J.P.

Smalltown Boy.

Steve Bronski of Bronski Beat passed away this week. He was 61 years old.

I wasn’t aware of Bronski Beat when their debut single, “Smalltown Boy”, was released in 1984. It wasn’t until I was in college in later 1986 that I discovered the band and started enjoying their albums and single releases. I instantly fell in love with their synths, and Hi-NRG music, and then started listening to their lyrics and realized this group was something special for the gay community.

A few elements of “Smalltown Boy” has always held some truth for me. As a Gen-X gay man I consider myself quite lucky; my parents were mostly fine with my homosexuality and I’ve always felt love and acceptance at home. Both of my parents were awesome in many ways, including dealing with their only son being gay. I’ve been blessed, many of my age and to this day are not nearly as lucky.

The video for “Smalltown Boy” has a couple of scenes that I can relate to, mostly around where Jimmy Somerville is encouraged by his gay friends to approach another young man and profess his interest in him and the results of the interaction turning less than positive. Even though it’s been over 35 years I still have a hard time with that similar moment in my past. A couple of gay friends encouraged me to approach someone that I knew was gay and muster up the courage to show an interest in him and it didn’t turn out well. I wasn’t hurt physically too much and there was thankfully no gang or police or anything involved as shown in the music video situation, but it was still a lot for me to handle that I handled alone and got through it. The biggest hurt I felt was the betrayal from what I believed to be friends that understood me because they were like me. They really weren’t like me, they just shared the attraction to the same sex. It was good to leave them behind.

The messages in the music by Bronski Beat was important during the 1980s, in addition to just being good music. RIP Steve Bronski. Thank you for doing your part to help life for LGBTQ+ folks a little bit easier and more importantly, thank you for your music.

9 December 2021 by Ponderings and Musings 0

Crafty.

Chris is an amazing crafty type. He’s always doing wood working things in the shop off the garage and designing nice things for the house. Mike helps with bringing these ideas to fruition and it’s wonderful for all of us.

Our fireplace doesn’t have a mantle, so we needed something to hang our stocking with care. Chris designed a desert themed stocking hanging rack and it was installed while we were in Palm Springs this past weekend.

We love the way it turned out!

7 December 2021 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Christmas Cat.

Christmas Cat has been on our Christmas Tree every year that we’ve been together. Before I met the love of my life Christmas Cat was still on a Christmas tree every year. I figure he’s just a couple years younger than me. I don’t remember where the ornament came from. His blanket is looking a little rough around the edges but he makes me smile.

We decorated the main Christmas tree this evening. The 12-foot tree in our Great Room looks wonderful and brings all five of us much joy.

6 December 2021 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Lights.

Last night was the Palm Springs Festival of Lights Christmas Parade. We didn’t know this event was happening before we arrived on Thursday, but we were anxious for a bit of holiday cheer of this nature.

I made a reservation at one of the restaurants along the route and asked yesterday morning if we could be seated outside. They couldn’t guarantee an outside seat but they promised us a window seat.

We ended up eating right on the sidewalk last night. The meal was delicious and the surrounding festivities were, well, festive. It was a very nice time.

All of the floats and bands and others in the parades were decorated with flashing lights, garland, tinsel, and the like. There were many marching bands and they all played their takes on holiday music. The bands all sounded good. I mentioned to Earl that I was happy to see marching bands still doing their things decades after I was big on being in marching band in junior and senior high school. Some of the tuba players were playing with marching tubas (I’ve never played one of those) and others were playing sousaphones, which is the “tuba that wraps around you”. I played plenty of those, both in brass and fiberglass. I could probably squeak out a B-flat scale today if I was given the opportunity.

The parade was fun, the crowd was pleasant, and there was a great energy in the air. I was a little concerned about COVID, the density of the crowd, and folks not wearing masks, but that’s why we have our vaccinations complete with booster shots.

A quick aside, to enter a restaurant here in Palm Springs you must prove that you’re vaccinated or that you’ve had a negative COVID-19 test in the past 48 hours and you still have to wear a mask whenever you’re not eating. I have no issue with this. The only bump in this requirement is the Walgreens app is awful for consistently showing one’s vaccination status but luckily we brought along our real vaccination cards. On the crowd front, about 40% of folks were wearing masks while moving about on the street.

Overall we had a great time and the experience helped put me in a holiday mood.

5 December 2021 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Caturday.

While we are in Palm Springs, the rest of the family is graciously taking care of Truman, making sure he has food and water, a clean litter box, a little bit of recreation time, and most importantly, some kitty treats here and there.

Mike and Chris had a visitor for lunch the other day and shared a photo with us on the family chat. Truman seems happy while his Daddy and Papa are traveling.

4 December 2021 by He's A Feline. 0

Outside.

It’s December. One of the reasons we moved to the desert was so we could enjoy life outside, in comfort, in December.

3 December 2021 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Road Trip.

We are spending the weekend in Palm Springs. It’s not a super long drive from home; around six hours or so and it’s just up to Phoenix and then across the desert on I-10. Follow the signs for Los Angeles but don’t go all the way.

The drive was uneventful. We had a nice lunch stop at a sports bar in Buckeye (west of Phoenix) and we filled up with gas at the last stop in Arizona before crossing into California, where fuel goes up by around $1 per gallon.

I’m looking forward to the long weekend. I’m sure it’ll still be weird in this pandemic era and I’ll be striving to wear my mask and maintain social distancing. If there’s one thing I’ve learned during the pandemic is that we can no longer trust our fellow (American) neighbors to do the right thing. Look out for you and your family.

I’ll be happy to enjoy the relaxing time.

2 December 2021 by Fun and Games Dept 0

Bullet Proof.

Lura Sharp Elementary school, built in 1939 and having originally housed grades K-12 until 1969, still stands today. There have been many upgrades and improvements to the structure over the years. Asbestos has been removed, windows replaced a few times, the light brick has been fixed up, new bushes, an annex in 1956.

It wasn’t until over 70 years later that bullet proof glass and a reinforced safety partitioning of the impressive main lobby took place. The building that once welcomed fresh air from Lake Ontario through side doors propped open now has metal detectors, intercoms, and worried students behind her walls.

These improvements to this well established building are a horrifying commentary on the direction of our society today. Our children should always feel safe within the walls of any school. Our children should always be safe at school. Barricades, fences, bullet proof glass, and metal detectors is not the answer.

Better gun laws are the answer.

1 December 2021 by This Ain't No CNN. 0

Time Flies.

Eight years ago today was my first flying lesson. With instructor Chuck in the right seat, we took off from runway 33 at KRME Griffiss International Airport in Rome, New York in a 1966 PA28-140 (or Cherokee 140). The four seat, low wing airplane was my trainer all the way through the following December when I earned my Private Pilot’s Certificate.

My life has never been the same.

30 November 2021 by Pilot. 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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