Here we go again.

Too soon to assess what I feel about Lyn so far. No fireworks, bells, or whistles; but no big red flags either. She arrived at my door at lunchtime and was hungry, so I walked her down to Sit-n-Bull for some lunch.

After lunch, Lyn waited patiently while my bakla barber gave me a haircut. Lyn said he/she did a good job. We next visited the 7/11 where I bought her some glue to repair the shoes she’ll be hiking in later this morning.

We took a trike back home and then took a nap after consummating our new relationship, such as it is. I only tend to nap for an hour or so, but she was still sleeping at 5:00, so I had to wake her up. Didn’t want to have to walk into town in the dark.

I was going to start off the evening at the Central Park Reef hotel so she could see the view from the rooftop there. She reminded me that she had been there with the woman who introduced us on her last visit. Okay then, never mind. We crossed the highway again and I took her to my overall favorite bar, It Doesn’t Matter. I had my usual Zero beer, and she ordered a margarita. I was a little surprised when she told me she doesn’t like beer and doesn’t drink much alcohol either. In fact, that margarita lasted the length of our entire visit (four beers for me).

A bit of a hiccup at first, when one of my favorites at IDM, Agnes, came over and started getting all cuddly with me. I saw a familiar look on Lyn’s face and really didn’t blame her, so I told Agnes I was on a date and she needed to back off. She did switch into waitress mode right away and there was no problem after.

Lyn is really into billiards, so I told her to go inside the bar which features two pool tables, and find a game. That’s what she did, playing against one of the waitresses. I checked in periodically and she really is a good player. In fact, she told me the waitress wasn’t much of a challenge. It was getting close to dinner time, so I said I’d take her to another place with a pool table and we’d eat there.

Next stop, John’s place.

It was getting close to 9:00, and that’s my bedtime, so we caught a trike home. Or thought we did. The driver passed by the entrance to Alta Vista, saying he needed to buy gas. I was thinking, WTF? Why pick up passengers on an empty tank? There was also a line of vehicles waiting to fuel up, so I said fuck it, we’ll get out here and catch another trike. In doing so, we had to pass through a fully manned police checkpoint. It hasn’t been a problem lately, but last night the cops said “where’s your facemask?” In my pocket where it belongs is how I answered in my head, but instead, I pulled my mask out like a good sheep and started putting it on. They asked Lyn too, but she hadn’t even brought one with her. She said she forgot and would get one at the 7/11 next door and they let us pass. Of course, I unmasked as soon as we were past them. We caught a trike and made it home without further incident.

I made us a mango/banana/pineapple smoothie for dessert which Lyn seemed to enjoy. Then it was off to bed–for sleep. Once a day for this old man is enough.

We are doing the Friday group hike together this morning so I wanted to dash off a quick report on our first day together. She’s still sleeping.

I’m not sure where I’m going or what I expect. I’ll try and figure that out as I experience more shared time with her. Oddly enough, I came across a post I wrote in 2017 where I quoted these words from Kevin Kim:

The Hindu concept of life is that it’s a painful wheel of existence called samsara.We’re chained to this repetitive, revolving wheel through our actions (karma). The object of the game is to gain enough wisdom about the nature of things so as to escape an eternity of repeating the wheel of life-events, again and again, all thanks to our accidental or deliberate unwisdom. Good luck as you examine deep causes and do your best to find liberation from the wheel (moksha) and bliss in your life (ananda). Every day is a new chance to walk a different path!

Here’s hoping this experience is better than my last one. Maybe not feeling that “love thing” like I did for the ex is the best course for me. We’ll see.