Connecting

The other day we were fortunate enough to see a gorgeous sunrise in Roanoke and an equally stellar one as we slipped into North Carolina's coastal counties.

I feet connected to Virginia's Reston area, the Roanoke-Blacksburg area and to Emerald Isle and Carteret County on the North Carolina coast.

I also still feel a real connection the Surry, Yadkin, and Forsyth Counties in North Carolina. 

In all of these areas, I have lived, met people and been part of everyday life.

Then there is my online life. Which continues to amaze me.  As I was helping a childhood friend to make a decision about buying a Macintosh, I got a note from someone in New Zealand asking me for advice on their Macintosh purchase.

It has to be an embarrassing measure of Apple's inability to sell their own products that someone like myself, who was shown the door at Apple, is sought out for advice on buying Macs.

Part of me wants to tell people that Apple doesn't really care about computers anymore, but the Apple community including me doesn't want to believe that.

I am still happy to part of that Apple community.  I usually have between 1,500 and 2,000 subscribers to Applepeels so it is a significant part of my online life.

I also feel connected to some folks in the Roanoke blogging community.  Fred of Fragments from Floyd and I exchange emails once in a while.  Sean of Sean's Horse Farm and Family Blog usually catch up by instant message when our busy schedules allow.

I also still hear from Sonia in Brazil once in while, and I take the time to visit her blog, Leaves of Grass.  Recently I met Mary, a wonderful artist, who writes Beaufort, NC-The Town and Why It's Unique.

John West, the author of Only Trait of a Leader, and I still communicate.  We met five years ago during a briefing on super computing in Apple's brief flirtation with that world.

These connections enrich my life and make it much easier to take the day's events.  I know that in spite of some of the daily frustration that there are people out there who care about some of the same things that I do.

Over the last few months, I have added a new person, Dave, to that list of folks with common interests.  He has just gotten started with a new blog, Piedmont Visions.  Dave lives in the Roanoke area, is a cancer survivor, and an ex-Cobol programmer.  I think you will find his posts well worth your time.

I have also brought up a new blog, Once a Reston Resident, which is focused on my thoughts about Northern Virginia and the many years I spent working there.  It is hooked into the Reston Back Fence Community where I have just placed my very first online ad.

I would love to see the Roanoke-Blacksburg area get a Back Fence Community Site.  It would be a lot more meaningful than "Technology Corridor" signs. If I had the bandwidth to push for things that would help the Roanoke area, Back Fence would be a good one to investigate.

I think I might just have enough online irons in the fire at this point.  My own online Realtor®   efforts have gotten me hooked into a significant online world of real estate agents at ActiveRain.

Well it is time to log into instant messaging and to check on Russ, my friend up in Happy Valley, the home of Penn State.