>I just felt that Sam's quick and courteous reply deserved some sort of response from me, because I always respond quickly to my friends, and even though he doesn't know me, I consider Sam to be, somehow, a friend.

Don "The Monkeyman" Jackson,

I (and others here probably as well) understand exactly what you mean when you say you consider Sam a friend even though he doesn't know you from Adam. Welcome to the forum, BTW.

I was introduced to RinkWorks about a year and half ago via "Duel of the Ages," and I immediately felt that Sam and Dave both were kindred spirits. This was probably because my friends and I had written similar stories in high school and college. I sent Sam an email telling him how much I enjoyed reading his and Dave's story, and was quite surprised to get a response thanking me for my message. At the time, I had no idea how down-to-earth and friendly Sam is.

After that, I kept coming back to this site from time to time, checking out various features of it. Unfortunately, I never investigated the Message Forum until Spring of this year. I must say, having read some of the old forum posts, that I was missing out on a great thing! There's a whole online community of HIHG QALITY folks here at RW that it's truly a joy to interact with!

Since getting involved as a regular here, I've made a lot of new friends and acquaintances across the county and even in other parts of the world. I hope your experiences here are as much fun and as habit-forming as mine have been!

Gri"Rinkworks receives another glowing review!"shny