Glorious Morning.

This morning I jumped out of bed a half hour earlier than usual and went for a two mile walk. Not a big deal to many, but for me to jump out of bed thirty minutes earlier than my usual time is quite an accomplishment.

I’ve been walking every morning this week before heading to work. I wonder if the extra burst of exercise is responsible for the run of good days I’ve been having. Hmmm, something to ponder.

Observations.

As I drove home for lunch today, I took a moment to make some observations of those around me. I’ve mentioned before that I find people fascinating, but today I think “dumb” would be a better adjective to use.

Observation : An apparently dear, sweet old lady is driving up the busy four-lane street that goes right through downtown. She is in the left lane and couldn’t be closer to that middle yellow stripe if she was knitting the damn thing. So what does she do? She stops in the middle of the road, slams her Buick in park and then gets out to read the flyer that she ‘suddenly’ discovered under her windshield wiper.

Observation : Mid 50s-ish, slightly balding, presumably gay man walks out of ‘trendy’ restaurant in downtown area with lady (cough, fag hag, cough) friend in tow. His shirt is [strike 1] pink. His collar is [strike 2] popped. He is singing, loud enough to be obnoxious, [strike 3] Prince’s “Cream”. (A popped collar trumps my jean shorts anyday. I don’t care what anyone says).

Observation #3: Because of the diversity of the folks in this area, the city recently changed all their “WALK” and “DON’T WALK” signals to symbols of a hand in a stop in the name of love motion and an asexual person walking to the left. The person walking lights up white, the stopping hand is amber. Apparently this stumps pedestrian traffic as they now avoid the crosswalk all together and walk kitty-corner across the intersection.

Observation #4: Some flag people at construction sites think they have way too much power. I know the gesturing to the left motion you’re making means I need to turn left. I don’t need the flag waved at the car like some neon colorguard routine, I don’t need to feel like my Acura is bigger than the 747 you are apparently trying to land with all those gyrations you’re doing, I got it. Turn left. Considering the road was blocked off in every other direction, it didn’t really take that much energy for me to figure out which way to go.

Observation #5: I’ve never smoked anything in my entire life, so maybe I don’t get this addiction thing going on, but if you’re driving a new Mustang that you refuse to smoke in, please don’t pollute the 10 feet between your parking space and the office front door by smoking a pack while in transit.

In Triplicate, Please.

Last night, Earl approached me with a task that needed to be done. It’s something that I absolutely dread because it strikes terror right to the bottom of my soul, but what has to be done has to be done, is what he tells me, so I suck it up and go into the computer room and ready myself for 30 minutes of sweat, worry and nerves.

It was time to balance the checkbook.

Earl and I have a really good way of working our finances. Everything we earn gets dumped into accounts that we have equal access to. Our philosophy is that we both contribute 100% of our income to kitty; there is no “mine” nor “his”. Everything is “ours”. And yes, that includes the Acura.

It’s a really good system that I highly recommend for everyone in a committed relationship, except when it comes to balancing the books.

You see, in today’s world of instant accessibility through the marvels of modern technology, it’s really easy to buy things. Bright shiny things. Things that beep. Things that remind you of your childhood. Things that bring you a smile.

Back when ebay was a reasonable place to do make a purchase I bought lots of stuff there. I’d always neglect to write the transaction down, since Earl is the only one with access to our financial records (thank God), and then checkbook balancing time would come along and I’d have to explain a dozen or so transactions to PayPal that weren’t recorded. I’m pretty much over the whole ebay thing these days, plus I strive to make sure I print out receipts if I spend money so that he can record it. But I still get all twitchy and nervous when he announces he needs help balancing Quicken.

So, I yell out an amount and he clicks a little checkmark next to it in the electronic register.

“$12.95”!

“For whom?”, he asks.

“Uh, um, put PayPal.”, as it’s really some foreign company in a different hemisphere. Then he asks me the zinger.

“What category?”

I turn red and say “porn”. Being a smartass, he’ll usually say something like “twink, kink or bear?”

So I respond with something equally fun like “two out of three ain’t bad”. Once in a while, I’ll just say “other” which causes him to cock an eyebrow and then turn back to the computer. “Did you get to keep the download or is there a time limit on it.”

“I have 17 more days of unmitigated enjoyment.”

And it goes on and on until the numbers match up and Quicken makes a little ka-ching noise. He then drops the Purchase Order Threat on me in which I will have to submit a purchase requisition to him, in triplicate and he’ll sign it with approval if I’m deemed worthy.

Hey, if it gets me something shiny or better yet, a “two out of three”, I’m game for anything.

On The Side.

With this past weekend’s festivities a fond memory, I’m finding myself very energized since getting back home. I’ve gone on a couple of brisk paced walks and I’m thinking of actually cleaning out the basement this week, with hopes of getting it all done by Saturday.

After all, it’s cooler in the basement.

Earl, being the dear heart that he is, made me a beautiful tuna salad for lunch today. It was strategically placed in the refrigerator with a small little container of dressing on the side. I have this thing about mixing food together, for example, with this tuna salad I ate the tuna first, then the cucumbers, then the lettuce. So that I was able to savor each flavor, I carefully dipped the various ingredients in the little container of dressing. I believe it was a low fat 1000 Islands dressing. Whatever it was, it was out of this world delicious with a capital DE-LISH.

Since I was dipping the tuna, cucumber and lettuce in the dressing, I had quite a bit left over after I finished the salad. Not wanting to waste it, I did the reasonable thing. No, I did not put the leftovers in the refrigerator.

I did the proper thing and downed it like a shot of tequila.

I think I even yelled tequila.

I’m drunk on 1000 Islands Dressing now. I hope there’s no drug testing at work this afternoon.

Change of Name.

Earl and I are back home feeling quite relaxed and ready to take on the upcoming work week. Our little camping excursion afforded us the luxury of getting rid of some best forgotten stress. I’m ready for on-call and I’m eager to work on some projects around the house I’ve been formulating in my head for the past couple of days.

I’ve decided to let my .Mac subscription lapse when it runs out in September. I’m not really using it except for instant messaging purposes, save for the photo albums currently on the .Mac webservers. They are getting moved to jpnearl.com over the next couple of weeks. I’ve changed IM names on AIM and iChat to bluemarvel37 (even though I’m 38 now!). So if you don’t see me on AOL, it’s because I’m using the new screenname.

Weather or Not.

I believe that all meteorologists should stop fooling the public and come clean about the profession. They should just admit that they roll the dice from an abandoned Yahtzee! game and bank that the fates will turn up the right combination to match Mother Nature’s plan for the day.

The weatherman has been saying that this weekend was going to be “picture perfect”, both at home and here at camp.

A quick glance at Doppler shows our home in the midst of a thunderstorm and it’s been raining here at camp.

Let’s face just face facts and stop kidding ourselves. Mother Nature is going to do what she wants, when she wants and where she wants. There’s no telling what’s on her mind. We may think that we’re going to be high and dry for the weekend, but that’s where she’s shows a sense of humor. “Let them be showered for a bit.”

I guess it keeps us humble.

Fun In The Sun.

It was 10 years ago this weekend this weekend that I first saw “The Rosie O’Donnell” show. I can always remember the occasion because it was I camping at the time AND Diedre Hall was on the show and she didn’t want to talk about playing ElectraWoman back in the mid 1970s. I had always been a Rosie O’Donnell fan since her Star Search appearance and was delighted at the prospect of her talk show. Today I still enjoy Rosie by reading her blog. I can’t say that I’ll probably watch The View though just to see her. I guess I’ll have to settle for the blog.

Earl and I have done just about nothing today and it really couldn’t be any better. We lounged at the pool a bit where I huddled in the shade with another fair-skinned red head named Andrew. He and his lover Oscar are down here for the weekend. They’ve been together for 12 years. We enjoyed a nice chat with them and look forward to spending talking more as the weekend moves on.

It’s good to meet like minded people from time to time.

It is HOT today with the temperature in the 90s. Thank goodness we’re in the woods where we can enjoy some shade from the trees, a cold beer or three and some relaxation.

It’s good to reset the stress counters from time to time.

Only At Hillside.

Earl and I have set up camp here at Hillside Campgrounds in Northeast Pennsylvania. We are here until Sunday. The weather is perfect, the birds are singing lovely little tunes and there’s just enough people here at this gay campground to keep the area feeling populated, but not too overcrowded.

I fired up my PowerBook to write the first of my daily blog entries and lo and behold, there’s wi-fi here. In the middle of the woods. At a campground. For some reason, I’m not surprised. And as you read this, you probably shouldn’t be surprised that I brought my PowerBook along camping. I always bring my PowerBook along whenever we travel because you can take the geek out of the city, but well, I’m sure you understand. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera USB cable along so I can’t share pictures until we get back home. I guess we’re roughing it after all.

Our campsite is in an area called the “Landing Strip” in that it looks like a long landing strip carved out in the middle of the dense woods. Instead of runway lights, there’s rainbow flags lining the roadway. Come this time tomorrow there will be a good number of campers and tents lining the roadway as well.

I was a regular here at Hillside back in the mid 90s, as “first Earl” and I had a permanent campsite that we used quite often. Ten years ago this weekend, “my Earl” and I celebrated my birthday together for the first time here at Hillside. It’s a birthday that I will always remember, because it’s one of the first occasions that Earl showed how much he really cared for me by throwing me a small birthday party. We didn’t come to Hillside many times after that until last year as we tended to just keep to ourselves and do our own thing. I also learned that year how much Earl doesn’t really like camping in a tent. Hence, our pop-up camper.

This year we’re here again on my birthday weekend and are keeping it to just the two of us here at our site. We’re looking forward to making some new friends and perhaps seeing some old.

As I write this entry, I realize that ten years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed about writing about camping at a gay campground in my blog. I guess I really have grown over the past ten years.

It’s going to be a great weekend!

38.

Earl and I are readying ourselves for our long camping trip this weekend. We’re planning on leaving for Hillside around noon today.

It’s good to have comp time from on-call.

I turned 38 today. The phone has been ringing off the hook with well wishes from my family this morning. It certainly does make a boy feel loved! I took a moment to take a look around me, at myself and at all that’s bubbling about in my life today and decided that it’s all good. I have no regrets and no complaints at all. I probably could work up a rant if I wanted to but I’ll save that for another time.

View at Work.




View at Work.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Here’s a picture of my view at work. Being an IT person that works in the Network Operations Center of a telecom company, you’ll notice that I took a picture of my computer screen. That’s because I look at my computer screen all day long.

Hence, my view.

In the very upper left hand corner of the picture you may notice a window. It looks out into the lobby, where I get to see every person that leaves and arrives by elevator. Maybe I’ll take a picture the next time I see some good eye candy.

The other reason I took this picture is because I succumbed to societal pressures and decided to keep my cell phone account and Earl bought me a new cell phone for my birthday. It’s a Motorola Razr in stunning black. I love it. Text away!