Do online acquaintences count like real ones?

As you may have guessed, I have several  "online friends".  Most of them I call friends because I do not want to be bothered spelling out the word acquaintance.   Since AOL automatically adds any one who emails me to  my address book, I have a very full address book.  I also have a category that is marked "If I croak" and Bret has instructions that if I do suddenly cease to exist, he is to notify these 2 people.  Only two.  The first one will no doubt tell anyone who will listen and she knows which chat rooms I go to so that aspect will be covered.  The other one will get his "flushing finger" warmed up since I want to be buried at sea and that is the shortest, most direct route I know.  Just having a little trouble getting him to wait until after I am "gone."  And this, my friends, brings me to the crux of my missive today.
As you know, I sell on eBay.  eBay has chat rooms and a year or so I went to visit for the simple reason that on every post I make there is a link to my listings.  Good business sense, I thought.  Of course after a period of time I got to know people.  Some more than others.  One little gal in Florida and I were working on our html skills and the room we were in got very upset with us so we moved to another more liberal room.  The point here is we started emailing outside the chat room and are very good friends to this day.  I send her cookies and she eats them.  She in turn sends me little tokens.  I am as close to her as if she lived next door.  But I have never met her. 
A couple of months back I noticed that one of the regulars was not popping in at all.  So I mentioned it.  No response.  I mentioned it several more times and then let it go.  Then someone else mentioned it.  Two months!  Then came the announcement.  Seems the guy had "passed".  How sad that no one noticed he was gone for two months!  Had this group been here in my circle of friends, his absence would have no doubt been noticed right away, but the Internet is a very big, fickle place.  Friendships are made easily and just as quickly dissipate.  Yesterday's news, so to speak.  Had he been in my "real" world I would no doubt have at  the very least sent a card. 
There are many in my online address book that I hear from or contact on rare occasions.  Only these two hold special meaning for me. Now, I can not help but feel these friendships are as meaningful as if they were right here beside me.  Am I wrong?  Do we need flesh and blood contact to connect with people?  This Internet is a wonderful place if we use it correctly.  Am I doing that?  I have several friends who think I spend too much time on the computer, but it is what I do. 
I think that I am as close to Amy as any of my kids.  I would like to bring her to Colorado and take care of her.  Teach her things she needs to know to get by in this life, like proper nutrition.  ;) And my other friend and confidante knows me as well as anyone and way better than most.  He can see past my facade to the real me and point out my faulty thinking.  How he does that I will never know, but he is the first man I have ever "not met" that can do that.
I guess what I am really asking here is why we call it "passed" or "gone" when it is really "died"?  And if someone dies that I have never really known, do I still "know" them?  I realize that I was never close to Dan, but I still feel a twinge of sadness.  And I know if anything happened to my Amy or Oscar  I would be inconsolable.  Does that make me abnormal?  I think not.  Life is full of relationships on every level and in every degree.  My online friends are just as important to me as my real world friends.  So, maybe I am abnormal and maybe I am not.  Time will tell.
In the meantime I will hold on to the online connections and trust that they will be holding on to me.  And some day, I am sure, I will see them.  And when that day comes I can toss the computer, but for the moment it is my connection and it is here to stay, as real and vibrant as the friends in town.  So to one I sign off "Mountain Momma"  and the other, "Bella".  I love you both.  Just never get to say it often enough.
And all you others out there reading this,  I love you, too.  Love is a well that never runs dry and the more you give away the more you get.  So start spreading it around!

Dolly wants a new black and white purse!

Ah, Dolly decided she wanted a new purse, so I told her I could most definitely accomadate her in that area as I had just finished making several new ones and I was sure one had her name on it!  Dolly and Jerry attend the same church that I attend, or I should say I attend their church since they were there a long time before I showed up on Sundays. It does not take long to figure out just what I do in my spare time, cause I am happy to share that news.  I am now making purses which I shall offer for sale on eBay, but my friends get first choice and they get a break on the price.  And let me tell you, this little Dolly is just that!  She is the sweetest little person I think I have ever laid eyes on and her husband, Jerry, is absolutely devoted to her as you shall see in the last picture on this post. 

So here is Jerry telling her, "Sure, honey, it that is the one you want, cost is not object.  What ever you want is what I want."  Or something along that line.  You should know that they very recently celebrated an anniversary that took my breathe away.  Seems like 65 years or something like that, but look at her!  She is not old enough to have been married that long.  She is just as fresh and dewy eyed as she can be.

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We had discussed whether the handles were long enough since some women do like to hook thier purse on their shoulder.  I do, but I expect to look for a shoulder bag.  So Jerry, since he is the one who usually carries Dolly's purse decided to model it.  So he did and he pronounced that it was just about perfect.

And since the deal is struck, here I am getting a check for my wares.  Ah, everyone fared well on this little transaction, although I did rather hate to part with that purse as it was one of my personal favorites.   But  if it must go to a new home, I am sure it will be happy at Jerry and Dolly's house.  Besides, I will probably see it again next Sunday!

 

Even I have a win some times!

What you see here is the culmination of my thinking process over the last few months.  Of course I first had to have a seed planted.  The whole process began probably 7 or 8 years ago when some one suggested I might try making soap.  So I kicked that one around for a while.  I  remembered when mama used to drip water through wood ashes and get lye which she mixed with old grease and that was laundry soap.  So I studied up on that.  At the time I could buy lye about anywhere so I made my first batch of soap.  First I had to find beef tallow which I had to render.  The first batch was made with beef tallow, lard and olive oil.  And of course lye and water.  Amazed my self!  It was white and pretty.  My skin actually was not dry any more.

So on to different kinds of soap.  And then lotion.  Getting softer all the time.  Then Body Butter.  Fragrances.  Lip Balm.  And then a hippie friend explained about years ago and the lip balm that was made with hemp butter.  I researched the hemp factor and found that Cannabis Sativa  is loaded with Omega 6 and Omega 3  essential fatty acids.  It is one of the richest sources of complete protein.  It is also effective in the treatment of eczema.  That was all I needed to know.  First came the Lip Bong.  Then I began work on the Face/Body Butter and yesterday I reached perfection with the formula.

Ah, this is like nothing you have ever felt.  It is like silk on your skin and there is no oily residue. I am still searching for a name.  Since it makes my face as soft as a baby's bottom, a friend in New York suggested I call it "Arse Lookin' At Ya!"  I am giving thought to that.  For now it is just Hemp Seed Body/Face Butter.  You can find it located in my eBay store or just email me.  I am pretty sure I have a winner here!

http://stores.ebay.com/Lou-Mercers-Grab-Bag

From here to Madrid, Spain in 7 days!

This is Marvin the Martian. The little fellow left here last Thursday, March 11, 2010 and woke up this morning in his new home in Madrid, Spain. That is less than 6 days which is doing some moving if you just stop and think about that. Here is how Marvin the Martian Telephone came to make this journey.

I sell on eBay and Marvin was dropped off by a member of PFLAG which is the acronym for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. They have a rummage sale in the Spring to raise money for a scholarship fund they maintain at Pueblo Community College. It came to our attention that some items would bring more money if they had more exposure. We were right.

So Marvin came to my house. He was photographed on his best side in natural light and off he went to the eBay auction. Now new phones were selling on eBay at the time for $15.99, so imagine my surprise when I got my opening bid and it went up to $19.99. I was amazed when the auction closed at $31.00. Then came the most amazing post. I received a communication from a guy named Juan in Madrid, Spain telling me how happy he is to support our cause.

Postage to Madrid is by no means cheap, and the best I could do on this was $33.00. And then I check the progress today and find it has been delivered! I have sent things to Canada that are still in transit!  I have had people email me from Canada that apparently never get their package and when I trace it I find it has left the United States at which point it seems to be swallowed up in the big hole called Customs. But again I digress.

I just wanted to tell you how well the United States Post Office came through for me on this one. I sent a boat title to Denver 26 years ago and it has not gotten there yet, nor was it returned. Some letters have taken weeks to get there while the short check I mailed in anticipation of the deposit I would make the end of the week reached it's destination the next morning.

And so my hat is off to the USPO, Customs in Spain, Marvin and Juan! All worked like a well oiled machine for a story of success!

No, really, I am going to clean out that closet today, or tomorrow at the latest!

Lyn was here yesterday and she made the mistake of opening my closet door. Now in all fairness this closet is big. It is  14 feet long and 6 feet wide. It just screams "If you don't know what to do with that just cram it in here!" I have stayed in motel rooms with less square feet than this thing has!

In this room is all my hanging up clothes, thus earning the name "closet." It is very cool in there so I keep all my oils  and soap making stuff in there. There is some overflow eBay stuff in there. Christmas wrapping paper, every piece of correspondence I have ever gotten, Kenny's memorial box, a huge box of hats (all collectible and worth a fortune), an 8mm video camera, sheets, blankets, baskets and various and sundry items that have been given to me and I can not throw them away because someone's feelings may be hurt.

Ok, I can see your wheels turning. You are thinking I am a hoarder. No, that is not it at all. I am not hoarding this stuff, I am merely keeping it until I figure out what to do with it. I am sure soon I will come up with a solution. A few years back I thought I had the solution and I took it all downstairs. I wrote the date on each box and thought after one year I would throw the box out if I had not opened it. So I opened each one, peeked inside, and wrote a new date on the box. So that was no real solution.

Ok, when I get home today, I am going to set every thing in the other end of the closet and then start putting it back in an orderly fashion. I am really going to do that. You will see. No more will Lyn be able to say "Shall I put the vacuum cleaner in the closet out of your way? Oh, no! It is full and the vacuum won't fit!" I wonder what her closets look like?

I will be back Monday to report on how this is progressing. I am not a hoarder; you will see. This is all good stuff it just needs to be sorted through and organized. Monday I will post a picture of the progress I have made. You will be so proud of me! 

Do you remember the show on the radio called "Fibber McGee and Molly." No Fibber McGee here. You will see Monday.

Wooden Floor is all Done!

The floor is all done and the boys have gone home! Remember that part about posting pictures before I got the stuff back in here? Well, that did not happen. Tim and Justin started by putting the heavy tables in and then the computer desk and next the office desk and a 2 drawer chest and it just went from there. Now, granted, all the junk (Great stuff for sale on eBay!) is not back in here, but it is creeping this way.

Some day I will need to do a post on how much I enjoy my thing I do on eBay. They are raising their prices or revamping or something the end of March and that may very well be the end of my career there, but for now it is a fun thing that makes me a little bit of money to stretch the old Social Securtiy check a tad bit further. I have also met some interesting people.

But for right now, I am going to work on getting the stuff out of my bedroom so I can walk over to the other side of the bed. Sister Mary will be leaving me on Sunday. We have found that if we neglect the Brain Gym exercises, we are not as coordinated as we could be, so maybe there is something to this.

Anyway, I am going to leap in the shower and get ready for the day. No baby today. Only on Wednesday. According to Indian Lore, we still have 18 snows coming this year, so I am hoping they get here soon. Did I tell you in the middle of the snow storm last week I saw a Robin up in the Cherry tree?

Have a good one!