Whining Thread

[OneoftheEarls]

I am going to Texas (from Michigan) to see my youngest son graduate Air Force Basic in San Antonio.

I will have to wait until I come back....end of first week in March to get any tomatoes started.

I am looking for empathy and sympathy in this thread

I am also praying that gasoline is NOT $4/gallon as rumored to be in near future.

[tam91]

Ohhh, poor baby. You poor pitiful thing. Was that good enough?

Isn't that about the right time to start them anyway? (oops, not sympathetic enough, I know)

The gas - yep, I'll cross my fingers for you on that one.

[fortyonenorth]

No sympathy, but congrats, Earl. I'm sure you're very proud!

[ContainerTed]

Take your golf clubs, Earl. Both Lackland AFB and (right next door) Kelly AFB have excellent golf courses. Might as well make a holiday out of the trip.

But most important, as said above, you must be proud.

Ted
USAF Retired

[dustdevil]

Get a set of longhorns for the hood of your car to make it more aerodynamic, so you can get better gas mileage. Rumor has it that Worth leaves his transplants unguarded outside at night Congratulations to your son. I'm in WI, do you need any cheese to go with that whine?

[newatthiskat]

I have the violin outand ready to listen, I am great at it. Although I have been know to listen to a whole story and say "what are you, a girl?" After moving to construction from nursing I have found out that men are more emotional than I am. Sad. I also found out in my last job that women are more violent and quick to go off. A good trade off LOL.

So yes I will give all the sympathy. I am also worried about gas prices as now we own a small company that travels alot and gas bill at this time is 2,000 a month. Oh wait this was a threat that you are supposed to whine and we are supposed to listen right?

The good thing is that while driving in your car you can go thorugh your exhaustive lists of tomato choices. Sorry you have to plant out late.
Kat
PS I like the idea of horns on the car because of course everyone in Texas has them

[BigBrownDogHouse]

Sorry Earl!
I feel for you but.....

I'm in northern Illinois and I just started 40 plants about 5 days ago, 35 have already popped up and are doing well. I've been checking on my babies constantly. I just couldn't wait any longer.

Congrats on the news of your youngest son, you must be very proud.
You'll have something to look forward to on the ride home....starting up
those tomatoes!

Good luck on the gas situation. That has kind of stymied our long distance summer plans.

[Wi-sunflower]

Oh man, I'm dreading the gas prices too this summer.

2 or 3 summers ago when the price of diesel was close to $5 / gal all summer, it cost me $100 every trip to Madison for market. This last year it was only $40 - 50 most of the summer. It jumped to about $60 for the last few markets. But I sure hope it doesn't get back up near $5 again.

My only other vehicle is a mini van that we do use when we don't have a whole lot of stuff. But it doesn't hold a whole lot of volume and we can't use it for the really heavy stuff any more. We killed 1 transmission doing that 2 summers ago. So I don't have much choice.

Finding a decent mid sized truck that isn't a gas-hog that we can afford is difficult too. We've tried and bombed on 2 trucks the last couple of years.

So I'm feeling your pain Earl.

Carol

[BSue54]

Best thing, Earl... Once you get to Texas, it's usually not QUITE as high as it will be farther north. So you can afford to go out of your way to stop by and see if Ted or Worth have left any hitch-hikers for you to take home with you. You don't want to come to my neck of the woods - it's WAY out of your way, and I only have "garden variety" maters, so far... But I have some others that I will be doing for fall, if you come back to Texas again! Of course, by fall, I may not be able to afford to drive to my in-laws and they only live next door...

[Worth1]

Give me a break, anybody that is serious about growing tomatoes will find a way to get around your difficulty.

First when is the date you are going to start your seeds, what are you driving, how many plants and how long do you plan on staying?

I would be possible to bring the starters with you plant the seeds and bring them home, more than likely before they even sprout.

I know a guy that is a member here that planted his seeds in Alaska and brought them home on the plane to Texas.

If you want sympathy from me you wont get it but what you will get is solutions to the problem. Problem solving has always been what I do best.

By the way dont even think about getting tomato plants from me because I wont start seeds this year.

I dont have any place to put them out I'm too busy.


All I am going to do is buy cherry and grape tomato plants from the store and put them in containers.

And last but not least drink some good Shiner beer and go get your self some great Mexican food in SA while you are here.


Best wishes.

Worth

[ireilly]

Missourah has the best price on gasoline usually, even better than here. He can catch the heel of the state coming down I think. I usually do when driving to/from Chicago via 55/57 via Little Rock.

Traveling tomatoes, I like it. Maybe someone will trademark that too.

Shiner Bock beer! I haven't drank that since I was in Sam Houston State in Huntsville in the 80s. Memories.

Lived in SA too, so, yes, great Tex-Mex food there.

Walter.

[kath]

Sorry that you're disappointed about your planting date, Earl, but you are very fortunate to have such a wonderful son and event to attend with family in a warmer, sunnier place; hopefully you will take some consolation in that.

As far as the gas goes, at least it'll be cheaper than flying and you won't have to subject yourself to abuse and radiation.

Your planting date of end of 1st week in March is still a week or so before I'm planting my very few early tomatoes (by the moon) and over a month before the big planting. I know you like to plant them out when the snow is still flying, but I'll bet they won't be too much later to bear with this setback.

Oops...forgot the sympathy...aaawww, Earl, your pain must be tremendous. Life is just not fair.

[rxkeith]

what i heard yesterday, by the end of 2012, gas will be at 6 to 7 dollars/gal, and thats just one of the problems we will have. we are seriously considering quitting our jobs, so we can get our 401k money while its still worth something, and investing in some real assets. moving back to the farm could happen this year where we will be in serious prep mode. dealing with a radical mind shift here, but if things start happening, we will be prepared.


keith

[ContainerTed]

Long Horn Beer (possibly used to be called "Buckhorn Beer") and a restaurant across from the Alamo called "Margharita's" (sp). It also has an entrance from the River Walk.

Ted

[tam91]

The Zuni Grill on the riverwealk in San Antonio had great cactus pear margaritas.