Hello Out-there!

[relaxing101]

This started as a post on Karen's update on Sharon (Sprinter) so lots of hugs and prayers are being sent to Sharon and Karen! I can understand the difficulty of this situation as I faced the same thing yesterday learning that my roommate, Terri's cancer is also back but her prognosis at this time is more positive and for that we are very thankful!

I never had the pleasure of meeting either Sharon or Karen but I have looked forward every day to opening this site and reading the good, the bad and sometimes, the sad, entries from all of the wonderful ladies on this forum. When someone doesn't post for a long period, I feel like I have lost a good friend (even though I have not met them). Every time Sharon posts, I know that it will be upbeat, positive and entertaining and ‘truly Sharon’. Karen has given me years of good information and enjoyable pictures and news about her trips and travels and visiting friends and she has always been there with a helping hand for the other ladies in this group.

Lately, I log on each morning with great anticipation hoping to see a new post or even just a quick note from or about a number of ladies that are not posting now (for whatever reason). I miss seeing posts from Jenny, Mitch, VickieP, Nasoosie, Dawn, Sharon (SoCal) Liz and Carol and many others! I just hope and pray that all are doing well and will come back to visit some day!

In the mean time, I will return each day to check up on those that are here posting and say a prayer for those who aren’t.

Hope to 'see' ya tomorrow!!

Bonnie

[BirdbyBird]

Bonnie, it is good to know that you two are still out there, too. Hopefully Terry's body gets the message directly from the doctors and can respond to treatment without adding too many worry lines to you both. Medicine is such a balance between an art and a science.

There are frequent posters and frequent readers. What is nice as everyone comes out to close ranks around and share support any one of us that needs it.

[Bethers]

So nice to hear from you, Bonnie. Sorry to hear Terri has a new struggle, but I'm glad it sounds surmountable. Anything we can do - holler.

[bluepinecones]

Good to hear from you; sorry about the medical ordeal but glad it sounds favorable.
If you are still in Orlando area, you might be able to meet with Soos - think she will be around that area another month or so.
I too hope some of the other ladies check in also as I miss them.

[Colliemom]

Bonnie', Nasoosie is still around, but doesn't post on here. She prefers Facebook as she says it's much easier to post and put put pictures on for her.

[Nasoosie]

Good Morning to All!

Not sure what room to post this in, as usual, but have to choose one so general talk it is.

Bonnie, here is what I just posted on messages (private) on Facebook about why I no longer even try to post on here or read anything, actually: "Thanks, Sarah, for letting me know I am being missed on the womens' RV forum. I guess I should post something about why I no longer use that forum to post anything any more. I simply cannot tolerate losing a post I have worked so hard to type, and cannot stand having to go to some website to send pictures I've taken in order to get some code needed to post them on the forum, and cannot sift through tons of messages in tons of different rooms, and on and on with excuses to avoid all that stuff needed to post on there. I will try to explain that on the forum! This is just so much easier for me to keep track of people I care about. Also, I was discovering I was copying and pasting things I was saying on here and trying to get them into the forum as well. I could no longer remember what I had said and where I had said it."

I really miss a bunch of old friends who do not use Facebook, but I just don't have the time needed to post in both places. Facebook is so much easier. I do belong to a couple of groups on Facebook which are private and safe, and all that, (for those afraid of hacking and wanting privacy) where my words are read only by members of those groups..All posts are in one place, not several different rooms like on here where you need to open a room, comment, try not to lose what you have typed when you hit "submit", close that room, move to another room and repeat over and over. This forum was wonderful when it first started and there weren't tons of members joining all the time, so many of whom I have never 'met' via words at all. (It was taking up a good part of my day just trying to "greet" newbies.) And there were few enough posts that I could keep up with them all. Now I am flooded with tons of unread things each time I open up, and I just throw in the towel and leave. In order to keep up with all happenings on here, it takes me literally hours of opening and closing and trying to 'greet' new people and trying to find threads and posts and who all is speaking and where they came from, and etc, etc. Obviously I am just too impatient to even try to keep up any more, although I miss so many good people I used to communicate with regularly. I apologize to all I have abandoned, but I have to do what I do in order to try to stay sane at all! (I know----many of you realize I will never reach a state of sanity! )

Bonnie---where in Orlando are you? I will be here all week this week, although next week I will staying in St. Cloud when my daughter-in-law heads back to work after the birth of my new little granddaughter, Brooke. I will be in charge of her 5 days a week for at least this upcoming month until she has to begin with Day Care. I would love to meet somewhere for lunch, or you could come here to my house where we could chat and snack and all! I will never know if I have to find a response from you on here, but you could email me at nassoosie@verizon.net It would be fun to plan a get-together! email me and let me know!

To all others who feel I have abandoned you, please know it's not you but the structure of this forum that makes me feel so at a loss any more. I do miss you all that I once knew and talked to, but I have to choose how to stay in touch, and I just can't manage this any more. Once in a while I try to stop in, but I never know where to start as there are so many unread messages in so many different rooms, and always new people I don't know at all. I still love to go to whatever get-togethers I can make and actually meet people face-to-face.

Hugs to you all and I hope you all are doing what you love most in life and that you are all happy and safe somewhere!

[dayspring39]

Binnie so sorry to hear of the health struggles of Terri...
Take care and keep us updated on how the treatments are going...
I for one enjoy the forum... thanks to the very hard work of Beth... there are challenges with any media... I do not read every room here but it is a good way to sort out the kind of things one wants to read...

[Carolinagal]

Hi Bonnie, so glad to see you back !! So sorry to hear Terri's latest news, but praying she will beat it this time too. Wish you all could have made the Hardee's Lake GTG, beautiful area and I met some new people, which I always enjoy. I'm down to my last days in FL. After over a year and half here, boy, am I ready to hit the road. First destination my place in NC to see what damage last two winters have done, then it's west to see family and more friends, soooo ready for that

Glad to read you check in from time to time, nice place to just read of others, was my place of comfort and not feeling alone this past year or so. I don't always write either, sometimes just lazy

Take care, love to hear from you more often, my best to Terri and prayers for you both,

CArol

[retiredhappy]

Soos, you were doing it the hard way on the forum. I click on "new messages" and get all the updates on one page. I, too, use Facebook but they keep changing things and its my understanding that your life is an open book for them. Not a fan.

[Nasoosie]

I know how hard Beth works to keep this forum up and running, and I congratulate her for doing so. It just is not for me as I have no patience. I know many of you love it and have the time and patience to manoever around it. I did for years, but seem to have lost whatever talent I had for it. I do not mean to belittle it at all for those of you who love it, nor would I ever mean to criticize Beth for the work she does. She deserves all the recognition she can get for taking on this bunch of strong women! It seemed as if I should just write some explanation of why I no longer post on here, and it was not meant as a criticism-----merely an explanation of my feelings. I get myself into trouble on Facebook many times, also, for speaking my mind on many issues, but at least on there I can usually reply quicker and and can see how my words have affected people faster and outwardly rather than trying to find them sealed up in little compartments which I then have to find later on.

Mitch obviously misunderstood my reaction to a ruse which was designed to be a comical way to bring the subject of cancer to light on Facebook, and so now I have lost the ability of reading words written by her as she thought I was putting her down, or was unable to laugh at an attempt to lighten the load of the heartache and pain of cancer victims, and to make people 'aware' of the tragedy of cancer by saying strange things that were untrue to wake people up. Rather than waking me up, it made me feel like a real dope for not finding out the the posts were untruths in time to see any humor in them at all. In reality, all I was trying to explain was how the posts had made me feel violated and dumb and idiotic to believe what people had typed and that I had responded as if those posts were truthful. I didn't read the 'fine print' located somewhere in messages that accompanied those posts as I was ignorant of where to find messages and read them. That experience has made me hesitant to really believe anything out of the ordinary that people might type on there now for fear it might be just another fake message.

Obviously, I guess I am far too sensitive to be able to really enjoy expressing my feelings in written words in any forum, both here and in Facebook, and so I now try to just type a few words here and there and attempt to keep my words surface-like and not deep in brief responses on Facebook. This post this morning has been unusual for me these days, and I have taken advantage of it to try to get through to Mitch as I can no longer talk to her on Facebook.

So there you go----now you probably all see why I keep to myself lately as I hate to put my heart on my sleeve to be hurt by people misunderstanding my words.

Travel safely, stay strong and follow your dreams-----all of you.

[judi]

Nothing on Facebook is safe and private, regardless of your settings. All info there belongs to FB, and they do with it what they want. I do use FB, but I don't post personal stuff. I love this forum, and it's format. Hats off to Beth!

[SoCalGalcas]

Me too!!! The women I meet here and in person are the TOPS! Yea Beth! Lyn

[avalen]

just in case anybody misses me....I'm still here, read often but don't post as much as I used to. I'm alive and well
and dreaming of the big full retirement day. I like to look at it this way.........finish this school year, do the whole
school year next year, and THEN.....wait for it........do a half year and be done

[JudyJB]

Soos, I will hate to see you not post. Please reconsider, but I am glad you are joining GTGs.

I think we all need to try to be less sensitive and allow posters to voice opinions without taking it as personal criticism. Personally, I love the give and take and the variety of opinions on here. So what if we say the "wrong" thing, whatever that is?? There is not one of us who has not said something in jest or passed on something that was later found to be untrue. All of this makes us all human, and I have had my share of making mistakes, so I like to think the best of everyone else.

The hardest part of this forum or Facebook for that matter is that no matter how carefully you craft your writing, someone will misunderstand it and might get upset. And if we all have to be so careful about what we write, we lose the fun parts of this forum. I also try my best, but I am certain someone has been upset at something I have written. Believe me that I would never hurt anyone on purpose, and I don't think the rest of the women on this forum would do so either.

So, I hope those who have left will reconsider and rejoin us!

[Bethers]

Thank you for those who are giving me kudos, but it really is all the great women on here who make this forum what it is. I'm sorry when we lose some, but that's life. And while I use FB, I prefer this forum for making friends - real friends - just me. I also find it much easier to have a meaningful conversation here.

Like Judy, I hope that people will always realize that the written word cannot always be taken the way it's intended and for everyone to try not to be too sensitive to things. I apologized to Judy the other day because I thought I might have said something a little harshly about how she did something - which was NOT how I intended it. We all like to do things differently and have different views, and yes, the women of this forum are strong women - so it's easy to have several views on the same subject and somethings we're all right - maybe sometimes we're all wrong - but we're all opinionated, that's for sure And Judy didn't take my words poorly - thank you!

I hope this forum stays around for years to come. One advantage here - I can find old posts on any subject fairly easily - and check what was said - I just had to look up a recipe the other day that I posted lol - couldn't find my copy - On FB those can get lost a day after viewing/sharing them!

There's good about both - and lots of good friends here - I hope that those who decide that FB is easier, like you, Soos, will at least consider stopping here occasionally and saying hi and what's happening in your life.