Opining Online

Amba tagged me last week and I’m just now getting around to posting Seven Seven Facts About Myself.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Present an image of martial discord from whatever period or situation you’d like.

Like others before me, I first read that as “marital” discord. Now that I’ve read it correctly, I can think of no better example of martial discord than the militancy of hippies. Here’s my image:

Seven Facts About Myself

1. I’m inordinately proud of my children, step-children, and those they have chosen for mates. I am, without doubt, one of the most fortunate people on the planet.
2. I remember living without electricity and indoor plumbing. It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford it so much as it was simply not available that far up in the mountains.
3. I have seen a forest fire “close-up.”
4. I am both shy and friendly. I am shy about revealing too much of myself to others and friendly in wanting everyone to feel welcome wherever I am.
5. I like rocks. Bryce Canyon is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been.
6. Though thoroughly female, I like vanilla much more than I like chocolate. Unless it’s rich, dark chocolate. Then I must have both.
7. I have an ancestor who fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. He also served time in prison camps on both sides, dying in Andersonville.

Now… about tagging seven other people. As noted here, I don’t know five people to tag and now I’m supposed to tag seven?

My Plan!

Not “MY” plan, my friend Sarah’s plan. I’m not that ambitious or diligent.

I first met Mary in 1999 on an AOL message board about the Right to Keep and Bear Arms shortly after the Columbine shootings. We never quite agreed; she was for more regulation than I am, though we weren’t that far apart. We emailed and chatted online for years.

Last year, I finally met her in person. We shared a bottle of wine and box of chocolates and laughed most of the night. She talked a lot about her son and daughter, who I know are missing her terribly.

She helped me through some very rough times with my son. She didn’t just commiserate and give me moral support, she came through with concrete ideas and connections that helped put my son back on the right track. I will be forever grateful.

I will miss her insights into human nature and her wonderful sense of humor. She was far too young to die.