After giving a piece of my heart and a chunk of my life to the Oldtools 
Porch,
  hanging with you all, and belonging somewhere.....Where everybody 
knows your name.....

         Here we are at the crossroads.
The last trace of innocence, from the old listserv, seems to be slipping 
away from us.

  We've had narrow escapes over the years. Plenty of times they almost 
showed us the door, and certainly could have on a whim.  But somehow 
Galoots always survived.
Somehow we supplanted ourselves onto the new owners of the old broadcast 
equipment, and we got them to grandfather us in.

   I feel a little like a grandfather. Maybe because I am?
  Is it really possible they'll toss us to the wolves?
  Will we have to land pitiful destitute, on poor Chris's doorstep,
  who has already carried our tired old bones for so long?
       Have we actually entered a Charles Dickens plot?

         Yahoo didn't work for the Old House Gang. My only other 
webgroup these past decades. Its very tiny though. Under 30 members at 
its zenith.
  From an old college listserv just like this, to a members' back closet 
(who set up old scrounged server parts and rag tagged it together for 
years).

     We tried to migrate it to Yahoo. Started a Facebook group too.
   Neither worked so well.

  Its all so much "less personal" out there in the cold world.  You have 
to beat back the night, compared to just breathing, here on the Porch.

The oldschool listserv delivers mail like a relative. Real mail, real 
names, real Galoots.
   And the mail is coming. Its coming whether you are ready or not. You 
need to deal with it.
   Sometimes its the needing to deal with the mail, that keeps it real. 
Helps keep me real too, I guess.

  When something is just posted to a standard, well whatever they call 
the formally formatted bulletin boards like, woodcentral, woodnet, etc
  well, its easier to ignore those.

   Shall I beg for my life now?
Shall I beg to try and keep the last of the old friends and old times 
and old feelings?
    Shall I do a last ditch Bio update?

   Some year for me. I honestly don't know what is happening this year.
My old drummer died of heart failure. My bass player died of stroke. My 
wife of 40 years, rhythm guitar, heart attack.
   One of my closest friends just had a surgery that has left him 
paralyzed, hopefully temporarily, but its spinal column, so all bets are 
off.

  My own third heart procedure got me booted from the Fire Department. 
(in the kindest possible way)  And a clerical error got me relieved from 
the local Sewer District governing board.
  Both of these were grateful retirements though.  Whew.
I'd paid enough dues with both of those organizations.


  But today, it just seems like...........
        Whats going on?   What am I doing here?
    Who did I used to be, and who am I now?
      Does it get any freakier than this?
              yours Scott








-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.n
et/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcr
est.net/kitty/hpages/index.html



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