Charlie

I suspect that "hep" is a typo for "herpes."

I thought I did not get chicken pox as a child, but I probably had such a mild case that I wasn't diagnosed, because I did get shingles after I turned 60--twice. The first time was awful, and I didn't know what it was, until I went to my dermatologist. The second time the symptoms were so different, and in a different place, that I didn't realize it was a recurrence until my doctor saw it.

When I was young--and maybe it is still true--there was no federal drinking age: each state set its own age. In New York State, you could drink at 18, but you couldn't vote until you were 21. Now the qualifications have been reversed.

I remember how all the kids in the neighborhood came running when they heard the Good Humor man driving slowly through. My favorite was an orange ice popsicle with vanilla ice cream center.

Don't forget to bring the pooper scooper on his walk.

I hardly ever eat fast food except when I am on the road and want to stop for a quick lunch. I don't find any chain absolutely reliable; e.g., Wendy's is usually OK, but I ate at an awful one recently. I think Subway is the most consistent from one location to another, and I like the fact that I can get something other than fried fat there (although I like fried fat at times). If I stop at a highway interchange that contains a pizza place as well as a couple of burger places, I will choose the pizza.

I hired an escort one evening, with whom I had a wonderful time, and we seemed to have great social rapport. The very next day, I ran into him as we were both preparing to cross the street at a red light, and I greeted him in a casually friendly way. He was alone, but his reaction was very cold; he appeared uneasy about being acknowledged in public, and moved away as quickly as possible. So I don't think there is one tried and true answer to the question of how to approach an escort in public.

I was never very impressed by their stable of escorts, but they were easy to use and very reasonably priced.

I know at least one poster here who is 82, and I suspect there are others.

Damn! I logged on too late, because I recognized Positano the instant I saw the photo.

+1

I think I would have made a good father, but my partner of almost 50 years did not like kids and would have made a terrible parent, so I am glad it wasn't a serious possibility when we were young. Instead, we have had several dogs and a cat over the years, and I have managed to exercise my parenting impulses on them. I think about children more now that I am old, because the advantage of having children and grandchildren, if they are the right kind, is that one can finally depend on them for care rather than vice versa. I am lucky that I am somewhat close to a niece and nephew of my partner, because without them we would have no one of a younger generation to look to for support.

There were no sex education classes in my public schools, and my parents never talked to me about sex. I was a rather shy only child with few male friends, so I was in my teens before I learned how babies were made--I thought the male somehow inserted his penis into the woman's belly button. At 13, I realized from a Raymond Chandler novel I found at my grandmother's house that a man could put his penis in another man's mouth, but I never imagined anal sex was an option until my first adventure with another male at age 17. I went away to college a few months later, and between 17 and 18 I devoured every book I could find about sex, especially gay sex, so I could understand my life to come. At 19, having already had sex with numerous men, I sat my parents down and told them that I was gay. They looked at one another in puzzled silence for a moment, and then my mother said, "But, how do you know?"

Our dog got a birthday email from his vet yesterday, but it was just an arbitrarily chosen date, because it was the anniversary of his initial examination by the vet. We don't know his real birthday, because he was a stray whom we adopted from the county shelter, and the first two vets who examined him couldn't even agree on his probable age. He just got an extra treat at lunchtime. I have owned animals whose exact birthday was known (one dog was born on the tenth anniversary of the death of another beloved dog, which was a little spooky), and sometimes we would go for a special romp in a park, but otherwise we don't do anything special--hell, we don't even do much to celebrate our own birthdays, unless they end in a zero or a five.

A good friend of mine has been in home hospice now since June. As she says, her spirit is completely prepared to leave, but her body refuses to let go. My mother went through the same process, except that she was psychologically ready to go in her mid-90s, but didn't enter hospice till she was 102. I hope that I am spared that. I would like to be healthy and independent until the end, and then learn that I have exactly one week left before the breath stops. Fat chance!

The Episcopal Church has accepted some openly gay priests and a gay bishop, but plenty of members are not happy about it.

Ditto. I remember the first time I got a hard-on, and the first time I came, but I don't think of that as "having sex." I also remember the first time I did something sexual with another boy, but that was fumbling adolescent experimentation. To me, the first time I "had sex" was as a consenting teenager with another male (who claimed to be 18 but was probably older), when we tried out all the standard acts, oral and anal in top and bottom positions. It was also the first time I heard the term "gay."

Yikes! That kid hasn't got a clue. I wonder if anyone will alert him to all the comments here about his response, or if he will understand the negative impression he made.

+1

I stopped watching Fixer Upper a while ago, because I got tired of Chip and Joanna, and of Waco. I also found Joanna's style choices predictable and not ones that appealed to me. But the break-up of Tarek and Christina has shaken me profoundly. Their relationship seemed refreshingly believable, and to learn what was going on behind the scenes made me question my own perspicacity. As a southern California real estate lover, I also enjoyed watching the variety of places they flipped.

Despite his appearance, he must be a fairly cultured young man. Ariodante is the title of a relatively obscure opera by Handel.

What makes that weird for me is that I knew someone who who really was known as "PK" to everyone.

I am actually having the under counter and overhead fluorescent lighting in my kitchen replaced tomorrow with dimmable LEDs, by a very attractive young electrician (but that is NOT why I am doing it, I swear).

The tickets are not easy to get, because they go on sale twice a month, at the beginning and middle of the month, for two week periods, and are often completely sold out very quickly.

Actually, this question has come up in previous years. Since most people on this site, both clients and escorts, are usually known to others only by their "stage names", it is best to start introducing oneself by one's site name/handle, but if it is a long or unpronounceable one, most people then switch to their real first names. Last names are not necessary.