Well, Kevin, I guess I better change my name to "Now You See Me Now You Don't"! NYSMNYD. :~)

brucie, thanks for the nice apology. I'm glad we could clear it up. Looking back at my post above I can see how I switched gears but didn't make it clear that I had-- the post starts by addressing you. But I meant the succeeding paragraphs to be just my response to the topic of the thread, and were not directed at you or anyone else personally. I tend to forget people aren't reading my mind, and I guess when someone is already feeling negatively toward me then pretty much anything I say is likely to hit them as more evidence of what an a**hole I am. I appreciate that we took care of it so easily.

Hardi and I were talking late last night. "What a week!" We compared notes, and concluded that most everyone we know, especially people in any of the helping professions, is feeling overloaded by the touchiness of others around them, and pretty touchy themselves. We came to the conclusion that since 9/11, the whole culture has tended to be grim and touchy-- that the traumatic reaction hasn't gone away at all, just gone underground. And I think the fear-mongering of the current political scene is not helping in THAT regard.

Ultimately I find that people get along the best they can-- that if one could just know the whole situation another person is dealing with, it would be obvious that the person was doing they best they could under those circumstances. It's just so easy to forget that, and I do, too often. ;~)

~Susan