LONG WEEKEND...

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So, I just spent the weekend driving around like a madman to touch base with the rest of my friends in the area: I figure as long as I'm in the same time-zone, I should visit -- God knows it's been years since I was here. But some 500 miles of highway driving later, I am a little bushed, and only too glad to return the car my first hosts loaned me and chill out for the remaining days of my visit, hanging with my eldest son, who appears to be no better at planning ahead than I am...
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I hope we get around to doing something before I leave town... so far all I have are the Goat's suggestions of checking into the local gay scene, which he knew Way Back When, before he headed for the hills and gave up plumbing for Lent... I have been checking in with the Goat almost regularly, and it's weird to think how much further away I am, and yet how we are nearly as close, by phone and e-mail, as we ever have been.

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We certainly live in a very weird day and age.

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My first stop was with the sister of my "adopted family" here who decided, on her divorce, to go into analysis, first for her own benefit [how lovely to be able to blame everything on your parents, which she apparently then turned around and did] and then professionally. I guess it's like the bite of a werewolf or a vampire.
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I managed to maintain some semblance of polite concern; what was difficult was that my divorce seems to have stirred up all sorts of stuff around her own divorce she had carefully laid away. I had a good time, but it was, despite all the very heartfelt gladness at seeing each other, a little loaded. At first I was a little worried about how we were going to get through 24 hours without getting into Dangerous Territory, but one thing led to another, and we got along fine.

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I then took off to visit the last of the sisters, in many ways still the "baby sister" at 52. And here, where I had expected talk to sort of flow wildly and carry us along, it kept drying up and turning back on itself. I think that in a way she actually felt more threatened by the events leading up to my divorce than anyone I have dealt with since my sister of the kind dinner invitation and unfortunate word choices.

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They really rolled out the red carpet, though. And her husband was really sweet. He greeted me gruffly with a short "How are you, you son of a bitch?" and spent the next day or so filling me in on all the local politics and the latest news of his free-lancing and its difficulties. When I left, I had the distinct feeling that the "baby" was sort of relieved to see me go; her husband saw me out to the car and gave me a huge hug. Sometimes you get support, and the most important support, where you least expect it.

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I can't quite believe that I'm halfway through my vacation, and much as I have enjoyed it, I am quite eager to get home to the Goat, who seems eager enough for me to return to make me feel like something in my life is going right. Not eager enough to ruin the rest of the trip. Sort of like Goldilocks: it's just right.

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Well, that's the news.

I'm knee-deep in poems, so if you've had enough for a while, stand back...

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