Viewing 1 - 5 out of 5 Blogs.

Ok, fill in the blank,. It makes no difference with what. Weather, can it get any more extreme, drought in the South West, Blizzards in the Midwest and North East, record cold in the Southeast. Wow"................... Politics always good for consternation. Enough said!..............personal relationships are always in flux! sometimes good! sometimes bad! always disconcerting...............traffic? Where are all these people going at 4:00AM on a Sunday morning?.................Binge watching House of Cards, why am I addicted..........College Sports.....again I admit, I'm addicted.............Wine, well some things are sacred and above question. I may go lay down for a bit, this made my head hurt just thinking about it. What is on your "what up with". List?

The virtual world is so tenuous. A few weeks ago I added a friend and soon we began a conversation. It was tentative at first. I could tell she was cautious. I thought, she has been burned by jerks on line. She will figure out I'm a nice guy and gradually she did. I really enjoy meeting people from other parts of the country or even other countries. Each person is unique and has things to offer I can't get in my normal physical world. I'm not talking the prurient internet but insights and just the good things that people bring to a friendship. That is the direction we were headed. I received a notice on my email account that she had me left me a post. I clicked on it and there was nothing there. That was strange but when I looked around my page every trace of her was gone. Every post had disappeared, every message gone. No icon in the recent visits place or on the friends list. I have no idea what happened. Did she delete me? I can't believe Boomer deleted her. No good bye, just suddenly gone. It leaves me feeling empty. I feel bad about investing my time and energy in getting to know her. I wonder what happened?

Tags: Friends

Yesterday was one off those significant birthdays you must live through and endure. Everyone at work was very nice about it and a couple of people gave me bottles of nice wine, knowing my love for vino. Instead of cake they brought a scrambled egg dish. Last night we went out for Italian with my two daughters and their husbands and my grand kids. The two month old managed to sleep through the whole thing. So, the day ended and you know what, it was alright. Now Saturday, I get to relive the process because the kids thought I could not let such an auspicious day pass without a celebration so they invited about 50 people to our house for a party. Getting old is expensive.

I used to think you could only have friends you could physically contact. People you met on line were some lesser sort. That changed for me a few years ago. I started this on line stuff on a site called Multiply. I picked up a few contacts and chatted and messaged, but my thoughts were that it was all make believe. Can you really make good friends, people you cherish and miss when not around? The answer turned out to be yes. I developed people I talked to every day, people with which I could talk about things that I could not talk about with local physical friends. It really hit home when one of my contacts wrote me to tell me about her cancer. I wished her well and we visited and like any friend you feel is dying, you deny. Then one day I received a phone call to tell me goodbye. She didn't want to just disappear. I found out a few days later she had passed away. This happened again with another local contact as if the first time wasn't proof enough. And, this brings me to the subject of turning, virtual friends into people you have actually met. This has happened and with varying levels of success. Some people are better from a distance. Others are a joy to know in real life. As in "real life" friendships can become more. Romance can develop and they may not be equal thus real pain and heart ache and the resulting drama. But, occasionally, real, loving relationship bloom and though they may not result in a marriage or permanent commitment, they are no less fulfilling. I am so glad you are my friend.

We never have enough friends and even more rarely have the right kind of friends. When you need someone who owns a truck to help you move, all your friends drive Volkswagens. If you need someone to listen to your tale of woe, they all want to go to the bar and watch a game. When you need someone to love you, they are either involved with someone or " just not that into you." I never sifted friends by type before. A friend was someone you like, liked to be with and could count on but like most things if you try, you can slice and dice in all sorts of ways. The more important question, though, is what kind of friend am I. Well, let's take a look. I own a truck and someone has it borrowed right now. I'm always available to listen but I know that by being male I have to watch that I don't just move from opening statement to fix it mode. I'm like that, task oriented. Someone has a problem, I immediately start looking for a solution. I learned the hard way to slow down and just listen. Often that is all that is desired. Now how do I do in the love category. I found that I have the capacity to love more than one person. I know this makes me a bad person in some eyes, leads to complications and pain but I don't think I'm particularly unique. I try to limit this to a very small number of people. So how do you know it has happened? How do you know you have fallen in love with a person? It isn't as simple as it was when I was young when my first love took my breath away and my thoughts were continually on her and a separation of more than 10 feet was painful. No, adult love is much more subtle. It creeps up on you. When you are with her, the whole world seems to be right. You have a feeling of being safe and warm. When you are separated you can think of nothing more than returning to her. When the separation is extended and you don't have the ability to correct the situation it really hurts. I guess adult love isn't all that different after all.