The Latest

Warning: this post is disjointed, scattered, and possibly unmanageable, much like the inside of my brain these days.

Everything's been pretty quiet on the west coast front. I've been trying to soak up as much of what's left of our summer and with the Labour Day weekend directly in front of us, I am anticipating some fun up at the Falls this weekend, though Mr. P and I aren't bringing any guests with us. Does anyone want to come and stay with us at the RV?

We have a few fuckbuds/fistbuds coming up there this weekend; I guess we'll see what happens....the weather's supposed to be heading to cooler and wetter for at least a part of the weekend, so does that mean more activities under cover???? Our neighbors on Princess Way have a hot tub, the neighbor next to them has an outdoor shower....Mr. P and I are trying to figure out a lure for the boys for our site...he wants to build a simple steamroom next season, but for the remainder of this one, we might only be able to provide a sling and a double futon in an ad-hoc play area...hahaha

The following weekend in September is the fall VML Whistler Retreat; Mr. P and I have not decided to go unless something changes. We want to try and get a few more weekends up at the Falls if possible.

I'm having a helluva a time getting my orders processed at Latexskin, all due to my stupidity and quest for cheap money exchange options. I sent a Bank Draft to Poland at the end of June to take advantage of the discount card we got at Rubbout 25. It took six weeks for the Draft to get to Latexskin; they went to the bank to deposit it and as it turns out, Poland banks don't accept Bank Drafts. So now, I either have to get the guys at Latexskin to send it back so I can cancel the Draft on this side (you know, another six weeks of enduring snail mail), or have it cancelled on the European side and incurring a cancellation charge of $30-40, but maybe get the funds back in a few weeks.

Fuck, what a gong show. I'm not sure what's going to happen next. I've asked Latexskin to send it back but it would only be out of the goodness of their hearts that they would do that; I feel I've put them through enough already. Here's hoping this terrible transaction will complete soon, however it turns out. My lesson for you all: DO NOT SEND MONEY ORDERS OR BANK DRAFTS TO ANOTHER COUNTRY IN DIFFERENT FUNDS, EVER! Just absorb whatever charge you are going to incur to process Paypal, Visa, or a bank wire. It's immediate and you don't have to endure months of bullshit and stress, especially from the fucking banks, the crooks that they are. If I had known then what I know now, I definitely would have not decided on the payment option that I did. Honest mistake I suppose as Bank Drafts are pretty standard (albeit archaic), but my bank didn't say anything about Poland. They said to me, "how would we know?". I said, "because you're a service provider and should know where your services are honored and where they are not." Like that's going to go anywhere! As usual, all my fault, none theirs and they charge me more fees. Fuckers!

So yeah, I'm definitely jonesing for some full rubber time. I'm trying to set up some playtime with Almazmol and a few other rubber fisting buds for the September 16/17 weekend as I'm working that Friday night and I think I start curling with my new curling team in the Pacific Rim League on the 18th. I also have in the plans to restart the Vancouver Rubbermen meets and the Rough Trade fisting group parties, but I don't think that's really going to get moving again until October, unfortunately. I haven't been prepared to give up any more weekends until summer is over, basically.

Other than the Pride Parade, I haven't had rubber on much at all this summer. At some point I'm going to have to go through my entire wardrobe, store some pieces, condition others, and probably retire even a few items at that point. I've really been out of sorts with my fetishes this summer; it's funny how priorities can change so quickly and abruptly. The RV and the Accident basically consumed by entire summer and prevented me even getting into rubber since July 21. It's been six long sad rubberless weeks.

This is all coming from the reality that I'm healing slowly but surely. I was able to put on a rubber catsuit for the first time on Sunday...not possible before due to the tenderness of my ribcage on either side. It was nice to be in full rubber after so long having to avoid it. I had another x-ray done at Orthotics last week on my broken radius, it looks like things are going well, I'm now doing some basic physiotherapy on it in order to get my range of motion and strength back in that arm. It's still pretty sore with limited range of motion; the specialist said it could take three months to heal fully and then it's not known whether there will be any permanent damage or loss of mobility in that arm *sigh*

I wanted to bike commute to work next week after seven weeks of hiatus, but my authorities have nixed that idea pretty quick. It's felt like forever since I've been able to go anywhere...and transit just angers me, so that has been another damper on my mood these days. My biking season is over and when (not if) I get back in the saddle, the rain will probably be coming down....straight from summer lovin' to winter commutin' with no fall transition. Merde.

I haven't even started the process of insurance claims and/or litigation. I wanted to wait until I was fully healed to determine the full impact; the speed the provincial auto insurance corporation moves, it won't be happening anytime soon. Since my road bike is toast and I don't have the funds to replace it, I guess my road riding season is pretty much over. Fuck. I'm pretty stressed out about the good chance this is going to start involving lawyers and a drawn-out legal case. It could be years now before it's all settled. All for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Another piece of news is that I've effectively stepped off the Rubbout Organizing Committee, at least for Rubbout 26 in 2017. Both Rob and I have decided to get a lot less involved and happily another group has decided to make a go of it. It has been a very exhausting five years - I really feel after the successes and failures coming out of Rubbout 25 that I needed a break to focus on other things in my life, and the fact that I was really not enjoying the whole process of putting the event together anymore indicated that it was probably a good time to go. The ball was dropped pretty hard after the event; there were issues with sponsors, photographers (yes, I am aware no official photos from the event have been posted anywhere....it's been a perfect storm of clusterfuckery from many directions regarding that!), and the general exhaustion that comes with trying to run a volunteer organization...it's one of the most thankless things I've had to do, and I did it for well over five years, so yeah, I have to take solace in the fact the event has grown amazingly and now has enough funds to self-sustain itself and that there might be enough interested individuals and consortiums that might want to take it on for awhile to keep things rolling.

And of course with my focus (somewhat) on the Vancouver Rubbermen there is no doubt we will be intricately involved in next year's event anyways.

Whether or not I decide to re-engage is a decision for the future. I have a lot of career and personal stuff I need to deal with in the interim, not least of which is reducing expenses in my life to try and right the financial boat....and possibly find some extra sources of revenue as I feel like I've started to drown....the expensiveness of Vancouver has finally taken another victim....it's been a challenge supporting our household for 2.5 years and it's finally taking its toll.

I want to go see my parents over the Xmas holidays December 24 - January 3 but the cost of flights to South Texas is prohibitive....really prohibitive.

With money being tight at the moment, Mr. P and I are balking at any big expenses. We probably won't be able to travel at Christmas like we have for many fortunate years up to this point, and I don't think I'll be going to MIR20. I want to focus on getting to Manchester Rubbermen weekend 8 in April 2017, and possibly going somewhere for my 45th birthday in December....,maybe the trip to Manchester will be my birthday gift to myself. At least that would make me feel better about the current situation. In the meantime, I will enjoy life at the RV at a gay clothing-optional campground to the fullest, until I can't anymore. I don't want to think too hard about seasonalizing the RV and storing all the stuff we have out there quite yet!

Those are the priorities for the moment....other than trying to get this Latexskin rubber suit order sorted out and the possibility of a StudioGum hood after all these years, of course.....heh heh