Am I the only one…. who has ever tried computer dating?

By: Richard L. King

Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed that I’d ever try a dating service, but I stumbled on a site and decided to try it. I’m ever so thankful that I did

The year was 2008; I was 64 and still had most of my hair and nearly all of my teeth. My wife had died in 86 and I had lived in South Florida since 92. I was still alone because I wasn’t really comfortable approaching a lady and not many had ever approached me.

I don’t own a good pickup line and I’m not blessed with a gift for gab. I’m not really shy, but I’m not very outgoing either. All of which made it difficult to meet that special someone, especially when you’re not really sure if you’re even looking. (or if she is.)   I know that’s confusing, but I’d been on my own for so long that I wasn’t real certain just how “involved” I wanted to be. I was pretty set in my ways and I wasn’t certain that I’d want to adjust to anything new in my routine.

With all that said, one day this “pop up” showed on my screen. Out of the clear blue this web-site was telling me that there were… “lots of ladies right there in your neighborhood looking for someone just like you.” It must have been divine intervention, don’t you think? Well, it went on to say that I could check it out for free. I’m no dummy, it doesn’t get much cheaper than free and so I decided to check it out.

Sure enough there were lots of photos of ladies, each with a little resume of a sort attached to it. Color me intrigued.   I wanted to know more. Unfortunately, to correspond with them I would be required to complete a resume of my own.   It took me several days,,, (you have to get it just right) but I posted my resume and then sat back waiting to be swamped by all those beautiful ladies wanting to date me.

Now you may think that I was being naïve, but I swear to you I did get a good number of winks as they were called, wherein some of those ladies actually did want to meet me. I selected the three that seemed to be the most promising and winked back at them.

Suffice it to say that a photo doesn’t always do justice. Upon face to face meetings, some of those ladies seemed to have aged some since their photo had been taken. Maybe I am just a little bit naïve after all.

However, I was most intrigued by one who was out of state for her daughter’s wedding for a month. We began corresponding via email and found that we had many things in common. Convinced that we wanted to take the next step when she got back, we decided to meet for ice cream at the local Baskin Robbins. (Later she explained that she had selected that location primarily for self-defense… if it turned out that I was a dog, I wouldn’t know where she lived and because it doesn’t take long to eat a scoop of ice cream before she could be on her way.)

That was a little over ten years ago and we have now lived together for over 8 years. When the subject of computer dating comes up, we are both strong advocates. Of course, you’ll likely have to sort through a dog or two, but at least for us, the payoff was well worth it.

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Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #314

About: Attitude

“Smiles breed joy,
frowns breed sadness.
…live accordingly.”

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