Showing posts with label Best Gay Blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Best Gay Blogs. Show all posts

Monday, February 11, 2008

My Weekend Adventures

I have to apologize to you guys for not getting a post done for yesterday. The day just got away from me. To start off with I was up late on Saturday night with stud (a whole adventure in itself), so please for give me for sleeping late on Sunday, then the phone rang as it is want to do when one least wants it to do so. It was the hotel wanting me to work an earlier shift than I usually do for some unexplained reason just "can you work right now", so I felt I had to say yes(more on the reason for that in a moment). So up I hop and scramble around trying to put myself together presentably when I receive a second phone call delaying my arrival for a couple of hours but still earlier than usual. At any rate it did not leave enough time to return to sleep or create a post so I just did a few phone calls for the moving company to keep that ball rolling before heading to the hotel.

It was a fairly quiet afternoon and evening until around 7 o'clock. then things went a little crazy for a little while. I had a guest who was having some difficulty dialing a local number which for some odd reason was asking for the 1 before the area code which of course the phone system would not allow except for toll free numbers so finally I circumvented the system by dialing the number from the front desk and connecting the guest. Meanwhile Extreme Makeover Home Addition came on. It is nice to have the TV there to alleviate the boring times at the desk. Last night featured a Marine Iraq veteran who was a single father with four kids. Sergeant Daniel Gilyeat had served two tours in Iraq. It was on his second tour while investigating IED's that Daniel was injured, eventually losing his left leg to an IED. His oldest daughter who is only nine made a heart wrenching plea for help so Ty and the gang could not refuse. Maybe I am a softee but I got emotionally involved in the story. My long time readers know I am a veteran and have made many posts on the plight of the shameful way this country (thanks to the lip service of the current administration) treats the injured service members from the Iraq war. Well Sergeant Gilyeat after literally dying twice on the flight out to the hospital did survive the war and eventually ended up in the veteran's hospital in San Antonio, making a miraculous recovery where he was up and walking on his new prosthesis after only 26 days of rehab. He was discharged and return to his home in Kansas City.

One year to the day after his discharge, his wife divorced him and left him with the 4 kids. This is where the story really got to me. Even with a broken heart Daniel continued to be a hero to his kids and to other wounded veterans by visiting them and giving them support and encouragement in their struggle to overcome the physical and mental difficulties presented to them by this war and the horrific injuries that occur there. This story had me on the verge of tears the whole time as the story unfolded. Sergeant Gilyeat truly is a hero in many ways, yet a self effacing hero as many of the great ones are. The Extreme Makeover team, builder Kevin Green, Sergeants Gilyeat's Marine buddies and hundreds of other people combined in the effort to create a new home for Daniel and his kids, one group even paying of the mortgage on the home to ease that burden. So right at the most emotional part of the show where the family arrives back from vacation and reacts to the new home I had to deal with a situation that arose at the front desk.

Now I know my purpose at work is not to watch TV, but still as emotionally involved in the story as I was, it irritated me to have to deal with the problem I was confronted with. Remember the guest who was having a problem with the phone? Well the second party in the same room wanted to make a collect phone call which of course the phone system is not set up to allow. I explained over the phone to the guest that a calling card would be necessary to make the phone call for which I got a cussing over the phone. A couple of minutes later this guest presented themselves at the front desk in an obviously drunken state to accost me about my shortcoming in refusing to comply to his demands, cussing me loudly before going off to the bar in search of a pay phone with which to make a collect call. In his inebriated state he was unable to do so and finally calmed down enough so I could direct him to the store around the corner which sold him a calling card and he was able to make his phone call. Now back to Sergeant Gilyeat.

My heart went out to this Marine who lived for his kids and volunteered his time to help other wounded veterans get started on the road to recovery. This macho Marine was not afraid of showing his emotions going so far as to cry and hug his Marine buddies, Ty, the design team and others involved in the project. The house came out grand as usual with design details specific to Daniel's injury and the kid's personal likes, et cetera. I was sorry to have missed a lot of the reaction time on the show, but I knew that this Marines' life was going to be easier for the experience with Ty and the gang. I salute ABC, Ty Pennington, the Marines, builder Kevin Green and all the others who made this dream possible for Daniel and his kids.

I said I would explain why I felt I had to comply with the request to cork different hours than usual so here goes. As you guys know, I have not had much verbiage to go with the eye candy for the last few days. The reason being a bout of depression caused by none other than my treatment at the hands of the manager who had made the request. Without going in to details, Uncle Gerry was almost homeless and unemployed at the same time before being forced to mortgage my future earnings to pay some past due rent which in our original agreement when I came work there was not supposed to be charged. The manager who hired me at the property where I live is out of the country due to the death of his father and he is also my partner in the moving company. Well the manager at the hotel next door to where I live and where I work (they are owned by the same people) is on a little power trip which is not that unusual for him but he has been generally unreasonable with everyone and has coerced employees into complying with his monetary extortion and has evicted many long time residents of both properties. The real problem with all of this is the city is in the process of taking over the property and closing both hotels to make the property a staging area for highway improvements and redevelopment due to the upcoming loss of the Cowboys to a neighboring city. The city is playing hardball because the manager who is being so unreasonable with everyone has managed to piss off every official involved in one way or the other over the last few years and is under investigation by various and sundry agencies. His coercive efforts are mainly to maximize his cash position as part of the ownership group before jumping ship and leaving for another property in Louisiana when the city closes these two properties. While they are still open and my partner is out of the country, employees and residents are being forced into untenable situations or evicted due to the whims of the scurrilous rat that is in charge. The end result will be Uncle Gerry having to relocate and finding another part time gig while working to make the moving company a profitable and paying proposition. Lots of emotions and hard feelings, and doubts about the immediate future has made Uncle Gerry a none to happy camper and rather than bring negative BS into Nichevo I have opted to just post the eye candy for your enjoyment.
Depression is a problem I have dealt with in many ways over the years and I know I am not the only person who has to deal with this problem. My blog buddy Ryan has written about his fight with depression many times and Ryan Field the staff writer who did my interview at Best Gay Blogs has interviewed him about this subject. The interview should be posted today or tomorrow at the Best Gay Blogs website. So the adventures of Uncle Gerry continue as events swirl around us before we resolve the issues involved and the dust settles. I will keep you posted while trying my best to maintain the positive atmosphere you have come to expect here in my little corner of the world.

So now I will leave you with today's eye candy selections as soon as I make them for your viewing pleasure, there will be a little extra to make up for not posting yesterday. Stay tuned to Nichevo for the continuing adventures of your intrepid host and blog buddy, Uncle Gerry. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
















































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Monday, January 28, 2008

An Unexpected Discovery

While wiling away the hours on the mid shift this morning, I was surfing the Internet on the public computer in the lobby. Late Sunday nights in Irving, TX sans a Cowboy game are less than thrilling as you may well imagine. At any rate I surfed over to Best Gay Blogs to see if my interview had been published so I could tell you guys that it was up. I had received an email from Ryan Field saying that he had submitted the interview and it was going to be up Monday or Tuesday. Well as of 2 AM it was not up so I decided to read this article that I had skipped by in previous surfs, John Cloud: The Pumpkin Ravioli Boy from Time Magazine for the simple reason the thought of Pumpkin Ravioli was not something I would desire to eat as it sounds distasteful to me. Pasta and Pumpkin were not words I usually associated with each other. The article was written by Ryan Field as a response to The Science of Romance article written by Mr Cloud in today's issue of Time magazine (published last week) in which he had cited personal experience and limited research while stating "Why gay couples have more equality and less tension at home...but still split up more often than straight pairs". Ryan made the point in his rant that too often we as Gay people are, as I commented to him at the end of the article, "painted with a brush sparingly dipped in ineffective research". Ryan went on to articulate his points with which I agreed. At the end of the piece he printed the letter he had written to the editor of Time magazine stating that it would probably not be printed reiterating the points he made in his article. It was at the end of this letter that I was truly surprised when I discovered my name mentioned. I had no way thought I would be referenced as I do not know John Cloud and Time magazine does not even know that I exist. But I must say "Thank You" to Ryan Field for the following kind words:

  • So, next week, as an apology for ranting like this, look forward to a wonderful personal interview with "Uncle Gerry", who is connected to everyone's favorites, Ryan and Mike. "Uncle Gerry" is probably one of the sweetest guys in blogging, and I don't think anyone will be disappointed with his candid answers.

Now if Time magazine does publish the letter then America will know there is an Uncle Gerry who blogs from his little corner of the world. That to me is a mind blower as I sit in my little corner of the world and contemplate what could possibly result from Ryan's kind words at the end of a rant to the editors of Time magazine. When I started blogging, I was just one guy in a small apartment in a small suburb of Dallas, Tx reaching out to the world in hopes of making a few friends to alleviate the loneliness inherent in my life. As a result of that small beginning in November of 2006, I have made friends and reached an audience that is ever increasing which is world wide in its scope. In fact if you look closely at the ClustrMap of where my readers come from (I open it in a new tab to get a better look) I have readers in some of the remotest regions of the world. There is one dot which is obviously an island in the middle of the South Pacific (which one I know not) where someone reads my little blog on a regular basis. This is amazing to me as I never thought I would get the response that I have received from the unlikeliest of places. My readers come in all colors and nationalities from America to Asia, North Pole to South, an amazing factoid in and of itself. I have also become friends with some of the most caring and compassionate people in the world with whom I communicate regularly and without whom my life would much poorer. It is extremely gratifying to know there are people out there who care what happens in my life enough to come read about it on a daily basis. In the course of time my little corner of the world has been noticed by some quite famous personalities and many, many just regular folks who have all taken the time to write to me to tell me they like what they find here. I thank you all for having done so and hope that I can continue inform and entertain you with my opinions, humor, the various videos I find to bring to you and of course my personal taste in eye candy. I look forward to the publication of my interview by Ryan being published on Best Gay Blogs and seeing the response that brings here at Nichevo. Who knows, maybe there is a future for me in writing after all.


I am still working on the special post on photographer Henning von Berg but promise to have it ready for you although maybe not in the original time frame I have posted about. HvB Photography has been so gracious to provide me with a wealth of material which I am still going through. I want to do justice to this amazing photographer and his works of art so I am diligently working to do so. Stay tuned for the resulting post, I will let you know when it is coming for sure.


I have an update for you on the accident in which my friends were killed on Thursday night. The driver of the car, a '93 Jaguar, was indeed drunk when he ran it under an 18 wheeler making a left turn on Irving Blvd in front of him in the rain. The Dallas Morning News reported the speed as 60 to 70 miles an hour where as the Police Officer who came to notify the wives estimated it to be around 100. Either speed was too fast for the conditions. The DMN also reported a witness to the accident had to wake the driver to remove him from the vehicle which was burning. The driver has since been charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter which if there is any justice in the world should keep him out from behind the wheel and off the streets for a long, long time. His deplorable actions took the lives of two wonderful people who will be sorely missed by their families and friends which include yours truly.


I posted about the coming out blogs I read yesterday. I spent the afternoon doing something I often do when I find a blog I really like. I go back to the beginning of the blog to read all the archived posts. I like to follow the path to see how the blogger arrived at the point where I discovered him (or her). I did that yesterday with Troystopher, a private blog where you need an invitation to read along with a Google account to log in. You really should email Troy for an invitation at troychristopher@gmail.com as he is an highly intelligent young man who writes with style and passion about many things. He is politically aware, activist minded, public spirited and quite good looking. Yesterday marked his 100th post for which I offer my hearty congratulations, I hope there are many more to come.


In the political spectrum the idiot in the White House will be lying to the American people on national television to night. I think I will turn the TV off after Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles as he has nothing to say that will be truthful or helpful to me. His sole purpose in his last year in office is to screw as many people as he can while lining the pockets of his buddies. It has been rumoured that he intends to move to Dallas when he gets out of office. I may just have to move somewhere else as I have no desire to live anywhere near the sob.


So there you have it for today, I leave you with today's eye candy section. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
































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Update: as of 6:29 AM the interview is up on the Best Gay Blogs home page, go on over and check it out!