I'm not a teacher, but some years ago found myself teaching some health classes. 25 students or so, all the same grade. Some really wanted to 'get' what I was trying to say, some wanted recess, some were talkative, some were shy. Some couldn't seem to figure it all out, some chose to deliberately disrupt. A few did not have English as their native language. My admiration for teachers is immense. My point is not only to offer compassion to Secsteve in his posts where replies were not what was expected, but to point out that none of us have perfect understanding and we all fall down on the job sometimes but that most of us are good people and pretty lovable just like my students. Communication problems are tough. Wonderful teachers seem to have a gift so that whatever they teach or ask must go into a magical communication wave where there is more understanding and less static. That this happens must mean that the somehow the sender, as well as the receiver, is empowered to create and discern a clear message,( and that teachers are amazing in that respect because it was very hard for me to get one message received in even remotely the same way by 25 kids).

When my kids were young, I had paid vacation time from work so I didn't worry about losing income when I went on vacation. We did a lot more 'weekend' trips to the coast or San Francisco than actual vacations. I have always prioritized family vacations or time together because kids grow up so fast. I don't regret a thing. When I was with my ex, we took out loans to pay for most of our trips. I made the mistake of a joint loan and he later filed BK and I had to pay it back myself. But when I was a single parent, I saved and took a 2nd job when my social services job went from working 5-8 hr days to 4-10 hour days, I got a job for the 5th day to give me more income. I never worked on the weekends, that was time with the kids, shopping & house cleaning days. and when I became self employed, I had more spendable income than before, so that is when I could really afford to do more things. My daughter & I went to many concerts together and I took the kids on cruises. since I got married a year and half ago, I don't have as much spendable income. My husband was making just enough to cover his debt.(he has a lot of credit card debt mostly from past relationship & financed assets that when they are paid off, we've agreed they are community property now) My spendable income now pays to transport his daughter from her mom's, I buy all the groceries, I pay for all the medical/therapist visits, I buy all the clothing for everyone (my sons work & buy their own) and if we go on vacation, I pay for it. I also pay for anything his daughter needs for school. BM contributes NOTHING. So, as long as my business allows me to finance vacations, I will. Our living expenses are first priority and college is something that we'll deal with when we get there. I went to college for a while when my kids were younger, but I don't think it completely necessary to have a college education. I know many will disagree but I came from a family that is entrepreneurial and my father owns his business (he inherited it from my grandfather, but prior to that, he also had his own business in another town), I have mine (providing legal services), my sister has hers too (operating tractors for construction). Nobody in my family graduated college except my step mom that got her Master's in psychology and was a marriage & family therapist when she got sick. (I am the only one that attended more than one semester) and everybody is successful (middle class) on different levels. I am the only one in my family that doesn't own my house, but with the current market that may change soon. My brother is a deputy and his wife sells real estate, so they are not self employed but everyone else has done quite well without a college degree. If my children have a desire to do something that requires one, of course I will help.

This is the first year most of our roses received hardly any winter-kill even "Easy Does it" is green to the tips... So I'm guessing warmer weather will arrive and stay sooner than usual this year here. Anyhow I'm a zone warmer than yourself but I'm going to wait until the Forsythia are in Bloom then I'll consider doing any pruning... Like I stated above I will hardly have to prune this year... Kinda of weird as I'm use to having to cut them down to 12" or so above ground most years... As to when to take off winter protection... I do not protect so I'll let someone who does answer.... Best of luck!

@ Austin Air Companie. Yes, I agree there is a lot of untrue stuff out there. I try to stick to stuff that at least seams reasonable and not a specific product trying to be sold to me. Here is the link where I saw the idea of a radial take off. As you can see, they are not trying to sell me anything in particular. I was just curious if such an item currently exists without being custom made. You can see at the bottom of the article they list as references publications from SMACNA, ASHRAE, and ACCA. https://buildingengineer.wordpress.com/category/mechanical/ I figure when putting something together,, make it efficient as can be within reasonable cost. Plus if I make the air to my main bedroom register efficient enough, I might be able to delete the second register. Also because of where I want to put a direct return vent from the bedroom area to the return plenum, the second supply register is mostly just going to be sucked away to the return instead of heating/cooling the room. So, an efficient higher flow register solves the problem. I wasn't really saying flex duct is bad, just that it is less efficient for overall flow rates. My intention would be to have the square duct with the take offs leading to flex duct to the registers. I need the extra efficiency to make up for the fact that the original builders did not put any insulation in the walls. Even worse, most of the walls have airflow without much restriction to the attic. I live on the border of zones 4 & 5. So in the summer it can get into the upper 90's and winter it can get down to the single digits. Builders did not seal anything in the whole condo. (2 floor corner unit facing south west). Even the ductwork isn't sealed. The chase for the duct work that goes to the attic for the top floor limits me to square duct. Circular duct for the supply trunks would have too big a diameter for what I need. Flat oval is too expensive. To give you an idea of the original builders, here is a picture of my return air. This duct section connects the return plenum to the filter box before the furnace. It is about 8X12 so undersized by maybe 60% or more. Notice how it is actually just leaning to one side. The return plenum is inside of what is supposed to be a fire rated chase and is technically supposed to be sealed by a 1 hr fire rated sealant for anything that penetrates it. 1 return air box is just as bad, the other is worse. It will take a long time to fix everything. Right now I have to have my damper to my downstairs zone partially blocked to get enough air to the 2nd floor due to all the holes and gaps in everything. If it is fixed and made efficient, I can open the damper. It will be a while longer to fix the first floor ductwork since I have to remove the whole ceiling to do it. Plus it will be a while before I can get to insulating the walls upstairs and down. And longer still to fix the return air. I have to see about moving the shared flue pipe over so I can put in a bigger and properly designed return since the flue pipe is put only an inch or 2 away from the duct. (flue pipe is shared with downstairs neighbor so flue pipe and neighbors MUA vents need to be moved to make more space for what would be my new return). My MUA vents need to be changed and moved before I can seal all the holes in my utility room or the hot water heater and furnace will backdraft when the dryer runs and would be starved for combustion air the rest of the time. Hence the reason I am researching various concepts on how to make efficient ductwork with the constraints I have and considering the long term to a full solution. Do it well the first time since I won't go back to it again. I am looking into places that do HVAC design and prices. Considered doing it myself but too seems to be too much to learn from all the various manuals. Plus the software to do a proper design actually would cost more than having someone else do it for me. The various slide rules and stuff people use could get me close but not account for other constraints. Looking at things like turning vanes since I need to have a square throat 90 degree turn to the attic, efficient takeoffs to get the proper air too the register and register options. Return air pathways to circumvent closed doors, Sizes and styles of return air intakes, sizing of air filters, fitler boxes, air restriction of filter levels. How to fix the jenga looking installation on top of my furnace. Looked at various custom duct connection systems but seem to be too expensive for the efficiency gains and some make things too wide. Plus the fact of living in northern NJ has made me jaded due to almost all contractors and vendors being either incompetent or worse, fraudulent and on the take. So I would be doing the work myself and would need to check the design as much as I could to be sure they didn't just half ass it and figure "good enough". So my original post is just 1 bit in a vast amount of research that I couldn't find an answer for myself.