Ah, Friday, the day the Farm Side runs in our local paper, the Recorder. Since delivery is anything but reliable here in our just-barely-rural location, I signed on to the paper's website to see if FS actually made the day's edition. (You never know what might happen between my word processor and the editorial page.) I also love to find out what the title is each week, as naming each column is not my privilege. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered that the paper has begun running a pay site for its online edition. I can't blame them I guess, as most of the other local dailies have done the same thing. However, it makes me melancholy to be able to read the New York Times online version in all its singularly biased splendor, when I can't get to my own column without slogging down the hill from hell, through snow and sleet and freezing rain, all the while hoping that the paper delivery-meister actually brought it and that it isn't enthroned in some soggy snow bank somewhere. (There is something discouraging about having to dry the darned thing by draping it over the step stool on the kitchen heat register-that's MY spot!)

Anyhoo, I discovered that for a buck I could register for one day and read the paper from my trusty little green desk right here by the dining room window. Thus I dug out the Master Card, billed that massive charge to it and looked over this week's Farm Side in splendid comfort. The title turned out to be Farmers Always Learn to Adapt, and my mention of the nifty local weblog, UPSTREAM: a Mohawk Valley Perspective, made the cut. Hope it brings the author some well deserved traffic, as he has some compelling opinions on area politics and history.

I guess I can afford a dollar. Now I only hope that the paper-meister brought the hard copy so I don't have to shell out another fifty cents down at the self-service machine at the post office for a copy for my files.