drsawzall

Trouble in paradise is brewing and did Batman find his Robin?

Someone should spike the water system with massive amounts of sedatives...

Travis, what have you gotten your sorry ass into???

It's a good thing you are editing whilst sober, otherwise you could be responsible for a universal conflagration, or aliens invading the planet...BTW...June 9 is the day I became 39 again for...well...just take my word for it!!

At this point I am so frustrated with Michael...a petulant little person...nudging and nursing grievances he and only he can overcome, if he decides to find the exit out of Miasmaville... Pete and Maggie are moving on with a shared common interest...an underpinning of his Michael's safe, secure realm of mendacity is potentially crumbling...More to the point, the load/responsibility of having to care for someone, who was unable to...or so he told himself, is going away. Admitting it or not, or actually giving voice to the thought, Michael knows the plant won't be around for much longer...then what?? Another corner of his safe foundation is going away... Delaney is messing up, hence the nervous attitude, while Michael is on the fast track, or so he convinces himself, to mediocre middle management...because it is safe...thank god that somewhere in the back darker corners of the inner recesses of his cranium, he hung on to all but one of the applications...we'll find out that wasn't the school for him anyways... Change is difficult, taking chances in your abilities is even more difficult, but the effort is is rewarding...now...go patch the ginormous hole in your relationship...sorry is the hardest word, or so they say...

Right now my biggest fear is that Calvin has sobered up again...his propensity for fucking things up is boundless as his sobriety is transient... I fear that somehow that any interaction between Calvin and Caleb will be very harmful to Caleb, he simply hasn't the maturity to see through the sperm donor's BS... Meanwhile, Caleb replayed the funeral over and over again, wondering how it would've gone had he been allowed to talk to his biological father. Would he get the answers he'd always wanted, or would Calvin turn out to be the exact person his dad, Diego, had told them about? Bryan needs to let Diego that Calvin is lurking in the internet ether... Calvin needs a long walk off a short pier...soon!!!

And we have a mystery, is he missing his pride?

Another fantastic chapter, got to love Bella and Rob...what a tag team they make... Chris folded his arms around me. ‘Oh my, that's cute,' said Bella. 'Definitely cute. And, bonus, I'm finally a certified fag hag!'’ Rob palmed his face. ‘Jesus H Christ, Carmichael. You have no tact. None.’ ‘Oh don’t mind me,’ she said, giggling. ‘I’m not implying you two have to now start singing Broadway show tunes and take me shoe-shopping. Somehow I think you two would fail spectacularly at those.’ 'Hey, you've never heard me do Ursula from The Little Mermaid,' said Chris, sounding mildly incensed. And with that, I knew the four of us were going to be okay. More than okay. I found the conversation at the end of the trip back powerful, there's a growing sense of true self-awareness of what their "privileged'' lives are compared to the stark reality of the larger, immediate world around them. ‘I’ve never really paid attention to all the shacks out here... so many people live in them. Like, I don’t know what it’s like not to have electricity and water. And the country’s been free for more than a decade but you look at that and think there’s been so little progress.’ ‘It’s like that in Durban too. KwaMashu stretches for miles around the city.’ ‘Sometimes I feel so...’ ‘Guilty?’ ‘Yeah,’ ‘Ja, I know what you mean. But my mom says guilt doesn’t help any situation after the fact unless you do something about it.’ While it may seem trite, or a balm for a troubled conscience, taking that first small step towards understanding, that actions count, kudos to Cal for taking that all important first step with his donation towards a charity...that's real growth of character...

Let's hope the visit to see Arnaud gets him motivated and busy with life again!

The boys have it bad....nothing like young lust, erm...love... He cut me off. ‘No, It’s simple. I've already let slip that you're apparently my, uh, boyfriend now. Do I have to ask you like formally?' ‘No, but I can’t help thinking it would be pretty fucking adorable if you did.’ He rolled his eyes, then leaned over dramatically, holding out his hand. 'Pretend I'm holding out a big fuckin' bunch of roses then. Should I bring you roses? I'm gonna have to bring you roses.’ ‘Oh my god, dude…’ ’You asked for it. No refunds. So then. Caleb fuckin' Macleod, I wanna be your guy. Will you be mine, bru?' I was smiling so much my face was hurting.‘ ‘Of course, dude’ I said. 'Of course. And these will definitely do.' I took the imaginary bunch and blew him a kiss.

Then there's this...and add a toolbelt and I'm walking down the aisle... 'Fair.' I looked away. 'This is going to sound so fucking cheesy, but I pretty much fell for you when you fixed my bike. Maybe I like a man who works with his hands.'

You ain't the only one.... Then I saw him, as if for the first time. The dying sun had caught him in silhouette, and his damp mop of hair was lit up, glowing in the amber rays. He looked like a young lion with a mane of gold, and the contours of his torso segued into the pink light like so many dunes in a vast desert. The heat from his body formed tiny circles around him, like dust storms traversing a great planet. I was hard and dizzy and breathless.

Enjoying this immensely, a fresh take and clever use of language...the following had me in stitches'...oh and BTW...Dave needs to have the stick removed from his posterior sans anesthetic... I frowned, imagining Chris hanging out with Frank Arliss and his cronies and becoming a testosterone zombie. This was followed by another image of Chris in rugby kit, covered in grime, and it was rather pleasant. Crush alert, my brain cautioned, so I lay back in the seat and thought of England. Anthony W. England, to be precise, the geochemist who was also an astronaut, and whose work on Remote Sensing Geophysics I had recently absorbed during an all-night Wikipedia binge.

Groan...

I'm going to go out on a limb here...Calvin is going to fight for the boys and at least visitation rights, outside of being in jail for the past several years, any sane judge is going to look at is efforts to reenter the boys lives askance. Keeping the saw firmly in my hand and stepping a bit further out on the proverbial limb, I'm guessing caleb is going to be the one who sinks Calvin's hopes... How many chapters in this tale???

Podunk is an actual local about 40 miles from where I live, here's an interesting link, and BTW Connie Mack, an early baseball hall of famer was from just up the road in East Brookfield Ma...He was a real piece of work... https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/09/20/411502703/some-podunk-town-in-the-middle-of-nowhere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Mack Interestingly enough Bugtussel is the purported hometown of Jed Clampett of the Beverly Hillbillies TV show https://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question17153.html

I think the clincher will be Pete, once he finds out the chance Michael has, and with a not so gentle kick to the backside, will be the encouragement he needs. If he thinks about it long and hard enough, the 'promotion' he's being offered , is in reality, the last gasp of a dying business. Michael is being asked to find and extract the last vestiges of profit before the factory is shuttered and production is moved elsewhere. Michael knows this whether he admits to it or not. His internal dialogue concerning how he will be perceived by labor and management is proof, of one last thing to consider...the 'raise' of $2.50 per hour works out to an extra $100.00 per week, he knows it isn't worth it being thrown into the no-man's land management is offering. He's being set-up to be a management stooge. Considering when the factory closes, and Michael has 'found' the last nickel and dime of profit that could be found, how does Michael face living in a town of fellow unemployed workers, who just might resent a labor turncoat... He has no future staying in Bugtussell, a dying Podunk of a small town. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see past the 'same old, same old'. Eric is that person, carefully he has set the stage to open Michael's eyes, a catalyst as it were. Inadvertently or not, his presence has woken something in Pete and given him a sense of purpose...I'm guessing the museum will be Pete's to manage once the work is done and new love enters his life. The trip to Polymath Park was another brilliant stroke of genius along with the applications to the various architectural schools, including Eric's own job opportunity. The brilliance of all this is that Eric is showing Michael, that at the end of the day, any reasons he thinks he has for staying, evaporate against the realities of the day. Will there be a few bumps along the way between these two hardheade lovers...you can bet your life on it...will they overcome perceived obstacles, differences of opinions...ditto! Loved this chapter...talk about shades of differing nuances, red herrings, and burgeoning romances...what's not to like??

My, how lives will change...now the question is...Will Brad and Robbie reach the level of maturity needed to raise a child, or will they go on blithely as they have been?

Nothing like family vultures parsing the will of a deceased loved one...having lived and going through a similar situation I'm reminded of the old adage...''You can pick your nose, but not your relatives..."

Life is a merry-go-round for our boys...isn't it!

God...how I remember those days... what’s that word? Bromance. Or a crush. That’s fine. You’ll get over it. You don’t even need to pray about it. St Jude’s got it covered already. Except my brain and all its counsellors were wrong. I didn’t know it yet, but I was completely, madly, and head-over-heels in love with Christopher Hathaway.

When you don't talk to each other, but at each other

And we know who's to blame for that...😁

Once again we find ourselves in sleepy Ravello, a quaint town that time passes slowly or so it would seem. A wonderful story of young teens finding their way as they leave their childhood behind them and navigate the thrills and perils of growing up. Toss in a mystery, a broken heart or two, unexpected discoveries and events, and you'll be glad you took the time to read this.