Dr Copa

From what I understand the groundhogs have predicted six more weeks of winter weather. Well, so far the winter weather here has been unusually mild, so if that is what we are going to continue to get for the next six weeks, I am all for it! If I recall correctly, it has only snowed once around here this winter season, and we’ve only had some freezing rain once as well, and that is the way I like it! My folks back in New England have not had it quite so lucky; every time I talk to them on the phone they are telling me how cold it is and how much snow they are getting. Again, fine with me; they can keep it there!

We really have lucked out this winter, only a few inches of snow as of yet and it is almost February for heaven’s sake. I can only hope that we don’t end up paying out the nose for this blessing by having some crazy winter storm come and make up for all the lost time. I’m getting anxious for spring and summer to get here, I’ve never been a big fan of cold weather and I have a lot plans for the yard that I’m getting ready for.

I’ve been checking out some online flowers and getting some really good ideas from various Gardening sites. It amazing how many varieties of plants, flowers, shrubs, tree and bushes there is out there for people’s landscaping concepts. I’ve never been the best at making choices, but I’m taking my time, showing my ideas around and getting good feedback so far. I’m really looking forward to getting outside and getting my hands dirty instead of freezing cold as they have for many months now.

I would imagine that a good profitable business to be involved in down in the grand old state of Texas would be a cleaning and restoration service, due to the amount of hurricanes and other extreme weather issues that go along with living where the climate is all about the massive amount of water in and surrounding such a large state.

My step-mother moved down to Texas years ago. I remember the first couple of years we were constantly watching the news and worried each time any extreme weather would hit anywhere around the part of Texas that she was now making her home. It was terrifying to think that she had moved somewhere that she really adored only for her to get hurt, or have her home destroyed or even worse lose her life. Many times we were not able to get through to her land line or her cell phone or through email attempts and we would become frantic calling each other and driving each other crazy with worry until one of us would hear from her. Some times it would take several days and it was agony.

She would always have some pretty amazing stories after things settled down about how people would band together to help each other board up their properties to prepare for these storms. I’ll never forget the first time she told me that the first thing that they would do was throw all the lawn chairs, pool accessories and other outdoor furniture into their pools to keep them from blowing away and possibly causing more damage in the process or even worse, hurt someone while flying around in the high winds. I thought that was a pretty cool idea, something that I never would have thought of, but it certainly makes sense if you think about it. Another good business for down that way would be a pool supplies company what with all of the pools that they have to enjoy almost all year round down that part of the country.

One of the many various reasons that the wife and I enjoy going to numerous trade shows through out the year is because we get some really good and creative ideas on how to solve some problems and some great ideas on things like landscaping and decorating. Not to mention all freebies that we come home with that always seem to come in handy from time to time.

Last spring when we went to the home and garden show we saw several displays using rain chains as part of the landscaping. My wife was especially pleased to see and enjoy the different garden chains rain that she saw – she especially liked the ones that looked like water was coming out of a watering can.

I liked the gutter rain chain and copper rain chain corner leaderhead that I saw. I thought that they were great solutions for a couple of the problem drainage areas we have on our roof. A very unique way to channel our precious rain water each and every time in rains.

Winters here in New England are really hard on our numerous mailboxes. It almost seems as if the snow plows take great pleasure in hitting every single mailbox possible as they drive down the road. You can drive up and down almost all the roads in this town and not be able to find more than a dozen or so mail boxes that have not been dented or completely smashed, or at the very least, tilting precariously to one side. Even some of the commercial mailboxes are taking a beating lately.

I know that it is difficult for the plow drivers to pay close attention to where each mail box is, but I do think that the drivers could slow down just a little bit and try a little bit harder to avoid hitting them! The only ones that seem to be safe are the apartment mailboxes. I don’t know, but I’m beginning to suspect that the snow plow drivers all own stock in the companies that make our community mailboxes! So each one they demolish they are getting a kickback for the new ones that have to be bought to replace them!