Things I love about the blogging universe

I can interact with people who aren't in my socio-economic class, and they accept me, at least online.  In real life, I'd never have the chance to chat with people in the advertising industry, or in various forms of television production.  
I'd never have gotten to correspond with the wife of one of the richest farmers in the United States and been able to see she's as down-to-earth as anybody in my little world.  
I wouldn't have had the chance to form online friendships with some fellows who happen to be gay who have shown me that they're not so different from the rest of us.  
Never would I have been able to laugh at the humor of a Catholic nun, or to feel like I was best buds with an atheist in Oregon.  
Oh, and the nurses.  Who knew nurses could be so funny?  But when I think about it, how could you survive being a nurse if you didn't have a sense of humor?  
I can't fail to mention the cop in Arizona who makes me laugh on a regular basis.
Then there are those Internet friends who have things in common with me:  bikers and farmers and a former Amish lady who knows how to milk a Jersey cow, and fundamentalist Christians and people barely getting by one day at a time, living hand-to-mouth.    
I can't help but love people who embrace what we have in common and accept our differences.  
They aren't usually angry: see, I have a problem with angry people:  they always have a way of making me feel they're angry at ME. 
I thank God for the diversity of my Internet friends, those who don't judge me, who accept me as I am.  So I happily accept all of you, and I choose not to judge you.  
You guys ROCK.

Here's what I love about the Internet

In real life, I would never have met a cop in Arizona, or a prison guard somewhere in Missouri, or an ex-jailbird in Kansas City who sometimes gets writer's block. Or a guy who makes his living in television, or a lady who works in advertising.

Never would I have crossed paths with some Russian Jew in Kansas City. I'm not the type to hobnob with a doctor's wife who winters in Arizona; or for that matter, Muslims or writer/musicians in Texas.

I always steered clear of ladies who worked in HR at any place of business. They are the enemy, right?

And some stranger in Oregon? I don't even have a clue how I ended up talking to him!

That's the wonder of the Internet: Class barriers are meaningless here. It's safe, as long as you know how to use some discretion.

I won't even mention the gays and lesbians I've met through blogs; I just don't have opportunity to get out and meet a huge mix of people (not to mention that I'm a hermit) in my everyday life; geesh, I don't even drive. But here on the Internet? You bet! Can you believe they're all just as ordinary (maybe more so) as you and I?

Ninety percent of the blogs I read are written by folks I'd expect to meet in real life; we share common ground, and travel in the same sorts of circles. But those I've mentioned here? NEVER in a million years would I have expected to have verbal exchanges with them.

I'm not talking about blogs like Pioneer Woman, whose readership numbers in the thousands. I'm talking about people on whose blogs I comment, and who comment back from time to time, or at least peek at my blog.

Is this not amazing? Barriers fall down on the Internet. Wouldn't it be lovely if the real world were like that? If we could just sit down and have discussions without preconceived notions getting in the way?

Perhaps all of us are not so very different after all.

Ten years on the Internet

Yes friends, in 1998 I was finally persuaded to take the plunge into the World Wide Web. My ignorance of computers knew no bounds, and I could tell some funny stories of stupid mistakes I made.

But today I'm thinking about my first chat room experience.

I had seen articles in the newspaper about the dangers of the Internet in general and chat rooms in particular. Nobody was going to catch me in one of those sleazy cyber-dives.

But I was surfing around some Christian website and noticed there were AOL chat rooms that could be accessed from the main page somehow. One of them was for Christian Seniors. Maybe at that time it was called Fifty-plus, I'm not sure; there were so many changes over the years, before AOL finally removed it.

Back then, that chat room was a wonderful thing: I'd sit at my keyboard laughing out loud at some of the humor that flew across my monitor. I won't bother to share any tales because you just had to be there. Things like that aren't really so funny in the retelling.

Some of the folks in Texas decided there should be a get-together in Dallas where we could meet face to face. My husband wasn't about to allow me to go meet a bunch of Internet strangers alone. I told him I could ride with a lady from Arkansas, but he decided he'd take me himself, to protect me from stalkers and Internet serial killers. After all, I'd never actually met these people. They could be anybody!

Imagine his surprise to find out all those folks were just fine; today he would trust that lady from Arkansas with our bank account if he had to... all $25 of it.

The chat room later deteriorated into chaos, arguing, and jealousy, and was finally closed. Many of the friendships that were formed there, however, still remain.

I've attended at least three of the Dallas reunions, as well as others in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas.


I believe this picture from Dallas was taken in 2001. None of us had digital cameras then.

Frankye, an outgoing lady who lives in Dallas, has always been the host of that reunion. She makes countless trips to the airport to pick up guests, opens her home to folks who are too broke (ahem) to pay for a hotel room, and coordinates activities, mealtimes, and whatever else is needed to keep a group of twenty or more people happy.

Now keep in mind that this thing started back around 1998 or 1999, and it was a senior chat group; so even then most of us weren't spring chickens.

Sad to say, none of us has gotten any younger. Many of that old chat group have died.

Frankye has announced that the reunion this year will be the final one. Air fare from Kansas City to Dallas is very reasonable. Although I originally had no plans or desire to attend this get-together, now that I know it will be the last time I see most of these folks in person, I believe I'll go. It seems an appropriate way to celebrate ten years on the Internet.

That's Frankye in the above picture, and I'll quickly tell a story about Joe, the man beside her (he's attended every single reunion). When Cliff and I met him at the first Dallas event, he asked where we lived. "Missouri," I told him. "I'm sure you've never heard of the town."

But when I named my town, he knew it well. His late wife had a sister who had lived there most of her life, he said. Imagine our surprise when, upon comparing notes, we realized that his sister-in-law had been a close neighbor of mine for years. She had lived right on my dead-end road, and I'd attended church with her. I knew and loved her.

This Internet is sometimes a small world indeed.

In a bit of a funk today

First of all, someone on my Tractor Tales message board passed away unexpectedly... one of the few people on that forum that Cliff and I had met in person, and one of my favorites: a God-fearing, gregarious man who often brought a smile to my face with his posts on Tractor Tales.

Poor Cliff is always hauling me somewhere-or-other to meet people I've gotten to know online. He rarely sits down at the computer, so he doesn't know a thing about any of them; it's just one of many ways he spoils me. One reason I was able to persuade him to go to the Indiana "Taler Reunion" was that there was a huge tractor show going on up there at the same time.

That group picture is from the reunion we attended; "Corny", the fellow who passed away yesterday, is the short fellow in red shirt and overalls on the right-hand side. He was often teased about his being "vertically challenged", and took it in good humor.

Rest in peace, Cornfused.

Although as I said, Cliff doesn't spend lots of time on the computer, he has come to depend on those guys on "Tales" for advice. Last weekend his brother, Donald, needed some information about the John Deere he's overhauling, and Cliff asked me to post a question about it on the "John Deere Forum" over at Yesterday's Tractors. Since I didn't receive an answer there, next day I posted the same question on "Tales", even though it's mainly just a forum for clowning around.

We soon had the information Don needed.

What did we do before the Internet?

The other reason for my funk is that this stupid cold I've been nursing for two weeks has decided to migrate from my chest to my head.

Don't get too close to your monitor. You'd be liable to catch my funk or my cold. Trust me, you don't want either one.