“I estimate about 2,000.” She didn’t even blink. Instead, she commiserated with me. “I can imagine that it gets lonely sometimes.” “Well, ...the band keeps us all together, so I’m not suffering with loneliness, but it’s a little hard to break away from the groupies. They throw themselves at me every night – even stewardesses do. And sometimes I think all they really want is to get high and the sex is a side show. Some of the encounters seem unreal, especially after several days of partying without. I’ve never proposed before, and I was asking the beautiful, talented and successful Cindy McCabe to be my wife...”“And had you received any indication that...” She leaned close and kissed his cheek, “‘the beautiful, talented, and successful’ Cindy McCabe might not want to be married to you?”His smile belied his serious tone. “Proposing, as in flying, requires one to prepare and anticipate the unexpected.”Cindy laughed “Hard to believe that the man I love, the methodical pilot, who doesn’t do. Feeling playful, I gave it a wet kiss on the head and sashayed over to my laptop. I checked my E-mail and found almost forty new replies to my ad. I deleted the half with no images; the ad specifically requested visual proof—though that had clearly spared me no heartache that afternoon. I skimmed through the pictures, rhythmically slapping the head of El Torero against my bare nipples as I browsed. There were some good pictures in this batch but nobody near my specifications. Still, I saved. Summoning all his strength, he jammed the pin into the ground as hard as he could force it. The pin went in for its full length; Arthur then pissed on the pin and the surrounding ground to improve the conductivity. He wrapped a short length of the other end of the wire around a small stone to give it some mass and inertia and tossed it against the gate. There was a small arc and some sparks when the wire hit the gate, but it didn't last. "It should be safe now," he announced as he touched the.