Rick--Mostly--I don't have a clue either when it comes to Computer glitches.
I feel so helpless....so stupid.....

Just now--the rain has turned into a serious downpour.
I don't even want to go see my overflowing gutters out back. it is like Niagra falls...

When is too much rain.....TOO MUCH?
Looking out the door--it is like a shower turned on full force.
Now it is beating down on the house...Like a Monsoon....
I feel sorry for those of you who are not getting enough water....
This is the best I could get using my stupid camera. It IS a downpour....

Foggy WIndows, LOL, Ric.

At the library, we have skylights and can hear the rain when it pounds on the glass. It pounded loud today!. But at home 5 miles away, just barely measured in the official Cat Food Can O'Rain gauge on the deck railing.
Looks like storm cells are now south of us. Airplanes are coming in to BWI from an unusual direction to avoid them. Wind is picking up, we may not be done yet...

Ric, I feel the same way about 'outdated' being a measure of protection. think it works for vehicles, too, as who would want to steal my old clunkers..., even for a joy ride!

Sally, I use the same Cat Food Can O"Rain gage!

Got a fast inch plus here. Report this am that in Ellicott City, the river rose 14 FEET in just an hour! No way to get out of the way of that, Almost 200 cars washed away. And two dead.

Craig, glad you're back safe and sound.

ditto on the cars- no one would think my scratch and dented soccer-mom minivan has anything worth rummaging for.

Sad for Ellicott City. I saw a video of some guys making a chain to pull a woman from a car in the street to a store. SO dangerous. So glad that rescue went OK.
Looking at a map, and knowing the topography. you can see three ' streams' (Tiber river, which I never heard of, plus two) all converge just uphill from the main drag of Ellicott City, on their way to Patapsco. It looks like an "it's not IF they flood the city, but WHEN' setup. I can't figure out how they get to the river under normal circumstances.

Eric4home said:I'm working on Holly's laptop. What a mess. I should take it away from her every so often for repairs. She's clueless on protection and aversion to corrupt files. She is somewhat adept in using her 8.1, but I've nothing easier to control, clean, and fix than my old XP Pro. Did I mention my unit is somewhat antiquated. I've been unsupported by MS for a couple of years, but I had enough experience with it at work, Gee 10 years ago, I can make it work. You can even talk to it in DOS. Anyone remember that? I also believe by living in the past my Windows have become foggy and no one is looking to hack into history.

HAH! Gotcha beat Ric. My main machine is Windows 2000 Pro, and I love it. I also run 7.0 Pro on my laptop. I used the 2000 for things like Photoshop and design. I can't move Photoshop to the laptop without dropping several hundred bucks for a current version..Not happening.

Sadly, my browser on the 2000 machine (FF 12) is less and less useful as sits start using more of the eye candy on pages. (I can't stand eye candy on web sites. I'm not there for entertainment!)

Larry is using Win 7.0 Pro on his desktop. I have it loading all software from our network, avast! runs in the background and auto updates. As an extra layer of precaution, I also have my own firewall between our network that the real world.

I'm on an eMac os 10.4, pre intel (replaced Win 98/95) Dial up and FF 2.0 browser. Does all I want and cheaper and closer than the Library!
(Can't do youtube and Facebook is a prob so I just don't go there) Did fine on this site until ATP merged with NGA and now I get lots of 'alerts' that Firefox can't connect securely to various connections that load with garden.org Every other site I use or google to no prob, just here and no consistent pattern to which or how many 'alerts' I have to clear each log in or shift of forum or thread. Wish there wasa way to opt out of those bells and whistles. Any ideas beyond upgrading as I am maxed out already. Thanks. Judy

Judy are you running Ad block plus on Firefox? You may also be able to disable some of your alerts in advanced settings, but it is not recommended. AVG seems to be the most compatible anti-virus I've found for Firefox. I too, ran Avast when I ran Explorer but switched back after some issues. Norton, I've always found to be a PITA.

The only program I have a problem with is my Corel, it keeps jamming up on my XP Pro but runs fine on Holly's Win 8.1.

Bluespiral is in Elicot City, in the old part of town... she's on a pretty good hill, but I'm still that they didn't have damage to their place. Their internet may be out -- I've c-mailed and tree-mailed and e-mailed to no avail.

Totally off the topic of gardening, except that I think there's some great landscaping there...

I'm really still too limited in mobility & energy for an amusement park expedition, so I thought I'd see if anybody on this thread was interested in DISCOUNT TICKETS TO HERSHEY PARK, good through Sept. 25 (although in Sept. the park is open only on weekends). I bought them in spring in support of our local HS marching band. The discount is over 40%. please tree-mail me for details.

I wanted to come back and tell you all that I do have access to my Plant Journal in DG and it looks like so far I have the same access to everything that I did before my membership ran out other than a ton of adds popping up on the site.

Glad nothing was lost, Holly!

I had gotten everything moved other than the succulents most of which come and go from year to year.

Last night, some varmint got into our tiny city pond and wreaked havoc. Horrible varmint left just the bottom-half of several big koi.
Must replenish with $0.10 goldfish. Btw, my pad had no symbol for cents nor pence. Chump change, perhaps.

Boy that is so upsetting,

That is really a bummer, Lisa!

Aargh, Lisa! when they get that big, they're not "just" fish... you get to know them when you feed them... a loss for both your heart and your pocketbook!

My little bog/pond is full o big fat tadpoles! There are a couple of frogs in that pond that are hard to catch even a glimpse of, as they jump immediately into the water as you get close. I did see oen of them in another water garden pot this afternoon. My lotus and waterlily plants have finally started blooming! I'm hoping to do much better overwintering the tropical waterlilies now that I can keep them "in the green" in a big tank that's been moved to the basement.

My nephew is visiting with us this week and helping me with some clearing, pruning, and limbing up. He's just a delight to have around, a wonderful boy who at almost-15 is growing into a great young man. He and Joyanna have always had a special, close bond, and they're enjoying their time together.

So sorry, Lisa. Lady in my book club has a husband who seriously enjoys his koi, and lost the whole pond to chemical runoff when someone they hired did some cleaning, or something... they're valuing their lost fish in the thousands.

Severable of my customers and friends have small ponds with Koi or goldfish that got raided by Great Blue Heron. Two have gotten rid of their fish and two now net their pond area to protect the fish. Not sure what works for raccoons or erases the shock of coming upon the scene of devastation. Lisa.

Sallyg, et al, just east of Homestead Gardens is Tropic Bay Water Gardens, featuring all things ponds...
http://www.tropicbaywatergarde...

Poor fish...

I would SO not be happy...bad enough when the squirrels think the bird feeder is their personal all-you-can-eat and then take 'shots' of the hummingbird feeder.

So I shared with you all that I'd scored a large 4' Sweet Olive before the spring swap http://www.clemson.edu/extensi... at my local Walmart. I have been stalking my store at least 1x weekly since then waiting for them to clearance the rest down. Needless to say they weren't being scooped up quickly as I don't think many folks know about them - not to mention being marginally hardy (read: needs a microclimate type area) here. Sadly I came down with a nasty upper respiratory crud about 2 weeks ago and didn't do my weekly stalking while 'dying' in bed. Went last Friday and.... they'd clearanced the crapolla out of everything...NOT ONE SINGLE Sweet Olive remaining. Yes, I understand I don't NEED a 2nd one...it's the principle...I wanted another one. The injustice of it all!!!