A slow leak that has yet to be fixed

 

This morning, I found that the air pressure in my tire was dangerously low.  It may not have been this bad, but I knew I had to inflate the tire before driving to work.  So, off to the local gas station I went....  Arriving at the gas station, someone else was using the air pump, and he handed me the hose with about 30 seconds to spare on the vend.  The tire needed more air, so I dropped another 4 quarters into the machine, and filled my tire with 3 minutes of air.  Yet, this still may not have been enough.  You can bet that this car will be paying a visit to Mavis in the near future....

Now that I was late, it was a leisurely drive to the office.  I arrived 20 minutes late, but no one made mention of it.  If anyone complained, I'd say that I planned to make the time up at day end - which I did.  And it was another 8 hours of mind numbing work.  As usual, the first half of the day went slowly, but things went faster in the afternoon.  If I could only have the second half of the day, I'd be comfortable staying at this job for another 2 years.  But, with the agonizing mornings, I want to be out of there soon.  AARGH!

- - - - - -

And that leads me to thoughts on dating....

The other day, I told RQS about Marian and it is still something she has yet to experience before she can make any forward moves.  But things look good right now.  CWS may fall by the wayside, as she hasn't been available as much as I would like, given the time I have known her. Yet, I'm not closing any doors until I know how RQS reacts to Marian when she meets her in person.  (In this case, it pays for me to use the 3rd person for clarity.)  For me, it's a race to find the first decent catch that accepts me as Marian and Mario.  The one thing I will say - I will not "roach" either of these women.

Right now, I made a decision to suspend my OK Cupid account, as it would be way too tempting to swipe right and keep making superficial contacts with new women..  The way things go, I can get a refreshed list of women at any time if I need to go back into the dating pool.  No matter what happens with RQS and CWS, I think I'm going to take a break from meeting new women for dating.

 

 

PS: The tire is leaking air at a faster rate than in the past, probably due to the recent cold spell.  So it'll be off to Mavis on Thursday to see what they can do for me.

PPS: Mavis screwed up the appointment.  I'll have to put up with the leak for another week, or take off a day from work.

Brunch with the Fun Time Friends

 

 

There were two things on the docket for today: 

• Brunch with the FTF's in Connecticut
• Dinner and a Concert in Tarrytown with Vicki
  

Both of them would have me attending as Marian.  Yet, if I had my druthers on this dreary day, I'd have stayed at home and in bed.

- - - - - 

Although I was awake before the alarms rang, I still needed them to get moving.  In a rush, I ended up putting on my makeup outside my normal sequence. And this delayed my departure, as I had do triple check that my presentation was on target.  When one has a masculine body, one has to make sure that as many signs of masculinity have been disguised, and that as many signs of femininity are displayed. For the most part, I think I do tolerably well as presenting as a large size woman.

After an hour and a quarter of driving in the rain, I made it to the meetup and had a nice brunch.  The seafood pot pie was large, and well worth the price that the restaurant charged.  However, I had two meals out scheduled for the day, and should have chosen the salad for the first meal.  But I didn't know this at the time.

When the meal was over, I drove home, talking to a new woman from OK Cupid.  She's a widow, and located on Long Island.  Given our mutual schedules, we probably won't be seeing each other until the second week of January.

- - - - - -

Around 5:30, Vicki came over, and we drove to Tarrytown for dinner, then went to the Music Hall (a theater) around the corner to see K.T.Turnstall and Martin Sexton perform.  When we got to the theater, we were directed to a pair of orchestra level seats that Vicki found unacceptable - she ordered a pair of seats on the aisle, not in the middle of the row. When people were directed to our seats, we knew we had a problem.  So we ended up (after a discussion) being told that our seats were on the balcony level.  And again, the seats were not what Vicki thought we were getting. So, again, it was a trek to find someone who could help us.  This time, our seats were exchanged for two seats in the orchestra section, closer to the stage than before. But we had the aisle seats that Vicki wanted.

We both enjoyed the concert.  Yet, we were both glad when it ended - it was a long day for both of us. So, I dropped her off at her car, and I did the most feminine thing I could think of - take off my bra, and get into something comfortable....

 

 

 

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.  

- - - - - -

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.

Sunday with RO

 

I like this peacock so much, that I figured I'd post his image one more time.  It's nice to be among the half of a species who gets to use color to attract the opposite sex.  (In my case, I'm not trying to attract anyone while presenting as female, but I enjoy looking as pretty as possible.)

- - - - - -

RO and I had made plans to get together today, and I wasn't going to break them to go on an early morning hike with my friend (YGD) from the Yonkers Game Night Meetup.  Luckily, it rained, so this made it easier for me to postpone getting together to hike, leaving me more time for things such as doing laundry.

I took care of some correspondence this morning, and then got busy taking care of errands around the place. When I first got around to doing laundry, the machines were already in use by one of my neighbors.  This made it critical that I get home from dinner early enough to do laundry.  But it also made it critical that I squeeze in a trip to Wegmans to pick up lunches for the week.  So I could have a time crunch if my dinner with RO lasted too long.

Arriving in Mt. Vernon 30 minutes later than planned, I found that RO had found a way to burn time waiting for me.  She found a place across from where she parked to get a manicure, and 30 minutes later, she sat down at the table - about a minute before I arrived.  The Bayou is a good place for Cajun food, and it didn't disappoint us.  We had more than enough food to eat, and both of us took home leftovers.

On the way home, I made a quick stop at Wegmans, then called someone who responded to my ad on OK Cupid.  We had a nice chat, and agreed to chat again later in the week.  (I took the long way home, so that we'd have more uninterrupted chat time.) And 60 minutes later, I was home unloading my bags and doing laundry between messages with friends.  

This was a day where the less I say means more in the long term....

A little aside from the dating world....

 

A while back, I mentioned a conversation I had with someone interrogating me regarding my dating success and other things.  The entire conversion is posted at the bottom of this entry for your entertainment.  

Most of my female friends complain about the number of scammers trying to take advantage of them.  I have found that men seem to be attacked less frequently, but are attacked by two kinds of people: (1) The "hit and run" scammer, who messages you and tries to get in contact with you by other mediums (email, etc.) before the dating site shuts their ID down, and (2) The "interrogator" scammer, who wants a complete profile before targeting you for their next sugar daddy.  Most of the time, OK Cupid shuts the former type down after a few hours of swiping right on everyone they see.  However, they are less able to keep the latter type from bothering people.  The first time I was in contact with this type, she gave up on scamming me and cut off contact.  The conversation below is from the second type.

First, some background: This exchange took place shortly after Thanksgiving. This woman is supposedly in the catering business.  You'll note that she's hinting that I am a fake early on. And, she made a comment out of the blue regarding Black people lovable people.  What does that have to do with the conversation we're having?  Most of all, her language skills clued me on to the fact that this person is a scam artist of some type.

Enjoy!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Hi

Nov 28 11:58pm

Hi _ hope you had a nice holiday. Hopefully, the pandemic hasn't destroyed your business. All too many people have been destroyed by the pandemic, one of my friend was $800 away from being evicted from her home in Texas.

Nov 29 7:27pm

Im still ok

Nov 29 7:47pm

Being okay in this time of the pandemic is a good thing period. One person I know is so busy because she lost an employee and is now working seven days per week. These are strange times.

Only bored

I hope you haven’t lost much of your income stream. So many people I know have been devastated

A bit

Nov 29 8:02pm

Do u travel alone

Both alone and with a partner

Lost that friend a year ago due to a nasty argument

Ohhh a lot of ladies

Nov 29 8:38pm

Can we have vedio call

Nov 29 10:15pm

Maybe tomorrow or Tuesday. Too tired tonight.

Ok why tired

How many gf since u lost ur wife

Have been on phone for 3.5 hours. 7. Over 24 years.

Ur chatting a lot

I dont chat much wasting time on fake people

But im in phone whole day

Fb u tube

Nov 29 11:57pm

Do you do zoom? We could chat in evening

Nov 30 12:10am

And yes I do chat a lot.

Nov 30 12:36am

Have u encountered fake people

Some fakes. One crazy person was criticizing me for not optimally managing my money. It was as if she wanted to scam me out of my money

Nov 30 1:01am

Ok

Do u rent or own a place

I have found that women are more victims of scammers than men. One of my female friends get hit on by scammers every day, and shares her experiences with me. It’s amazing how bad the scammers are.

I live in a co-op. It’s a nice garden apartment.

Yes

How about you?

In nyork!!!

Yup. In NY

I live with my daughter now but i have 4 houses in philippines

2 rented out

Ah

N i free for my workers

Yes

What is ur weight

U are retired

Yes, retired

Whats ur job before

Computers

Are u committed now

Single

I think black man are lovable person

Why do you think that?

They keep on sending messages

Ah

Sending flowers

Not true of all

Nov 30 1:20am

But i dont chat them

I dont talk to fake people

I dont like wasting time

Can’t blame you. I’m careful too

How long u been here in site

A few months

Ohh

I always ask vedio call

I’m not in a hurry

Actually im tired

I usually Try to meet in person for coffee first. Video calls are good, but they do not show that the person is local.

Ok bye for now

Bye

What u mean local

For example, if a person says they are from Fort Lee New Jersey, I want to meet them at a Starbucks in Fort Lee New Jersey. This way I am not getting a scammer from overseas.

Hurry is bad word for me

I am not in any rush. All too many people are.

Cos im not insisting myself to anyone

Insisting yourself to anyone?

Sent

Im not insisting myself to u

You've blocked them.