Have geek, will travel

   As I sit writing this, it is just after 12:30am Sunday. In about nine hours I have to make a couple hours drive to Niagara Falls, where the wife and I are meeting several friends for the day. I call them friends with a great degree of confidence, although I have never actually met any of them. Not a one. And this is not the first time I have done such a thing.
   About two years ago my wife and I spent a weekend in downtown Toronto where we met up with a group of people who had flown in from all over the world for the occasion. Perhaps I should restate that. They didn't fly in from all over the world to meet me. They were attending the World Science Fiction Convention that was being held in Toronto that summer, and we took the opportunity to meet up. Most of us for the first time.
   Let's see, there was Deborah, from Israel; Nicola, from England; Alex, from maritime Canada; Francois, and his wife Tasha, from Montreal. Terry was there from Australia, as was Miriam, who lives in Toronto, and Elizabeth and her husband, from Chicago; and I don't really know where Kristin was from. Am I missing anyone? Probably.
   This diverse group of people was brought together by the miracle that is The Internet. <~~Over there, in the sidebar, you will see a link to Brightweavings.com, a website devoted to the writing of one Guy Gavriel Kay. That website hosts an active discussion forum that is one of the best communities I have ever been a part of. Topics of conversation stem from discussions of the Guy Kay books we all love, and spread to other works of literature, current events, and the inevitible silliness that a group of above average intelligence can easily devolve into. Limericks have been know to happen. We have even held a gift exchange the last two Christmases.
   The gathering we attended two years ago was approached with some trepidation. I had no idea what any of these people would be like. Everyone we told what we were doing looked at us like we had just said we were joining a cult in Guyana. It turned out to be a thoroughly pleasant afternoon, and we all got along as if we were old friends.
   No one who was in Toronto two years ago will be in Niagara Falls this weekend, but my enthusiasm has not been blunted by that in theslightest. I fully expect to have the same quality experience tomorrow... um, later today... that I had two years ago. We will be meeting in a olde style inn (funny, that) for lunch, tooling around Niagara-on-the-Lake for a few hours, going back to the inn for an afternoon toast, then heading down to the Falls for dinner. I suspect there may be limericks brewing.
   Have a good weekend. I'll see you on Monday.