Ah yes, summer has finally arrived!
This is the best spring I can remember since we moved here to southern Delaware in 2006. Most days were mild weather, not the hot and muggy weather we're having now. And yes, we're here with the hot and muggies!
I can't work outside when the weather is this humid. Just another reason I would never move to Florida as many gay Rehoboth Beach neighbors have opted to do. Ft. Lauderdale is their destination of choice. How anyone, let along gay men could move to Florida which is now ruled by the Trump wannabe despot Ron DeSantis is beyond my comprehension. Oh sure, go in the wintertime. Palm Spring California is my destination of choice to escape the cold winds and monochrome landscape of southern Delaware in winter.
When summer officially arrives like it did this Fourth of July weekend. I always marvel at the yearly increase in traffic coming down here from on north. All for the "beach experience." I like the "beach experience" too, at least once during the season. Just to mingle with the nighttime crowds on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalks checking out all the cheesy games to wind even cheesier prizes always pleases me. Last year Pat came down for a visit and we were able to partake of that summertime Rehoboth Beach boardwalk ritual
I do like it the experience. I'm not one for actually going to the beach and laying in the sand. Not for the past twenty-five years or so since I discovered I kept getting these precancerous aconite keratosis. Which reminds me, I have another dermatology appointment this Friday for a bothersome spot on my lower right back. My appointment is at twelve noon, traffic should be delightful. I say that is sarcasm. To get to my dermatologist I have to go south on Route One, also known as Coastal Highway. Friday afternoon, noon? Should be bumper to bumper vehicles. I will have to leave at least an hour early even though in normal time it only takes me about ten minutes to get to my dermatologist's office.
This morning I hit a snag. My DirecTV isn't working correctly. I record (DVR) most of the programs I watch. Now my recorder is acting funky. NOT WORKING! What? No TV? I mostly "watch" TV as background. Most of the time MSNBC and "The View" when I'm having lunch. I called DirecTV this morning to arrange to have a service man come out. OF course I get a woman with a heavy Philippine accent (thank you). Yes, I can tell a Philippine accent now since so many of my tech support calls go to the Philippines. Before DirecTV was taken over by AT&T they used to have US based tech support. No more! So I call and she's reading from a script. I had a little trouble getting her off that script but I finally did when I told her "I know you're reading from a script but what I need is a service man out here." I'm paying enough for a service package. I know what the problem is, the DVR. I don't have to go through all her troubleshooting scripted menu items.
The earliest she could get a service man out here was Friday. Wouldn't you know it, the SAME time I have my dermatology appointment. Isn't that always the way it is? So I arranged to have the service appointment this Saturday.
I won't be missing too much TV this week. All the regulars are off taking vacation and they have been replaced by second tier folks which generally aren't as good. That's another reason I can do this long blog post. Nothing to watch on TV live (I can't DVR). I DVR so I can zap through the commercials which are getting to me more and more every year. What happened to the big selling point of pay TV being "no commercials." Most of the stations have just as many commercials as the aptly named commercial TV. Just another con job. Maybe someday I'll just ditch the whole TV addiction.
I hope Pat can make it down here later this summer before the days get too short. I don't know if I told you all, he sold his penthouse at the Royal Connaught Hotel and moved into a cute little house a few blocks away from his former home. He's getting settled into his mini house (no thirteen foot ceilings in that 568 square foot house). He also has a very interesting neighbor or neighbors. I think it is a crack house. All sorts of suspicious looking characters in and out of that house all later hours of the day. Biker types with top knot hair do's. What's with that? His neighbor is banging away at all hours of the night. Nothing before twelve noon though. Sleeping late from being up all night. I couldn't live that close to someone. That's why I'll never move from Casa Tipton-Kelly. I like my neighbors but I have plenty of space between us. I'm playing my music LOUD right now as I usually do when I'm blogging. If I had a neighbor with a house attached to mine I would have to turn my music down, which I don't like to do. I like my non-stop "music for shops" LOUD.
Let's see, what else. Friends of mine are visiting France right now. I've never been to a foreign country except Canada, which I don't count as foreign. I've often thought I would like to visit a foreign country before I check out but after reading reports of the tourist hordes in Europe exacting COVID revenge tourism on the poor Europeans, I think that option is out. However, Pat has always wanted to visit Japan. I would like to visit Japan too. It's a long flight (twenty hours from Philly, ten from California). I'm thinking if I survive my caretaking responsibilities and I can still move around, Pat and I just may take that visit to Japan. But first I have to visit my old haunts in Provincetown and Pittsburgh. Just once for old times sake. To relive old memories. Then I can make new memories although I won't have those new memories too long will I?
Well, I've rambled on enough now. Time for dinner (I eat late, about 8:30 or 9:00 PM)) and take my chances with my new malfunctioning DVR on my DirecTV/
I hope all is well in everyone's world who is reading this blog. Lately I've really been feeling good about my life here except of course the political situation, I won't feel totally comfortable until the Orange Traitor is behind bars.
Be well everyone!
6 comments:
Often here in Southwestern Ohio heat and humidity go hand-in-hand. This year for the first time we experienced heat, humidity and Canadian wildfire smoke. I can handle high temps but with low humidity. I have fewer aches and pains when it is warm and sunny. The humidity made the smoke lie close to the ground and made it difficult to breathe. I honestly could not have attended a picnic or a parade and fireworks in weather like we had the past 7 days. The pollen has been bad here along with a spike in the mold spore count. I wonder what will the rest of the year's weather be like? I recently heard an Amazon driver and a Kroger driver talking about a problem they both have noticed just this year. Seems canned goods are spoiling. Apparently the delays in shipping keep products sitting in semi trailers and are exposed to higher than normal temperatures. What brought this conversation about was that one of my neighbors made the driver wait while she opened a can of strawberry pie filling. The contents of the can had spoiled. The driver said it looked like congeled horse piss.LOL. I wonder how he knows what that looks like. The other driver said lots of products are spoiled like that. He said that the product was also old and was often product from the Covid period when evrything sat on loading docks and in trucks waiting to be unloaded. I thought WOW! now I got something else to be worried about. Local news was reporting this morning that there is a rise in bed bug infestations in the tristate area. Seems like they are linking it to tourism. Thats another reason for me not to travel. Bed bugs are nasty business. So are lice. I grew up in the cattle industry on a farm with hundreds of beef cattle. Cattle get lice and are treated for it. I never got lice. But 3o years ago before I sold the cattle business that I inherited we had a bad incident happen. One of the farm hands wife came to visit her husband him at work. She had the their three kids with her and the kids played around the barns. I never allowed children in or near the catte pens because you can get hurt real fast on a working farm. a couple weeks later a local health department worker paid me a visit. Wanted to test my farm for lice and collect samples. Turns out there was a lice outbreak at the grade school and one of the kids with it says he got lice when he visited his dad here onn my farm. Well the type of lice matched what they collected on my farm. School board tried to sue me and so did my farm hand's wife. Long story short nothing held up in court. Seems lice is a common problem in schools and daycare centers. But to show I cared about the issue I made a donation to the schools for lice prevention. My point in all this is that stuff happens and has been since the beginning of time. We each have to take some responsibility for our own safety and well being. Bed bugs, lice, spoiled can goods, and stressed trees fallen suddenly without notice in private yards and public lands can injure you or even kill you. Ron's walking on the board walk at Rehoboth makes me think back to when I was a kids visiting Coney Island and getting a splinter from the board walk in my big toe. My parents didn't sue but I got smacked on the head and told to look where I going and to quit whining. We all got to be look at for ourselves and each other. Alright, that enough of my preaching. Everybody take care of yourself and your friends and neighbors. It is hot and the change in climate is making things tough on everybody. There is a hell of a lot of us getting old we got to look out for each other. Thats all for now folks. Be careful, be safe, and BE HAPPY! Woody in Ohio
Ron:
I should just pull up a trailer in the driveway and take care of things around the house. I'll do the outside and you can handle the inside.
Ok!! MSNBC Here is a link that you can watch for free:
https://www.newslive.com/featured/msnbc.html
I like MSNBC but since I am not working at the moment I like to get up, have coffee, turn on MSNBC, and see if the world is on fire. I don't like the Ana Cabrera-8:00 AM-Denver-10:00 AM-Deleware. Her lips look over inflated and she comes across as full of herself. The other person that fills in from time to time is Lindsey Reiser. Did you know she is a lesbian? I don't care for her as well. She over-enunciates and it takes away from the message. She also lowers her voice to all bass levels at times. Reminds me back in the day when young ladies spoke "Valley Girl." It was how younger women spoke. Now when she is tearing through a script to get to it she is fine but most of the time she is speaking like I am deaf. She doesn't need to enunciate every word as if I speak another language. I do like Jose Balart. You know he is going to throw in some Spanish news for his viewers. He broadcasts from Miami-9:00 AM-Denver/11:00M-Deleware.
Now truth be told, I can live in a 568-square-foot home if it was laid out right. That is like a big hotel room. I need storage. Not a lot but I need storage. I hate clutter. Give me a kitchen, bathroom, internet, and a good sized closet-doesn't have to be walk-in-but would be nice-and I am set to go.
Since my father was in the military I have lived in the Far East. We lived in Japan when I was under 5 and in Okinawa twice. Once in middle school and once in junior high and my sophomore year of high school. I never cared for it. My stepmother is Japanese. I told her my impression of Japanese people and she said I was correct. They are nice and sweet to your face but behind your back is another story. They always have a motive. My stepmother fits the bill as well. If I had one more horah I would like to travel back to Europe and hit a few cities. Also, I have always wanted to visit New Orleans. None of that Madi Gras stuff. I have read several gay mysteries where they describe the city to the tee. I love the older homes, cobble-stoned streets, and the like. I am not much of a fan of seafood but will eat it. Depending on what it is. And I don't do spicy, spicy food. I stayed with a friend from Jamaica and he would cook dinner for us and he had to pull back on the spices. They like things on FIRE. Also, New Orleans has some great deserts. And if know me, give me a good cup of hot coffee and I will follow you anywhere.
I follow another blog and this poster stated he had sarcoma melanoma INTERNALLY. He never had spots or growths externally. I was puzzled. My question to him was how did he know to get treated. He said it is stage 4 because it has spread from his lymphoid to his lungs. To top it all off he is a long-term survivor of HIV/AIDS.
I could never eat that late. I am around 6:00 PM gal. When I lived in DC the folks ate late. You would go out at 8 or 9 and the restaurant patios were buzzing. I never adopted the local tradition. We loved it because we could get into restaurants before it got too busy.
Well, have a great evening, the MSNBC link, tuck Bill in and sleep well.
Best of health,
Victor
XO
Woody,
Thank you again for a very interesting and informative comment(s). I remember when I was in grade school and one of the students contacted head lice and she had to get her head shaved. She was the only one but how horrible for her! I remember her name, "Lillian" and how embarrassed she was to go to school with a shaved head and the knowledge she had HEAD LICE! This was in the early Fifties when anything different about you just about ruined your school experience. I know it did hers because I don't think anyone befriended her.
You're right about all the things that can go wrong one we get out of our bed in the morning and even if we stay in bed, bed bugs! There was also a bed bug outbreak during my elementary school days but it was confined to one section of row houses in Downingtown near the train tracks. No body would rent or buy house there for years. To this day us oldsters know where that bed bug outbreak was and that area is still cursed. Mu friend Don McKenzie who lives in a Philadelhia Center City co-op said they had a report of bed bugs in one apartment. And they use a common laundry. How scary is that? Thankfully he didn't get the bed bugs.
The rule to follow for living is always the same - BE CAREFUL
RON
Victor,
I watch and listen to MSNBC almost all day, most of the time as wallpaper. I cannot stand to listen to Andrea Mitchell anymore so I turn off the TV at noon. I don't watch CNN anymore at all now, no one on that channel that I like or interested in.
No, I didn't know Lindsey Reiser was lesbian. What is it with girls named "Lyndsey"? My great niece is named Lindsey and she's gay.
Very interesting your take on the Japanese. Information that I didn't know. I heard similar things about Germans.
I'm used to eating late but I would like to pull it back a bit to maybe 7:30 or 8:00 PM. I can't while Bill is still up though. I have to wait for him to go to bed.
What a bummer to find you have sarcoma melanoma internally. Makes me realize again how lucky I am not to have serious medical issues right now but my arthritis is still marching on. I hope I can still get around in the years to come.
Thanks for your always welcome comments Vic.
Ron
If I lived there I would be at the beach every time I could
Ron Dear,
I do not have sarcoma melanoma. Hell, for most of my life, I have been pretty healthy.
I was referring to a poster on another blog-Joe My God. I have always known that sarcoma melanoma comes with some type of sign. A spot change color, shape, size...
This is what the guy responded back after I told him of my puzzlement:
Just to be clear they didn't find any lesions inside me just squamous carcinoma cells in my lymph nodes. It started with coughing and that went on for about 3 weeks me thinking it would just go away and then I spotted a lump in my neck (lymph gland) and went to the dr the next day. He ordered an x-ray of my chest and a sonogram of the neck. The chest x-ray showed a lot of nodules in my lungs which are not on their own too big a deal. People get them from smoking, pollutants, and allergies and don't usually need to be treated. However, the radiologist did say he couldn't rule out cancer. He then sent me for a CT scan with contrast and a visit to a pulmonologist (sic) who was the first to get the ct scan and that is when they discovered lots and lots of nodules, an enormous amount. The pulmonary guy also brought up HIV-related Lymphoma which I was sure was going to be the diagnosis in the end given the state of my immune system. So they sent me to an ENT guy to get a biopsy of the gland. He did a needle biopsy but it came back inconclusive as there were too many dead cells in the sample but there was evidence of squamous carcinoma. So they did a surgical biopsy and sure enough - squamous carcinoma.
There you go. If he didn't have the coughing issue he would have never known. Squamous carcinoma cells as well come with outward warning signs--new, changing, or unusual skin growths. He is starting his cancer treatments.
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