mrrnice2

Montreal - Ottawa, Game 3 and this time in Ottawa. I went to a game there last year and its a great venue. I hope the game is as fast and good as intense as the last two were. Time to lay out my Canadiens jersey again. :) I also just heard that Ottawa is changing goalies. Hammond is out. Now that is good news for me as a Montreal fan, and I am very surprised by it.

The BBQ is free of snow so a nice grilling steak, a baked potato and a salad on the side.

Oh but we can look at the bright side. Two of the top four picks come to Canadian teams! Maybe we can get the Leafs AND the Oilers in the playoffs with us next year. In the meantime however, Go Habs Go.

Edmonton Oilers won the draft lottery! Whoo Hooo.

Women's tennis. You are home alone in your own abode and it is bedtime. Door closed or door open?

My Montreal jersey is ready to roll. It's laid out over my chair and all set for game time. :) Come May 1st if the Canadiens are still playing (surely they will be) I will supplement my hockey with fresh PEI lobster on the side. Oh yes, go Detroit too.

Oh God, the kiss of death!!!! :)

My bias is showing. My Canadiens jersey is laid out ready to go.

The second season starts tonight and this is going to be a tough one to call. It's unfortunate that there are two rounds will all Canadian teams in them. It will be most interesting to see if the Sens continue this run - they certainly have momentum on their side and is there such a thing as destiny? However, experience will win out in the end although I truly wish that Montreal had a couple more natural goal scorers I am looking forward to a Habs win.

The book, always the book. Slow rural pace or big city bustle?

That is such a good news report to wake to this morning. Glad that it went so well and seems so promising. Relax and heal. MN2

Happy Birthday Meaghan. The sun has decided to come out for your special day. Enjoy.

Working in my greenhouse in my shorts while watching the snow banks outside slowly dropping. :)

Making a banana bread.

So often something bad happening ultimately leads to something good happening as a result or the opposite can also be true. In real everyday life there are lots of examples of this and places where one can decide whether to be a glass half full or glass half empty type of person. An example from each side. It appears as if perhaps FIVE Canadian teams will be in the playoffs, but probably four of them play each other in the first round. OR In the fall I had the worst illness that I ever had and it turned out to be a virus. As a result of checking everything that could be checked in my body they discovered a previously unknown and very serous issue that has since been entirely resolved. Yay for virus! Funny how things happen. What are your examples?

As a man who seems like he could be your clone I can only respond to your question with my own experience. My age is exactly as you describe. My body and looks are exactly as you describe - not what they were thirty years ago. At one time I was an athlete, had hair as long and curly as you could imagine, and yes even a six pack. Those days are gone. Over the last few years as I met various women as companions, I most often had quite a bit of communication with them beforehand. They always knew full well my age and circumstance and therefore always had the right and option to decline meeting with me. To this point that has not happened but if and when it does then I will surely understand. I think that the answer to your question lies in your ability to be honest and open and to communicate. My educated guess is that they will be more interested in your concerns and insecurity than in your age. If a woman would choose not to see someone that is our age I would way prefer that they say so ahead of time - that would be way better for both parties. Relax and you will meet some wonderful companions. MN2

Congrats Boomer on the posts and for your contributions. Keep your two cents worth in there for us. MN2

Let none of us believe that the issue raised in the initial post is a simple one. Most of us to this point have addressed this from our own personal perspective and from a Cerb perspective as is quite natural. When one thinks back to the initial debate, and I use the term with sarcasm, the talk was that this legislation is dangerous, that it would cause harm to sex workers, it would force them to back alleys and that it would kill women. As the legislation came closer to being proclaimed and since, the discussion here has been that it's really not going to have an impact, that LE will and is ignoring it, and that with common sense everyone will be fine and dandy. I was one of the few that disagreed with that perspective from Day 1, and right now I am not yet ready to say that I was wrong. I am more fearful than ever, based on little news items that are starting to appear across the country that LE has simply been putting their ducks in order and are now beginning to enforce the law. Newspapers are starting to refuse advertising ads, Yellow Pages will remove all questionable ads in May, and if one follows Stella from Montreal or Pivot from B.C. one sees the crackdown beginning. It has become politically correct on Cerb to minimize things. As much as I hate to agree with anything that comes from the mouth of Peter MacKay, he is not wrong that many sex workers are victims. Many are victims of economic and social circumstance that forces them to stand on street corners for survival. That is real. The solution of providing a social network, of creating affordable daycare, of creating jobs that are more than working in call centers or as coffee shop hostesses, of keeping real jobs in this country with a real salary, of providing serious viable alternatives to desperate people are all being ignored. Somehow what is important is getting sex workers out of the trade. End of story. There is nothing there as an alternative, nor a recognition that in fact some sex workers do this by making a rational choice. Yes we live in our own personal worlds inside and outside of Cerb but let us not forget that there is another world as well. Just telling each other that everything is fine and dandy does not make it so. So Patrick and FunAdventures and Phaedrus and Christy and Midnight and all that responded to this point have all been right on target - it's just that this is not a simple question and nor is there a simple solution. In the for what its worth department I still send my small and probably insignificant contribution each month to POWER of Ottawa, because one day organizations such as POWER and PIVOT and STELLA and MAGGIES will be the organizations standing up in court for all of us - Cerb clients, Cerb companions and street workers alike.

I'm sitting in my greenhouse with my Veseys seed catalogue finalizing my seed list. I'll go up today to get the seeds. Thinking that a week from today trout season opens. The trout are safe though. The closest worm is six feet at least under snow, my special spots are inaccessible and even if I got there it would be frozen solid. Come on sun and some heat. Lol.

There have already been such good and thoughtful responses to this thread. If I try to narrow it down to the two specific questions posed then perhaps I may differ somewhat from what has been said to this point, not that I disagree with anything posted to this point. For society to respond to how they would expect a client to behave there must be a presumption that society knows this exists, even if society does not understand why clients seek out companions. My idealism still exists and I believe that with the above premise, society would expect a client to behave properly, respectfully and in the same way that non-participants expect to be treated in their own lives. Therefore I believe that standard for clients agrees with presumed social norms. However if one looks at the questions from the perspective of the non-participant, the beliefs of society I expect are quite the opposite. The existing stereotypes, even with all of the media coverage in the last year, are still perpetuated. Even five years ago before I discovered this world I did not think of it too much, but when I did I would have assumed that clients were losers and rough and low lifes, and that companions were used and were druggies or criminals. Sad eh, and I am supposed to be a reasonably intelligent man. Thanks for the thread Patrick. MN2

I could pretty well echo what Cub said above. Hate is a strong word and perhaps it is more that I have not learned to appreciate or understand some sports. However, I so well recall the year of the NHL players strike. The dead of winter. No hockey, baseball or football, and most evenings one could tune into TSN to watch DOG SHOWS. Yes, dog shows. Please don't tell me that turning a dog into a prissy prancing doll is a sport. :) Please. That's the closest that I can come to hate!

This is a social that I had planned to attend until my recent setbacks. I'm sure that everyone will have a great time. I shall be thinking of you this evening and if anyone needs an excuse, feel free to give out lots of hugs on my behalf. Thanks Loneskater for your efforts. Have fun everybody!

So many things. First of all I am sitting in my greenhouse where it is 29 degrees. Just about ready to strip down - no wait, not good imagery. My road is open to traffic but only one track with 12 foot banks on either side but I am free! I went to Veseys yesterday and got my first seeds so may plant them today. My house disaster is almost cleaned up. I will be in Halifax soon for about a week with all Of my kids there and my baby grandson. And so far, it's only a rumour of another snowstorm on Saturday. Lol.

Today there is no snow. There is no wind. The sun is shining. The sky is blue. Its the first day of spring. I know that my tulips are growing right now under all the snow. One of my kids is coming home today for a few days. :) It's all good.

That's an interesting question Notch. It is for me however an easy one to answer as I have thought of this a lot in the last few years and quite recently more so. I would choose the 80 figure and in fact would lower that if it mean that whatever life I have left is comfortable. I am not quite ready to go yet, but neither will I accept a'"hanging on," existance. So right now I am content, probably boringly content, and although it might be nice to have unlimited funds, that is not something that I require.