WEDNESDAY'S LIST ... of beans 'n greens 'n other things: OK, GAS the car and check the tires. The world's longest yard sale is just a mere two weeks away.

The annual trek of "trash 'n treasure" starts Aug. 6. If you begin at Noccalula Falls in Gadsden, you're looking at 654 miles through Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio.

From Gadsden, you ride the Lookout Mountain Parkway to Chattanooga. Then it's old U. S. 127 to West Unity, Ohio.

It is the joining of Ohio that ups the old 450-miler to 654 miles.

The sale ends Sunday, Aug. 9.

*** THAT "western" by-pass commonly referred to as the Bynum-Leatherwood Bypass?

Well, that's incorrect.

Several months back, maybe as long as two years, state Rep. Randy Wood pushed a resolution through the Alabama Legislature tagging it "The Ken Joiner By-pass."

Signs attesting to the impact Joiner, as county administrator for the past 38 years, has had on our community have not yet been erected.

Commissioner Eli Henderson did tell me the signs are ready and will be going up soon.

*** ONE OTHER note:

The Association of County Commissioners of Alabama has tapped our commission for its annual "Excellence in County Government Award."

It is the fourth such.

So, for the record, the present commission is J. D. Hess (currently in the big chair), Rudy Abbott, Eli Henderson, James "Pappy" Dunn, and Robert Downing.

Take a bow, guys . . .

*** A MEDICAL update is son-and-heir Barry is home from UAB where he donated a kidney to a really neat young man, Justin Noah, on July 15.

Both are a bit sore, but both are doing well.

Son-and-heir did not lose his humor in the operating room.

Touching a slightly swollen lower lip, he explained with:

"They said I gave a 'Roll Tide!' in recovery . . . musta been an Auburn fan in there, too."

Justin is family, the son of Sherry Robertson, sister to Barry's wife Susie.

*** ONE OTHER thing. If you stay at the DoubleTree Hotel in Birmingham, leave your smokes at home.

Smoke in your room and you get hit with a $150 surcharge for returning the room to breathable air.

The DoubleTree, two blocks from UAB, was our "home" for a couple of nights, but it's been 10 years since my last puff, so . . .

*** BIRTHDAYS: July 18 — Cody Graves; July 19 — Scott Bradshaw and Tellis Cowdan; July 22 — Shelion Tolbert, Reagan Smith and William Norton; July 23 — Louise Stone; July 24 — Barry Smith; July 25 — R. C. Bryant.

*** FINALLY . . . "A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple." — Danish Proverb

Thanks for visiting . . .

George Smith can be reached at 239-5286 or e-mail: gsmith731@gmail.com