Let's visit the vacation-to-Amador County idea again. I'm sure you've guessed that I've had some things come up that keep me wrestling on this thing. The greatest challenge we have is that my older teenage son has found 2 jobs. He's still doing landscaping like gangbusters, but he's also a full-time pharmacy tech at a local hospital now. We're trying to help him save every penny so he can meet a goal by mid-August when he's planning to leave home. Soooooooo, we've been supplying most of his transportation, delivering & picking him up a couple of times a day. We didn't expect more than one job out of him. And believe me, we can't complain, not even a little. He graduated from high school a semester early, and has been taking 2 classes at a local university. Last night he showed me the 2 A's he got in his classes. Can't complain about that either. We figure to keep him relieved of unnecessary expenses (car), and the distraction, is a good idea. We've done this same thing with our other 3 older children (now gone), and it seemed to produce better results that we observe with other families. For awhile, we were picking Ben up at 12:30 a.m. from one job, and we were beginning to wonder, but that's history & we've all been doing much better. Nevertheless, this pretty much wipes out our summer plans unless we can find some unwary friend to help us out. The other issue is that I have been assigned a role that I'm very exctied about this Summer. Unexpectedly, I'll be mentoring a fantastic young man who is finishing up his program at a local university who is doing an internship at an association for retarded citizens. The small catch is that he is 100% sight impaired. The worst/best part of the story is that his on-site administrator has never had an intern before, let alone him being her first intern. And then, there's my 1/4-acre vegetable garden. I've never done a better job at preparation for success. Last year, I lost about 90% of it because of drouth conditions. Some of you will think I'm a little crazy, but I refuse to water with city water. We live just outside the city limits in the county. City water is so chlorinated & chemicaled that it nearly kills plants. It barely keeps them alive, but no growth. This last Winter, I picked up twenty-five 55-gal. pvc drums with screw-on lids. I keep them full of rain water, refilling whenever it pours. And, I've been mulching with about 2 feet of grass clippings everywhere, and will keep adding until the plants won't let me. Keeps the weeds down & moisture in. My beets have grown up 18" tall, for example. This is something I hate to leave behind because it's always such a disaster when I return home from a vacation. I've got a real dilemma here. The biggest part of it is that I want to see my Mom who just turned 80. So right now, it looks like we're not going to be in the game for this Summer. We're going to try to come out for Christmas & New Year's. I realize that is the worst possible time probably, if we want to meet anyone there from the Mailing List. And, I don't suggest that anyone try it outside of Jackie. She's already there, but may not even be in town. We will only be in Amador Co. for a couple of days in this case. I wish I could "have my cake & eat it too," but it's just not working out. And, I knew I would have to tell you soon. Ouch! Steve