Barry Goldwater is Rolling Over in his Grave

Want to know why I'm not a registered Republican anymore? The picture on this blog will tell you why. It is of a straight, white man from the South. It is of Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina. Last night during President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, Representative Wilson broke all decorum by shouting "You lie!" in response to President Obama's speech that his health care proposal would not cover illegal immigrants. While no one disagrees with Representative Wilson's right to disagree with President Obama, few will agree that his manner of expressing his opinion was way out of line. Few that is except Fox News but that is another whole world that I won't go into now.




For most of my adult life I was a registered conservative Republican. The first president I voted for was Barry Goldwater. He espoused my views on government and our society. I started to lose it with the Republican Party during the 1992 Republican Party Convention during the Pat Buchanan culture wars keynote speech in which he railed against gays and lesbians. Watching the all white, clean cut, conventioneers rise to their feet and give enthusiastic cheers a chill went down my spine. I realized at that time this was not the political party in which I as a gay man was welcomed. The cheering conventioneers reminded me of the "good Germans" who cheered Hitler.



In the year 2001 I officially changed my registration to Democrat. Not so much because I subscribe to all the Democratic ideals but because I could no longer remain in the Republican Party after George W. Bush and his cronies took over this country. First they get us into a war of choice in which we have wasted billions of dollars and needlessly sacrificed the lives of our best and brightest. Then the Bush administration pushed through tax cuts for the rich only (I didn't see any tax cuts) and relaxed federal regulations that ran our country into a ditch. Where I really lost it with the Bush Republicans is when they tried to take away my VA medical care from me just because I wasn't a disabled veteran. That did it for me because then I would have no health care because I was out of a job. I only had the VA healthcare because that was what was promised to me if and when I ever needed it when I joined the Army in 1960 and put my life in their hands. No they're going to go back on that promise? No, that's when I decided to get out of this party which was no longer recognizable as the Republican Party to which I once belonged.



Last night's incredibly rude outburst by Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina now shows what the Republican Party has become. It is a party of straight, white, southern men who lie, intimidate, bully and threaten. It is not my party any more. Surely, Barry Goldwater must be rolling over in his grave.

Black and White Photos

Remember when the only pictures your could take were black and white? This was back in the Fifties when I first started to take pictures. Then color photography arrived on the scene. It didn't take too long before almost all amateur photographers took color pictures. Unless you were Annie Leibovitz, most didn't realize the dramatic effect and beauty of black and white photos.



On this rainy Wednesday afternoon I was looking through some old photo albums and I came across one with black and white photos. I don't remember where I got the black and white film but here are some of the photos that I took of myself. The date was 1981 (almost 30 years ago, hard to believe) at my previous home in Pennsylvania. Nice beard.

Are They Gone Yet?

As I was waiting to cross over Route 1 on my way to work yesterday I viewed the steady stream of cars, vans and SUV's headed north on Route 1, which seemed endless. Finally, there was a break in the lava flow of traffic and I quickly darted my 98 red Subaru Forester across the road to make a left turn and head down to Lewes, where I work at the hotel and was due on the afternoon shift at 3 PM. All the cars, bicycle laden SUV's and motor homes were going home from the shore points of southern coastal Delaware after a glorious, sun drenched Labor Day Weekend. Goodbye! We full time year round inhabitants really appreciate you all coming down and spending your discretionary dollars but now you can go home. THANKS! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.




Last night at the hotel we had precisely ONE room rented. Now this is a Labor Day Drop off. This is good news and bad news. The good news is that the job won't be as stressful from here on out. The bad news is that my hours will be cut back again because the need isn't there. Our business did pick up later in the summer after a slow spring start. Now it is dropping off again. Almost all of the guests who call into the hotel for room reservations are still looking for bargains. I can't say as I blame them. That is the nature of our economy today. Just about everyone is looking for those bargains wherever you can. I certainly will be looking for bargains too now that my hours will be cut back.



Today under cloudy skies, a cool breeze is rustling my riotous colorful flower display in the front of my house. I can feel the impending arrival of fall. I'm ready. Oh am I ever ready. While I love yard work I have had just about enough of weed whacking and pulling weeds. I'm ready to view the outside world from the many windows of my home. I'm ready to do some inside work now like updating my 50th class reunion booklet. I've been away too long from my genealogy research and I'm anxious to pick up where I left in March. And of course I can finish unpacking all those boxes that are still in my storage room from my November 2006 move. Yes, I'm ashamed to admit it. I still have boxes that I haven't unpacked. I think it's obvious by now that I don't need whatever is in those boxes if I haven't missed it by now. But I just can't bring myself to toss anything. I am an unrepentant pack rat. With my head hanging in shame, I admit it.



On days like this I enjoy listening to my wind chimes as the swirling winds swing and sway my Pampas grass. I love seeing the change of seasons. I couldn't live where there wasn't a change of seasons. Each season has its own beauty. I treasure all of them.



Now I'm looking forward where I can meet with my friends again and we can resume our weekly dinners at the Purple Parrot in Rehoboth Beach. They're gone and we’re back!

Just a Closer Walk with Thee

Sometimes I feel melancholy. Not sad, but melancholy. Today was one of those days. I am saddened by what I see happening in our country. There is a persistent and increasingly successful campaign by those on the Right to delegitimize our president. This cannot bode well for our country. At best our country will be led by an ineffectual and irrelevant president. At worst (and I hate to even contemplate this thought) our country will dissolve into an anarchy worse than any that foreign terrorists could wish upon us. As Pogo said many years ago “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Indeed, this prophetic announcement made in a cartoon all those years ago is coming true today.


I will not go into the politics in this blog. My only purpose in this posting is to express my sadness and concern.



Those who know me know that I’m not a church going religious person. The church left me down a long time ago when it condemned me to Hell for my homosexuality. I could never accept man made organized religion after I was condemned so heartlessly for the mere fact of being born. However, I do have my private spirituality. Listening to this song, “A Closer Walk with Thee” brings me peace and contentment. When I die (and I will as all of will), this is the song I want played at my funeral service. I am specifically requesting the Patsy Cline version.



These days I prefer to think all that is beautiful and pure in our lives and world. One such beauty is the rose with dew on its petals. I took this picture this morning in my garden. Another beautiful and pure thing is visiting my friend who is about to embark on a long trip. Bill and I had a good visit with our friend Big Bob. We joked about old times and kidded him about the possibility that he will have to be stripped searched before he could board a plane for his trip. It was all in good fun.



Then I come home again and check the news on my computer. There isn’t any good news. It all seems bad. After this posting I’ll go out again and take a walk through my garden where the only activity is the insects busily swirling around my many flowered plants enriching their short lives. Soon I too will be coming to the end of my life. I have to honestly say that I will go without any regrets. I really don’t want to be around when I see the direction this country is going. Maybe tomorrow will be better. In the meantime I seek pace and solace in this beautiful song, “A Closer Walk with Thee.”

Full Moon Day

Five o’clock rolled around early this morning. I had to be in work by 7 am to open up the hotel on this Labor Day weekend. Looking out my Wall of Windows in my great room I saw a full moon hanging in the sky. That portended the day to follow.




First thing I do on the way to work on the morning shift is to stop at the Food Lion in Five Points to pick up the morning papers to place in the hotel’s breakfast room. At this early in the morning, everyone is moving slow, including yours truly. At quarter to seven I burst through the doors to Food Lion looking for the papers. No papers. Right behind me is a rough looking gal delivering the papers. I quickly grab the papers I need and I’m off to work. I arrive shortly before 7 am, clock in and immediately encounter a Needy Guest.



Now my job at the hotel is the front desk clerk. I check guests in the hotel, I take reservations, I answer questions like which restaurant serves the best crab cakes, where can they rent bicycles and other many and varied questions. That’s my job. That’s what they pay me to do. But, as all hotel front desk clerks know, there are those guests who find it impossible to pass the front desk without asking a multitude of questions and requesting special treatment. These guests are called Needy Guests. Well, we had one this morning. Oh Mother of God did we have one this morning, afternoon, and all day long. “How do you get to the beach?” “Can I walk to the beach?” “Do you have towels?” “Do you have a bag for the towels?” “Where is the library?” “How do I get to the library?” “Can I feed my child in the breakfast room?” The questions continued on and on ad infinitum. If it sounds like I’m complaining, well I am. This woman wore me out. Oh yes, the biggie was could I wash her baby bottles and have them ready at 12 pm in time before her little darling’s nap. Oh yes, that’s what we specialize in at the hotel, using our dishwasher to wash baby bottles.



Well, enough about her. Another guest comes to the front desk and tells me he’s not happy with his room. He says he doesn’t have a balcony. I check his reservation and find that his wife made the reservation over the Internet. He tells me he feels claustrophobic and “can’t breath” because he doesn’t have a balcony and asks me if I could move him to another room. I tell him I cannot because we are sold out. He asked me again if I could “do something.” He tells me that he wasn’t told that his room (actually a very nice suite with a sun room) didn’t have a balcony. Mind you, his wife made the reservation herself over the Internet. On our website if the room doesn’t have a balcony we don’t say “Room doesn’t have a balcony.” He isn’t happy with this explanation and says to me “Would you rent a room without a balcony?” Uh, actually I have. In fact I think every room I have ever rented in my life did not have a balcony. But I could tell what he was trying to do my challenging me with his confrontational questions. He was trying to make me defensive.  He wanted to make HIS mistake MY mistake. I wasn’t going to permit that to happen. Even though my main adult business career was trust operations, since 1994 I’ve worked part time as a hotel front desk clerk. I’ve seen this movie before. I know how this game works and I wasn’t going to be drawn into it. I told him he could sit on the Waterview Room deck which faces the canal. He still wasn’t smiling but he realized that I wasn’t going to pull a private room for him out of you know where that had a balcony.



The rest of the morning continued in a similar vein. My manager said “There must be a full moon with all the weirdness.” I confirmed to him that yes, indeed there was a full moon. I was so glad when 3 o’clock rolled around and my shift came to an end and I turned over the reins of The Full Moon Inn to my relief, Monica. I just got off the phone with Monica. As the readers of this blog probably surmised by now, the weirdness continues. She related to me some truly strange tales that happened since I left this afternoon including that same guest who felt “claustrophobic” in his room. He spilled a can of soda on his bed, expensive comforter and all. Nice. Thank goodness Monica was able to get the comforter in the washer before the soda dried and she was able to remove the stain. She has about four hours to go before her shift ends. I don’t go in again until Monday afternoon at 3 PM. By then all the guests will be gone.



Oh, one big fact I left out. There were at least 14 kids under 5 years of age that went into our breakfast room this morning. And these little darlings didn’t walk quietly either. They ran screaming, both ways. Later on one of the guests brought down a bag of “trash” for me to dispose of. Yes, you guess it. The bag of “trash” was a bag of dirty diapers. Ah yes, all those years of night school to get my college degree and all those years of Mr. Big Shot Operations Manager in the Trust Department and here I am today disposing of a bag of s..t. I’m good.

Sour Cream Apple Pie

With the cooler temperatures I can start using my oven again. Hallelujah! Below is my adapted recipe from Cooks.com for sour cream apple pie. I use Granny Smith apples but you can use any apple that you like. Enjoy!




SOUR CREAM APPLE PIE



9 inch unbaked pie shell

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 cups thinly sliced apples



TOPPING



1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup salted butter



Bake pie crust at 350 degrees for 7 minutes (partially baked.)



Beat the egg slightly; add sugar, sour cream, flour, vanilla and salt. Mix well. Add sliced apples; mix and put into pie shell.



Bake 30 minutes or until apples are tender. Meanwhile, make the topping. Mix brown sugar and flour. Cut in the butter (make sure it's cold). Sprinkle on pie. Reduce oven to 350 degrees and bake 15 minutes longer or until topping is nice and browned to your liking.



Take out of oven and cool. Eat while warm or cold. It tastes great warm with vanilla ice cream!

A Beautiful Day in Delaware

This is two of an absolutely beautiful day in Delaware. The air is crisp, the humidity is low and the breeze is gentle. Most of all the temperature is perfect at 70 degrees. It just doesn't get much better than this.

The impatients that line our walkway come up from the seeds spread by the previous year's impatient plants. Nature chooses the color. The red salvia in the back also came up by themselves, from seeds of previous years. I love impatients because they always stay neat and last the whole season until the first frost. When the first frost hits, they're gone. They look like the Wicked Witch of the West after she melted. But until that day of demise, they are glorious and we are enjoying them.

The question is now, why am I sitting at this computer when I could be outside enjoying this wonderful day. I'm gone!