The day was overcast with intermittent rain. Last night after midnight, the temps outside dropped like a stone. Jilda had an early yoga class this morning for the staff where she works. She… Read More

I'm in love. No, not with the AC repairman, although he did move up on my list. But I do love the new AC unit.It took a while today to remove the old unit and install the new one. The duct m… Read More

We normally have good luck with our garden, but this summer it was just sad. We kept it clean as a carpet the first month, but then the rain came. When the roots of weeds take hold, they gro… Read More

Part of our AC opportunity had an unforeseen component. Our hot water heater has lived in the same closet as the inside unit of our central heating and air unit for over 30 years… Read More

I stopped by the small lake again today to get a first-hand foilage update. Jilda says it will be another week before it peaks. All I know is that it gets more beautiful every day. This… Read More

Today was not a fun day. The cool weather was short-lived, and the temps inched back up. When I went to flip the central heat and air unit back to AC, I heard a click, Hmmm. I've never heard… Read More

When I left this morning for work, I had to dash to keep from getting rain-soaked. With my knees, dashing is not as simple as it once was. But I dashed.The rain stopped, but the clouds remai… Read More

November 1. How can this be? The ink's not dry on my New Year's resolutions, and already it's November 1. When I was a kid, time was a snail. Every day at school was 72 hours long. And… Read More

We don't get many Trick or Treaters here. The roads are too narrow. It's dark. And then there are the dogs. I can imagine kids making a Trickster Map where they would visit to get goodi… Read More

The seeds of this column came from a blog post last week.I drove down a road today that I hadn't traveled in some time. It's changed. The image of that first time I rode through renders in m… Read More

We listened to music, read the paper, and sipped our coffee this morning. Yesterday was fun, but we put a lot into these gatherings, and we were both pretty much worthless this morning.After… Read More

Today was Homecoming Day for the high school where I graduated. A parade kicked off at 1 p.m. and a line of trucks pulling decorated trailers. Each trailer is loaded with kids who throw tons… Read More

On the way home from work this afternoon I ran by a lake. I've taken pictures there before. The leaves are turning, but they aren't quite ready. While the view from the shore of the lake was… Read More

My dad would have celebrated his 94 birthday today. Throat cancer got the best of him in May of 86 at the age of 63. He inhaled the gas and fumes released by the arc welders he used in… Read More

I spent more time behind the wheel than behind my desk today. That was OK with me. It was a good day for some highway time.After lunch, our local chamber of commerce had a ribbon cutting for… Read More

My name is Rick, and I’m a tool-a-holic. There! I’ve said it. I come by my addiction honestly. It started with my grandpa who was a blacksmith. He cared for his tools like he wou… Read More

I drove down a road I haven't traveled in some time. It's changed. I remember the first time I traveled this road. Bear with me.I graduated from high school and worked for the State Highway… Read More

I'm learning how to do Podcasts. I subscribed to a few that interested me a few years ago but lost interest. It seemed like a passing fad. I thought that about blogging too.  But I was… Read More

We're having a family gathering here later in the month so we've been cleaning the house room at a time. That's how we're spending our off days. In the past, we've waited to the last mi… Read More

Today is a picture day. I worked late this evening so I had to look back in my archives for a picture. I searched for Autumn leaves. This was the first picture it returned from the thousands… Read More

There’s a lot to love about October. Aside from high school and college football, the month has much to offer. The colors alone are worth the price of admission. If you don’t bel… Read More

The weather is changing. Even though it was still warm today, you could see changes in the sky. And there is a promise of rain A front dropping down from Kansas City or somewhere up to the n… Read More

We had chores on our to-do list we've been dreading for months. My shed is a disaster area. It should have been condemned. A wiser man would have struck a match to it, taken the bucket… Read More

I've felt a little down today. Folks I've been working with the last three years heard that my grant was not renewed. Several of them stopped by the last few days to make sure I was OK… Read More

The ragweed has been brutal this fall. And my eyes are the proof. I wear contacts and they don't play well with irritated eyes. I can wear my regular prescription glasses but durin… Read More

It's been dungeon dark today with intermittent rain. I walked outside a few times today at work to try and snap a picture for tonight's blog, but the sun seemed to be playing hide-and-seek… Read More

I see the colors of autumn even though is hotter than a blistered baby on the beach. This past weekend, the festivals we visited had pumpkins, dried corn stalks, mums and bales of hay. … Read More

Hey Folks, In an effort to combat the Online Gambling Spammers, I'm enabling comment moderation. Google says that doing that allows the Google system to learn the spammers and put their… Read More

Hurricane Nate made landfall last night near Biloxi, Mississippi. Biloxi is just over 50 miles from Mobile. When hurricanes come into Mobile, it affects our weather here. Even though we are… Read More

Jilda and I both are about festival'd out this weekend. We played at the Frog Level last night and I do the website for The Frog Festival here at home.We go there early today and I… Read More

I'm doing a success story on a lady who came through my program back during the summer. She's worked for years at a national grocery store chain. A reorganization from corporate HQ mandated… Read More

Our great nephew Jordan was still having issues today. His mom started to school with him but he still didn't feel well. She called and asked if I'd pick him up.Jilda taught an early morning… Read More

I learned last week that my grant at the college will not be renewed when it ends January 31, 2018. I didn't see it coming. While I only work three days a week, I've invested a lot of energy… Read More

Jilda and I lose things. It seems the older we get, the more we find ourselves searching. I’ll bring something into the house, put it on the table and it disappears. When I ask her whe… Read More

My Internet connectivity has been spotty all day. When I did get on long enough to check for outages, it seemed there were thousands of reports from across the southeast.I decided to move to… Read More

Today was chore-filled. Both Jilda and I had long lists. We often tackle them together, but we needed things a Costco and that store is 50 miles away. We decided to divide and conquer… Read More

Jilda's mother was an incredible cook. Most days she prepared lunch for her baby son that worked close enough that he could smell what she was cooking if he'd stepped outside. He ate at Ruby… Read More

The drought last year was brutal. Thousands of trees in Central Alabama died from thirst. We spent a fortune on water bills, but we poured water to our fruit trees. We knew they wouldn'… Read More

Our great nephew Jordan was feeling puny today. The ragweed here is brutal right now. A few weeks without rain has encouraged the invasive weed. The flowers of ragweed resemble the dandelion… Read More

Hummingbirds are at war with yellow jackets this time of year. The tiny birds are in a feeding frenzy getting ready to migrate south to Mexico and Panama. And the yellow jackets… Read More

My job took me to Fayette today. That's in the western part of Alabama. It seems like every house has a tractor. Rows of cotton seem to stretch to infinity. In years past, it was a crop that… Read More

We had big plans today. We were going to Costco in Birmingham, and afterward, a stop a Starbucks for a Sunday edition of the New York Times was on our list of to-do items. But none of that h… Read More

We had grilling on our minds for this evening. We had Conucah Sausage in the fridge but we needed veggies. I'm talking onions, peppers, and other goodies. We headed out to Aldies just b… Read More

When I got ready to cut the grass today, I looked for my lawnboy hat. I hang it on the top-right hook of the hat tree just inside our front door. Yet today it wasn't there. Hmmmm. My mind we… Read More

My neighbor called yesterday asking if I'd heard dogs barking the night before. She thought someone might be prowling around her house.I hadn't heard any dogs. They weren't mine. But when I… Read More

We have colored lights around the top edges of our screen porch.  Sensors are set to turn them on when the daylight fades into dusk. A neighbor once asked why we left our… Read More

My buddy Danny and I were on the road early this morning. We had an appointment to shoot Facebook and Cable TV ads with a company in the northern part of the state. We practiced our script o… Read More

There is an art to predicting the weather. Even with all the newfangled satellites and meteorological equipment, predicting the weather is still unpredictable. Hurricane Irma was a head… Read More

We walked later yesterday and the temps and humidity were brutal. The cool spell last week spoiled us. But the weather here is such that you can swim for a good chunk of autumn. We decide to… Read More

We heard the music while I was pulling the lawn chairs from the truck. And by the time I clicked the button locking the car doors, we smelled the aroma of hickory smoked BBQ. It was the… Read More

My mind was a vacuum tonight. I sat and typed the letters off my keyboard but no words came to mind.I clicked on Google and searched for holidays celebrated today. There were 19 holidays. Na… Read More

My day at work was winding down when I got a call on my cell. When I looked at my phone, it showed the picture of my niece. She never calls me at work. Humm, I thought. Something's up.She so… Read More

It was overcast and chilly here today. The temps didn't venture out of the 50s all day. The storm day Monday made our week wonky again. Jilda had to go in early this morning and then again t… Read More

We didn't have an indoor bathroom in the old camp house in Sloss Hollow where I grew up. We did have running water in the kitchen. Mom was thrilled to have that. Before the city ran pip… Read More

It seems these last few days the folks here in the south have spent a great deal of time watching the weather. It looks like it might sweep over us sometimes tomorrow or Tuesday. It wil… Read More

This morning felt like fall. The thermometer rested on 49 this morning. Last few years, it didn't get that cool until November.We decided to walk the dogs early. They were ecstatic – b… Read More

We received a letter from our vet in the mail last week. It was a reminder for an annual checkup for our tiny dog Taz.I looked over the letter to her lounging on the couch. It's her couch. E… Read More

The vines of the grapes we planted 15 years ago drape across our back fence like a shawl. Late each summer, clusters of sweet green grapes hang on the fence daring us to pick them and eat th… Read More

The weather was beautiful here today. The temp was in the low 80s but as the sunlight waned, the mercury dropped into the 70s. It hasn't been this cool during the day since April.I was… Read More

I've checked in with our friends who live in Florida today. Hurricane Irma is a beast. The weather-folk fear they'll have to create a new classification if she keeps growing as expected.&nbs&hell…Read More

It’s painful hearing the stories and watching the images coming from Texas. It’s hard wrapping my mind around disasters of this size. The impact is astounding. Everything from th… Read More

While reading a book entitled "Several Short Sentences About Writing," the author suggested something that had never occurred to me. I stuck my finger between the pages to mark my place… Read More

The last several weekends have been crammed. We had fun but come Sunday evening it felt as though we had no weekend. This week we've declined several offers to do things. The entertainm… Read More

A squeaking sound roused me from a deep sleep this morning. I laid there listening. Sliding out of bed, I stepped silently to the living room trying not to wake Jilda. I stood for a long tim… Read More

Each time it rains it reminds me of my childhood. The old house I grew up in had a tin roof too. The only difference is that the old house in Sloss had little insulation. When a hard rain fe… Read More

I had physical therapy for my knees this morning. I headed out after coffee. Low-hanging clouds the color of ash kept the sun hidden. As I pulled into the parking lot and clicked my gearshif… Read More

August is almost behind us. College Football goes into full swing this weekend.  Soon all my whining about the steamy weather will be a distant memory. Heat didn't alway bother me… Read More

I burned limb mountain Sunday. We have a lot of trees in our yard and nature is an ardent pruner. The strong limbs thrive, and the weak ones grow frail and fall. It usually takes me sev… Read More

We didn't have waffles when I was a kid. Waffle irons were expensive. Instead, we had buttermilk pancakes. My mom whipped them up on special occasions. The only syrup we used in those days w… Read More

I learned how to play guitar when I was barely a teenager. My mother walked around for weeks with cotton in her ears. She heard Hang on Snoopy, and Green Green Grass of Home so much during t… Read More

We're having a picking party tomorrow. Several of our music buddies will converge on the homefront with guitars, banjos, harmonicas, and a tuba. OK, I'm lying about the tuba but if we had so… Read More

I had to board the way-back machine tonight. I've been indoors most of the day and didn't have an opportunity to take a decent picture. So I went back in time.In 2007, Jilda and I spent my b… Read More

It was brutally hot here last year. There was no rainfall. When the water tables dropped, streams dried and trees died. It didn't rain until late fall. This summer has been hot too,&nbs&hell…Read More

The water oak in our yard was small when we moved here in 1980. Jilda's parents had moved a double wide trailer here on the property in the mid-1970s. The company moved the dwelling in piece… Read More

I worked a wonky shift today at the college. The early part of my shift began at 7 a.m., but I left at 11 to check my great nephew, Jordan out of school. It was a ghost town at the elementar… Read More

Jilda and I were sitting on the sofa reading the Sunday papers. The temp outside was 96ish. Just then, the lights went off and the ceiling gently whirred to a stop. Crap. The power went off… Read More

We did the wedding tonight. We did cover songs we'd never done before. We practiced till our fingers were raw trying to get the songs right. We play a lot of coffee houses and festivals. &nb&hell…Read More

A young friend of ours is getting married tomorrow. She asked us to play a few songs just before the ceremony. She's the daughter of two very old friends and we've known the bride to be for… Read More

Here's a Throw Back Thursday photo. I shot this photo 12 years ago in 2005. It's of one of the buildings still standing in my old home town. Harry Shaws Drug store was a few steps further do… Read More

I started therapy on my knees a few weeks ago. Each year, doctors inject the joints with my knees with a substance designed to add cushion. For a five or six months my knees are not bone on… Read More

I have a program on my laptop. It has only one function. It reminds of passing time. The program on my laptop is set to sound a Tibetan gong every 30 minutes.  When I hear this soo… Read More

I know Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, but Jilda and I haven't stopped today. We had had lunch with Jilda's sister Pat. Jilda cooked a meal for our nephew James's family. They have a… Read More

I'm here brushing the dust from between the G and H on my keyboard and Jilda's sitting not three feet away writing her blog. Her keyboard sounds is if it has a woodpecker on it. She makes me… Read More

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I'm a  celestial-esk kind of guy. I love the sun, stars, and most anything up there beyond my reach. The upcoming solar eclipse has me psyched… Read More

The college was a ghost town today. The kids and teachers won't be back until next week. This left the staff to keep the ship tethered to the educational dock. My work involves people o… Read More

The sun's been hiding for the last several days. I won't wish away the rain. After going through a drought last year, I promised myself I'd never curse the rain...but still, I miss the sun w… Read More

I put in highway miles today. An early-morning community access TV show had me yawning while I drove. The day didn't slow down until about 10 minutes ago. I passed a number of photo&nbs&hell…Read More

One year ago this week, a bulldog appeared in our yard. He was thirsty and starved. I could see his ribs. He had mange, and the white hair left on him was full of fleas. My conscience would… Read More

The lawnmower I bought four years ago is having major problems. It's underpowered for the amount of grass on our property. It will go see the lawnmower doc this week. I think I will need its… Read More

Last night I mentioned my trouble in coming up with a topic for the blog. When that situation arises, I do goofy things. This process sometimes kicks dormant synapsis into creative action. S… Read More

Some days it's a struggle coming up with a topic. I rifled through a box of souvenirs, read a book of quotes, and flipped back through old pictures. Nada. I sat gazing out my office win… Read More

I heard something today that made a great deal of sense to me. Stick with me on this one.One of the folks in my program expressed an interest in grant writing. In a serendipitous&n&hell…Read More

Ol' Hook jumped a rabbit on our afternoon walk and he was off. My first impulse was to call him back, but since he's deaf that would have been wasted wind.We finished out walk and… Read More

It's been beautiful here again today. The morning was cool for summer here. I had another early-morning appointment so I was off before sunrise. Passing a mountain top cattle farm, I slowed… Read More

My lovely spouse had oral surgery today. The earliest appointment she could get was at 1:30 p.m. She could have a light breakfast, but nothing past 7 a.m. She was actually a much better spor… Read More

We run our bedroom box fan year round. The whirring sound of the blades creates a soothing noise that muffles the world outside our window. Before we learned the fan trick, we could hea… Read More

One of the self-assignments from the book I'm currently reading is to notice things. Our minds are constantly bombarded throughout the day. If you own a smartphone, the problem is amplified… Read More

This summer remind me of the year I spent in the tropics while serving in the Army. It's hot at breakfast and once the sun rises above the trees, it squeezes the mercury toward the roof of t… Read More

I've been a road warrior this week. My work this week took me to the edge of Mississippi both yesterday and today.After the meeting in Fayette, I had an appointment with my boss to upload qu… Read More

I've spent most of the day today writing and my fingers are tired. My blog buddy Fran at  Fishduckyasked me to post the picture of Jordan and the gigantic watermelon I shot last Sunday… Read More