Please read this...This week, we'll just quack you up...

This week, dear reader (or readers, if there happens to be more than one of you), allow me to once again wander around, with a little bit of this, and a little bit of that...

...autumn "officially" arrived on Sept. 22...

...that being said, goodness, gracious, seems like it's been way too hot for September in our neck of the woods. Hopefully, by the time you read this, Mother Nature will be sharing some cooler weather with us...

...and that would be a nice thing, 'cause I think we're ready for it to be fall...we look at the calendar, and it should be fall...we look at the trees, and the leaves are starting to change colors, ever so slowly, and it should be fall...our yards are drying up and turning brown, and I'm not quite sure what season that should be...

...the recent hot weather did a good job of baking my simple little mind during a couple of photo opportunities which were part of The Journey Through Life over the past couple of weeks...

...one of those photo opportunities involved a visit to a JAKES event which was held in the middle of the month at the Trail of Tears State Forest right here in Union County...

...JAKES is an acronym, which is a 50-cent word for abbreviation, and stands for Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship. The event has been presented for a number of years by the Trail of Tears Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation...

...in this case, young people have an opportunity to spend some time in the outdoors, and, maybe, learn how to appreciate the wonderful gifts which can be discovered at places like the state forest...

...besides that, going to the event gave me an excuse to go to the state forest, which, as you know, is one of my favorite places to spend some time...

...one thing was a bit unusual about the day of the event, though...it was really warm, for the middle of September...

...same goes for last Friday, when Anna-Jonesboro Community High School's homecoming parade was held...

...the parade route was through Anna, and yours truly had stationed himself along South Main Street to take some pics, well, a bunch of pics actually...

...I'm here to tell you, it was H-O-T along South Main Street in downtown Anna last Friday afternoon...

...some of the candy which was tossed to bystanders by those participating in the parade just kind of instantly melted when the treats hit the pavement...

...speaking of the parade, little did I know that the event would give me a chance to chat with a fellow traveler on The Journey Through Life about fossils...

...we shared some memories about various crinoids and bivalves that we had found (I know, b-o-r-i-n-g), and how we are both looking for that special trilobite fossil, which is lurking out there, somewhere in Union County...it's kind of like hunters who are hoping for that trophy buck...or anglers, who want to land a 98-pound largemouth bass... 

...so, what did you think about the new "Star Trek" series? If you liked it, and keep on watching the series, let me know how the story unfolds, 'cause we don't pay to watch television at our house...

...finally (you thought this would never end, right?), let me issue a warning...

...watch out for spiders...

...big spiders...

...like the big spiders which have been lurking around our humble abode...

...last Saturday morning, a spider the size of a new-born elephant was nonchalantly hanging around our back door, right in the middle of the gigantic web which it apparently had created during the night...

...another gigantic web was spotted near the garbage cans in the backyard...and yet another one on the front porch...

...I'm thinking the spiders are working together...they're surrounding us...just waiting...doing whatever sneaky sorts of things gigantic spiders do...

...I just hope our spiders are vegetarians...