Traffic Jam

This is what it looked like yesterday at the turnoff on Rt. 1 trying to get into  our development

Bill and I came to a rare agreement today, we are not comfortable traveling in heavy traffic anymore.

Today we had to run several errands.  I'm not driving for a couple days because of my surgery yesterday (still woozy and fatigued).  Bill had to drive my car.  This is Friday and Friday living near a resort such as Rehoboth Beach is a nightmare.  We locals know to STAY OFF THE ROADS.  Alas, we didn't.  I was running around trying to get a prescription filled for a generic form of Rapaflo.  I wasn't keen on spending $484.19 for a 90 days supply of pills to "relax my prostate" which is inflamed after yesterday's assault surgery.  

First to the urologist's office to pick up my prescription.  Then to Walmart and the sticker shock moment.  Then to the Georgetown VA Outpatient Clinic to get a more reasonable price for a generic version of my prostate relaxer so I can stop peeing razor blades.  

All the while we're traveling on Route 1 which was undergoing some lane restrictions for some kind of road work.  DelDot likes to schedule their roadwork on Friday's, in the tourist season, especially when there are events going on in Rehoboth and Ocean City, Maryland.  Ah, the beginning of the season in Gayberry.  Always a delight.

So while we're traveling all around, missing near accidents right and left, we decided we're not going to travel in heavy traffic like this any more if we can help it, and we can.  For instance, the only place we're going tomorrow is the Food Lion in Milton, which is sans tourists.  Hell, they don't even know where Milton is unless they're a Dogfish beer aficionado.

A couple of years ago we decided not to travel at night anymore.  We just can't do it.  Everything is headlights.  I leave work after 11 pm at my hotel job but I travel a back road and there is very little traffic.  Step by step we're being "localized" in our activity.

Last week's road trip south we pushed our luck.  I don't think we'll do that again.

Actually, I'm quite happy staying her at Casa Tipton-Kelly.  Very happy as a matter of fact. Now if I can just stop peeing razor blades.

Waiting for Irene

We await Irene.  The weather today is deceptively calm. I guess you could really say this is "the calm before the storm."

I took this video a few hours ago to show what my lovely impatiens look like.  This flowers will be no more after Irene arrives.

I just heard on the news that Mayor Bloomberg ordered a mandatory evacuation of all lower areas of New York City.  Delaware governor Markel has ordered mandatory evacuation of all areas of coastal Delaware. Guess what folks?  That's where we live.  We're staying here.  Bill says if it gets too bad we can always get in our car for protection.

Bill and I dragged the generator from our shed, down through our grass to the garage.  Bill revved it up.  It's working. We'll have enough backup power to keep our refrigerators and freezers going.  That's all we need. It would be nice if we don't lose power but I fully expect to lose power.

I'll keep blogging until we lose power.

Day Dreams (Nightmare?)

I just got up from my afternoon nap.  I woke up earlier than usual.  I woke up because I was having a nightmare.

You know how when you dream, after you wake up you can't remember what you were dreaming about?  That's usually because you wake up in cold sweats in the middle of the night to take a wicked pee and by the time you get back to bed the gritty details of your dream are gone in the mists of memory loss.

Not so this afternoon.  I woke up in a cold sweat from my dream because I was sinking in the quicksand like mud of my neighbors's lawn.  The more I walk the more I sank.  And anyone who knows me knows what a Felix Unger like character I am.  I'm the one who requires my guests to take off their shoes before they enter my castle.  So here I am in my dream walking and sinking in my neighbor's lawn.  Think back to the old "Ramar in the Jungle" movies with the baddie (and sometimes goodies) getting caught in the quicksand and slowly sinking.  That was me, the "goodie" (or "baddie") trapped in the quicksand.




(Note: I couldn't find a "quicksand" video of Ramar of the Jungle so this will have to do. I'm telling you, those quicksand scenes really made an impression on my 10 year old mind when I watched the "Ramar in the Jungle" TV series in the Fifties. Sort of like an early version of the "Psycho" shower scene.) 


(2nd Note: If you want to watch the video turn the music of this blog off by pressing the button to the left)

What was I doing on my neighbor's lawn?  I don't exactly remember other than I was doing my absentee neighbor a favor by either collecting his mail or going to his front entrance to take a picture of my beautiful domicile.  Whatever it was, I was created a problem that wasn't there before.

So now to interpret this dream.  What happened that would cause these thoughts to go through my mind?  I did a little quick self-evaluation of my eclectic life in the previous hours before I took my Daily Nap.

• I was to meet a real estate friend for lunch today.  
• Lunch was my suggestion (and on me).
• I wanted to introduce my friend to the Surfing Crab, which is just down the road from me.
• I also wanted to have lunch at the Surfing Crab because I like it but haven't been there for 2 years.
• After lunch I was going to bring back to my development and introduce him to my neighbor who is selling his house. This way I was doing two people favors; my friend who is new to real estate and my neighbor (and his wife) who are very nice and always pleasant to me (not everybody is).
• After driving down the nightmare (or is it "daymare") that is Route 1 south in the summertime, I arrive at the parking lot of the Surfing Crab.  I see a young man sitting on the stoop with a surfboard.  As I turn my car off, he approaches my car.  I roll down the window and am met for a ridiculously young, handsome face which no one should have. I felt like slapping him because he was so good-looking.
• With a smile he tells me "I'm sorry sir, but the Surfing Crab doesn't open until 4 this afternoon."He gives me a Smile of Pity and turns and walks away, with his surfboard tucked securely under his arm.  I note that he also has a body (from the rear) that most gay men dream about.  I really wanted to slap him now.  So young, so gorgeous.  Somehow it's just not right.
• So there I am, sitting in my red Subaru Forester, wondering if I should wait for my real estate friend to arrive or just call him and tell him to meet me at my house, which is up the road.
• Our meeting time of 12:15 arrives, no friend.  12:20 arrives, still no friend.  I wait another 10 minutes and still no friend.  
• I call his cell phone to tell him to meet me at my house.  No answer.  Ringy Dingy many times and I finally get his voice mail.  I leave a message to meet me at my house (up the road).  
• I decide to wait a little longer, JUST IN CASE.  I didn't want to be pulling out of the parking lot as he was pulling in. 
• By the way, the heat today is brutal.  BRUTAL.  I'm out in this Heat That Kills Old People Quickly doing all this business.  Can you believe it? 
• Also, to get to the Surfing Crab from my location on Rt. 1 I have to make a left turn and cross over, after waiting for a break in the Route 1 north traffic.  I pull my car into the cross over island and am joined by another car from the housing development who also wants to make a U-turn but obviously can't wait.  I turn and look at the driver of that car and am met with a "See there, I can't wait Stupid Ass Smile".  While all this is going on another car is waiting to enter the cross over island form the other direction.  We all end up in the island together.  NOT SAFE.
•  I turn on my car air conditioner and call my friend's home phone. I get some kind of garble and a message that the phone number is no longer in use.  I call his cell phone again and...after many Ringy Dingys get his voice mail again, I leave a message.
• I go home, on the way wondering where I'm going to take him for lunch on this typical Dog Days of Summer in Delaware.  The Broadkill Boathouse in Milton?  Nah, they're probably closed too.  Po Boys in Milton?  Nah, they're big on shrimp, crawfish and all that seafood that looks like garbage that is left on the beach after the tide goes out.  I'm not a Seafood Person. 
• I walk in the door now to be questioned by Bill (The Spouse) - "Why are you back so early?"
• When you live with someone as I do, you have to explain Everything.  When you go, how long you're going and when you come back.  EVERYTHING.  There is no just going out whenever the mood hits you and returning unexpectedly.  You have to have an EXPLANATION.
• I tell him that my real estate friend didn't show up.  My Need to Know spouse asks "Didn't he call you?"  I said "No."
• As I was answering I casually checked my e-mail on my iPhone.  Since I got my iPhone a few months ago, checking my e-mail is almost a reflexive action, probably much to the annoyance of those who interact with me in my daily life.
• Ah ha!  I see an e-mail from my real estate friend.  He says "Something else came up and I won't be able to make lunch.  Sometime next week?" The time on the e-mail was 25 minutes before I left to meet him.  Uh huh.  So I Missed the Message. 
• I call my neighbor and tell him that I'm not bringing over my friend the real estate agent today.  I tell him "Something else came up."  
• My neighbor acknowledges this change of plans and is probably glad he doesn't have to travel from his new dream home on the canal next to Rehoboth Bay at the end of Old Landing Road to our lovely little development out here just off Route 1 with his view of a dry retention pond (the reason he moved - to get a "water view").
• I decided to have lunch then take my Afternoon Nap.

Now, can you figure out the reason for my Nap Nighmare (or is it "Daymare?)  I tried to do something nice for two people today and it ALL WENT WRONG.  As my always know it all knowledgeable Spouse said "Why did you even go out today?"  And, as always I am reluctant to admit that he might have been right this time.  What was I thinking?  To go out on a brutally hot and humid day like this that just saps the energy out of you?  Just what was I thinking?  

I know what I was thinking.  I'm like a lot of other people. I like people to like me and I thought by doing this little activity today I would be helping two people who I like.  Didn't work that way.  The more I did the more I sunk in the muddy quicksand.  

I was so glad when I woke up and realized that I wasn't muddy up to my chest.  Also, I think where some of this "muddy" came from was the result of our afternoon Downpour yesterday.  We had enough rain to fall in half an hour to take us through the end of the month.  Before I left today I was walking on my neighbors' grass (he's not here, he's a physician who lives and works out of Philadelphia, and yes...his house is ALSO FOR SALE).  Bill and I collect his mail and I occasionally go over to his front doorway to take a picture of my house. Today while I was walking on his grass I was getting the "SOG.SOG.SOG".)  

Add these elements up and I you have the makings of my daytime nightmare (or is it "daymare?")

Thus, another long winded episode in the Life of Ron.  I warned you folks, I write what I think.  

Me, bit clown feet and all

Day Two of the Thaw Out

Today is Day Two of the thaw out of the hit we took from the Major Winter Snowstorm of 2009. Here in the little development where I live ice still covers the roads. So much for our homeowner’s fees going to clearing the roads.








We only got two to three inches of snow on this the eastern side of Route 1, two miles from the ocean breeze. Further inland most areas got a foot or more of snow.







To have snow still on the ground two days after the snowstorm is unusual for this area. Usually the snow is gone by the end of the next day. That is just one more reason I like living in this area of southern Delaware, the snow doesn’t hang around too long.







Yesterday I didn’t go out of the house once, which is very unusual for me. I will make up for that today. A trip to Wal-Mart is planned. I want to get prints of some of the pictures I took of the Christmas party I attended with my co-workers on Sunday night.







I have to get out of the house at least once during the day. These days of darkness descending with its emphatic certainty will come to an end. It is all so very depressing to have midnight darkness at before 6 in the evening. Thank goodness today is the first day of winter. That means the days will start getting longer again. This is what I look forward to every year.







I am making major progress in going through and cleaning out the remaining boxes I have of my move from three years ago. Yesterday Bill took out a box for me to empty. That box contained all my files from my previous employments at Fidelity Bank in Philadelphia, as well as Downingtown National Bank and First Financial Bank. The first two banks I endured major drama. The paperwork is all there. As I sat in Bill’s basement office/storage area I leafed through and read some of the documentation of the saga and it brought back mixed emotions, good and bad. But that is a story for another time, perhaps that book I plan to write someday about my life.







Oh yes, that book will be written. That is my last main goal of my life. I will not go away until my story is told. Perhaps no one will find it of interest or read it while I’m alive. That fact doesn’t concern me. What concerns me is that I don’t want to depart from this life without a record of what actually happened. And that is the story that will be told. It won’t be long now. It is my story and my story alone. No one can take that away from me.



But for now I'm concentrating on just getting past Christmas and that dead week between Christmas and New Year’s in which most of the TV is about reviewing the past year, which I always find so boring.



In a couple of week it will be January and the New Year. The days will be getting longer and life will return to its normal routine. Then, before I know it, the first green sprouts of crocus will break their way through the frozen crust of earth by the sidewalk leading to my front door. That's when I know spring won't be far behind. I can hardly wait.

The Day After

Here we are the day after the big winter snow storm of the season and it isn't even winter yet. Winter officially starts tomorrow, December 21st. Most of the rest of the east coast received a foot or more of snow; we received about two inches down here in Lower Slower, aka Sussex County, Delaware. No complaints here that is more than enough for us to enjoy the beauty of a white Christmas.




One of the complaints Bill has had since we moved to Delaware is that he misses the snow. Well, he got a dose this time and he was out in our driveway early, shoveling a path. I'll go on record and say I don't miss the snow. Maybe when I was a kid and we got a few days off from school but now that I'm an Old Grumpy Man, I don't miss it at all. Not at all. It's pretty to look at but I don't want to be driving in it. I don't even want to build a snow man. Grumpy, grumpy. That be me.

I called the Inn a little while ago to see if the Christmas party was still on. The owner of the Inn where I work has a sit down dinner party for all of his employees each year. This year as in last year it is going to be held at the Second Street Grill. Last year was the first time I ate there. I loved it. The party last year at the Second Street Gill had excellent service, good food and great company. I'm very fortunate in that I work with a wonderful bunch of folks and a very generous boss/owner. It doesn't get much better than that. I take nothing for granted.



Drive carefully. Be kind to animals, your friends, relatives, neighbors and strangers. I'll be back tomorrow to report on the party.

Take it Back

I like to dine out. I think that’s probably because I never went to a restaurant until I was 22 years old. I had been to a few diners in my teenage years but never to a real restaurant.








My first restaurant was Da Vinci’s Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was back in 1964 when Bill (my partner of now 45 years) was courting me. He wanted to impress me and indeed, I was impressed. Prior to this experience I had only dined at the typical Fifties chrome diner. Those chrome palaces were the Exton Diner in Exton, PA and Zynn’s Diner in Thorndale, PA. My high school friend Larry and I also used to frequent Dick Thomas’s Foot Long Hot Dog restaurant also in Exton. But I had never dined in a real, white table cloth, fancy dancy restaurant until Da Vinci’s.







My first meal was Veal Parmesan. I also had never eaten veal. My father did not believe in eating baby animals. To this day I still have not eaten lamb chops.







Well, I was blown away out how good the Veal Parmesan was. I loved the attentive waiter, the white table cloth (I never ate at a table with any kind of table cloth) and the candles on the table. I liked everything about the dining experience. The food, service and an evening out with someone I liked.







These days I’m not dining out with my love (Bill doesn’t like to eat out) but I do dine out with friends every opportunity I get (as they will quickly tell you if you ask them.)







Today I took my friend Barbara out to lunch for her birthday. I used a gift certificate I purchased at a Red Cross silent auction a couple of weeks ago. The gift certificate was for The Wharf Restaurant in Lewes. I had eaten at The Wharf earlier this summer. It was a so-so experience. The Wharf is located right on the canal in Lewes but it is somewhat of a tourist trap. Generally you’re not going to get the best food at a tourist trap restaurant. Today was no exception.







Barbara and I seated ourselves at the restaurant at about quarter after twelve. There weren’t any other customers in the restaurant. We were the first customers of the day. One would expect fast service wouldn’t one? Well, one would be wrong.







The waitress was nice enough but once we gave our order, we waited….and waited….and waited. Both Barbara and I ordered hamburgers. I specifically asked if the hamburger was char broiled. I was assured that they had the option to do that.







When we finally received our order I noted that my hamburger was served on sandwich bread. What’s that? Then I looked at the hamburger patty. Oh oh. It was the old perfectly round, gray, formerly frozen hamburger patter of undetermined origins. I took a bite. This wasn’t a char broiled hamburger. This hamburger had no taste. It was tasteless like all the mass produced, frozen hamburger patties that are delivered to our area of southern Delaware by the many Sysco tractor trailer trucks. So my request for a char broiled real hamburger was ignored. They lied.







Usually, I would not say anything and try and finish eating the hamburger but not today. Too often my friends have told me that if I didn’t like what I received tell the restaurant. I especially wanted to let this particular restaurant I wasn’t pleased because when I ate there this past summer I didn’t let them know but I did write about it in a review I posted online. The owner of the restaurant responded to my review and told me that I should try his restaurant again and if I wasn’t satisfied to let him know. That’s what I did today. I sent the hamburger back. I told the waitress it had no taste. It wasn't char broiled. The waitress apologized and took the offending hamburger (with the sandwich bread) away to the kitchen. A few minutes later I saw the cook (a big woman) come out and look over at our booth to see who the offending patron was. What's that all about?



The waitress came back and I ordered a Caesar Salad instead. My dining partner had got a Caesar Salad and she said it was good. My salad was good but the salad itself wasn’t fresh. It looked like the leaves were precut because they were brown around the edges. They probably brought one of those bags of precut Caesar Salad from the local supermarket. It definitely wasn't freshly torn Romaine. I was hungry so I ate it.







I was hungry all afternoon. I hate it when I go to a restaurant and I leave hungry. But this isn’t the first time this has happened since I’ve dined out in this area. I'm not a big eater. I'm 6'3" and weigh 160. I'm not a pig but I do need enough to satisfy my hunger.





This is something that has always puzzled me, why is it so hard for many of the restaurants in this area of southern Delaware to make a good hamburger? I only know of a few restaurants that make a decent hamburger by using fresh hamburger meat. They would be the Purple Parrot, Dos Locos, Gilligan’s and the Surfing Crab. Maybe it’s because this is a seaside resort and seafood is the preferred dish. I’m not a seafood guy. With me it’s chicken, hamburger or eggplant Parmesan. After that first veal dish, as delicious as it was, I still don’t eat baby animals.



Tomorrow is another day. Wednesday I'm going out to dinner again at another Lewes Restaurant, the Villa Sorrento. I hope my experience is better there than I had today at The Wharf. I'm ready for another good dining experience at an Italian restaurant. It has been a long time.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Don't Like Living in Delaware

Alright, yesterday I listed the Top Ten Reasons Why I Like Living in Delaware.  Today I list the Top Ten Reasons Why I Don't Like Living in Delaware.  You know there had to be some.  By the way, these lists will be revised from time to time.

1) No Wegmans (Food Lion? Safeway? Not even close)



2) Too far away from the VA (89 miles now instead of 5 miles)


3) Too far away from a decent sized shopping mall (39 miles instead of 4 miles)


4) Too far away from the Super Wal-Mart (12 miles instead of 4 miles)


5) No hills, flat land (as far as the eye can see)


6) No Struble Nature Trail meandering along the Brandywine Creek (can’t take interesting nature pictures)


7) No woods (can’t take interesting nature pictures)


8) No dermatologists (without waiting at least three months for an appointment, what is THAT? We live at the shore for chrissake)


9) No Brickside Grill (thus no good Chicken Quesadillas or Trivia Night)


10) No Wegmans (oops! I already said that didn’t I? That said, Giant is no Wegmans)

Top Ten Reasons Why I Like Living in Delaware

Below are listed the top ten reasons why I like living in Delaware (Sussex County, coastal area.)  Tomorrow I will list the top ten reasons why I DON't like living in Delaware.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Like Living in Delaware

(1) Low taxes – no sales tax and the school tax is very low

(2) Milder weather – one temperate zone down, makes a big difference


(3) Flat land – no dangerous hills or curves for accidents – beautiful big sky


(4) Gay friendly – little to no hostility when my partner and I dine together


(5) Straight roads – no curves for accidents and easier to find places


(6) Near the ocean – nothing like the fresh ocean air to reinvigorate the senses


(7) Open spaces – evokes a sense of primal freedom much like my ancestors


(8) Slower pace – at this time of my life I need less stress


(9) Less kids – a more proper balance of kids to adults – not jamm packed with kids


(10) More friends – a large GBLT community plus straight people who aren’t afraid of “the gays.”

The Leather Anniversary

The Leather Anniversary is the traditional 3rd year anniversary. Somehow leather doesn't seem appropriate at this time of my life (although it was VERY APPROPRIATE earlier in my adult life) so I will go with the more modern crystal or glass anniversary.




What am I celebrating today? Three years ago today I sold my house in Pennsylvania (after being on the market a long and torturous eleven months) and moved into my dream house here in the flat coastal plains of Sussex County Delaware.

Yes, I may now have a 30 year mortgage where I had none before and I am now paying a water bill where I paid none before (I had a well), but I can say without equivocation that I an extremely happy where I am at in life now.  I love my home, I love my friends and I love Bill.  Oh yes, we're speaking again.

Hurricane Ida Aftermath

This is Day Two of the remains of hurricane Ida hit on the Delmarva Peninsula where I live.

The wind and rain is whipping around outside. My house is creaking and groaning under the assault. This is getting so old.

Yesterday I drove into work down Route 1, my little red ten year old Subaru barely keeping its four wheel drive on the road as it was buffeted by wind gusts up to 50 MPH.

I drove down New Road, hoping that it is not flooded by the canal that intersects it half way down to Lewes. The water was up to the road but not flooded yet......that would happen later when I got off work at 11 pm. Then I had the experience of slowly hydroplaning through the canal water that now covered New Road.



No one was in the hotel. I felt like I was in Hotel Overlook as the wind and rain battered the hotel. Thank God the hotel didn't lose power.



My shift went fairly fast, considering it was an empty hotel. A few phones calls, moped the floors, checked the reservations for the weekend and pretty soon my shift was ended.



This morning I decided to brave the rain and wind and took my old dependable red Subaru Forester to get the oil changed. I was going to go on a sunny day but decided today instead because there probably wouldn't be a wait. I was right, there was not a wait. I was their only customer.



After a stop in Wal-Mart for milk and to pick up photo prints, I headed home on the almost empty Rt. 1. That's one benefit of awful weather, not much traffic.

Bill and I took a ride down Oyster Rocks Road. We didn't get far, it was flooded. We went back home we saw a blown over Porta-John. Now there’s a job I wouldn’t want to fix.