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Dispatches From Dystopia

~ "What man by worrying can add one cubit to his span of years?"

Dispatches From Dystopia

Monthly Archives: February 2017

Sunday.

26 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by David in Uncategorized

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It is Sunday. The warm weather has gone. It feels like Winter again. That is fine by me.

I was up and down last night, but most of the night I slept soundly. Mrs CorC? has some sort of cold/allergy issue going on, so she coughed a lot and slept fitfully. I will tell her to stay home, rest, and skip Mass.

I’ve resumed my usual fitness activities, with a walk or a swim most every day. The tightness in my legs has gone, so PT was a success.

I want to write more and will later. I just needed to check in.

 I will write more later.

St. Valentine’s Day.

17 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by David in Family

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St Valentine's Day

Monday around 4:30, after a reasonably busy day,  I was out for my walk, thinking I had all my St. Valentine’s Day bases covered. As I walked along, her name popped into my head, “Dorothy”, my stepmother. I forgot to get her a card.  After my walk I was all set to go up to Walgreen’s and pick out a card to take over with some food I planned to share with her.

Mrs CorC? texted before I had a chance to go. I explained the dilemma and she offered to pick up a card for us.  Good. One less trip to make. She came home with a card and nice little selection of Ghirardelli  Chocolates.

St Valentine’s Day comes.  I go by Dorothy’s with her food, and her chocolates and her card.  She is blown away that we remembered her on St. Valentine’s Day.

“I haven’t gotten a card in years!”

Now I am a pretty cynical SOB around holidays exploited by Hallmark, Godiva Chocolates, DeBeers Consolidated Mines and all the others.  What I thought was simply a nice gesture turned into something else when I saw Dorothy’s response.  She was genuinely touched that people remembered her on a special day.

The takeaway for all you readers is that one never knows how thoughtful a simple, almost trivial,  gesture can be.

Morning

16 Thursday Feb 2017

Posted by David in Uncategorized

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musings, Ramblings

This represents my second go-round of waking up. Around 3:00 AM , I woke up, looked at my e-mail feed on the smartphone, and decided to be up for awhile. I took off my flannel pyjamas with the Black Watch tartan print,  put on  underwear, including a cotton-ribbed athletic shirt, AKA “Wife-beater”, jeans and my go-to denim chambray button down.  I was committed to being up. I read some of the paper, made a cup of decaf in the K-cup machine, did some desultory channel surfing. I just couldn’t focus in on the TV preacher, Mike Murdoch and his $58 pledge, or the infomercial for something, or watching Sea Hunt for the gazillionth  time.

Around 4:30 AM, I decided getting up and staying up was a bad idea. I went back to bed, in the big bed, Mrs CorC?’s bed,  and did get two and half hours more sleep.  After making a pot of coffee with the wonder ingredient caffeine, I realize I was back to the same conundrum I faced at three.What do I do with this day that God gave me?

More than anything else, I wanted to put some words up into cyberspace.  I consider the readers of my blog my friends. This glorious anonymity of the blogosphere fosters intimacy, not unlike the safe space of an AA meeting. Here I can share the paradoxes of my life: my faith and my strong sexuality, knowing they are both God-given and therefore not irreconcilable.  I long ago gave up being respectable, in the Sinclair Lewis Main Street sense of the word. (Having hillbilly relatives that made moonshine greatly facilitated abandoning that dubious aspiration.)

In the real world, there is vacuuming to be done. And floor mopping. I can make some very nice chicken salad with the chicken breasts I defrosted.  I can work on my stretching, take my stepmother to the Y, and go swimming while I’m there.

There’s a whole world out there. Let me get going.

Later, comrades!

Water Conservation, Now More Important Than Ever

14 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by David in Hedonism, Love and stuff, Relationships, seduction

≈ 2 Comments

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Adult Fun

Slightly Naughty. Using Grownup Words. Use Caution.

Jimmy climbed into the roomy double headed shower stall, spray coming from both ends, so no showering buddy gets left out. He welcomed the hot water pounding his tense neck and shoulders. It was a pulsating needle spray that was having a most salubrious effect on his work-stressed body. Looking down at his fingernails, Jimmy noticed the corona of grime about his nails and fingertips. “Unsatisfactory”, thought he as he applied the nailbrush, filled with pumice to the nails, till they were as pristine as a surgeon’s, better yet, a gynecologist’s, for his purposes.

Looking up, he saw Felicia at the shower door, holding a tray with the iced hibiscus tea they both were fond of, its red so inviting in the acrylic tumblers, made even more so by the sprig of mint and lime wedge. He opened the door; she walked in, putting the tumblers on the back ledge, out of range of the shower spray. Her hands went to work on his shoulders and neck, a splendid accompaniment to the needle spray.

“Nice.”, he said.

“Shush” she said. “you just relax.” Taking the natural sponge, she squirted the fragrant lavender Castille soap into the sponge and watched the lather build. She went to work soaping his back and legs, Turning him she scrubbed his chest and arms. She reached for the bottle of peppermint soap and squirted a bit of it into his pubes. Working up the lather, she soaped his prick, looking into his eyes as the tingle of the peppermint gave that extra bit of stimulation to his member. When her fingers were nice, slick, tingly and soapy she set to washing his scrotum,  perineum, and anus. He smiled and she smiled too, as her finger worked its way into him.  She had freer range to fully explore his ass.  His body was hers to please and enjoy. She relished these shows of power, making him even harder, his cock pulsing in her soapy hand.  Then she stopped, just shy of his release.

“You just relax, Big Boy. No need to hurry.”  Squirting more soap into the sea sponge she scrubbed his back, his buttocks, stopping to give them an appreciative squeeze.

Curiosity

14 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by David in memoir, Sexual Identity, Suburbia

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"Rated X" Adult films, Film, Porn Stars, Sex

Adult Content

Way back in the early Seventies, a movie was released from Sweden entitled  I Am Curious- Yellow.  Shortly thereafter came its sequel, I Am Curious-Blue. Blue and yellow are the colors in the Swedish flag. Get it? The curiosity centered around sex, naked people having intercourse.  I remember going to the Rose Bowl Drive-in to see it. The Rose Bowl had an incredibly cool sign, red neon roses. The sign was the most memorable aspect of every excursion to the The Rose Bowl.  Watching this “fine” Swedish import was no exception. Viewing Porn was just beginning to go mainstream in the Seventies, for better or for worse.  Visual, cinematic pornography is now ubiquitous.  But in the Seventies, you had to go out of your way to see porn. It was an excursion into some seedy, sketchy places.  Porn still existed on the periphery and  The Rose Bowl sat on that edge.

The Rose Bowl was on Rte 1, the “Number One Highway”, as it was known then.  Near it was the Wigwam Motel, a tourist court of small one room cabins, spaced in a semi-circle around a larger building that served as office and restaurant.  There was a wooden representation of a “tipi”,  that comprised the roof. Hence the name “wigwam” could be justified. Further up Rte 1 was the Jamaica Country Club, a swimming pool for African-Americans in the days of segregation.  Simply put, it was a different world. The Rose Bowl is gone, as is The Wigwam. The Jamaica Country Club remains, at least physically, if not as a business. The area is giving way to suburban commercial encroachment, a Sonic Drive-in, Taco Bell,  Arby’s, several mini-storage places, antique shops galore.

There were other venues for porn back then. A fraternity house would acquire some “stag” films and show them to male collegians, for a fee. They were black and white, silent films with various sex acts (never sexual activity between males, however) depicted. The college boys (yes definitely boys!) would watch and make comments, predictably as juvenile, immature and sexist as the films, location and  context would inspire. I watched, because I was curious. Here was sex depicted, mysterious, daunting, powerful.  The filmmakers were not Henry Millers or Anais Nins or Joyces.  There was no thought to “art” in these grubby, grainy shorts.  Yet they were, in their way, art. The films were forgettable, except for one which featured two women who were having penetrative sex with a double headed dildo.  It must be said that the performers were not silicon- enhanced “stars”, but rather ordinary women, not particularly attractive, not ugly either.

The main location for “X-rated ” films in Richmond in the 70’s and 80’s was a movie house near  Virginia Commonwealth University called the Lee Art Theater, later called the Lee “X” Theater.  The films were from Essex or Caballero and starred Seka, Vanessa del Rio, John Holmes, John Leslie, the usual suspects. I remember going on slow business afternoons, the theater incredibly dark, the smell of Pine-Sol in the air. Occasionally there were “strippers”, usually female porn stars, like Vanessa del Rio, Annie Sprenkle, and Juliet Anderson, aka “Aunt Peg”. I vaguely recall Vanessa being busted for cocaine possession during her visit to Richmond, but I could be mistaken.  She took off her costume to the song She’s A Latin From Manhattan.   Gathering up the pieces of her freshly discarded outfit was “Dirt Woman”, a transgendered individual, notable for his obesity and a  crude similarity to the late Divine (aka Harris Glen Milstead), the John Waters “superstar”.  He did this for all the travelling performers. Annie Sprenkle did her show against a back drop of slides, one of which featured a Renault Le Car.  She was working on her doctorate at this time. The announcer mispronounced her name, calling her Annie “Sprinkles”.  When Juliet Anderson appeared, she stripped down, put on some kind of cover-up, then sat down for a Q & A with the audience. She did ask that the audience members not smoke.  She had a second hand smoke issue.  She shared that the porn business was rough; women had to buy their own underwear. I asked her if her parents knew she was in the adult film business. She said they did.  All in all,  she was representative of everybody’s sexually liberated individual living in San Francisco.  This was before AIDS, before porn was shot direct to video; when adult films were still marginal.  Eventually VCU bought the building and uses it for something other than showing sleazy movies.

With the advent of the VCR, “Adult” cable channels and finally the internet, porn went mainstream and arguably ubiquitous.  Now I have seen it all. I am no longer compelled by a perverse curiosity.  Yet I still yearn for the erotic, for love expressed through sexuality.  The sexual drama lives, as it always has, between my ears.

Friday: The Mind Races

10 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by David in Gender Roles

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Organizing.

Ever have one of those mornings, where your thoughts are going from one idea to another, seemingly without plan or resolution of one concept before another creeps in?

That is my mental state right now. I’m not going to call 911 or anything, but it’s down right annoying. Maybe I’m too jazzed up on coffee. I dunno.

You see, last night I got tired of looking at this honkin’ big package of Charmin Bath Tissue just sitting out in the downstairs pile of clutter. I knew where it could go; in the upstairs bath/laundry room on a shelf over the washing machine. But there was junk on it, old towels and linens we would never use, like a toilet seat cover bearing an image of Santa Claus. That is going to Goodwill real soon. So I organized this shelf and space to put stuff magically opened up. Then I started thinking about all the others spaces I could liberate from their clutter. 

Then I started thinking about what are “male” jobs and what are “female” jobs. I don’t want to re-write every social norm in Western society, but running a house doesn’t carry a specifically “male” or “female” skill set, whatever those two may be respectively.

Doggone it! I like cooking, cleaning, and organizing, obviously  a lot more than my spousal unit. 

Here goes! That was liberating to say that.

Image

“Once More Into The Breech, Dear Friends!”

08 Wednesday Feb 2017

Tags

Haircut, Physical Therapy

Here I go again, Physical Therapy. The doctor visit yesterday ended with a prescription for a course of prednisone and twice weekly sessions of PT for some residual, more or less constant, muscle 


pain near the fusion site and some persistent tingling in my left arm which we think is related to some issues in the cervical vertabrae. Fun. Fun. Fun.

Later Today

I had my PT session. The goals for both issues is flexibility. We started off with a traction session on my neck. That was followed by some general stretching and flexibility exercises for the  legs.  Evidently lack of flexibility in the leg muscles puts extra strain on the back. Who knew? 

Post PT, I got a haircut.  I got a “Spring” haircut because it’s down right warm here in Ole Virginny’.  Between sweat in my hair from walking and pool chemicals when I swim, I feel like my hair is a gunk reserve. So Karina, my barber,  gave me close to The Works.  I would fit right in at Camp Lejeune.

Topping off the day’s excursions was a trip to the supermarket, in this case Food Lion.  The “re-set” team was in this particular store today, resetting specific sections according to the monthly schedule. I saw a crew on frozen dinners, bottled water, and  bath soap, I believe.  This is of interest to me, because I spent several years doing this particularly nasty work in some grocery stores in rural Virginia; towns like Saluda, Kilmarnock, Bowling Green, Colonial Beach.  I left today with an enormous sense of gratitude about being retired.

Posted by David | Filed under Health Issues, personal grooming

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Football, Amtrak, Walking. A Hodge-Podge

06 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by David in Amtrak, cooking, Exercise/ Fitness, food, Uncategorized

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Canada, food, Football, Walking

So here it is Monday.  I did watch part of Super Bowl LI yesterday, but I had better things to do so I turned it off. Then I found out the Patriots won in overtime after trailing 28-3 at one point. Quite frankly I was not surprised.  I am just glad football is over and done with for another few months. Pro football season is like sitting down to a long meal with many courses. Then, when dessert comes (in this case, the Super Bowl), I just can’t eat (or watch) any more.

My good friend JK texted me that he found out he could go to Montreal from Richmond on Amtrak for $84, one way. That is if he books now for a June 30 departure.  Sounds like a deal.  Mrs CorC? and I might take that trip.  The only fly in that ointment is a nearly seven hour layover in New York between trains.  That is if one arrives in New York at 1:40 AM and departs for Montreal at 8:15 AM.  Penn Station just isn’t that interesting.  I would have to plan on more time in New York.

JK’s intention is to spend more time in Canada, perhaps going to Quebec City and Toronto at the very least.  Canada has to be cooler than Virginia in the Summer, temperature-wise.  For ambiance, Canada must be way cooler than Virginia. Plus there is the access to Cuban cigars.  I understand Montreal is a restaurant paradise.

Mass yesterday was rather somber, with the passing of my friend Mike M on everyone’s mind. The funeral isn’t until this Friday.  I don’t know why.

I have resumed my walking in earnest.  I did not realize how much I missed it. I like being connected to the World when I walk.  Swimming is great and I groove on the isolation when I swim.  Swimming lends itself to contemplation

I did some cooking last night, grilled salmon and steamed asparagus. No bread, rice , potatoes or pasta. I’m going for some major starch reduction here. I had fruit for dessert.

More exercise. Better dietary choices. This mindfulness might stick this time.

Requiescat In Pace: Mike

03 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by David in Catholic Life

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Candlemas, The Rosary

In my most recent post Alternative Healing, I mentioned I went to the Seven AM Daily Mass at Mary, Mother of the Church Abbey. I saw my friend Mike M, a local dentist and very active Catholic.  When I came in to the Church in 2010, he led our RCIA ( Rite of Catholic Initiation for Adults) Class. After Mass we talked a bit. He told me he was praying The Rosary for a young man, who had just entered an alcoholism rehabilitation program.  He asked that I pray  The Rosary for this young man.  All in all, it was an unremarkable conversation with a man whose life is about service to God, His Church, and his fellow human beings.

Last night, I was checking my e-mails when one titled In Memoriam caught my eye. Expecting the deceased to be one of  several parishioners I knew to be in ill health, I was astonished to discover that Mike had died.  Driving down to the Evening Mass for Candlemas, he felt ill, pulled off the road and dialed 911. Taken to hospital he died of a massive heart attack, his aorta irreparably damaged.

The old cliches’ took over “You never know”. “He looked fine when I last saw him.”   You know them all. Mike was not quite 70.  He leaves a widow, two children, four grandchildren.  One of my most cherished memories of Mike was of  him leading his grandchildren in Grace before they ate their Happy Meals at McDonald’s one Sunday afternoon. He showed them how to make the Sign of the Cross before the Blessing started.

His life was about doing what matters.  We should all have such clarity and singleness of purpose.

May the souls of the Faithful Departed, especially Mike, by the Mercy of God, rest in Peace.

Alternative Healing

02 Thursday Feb 2017

Posted by David in Health Issues

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Pain, recovery, The Rosary

Having a spinal fusion is like rolling the dice. You might win. You might not. On balance I am satisfied with the outcome and would do it all over again. But.  There are days when my back hurts at the surgical site or near it.  I am too far post-op to get any opioids for pain. Naproxen, acetaminophen or ibuprofen work sometimes, but some days I think I could accomplish as much pain management with Tic-Tacs.

This morning, around 4:30, was one of those times. I was up for a while, went back to bed, still hurting. I said to myself, “Why don’t you pray The Rosary?”  So I did. The Glorious Mysteries. All five Decades. I then read part of Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange’s The Three Conversions Of The Spiritual Life. It is a profound, little book, dense with observations about the devout life.

I won’t say the pain miraculously and dramatically departed, but it lessened in intensity. My self-absorption with the pain went away.  I went to the 7:00 AM Mass at Mary, Mother of the Church Abbey. Another crack in the facade of self-absorption.

I came home, finally sleepy. About the time I woke up, a fellow alcoholic, whom I didn’t know called. He needed a ride to a meeting. So we went. 

“Out of self, into others.” is one of those AA slogans, simple yet true.  I’ve spent the day living in the spirit of that slogan. I feel a lot better. Useful.

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