We're off to see the Wizard!

 

I'm not a fan of this movie.  Yet, I consider it one of the great films of its era.  Not only does it have excellent cinematography, and special effects. But it also has great performances, including those by Frank Morgan.  (He plays several roles in this movie.)  And I finally had the chance to see it on the big screen today.

- - - - - -

When I go on dates with MWL, it's always in Mario Mode.  This is not a problem for me.  Being able to be Marian most of the time has made me more comfortable being Mario.  And this made it possible for me to make it to her place in time to then make the theater on time.  Unfortunately, even with 7 hours of sleep, I was having trouble staying awake.  (Now, I'm having problems staying awake in theaters - Similar to one person I once knew....)  Yet, I enjoyed the parts of the film I was awake for.

After the movie ended, we went to a nearby Greek restaurant for a bite to eat.  All the food we ate was excellent.  But I wouldn't have served pita bread in small slices.  Instead, I'd have had big slices of pita, so that the meat and greens could be eaten as a form of sandwich.  Other than that, I have no negative criticisms of the place.  The grilled octopus was excellent, and was a great opening for the souvlaki we each had.

There is a part of me that wanted to trek into NYC for a Marian Mode day on my own.  But I'll be cruising that way soon enough, and I can't wait for that trip....

I'm Thinking. I'm Thinking....

There's an old joke told about Jack Benny.  One day he was attacked by a mugger who put a knife to his throat and said:

"Your money, or your life."

Jack paused for a minute, and the mugger shouted:

"WELL????"

And Jack said:

"I'm Thinking.  I'm Thinking...."

In real life, Jack Benny was a very generous fellow.  And Jack had to give his friends money to pay restaurant bills when he was around, as too many people on wait staffs wanted to be able to say that they were "stiffed by Jack Benny."

So what does Jack Benny have to do with this post?

Like Jack, I can say "I'm thinking.  I'm thinking!" in regard to booking my Hawaii cruise.  Tonight, I had dinner with a friend, and we talked for hours.  She thought that I had already booked this cruise, and I said that at a current price of roughly $6,000 for an inside cabin, $6,450 for an ocean view cabin, $8,350 for a balcony cabin, and $11,250 for a mini suite, putting money down over a year before the scheduled sailing seems a little risky to me.  

I am hoping by the time this cruise sets sail that I will have another travel partner. This will allow me to save $1,400 to $5,100, not having to pay for a second person not sailing in the cabin with me.  So far, I have some good signs that I may have one or two people who may future travel partners.  But none are ready to make any commitments yet.  And that's OK with me.

- - - - - -

This is another cruise I'd like to take.  Starting at £3,300 pp (dbl. occ.), it is a little steep.  But then, this is a luxury cruise on a small ship able to reach Iceland's smaller ports. 

If I have a sudden influx of cash, I will book this cruise before I book a Panama Canal cruise.  Many people I know have made either partial or full transits of the Canal.  But not many people I know can say that they've been to Iceland and enjoyed the nation's hospitality.  Like Hawaii, not many ships give travelers a good idea of what this island is all about.  In Hawaii, it's because American law gives one ship a monopoly of sailing both in and out of Honolulu on the same cruise.  In Iceland, it's because this island is only a stop or two on a longer European cruise.  

- - - - - - 

There are two more bucket list cruises I'd like to take: (1) Antarctica and (2) The Galapagos Islands.  But these cruises will cost even more than going to Iceland.  So I haven't even bothered pricing them out for this post.  As you can guess, I have a healthy travel bucket list, and I may just be able to cross a couple of trips of this list within the next 2 or 3 years.

 

I decided to break out a new wig tonight.

This has been my go-to wig for a while.  When new, it does wonders for my face.  When worn out, it cries for replacement.  Today, I broke out my replacement wig and wore it to dinner.  No, I an not going to stop using my old wig for a while.  I intend to continue wearing it to work until the end of the month.

- - - - - -

As much as I want to replace this wig in my usual color, I decided to go a shade darker to see how it looks on me.  This wig will likely not make it to work for a while.  Instead, I will wear it less often, so it can last a while.  But I will replace the old wig in its color the next time it goes on sale at one of my usual online outlets.

Years ago, my former cruise partner criticized me for wanting to keep wearing an old wig until "My" expiration date - 3 (or 4) months after start of daily use.  There are two equally valid points of view here.  First, I allocate so much money in my budget for wigs each year. And if I break out a wig earlier than planned, I will need to replace it earlier than planned.  Since no one on a cruise ship will ever see me again after a cruise, who cares if they think I'm having a bad hair day?  The other viewpoint involves her wanting me to look my best, and damn the costs involved.  Give in to this urge too easily, and one will be buying expensive human hair wigs and not getting one's money worth from these purchases.  And to make the equation more interesting, my former friend wanted me to buy my wigs from the same places which supply human hair wigs to Ultra Orthodox Jewish women.  They are of the highest quality, and their prices reflect that quality.

The price/value equation for wigs was always a point of contention between me and my former cruise partner.  And I was not going to let her dictate to me how I should spend my money.  So, when I compute the cost per wear for these wigs over a two year period, I find that I get the same value by replacing wigs every 3 months that I might get from replacing a human hair wig every 2 years.  Yes, the human hair wig should last longer if properly cared for.  But I know that I am tough on my wigs, and would likely ruin a human hair wig early in its use.  So why spend good money on a wig that I couldn't maintain properly?

- - - - - -

There are less expensive human hair wigs that I could buy.  But I haven't seen any in a large cap that I could style to my liking.  If I were to buy one of these wigs, it would need to be a special occasion wig, for use at weddings and other important occasions.  Since I don't go to too many of these soirees, it doesn't make much sense to buy one.

What do you think?
 

Since grand juries are in the news lately....

 

In mid 2017, I was called up for Federal Grand Jury duty. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, save that I had to be up by 5:30 am to make it to Lower Manhattan (Pearl Street) by 8:30 am.  If I lived in Putnam, Dutchess, or Orange counties, I'd have served only in White Plains - a much easier trip for me.  But this option wasn't available.  So I traveled into NYC, and was lucky not to be called on to serve.  Given that they expected this jury to meet 2-3 times per week and to serve for 18-24 months, I was very lucky indeed.  

This should have exempted me from serving for 2 years.  Sure enough, 2 years later, I was called to serve again - this time on a "regular" jury.  Since I  was starting work at the census bureau, I didn't want to lose any money by taking the lower paid service on the court.  So I asked for a deferment and got it.  Then, the pandemic struck, and all jury calls were deferred until the pandemic eased off (or when government could figure out how to have people serve in the middle of a pandemic).  This gave me another year that I was able to avoid jury service.  And then, I got the above summons that called me in to serve in early July.  

I applied for my second deferment and got it.  Now, I'm hoping that I get called on to serve during the winter, as the subways will be much more comfortable than in the summer.  If the summons comes as expected (6 months after a deferment is requested), I should get a call for service in late December to serve in January.  And then, I'll be glad to serve - especially, given that I'll be in Marian Mode throughout my service.

You know you're tired when....

 

You know you're tired when you skip lunch at work to close your eyes and rest for 30 minutes.  I was fighting hard to stay awake, and was using every trick in the book to stay awake enough to do my job until quitting time.  Luckily, I was able to catch a second wind with the help of coffee, and catch up on things before leaving for the day. By the time I got home, I was ready to fall asleep.  Yet, I couldn't pass out until talking with MWL.  And even, half asleep, I was able to make plans with her and CWS for the weekend.

By the time I fell asleep for the first time at night, it was roughly 9pm.  But I kept waking up several times during the night.  Hopefully, I'll be able to be wide awake for work during the day....

Wings!

 

The origin of the Buffalo Wing is rather humble.  However, no one seems to agree on which origin story is true.  I figure that the most likely place where the dish originated was at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY.  However, this is in dispute.

Tonight, I went to a meetup at the White Plains Buffalo Wild Wings franchise,  The chain has a simple, basic bar menu - and lots of choices for spicing the wings.  This is not a place where I'd trust Fish & Chips if it were on the menu.  But I'd trust a Cheeseburger there, if I weren't in the mood for wings.

This meetup group has several regulars, including at least one person who is visually impaired.  Tonight, two attendees were using canes, even though both had partial sight.  So it was interesting to see how these two people functioned among the sighted.  What was more interesting was that in one meetup group, that this legally blind person was asked NOT to bring his seeing eye dog.  What F'ing nerve!!!  

The issue of service animals came up when I mentioned the problem our co-op has had with Emotional Service Animals (ESAs) and people who want to use this designation to have a pet in a pet-free building.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that this blind man supported my view that an Emotional Support Animal should go through the same kind of intensive training to be considered a service animal that performs a therapeutic function for its owner.  

All too early, I had to leave the group - I had 2 loads of laundry to get done, and not enough time left to do it.  Luckily, I got home early enough to get my loads in before my laundry basket turned into a pumpkin.

And now, something somewhat different.

 

There is something about the book "Soppy" that I love.  Is it the drawings?  Maybe. Is it the minimal use of words to convey the author's point?  Probably.  Is it the sentimentality about the mundane issues of courtship and living together?  This is a definite Yes!  Philippa Rice created a book that I find very touching.

- - - - - -

I can still remember how I felt being married.  I loved being able to share a quiet meal with my wife, knowing that neither of us had to say much of anything to communicate how much we cared for each other.  I thought I had this in a more recent relationship, but I was wrong. She needed to hear things much more than I felt comfortable saying them.  (She didn't complain about it. If you don't ask for something, you won't get it. And she didn't.) Yet, I still hope that I can find someone with whom I have that "quiet" communication, and settle down with her.  This will be much harder with me being TG.  But I can hope....

Recently, the same author has done a book about having a baby.  Although I haven't had the chance to view pages from this book, I expect that it will be along the same lines as Soppy - pleasantly sentimental, but touching on the mundane things that are not that romantic.  Maybe, I'll get this new book from the library to see what the author thinks of babies....

I wish I had hips....

 

One of the problems that I have with my body is that I don't have the hips to wear certain garments.  When the above dress was new, I looked OK from the top up.  But my hips left a lot to be desired.  I had no natural curves.  This dress has long since been retired, and yet, I'll always have the same problem as I did several years ago - my hips are not wide enough to meet the proportions of a typical woman of my age and size.

- - - - - -

Over the years, I have learned to dress appropriately for a woman my age.  And that includes wearing more traditionally masculine garments such as trousers.  But I prefer to wear the feminine versions of these garments.  Over time, for example, I have grown to feel much more comfortable carrying a handbag and not looking for items in my pockets.  So it has now become strange for me to wear any garments with pockets, save when I'm in Mario mode.  And, about the only time I've been in Mario mode these days is when I see my internist, my dates, and my family. On these days, the feeling of male garments is noticeably different that what I normally wear during the week.  

The other day, one woman started to ask me about the women in my wife - as if she needed a scorecard to keep them straight.  But then, I am very unusual, as I am a genetic male who finds females more interesting to have as friends than to have as bed partners.  And, if I had my choice, I would have been born as a cisgender female, so that I could partake of the richness of emotional experiences open to women.  This comes at a big price, and no one should forget it.  Females are often ignored because of their gender.  They are bullied (or worse) by males, as they have less body and muscle mass.  And they have all the major headaches of reproduction. Cisgender males have no idea how easy it is for them....

With all that being said, right now, I simply wish I had nice hips, so that my clothes would look better on me.

What do you do with an old wig when it's worn out?

 

It's too bad I can't do voice impersonations with the written word.  If I could, I'd be channeling Rod Serling's voice and doing a Twilight Zone type of introduction to this entry. Sadly, I can't, and will try to do my best with this limitation.

- - - - - -

Over the years, I have had to replace my wigs on a regular basis.  When I was out and about as Marian once or twice during the week, I replaced my wigs every 6 months or so.  These days, with almost daily use, I tend to replace my wigs every 3-4 months, usually having at least one emergency wig in reserve. Yet, I'm usually left with a wig that's serviceable, but not one that makes me look my best.  So what should I do with it?

Right now, I have a collection of several old wigs that should either be thrown out or restyled for other uses.  They are all in the same style, as there are very few large cap wigs that fit my head and look good on me.  Yet, I can do something with a few of them.  But what?

I expect that I will soon throw away most of the older wigs, keeping one or two for use as backups when I go on cruises.  (Why wear a good wig when going into the hot tub?)  But until then, they will be collecting dust in a dark part of my closet....

I'm already thinking of booking another cruise.

 

I miss the world we were in when this picture was taken.  I had met both a pen pal AND a Vegas performer on this trip, and had a great time sailing alone.  This was a growth experience for me, as I was unable to lean on anyone for emotional support.

- - - - - -

The cruise I'll soon be taking will be fun.  But it will not be much "to write home about".  I was totally bored in one of these ports, and didn't bother to tender to the island in the other.  When a cruise line has to tender its guests to a private island instead of using its own dock, bottlenecks will happen.  And on the one time I was at this line's private island, they had a hard time getting on and off the island due to the weather.

If my cruise wasn't visiting Charleston, SC instead of Nassau, Bahamas, I wouldn't have taken it.  Nassau was only worth the stop if one wanted to waste time shopping for overpriced goods.  Port Canaveral was far from anything interesting or reasonably priced.  But Charleston is a more than adequate place to stop, as it has history worth taking in.  (Fort Sumter is the place where many consider our Civil War to have started.)

Unlike the cruise I took 3 years ago, the pandemic will always seem to be present in the background. When I get to the cruise terminal, I will be Covid tested before I get on the ship. Cruise staff will both be vaccinated and masked.  All passengers will also be vaccinated. Even if masking isn't required of passengers, most will likely be wearing them out of habit. It could be worse.  Could you imagine being on a mixed (vaxxed/unvaxxed) cruise and having to mask up at all times, then worry about which areas one can visit and what areas one must avoid?

Yet, the minor headaches of dealing with the pandemic haven't kept me from considering another cruise. Right now, I'm think of booking some sort of Hawaii trip.  But I could change that to an Alaskan trip at a moment's notice.  Until I am ready to make a commitment, I won't put any money down on a vacation.  Instead, I'll be tracking prices and hoping they go down.

Unfortunately, prices don't always go down.  Although the price of the cruise I'm taking dropped by $250 shortly after I booked the cruise, it is now the same price as when I booked it - under a slightly different pricing structure.  And therein lies the problem.  I'm not sure of how I can best perform price arbitraging on either a Hawaii or Alaska cruise.  But I want to do so to get the best price available over the next year.  And I hope I can do this effectively....   

Another Short Post

 

I don't have much to say today, save that I was fighting to stay awake after my third cup of coffee wore off.  Somehow, it's either my costume jewelry or my outfits that are getting positive comments from women, and I'm glad to receive them.  My sense of style is maturing, and I'm glad to be out there in the world.

With this being said, I decided to go through some storage containers to look for some dresses I received in Universal Standard's yearly Mystery Box sale.  I figure that I'll wear one of them to work in the morning (with a pair of leggings).  But if I don't like what I see, I'll switch to one of the dresses I've already worn with leggings, and enjoy the rest of the day.

Right now, I figure that I can safely wear dresses as over long tunics and fit in.  This is not the kind of place where women wear dresses in the winter - except, maybe, the way I'll be wearing them for a few weeks.  After that, it's back to trouser like garments again, with tunic tops above.

Thankfully, I'll be back in dresses for my next cruise....

Zooming with a friend in Texas

 

There is an indirect link between this character from the movie "Short Circuit" and the friend I was Zooming with today.  But I won't say what that link is....

- - - - - -

As I've said in earlier posts, I used to connect with friends in Texas during the worst of the pandemic. Our Zoom meetings were fun, but they didn't take the place of in-person meetings.  Now that people are getting out and about, there is little need for Zoom, save for people who live across the country from each other.

It's been a while since I've chatted with my friend.  Too bad that we no longer live near each other.  We would have had a lot of fun together.  But Zoom keeps us in contact, and we schedule a meeting every so often to catch up on things.  

- - - - - -

One of these days, I'll have to meet my friend in person again - in a city that the two of us want to visit. We've talked about Chicago, as well as some cities in the West.  Since she's young enough to be my daughter, I can guarantee that nothing would come of this other than a nice friendly get together.  Who knows?  I might just tell her about my transgender nature....

Another short entry

 

There was a presentation on my company's 2022 health care plan today. And I'm not sure if I should sign up for the company plan in next week's open enrollment, or whether I should continue paying my own way for health care.  Going with the company plan may save me $450/month in insurance payments, but might cost me in two ways: (1) Locking me into a job I don't like until Medicare kicks in, and (2) Costing me more in drug prices and medical co-payments. I won't go into details here, but I am leaning towards going with the company plan.  Unfortunately, I don't have much time to make a decision.

My firm was gobbled up by a larger firm at the beginning of the year. The smaller firm did not offer a health care plan I considered worth the money - I decided to continue purchasing my health insurance on the Obamacare exchange in New York.  The larger firm had more negotiating power, and got a better deal for its employees.  So this got me thinking about a simple question:

Why should the quality and amount of healthcare provided to a person be dependent on the employer that s/he works for?

This is something that bothers me, as the system we have here in the USA seems to be designed to have sub-optimal outcomes.  So several more questions come to mind:

Why should an employer be involved in negotiating health insurance coverage?

Why can't an employer subsidize an employee's health care in a way similar to non-taxed reimbursements for employee education at a local college?

Why shouldn't the final consumer of the health insurance product (the employee) be the one exposed to deciding which company's insurance product to buy, when "Apples to Apples"  comparisons can be made on the Obamacare exchanges?

Why can't ALL Obamacare exchange products provide nationwide coverage?

The answer to most of these questions are either political or historical.  We would be better served if corporations would get out of the business of buying healthcare for their employees, and if government would ensure that healthcare firms only sold policies that met minimum requirements.  We were on the way to doing this until Trump screwed things up by allowing "short term" plans to be sold instead of Obamacare exchange policies.  This allowed insurers to provide insurance that wasn't worth much, but gave buyers the illusion of getting value.  Yet, Obamacare has provided a path to a long term solution.

Since it's late at night and I can't do this topic justice, I will elaborate on it in more detail at a later date.

 

It's Raining!

Yesterday, the weather forecast said that we would get a heavy rain starting tonight and running into overmorrow (an unfortunately obsolete English word meaning: the day after tomorrow).  Given that the forecast calls for 6 inches of rain falling between now and then, I do not plan to "dress pretty" when I go to work for the next 2 days.

- - - - - -

I had some errands I wanted to do after work today, and I was unable to do them, as I wanted to be home before the rains started.  Instead of doing these tasks, I decided to catch up with some people with whom I've been out of contact with for months.

Luckily, I saw that the closet rod in the closet holding my female wardrobe still is in place.  But leaving it in place is only a short term way of dealing with a problem - I need a new rod with a center support, so that I can't overload the rod anymore.  Right now, this is my excuse to fill another "Donation Bag."  and I'm preparing to donate clothes which no longer fit my style and taste.

When I extracted clothes for my first 2 donation bags, I found that I had clothes that I had bought almost a decade ago that I haven't worn in years.  Some of these garments are hard to let go of.  For example, I had 2 Lands End skirts that don't fit my needs anymore.  If I knew I'd be wearing them, I'd keep them in my closet.  But out they go!  The same goes for old shoes and other accessories I don't wear.  Now, I wear clothes which minimize my male pattern body, and emphasize the feminine parts that I should show off.  (Ex-GF-M always said that I have a great pair of legs, so I try to wear clothes which show them off.)

By the time I'm done, I may have 4, 5 or 6 donation bags to go to a good cause.  However, I try not to think of how much money I've spent on women's clothes which do not fit me well enough to keep.  At least, spending this money allowed me to learn what works and what doesn't work on my body.  Cisgender women learn this while they are young Transgender women usually learn this when they are older.  Thankfully, these lessons didn't break the bank....

 

Today, I saw a wonderful old film in a theater older than the film.

This is the kind of theater in which classic films are meant to be seen.  And that's what I did today.

- - - - - -

Yesterday, MWL called me to let me know that she was feeling under the weather and wouldn't be able to get together.  Later on, she noted that a local theater was starting to show films again, and had a showing of Frankenstein scheduled for 1 pm.  So, I marked this in my calendar, and made sure that I'd be able to get there on time.

Unfortunately, I didn't get much sleep the night before, and I awakened with a desperate need for coffee to stay awake.  Even though I left the house a little later than expected, stopping at a Mickey D's for lunch, I was able to get to MWL's on time.  So we moseyed over to the theater and I took a few photos of the place.

The Lafayette theater in Suffern is a classic, and I hope its phased in reopening works as planned.  So far, they are showing only old films on weekends, probably making merely enough money to rent the film (there were 40-50 people in the audience) and show it to a paying audience.  ($6/pp doesn't go very far, save when showing OLD films.)  Sooner or later, they will have to bite the bullet and show modern films, or find a sponsor to keep this theater alive. I hope they can do so without ruining the atmosphere of the place.

- - - - - -

There's not much to say about the rest of the day.  More tomorrow....

It was just as well I didn't go out today.

 

This will be a short post today....

Have you ever had a day where you barely had enough energy to get up just to go to the bathroom?  Today was one of those days for me.  

Being sleep deprived much of the time, I have gotten used to feeling tired - but not this tired.  I wasn't sure whether the headache I had for part of the day was related to a lack of hydration.  But I'm pretty sure that my lack of energy was related to my hydration level.

Luckily for me, MWL was not feeling well today, and that freed me to do much of anything I wanted.  However, this was a blessing, as I was too tired most of the day to do anything other than lay in bed.

- - - - - -

And now to explain why I posted "Enjoy Every Last Moment" phrase....

I am now 64 years old, and the thought of old age and death comes to me more often.  For the most part, it has been a good life, but filled with emptiness and sadness.  No, I am not in a depressed mood today.  Instead, I got into the "coulda, shoulda, woulda's" lately, and it got me thinking about life.  And if there's one thing I realized, it is that it would be a shame if I wasted any of the time I have left to me.  So, "Enjoy Every Last Moment" has a certain positivity to it, as it is an instruction to avoid putting off the things you really want to do, as you may not get the chance to do them later on.

I started looking at a bucket list of trips to take

 

To keep my mind active, I make up lists at work for the things I need to do.  Today, my focus changed a little, and I decided to make a list of places on this planet that I want to visit while I'm healthy enough to do so.

I placed trips into two columns.  The first contained cruises I'd like to take and countries I'd like to visit.  The other contained North American trips I'd like to take and cities I'd like to visit. And each one of these trips may have to be carefully planned for two reasons: (1) Cost and (2) My ability to travel as Marian.

- - - - - -

Key trips on the first list include the following:

1. Hawaiian Cruise (targeted for 2022)
2. Panama Canal Cruise (targeted for 2023 or 2024)
3. Alaska Cruise / Denali Land Tour (targeted for 2024 or 2025)
4. Great Britain & Ireland (targeted for 2023 or 2024)
   (This may be coupled with a Transatlantic Crossing on Queen Mary 2.)
5. Trips to Germany & Scandinavia
6. Cruise including a ring around Iceland
7. South America cruise including the Galapagos islands
8. Antarctica Cruise
   

Virtually all of these trips will involve some serious coin.  And only 2 of them can I be certain to be able to do safely as Marian.  So this got me thinking of a list of trips I can take in North America which included the following:

1. Yellowstone National Park
   
2. Grand Canyon National Park
   
3. Long Distance Train: West/Eastbound to/from Seattle 
   
4. Long Distance Train: West/Eastbound to/from Vancouver
   
5. Long Distance Train: West/Eastbound to/from LA
   (Southern Route via New Orleans)
6. Long Distance Train: North/Southbound New Orleans to/from Chicago
7. Long Distance Train: West/Eastbound New York to/from Chicago
   via Philadelphia
8. Long Distance Train: West/Eastbound New York to/from Chicago
   via DC
9. Cities:
   - Chicago
   - Los Angeles
   - San Francisco
   - Seattle
   - Philadelphia
   - Boston
   - San Diego
   

Again, some of these trips involve some serious coin.  But more of them would allow for me to get around as Marian either in transit, at destination, or both.

- - - - - -

Recently, I mentioned that I have a friend who'd accompany me on one of these trips.  She knows about Marian, but the logistics of this trip would have me travel as Mario.  Will this trip happen?  Who knows?  But I don't think it will happen next year.

If I still had my former cruise partner, we'd likely do another trip to the Caribbean. Cruising from a New York based ship is all too convenient to resist.  For me, I will take my next cruise on Norwegian simply because I can get to pier 88 via mass transit and a quick cab ride. That's more than I can say about the Brooklyn and Bayonne cruise terminals.  Traveling alone, I refuse to spend $40/day to park my car at the terminal when I can spend most of my savings on drinks while on the cruise.

 

 

Someone is definitely interested in me, and....

Today, I took off from work to spend the day with FH.  Although I like her as a person, she would rub me the wrong way if she were anything more than a friend.  But first....

As usual, I didn't get much sleep the night before, and didn't become fully conscious until 10 am.  At that point, I knew that I would have to get ready to pick up FH in Yonkers, and then take a drive to see the changing leaves in the Hudson Valley.  I knew I was going to be a few minutes late, and texted FH.  However, she was much more delayed than I was, as she was 45 minutes late.  AARGH!  Luckily, we were able to start out on our day by 1:30 pm.

According to the New York State Fall Foliage guide, the Hudson Valley should not be at peak color, nor should most of the leaves have fallen.  The only place that FH noticed good color was along the Taconic Parkway going towards Red Hook.  From there, we doubled back to Rhinebeck, passing by the site of the Dutchess County Fairgrounds - where she was disappointed that the fair was over.  And then, it was over to Saugerties and Woodstock.  On this drive, the leaves had already fallen off most of the trees in the towns we passed through, when we expected them to be before their peak.

When we finally reached Woodstock, FH wanted to get pictures of herself.  Of course, I obliged her - we were in a scenic area, and she always tries to get her picture taken with pretty scenery as her background.   Once the obligatory pictures were taken, it was back to Woodstock where we spend 90 minutes walking around the town.

Once it started getting dark, we headed to New Paltz for dinner.  Along the way, she asked me about my dating life and why I'm seeing MWL.  How are the conversations on a par with what we have?  I had to finesse the question. She then asked about whether MWL knows about Marian.  I told her so, and mentioned that MWL has already met me in female mode.  In reality, FH was wondering why she wasn't my girlfriend and was fishing for a way to make that happen.  There was no way I was going to tell her about CWS at this point - CWS, so far, is on the same wavelength as I am in many ways.  After dinner, FH said that she'd take care of dinner as a way of thanking me for driving her home.

Dinner at Pho Tibet was uneventful. The food was tasty, the Pho was good, but I was unimpressed with their Momo Dumplings.  I'll be sure NOT to order them again.  Next time, I'll look for a better Vietnamese restaurant to go to.  (Too bad that I'm no longer in contact with one person - she'd know a good place to go to.)

 

PS: CWS was away this weekend.  Hopefully, our schedules will work out for us to get together again next weekend....

PPS: I spoke with Vicki about FH, and she felt that FH was merely looking for a "friend" who'd drive her places.  For the most part, I agree with her.  Yet, if I have nothing to do, it's nice to hang out with someone - even someone who is a user.

 

 

I can't believe I stayed awake all day.

 

Today's post will be short and brief - just like the sleep I had last night.

For some unknown reason, I kept waking up throughout the night.  So I made sure to have two cups of coffee before leaving the house AND made sure to keep enough coffee in my caffeine stream to prevent blood from making me sleepy.  Even though I was getting tired throughout the day, I wasn't as sleep as I could have been.  Maybe it was the knowledge I was going to have an impromptu dinner with Vicki in Tarrytown.

Getting from Elmsford to Tarrytown via the back road isn't as easy as it used to be.  DOT is replacing the Route 100B/9A overpass, and has routed bypass traffic onto the street I work on.  So if you don't know which way to exit our lot, you could spend 15 minutes getting into a place where you could go West from Route 9a  - and that's exactly what happened to me. I made it to Tarrytown shortly after Vicki was freed up from her appointment, and we had a nice dinner at Leftris, our go-to place for Greek food.  It was hard to believe that we were finished with dinner before 6:30pm.  From that point, my phone was ringing like the switchboard at Grand Central Station.

First, it was my brother.  Then, it was TCL.  After this, I made a call to MWL.  And finally, a call from FH to discuss our Friday plans.  I also received a text from my friend from the Yonkers gaming group noting that I forgot about Trivia night.  Maybe, if I can get some sleep, I'll be able to attend the next session....

It's been two years...

 

Years ago, Ex-GF-M had a thing for Starbucks Coffee.  Her late husband worked for the firm, and finally had a career that he could excel in.  Sadly for her, he passed away a couple of years before we met, and she was still dealing with her loss at that time.  I broke up with Ex-GF-M because she was a bad influence on me.  It was the toxic effect of an addictive triangle (2 people and a substance - in this case, food) that took a negative effect on me.  When I met XGFJ, I thought she'd be the one.  But it didn't work out.  I lost my former cruise partner as a friend around the same time.  That loss was my fault, and due to gross stupidity.  However, I think she hurts more than I do based on a text she sent me at the end of September.  Too bad that the one person she could once turn to in time of need is the one person she can't turn to now.

- - - - - -

But enough of talking about that part of the past.  Many things have changed, and it is very interesting to look at the past and present to see where things are headed.

For 4 years, America had to suffer with a grifter as head of state.  (I didn't "drink the Kool-Aid" as many "Conservatives" had done.)  His rabid support frightened many people then, and still bothers people today.  There was a collective disbelief that someone they believed to be successful and a great businessman was simply a con artist behind a green curtain. But many people in New York, Atlantic City, and other places where he placed his flag knew him for his questionable business practices and not for traditional measurements of business success.  It seemed like every day a new scandal was erupting, and things got progressively worse.  Relief came when he lost the 2000 election, only because he mishandled the pandemic, causing the economy to crater.

The pandemic started off as if it was a problem local to China.  Little did anyone know how much trouble this virus would cause the world.  I can still remember a meetup group acting as if the virus wasn't dangerous when America started being aware of how many people were starting to get ill and die. Within a week, not only did this group stop meeting, but most businesses shut down for in-person work.  If you could work from home, you did.  Even now, 19 months later, most businesses are not requiring their offices to be fully staffed.  After 19 months, many of us are wearing masks to help prevent disease transmission.  With vaccinations (which people lined up for 6 months ago), many people are assuming that they are safe and catching the virus.  Luckily, most of the vaccinated only experience very mild symptoms.  However, there are selfish fools who remain unvaccinated, and this is causing our hospitals to be flooded with Covid patients.  Now, it looks like Covid will be around forever, but will be managed (for most of us) with regular booster shots.

Due to the pandemic, last year's baseball season was shortened to 60 games, with few people allowed to attend the games.  (Attendance was permitted for the people on the field, the TV crews, and security guards.)  At the beginning of this season, some cities were restricting attendance to a socially distanced few, gradually allowing more and more people to attend as long as they could show proof of vaccination.  Yet, there are some athletes who still want to remain unvaccinated, and are prohibited from working out or playing with their teams in their home cities.

In the period since the pandemic started, we have suffered a series of supply chain issues which are causing prices for many goods to go up.  Last year, with poor demand for automobiles, my brother was able to snag a late model car from a car rental agency for 25% less than the same car would sell for today.  Recently, a coworker flew to Hawaii on vacation, and found out that the normal car rental places had nothing to rent - a year ago, they had sold off their inventory to pay their bills.  Now, the rental car companies can't buy enough cars to refurnish their fleets, as the car manufacturers can not get the computer chips needed to build their cars.  (This is yet another pandemic related supply chain issue....)

Before the pandemic, I used to go on a cruise one or twice each year.  Last year, the tourist industry had to slam on the brakes and shut everything down in a two week period.  People were stranded overseas waiting to be repatriated to their home countries.  With one cruise ship, our former president decided to keep it from docking at its port of origin, so that he could keep our Covid infection numbers low.  Eventually, reality set in, and this ship made it to a nearby port.  Yet, many people had stranger journeys to make it home from overseas.  MWL recounted that the pandemic hit in the middle of an overseas trip, and that returning home was a confusing mess.  

Once the tourist doors were slammed shut, only a limited few people were allowed to make their way across borders.  For example, there were Canadian doctors and nurses who worked in the USA - they were allowed to cross.  But there were other essential people crossing the border, such as truck drivers making deliveries across borders, and Americans doing a land transit through Canada to reach Alaska.  The loss of the tourist trade hurt people on both sides of the border, Alaska and Canada's Maritime Provinces lost out on over a year's worth of tourist money - and the affected people will likely be affected for years.

However, things are returning to a new normal.  The US has allowed foreign flagged ships to sail to Alaska from Seattle, so that Alaska doesn't lose two years of tourist business.  Long delayed movies are finally making it to theaters.  I just saw the new James Bond flick, and can't wait to see the new Ghostbusters flick when it comes out.  I've started going out as Marian much more often, and feel comfortable traveling in both presentations.  I guess it's because I've been able to live much of my life as Marian over the past 19 months, and have a better idea of how much Marian (and Mario) means to me....