Getting to Know a Lurker!

Barbriat

Hatchling
Registered
Joined
Mar 28, 2005
Messages
6
Hi,

I am not simply a lurker. I assume you want to know who is here... who is interested besides the obvious member. I am also a retired grandma living in a 70 year old rock cottage at the edge of the woods in the Ozark Mountain foothills. Missouri, USA. Can't see my nearest neighbors. Love it that way. Middle of Missouri, middle of the US. No ocean shore. (Well, I miss the ocean... Atlantic of my youth, Pacific of my young adulthood.)

In the 1950's my California high school Biology teacher, Mr. James Robinson, took us on a field trip to Laguna Beach, CA. When we came home with a small octopus, which did not live long, my desk was seated right next to the tank ... Mr. Robinson asked about my college plans and suggested Scripps College. Right then, I was sure I wanted to be a Marine Biologist from Scripps College. Truly not that one incident. Mr. Robertson made every aspect of Biology exciting... but the ocean was his pet project. And he praised me!

Well, that didn't happen. I was a secretary, then a mother of five children - successful people with advance degrees, now in/and approaching their 40's (I'm proud). I was a trainer and writer of training manuals for Girl Scout adults, an active volunteer and advocate of children with learning disabilities... twenty five years sped by.

I am now confined to my wheelchair, live alone, (where I have always wanted to retire) watch the deer, turkey, all the wild life on my property, and I spend an exorbitant, but delightful amount of time on the computer. The contrast of using my computer, against feeding my wood stove, simply delights me!

My favorite site is one of writers and poets where I'm proud to be a moderator.

TONMO is my second favorite site. I try to read every single word posted here. I am fascinated and envious. If I ever win a lottery (but I never buy a ticket) I would immediately start getting a 50 gallon tank ready for a Bimac!

I love reading here. I love hearing your experiences with your short lived pets. I love that you have experts like Dr. SOS and others. I love to hear your newbies start out as every newbie before them. I love your tolerance because they might be future biologists or conservationests. I love my time spent at this delightful site which is so well maintained and easy to roam.

On my Internet... TONMO is my second best favorite. Not a small thing from a layperson.

So, if you see my name signed in, and you wonder why you don't hear from me - it's because I have nothing to contribute, but I am completely captivated. Lurker doesn't seem like a label I want to wear.

But, appreciative lurker I am.
:heart: :read: :wink: :mrgreen:

P.S. To educators - (Thanks, Jim Robertson, I never got to Scripps. Still, thanks. When the nation's focus was on space and Spudnik, you were in your classroom, instilling the wonders of the unexplored oceans and the future to be found there. I hope some of your students did advance. Meanwhile, I was and still am, left with a care for this vast resource. It interests and stimulates me in my old age. What a pleasure on the computer, instead of boredom, and I hope I've passed on some of your thoughts while raising my children and influencing Girl Scouts.

So there.

Did you ask Newbies to introduce themselves? Sorry I've never learned to be brief. Either silent, or verbose.

Back to reading this terrific site! Thank you.

Barbara
 
"I love your tolerance because they might be future biologists or conservationests."

:welcome: Barbara!

I have to say you have already contributed something so huge!!! What a potent statement! I hope you do continue to share with us!!!

Carol
 
:welcome: And I, at least, think it's pretty clear you have plenty to contribute!

You already made my day by reminding me that Laguna Beach was the place where I encountered an octo in the wild!
 
Barbara -- thank you for posting awesome introduction! Very glad to have you here, and I'm thrilled you see the value in this site -- I see it the same way. Thanks for de-lurking!
 
Welcome, indeed !!! Glad you de-lurked (is that a real word....hmmm) and I am looking forward to you chiming in on the threads.
greg
 
Hi Barbara,
What a lovely introduction! And three cheers for the Girl Scouts... I'm a life member and fully intend to follow your example by instilling a healthy sense of marine respect and wonder in any eventual troops I may work with. At the moment I get a few Girl Guide groups through the aquarium in NZ where I run the occasional educational sleepover, but I think a pet octopus would make a GREAT project for a few Juniors someday! ... Living at my house, of course (the octo, not the Brownies). :wink:

:welcome: to silver new friends.
 
Welcome Barbara. It's wonderful appreciative posts like yours that make contributing so worthwhile. I'm glad you've 'de-cloaked' and look forward to reading your perspective on the threads.

Salve! (as they said in Rome).
 
Thank you all for the warm welcome.

Tintenfisch, I like being called a silver friend - from that round sung best at a campfire.

Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
and the other,
gold.​

:smile:
 
Barbriat,

A very hearty round of welcomes has followed your amazing introductory post, and let me add my :welcome: to the chorus. Laguna Beach is a truly lovely bit of paradise, as is the glorious Ozark Plateau. Good fossil ammonite country there in Arkansas, too, as I've recently learned here at Tonmo.com! A very sincere welcome!
 

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