RQS had to go home today.

 

RQS was up here for a long weekend. It's always nice to have her here.  But it's also nice to see her go home, if only because we both need to recharge our batteries for the following weekend.  We long for each other and are energized when the weekend comes, and we are re-energized when we part.  I think it's because we both have gotten used to having our own nests, and are re-energized by being able to retreat into our own spaces to do the things we would have done on our own before meeting each other.  Simply put, love in one's senior years is more complicated than when we were young.

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Yesterday, the high point of our day was a trip to Stew Leonard's to buy food for the week.  Today, it was the 1-mile walk we took by the Hudson River before it got too hot to do anything outside. It was nice being able to wear my exercise dress again.  RQS noted that she saw another woman wearing her exercise dress.  So I guess I didn't look out of place, save for my height and size.  By the time we were done with this walk (shortly before 11:00 am), all energy was drained from us.  I was glad that we set a limit of 20 minutes to be exposed to the hot and humid weather outside.  After this walk, we went to a deli that I used to frequent daily when I worked for the census bureau.  Four years later, I am still remembered there. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon resting in my apartment.  Unfortunately, I had to wake her up so that she could make her train back to the city.  So, we both got dressed in lightweight dresses, and out the door we went.  After dropping her off, I drove to Poughkeepsie and stopped off at Walmart on the way back home to pick up some makeup remover towelettes and Pointed Tip Swabs. (Think of Q-Tips with a pointed head - perfect for cleaning the area where my ear piercings were done.)  Once home, I was done for the day - and almost ready to go to sleep again.

An unplanned dinner with RQS and Vicki

 

Food - Our lives revolve around its consumption, simply because we need to eat now and then. Today, I texted Vicki, and the end result was a nice meal for the 3 of us (and ice cream afterwards).

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RQS and I didn't want to deal with the hot weather.  But we had to go out to pick up some items for the bathroom at Walmart.  So I got dressed in the dress I bought at Universal Standard on Thursday and the two of us headed over to Mohegan Lake. where the two of us planned to get a quick snack, then shop before going to meet Vicki at Lefteris Gyro.  

Of course things didn't work out the way we expected.  We were very hungry when we reached Mickey D's, and were surprised to find the place was closed - the place had lost all power, and couldn't serve any customers.  This meant we had to get our snack elsewhere, and that meant driving over to Taco Bell.  Driving there, I realized that we wouldn't be shopping at Walmart, as we wouldn't have enough time to be sure to meet Vicki at 6:00 pm.  Instead, we drove straight to Mt. Kisco, where we spent our time shopping at Target for the things we planned to get elsewhere.  By doing this, we made it to the restaurant at 6:00 pm, and were on time for dinner.

Upon entering the restaurant, I missed Vicki, as she was in a corner on the left and I was focusing on the right.  After that minor snafu, we settled down to enjoy a good dinner. One of the things I noted was that Vicki was dressed much more casually than in the past. Post-exercise wear for some has a look like wearing PJ's.  Yet, she should be proud of all the weight she has lost to be able to look good in this clothing.  As for me, I'll stick with my dresses, as they hide parts of my body that I want to de-emphasize. Although I knew I was going to come home with leftovers, I didn't know how much I'd be bringing home!  Conversation flowed naturally, as Vicki, RQS and I were all relaxed with each of us having something to share and to take home from the conversation.  (This isn't always the case, given the occasional imbalances we have to talk about certain subjects.) 

All too soon, it was time to brave the weather and make it down to Ben & Jerry's for dessert - Ice Cream.  Although there are a few B&J's ice cream shops scattered over the country, this is the only one I know that's close to the New York City area.  Even more surprising, this would be the first time I've stopped here in over 40 years of living here.  So I knew that I was in for a treat.  One glitch - when moving a table out to seat the three of us, my sundae fell on the floor and had to be replaced.

As we left the ice cream shop, the heavens started to open up,  Even though we were avoiding the heat and rain during the day, we were able to make a good day out of something that could have been crappy.  In the end, this was the big advantage of being outside of NYC this weekend.  

 

Another Game Night

 

I had two things on the docket: Having lunch with my friend from the census, then going to Game Night later on in the evening.  Given my energy level as of late, I'd have rather skipped both.  But I'm glad I didn't do so....

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In hot weather, I get very uncomfortable wearing my wigs.  As a transgender person, the male hormones that flowed through my body for years have poisoned the hair follicles on my head.  In short, my male pattern baldness has forced me to wear wigs when presenting as female.  So I try to stay in air conditioned comfort during the summer.  Today, I was able to do so.

Waking up way before the alarm sounded, I knew that I would need to fall asleep early, or to take a nap sometime during the afternoon.  So I decided to get up and take care of some things before getting showered, made up, and dressed to go out for lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant suggested by my friend.

When I arrived at the restaurant, it had its normal lunch crowd.  So, I took a seat and waited for my friend.  She texted me to tell me that she was going to be late - she had forgotten to put in her contact lenses, and had to go back inside the house to take care of things.  After 5-10 minutes, my friend arrived.  I told her all about my Norway cruise, and our plans to visit Alaska next year.  She then told me all about her trip to Vegas to celebrate her son's 21st birthday, as well as how gambling comps have paid for some of the cruises she has taken and for spectacular rooms in hotels - one of which was a suite with a pool table in it.  (Hopefully, my friend won't mind me saying this much about her.)  All too soon, lunch ended and we made plans for next month.

I went home for a while, and then got ready for game night.  This was a time I could have easily have stayed home and caught up on my sleep.  Instead, I rushed down to Yonkers and was late for the first game of the night.  (It was only designed for 4 players, and I would have been the 5th.)  So I waited until the next game was played, and enjoyed that.  Things started to break up around 10:00 pm, and I couldn't wait to get home to sleep - and I was out within 1 1/2 hours.

 

It was a long, hot weekend - and we stayed inside as much as possible.

 

This past weekend, I decided to drive to RQS's place with my new car instead of taking mass transit and suffering with 100+ degree real-feel heat.  It was too hot to do anything, and we stayed inside as much as possible.

But first....

RQS was expecting a refrigerator delivery on Friday, and no one called to tell her that the delivery was going to be delayed.  She had a 8:00-11:30 am delivery window that kept slipping.  By the time she got around to talking to the store, I was already on my way down for a 4:00 pm arrival.  At that time, she found out that the delivery truck broke down, and no one claimed responsibility for notifying her that she wouldn't get the delivery on the scheduled date.  In short, she had taken food out of the old ice box using the store's expected time to facilitate receipt of the new ice box, and much of the food was likely unsafe to eat. 

At this point, we wrote off the food from the ice box, and decided to go to one of our favorite restaurants for some Mediterranean food.  This was a mistake, as they didn't have the AC on.  Although we enjoyed the food, it was too warm to feel comfortable.  (Luckily, the temperature had yet to spike, as it would later in the weekend.)

The refrigerator was rescheduled for delivery the next day, and again, things were running late.  This time, she was told to expect a delivery between 7:30 am and 10:30 am.  And then, the computer reported another delay - delivery was expected between 10:30 am and 1:00 pm.  Well, the delivery men came at 10:20 am, and were gone by 11:00 am.  That meant that we could finally get some breakfast (actually, lunch) and then go to the local Stop and Shop to fill the new ice box.

When we arrived at the supermarket, we found that a lot of the shelves were either empty or poorly stocked.  Both of us figured that the store had electrical problems, and several of the refrigerated compartments lost power.  This would cause the contents (mostly dairy and frozen foods) to go bad, and not be saleable.  So, we ended up NOT getting the ice cream we wanted, and not getting the vegetables we wanted.  But we did get a rack of ribs we would cook the next day.

After we were done shopping, we were in for the next two days.  Saturday evening's meal was a delivered pizza.  Sunday's dinner was the rack of ribs bought the day before.  YUM!   I was glad that I parked in a spot that I didn't have to vacate until Monday night, as I didn't want to go outside when the weather felt like it was over 100 degrees "real-feel". Luckily, by the time I had to go to my car, the temperature was still in the 70's, and I made it home before going outside was unbearable.

 

 

PS: Later on, I got dressed in Marian mode and went to see a movie.  It was nice to get back into a dress again.

PPS: One of my Facebook friends is a Transgal who still uses her male id for legal purposes.  She will be taking an international trip this fall, and I want to find out if she has any problems with her identification.

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.

Car Maintenance - Ouch!

 

Although this muffler was installed over 2 years ago, it is a reminder of car maintenance that both had to be done now, and maintenance that had to be delayed until conditions were right.  In the case of the muffler, the car needed a longer pipe to finish the replacement of the exhaust system - and that had to wait a few days until the part reached the shop.  In the case of the latest maintenance issue, it was a lack of cash on my part that delayed the replacement of my rear brake drums.

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When I got up this morning, I knew it was going to be a hot day.  Luckily, my home AC was working, as I would need to cool off after bringing my car to the shop to have an oil change, tire rotation, and an AC Refrigerant Recharge.  So off I went to the shop at 8:30, and I was back home by 9:00 to wait for a call from the shop.

Around 11:00, I got a call from the shop, and I got quoted a price of $400 for the above maintenance, and was told that I'd need my rear brakes done as well.  Given that I didn't have another $400 in cash laying around, I said that I would do this maintenance towards month-end, as I didn't expect to drive more than 300 miles before the car goes back to the shop for this work.

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Once my car was bailed out of the shop, it was off to RQS's place for the weekend.  As usual, when I visit her place, I present myself to the world as male.  It was just as well, as it was way too hot to wear a wig - and as Mario, I didn't need to do so.  Driving to RQS's place, I noticed that the AC was working better than expected, and that I didn't need to keep the AC on at full blast anymore to stay comfortable..

I was able to find a parking spot close to RQS's place (a rare event) and walked into her place.  Her (now one) cat took its time to meet me, but no trace of RQS.  Where was she?  A few minutes later, I received a text asking "Where are you?" And I answered: "Watching TV."  Huh?  Then she realized that I let myself into her apartment, and turned on the TV.  She was home shortly afterwards, and when her laundry was done, we took advantage of Door Dash to deliver some food and we were able to stay comfortable for the rest of the evening.

The end of a long weekend

 

This was my best weekend yet with RQS.  Not only did she get to meet me in Marian Mode, but we went shopping for dresses together.  Hopefully, she won't get spooked when she has time to think about things by herself.

Today was a lazy day, where we stayed in our jammies until after breakfast, and then took a drive to see if the tire shop was open on a Holiday (I wanted to chat with the person in charge to see if this shop does certain work I need done.)  Of course, as I expected, the shop was closed for the holiday.  But we enjoyed getting out in the sun before tomorrow's oppressive heat comes.

If you were to think about today's image, that's the feeling we've both been craving for years.  (However, you'll never find me with a beard anymore.) Right now, I think we've found it in each other.  And I missed her when I dropped her off at the train station, barely in time to catch the train home.  Hopefully, she misses being with me as much as much as I miss being with her....

This past heat wave was dengerous!

 

This will be a short post about two LONG days.

RQS and I had plans for Saturday,  First we'd get up, do some car shopping, buy a new fan, then go into NYC to see an Off Broadway play.  Well, we got up late, and proceeded over to Walmart to buy the fan.  And then we descended into the hell of 95° heat and high humidity....

My car has problems with hot weather and slow traffic.  We made the mistake of trying to drive to Pelham to catch a train into NYC from that station, as it has more service than the stations I usually travel from.  Well, After navigating around a few traffic jams and turning off the car to avoid overheating, we reached Palham station.  And then we found out that the train had lost power, and nothing was moving on the line.  So our next thought was to take the subway.  We put the kibosh on this option, as they were busing people between stations to accommodate construction work going on.  At this point, we abandoned thought of using our tickets, and decided to go out to eat in Westchester.

On our way up to Kalbi House (a Korean restaurant on Central Avenue), I called Vicki to suggest that we get together for coffee after our dinner.  Now that our plans were complete, we made it to dinner and spent too much for decent food.  (The food was good, but the tastes were not memorable.  Something was missing from all the dishes, and we couldn't put a handle on it.)  From there, we went to meet Vicki and the "fun" began.

Vicki and Sue got along well until Vicki got into dominant preacher mode.  At that point, she started rubbing me the wrong way.  Although I have issues with my weight, I don't need someone preaching to me what I must do to lose weight.  What works for her may not work for me.  This was the first time that I raised my voice with her, and hurt her feelings.  Although I won't go into the details, it took me a while talking with RQS to process what I felt at that time.

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The next day had us going back to RQS's place.  It was almost as hot as the day before, and we had to deal with even more traffic jams.  This time, I was breaking a few traffic laws to get the car moving and keep the temperature under control.  I was lucky to get the car over the Whitestone Bridge, where we stopped at a local fast food joint to cool off, and let the car cool off as well.

Luckily, we made it to RQS's place without incident, and I stayed there until sunset when it was "cooler" outside.  I then drove home, bypassing most of the traffic jams I might have hit, and made it home without incident.

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Next weekend, it will be Marian who meets RQS at the station.  Keep your fingers crossed that she reacts well to seeing me in this presentation.

It was nice to see a friend today.

 

Today, I met a friend for lunch.  Although we met via OK Cupid, we knew from the beginning that we'd be friends, and not much more.  And this is a good thing.  She would be a little bit out of my league if we had tried to start a relationship.  As friends, we can overlook things that we could not overlook in a romantic partner.

My friend and I have been trying to get together for a while.  Her health and her business has gotten in the way, and I hadn't had the opportunity to get together with her since the beginning of summer.  So we decided to meet somewhere in the middle (we live 90 minutes from each other), in Beacon.  

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No, we didn't go to the restaurant above  If we did, we probably would have gotten very sick. In fact, we may have needed the following maneuver performed on us if we choked on our food:

Instead, we went to a place called Meyer's Olde Dutch for an early lunch.  It WAS FILLING!  My friend, who barely weighs 100 lbs. soaking wet, was filled on her salad.  While I was filled on an oversized, overloaded bacon cheeseburger.  Yum!  I'd go back there again. Over lunch, we talked of many things, such as one Catskills area property not selling.  My friend had sold her place for just under $1 million, and within 18 months, it has recently been flipped for $1.700,000.  Right now, a place either has to have character, enough vacant land to build a place with character, or be cheap enough for someone to tear it down to build a place with character.  The unsold place fits neither of these conditions,  So it remains unsold - for now. For the most part, we talked about her business and her upcoming vacation with her boyfriend.

Next on our list of things to do was picking up some gluten free goodies for her boyfriend and his daughter.  For this, we made the mistake of walking a little over a mile to a store on the other side of Beacon.  And neither of us thought the heat would be getting to us.  To make things worse, I was wearing the wrong shoes for this walk, and my right foot loudly announced that this was a big mistake.  We sat down for a few minutes, then returned to our cars.  Hopefully, she will be able to make her overseas trip soon, as I just learned that her destination country has enacted new quarantine requirements for United States residents.

Once done with my friend, I drove to Poughkeepsie to pick up some stuff at Target.  I've been intrigued by the above dress for a while, and to drop $20 to see how it looks on me.  It looks comfortable, and it is something I can wear on hot summer days.  After I was done with Target, I stopped into Walmart to pick up some food on the way home.  It was strange to see an empty space where the in-store McDonald's used to be. But I guess Mickey D wasn't making enough money in their Walmart outlets, and prefers to make its money off of franchisees by renting out the land their franchised restaurants sit on.

Eventually, I made it home and decided to take a nap.  Even after 2 hours of rest, I didn't feel rested.  I could have easily gone back to sleep.  But I decided to stay awake and call up MWL to chat for a little while.  While on the call, one of my OK Cupid ladies decided to call me (very late), and I wasn't going to break off my call with MWL to speak with someone for the first time.  I was glad when MWL decided to end the call, as both of us were tired after our long days.  Hopefully, I'll have more energy for tomorrow's Brunch Meetup in Peekskill.

Guess what came in today....

 

Guess what I unexpectedly found on my doorstep today.   A box!!! 

But what could be in it?  You may ask....

Inside, I found two boxes like the one below:

 

 Hmmm...  This is getting interesting.  Could it be something useful?

So, I opened one of them, and saw the following goodies, plus an instruction sheet:

 

This looks amazingly familiar....

But what could it be?

 

Yes, miracles do happen!!!   It is the replacement control unit for  my air conditioner!  YAY!

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As you can see, some disassembly/assembly is required.  And I do not plan to do this while the NYC Tristate area can expect several days of 90+ weather.  So the boxes will sit for a while, waiting for a "cooler" day for me to work on this project.