New Tripod

 

A selfie I took this morning on my back deck with my new tripod.

Finally! After all these years I finally got a tripod that accommodates my iPhone. 

For years I've been asking Bill to take photos of me. Then when he lost his vision to macular degeneration I had to figure out another way to take pictures of me. When I was with Pat I would ask him, which he would often accommodate me, but I know it wasn't his thing. It wasn't really Bill's thing either. Both of these men, lovely men who I loved and love dearly, weren't as interested in taking photos as I was and still am.

The rare time I would attempt to take a selfie or a video (I took some of me and Bill a few months before he died), I would prop my iPhone up on the kitchen counter or some other surface. I have several older tripods but they don't accommodate iPhones.  They have that screw in the bottom for SLR cameras. I have an SLR camera but haven't used it in years. Paid over a thousand dollars for it too! Does anyone use SLR cameras anymore? Even the ones that take videos, which mine does?

So folks, expect a lot more current pictures of me and even videos. I'm sure some of you are very tired of seeing my old photos posted over and over again to this blog. Now you'll get to see me in all my rapidly deteriorating physical state, especially my posture problem (called humpback) where I can no longer stand up straight. My condition is called "age-related hyperkyphosis or a "dowagers hump" which is usually caused by a combination of bone leaking, muscle loss, spinal wear and tear and every day postural habits. I'm in good company. Below is 96 year old Clint Eastwood.

That's it for today folks. 

Who Are All Those Women?

My high school class of 1959 annual Christmas dinner - I missed attending because they changed the date at the last minute and Pat and I had already coordinated our travel plans which we couldn't change at the last minute - nice composition on this picture though, it is the way I would have staged it - some sitting and others standing. Only thing I would have made sure more were smiling!

A little explanation is needed for my header photo on this blog. I know some of you are wondering "Why is Ron posting a picture of all those women?", Ron being gay and all.  Well, for your information I have many women friends. I like women. As friends only of course. 

I took this photo of my co-workers when I worked at First Financial Bank in Downingtown, Pennsylvania way back in 2005.  Wow, I am always amazed at how fast time goes by.  

This past Saturday my high school class had it's annual Christmas dinner in Pennsylvania. Pat and I had planned to attend but they changed the date at the last minute and we couldn't make it. I always take group photos at my class reunions. But I have to admit, whoever took this photo staged it the same way I staged my photo of my former co-workers at our Christmas party in 2006.  One difference, if I had taken the photo of my former high school class members there would have been a lot more smiles. When I take the photos my subjects smile.  They can't help it!

Rabbit Ears

Mr. Pat gives Bill the rabbit ear treatment

Organizing my photos I've notice a trend with a certain Canadian friend of mine.  Is it me or does Pat seem to place rabbit ears surreptitiously when no one is looking. Hmmm.  

I get the rabbit ear treatment

Why I Can't Get Good Photos Of Me Anymore

Me with my Heavy Metal Detox juice drink at the Nectar Cafe in Lewes, DE

Regular readers of this blog know that I like to take photos.  I like to take a LOT of photos. 

I have over 84,000 photos on my computer and more to scan. 

I started taking photos Christmas Day 1954 when I was twelve years old.  My Mother had given me a Kodak Brownie camera for Christmas.  

My younger brothers John and Isaac with their 1954 Christmas presents, matching bikes! They were the willing subjects of my first picture taking session, eight images on a black and white Kodak roll of film

Back in those black and white days, I rarely had photos taken of myself.  I remember a trip I won to New York City as a paperboy, I don't have one picture of me.  I just have pictures of the New York skyline. 

My photo of the New York City skyline 1955 - I wish now that I would have asked one of my fellow paper boy contest winners to take a picture of me with the skyline behind me - too late now

Back in those days there was no such thing as a selfie.  And if I did ask someone to "take a picture of me please?", that would be considered a social faux pas, one must be modest.

The General Motors building in New York City 1955 - is it still there?

However, in this day and age, selfies are the norm, and one isn't considered a narcissist if one asks someone else to take a picture of him or her.

Lady Liberty, New York City 1955 - she didn't mind me taking her picture

Oh how often I wish I had taken more pictures back in those pre-terrorism days when the only thing we had to worry about was the Soviet Union dropping an A-bomb on us.

"What? We have to hid under our desks when The Bomb drops?"

(me in the back of my father's pickup truck - not at all happy about this embarrassing mode of transportation during my sensitive teenage years - my Father loved humiliating and degrading me - and one of my brothers caught me on camera during my funk

 

Well, these days I have plenty of opportunity to have my picture taken as well as taking selfies.  However, there is one thing I've noticed.  It's getting harder and harder to get a good picture of me.  Then I remember something my Mother told me a long time ago.  She said "Ronnie, as you get older you'll find you'll have a harder time getting that 'good picture' of yourself."  Of course I didn't pay much attention to her wise advice (was was young and full of myself back then) but you know what?  She was right!

Yesterday I wanted to put a new profile picture on my Facebook account.  Usually there is no difficulty selecting a picture of myself from the many that I have had taken. That has changed.  Now most of my pictures are of an old, wrinkled, grizzled man.  Wow.  "Is that me?" I ask myself.  And no, I'm not going to post even one of those pictures now.  Use your imagination but trust me, I'm starting to deteriorate.  I'm going downhill . . . FAST. 

Gone are those days of the past when every picture showed a young, fresh faced and wimpy kid with a FULL head of hair.

Yep!  That's me.  Was I EVER that young and innocent?  Well, I was believe it or not. 

One consolation I have is that my friends and peers (the ones still alive anyway) are aging has well and keeping pace with me.  Some solace (I guess).

Bill and Pat during Pat's annual visit to Delaware this past spring

But all is not lost.  I have found that when I'm happy, my smile still shines through and you can still see a hint of my youth.  

Me and Pat on the Rehoboth Boardwalk this past spring (and me with my Spo Shirt)

So the trick is to keep smiling.  I'm working on it folks!

My Life

Have you ever been in one of those situations where you saw your life pass before your eyes?  I have……several times.  

I've had this happen several times when I've been in a dangerous situation in which I felt like I was losing or lost control.  Recently, this past Labor Day on my third visit to the ER with my kidney stone drama I thought I was passing onto the Great Beyond.  I was resigned to my fate but the tears did well up in my eyes when I saw Bill standing over by the wall, helpless what to do as I was writhing in agonizing pain, praying that I would pass out of anything just to stop the pain.  It was at that moment that I thought I was really going out and I was ready but the tears were flowing down my cheeks.  However, what happened was the double dose of pain killers kicked in and I was soon in La La Land, having been given another reprieve on life.

This morning while I was plowing through my backlog of e-mails in my AOL account (who still has AOL you ask? ME!)  I came across this collage of photos that I've posted to my Retired in Delaware blog account over the years.  These pictures are only a small representation of the photos I've posted on my blog since I started it in 2006 but they do give you a fair representation of my life….literally passing before your eyes.  Not that I have had a particularly unique life (I think I have) but I think everyone has an equally diverse and interesting life.  I just happen to be one of those people who record much of my life by photographs and post them to my blog.

I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I did.  I am so glad that I can blog and share my life with all my blogger friends.  

Friends - A Bad Week

Me waiting at Dover Subaru yesterday for my Forester oil change

Hi folks.  I had several ideas for unique and interesting postings but I'm just not up to it after events of the past week and the one BIG upcoming event of Monday, undergoing a prostate biopsy procedure.  I've written about this before and won't go into it again here but it is one my mind and affecting my mood and enthusiasm.  I was supposed to get this procedure last year but changed my mind but have decided to do it this year just to rule out any possibility that I have prostate cancer.

So here are some of my random thoughts are things bothering me right now.  

My cousin Jana - I doubt if I'm violating her privacy by posting this picture of her with her cat

Notice that the picture of the cat I had at the top of this blog is now gone.  That's because it was a picture I took of a former friend's cat.  He sent me an e-mail stating that I post "everything online."  Well actually, I don't post "everything online" but he did say I was violating his privacy by posting a picture of his cat. He has a every right to do that so I took the photo down and replaced it with my dog Horace the day we got him as a puppy in 1982.  Bill is holding him in his lap.  I can post this photo because Bill doesn't think I'm "violating his privacy."  Notice that I mention "former friend." I know where his attitude is coming from.  It's coming from another former friend who was ended our friendship because he took offense to something I said on one of my previous blog posts.  I think it was something about me not giving advice in the future when asked for it because my advice is rarely if ever taken.  He took offense and sent me an e-mail saying "Sorry I wasted your time....bye."  Sort of a flimsy excuse to end a friendship don't you think?  I did too.

Me with my friend Bob's cat - I don't I'm violating his privacy by posting this picture of his cat 

I sent an e-mail back to my former friend and told him I removed the picture that so violating his privacy.  I also told him to stop reading my blogs if he is so offended.  I also suggested to him to tell my other former friend (who is a friend of his) to stop reading my blog if it so offends him.  What is it with these people?  

My friend Larry with his cat - have I violated your privacy Larry?

So you see folks.  It's been a bad week. Someone I liked a lot stood me up for a lunch date that he requested, thus giving me the reality check that apparently my friendship wasn't as important to him as his was to mine.  A couple of other guys I thought were friends are offended by what I post to my blog.  I'm not in a good place this week.  

My brother Isaac and "Bobby", my one and only cat - 1954 - I didn't ask Isaac's permission to post this photo but the cat was mine so I guess it's okay to post this picture

I have a couple of relatives on my Facebook page who are Righties and testing my patience with their gun-toting, Hate Obama postings into unfriending them.  Then to top everything off some douche bag hijacked my Twitter account and sent spam to all my Twitter followers.  

I think part of why I don't feel well now is that I had to take stop taking aspirin a couple of weeks ago prior to this biopsy.  I am on a baby aspirin regimen because I almost constantly have a dull, throbbing headache.  This week has been especially bad.

My Mom with her "bedwarmer" (Molly) - Mom never minded me posting photos of her cats and I never knew anybody more private than my Mom - go figure

Some people have asked me "What is the secret to your long relationship with Bill?"  You know what it is folks?  The answer is very easy.  Bill respects me.  Bill likes me, warts and all.  Bill likes me as I am.  He's not a hateful, spiteful, controlling, jealous, and selfish person.  He thinks I'm important.  And I feel the same way about him.  Everyday I count my blessings that I found someone like Bill because I would hate to think of what my life would have been like with some of the so-called "friends" I've had in my life.  I have acquaintances, not friends.  I had better realize that then I won't get my feelings hurt the next time my friendship is taken for granted.  I admit it, I'm too sensitive.  I go overboard.  I will try to correct that weakness in the future.  

I do have a few good friends (not counting my blogger friends who are in a different category).  Ironically they are friends from my high school days and from my former life at Girard Bank.  They know who they are (all four of them - yes, I can count them on one hand). They know me.  They accept me just the way I am.  They do not try to control me.  They like me.  I know them and like them.  They also are not perfect like I am but I accept them as they are.  I have tried to accept my newer "friends" they way they are but without much success.

Ironically the friend who stood me up to lunch asked for the date because he wanted to know how our (me and Bill) "open" relationship worked.  It's simple, when Bill asked me to move in with him back in 1964 I turned him down.  I told him "I'm still going to go out and I don't want anyone controlling me."  He said he understood and would never try to limit or control a "22 year old".  He said that was the fastest way to end a relationship. He was right, that is the fastest way to end a relationship with me, start dictating to me how to live my life.  Doesn't work with me folks.  Maybe it works with someone else and maybe they even prefer to live that way but I would never accept a relationship where someone controlled my life.  Nor do I control Bill's life.  We come and go as we please.  This is what works for us.  And it's not all about sex either.  When some hear the word "open relationship" they think we're out there swinging from the chandeliers.  I wish.  No friends, what "open relationship" means to us is that one doesn't control the other.  Yes, I can have friends outside our relationship.  I can even have romantic friends.  So what?  None of them ever lasted nor did I expect them too.  The initial physical attraction always wears off then it's the character of the person and in all my years I have yet to find anyone to match Bill's love for me.  And I have never loved anyone like Bill.  No matter what we will always be together because he understands me and I understand him.  

So this time next week I hope I'm in a better frame of mind.  Had to purge today though.  Bad week.  

Me at the dentist earlier this week.  That went well - no cavities!

Rare Photo!

Bill and Ron with Heidie at neighbors' house a few minutes ago

Hey folks!  A rare photo was just taken a few minutes ago.  Our neighbors called and asked Bill if he could help them move their couch.  I wasn't ask but I went over anyway.  I'm nosy.  I wanted to see my neighbor's new couch.

After Bill was done helping the husband move the couch (I of course was keeping the Misses entertained), Bill joined us in her living room.  Her little Yorkie was yapping, wanting to be picked up.  I picked her up and placed her in Bill's reluctant arms (which doesn't matter to Heidi the Yorkie, she LOVES Bill).  Now that I had Bill immobilized I asked Barbara (our neighbor) to snap a picture of us with her Android phone.  Here it is!

Bill doesn't like to have his picture taken.  We have very few pictures of us together.  I think the last ones were the photos my blogger friend Mark H. took this past summer when he and his spouse (Fred) visited us.  I warned Bill that we are going to have our picture taken together when we get do our Civil Union Thing (Delaware still isn't at the "married" stage yet for same sex couples, we take what we can get to protect our legal rights at least here in the state where we live).

I told Bill that I'm going to give him a Big Wet One when the ceremony is over and I'll try and get that picture published in the local paper.  He can't sleep at night now even considering the possibility that he's finally going to be outed BIGTIME!

Get ready Bill, this is just a preview.

Yes, I noticed that the picture is blurred.  Actually, that's not a bad thing at our age.  We're sort of like the old movie stars who soap up the camera lens to blur out their winkles.

My Week in Photos

Not much time for a well thought out blog posting (and I do have a lot to talk about) so instead, just to let my faithful blog followers know that I'm still alive here are some of the photos I took with my iPhone this week.  I've stolen this idea from a fellow blogger who posts a weekly blog called "The Sunday Post."  He post photos that he took with his iPhone of his families activities, which includes photos of his wife, son, nieces and nephews.  The only children you will see in my "My Week in Photos" are children of my boss or friends.  My circle (Old Gay Guys) don't have children with the possible exception of Mark H. and he is an exception (if you know what I mean).

Here goes in no particular order or favor:

Hotel guests standing on the flight deck of the Admiral's Quarters at the hotel where I work in Lewes, DE overlooking the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal - they liked the suite!

Sam Caliogne's front yard (yes, he of the worldwide known Dogfish Brewery) on Pilottown Road in Lewes.  My friend Bob C. is thinking of having the same gals who "did" Sam's front yard do his and he wanted me to take a picture of it for him - I was only too happy to oblige because I had a few minutes before I had to go to work just a block down the street.  Bob didn't like the yard, he said it was "too much."  Just like Sam.

My Bill in a pensive moment this past week sitting in his favorite (lawn) chair in the sunroom - he won't like it that I posted his picture that he didn't even know I took until now.  I'll hear about this.  Won't be the first time.

Me taking a picture of the breakfast setup at the Inn.  Since I did dayshift this week I had to put out the breakfast.  However, I so infrequently work days I always forget the exact layout so I have to take a picture to remind me.  Sorry for the blur but I rushed to take the picture before the hotel guest crashed the room and devoured everything you see.

Another blurred picture (sorry) that I took in the kitchen while we were all eating a lunch compliments of the owner of the hotel in celebration of Dawn's birthday (she in the orange in the middle)  The gentleman in the blue shirt is our sales director and  he DOES NOT LIKE ME TAKING HIS PICTURE so that's why this is blurred.  Jesse doesn't pose.  I didn't want a punch in the nose.

This is Dee, our head housekeeper.  She is Indian (Nanticoke) and runs a tight ship at the hotel.   I like her and she likes me. With a person like Dee you want to be on her good side.  I am.

This is what the sky looked like this morning as I turned out of my development on my way to work very early this morning to open the hotel.  Yes, I go to work in the dark.  First stop,  the 24/7 Walgreens to pick up the newspaper.  See below photo.

This is the new Walgreens in Lewes, DE.  The only place I can buy a paper 6:15 am.  It's a new store but man oh man, hard to navigate getting in and out.  I think this is because they fear robbers and want to slow their getaway down.  Checkout the posts for hitching the horses front of the entrance doors.  

This is my boss (yes, he is THAT YOUNG - young enough to be my grandson) with his beautiful Russian wife Olga and their adorable daughter Alexandra.  Happy families like this make me happy.

I just had to take another picture of Olga.  Olga is one of those woman who looks beautiful even without makeup.  

This is my co-worker Robert. Yes, he too is young enough to be my grandson.  He relieved me today on shift, I relieve him tomorrow.  Robert is very cool.  He has a sardonic with that I love.  He's also gullible.  A great combination.  I tease him all the time.  One day he's going to get tired of it and tell me to buzz off.  But for now he's tolerating me.

This is Bill (my spouse) with our loverly and wonderful neighbor Barbara.  I don't know but sometimes I think there is more than "friendship" between these two.  Look at Barbara's dog, I think she's trying to tell me something in Dog Body Language. 

This is the picture I took of the Bay Leaf restaurant where Bill and I ate tonight.  Bill doesn't like to eat out but he relented when I pleaded with him to join me for dinner.  I didn't feel like cooking and I love the Bay Leaf's brushetta, homemade soups, French Fries and Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Panninis.  Man, what's not to like? Oh yes, this is one of those Old People Restaurants. We both felt right at home.

After dinner I took my daily walk in the Oyster Rocks development (behind where I live).  Look closely and you'll see yet another rainbow.  We've had so much rain and clouding skies the past several week, it was good to see this Ray of Hope.

This is my neighbor Tom C.'s house which, with this lighting, reminded me vaguely of the Bates Motel in "Pschyo." Sort of anyway.  

So there you go folks, just a little slice of my life this week while I complete my marathon run of working six days in a row.  Tomorrow is my last day.  YAAAAY!