March 2024 Monthly Entry
We were very fortunate this winter here in the GVRD that we only had one big dump of snow to deal with back in January. Winter tried to do one more snow blast awhile ago and we got some that covered us one night, but it was gone in hours as it was melted by the day sun. The rest of winter was some rain and now it is more sunny. I'm glad we've reached spring and the days have started to get warmer.
While I mention my first trip this year to Seattle below, I'm returning there for the Washington State Leather Organization Contest from March 23-24. There are two other major events in April that I'll be going to. The first is Smokeout in Vegas from 6-7 since Easter falls on the weekend before this year, so it'll be a quick trip. I'll be staying with boy (Alex) Zander at the host hotel. And the second is Rubbout 31 from 12-14. Seattle Knight Eugene plans to come up for it again. While I will talk about the WSLO Contest weekend in my upcoming April entry, both Smokeout and Rubbout will get separate entries. I might upload the April entry a little earlier than usual, perhaps after I get back from Vegas, but before Rubbout.
I've had some struggles getting my work done on time the last few weeks. At least twice I've worked around half an hour into my break time! I don't know what has been slowing me down, but I suspect it is the tracked in fine dirt in every room and a couple of upstairs classrooms that have been made harder to sweep due to changing desk set ups. The head teacher has once again bitched about me to Jay. Her bitching is two things: the floors not being mopped every night, and finding mice poop in places that are not frequently cleaned (ie. behind shelves). The floors are spot cleaned every night as her students have destroyed her floors with tracked in dirt and scratches from their moving chairs that they need to be scrubbed, not simply mopped. I'm also under no obligation to move furniture to clean behind them - that is usually reserved for winter/spring/summer breaks. A compromise by teachers is that if they move the furniture out of the way, then I will clean the area for them that same night. Apparently, Ms. Prima-Donna didn't figure that out. This is in contrast to another teacher the following day after, who had started working last school year, asked Jay if I could sweep behind the cubby she moved out of the way, which has stuff fallen behind it and some mice poop was found. A couple hours later, I swept and threw away the dusty and containminated stuff that was there, disinfected the floor and cubbys, and pushed it all back into place. The cubbys had scratches on them that I thought were smeared mice poop, but no amount of wiping was getting on my cloth which disproved that theory - thank God! I found out the day after that, unlike the head teacher earlier, the other teacher was very grateful for my work!
Spring Break has begun and there a couple things of note. The first is that I am working at Rosser tomorrow Monday and Tuesday - usually they have me there the last day or two of a break period. This would be okay if not for the painters who are now working in the gymnasium! So I can't clean it while they are in there with their plastic drapes all over the floor and scaffolding. They possibly could be done by near the end of Spring Break, but I'm not sure. The other note is that Spring Break has one less shift this year because Good Friday falls at the end of it. So I have seven shifts to get my run done at Montecito. There is a third note about the Break: according to Jay, a lot of our autoscrubbers in the district are in need of repair -including ours- and so we cannot give our floors a decent scrub. We could use swinger machines, but it would be a longer process. So it seems we will have to give our floors a good mop & wash. And speaking of Jay: they are once again sending him to Burnaby Mountain to help out - the same Monday and Tuesday I'm at Rosser. So there will be no one at Montecito the first two days of the scrub. Sigh... why?
My one night in Seattle the February 17-18 weekend with boy (Alex) Zander was quite nice. I stayed with him at the Hyatt Regency which was near the Seattle Convention Center. The location was pretty good: about a 6-minute walk from the Quickshuttle drop off and a 15-minute walk from CC Attle’s (though recommended you take a taxi/Uber when going from the hotel as it is uphill, walking back is easy.) We met up with some Seattle Knights at Madison Pub: Bryan, Thad & Charlie, and Bill. We lifted and clinked our glasses in remembrance of our late-brother Knight, Kevin Caldwell. Sometime after 5:30pm, Alex and I went to Doghouse Leathers and we saw Toby. We noticed there were pairs of leather chaps on clearance for $150, but they were either too small on us, or a little too big. Alex picked up a few things while I bought a book. We then went to look for cigars and the nearest place sold cigars that were discolored and moldy, so we walked to another location called Capitol Hill Tobacco and found a better selection and quality of cigars, so we bought one each. While looking for a place to eat, we found a Pho place called Cranes Landing, which we enjoyed. We took a Lyft back to the hotel where Alex worked on cleaning and conditioning my leathers. We took a Lyft a couple of hours later to CC Attle’s and had a half an hour lineup to get in. There was no cover getting in, but we didn’t realize it was an underwear night. Both he and I were overdressed, especially me as I was in head-to-toe leather as expected. I bought us a drink each and we spent over an hour chatting and enjoying the bear scenery. Toby was there and soon walked over to say hello to us. I checked my phone to see if Daddy Rick Ruben would be coming from the Out-of-Town show that night (Seattle Coronation was going to be the following Sunday night), but he did not reply, so I assumed he was still there or went home right after. We left sometime before 1am and walked back to the hotel. We had no time to smoke our cigars and my butane lighter was acting up. The next morning, Bryan picked us up and we had breakfast with the same Knights at Glo’s, a popular gay eatery. The prices were reasonable and portions okay. We discussed Gathering in San Francisco and that I was researching hotels at the time. Before 10am, we said a final goodbye to the Knights before Bryan dropped us back off at the hotel. Alex and I spent around an hour in the room. I called Daddy Rick and we talked about the upcoming WSLO contest weekend in March, and why doing a BLUF gathering in Seattle is not viable at this time. We will not be able to meet as his shift begins at 10:45am. After the phone call, Alex and I soon left the room and he checked us out. He had to get to his flight via the light rail and so we said goodbye and parted. I hung around the lobby for awhile before I got a text message from Daddy Carl that he was running errands, and he could pick me up and hang out for a bit. Still a sexy Daddybear! We spent a couple of hours together, driving around a bit, going to a farmer’s market, and having pizza. We have not seen each other just shy seven years, so we caught up on things. He dropped me off at my bus stop and we said goodbye. The trip back home was more comfortable and customs didn't take long. As for the cigar I had left, I smoked it that night outside the house in some gear.
My mother is currently in Langley Memorial Hospital due to cysts in her leg and hip, and an infection in her system due to a medication she was taking that gave false initial readings. After she had surgery on her hand the previous week, she had been feeling very weak and was mostly in bed due to lower back pain. She soon found out that part of the reason was a reaction to the anesthesia from the surgery. Her hand was fine and healing, but her body was weak. Very early morning on Thursday February 29, my father lets me know my mom has pain in her leg and it was swelling. We thought she had a blood clot and decided to call an ambulance. Since it wasn't a dire emergency, it took over 90 minutes for them to arrive. Poor mom! We did what we could to make her comfortable and prepare for their arrival. I think it took about a day before she could get admitted into a room as it was busy when she arrived that morning. After some MRIs and other tests, they found she had a cyst in her leg instead of a blood clot, then later found a second one in her hip - which may explain her lower back pain. She is currently on intravenous antibiotics to kill the infection and as of this writing, seems to be working! She will have to go through physio and occupational therapy before she can be released. My father and younger sister have been helping, especially my father as he has been doing the things my mother usually does for me: make my breakfast for on the way to work, my lunches, and is doing his best to make the dishes my mom makes from memory. Once mom makes it home and can cook again, I will have to make note of her recipes and maybe take videos of them so that I have them for future prosperity - especially come the day she will no longer be with us. But I'm grateful to the Good Lord, the doctors and nurses who are taking care of her, and my father and sister for all they are doing! As of today, I've visited my mom twice while my father sees her every day.
BLUF Vancouver had a gathering on March 9th, similar to last year's. We had a dinner at the Fountainhead Pub at 7pm, then we went to the Pumpjack Pub for the Vancouver Men in Leather social before 9pm. There was on and off light rain that night so I didn't have a cigar. To start, the turnout for the dinner was surprisingly good: we had around fourteen men, including a few Knights. But what surprised me was the attendance of Daddy Doug, who greeted me in a friendly way! I was taken aback and nervous given what happened back at Knights Anniversary, the message he sent on Recon, and the aftermath in January. I once again apologized for what happened and said that I received no reply to the apology I gave Phillip, which was why I let him know before I was blocked. He explained to me that Phillip was his boyfriend that he was in the process of breaking up with and that he has "issues". It turns out, he was the one that opened my message on Recon (he had access to it) and either blocked me or shut down Daddy Doug's original account with no reply. Daddy Doug was shown the Recon message and knew of the text message I sent before, but Phillip did not accept my apology as authentic and viewed it as nothing more than to appease Daddy Doug. I replied that if I wasn't sincere in my apology, why did I go out of my way to know Phillip's contact info and text him personally? Daddy Doug agreed and did not say in the original Recon message for me to apologize - I did that on my own! He provided me Phillip's phone number and email address when I asked for it. Phillip only confirmed in the initial text message that it was him, but when I sent my apology and explanation as to why I didn't notice him outside the Pumpjack that night, he chose to ignore it. The end result was that Daddy Doug and him barely talk now and that Daddy has a new profile on Recon, which I've since added to my friend's list. The talk he and I had at the Fountainhead and then at the Pumpjack had lifted some of the burden from that incident off my shoulders. In fact, the first conversation I had at Fountainhead made me reconsider going to the Pumpjack for the VML social. I planned to go in for a little while with fellow-Knight Pat. I was worried if Daddy Norm and/or that one Dom who complained to him was going to be there. Daddy Norm was there and later on, when I was sitting on a couch chatting with Leatherdaddy Patrick of Bellingham, Daddy Norm walks by me - with his dick out - and I don't think said hello to me. I took no pictures that night of guys playing around, as I didn't want to cause trouble again. But I could tell Daddy Norm was still sour with me and likely he did not go to Fountainhead for the dinner as he knew I would be there. I did talk to Frank, the hot porn star Daddy and told him about what happened back in November and explained myself. He is usually fine with me taking pictures of him, but I made it clear that I will generally ask for his consent to take pictures of him, especially when his cock is out, and he seemed fine with that. With all that said, I wish I can patch things up with Daddy Norm. I have told the Knights that while I will return to VML socials given I've patched things with Daddy Doug, I'm not going to go to as many socials until things get better between Daddy Norm and I. As for the Dom who complained, I don't know what to do about him.
I've got a little good news on my visit to my endocrinologist last Monday. She was overall pleased that my recent blood and urine tests came out pretty good. While I only went down a ".1" on my A1 and still technically in the high range, she has noticed that my sugars have went down overall. My blood pressure is good and so is my cholesterol level. Probably the better news was that I have lost 5 kilograms/11 pounds since the last visit. It seems the Ozempic injections have helped and slowing working my dosage up to 1mg did the trick. I am snacking less than before when at home, especially after work and before bed in the morning. I guess I'll see if I can lose some more weight, though I do worry if my leather gear will be more loose fitting in the future.
Over a month after the passing of Kevin Caldwell, another long-time Knight had recently passed away and this one was a Groupie: Arnie Norem of the Seattle Jet Chapter. He passed away March 5th. I plan to write about him in a separate entry, but after I have visited Seattle and talked to Bryan, his former lover of around eighteen years, as I want to know more about Arnie's background. I am still working on Kevin's entry and hopefully will get it uploaded before the end of the month.
Last night I watched the popular 1988 anime, Akira, the 25th Anniversary Blu-Ray. Even though I'm an anime fan, this is the very first time I've ever watched this film. I've known of it's popularity and influence for years, but for some reason, never got to see it. Set in a dystopian 2019, it tells the story of Shōtarō Kaneda, the leader of a biker gang whose childhood friend, Tetsuo Shima, acquires incredible telekinetic abilities after a motorcycle accident, eventually threatening an entire military complex amid chaos and rebellion in the sprawling futuristic metropolis of Neo-Tokyo. The story was loosely based on the manga, which continued for a couple years after the film released. The background art and animation are incredible! I love traditional cel-animated anime of this time period! Some early CGI was used too, but it doesn't dominate the film. I remember a major parody and homage was from the fourth season episode of South Park "Trapper Keeper". I thought the English voice acting was well done though I believe this is the 2001 re-dub compared to the original 1989 dub - which is considered comically bad. I didn't watch the extras, but may in future viewings.
I'm still very early in Rise of the Tomb Raider as I've been busy after work and night fatigue. Good chance it will be finished by next month. After that, I'll beat Book I of Legacy of Ys on the 2DS so I can be near halfway through it. I've since seen a couple episodes of Star Trek: TOS.
Last Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 (Theatrical), Akira (Blu-Ray)
Last Book: The C.S. Lewis Signature Classics - The Screwtape Letters
Last Game: Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360)
Current Book: The C.S. Lewis Signature Classics - Miracles
Current Games: Rise of the Tomb Raider (PS4) & Legacy of Ys: Books I & II (DS)