Don’t come home to dead plants

DEAR HELOISE » I used to come home from a trip to halfdead plants. This was especially true in the heat of summer. Since I often travel for pleasure and sometimes for business, I wanted to find a way to keep my plants alive. They are, after all, one of my hobbies. So I water them (but I don’t overwater them), and some I place in the bathtub with a couple of inches of water in the tub. Since I have a window in my bathroom, the plants get plenty of light and water, and I don’t come home to half-dead plants anymore. — Roger H., Tarrytown,

New York

DEAR ROGER » That’s a great idea, but here is another: You might want to take a dry cleaner bag (a plastic one) and lightly drape it over your plants to create sort of a “greenhouse” effect. Light can still get through and the plants will have moisture all around them.

DEAR HELOISE » My grandson is only 8, but he loves it when I take him fishing. I now pack a camera in my tackle box so I can take a picture of him when he catches a fish. If I didn’t keep it there, I think I’d probably forget to pack it. That little boy means the world to me, and I want to keep those memories alive and someday pass those photos on to him. We have a lot of fun on the lake, and he can remember those days in the photos.

— Grandpa Mike, River

Falls, Wisconsin

DEAR GRANDPA MIKE » Packing a camera in your tackle box is a great idea! When you get those pictures developed, don’t forget to write the date and place where you went fishing and any other information that you think is important on the backs of the photographs.

DEAR HELOISE » While away from home, usually on a vacation (we’re retired), I’ll have a neighbor park their car in my driveway so that it’s still visible from the road. We have timers on our lights, so they go on and off at various times but never all at the same time. The garage door is locked, and a neighbor collects the mail and waters our plants. Last summer, our neighbor’s college-age son stayed at our house while we were gone, and he took care of the place. He loved it, and we felt much better with someone living at our place.

— Chuck and Peggy B.,

Mesa, Arizona

DEAR HELOISE » I struggle with my weight all the time, but I’ve found that if I think in terms of losing 5 pounds instead of the whole amount that I need to lose, it’s much easier. This is what I do: I weigh 170 pounds. I tell myself that I’ll lose 5 pounds, and when I do, I reward myself. No, not food, but a pedicure or maybe a new pair of shoes. Then when I go from 165 to 160 pounds, I get another reward, and so on.

Five pounds is something I can achieve, and I know there is a goal with a reward. It makes giving up ice cream, bread and other fattening foods much easier.

— Brenda J., Juneau,

Alaska