Even though winter is almost over, it still seems very cold.

 

This is a view of Provincetown, MA that I've never seen in person - snow along Commercial Street.  Part of me would love to be there in the winter, when Summer's denizens have long been gone.  Yet, I'm glad I'm not there, as none of the things I love about the town are available without its Summer visitors.

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I've been in P'town during the other 3 seasons of the year, and love the vibe there.  This is when the artist community is in residence, and when one can enjoy the town to its fullest.  Years ago, I went there with my late wife, and stayed at a hotel at the far end of the main drag.  After she died, I stayed in the heart of town with Patty, my ex-girlfriend. And I've been there with other people close to my heart.

The only time I've been there towards the end of the season is when I once attended Fantasia Fair.  Even though I was there for only 3 days, I made some acquaintances I'm still in contact with to this day.

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Over the past few days, it was cold enough for some patches of snow to survive on the ground.  But it felt colder than that because of the wind chill.  If it were warmer, I'd have tried on some new tights from Sheertex to see how they feel.  Unfortunately, I will have to wait for a while - just like the people of P'town will need to wait for the tourists to come back.

Once the weather gets a little warmer, I will be back in dresses and enjoying the world outside.  I look forward to taking a day or two outside of peak season and take RQS there for a short stay.  Maybe she'll understand why I love this area - especially outside of peak season.

Another quick post... Cleaning up my apartment

 

 

It seems that every weekend that RQS comes up here, we take the time out for an hour to do some cleaning in my apartment.  We both figure that with someone else around, we will achieve progress on our goals of getting our places straightened up.

But first....

We have developed a routine that we both find comfortable.  Since I go to work dressed as a female, RQS has accepted that I will pick her up dressed as I do in the office.  From there, we often will go out to dinner, and then home to decompress.  The next day, I will don Mario's clothing and then take care of whatever things we need to do for the next couple of days.  In a way, she is getting a taste of forbidden fruit in a safe way.  And I will joke that if we visit Provincetown, MA, that I have to go in female mode, as it wouldn't be natural to see a male kissing a woman there.  (I know there are straight people in P'town, but it is a cute joke.)  Too bad we won't get there this summer....

This Saturday, we ended up tackling the mess in my kitchen.  There is still a long way to go.  And I think the next step in this process will be to start culling things I no longer need and donate them to a local charity to do some good.  Hopefully, I'll create some open working space to do some serious cooking soon....

Closing out a weekend

It's amazing how comfortable RQS and I have become dealing with the minor headaches of everyday life. But more on this in a minute....

On Friday, I picked RQS up at the station, and we enjoyed dinner at a local "go-to" restaurant that Vicki and I enjoy when we are in the mood for sushi.  It's nice to know that she is accepting of me as Marian, but wants to make sure that she doesn't slip up when I'm in one presentation, but needs to talk about something that happened in the other presentation.  It takes time to keep things straight, and I told her that some of my closets friends still make that mistake now and then.

After we got home, I changed into Mario mode for the rest of the weekend.  Saturday would be spent at her friend's birthday party, and Sunday would be spent at Mavis getting new tires installed on my car.  We knew it would be busy from the minute she arrived, but we had a lot of fun in between the little things that needed to be addressed.

I'm hoping that we can travel together, both with me as Mario and as Marian.  Of course, I joked that if we visited Provincetown, MA, it would be appropriate if I went as Marian, as that town is comfortable with same sex couples showing public displays of affection....   Who knows?

Lately, I've been falling behind with my posts.

 

 

No, the winter hasn't been getting in the way of things.  It's been the pandemic.  When one has nothing to do all day, it's easy to do nothing.  In many ways, it feels like the snow has locked all of us inside for the winter, save for the fact that there is no snow on the ground.

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It's been a long while since I've been to Provincetown. And I'd love to have the legitimate reason to be there on a day like this, when I could see one of my favorite places filled only with locals.  No, I don't want to get stuck there in bad weather.  Instead, I simply want to see the town as only locals see it - without any of the tourists around.

There are so many places I'd like to visit without tourists.  If I were an Italian, I might be able to see Venice without the tourist invasions which befoul the city. Supposedly, due to the pandemic reducing commercial activities, the waters in that city are becoming cleaner and less reminiscent of a cesspool.  In the United States, however, the pandemic has made it impossible to travel to some places on my bucket list.  For example, I was considering taking a repositioning cruise from New York City to Seattle via the Panama Canal.  The early days of the pandemic made that impossible.  Next, I was considering taking a Hawaii cruise/tour this past December.  Again, the pandemic squelched that idea.  Now, the same cruise/tour costs over 50% more, as the cruise line is now restricting projected capacity on these vacations.

If I stay healthy and am able to afford it, I will still take similar vacations sometime in the future.  Until then, I expect the days to blur together, forcing me to catch up on my posting when I get around to it. 

Vacation planning is a pain this year.

I love New England and Atlantic Canada for vacation visits.  Sadly, Canada is closed off until America gets the virus under control.  As long as Trump is in power AND the GOP has veto power over any reasonable ways to deal with the mess the pandemic has caused, I will not be able to take a cruise to Nova Scotia.  Luckily, most of New England is still open to us New Yorkers.

On August 1st, Hawaii is open to visitors again.  However, people must have the results of a Coronavirus test taken within the past 72 hours - no testing will be done upon arrival.  This means that it doesn't yet make sense to schedule a Hawaii vacation.  Yet, I may consider doing the research to flying to Hawaii, stay in Honolulu for a few days, and then travel to the Big Island for some more exploring.  If I do it this way, I may end up spending as much money as I would have on the cruise, but have a more flexible schedule to work with.

If I schedule the cruise in the near future, I have a question yet to be resolved - would the woman I've been seeing still be with me at that time?  I plan to tell her about my bi-gendered nature in the near future, as she has a right to know this about me before we get physically intimate.  If this woman can accept me in both modes, this would be a perfect trip for us, as she has never been to Hawaii.

Right now, I'm assuming that the Census Bureau will start laying us off sometime in September.  If my employment ends around Labor Day, I'll try to make vacation plans for Provincetown, MA, and spend a few days there.  If it's a little later, I'll skip being near the beach and spend a few days in Upstate New York.  (I still want to get back to the Baseball Hall of Fame, as well as other museums that are open there.)  If Pennsylvania is off the 31 state New York quarantine list, then I might decide to see Fallingwater if that site is open.

TCL and I have discussed to trip to Cleveland a while back.  We'd stay with one of her friends, and then visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I would have to do all the driving on that trip, but it might be a nice thing to do if Ohio is off the quarantine list later in the year. There are may things we could see on the way out there and back, and we wouldn't have to worry about the expense of hotel rooms.

Hopefully, next year will be a better year for planning a vacation.