Wow Beck - what a fabulous intro - I can almost see you - we do get to know each other on Senior Learn and so it is really nice to know you a bit better. Steph also lives in Florida although she spends her summers in the mountains of NC - she was tragically widowed just a few short years ago and it has been heartwarming to see her reconnect with life. Who knows you may live close enough to each other that one day you will meet.
The Latin Club is a special group and I am sure you will get to know the participants - Ginny along with JoanP are the originals who helped get off the ground not only Senior Learn but the original SeniorNet that was the first online book group back in the mid 1990s
There are several of us that go back to those early days in, if I remember correctly it was 1994. Today folks would shake their head since I do seem to write long posts and like to add all sorts of tid bits of research but when I started I was so shy that I read along a couple of books before I finally had the courage to post - i remember reading but not posting to
Jude the Obscure but I cannot remember the discussion where I first posted - I do remember it was the September Discussion - soon after JoanP led the discussion of James Joyce's
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - which took us months to read.
In the list of discussions there are two archive folders - the one has most of the saved discussions of most of the books we have read - some of those early SeniorNet discussions did not make it over.
About me - I live in Austin and like you a book worm since childhood - my family is now all scattered - in the mid nineties my daughter was still living in Austin with her family and then they moved first to SC and very soon after to the mountains of NC - She and Gary have 2 boys. My daughter teaches and Gary has the Computer Outlet store in Greenville SC. Their oldest just graduated for the Savannah School of Art and Design with a double major and the youngest is this summer in Norway and Sweden, last summer in China and is going into his 3rd year at UNC at Chapel Hill - My youngest son during these years has moved from El Paso to Portland Oregon to Bryan Collage Station then Lubbock and now he lives just north of Houston in Magnolia. He is considering early retirement this year since he turns 55 in September. He manages the Fed EX Houston Air and delivery operation. He has three sons all living in Lubbock - one of the twins now is following his Dad and works at Fed Ex and they pay for his tuition. He is attending Texas Tech. The other two are good kids, well actually in their early 20s, still working it out maintaining themselves mostly working Restaurants. My oldest son died a couple of years ago. He was living in New Mexico at the time.
I am a Real Estate Broker - do not work the hours nor with as many people as I once did - only a few clients a year - I am one of those folks who woke up one day and realized in shock I got old - for the most part I am in good condition and do not look my age - had a couple of bad years there after walking with one leg into a deep hole that took a year of recovery which happened immediately after a 2 year bout with Temporal Arteritus and I have this eye thing that there will be more surgery this Fall but now pretty much back in shape after that down time deciding to forget the age number and just live.
I like to garden however, the deer are prolific and so that limits what I can grow - herbs and experimenting with their use satisfies my curiosity. I do like to cook. I have packed many interests in chunks of time during my life and delving into French Cooking was one where a group of us attended classes for a couple of years and one October we traveled to and in France, the south and the east as well as Paris, visiting farms and small truffle canning operations and of course ate at as many 3 star restaurants as we could find along with a few memorable 4 star restaurants - for a while I taught Needlework and there was a time I taught Silk Screening and and and - Big chunk of time I was involved with Girl Scouting and ended up being sent to Canada to train adult Guides. Like to swim, did a lot of hiking again, in Mexico, France, Germany and Switzerland. Like to and been knitting fun socks and sweaters for all the boys and recently took up Piano again after some 30 years of not playing at all. We all have a favorite author - for me that is difficult but one who I do have every book ever published is the poet Dylan Thomas. I've always been in awe at his way with words.
I guess my characteristic ID is I am very curious and any new idea, person, thing, time in history etc etc I have to find out more about it and cannot settle down until I do - then of course I assume everyone is as curious and I share which, thank goodness in this group others also like sharing what they bump into including books that will further our understanding of a story so we all end up looking into the corners and under the beds finding and learning more about the tid bits included in the writings of most authors.
Hope we see lots of you Beck - this should be a fun read with many "tid bits" to uncover more about.
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