It was another beautiful day here in northern Alabama. The temperature was in the seventies by late afternoon and we were blessed with tons of sunshine. After a long day at work I decided to go sit on the river and do some writing. Normally that’s a wonderful idea, today however the sound of the rapids below me lulled me right to sleep. Needless to say I didn’t get much work done.

There’s just something especially relaxing about the water to me. I think if everything works out just right I would like to spend my retirement years on a houseboat. No yard to mow or weed eating to do and a sunrise in a different location anytime you choose…sounds awesome.

Catching and eating fish is one of my most favorite things to do, so I’m sure I would very rarely be bored. With wireless internet my office could be anywhere and finding the peace and quiet in which to write in shouldn’t be a problem either. Might even make for a new more interesting blog.

So now that I completely have my own attention, I wonder just what lake or river should my boat call home. Well for starters I will have to stay here in the south, not a big fan of being cold. I think the Tennessee river would be an interesting choice. The fishing is great, the people I have met on the Tennessee have been friendly and it seems to just stretch on forever. This would be a good thing for my own little exploring journeys.

Yes, this is definitely a project I will be looking into. I am curious if any of my readers have a houseboat or live on one. If so, what advice can you give me to make my leap from dry land onto the water an easier one. As always comments from everyone are welcome. Stay tuned…I’ll keep ya informed.

What a beautiful October morning. It’s clear and cool with tons of sunshine. Took my granddaughter to Carinas for breakfast and then back to the house to watch cartoons. Cartoons just aren’t what they used to be. What happened to writers that actually had an imagination. Now don’t get me wrong, the Pixar movies are pretty much all awesome but the thirty minute cartoons the kids see on T.V. everyday well…they’re lacking a little.

Ok, I’m done with that rant for now. Tonight is the Lake Catoma Classic. This is the last of the night tourneys for the season and I have fished enough to qualify to fish in the classic. The weather is probably going to be one of our toughest competitors tonight. It’s been warm fishing up until now, but tonight the temp may drop into the lower 40’s which I am totally not used to. Might be a test of wills.

Well the dryer has buzzed so it’s time to fold the towels. Guess I’ll wrap this ole’ blog up for the day. Good luck to the Tide tonight, may they roll through the swamp like a tsunami.

Motorcycle Stroll Through Blount County

Recently, I took the opportunity to ride my new bike through some of Alabama’s beautiful countryside. Riding partner Ronnie Holloway and I, took full advantage of the warm afternoon to cruise through some of Blount County’s fine back roads. The landscape in Blount County reminds me a great deal of riding in Tennessee, which by the way has some wonderful riding roads too.Ronnie had to stop a minute to yak on his phone.

One of the stops we made was at an old covered bridge that is no longer in service. This bridge is located on Easley Bridge RD and doesn’t look to be in all that bad of shape. It’s kind of a shame that the repair work hasn’t been kept up to date so that it can still be used.

As the cooler weather sets in, there will begin to be many more shorter rides as compared to our normal one to three hundred mile rides. Alabama has many historical sites and locations to visit and the surrounding counties are home to quite a few of them…more pictures soon.

Rainy Days and Mondays

What a good song that was, way back many years ago. Seems fitting for today with the relentless rain we are receiving. However, the line of the song that says “rainy days and Monday’s always get me down” doesn’t hold much water today. We here in Alabama very much need the rain falling right now and most of us are off work today, that makes the wet situation a little more tolerable.

Rainy days are great for freelancers like myself. The steady drum of the rain on the roof is quite relaxing. A relaxed writer is a happy writer. Today is my day to work on whatever comes to mind…no deadlines to beat. I can work on my book that I have been putting off for some time now, or I can simply start a new project that may take me in a whole different direction entirely.

What will you choose to do with your rainy day? Will you let it get you down or will you appreciate it for what it really is…a gift from someone much bigger than ourselves. Our water supply which was dropping every day will now be replenished, our grass will turn green again and all the baby ducks will splash and play…what a nice day.

Are we alone?

Is life on other planets really that far fetched, or is the notion just good movie fodder? Well, water has been found elsewhere so the whole idea is possible I guess. What exactly would that mean to us if suddenly we did find out we aren’t alone? What if from out of the bright blue sky tomorrow a spaceship full of beings from somewhere else lands in our back yard. What will we do and how will we act?

The chances of us being able to communicate with them probably aren’t very good. Maybe if they have been monitoring our TV for a while we could just hand them a coke, they would know we were friendly then. Well, that’s how it works on television anyway.

I also have to wonder how long before we put together our own self sufficient space craft. One that can stay gone for years at a time, and truly explore our solar system. Many laugh at such an idea, but we have the technology readily available to us. For those of you that remember watching the original Star Trek series, just think of all the things they had that were not possible then but are everyday now. They used communicators to talk to each other…we have cell phones. They had gigantic super computers that ran their ship…we have laptops equally as powerful.

I doubt our government will play much of a part in this bold new venture into space…we are broke. More than likely some multi billionaire with more money than can be spent will fund such a project. I wouldn’t doubt that such billionaire will find a way to make even more money while doing so. After all it takes money to make money…least that’s what I’ve always been told.