CH 89: So, What's Sexy Anyway?

 Hi guys, Marcus putting his two cents in this time.

I know one thing I won’t be writing about, Christmas! Larry did a wonderful job of telling the story, no need for me to add a thing. Except to tell you about one of my most favorite photographs I’ve taken of Larry and his family on Christmas Morning; actually it’s really two photographs. The first one will certainly be headed to his new PapPap memory album, the other one is for me. I’m not going to show the actual pictures for obvious reasons, so let me paint the picture for you. Larry is in the center of the shot holding his first grandson Noah who has his little arm around his PapPap’s neck; Ashley is on his left-side with her head on his shoulder and carrying his new grandson Liam. His tall son Ryan is snuggled up on his right-side with his arm around his dad’s shoulder. A perfect shot, all smiling and heart warming to see. The photograph I’m keeping is exactly the same except that Ryan was holding up the two-finger rabbit-ears salute over his father’s head and had a bigass grin as he was looking down on him. That’s my keeper shot, with actual visible evidence that Larry’s clown gene was passed on down as well as his gorgeous genes. I’m so happy for Larry and his family to have this special time together, and how they accepted all of us as their extended family.

That said now, since this is a journal blog, there were a couple of follow up stories I could write about, such as, New Year’s Eve, and Pops 83rd birthday shortly thereafter. And there is something that’s been on my mind ever since Larry’s suggestion as to what’s sexy in his last posting. I wrote a comment to him about that, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I thought I’d like to write about that this time, hopefully. So, let’s get a couple of timely stories out of the way first.

OUR NEW YEARS EVE STORY

I can tell you what we didn’t do easily, follow Pops up to Bill and Tony’s place in Auburn to celebrate with all three of them. They were off to the Vet’s Hall for the night, and I guess someplace to eat first, unless there was food there that night. I have no real idea, and it’s not important to my story so I’ll move on. Pops has been spending a great deal of time up at Bill and Tony’s place often, and I’m sure it’s just him wanting to let us get back to some of our lost privacy. That’s my thinking, he’s never said that exactly to us, but I think I know him well enough by now. I’d say that the three of them are having a blast hanging out together again, and I bet they have a lot to talk about that doesn’t include Larry or myself. Well now that’s out of the way so on to us.

So, pray tell Marcus, what were you guys up to that night? I could say guess, and you’d probably be right on the first guess. We did nothing away from home! Yay! It was raining until 11:00pm and cold and we don’t have a ‘place to hang out’ at least not yet. We don’t go to bars, and you should know why, could have dinner out, and often do, but not on New Year’s Eve. I’m almost embarrassed to tell you, what we ate and where we ate it. Not in our bed, but almost. We made Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate with the little marshmallows, Larry’s favorite so why not. And microwave popcorn, a couple of bags with real butter and kosher salt because it’s really my kind of salty! I didn’t say it was good for me though. There was some string cheese in the refrigerator, that went with us too along with some Genoa salami slices we found as well. For some reason Larry latched on to a squeeze bottle of Hershey’s chocolate syrup and brought it along too. Maybe some chocolate flavored popcorn, it could be, why not, haha.

Nothing like being a couple of middle-aged kids raiding the refrigerator for food. Larry’s idea of buying a roll-away cart was starting to become a really good idea now trying to get everything into the room with us. If it wasn’t raining and we were really motivated, perhaps we’d spring for a pizza or something else. We didn’t want to go out in the pouring rain, and we didn’t want someone to do that for us. It just didn’t seem right.

Earlier in the afternoon we set up the great room for ourselves, which was still decorated for Christmas, cleaned up but the decorations are not down yet. Larry went to get the air mattress and air pump; we are going to repeat one of the nights we had when he first came to stay with me for a few days some time ago. I don’t even remember the exact date any longer. I got some warm blankets out of our closet, a few pillows for support, and a roll of paper towels, perfect for the occasion. I took care of pumping up the mattress while my pyromaniac lover built a roaring fire for us. The tree lights are still on timers, and they came on for the occasion, too. The air mattress is queen-sized and is tall, not flat on the floor. We might be getting a little too old for getting off the floor now. Okay, I can visualize what he’s going to say to me about that, like “speak for yourself old one.” I spread a warm blanket on the top of the mattress and a second for us to slip under when we are ready. I figured sheets might be nice, but cold in that room. Better for summertime. 

I guess I forgot to write this in the proper order for New Year’s Eve. Somehow, getting into our shower together got missed, maybe because I don’t write much about that any more. There’s no reason to believe we don’t use it that way together any longer, just how many times do you want to read about that glass brick sexy shower of ours. Well, it was back to more than just a shower room again, let’s say we found a great way to end another year. That works for me. If you need more to build a picture in your head, write me and hope I’m horny when I write you back. Haha. We never got dressed after drying off, just put on our robes we bought on the Alaskan Cruise and headed to raid the kitchen for the food I mentioned already. Obviously, we weren’t going to keep the bulky robes on once we got into the great room. We ditched them after placing the food on either side of the air bed. Then we got under the covers until it got a little hot being so close to the bonfire Larry built for us. Speaking of which, once we got the idea of moving the air bed back away from the fire, we did. 

It was fairly dark in the room; I don’t know if fairly dark properly describes the light though. There were the tree lights, the fire that could be seen from the space station if outside, but no other lights were on. When Larry sat up like he might melt soon if we didn’t move the air bed, I got to see him in the light I’ve always loved with him, backlit. In the light of the fire, his body was thrown into a shadowy figure and his blonde fur just lit up like an angel’s halo around his seated upper body. I told him please don’t move yet, which was unfair because I’m sure he was about to melt into a puddle any second. I told him why and somehow he’s always allowed me that view of him, at least for another minute. We just agreed to move back a few feet and he was off the bed in a second. Unfortunately, closer to the fire was a better view of his glow; I shut up though. Now I wish I had my iPhone next to me to take a picture of him to treasure. I could go get it but decided that I’d rather see it in person better. This evening together was off to a great start! (Our iPhones were dropped off on a table as we entered the great room, we decided to put some distance between them and us; however, we could get to them if an emergency took place, but we were not in the mood to have them close by us.)

See now you are going to expect some of the horny stuff to happen as soon as we got under the covers, but we already beat you to that in the glass brick shower. Yes, but the evening was young and had such great promise. However, our earlier workout in the shower room did stoke our appetite for the snacks  we brought into the great room. One thing we didn’t count on earlier, hours old, buttered popcorn. Not a favorite of either of ours but ate it we did. And then there was the chocolate squeeze bottle, somehow it went from fixing the popcorn to something way more fun than that. In fact, so much fun that we totally forgot about bringing in a clock; I mean if we cared enough to witness the countdown to midnight, we would have brought one in with us. However, chocolate just seemed to dominate the balance of the evening, who needs pizza when you have chocolate, huh. We may just need to buy a much larger bottle in the future, haha.

Larry’s bond-fire lasted way into the early morning; okay, maybe about 2:00am would be more accurate. And two colder sleepy heads decided to robe up and head for our real bed. We left everything right where it was and walked arm-in-arm and kissing as we were headed to bed. There’s always the morning for cleaning up. I remember cuddling up to keep warm and falling asleep once more although this time I do believe I was kissing him at the time. I do remember waking up a few hours later for my obligatory pee removal and found that we were still facing each other instead of spooning. Aw, I so didn’t want to break the pose, but my pee had other ideas that took precedence. Oh well, maybe when I come back I can slip back into position once again. However, I did settle upon spooning him since he turned over while I was gone, still a good option though. I did fall asleep quickly and it was hours later before I realized what I was dreaming about was not a dream at all, but my babe waking me up the best way possible. Yeah, the best way ever!

I hope you are not disappointed at us for not finding a ruckus nightclub to dance away the hours, waiting for the ball to drop for midnight. That’s so not us at all. What we did do was way sexier than anything I've ever done married with either of my wives in the past. It was a perfect night and one we haven’t done in such a long time. It was perfect the first time, but this time it was better; it just was.

POPS 83RD BIRTHDAY STORY

What do you give to someone who wants for nothing and can purchase whatever he wants? Your time and attention was our choice. What we chose to do for his birthday was Larry’s idea and I got on board quickly with it. If it turned out to be a bust, blame me I encouraged him with his choice; if it turns out great, kudos to him, he had the idea first. I’m going to write about this since it’s my turn to post next, perhaps Larry would want to add to my story if I skipped over something I forgot to write about.

GETTING POPS UP

We decided together to go to his room early enough to make sure he was still in bed. Normally he’s up before us though. We took our chance at 6:45am and we were lucky and caught him still in bed but awake. Larry knocked on his door and asked if we could come in to talk. Of course he agreed, why wouldn’t he. I should let you know that I was carrying in something for him, and it wasn’t coffee.

As we walked in to the room, Larry and I said, “Happy Birthday Pops, we have plans for your birthday today.” Pops said, “I figured you wouldn’t let me forget being another year older. Thanks, so what’s the plan?” Since this is essentially Larry’s idea, I’ll do my best to recreate what went down, and speak for him in my post. Larry told him that we were going to kidnap him for a whole day, and it’s starts now. So, we both told him, “You need to get up now so we can get your birthday started.” This is something we’ve never done and had no idea if he’d go along, although seeing how he’s adjusted to living with us as housemates, it was a good bet he would. Pops told us that he might be a little compromised the way he was in bed so please turn around so he could get decent for us. Larry told him, “No, just get outta bed and don’t be silly about that.” Okay, who just joined us in the room, that certainly couldn’t have come out of Larry’s mouth! Between the two of us, perhaps he could have expected that from me, but I’d doubt it. Surprisingly, at least to me, Pops said, “There’s always a chance I could be sporting some serious morning wood under the covers.” Larry, if it really is him, came back with, “So what?! Like you haven’t seen both of us that way yourself?”

I think Pops was having a blast messing with Larry, because he told him, “So young man, considering what you just said, what would be sexier right now, you thinking I might have some wood going on under the covers, or knowing that I really do?” Not the kind of response either of us could have ever expected from him, but before we could react or comment, he just started laughing at the thought, or maybe it was Larry’s face at the time. Pops, never skipping a beat said, “Can I at least go take a piss first?” Larry said, “Sure, but we are going to still be here waiting on ya.” Pops then asked him if he’d go get him some fresh underwear from the top drawer to put on first. I must tell you this, up to that point nothing was even close to how we’ve been acting around him at all. So, I’m having no difficulty at all remembering any of this; I just kept my mouth shut most of the time and smiled but was giggling in my mind. 

Well, it didn’t end there, not yet. I think we all were having a great time and Pops was being a good sport with Larry. So, Larry did tell him there was no reason for underwear, just go pee, brush his teeth, and come back to get dressed; we’ll be waiting for him. Pops addressed his next comment directly to me and said, “So, Marcus my dear son, is he like that with you in your bedroom? Oh please don’t answer that question, I need to work on my imagination more.” At that, he tossed his covers off and exclaimed, “I hate to disappoint you guys, no wood today! But if you give me a couple of minutes, maybe I could change that for you.” And had a good laugh at himself over that one. 

Pops told us that he usually sits on the side of the bed for a few seconds before getting up, it helps him to not get dizzy. And then said, “It’s probably my blood pressure meds doing that to me, I’ll be okay.” Ever since I’ve been off my own blood pressure meds, I can say he might be right about that. I used to do the same thing for a few seconds myself. When he did stand he reached out for my hand to steady himself which made Larry ask him if he was okay. Pops said of course he was, it’s nothing, don’t worry. And then suggested that if we moved his tall dresser over to the side of the bed for him one day, he could rest his hand on the top of it until he was ready to move. In the time it took to tell us that, he was quite ready to leave the room. To prove he was just fine for us, he sauntered off to his bathroom down the hall, trying to duplicate Larry’s unforgettable sexy poolside walk for us and then added an ass slap to the mix. My inside giggle just came out as a belly laugh. I’m not sure what was funnier though, the ass slap or Larry’s look.

We both thought moving the dresser for him was a good idea, and let’s do it while he’s in the bathroom. Larry positioned himself to walk backwards and I was on the other side of the five-foot-high dresser. I suggested that we take the drawers out to make it lighter for us and all I got from Larry, “Or you can use your muscles and we’ll pick it up and move it.” Okay, call me out on this, I’ll try, and I did. I couldn’t pick it up more than a tiny bit while ‘Mr. Muscles’ had it up a few inches and was waiting on me. “Son of a bitch, I can’t pick it up like you can.” And I set it back down the whole quarter inch I managed to raise it up. I said maybe if you don’t want to remove the drawers maybe we could put a towel or something under it and slide it over. So that’s what we did, it only took a minute or so to rearrange the room for him. Of course I had to make a joke out of him having muscles that can really work, that aren’t just for show. He said, “Bite me!” I responded with, “Time and place, please.” See, I can get him to laugh too you know.

While we were moving the dresser, Larry asked me if what we were planning on for him might be a little too much for a guy his age. I told him not to worry and laughed as I told him for the most part, Pops was just playing him. We don’t need to change anything today. Larry told me he didn’t want Pops to not like him, maybe he should respect him more and stop treating him like he was me. I had to put a stop to that thinking before Pops returned. I said, “Babe, he fucking adores you, you’re well beyond just liking with him. You are making him feel young; fuck, you do the same thing for me too!” At least I got a big hug and great kiss for my little speech before Pops returned to us, just as naked as he left us.

The second Pops arrived back at his room to join us, the relocated dresser was the first thing he saw and mentioned it to us. He looked amazed that we would act so quickly on just a suggestion from him but didn’t make a big deal out of it. The first thing he did was sit back down on the bed, and then get up to see if his idea worked; it did, and he beamed back a big smile to us.

However, as he sat back down on the edge of the bed once more, he got back into character quickly and asked me if the Supreme Commander would grant him the right to put on some underwear now. I’m glad I had my little talk with Larry because he told him no it was not in the plan for today. He actually told him something I had mentioned a few times, but never to Pops. He told him it was time to ditch the top executive look around here, from the bottom-up. Pops asked him to explain, especially the bottom-up part. I still have the feeling Pops is playing him for all it’s worth; for him that’s fun. Larry might just be playing Pops now because he only smiled and asked me to hand over the pair of Levi’s we bought for him to wear and told him to put them on. And then told him, “Today you will be doing everything our way; remember, we are supposed to be kidnapping you.” 

Pops just said, “So, these are Levi’s, huh.” He received a ‘yup’ from both of us and then I added that I picked out the dark color and made sure there was a little stretch in the fabric too. He gave us the response, “Cool, I never owned a pair of jeans before! But no underwear though, that’s different; okay guys, I guess I’m game. Should I assume you guys aren’t wearing any yourselves?” Larry gave him a new word that morning, “Yup, we’re going ‘commando’ too.” Pops just chuckled to himself; I really wonder what’s going on in his mind right now. But so far, Larry’s idea is batting a thousand and Pop’s is being a really good sport for us. 

So, like a good little trouper, Pops put on the jeans while still sitting on the bed and then stood to pull them up and zipped; it was fun watching him figure out where he was going to tuck the jewels. I could have left that out of here for respect, but he was making it fun to watch; personally I think he was going for a laugh, but I contained myself, not so much for Larry though. I had made the right choice on the size needed, but I did get into his closet to measure a pair of his pants while he was up in Auburn with Tony and Bill. I figured a size 44” waist and 30” length would work, and if it was a little snug, a couple of hours wearing them should stretch them a bit. I’m glad the size was right because he had no difficulty zipping them up without looking like a tied-up Italian sausage, haha. Once he was happy with the fit, he did a little spin around for us and asked if they made his ass look sexy. That comment made me say, “POPS!? Really!?” Only I was trying to contain my laughter at the same time but couldn’t hide it. Pops said, “Hey sonny boy, if you’ve got it, flaunt it; right Larry?” Larry looked at me with that look, the kind that says, ‘what the hell did I create here,’ however, it didn’t keep him from laughing too.

That was fun and unexpected from him, at least for me. It’s a side of him maybe he didn’t know he had in him, or it was buried for so many years. At that point I passed over the shirt, another first for him. A red short-sleeved pull-over shirt. Now he was dressed just like us. He did ask if he could wear socks or was that forbidden too. Larry told him he was sockless and showed him and that I wasn’t and told me to let him see my socks. But then said it was his choice to make, so he chose sockless. Unfortunately for us, we discovered the one thing we didn’t think all the way through; he has no casual shoes. He went into his closet and brought out a couple of his dress shoes and asked us if any were good enough for going sockless. I’m afraid not, maybe he should put some socks on. But I did tell him we will buy him some casual shoes today and then he can ditch the socks for the rest of the day. He loved the idea and said, “Boys, this is going to be a fun day!” And then he brought up the subject of wearing a coat, he only has suits in his closet. Larry said some guys wear suit jackets with jeans, which put a sour look on Pops face. I told him to follow me into our office for something to wear. We use the walk-in closet for jackets, and I still have some of my bigger 2X clothes in there yet. I picked one of my old favorite coffee-colored leather jackets that’s too big for me now, and it fit pretty good on him as long as he doesn’t try to zip it up. I think he could, just not a look he’d like for himself. The one word that came out of his mouth first was, “Cool!” And then he asked if it made him look like “Fonzie” I knew exactly who he was referring to, so I said, “Aaay!” And added, “Just like Arthur Fonzarelli did himself.” Pops was beaming a big smile back at me as he said, “You know that show was about me growing up back in the 50’s; they got it pretty right too.” I told him the show was on the air while I was growing up myself, that I liked the Fonz too. Yeah, we’re headed for a great day today.

After looking the most casual I’ve ever seen him, he said, “I suppose you already have some coffee on and breakfast ready.” This time we both said, “Nope, breakfast is going to be out today on us, everything is going to be out of the house today.” And then Larry told him, “Breakfast is gonna be on me, we are going to my favorite breakfast place for my most favorite breakfast food ever! And then Marcus is gonna handle lunch later.” Pops said, “Great! We better go now before my stomach starts growling louder than it is already!” And led the laughter for us on the way out to my car.

OUT FOR BREAKFAST ON LARRY

IHOP Swedish Crepes, yum!

Pops asked Larry on the way to breakfast if it was okay to ask where we were going or was that a surprise too. Larry told him, it might be a surprise, but it was okay to know, we were going to IHOP in Roseville for his most favorite thin pancakes in the world, Swedish crepes with lingonberries. That has become one of my favorites after being offered a bite of Larry’s one day. Pops said he was game to try some, and that IHOP was new for him. That was not hard to believe, but I said nothing. Fortunately Larry ignored the chance as well. When the server came to our table for our order, Larry ordered for all of us; three orders of Swedish crepes with extra special butter and lingonberries and coffee for all. The waitress looked at us if we wanted something else, and I told her we were going to make her job easy today, and then Larry told her, “If you’d like us to make it more difficult, just ask.” That got her to laugh with us as she walked away. I think she liked the idea of waiting on our table, judging upon how many times she returned to see if we needed anything else.

The only things we requested from her were more special butter and a couple of refills of our coffee carafe. We got both requests taken care of quickly and she often came back to just chat with us since it wasn’t that busy. I was in the mood for a friendly server, and she certainly fit the bill. We told her we were celebrating our Pops 83rd birthday and she told him he looked a lot younger than that. Unfortunately, it also infers that 83 should look old. That could be considered a rock and hard place for either of them I guess, but it didn’t seem to affect him at all. I’m sure he thought it was to be a compliment and of course it was. I was hoping turning 83-years-old was the last thing he was thinking about that morning with us.

I do remember Pops starting to reach for his wallet before we left the table, and Larry told him if he did, he was going to slap his hand. And then he said, “I mean it too! This is on us today!” Pops just gave us a confident smile that told us he understood and was grateful for being in such good company for his birthday.

As we headed for my car, Pops asked, “So, pray tell my sons, where are we off to next?” Again we both said, “You’ll see soon enough.” And we got into my car and headed a couple of blocks away for our next stop.

SHOPPING FOR A NEW HOBBY

Larry mentioned to Pops now that he’s living with us he should have a hobby just like we do, that writing is important but not a hobby. Pops said, “Hobby huh? I guess, I don’t know what it would be though.” It was my job to show Pops my favorite place to hang out to get ideas or just have fun snooping around the place. I said that Hobby Lobby is a very large fun place to just look around, and that’s what we’ll do until he finds something that he’s interested in trying.

We did walk the entire store and I was getting the idea that a hobby was not going to be found, not until we hit the calligraphy section. We came to a full stop and Pops found his hobby, at least something he might be interested in learning. He told us, “I’ve always loved looking at the beautiful penmanship people once had. All the curves and flourishes, it’s just so beautiful; do you think I can learn how to do that too?” Larry told him, “You could do anything you put your mind to doing; I remember what you told me once, don’t you?” 

Calligraphy a new hobby for Pops

Please don’t think we got to this decision in a few minutes because we didn’t. We walked every aisle and looked at so many things from artificial flowers and arrangement, which was being considered for a moment, then to the knitting and crocheting area, also under consideration although needlepoint was gaining ground much faster. We must have spent at least two hours before zeroing in on the calligraphy section where I helped pick out and bought some paper, pen, and ink, and a ‘how-to’ calligraphy book for him. Judging on how beautiful his normal printing looks, I bet he’ll master copperplate calligraphy, if that’s what he desires for himself.

After I made the purchase for him and we were out the door to the car, it was too soon for lunch even though where I was going to take him was almost walking distance. Too bad, so I grabbed Larry’s ear along the way and said, “Let’s take him up to the ranches where they grow mandarin oranges, that should take up some time for us.” He agreed quickly and told me that we could use some more mandarins anyway, great idea. I announced the decision we just made to him, and we got back, “Hey, whatever you want to do is great, I’m having fun no matter what!”

OFF TO THE MANDARIN GROVES

Mandarin Grove in Penryn, CA

It was too soon for lunch, so I thought we’d take him up to the Penryn and New Castle areas where they grow the little seedless mandarin oranges everyone knows as ‘Cuties’ and spend some time in the area and then head to a ranch to purchase some to take home. He loves the little easy to peel oranges that I brought home from the ranch not long ago; so that will be our third stop. As we drove into the Mandarin Hill Orchard in Penryn, he was amazed to see the acres of small manageable-sized trees loaded with so much fruit. Pops said he had no idea they grew the things here, and so close to us too. I agreed with him, I only found out about these orchards a couple of years ago myself. At the ranch store we purchased a couple of large bags of Satsuma Mandarins as he chatted up a storm with an older gentleman who seemed to be very familiar with the whole operation. Larry and I looked around the large garage-like room at everything they had for sale, letting Pops have some fun. When they were done chatting we headed back to my car and drove slowly through the grove of mandarins. I took this picture of the mandarins a few weeks earlier when Larry and I bought the mandarins Pops has been enjoying at home.

We’ve had so much rain lately that the fields were very muddy, and we just weren’t interested in tracking through the mud, nor was I liking the idea of muddying up my car’s carpets. So I’m a little fussy about my car; she’s my baby to care about.

We did drive around the area and stopped into a few ranch stores along the way to purchase stuff you just don’t find in grocery stores. I found some blackberry balsamic syrup to bring home, and Pops wanted some sweet-flavored snacking popcorn that we were happy to purchase for him. It was finally getting close to my time to take them to one of my favorite sandwich places for lunch. My choice was a sub sandwich place close to Hobby Lobby because I haven’t been to either place in a long time. To be honest, not since I started the NOOM weight loss program long ago. Lunch got to be carrot and celery sticks instead of subs! Yummy, yummy, haha. Yeah, but those little sticks helped me drop over 60 pounds since starting the plan. However today, screw the little orange and green sticks, I’m all about eating a sub sandwich with them; I’d deal with the sticks lunch another day.

LUNCH AT JIMMY JOHNS

So, it was back to Roseville to buy my favorite Italian Sub for all three of us. I guess you can tell, part of the day was to experience the same thing for all three of us. So now Pops knows Larry’s favorite pancake, and my favorite sub, he doesn’t know about our dinner plans yet, although we both do since it’s one of our favorite chain style restaurants. Nothing pretentious at all, I’ll get to that a bit later after we get to see Larry’s favorite place to hang out.

The Italian Sub that wanted to be

I usually gravitate to something called an Italian sandwich, lately it’s called a #9 Italian Night Club with salami, capicola, ham, and provolone, onion, lettuce, tomato, mayo, oil & vinegar, & oregano-basil. (Which by the way looked nothing like the menu image I inserted here for you to see, as if any menu item ever looks like it’s supposed to, huh.) I ordered two regular sizes for them and one small one for me, I still have dinner to deal with yet. I got no complaints about my choice of sub sandwich from them, Larry has had this before with me, for him anything Italian works, haha. Pops loved the fresh cooked bread, me too. A few fountain drinks and a wait for a table to open was our lunch. Actually, having an 83-year-old man with us, did make a young couple vacate their table for us, they were done and enjoying their time together. Seeing Pops standing with a sandwich tray and drink sure got us a table in this very small place. Well, we didn’t stay any longer than what we needed to do ourselves, there’s always someone needing a table so off we went back to my car for our next stop of the afternoon.

Pops told us this was a lot of fun for him and what was going to be next or was it not okay to ask. It was Larry’s time for our next stop, so he told him that he was going to take him to his favorite place to hang out. There’s only one place you never have to ask him if he’d like to go there, and it’s about 15 minutes away and very close to where we decided to have our dinner.

LARRY’S HANG OUT, BASS PRO SHOPS OUTDOOR WORLD

It's Larry's world in one stop! 😅

If you guys know my babe as well as I think you do, you’d certainly pick out a place like this as his favorite hang-out. Actually, it’s gotten to me mine as well, I love the energy it provides him, he just exudes it from all of his pores after being in there for a while. It used to be the hunting and camping areas for him, but the boating area wins hands down for sure. It’s really a pretty macho place, sorry if any ladies are reading this and are offended, but the stuffed wildlife dioramas, the enormous fresh fish aquarium screams macho man! It’s so beautiful inside there, and I know it’s a chain store, so many of you reading this might have been in one yourself. 

You can consider Pops as one who hasn’t been inside one, and no question, he could catch flies with that open mouth of his at every turn in the place. If I could read his mind, I bet it was telling him, how the fuck did I live so long and never know about this place! I do really think so. He made it so much fun for us to watch him. I think he’d buy everything in there if he could. However, there was one side of the building that caught his attention, and it just so happened to be the boating area. Now I have two of them drooling over some of the boats in the building. I just let them loose and watched from behind. Yeah, I’ve lost them for a while. I do love boats, especially Larry’s, and cruise ships, and that little wooden rowboat we used a few years ago at the lake, that’s about my experience to date. I have a feeling down deep in my gut, there’s going to be a lot of talk soon about buying a boat, a big boat too. I’d be okay with something bigger, even a pontoon boat or house boat, but I bet Pops is thinking larger, mostly above-deck, and below-deck, separate staterooms, a galley, you know, a big boat. Not a ship, but damn close! Haha, oh well stay tuned, I have a feeling about this.

Actually, I was getting tired of just standing around looking at the different boats, so I told them I was going to head over to the aquarium area to sit and watch the fishes for a while. They have huge trout and whatever else they found to put in there all swimming around together. And I loved listening to the waterfall above. It was tranquil if you can say that with all the kids and adults attracted to the area. Even though I have a new replacement knee, just standing around is uncomfortable for me. I need to keep walking or sit down after a while. Larry knows what I need in these situations and supports my resting. He said they’d come get me when they were done. I could have taken a nap before they were done though, haha. I should have, except for the noisy kids excited about the fish. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m turning into an old fuddy-duddy grouch already; oh well at least I know some older guys now to help me age gracefully, yeah right!

I assume after they both stopped drooling over boats, I was told they were headed back to the camping section, and I could come if I wanted; I wanted. Larry said he was thinking about upgrading his camping equipment if Ryan comes back out and wants to go camping with him again, he’ll be all set. As we passed by the men’s clothing section, Pops wanted a ball cap with the Bass Pro Shops logo and considered some outerwear too, but just settled for the hat. Well, he does have his own leased car now to drive, and Outdoor World is not far from us in Granite Bay. Who knows what he’ll be bringing back home with him one day. However, I was happy for him and for Larry, they both bonded so well over the place. Don’t worry about me, I can be the fifth wheel for those two anytime. I’m just so happy that they both are getting something they need from each other.

It was another very long store visit today, maybe next time we have this kind of idea, we limit it to just one store. It wasn’t about me or even Larry, it was to make Pops birthday one to remember. I think we are on track. It hasn’t been a big-ticket elegant day, that he is used to, just be one of the guys with us. Maybe some of you might think we aren’t that kind of men, but we are. Judging the reaction we are getting from Pops so far; he’s having a great time with us. Maybe we were able to drop off a few decades for him along the way. I can’t tell you that I was famished, stomach growling for food, because I wasn’t but dinner was planned and it wasn’t going to be elegant, just guy food. Our kind of guy food.

DINNER AT CRACKER BARREL FOR FRIED CHICKEN

Practically across the road from where we were was the new Cracker Barrel Restaurant, that chain is new for our area. I remember them from my time on the East Coast, just a family restaurant with okay food, except for their fried chicken, that’s better than okay for us. We both love the ‘Sunday Homestyle Chicken.’ Two boneless half-breasts dipped into a buttermilk batter for the best crusty coating, country gravy, biscuits, and mostly forgettable vegetables. I need to bring home half of my dinner now, I didn’t before my diet though. I’d be licking the fucking plate clean if I wouldn’t get all guilty inside, haha.

Sunday Homestyle Chicken, yum!

Obviously, we had three of the same dinners, and another first for Pops. He is so ready to be a regular guy with us. No pretense needed with us to have a good time. Well I wasn’t the only one bringing food home in a doggy bag. I think Pops reached his limit too. Actually, I knew Larry could finish his plate but maybe we made him feel odd man out, so each of us brought home one-half breast except we decided we only needed one box, not three. 

Pops' favorite candy; us too now.

When we walked into the restaurant, Pops noted the large general store stocked with just about everything general. He did say he’d like to check it out on the way out. Sure, why not. He found candy, lots of candy, some that you never find in stores, like Necco multi-flavored little flat wafers stacked up in a tube-like wrapper. Several of those found a home with him. He said, he grew up with them and hasn’t seen them in a thousand years! He let us try a couple from his open wrapper; they were interesting, not what I expected though. I might consider buying some myself, but I’m not going back into the store though; maybe on our next trip there if I remember.

On the way home, all three of us were happy that was our next and last stop. Pops told us he could not remember a day in his life as much fun as it was today for him. I know that had to make Larry very happy, and me too. I’m glad for both of them, Larry really wanted to make it special for him and we were able to do exactly that. That was about all the talk on the way home, I had some soft music playing in the car and I think we all appreciated the chance to relax along the way to our home.

OFF TO BED TIME

When we arrived back home after a long and fun day away, I thought we’d all go watch a movie together until it was time for bed. Nope, didn’t happen, but not because we didn’t want it or ask for it. Pops was pumped after his day out with us and apologized if we had more plans, but he wanted to write down everything that happened today before he forgot anything. He gave us both a big hug and cheek kiss and thanks for such a wonderful birthday, and then said good night and was off to his side of the house.

We headed to the family room by ourselves, maybe to talk or watch something, or both. We chose the couch to sit together, no iPad writing separately tonight. I had access to the remote and was searching for something we might both like to watch; Larry had his head already on my lap and running his free hand up and down my inner thigh. I had a feeling TV wasn’t on his mind, good because I wasn’t finding anything worth watching other than his hand that was getting closer and closer to what it wanted. I told him let’s go to bed, okay? He was up off the couch before me and reaching for my hand to help me up. Such a sweetheart, huh!

After we got ourselves ready for bed in the bathroom together, it’s big enough for that; we got back into our old habit of stripping off our clothes along the way to bed. Just hope we don’t trip over them late at night on a pee trip though. We quickly got ourselves into our favorite snuggle position and began recapping the day, mostly trying to decide what was his favorite activity. I thought it was just being a regular guy with us, not a father or mentor. I was pretty sure that the Bass Pro Shops boating section was the biggest hit for him, and the best food was our breakfast crepes. Both were Larry’s choices and good ones too.

I told Larry I could see Pops come alive when he asked you if you liked being the captain of your own boat. And if you ever thought about operating a much larger boat. So, what were you thinking when he asked you about that? Larry said that he had no idea, that’s not something he’s ever considered for himself and he’s very happy with his boat anyway. I told him I figured that was true and his boat really is beautiful. I figured this was a good time to let him know what Pops said about his boat once to me. “Pops said your Chris Craft was about the sexiest mahogany boat he’s ever seen.”

That got Larry to smile, and then he said that he’s never had Pops out for a river cruise on his boat yet, we should do that once the weather gets nicer. I had to ask, “So you going to show him below deck?” And I got the answer I wanted, “Nope!” And we both laughed when I said, “Good!” Larry said that below deck was way too sexy to be sharing. Yeah, I agree with that.

Larry had returned to laying his head on my belly and running his hand up and down my leg until it found what it was searching for. It’s been there waiting on him all along, and it was only a few seconds longer after finding it that I heard a soft snore. Funny thing, snoring aside, his hand never let go of its prize. It’s okay though, I was lulled to sleep listening to him, and my dick had no complaints whatsoever.

SO, WHAT’S  REALLY SEXY?

As you may have noticed through my story so far, what’s sexy keeps coming up. Maybe because it’s been on my mind so much after what Larry wrote recently. In case you haven’t read it yet, this is what he wrote: "I always thought sexy was how you looked on the outside, I was wrong, it’s on the inside and how you think." So, that’s what’s been on my mind ever since I read it. I can’t get it out of my head, and I have no idea why. The word sexy just keeps coming up in different situations, always has I guess, but it never caught my imagination until I read it from Larry. So I’m going to try and write about it like I know what the fuck I’m talking about. I don’t know if I do though. Please understand, I’m not taking anything away from what he wrote, just using his idea because it’s sticking with me. I had no intention of contradicting him at all if what I write seems that way. I’m doing my best to figure this thing out.

The part that has resonated the most for me was him writing, “It’s on the inside and how you think.” I don’t know if that’s where you start or end up in a relationship like ours. Case in point, from the first minute we met, I was attracted to his blue eyes and blonde hair; two things I usually find attractive to me. He was very good looking which was hard to ignore as well. Did it add up to being sexy? I don’t think so, not yet.

Larry has written that he noticed my big brown eyes, especially after I put my dark glasses on top of my head. It seemed the right thing to do, not hide behind sunglasses. Oh yes, he added that I looked Italian, something that he is attracted to as well. If I was sexy to him, he never let me know it, and I sure as hell never thought I was myself.

I remember one of those free Fridays when we were having coffee together, he rolled up the cuff’s of his long-sleeved shirt a couple of times exposing the third most interesting feature of his, dense blonde curly arm hair. I tried not to get caught staring at it, but it fascinated me so much. I’m not a guy with really hairy arms and legs myself; I have some, but nothing to write about. I know one thing I was curious about that day, what was that shirt of his hiding from view. It was sad to realize I’d need to wait another two weeks before I’d see him again and hopefully learn more about him. I was acutely aware of my desire to know everything about him on our next meeting. And my desire was granted by a much more revealing shirt, one that made me aware of just how big his arms were. Man, this guy’s got some serious guns under that shirt of his. I’m trying to remember something over a dozen years ago, but I can’t believe that I didn’t make some kind of comment to him, but I can’t recall what it might have been. I’m sure it was complimentary, at least I hope so. 

No question now, my new friend and neighbor helped me stay completely in the closet for fear of losing someone who helped build a new and wondrous fantasy imagination for me. I couldn’t possibly let him know how he affected me; I was shocked that I was feeling that way since I had given up on ever exploring that part of me. The surprise for me was how little I saw of him in those baggy, body-covering clothes of his, that it could create such a powerful reaction for me. As I’m writing this and reminiscing, maybe if I had a real sex life at home with Lisa, he wouldn’t have affected my imagination the way he did. I wasn’t getting anything back from him that let me crack open the closet door, that’s for damn sure.

I wish I could say that I knew more about what my new friend was thinking about me that many years ago. I knew he let me talk a lot and never made me feel I was dominating the conversation at any time. It was Lisa who would tell me that from time to time. She always said, I talk to much. Maybe you guys have figured that out for yourselves too. Sorry, it’s a bad habit that’s hard to change, but I do try often.

After several coffee dates over the weeks, (thanks to me trying to not dominate the conversation so much), we started getting into more personal information about ourselves; no not sexual yet. But he did let me know much more about his young life, which frankly eclipsed anything physical about him. I often found myself crying over what he shared with me; how could anyone treat a child that way, and the bullying was nothing compared to being called a ‘fatso’ occasionally when I was a child. 

Our coffee days became sharing days, everything but what might have sped up where we are today. I hope you don’t think we always had heavy subjects to talk about over coffee, because we were a couple of goofballs most of the time. We just loved our time to be the person we never let anyone else know lived inside us. I loved having him as my best friend and hoped I’d never lose him over something stupid. I knew one thing for sure, and it does match what Larry wrote, he was the sexiest man alive, gorgeous on the outside and so beautiful on the inside and he trusted me with information he’d never shared before. I just wrote he was the sexiest man to me, but I couldn’t find the right words, or time, or whatever, to let him know. Not for such a long time.

I know we’ve written about this at times, but my first clue that he had body issues was with the clothes he was wearing to cover himself, especially in my pool. I let it slide a few times but after that I had to bring it up to him. Put a guy built anything like Larry into a pool wearing a shirt and those stupid looking pants of his to cover himself they will only cling to his wet body. Obviously, for me it only made him look hotter and sexier than I knew how to handle at the time. That was the day I just had it and came so close to asking if he was trying to turn me on, which was exactly what was happing to me. I asked him to please take off his shirt, that I could handle seeing muscles that I’ll never achieve for myself. And then realizing how dangerous that sounded, I backed off some and said, it will make swimming so much better without the drag of his shirt. Forget talking about the baggy pants, I’ll get to that another time. He did what I said, and never wore a shirt again, he obviously finally felt comfortable enough to do that. Frankly, I don’t know to this day what turned me on more at the time, his muscled body, or his fur. I was happy that I didn’t get a raging-boner poking my own trunks out at the time, haha.

As I stated, this was such a long time ago for us, we have nothing to hide any longer. Slowly over coffee dates, one-by-one, any issues we had about ourselves were peeled away like an onion skin. I do remember convincing him that body fur was something I wished I had and how happy I was that he could finally be comfortable with me. You must suspect that we did have further conversations about ‘other body issues’ after that and it just made me want to like him even more. I’m not going to say it was love, not yet, but I sure as fuck liked him a lot. However, I was so dumbfounded by his disdain of his own body hair; I’m Italian, I was surrounded by hairy men growing up. I couldn’t wait until I too looked like my dad and the other men in my life. Well that didn’t happen exactly, but at least thanks to my genes, I managed to get a decent hairy chest out of the deal, haha. 

Once we became comfortable enough to talk through our personal issues together, I knew for a fact that my next job was to believe he really was sexy. The benefit of that was he finally convinced me of the same thing for myself. My fluctuating weight over the years never got to be a big thing for him. It’s my nature to gain weight easily when things aren’t going my way I guess. I gained the most weight during the years when we weren’t spending much time together any longer and he never mentioned it to me. Maybe if he did, I’d start dealing with it. I knew the stories he told of the bigger guys who were his hero’s when he was being bullied, but I never thought of myself as a bigger guy like those in his stories. As long as I had clothes that fit, I wasn’t a big guy. The only time I’d think about weight was on a diet, then I’m a big guy. Larry knew how I felt about being heavy and knowing that he really supported me on my weight loss over the last year. 

I know if I gained back everything I lost, he’d still love me. Like he has said, just more man to love. It almost scares me; no, it literally does scare me. I don’t want to gain any weight back again as I have my whole life of yo-yo dieting. I can say truthfully that I never really desired a body that stood out from the crowd. I just wanted to blend in and get lost. So I fall in love with a man who used to wish he could do the same and tried to hide himself in baggy clothes and never tried to make friends until he met me. I know I don’t have what I need in me to work hard enough to begin to look like him. I’m too damn lazy I guess. But I do love being thinner now.

I remember something I read or heard, probably when I was on Weight Watchers years ago, “Nothing tastes as good as thin looks.” Too bad I couldn’t keep the weight off back then, but I still believed the motto. Being thinner makes me feel sexy, but not when I’m heavy. The sexiest thing I feel about me now is something I can write in the journal but can never tell anyone. When I take a piss, I can look down and see my dick now. That’s sexy for me! Okay all you guys who never had a gut, stop laughing at me. But those of you with a gut, know exactly what I mean. The only way I ever saw my dick was in a mirror, and I never had that big of a gut too! That reminds me of something else Larry decided to put an end to, my ‘grower’ problem at the gym. First of all, I never had a ‘grower’ problem being naked around him, if there was a problem at all, it was in the opposite direction, haha. But in the locker room, man I really hated the problem. After losing over 60 pounds, I’m realizing a lot of my ‘grower’ problem was what was hiding my dick, not my flaccid dick size. Just in case you are wondering, we do both have matching sexy swinging dicks now! Laugh if you want to, but come on and celebrate my newfound sexiness with me; okay? I’m sorry, but it just makes me feel so much better about myself getting to say that.

SO HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE SEXY OR NOT?

I certainly can make up questions that are hard to answer! I’m going to make believe I know the answer to that one, or I’m going to fake it the best I can. I know for a lot of years, I never felt that way about myself and Larry has just about said the same. We both helped each other to fix that, I do feel sexy when I’m around Larry and I’m starting to feel the same way around the other men in our lives.

Speaking of which, I know three guys all in or around their 80’s, and Larry and I have pegged one of them as he knows he’s sexy. You know him as Tony. And I feel awful saying that looking at all three of them together you might be wondering which one is the sexy guy, or if any were at all. That is until you see and hear them in action and then it’s very apparent. Obviously, it must be something from the inside that allows Tony to pull it off so easily. I really do think if you met him and talked to him as we do, you’d pick him as well. There’s nothing obnoxious or off-putting about him, actually quite the opposite. Perhaps he doesn’t have self-doubt as the rest of us at one point had ourselves.

I’ve been asking myself since I had my conversation with him at the lake a few months ago, what is it about him that makes me feel that way. He’s honest and whatever he talks about doesn’t seem like bragging, but if I talked that way, I’d be blamed for bragging I bet. Larry said it comes from inside, and he certainly matches that idea. He’s charming, I overlooked telling you about that; I bet he charmed the pants off many women in his life. The fact that he admits to cheating on his wives, should be facts enough I guess. I have a feeling the women including his two wives all thought they could change him, fix him, haha. Oh brother, did they ever get that wrong. I do give him a lot of credit for questioning himself in regard to his budding relationship with Bill. He told me that he was worried that he could not be trusted in any relationship. That’s not sexy, it’s sad.

I better wrap this up or it may never end. I find the subject so interesting now after what Larry wrote. I’ve been thinking about it for days. I’ve tried to apply the idea to the men I’ve written about here in the journal, and to some you’ll never see in the journal, not if I want to stay alive and kicking, haha. I tried to apply the thought to Joe our pool guy, and a really good friend of Larry’s. Those two just have connected as best friends. I’ve watched Joe grow into a married family man; he was a lot younger when he started here for me. I’m not surprised at the relationship we all have together now, and I was there when he was screwing around cleaning the pool naked the first time. I laughed my ass off at his antics, but I never once thought that he was sexy. I can’t say that Larry doesn’t think the same though. Joe is so much more fun to be around, and he’s very comfortable being himself with us. If you need to know more, check out the stuff Larry has written about him, the guy is a trip. I can’t imagine a Tuesday morning around here and not having Joe share a cup of coffee with us. He cleared his morning schedule months ago to spend more time with us, and that hasn’t changed. He’s met Pops too; we all have coffee together often. I bet his wife thinks he’s sexy though, I’m saying that not having a clue though. He certainly does like hanging around us now, maybe I’m not the only one around here who thinks Larry is the total sexy package? I know Larry is concerned about his friendship with Joe, that it be taken the wrong way; I wouldn’t worry much about that though. However, Joe is Larry’s story to tell, I just like to put my two cents in at times.

I know this is a journal blog, we both write about what’s going on at the time of our writing. Right now, we are decompressing from the holidays, and Pops birthday. If any of you want to tell us what you think is sexy or what make something sexy, I’d love to see what you have to say about that. I know it’s fluff stuff, but it’s fun to think about fluff stuff. Don’t be afraid to jump in and put your two cents in as well, it might be fun.

Well, I’m taking a break from writing until it’s my turn again. Hopefully Larry will be writing again soon. Take care guys and if you have some ideas as I just stated, go for it; we’re all friends here. I’m putting my email here in case you don’t want to use the comments section.

Marcus

itsmarcusblog@gmail.com

Here is a link to Larry's next posted chapter:

https://brosgonerogue.blogspot.com/2023/02/larrys-27th-post-our-big-date-night.html#more