I didn't find an official place to introduce myself but given the friendly nature of what I've read so far I feel confident that just posting a new thread with a bit of an intro here will suffice.
I've been hearing about your wonderful community for a few months now, Phil and John are old friends, and I finally made it in, found a comfy seat and thought I'd let y'all know I'm here.
As my screen name says, I used to live near Kinnear, WY. Our mailing address, and our mail, came to the Kinnear post office but we lived about 11 miles past Kinnear off Hwy. 26 on 6 acres off a private dirt road. We moved out there in May 2001 and left in August 2005. As glorious as the Wind River Mountains are and as nice as the people out there were and as much as we miss some of our friends who live there, I'm glad to be back to what I call home. Driving darn near 40 miles to grocery shop in Riverton at the Super Walmart was a BIT too far for me. As was driving into Lander for Dr. and dentist appts., visits with friends (I lived for awhile in Lander while the other half lived out on our land on Nuts Flats as we call it...that's another story) and general needs for some sort of civilization. Riverton just didn't do it for me so a trip across the rez to Lander was the norm for social activities, such as they were.
As for Wyoming as a whole, some parts of it are simply gorgeous. ALL of it is unique. The people are for the most part good folks, even if some of them have their cowboy hats on a bit too tight.
No offense to any Wyoming-ites in this community here, I would live there again if only it weren't so darn isolated for this small city gal. The other half would still be out there if not for my unhappiness about living so isolated.
A bit about myself; I'm 51 now ... wow... married, no kids and down to three cats. One of them found us when we lived in Wyoming and is a story unto himself. I'm originally from the Western NY area and call the Rochester, NY area home. I'm a true Great Lakes gal I found out during the past 7 years when we were gone from here. After leaving WY we went to eastern OH, which was a nightmare, and this past May we finally returned home to the Rochester area. I don't work outside the home, I'm a computer geek and have been in the online world since the early 80s. I'm also a Ham Radio operator and all around nerd.
I read a LOT and when I first moved out to WY I found Annie's stories in the second hand book store in Lander. When I read Brokeback Mountain and then heard they were going to make a movie out of it I cheered, and I also KNEW there would be some fallout in the local area, as there certainly was. Not everyone there felt that it, or any of her stories, were indicative of the "true" Wyoming yet I felt she hit it spot on with almost all of them. Perhaps it had to do with seeing the place and the people from an outsider's point of view.
In addition to the techy toys and hobbies and reading I also enjoy creating with paper and pretending I'm an artist of some sort. I feel it's important to express myself and create SOMETHING on a regular basis. I also dabble in a few other crafts here and there. I actually have too many hobbies and once again as I moved I faced boxes of my stuff but couldn't throw any of it out. I did do a massive clean out last year of all my old computers, I was collecting them (don't ask) and just about all of them are no longer with me. That certainly cut down on the boxes when we moved this time! However, I also love music, movies and have a fairly large collection of both, including my Dad's old 78 rpm records along with all my old vinyl. I also listen off and on to old time radio shows, I like radio dramas especially, I'm a shortwave listener....again off and on. I read...as I said... and have a fair number of books although recently I've sworn off Amazon.com and SFBC, although I'm still a member, and am back at the library weekly. SciFi is my favorite read and has been most of my life. I'm not much for the fantasy stuff but the hubby is. However, I will read most anything as the mood strikes me. I also like to game on the computer but I recently shut my EQ2 account off when we moved and have yet to open it back up. Too much to do here now that I'm back among the living with friends and things to do. I also enjoy some video gaming, mainly on my DS these days.
Why I'm here? Phil and John told us all about the trip last year and about the community here and what the movie means to many of you. I liked what I heard and thought I'd stop in. I hope I'll enjoy my time here. I can be very verbose so thanks for reading my ramblings so far and I hope I picked the right place to post this.
