Rudynate

It was a different place in the 90s. Still plenty of gay guys, but a more mixed crowd than in 70s-80s. I used to rent a room at the Turk Street Y whenever I visited. Guys would leave their doors open if they wanted company.

Things that you book too far in advance have a way of falling through. I think it's best not to try to schedule too far out. One time, I scheduled weeks in advance with a high-profile provider. Sure enough, I came down with a bad cold - the kind that can hold on for weeks and weeks. I didn't see how I could be sure that I could make our date and be fully recovered and not putting him at risk of catching my cold - so I cancelled - probably 3 -4 weeks out. He was very unhappy with me because he had passed up other business. I thought having cancelled that far out would enable him to schedule other clients. He didn't see it that way - and we never repaired the misunderstanding. My lesson from that was not to try to schedule too far out.

That's curious - what is your concern - dislodging a clot, maybe?

It happens fairly often on A4A that pros reach out who haven't identified as such. I can usually tell from the wording in the profile. I always ask these guys up front, "Are you a pro?"

One time, I guy I knew to be a provider reached out to me on a hookup app. I wasn't available, but I assumed that that would have been a recreational encounter for him, not work. OTOH, if I contact him through his profile on RM, of course, that would be work.

His pics show his potential - he has a nice natural build.

When I'm really smitten, I monitor myself. I don't hesitate to compliment a guy's looks, but I don't want to gush either. If I've told him how great-looking he is a couple times, I turn it off and show him non-verbally how attractive I think he is. But I certainly wouldn't be embarrassed about the guy having that effect on me. That's why we do this.

I think that's a fairly common practice among providers - at least that's what they say in their profiles.

Water does amazing things. I had a massive DVT several years ago and the swelling in the leg persisted for months afterward. I had to wear sweat pants all the time because the huge leg wouldn't fit into normal pants. I went swimming in the Yuba River and when I got out of the water, the leg was much less swollen. I started swimming regularly, and the swelling disappeared rapidly. The leg is still a little larger than normal, but you have to be looking for it to notice it. I had a multi-level lumbar fusion and the single most useful activity in my rehab was pool walking.

I always carry fat at the waist and lower back. If I get my bodyfat low enough it disappears completely, but we're talking maybe 5% bodyfat. You have to be lean enough so that if you pull up a skinfold at the waist -it is almost nothing but skin. If you pull up a skinfold on your bicep, you can see light through it. 45 minutes of fasted cardio every morning and carb cycling will do it. Tough for anyone to sustain though.

To me, that's a worthwhile tradeoff. I'm all about the body. I had a hip replacement 8 months ago followed by a difficult recovery. I ended up having to go to a physio with a special credential in spinal rehab. Now I'm ready to get back to daily training.

Like that. Early 90's I had a boyfriend who was an aerobics instructor at the the Golden Gate YMCA. I used to do his class and we would shower and steam together. Guys used to openly suck dick in the steam room right alongside the straight members. The straight guys ignored it, but they didn't look happy about it.

He's thinking of a different time. Time was when "discrete hookups" in gyms were commonplace - no longer.

And the 8709 was at 8709 3rd. St.

Dick Cavett. I would torture myself by rushing home from school to watch his show in the late afternoon.

There was a very popular bathhouse that I never got to called the 8709. I wonder if the 3rd Street Athletic Club was a predecessor to the 8709? You're right. They were really fussy who they let in. I got in because a guy in line, who was a regular, said to me, "Just pretend we're friends." They let me right in.

Here, in the case of a global pandemic, the government interest would be "compelling."

But even textualists know that the Constitution has to bend sometimes. It is a well-recognized principal of Constitutional law that the rights guaranteed in the constitution aren't absolute. I would argue that a sudden and massive public health emergency justified a certain degree of infringement of individual rights. I'm not sure, I'm rusty on Constitutional law, but I think the test would be that a mandate would need to be "narrowly tailored to achieve an important government interest" or something like that. There are several tests for this kind of thing and the wording in all of them is very similar. Here, the scale and urgency of the pandemic would justify a pretty broad interference in certain Constitutional rights - the right of free association for example. I was nauseated that an amateur like her had the authority to decide such an important issue.

She's thinking "The Constitution is the Constitution. Somebody has to make the hard choices."

Oh Unicorn, Unicorn, it must be a terrible drain always needing to have the last word, compulsively making others wrong, showing the world how much you know. Why don't you just take a break some time.

I wonder if we're talking about the same place - the 3rd Street Athletic Club, as I remember it, was a bathhouse. It was long enough ago that most people don't even remember it.

I noticed that too - very interesting.

I found this: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/us-airline-employees-report-lower-rate-covid-19/story?id=73149839 According to this article, the incidence of COVID among flight crews is reported by the industry and the flight attendants' union as being approximately half that in the general population. I wouldn't trust industry data. And the union data might be specious too - the union has a vested interest in maintaining full employment among its members. Nonetheless, it's a persuasive data point.

I'm sure there is data somewhere about the incidence of COVID among flight crews. Given the controversy around COVID and air travel, there must have been some sort of study.

So that's it. I think it was summer of '75 that I was there. I walked in and was astounded at this sea of handsome men everywhere I looked.