Visiting TCL for lunch.

 

It's been a while since I've seen TCL.  She prefers to see me as Mario, and I try to schedule "Mario Days" as rarely as possible.  So, I scheduled a Mario Day, in order for her to feel comfortable wen I visited.

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As I've mentioned in this blog, I prefer to spend as much time as possible as Marian.  But, having spent the past holiday and a long weekend as Marian, it was time for me to go out in the world as Mario for a change.  And this was the right call, not only because of TCL's preferences, but because TCL had me assist her in both the search for a lost TV remote control, and in corralling her cat so he could be pilled.

But first....

Parking near the chosen restaurant gets very crowded by 1:00 pm.  This meant that I'd have to get to TCL's place by 12:30 pm, to be able to park near the restaurant.  We were able to find a parking spot and get inside the restaurant by 1:00 pm, and settled down to a nice, filling lunch.  In addition to the Chicken Gorgonzola, I had soup, salad, and an appetizer of Eggplant Rollatine.  Everything we ate was yummy, neither of us having room for dessert.  While eating, my meal was interrupted by a call from my sleep doctor's office.  Now, I have my appointment for a consult, which will be followed by another sleep test, and hopefully another CPAP prescription.

When we drove back to TCL's place, it was "the hunt for the lost remote control."  We moved chairs, sofas, side tables, and storage containers in this search - and I couldn't help but work up an unneeded sweat.  Eventually, we found the remote control and it was time to rest for a while before pilling the cat.  This wasn't has hard as it sounds, as her cat was totally under her control while it was fed its medicine.

Soon afterward, I had to go home.  I was glad to get out of her place by 3:30 pm, as traffic was starting to back up in Rockland county on the bridge approach.  Although I had planned to do 2, 3 and maybe a 4th load of laundry, I stayed in my air conditioned apartment and relaxed all evening.

Getting a survey (ostensibly) about satisfaction with my new car.

 

The other day, I received an email from Subaru asking me to take a survey regarding satisfaction with my new car. Although most of the questions in the survey involved my reasons for buying my car and how satisfied I was with the new car, a good 10% of the questions involved my concerns about buying an electric car.  I have been saying for a long while that America's answer to global warming will be the conversion to electric vehicles.  But it won't happen until using an electric vehicle is as convenient as using a gas powered vehicle is for 99% of the public.  So, seeing these questions in a survey got me to thinking.

For a long while, I have been saying that America will NOT reach its goal of shifting to electric vehicles by 2035.  The infrastructure needed to charge these cars is not yet being built out, and there are no signs that this will happen soon.  Additionally, most electric cars are not built for long road trips, nor can they be charged fully as quickly as a gas vehicle can be refueled. Although many homes can be fitted with a home charger, most people living in apartment buildings do not have access to home chargers and must depend on the more inconvenient public charging networks. Virtually none of these charging stations have human attendants, many are vandalized, and they are often non functional due to problems with software or hardware.  There are way too many problems for a "one size fits all" solution being forced upon us by our state and federal governments.

I'm a person who'd gladly switch to electric vehicles if the conveniences of our current gas powered vehicles would exist for me.  If it meant doubling the time needed to being my car up to a 350+ mile usable driving range, I could accept it if I could go into a nearby 24x7 store to kill time.  But most charging stations I see are unattended, open to all weather (no protection from rain or snow), and more than 100 feet away from a quick mart.

As much as I believe that we will need to shift to electric vehicles, I don't believe that battery powered vehicles will be the solution for everyone.  But if batteries are part of the problem, then what could be an alternative solution?  Hydrogen.  If we develop a surplus of renewable energy, we can use that energy to generate Hydrogen from water, and then use it in motor vehicles as fuel for generating electricity for the vehicles' propulsion.  However, when hydrogen burns, it gives off a single byproduct: Dihydrogen Monoxide in gaseous form - Steam.  Steam contains no hydrocarbons, and does not contribute to global warming.

The technology to use Hydrogen as a fuel already exists.  It has been used in cars such as the Toyota Mirai. But there are virtually no hydrogen fueling stations in the USA.  Yes, there are risks in storing hydrogen.  Yet, we know how to manage those risks.  If we are to shift to non greenhouse gas emitting vehicles, then we need to consider hydrogen as a fuel for the rest of us. It could be distributed in a manner equivalent to that of gasoline, and refueling would be as convenient as now done for gas powered cars.  Conversion to a hydrogen fuel infrastructure could be done faster than upgrading the electric grid, and would be easier to accept for the driving public.

What do you think?

The sad and slow decline of a major American Mall.

 

Recently, I planned to meet a friend for dinner at 5:00 pm in Rockland County.  Only one problem: Bridge traffic across the Hudson River after 2:30 pm can be quite bad, given that there is usually a major slowdown on the NYS Thruway just after one crosses the river.  So I crossed the river around 3:30 pm, and had time to kill before meeting my friend.  Knowing that this mall had a bookstore in which I could sit down, have a cup of coffee and skim a book while passing time, I decided to drop in and see what it was like inside.

This mall has seen its better days.  I can still remember when J.C.Penney had two stores inside: one being their typical clothing store, and the other being a JCP branded furniture store.  Sadly, both are long gone, and the lower level of the clothing store has been replaced by a store called Mystery Bins.  By the time I got there, much of the stock had already been picked through, and there was nothing there worth looking at.  What made things worse for me is that the air conditioning wasn't working in the store (it was 90°+ outside, and fans didn't help keep the place cool enough to walk around) and one could see the "bones" of the Penney's store that once inhabited the space.

In addition to the "Mystery Bins" space, there was a 99¢ store in a space which held a more prestigious retailer.  But I was saddened by at least one large food outlet on the top floor having been shuttered, not having a successful tenant in years.  It would have been more depressing had I continued to walk around the mall, but I retreated to the chain bookstore to chill for 60 minutes.  And even there, one could see the signs of a retail store's slow death, as a quarter of the audio/video area was partitioned off as empty space.

Similar happenings have been going on at other malls in this region.  Lord and Taylor is dead and buried.  J.C.Penney is almost a memory, a fraction of its former size.  Sears and K-Mart are corpses waiting for last rites.  And the sad decline of in-person, big-box department stores has made many of these malls obsolete.  I'll miss them, as they became the Town Square for generations who no longer need this space.  I just wonder what will become the Town Square for future generations.

Travel Issues

 

One of the problems with being a non-op TG traveler is that one's legal ID conflicts with their gender presentation.  That has been true in my case in my flights to Hawaii, California and Chicago, as well as my cruises from Honolulu, Los Angeles, and New York. For the most part, this has not been a problem for me, as I make sure to never visit places in which a non conforming gender presentation could get one into trouble.  Yet, I have visited ports as Mario that I'd never visit as Marian due to cultural issues in these places.  So, I choose to be careful whenever I travel.

Recently, I took a cruise from Southampton, UK to Norway and Belgium and did not have any problems in transit.  The only places that seemed to care about my ID were the airports, as US and UK security need to insure the public that flying is as safe as can be.  However, that means that I have to double and triple check rules and regulations whenever I travel as Marian.

One of my dreams is to sail home on the Queen Mary 2 as Marian.  This will mean that I have to double and triple check all UK and US requirements for entry/reentry long before I schedule this trip.  If a woman can wear a dress, then why can't I?  If I were a cisgender female this would not be a problem at all.  But there are many traditional people who see bi-gendered people like me as an anathema.  They fear what we represent, and would rather destroy us to preserve their view of the world, than to tolerate us and leave some questions unanswered.

Sooner or later, I will likely make the effort to change my name to the familiar form of my name which can be used by both genders.  And then, I will likely get a new photo on all picture ID which has me wearing an androgynous hairpiece, so that presenting this ID in male or female modes will not cause people to bat an eyelash.  But the big problem would be when/if I undergo partial facial feminization surgery, so that I look male without a wig, and female while wearing one.  This way, I can much more easily traverse the divide between male and female when desired.

Until then, I'll have to play it ultra cautious, as I don't want to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time....

A visit to an old friend

 

Now back from my cruise, I couldn't wait to again present as Marian.  So, the first thing I did was to go into my closet and pick out a dress to wear.  And with one or two minor exceptions, I've been doing that for the past week.  So, it was only natural for me to get myself made up to go with RQS and visit Pat.

But first....

RQS needed to buy a new refrigerator. This was a perfect excuse to go across the river to both see Pat and to buy her refrigerator.  But one thing had to be considered: Both RQS and I like to get moving late in the day, and we didn't know whether Pat would be up to seeing us.  (We should also have considered the weather, as the weatherman predicted heavy rain for late in the day, and it came as scheduled.)

Around 4:00 pm, we left the apartment, and it was off to Rockland county to buy the refrigerator.  After a quick search, RQS found a cheap ice box to replace the decade+ old one in her kitchen.  (Her landlord refuses to replace the old one that is about to die, and she doesn't want to antagonize him - she has a below market rate apartment and wants to keep it.)  Within 15 minutes of entering the store, she had purchased a refrigerator to be delivered next week.

Before I go on too long, I must note one of the more annoying things about Pat.  She is often a leech.  When on a previous visit, we suggested taking her out for pizza, and she wangled us into taking her "boyfriend" along.  She noted that she has found a few friends to take her out into the neighborhood to go to places such as Starbucks.  We knew that she'd try to wangle us into taking her out to dinner, so we decided to first go to dinner before going to see Pat.

After "Having it our way" (you can guess what and where we ate), we met pat at her care home, and we took her out to Starbucks - just not the one she's accustomed to going.  Instead of the one less than a mile away from home, I figured that we'd take a little drive and go to one 15 minutes away.  This was a mistake, as Pat got into her routine of being a perpetual victim, blaming others for her misfortunes.  She was deathly afraid of the results of the recent presidential debate, and we couldn't distract her from this topic no matter how much we tried.  And then, when we wanted to talk about our recent Norway cruise (where we were awestruck by the scenery), she got on her high horse by inferring that the only good tourism is to get to know the people as if one were being invited into their homes. She was on her self righteous horse, and there was no way she could see that other people have different (and correct to them) perspectives on the world.  Neither of us could wait until the rain broke a bit to take her home.  And that's what we did when the rain eased off.

On our way home, RQS and I ruminated about our visit.  We both were depressed following our visit, knowing that Pat's attitude is why we don't visit more often.  Being an erratic emotional blood sucker makes a visit with Pat a 50/50 bet.  When she's "up", the visit is enjoyable.  When she's "down", the visit is unbearable.  No wonder why RQS and I rarely see Pat - we don't want to risk ruining days that often....

Cleaning up is so hard to do - a quick post.

 

I couldn't help it when I thought of cleaning up a mess that I would think of a toilet.  Not just any toilet, but the most expensive one I could think of.  

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Toilets have little to do with the mess in my apartment, save that I'd like to install a new one that will match the decor of my bathroom.  When I decided to run a vacuum over my carpet, I can see how worn out the carpet is, and how much I will need to do to get ready to replace it.  And even that is the least of today's concerns.  I have to start making headway in cleaning out the mess here, so that I can finally get a cleaning lady to come in on a regular basis and keep the place looking "presentable".

Right now, I've taken a break from cleaning up to prepare for RQS's arrival for a long weekend to write this entry.  It's therapeutic for me. But I will soon renew my rush to get some of the mess out of the way, so that RQS will feel comfortable.

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Unfortunately, our country is a big mess.  Those who would overturn democracy are preparing to be in charge, and I'm afraid of what will happen if they get what they want.  The playbook has been written, and there's little I can do other than to sound an alarm.  But I'm not going to think about over the next few days.  RQS is coming over, and we're going refrigerator shopping for her apartment.

I could have done much more today than to have dinner with Vicki

 

OK, I was home for most of the day and didn't do much.  Yet, I did start unpacking, I did make appointments to get together with friends, and I did get together with Vicki for dinner.  But, the apartment is still an unmitigated mess, and RQS will be coming up on Thursday.  There are simply not enough hours in the day, nor is there enough energy in me to straighten up my mess.

When RQS comes up here this weekend, one of the things we will be doing is to shop for a new refrigerator for her apartment.  (That reminds me - call up warranty service for my ice box.)  Her landlord is unwilling to replace it.  And being in a rent stabilized apartment, she is loath to trigger any ill feelings between her and the landlord.

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I'm finding that I didn't back up all my Norway photos to Google Photos.  This is a minor thing to take care of, as I have the photos both on my phone and on my PC.  Now, I have to transfer the videos from main storage in the old (broken) phone.  At least, RQS has a "full" set of photos from this trip.

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Around 4:30, I got showered and dressed to go see Vicki for dinner.  Compared to what she was a few years ago, she looks emaciated!  But I'm not going to tell her that, as she's at the right weight for her age.  She notices that I gained a couple of pounds while I was on the cruise.  At least, I knew that in advance.

As you can see, I'm all over the place today.  I'm simply getting back into my normal routine, and I am taking time to get used to a "normal" routine again.