This is about my almost lunch/dinner-date with Daffynition.
I had very nice conversations with Daffynition over the years. My wife and I went to stay at a Bed and Breakfast up in the NorthEast Kingdom, and I gleaned from our discussions that she lived up in that area, so I resolved to meet her for lunch or dinner.
I have met dozens of Freepers over the years (including you, Sir) and have found nearly all of them to be, er, as I imagined they would be, and good to associate with! (NOTE: Before I go further, I won't be offended in any way if any of you knew her and met her in person and say "She was nothing like that!" This is just the way I saw her in my mind, and I kind of liked it. But that said, I am describing my impressions because, after all...most of the time that is what we have to do with people we meet in this forum, right? Don't we see "in our mind's eye" people that we have discourse with on Free Republic? I know I do. And I have had the privilege of meeting many in person, so it is an interesting exercise for me)
We were staying at a place that had this sign at the entrance of the access road up to their little farm: 
There are a lot of hippies up there, my sister and her husband are two of them, but we get along.
Anyway, as I caught sight of the sign pulling in, my wife rolled her eyes (I could feel them rolling even if I couldn't see them!) but I was on my best behavior.
In the month leading up to our vacation, Daffynition and I had been talking about possibly getting together for lunch or dinner, and she invited me to let her know when I was up there, and that I could come over and have some bear stew with her...:)
From a bear she shot on her property...from her porch, to be exact, if I remember correctly!)
So, when we unloaded the car and relaxed after dinner, I began to send her some FreepMails to let her know I was in the area. I never got any responses to them, which was not her pattern of communication up to that point. But I figured she must have been out of town or something.
I found out later from a Freeper (again, if I recall correctly) that she had fallen and broken her hip during that time. That explained it.
We lost touch, which happens sometimes on this forum. You drift apart from people into different types of threads and such, and you just travel in different circles for a while. I don't recall talking much with her after that.
I don't anything about her. I don't know what she looked like. I don't know how old she was. I don't know pretty much anything about Daffyntion, and up to this thread, not even her real name (Carolyn?)
But in the times I did carry on dialogue with her, I gathered she lived alone. That she was older than I thought (I initially assumed 50-60) that she was a conservative, she lived in a cabiin, and that she shot bears from her porch on that cabin, made delicious stew out of it, and ate it as she watched the sun go down.
So, even though I knew nothing about her, in my mind (a wonderful contraption given to us by God which gives us imagination) I had a complete portrait of her painted in my mind by the time I began FreepMailing her from my room in that tiny farm my wife and I were staying at. My mind took everything I knew from our Free Republic posts we exchanged, and created that vivid image I have of her in my mind.
I can clearly see this charming woman in my mind's eye, even though I have never seen her in person before. I see a bright picture of a vigorous, healthy, and vibrant septuagenarian, sitting on the porch of her cabin in a rocking chair. Her face is showing some age, in a wonderful way. Her eyes are a prominent shade of gray, blue or green, and when she is smiling, her eyes are narrowed with some crow's feet at each corner. When she smiles, each of her eyes narrows and makes what look like upside-down smiles. On her head, she has a wide-brimmed hat, or in another version when I blink my eyes, a red bandana. Likewise, sometimes I see long braids or longish, thick hair.
There is also a Remington lever action leaning up against the house by the door as the sun goes down, or variously, across her lap.
Remarkable.
All this was just kind of built in my mind, and as I think back on this virtual small intersection of two people's lives, I just glimpse that picture for a split second as I do it. I often wonder what she looked like.
I am pretty sure I DO know what she talks like.
And that is why I come back to Free Republic, year after year, and have a lot of people (many I have met in person) with whom I have enjoyed spirited and wonderful correspondences with over the years. I do appreciate your site, Jim, so I thank you for your efforts and vision in getting it out to us.
And so it is with our FRiend, Daffynition. Fair Winds and Following Seas to you, Carolyn. I will treasure that little snapshot of life you have given me.