I have to come clean for Snipe, He's a buddy.

[WarrenP]

Avalon, Jim Murphy,Vocelli or whoever you wish to be called at the present time, I was getting ready to go flyfishing and just had to check in to FAOL to see what is going on and read your post and now I must respond or my thoughts will "bug" me the rest of the day, so, bear with me here. These thoughts are only my opinions and nothing more and are not put into print to upset you or anyone else on this board. They are just MY thoughts and nothing more and I must get them off my mind to enjoy my fishing today.

I am the type of person that, at the present time in my life, does not need a bonding, real life person for a friend to survive. By that I mean I do not need the type of friend that I must spend all my weekends and free time with in order to be able to enjoy my free time. I enjoy being by myself which, to some people, is not suppose to be healthy and in their minds "normal". To those people, listen up, I am 58 and still alive and pretty healthy, so, you may be wrong! : ) The "friends" I need, at the present time, have been given to me by LF and JC with FAOL web site. May God Bless them for coming into my life with their web page. I now have more "friends" than most of the people in this world. My present friends are all members of this web site and we communicate by posting or e-mail. With this being the only way to communicate with each other and staying in touch with each other, we do not see the side of that friend that we would probably not like and do not see the side of that friend that would probably end the friendship. Hopefully, that makes sense because it does to me. I have only had the opportunity to meet "face to face" two of my friends here on FAOL and it made a good "bonding" friendship that I will always cherish. Those two members are ohiotuber and Jack Hise who made the trip here to fish with me and I had a great time with them and am looking forward to their next visit.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I think you have discovered that this web site has made you some "friendships" that you never knew were as "bonding" as they are. You have discovered that you and your FAOL "friends" are closer than you thought could be possible since you never met "face to face". I do not post as often as most because I have learned from reading some posts that what a person "thinks" they have said is not what the printed word relayed and the "receiver" took everything the opposite of what it was meant and the "friendship" was lost over nothing more than "words" taken wrong. I have even been offended at times with comments made here from a post I made and rather than get upset and repost to get "even" I have decided that it is just water under the bridge and let it go. I know I am not educated enough to put my true thoughts and feelings down in writing so that the true feelings will show, so, it is best to just let some things go.

Now that most, but not all, of this is off my mind, I am going to go flyfishing and enjoy being by myself and alone and know that in my mind I can be with all my FAOL "friends" and no one else will see them, but, I can revisit their e-mails and posts in my mind and they will be with me and I will be with them.

To all my FAOL "Friends", I love you and thank you for being with me where ever I may be and most of all, "thank you" JC and LF for your gift of "flyanglersonline.com"!

Sorry for the long post, but, in my mind, I feel better!


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Warren

[Betty Hiner]

Warren
I think you did just fine.
Tim
Welcome home, what ever you call yourself.
Betty

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Trouts don't live in ugly places

[Lew]

The printed word is a powerful thing. We wouldn't have a civilization without it. It informs, entertains, enlightens, inspires, degrades, depresses, and a whole host of other adjectives, dependent upon the skill of the writer, and his/her intent. Most of us haven't cultivated the literary skill of conveying "intent" through the printed word. The little icons above make a stab at it, but are inadequate to convey tone, body language, irony, sarcasm etc. My point. We all need to leave room for the benefit of the doubt. If we take everything literally, we'll surely misconstrue someones meaning. We're all guests here, and should comport ourselves the way we would if we were physically in someone else's home. Some of us need a bit more housebreaking than others, and should visit where the comfort zone is more amenable. I direct these remarks to all, not to any individual. My .02

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Lew

[Avalon]

Dear Warren,

I'm not sure what it says about me, but I completely understood everything you said in your post.

I have people that I have never met from this board and many other diverse internet message boards that I consider to be friends.

I sometimes find myself in conversations where I say something like, "My friend from England, New Zealand, or Wyoming, said that he/she blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

I mean it sincerely when I call those folks friends.

That is one of the blessings and bounties that we received from the internet. For better or for worse it brings everybody who can access it a little closer together.

I'm in no position to actually go visit Snipe right now. But I really do hope and pray that someone who is reading this post and that can visit him passes on my good wishes and regards.

Sincerely,
Tim Murphy