Charlie

I am also in Palm Springs, but my thermostat is set at 80, as usual, and that feels just right.

When I was young, I had a friend and occasional sex partner--I even lived with him for a couple of months--whose racism was openly expressed, and we used to argue about it. Then our lives went off in different directions, and we didn't see one another for a number of years. When I was in my 50s, he moved back to where I was living, and he tried to resurrect the old friendship. But I quickly realized that he hadn't changed, and I was no longer as tolerant of it as I had been at 21, so rather than argue, I simply stopped responding to his overtures for a social relationship.

I think deciding what to do depends to some extent on the nature of the posts. Are they the kind of subtle, half-conscious racism that many people don't even realize they are expressing? Or are they the kind of overt, in-your-face racism that anyone can recognize? In the former case, it is worth initiating a conversation about the subject, in which you point out how you interpret the comments and discuss it honestly with one another. However, if it is the latter, then it is clear that you don't know him as well as you thought you did, and you should make it clear to him that you consider it a serious threat to your relationship.

Spencer's, one of the most popular upscale restaurants, did not offer take-out and did not open when indoor dining was permitted. It's central patio is one of the most desirable places in PS to dine, but the owner, Harold Matzner, says he would lose more money by opening than by staying closed, so he doesn't intend to open at all until October 1st. Some popular restaurants, like 849, have opened an outdoor dining space that looks lovely, but there is little shade, and the sun today is brutal (air temp of 102). Trio, which is very popular with the gay male crowd, has been offering takeout, but they did not open for indoor dining, and Tony says that although they have some outdoor dining space, he is not sure it is worth keeping it open. I just came home from eating at Elmer's. Jackie, the owner, told me that when Newsom announced the closing of indoor dining yesterday, she raced to Costco and and bought all their metal-frame and fabric cabanas, and spent yesterday evening setting them up on the large grass lawn in front of the restaurant. She has set up huge fans and ordered more misters, but lunch was pretty hot for us out there.

I am more interested in how they feel than in what they look like. I have cloth masks from two different sources, a neighbor who makes them at home, and a company that makes them for medical workers. The former are more comfortable by far. As it heats up here in the desert summer, I am also finding that any kind of mask is uncomfortably hot outside during the day.

I didn't realize that Mandate went back to before the invention of the Euro currency.

I had several good friends who were members of FFA (that's not Future Farmers of America), and they were happy to engage in other sexual activities besides fisting, which generally requires careful advance preparation--it's not something that a pro does on the spur of the moment. However, I would caution that most of them used recreational drugs when bottoming, and that tendency did carry over to their other sexual activities.

OK, what does "Zaddy" mean?

Cooper and deej deserve hefty pensions if they ever move on.

Re: your question--well, yeah. But as a fellow fossil, I wonder how many older gay men really identify themselves as part of that big tent. I can remember a time when many of them even had to be coaxed to join with lesbians, much less the rest of the letters and symbols. However, the TQI+ need a larger group to belong to for more political weight, and the LGB are the only logical group to join. Besides, a seven letter acronym does give the media a more politically correct label to use than PERVERT.

I never did go back. It wasn't a hotel; it was an old tenement in which one rented individual studio apartments, but the bathroom was a common one down the hall. I don't even know the address, only that it was somewhere on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, an area that I was not familiar with at the time.

I wonder if he has a white hood in his closet?

I think a decision about getting a haircut, like most decisions now about what one is comfortable doing, depends on who the barber is. I have gone to the same barber for several years, and I trust that he is conscientious about maintaining the protocols. He is also gay and rather fastidious even under normal circumstances. He has a one man shop, and I noticed as soon as I entered that he had rearranged the furnishings for maximum distancing, had a hand-sanitizing machine at the entrance, and had removed all reading material. He scheduled appointments so that there would be no other customers present, took my temperature and asked me a list of questions before I could even sit in the chair. I would have been much more hesitant going to a stranger or to a large shop with multiple barbers and customers.

To be more precise, I lean over, holding the pants at about knee height, lift a leg and put one foot in, repeat with the other leg, then stand up and pull them up. Balance is not a problem for me. (I had to actually do this just now to understand exactly what I do automatically.)

I hear creepy music in the background as you say that?

Standing up, but one leg at a time, and usually I will lean against something while doing it.

Djokovic said their young son tested negative. I saw him in the stands when his father was playing in Belgrade, but I doubt that they took him clubbing with them at night.

Thank you for asking. I always hate to reveal my ignorance of the latest acronyms, and that one has been showing up a lot here lately.

I had a haircut in February, but the lockdown in CA came just before I was ready for another. I tried trimming with a scissors for awhile, but I wasn't very good at it. My spouse always keeps his head shaved close with an electric razor (with my help), but I wasn't going to let him near me with scissors in his hand, so I just let mine get shaggier and shaggier. When barbershops re-opened at the beginning of this month, I made an appt with my barber, who has a one man shop. When I arrived, he took my temperature, then asked me questions from a long typed list, before he allowed me to sit in the chair. I told him to shave everything down to a 2, which should last for awhile. I had to wear a face mask, and he said he wasn't allowed to touch my eyebrows, nose hairs or ear hairs. The beard, of course, I can do myself. I always tip, but this time was more liberal than usual. My spouse and I both desperately need pedicures, but the nail shops have just re-opened, and I am a little more nervous about returning there.

A Rom-com?

?

"'What is truth?' said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer." John 18:38

When I was in my early 20s and an impecunious grad student, I decided to try hustling one day. (There were no escorts in those days, because there was no gay media in which to advertise as one.) I knew where to go downtown to try to get picked up by someone who would pay, and I did it for several hours (I was young enough to be able to cum multiple times in one day), but I realized it was not something I was very good at, because I had a hard time performing with men I wasn't attracted to, so I didn't continue. Around the same age, I was introduced to a man who was looking for a kept boy, and I had a few dates with him. He was a doctor who was in his early 50s, and I found him quite attractive, which was the main problem: I could have enjoyed having an affair with him as equal partners, but I couldn't have been comfortable being used as a boytoy. When I explained that to him, he made it clear that he was looking for someone who would simply fulfill a utilitarian role, not complicate his emotional life, so we became merely casual social friends.

We had also planned to do a milestone birthday visit to Washington, DC, this year (it was my spouse's birthplace), but I don't want to get on a plane, and though I have driven there from California before, a driving trip that long through states where it may be hard to find places to stay overnight, not to mention restaurants, sounds too stressful. Then there is the question of what to do when we get there. There is no guarantee that any of the museums and other tourist sites will be open. I am fond of my brother-in-law and his husband, but I don't need to travel all that way just to sit around their apartment on Logan Circle chatting all day. I think we will probably wait till next year, and confine our domestic travel this year to familiar places within two or three days driving distance from Palm Springs.