Orphans of a sort.

I am on a knitting forum online.  I noticed a gal had put up a notice for trading addresses for pen pals.  I was intrigued, and popped right in that I would like to have a pen pal.

No response.

I sent a second, private message, uh, did you get my info?

Nada.

Odd.  I send one more vaguely hopeful note to the group saying this is great, I would love to be a part.

Zippo...

So, I figure, well, maybe she's busy, maybe I will just receive an address later, something.  Maybe.  I note that she had said she had trouble receiving private messages sometimes.

Huh.  Well, I had messaged her both publicly, and privately, so I didn't know what to think.

She then mentioned, she was going to wait until the first week in April, so she could sort all the names, get people the requests as much as they wanted, (i.e., I would like to have someone from England, or someone from the Midwest), so I waited.

And waited.

Two weeks in, pbbbt. Not a thing.  I decided that if I'd not heard anything by the end of the month, I would both publicly and privately give her a shout.  Hello, even...

That's when I noticed someone ELSE had a question about the pen pal group.  Had anyone received a pen pal?  She hadn't, and was wondering if they'd been sent out yet.  Several piped up, oh, yes, we've exchanged one or two letters by this point.

Huh...  Grumble.  So I private messaged the gal that had asked about the pen pals, and had not received one.  I told her I was in the same boat.  And, that being the case, would she care to be MY pen pal?  She was tickled!

So, I am west coast, she is east coast, and we have officially exchanged one letter at this point.  I will be writing another soon.  I am pleased.  Even if it was a total accident, we two "orphans" ended up together!

(And so, I will be writing her, and some cards and letters to friends over the next few days, I have a bit of catching up to do!)

Oh, and happy Blogiversary to me, this is my 1000th blog, if the stats be correct!  Yaaay!

L is for Letters.

Letters, written on paper.  

Can read 'em now, can read 'em later.

A memory for the price of a stamp.

Some letters happy, some so sad,

All are slices of life, 

peoples thoughts and loves, 

cares and joys, sorrows and fears.

I hope that future generations have letters...

W. Wonder Woman.

I like to write letters, in fact, I think I've mentioned that before on my blog.  I write to family, friends, to compliment, or sometimes complain, about service.  But I have written letters that I fully expect never to receive a reply.

Fan letters, to be exact.

Now, before anyone says foul, I am not saying I won't.  I am just saying I never have.  I was a big fan of Wonder Woman when I was in first grade, and asked Mom about her. (I was little unclear about the concept of "acting", I figured that was really stuff that Lynda Carter did, no clue about stunt people at that point. Actually, truth be told, a little unclear that she wasn't an Amazon, but I digress.) Mom explained that I could write to her, and tell her how much I liked her.  I wrote a letter to her, telling her how neat her costume was, and other 'excited little kid' things that filled one of those large gray pages that I used in the lower grades.  I think I might have drawn a picture, too.  Mom sent it off for me, and I promptly forgot about it.  I don't remember ever receiving an answer.  I think this happened with Mr. Rogers, as well.

I wrote to Santa, about that time, too. Not the "I want x for Christmas" thing, I think I wrote sometime in August, just to ask how he was doing, hope the reindeer were okay, that sort of thing.  Well, uh, no answer from him, but ya know, he IS kinda busy most of the year... Ahem.

I wrote to a few rock stars I liked in high school, again, no reply.  In early college, I wrote to the President of the United States.

Okay, I did get a reply, so I suppose that's something.  However, it was a form letter with a rubber stamped signature.

I even wrote to a YouTube personality that I liked a video of recently.

Yet again, no reply.  Suppose I should have commented or tweeted, in that case...

So.  I still write to famous people, occasionally.

Why?

That is an easy question to answer.  I write to them to thank them, or tell them what their work has done for me, or even just the 'gee, I think you are really great' thing.

But, since I haven't received a reply, why bother?

Also a good question.  I suppose the biggest reason is the same reason I write to my friends and family that don't write back.  I write selfishly.  I write because I want to, I want someone to know I care, and if I don't get an answer, it sorta stinks, but I write because I want to.

The answer is gravy.

So, I will write some more fan letters soon, might even mention them on the blog.  But I don't expect an answer. I will write, because I enjoy writing, want to let the person know I like them, and what they do, and all will be good.

But if they write back, ya know, I really won't mind!

(Wonder Woman)

What a difference a week makes!

Husband got a wild hair, we hadn't gone to the coast since way before Thanksgiving.  So we picked a day, I think it was like the 4th or 5th, and went coastal.

The weather was great, and the gulls were hungry.

I had sympathy for Tippi Hedren...

Little cloud action coming in.  

Along with the tide going out.

The lighthouse from Nye Beach.  

Wish I could have had closer picture...

I can't remember the proper name for this creature.  

The skeleton washed up on the coast, and they made a mold 

of what it might have looked like. They paint it different colors

every so often.  I try and get pictures of it as the paint scheme

changes, Husband always knows I will ask to go see the 

"Dragonfish".

It was a great day.  A little windy, but it was, oh, about 65 or so, and sunny, nice, nice day.

***

Then came about 2 days ago, in the morning.  The wind had been heavy all day, several places had lost power, then I looked outside to feed the cat, and saw... 

This...

There was about an inch or so.  It was wet, sloppy, cold,

and generally not what I wanted for THE WEEK BEFORE SPRING!

Sorry for the blur.  Just trying to show the snow. 

Stupid groundhog!

In case anyone thought I had fallen off the earth, remember last blog I mentioned being in the Iknitarod?  

I was knitting like crazy this whole time.  I started, then got to the center.  Did my decreases. Ran out of yarn, and realized I had screwed up royally!  I had not read the instructions right, and had decreased once on each side, not twice, as written. which basically made it a big, house shaped, pentagony thing.  Frog, swearing not so silently, and start from the middle, over again.  Decrease CORRECTLY this time.  I finished about 5 pm, local time, with the edging, and was able to have it count, as the first musher of the Iditarod came in last night at 8, (Dallas Seavey) so I was in the time frame. (Whew!!!)  

For a simple pattern, it took a h*** of a lot of effort!  I am now going to knit something... Sockly, I think.  

After I take a short break and write some letters.  I have several folks that I need to reply to.  Let's just say the Month of Letters went better than I could have imagined!  I am not going to write every day, but I am going to make a point of replying to the letters I've received.  And perhaps a few that I haven't managed to get to yet... Urk.  

A letter's a letter, right???