Well, I took the plunge and signed onto Facebook.

I won't abandon my message boards, because I can tell already that Facebook cannot really replace those.

I won't abandon my blog....well, no more than I usually abandon it. 

Now if I can figure out this Facebook stuff, I might actually come to enjoy it!

I'm getting the impression that Facebook is taking the place of blogs for a lot of people.

I know so many people who are on Facebook and loving it!  I have not taken the Facebook plunge.  Part of me wants to, part of me does not.  I have searched my high school, my college and my area for people I know.  I think I found 3. 

I know Facebook enables the re-uniting of old friends, but it would appear one has to be a bit younger to reap those benefits.  It seems as though 50-somethings....at least 50-somethings I'd want to catch up with, aren't taking  part in the Facebook phenomenon.

I mentioned joining Facebook to Brody and he almost had apoplexy!  He told me it was designed for college kids and "What are older people doing on there?"  That kid.....no tact sometimes.

Not only do I notice the drop in blogging, but I notice people not posting on message boards I belong to.  I have been posting with most of these people for over 10 years and I hate to see our message board relationships fade because of Facebook.  Why can't people do both..... just to keep me happy!!!

I'm still pondering joining Facebook.....

So, just thinking in print today.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  I'm looking foward to a leftovers lunch.

The NJ State Police were Focused on ME!

Paranoid?

Maybe just a bit....

Last night we were watching the World Series.  I'm not a baseball fan, but since I'm in south Jersey, the Phillies are our home team.  So, when the Phillies are in the Series, everyone watches.  And just in case you don't know....the Phillies won the first game last night.  Go Phillies!

A bit past 11:00 Mike and Marna went to bed in quick succession.

Brody, his friend Alex and I continued to watch the game.

I realized I was hearing a helicopter circling and circling and it was fairly low. I'm not good at distances, but I would guess at the height of a 10-15 story building (isn't that about a 100-150 feet?).

I heard it fly away then come back closer again and again.  We hear MedEvac helicopters every once in while, but they are fairly quick in and out again, obviously.....they are taking someone to a bigger, better hospital.

But the constant circling made me know this was not a MedEvac helicopter.

I figured it was a NJ State Police helicopter.

I told Brody and Alex, they listened and they said, "Someone probably escaped from the county jail."

The only other time we've heard a helicopter circling and circling like this was a few years ago when 2 inmates escaped the county jail.  The State Police helicopter circled around our town for hours.

I went outside to see what I could see.

It wasn't circling around the entire town, but around our end of town and out into the close-by township.  They made smaller and smaller circles. 

I could see the big white spotlight on the front, but I couldn't really see that it was shining down like I remembered it looking when they were searching for the inmates.

I stood right in front of our house where I could get the clearest view of the helicopter for about ten minutes.

As their circles became smaller and smaller, they were very close to our neighborhood. And even though I thought they were looking for inmates, I wasn't frightened at all.  I'm not a terribly fearful person. 

I know they use some kind of heat-seeking thing to find people from the air, so I figured they would find whomever they were looking for.

On another pass, the helicopter comes slightly from my left to almost directly in front of me.  I'm standing there with my head cocked back watching them in the sky.

And then it was quite evident to me that their search light was aimed right in my face!  I just knew it!  You know how you know when someone aims a flashlight in your face?  You just know it?  This was the exact same thing on a bigger, much blindlingly brighter scale.   I had no doubt they were looking at me!  But they were looking for escaped inmates, I couldn't figure out why they were looking at me.....and I am absolutely positive they were looking right at me.

Did I make it absolutely clear that they were looking right at me????

When they passed over me, I came in and told Brody and Alex that the light was shining directly in my face, the police were checking me out. Brody said I was paranoid. They went right back to watching the baseball game.

The helicopter continued to circle through the game's conclusion and I went to bed.  I laid in bed hearing it still circling.  Mike asked me what was going on and I told him it was the State Police probably looking for escaped inmates again.

I went to sleep with the sound of the helicopter still flying around.

This morning, before Mike went downstairs, I told him about the helicopter and how the searchlight was focused on me.  He quickly told me it was probably because of the heat seeking thing.  I told him they were looking at me far too long....it would have been quickly evident I wasn't an escaped inmate.

I went into the shower and when I came out, Mike told me he had gotten the newspaper in and they probably WERE focusing on me. 

It turns out an elderly woman, with Alzheimer's strayed away from her home,  not far from here, around 7 PM.

They found me on the heat thingy, then saw my gray hair and had to make sure I wasn't the missing woman.  I knew they were looking straight at me!

I'm saddened to learn that this woman is missing. It was very cold last night and I fear for her well-being.  I hope with the light of day, she will be quickly found today.

Oh, yes....... it did happen again!!!!

Another computer crash.

Or as I affectionately call it, a cyber enema!

I just finished a half of grapefruit and my little brain remembered something about grapefruit and medications.  So, I Googled it.

I go to a few sites....one is NEVER enough for me.  I hit another and up pops this site for porn videos.  Then a pop-up, 'you have to install such and such'.  I keep hitting cancel....CANCEL......CANCEL ....and they keep popping up. 

I shut down the computer.

I reboot and the blue screen of death pops up....one I've never seen before.  I knew we were screwed.

I followed the instructions on the blue screen and NOTHING.

Surprisingly, Brody said he would call Dell.  (Who entered his body between the time he left for school and the time he returned?) I'm still in shock that he wanted to try this.  It is SO out of character for him.  He isn't usually long on patience.

I told him to clear it with his father first.  I wasn't taking responsibility for not being able to bring this thing back from the dead!!! 

Dad gave the green light and amazingly Brody brought this thing back.  He was on the phone about an hour and a half with Dell, even had to wait for a return call and he did it with very little complaining!  I am still in shock!

The only thing that survived was the Recycle Bin (why does it keep that stuff???) and all of Brody's stuff on the external drive. 

I've been through this before....I'll survive....but I know there are some pics I would have liked to have kept.

The only problem I'm having now is that I can't download anything, like Google toolbar or AVG anti-virus, but Mike assures me he can fix that stuff.

Maybe I should start to back stuff up, huh?

I was thinking about lost friends last evening.

I was returning from the shore, stuck in traffic and Marna, next to me, was asleep.  It was her last day of work for the summer and she had put in a very long, hard day.

As I sat there inching along in the bumper to bumper traffic, my mind started to wander and I was thinking of friends with whom I have lost touch.

I am very lucky in the friend department, on the whole.  My best friend is still the girl who lived up the street from our house at the shore.  She lived there year-round and we can't even remember how old we were when we met....we think we've narrowed it down to when I was 3 and she was 4. 

Through marriages, children and a divorce (hers) we were not always frequently in touch, but we never became emotionally detached, so our infrequent calls, letters or meetings were enough to sustain our strong bond.  I know this sounds corny, but it's as if the Fates designed us to be best friends.....it's that strong of a connection.

I am also fortunate enough to be in touch with all my close high school friends.  High school friends is probably a misnomer as we came from a very small town (a half hour from where I live now), a town from which people rarely moved, and we were together from nursery school until 12th grade.  We all go to our high school reunions and it's not unusual for someone to throw a gathering in the years between reunions.  We always exchange Christmas cards, some of  us email regularly and if someone comes back to the area, phone calls are made and a meeting is planned.

My college friends are a bit of a different story.  I am still in touch with the two roommates I had and a few other people who lived on my hall.....but my ring of college friends grows smaller and smaller.  I know it's easy to lose touch when you live far away and never see one another and I am responsible for some of those relationships dying.  As I grow older, I regret allowing those friendships to sizzle. 

I have tried to rekindle some college friendships and have been successful with two.  But many of my former college friends seem to have dropped off the map.  They have fairly common names, so Google isn't much of a help and they are no longer in the college directory that is compiled every several years and they are not in the alumni directory online.  I have no idea how to find them now.  That tells me I need to cherish and nurture the college friendships I still have.

I have lost the most friends on the internet.  I have been on message boards for 11.5 years.  I started on a huge site called Moms Online.  It was a great site, one where many, many women became online friends and forged strong friendships.

When it closed, there were splinter groups that started online message boards. Through the years the sites and faces have changed.  Some people just dropped off the internet, but many times the changes were a result of disagreements.

It's sometimes difficult  to properly express one's feelings on the internet,  where tone of voice and facial expressions are absent.  I'm sure those factors came into play in some, if not all, of the disagreements.  I was a big part of those 'board wars' in some instances,  because I am opinionated and have yet to learn to keep my thoughts to myself when I should.  And honestly....years after....I can't even remember what 99% of those disagreements were about.

Sitting there in traffic last night, I was thinking of so many names....people I enjoyed 'talking' to on a daily basis....wondering how life has treated them, how their husbands and kids are doing...

I could list a huge list of names of people I was thinking about last night.  I know many of them are still on the internet on message boards.  But I also know, because of my past behaviors, that I am persona non gratis at those message boards.  And I understand that.  In some, not all, cases I earned that reputation.

I don't know if any of the people I used to post with even know this blog still exists.  But if they do and if they perchance are reading here, I'd like them to know that I hope life is treating them well and that I still think of them.

Cherish your friendships.  When they are gone, they are sometimes impossible to rekindle.