Howdy, Bubba! Hey, if you're new around these parts, I just want to say how much I appreciate you dropping by! Oh, and you may want to subscribe to my feed. Thanks, and a tip o' the hat to ya!

Note from the proprietor: I’d like to take a moment to say a few words to those of you who are relatively new to the Zone…

First of all, welcome to The Middle Zone, and a tip o’ the hat to ya! I sincerely appreciate the fact that you stopped by, but I gotta warn you: the Zone isn’t just a wide spot on the WWW, you know; it’s also a state of mind.

About now you’re probably saying to yourself, “A state of mind, eh? All right, Smart Guy, how do you know when you’re in the Zone?” (You know, you really should do something about that talking to yourself thing. Oh, and thanks for the compliment.)

Hey, it’s easy! When everything starts to appear different, strange or unusual, or when you begin to see, well, a bit more below the surface than usual - well, that’s the moment. Yep, it’s when you’re most likely to see and understand the lessons life has to teach; things you’d never pick up from a book or classroom. Make no mistake about it, my friend; when you start noticing that, then you’re in the Zone!

The second thing is this: Did you know there’s a Middle Zone Musings e-book available? Yep, sure ‘nuff! Six stories in e-book form, ready for you to download and read (or, should you so desire, line your birdcage with). You can read all about it by clicking on that cute little tab up there below the title bar labeled, appropriately enough, “Free E-Book: Poke it With a Sharp Stick”.

If you go to that page and scroll down a bit, there’s a banner that shows how many copies have been downloaded already. In fact, why don’t I just pop it in right here…

All you have to do is click on that little do-hickey, and you’ll have your very own copy by the time you can say, “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” – 50 times.

Naturally it’s totally free! Plus, you can send copies to friends, neighbors, and countrymen to your heart’s content. Just don’t make any changes, claim it as yours, or otherwise violate the Creative Commons license (or, you know, Mean Levine will get you).

My original thought was to use a variant on a local hamburger joint’s motto, “Over two dozen downloaded”, but to my surprise, it passed that milestone within 24 hours! (Insert Elvis voice here.) Thank you – thank you very much!

Anyhoo – Just wanted to welcome you to the Zone, and thank you for dropping by. One of the great things about just dropping by is that introductions go both ways. Now that I know who you are, I’ll be dropping by your place too!

Now, how cool is that?

You know, it would just be absolutely finer than a frogs hair if you would subscribe to my RSS feed!