On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 08:44:02 -0600, Willi wrote:

I posted a message to Sandy yesterday on ROFT asking him for a source of
the Teflon tubing he uses to dispense Zap A Gap. He promptly
replied along with a description of how he uses it. This morning Bill
(someone I've never met either online or in person) sent me an email
saying that he is sending me a length of tubing from a spool he bought.

Maybe this isn't a big thing but for me it brought back some sense of
how I used to feel about the people who posted to ROFF. There were
always disagreements including some very nasty ones, but underlying all
of this I always sensed some real, as Wayno put it, "camaraderie".
This resulted in me meeting some people that I now consider genuine
friends, which at least for me, aren't the easiest things to find. It
wasn't the name calling and at times cruel fighting that sent me away
(although these fights have gotten so predictable that most are more
like a poorly written TV script than actual dialog) but rather
that, for me, this "camaraderie" seems to have faded farther and farther
into the background. It isn't so much the "bad" as it is the lack of the
"good."

Thanks again to Bill. Your gesture made my day.

Willi

Heck, Willi, the "camaraderie" is what _you_ make it, not what others
make for you. While I can't say you and I are "friends" in the
real-world sense (but only because there has never been such a chance),
I'd certainly say I'm glad to have made your, well, "online
acquaintance," and I know several ex-puppies that are as well. I'd
fish, eat, or drink with you any ol' day. OTOH, say or do something
that strikes me funny, here or face-to-face, and there's a good chance
I'd goose you (or anyone else) a bit (or a lot, depending on what it
was). I'd expect the same from you (or anyone else). To me, fishing,
ROFF, and similar ain't cardiac surgery, a death penalty appeal, or
underwater welding, it's down time, even if just in snippets, and I'll
be damned if I'll actually _choose_ to be as serious with ROFF, etc., as
I _must be_ with so much else in life...hey, as always, YMMV...

TC,
R