Even A Blind Squirrel Finds A Nut
I've been feeling really happy the last couple of days and it's because I've been found. Me <--- the nut. While at the hanger over the weekend, I was able to feed my dependency to the 'net by logging in to surf and check email. Yeah, I was there to work/assist with the bike, but my attention span is that of a four-year-old so I would take breaks every couple of hours. On Sunday morning, I logged in to my hotmail account and found not one, not two, but THREE emails from this fella who was yelling at me in the subject line. He was trying VERY hard to get my attention and it worked. I took pause, however, and made a decision to open the emails. More times than not, I delete emails when I see suspicious subject lines from folks I don't normally correspond with. Once I opened the first email, I knew I made the right decision.
M and I met on AOL a couple years back on a biker board I used to frequent. We both rode the same bike and had an immediate connection due to that. There's something about a FLHT that gets under your skin... ya can't help but love that bike. As time passed, M and I got to be decent friends and communicated a lot. It was a good thing. He's a smart fella, great conversationalist, a reader, a writer and a lover of the road. Wonderful qualities in my opinion. We learned that we both were headed to the same destination that late summer, Sturgis, SD, and were hoping to hook up while in the area but that never happened. He was doing a lot of traveling, we were doing a lot of traveling and although we're sure our paths crossed, it was never at the same time. It wasn't too long after that, as I recall, that he and I severed the connection and communicated no more.
Over time, we both tried to contact the other person, but email addresses changed and we were left to just wondering about the other. Every few months, I'd run across someone's handle in a motorcycle related chat room or message board but once I read profile info, I knew it wasn't him. I'd resigned myself to thinking he was a fleeting friend, an acquaintance from the internet... someone who typed their way into my mind and heart and unplugged leaving a bittersweet smile and a blank screen. It happens time and time again but there are some folks who ya really wish you could hang on to, people who you know would be a great friend to share coffee with on a rainy Saturday morning. I'm not one to lump all internet people into "that world" because a couple of my best friends are folks I've met through the 'net. Without it and them, my life wouldn't be touched by their existence, and for that, I'm thankful.
Back to Sunday morning....
Once I opened the emails and realized it was M, I immediately replied with the same enthusiam he had when he wrote to me. Fortunately, he was around that day to start up the correspondence conversation and so we agreed to meet online that evening to chat. I was absolutely giddy all day and looking forward to catching up on him and the time that had silently passed between us. He did tell me how he found me which was through a forum on Delphi so I owe his friend, who recommended the site, and Delphi a big o' thank you.
It had been a long day by the time Sunday night rolled around. My dear and I got a lot accomplished with Thor and came home feeling like we were well on track as far as IBR preps go. Even though I was really tired from the long days spent in the hanger, I was too excited to go to bed and so I met with M online as planned. Chatting with him was as easy as it was two years ago... the same flow in conversation, the same giggling, the same emotion. M is a firefighter and I've always taken an interest in his career and his devotion to it. He's a rider and enjoys seeing the world from the saddle, so hearing about some of his travels as well as his upcoming month out on the road kept me interested. Fatigue quickly vanished once we got past our jubilant HELLOs. We ended up chatting for a couple hours while he ate a PB&J sammich and I ate a bowl of cereal. We swapped pics of ourselves from various locations around the U.S. and gave condensed versions of our life happenings to that point. It was just wonderful and it made my heart feel good to be back in touch.
M and I met on AOL a couple years back on a biker board I used to frequent. We both rode the same bike and had an immediate connection due to that. There's something about a FLHT that gets under your skin... ya can't help but love that bike. As time passed, M and I got to be decent friends and communicated a lot. It was a good thing. He's a smart fella, great conversationalist, a reader, a writer and a lover of the road. Wonderful qualities in my opinion. We learned that we both were headed to the same destination that late summer, Sturgis, SD, and were hoping to hook up while in the area but that never happened. He was doing a lot of traveling, we were doing a lot of traveling and although we're sure our paths crossed, it was never at the same time. It wasn't too long after that, as I recall, that he and I severed the connection and communicated no more.
Over time, we both tried to contact the other person, but email addresses changed and we were left to just wondering about the other. Every few months, I'd run across someone's handle in a motorcycle related chat room or message board but once I read profile info, I knew it wasn't him. I'd resigned myself to thinking he was a fleeting friend, an acquaintance from the internet... someone who typed their way into my mind and heart and unplugged leaving a bittersweet smile and a blank screen. It happens time and time again but there are some folks who ya really wish you could hang on to, people who you know would be a great friend to share coffee with on a rainy Saturday morning. I'm not one to lump all internet people into "that world" because a couple of my best friends are folks I've met through the 'net. Without it and them, my life wouldn't be touched by their existence, and for that, I'm thankful.
Back to Sunday morning....
Once I opened the emails and realized it was M, I immediately replied with the same enthusiam he had when he wrote to me. Fortunately, he was around that day to start up the correspondence conversation and so we agreed to meet online that evening to chat. I was absolutely giddy all day and looking forward to catching up on him and the time that had silently passed between us. He did tell me how he found me which was through a forum on Delphi so I owe his friend, who recommended the site, and Delphi a big o' thank you.
It had been a long day by the time Sunday night rolled around. My dear and I got a lot accomplished with Thor and came home feeling like we were well on track as far as IBR preps go. Even though I was really tired from the long days spent in the hanger, I was too excited to go to bed and so I met with M online as planned. Chatting with him was as easy as it was two years ago... the same flow in conversation, the same giggling, the same emotion. M is a firefighter and I've always taken an interest in his career and his devotion to it. He's a rider and enjoys seeing the world from the saddle, so hearing about some of his travels as well as his upcoming month out on the road kept me interested. Fatigue quickly vanished once we got past our jubilant HELLOs. We ended up chatting for a couple hours while he ate a PB&J sammich and I ate a bowl of cereal. We swapped pics of ourselves from various locations around the U.S. and gave condensed versions of our life happenings to that point. It was just wonderful and it made my heart feel good to be back in touch.
posted by Juli at 11:49 AM
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