Oddly enough, this wasn't a huge week for durlx news.

Then again, last week wasn't actually a huge news week either...



Last time I did mention how Bryan of ChaosInAustin had mentioned Jacinta on his site and how much I liked her. Well, she is available on a site called CD Baby, and they are quite wonderful!

I ordered the CD's and got this most amusing e-mail confirmation of my order entitled "CD Baby Loves Darryl!"...

Darryl -

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make
sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that
money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Friday, May 23rd.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year". We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!


Thank you once again,

Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little CD store with the best new independent music
phone: 1-800-448-6369 email: cdbaby@cdbaby.com
http://www.cdbaby.com

I love this company!!!


Transportation.

No, not being sent from England to Australia for stealing a loaf of bread!

But...



...I might get a scooter to get back and forth to work. I might also get my Dad's car, since he can't drive it anymore safely, but that might be complicated. (Listen to me now, Alzheimer's is a horrible thing!) Since we took the keys away from him, he sold his truck for half of what it was worth. The people he sold it to called my sister and offered the difference, because they know my Dad's judgement has gotten wierd; it's a small town after all... and he's apparently threatened to sell his car for a pittance if he doesn't get the keys back. This is not the way it is supposed to work out, I should get the car, but if it's going to piss him off forever, well then I won't touch it. Even if the "I get the car" thing works out, I still have to go get it from upstate New York and drive it here, which is at least a three day job. So, I started looking at scooters, (those small motorcycle things...) and found out that it wouldn't cost much at all... and the insurance is minimal. Of course it would be cold in the winter, but that isn't much of a season here and the gas is incredibly cheap; about a gallon a week.

So, I might do it. I could be riding that scooter for under $1900 including insurance as soon as I wanted to. Of course, it's no good on the highway... but that's something else altogether. This would be for getting to work and back, and for looking like Sophia Loren with a big scarf when I wanted to, and yelling to my friends, "Ciao, baby, ciao!" as I sped off to some glamorous appointment...

Memorial Day



Robert had a lil' back yard BBQ, with most of the usual subjects; the professors and their friend, and Clint from next door, Michelle and these two lovelies in the pool, one of them new to our group. (Guess which one.) Even though the day of this event was changed to suit him, George did not make it, since he was apparently waiting for an A/C repairman (on a holiday no less)...you would have to know George to know how hysterical this is... Pity. We had a wonderful time. This is a most entertaining group and I don't get to spend nearly enought time with them; they are incredibly smart and funny.


Well, there would have been more, but I spent too much time tonight in chat with lucy, jazz, mass, trip and others, and they were all deleriously amusing and they kept me up past my posting time...


And the rest

The job situation continues to intrigue...

The Moveable Type thing has gotten very confusing, I almost got it to work, but then it just didn't, so it's on the back burner for now. It's not like I need this yet...

The message board seems to have calmed down again, although not without casualties, much to my regret. Fortunately, I have some net friends who have been through this (you may know them) and they have given me some support when I needed it..

And just when I feel the most tired at work and during a small conference with the person who makes sure that everything rings up correctly on the system, someone steps up behind me and begins to massage my shoulders, someone with very masculine hands, someone very, very, oh dear...and does it for a few minutes while he's waiting his turn to talk to the person next... this is a playful man, he's always figuring out ways to skateboard with the skidjacks, he's always smiling and he's extremely well put together. He jokes around in a sexual manner with everyone, but he is the same when no one else is around. All that was just cute until the shoulder massage today; it left me weak. No one's touched me like that for a long time. And this is my problem, because I'm sure he didn't mean anything but kindness when he did it, but shit, pussy and goddam!




durlx!

A little shopping, dear...

...at the Canal Place...



I decided to take a walk through the mall on the way home... It's a rather nice mall at the foot of Canal Street with lots of pricey shops like Poverty Barn and Williams Balogna... (hehe), and of course the kaaay-ween of over-priced retail, Saks Fifth Avenue.



I passed on the Jean Paul Gaultier $595 Charm Shirt... and went out the door and found this exhibit near by....the Audrey Hepburn exhibit.



I didn't have time to stop, and they were charging like 10 bucks, and no pictures! So, I hung around the front for a lil' while, shut off the flash and took this pic.



O.K., that was kind of cheap... I think I'll go back and actually pay the admission...


OMG! BatBoy, The Musical!



It's at The Southern Rep Theater and it looks wonderful, it's had very good reviews, everyone seems to be in loooove with the batboy....



...no wonder, eh?

a bite on the hand might be sooo continental, but...


All the rest...

...good week at work, all six days...

...my friend from college ! Kate, was here over the weekend with her entire family! It's been years (oh, actually decades!) since I've seen Kate's entire family in the same place including her mother; they were all here for her Mom's 80th birthday. They all flew here for a surprise birthday party for their Mom and I was lucky enough to be included. They stayed at a wonderful Bed and Breakfast about six blocks from my house, which is owned by a lovely gay couple (that knew Margaret, of course). All ten of them stayed there, and there was room for a few more... it would be the perfect place for a get-together for all of us.... lots of bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, and a large second floor outdoor area with a hot tub and garden below. And close to the Quarter.

...my Dad is happy enough, I guess...

...I got turned onto new music by Bry, of ChaosInAustin. Her name is Jacinta and you can hear more of her HERE. I think she's really amazing... and as Bry says, "she's gonna be a stah!"


...and Ford, dear, it would be so right to send me a sarong...

...I am trying to move the journal, (and a lot of the site) to Moveable Type, but it's proving to be a bit of a twisty task. If things get wierd, let me know bye-mail....

...ah, and the message board...well, I think I stated my case again. We've gone over ten thousand posts, (did you think I didn't notice?), and it's gone this far because of a sense of integrity, a sense that you actually knew the characters on the board. In fact, many of us have met, or at least talked on the phone, and some of us have become friends. That's what makes this board work. The other stuff is destructive.

I won't let the bad stuff destroy this community.

I promise.

durlx

Najma!



About two years ago I found this wonderful singer on a compilation CD and after a few months of listening to the CD, decided to find some of her own CD's. She's an amazing artist and an incredibly unique talent! I played her CD's a lot for a few months, and then I went on to other things. Lately, I've started listening to her again and I have to say that I'm stunned once more. She grew up in the UK, and studied traditional Indian song styles, but went to school to become a chemical engineer. She won a contest and decided to try a music career, much to her parents dismay. She took the traditional styles and did a fusion thing with harmonies and modern instruments that also dismayed Indian music traditionalists. The result is sublime to my ears; she is brilliant! You can read more about her HERE

Robert and the Art of Illumination.



As I told you, Robert, my friend and neighbor, has been amassing a collection of vintage Christmas lights. He's been diligently doing the E-Bay thing and has found a lot of interesting things from the last forty years or so. Some of the stuff is sturdy enough to be used in the back yard and the pic above is, I think, only a preview of things to come. What you see there is the deck that rises in the middle of the yard and provides a convenient jumping in place for the pool. Robert has had to fill in for the "pool boy" position for now, but I think he may be taking applications...

The Most Amusing Bicycle Parade.



I posted a bit about these amusing people on the message board last time I updated. Karen and Chris and I were walking through the French Quarter on our way back to my house on a Monday afternoon, and ran across this group of people who had decorated their bicycles, sort of made them into mini-floats, and were riding around from bar to bar showing them off. They had stopped to wait for one of the riders, the "unicorn", who had fallen behind. A woman on a flamingo bicycle informed me that the "unicorn" had a bit more to drink than the rest of them... they were all feeling no pain... and eventually, the unicorn came wobbling up the street and they all took off to the next destination. I must tell you... this kind of thing is not all that unusual in New Orleans; people love to dress up, put on costumes, decorate things and party in the streets with friends while they're doing it. Of course, Mardi Gras is the most obvious example, but it happens all year long.


Tech Junkie.

"Hi, my name is Durlx, and I am a tech-oholic."

(This is where you all say "Hi, Durlx!" at the meeting...)



I recently got a Viewsonic Pocket PC V35, a sweet lil' PDA, like a Palm, but it runs a Windows operating system. It's a brilliant thing with a bright color screen; it has ten times the power and storage of my first desk top computer and it fits in my top pocket, which makes me wet! It syncs with my desktop and holds Excel and Word files and MP3's and pics, and keeps all my Outlook appointments current. I've added a program that puts the weeks weather forecast on the first screen with nice little icons and gives me a daily news update, as well. I also got the fold-up keyboard for it, so I could do this journal entry on it from a park bench somewhere... perfect should I ever become homeless... But seriously, after over a decade of buying, using and cobbling together computers and networks on the cheap just because I get a charge out of learning how they work, I still find this fascinating and exciting. I love this stuff! Not to mention the new cell phone upgrade... I just speak the word "luca" and it automatically dials the number!

Work, or is it?

The career track continues to be interesting, although occasionally, well, not always what I expect. There's yet again something new on the horizon, an interesting challenge, and I think it might work out rather well. I won't say more now, because I haven't committed yet, but it's one of the best things about the company I work for; there's always something new out there for you.

My Dad.

I mentioned him last time and how we were dealing with him and driving and living alone. Things are progressing, he is not happy about not having the keys to the car or the old truck and he has come up with some very odd reasons why he should have them. I won't go into details now, just to say that it's important to realize that the disease doesn't make him stupid; he's still a very intelligent man and capable of reasoning, but his judgement is oddly impaired. He's still a kind and gentle man with very good manners most of the time, but we are seeing another side beginning to develop and there is some raw anger there; when it surfaces he changes, he's not just angry about something... there's a different personality. Karen and Chris are now going out to the country two times a week and have been dealing with a lot of the legal medical forms that have to be filed. And my brother, David, will be back from Japan in about a week to continue to manage his end of the situation. Me? I feel bad sometimes that I do not live closer to them all. My brother and his wife, and Karen and Chris continually assure me that my moving back to NY and dropping what I am doing right now is not a good or useful thing to do, and I know that... but I sometimes feel like I am not taking care of my Dad like I should. So, I do what I can from a distance; it turns out that my father actually listens to what I say over the phone, and he tends to remember it. I call often now.

He's happy to be back in his home after staying with my brother for four months, he's just more comfortable there.. And his rather large lawn tractor has been fixed, so he was able to mow his three acre lawn for the first time last week, which he liked very much. When I was living with him for a couple of months after my Mom died, I used to watch him mow the lawn, riding around the area and carefully taking just the right amount of grass off the top and doing it so methodically and neatly and enjoying doing such a good job of it. It reminded me of when we were all so much younger and he was driving the tractors in the fields and lovingly growing and tending the crops that fed us and supported us so well. He was always happy then.


Odd Bits.

I am thinking of changing my journal software to "Moveable Type" because it's pretty cool. I'm using Blogger now for composition, but I am thinking that I'd like to re-organize the site around the Journal and get rid of the flashy front page. (I love the flash, but I feel a yearning for simplicty, a small yearning at least...) and I think Moveable Type might be the way to go. If any of you have used it, I'd appreciate your feedback. Should I actually get around to making the change, it shouldn't change the way you access anything here, and it won't change the message board which is hosted by GayCams and BadPuppy. But if something suddenly doesn't work for you, e-mail me...

There was some flaming on the message board recently and I hope that I clearly stated how I felt about it. If you have concerns about how things are going on the board, just e-mail me about them. I'll respond as soon as I can. I care about your input here, I check the boards daily, I just don't always have the time to respond immediately.

We are now in the midst of our annual Formosan termite swarms... sort of like a lite snow storm, but of bugs that will eat your house! Fortunately, there are new controls that seem to be working.

Great to see Ford back!

Great to see Tejaz back!

Noah, where are my Tim Tams!

And what's all this about a gay housing complex in Las Vegas? I hear there may be more than one new GayCams home owner in that community!


And lastly, if you happen to check out the Cam Page and you see me wearing some tiny lil' specs on the almost end of my nose, well, I am now sporting Walgreens' fanciest reading glasses when the need arises. They slide into a tube that fits in pocket or purse. You just can't easily wear them in bed where I often read myself to sleep. If only I could get someone to hold the book for me....


durlx

I could just SCREAM!

I did this entire journal entry, and something else came up on the net, and I went to it...WITHOUT SAVING WHAT I HAD DONE!

AAARRRG!!!!


So...here we go again....



My sister Karen and her other half were her for the last week and it was so great to see them again! I only get to see them about once a year now, and they are such wonderful people in my life. Karen has been visiting New Orleans for about 20 years and Chris has been coming for a dozen or so. They know their way around and even have a regular waitress at the "Coffee Pot", a place where we go for breakfast a lot.

Robert was there as well...


It's a lovely place in the Quarter with a charming courtyard; if you have followed this journal, you've seen it before... it's one of the places I always take people when they come to visit. I usually have the "Sis Soul Food Omelette with wheat toast...

Karen has taken up smoking cigars! And she looks rather boyishly butch doing it...


So we had to go to The Cigar Factory here in the Quarter, a very atmospheric place; with a row of guys rolling cigars with lots of hot cuban music in the backgorund... I almost bought a cigar. Karen bought quite a few... (Chris doesn't encourage this new enthusiasm of Karen's, but she finds it tolerable and less intrusive perhaps than Karen's StarTerk mania, I think...)

My sisters make me smile.


Other news...
While Karen and Chris were here, my brother had moved my Dad back to upstate New York, to my Dad's house. My Dad definitely seems happier there, but we had to take him for driving tests and the results were mixed. They said that my Dad could operate a car, but that he needed someone in the car with him to tell him where to go. This seems a very odd prescription for a "pre-Alzheimer's" patient, and the examiner didn't know about the time my Dad drove to church at 9 PM and wondered why there was no one there for the Sunday morning service. My brother took away the keys to the car.

So we talk to my Dad a day later and he says he can't find the car keys. I tell him, not to worry, he doesn't need them anyway, because he can't drive alone. He says he knows that, but he only wants to drive to church, to the store because he might run out of bread before tomorrow morning, that he has to get to the bank tomorrow, (Sunday), he just wants the keys to his car. I told him that the keys are not lost, just "put away" and I feel like a mean nasty bastard while I am saying it. He tells me that he can drive when someone is with him... but he clearly thinks that there are exceptions to this rule.

There are no exceptions to this rule and this is going to hurt him. It hurts us like the world hurts god.

Hey, send me some good feelings here; this is rough...


Anyway, I sent Karen to Jazz Fest with a cam hinting that a pic of a cute boy might be good for the journal...



They said that there weren't that many hot guys out there... (hehe, they think I'm hot..., I certainly love them!)..., but they got a few pics of the guy in the pic above at the Doctor John performance, and they tell me that the guy had a hard-on! But that they couldn't quite get the camera to work, hehehehehe! Like I said, I love my sisters!

Actually, there were a lot of good pics....

...and they are available in the Jazz Fest 2003 Album.


Next...

I am a bit ahead on pictures... Robert has totally illuminated his yard! If you look towards New Orleans, you might see a faint gleam on the horizon... but if you don't, it will be in the next journal update.



durlx