and i understand that, that makes perfect sense. right now i have links out the the weather channels site with where i will be and to googles time clock.

better than nothing right?

I disagree with that. It's my option that nothing is better than "tat" cluttering up any blog.

P.S. You can reset your date and timezone on your blog to reflect the timezone you actually live in. The default timezone is UTC time. You can reset your timezone here > Settings > General
Select the closest city to you in the same timezone you live in in the drop-down menu you see there and then click "save changes".

These should be the most common necessary widgets and you dont have them.

I have blogged for over 8 years now here and elsewhere. I have never considered weather widgets or clocks to be necessary. Without getting into the blogging platforms that are less than professional where such "tat" (useless decorative stuff that distracts readers form reading posts) it's my opinion that the kiddies and cat bloggers can have as many as they wish. Everyone with computer has a clock and I don't care what the time is or what the weather is where any other bloggers reside. It's my not humble opinion that such widgets are tacky and create an unprofessional appearance on any blog. However, I'm sure there are others who have different opinions on this. Best wishes with your blog.

Hope this helps

I checked out your links and I think I'll add the second option. You rock - you combined all that useful information for all of us and are here helping me and others. Thanks for the support TT, really appreciated.

Have a good day.

I would like to know if there is some way to integrate a proper all-language (those that are supported by Google) Google Translate widget, preferably in the form of a drop-down menu, into a WordPress.com /free/ blog. I currently have something alike on my blog, but as you can see here [http://thechronicr.wordpress.com/] I had to cut it down to only 4 languages.

I know I can add all languages supported by Google in such a manner, but I think it is obvious that it will make my sidebar as long as it could get and even more and that looks pretty untidy to me. It would be cool if it looked exactly like the "Archives" widget when you put it on "display as drop-down list".

Please let me know if there is something like this existing or in development. Thank you in advance.

As Timethief suggests - and I agree - all this "tat" in the sidebars simply draws people away from your blog and in a vast majority of cases, makes the blog look cluttered and messy.

Widgets generally accomplish one or more of the following things:
1. improve the functionality of a site by providing reader accessibility to content that is not located on the front page;

2. act as leaders for e-commerce or other transactions;

3. promote and lead traffic to the site serving the widget;

4. redirect readers to high quality sources of relevant information found in authoritative blogs in the same niche.

Cons:
1. Follower widgets slow page loading time as each little avatar must be loaded from the site providing it before the whole page is displayed. At least half of all internet users are currently using dial up connections. What that means to us is that half of our visitors are downloading the pages at about 3-4 kilobytes per second. And it’s estimated that if a page has not loaded with within 8-10 seconds we can stand to lose one third of our visitors. Also note that Page loading time is now a Google Page Ranking factor.

2. Follower widgets and all other sidebar clutter AKA "tat" distract readers’ attention by drawing the eyes and mind away from the content in our posts to the sidebar.

3. Follower widgets do not provide access to additional resources to the reader thereby enhancing their reading experience. They compete for attention with navigational links to deeper content in our blogs found in our in our sidebars.

3. Follower widgets spoil the design and give the blog an amateurish appearance. I have yet to see a follower widget filled with teeny tiny little avatars that enhanced any blog design. I also note that no blogging pros use them at all.

4. Follower widgets serve no useful purpose at all other than the narcissistic one that comes from displaying a larger army of "followers" than the next blogger has.

5. Follower widgets leak link juice.

Pros:

I can't think of any and that's the truth.

-sk