Charlie

I happen to own both a Kia and a Mercedes. The Mercedes is a more outstanding vehicle, but I get plenty of satisfaction out of both.

I think you misread my post, or were not actually responding to it but to something else that clicked in your head when you saw the word "adult." I did not volunteer in an "adult book store" (they don't need volunteers!). I volunteered at a program for adults who didn't graduate from high school and were trying to prepare to take the test for their GED. It was a satisfying activity, but I stopped when they moved the program to another school in an inconvenient location for me.

One of my former primary care physicians, who was also a personal friend, had almost exactly the same experiences that you had. He is still working, at 75, in a public health clinic, and is the happiest he has ever been.

I have no memory of having started this thread almost 13 years ago. Even more depressing, I don't remember the movie at all. What strikes me most, however, is that the majority of those posters who responded have not been seen here for years.

First, during the last couple of years before I retired, I looked for a part-time job that I could continue to do after I retired, and since I intended to relocate after retirement, I focused on something I could do online from wherever I moved. (It is always psychologically good to keep making some money, even if it is only enough to treat yourself to a few good restaurant meals each month.) Immediately after I retired, I indulged myself with a one month vacation in Australia. Then I spent the next year traveling around the country checking out possible places to relocate, choosing one, and making the actual move. As soon as I was settled into my new home, I looked for a volunteer position as well as a new hobby. The volunteer work, which was at a local adult school, lasted only a couple of years, but the unexpected hobby was learning to play tennis, which turned into "the sport that lasts a lifetime." I have been retired for 17 years now, but I am still too restless to just lay about the house.

Oh, no! I forgot to bring bottled water!

How does he pronounce his name? I hope it isn't "Psycho."

Ah! The fearsome foursome of Lopez, Carreno Busta, Bautista Agut and Nadal (I can't see who the modest little guy is in the middle).

fluent, fuel, full, effluent, tuffet, fell, left, flue, tuft, flute, fluff, even, event, fleet, felt This is all I got before looking at your list. Whoops! There is no 'f' in two of mine.

You missed Lard. This is fun!

I can only come up with 2 six-letter words: bridal and lizard, unless I use the z twice and make blizzard.

His current rent.men ad lists him as 47, which I consider prime.

In the summer of 1967, I went to Fire Island for a weekend with my friend Dale, who had just broken up with his longtime boyfriend, and was looking for some fun. We got a hotel room in Cherry Grove, and on Saturday night we went to the dance bar. I was tired and went back to the room, and was just falling asleep, when Dale arrived back....with Jerry, who was staying with straight friends in the Pines. I was not about to get dressed and go out again, so I tried to lie there unobtrusively while the two of them carried on in the darkened room. Afterwards, the three of us chatted pleasantly for awhile before Jerry left to return to the Pines. Many years later, Jerry was having a "friends with benefits" relationship in New York with my best friend Richard. I told Richard about that incident on Fire Island, and Jerry was amazed when Richard reminded him of it. He couldn't believe I could remember it in such detail. How could I not? It had made our trip to Fire Island a wild success for Dale.

However, one of his hashtags is #IvyLeague.

"Feels irrelevant" in the sense that no matter where I go or what I do, I don't have to be "out," because no one takes it for granted than I am straight (the usual default mode). People are sophisticated enough not to assume that because I wear a wedding ring, I must be heterosexual, as happens in most other places when I interact with strangers. In other words, I don't have to assert my homosexuality, because it's a non-issue.

Palm Springs is not a gay ghetto. The majority of the population is not gay. The difference is that the gay minority is large enough and visible enough that the rest of the population cannot ignore it, because it is spread out throughout the city rather than segregated in one neighborhood. Gay visitors may sometimes get the impression of a ghetto simply because the businesses that cater to gay tourists tend to be concentrated in certain areas of the city. Almost every straight resident has openly gay neighbors, every regular business has openly gay employees, and every regular business serves both gay and straight customers or clients, or they couldn't stay in business. It is the only place I have ever lived where my sexual orientation feels irrelevant.

I used to think that was what I wanted, too, but I found I am actually happier in a mixed gay-straight retirement community, where everyone is tolerant of one another. Although a large part of the 55+ gated development I live in consists of gay males, most of my friends among my neighbors are straight couples and women.

I am reasonably good at pronunciation in several European languages, so I usually try to learn how to say, in the local language, "I don't speak [insert language] well. Do you speak English?" Most of the time, they do. That doesn't work in Asia very well, unfortunately, since I don't know any Asian language, but there people usually assume I am American as soon as they see me, and often address me first, in English.

Thank you for posting this, Karl-G. Although I knew only three of them personally, it was still hard to watch.

What a fabulous smile!

No one ever wants to pay rate hikes for anything. It's a tough sell, especially if the service stays the same, and there are other providers.

My long time dentists in Philadelphia and Palm Springs were both old men, who retired and sold their practices to young men who were just starting out. Both young dentists are very good dentists, and the one in Philly turned out to be much better than his predecessor. It doesn't hurt that they are also attractive, though both are straight.

Back when I was an Earl, I was outranked by my dog Duke.

Did you say you were a Freudian analyst?

My father's last car was a new 1969 Impala sedan. He thought it was the best car he ever owned. He thought I was crazy to buy dinky little Toyotas in the 1970s.