A visit to the doctor - aargh!

 

Today's post should  be a short one, as I have to run down to RQS's place in a few minutes....

I had an appointment with my doctor, and I knew he'd read me the riot act because I gained a few pounds over my vacation - and he did.  However, I mentioned my issues with the liver scan, his portal, and a couple of other things, and he said that the ultrasound lady doing the liver scan should have called her supervisor.  (Not much I could say - I am a "civilian" in these affairs, and he knew that I wouldn't know what to say to this woman in this circumstance.)

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By the time I get to RQS's place, her new refrigerator should be installed.  She is looking forward to having an appliance that works well.  Hopefully, she'll have fewer problems than I have had.  Mind you, some of my problems might have been of my own making, as the hidden magnets that help keep the door closed (yes, all refrigerators use them these days) are not strong enough to deal with a slightly overstuffed ice box.  (I can't prove my ice box is overstuffed, but I can see a difference after shifting something inside further back - long story.)  It's a shame that her landlord isn't paying for the replacement.  But, given NYC Rent Stabilization laws, it makes sense for her to keep her landlord happy receiving her below-market rent check at the beginning of each month.

Lunch with RO and a quick browse through a store.

 

It's been a very long time since Fuddruckers had a convenient franchise for me to visit.  I always loved their burgers, and it was so sad to see this chain virtually die off.  However, a few franchises still exist, and RO suggested that we meet at one halfway between our two residences.

Now, I can't say that a Fudd burger is worth going 60-90 minutes out of one's way to eat one.  But if it is a convenient place for two people to meet and chat, then this is a good place to do so.  Both RO and I lament the loss of nearby Fudd franchises.  But we are glad that we ate at one of the surviving franchises today.

RO and I have a long history.  We dated each other a few times, but it didn't work out.  However, I told her about Marian, and she has seen me as Marian many more times than she has seen me as Mario.  So, it was in one of my dresses from Flax that I ventured outside in the heat and drove to Parsippany, NJ. (Why did I mention Flax?  I felt that wearing Linen would be the best way to keep comfortable as possible in a 95+ degree day.)  Both of us arrived around 12:30, and RO treated me to lunch for my birthday.  (I'll have to return the favor this coming winter.)  We brought each other up to date on each other's lives.  We also noticed that Fudd's wasn't that busy - the franchise was understaffed, and dirty tables weren't bussed as quickly as they should have been.  (I'll bet that this franchise has seen its better days, and that it is hanging on by momentum and its proximity to the motel next door.)

All too soon, we had to part.  I stopped by a Lane Bryant store to browse and found nothing.  Then I returned home to find one delivery from Universal standard (the green dress mentioned in yesterday's post) and one delivery from Lane Bryant (the patterned dress mentioned in yesterday's post).  Too bad that RQS isn't coming up this weekend, or I'd greet her at the station in her birthday present to me.

If I could only get around to doing some laundry....

You can call me a clothes horse!

 

It all started out with RQS asking me what I'd like for my birthday, and she suggested a dress from Universal Standard.  As much as I fell in love with the above dress because of its color and shape, RQS prefers a similar dress that I already own with a little bit more detail to make it interesting.  Since she was going to buy me a dress, what is a T-Girl supposed to say, except "Thank You Very Much!"  

She preferred the above dress, and I fell in love with it in a shade of red (not pictured here).  Instead, she suggested that I get a green dress for a change of pace and I agreed.  So, she placed the order for the dress, and I'm hoping to get it before she's up here next.

 

What I didn't tell her is that I also splurged on an exercise dress in my size from the same online store. Although ordered separately, it should arrive at the same time as the dress she knows about.  I figure that I'll be able to wear this dress when doing an occasional weekday walk on the nearby rail trail.

 

 

   

 

Now, I decided to gamble on the above dress, even though it is made of a fabric I don't love that much.  However, I had a coupon from Lane Bryant which made the cost of the dress inclusive of shipping less than $20.  So I figured that it would be worth the gamble to buy it - even if it gets put into a donation bag sometime next year.

 

What good is a nice dress without the right foundation undergarments.  Although I will not be wearing the control briefs until the weather gets cooler, I figured that I'd construct a couple of matching bra and control panty sets from LB that I can wear when I get dressed up in something fancy.  (I'm not talking sexy.  I'm just talking with keeping my fat under control.)

The big question is: What will I be moving to a donation bag to make room for these garments?




PS: I should have bought the blue dress above.  I noticed a stain I have on a similar dress, and am not sure if it will come out.

Visiting TCL for lunch.

 

It's been a while since I've seen TCL.  She prefers to see me as Mario, and I try to schedule "Mario Days" as rarely as possible.  So, I scheduled a Mario Day, in order for her to feel comfortable wen I visited.

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As I've mentioned in this blog, I prefer to spend as much time as possible as Marian.  But, having spent the past holiday and a long weekend as Marian, it was time for me to go out in the world as Mario for a change.  And this was the right call, not only because of TCL's preferences, but because TCL had me assist her in both the search for a lost TV remote control, and in corralling her cat so he could be pilled.

But first....

Parking near the chosen restaurant gets very crowded by 1:00 pm.  This meant that I'd have to get to TCL's place by 12:30 pm, to be able to park near the restaurant.  We were able to find a parking spot and get inside the restaurant by 1:00 pm, and settled down to a nice, filling lunch.  In addition to the Chicken Gorgonzola, I had soup, salad, and an appetizer of Eggplant Rollatine.  Everything we ate was yummy, neither of us having room for dessert.  While eating, my meal was interrupted by a call from my sleep doctor's office.  Now, I have my appointment for a consult, which will be followed by another sleep test, and hopefully another CPAP prescription.

When we drove back to TCL's place, it was "the hunt for the lost remote control."  We moved chairs, sofas, side tables, and storage containers in this search - and I couldn't help but work up an unneeded sweat.  Eventually, we found the remote control and it was time to rest for a while before pilling the cat.  This wasn't has hard as it sounds, as her cat was totally under her control while it was fed its medicine.

Soon afterward, I had to go home.  I was glad to get out of her place by 3:30 pm, as traffic was starting to back up in Rockland county on the bridge approach.  Although I had planned to do 2, 3 and maybe a 4th load of laundry, I stayed in my air conditioned apartment and relaxed all evening.

Getting a survey (ostensibly) about satisfaction with my new car.

 

The other day, I received an email from Subaru asking me to take a survey regarding satisfaction with my new car. Although most of the questions in the survey involved my reasons for buying my car and how satisfied I was with the new car, a good 10% of the questions involved my concerns about buying an electric car.  I have been saying for a long while that America's answer to global warming will be the conversion to electric vehicles.  But it won't happen until using an electric vehicle is as convenient as using a gas powered vehicle is for 99% of the public.  So, seeing these questions in a survey got me to thinking.

For a long while, I have been saying that America will NOT reach its goal of shifting to electric vehicles by 2035.  The infrastructure needed to charge these cars is not yet being built out, and there are no signs that this will happen soon.  Additionally, most electric cars are not built for long road trips, nor can they be charged fully as quickly as a gas vehicle can be refueled. Although many homes can be fitted with a home charger, most people living in apartment buildings do not have access to home chargers and must depend on the more inconvenient public charging networks. Virtually none of these charging stations have human attendants, many are vandalized, and they are often non functional due to problems with software or hardware.  There are way too many problems for a "one size fits all" solution being forced upon us by our state and federal governments.

I'm a person who'd gladly switch to electric vehicles if the conveniences of our current gas powered vehicles would exist for me.  If it meant doubling the time needed to being my car up to a 350+ mile usable driving range, I could accept it if I could go into a nearby 24x7 store to kill time.  But most charging stations I see are unattended, open to all weather (no protection from rain or snow), and more than 100 feet away from a quick mart.

As much as I believe that we will need to shift to electric vehicles, I don't believe that battery powered vehicles will be the solution for everyone.  But if batteries are part of the problem, then what could be an alternative solution?  Hydrogen.  If we develop a surplus of renewable energy, we can use that energy to generate Hydrogen from water, and then use it in motor vehicles as fuel for generating electricity for the vehicles' propulsion.  However, when hydrogen burns, it gives off a single byproduct: Dihydrogen Monoxide in gaseous form - Steam.  Steam contains no hydrocarbons, and does not contribute to global warming.

The technology to use Hydrogen as a fuel already exists.  It has been used in cars such as the Toyota Mirai. But there are virtually no hydrogen fueling stations in the USA.  Yes, there are risks in storing hydrogen.  Yet, we know how to manage those risks.  If we are to shift to non greenhouse gas emitting vehicles, then we need to consider hydrogen as a fuel for the rest of us. It could be distributed in a manner equivalent to that of gasoline, and refueling would be as convenient as now done for gas powered cars.  Conversion to a hydrogen fuel infrastructure could be done faster than upgrading the electric grid, and would be easier to accept for the driving public.

What do you think?

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.

Travel Issues

 

One of the problems with being a non-op TG traveler is that one's legal ID conflicts with their gender presentation.  That has been true in my case in my flights to Hawaii, California and Chicago, as well as my cruises from Honolulu, Los Angeles, and New York. For the most part, this has not been a problem for me, as I make sure to never visit places in which a non conforming gender presentation could get one into trouble.  Yet, I have visited ports as Mario that I'd never visit as Marian due to cultural issues in these places.  So, I choose to be careful whenever I travel.

Recently, I took a cruise from Southampton, UK to Norway and Belgium and did not have any problems in transit.  The only places that seemed to care about my ID were the airports, as US and UK security need to insure the public that flying is as safe as can be.  However, that means that I have to double and triple check rules and regulations whenever I travel as Marian.

One of my dreams is to sail home on the Queen Mary 2 as Marian.  This will mean that I have to double and triple check all UK and US requirements for entry/reentry long before I schedule this trip.  If a woman can wear a dress, then why can't I?  If I were a cisgender female this would not be a problem at all.  But there are many traditional people who see bi-gendered people like me as an anathema.  They fear what we represent, and would rather destroy us to preserve their view of the world, than to tolerate us and leave some questions unanswered.

Sooner or later, I will likely make the effort to change my name to the familiar form of my name which can be used by both genders.  And then, I will likely get a new photo on all picture ID which has me wearing an androgynous hairpiece, so that presenting this ID in male or female modes will not cause people to bat an eyelash.  But the big problem would be when/if I undergo partial facial feminization surgery, so that I look male without a wig, and female while wearing one.  This way, I can much more easily traverse the divide between male and female when desired.

Until then, I'll have to play it ultra cautious, as I don't want to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time....