Another President’s Day weekend has passed, the last three-day holiday weekend until the Memorial Day holiday in May. This year was no different from the recent one’s here – Aaron (my spouse) and I were invited again to the mansion that is home to a friend of ours who lives in Loudoun County, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. To read last year’s post on this outing, please click here. As we’re in the dregs of winter, our friend uses this three-day weekend as an opportunity to have his same gender loving bare friends over for an aquatic weekend and a brief respite from winter.
Category: Aaron
Friday Footnote: 2018 Flu
Author’s Note: Today’s post is an update to an earlier feature published here last month. To view the previous publication, please click here.
It seems that the news on this year’s flu outbreak isn’t getting better as the season progresses. Although the incidents aren’t proving to be as fatal as once feared, the pesky virus is leaving discomfort and misery with those infected. I know this because I was ill with the flu for most of this winter’s holiday. Trust me on this, it was no picnic! Evidently, I am in excellent company. In the USA, infection numbers are higher than usual.
V-Day Photo Project
Valentine’s Day is two days away and for those who are still trying to decide on a way to make that day memorable, here’s another idea that may help. The first Valentine’s Day that Aaron and I were together as a couple (pre-marriage) we commemorated this date by having a couple who are our friends take photographs of us together. We then reciprocated doing the same for them. We discussed this project prior to our shoot and planned eight or nine poses that we believed captured our essence as a partnership.
The Baths
Before anyone goes ballistic, allow me to explain that this post is most definitely not referring to bath-houses but rather the simple practice of taking a leisurely bath, in your own home or his, with the man who you love, or at least are attracted towards. I can also state here that, for the record, I have never visited a gay bath-house and wouldn’t even begin to know how to write about that experience. By the time that I reached adolescence, gay bath-houses had been outlawed in the Commonwealth of Virginia in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Reflections: End of January, 2018
During this month, my second January composing this site, ReNude Pride, my thoughts turned to an observation that a fellow bare practitioner and good friend once shared with me: “When in doubt, get naked. If he objects to it, he’ll walk away from you. If he strongly objects, he’ll run away from you. If he accepts it, he’ll sit with you. If he’s comfortable with it, he’ll get naked with you.” And that is exactly how my good friend and I initially met one another.
A Penny For My Thoughts? Blogging Update
Author’s Note: This month, January, 2018, is my first anniversary of blogging here with the title: ReNude Pride. Today’s post is a celebration of this blogging achievement.
As this month rapidly approaches closing, I would be completely an ungracious fool if I allowed this occasion to pass by without publicly thanking the man who enables me to do this, the man that I love and have committed my life to, my spouse, Aaron. I am grateful for not only his support of my efforts here, but his patiently listening as I share my ideas for this site. I love you, my man!
Bad News: The Flu
No matter what our clothing status maybe, bare (naked, nude) or clothed (textile or clothes-wearer), the pesky and troublesome virus known as influenza (flu) often preys on us all. It doesn’t discriminate because of what we do, or don’t, wear. It can, and does, affect all of us, gay (same gender loving), bisexual (dual gender loving) and opposite gender loving (straight) indiscriminately and without mercy. As a health-conscious man, I dutifully received my annual flu shot for this season on December 1, 2017. Less than three weeks later, I was diagnosed with the flu.
Mixed Couples
In my warped and convoluted way of thinking – which I am among the first to admit is very nudecentric (nude-focused) – a mixed couple is nothing more than one partner in the relationship who prefers being bare and the other partner who prefers to be textile (clothed). That’s how I define a mixed couple. It’s not a judgment on the individuals who make up the couple, just a means of defining them – together. It’s how I view them as they relate to Aaron and myself.
A Halloween Picnic
This weekend is the weekend before the Halloween celebrations here in the USA. In the accompanying photograph, I’m posing in my 2012 Halloween costume – a mask with a salmon-colored “clip-on” bow-tie – and, obviously wearing nothing but my natural skin. A very comfortable and enjoyable costume for me. The only stress that I recall encountering that year was in trying to put on the tie that clipped-on in the back. Thankfully I had my then-boyfriend, Aaron (who’s now my legal spouse) to help me get the clip fastened.
Evolving To Nudity
In life, very little remains the same forever. Seasons change, our neighborhoods change and so do people. Sometimes it’s just an obscure subtle difference that we scarcely notice and others times, it’s a major change that catches the majority of us by surprise and causes unsettling stress into our lives. But people evolve, we change, all the time. The person we thought we knew ten years ago could very well be a completely different individual know. It isn’t anyone’s fault, it’s just human nature. For the most part, we don’t even notice it – it just happens.
ReNude Pride: Guys Without Boxers! 