathrooms are never unusually dirty but as humans considering all the "usual" things we do in them and some of the more unusual rituals we indulge in at times I prefer to keep them hyper clean. It's just me.
Aside from cleaning up and being hygienic there's also corralling the ever multiplying grooming products that seem to occupy every inch of counter space daily. The wiping up spots and blobs from hair dye (occasionally). If you're like me not only do you paint your face you paint the everything else too. Scraping dried tooth paste off the sink daily and wiping the water spots off the mirror you sprayed on it while brushing your teeth vigorously.
I take a bath so I don't like "ring around the tub". I clean it (if nothing else) every 2 or 3 days. We won't talk about DH's bathroom and some of the more unpleasant tasks and the things in there that I chase around or find trapped in corners.
So yes, the bathrooms get a hyper manic, obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive cleaning! The kitchen is the other thing I'm insane about. The rest of the house I kind of have on a rotation schedule. And yes, I do scrub floors on my hands and knees. I'm old school. (BetNC you tell your Granny I said, "You go girl!") That's how I was raised.

The fact that I'm Buddhist also probably just add fuel to the cleaning fire. I basically live in a house you can lick the floor and drink out of the toilets. It's work but I find it rewarding and satisfying. It pleases me. As a Buddhist most of us view this "chore" of cleaning as a lesson in humility, thanks and gratitude for our blessing and good fortune/karma. It is our duty and obligation to maintain it in it's original state or keep it above and beyond what was given to us. It's just "our thing". We try to keep the dirt of the outside world from entering our inside one. Impossible but this physical act of cleaning is a reminder of the spiritual and mental act of "cleaning" ourselves also so to speak.
If it makes you feel better my family are a bunch of Eastern European immigrants. My mother thinks I'm a slob if I leave papers on my desk or my clothes out on the dresser (folded laundry to be put in the drawers.)
My 95 year old Great Aunt asks me what I do around the house now that I don't work. I tell her. She asks me, "What the Hell's the matter with you? Home all day and can't get the ironing done or your windows washed. What are you waiting for? When do you plan on baking so you have something for company or the neighbor when they're over? What do you put out? Have you canned anything yet? What do you do with your time? Sit on your ass?" Yep. Good old Aunt Ida. Feel better now that my house keeping gets criticized?

I also cook from scratch. Very little comes out of a can, box or jar in my house. Again it was how I was raised and what was taught to me. I'm always shocked at the amount of pre-packaged food. I find it astounding when I read recopies that are "home made" in magazines now. They all say open a box of this or a jar of that, or buy pre made deli chicken and add this to it and bake 20 minutes for a delicious home cooked meal! HUH??? That's not "cooking". That's warming up food.
As for my Aunt Ida and my mother who can bake with the skill of being able to run a pastry shop, uhmm...I didn't inherit that. I do bake. VERY RARELY. It's from scratch. It's a real struggle for me. My repertoire is limited! It also NEVER looks the way theirs does although it tastes the same.

As for cleaning, I'll gladly help others. I'll clean anything. Bathrooms are the one thing I don't do for all the above mentioned reasons and then some! More than hygiene factors it is just too far a private, personal and intimate space. Also the reason I don't care to do others laundry. It feels almost invasive or intrusive to me. Is that odd?

I'm glad my pictures don't bore anyone. I would love to see more of yours! Please post some if you can. :D
Here's some interesting ones and then I'll start sending some of the garden.
Pic #1 cotton in bloom pre harvest
Pic #2 the flower on the cotton plant; never knew it got one
Pic #3 cotton ready for harves
pic #4 me being a ham with the Saguaro ( me bottom left)
pic #5 nice mountain view and the "valley" below. Reason place is called "San Tan Valley"

This message was edited Aug 5, 2015 7:49 AM

Sorry, Agave, my husband and I live in Milton (a suburb of Boston) in the house we've lived in for 20 years. We moved to Texas for three years (during which Jim and Kay came to visit us) and then we moved back to the exact same house. We are very disorganized and messy. I blame it on my husband (because I can't get out of the wheelchair) but even when I was able-bodied I wasn't as clean as you are!

Hi gang,
O.K. have a better sense of the demographics. I think (chuckle). Half the time don't know where I'm at. I'm sure Boston is nice. Never been there or that particular area but always wanted to visit the New England area. I was born in Westerly, R.I. Don't know anything about it. We moved to OH (why?) when I was a baby. Much rather have stayed where there was an ocean. Texas is an interesting choice. Don't blame you for moving back. From what I understand of the place I have no desire to reside there. But then again, you can not fully appreciate or despise some place unless you've been there personally. You were lucky to get the same house back after 3 years. How nice. Didn't have to buy new furniture to fit, knew how to arrange everything, knew where everything went. Must have made unpacking a breeze! I'm still going in my living room and saying, "I hate where the couch is. I want to move it again." Husband is still saying, "I'm feeling the urge to choke you....again." (LOL)

As for "neat" I give my husband more credit than I. He is the "tidier", "straightener", and picker upper". I'll come home and kick my shoes off at the door and leave them there a day before putting them away. I'll leave my sweater on the back of the chair. We won't discuss the desk. NOT TROLLZ but the multitude of papers, books,magazine articles, pens, etc. I HAVE TO daily go around and corral stuff or it can easily get out of hand. Thank God for recycling.
We will not discuss the bedroom closet although it is greatly improved. Shoes...what to do with shoes! I tell my husband I don't have enough or the "right ones", he opens the door and points and tells me to go find them. (red face)

As for clean...well let's just say the military did not come up to my standards.
I was actually surprised at how dirty everyone and everything was. The barracks were nasty, the bathrooms worse. (Ewwww. Yucky! ). After basic training when you go to AIT (advanced individual training) to learn your "job" you live with a room mate or maybe 2 at the most.The only time these younger adults cleaned was when they were forced to for an inspection. Otherwise their area of the room (I shoved everything that was not mine onto their side) was horrendous. Mine was the only oasis of neat and clean in the whole room. I'm talking Oscar Madison disgusting with clothes on the floor, food on the table/desk, papers everywhere, etc..
Used to privately toss the Drill Sergeants hints about inspecting my room just so my room mates would get forced to clean.
I mean some of them were real pigs and these were women! (Of course room mates never knew it was me.) I always escaped punishment because I kept my area the way it should be. You think they'd learn? NOPE. I probably did the least amount of push ups of anyone I knew in the place. Good. I really hate push ups. Haven't done one since. I only run when I'm being chased or late getting somewhere (shoe sale!). :D

O.K. so I can't help my self. There's worse things to be. Consider the alternatives. We have friends whose house we rarely go over because it is soooooo nasty! You need a chisel and hammer to get the...I dunno..."stuff" out of and off of their microwave. They've got a dishwasher but the stuff is sprawled out all over the counter, stove and in the sink on the rare occasions when somebody cooks. 90% of the time it's prepackaged convenience food, but their kitchen STILL looks like that. We won't talk about the carpet or bathrooms. We stay long enough until our bladders are ready to burst and then go to the Circle-K about 3 blocks away to use the public restroom. It's 10 times cleaner.
Me being the smart alec that I am actually wrote "dust me" and put a smiley face by it with my finger on their entertainment center. That was 3 months ago. They never responded back about my smarty pants comment jokingly or otherwise. YIKES!!! Their youngest kid is 17. The 19 year old is out of the house. The 20 soon to be 21 year old...well...we'll skip him but he's capable of pushing a vacuum cleaner.
They have a Siberian Husky. It's Arizona. It's 112 degrees. The dog sheds. The dog just doesn't shed it sheds massive tumble weeds of fur that blow across the floor and the carpet as it bounces around the house. Looks like a blanket of snow in their place. I really don't like eating there due to all the hair flying around.
They both work with DH so I know they've got time to clean something...anything! Seriously? I could let my house go for 4 months and it wouldn't get that bad. I would have to make a consecrated effort!
Don't judge me too harshly though. No I don't expect everyone (except those in the military that ARE actually enlisted) to be at my standards of clean. Mine are unusual and A-typical. But somewhere in the ball park of relatively presentable and definitely clean in this day and age of modern appliances and where you can get stuff to clean with at the .99 cent store isn't a reach for the impossible. If you can't afford a vacuum they still make little push broom-sweeper things like you see at the movie theatres.

Now my husband has a tendency to go, "What? Oh that. I didn't see it." when we're at the mall or I start yammering about the bills, stock market, investing or told him to read something in the news! He does have a tendency to notice every nice new piece of technology and stupid sci-fi movie or action flick (could be ogling worse stuff I suppose).

O.K. so did you get your morning chuckle in about my compulsive disorder. Like everything I blame it on the meds. (LOL) See isn't that convenient?

BetNC your comment about grass in AZ kind of made me laugh a bit. Uhm..no grass in AZ unless far up north. Rocks. We've got rock for yards that covers dirt so it doesn't blow away. In that you pretty much grow cacti of various types, shrubs, and some trees. Grass is nice but it would be dead in 3 days. Either it would get cooked from the heat and fry to a nice crispy golden brown of you would have a $400.00 water bill to keep a 12 foot square patch alive and then it would probably die of root rot. Rocks. We've got rocks.

Here's some of my bubble garden plants. I've added a whole bunch more. I just haven't downloaded the pictures yet. The new ones are much more exciting and far more unusual! :D

A few more from the Bubble garden. The next ones after this will be the exciting ones: D

Agav3egirl -you actuall6y made me scroll up and double-check that I hadn't mis-named thje state where that conference was! Nope, I posted it correctly: AZ, as in Arizona - Laramie to be mor3e precise: on the campus of Wyoming Stat3e University.n zIt seems you've confused the states: I DID say I annually visited family who lived in a small-ish town about 1 hour south of Tucson, ARIZONA.

I used to HATE having to clean the bathroom, when my son was growing up. Honestly! What's so hard about AIMING??? I utold him one time, after cleaning the particularly nasty basthroom, that if he couldn't do a better job of it then he needed to start sitting down fi5rst! Then he got older: guess who's job it was to clean the bathroom THEN??? Soon I was able to afford TWO bathrooms (still the struggling grad student), so each of us had our OWN bathrooms.. . I cleaned mine, he cleaned his, whenever. When I had company over, I'd just shut the door to his (always) grody bathroom! One day in passiong, I glanced in and wsaw his toilet seat leaning up against the wall; when I asked him about it and how long it'd been like that, he shrugged and told me "awhile" and that he just hadn't gotten around to telling me. I went out and bought a new one and handed him the boxed seat, with the appropriate tools: no way was I going to even go into that germ laden pigsty!! Teenagers!!

I used to have more, bertter pics of my gardens until this PC crAashed and I lost aLL my backed-up photos, but here's a new, recent pic of the front of my apasrtment and my front garden. BTW, the pic under my name is another one of my gatrdens in spring.

sorry, I had just lkooked at the clock and saw I was 15 minutes latge leaving for an out-of-town doctor's appointment.

HERE'S that pic:
#1: front house & garden
#2: front garden
#3: anothert front garden, between my nexty-door neighbor and my apartment (the pic unnder my screen name is that garden in spring; here it is in summer: half-grown yellow zinnias surrounding an "eye" of Zahara Starlight Rose zinnias)

BetNC you did tell me! See it's them meds and CRS Syndrome. Now since you said you did annually visit family in a small-ish town S. of Tucson do you still visit? I am N. or Tucson approximately 1 hour. See me waving to you? :P
That's funny about your son and the bathroom. Men aren't too particular are they when it comes to the bathroom? Also the reason why we have a "his" and "her" bathroom. Since we don't have kids we each have our own bathroom. Sigh...his idea of "cleaning it" and mine are two very different things. Since I only want my self, my husband and the dog living in the house I clean it. He does clean the toilet though prior to my going in there! I still can't believe your son's aim was so bad he had to take the seat off (LOL).
Your flowers are so lovely. I don't really know what they have to complain about. I wish I could grow things other than cacti sometimes. It would be nice to have some real color and fragrance. They should feel privileged they have someone like you living there that gives a hoot and keeps the place as nice as you do. You obviously add to the beauty of the place and make others feel like they could want to live there. You don't take away from it. They're crazy to complain. Just crazy!
Anyhow here's some bubble garden pictures again. This is the newer fun stuff. I'm still adding when I can. But this is what I've got so far.

Just be careful, TTC. Compulsive neatness can become an illness. This whole weirdness with the neighbor is over a tire track. The postal workers van left a tire track in the sand by the mailbox. There are two little bright orange landscapers flag on either side of the tire track as though he is marking evidence in a crime scene. To make absolutely sure the evidence of this terrible crime is not ignored, he put a big piece of wood between the two flags so the postal workers can’t drive there. Neatness can ABSOLUTELY become an illness!
Understand we live way out in the country. Woods on either side of us. No houses in site. From our deck, the view is the western neighbors pond and occasionally her rescued pet mule. Like a petulant, spoiled two-year-old he throws these temper tantrums. It will be interesting to see if the postal service caves in to his pestering or he discovers why we have the term “going Postal” in our language.
He suffers from paranoia. Once upon a time, I believed they were growing weed back there on the river and he was afraid someone would come upon his pot patch. I almost wish that was the case. What does society do with wealthy madmen when they lose it? We can’t keep humoring his insane demands and he appears to be getting worse. There are three of them, brothers or half-brothers, and one, the attorney, was convicted about 10 months ago of stealing ten million dollars from his clients. The decline of his families fortunes and reputation is pushing him off the edge finally. He’s been teetering on that edge for a while.
Yes, our land is a mess. Kay has been ill since last fall and I had the surgery I did because I could not stand up to the pain any longer. Before the surgery, sitting was an ordeal. I’m sure the state of our property bothers him. It bothers me, but life is a bitch sometimes and you have to let go of unimportant things occasionally to deal with the important ones. I’m not going to beat myself up for taking care of my wife and the other people I care about rather than the land itself. The land will always be here manicured or weedy. The people in your life are transient gifts from the Almighty. If we lived in a neighborhood where all the houses were cheek to jowl this man’s behavior would make a modicum of sense. He sees our property very briefly on his way to his home a quarter mile away through thick impenetrable woodlands. We will get back to taking care of the land properly as soon as we can. This absolute fury at what he perceives as our slovenliness is totally off the wall. He has serious, serious control issues.
Just be aware, TTC, and monitor yourself. It is a wonderful trait to have if you can keep it in proper bounds and don’t let it skew your priorities.
We are doing okay other than dealing with the above. The staples have been taken out of my back and being able to get up and move again without pain has taken off 12 lbs. I made it up and down the stairs several times without any assistance. They say it will be a year before I’m fully healed, but I’m looking at part-time work. The sooner we get this placed paid off completely, the sooner we can leave . Kay agreed with me about T. and her home girls now that it is definite the neighbor is a sick puppy and not doing something on his land a little illegal. If things don’t work out with the beekeeper and the man who is into wild edibles, Kay says we will get the name of the thieving brother’s victims and, if there is one that was left destitute by the theft, we will give them Amargia. There is a certain poetic justice in that. I am 100% behind that idea. The man is trying to mess with my baby girl’s mind. Nadi walked out to the end of the road to check the mail. He stopped his vehicle when he saw her and just sat there and glared until she was out of sight behind some trees. Nadi said this isn’t the first time that has happened. I may have had nothing to do with Nadi’s creation, but she is my baby girl in every way that is important. You don’t mess with mine in any way
, shape or form.
(Jim)
Pix at entrance to Flowers Hospital