.....not a recent photo LOL !!

Ohiomom - still as cute as ever!

Monica - lovely, warm smile you have!

Pete - that's a helluva calf muscle!

As fer me, no way to do this stuff, not yet anyways. Once retired (an old saying of mine) I'll get the whole kit & kabootle at home, pc, printer, scanner, digital camera, etc. I've wanted to post pics of my gardens mostly but it'll have to wait.

For the time being this will have to do :

Second from the right...

Here's a better shot

Me again - fast forward 31 years. My blonde hair has darkened over the years. People tell me I should color it but that is not my thing.

Here.

She still looks great!

you may feel better served perusing the bird photos?

Clay, my second pic was taken this summer at my 45th birthday party. Hence, the cup full of beer and the slightly(?) drunken expression/stance. (Throwing arms around people ... "I love you, man!" Sheesh. Middle-aged crazies.)

STILL a very attractive pic. :-)

Is 45 middle aged? When I was 20 I thought that was well, old.

Now I am not so sure.

As for you, I'm still wonderin when you're eyes are gonna open! :-)

I liked your brothers horse better though, AQHA shows true quality.

:)

My phobia is ... fish.
Yep - fish.
Dead ones, live ones, cooked ones, swimmin' in the ocean ones -- it matters not. They all freak me out to the extreme. I had a couple of rather gory fish encounters when I was a child, and can still remember having nightmares back then, dreaming that there were fish in my head. (Oh, the horror!) I still have fish dreams, and they never fail to make my skin crawl.

I actually can sit and watch fish swimming in an aquarium, but if I happen to see one floating dead towards the top of the tank - oh gawd, I'm done.

I love to walk barefoot on the beach, but invariably end up doing little heebie-jeebie dances by just barely escaping stepping on washed-up dead guys while enjoying otherwise blissful strolls.

And I'd love to take surfing lessons, but I know it wouldn't be the waves I'd be afraid of. It's the unseen finned swimmers, and the possibility of actually coming into physical contact with one, that prevents me from doing so.

Yes.
I'm weird.

You shouldn't drink water either. fish do things in water.

Bill, are you sure it was bees in that Outer Limits episode? It was the beatnik alien "ants" episode that creeped me out, laughable now of course. I don't know how today's kids can sleep at all with the bloody, freaky stuff in movies and tv.

Bill - BOO!

I remember being in a department store - back when department stores were just that, and this particular one had a pet department. I was almost counter-height myself, just barely tall enough to peer over the top of one. I was running my hand along a counter that was piled with "sale" merchandise, and I encountered something that felt quite odd ... picked it up, and to my kiddie-horror, it was a dead fish. (Oooooh, yeah! It's on sale!)

When I was probably 8 or 9 years old, my Grandad took me fishing. I caught 17 small fish, and I'm still not sure why we didn't just throw 'em back, but we didn't. We took them home, and gave them to my Grannie, who decided to make "fish stew" for their German Shepherd. I guess she thought the things were dead, as she put them in a large pot and proceeded to boil them (or something), but they came to life and began trashing violently inside the pot. Oh gawd. When she lifted the lid, it was soup alright -- with eyeballs floating on the surface. Now, I know that neither of my grandparents were cruel people, and would never have done anything to purposely torture a fish (or a child), but for whatever reason it happened.

Probably doesn't sound like such a biggie now, but I'm still creeped out. Even after all these years.

Ok, new phobia.
Thanks a lot vgkg.

Many middle age and older women have much going for them - we are reliable, sexually experienced, more relaxed with a sense of humor, keepers of the family connectivity, often financially stable, and have a rich memory of many things good and bad to share. We are not wallpaper.

And are you saying that younger women are unreliable, sexually inept, uptight, humourless, wasteful and have nothing of value to share?

No wonder my life was hell 25 years ago....

I don't know about the "we".....

but that's me spot on.

Clay: That's me back then too ;-)

ALL phobias, by definition, are strange.

I mean to say that I dreamt of fish in my bed

Jen, you've watched The Godfather one too many times!!

There's absolutely no rhyme or reason as to how or why some seemingly innocuous incidents won't matter to some, and will traumatise others. Maybe it's all about our past lives, as Sylvia Browne thinks! :-)

No. Just because I said something good about older women doesn't mean I said younger women are the direct opposite. Don't put those words in my mouth please. Thank you.

Huh? Where?

Not to put anything in your mouth...
so what exactly do you think of young women? And what do you mean by 'young'? You were referring to middle aged and older women. Only.

If you are asking comattose, I don't want to put anything at all into her mouth.

I'll be 50 in a few months, and yes, I am "reliable, sexually experienced, more relaxed with a sense of humor, and financially stable."

I have no phobias of fish, bees, climbing trees, or Hillary.

I know more than a few stunning 50, 60 and beyond women who look every bit their age. Beauty doesn't have an expiration date.

Isnt that the truth. I have always been attracted to older women, how I ended up marrying one my age, I dont know? Now, at age 60, I guess I more appreciate a woman neared my age. I dont need a young girl on my arm to impress my friends. I think my wife at 60 is way better looking than many younger women, tho it doesnt come easy for her, she walks a lot, eats properly an has pride in her appearance.

Me recent (50-ish) - now a respectable cog in the wheel.

kwoods--I agree that beauty doesn't have an expiration date, but I think I'm quickly approaching my "best before" date. :)

fancifowl--my husband would totally agree with you! He's always liked older women. He's nine years younger than I am!

Don't bogart that joint, my friend!

:-)

uxorial--

I think I'm quickly approaching my "best before" date.

That's a riot!!

And Uxorial -- Indeed you do not look anywhere close to 50. Or, at least, if that's what 50 does look like, I'll have what you're drinking. ;-)

(and don't forget that guts look bigger on camera!)

Another friend, prbably the most liberal person i know is balding w/ red hair & wire rim specs, and a bit of a belly roll for sure influence my vision of KT. I could believe some of KTs writings here make them the same person.
some times I just form no opinion but aunt Jen did seem as she should be graying with her hair in a bun and a cookbook in her lap, and ohiomom would just be a smiling, happy type, carrying a mug of coffee everywhere she goes??

We went through Mayberry a couple weeks ago. Way sleepier even than on the show. Andy is the only business in town, naturally.

How many do you have? And what's that on your arm?

FF ... ya got the coffee right ... LOL ! Lots to be happy about, life is good.

You don't look old at all.

Well maybe a little.

But I bet you weren't shallow or unreliable, inept at anything like that when you were young either.

Tattoo pictures are very interesting, (hint hint)

Online or email.

You Chicken.

(Or can I say that? Is that somehow akin to misappropriating "decapitated"?)

Are you going to post those pix? Or do they need heavy Photoshopping first? (I swear the photo of me is untouched!)

I can confess I feel pretty astounded though.

I should have been more circumspect about it. It was just so surprising.

You made me blush....

This one's a little more updated of me-- from last september when a good friend who's an author on tile installation (the guy in the middle-- John Bridge) was doing an RV around the country trip stopped here in Maine. I'm the one on the left:

Fun thread.

Amazing number of absent posters from 4 years ago.

Me and the LF at our favorite place, doing our favorite thing. Relaxing after swimming all day. At the lake. Boy he looks like his daddy. My hair, my freckles, the rest him :)

Silver, you and your dad are a hoot! That's southernspeak for really enjoyably funny.

Rob, we're two peas in a pod :)

You don't look it.

That reminds me. When Ping was leaving, he was always so kind, and a great scientist, he told me how he appreciated the help and that he and Ling would keep in touch. He also told me, when he first saw me, he thought Dr. R hired a "young" secretary. He said it in such a way, that just made me laugh! I guess he figured out I was there for more reasons than that. Seemed that way. Well, I'd certainly earned his respect.

:)

David-- with a 6 1/2 pound bass, no NEED to. :-) That's the biggest bass I've caught since I moved back up north.

Hey Maggie-- I make a KILLER salmon fillet!! A little salt and pepper, some minced garlic, a couple of tomato slices, and a fork!! Good stuff!