On another gardening note...I really like a variety of tomato called 'Little Sicily'. Tasty tomatoes, great yields. I have purchased them at Home Depot and at a local garden center but neither had them in stock this year. I don't have a lot of opportunities to get out to do plant shopping these days, so I took a flyer and ordered them from Home Depot online; I was surprised to see them listed. I thought I would probably get a couple of spindly, broken, yellow plants that I'd be schlepping to the store for a refund. Imagine my surprise when this very sturdy box arrived with two tomato plants in it: [image: 20260516-125435.jpg] Each plant was in a small hinged "greenhouse": [image: 20260516-125343.jpg] Some of the healthiest specimens I've seen. I unpacked the plants when they came a few days ago, so they've already grown. I set up this photo so you could see how cozily they were packaged: [image: 20260516-125409.jpg] Hopefully the universe will forgive me for all that packaging. But I'll be eating the tastiest tomatoes in the 'hood later this summer!

Ax- Still, articles like this makes me question of the American car industry is still alive only because of protectionism. What politician wants to be known for putting thousands out of work?

DougG My bad

wtg, sorry for your loss. I enjoyed your post.

@Steve-Miller HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEVE!!! Pull those weeds. You have always known how to have a good time.

How to Properly Use AI to Help You Learn the Piano Link to video tLr2P2Q7pN7AFSp

This is crazy. It’s not that complicated. I bake with my starter every week or two or three. I rarely if ever use fed starter, it’s usually totally flat, and I feed it after I’ve mixed up the dough and stick it back in the fridge. So it gets fed every week or two ( I almost never feed it if I’m not baking something). I never discard. I make mostly pizza dough and sandwich loaves in a loaf pan, and bagels and sweet rolls.. The bagels and sweet rolls go overnight, but the pizza and bread get baked the same day. I don’t weigh, and I loosely measure, sometimes I add a lot of starter to the mixture if I need to use some up. I add water, then flour until the dough feels right. I used a stand mixture and don’t do stretch and folds. It always works.

@Big_Al said: Having been involved with technical services to the steel industry earlier in my engineering career One of my neighbors worked as an engineer in the steel industry. When we bought our house in 1980, he and the family were living in Turkey while he was working on a project there. We finally met them, close to a year after we moved into our house, when they returned to the US.

Bernard, I've just been through the wringer you're describing: trust, trustee, secondary trustee, power of attorney, and medical power of attorney. It's a long, intensive, and expensive process. My advice is to take it step by step, be patient with yourself, take the time you need, and be encouraged that you will accomplish your goals. It can be confusing at times. It can be frustrating. It can seem endless. You'll get there, just don't rush anything. I'll be holding a good thought for you.

Lol!

+1 re: the DNC

@bernard Did you see that Fetterman was the single vote to decide not to end the Iran debacle? He and his comfy clothes should be in an insane asylum, or he should be in prison for complicity in war crimes, or he should be in a military prison for treason, in my opinion.

I've heard many times the freeholders are often what we would call private equity firms and are practicing financial predation. I'm living where I was born. It's disheartening to see houses of the exact type my family lived in since I was born rise from well under 20k in 1963 to over 400k today. Wages and productivity were decoupled in the '70's with wages flat lining and productivity rising dramatically. People in this country today in general literally are not being paid wages that that equal what it costs to live. This country is and is about to be more so in a foreclosure crisis, also. Our neverending inflation crisis just got dramatically worse, also. This isn't the country where I was raised. It's not prosperous and in fact is holding on by a thread.

@wtg and @bernard I spent so much time on the music school's website, you'd think I was planning to move there! I would love to be in a class with your, Bernard!