I came to this site in 2004, a broken man who had lost his wife to a dreaded disease a few months prior. I had moved to a new house, with a 5-year old son to take care of on my own...and I would spend many a sleepless night pacing the floor of my new surroundings, wondering how to put the pieces of my life back together again. It was during one of those sleepless nights that I stumbled upon this website...and I was intrigued to discover that a group of people would gather together daily to chat about a game that I was (and still am) very passionate about.
It took me two years to finally decide to start posting here...and once I did, this site became vital to me. It isn't an overstatement for me to say that our conversations here gave new meaning to my life, at a time when almost all of life's meaning suddenly seemed meaningless to me. I looked forward to our horseracing conversations here...and even our sometimes heated debates gave me a peculiar sort of joy without which I doubt that I would have been able to maintain my sanity during those trying times that I was then wrestling with. I personally derived a great benefit through my interaction with all of you here...and I now feel that it would be wrong of me to just drop out of this site without at least telling you how appreciative I am of the role that this site, and all of you individually, have played in my life. I thank you one and all.
PS...
Dave Schwartz has called me a "fucking freeloader", and a "bully"...and since I consider Dave to be a reasonable man, I must admit that there is at least a small chance that he might be right in his assessment of me. If there is anyone here who feels that he has either been taken advantage of, or been bullied, by me...then I owe this person a huge apology, because this type of behavior is the exact opposite from what I wanted to exhibit here.
PEACE!
