The Long & Winding Moo

Cead Mile Failte!

A Hundred Thousand Welcomes! (Irish)

Warning:

If you don't have a sense of humor, odds are we won't fully understand each other.

Such is life. My philosophy is that life is way too short to worry about that. If you behave yourself, we will probably get along fine.

I am just a soul who likes to read, write and draw.

I cherish this site, the friends I've made here, the people who created it, The StoryMaster & The StoryMistress .

I cherish them ALL.

My user name is 4Provinces, named after this pub that no longer exists in Washington, DC. (It closed November 5, 2011 and is now some sort of ghastly fitness center): 3412 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington DC is the address where 4Ps used to be.

My handle changes with my moods.

This is me as tHiNg:



Sometimes, in addition to being tHiNg, I am the suave Hooves of Fire, a Writing Bull.

This is me as HOOVES of Fire, or HOOvsie as my late brilliant friend Yemassee used to call me.

Yes, I have been silly sometimes.



This is me as COWser Soze:



Mainly, I am a reader these days.

Regarding writing. Sometimes, it's just about writing something you are happy with and feeling like someone out there really read it or connected with it. Wow, does that feel good when it happens.

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Awards.

The honor truly lies in being nominated for anything and everything as there are all sorts of awards here and award-givers.

Thank you to all my friends (known and unknown) who have ever singled me out for recognition of any kind.

It is very much appreciated by me and has lifted me up at just the right times.




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AWARDICONS!

The site introduced Awardicons on January 13, 2002. On January 16, 2002, I started my ongoing activity, one of the first of its kind on the site:

STATIC

One Writer's Favorites!  (E) Awarding Others ~ More Than 20 Years ~ My Favorite tHiNGs! #327931 by ♥HOOves♥

To date, I have given out more than 640 Awardicons



MERIT BADGES!!

Merit badges were released on June 5, 2003.

To date I have given out more than 2,740 merit badges

Earning a nice badge now and then is all to the good. I merit badges and have commissioned 17 of them. The StoryMistress provides the brilliant creative genius to my suggestions..

Here they are:





It is a lot of fun to help design and earn badges and awardicons. You can earn them on the site in a variety of ways, as many as you can imagine.



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SPECIAL EVENTS

I always look forward to September, the site birthday festivities, and enjoying I like big books #2233315 's

FOLDER

The Wdc Birthday Masquerade Party  (ASR) Everything pertaining to all the Birthday Masquerade Parties #1947104 by I like big books #2233315

This is an activity that is open to EVERYONE!! I have found it to be an encouraging and inspiring interactive writing exercise. And it's fun and funny, too! Try it. You might love it!

In 2021, the planets somehow aligned and I won!! I picked Colonel Mustard in the Lounge with a Wrench - I almost fainted when I saw that I was right. Boy, did I brag on myself to Mr. HOOves. I was insufferable. Seriously, the writing and interacting is the true gift there.





My Hammy friend, tHiNg couldn't resist posing here in the signature I made:




SOUNDTRACKING!

Out of that inclusive gem of a Masquerade, grew my beloved Soundtrackers, with Ms. Beth at the helm, followed by Batman, Mr. Jeff who is now in charge. At least, one good tHiNg led me to another, as is usually the case here.

We write about music we love! What fun that was and is!

I still enjoy reading Soundtrackers' entries and sharing music at times. I even joined in this past February and had a lot of fun with Mr. Batman moderating.

I will always be grateful and thankful to Ms. Beth for bringing me back to music of my younger days. I didn't realize how much I'd missed it..

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Back to the start -

At the beginning, I started writing fan fiction in 2000 and had great gobs of fun doing that. Eventually I branched out.

I tied for the win in one of the earliest writing assignment contests here on what was then Stories.Com, held by NL* and she made me this signature as part of my tying for the win in the contest, for my first handle here.




Once upon a time, I wrote a complete original novel here in this nice folder ---> "Sara's Port"  I finished it more than nineteen years ago. I recently got a little inspiration and encouragement and enlarged the print.

I also have written a variety of short stories in various genres and I try poetry now and then.

Over the years, I have completed more than 900 Product Reviews on this site - here are some samples of my product reviews. Doing them has helped me keep track of things I've read and seen as the old internal memory stick fades at times now.

Hadley   (Rated: 18+)

ASIN: 0899197353
ID #111911

Product Type: Book
Reviewer: ♥HOOves♥
Review Rated: 18+

Setting:
Story Plot:
Length of :
Usefulness:
Overall Quality:

Amazon's Price: $ 22.89

View Review · Buy Now!

Hitler, Chamberlain and Appeasement (Cambridge Perspectives in History)   (Rated: 13+)

ASIN: 0521000483
ID #112711

Product Type: Book
Reviewer: ♥HOOves♥
Review Rated: 13+

Setting:
Length of :
Usefulness:
Overall Quality:

Amazon's Price: $ 20.99

View Review · Buy Now!

I also have hosted several group campfires, including

CAMPFIRE

A Poem A Week Campfire I  (18+) Extinguished After 4 Great Years and 121 entries of Writing Poetry! #722499 by ♥HOOves♥

&

CAMPFIRE

The First Wal*Mart on Mars  (18+) Wacky Cow pioneers light a campfire all the way to Mars, Still Funny After Many Years! #807368 by ♥HOOves♥

& in 2017 I had...

CAMPFIRE

Rhinestone Cowboys & Vietnam   (13+) Vietnam Era Memories Revisited in 2017 - Before Cell Phones & Internet, There Was Life! #2130711 by ♥HOOves♥

I am now happily participating in my good friend, Princess Megan Rose 21 WDC 's wonderful campfire:

CAMPFIRE

Summer Of Promises & Hopes Campfire 2023  (ASR) Hooves and I are doing a new Campfire for the summer. We hope it will be a great summer. #2293856 by Princess Megan Rose 21 WDC

!

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This is my freshened policy on reviews. "Avoiding Toothless Rabid Jackals"  I reward people who send me nice reviews, but most of my reviewing is now limited to whatever catches my attention on any given day.

I forgive you for not wagging your tail when you see me in your in-box. If you act up, I turn around and walk away. I might block/ignore, too, if I have time.

All I ask of you in general, is that you treat others the way you yourself would want to be treated and I will try my best to do the same for you.

I now try my best to forgive all who have or will fall short and wish them well. Honestly, I am not perfect, far from it. I wish I had held my tongue better at times.

Writing, reading and reviewing can be therapeutic in times of grief and loss that we all face as part of life.

While among the living, I myself was so fortunate and blessed to have a VERY BELOVED and loving miracle of a spouse. My hero! One of the first moderators on Stories.com, mott is back . I will miss him every minute of every day.

Our canine family member, a basset hound called "Boo," also helped me a lot when it came to putting all things into perspective..



This is the look below that our teen-aged puppy dog gave me when I tried to get her to do something (like look at the camera) that she didn't want to do.





Or maybe she just ate a tasty bug.

So there.

Maybe, after all it isn't and wasn't all about ME.

It was about HER.

We were so fortunate to have her with us, happy and healthy for more than fourteen wonderful years and three months.

I hope that I have helped some here, there and somewhere in some small way with their own journeys,

Learn to embrace experiences of all sorts and write about them!

FOLDER

Ireland  (18+) 5 trips to the Republic of Ireland #2078426 by ♥HOOves♥

Traveling to Ireland with my love, photographing it and writing about it literally and emotionally saved my life in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Before that, I went there in 1990 and 1993. If you are fortunate, writing about your adventures will lead you to your own light as well.

I wish you all the best and God's speed, unless you are mean to me or others. Then, I (at least temporarily) wish you a pile of steaming cow pies at your door. HAND DELIVERED by tHiNg.

Hooves is a pretty simple concept, after all.

Whether you "get" Hooves or tHiNg is up to you.

The bottom line of my advice is to be nice here and elsewhere or go read a book until you feel like being nice.

Unwise and knee-jerk actions can have far-reaching and long lasting consequences one did not anticipate.

It is okay to agree to disagree. Not everyone has to look at life or activities on this web site the same way.

Open your



and mind...



Ta Ta & MOOOOOOOOO