[Megabrode]

I have not read 355 pages of this thread. I'm just lobbing in a dating story, which may require some background...

I will be 75 years of age in 11 days. I married twice. First marriage ended after five years when I found my wife in bed with her boss. A period of dating followed -- though my circle didn't "date" per se in Berkeley in the 70s. We just paired off. Second marriage lasted 42 years, produced three sons, and ended three years ago when my wife died. It was cancer. I quit my job and moved to a new city.

After a year I started online dating. First day on any site, a widow contacted me. Avant guarde artist, articulate, smart, beautiful, very open. My type. We resonated, or so I thought. We met several times. Then she said, "We want different things." What I wanted was probably way too obvious. She ended it.

I decided to lose weight, ultimately 75 lbs. My daughter-in-law helped me choose some hip clothes that actually fit. I continued dating via multiple sites, meeting maybe 40 women over two years. Almost all were one and done (coffee or drink, that is). A few I met several times. Three or four got more serious, more physical. All, from my perspective (warped in part by grief over my dead wife), had at least one fatal flaw -- whether inability to ask a question, totally incompatible world view, or STD. I ended all of them, nicely. But I guess I left a few pissed-off women, some of whom warned their friends about me, limiting the dating pool in this town. When the pandemic hit, further shrinking the possibilities, I grew discouraged and quit all the apps.

Still, that two-year process left me with renewed confidence, patience, and a clear sense of what I wanted -- in short, much more than physical attraction.

Last fall, from time to time I would think, "I wish I'd met Ms. Avant Guarde two years later." Maybe I wouldn't have been so pushy, at the same time so unsure of myself.

Then, on December 26, I'm driving my M3 aimlessly in the hills outside town. I stop to look at the river. I get a text. Ms. Avant Garde says, "I thought of you and am surprised we have not run into each other." Etc. Yes, this relationship rose from the dead. With time together, she's confirmed my initial impressions, and I've yet to see a fatal flaw. Let's hope she doesn't find the several lurking in me. Where is it going? Hard to say. But I expect it to get there relatively soon. We've both been Pfizered. Second shot in two weeks.

Lately I feel like that Fedex guy in the final scene of "Cast Away." Maybe my favorite movie.