I'm sorry Scott. :o/

I don't think anyone is picking on you or implying you really don't have your own teeth in a meanly way. I think everyone feed of your post and was just venting their prewinter frustration (you know the frustration of us frozen northerners when you are boasting about all your warm weather).

Fishy

hmmmm, now i need to read it ::)

Oh my gosh Scott. You are leaving this group??? Please don't. You are such a delight and so insightful. Pease don't leave.
Theresa

I don't think he meant he's leaving, Theresa. :)

I'm sorry, Scott! I agree, we've pretty much ripped you up enough. You've been a good sport, though! :)

Brenda

Scott, my sincerest apologies. Please forgive me. I would have never posted anything about false teeth if I thought for a moment I was offending you. You have always had a great sense of humor and have always been part of this comical group. I hope this doesn't change that. I'm sorry for hurting your feelings. :(

Scott, no one was deliberately trying to hurt you or anyone else in that thread.
I can assure you, that I would not post anything that was intended to be offensive to you personally. I have no axe to grind with you and I would like to believe that no one else who chose to add their little bit of silliness to that thread, had any malice toward you.

I was, I will admit, a bit concerned when I saw your name being used in the thread, I did not think that was too prudent.
But I do not believe any of the silly stuff in there was meant in a mean way.It certainly was not from me.
Cheer up,there are bigger things to get bummed out about;)
"Horton"

Oddly enough I think it may have been a misguided attempt at a complement, Scott. I didn't post, but I'm sorry you were offended, too. I certainly didn't think it was intended in a mean way when I read it. Sandy

It appears you brought yourself into the topic for discussion and others simply went along with the flow. Because the GW does not offer smiley faces, winks etc., sometimes comments can be taken the wrong way. I think you took the banter in a negative light when that was not the intention. What's that saying about a comedian needing to know his audience?

Guess we must have really thick skins in the UK... I was enjoying the story and thought references to Scott were quite endearing! Not talented enough to join in though (sadness and woe)

Scott, here's one more apology. I sowwy!

My reference to Tater Tot, I knew he isn't yours, I was hoping it would lead the story on to a new adventure when someone picked up on it. Something with maybe double agents or pet detectives. I love these improv stories, and enjoy throwing new thoughts in to see where they lead.

We do all like to tease each other about the Northern cold vs. the Florida warmth, and I'll try to stick with just that. How's that?

:) Mary

I might have taken it a little bit to serious. You have to remember, I posted that on Friday night after working a full week, arms were sore, and this pond club is about to drive me postal. So I apologize to y'all also and I accept yours in return. I did achieve something today that cheered me up a bit. My parts came in yesterday for my HF 1585 GPH pump and now the pump is working again. The new rotor has been improved and should last longer than the original one. They put a stainless steel skin on the magnet. This pump will now be cleaned up and put away until it is needed again. I've got the HF 1268 GPH pump working the pond at the moment. I also pulled the wild grape vines out of my bald cypress tree. Now I need to talk to the neighbor about removing a leaf or two from a giant elephant eat that is laying against the tree. The bald cypress is 6' tall now. I'm rambling but I did have a nice day yesterday at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. They had an open house and plant sale. I didn't buy any plants even though I wanted to but I did get to have a breif conversation with the VP of Gainesville Koi, Goldfish, and Watergarden Club. He has a koi farm and was selling baby koi there. I also talked to a woman that has one of my flyers up at her nursery. She was selling mainly gingers. My wife and I did take pictures of the ponds and creeks and a few other interesting plants. Oh, and one picture has a blue heron sitting on a rock in the big pond. I don't know if they were koi or not but they were huge and grey. There were 5-6 of them in one pond that had Victorias in it.

I'll shut up now.

G'day,
Scott

Hey Scott I was at the Kanapaha sale as well. Exactly where do you live? I live in Gainesville. My daughter hounded me til I got her one of the koi. Its in the aquarium as we speak. I bought some bromeliads.

Talk all you want, for as long as you want, Scott.

Most of us love you and enjoy reading whatever's on your mind.

Take care,
Jeff

Bihai, I live in Ocala. This was the second trip to Kanapaha for my wife and I. I was dissapointed the first time with the pond but they have cleaned it up a bit since then. In case you are wondering, I was the guy in the blue shorts, grey shirt, and brown boots with a digital camara on his side.

G'day,
Scott

You should come back in March for the Spring Plant sale. Its HUGE and well worth it, but come EARLY. There are over 200 vendors, lots of food, music, a large kid's area with activities for them, a portable butterfly house...vendors come from as far away as Miami. Tropiflora is always there, Gardinos has started coming every year, Bob SMoley has been coming since he relocated to Dunellon, its a GREAT festival and lasts 2 days. It draws thousands and parking can be a bi*ch but they have shuttle buses to bring you in from remote sites and a system where you can leave your plants with a check and swing by and pick them up. I think the ponds have been allowed to go a little by the wayside since Don Goodman (the director) got his arm bitten off by the 12ft alligator while he was in one of the ponds cleaning out algae a few years ago. I never go to Kanapaha for the sake of seeing the gardens themselves anyhow, it isn;t that good, but the March sale is fab.

Sorry you had a bad week Scott... (oozing empathy here)!!!

Best wishes

Kaz

I've been thinking of going to the Spring Plant Sale.

G'day,
Scott

always a good plan!! sorry about my earlier post scott, and not taking it seriously. i thought it was your sense of humor.

So this Don Goodman fella, what do his alligator boots look like and did he say how the gator tasted and how much meat he got from it?
:)

I know damned well I would have if it bit MY arm off!

Jeff, the gator is still in there. There are signs posted all over around the ponds warning about gators. Evidently they were put up after he lost his arm.

G'day,
Scott

Yeh he's still there. Mr. Goodman refused to have him destroyed so I hear. There have always been several HUGE (and I mean, over 8 ft) alligators that live in some of the water features there. At the Spring Festival and Sale in March you can see them sunning themselves. There were no fences or anything to keep people away from the gators and every once in a while some silly nit would get within 5-6 ft of one to take a photo of it. NOT a good idea, as they can easily lunge that far when hungry. That's how several folks have lost pets at the local wildlife sanctuary on campus (Lake Alice)...they walk their dogs down by the lakeshore and WHAM out comes a gator and Fido is history. I used to shudder when small children got too close to where the gators were sunning. So now they have SIGNS. When I was 3 or 4 I couldn;t read signs. Could you?

Well, maybe the parents that are suppose to be watching their children can read the signs for them. Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine.

G'day,
Scott

Scott,
I know this message doesn't belong on this string and I apologize to everyone but I figured it would be the best way to get to you.
I have a question about the extra filter for the 1585 HF pump. Could you email me??
Thanks
Evelyn

Gee Scott, you REALLY think that an adult who is stoopid enough to actually get within 5 feet of an 8-13 ft alligator to take its photo is really into watching their kids?

Bihai, we're not talking about you are we? :o)

I'm not a parent but I do know that if you have a child that young, you need to keep an eye on them at all times when near water or any other harmful situation. If a parent can't pay attention to a child, then they should have used birth control or become a nun.

I'd rather not discuss this to much in the forums because it might get contraversial and I'd rather not make anyone mad.

G'day,
Scott

Yep, Scott. Since you just excused 1/2 of the parents out there from any responsibility, I could get a little annoyed. Sandy

Scott,
You must realize that you got those NORTHERNERS going by telling them how nice our weather is. They must LASH back because their fish are in trouble and could be injured or die because of the terrible, terrible cold, cold north weather while you sit at the pond in 65-80 degree weather.

IT AIN'T FAIR Scott so you must keep the beautiful Florida weather to yourself. Don't be cruel !! reminds me of a song.

When did I excuse anyone from any reponsibility. I think parents should take more responsibility for their kids or give me permission to tan their little hides. Parents not paying attention to their kids is part of the reason why we have gangs and juvenile correction centers. The children grow up looking for attention and get it the only way they know how. I shall step down from my soap box.

G'day,
Scott

"If a parent can't pay attention to a child, then they should have used birth control or become a nun."
I don't think there are too many XYs becoming nuns and a goodly number of XYs protest when offered the most common methods of BC. Sandy

No Scott, not talking about me. And your sarcasm is not really at all appreciated. My 10 year old daughter is intelligent enough to know to stay many feet away from large mean looking reptiles like anacondas, diamond back rattlesnakes, crocodiles and alligators. As are both of her parents. But some parents just don't have a clue. They think because the animal is sitting there motionless in the sun, its harmless. And that's infortunate, because every year some poor sod gets too close to something they shouldn't and ends up injured or killed, and then the poor animal (or in the case of a gator attack, every gator within a 5 mile radius) is hunted down, rounded up and killed "just to keep everyone safe". When actually, the human was tresspassing on the ANIMAL'S territory, not the other way around.

Bihai, I was neither talking about you or being sarcastic. I apologize if I have offended you in any way. I was not insinuating anything about you or your family. Everytime a subject is brought up about unwatched kids, I have flashbacks of the two-year-old at Weeki Wachi. We were standing in line to get something to eat and there was this kid who was all over the chip rack squeezing all the bags of chips while his mother was paying no attention to him even though the line had moved.

G'day,
Scott

Not too long ago I observed a child attempting to lift a large candy display and when no parent (male or female) intervened I went over to him and told him he was behaving badly and his parents would not be happy to have to pay for a broken display and if it landed on him he wouldn't be very happy either. The kid stopped and I got back in line. The next day, the display had been removed. This could have been a problem in so many ways and maybe I should have kept my mouth shut but I would have been sorry to have had the kid hurt. I wonder if more of us should speak up? Sandy
PS Once again, Scott, you refer only to the mother. What the heck is wrong with a father doing something about it? And if it offended you as it obviously did, why didn't you say something?

Sandy, I didn't see a father.

G'day,
Scott

That's a BIG part of the problem, too, Scott (and I'm agreeing with Sandy, here)... FAR TOO MANY "unseen fathers."

I know that even in this day and age there are still more men acting as primary breadwinners and women as primary caregivers in families, so it's often true that it IS the mom who is present when the child is acting out of control...

However, there are also SO MANY ABSENT FATHERS... A man can "spread his seed" and leave. If the woman doesn't terminate what the two of them started, she ends up with a baby 9 months later, and if the two of them aren't married or at least living together, then we have another child with a single mother and no father or guiding male influence in his life. In some segments of society, this has become epidemic -- to the point, even, that Congress is now PAYING many people who have children together but aren't married to get married.

Surprisingly, too, this idea didn't come from the liberals... it came from Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, who is so conservative that, well... let's just say this is the first thing he's EVER done I'm aware of that didn't make me want to scream and throw stuff at the TV.

There used to be so much STIGMA attached to "unwed mothers" that it was a major shame, and most girls or women who found themselves in that predicament moved to another town when it came time to have the child so nobody would know they were never married... That was maybe TOO MUCH STIGMA, but then things swang so far the other direction that it seemingly became almost a status symbol in parts of our culture for unwed girls to have a baby, and that's created an AWFUL LOT of our current social problems, or at least made many of them much worse.

So I guess it's good that maybe things are swinging back the other way at least a little bit. I think any child should have two parents, if possible... for their sake, if not for the sake of the parents' mental health, as well.

And when he CAN BE, Dad should be there to BE the parent, as well, not just some dude who brings home a paycheck.

ohmygod, that is too funny. Paying people to get a piece of paper? Having a marriage licence makes someone become a responsible dad? Jeff, I totally agree that there is a shortage of good parents, but educating kids before it all happens (about birth control, finances, and the realities of grown-up responsibilities) would be an improvement. I'd rather see single moms given more opportunities (pay for day-care so they can finish school!) than this predictably right-wing "punish-them-for-their-sins by making them get married & live together" idea. Better yet, enforce child support laws, so the absent dad undertakes some responsibility.

Paying people to get married is ridiculous. Do they pay for the prenup too? Can they pay off the child's emotional termoil over a divorce?

Adrea

This should read, "Better yet, enforce child support laws, so the absent PARENT undertakes some responsibility." To "assume" makes an "ass" out of "u" and "me".

And the last time I checked, the gov't hasn't had any problem enforcing those laws (attaching wages, suspending drivers' licenses, throwing said parent into jail). The problem begins and ends with ignorance and lack of education, on a multi-generational level. In other words, attempting to fix the outcome won't get us anywhere. Go to the source of the problem, as has already been mentioned.

Some parents just don't get it. Talking to their kids (about drugs, about sex, about anything and everything) is the number ONE way to help them build healthy, strong relationships for the future. It's not the government's responsibility to teach our children right from wrong. It all starts at home.

Brenda

OK, absent "parent" who, 95+% of the time is the male parent. I think someone needs to teach children about life & parenting and since you have correctly pointed out that the problem begins and ends with ignorance ... on a multi-generational level, then someone OTHER THAN the parent must undertake this responsibility. How about the media take a good look at the messages it sends to youngsters? Movies & TV tend to glamourize romance and motherhood and sex but not the realities of life. And don't get me started on the greed & overspending of Christmas!
For all that, I think most single moms and dads are good & devoted parents, and their greatest problems are financial despair and exhaustion.
BTW, I'm happily married (28 years) and having kids (19, 23, & 23) is one of my greatest joys.

Here's a great irresponsible parent story. About 11 years ago we were at the Cleveland zoo. They had a little McDondalds with an outdoor seating area. Next to was is the lion exhibit. There is a 3' wall, then pricker bushes then a approximately 10' drop to the lion exhibit.

We see a child about 3 years old walking on top of the wall. Then he falls in to the pricker bushes, next stop is the 10' drop to concrete.

I run to him, while wearing a sun dress, floppy sandals and reach in and just grab him up, over the wall. His dad comes just then and looks at me like I am nuts, grabs the kids hand (who is crying by now) and takes off.

I was bleeding, and picking out thorns for a week. Unbelievable. The good part is that my daughter does a great "slow motion" reinactment of this for laughs that is just hysterical. Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode. lol