I love the rain! It is the freaky, high winds that disturb me. I used to love to see the wind blow, but that was before we lost all our big trees. When 40' trees bend over, that is SCARY! I'm soo tired of the power losses. Every day that it rains, we lose our electricity.. Doesn't bode well for hurricane time! I'm getting a sensor for the house that will call us if the temps get too high. If my dogs die from heatstroke from a power loss, I'm afraid of what I will do to FPL.. A good friend (a vet) came home from work one Monday last month to find her house an oven, and her 2 year old French Bulldog dead from heatstroke. Her other 3 (collapsed) were saved with emergency care. Her Mastiffs on the porch were fine-they had gone swimming in the morning, were wet, so were left on the screened-in porch with fans running. Her central A/C had failed. She had no way of knowing, until she got home. She now has a sensor. If you have pets, and work, consider getting a Sensaphone so you will know when temps get dangerously high, or there is a fire or water damage. I flat out do not trust FPL to keep the power on! Lisa Here is a link that might be useful: Sensaphone

In deference to my lovely hostess and chauffeur, I posted the picture which made me appear to be in pain rather than the one in which Cathy looked like an old wicked witch and me look like a sweet happy young girl!..... ( now I am really in trouble! She's close enough that she could come and GET me!!!!)

Your cell phone bill. Let's talk about that as an example. You have UNLIMITED use of the internet, emails and texting. Right? Wrong. I pay per minute! LOL The more I use, the more I pay. And FWIW, my cell bill runs $2-$10/month. I have prepaid and currently have 240 minutes available and need to add time next month. And there you go again... "google it"! LOL This thread is the one getting "silly"! Sheesh. Joyful, I certainly agree with your basic premise on the highway analogy but that brings up another issue: Should not the "boonies" pay for their highways, phone lines, electric lines and maintenance and not the city folk? Higher populated areas subsidize the boonies. Go back to Rural Electrification project where the rural areas were first brought electricity. The cost was borne by the "richer" city dwellers since the cost per person in the rural areas were prohibitive to the people there if they were required to pay their own way. Not unlike hurricane Katrina, Rita and the like. Those costs were borne by the country as a whole rather than making the people pay their way there. That's not right. Local Government Aid (LGA) distributes state monies to different areas, smaller areas get a benefit at the cost of the bigger areas. Does a city person get a benefit from the boonies having electricity, telephone, cable TV or the like? Seldom. There's no doubt that there's inequities in billings. I get charged basically the same for garbage/recycling/refuse as the Octowench would. I don't put my garbage can out every week. Is that fair? No, but practicality dictates that there's not going to be a fair way. They average it out to save money in other ways. People without kids in school should not have to pay school taxes if you want to be fair, but the ones with the families have controlled politics to give themselves that benefit. Most people have a certain level they reach on usage of many things, whether phone, internet, garbage, sewer or the like so to make things easier, appease the masses and the like, they average it out and the unrecognized minorities wind up paying more. At the farm, I have to pay ditch tax. My property does not benefit from the ditch. Why should I have to pay it? Because the ones who benefit cry and rationalize it that everyone should pay... and then say "google it!" ;) Should I pay the same vehicle license fees as someone who drives 10 times what I do? Is that fair? Again, practicality ease come into play. I get no benefit from a sports stadium. Should I have to pay for it? I could go on and on but won't. I'm just amused to see that the power of prayer is taking second place (or further down) to the power of petition now! :D E pluribus taxem, eh?

I am up to 88 entries - although some have more than one entry as they live in more than one location. I still have a lot more to enter into my spreadsheet from part 1. California is in the lead with 12 New York is second with 9 Michigan and Texas are in third place with 6. We have about 25 states (and DC) and 2 Canadian Provinces represented so far. I know there are more Canadians out there! Lots of good information - talented musicians, GCs, etc. 2 people live close enough to bicycle to Google (in 2 different states) flwrs_n_co hope your family member is doing better. AKtillery - that is quite the undertaking - we hope to go bicycling there. bbtrix - my DB and SIL live in Darien on the south side of Chitown. pcpr - are you near OldBat? NHbaskets - the coast of NH is famous... aamassther - we are planning a trip to Asheville NC - I think you in SC but they aren't far apart. At least one person has been active with GW for 14 years! Lots more to enter before complete and then have to figure out the best way to share. Stay tuned! A2Gemini