It should be everyones policy to meet an online love interest in real life within a month. Don't drag it out longer... you may very well regret it. The sooner the better for a real life meeting. Consider how we meet in real life. Whether a chance meeting, bumping into someone, or admiring someone across the room and your eyes meet, we know instantly if we like their looks. Then if we strike up a conversation, we know within a few minutes if we want to talk further. If we chat it up for an hour or so, we know if we want to go out on a date or not. These online dating sites are a way for us to find people with similar interests, desires and lifestyles. But there has to be a real life meeting to see if we are actually attracted to them or not. On the other side of the coin, meeting someone the normal way, in real life without previous online knowledge, and being attracted to them, doesn't mean we'll end up sharing the same interests, desires or goals. Online dating, is only a meeting of minds. There is no way to have the kind of human interaction we get from meeting someone in person. You'll find there are a lot of "time wasters", "window shoppers" and people who never intend to meet in real life, maybe because they are already in a relationship and are just "fooling around" online. I've seen too many friends get very involved thru emails, and even phone calls, only to finally meet months later and know in a few minutes that it isn't going to work. So you start out with some emails, compare profiles, talk on the phone a few times, then you meet in a public place such as a cafe or truck stop restaurant, and get to see each other in person. You'll know within a few minutes to an hour at most if you both want to go further with the relationship. I have one pal who fell in love with a guy she met online, just thru emails alone. They kept up a romance for six months before she finally started pushing to meet in person, and he made excuse after excuse. Then she gave him an ultimatum, and he told her he needed six months to get his life in order. She waited the six months, and he still made excuses why they couldn't meet in real life... she pined for him for a long time, before finally realizing he was never going to meet her in real life... and finally gave up on him. Don't let that happen to you.Just some helpful advice : )

Yup. I did it. I'm one of the white folks who voted for a black man to be president of the United States of America... why?

Lots of reasons. I'm not really into politics. I don't look closely at all the issues... I just get a general "feel" for those running for office over time. Ultimately I doubt Obama or McCain were that much different, and I often refer to Democrats and Republicans as "Republicrats" as there usually is not much difference between them... when you get down to nails and tacks... Oh, they talk about how different they are... then they get elected and so long to all their promises.


I voted for Obama for other reasons. I had to listen to all the crap about Obama from my redneck friends all year and read their email warnings.... all of which turned out to be nonsense. So I figured it was high time we had a black man as president. Why not? Can't be any worse than the average old white dude. Obama is a young fellow and he has a vision...

I did have some doubts about Obama because of the church he used to be a member of... but you know what? I bet that pastor has a change of attitude... all white folks can't be devils if millions of them voted for a black man to be president.


When Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa... did the country go down the tubes like all the rednecks down there said it would? Hell no. It's still the most powerful and stable country in Africa.


I think Obama as president will be good for the country... good to show everyone the world over that anything is possible in America. Good to show blacks that most whites are not racists. Good to show blacks that they can get ahead here in America and that we do indeed have the greatest country in the world.

Great little video... take it to heart.

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-refuse-police-entry-into-your-home-157370/

Is there any genre of music that you completely refuse to listen to? Gustav Mahler. I hate Mahler. Even Rap is preferable, LOL. I also think the genre called "modern Jazz" is garbage. I went once, to the Boulder, Colorado symphony "Mahler Fest" because a friend of my GF was playing second chair Chello. After the first number, my GF and I stare at each other... with blank looks. Absolutely everyone else rose to a standing ovation. We painfully sat thru until the intermission, at which point we left. There was not a "toe tapper" among all the music played. Ok... it was complicated. I'm sure it was quite a challenge for the musicians to complete the numbers... but it all seemed to be random weird sounds to our ears. So what kind of music do YOU hate?

Well, the past couple of days have been interesting indeed. Sunny is Aleah's guardian. I don't know how else to describe their relationship. I've never seen one quite like it before, and I have known 6 different horse herds so far in my horse experience, totaling around 35 horses.

Sunny follows Aleah around. Aleah gets first bites of hay and feed. If Sunny has her head in a feed bucket, and Aleah sticks her head in too... Sunny backs off. I've never seen any aggression from Aleah towards Sunny, but she just isn't used to having a pasture pal around so I suppose doesn't act in a normal way towards a herd mate.

They seem to be completely at ease with each other. Yet, Sunny acts like Aleah is the top horse, and she the #2.

But when the Shetlands are around, Sunny attacks. She lays her ears back flat against her head and charges the ponies, sending them off. They then keep their distance. I've had to feed them their hay 100 yards away from the big gals, and Sunny will not allow them to come in the barn to eat sweet feed in the evenings.

Sunny and Me.

She remains halterless. None of my gals wear halters. I don't like the marks they leave on their faces. I am afraid they might get them hung up on something, and indeed, one of my horse friends has had one of his mares get her halter caught on something and broke the halter in her struggle, causing a scar on her face.

Does being halterless make it harder to "catch" her? Not at all. I can easily walk up to her (as long as the rope is hidden somewhat) and put a rope around her neck to lead her where I want her to go.

She is still adjusting to this strange human who is so friendly with her. LOL. Today it was warm enough to wear my Palm frond hat, which is sort of a natural straw color, (www.sunbody.com) instead of my Black Felt Stetson, and she didn't recognize me. Yah... It took me a whole 30 seconds... well, maybe a minute to convince her to hold still so I could walk up to her and love her up. She's catching on. It's still hard for her if I walk up directly towards her head, and she'll turn her butt to me, but once I touch her butt and run my hand along it, I can walk up her side to her head and love her up totally, tho she is still a little unsure what to do at that point.

When I do that to Aleah, she is likely to turn her head and give me a head butt, heh... then swing the part of her body around to me that she wants scratched... usually her butt, LOL.

Sunny and Aleah are a good match. Sunny is 22 tho, and Aleah is 5. I hope Sunny lives a long life so they can be friends a long time. Not many horses live beyond 25, tho I've known a couple who made 30.

Now it's about time to find a new home for the Shetlands. That was always my intention, once I found Aleah a good pasture mate. I have limited space here and more than two horses is pushing it, both for the space and my financial ability to take care of them. I'll likely be listing the Shetlands on Dreamhorse.com or even in the local paper... free to a good home.

Dan

Wednesday, April. 9th. 2008

Brownie has been deposed! LOL. She and Spot are now #3&4.

Aleah is perplexed about her new position as #2 and doesn't quite seem to understand why the ponies are giving her ground whenever she approaches.

Monday was much the same as Sunday. Sunny would flee whenever Brownie came too close, but would kick at her if chased. I was able to pretty much, with only a little coaxing and a few soft words, walk up to Sunny and love her up a bit. I took a few pictures and posted them in my MySpace album "horse friends".

I decided I'd give Sunny some feed, all by herself, so I took a rope in hand, and walked out to her. LOL... typical horse behavior... she sees the rope and won't allow me to get within 20 feet of her. So I put the rope around the back of my head, with each end stuffed into my coat pockets. Hidden in this way, I'm able to walk up to her and place it around her neck. The way I do this is, the rope goes over the horses neck, with the ends dangling down on either side. I then close the loop with my hand. That way if they bolt for some reason, and I let go of the rope, it will just slide off. Anyway, I then lead her towards the barn, and she follows along, until we get about halfway, then she looks worried, stops. Whinnys, looks around for Aleah (who is grazing somewhere and could care less) I coax her and finally she follows me again. We get near the barn and again she stops, whinnys, looks around for Aleah with a worried look in her eyes. She then follows me into the barn and I shut the door so if Aleah comes over, she won't be able to get in. I lead Sunny to the feed bucket I have ready for her and she eats, but is very shy about it. Takes a few mouthfulls, then wants to go looking for Aleah, heh. I keep leading her back to the bucket and she ended up eating most of it. Then I let her back out to be with her buddy.

Tuesday morning, Sunny was starting to assert herself a bit towards Brownie, but was still giving ground to her. Sunny also had made Aleah her new best friend, but Aleah wasn't quite sure how to handle all the attention.

Last night, when I went into the barn to give them all sweet feed, I placed feed in all four feed-buckets and called them in. Aleah and Sunny came in first, then Spot came in and took an unattended bucket, then Brownie came in and tried to take Sunnys spot. Sunny laid her ears back and chased both ponies out of the barn and wouldn't let them back in, heh. So I went out and gave the ponies some hay.

After Sunny and Aleah were done eating their feed, they both stayed in the barn. I loved them both up a bit, leaned on them, and stood among them observing. Sunny then started nosing Aleahs lower hind leg, and made a sound I'm not familiar with ... Aleah became nervous and went out of the barn, with Sunny following. Aleah then stopped, and Sunny now stuck her nose under Aleahs belly near her udder, and made that same odd sound. Aleah didn't know what to do, so came back in the barn and stood next to me. Sunny stood at the doorway looking in. Then Sunny came in, both stood next to me, I loved them up a little, and the same thing happened.... Sunny nosing Aleahs back leg and making that sound, nosing her udder etc... Does she think that since Aleah is so much bigger than her, that Aleah is her long lost mother? LOL... who knows?

Wednesday. I went out to feed them their morning hay. I threw out the pats of hay, and Aleah and Sunny came up first. Then Brownie and Spot... Sunny then laid back her ears and charged Brownie and Spot running them off! What a surprise. Looks like Sunny is the new top horse. I then threw some hay for the ponies a little ways further from Sunny and they came up, only to be charged and chased off again by Sunny. I then walked out and picked up an armload of the hay and took it about 50 yards away and called the ponies over, and they started eating.

I then walked over to Sunny and Aleah and they are eating, right next to each other, nose to nose, with no fussing. Sunny is again covered with dried mud, LOL. I guess since her last home was a mudhole, where there were no dry spots to roll, she just learned to roll wherever, LOL. At least there was no caked mud, and I was able to rub it all off in a few minutes with my fingers.

Leaving them all to eat, I started out to walk the fence line to make sure there were no breaks etc. I got about halfway out, and I notice Aleah move towards Spot and Brownies pile of hay. The ponies look up, but then go back to eating. Aleah eating next to them. Then Sunny looks up and realizes Aleah is no longer next to her, spots her by the ponies, lays her ears back and charges the ponies, who run off. Aleah looks up perplexed, LOL. Then she and Sunny eat. The ponies circle around and go to where Sunny and Aleah had been at first. Sunny sees them and charges them again, sending them flying. So I ended up moving some hay for the ponies like... 100 yards away from the big gals, LOL.

What I find most interesting is, usually, when a horse takes over the top spot, all other horses are beneath it. It may have a pasture buddy, but even that buddy gives way when it's feeding time. Also, the leader usually leads... other horses follow. That's not how it is with Sunny and Aleah... so far anyway. It's almost like Sunny is Aleahs new bodyguard, LOL. Aleah leads, Sunny follows. Aleah could care less if Sunny is not nearby her, but Sunny gets worried and whinnys if she is not next to Aleah. They eat right next to each other with no troubles, but if the ponies come too close, Aleah could care less, but Sunny charges them.

More later.

Dan : )

Well, Sunday was the day. My horse buddy Sally showed up in her "Cowboy Cadillac", a Dodge Ram 350 diesel, dually, pulling a four horse trailer. : )

We got to Sunnys place around noon. It was a mudhole... d'oh. And Sunny was caked with mud. Her whole body covered in mud, mud in her mane, in her tail... It's been so dry the last week, I thought the paddock would have dried out a lot so didn't wear rubber boots... just my leather boots... oh man. The mud was almost up to the top of my boots and there was no help for it... I had to slog around thru it to catch Sunny. I had Dani, her owner wait by the back of the run-in shed, while I herded Sunny around the back side and she was able to catch her. I then led her out of the paddock and she followed me right into the trailer, no problem. I then spent some time at the water hose rinsing the mud off my boots and pant legs. We then made our journey to my place. Dani followed.

We got to my place and led Sunny out. We all stood around at the pasture gate awhile and let Sunny and Aleah sniff each other. The ponies squealed their displeasure. Finally I let Sunny in, closed the gate, and stayed in with her.

Dani looks around the pasture and says "OMG it's so big... you'll never be able to catch her!". LOL. So I show her around and she sees that I have two other paddocks, one pretty small and says "Oh, well you will probably be able to chase her in there when you need to catch her". I just chuckled. I told her she was welcome to come over any time to visit Sunny, and even ride her. She then left.

Then I wrote Sal a check for her fuel for the trip. I do handyman stuff in my freetime and when I'm laid off in the winter, so am going to do some electrical repairs for her in exchange for her hauling fee. Sal then headed home too.

Then I just hung out in the pasture to see how the four of them were going to get along. Sunny took to Aleah right away. Tho Aleah wasn't quite sure how to take all the attention. I've known Aleah since she was 6 months old, and she has been here with me since age 1. She is now 5. So for the last 4 years, I've been her only buddy. She's tried to buddy up to the ponies, but they want none of her. They do tolerate her presence, and I often see them grazing together, but every time she tries to groom one of them, they either bite her or kick at her. When I feed them in the morning, I throw out three big pats of hay, and the first one that falls, Brownie and Spot go for, and if Aleah stuck her head down too... she'd be bit or kicked at by one or both of the ponies, heh... then she'd give me this sad look as if to say "they're being mean to me, pout". I'd often go in after throwing out the hay and stand guard for Aleah, blocking the ponies from checking out her hay flakes, as they always need to nose thru every flake of hay to make sure someone hasn't got a better one than theirs, LOL.

Anyway, so I threw out some hay for them all, and then watched the sparks fly. Brownie charged right in, squealed and kicked at Sunny. Sunny gave ground, but kicked back at Brownie. I then stood guard for Sunny and Aleah, but Brownie came over several times, and Sunny would always give ground... I'd chase Brownie away by pinching her butt, and then Sunny would come back to eat. She was pretty shy still and I didn't push her for contact. I figured I'd feed 'em first then work on getting close to her and cleaning her up.

Well, once they'd finished up most of their hay, I then started trying to get close to Sunny again. I chased them all into the barnyard area, and closed the pasture gate.

Actually, I chased the ponies and Sunny in, whereas Aleah just followed along behind me like she always does, heh.

Within the space of 15 minutes, I was able to walk up to Sunny and start loving her up. Within 30 minutes I'd taken her mud-caked halter off and with her freestanding, no halter, no ropes on her... started scrubbing all the dried mud off of her body with my fingers and my "Grooma" tool. It took me well over an hour to get her pretty clean, and do her mane and tail. Her tail was the hardest, as there were lots of chunks of mud around her hair. They were about the size of rolls of lifesavers candy, and I had to break them up with my fingers to free the tail hair. Once I got her cleaned up... man... she sure looks skinny. I hope she's not a stringbean. Hopefully she'll fatten up at bit within a few months.

I've posted some pictures I took Monday of Sunny, and the other horses on MySpace in my "Horse Friends" album.

I have a lot more to say, but this one is getting too long, so will sign off for now and write more tomorrow.

Dan : )

Sunny is home. Me and Sal picked her up on Sunday afternoon. She's adjusting to a new friendship with Aleah, and battling it out with the Shetland ponies, for who's going to be the boss of the herd. IT's all good. I have much to say, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Dan : )

Here's the cure.

When I first became interested in horses, I asked the friends of a friend, if they would teach me about horses. In exchange, I said every time I came by, I'd clean their horse's stalls, etc...

These folk were the Leibs. Mighty nice folk. I learned a lot from them, and from their horses.

Once I felt comfortable around horses... every time I drove by someones place that had interesting looking horses out in the pasture... I'd simply drive in, knock on their door, and say "those horses in the pasture are sure interesting, may I meet them?". And I tell ya... 9 times out of 10, they will say "SURE!".

You see. Most horse owners are so busy with their lives, they haven't enough time to spend with their horses as they'd like, and also have few if any human "horse buddies". These folks are more than happy to show you around and chat about their "hobby" which is horses, heh.

So... if you REALLY want to get to know horses, just pluck up your courage, and knock on some horse owners door.

One caveat tho... don't go out with the intention of riding. View horses as pets. You want to get to know them as pets first. Learn how to groom them, take care of them, and clean up after them, LOL. Then, some owners who ride, might just invite you to ride with them... even if you don't know how... they might be willing to teach you. This is how I learned to ride.

A member wrote me and asked my advice about how to change answers she'd made mandatory. Here's the letter reposted.

>Hey, Ferghus! Like the newspaper article - pretty wild sideburns!! I imagine they are genuine to the period.

Actually, no... which is likely why I got my pic in the paper, as I stood out... many of the other reenactors were pissed because of the picture. But the group I was in, the North West Territory Alliance, allows facial hair, even if it's not proper for an 18th century British soldier. In the groups that the others were in, such as the Brigade of the American Revolution, You can't even get into a Grenadier unit unless you are at least 6' tall, which was the 18th century standard for British grenadiers... guys in my unit from the N.W.T.A... some were barely 5' tall... LOL... it was no biggy to us.

>Couldn't quite read the text, though.

All in French. Interesting that in Canada, everything is in English AND French, until you cross over into Quebec providence, then everything is in French ONLY, LOL.

>Question for you, how does one "unmake" mandatory answers. While doing the questions a long time ago, I didn't know about the little matchmaker being so picky. I've looked and can't even see WHAT my mandatory questions/answers are. Appreciate any help you can give.

If you go to "YOUR STATS", then "Questions answered", then "Change answers to old questions", you'll see a link to "KEY questions", so those can be changed... and if I were you, I would uncheck every key question. As for the Mandatory questions, you just have to from the start, go thru every old question, and make changes by retaking the question in which you answered Mandatory. Keep track of where you're at tho, because every time you re-answer an old question, OKC takes you back to question #1, and you'll have to look for where you left off. Because of this, it's kinda tedious redoing old questions. I have 1200 answered, but am only up to #500 in the process of making changes... If you didn't notice my other post about the questions... if you also answered "Irrelevant" to ANY question, the software here considers that to mean you agree with ALL the answers. Thats the reason I've been checking back over all my old ones, to retake the ones I'd answered irrelevant to. I had considered irrelevant to mean, "I disagree" with every answer, or even "I don't care".

Good luck!