G.M., I didn't know her....only knew of her in terms of her being a relatively new firefighter with one of our county's fire departments (East Side VFD or Lake Murray VFD, I don't remember which one she had recently joined) and fighting her first house fire earlier on the day she died. You know how it is here....you may not know someone but you know people who know them, etc. House fires are few and far between, and one of our newer firefighters was also fighting his first housefire that same day, even though he's belonged to our department for many months now. I wasn't even there....I was home vacuuming and mopping floors because my sister-in-law was due to arrive from Pennsylania in just a couple of hours, although I had gone to the fire station and loaded up the firetrucks with drinks for the guys to take with them, and then spoke with several other Fire Rehab people by phone to make sure they had enough drinks, ice, coolers, etc. before I returned to my housecleaning. It was a pretty bad house fire that Sunday and they even cancelled church services at a church across the road and sent those folks home because of heavy smoke in the area and the risk of smoke inhalation. It was just a bad day. You don't give up....you pick your battles and something told you this year that it wasn't worth the fight. I understand that. With me, it is the severe drought periods that make me give up because there is just a point where you have to stop pouring water on the hard clay ground because it just runs off. I think it was luck for me this year, and being stubborn and refusing to give up, too. I do believe the fall harvest ends this weekend, because temps around 36 are now forecast for us on Mon. or Tues. night, and that's assuming Sun. night doesn't go that low. I've been watching the NWS, KXII, Weather Underground and Accu-Weather and trying to make sense of the various forecasts, and I've decided we probably are going to have our first freeze between Sunday and Tuesday. I've done the whole 'stripping the plants' of the 'final harvest' 4 or 5 different times already this fall when cool temps threatened, but I'll do it again Sat. or Sun. The coldest we've been here in our low-lying microclimate so far this fall has been 35 degrees and we had patchy frost and minor damage to the pepper and tomato plants, although the plants themselves did survive. I'm ready for it to end, though, because the holidays are almost here and I need to get busy with that. Our water bill was outrageous too during the dry spells, but here in Love County the rain rolled around just often enough to give me up and keep me going. If rain hadn't returned in September, though, I would have just quit watering because we couldn't handle another high water bill. When Tim and I drive by the long-ago-abandoned gardens in our area that haven't produced anything since roughly late July at the best, we are just amazed at the difference in our garden and those because ours still produces. It just goes to show you that if you can manage to water and get through the toughest dry spells of the summer, then you have a good chance at good fall production. I do think Love County consistently had more rain than Carter County this year, and I didn't realize how dry y'all had been until we went to Ardmore one day in August and I looked around as we were driving up I35 and realized y'all were looking really, really dry. Like you, I have plants in containers looking great for this time of year, and all the sunshine (and, LOL, attention to watering them regularly) has played a role in that. I think the cold may get them next week though. The whole breakup was so traumatic. Despite the fact that the former fiancee started dating his best friend, DS tried to be mature and remain friendly with them both (he handled the whole situation better than I would have!) but that didn't work out well either. It was VERY hard for us because Kristine was like a member of our family and we stayed in touch with her via the phone for a while, but it just was too awkward. Our new DIL is a jewel, and I hope this marriage lasts. We love her and her daughter dearly and just feel so blessed to have them as members of our family. I always tell people when unexpected things happen that "I think things work out the way they were meant to work out" even if we don't understand why at the time....so that's how I feel about this whole thing. It worked out the way God meant for it to work out. You have a wonderful weekend too! Dawn

hey tommy, i have thought about planting that filibusta in the ground. it will grow back as long as the spear stays intact. i have had i oiutside through snow storms and ice storms and its survived so far. the way i defeated the moles was by putting down chicken wire underground in the hole before planting the plams or cacti. the moles seem to just go around it and they leave my plants alone. i have other plants like salmon cannas, red castor, silver medt. fan palm, pygmy date palm with actual dates, elephant yuccas (6 feet tall), several types of tiger lilly, crape myrtles (20 feet tall), hens and chicks cactus, and several prickly pear varieties. i also have many potted tropical plants too..i live in the white house area and these plants do great even being 1000ft above sea level. my area sees strange weather events so these plants are great for xeriscaping. let me know if you want me to post somemore pix of my plants.. :)

Okay, I caught the last thirty minutes of the show....the guy that was kicked off was a major cry baby to me....loved the migraine excuse....mind you..I only watched the first maybe the second show. Is Jen the lady from last year that he paid to go through culinary school??? For some reason I'm thinking so...I only watched last season for the first time and I'm thinking she was/is the one??? The group did mess up the dinner service for tonight....big time.. if this was the first final group effort...I'm scared for all of them. I'm thinking some of this is played up but it is tv.... I will say the show teased me a little tonight. I may check it out again next week..to see what happens with the final group. Another Top Chef fan here....they do have their moments on that show too but I love the creative ideas the chefs come up with. I see they have a cookbook out....I'm thinking about buying it. David

anybody still watching??? i'm all caught up as of last night. when i first started watching, i wasn't really sure if i liked it. a little deep, violent, edge of my seat, straining to hear every word so as not miss anything, not all happily ever after type. tv for me is escapism for the most part. of course i like some moving shows but for the most part i like mindless shows, reality, home shows and sports. i don't watch much so its just a way to wind down at night, more or less. but this show sucked me in and held me. i think they cast it really well. the actress playing beth is amazing. the scenery is gorgeous, now i want to go Yellowstone!! what do u guys think so far, for those who are caught up?? like, love or stopped watching?? John - didn't like what i saw in the last episode, i'm nervous for him!! anyone know if its renewed for another season, or is this it???