Don,
I understand your frustration. I have asked every lowes, home depo (any box store in my area and near towns) Also every florist in town about if they can special order me hoyas. One florist said they didn't have any hoyas and they could order though, then looked around the shop and what did I find?... a hoya KQ, compacta (more common ones) but still I knew they didn't know what they were talking about. come to find out they can't order them for me. Then another florist shop had a hoya asked what kind and she said hoya and said it would probablly take 7 years for the 1st bloom. I had bought 2 hoyas there prior to this one in bloom for myself and the other not in bloom but for my mom they were both KP. Then after the incident with the owner when I asked specifics about the hoya she got snappy with me b/c I knew more about the plant than she did I guess. She asked in a snotty tone "Are you gonna buy it?" Told her no thanks and walked out. Went in there again and found a sm. cutting of h. kerrii solid, pd $5.00 I was very happy.

Shanna

Don... I'm sure your a fine mensch, but you MUST learn to use capitalization and punctuation!!! I was utterly enthralled by your story, but it was a nightmare to muddle through your recounting of the events. I know I'll catch some flack for this, but PLEASE just use the "shift" key here and there to make our reading a bit easier... I'm no writer extraordinaire, mind you. I just want to know where one sentence ends and the next begins.

But beyond that... I feel your frustration. But look at it this way - the ditz that told you she would sell you a Hoya with 30 blooms for $10 would probably have gotten fired over the deal if it had gone through. At least, I would have fired her!! So just think of it as "karma" keeping your hands clean! As a Hoya collector, you'll have plenty of opportunities to get more species. And it will be much more rewarding to get smaller Hoyas and bring them to bloom yourself, rather than buying huge blooming specimens. The ones I love the most are the ones I got as cuttings or small rooted cuttings and grew into big, beautiful plants. Some bloom, some haven't as of yet... But those are my most prized Hoyas because I "worked" the hardest at them.

Denise in Omaha

Yes, I gave up trying to read your story after about the 2nd line. I'm sure its an interesting anecdote, but I can't tell what you are trying to say.

you know ive tried to join and be one with this group and each time ive pretty much catch flack not EVERYONE has perfect grammerand not everyone is as perfect you you seem to want to be i was always told to look over the the mistakes and take someone at face value i am a 100 percent disables vetern of the millitary and dont have perfect grammer and i guess waht i am saying is there are other hoya groups that dont look down one someone because they can not type or talk as well as you you have ran me off

Don,

Please note that it's not perfect grammar I asked for - just a simple capitalization at the beginning of a sentence and a period at the end. I couldn't care less if the grammar or spelling are correct. I'm not the greatest speller myself and have to double-check my own spelling all the time. I just think you'll get more responses to a posting if people can get the jist of what you're writing about.

I didn't mean to "run you off." I was trying to use a little tongee-in-cheek, which I hoped you would take with a little sense of humor. I'm sure a tough military guy can take a little constructive criticism (had to look that one up!) So why don't you stick around and just take an extra minute or two with your postings to make it a little easier for us to help? We're a good bunch of people and like to help and share in the joy of growing. And we'd like to get to know you... I do humbly apologize for offending you.

Denise in Omaha

My father (god rest his soul) was also a 100% disabled military veteran, 20 years in the USAF, he served 3 terms in Viet Nam and broke his spine in three places in a helicopter crash in Saigon (excuse me, Ho Chih Min City) helping to evacuate civilians as the city fell around his ears, pretty much like the scene made famous in "The Killing Fields". Later on he suffered through the effects of exposure to Agent Orange with all the debilitation that entails, plus the heartbreak of fighting to get the military he had loved and served to do right by him on THAT issue. He only had an 11th grade High School education, never even graduated before he went into the military, but after he got out he used his GI Benefit to go back to school as a 100% disabled military vet and go on to earn a Master's Degree in Education and get a job as a college level educator so he could support us kids as a single father since he could do NO manual labor due to his disability (my mother died when I was 12). So I know the hardships you have being disabled because I have lived through it. I was legally driving a car when I was 13 so that i could do the grocery shopping and what not for my family while my father went to school and worked. But, I still can't make heads nor tails of most of your posts, so please don't use being a disabled military veteran as your excuse. Just slow down and think about what you type, and how easy or hard it would be for someone to understand. That's not a lot to ask.

Don,

It's your decision to allow yourself to be "run off" or not. I 'know' both the last 2 posters for some time, they are lovely, helpful people who are NOT judging or looking down. Just trying to make sense of difficult reading in order to respond &/or help.

I tried to read this last nite & had the same problem, I chose not to comment abt the lack of punctuation, as I expected there'd be trouble.

Look how I type, I'm lazy, I try to abbreviate or shorten words wherever I can, no one judges me for it. If they can't make out what I mean, they ask (as someone did recently abt what 'abt' meant).

Perhaps if you read over your own stuff, pretending you've never seen it before, you'll see how difficult it is to tell where 1 thought ends & another begins.

That's the problem in reading this; it's not abt grammar, it's not abt judging you or thinking less of you, just being able to follow yr. thoughts. I KNOW these folks are not judging or thinking anything abt yr. disability, just what a confusing post this was.

Since you're obviously able to type pretty well, it doesn't seem like asking for periods & some capital letters would be beyond yr. physical abilities.

That's all that was meant here, I'm certain!

Don,
I am not going to get into some public or private battle of words with you over the issue of hoyas, military service, lack of punctuation or anything else. But in response to the private email you sent to me, I will say, "only god can judge me" (I plan to have that tattooed on someday, once I get my right arm sleeve finished I may put it around my wrist)

I read Don's post last night and have to admit that it took me 5x longer than it should have to read it. I didn't reply because I had no energy left in me! After seeing the comments here, it's good to see I'm not the only one that had a problem reading it.

Don, nobody is trying to offend you. But if you are in a forum where typing is the only way to communicate, you really need to make it easier for people to read and understand you. Your last post was pretty long, and it had NO periods at all. Nobody is saying you need perfect grammar to be a part of this group, but it's frustrating to read a post and try to figure out what the poster is trying to say. It seems like a whole bunch of rambing and I just don't get it. Sorry.

Gabi

P.S. Bihai, love the tattoo idea.

"Only God can judge me" is a common prison tattoo, LOL. ALso a common gang tattoo, which I guess I saw about 1000 of when I was an ICU nurse at the county hospital in Southern California in the 80's. Believe it or not, many convicts and gang members are actually quite religious. Go figure. I am getting a new tattoo added to my sleeve on Friday. Inner arm, ouch.

I think that everyone here has shown that they would very much like to help anyone else, commiserate with anyone else, support anyone else, and whatever else. All I personally would ask would be that what I am being asked/told about/etc be clear and understandable. Its nothing personal. Anyone would be much more likely to get the response they want or need if people knew what exactly was going on with their situation. Some people have a ton of time to sit and go through posts, others have only very little. All I am saying is, a post that's difficult to understand or read will get passed over, then, when no one responds, again you would feel left out of ignored, but for a different reason.