Ron Buys a New iPhone

Me and Robert (at work)

So here I am at work the day before yesterday, changing shifts with my co-worker Robert and he whips out his iPhone.  Immediately I notice that his new phone looked different.  I asked him "Did you get a new iPhone?"  He gave me an "isn't it obvious?" look and said "yes."  

My mouth dropped open and I said "What? You got a NEWER iPhone than me?"  Well folks, HE DID.  He's now ahead of me.

So there I was, sitting at the front desk with my piddly iPhone 4, feeling suddendly inadequate, watching Robert smugly scrolling through his iPhone 5, occasionally looking up with an arched eyebrow at me. Uh huh.   

You know what I'm talking about here folks don't you?  The MALE COMPETITION bug, also know by some as "P-Envy" (although I must say that issue  has never been a problem with me thanks to THAT gene I inherited from my Dad; thanks Dad, not to brag but I am).  

Both my brothers and I have always one-upped each other on who has the newest and biggest computer.  Same with cars.  You know how it is folks, just a "guy thing."  Hey, even though I'm gay I still have that "guy thing". I gots to have the biggest and best.  

So what did I do to rectify this untenable situation?  Well of course I went out first thing yesterday morning, in the driving rain yet, to the local Verizon center on Route 1 in Rehoboth and bought me a new iPhone 5. 

Me buying my new iPhone 5 yesterday at the Verizon store

Ah yes folks, all is right with the world now.

Me and my new toy

Bound To Happen

The Coolspring Presbyterian Church, Sussex County, Delaware

It was bound to happen.  Sooner or later I would be at the same cemetery taking photos of headstones and my Find a Grave.com competition would show up at the same graveyard.  That is exactly what happen just about an hour ago.

This afternoon I decided to take a ride on the backroads and look for the Coolspring Presbyterian Church Cemetery.  I haven't visited this cemetery yet.  Most of the burials are recorded on Find a Grave.com but many of them did not have photos.  I thought this cool fall afternoon would be a nice time to visit another one of these many old church graveyards that are so plentiful here in Sussex County.  Also, I had checked and my main competition here in Sussex County apparently had not visited it yet.  Ah ha, I saw an opportunity to get one step ahead of him.  Competition, it is good.

Another one of these backroad church cemeteries here in Sussex County, DE

Well, I had a heck of a time finding this church and the cemetery.  I must of drove through every remaining black rural section of Sussex County.  After about an hour of driving around, I noticed that I was going over some of the same roads.  So I backtracked and started all over again.  That worked!  I found the Coolspring Presbyterian Church.  Actually, it is only a short distance from my home.  Isn't that always the way?

I pull in the church parking lot.  I get out and survey the graveyard.  Just the kind I like; it was quiet and off the main road.  However I did hear some yokel playing a radio too loud but that didn't bother me too much.  I am in redneck country after all.

After about ten minutes, I see a little red car pull up and a guy give me a LOOK.  Uh oh, trouble.  I'm ready to explain what I'm doing there.  He comes up to me and says "Hi Ron!"  Why it is my Find a Grave.com competition!  He asks me how I'm doing.  I was puzzled at first because I didn't think he knew I had a health situation.  He must be reading my blog.  Uh oh.  I've been saying some unkind things about him on my blog.  But he doesn't refer to that but says to me "You look good."  I'll always take a compliment.  I explain to him that I'm scheduled for an appointment with a urologist next month but in the meantime I'm trying to get as much done on my grave photos as possible.  He askes me "You're not here to fulfill a Find a Grave photo request are you?"  I told him that I didn't know there was one (I missed it again) but I wasn't.  He said he was and started to look for the grave.

My Find a Grave.com competition fulfilling a photo request

While he was looking I talked to him and found out he actually is quite a nice guy.  He explained to me why he became involved in Find a Grave.com.  It was through Find a Grave that he found his long lost half-sister after 38 years.  I missed the detail on that drama but he was very thankful that he found his half sister alive.  He said taking photos for Find a Grave.com is his way of paying back.

So here's the deal folks,  from our conversation it was obvious he has been reading my blog.  He asked about my health.  How else would he know that?  He didn't refer to my blog postings where I think I made some unkind references to him.  Did I ever feel like an ass.  Sometimes karma brings situations like this around to make me realize that I do go overboard sometimes with my bitching and complaining.  It is obvious to me that I was being very unfair to my fellow Find a Grave contributor.  I thought I was the only Game in Town.  And here comes competition that got me twisted out of sorts.

Actually I am appreciative of him for giving me competition.  I have been working furiously the past two weeks to post all the photos of headstones I've taken the past three years.  I've been sitting on them, posting them when I felt like it.  Now that I have serious competition I had to up my game.

I also owe my competition (who shall remain unnamed out of respect for him, he didn't even want me to take his picture but I snuck one anyway) an apology for saying unkind things about him on my blog.

So if you're reading this my friend I apologize for any unkind things I may have said about you on my blog.

Life in Gayberry, DE

The Primitive Baptist Church in Cades Cove. Tennessee
Photo taken by me during our trip south this past spring

We're going back folks.  Bill and I are making another trip south.  While updating my Find a Grave account, I noticed that a lot of those family graveyards in the hills of western North Carolina where my father was born and left when we was ten years old (the family moved to Pennsylvania) are unrecorded.  Those family cemeteries are just waiting for me to put them on the map.

The past week or so I've been busy mightily updating all my photos that I've taken of cemeteries here in Sussex County and Pennsylvania.  I now have serious competition here in Sussex County covering the cemeteries for Find a Grave.  Coincidentally it is another gay man, one who just happens to work for the governor of the state of Delaware.  I don't know how he has the time to visit all these cemeteries and take his thousands of photographs and post them and the dates of birth and death to his Find a Grave account but he is doing it.  He is about a thousand grave ahead of me.  I have dallied too long.  He has also beat me to the punch of posting his photographs of graves that I have already taken photographs of.  I sent him an e-mail that I had already taken those photographs but he ignored it and posted his anyway.

Of course he did, he's that kind of really competitive guy.  He has to be the star in anything he does.  I know. I've heard all about him.  I had a chance to meet him at his Summer Bash which is actually a birthday party he throws for himself (and raises funds at the same time - remember we are the FUND RAISING CAPITAL OF THE EAST COAST).  I didn't really meet him but I saw him pass by and tried to get his attention.  Way too busy....being the CENTER OF ATTENTION.

I've sent him a couple of e-mails but he has deigned not to respond.  Once he did respond to a chat session on FB but I think once he checked out my local gay membership credentials (I have none), I was jettisoned from his contact list.  Here in Gayberry, DE (AKA Rehoboth Beach/Lewes/Milton) there is a strictly adhered to gay social pecking order.  You think the DAR is picky?  Man oh man, they have nothing on Gayberry's Gay Society.

Actually, do I care?  Not really.

One thing is for sure (at least I think it is), when Bill and I are roaming through the hills on the border western North Carolina and east Tennessee, we'll be in friendlier territory.  That was one of the places I considered retiring too (Ashville, North Carolina) but I decided against it because of the perceived hostility towards two men living together.

One of the main reasons I made the decision to move to this area of southern Delaware was because my longtime best friend who just happened to be gay has lived in southern Delaware for over thirty years.  Over the years I have visited him many times and looked forward to spending more time with him.  However, one of the cruel ironies of fate, he now has Alzheimer's.  His body is here but his brain isn't.  Sad, sad.  He's gone.

Bill and I stay mostly to ourselves here on the outskirts of Gayberry.  We have a few gay friends who normal men and aren't into dressing in drag or the stereotypical gay activities like breaking out into Broadway show tunes. Both Bill and I missed that gay requirement. That's probably why we don't fit in the local gay social elite.

In little over a month I'll be 70.  Bill will be 83 next week.  We are really tired.  I started cutting back on my social interactions this past month.  Bill always has.  We really don't want anyone visiting us anymore.  Been there, done that.  Bill asked me to close his FB account today.  That I did.  I went through my FB account and Hide every "Friend" whose posts are either just fund raising, political rants, or snarky comments.  Like I said, I'm tired of dealing with these people who really aren't my friends.  I just keep my FB account to keep in contact with the younger members of my extended family and the few genuine friends who seem to care about me.  The rest of them, gone.

The road into Cades Cove Tennessee, May 2011
Bill and I love this country