Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 9! This is the change when we lose an hour, so we'll all need an extended nap Sunday afternoon. We need to set our clocks ahead one hour Saturday night or we will get to Sunday School an hour late.

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Friday is the day for the grand opening and ribbon cutting for Bubba Blackmon's Blackmon Auto Parts on Mercer Street. In case you're wondering where Mercer Street is, you may know it as Highway 44 Extension. If you're going west on Robert Toombs Avenue, just before you get to the Golden Pantry and Robert Toombs becomes Lexington Avenue, turn right at the light and there is the NAPA store. The ribbon cutting is set for 12 o'clock, with hotdogs and other goodies for everybody attending.

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Gracen Ware, Miss Wilkes County 2008, will be bagging groceries at Bi-Lo Saturday to collect donations for Relay For Life.

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It looks as if the year 2008 is going to be "The Year of the Wedding." There have already been several weddings with accounts of them written up in The News-Reporter.

Susan Pope, who gathers information and writes the weddings, already has engagement announcements for 20 more through July 12. She also has one for October. July is just halfway through the year.

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Washington-Wilkes has an advertisement in the March issue of Southern Living magazine; and the Tour of Homes is included under the "Also Check Out" listings. The Tour is April 4-5.

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It's time for us all to get things cleaned up for the Tour. Most homeowners do a good job of keeping their property free of trash and yards looking good, but the streets and sidewalks need a lot of help. "Clods" throw their fast-food breakfast, dinner, and supper bags and cups out the windows of their cars and apparently never give it a thought. There are cigarette butts in flowerpots in the Downtown area. I saw one flowerpot that looked as if somebody had dumped all their butts from their car tray into it. There are also empty (sometimes) plastic drink bottles in flowerpots. And there are plenty of trash receptacles located in the Downtown area.

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Leave it to a couple of smart girls to solve a mystery and catch two thieves! A group of Georgia Southern University students from Wilkes and Lincoln counties (with some other students included) had a birthday party for a fellow student at

Chris Rogers' apartment. Just about everybody at the party had brought their iPods. Let me take a little time to explain what little I know about iPods to those of you who, like me, are not "electronic literate." I am electronic illiterate, but Katie Duggan explained a little bit about iPods to me. Katie said that an iPod is a little electronic gadget that you plug in to your VCR and it plays all your favorite music which you have put on your iPod. When the students got through with their iPods, they put them aside, but when they got ready to leave the party, there was not one to be found! They remembered that "a couple of guys" had drifted through the apartment during the party, but they soon realized that nobody knew them. About a week later, Elizabeth Duggan and her roommate decided they might finda clue on the internet, on the popular E-Bay site. This is a location that shows items that somebody wants to sell and somebody interested in buying an item can place a bid. To their surprise and delight, there were all the iPods up for bid and Elizabeth recognized hers. Buyers and bidders on E-Bay don't use their names but have a "user name," so the girls didn't know who had them for sale. Somehow they were able to findpictures of the sellers and they recognized the two guys who had drifted through the apartment. They contacted the campus police theft department who contacted the Bulloch County Sheriff's Department. (This is getting too long.) The guys were located; the iPods were recovered; the guys were charged with a felony; and they were "thrown out" of the university. The girls found that there were only four hours left before the bidding would have stopped and all the iPods would have been sold and gone.

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The four Lindsey girls -- Mama Kathy, daughters, Lauren, Hillary, and Taylor - left Ricky at home and spent the weekend in New York City to celebrate Lauren's birthday. Among other things, they obtained tickets to "The View," popular talkshow. Taylor was chosen from the audience and asked to do a teaser for the next item. The camera showed her with co-host Joy Behar and saying, "Inside celebrity rehab, when 'The View' returns on ABC."

. Molly Burgess, Education Pro- gram Specialist with the Centenarian Consortium and daughter of Janet and Martin Burgess of Washington-Wilkes, will be accompanying Professor Leonard Poon, prominent gerontologist, to Washington for his program at the Learning In Retirement meeting this month.

. The program for the 2008 Washington Area Junior Steer & Heifer Show and Sale is dedicated to former Wilkes County Agent Herbert Powell. Herbert came to Wilkes County in 1964 as an assistant County Agent. After a six-month training period he was promoted to County Agent and served in that capacity until 1985 when he moved to Lincolnton to become County Agent for Lincoln County. He was instrumental in the early 1980s in getting a permanent home for the Steer and Heifer Show, which is the McGill-Woodruff Agricultural Center on the North By-Pass here. He retired from the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service in 2001.

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Greg Callaway of Wilkes County showed the Supreme Champion heifer (a Simmental) at the steer and heifer show Saturday. Ethan Armour of Wilkes County showed the Supreme Reserve Champion. The champion steer went to Lincoln County.

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