Plants are very ineffective at taking up water when it's very cold. Watering before a freeze period is important and sometimes essential for some container plants depending on how long the freeze may be. It also helps create a moist/humid environment (especially under covers) which is better for most plants than the dry air that tends to come with a cold snap. The two combine to create a turgid plant that can better survive the cold snap and provide a less extreme environment to do it in. It's all about keeping the plant on a slow/steady path to warm-cold-warm-etc. more than it is about making sure the plant isn't cold. During this time if high winds are a concern you really need to keep an eye on anything tender or in containers. The uptake of water is slowed during the cold period to the point where some plants can dry out pretty quickly. BTW, if you see frost on your plants...leave it alone. It may damage your plant, but removing it (especially with water) will do more damage to most plants because of the sudden temperature change. That one is just a general guideline, though.

I prefer Hertz over Interprise, although the last few years at work, we were encouraged to use Enterprise. However, that was an economic decision and not quality. None of the company officials used Enterprise. Enterprise autos were ok, but I had difficulty dealing with their office hours. Enterprise, in my area, closes at 5 pm and are closed on weekends. Often. I 'd fly out on the job and would get back to town after 5 pm. My project would be stuck with an extra day of car rental if I returned the car the next morning. I'd have the problem of refilling the gas tank, making arrangements for Enterprise to pick up their car and getting to my own vehicle which by that time would be locked up in the company lot. It was just too much hassle to save a couple of dollars.

Asking for rental agreements, birth certificates and lunch menus is all well and good but I'm highly doubtful they're going to send this to you just because you request it, unless you use a subpoena. I personally would be very annoyed with a company sending out *my* contracts to every Tom, Dick and Harriet who requests it because they don't want to pay a bill, whether the bill is valid or not. AFAIC that's private data between the company and me and giving that out could be a potential violation of data privacy. I'm not sure they can give it out like that. The big question is how much time, effort and money will you spend on this? I'd definitely be looking at the paperwork, who signed it, who checked it in and the like. You could subpoena the the person checking it in to testify or at least get a deposition and/or affidavit about it. Likely they won't remember much, especially if they want to keep their job, if they're still employed there. Trying to track them down if they're gone, well that might not be easy or cheap either. Did you agree to arbitration for dispute resolution? What state's laws control the contract? This can make a difference too if you want to go that far. Fine print usually has a number of quirks in it. If you live in Texas and agreed that Delaware's laws will apply, that can be another monkey wrench tossed in. I do think you're doing the right thing to take the position that they haven't proven anything to you. (They who assert must prove.) Have they sent any estimate from a repair shop or is it just their standard claim amount? $500 isn't much damage. Scratches, small dent or two will hit $500 these days. I'd be going above the person sending this. I'd also go back to the person who initially agreed to drop it. Did you document time, date, etc and did they put it in writing that they'd drop it? I'd look over the contract too and see if there's any time-frame that could help you. How long do they have to make a claim and such. I certainly wouldn't go off saying you're representing yourself or anything like that since that's redundant. Obviously you're representing yourself. I highly doubt they'll take you to conciliation court. It's not worth it to them either. They'll probably just badger you, try screwing with your credit and the like and of course the dunning letters to get you to give in. You actually have some proof in your favor right now. They supplied you with a photo that apparently shows no damage. I'd use that to my benefit too, send it to the hierarchy and say this is proof that the vehicle wasn't damaged by you. Or save it for the credit agencies and collection agents. two.25acres raised good points. Comp claims won't normally count against you and *if* you're satisfied that the damage occurred while in your possession, since in reality a rock could have flown off a truck or something, it wouldn't be too big a deal and insurance companies like to split the difference a lot so they'd likely settle for a couple hundred. This is something you could negotiate too. You could offer them $100 to resolve it, with no admission of liability and to resolve it too, but I'd be sure to make it clear that this is just offered as a resolution and that you're fully satisfied that you're not liable, will be proven as such in court, etc. Let's face it, involving a lawyer is not a financially prudent thing to do. You'll pay far more than $500 to use an attorney and may well still be found liable. You won't get even an inexperienced lawyer for $500 since this will involve far more than an hour or two and that's what they bank on when they do this stuff. If you have a check-in statement with an inspection or release and coupled with the pictures you have, you could be in good shape. If you don't, you might be in trouble. Not right, but the way things go. But again, I'd go back to the one with whom you had the agreement and work that end first. Good luck.

Jinx - I'm so glad you mentioned Enchanted Rock! I have not thought of that places in ages, and have never actually BEEN, but it used to be on my "go there" list back when I was frequenting a climbing gym. That was so much fun, and the group I was training with was going to be making a field trip to Enchanted Rock to practice bouldering skills, but I wasn't able to be a part of that. These days, I wouldn't feel confident enough to do any climbing (or bouldering, really), but I'd still like to go there to hike. It looks like there are a lot of other hiking opportunities to be found in the Hill Country too. The Twig looks absolutely amazing! Wow, I would love to stay there! (Isn't that chandelier wonderful!) I mentioned Enchanted Rock to DH, in case he wanted to consider something a bit closer to home than Big Bend, but I think he's still pretty sold on trying to go to BB later next year. The Nuevo Terlingua casitas are stellar! If we go, we will likely choose a different accommodation than previously considered (so, not the adobe I shared earlier in this thread), having found a simple little 2-bedroom trailer very near the park entrance that would suit us well. We are staying in southern Colorado this summer, and I ALMOST thought we should just cancel that trip and go to BB instead, but then I went back to looking at photos and videos of the area where we'll be, and I absolutely have to go here again. Spent a lot of time in this area in my younger years, and really want to share it with DH. Weminuche Wilderness: