A Virtual Acquaintance ... an Actual Friend ...

Perhaps, I have been lucky ... perhaps, I have been careful ... perhaps, I have been both ... whatever the reason, I have found that my acquaintances in the virtual world (those who have welcomed me to the blogosphere neighborhood) have been everything I thought them to be - and more! - when I meet them in the actual world.

Those virtual acquaintances have become actual friends ... at least, that's the way I feel, and I hope the feeling is reciprocated.

Some, I couldn't help but bump into. In many respects, Midland is very much a small town. There were several on the blogosphere - Eric at Fire Ant Gazette, Jimmy at Sticky Doorknobs and Burr at El Llanero - who were friends and acquaintances of mine in the real world before I met them online.

Others, it's just a matter of time. I suspect that Wallace at Streams and Julie at Yellow Bug News and I have been three ships passing each other in the night on more than one occasion, as we sail along in our kids' wake. I'll probably meet them at last, in the real world, this fall, during a PTA meeting at San Jacinto.

I hope, someday, to head 'back east' and visit my family, there. And, maybe, at the same time, I'll be able to meet two more e-acquaintances ... Jim at serontoninrain, and Frank at BOOKS, INQ.

With this in mind, one of the highlights of a trip elder son and I took to the Fort Worth area, earlier this week, was lunch with Cowtown Pattie of Texas Trifles at a location near and dear to both our hearts - and palates! - The Purple Cow.

There are other items we have in common, as well ... appreciation for the words of Edward Abbey, and the country that inspired those words ... love for our families ... respect for the great State of Texas, its people, its culture and its history ... all of this I knew from our virtual acquaintance.

Cowtown Pattie, in person, is even better!

It was a good lunch, with great company and conversation. And, I'm hoping to get together again, someday, with this woman who "meets life and takes it by the horns." At the end of lunch, as we prepared to depart, I told her that we expect her and her husband - the K-Man, who, I learned, is an accomplished muralist - to visit us on their next jaunt to the Big Bend ... after all, Midland is right along the way, and it IS the greatest concentration of Texas Trifles fans between Stanton and Odessa.