Former Member

I wonder whose idea it was to list Gwyn as only being available for a temporary assignment? It’s clear that neither side really want things to only be temporary. Don & Marco should be the ones to broach the topic. Isn’t what Gwyn perceives as “California Hippie” really just Surfer Dude? ;–)

Rev Sparks seems to have some influence on Mrs Fields, but Mr Fields doesn’t seem to like attending church. This doesn’t suggest he’d be as amenable to the minister’s advice. But a mom can wield significant power over her husband’s reactions if she demands he move on from an initial bad reaction. ;–) Many men have been coddled by their mothers and then their wives after they’ve gotten married. There’s a reason why men are stereotyped as being useless in the kitchen and with laundry. Not all men fit that stereotype (my mother made sure of that with her three sons), but most have significantly less experience doing household chores – studies prove women do a larger percentage of those chores than men do, especially child rearing. Woody’s dad fits those stereotypes. ;–)

Woody & Lucas can make beautiful music together! Lucas can sing and Woody can listen quietly! Beautiful! ;–)

Why do we keep hearing that Steve was straight? Rush & Ben have to realize that some people are bisexual. Isn’t it possible that he was a 1 or 2 on the Kinsey Scale and just needed to be with a man occasionally? It doesn’t sound like Jake was intentionally trying to make Eddie jealous. ;–) Is it possible that Eddie was with Steve in an attempt to make Jake jealous? ;–) And why do I think that the phone call is going to give Clay & Carl the opportunity to ‘help’ Rush & Ben with the case? ;–)

They’re lucky Rev Sparks is very open-minded. My own minister father was not as Progressive. I don’t know how he’s have reacted to being told something like that. But his parishioners and even my older cousin described someone very different on the day of his Memorial than the man I knew, much more giving and forgiving than my father. He knew many people and at one or two (out of four) of the churches he served there was a police officer who was a member. But he’d certainly want to have Dewberry prosecuted too! And @Ronyx, you forgot to include @Page Scrawler and his obsessive need to have Woody and Lucas together! ;–)

Get in your carseats and get strapped in kiddos! ;–)

I am angry with your sperm donor and most of your Aunts. I’m sorry the one didn’t feel like she could help you because of her husband wasn’t able to do more than cry for you. I feel sorry for Jeff who is almost as much a victim as you were. I wish I knew a solution to this. Organized religion has a lot to answer for. Lots of people who walk around thinking they’ve already got haloes floating over their heads are in for a huge shock when they die. Politicians keep saying children are our most important resource, but fail to follow up with funding. Social service agencies are overwhelmed in the US because so much funding has been slashed from their budgets to pay for foolish tax cuts. Police are there to protect you, but what could a police officer have done to help you? They’d probably have tried sending you back to your sperm donor. If not, they’d have tried to find you a place in a shelter for youth (if they had/have them in Toronto) or put you into the foster care system. They don’t have a lot of good options either. I’m very glad you survived your trials and have been able to document them for us to read. People need to see that life isn’t easy for everyone, if only to make them appreciate what they have. My experiences while homeless were like a walk in the park compared with what you endured. You will always be Tim with a capital ’T’ to me! I guess you grew to understand how important it is to write about your past even if it hurts. Even if we readers feel your pain while we read them. Pain is not necessary a bad thing, it helps us to learn. I hope through your sharing of these painful memories, we are able to help you find their proper place as part of your past and not your present. Thank you for sharing this with me.

Unfortunately, bio-dad is a Texan. That trumps any claims that a Gay San Franciscan might have, regardless of the fact that he is also an ex-Texan and uncle of the child in question. Many in the Texas theocracy believe their personal beliefs override the Constitution and other legal arguments.

The newspaper bit reminded me of Early Edition with Kyle Chandler and Fisher Stevens. My minister father liked to believe I enjoyed TV shows like that and Joan of Arcadia, Eli Stone, Journeyman, and Quantum Leap as being related to religion while I enjoyed them as a form of fantasy. One thing many of them share is being cancelled after a season or two. ;–) I like the idea of Fixers and would like to read more about what Mrs Pop meant about grandchildren! There are so many other situations where a fixer could be useful. School shootings are, unfortunately, not the only tragedies we have to deal with these days. ;–)

I agree that things in Texas probably won’t go the way they expect. ;–) Having the bio-dad show up is something I hadn’t considered! ;–)

As someone who has never had a drink, I thought the solution to avoiding a hangover was to drink plenty of water, then drink more water as soon as you wake up – also aspirin/acetamenophen/ibuprofen somewhere in there too. Physically, a hangover is your brain becoming dehydrated and shrinking away from its lining. But why would you take drinking hangover advice from someone who has never been drunk? ;–)

Nah! Usually when they badmouth me they don’t bother to whisper. And the ones who really hate me just Redacted Redacted Redacted! ;–)

Ryder & Oli! Ryder & Oli! Ryder & Oli! Ryder & Oli! Ryder & Oli! ;–)

Then they can read the story to find out. It’s only 111 chapters (so far). They won’t have to read all of them if they only want to find out who the Retired Social Worker™ is. ;–)

First lesson on being a non-gossip. They’re never rumors! They're stories or ‘something I just heard.’ ;–)

Especially when readers keep bringing up obscure throw-away characters from early in a very long story? Like the Retired Social Worker™ that we badgered you into bringing back? Was he going to be just a red herring? ;–)

In a few stories I’ve read, the sexual athletes were forced to replace the table! ;–) I’m thinking the author was horny when he wrote the chapter! ;–)

I’ve been thinking about what sort of movie Eric might like to watch and have come up with a blank beyond the two I mentioned. He might like to see a documentary, but even then the subjects were much more Out than Eric has ever been. I’ve seen a ton of LGBTQ movies over the years and usually have seen something that is relatable to nearly anyone, but I can’t think of one for Eric! ;–)

There’s at least one well-known case where a Lesbian couple split up with the biological mother claiming to no longer be a Lesbian. The first court sided with the non-bio mom. The bio-mom took their child out of state to one hostile to LGBTQs and got a court to side with her. The child doesn’t care about the legal aspects, they just want their other mother back! There was a series of conflicting rulings in the two states when I lost track of the case. Legally, the first court should over-rule the other, but the religious fanatics think they live in a Theocracy and want to ignore science and logic.

And some authors answer part of the message while ignoring other parts. Sometimes because they don’t want to give anything away, other times because they don’t like what was said. In some cases, only quoting part of what was posted instead of the whole Comment. ;–) What’s especially off-putting is when one reader repeatedly attacks another because they don’t agree with the direction a character is heading. I had to block another reader because it was so tiresome. I don’t expect everyone to agree with what I say, but there is a limit to how far disagreements should be taken. People come here with different life histories which color how they view the actions of characters in stories. That will affect how they interpret the actions of a bad boyfriend, for example, and how much that bad boyfriend needs to do to redeem himself in order to be forgiven.

Would Eric be able to identify with Scudder in Maurice? I don’t see Eric identifying with the guys in Life is Strange, even though they aren’t dissimilar in age, because they’ve been together for more than a decade and are very Out to their friends & family – plus they live in a very big city! Most LGBTQ movies either feature young protagonists, older protagonists who aggressively explore their sexuality, or are self-hating, bitter old stereotypes. Eric isn’t any of those. ;–)

I’ve always wondered why battered spouses and domestic violence survivors stay in a relationship and often even return after they’ve gotten away from their abusers. I’ve wondered why an abuse victim would be attracted to another abuser when they’ve left the previous one. I’ve wondered why children who grew up in a household where one parent was abusing the other would choose a partner who abuses them. I have a difficult time understanding why my friend, who was physically and emotionally abused by her ex-husband (who is also the reason she does not have custody of their children) is living with a boyfriend who is emotionally abusive. When we were all (friend, her boyfriend, and I) staying in a homeless shelter together, I remember sitting across a desk from the two of them. They were watching a movie on his computer, but she was unaware that she was cringing and looking up at him. I didn’t want to say anything out loud, so I texted her to ask her why she was doing that. She was surprised and hadn’t been aware of what she had been doing. Back when she was allowed to visit her kids, she’d come back excited and happy. The boyfriend would immediately tear her down by badgering her about why she didn’t do this or that. He was always upset that she didn’t confront the foster parents about something. He’s very aggressive and doesn’t understand why she’s so passive about things. When I’d see that happening, I’d try to get her to talk about how happy she was to see her kids and how excited they were to see her. I made two felt mice for her to take to her two kids because I knew she didn’t have money to spend on gifts for them. I decided to use different colored eyes so they’d never get them confused. She was so happy that, coincidentally, one had blue eyes and the other had green eyes, just like her kids! ;–) A couple months ago, I saw my friends after not having been in contact for most of four years. We went to see Bohemian Rhapsody. I made a new pair of felt mice for her to keep, one with blue eyes, and the other with green eyes, so she’d always know that one of her friends remembered her kids. (I've never met the kids and only saw a couple of pictures of them from when they were much younger.) ;–) Thank you for sending me the PM reassuring me that the Paranormal tag (that I almost always avoid) was not a major theme in the story. It took me a while to finally read this, but I’m very glad I did! I hope there aren’t too many others frightened away by the tag.

Texas is involved because that’s where the original case began. That’s where Adam got custody of Artie. Family law is mostly state-level, not Federal laws. Texas Courts oppose many of the social positions that are very mainstream in (most of) California. Texas is jealous of California’s success and California doesn’t like Texas’ nearly nonexistent environmental controls.

I have two brothers, one about 3½ years older and the other 23 months younger. I guess I probably shared a room with my older brother for a short time. But we moved to a larger house and thus began more than a decade of sharing a room (in two different houses) with my younger brother. When my younger brother and I were very young, we were very close. Because we were close in age, we usually got the same gift, just in different colors – and because my birthday falls at the end of the month and my younger brother’s is the first, I always had a preview of what I was getting! Moving in early elementary school from Hawaii to San Diego was traumatic to me and I had a difficult time making new friends. My parents usually referred to the three of us using my older brother's name ‘…and the little boys.’ They seemed to treat my younger brother and me more like twins than brothers who were nearly two years apart! By the time we were teenagers, we had grown apart somewhat, but my parents continued to use that now-hated ‘little boys’ phrase without understanding how offensive it was to me. I am much more shy and unassertive than either of my brothers. I existed in their shadows. To some in my father’s church, I was the mysterious ‘other’ son if they became active after I started working and stopped going to their church. Of course, they probably think I’m the youngest since my younger brother has been visibly losing his hair for years. ;–) My younger brother and I remained relatively close into our twenties. With our parents having passed more than a decade ago, he remains my contact with my family (I also maintain regular contact with my youngest cousin and my favorite Aunt & Uncle). You’ll notice my older brother isn’t mentioned much – it was like he was part of a separate family, especially after he went to a college about three or four hours away. I never really knew him and only see him a few hours each year. Having brothers is not always a wonderful thing. I think we seemed closer to people outside the family. My interests are too different from my brothers for me to be close to them today. ;–)

Fortunately for me, this worked as a stand-alone! I’ve been negligent. The main story is on my list to read. I still have two more Anthology stories I want to read too. ;–) 18 Weeks of Twoie has been on that list to read for a long time as well… ;–)