Homer'sWorld

Happy Blogday to me- I've been writing about my super-exciting life now for 366 days. Thanks for reading. It seems that scantily clad photos are pretty popular (Friday's pic generated the most comments I've ever had), but really, I'm not that photogenic. Besides, I'd rather show you in person.



Bowl abstract.

To celebrate Blogday I'll be cleaning, painting, laundering, washing, plastering, and a few other -ings. It will be the busiest Blogday ever, I'll wear my fingers to the bone. And if you happen to stop by I'll be wearing the painting shorts.

Acid reflux, I wouldn't wish it upon anybody. Slow burning, lasts all day long. I take the little purple pills and chug pepto. I'm used to it now so it doesn't interfere much with life, just makes the quality not so hot.

Avoiding painting tonight, probably should finish the plaster work. But geez, Friday night and I would rather be doing something else. Went for a drink with W., a woofy guy, but the sparks weren't there, I think he likes younger men. Oh well. The dating pool in Tucson is so small that a little incident like that sucks. But I'm not complaining, it could be worse. I could be dateless and have acid reflux. Wait, wait, wait, I meet those criteria. Suck!

I put on my painting shorts and started painting practically the moment I got home. A light yellow for the walls, a light blue for the ceiling, "eggnog" for the cabinets and trim. Those shorts have the paint from the last two rooms I painted, dark blue bedroom, mango bathroom. Now they will accumulate the new paint in the kitchen and bathroom.
 



I only painted a section of the wall and ceiling, checking to see the colors worked. They did. Then I focused on the cabinet and its doors. I'm hoping the doors will go on Sunday and with the tils mostly completed, I'll have one of the projects mostly done.

In other news, John Kerry rocked in his speech tonight. He's a stud. Makes GW look like a big ole wuss.

Lots of lightning and thunder today, one bolt scared the crap out of me it was so close.  Nice and cool at the moment, hope it stays that way. Got soaked trying to run to the historical society as a Democratic fundraiser weaseled a contribution out of me.

Yuck, I just made the mistake of really looking at my keyboard. How does all that crud get down in there?

Hung out with Curtis after work. He suggested paint colors for the kitchen so maybe tomorrow I'll buy several gallons. I like painting, fast and inexpensive way to change things. I've been agonizing about color choices, so I guess I'll just have to do and perhaps regret it later.

Hey, I've updated my blog links. Expurgate has gone back to My Name is Sam and a couple of new blogs have been added. Say hello to MelloBoy.

I've been emailing Todd, who used to live in Tucson back in the mid-90s.  Like Ryan, I had an awful crush on him. Oh my, I used to lie in bed thinking what a sweet guy he was, so cute and funny. I had the biggest crush.

Todd and Ryan hung out with a group of guys that was headed by M., a friend of my roommate. For some reason M. decided I was a geek, and I found it better to stay away from the guys, many of whom spiraled into out-of-control drug use. The bottom point was when S. injected himself with special K and sunk to the bottom of a swimming pool. What a waste.

A couple of years ago I ran into Todd at Christmas time- he had moved to LA and was doing well. And last summer I went to a party at Kurt & Dwayne and there was Ryan, it was so much fun hanging out with him and taking him to the airport. From what I've heard most of those guys have moved on, made better decisions with their lives. I sometimes wonder why M. was so nasty to me, but honestly I just felt sorry for all of the time he lost. 

In other news, Goddam weatherman Chuck George keeps interupting The Amazing Race over some stupid thunderstorm.  Doesn't he know that is my favorite telly show?

I like libraries- they are filled with books, some with nice pictures, a few are actually worth reading. However, as Jonny will tell you, other library patrons can be a nuisance. Example, today at the university special collections I had to listen to the annoying history buff bother the librarians with his ultra-fascinating questions. I felt sorry for the women sitting behind the desk, his insistence that some unknown librarian had catalogued something incorrectly was met with a luke warm response. I'm sure that his less-than-stellar hygiene and his general wierdness didn't make talking to him very pleasant. 

The Democratic convention is on the telly in the living room. I wandered in to watch Jimmy Carter- he is a great guy. After he left office he spent his time doing good- Habitat for Humanity and election monitoring are two cause I know of. Contrast that with George I, who obsessed with adding millions to his family fortune and periodically parachuting to show us he can still get a woody.

A picture is worth a thousands words. Please memorize the next 3,000 words and be prepared for a test tomorrow.

 

Doug starts tiling the counter.


A photo for Jimbo.


Mike's dog Faja.

On my home improvement show, I worked on plastering cracks in the kitchen. It is a messy task, and it really looks like this is the first time I've ever done this sort of thing. However, the major cracks are filled and maybe with some sanding and a final thin coat it will be dandy. 
 

Giant cracks-be-gone.

Then into the bathroom, where I removed the old toilet and pulled up most of the linoleum and the underlying plywood. I knew the toilet had leaked once, but soon discovered that it was still leaking and that the wooden floor around the outlet pipe was all cruddy. So I ran over to the lumber store and bought oak flooring strips that will replace the messed up areas. I didn't remove the sink- the plumbers are going to have to come replace the cold water valve underneath because it won't shut off and it starts to leak when it is turned. I just have to remember- "I'm increasing the value of my house!" Last week I bought a new old-fashioned-looking toilet and sink for this bathroom, too bad the cats are the only ones that ever use it.


Looking in from the study to the nasty bathroom floor.

I feel like getting in my car and just driving, driving away. I'm a little stir crazy. Work is dreadfully dull, waiting for something new to come up. I'm finishing up some old projects, but there isn't enough to do. At home there is sawdust and plaster everywhere- when I walk bare-footed my feet get dirty instantly. It's hot and humid and I have piles of stuff everywhere. The disorganization is starting to be a bother.

But at the same time, going someplace means sitting in a car- yuck- and driving to some equally hot place where gas is as expensive and so on. So I guess I'm feeling a bit unsatisfied. Is this what a mid-life crisis is supposed to be about. How come I couldn't have a more exciting one with a lot of drugs and apologies in the morning and shameful secrets? Maybe I'm having the dullest mid-life crisis ever. Wouldn't that be funny?

I took the day off to buy a toilet, a sink, and do some more plaster work (I'm playing with the new Blogger colors, forgive me).  While I was doing the latter I spent some time thinking about gay Republicans. I've had recent run-ins with two- one just seemed to be an idiot, the other was all about personal responsibility and cutting taxes so his paycheck would be bigger.

Jump back in time to 1989- I was attending grad school at Arizona State and ended up being co-chair of the lesbian and gay group on campus.  I was introduced to D., another gay archaeologist, and was smitten. He was really good looking, furry, had an interesting way of speaking, etc. The archaeologist thing was kinda nice too. Unfortunately (and isn't life full of unfortunatelys?), D. also was conservative. He didn't particularly like being gay, probably would have changed to straight if he could. However, he liked dick to much.

The gays in the miltary thing was just starting and as head of the campus group I wrote a letter making fun of Arizona State's head of ROTC program, who was quoted as saying that gays shouldn't be allowed into ROTC because "some people don't like them." He didn't bother naming them, of course. That's a great way of thinking, I must remember to apply that sometime. But I digress, so D. called me up and chewed me out for being a "militant gay guy." D. never quite made the connection between social activists who campaigned for gay rights, and the fact that he could go out to gay bars without the fear of being arrested.  Weren't gay rights given a kick in the ass by the drag queens at Stonewall (by the way, we need a postage stamp commemorating that event).

The two recent gay Republicans seem to have forgotten this as well. They both told me that since the marriage amendment wasn't going to pass the Senate, that everything was fine and dandy. I brought up the recent rise in gay bashing here in Tucson, the fact that moderate Republicans were being pushed out of the party, that sitting around and keeping quiet never results in positive social change. In both these guy's minds it is all about keeping more of their paycheck, I guess they figure that having dollars in the bank means they will be safe.

I wish I could be so complacent, but I'm not. As Palochi writes in his story (good job, by the way!), if gays aren't diligent and make our votes and dollars heard, things aren't going to be so grand. But I suppose those greedy gay Republicans will have enough money to buy their way out. Geez, I guess I'm being one of those pessimistic liberals (must think positive!).

Roger the dog gnawed on my arm as Sandy and I chatted. That dog, a white Schnauzer puppy, was so cute. But with a name like Roger, he is bound to be naughty. Seems like everyone I meet named Roger needs to be spanked. Kinda like all men named Scott turn out to be gay. And guys named Homer, they are just plain wonderful, of course. Not that I'm into generalizing. 

When I got home from buying a retro-looking fan the cats swarmed over me, sniff-sniff-sniffing, trying to figure out what the strange dog smell meant. Mama Cat and Puff like to lie on top of me in bed, but even with the retro fan blowing luke warm air at me, it is too hot and I advise them to park their furry behinds somewhere else. How many more months of summer?

 

After another round of plastering I went over to David and Abe's casa and, along with Doug, we watched the Amazing Race.  We were pretty catty and kept shouting at the telly- "Run!" or various other type things.

 

Abe and Doug.

I have meetings tomorrow and so on. Work is really dull at the moment, have I whined about that? I guess being an archaeologist isn't all glamour and whips and gold chalices.

I got plastered tonight, well my kitchen walls did. I managed to spatter myself pretty thoroughly. As the coat dried, I sat on the back steps and took self portraits. I'm busy growing a beard back, the sides are auburn red. You'll have to wait for a picture, Blogger seems to be having problemos.


I thought I was going to DC, but the boss changed his mind. I wasn't to happy about this, the report I'm writing is dull as dirt, I was hoping to get some new info. Oh well, maybe I'll just go anyway, except money is kinda tight as I work on the house.

I think Panchesco will agree, swamp coolers suck Satan's left teat. Speaking of which, why do I keep running into queer Republicans???????!


Homer plastered.

Hidden in the walls of my kitchen were fragments of 1940s wallpaper. Some housewife, maybe named Maggie or Joan or Edith, slathered wallpaper paste and carefully hung the colorful paper up. It featured a kind of Pennsylvanian Dutch farm theme- a hitching post, a blacksmith, a woman quilting. Later, as the wall cracked, someone else applied a thin skim of plaster over the wallpaper, sealing it in.
 
Before I plastered over the area where I had cleared around a crack I took one of my business cards and wrote the date on the back and dropped it in between the lathe. Maybe someday someone will find it and wonder who Homer was.
  
 

Catching up. The last month or so has seen three people from my past suddenly make an appearance on Homer'sWorld. Yesterday the phone rang and there was Patrick calling from Germany. I met him back in 1988 when I was starting grad school at Arizona State. At that time the atmosphere at ASU towards gays was awful- I mean just plain awful. So he and I volunteered to go speak on a panel in front of a psychology class. A couple of the students were nasty to us. The big laugh was when one of the students asked Patrick if he had ever wanted to ask me out on a date.  He's lived in Germany for the last seven years and praises the attributes of German men. Maybe I'll have to go visit sometime.
 
Earlier I got an email and phone call from Brian. We had a bitter falling out over his ex-boyfriend who, unfortunately, had a drug problem. Oh well, after 10 years it was nice to catch up. And last night I chatted with Steve- a guy who dated a couple of my roommates back when I lived in Ann Arbor in the mid-1980s.
 
I just read Pua's account of meeting her birth family in Hawaii.  Oh, it made me all teary-eyed. I'm glad everything went well and she got to catch up with her mother, brothers, and sisters.

They should just let Martha teach home economic skills to people or something useful. It irritates me that they pursue her while Kenneth Lay lounged around. I wonder if it had anything to do with her donations to the Democratic party or the fact that she is the most prominent female business owner in the country. Gotta keep the uppity women in their place, which used to be, ironically, the kitchen.
 
Chatted with Jimbo on the phone this morning. Next week I'll know whether I'll be heading to Washington DC in mid August for work.  It'll be nice to see Jimbo, Chrisafer, maybe Zenchick, and my friends John and Kelly.
 
I'm at home with acid reflux tummyache. Oh it is like a skanky sauna, the humidity is evil. Even the cats are super cranky and are fighting. Puff is whining at me as I type this. Sorry, puss, not much I can do about the situation.

The New York boys drunk dialed me- Patrick and MAK and Atticus. They were at some loud bar and the reception was horrible. I felt envious, New York can be so much more exciting than Tucson.
 
This afternoon I went over to Gavin's and sat in his little backyard pool and chatted. His hair is bleached out from the sun to a nice auburn color. Afterward we went to Ali Baba's and I ate lovely hommous and we ogled the very cute waiter with the incredible ass.  I wonder if he knows how lovely it is.
 
At home Joey is sitting on my lap as I type. She made her little noise that means "Pick me up, dammit!" so I complied. I scratch the base of her tail and she looks at me, very pleased. She's been a good kitty for the last month. Hope that continues.

Things that happened today. I learned that in 1911 the U.S. army had a total of 12 trucks and many people thought that was more than enough. I wrote two pages of text. I was pleased to read that the anti-gay marriage amendment failed. The dentist says I have no cavities and was impressed at my brushing thoroughness. Doug and Jason drew interesting things on my kitchen wall. I made an insurance claim and the woman consoled me over my downed power line incident. At Hot Campus Boy Safeway I stood in line behind a hot campus boy and admired his freckles, rosy cheeks, and waifish looks. Afterward I flipped off a woman, who never saw me, driving a van with a bumper sticker "Marriage= Man + Woman." That was the second time I flipped her off without her seeing me. At home I am hot and sticky, swamp coolers really suck in July and August.

Caption contest: Readers, please think of an appropriate caption for this lovely picture of Pat Boone and Rick Santorum. Post the caption in my comment section.

Winner gets????? Thanks...

Hey it is Tuesday. I had a letter in today's Tucson Citizen. It is storming again- Adam and Brian up in Phoenix were probably in the awesome dust storm they showed on the news tonight. Tucson is always at least five degrees cooler than Phoenix, where it was 112 yesterday. Yuck.

A dirty secret- my all time favorite show is The Amazing Race. I find myself yelling at the television when people screw up. I'm rooting for the team that includes the dwarf woman- I like her attitude.

I sent an email to a woman who had sent me an email from Bush/Cheney about how awful Kerry/Edwards were. I replied to her that I thought B/C were evil people. She replied that she believed that "God picked the winner." Oh. I guess I should just forget voting. On the other hand, I wonder where 'God' is registered to vote. Florida? Texas? North Bumfuck?

When it rains... So the strong winds have made various electrical lines come loose from the pole to my guesthouse and so on and so on. John and Mark, my regular electricians, have come to save me. Yikes, $650 to fix things. I guess the fact that Mark is the CUTEST electrician ever makes it a tad better. I mean, if I have to spend $$$ I deserve some visual satisfaction. The roto rooter man a while ago met that expectation, and the plumber a couple of weeks ago at least had a charming accent.

Mark the electrician.

Monsoon is here. High humidity, rain showers in the afternoon. My house is a steam bath, horribly hot. I have to take a shower every couple of hours. The cats lie on the bed, torpid and lazy. We need the rain, we've been in a drought for five years. Hopefully it will put out the forest fires that are busy spreading in central Arizona.

Speaking of hot- I went out last night and I guess the clothes and attitude I was projecting were right on. I was getting a lot of extra attention. I'm growing the beard back and the same thing happened last time. What's that all about?

Five things. I have a vivid imagination. Sometimes when I have insomnia I make up stories in my head. Unfortunately, I'm not terribly good at writing fiction- although I took a creative writing class in college and the teacher read a story of mine out loud and said "I wish I had written this."

Anyway, last night I was all hell and brimstone over K.'s awful Republicanism and I focused my mind on other topics. We are having wildfires again in Arizona- not as bad as last year, but still threatening to burn up the U of Arizona's 100 million dollar telescope and the forest where a very endangered species of squirrel lives. It always seems that when people's cabins or homes burn down they leave all of the important stuff behind and grab the toilet brush or the latest issue of People magazine. So I wondered to myself "What would be the five things I would grab if my house was on fire?"

1). The cats. Mama Cat, Puff, and Joey. I imagine they would not cooperate and it would be a very unpleasant ordeal catching them.
2). My computer hard drive- it contains 1000s of hours of research.
3). My sweater drawer- my mother used to knit me lovely sweaters- see picture below. Plus my teddy bear, Smokey, who I've had for 35 years, is in the drawer.
4). My box of photos. I know- those things printed on paper. How archaic.
5). Flora Dora and Minerva- my grandmother's cousin Clarabell's dolls, which she got in 1911.


Sweaters mummy made for Homer along with Smokey.

Minerva- a steel-headed doll for everyday use- and Flora Dora, a French porcelain doll that Clarabell played with on Sundays in the parlor.

So what are your five things you would save?

At Furr's Cafeteria things got a little heated. K. is a gay Republican, primarily due to what he perceives as their business-friendly economic policies. He thinks we should have a flat tax and that rich people shouldn't have to pay more taxes than poor people. I counter that rich people are rich because the poor people get to send their kids off to fight in wars which the rich drive around in SUVs and go watch Spiderman. I noted that in Mexico the rich don't have to pay much in taxes, and look at how wonderful life is in that place. K. also thinks we will find those missing weapons of asshole destruction over in Iraq, that because someone is president we should actually like him, and that gays should settle for civil unions instead of marriage. Christonafuckingpunjistick. What difference will any of this make if Bush et al. pass whatever anti-queer laws I told him. He gets angry at me. Whatthefuckever. He got particularly angry after I told him that I had checked the Immigration Canada website to see what I needed to do to move there if things get real bad. "But your an American!" he practically shouted. Well, I'm sure a lot of Jews thought patriotic thoughts like that in Germany, say around 1932-1933. Look at the fuckups running the show, they have to have someone to scapegoat- and at the moment Homos-r-it. My dinner was kinda ruined and now I have indigestion. Sigh.

Jeffrey and my Furr's food.

Jimbo will like this- a photo of my neighbor kid being arrested and taken away. See, Tucson is just like Washington DC, crooks being cuffed in your 'hood and self loathing queers.


Cops with Catalina Mountains in the background.

My least favorite columnist is this yukky person named Maggie Gallagher. Her opinions are pretty worthless. In her most recent column she uses the personal experience of one person to suggest that gay marriage is wrong, wrong, wrong. It is too bad that everything didn't work that way, it would make life so much easier if you didn't have to weigh the evidence or do polls or conduct experiments. Well, I guess that was what the Middle Ages were all about, weren't they?

I sent her a charmingly nasty email. Disguised at first as a bit of praise so she would greedily read it (doesn't she look like the greedy sort in her less-than-attractive-hair-over-one-shoulder picture?), until she came to the part where I call her a skank. Actually, I didn't say skank, but I wanted to. I think skank is one of those awful sounding words like "wart" or "wussy" or "fellatio" that just sound diiiirty.

It made me feel a tiny bit better to tell her "Oh Maggie, You are such a great person! I love how you make gay people out to be evil, horrible people by sharing with us one small incident in one person's life! That is so clever. How about this generalization? You are a worthless, stupid bitch. I can prove it because I read your piece of trash today. As Cheney said, 'Go. Fuck. Yourself.'"


Maggie "skank" Gallgher.

Too much Middle Eastern food means a bit of a tummy ache. Oh, but it was really good, especially the hummous.

Today's Homer improvement project- sending my early 1940s Kenmore Visi-Bake stove out for a very expensive refurbishing. When it comes back it won't be leaking gas, the oven will light automatically, and the lights will come on when needed. I like my stove, it came with the house. It's huge! (that's a line from the movie Girls Will Be Girls- rent it, it is so amusing!).


The stove before being fixed up.

Three new things. One. The tile has arrived. The tile is actually a bit lighter than this picture implies.


Two. The guys finished the knick-knack shelf in my living room. I wish I had their woodworking skills. I have to go buy paint later this week.


Three. Of course whenever I give myself a haircut I have to post a new picture. I'm a bit jealous of Wayne, since he gets to use many different hair products (although it appears that sometimes he has a hairtastrophe).

I keep dreaming about the Ex. You would think after almost two years that would stop. But the last two nights, oh they were lively, romantic dreams and I wake up with this intense longing. It makes me want to cry a little, because I really miss some of the things I had back then. Of course dreams aren't particularly close to reality, so, for instance, in my dreams he tells me he's sorry and wants me. Hmm, christthatspathetic.

The 4th was loud here- my Mexican neighbors must visit their families south of the border and come back with lots of fireworks. BANG! The first was the loudest, they fired it right above our heads and it scared the poop right out of me.


Trying to get a good fireworks picture is impossible with my digital camera. But I sat there and just kept clicking the button and managed to grab a couple of images.


The finale was lovely and everybody in my backyard agreed it was a primo spot to watch the ephemeral explosions, all light and sound. And then we had a laugh when someone said that only Republicans should be allowed to celebrate the fourth.

My junk is the old guy's treasure. This morning as Doug and Jason continue building my kitchen cabinet, I sort through the contents of the run-down shed in my backyard. I'm going to tear it down sometime soon, but need to wait until my laundry porch is enclosed so I can move a few items. I put things in the back alley- a huge microwave, an old color television that probably doesn't work, a pair of futon frames, some pots and pans. An old guy wanders down the alley collecting pop cans. He stops to admire the microwave and I tell him it still works. "Looks heavy." he says, "Yeah, it is." I say. By the time I haul out some more stuff he has brought back a little dolly and wheels it away, followed by one of the bigger futon frames. I expect by tomorrow morning other people will have taken most of the things I have put out away. Once I went to see a neighbors house and recognized a pair of metal folding chairs on their patio- something I had dropped out in the alley.

Tonight Jeffrey S. comes over and we'll hang out with Mike and his friends and watch the fireworks that will be fired off a few thousand feet to the south, on the top of "A" Mountain. The neighbors will be barbequeing and will turn their radio to the station that plays patriotic music and everybody in my 'hood will have a nice time.


Cabinets, now with doors and drawers.

Grump, grump, grump. I'm in a nasty ole bad mood. I'm going to think about my favorite movie (Polyester) for a while and maybe the mood will pass. Or maybe Joey and Puff will come and sit on my lap. Or I could just go ballistic instead. Thank goodness I am going to a pool party tomorrow. Maybe I will even go skinny dipping.

A less interesting entry. The house is getting increasingly dirty- dust, sawdust, plaster, dust bunnies. It is starting to annoy me, the piles of kitchen stuff everywhere. Where are the tiles? And that replacement home equity checkbook?


The cabinets are taking shape and the plumbing has been completed. Except the plumbers stirred up a lot of rust in the pipes and one sink and the shower aren't working very well.


I removed the wall-mounted gas heater in the living room. The empty hole will become a shelf for knick-knacks.