djwfrk: Not at all. I actually enjoy working with ESL kids at school, many of them from Hispanic countries. I have told the "landscape workers" in Spanish (because they speak no English) not to break my garden fences, to no avail. They can't even read Spanish. I am virtually in tears about the latest destruction to the Adirondack fencing around my hosta garden. Several sections are lying on the ground all torn to pieces, like garbage, and the protective foam tubing I placed on top is ripped to shreds by these ignoramuses. It looks like a city dump, thanks to them, at $5-6/section! They have also knocked down quite a few of my plant markers. I am forever having to retrieve the plant markers from the ground and put them back on their supports. I have spent backbreaking labor and funds for patching compound repairing the really nice faux stone garden edging that they busted ugly holes in. These guys are knowledgeable landscape workers like I'm six feet tall (I am, in fact, 5'2"). They do not seem to have much knowledge about gardening at all, just how to flail about with weed-whackers and blowers. Their mowing is laughable. Also, I see a different crew each time. There are places in this area where it is well known that illegals congregate to pick up day labor jobs. Many contractors, like landscape companies, go over in the morning to these places to pick up workers for the day. The illegals are happy to work for minimum pay because they are limited in what jobs they can obtain. So the quality of work is about on a par with absolute amateurs, because in effect, that's exactly what they are. And the co-op couldn't care less. They are penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to landscaping. They could care less if my fencing gets ripped up, plants get trampled, etc. Here is an article from a local Queens news source: Day laborers busted on 69th Street The police arrested 10 immigrants on Tuesday on charges that they blocked a sidewalk at a popular gathering place for day laborers in Jackson Heights, Queens, the chief spokesman of the Police Department said. The arrests came in response to repeated calls from neighborhood residents complaining about the laborers "most of them undocumented" who congregate every day at the intersection of Broadway, 37th Avenue and 69th Street, said the spokesman, Paul J. Browne. “Police responded to community complaints about them blocking the sidewalk and congregating,” Mr. Browne said, adding that there were 50 to 60 workers at the location on Tuesday morning before the arrests. “We responded and asked them to disperse,” Mr. Brown said. “All but 10 of them did.” _______________________ There is little doubt, based on what I've seen and my conversations with them, that these "landscape workers" are undocumented aliens. So, I have spent endless hours researching, planning, buying materials, digging, hauling heavy bags of soil and mulch, planting, watering, weeding, etc. so that these "landscape workers" can come and lay waste to all my efforts. I'm sure you would love them, too, if you could but see the latest damage. Life in the big city.

I hope they get it ironed out for you Bill h.I have been lucky knock on wood.My Malibu has 9000something miles and no issues.My 05 Buick went through the warranty period with no issues.I just bought a GMPP to cover it for 4 more years I like that car and plan to keep it.I just traded my old 1994 Buick Regal work car with 142000 miles for a used 1999 Buick Century with 80,000 miles. My parents have a 05 Buick Teraza that has had issues.It now has 34,000 miles and goes in Friday for a Check engine light issue.They had to order the part EGR valve to solve this issue.They had a rattle clunky sound awhile back from the front.Turned out to be the rubber bushings were worn at less then 30,000 miles.They also have tire ware issues.There remote sliding door sometimes does not close completly.Plus a few other things early on.There not real happy with the van.I mentioned they should consider a GMPP if they plan to keep it.I think they just might need it.I bought one on my 05 just for piece of mind.Hope I never need to use it.

hospital has promised to fix the problem. I will follow up later this week. I need to contact my insurance agent to see if I need to do anything. I will call her right now before I forget. Things are okay here kids. I started hurting and getting restless this morning about 3am. I finally realized at five it was because the pain medication had worn off. I've stayed down pretty much this morning. I did fix Custer some lunch (Hamburger Helper how easy is that?) and washed a load of puppy blankets. I'm really tired now so will go take a nap. Cathy is right; there are NO drivers worse than in Utah. It is impossible to drive defensively. If you a safe amount of space between you and a vehicle some moron will dive into it. Going the posted limit is very frightening cause people run up your back. I was very glad to get home Saturday night. Oh! Our team did well at state. I'll post some photos later. Thanks to you all! You are the best! Lori

Well, we did it. Drove a U-Haul from Columbus MS to Boynton Beach Florida pulling a trailer with pickup on it. 20 hrs and two breakdowns later we made it. Here is the back story. We asked for a 17' U-Haul and car transporter. They claimed they didn't have a single truck of any size in the entire city of Columbus. They called the next day and said they had a 26' trk in a town 20 miles away we could have at the 17' rate. We ended up needing it, because we filled up that 26' truck. Taking the only truck available within 50 miles was our first mistake. The truck was an old truck with well over 100,000 miles, loose steering and more rattles then you can imagine. We got 375 miles before our first problem - some kind of booster pump for the brakes went out. It turned out we could still drive the truck without the pump. About 200 more miles down the road, in the middle of the night, we shredded a tire on the trk hauler. To U-Hauls credit we got good roadside assistance with both problems, loosing a grand total of about 5 hours. The loading and drive was pretty miserable at the time; but once we got to Florida it really didn't seem all that bad and we saved several thousand dollars. Driving that huge truck and trailer really wasn't all that bad except for turning and being super careful about what gas stations we pulled into. The GPS we took was a life saver and kept us from making any wrong turns. Would we do it again - probably, but make sure we had a newer truck. PS: One caution. A "reservation" with U-Haul means nothing. We made the reservation 3 weeks ahead of time. Four days before our trip U-Haul called to tell us they did not have a truck for us. Then they said we would have to drive 60 miles to get a truck, we ended up with the 20 miles mentioned above. But I would highly recommend if you make a reservation with U-Haul you have a backup with another company.