I thought I’d break the silence here by saying things will be pretty quiet around here for a little while. I’ve had to take on the directorship of T&G;’s production of The Rover, opening a week from Friday. Between that and real work and my struggle to get the spring seeds in the ground in time (weather and circumstances have not been cooperative), there’s little time for writing here. You’ll have to content yourself with the daily farm photo and the Friday Photo and perhaps a short comment here and there until I emerge out from under this in a couple weeks.

In Congress, a member can (and almost always does) give a speech on the floor during a session, and then later on submit a written version that can go far beyond what was actually said. It is the written version that becomes the official Congressional Record. Almost always the congressman uses this technique merely to expand and clarify upon the speech, but it has been used by some to insert into the official record items that they intentionally wanted kept off the floor, the cameras, and out of the ears of any observers. Pretty much this same situation has recently occured to me, and it’s turned out to bite me hard. I find no intent to evade on the part of the reportee, but my assumption that the oral and written versions were the same have culminated in a turn of events that has shaken a few dearly-held friendships to their very core and may have severely harmed my working relationship with an excellent community theater. It has been a very hard, painful week. I see more farming in my future.

“Girl Scout Cookie Season” This week’s Photo Friday topic is garbage.

When you come across a flu strain that is unidentified, very virulent, and extremely fatal, it’s time to issue a global health alert. Here’s hoping it peters itself out and never comes back.

The work that myself and thousands of other people (well, our computers did all the work, really…) put into the SETI@home project has netter 150 high-quality suspect signals. Now, we put the big ear on the job by using the giant radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico to investigate further.

“Little Face on the Stapler” This week’s Photo Friday topic is stapler.

It’s that time of year again when the spring peepers begin emerging from wherever they hide during the winter. In a short while, they will be everywhere and loud enough to hear in the house with the stereo on, but right now just the early risers are singing. Here’s a recording in MP3 format taken on my back porch last night just before some big-time thunderstorms hit.

If you’re worried that world events are leading us toward a catastrophe that will force us back to the stone age, then read up now at primitiveways.com, a website dedicated to Stone Age technology. Learn how to start a fire using an ice lens, which may be a useful skill in the depths of nuclear winter.

“Stop Motion” This week’s Photo Friday topic is stop sign.

I’m enjoying the use of the new camera. I get plenty of pleasure from pretending to be an artist, and the technology behind this medium makes it rather easy. Today’s farm photo is my favorite so far, because of the mix of colors and focality [It’s fun to pretend I’ve mastered the English language, too! What is the adjetive that describes the degree of focus something has, anyway?]. I’ve decided it will be fun to participate in “Photo Friday”, too. Each week, the person behind this throws out a subject, and lots of folks take pictures on that topic and post them to their web sites. I’m in!