You have to love living in this technologically advanced age. Digital everything is pretty cool--from the way they look inside your body and see that everything is okay, or that it is not, to communication devices of all sorts allowing you to keep up with people who used to just disappear out of your life, to digital photography.

I should stop and talk about the photography. I'm happy to see the beautiful photos my children take with their cameras and I'm too too happy with my Christmas present to me, my Nikon D-200. Though still learning what to do with it, it instantly helped me make images that will last until the end of my days and beyond, helping me remember, and helping the next generations imagine what life was like at the turn of the century and giving them connection with their ancestors, two, three, four, and five generations removed. Studying the photos will reveal much about the past and will also reveal much about their own futures.

Here are a few examples: The old place, first built in 1916 by my great grandfather for my grandparents. Great grandfather Marion was quite a fellow, giving each of the boys a farm, except Ernest who became a preacher. Marion said God would take care of Ernest. Turns out, God did his part. Then there is a photo of Gertrude, Charles, and Belle. The three remaining of my mother's family. Belle is 86 and lives at the old place. Her cousin Sally died last month at 93. Belle said that Sally has been living at the end of the lane all of my life and it is really hard for her to be gone. And finally, my cousin Billy. He loves the bulldogs, though as I remember he only went to Brewton Parker for quarter before going into the airforce.