Happy Valentine's Day!

 

And now for a different take on this day...

97 years ago, Al Capone engineered the consolidation of the Chicago recreational substances and services industry.  It is because of this entrepreneur that in spite of a corrupt government's interest in keeping the Windy City drier than the Sahara Desert, this man was able to make sure that no thirst on any side of "The Loop" went unquenched. 

For most people, Valentine's Day is a day where chocolates and flowers are given to women, where couples go out for fancy dinners, and where most American males have a good chance of getting satisfied. With my strange sense of humor, I focus on the Chicago mob and Prohibition.  It seems like the more the government tries to enforce moral standards, the more that they end up triggering the behaviors they are trying to stop.  

In a way, this is what will happen to the LGBTIQ community.  The more that the Orange Snowflake tries to erase us from existence, the more likely our numbers will grow underground and in the closet.  Yes, we will not be able to be our authentic selves.  But most of us will be able to keep things hidden until this wave of evil passes on.  Many of us will suffer in the meantime - needlessly.  Sadly, this is what happens on the cusp of a social collapse.  

Many of don't yet see the signs of this collapse.  Yet they are visible to those who look.  The Social Security system is woefully underfunded, and Congress is failing to act.  What will happen when tomorrow's retirees lose 25% of the money they were promised by the government upon retirement.  What if you don't need Social Security?  Well, our current political regime is intent to inflate the currency to pay our debts.  We've seen what happened to Germany in the 1920's when this was attempted.  Then, we are destroying the education system, along with government funded scientific research.  How can a country earn its keep and maintain its position in the world without being at the top of the knowledge economy?  

I'm afraid this country is making many of the same mistakes that Germany made 95 years ago.  I just wonder - what country (or region) will become the next great superpower in this world?  This is the time to start looking for that country and having a migration plan to get there - and soon.

I stayed at home and stayed warm

 

This was a day to stay inside.  Outside, a strong chill was in the air, and I wanted no part of it.  So, I stayed inside, comfy in my jammies, and worked on updating my cruising related blog to reflect current conditions.

Sooner or later, I have to catch up on chores, laundry being one of them.  That will likely happen tonight, as I will be busy tomorrow and Friday.  Although the sun is out as I write this entry, I will likely get showered and dressed, then go out as Mario due to tomorrow's doctor appointment in the morning.

- - - - - -

As I write this, it is the end of January 2026.  Recent developments make me feel that it's time to start activating one's exit plan. The Orange Snowflake's Gestapo (ICE) has attempted to invade a foreign consulate today.  Foreign governments no longer believe that America will follow the rules based order that it established after WW2.  The regime now covers up murder by its Gestapo, and we have no respect (as a nation) from anyone outside our borders.  The rule of law is being replaced by the rule of a despot.  And this is our warning sign.

If my foreign citizenship (foreign birth registry) paperwork was fully processed, I'd have my foreign passport and be ready to move everything liquid (money) outside the US at a moment's notice.  I want to be on one of the last planes out, in a comfortable seat, before everything collapses here.

Keep your fingers crossed, I'm hoping to have tickets for one of the last planes.

The snow has mostly been cleared, RQS is home, and we finally Zoomed with our friends

 

As of this morning, the above car was still snowbound and will be blocked in even more when the next snowfall hits.  However, my spots are mostly clear (I didn't move my car until after the second visit of the snow removal people was over) and there were only a handful of spaces which evidenced people not moving their cars.  I just wonder what it will look like after this coming weekend's storm.

Shortly after 11 am, I drove RQS to the train station for the ride home.  For the most part, it was an uneventful drive for me, as the roads were mostly dry.  (That's what happens when the snow hasn't had a chance to thaw yet.)  It was also an uneventful trip home for RQS, save that she had to wait in the cold for a bus to take her home after getting out of the subway.   

I picked up my usual sausage and egg sandwich before going home, and made a trip to Target before going home for a much needed nap.  (I didn't sleep well last night.)  Around 6 pm, I realized that I had to start our Zoom meeting with our Texas friends.  So, I stayed at home, nuked some dinner, and got the Zoom going around 8 pm.  Our monthly Zoom went well, as we got one of our two Texas friends to talk more than she usually does.  

And then, the Zoom was over, and I had to catch up on things I've put off doing for a while - washing 2 of my 3 active wigs.  I figure that once they are clean and dry, I'll finish off wig cleaning by putting the 3rd wig in the sink.

Just another day in the life of a New York trans-gal.

.    

Shoveling snow the next day

 

This is the aftermath of this weekend's snowstorm.  One will notice what happens when someone leaves a car in the parking lot when the co-op board of directors and our managing company told our shareholders to vacate their spaces for the duration of the snowstorm.  Over a foot of snow fell on our cars, and took a lot of digging out for most of us who could do so.

My car was parked out on the street, where our town's DPW (Division of Public Works) plowed another foot of snow onto the driver's side of my car.  So, I had to clear out 2 feet of snow from one side of the car, plus the foot of snow on top of the car.  This meant that I likely cleared out 50+ cubic feet of snow.  But I had another 30-40 cubic feet to clear in front of my car to take care of, just to get my car free of the snow.  This took me about 45 minutes.  But there were others who couldn't do what I did.  One of our board members was in the hospital and couldn't move her car.  Another neighbor is disabled, and she had to hire out some help.  (I'm not sure how my body will be able to handle tasks like this in 10 years, so I'm starting to think of life without a car now.)  This meant that almost everyone would be busting their butts to get their cars free before the sun set.

Once I was done, I ended up chatting with my downstairs neighbors about the snow and things in general with the co-op.  When I went inside, I rested a bit before going out with RQS to take some photos at Croton Gorge Park.  Visiting the park today was a mistake - too many people were visiting the place, and there was not enough room for 2 cars to pass each other on their way to the parking lot or to the street.  We decided to get out of the park quickly and go to a hamburger joint for a bite to eat.

After we finished our burgers, we called TCL for a minute to see that she was OK, and then went home for the night.  Tomorrow will be the day RQS goes home for a couple of days.  But with another snowstorm coming up this coming weekend, we'll be ready for the next dump of the white stuff.

The snow is here!

 

As I write this, it is the last full weekend in January.  And the snowstorm hit as expected.  As one can see in the photo above, most residents found spaces to park on the road outside our complex, so that snowplows could clear our lot.  If  one looks carefully, the snowplow has cleared at least 8 inches of snow and pushed it to the rocks bordering our parking lot.  What bothers me is the one car in the photo has not moved in a couple of weeks, and I will ask management if they know whose car it is so that we can verify that it was not abandoned here.

I had originally intended to go outside to photograph the snow, the parking lot, and the road outside.  However, the sub-freezing cold made me reconsider this today.  I figured that I will need to shovel 12-18 inches of snow from my car, so that I can move it back to a plowed parking spot.  However, I won't do this too early, as the snow removal service will be using part of my parking spots as a place to dump snow.  (Yes, I have 2 spots.  But they are set up in a way that only one family unit can use them, as the car deepest in the 2 spots will be blocked by the other car associated with the apartment.)  

Being a co-op board member, I received messages from both shareholders and board members.  The following voicemail transcription (with minor edits by me) illustrates an issue that I discussed involving snow storm parking:

I saw your email about parking in the visitor spot. I see the plow. He's actually pushing so much snow into our spots, so we're not gonna be able to bring some of our cars back.

I'm parked way down (the road). I couldn't find anything closer. I don't know how I'm gonna get there and I'm stuck in the spot because I had to go over a curb. It's a little bit high and there was ice on the grass. This is the difference between what's happening this time and last time we did this a few years back. 

I really think we need the front loader to remove the snow. I don't know if we can afford it, but we're not gonna have our spots available to us because nothing's gonna melt and it's all gonna be ice. 

I'm stuck in the spot where I am on the road. I can't move forward or back. My car was stuck in the ice after I parked it there (last time).  

This woman is on our board.  However, a neighbor brought up similar concerns with a different attitude, as he's middle aged with a newborn son.  I'm grateful to have this man and his wife as neighbors, as they are some of the most considerate people who have lived here in years.  As you can see, we have a big problem dealing with heavy snowstorms because we do not have enough extra space for dealing with snow.

Sadly, the beauty of this snow will be lost within a day or two.  All we'll remember is shoveling out of our cars in sub-freezing weather.  Then, we'll see dirt accumulate on the road side snow.   Its beauty will be gone.   I miss those days where I could play in the snow all day.  But childhood must end for all of us.  I miss being a young adult, being able to go out cross-country skiing all day.  (I still have those skis, not having been used in 40 years.)  I miss being middle aged, where clearing my car off from a heavy snowstorm was not much of an effort.  For all things there is a time and place, and for me, I'm glad to still be able to dig my car out of the snow and move it back to its normal home.

Until I'm ready to go outside again, I'll stay in my jammies and relax.

Preparing for the dumping of the white stuff, with a touch of sadness at the end.

The above is the scene after a snowstorm we had years ago.  It doesn't look like that much compared to what we're expecting to get sometime tomorrow.  Right now, many people in my complex have moved their cars to the street, parking on the grass, with some cars having their driver's side wheels on the paved shoulder.  (It's technically illegal, but in Stormy weather, who cares?)  Yet, there's not enough off-road room for 120+ cars in our complex to be moved out of our driveways and parking lots.  So, the snowplows that will come sometime on Sunday through early Monday will have their work cut out for them.

I was mostly prepared for the storm before the weekend.  Yet, I had gone to the store a few times, picking up a few items I would need to have good, hearty meals while stuck indoors.  The last time that I saw supermarket meat counters this empty was during Covid - which just happens to be when the last major  snowstorm hit.

- - - - - -

And now for some sad news...

No, I am not going to mention the second ICE murder in Minnesota.  The Orange Snowflake and his demonic minions killed someone whose potential threat (a legal gun) was removed from him before they shot him.  I've had enough of our dictator wannabe for now.  Instead, I'm going to mention the loss of a minor NYC area personality - Uncle Floyd.  The best way to describe him is a 1920's vaudeville comic who took lessons from Soupy Sales, having a show on a ultra low power, ultra low budget UHF station. (Think of the UHF station from the movie UHF, and you'll get an idea of the station carrying Floyd Vivino's show.)   

Last night, I was surfing YouTube videos, and found that Uncle Floyd died the day before. Unfortunately, I lived in an area of the NYC suburbs where I could rarely receive his station's UHF signal over the air, so I missed his broadcast show.  One of his later (non-TV) performances came up on my feed, and he was funny.  (The tune he played was much like Benny Bell's "Shaving Cream", where the song's rhymes imply a "dirty word" would be used at the end of the next sentence, but replaced by something else - in Bell's case, the words "Shaving Cream".

As you can see, it's work staying sane in the USA these days.  It's even harder for us in the LGBTIQ community.  This is no longer the country I was born in to.  And I feel sad that I might have to leave, as I don't want to be among those rounded up by the Snowflake's ICE Gestapo.

With certain exceptions, I am most comfortable with women.

 

If I could have been the woman in the picture above, there would have been no stopping me.  This version of me would have been very confident in her shoes (preferably low heels) and unafraid to tackle any challenge put forward to her.

- - - - - -

As you can see, I've been playing around with ChatGPT a little to figure out what a cisgender female version of me would have looked like. This is the "should of" version of me that could not have been due to when I was born and the life is was born into.

Even as a child, I was more comfortable with women, although I received the typical male programming.  Yes, I played with wax molded "action figures" (think of wax GI Joes cast in plastic molds) when I was in lower grade school. But I was equally comfortable playing hopscotch with the girls up the street.  You can guess what would happen when puberty hit the children of my generation.  No longer would boys and girls see each others as equals - the social customs related to reproduction came into play.

If I were born with XX Chromosomes, I likely would have been a girly girl, modeled as such by my mother.  What she didn't know was that I wish I could have been born with those XX chromosomes, even with the adult knowledge of how inconvenient a female body could be.

- - - - - -

One of my friends described me as her straight gay best friend.  What she meant by that is that I have a gender preference for females, but have many of the interests of a gay male (theater, music, arts, etc.) in our culture.  (This woman is married to a stereotypical male - nice looking body, but not too much brain in the head.)  

When I present as a male, the first thing women think if I offer friendship is whether I am interested in them sexually.  I can't blame them: our culture doesn't provide well for cross-gender friendships.  It also doesn't help that male primates (save for the Bonobo apes) tend to be male dominant.)  So, presenting as a female puts me on a more equal plane with women - especially if I can blend in enough for my masculine features not to be noticed.

Life isn't always fair, but we have to make the most of it.  At least, as a transgender person I can do so as long as hateful people stay out of my way....