Made In Alabama

A weekend of canning pickles, cooking peach pies, freezing beans, blueberries and blackberries - finishing with a good ol' summer thunderstorm.

Katydids and tree frogs set to the rumble from the south.

Most weather can be found just about anywhere but we call it ours where we work, live and play.

Ripened figs dropping into the water hole behind the house. Hickory nuts on the roof, courtesy of neighbourly squirrels.

Imagine an immobile body fully aware of its condition, using up a life's savings to add quantity rather than quality of life. What becomes of the surviving spouse with nothing left?

Do any of us want to be a burden on our loved ones?

I'm losing my hearing and don't want to waste health insurance money to insert an electronic gizmo in my ear canal. Why burden our overtaxed system so I can hear a pin drop? I'll keep going to car races without adequate ear protection, I'm sure.

My wife'll have to keep speaking up loudly to me for now.

I have no literary agent trying to get me the next writing gig for the largest paying readership possible. Thus, these storylines ramble from truth to fiction and from friction to troops.

Despite my wishing otherwise, these words are open messages to various subcultures for particular purposes, mainly to keep our species sailing on an even keel. Some deals are obvious and some intentionally unintentioned.

Faces and names get mentioned here for a reason. If you don't see what you expected, then imagine your importance is too great for a flash on the screen right now. If you see what you expected, then your part in the big production is ready for showtime.

No more strange advertisements in the classifieds. You don't know what a relief it is to use the whole Internet as a relatively free broadcast medium (at least until untraceable brain/body implants are prevalent).

The Arduino board will be a useful training device for novices operating an IP-less alternative to the Internet in preparation for the next great thing.

How loud should a country's leaders' global political rhetoric sound during national election season? Leave room for rhetoric - it adds spice to news headlines. We're grownups and can tell the difference between drumming up voter support and actual threats.

Pardon me if I repeat myself - I need the practice.