#the temporary greatest real estator ever

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Found it!!!

#pickles #the temporary greatest real estator ever #😍

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California Summer - B.H. Smut [one]

Synopsis: Kings Cove California is Billy Hargrove’s hometown. It’s also a popular summer vacation destination for rich couples and their spoiled kids. (Y/N) is one of those rich girls. Proper, sweet, innocent. Only that all bores her to death and Billy is just the adventure she’s been looking for. It’s all fun and games. A summer fling. Not strings attached. Right? 

Inspired by the songs “dreaming of you” and “Kiss it off me” by Cigarettes After Sex.

 A/N: This is smut, babes. Filthy. I will sit in the shame cube after I post it. Please if that is not fore you, don’t read it. Also do not interact if you’re under 18, that’s just not cool. Kay, thanks ♥

Might fuck around and make this a series.

[additional note: I am German. Sometimes I get the tense wrong or make mistakes. I am useless when it comes to punctuation. Go easy on me, please.]

There’s something about California summers, Billy thinks, thank makes them special. They’re hot and sticky and messy but they’re also exciting and exhilarating. The world seems to be dusted in a perpetual golden glow and days seem endless and full of possibility.

Maybe that sentiment is what brings all the tourists to the little coastal town of Kings Cove, California. A town caught between the undeniable charm of an old sleepy coastal town and the ever-expanding demand for tourist-friendly beach houses in gated communities where rich people can relish in the charm the town brings and then piss off once their vacation days are over.

Billy was born here, raised here until he was 17 and shipped off to forge his path in shitville Indiana. He was miserable then, but a shadow of himself. Angry and sad and overwhelmed by emotions he never learned to properly deal with. Singers and artists always seem to find something poetic about being young and angry and lost. Truth is: there’s nothing poetic about it, nothing romantic or desirable. It’s hard and it kills you slowly. Starting with your heart and then taking over every part of you, slowly but surely.

Soon as he turned 18 and was handed his High School diploma, Billy packed all his belongings into the Camaro and was off. The drive back to California, back home, it felt cleansing. Like a rebirth. A return to life at his own terms.

He got out. He survived. This, Billy is sure, he would always pride himself with no matter how trivial it may seem to anyone else. He got out. Not completely whole. Severely bruised. He got out with a heart so scared he’s sceptical it will ever fully heal. But he got out.

Though coming home didn’t come without its hardships and obstacles. There was nothing waiting for him here but a bunch of questions and an uncertain future. Finding a job, a place to stay, a point from which to start — it was hard. It still is hard. But he’s trying his best.

Kings Cove has a handful of restaurants, some convenience stores, a gym, a few bars, a drive-in, a normal cinema and a bowling alley. It’s really nothing spectacular and yet it seems there’s more and more tourist making it their temporary home in the months between May and September. It started about 5 years ago, that the town started changing with the increase in tourism. They bulldozed the playground Billy always played at, the one closest to the beach and built a bunch of fancy-ass houses and condos and a fucking Starbucks. It pains him to see it. To watch the town he loves so much, the one that holds so much charm, turn into a sandbox for rich people to shape and turn and make it something it isn’t. Something empty and lifeless.

The good thing about those tourists though, is that they are really really rich. Absolutely filthy rich. The kind of rich where they don’t know what to do with their money so you can charge them insane prices for ordinary things.

And that’s what the locals have started doing. A scoop of ice cream used to be 30ct, now it’s a dollar. You gotta bend with the world. You gotta adapt. Surviving means changing even if it sucks ass.

When he first arrived back, Billy had no idea how to navigate this place with all its changes. He felt so god damn out of place in his own home. That’s until he reconnected with Johnny, an old friend from middle school. A kid who grew up in a home filled with anger and sadness just as Billy did. Someone who understood. Someone who understands.

Johnny had it all figured out, adapted and changed. Got Billy a job at the maintenance business he works at. Fixing rain gutters and mowing lawns and cleaning driftwood off the sections of private beach belonging to the beach houses. It’s not the greatest job in the world but it’s alright and it pays good money and sometimes Billy even gets to hang out at the houses when the rich people are out taking surf lessons or doing a wine tasting a town over or try their luck on a god damn banana boat.

Kings Cove is small and the locals know each other. They’re a community tightly bonded through their shared disdain for the change their beloved town went through and the knowledge that though they can’t change anything, they can at least make the vacationers pay big money for everything.

It’s his second summer now and most of the families whose houses he tends to he’s already familiar with. You don’t forget the people who tip you 50 bucks each time. On Mondays, Billy cares for the Millers’ backyard. On Wednesday he makes sure the Callaghans’ pool is clean and still stinks of way too much chlorine. On Thursdays, it’s the Franklins’ estate that needs tending to. And weekends? Those are off.

Weekends mean he gets to enjoy the California summer himself. He goes out to the beach just after sunrise, to catch a few waves or just hang out in the ocean and let it wash away the stress resting on his shoulders from a whole week of hard work. Later, much later, when the sun is about to set, the real fun begins. There’s a bonfire almost every week. No one is ever quite sure who starts it and no official invitations are ever spoken though everyone knows and sure enough, every Saturday a crowd of young people gather by the driftwood pile and hang out and drink and dance as the bonfire crackles on.

It’s not just locals either. There’s always a few stray tourists there. Billy isn’t really all that interested in getting to know them. This is just a blip on their radar. A temporary adventure. But to him this place is home and he’s so fucking tired of these rich kids coming around and acting like they own the place. He’s the first to admit though, that the girls are quite hot and he doesn’t mind a little fling here and there without the fear of having them want anything permanent, knowing their time together comes with an expiry date. They can be quite fun and they’re so willing to let themselves fall into an intimate adventure with a local.

There’s no chase, no effort from him. The only annoying thing is they usually don’t grasp the idea of a summer fling and get clingy to the point where it becomes frustrating.

It’s a bonfire like any other, when his eyes drift across the beach, filled with people mingling all clutching a bottle or a cup. Nothing feels different or spectacular or special. But maybe that’s the thing about special moments — we don’t realise they’re special until we look at them in retrospect. And then they mean everything.

His eyes meet hers across the way. There are no fireworks. His heart beats at a normal rate. Whatever the movies and the songs try to sell you, that’s not how it really happens. Your world won’t shift and there will be no hummingbirds going wild in your stomach. It’s just a glance, a flicker. A moment that seems to hold no significance at all.

Billy can tell she’s not from here. Her outfit says it all. She’s wearing a long flowy skirt and a white tank top and some denim jacket over it that looks like it probably belongs to some boy with a trust fund and a name like Kyle or Charles. In her hair, there’s a clip with a fake flower on it. She looks expensive and fancy and like a piece of work that he’s not willing to put any effort in. He bets the guy beside her, the one that keeps playing with her hair. The one in the polo shirt. That’s probably her boy. His dad owns a boat for sure and probably fucks his secretary.

And even though he pulls his eyes away, he can feel his thoughts drift back towards her. As if some magnetic force tries to keep his mind there, with her. On the way she smiles, or how the wind blows through her hair and makes them looks messy and disorderly and — hot. On how he wants to be the one making a mess of her. He wonders what she feels like, tastes like, sounds like. Even Billy can’t deny he wants her. She’s just his type though something tells him she’s different from his other flings. There’s something deeper in her eyes. A secret he wants to unravel. It’s hidden there and it’s screaming out to him and only him.

As he turns back towards her, he sees her looks straight back at him. With those eyes full of secrets and that smirk on her lips.

Maybe his heart does beat a little faster then. Though he’ll never admit it.

That night he goes to bed and dreams of her and the beach and California.

California summers come with heat but they also come with thunderous storms. Mighty and unforgiving and rough.

Billy makes his way down the roads of Kings Cove, windshield wipers just about dealing with the heavy rainfall as it drums down onto his car window.

“ It’s the wrath of all women scorned and mistreated “ his mother used to say when he was younger and a storm washed over them. He always thought that was silly. Women aren’t thunderstorms, they’re April showers. They’re sunshine on your skin. They’re dewdrops on the lawn.

It’s so dull and gloomy he almost doesn’t see her. Only the peach coloured baseball cap makes her stand out against the grey. She’s slowly walking along the side of the road, unbothered by the downpour. Casual and relaxed as if she’s not getting soaked right this moment. There’s a Slurpee in her hand, blue raspberry.

He wants to drive past and no let himself be bothered with it. This, she, it’s not a mess he needs to get involved in. This can only end in a disaster. Rich boys don’t like you picking up their girlfriends. Rich boys also don’t like you lusting after their girlfriends. And rich boys who see you as a threat can get your ass fired real fucking quick.

And yet he pulls up to the curb and rolls down the window. “ Do you need a ride? “.

She smiles at him, the same way she did that night at the beach in the glow of the bonfire. Her lips are cherry red and for a second he wonders what they taste like. It’s like a primal desire, to taste her. To have her. God, he’s such a guy.

“ Need? No. I’d like one though.”

It’s the first time he hears her voice. It sounds so proper, so innocent. And yet there’s an edge to it. She’s all riddles and mysteries and things he wants to unpack and unravel. Something tells him all the red and the ribbons are only the outermost layer of who she really is. And wouldn’t he like to see more of her?!

“ Get in then,” he instructs with the nudge of his head. A gust of wind follows her as she opens the door and slides into the car. She smells of sunscreen and salt and artificial raspberry flavour. She smells like summer.

“ I’m Billy. “

“ I know. “

That catches him off guard. Sure he knows the locals and some of the kids whose parents he works for but that’s about it. He’s not nearly as prolific as he used to be in Hawkins. He’s a bit more mellow now if he can say so himself.

“ And you are?”

“ (Y/N). (Y/N) (Y/L/N). You tend to our beach house on Tuesdays. I saw you clean our pool the other day”.

That’s news to him. The fact that the (Y/L/N)s have a daughter. He thought it was only her parents alone in that big house in some attempt to rekindle the fire of their marriage. Last year it was only them two, he could swear.

“ Is that so? I could’ve sworn it was just your parents in that house. “

“ Was just them last year, I was in New York City last summer. This time they decided to bring me. Let me enjoy the California sun. “

“ So you enjoying it? “

“ Verdict is still out but I quite like the view yeah. “

The teasing edge in her voice does not get lost on him. If Billy Hargrove is good at one thing, it’s realising when a girl is flirting with him.

“ You watching me then? What does your little boyfriend think about that, huh?”

“ Boyfriend? “ she sounds almost offended at those words, spits it with a certain malice that takes Billy by surprise. “ You mean Dawson? “

Dawson. Of course, that’s his name. Fucking Dawson. Dawson with the swoopy hair and the polo shirt. Dawson with the trust fund. Dawson with the DUI and the state attorney dad. Dawson with the scholarship.

“ Dunno his name.”

“ He’s not my boyfriend. He’s a friend that’s a boy that thinks if he waves around his money I’ll spread my legs for him. As if I don’t have my own money. It’s so unsexy it makes my pussy dry as the Serengeti.”

Billy has to stop himself from pushing the brakes too hard. It’s not something he has expected her to say. Not this outright at least. Something about her brashness and her honesty is truly charming though. It’s endearing for sure.

“ Wearing his jacket though, poor guy thinks he’ll score soon enough.”

“ Eh. Maybe I’ll let him. I’m getting a bit bored. If nothing better comes along— “ she says it casually and shrugs her shoulders but Billy swears there’s an open end to that sentence. Almost like an invitation.

“ Hope pretty boy does it for you then. So — where to? “

She faces him, peach baseball cap on her head and cherry smile on her lips. “ See, the thing is that my parents aren’t home right now and I don’t have a key so … “

“ So...? “

“ Just wanna hang somewhere until they get home tonight. Maybe somewhere dry? “

Everything in him screams at him not to do it. Not to get tangled up in this. He knows, god he knows, this is a bad idea and yet he says it anyway.

“ Do you wanna chill at my place? “

She bites her lips then takes another sip from her Slurpee. “ Yeah, sounds good to me.”

God Billy, you are such a dumbass.

Billy’s apartment is small but he feels more at home here than he ever did in any house he shared with his father.

There’s an open kitchen/living room area, a bathroom and his bedroom. It’s not much but it’s his and that makes all the difference.

“ Well uh — this is my place. “

He almost expects to see some kind of disdain on her face, disappointment too maybe. She’s used to big fancy houses with white shutters and stucco ceilings. Though when he turns to look at her there’s none of it. Just curiosity. No judgment. Not even a tiny spark. Not even at all.

“ It’s nice. Do you uh — I’m soaked. Do you have a shirt or something you could give me?”

It’s now, that he lets his eyes travel down her body, and notices her shirt clinging to her body. She’s not wearing a bra and it’s painfully obvious and he swears he dies in that moment. There’s only so much a guy’s heart can take.

“ Uh. I — mmh.”

As if his body works on autopilot, Billy hurries towards his bedroom and rummages through his closet until he finds a shirt that’s even baggy on him and will surely work for her. God, seeing her in his clothes is gonna give him another little heart attack.

“ Here you g — “ she’s naked. Not completely but her shirt and jeans are gone and all she’s in is a pair of red underwear and no bra and some socks and that damn peach baseball hat.

“ Huh? you never seen a pair of tits before? “

“ No, I have. “

“ Good. “

“ Yeah. Here “

She smirks as Billy hands her the shirt, doesn’t break eye contact. Not even once and she slips if over her head and almost drowns in the fabric. It reaches down to mid-thigh and she looks glorious. Wet hair clinging to her skin, shirt covering everything but just barely. Bily is usually suave and charming and smooth. Why not now? Why not with her? What is it about this girl that she plays his games better than he does it himself.

“ You want something to eat? “

What the fuck, Billy. There’s a half-naked girl in your kitchen and you’re asking her if she wants food? What is going on?!

“ Sure, what’ve you got? “

“ Lemme see — “ Billy says and turns towards the kitchen cabinets and (Y/N) slides up and sits down on the island. Her ass must be flush on the counter and Billy has to stop himself from following that thought any further because that would result in a serious hard-on right now.

“ So I got some Nachos aaand — “ he says and squats down to open a lower cabinet, “ I think there’s guacamole somewh— “

A soft thump interrupts him and, as he realises what’s caused the sound, his heart drops straight down into his pants and his whole body goes hot. Like his entire system is going haywire.

His hand reaches out to take the flimsy red fabric into his hand. Her underwear. This has crossed flirting long ago. This is an obvious invitation and if this was any other girl or any other situation he’d already be balls deep inside her so why not now?

As Billy turns to look at her, the teasing smirk is back, her eyebrow is raised in a way that tells him she’s challenging his next move, and the secrets are back sparkling in her eyes.

“ Oops “ she says though he can tell she’s all but sorry.

“ What are you doing? You have a boyfriend. “

“ Uuuugh ”  (Y/N) moans in annoyance, “ I told you, he’s not my boyfriend. He’s just a boy who doesn’t get it. I have a lot of boys in a lot of cities who all do not get it. They think because they’re rich and their parents have influence, everyone has to do as they wish. They’re not used to not getting what they want and I like to see ‘em get pissy once they realise they can’t have me. Billy those guys — they are so boring. So dull and if I have to listen to one more lecture about politics or their scholarship or how their daddy helped finance the university’s library I am going to off myself. “

“ So what role do I play in this game? You’re just a rich girl who’s bored with her suitors then, huh? What am I ? “

“ Exciting. You are different. You are you, no ifs or buts. You are your own person not a clone of your wealthy father and his even wealthier father. You are exciting and so. fucking. hot. “

Billy doesn’t notice it happening but suddenly he’s so close he can feel her breath on his skin. She’ so close. So close. All he has to do is reach out and grab her. Touch her. Kiss her. Taste her.

“ Fuck me.”

“ You sure? “ he murmurs, voice low and deep and soothing. “That’s all this is gonna be. Sex and fun and nothing serious. “

“ Just fun. No strings. I’ll leave at the end of the summer anyway. Until then we can — explore. “

“ Explore? “

“ Mmh. There’s so much we can do.“

“ Sounds good to me. “

Billy doesn’t give her time to reply before his lips descend on hers. She doesn’t taste like cherries or chapstick or sugar. She tastes cold and like fake raspberry slushy. Billy thinks it’s his favourite flavour now.

His hands wander up and down her sides and hers get tangled in his curls, combing through his hair and tugging slightly. She’s breathing deep, quick breaths as his lips make their way across her neck and down towards her boobs. He bunches the shirt up and pulls it over her head leaving her naked on his kitchen counter. She’s absolutely fucking breathtaking and his jeans are getting awfully tight around the front.

“ You’re so hot “ he murmurs against her skin as he buries his head in the crook of her neck. Her skin is flushed and there’s a cute red tint to her cheeks. Maybe he was wrong about it on all accounts. Maybe she’s not as innocent as he has first thought.

Her fingers slip down his body and straight into the front of his jeans, grabbing his dick and squeezing his hard on softly. Yeah, she’s definitely not as innocent as he had first thought.

It’s a clash of teeth and a tongues and a lot of saliva. This is messy and raw and rough and he feels like he’s died and gone straight to heaven. With every second, his lips wander a little further down her hot skin, placing kisses one every inch he can reach until he’s kneeling in front of her. Her eyes lock on his as she spreads her legs further letting him see just what he’s been lusting after since the first moment he’s laid eyes on her. He feels like a man starving being presented with an all you can eat buffet.

Their eyes lock as his lips kiss the spot where her abdomen meet her thighs. It’s not where she wants him but it’s enough to make her go fuzzy in the head.

“ I’ll make you forget about all those rich fuckboys, baby.”

And he does. God, he does. As soon as he licks at her clit she can’t recall a single name of any other boy she’s ever met. He devours her like he was born to do nothing but eat a girl out. There’s kisses followed by kitten licks followed by more kisses. It’s driving her crazy, the way he flicks his tongue.

(Y/N) lifts her leg to rest on his shoulder as her hand reaches down burying herself in his hair. The way she tugs, the slight pangs of pain, it’s delicious. Billy can’t get enough of it. He adds a finger, then two, slowly in and out, the faster, then even faster. He knows she’s close by the way she throws her head back, bites her lips. Her lipstick is everywhere, her hair clings to her skin now from sweat instead of rain. She’s a mess and he’s so proud of getting her to this point. He further spreads her lips, lapping up the wetness, sucking at her clit, making her come undone right there on his kitchen counter.

The moans that fall off of her lips are almost pornographic, he wonders if her parents know the kind of activities she gets up to when they’re away. He bets they don’t. She’s a princess at home. Nice and proper. A princess who spends her free time getting fucked by their poolboy.

Billy pulls away at the last minute which (Y/N) really doesn’t enjoy. She pouts at him, gives him a sound of pure dismay. “ Why did you stop? “ she questions, voice breathy, almost incoherent.

“ Cause I wanna feel you cum when I fuck you. “

He’s not usually this bold and brash. Girls like lovely words. They like soft voices and hushed whispers and for boys to say nice things during sex. Not her. She wants the dirt and the mess and the honesty.

(Y/N)’s hand finds its way back to his crotch, pulling down the zipper of his jeans and freeing his solid boner.

“ No boxers? “ there’s a glimmer of mischief playing in her eyes.

“ You complaining? “

“ Fuck no. I’d suck you off but I want you inside me — like right now. “

Billy only nods, before fumbling a condom from his wallet and pulling it down his cock. He shares her sentiment. All he wants to be right now, is inside her.

Rough hands grab her hips and turn her around before pushing her down. Her boobs as flush against the counter, ass on full display. She’s a sight for sore eyes. A masterpiece.

Billy can’t keep his hands off her ass. He has to grab a handful, squeeze it, caress it. There’s boob guys and butt guys and then there are guys like Billy who know that both those features are mutually phenomenal and to limit yourself by choosing one or the other is a move only a fool would make and he ain’t no fool.

Billy lines himself up at her slit. He can’t wait to feel her around him, wet and warm and throbbing and —

“ What are you waiting for? “ she grunts, impatience clear in her voice and she tries to wiggle her ass closer to him.

“ Patience, baby.” Billy instructs as he grabs onto her hips and pulls her even closer. Her skin is so soft, so perfect. There’s a primal desire in leaving his marks of passion there so he leans over and places little love bites on her shoulder. They’ll be easy for her to cover up with a shirt but he’ll know they are there and that’s all that matters to him.

Slowly, painfully slowly, he trails his erection up and down her entrance, coating it in her arousal. He’s really not looking forward to clean this mess later on but right now it’s damn worth it by the way she’s trembling and wiggling underneath him, desperate for some stimulation.

“ Patience is not a word I know, sorry “ she’s so god damn desperate it almost makes him cum before he even gets a fuck in.

“ Yeah me neither. “

With those words he sinks into her and it feels heavenly. Engulfed by her warmth, her wetness, her passion. Quite frankly, he’s convinced, there’s no better place to be in the entire world, than buried in the pussy of a pretty girl.

Billy moves his hips slowly, deliberately, set a rhythm and a pace. He watches his cock disappear inside of her then slide back out in a delicious cadency as he dings his fingers into her hips, surely leaving bruises.

The moans tumbling from her lips are almost pornographic though he can tell they’re real and honest. There’s no reason for her to fake anything. He’s pretty sure she’d set him straight if he was doing something wrong.

“ more. “ she gasps, breath hitching as she pushes back against him, taking him even deeper. This girl is a dream if he’s ever seen one.

Billy speeds up his movements, slamming into her at a faster pace, pounding her against the counter. The air is hot and both of them are so sweaty and the room smells of sex and salty ocean air. God, he loves California summers and pretty girls.

There’s a fire lit in his lower abdomen as she whimpers and arches her back off of the counter. Billy lifts one hand off of her hips and grabs onto her front, caressing her soft tits and pulling her upright so her back is flush against his chest. The sheen of sweat covering them makes it hard to figure out where one of them ends and the other begins. Right then, they are one. Her peach colored baseball cap falls off of her head and onto the floor, where the rest of their clothes lie discarded.

His hand desperately moves across her chest, squeezing and teasing and trailing fingers around her nipples, hard from arousal.

“ Oh fuck yes. “

The confirmation that he’s doing something right, that he’s making her feel good, makes Billy’s ego grow 3 sizes. He’s such a sucker for validation.

He snaps his hips faster, harder, tries to go deeper. His hand grabs onto her thigh and lifts it up so her knee is resting on the counter letting him fuck her at a whole new angle.

At the way she cries out in ecstasy he knows he’S doing something extremely right. “God, right there. “ she almost sobs. Billy’s sure she’s biting her lip so hard it must be close to drawing blood.

Billy buries his head in her messy hair, softly traces kisses and love bites up and down her neck, tugs on her earlobe with his teeth. “ Yeah? Your pussy is a dream, baby. A fucking dream.” he grunts, voice laced with lust.

“ I’m gonna cum, Billy. “

He can tell, by the way she trembles, clenches around him. By the way her breathing hitches. And he’s right there with her.

There’s a fire pulsing through him, shockwaves rippling. It bubbles in his abdomen then boils over. With every snap of his hips the movements get more arrhythmic, messy, uncoordinated, desperate

A bunch of expletives fall from her lips but Billy can hardly make them out as his own orgasm washes over him. It feels like time slows and every sound disappeared into a white static. Nothing matters then but to chase that high and catch it and get some sweet release.

Billy feels her cum around him, squeezing him tightly in the process. The way she moans his name, as if it’s both a secret and a confession to himself and the world, that’s what does it for him.

Grabbing her hips with both hands, he holds her in place, before pounding into her with a few last uncoordinated hard thrusts. And then his vision goes black for a moment and his brain stops functioning as he cums into the condom.

For a moment there’s no sound but them trying to catch their breath as they slump down against the counter, spent from the activities. Sweaty, filthy, messy. But oh so satisfied and content.

Billy pulls out of her and for a second he misses her warm and tight around him. Like he was meant to stay there forever. Fuck, he’s such a guy.

Another heartbeat passes and (Y/N) lets out a melodic but breathless giggle. “ I could go for some Nachos and Guac right now. “

This girl is really something else.

They devour the snacks while lazing on his couch. Naked as they came to this earth, unbothered. Maybe this is what makes him go so absolutely feral about her, the fact that she’s so uncomplicated. Yeah she comes with all kinds of warning signs and bad news for him but being with her like this it’s so easy. Like they’ve been some kinds of friends for a long time.

Their bodies are always touching in one way or another. As if they can’t get enough. Billy’s sitting on the couch, feet resting on the coffee table while her legs are places on his lap, cigarette dangling from her fingers. The air is sticky and humid and even the late afternoon breeze doesn’t bring any cooling-off.

As his eyes fall onto the clock on the wall, Billy lets out a frustrated grunt. “ Fuck.”

“ What’s the matter?”

“ I’m supposed to meet my friend Johnny at the gym in about 10 minutes. Totally forgot about it. “

“ Do you have to go? “

“ I really should. “

“ You’ve had quite the workout today though. “

Billy scoffs a laugh at her words before plucking the cigarette from her fingers and taking a drag. He lets the smoke sit in his chest for a moment, hoping to capture even a bit of the warmth he felt when buried balls deep inside her cunt.

It doesn’t work.

“ He’s waiting for me. “

“ Aw, that’s too bad. “ she says grabs the cigarette back and, after one last drag, then stubs it out in the ashtray resting on the coffee table. “ I was just about to ask for a round two. Guess I’ll have to do it by myself then. That’s fine. “

Her fingers trail down her body, teasing her nipples before descending towards her slit. She slowly circles her clit. Billy is honesty sure she’ll be the death of him. This girl is so sweet yet so dirty and he’s not sure he’s ever met someone like her.

“ You gonna sit there and finger yourself on my couch ? “

“ You gonna sit there and watch and not join in? Come on Billy, I can give you quite the workout. No gym necessary. Do I have to beg? “

Yes. God he wants to hear her beg but that makes him feel a bit — uneasy. He doesn’t want her to think he doesn’t want this just as much as she does. Maybe they can leave the begging for another day.

“ You’re insatiable, huh? “ he asks as he settles himself on top of her, lips colliding with hers ina fiery kiss.

(Y/N) just nods, a satisfied moan slipping from her lips as his fingers nudge her hand away and replace them softly trailing up and down her slit, slipping inside every once in a while.

“ What can I say? It’s a bad habit I just can’t seem to quit.”

Maybe this is a really bad idea. Maybe he’s getting himself into more trouble than he needs right now. But the way she feels and sounds and taste make it worth it.

As the sun sets upon the horizon and the summer storm has long passed on to another coastal town, Billy thinks that it’s so worth it if only he can feel like this for the rest of the summer.

There’s really nothing quite like a California summer and a pretty girl with a dirty mind.

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[bookandcranny]

If You can Change Your Tune

The interloper arrives in a rented moving van, the same sort as all the ones before.

“Are you sure about this?” her friend asks as they pull up to the house. “I know you’ve always had a thing for fixer-uppers but this place might be beyond saving.”

Even as she unlocks the front door the wind whistles a note of warning through its rickety frame. The floorboards beneath their feet crackle and moan at the intrusion.

“All it needs is a little love,” the interloper retorts. Her name is Ann. I remember her from the showing, a woman of insufferably good cheer walking room to room with the equally annoying realtor of the week, a dopey smile hanging from her lips.

I didn’t think much of it at the time. People like her come around from time to time with aspirations in their heads of moving into the rural countryside to rehabilitate my thickets into sprawling gardens or write the next great American novel from within my historic walls. Seeing the reality of the place in person was usually enough to convince them to chase their fantasies elsewhere. However, it appears this particular happy-go-lucky thorn in my side needs a bit more work to dislodge.

“Are you sure you’re not in over your head?” the other one asks. I try to guess at their relationship. Friend? Sister? A lover? I’m sick to death of couples.

“It’s a little late for me to back out now,” Ann laughs, twirling the keys around her finger. “Don’t worry, Nick’s bringing his crew over tomorrow to start on the repairs. She’s a project but the foundation’s sound. Next time you see this place she’ll be a real beauty.”

“’She’?”

“Yeah, you know, like how people call cars or boats a she.” She climbs the stairs and runs her hand along the dusty banister. I think of splinters— with luck maybe she’ll get tetanus- but nothing comes of it.

The house is my body. Two stories, twelve rooms not including the attic, an old-fashioned spiral staircase, and me, the greatest antique of all, left to rot. Once upon a time a family used to live here: a mother and father, a veritable litter of hyperactive young children, uncles and aunts and cousins who would stay with them some summers and during Christmastime, and the wizened pale face of a grandfather who watched over them from above the mantle. It was all very precious, very southern hospitality, very postcard perfect. All very gone. Not even their ghosts remained; just me, and all the better for it.

Chesterfield is the name of the county as well as the nearest town, though from what I understand that’s using the term lightly. Most folks local to the area know better than to disturb me, but sometimes they get bold. Bored teenagers mostly, or suited vultures looking to see if there’s any profit to be squeezed from the property. In its heyday, the house was probably a sight to behold, but I wouldn’t know much about that. Memories of my life, if ever I truly lived, are slippery like oil on the water’s surface, impossible to grasp.

Though without eyes or ears or a mind to make use of them, I can “see” through my many windows— if eyes are the windows to the soul, maybe windows are can be eyes to the spirits— and “hear” any sounds that tremble through my frame. I’m grateful for these senses; they help me keep things in order. If someone starts to get a little too cozy with my corridors, and providing the spiders don’t scare them off first, I just slam a few doors, flicker a few lights, and they go running.

The interloper and her extra finish moving in the last of the boxes. She squeezes her arm and gives her a peck on the cheek.

“I’ll send you pics once I’ve got my room set up,” she says.

“Bold of you to think you’ll survive that long. This place is definitely haunted. Do you get cell service out here? I want to call a coroner and tell them to save your spot.”

“I don’t remember making this big a deal when you moved into your first place.”

“It had bed bugs, but it didn’t have ghosts.”

Ann makes a face. “I’ll take my chances with the ghosts.” She puts an arm around her shoulders. “Kim. You’re acting like I’m dropping off the map. You’re the one leaving the country.”

“For two weeks!” Her expression grows tense. “I feel bad leaving you like this. I should’ve been there for you, there was just so much going on.”

“It wouldn’t have changed my mind.”

She sighs dramatically. “No, nothing can, can it? I fear for whoever you end up tricking into marrying you.”

Ann slaps her playfully on the arm. “Do not start on that. Speaking of which, don’t you have a honeymoon to be on? Go on, get.”

Kim puts her hands up in mock surrender and backs out the front door. I raise one of the loose planks on the porch and she trips, just barely evading a tumble down the front steps.

“See? Cursed!”

“Go!” But she’s laughing as she adds, “Thank you for the help. It means a lot, even if Sophie is gonna kill me for keeping you this long.”

“I’ve got time to talk her down.”

The U-haul rumbles away down the dirt road until it’s a muddled blur in my perception and then, finally, gone. I’m alone with the enemy now. More importantly, she is alone with me.

I slam the door. It’s the easiest most classic trick in the book. Ann jumps and looks around. I know what she’s thinking. Just the wind? Or could it be…?

But no, one small act like that won’t be enough to convince her. With a shrug, she returns to the task of moving in. She shuffles around a few boxes in the foyer and starts moving them one by one up to the second floor. All things considered she hasn’t much to move in, but I’m not fooled. Where one intruder appears, more will follow, and bring all their junk and their noise and their petty living problems with them.

All my original furniture was auctioned off in an estate sale. It took place right here on the lawn, and I watched through my windows as they divvied up my family’s belongings, breaking them down into numbers and measures of worth for the masses. For the most part though I didn’t miss it. The absence of clutter made the space feel bigger, and I got used to the emptiness.

The interloper sets up in the master bedroom and unpacks some supplies to give the room a cursory cleaning. The agency normally sent someone over to prepare the place for new residence, but since the last few rounds of movers had come and gone, they hadn’t bothered. If Ann minds, she doesn’t show it, and I have to admit it’s nice to have someone sweep away the dirt and detritus.

After cleaning to her satisfaction, she starts opening boxes with foreign labels and assembling her furniture from strange little kits, turning sheets of instructions over in her hands as she nibbles on a hangnail. The result is a set of cheap-looking geometric furniture that makes her curse as she accidentally attaches the table leg to the chair and the chair leg to the bedframe. Something about watching her work transfixes me. Probably her comical ineptitude.

After she fixes all the furniture she dresses her new bed and starts cluttering her shelves with all kinds of bizarre toys and knickknacks. Among her affects is a paperback book titled “the art of moving in and moving on”. I scoff.

“This is a temporary arrangement. Very temporary, you got it?” I tell her, though I know she can’t hear me. I know this, but it still annoys me. It feels like she’s ignoring me.

The interloper smiles to herself and takes out a black rectangle that she holds up like a camera, though the shape is far too small and thin. She lowers it, considering, and then from yet another box digs out a string of Christmas lights and hangs them up above the bed.

“It’s June,” I say, dumbfounded.

I look at the string of lights and put pressure on one of the bulbs until it bursts. She jumps, but the moment passes. She spends the bulk of the evening fussing with her camera-thing until she falls asleep.

Fine. If she wants to play hardball, I’ll play hardball.

 --

 In the morning, the interloper’s camera-thing plays a tune to rouse her. Her waking is both a curse and a blessing, for while I was glad to be free of her active meddling, even as she slept I was never able to completely ignore her presence. I feel her like an itch, like a stubborn pimple forming beneath my skin, and I’m glad to sense her rising if only because it means I can get back to business sooner rather than later.

The water heater and other facilities are still in good condition from the last unfortunate newcomers I drove from my doorstep, which frees her to take a long shower, singing obnoxiously all the while. This, however, is a perfect opportunity for me. When the heat from the shower fogs the chipped bathroom mirror, I brandish my loathing like a pen and write her a message. Granted, precision isn’t my forte, so the words come out a little smeared and crooked, but still the intent is clear as can be.

LEAVE

Ann squints at the streaked mirror. “Love?”

“Are you really that stupid?”

She looks around but, seeing no one, shrugs it off again and starts to brush her teeth. When she ducks her head to spit, I quickly try again.

MINE

“Mina? Who’s Mina?”

I groan. Okay, perhaps a more symbolic approach. I will the mirror to shatter, but just then a loud knocking sounds and Ann runs off in a frenzy before she can see the long crack forming down the center.

“Door’s open!” She calls from the landing as she hurries to finish dressing with one hand and wrangle her hair into a towel with the other.

I try to hold it shut, but despite my efforts, the door is forced open and a parade of half a dozen handymen file into the entryway. As they start setting up, a burly towheaded man breaks from the pack and goes to meet Ann as she’s bounding down the stairs.

“Careful, careful. Don’t put your foot through anything before I’ve even had the chance to bill you.”

“Nick,” Ann says fondly. “If these stairs could handle me, Kim, and the fifty-pound mattress we lugged up there yesterday, I think they’re stable.”

“You gals didn’t have to do all that. I could’ve—“

“It’s fine,” she insists. “You’re helping me out enough as it is.”

“Yeah, well, we’re even for that whole thing at Kim’s wedding now.”

“More than even,” she agreed. “I know this was last minute. Dinner’s on me tonight. I’ll order enough pizza for the entire crew.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You haven’t seen how much Seth can eat.”

Their easy banter disgusts me. Living people are all the same; wandering around with blind optimism or bemoaning every bad turn, blissfully unaware of how little it truly mattered. One wrong step with those tools of theirs and any one of them could be joining me among the shiftless dead. I don’t have any desire for that kind of company so I decide to wait until they’re done with their renovations before I risk trying to scare anyone again.

As it is they hardly need my help. Ann, it turns out, is more than just clueless, she’s a klutz. If that isn’t enough she insists on “helping” right up until she almost shoots herself in the foot with a nail gun. Nick warns her not to try it again but I don’t feel any anger from him. The crew are all familiar with one another and with her. They chat and toss around jokes between tasks; someone puts on music.

The feeling isn’t quite a tangible one, but then neither am I. It’s an energy I struggle to describe, something like wading in a river and being aware of a splash rippling from upstream. Compared to the sharp tang of fear I’m accustomed to, all this amicability is nauseatingly sweet.

Ann beams, and the high arches of her cheeks dimple and flush darkly, round as apples.

“What exactly do you have to be so happy about?” I hiss in her ear.

As much as I hate to admit it though, I can understand why someone like her moved so easily among the crowd. Even when she was getting underfoot, she’s a difficult person to condemn for it. How could anyone begrudge her excitement when it was so abundant? Or her love when it was so freely given?

Growing impatient with it all, I knock a toolbox off the top of a stepladder and send its contents scattering in all directions. It lands hard and the sounds of work, the music and the laughter, all come to an abrupt stop.

“What was that?” someone asks. A worker crouches down underneath the arch of the ladder to collect some of the scattered screws and I, with great satisfaction, tip the thing over on top of him. The damage is little, but it’s enough to get the entire crew good and spooked.

“I didn’t touch it,” the injured handyman insists as he nurses his bruises with an icepack. “It just collapsed.”

“Maybe this place is haunted,” another jokes, but her smile doesn’t quite cover her nervousness.

“Kim said the same thing,” Ann muses to herself. Nick looks at her and she startles, as if she hadn’t realized she’d spoken aloud.

“I was wondering how you were able to afford this place, even with the damage.”

“Oh don’t start with all that black cat broken mirror stuff. You see bad omens in everything.”

“And you don’t see red flags until they’re waving right in the face. Not even then,” he accuses. Her guilty expression says there’s some truth to his words. “Tell me honestly, is this house haunted?”

“That’s silly. Of course not.”

“Then how do you explain what just happened?” I demand with frustration.

“Then how do you explain what just happened?” asks the injured worker.

“Thank you!”

Ann hums thoughtfully and looks up at my aged walls, my decrepit ceilings. “The realtor warned me there were rumors about this place. This house has survived fire, flood, and an attempted demolition; somehow nothing was ever able to destroy it, and every person who’s lived here had reported seeing strange things. Objects moving on their own, strange sounds at night.”

Nick leans forward in his seat. “And what did you say when they told you all that?”

“I told her it sounded perfect.”

He puts his head in his hands. “Ann. Mary-Ann Thorne. Tell me you did not buy an actual haunted house. When Kim told me you just up and bought a house on a whim I thought that was crazy enough but this…”

“I didn’t buy a haunted house,” she says. She stood up straight and spread her hands with a dramatic flourish. “I bought a survivor. Houses are like people. They have personalities, they have their own little quirks, their likes and dislikes. Old houses most of all. I could tell as soon as I walked into this place that… well that she had something special. I can’t explain it, I just felt so drawn to her.”

She places her hand on the wall and holds it there. If I were alive I think I would shiver.

“She’s been through a lot, but with some TLC she’s gonna sing, I can feel it.”

“That’s crazy,” Nick says, but she isn’t listening. Not to him. It’s almost as if… almost…

“Can you hear me?”

She doesn’t respond. Of course she doesn’t. I berate myself for even daring to expect something so deluded. However, her little speech seems to encourage the crew, or else they’ve just calmed down enough to put aside their reservations and get back to work.

Watching them I feel… strange. Even when my house had been lived in before I had never really felt so cared for. It’s all ridiculous of course, a blind act of charity sprung from some silly woman’s misguided and misdirected affection. While the workers patch holes and replace crumbling pieces, the interloper sweeps and scrubs, eager to do her part.

Evening falls, and Ann prepares to head into town to pick up dinner.

“The guy on the phone said they don’t deliver to this address for some reason,” she says. “Weird.”

“Why don’t I go,” offers Nick. “I’ve got the truck. There’s more room.”

“Okay,” she reluctantly agrees. “But I’m still buying, clear?”

“Crystal.” There’s a faint air of nervousness wafting from him, I think. I suspect he’s been hoping for an opportunity to get away from me for a while.

The rest of the crew seem mostly recovered from their brief brush with the supernatural. I intend to fix that.

I start by flickering the lights, another classic. Someone gets up stammering about checking the fuse box in the basement, but as he and Nick each go for the doors I slam them both at once, creating a nice echoing effect that rings all through the house.

“Try writing that off as the wind.”

“I got a better idea,” another someone offers up. “How about we all go into town for dinner? It’ll be nice to get out of— it’ll be nice to get out, let the dust settle here.”

“Come on, Ann,” Nick gestures. “We can swing by the bar after. It’ll be fun.”

She hesitates, a strange look on her face, and takes a step back. “You all go ahead. I’m not that hungry.”

“Ann.” He speaks more sternly now, looking something like an older brother with a neat wrinkle of worry taking up residence on his brow. “Come on.”

“I’m fine here, and you’re being silly. If you don’t believe me, bring me back something after you eat and you’ll see that I’m perfectly safe here alone.”

“But you’re not alone,” I whisper, for nobody’s benefit but my own. “What would you say, if you knew. If you really knew.”

“Besides, I’ve already spent the night here once. If something were going to happen, why didn’t it?” She pulls a smirk, puts her hands on her hips. “Maybe it’s just you guys my house doesn’t like.”

Nick huffs an almost-laugh and relents, not entirely satisfied but not looking to argue the point any longer. He tells her to call him right away if anything changes and then he leaves. The workers file out after him, the last of them gingerly shutting the door behind him, so as not to anger me.

“Why didn’t you go with them?” I ask her. My voice, such that it is, takes on a plaintive edge. Pitiful. I correct myself, refocus my aims. “You’ve had plenty of chances to run, and it’s only going to get worse from here on out. You know that, right? You’ve got to know this isn’t just some twenty-four-hour fever. You can’t get rid of me. It’s my house.”

She starts up the stairs. I follow. I have no other choice.

“Are you really this dense? How can you ignore the signs? How can you believe there’s anything here worth salvaging?"

She walks into the bathroom and stares into the cracked mirror.

“What are you doing now?” I complain. “Looking for answers? I couldn’t give them to you if I had them. Or are you just admiring your pretty reflection?” I stroke the mirror’s surface. “Must be nice, to be young and lively. If you leave now, you could have years and years of perfect ignorance, uninterrupted by those pesky reminders of death. You could have a life, and you’re wasting it.”

She touches her fingertips to the cool glass with a mystic look in her dark eyes.

“Mina?” she whispers.

“My name isn’t Mina.”

Or maybe it is. Might as well be, for all I know. I think I must’ve had a name once. Surely there was a word, a simple sound, some collection of syllables that meant I see you. Surely there had been someone to speak it and make it real in their mouth. But how should I know? And if such a person did exist, what does it matter now? I’m not a person anymore, I’m a thing that happened, a thing that’s happening still. I’m a box built to hold my history, filled up to the rafters with hurt and resentment. That’s as close as I get to living. If I could move independent of my dour walls like her, I think, I wouldn’t be wasting my time moldering in the darkness.

Ann shakes her head. “Silly. I’m being silly,” she tells herself. Looking up at the dim light fixed above her she adds, “I should probably check on that fuse box after all.”

She goes back down and opens the door to the basement. She flicks the switch on the wall a few times but that bulb's been long neglected. Even those who swear up and down they don’t fear the fables or superstition became suddenly shy when it comes to probing the deepest depths of this old house. Ann turns, presumably to seek out a flashlight, when her heel catches on one of the repairmen’s screws that had rolled loose. It’s not even my fault this time, technically.

Like some kind of morbid slapstick, her foot shoots out from under her and she stumbles backwards towards the open basement door. It’s a long drop that awaits her, followed by a fast end if she’s lucky. And I know well enough by now that she isn’t.

Without thinking, I push her. Instead of that foresworn drop down the basement stairs, Ann finds herself tripping backwards into the wall instead. She rights herself, takes in a sharp breath, and then releases it with a sigh. She’s dazed but unharmed. I find myself mirroring her relief.

She smiles. “Thank you,” she says.

Then she closes the door and walks away.

That has never happened to me before. Normally, to manifest, to have any direct impact on the physical world, I have to summon up a great deal of anger. That isn’t too hard for me; I’ve been angry a long time. But in that moment, I hadn’t been angry. I think I’d been afraid. For her safety? No, of course not. More likely I’d been worried she would leave behind a ghost and I’d be stuck with her invading my personal space for eternity. Still, I’d never… never done anything like that before. I’d never helped somebody. I suppose I’d assumed it couldn’t be done, even if I wanted to. Ghosts, spirits, malevolent spectral entities or whatever you like to call it, that’s not what we're for. That wasn’t what I did, until I did it.

I become aware of singing coming from the kitchen. The fool is never not singing or humming or whistling something. I know music; it’s not as if I’m totally uncultured. While I have no lungs nor lips to make sound, sometimes on a stormy night the wind whistles through my walls, each creak and moan playing for me the orchestra of slow degradation I’ve come to know well.

This is not that. This is… I don’t know what to do with this. I don’t know the words. Is it too late, I wonder. I can’t. I’m not ready. Oh but if you can give me time, stranger, I think I want to learn your song too.

#my writing #short story #ghosts #haunted house #paranormal romance #lgbt #horror romance #4k words #first person #original fiction

[treechangeseachange]

The return

It’s coming up to 3 months since we returned to our block and it took us 8 weeks to slow down. On the weekend we slowed down we enjoyed the first official Friday night catch up with our neighbours as the full moon rose. On Saturday we went out for brunch. No sport on Sunday morning meant a sleep in. I played handball with my boys for the first time ever in my life. Lamb shanks slow cooked on the wood heater. We squeezed in a late Sunday afternoon fishing trip. It took us 8 weeks to find some calm. We had forgotten how to do normal. I haven’t written for this blog since um wow December?! My leisure time since then has been extremely limited and when it occurred I prioritised my mental wellbeing and sleep.

This journey has brought me to the edge of my psychological and physical limitations. I watched my husband do a terminator style non stop renovation while trying also to commence a rebuild. His promises to take time off over Christmas dwindled to 2 days. There was so much to do. I helped with whatever jobs I was able to and then focussed on the household and occasionally, our boys. Midway through January this year we realised trying to work on both the renovation and the rebuild was insanity. The local real-estate market was booming. Post COVID, Sydney city dwellers realised they could put in a few days in the city then work from their coastal holiday pad the rest of the week. We decided to get our investment property, come bushfire haven, onto the market before the summer ended. We mapped out each remaining job and the days required to accomplish them. We calculated selling time, settlement time and remaining bank balance. What were need to do’s and what were optional extras. If everything went to plan, we could pay to get some work done at the block and make it habitable enough to move into. It was an extreme test of time, energy and resources.

It worked. We listed by the end of February, sold in three weeks and settled five weeks after settlement. I write that all in one glib sentence. Of course all of that only happened with considerable focus and effort. Life for the boys was hectic. 99% of their toys were packed and moved into storage weeks before the house went on the market. As the house neared completion we stressed about them damaging something. When the house was on the market we stressed about them getting things dirty - the walls, the windows or the cupboards. I banished them from the bathroom, they had to brush teeth in the laundry and shower outside. Luckily it was warm and didn’t rain much in those few weeks! Anyone who has sold a house while living in it knows how painful open homes are. The logistics and effort of cleaning and styling, while working full time from home, scheduling everything between work appointments, getting the dog out of the way and the boys to school, nearly broke me. Thankfully the selling process was short, but we packed a lot of opens into that time and by the end of it all, I had become a shouty, grouchy mum and wife. It was also a real highlight to hit menopause and bring some phenomenal hormonal energy into the mix. Phew.

Before we packed up and left I was lucky enough to have a week away with the boys. My fully wired self hit Melbs and my family gave me refuge and forgave my intensity. We managed some fun and the change of scenery was a big relief. Husband, however, stayed behind to work on the temporary shed home. Holiday behind me, I returned to packup and clean and polish the house for the financial return of our lives. Literally.

Can you then imagine our triumphant and spectacular return to our block bathed in happiness and light? Um well perhaps instead picture this - we arrived exhausted to an unpowered, work in progress temporary residence in the middle of a mice plague and endured 200ml of heavy rain in four days leaving us surrounded by mud. Happy to catch the rain in our tank? I wish! The new tank leaked 8000L the week before we moved, and only our neighbour’s spare tank loan meant we had any water at all. But being so small, it overflowed and made even more mud. The heavy rain was so loud on the tin roof it frequently woke the kids in the night (who then woke us), mice ran across the floor, huntsmen spiders dropped from the ceiling. With nowhere really to unpack things, cooking became like the biggest ever memory game, which box were the bowls in? Where did I pack the cutlery? The rain delayed our solar power install so for 10 days we lived out of an esky and by torchlight. We both kept working full time, getting the boys to school, after school sport commitments and then husband kept building after he got home and into the night. After a week of stress and chaos we knew something had to give, fortunately husband could take time off work to focus on our build and family life.

Fast forward to now. The financial pressure of the summer has eased. The temporary living quarters are functional and steadily improving. We have a beautiful wood heater. Our off grid solar system is powering us even during these short winter days. I have more kitchen cupboards than ever before, plus a dishwasher! I have hung up my clothes in a full wardrobe for the first time in nearly four years. The boys each have clean new wardrobes. Their separate rooms are still being built so they are in what will be our room which is insulated and wall paneled. We can cope with an outside shower and toilet. My husband is a legend.

What’s it like actually being back? I confess I was nervous about my own and the boys emotions. Eldest son is extremely happy to be back. Youngest son has taken time to adjust but that has more been due to his fear of the dark. The noises of the bush are unfamiliar and there are no streetlights out here! There has only been one time where a prebushfire memory overwhelmed me. Every person’s bushfire experience and recovery is unique. Unlike many others we are fortunate have the opportunity to not have to build on the exact footprint of the old place and I think this is psychologically helpful. It’s not the same space, and with some trees dead and gone the landscape is altered, its a slightly different perspective. The boys are older now, so our lifestyle is different too. Slowly we are finding a new rhythm on our land. The boys are absolutely loving being back on their bikes on bush tracks.

I was excited to resume my morning walks, although maybe not as excited the dog! He’s happy to have his off-lead roam again. But the first week of walking I found tough, the burnt and recovering state forest I traverse didn’t bring me the joy it used to. In the heavily logged areas where only isolated saplings were left unlogged, they couldn’t survive the heat of the fire or they didn’t have community trees to share nutrients through their roots to support recovery. The undergrowth is now the canopy and is booming with all the extra sunlight but when I look at it, all I see is fire hazard. Then as the weeks went by, my view softened, I recognise the bush is healing like me. I am appreciating small wonders of nature. A spider’s web highlighted with morning dew or the fascination of new plants thriving. There are trees that have fully recovered, others seem to be doing well, and there is much green in the landscape to enjoy.

On my morning walk I also see which animals are about in the night from what they leave behind. There is at least one very busy wombat! We see wallabies reasonably often and last week one morning I found big roo prints in the clay right near our place. We hear a boobook owl calling most nights and more frogs chirping croaking from the gully than I ever remember. Which now makes sense, we definitely were in drought for some years prior to the fires and the creek has this year been running for months. Less exciting is hearing foxes at night, my son especially dislikes their eerie calls. In daytime the bird life is altered. We are down to one lyrebird, there used to be two with adjacent territories battling loudly with their extraordinary mimicry. But at least there is one, how a ground bird survived I can’t imagine. The yellow robins aren’t around us now, we have wrens in the cleared spaces and in the lush shrubs busy brown gerygones dart and chirp. A shrike thrush has made a nest in our bushfire remains pile, her song is piercing and wonderful. Rarely are the yellow crested black cockatoos here now. This past weekend we did see two circling wedge tailed eagles the silent assassins of the sky wheeling high over the gully with that phenomenal wingspan.

Surprisingly my greatest source of happiness in these first few months being back has come from the sky. Unobstructed by buildings, the sky feels bigger in the bush. I’m loving the late winter sunrises. My very favourite time is just after the sun has risen when the horizontal sun rays set tops of the trees bright orange. Those are magical minutes of golden tinged trees. The sunsets. The stars. The moon. the sky has been a revelation and a source of happiness. Maybe because I’m spending more time outside I notice it more. Seeing glittering stars through the steam of a hot outdoor shower makes the cold walk inside completely worth it!

Slowly I am regaining my sense of gratitude for this place. The quiet. The privilege of not seeing another house. Having no curtains and that not mattering. Not worrying about noise and neighbours. Lack of street lights at night.

All of a sudden things aren’t hectic and we are settling in. It still amazes me after 6 moves in 5 years how intense moving is and then how imperceptibly things transition to not being new anymore. Normalcy sneaks up on me every time. Clearly this isn’t really normal but we’re enjoying this new start in our old place.

#treechange #seachange #nswbushfires #recovery #offgrid

[thethousandyearwitch]

The Show Must Go On! - A Youtuber AU you didn’t want and didn’t need

Hisoka Morrow, italian Makeup Youtuber, enjoys his life in the comfort and occasional drama of his profession. But nothing brings more drama into his life than the eldest son of the Zoldyck fashion magazine empire.

Meanwhile, aspiring australian Twitch Streamer Gon Freecs forms a special bond to a Speedrunner commonly going by "Kil".

Chapter 3

FF.net link - AO3 link

Illumi woke up to shouting. No matter how often this happened, it would startle him each and every time, and prompted him to jump out of bed and try to locate the source of commotion. After he brushed his hair messily out of his face, he approached the dining room. He leaned against the doorframe, peeking into the large room. His mother was seated in her usual spot at the large table, clutching her hands over her mouth. On the opposite side, Illumis younger brother had pushed his chair away, standing up to gesture and shout wildly at his mother.

“I am not a little kid! No one else gets their ~technology privileges~ revoked! Just admit that you’re too bad of a mother to properly keep me under the control you so badly want!” His voice was already starting to crack under the strain. Illumi thought about interfering, though the curiosity of observing how his mother would try to keep the situation under control won him over.

Kikyo Zoldyck was the perfect matriarch, ruling over the English estate with an iron grip, while her Husband was either in their Japanese estate for business matters, or on ‘hunting trips’ with his father. She always insisted on perfect presentation of herself and her children, Illumi wasn’t sure if he had ever seen her repeat one outfit combination. It was a shame that the medical sunglasses she had to wear at all times ruined the harmony of her outfits almost all times. Because not even the perfect matriarch can avoid medical problems. Thus, Kikyo had to learn how to properly treat her oversensitive eyes, taking most of her eyesight with it. On top of that, her immune system seemed to weaken with each passing day. Illumi, as the eldest child, got to investigate some of her medical records to ensure her safety in case of an emergency. He had learned how to dress her wounds that would re-open frequently, how to apply eyedrops in case she wasn’t able to, and which medication was for which ailment.

Illumi recognized the exhaustion that was quickly overtaking his mother, the way her face had been drained of all colour, and her entire body seemed to shake under the tension. He was about to intervene before her conditioned worsened, when she spoke up again, “I just want to do what is best for you! It will be good for you to have a break from all that bad energy the computer gives you.”

“The only bad energy I get is from this fucking family!”

The swear echoed through the large room, and for a few seconds there was only silence as a mother confronted the reality of her precious son having entered yet another teenage rebellion. Illumi observed his mothers face closely, as he thought again about whether he should intervene or let her tend to her motherly duties herself.

It took a couple more seconds for Kikyo to stand up, straighten herself, and raise her voice, unshaking, unwavering. “You are going to your room this instance, young man. I will have your brother remove your computer from your room in half an hour.” Consequent, how surprising.

The young Zoldyck kicked against a table leg, before running out of Illumis field of view. The last thing he heard was “I am going to drink a hundred Energy drinks and puke on everything you love!”

With a sigh Kikyo sat back down in her chair and rested her face gently in the palms of her hands. Illumi took this silence as the best opportunity to enter the room and approached his mother's side.

"Mother, good morning."

"Oh, Illumi, what am I going to do?" She wailed again, as if this argument was the greatest tragedy to befall the family.

"He was such a good little boy just a few years ago. Now he swears, and yells, and that same twinkle of rage in his eyes, just like his father."

He is also my father, Illumi thought, though that minor detail didn't seem important to the conversation.

"I will take away his personal Computer after getting dressed."

"Illumi, you are such a good child for your mom, never disappoint her, alright?" She took his hand and pressed it firmly. The young man shuddered at the contact, it was so easy to forget how cold and thin her hands were, as if the bones and tendons could snap under any more pressure. He rested his free hand on top of hers, reassuring, comforting, he thought, having seen people do that in movies and shows. Real comfort and contact were of course a rarity in the Zoldyck family. After Killuas birth, Kikyo would pour all her overbearing love onto him, only to have it be rejected, repeating the process with slightly more success after Kallutos birth. The children would tolerate each other, though interaction was kept to the bare minimum. And though Illumi was sure that his parents were in love, at least to the extent that he understood what that meant, he could not recall the last time he witnessed them exchange any form of endearment.

"Of course, mother." With that, he broke the contact, and returned to his room. He traded his pyjamas for comfortable black slacks, and a loose white button down with light green roll-tabs. The eldest Zoldyck child took his time brushing his well-groomed black hair, fixed his collar, and gave himself a last look down in the mirror.

As he walked down the long hallway of the second floor of the mansion, he could already hear the loud music his younger brother was angrily blasting, considering if it were worth it to go back and grab earplugs.  Their mother was right, Killuas tantrums had picked up the last couple of years, and it only seemed to have gotten worse. Show dogs with bad temper get temporary Hormone chips implanted, he thought, I wonder if there is an equivalent for humans.

The door to Killuas room wore its signs of anger and emotions through patched-up holes and sloppy paint cover-ups. Illumi turned the doorknob, though he already expected it to be locked.

“Killu, open the door.”

The music turned louder, and Illumi scrunched his nose in frustration. “Killu.”

“Piss off!” The young boys voice strained against the loud music, barely reaching over the aggressive lyrics of a middle-aged man complaining about his life and whatever he deemed wrong with it.

Enough with the polite formalities, Illumi thought as he fumbled in his pockets for the master key he had been entrusted with a couple years prior. Effortlessly the lock clicked open, and the knob turned once more… But the door did not budge.

Another turn of the knob, push of the door, with just slightly more force, and a small gap formed for just a second.

“Are you leaning against the door?” In fact, Killua forced his entire weight against the door. Illumi might have thought it was a cute attempt, if it hadn’t been directly intervening with his goals. So, he gave a more hearted push, which forced the door to open wider before it snapped shut again.

“Just leave me alone!”

“I will leave you alone once I have confiscated your Computer. This is your last chance to behave and let me in.”

“I’m going to set all your ugly new fabric on fire!”

Illumi sighed in frustration, before he pushed harder against the door in a swift motion, forcing it open despite Killuas best efforts to push against it. Quickly the young boy jumped in front of his computer, arms spread as a last-ditch barrier. Illumi approached slowly, his head tilted slightly to the side. “Killu, you misbehaved and now you have to accept the consequences. This is going to be a good lesson for you, you can spend your time being more productive.”

Killua straightened his back and returned his older brothers emotionless stare. “You don’t know what’s good for me! No one here does!”

“You don’t know what’s good for yourself either, you are a child. In a couple of years, when you lead the company, you’ll be very thankful to me for this.” Without much of an effort, he shoved his younger brother aside, and started to unplug the computers various wires. Almost immediately after he had been pushed away, Killua started grabbing and punching at his brother’s hands and arms in a vain effort to stop him. “Illumi, please, don’t!” His voice started to crack and break under the pressure it has already been under the entire morning. “Can you just for once not do whatever the hell mom tells you to do, and actually help me? Please?”

Illumi lifted the tower of the computer and straightened his back, facing his brother again. A surprisingly gentle smiled creeped up his lips.

“Killu, I am helping you. And your future. And the future of the Zoldyck family.” He started to turn to the door and leave, though not before he could hear Killua scream out in frustration,

“I hate you, you fucking lap-dog!”

But of course, Illumi knew that wasn’t true. Killua couldn’t hate him. They were brothers, and there is nothing that could sever a bond like that. Even after Killua had already set fire to his brother’s fabric stock before. Even though the times he would tell him he hates him started to outweigh the times he said he loved him. Even now, Illumi having taken away something that seemed so absurdly important to Killua, he was sure his little brother could never truly despise him.

As is with everything that the children weren't supposed to have, the Computer tower got locked away inside Silva Zoldycks study. Illumi couldn't place the feeling, but something felt off about no longer having this rule apply to him, not only because there was never any reason to punish him this way, but also because he had access to this otherwise off-limits area.

Fucking Lap-dog.

The grandfather clock in the entrance hall of the mansion struck 9 am. Technically he was still on schedule, Illumi didn't want to risk any more distractions that could make him late. He grabbed the neatly packed black suitcase and leather bag from his room, double checking if he had packed all of his samples, extra fabrics, and the likes, before returning to the dining room.

Kikyo had restored her makeup from any flaws the earlier breakdown had caused. She idly reviewed articles that third-party journalists had send in, in the hopes that they might make it into the next issue of the highly appraised fashion magazine. Her protective black eyewear had been gently pushed down the slope of her nose, revealing the stinging red, bloodshot eyes underneath.

“Mother, I am leaving for the airport shortly.” He kept his voice low while he slowly approached her side. Kikyo discarded the article she was holding into one of the neat piles she had made, presumably one pile for rejected articles, one for second review, before she faced her son.

“How long are you going to be away for, again?” It almost sounded accusatory.

“About four to five days, depending on the flight availability, and if I can make new clients after the show.”

“Try to make it four days, I need you back here to handle some interviews for the September Issue.”

Illumi hated being on a tight schedule. Though he was good at working under pressure, he still did not like it. “Can’t Milluki tr- “

“Milluki is extremely busy editing, Illumi. You shouldn’t try to push your work onto your brother like that, just because you want to have a longer vacation.”

It’s not a vacation, it’s a reveal of a personal collection that I earn my own money with and make independent clients at and that I worked day and night on and also-

“I will do my best to be home as soon as possible, mother.”

“Good. Try to represent our family well at the show.” And with that, Kikyo picked another article from the large stack, seemingly satisfied with the parting conversation.

Illumi grabbed his bags and made his way towards the entrance hall. A chauffeur already stood ready to drive him to the airport, and from a glance to the clock he knew his schedule was still intact. In his head he marked off his to-do list, double and triple checking if he had gotten everything he needed. Tickets, wallet, samples, customary gi- where is it? Hastily he started rummaging through the leather bag.

“Looking for something?” Killua appeared in the doorway behind him, carelessly throwing a small plastic package from one hand to the other. “Since when do you like red liquorice?”

Illumi scanned the package, relieved when he spotted the red ribbon still neatly tied around it. “It’s not for me.”

“You’re buying candy for your clown-friend?” Killua scoffed.

“He’s not my friend, and not a clown.” Illumi tilted his head as he blankly stared Killua down. “Can you give that back to me now? It is just a customary gift.”

“If you give me my computer back, you’ll get the clowns candy back.”

The air turned cool as Illumi slowly approached his younger brother, head tilting from one side to the other, his voice kept low.

“Killu, you are not in the position to propose trades like that.” He rested a hand on his brothers’ shoulder, leaned down to whisper easily in his ear. “I did you a favour by not reminding mother of your phone. Don’t make me regret being kind to you.”

And as he felt his brother freeze under his touch, he grabbed the candy with ease, and turned back around.

“I’ll see you in a couple of days, Killu. Study good.”

 -------------------------------------------------------------

 Hisoka lounged on his fainting couch, the midday sun coated his living room in a comfortable orange shine through his white balcony drapes. The temptation of a nap settled sweetly on his eyelids, still worn out from another night spent editing and releasing a new video. The pressure of trying to stay on schedule during a fashion week wasn’t necessarily something Hisoka looked forward to, so he only hoped that this new drama video would keep his fans at bay for a couple of days, something about a doll-maker channel who seemed to have a god complex.

Just as he was about to give into the warm comfort of sleep, the vibration of his phone pulled him back.

" Bellisimo <3: Will arrive in about 10 minutes. "

"Hisoka: Yes, your majesty! "

Now wide awake, the artist stretched his tired limbs, and pulled himself from the couch. Once he had made his way to the kitchen, preparations for his friend’s arrival had to be made. Out from the fridge he took a small, colourful box, tied shut at the handle with an elegant black ribbon. Not room temperature, but not cold out of the fridge either. Neatly, he placed a white porcelain plate and a cake fork on the kitchen island. The last step, of course, was to boil water and wait.

Waiting wasn't one of Hisokas specialties though. He paced around the apartment like a mad animal in a zoo, only stopping once in a while to re-arrange knickknacks on shelves and desks. The anticipation tingled in his fingertips.

The sound of a car coming to a hold. Hisoka grabbed the bag of black tea and dropped it in the water.

The snap of multiple car doors. He slowly poured the fresh tea into a clean white cup and placed it next to the plate.

 Ding ♪

 There was no need to even ask who it was over the intercom, all he needed to do was activate the buzzer for the main door and linger at the apartment door for just a couple more seconds. He listened to the footsteps ascending the stairs. Only one pair; how rude to make your Chauffeur wait.

 Knock Knock

Hisoka swung the door enthusiastically open, the excitement to see the other almost too much to handle.

Blank, dark eyes greeted him. Illumis hair was, as usual, combed to a silky perfection. Hisoka was just a couple of centimetres taller than him, but he still felt an urge to tower over the other, to hunt him into a corner like small prey.

But instead he stepped aside, gave the other one enough room to enter the apartment. This last test of patience had become practiced, but never seemed to get easier. He wanted to greet and touch and release the tension tugging at all his muscles and nerves-

But not before Illumi has settled in. That was the rule.

So, he waited and watched as the other one dropped a leather brief case next to the kitchen island, and seated himself in front of the table set. Gracefully Illumi lifted the cup of tea to his lips, and he took a small sip, eyes closed and composed.

Full of expectation Hisoka leaned closer towards his visitor, who in turned tilted his head ever so slightly to the side, opening the dark void to his eyes once more.

"Acceptable."

Immediately Hisoka lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Illumi. "It's so nice to have you back, darling! Is the flavour alright? I bought it from a store in Florence and they promised it would be up to British taste."

"It is tolerable- Hisoka let go before I burn your face with this." Illumi struggled his way out of the embrace and pulled the wrinkles out of his shirt. "But next time you will have to let the tea sit longer in the water before serving, so that the flavour can fully develop."

“The day I make the perfect tea for you, I deserve a wild celebration.” The makeup artist waved his hand in a celebratory gesture and took a seat next to his friend-who-doesn’t-call-him-friend. “You hungry?”

Illumi bend over the table and tugged at the ribbon that kept the colourful box at the centre of the table closed. The folds of the box came undone to reveal a beautiful chocolate roll cake, with white-chocolate flower décor neatly placed on top. Hisoka held out a knife for him to take, and the treat was cut into in one smooth motion. A last test of approval.

Hisoka watched closely as Illumi took the first bite. The way his eyes closed as soon as the fork came to his lips. The almost-unnoticeable roll of his head in consideration. How he bopped his fork up and down. Everything about Illumi Zoldyck screamed grace and life and anticipation for every passing second. And in this moment, he was all his.

“It’s very good.”

“I would have made cake myself, but I didn’t feel like poisoning you, my dear.”

“Appreciated. I have a gift for you, as thanks for your hospitality.” Illumi bend down and grabbed his leather bag. While he shuffled around in it, Hisoka lured over his shoulder, with the smile of an excited child on Christmas morning. “Continue breathing down my neck and you won’t get anything.”

Not wanting to risk missing out on the oh-so-rare show of affection Illumi promised, he leaned back. “Do you want me to pretend to be coy and not want your gift, or can I just greedily rip it from your hands?”

The black-haired man turned around, and presented a small plastic package, tied shut with a red ribbon. It took less than a second to recognize what it was.

“Just take it. You mentioned once that you like it, and you’ve significantly improved at being a host for these meetings.”

Hisoka took the present from the others hands, far more gentle than necessary, and he snickered. “This is the strangest friendship I’ve been a part of.”

“We are not friends.” Ouch.

“This is the strangest... partnership?”

Illumi rolled his eyes, “If you want to call it that. But if you tag me in a video again as your ‘partner’ again, you’ll never see me again. I don’t need more congratulatory-slash-death-threat letters.”

“Fair enough!” Hisoka jumped off his chair and circled around the other one. “But mentioning videos, how about we start recording for our collab? I am practically dying to finally try on my new suit.”

Illumi sighed, brushed some stray hairs behind his ear, and dug through his leather bag again, only this time to retrieve a neatly folded, string-tied package. “Id suggest wearing a plain black shirt under the jacket.”

Hisoka grinned, “What about- “

“You are going to wear a shirt under it.” Ouch, too fast.

Without another word, he took the clothes from Illumi, and disappeared into his bedroom. As he ripped at the neat packaging, he tried to think of a snarky way to make fun of this overly neat way to transport clothing. But all those thoughts vanished when he actually held the clothes in his hands, gentle fingertips that ran over firm fabric and neat seams. The pictures in the email didn’t give this piece the justice it deserved. The different coloured card-suits didn’t stand out too harshly against the white jeans fabric but were defined enough to be recognized for what they are.

And once he pulled the fabric on his body, corrected the collar of the jacket, and stretched a bit to get a feel… He was mesmerized. The mirror fixed to his closet door couldn’t even capture the feeling in his chest that threatened to punch out his sternum.

Hisoka practically sprinted back into the open kitchen and struck rapid poses. “Do I look as good as how I feel, darling?”

“I told you to wear a shirt, maggot.”  

#hisoillu #hisoka marrow #illumi zoldyck #Hunter X Hunter #fanfiction #hxh fanfic

[diveronarpg]

In fair Verona, our tale begins with YAMAMOTO OMI, who is THIRTY-TWO years old. They are often called OLIVIA and are NEUTRAL. She uses SHE/THEY pronouns.

TW: MURDER, SUICIDE, PROSTITUTION

Their earliest memory is of the cherry blossoms. People laugh at her later in life, tilt their heads to the side and let their smiles go all soft, looking on at her like what a wonderful story. It doesn’t matter that it’s the truth, doesn’t matter that she was truly born amidst a sea of flowers—it’s a tale too full of beauty to be truth, even when it is. Yet still, she’s born in Sakura, a city known around the world for its cherry blossom trees, for its beauty. She indulges them later, plays coy and uses it as a way to seem more interesting. It’s like she was born for it, the beauty, the coyness, the BLOSSOMING of a young soul into something captivating, but that’s the farthest thing from the truth Omi has ever heard. No, their TRUTH is something vastly different, something much crueler than anyone would ever guess. Her earliest memory is of the cherry blossoms, it’s true, but they are no shining image of hope and adversity in her memory. Closing their eyes, they see blood pooling over fallen, decaying flower petals, can see the image of a man lying crumpled on the ground with a collection of fresh bullet wounds decorating his skin.

She hadn’t been meant to see what transpired that night under the stars and cherry blossom trees, had just been a small thing too full of CURIOSITY and too full of WONDER to sit at home when her father went out late at night yet again. When Omi woke to the sounds of a grandfather clock and the front door latch being undone, they hadn’t been able to help themself when they slipped out of bed and walked down the block behind her father, not realizing that he hasn’t seen her behind him. They’re in the park just a block away from the Yamamoto home when it happens, with moonlight kissing cherry blossom trees as a bullet ricochets through a man’s skull, red spatter painting itself across her father’s fresh white linen. This was their first encounter with violence, the first time that they realize this world is not all pink and blushing, that the world does not begin and end with you and the things that you LOVE. It takes years before she finally figures out what it is that her father does for a living, what kind of a life he has condemned his family to by enlisting in this particular line of work. She never tells her father that she followed him into the park that night. She’d just turned and ran, fast as her childhood legs could carry her. Perhaps it would have broken most children, to know that such violence could happen so close to their home, but it only would only make Omi stronger.

The child of a Yakuza hitman and his quiet wife, Omi was born into a life of learning how to read people, learning what makes people tick and what make their heart’s stop–what kind of love makes their world come to life. Omi doesn’t know how her father got into the business, would never learn about how he sold his soul in exchange for protection in their neighborhood the week after his wife sat him down and told him about the child growing in her belly, but even without the truth, Omi always knew the realities of her father’s love. He doted on her, paid her love and LOYALTY even as the world leeched goodness from his heart and stained his hands red. Their mother was no different, even if she was quieter in her love, quieter in her life. Omi would grow up in that town under the cherry blossoms, violence and love clashing in every breath, but it’s when her father dies that the world starts to fall out from under her. First a bullet finds a home in his temple, just like the first man she ever saw die. She’s eighteen then, just graduated from upper secondary school when he dies, and she’s supposed to attend university in Kyoto in the fall. That all goes out the window when two weeks later she finds her mother’s body, heart stopped and a letter in her hands. I’ll see him soon, she reads, feeling like her own heart might just stop as well.

It’s a strange thing, really, to have a parent die and then the other follow so soon after, only to have an estate agent show up at your home, check in hand meant to change your life–but that’s exactly what happens to Omi. It’s not a lot, not enough for them to live on by a mile, but they takes the money and run, run as far as their long legs will take them. They touch the hearts of as many countries and continents as she can, hoping she might find where they BELONG. But none of it ever feels real, feels like enough. On the road, they have no responsibilities, but they have no power, have no agency, have nothing to their name that makes them a PERSON. They’re in Italy searching for a reason to call this new country her home when she meets her: Mona Chen, the woman that would change their life forever. Inside the Dark Lady, it’s the first time in years that she feels like herself, like she feels like maybe this is where she belongs. With a temporary residence permit to root her in Italy for some time, it doesn’t take any convincing on Mona’s part for them to work for her. Omi knows it the moment she walked through the doors of the Dark Lady for the first time; she was born to be a Sparrow.

TAMURA CHIKO: Childhood friend. Her saving grace, she remembers him collecting a basket of flowers for her when they were both still children and the truth of their parent’s lives had not yet befallen either of them. Two children of Yakuza hitmen, two children with ghosts for mothers, in each other they found a kind of home that endured the ages. Even after they left Japan to make a warmer home in Italy, and then moved again and found a home in Russian winters, the two of them never lost touch, never allowed time or distance to keep their love for each other apart. She sent them postcards from her travels, never knowing if they would get them until they’d finally email her back three months later, an update on their life the greatest form of affection they knew how to give. Even across continents, they have seen each other through this life, and now–now they are in the city again, in the same home, and to have Chiko as her family is to have an army at her fingertips, to be Helen and her thousands ships.

MONA CHEN: Madame. Mona gave Omi a home when they had no idea how to find one, had no idea where to even begin looking except for a pin on a map and a longing in their heart. They were sitting in a bar in Verona when they met her, Mona coming over to their little table where they were drinking a glass of red wine and had a book cracked open in their lap. It happened like that again the next night, and the night after, until Mona was offering Omi her hand and offering her to spin her a world anew, offering to show her the part of Verona that had been waiting just for them. Since they walked through the doors of the Dark Lady that first time, they have known that it is where they long to be. Mona didn’t show Omi their beauty, but she taught them how to use it, reminded her that knowledge is power, and in this city of false gods and petty kings, the Sparrows hold all the cards. Omi doesn’t know where she would be without Mona; the woman who owns her apartment, the woman who has given her everything that she now has.

CALINA SOKOLOVA: Confidante. Omi loves their job. They say it to themselves day in and day out, go to sleep in the dawn hours of morning on a bed of silk sheets with an eye mask soft across their cheekbones and knows that this is where they belong. She loves the power it gives her, loves that she is stronger than others, loves that it is information that runs a city like this and she has all of it–but there are morning where she wonders. She doesn’t remember how it happened, two beautiful girls spinning the moonlight, stars dancing in their eyes with a little bit too much liquor on their lips, but one night it all came tumbling out. Every doubt, every fear, every wonder. What kind of a life have I built myself here? she said in the dead of night, eyes hard on Calina’s. What kind of life? She remembers the look in the Russian’s eyes in that moment, remembers how it felt to be so unabashedly understood.  

CASSIAN BHATT: Client. If there is a God, and Omi is not convinced that there is one, then he has not looked kindly upon Cassian Bhatt, and Omi takes some great pleasure in knowing that she has done this unto him. She doesn’t know why Mona wanted this man in particular in her pocket, doesn’t know why she was tasked with approaching him in the Dark Lady the first time, only that Mona has turned her into his very own reckoning. She kissed his neck, whispered in his ear about seeing stars and how he made the world smell like cherry blossoms, smiled and smiled and smiled as he spilled secrets into their kisses–the only payment that Mona has ever accepted at the Dark Lady. Pity the fool, or so they say, and Cassian is hers.

Omi is portrayed by SONOYA MIZUNO and was written by KAITLIN. They are currently TAKEN by LIA.

#lsrpg #literate rp #bio rp #mafia rp #crime rp #nb #neu #yamamoto omi #t #tnb

[lgbtqiahistoricalromance]

LGBTQIA Historical Romance Novels for Winter, Hanukkah, Solstice, and Christmas! - Updated December 19th, 2018

Christmas Angel by Eli Easton (*Book One of The Christmas Angel series) (I thoroughly enjoyed this Georgian era romance. There is a great group of supporting characters, and this manages to delve into period-typical homophobia, without weighing down the hopeful message of the story.)

- When John Trent, a dedicated member of the new Bow Street Runners, finds an exquisite carved angel floating in the Thames, he can’t stop thinking about it. He tracks down its creator, a sad and quiet young sculptor. But neither the angel nor the sculptor is done with John just yet. The blasted angel refuses to leave him be, behaving not at all like an inanimate object should. Alec Allston is resigned to the fact that his love will ever be a river that flows out and never flows in. All he wanted to do was create a special gift so that a small part of himself could be with his unattainable and noble beloved, always. But when the gift keeps showing back up at his shop in the hands of a windblown and rugged thief-taker, Alec will need to reconsider his conviction that love is destined to remain an ethereal ideal. This book is one of seven stories which can all be read and enjoyed in any order.

On Wing of Song by Anne Barwell

- Six years after meeting British soldier Aiden Foster during the Christmas Truce of 1914, Jochen Weber still finds himself thinking about Aiden, their shared conversation about literature, and Aiden’s beautiful singing voice. A visit to London gives Jochen the opportunity to search for Aiden, but he’s shocked at what he finds. The uniform button Jochen gave him is the only thing Aiden has left of the past he’s lost. The war and its aftermath ripped everything away from him, including his family and his music. When Jochen reappears in his life, Aiden enjoys their growing friendship but knows he has nothing to offer. Not anymore.

The Prince and Her Dreamer by Kayla Bashe (Coming December 12th! A f/f retelling of The Nutcracker!!)

- Clara feels stifled by the life that's been planned out for her, and clings to her only hope that something more might be possible: a mysterious book given to her by her Uncle Drosselmeyer, that recounts the tales of the magnificent warrior woman known as the Red Prince. Decades ago, Drosselmeyer trapped the Red Prince in the form of a doll to save her from the Rats. When the magic of Clara's selfless admiration restores her to human form, she and Clara must find a way to stand against the Rats once and for all if they hope to enjoy the life they've always longed for...

Mr. Winterborne’s Christmas by Joanna Chambers (Yes, a new story for those clamoring for more Adam and Lysander.)

- Lysander Winterbourne has been living happily at Edgeley Park for the last eighteen months. By day he is Adam Freeman's estate manager, by night, his lover...but Adam never speaks of his feelings and Lysander has no idea whether their relationship is any more than a convenient arrangement for Adam. When the two men are invited to Winterbourne Abbey for a family Christmas, matters quickly come to a head. Snowed in at the Abbey with a house full of guests, Lysander has to face up to shocking revelations, long-held secrets and a choice he never expected to have to make...

Careened: Winter Solstice in Madierus by Bey Deckard (Book 3.5 of the Baal’s Heart series--pirates!)

-A Baal's Heart short, following the events in Fated: Blood and Redemption Plagued by terrible dreams, Jon begins to distance himself from Baltsaros and Tom. Perhaps a little holiday cheer is just the thing to help the three of them find common ground again.

Phin’s Christmas by Bonnie Dee

- Doubt invades a fairy-tale holiday. Excited to celebrate his first Christmas with his true love, Phin Abernathy searches for the perfect gift for Teddy, the artist who saved him from solitude (The Artist). But his happy holiday dreams are soon threatened. After a year of living on his own, then with his beloved partner, Phin has mostly banished his negative view of himself.  He and Teddy are happily saving toward a house they can share, when a chance encounter with a stranger raises Phin’s old ghosts of doubt, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Struggling to quell such negative spirits, Phin focuses on volunteering at a children’s shelter. But when he sees his Teddy and handsome Justin Crump (The Medium) in a suspicious situation, it is difficult to control his racing thoughts. Belief in Teddy’s love for him wars with Phin’s fear his lover wants something more. Phin must decide how far he is willing to go to keep Teddy in his life, and truly embrace his own worth before he can ever celebrate the season.

Simon and the Christmas Spirit (Part of Victorian Holiday Hearts Boxed Set) by Summer Devon and Bonnie Dee (A fun romp of a romance, with heart, and lots of laughs.)

- Simon and the Christmas Spirit: The holiday spirit has forsaken Simon Harris. A recent reminder of the man who used then left him sends lonely Simon on a glum visit to his club where a breath of fresh air in the form of Christopher Andrews enters his stale life. Simon and Christopher enjoy a few hours of pleasure, never expecting to see each other again, but Simon’s new resolution to change may transform both men's lives.

The Holly Groweth Green by Amy Rae Durreson

- When wounded doctor Laurence Payne is stranded in the snowy English countryside on Christmas Eve, 1946, he is surprised to stumble upon Mistle Cottage and its mysterious inhabitant. Avery claims to be an Elizabethan wizard, and Laurence struggles to explain away the atmosphere of the cottage as mere coincidence and trickery. He spends a magical twelve days of Christmas celebrating with Avery, but then wakes to find his lover has vanished and the cottage has fallen to ruin overnight. Laurence’s investigations lead him to the story of an ancient fairy curse—Avery is doomed to spend only Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night in human form until he finds true love. Laurence sets out to give Avery the greatest gift of all—his heart and with it the chance to live for more than the fleeting winter weeks he’s been sentenced to.

A Christmas in Kent by Paul Alan Fahey (Part of the Lovers and Liars set, which entails espionage in WWII.)

- It's December 1941. Caroline, Cyril, Edward, and Leslie are home from their recent exploits on the Isle of Man and are now happily ensconced in their cottage in Kent. Feeling safe from the ongoing horrors of war, if only temporarily, Caroline finds herself surrounded by people she loves and who love her, so she counts her blessings and immerses herself in the spirit of the season. She trims the holiday tree with her newly wedded spouse and makes a last minute shopping trip into London. Other family members are busy, as well. Samson and Delilah -- the group’s adopted pair of shelties -- are running amok in The Peasant’s Revenge and causing the pub’s patrons no end of displeasure. Leslie and Edward have a chance encounter with a child who is separated from her parents in Germany and lives nearby with a foster family. Then there’s that something bothering Caroline that simply can’t be ignored much longer. Christmas in Kent will indeed be full of surprises.

The Christmas Wager by Jamie Fessenden

- Lord Thomas Pendleton, second son of the Duke of Branmoor, needs to discharge a debt to his friend Andrew Nash. In doing so, he must return to the family estate he fled six years earlier after refusing to marry the woman his father had chosen. To Thomas’s dismay, Branmoor Hall is no longer the joyful home he remembers from his childhood, and his four-year-old niece has no idea what Christmas is. Determined to bring some seasonal cheer back to the gloomy estate, Thomas must confront his tyrannical father, salvage a brother lost in his own misery, and attempt to fight off his father’s machinations. As Christmas Day draws near, Thomas and his friend Andrew begin to realize they are more than merely close friends… and those feelings are not only a threat to their social positions, but, in Victorian England, to their lives as well.

Summerfield’s Angel by Kim Fielding (*Book Two of The Christmas Angel series) (This one takes place between a cowboy and the son of a retail magnate, with some nice details about 1880′s NYC, and the sort of class differences we usually only see in romances that are based in London.)

- After the hard winter of 1888 ended Alby Boyle’s work as a Nebraska ranch hand, he returned to New York City in search of his long-lost family. His mother and brothers are nowhere to be found, however, and after Alby’s years of absence, Five Corners no longer feels like home. His prospects seem as dim as the nighttime alleys. When Alby pauses to admire an angel ornament in a department store window’s Christmas display, he meets Xeno Varnham-Summerfield. Wealthy, handsome, and enthusiastic, Xeno brings Alby some temporary cheer. But for Alby to achieve his dreams of love and a real home, well, that may take a bit of holiday magic.

Cursed Miracles by Meg Harding

- Two hundred years ago on Christmas Eve, William Mashinter was frozen in time, cursed by his wife to roam the world on his own, waiting for the love of his life to find him. The love of his life, whom she killed. Time hasn’t healed this wound, and William is tired of the happy holiday and the constant reminders of a love that’s been taken from him. But then the impossible happens, and maybe… maybe he can get a new Christmas perspective.Brady Gallagher has lived three different lives, always aware of the first and most important, yet unable to find the man who will fill in the missing pieces and let him know he’s not crazy. He encounters him at a work event, of all places, but is he willing to throw everything else to the wind and embrace the miracle laid out before him?A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2016 Advent Calendar "Bah Humbug."

Christopher’s Christmas by Adella J Harris

- Valet Chris MacCullan knows better than to fall in love with someone at a Christmas house party, but there’s nothing wrong with a bit of fun. Even with the shy, sweet son of the housekeeper, as long as he’s careful not to do anything that will hurt the fellow later.  But as he gets to know his new friend, can he protect his own heart?

A Christmas Hex by Jordan L Hawk (A Hexworld short story)

- Roland knows he will never find love. Everyone views wolf familiars like himself as dangerous beasts, unable to rein in their savage impulses. He’s resigned himself to his fate—or so he thinks, until he meets the dashing Augustus Cao. His witch.Gus is on the trail of a gang of thieves, and Roland holds an important clue. Even though they can never bond, Roland can’t pass up the opportunity to spend a night with his witch.Can Roland conceal his secret, while helping Gus catch the thieves? Or will the handsome detective be the one to steal his heart?

Harmony by Jordan L Hawk (A Whyborne & Griffin short story set after Bloodline)

The Magician’s Angel by Jordan L Hawk (*Book Three of The Christmas Angel series)(Currently reading...)

- Vaudeville stage magician Christopher Fiend lives for the spotlight. His chance at big time stardom awaits him in Chicago, the next stop on the circuit after the little town of Twelfth Junction. Edward Smith wants nothing to do with his family's theater. Until Christopher catches his eye on opening night, then treats him to a very special performance during intermission. When a dead body turns up in the middle of Christopher’s act, suspicion immediately falls on him. If Christopher and Edward can’t work together to clear his name, Christopher won’t make it to Chicago in time. Edward knows he shouldn’t get attached to a man who will be gone in two days, but his heart—and a very special angel—have other ideas. The Christmas Angel series of holiday romances follow the travels of an angel ornament through the decades as she inspires (and sometimes nudges) lonely men to find their Happily Ever After. The Magician’s Angel is the third in series, which can be read in any order.

A Gay Fairy Tale by Christina Lee and Riley Hart (This one is set in an alternate world, where it’s always winter. Has a nice bit of hope at the end, when Merrick challenges his kingdom’s preconceptions.)

- As next in line for the Evergreen crown, Prince Merrick Davendall’s future involves ruling, marriage, and producing an heir of his own. But he’s long been tormented by desires that are far from princely. Especially when the beautiful Cassius is promoted to be his new valet, and Merrick is struck by a longing like never before—a longing to know him far beyond royal and servant. After his father’s passing, Cassius Havendale’s sole duty is to provide for his family. A promotion to serve a pampered prince is something he endures only for their sake. Surely Prince Merrick has no understanding of the true suffering of the common people, nor could he possibly understand what it’s like to desperately desire something he cannot have. Except the prince is not at all what Cassius imagined. Kind, humorous, and caring to those in need, he also shares Cassius’s affinity for the arts. In fact, Merrick understands his deepest vulnerabilities in a most remarkable way. As their affection deepens, the underlying tension between them becomes unbearable and they’re unable to ignore it any longer. But when the queen prepares a lavish ball with all the eligible ladies in the land in attendance, Merrick must fulfill his obligations to his country, and Cassius has the needs of his family to consider. They’ve long known their stolen moments would have to come to an end, but are they ready to give up one another and the idea of a happily-ever-after?

His Regelence Rake by JL Langley (Book Three of the Sci-Regency series)(I love this whole series, but this one was given a holiday theme at the end, and it makes for a lovely HEA background to the story that develops throughout re: the stables.)

- Sebastian Hastings, Viscount Wentworth, is captain of the Royal Guard by day and scandalous rake by night. To protect the royal family of Regelence from the plots of the Intergalactic Navy, Sebastian makes it his priority to personally oversee their safety. Prince Colton Townsend is done pining after the roguish viscount and focuses his attention on his second love—horses. Following his dream of owning a racehorse breeding farm distracts Colton from his heartache… until Sebastian begins shadowing him. When a good deed at a horse auction sparks public rumors, Colton just might get the man and the marriage he’s longed for. But Sebastian’s duties and secrets keep him walled off from those who would get close. To reach Sebastian, Colton takes one last risk that might break his heart….

The Forgotten Man by Ryan Loveless

- In 1932, after Captain Joshua Pascal’s family loses its fortune, the Great War veteran’s sense of duty compels him to help his mother convert his childhood home into a Jewish boarding house. He’s lived openly as a homosexual among his friends, but now Joshua must pretend to be a “normal,” and hiding his nature is a lonely way of life. But in the middle of Chanukah, Joshua meets Will, a street musician with a ready smile, and wonders if he might deserve a chance at love. During the cold December nights they find comfort in each other. But the specter of the workhouse and the possibility of family and personal ruin hang over them, making their every move dangerous. Which would they rather lose: their lives as they know them... or the promise of a future together?

Last Leap of the First-Foot by Ari McKay

- Iain Donaldson and Bran MacRae have been best friends since childhood, despite Iain being part of the gentry and Bran a mere crofter's son. Iain's feelings of friendship have deepened over time, and he suspects Bran might share his inclinations—and Hogmanay may be the time to confess feelings. As the old year becomes the new, Iain keeps his promise to first-foot at the MacRae cottage, and Bran takes the opportunity to bare his heart—will it be enough to overcome the challenges to their budding relationship? A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2013 Advent Calendar package "Heartwarming".

My True Love Gave To Me by Ava March

- Alexander Norton loathes the festive season. The revelry of the ton is a reminder of Christmas four years ago, when his first love, Thomas Bennett, broke his heart and fled to New York without a word. So when he encounters Thomas at a holiday ball, Alexander is determined not to let on how much he still hurts. Thomas has returned for one reason only: Alexander. Having finally come to terms with his forbidden desires, he will do whatever he must to convince Alexander to give their love another chance. But instead of the happy, carefree man Thomas once knew, Alexander is now hard and cynical. Saddened to know he's to blame for the man's bitterness, Thomas resolves to reignite the passion he knows lies hidden behind the wall of disdain...

The Mistletoe Kiss by Ruby Moone (My favorite LGBT historical Christmas romance. An MC with a disability, and a beautiful May/December romance that evolves from friends to lovers.)

- By 1816, widowed bookseller Lawrence Fenton has spent a lonely lifetime hiding who he is. He has convinced himself his feelings for his far too young, gorgeous, but troubled assistant Christy Shaw are nothing more than pride in his protégé and concern for his plight. Christy’s life involves walking fine lines: one between his mother and his abusive stepfather, one where he must keep his needs hidden, and hardest of all, one where he must keep his feelings for his serious employer to himself. Lame since birth, Lawrence cannot imagine anyone wanting him, least of all Christy. But when Christy’s life threatens to spiral out of control, Lawrence steps in. Then Christy’s emotions spill over into a kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas. Will Lawrence be able to face the long-buried truth about himself and keep Christy by his side?

The Wrong Kind of Angel by Ruby Moone (prequel to Trapped) (Charles is a sweet bon bon. Just saying.)

- A reluctant angel, three not terribly wise men, two gorgeous men on a starlit chase to find a child … It can only be Christmas. It’s Christmas 1817 and Captain Charles Farrington has accepted that he is destined to live alone. That is, until Christmas Eve, when a startlingly handsome man crashes into his home and his life. Harry Valentine is a man on the run. A man with secrets. He hasn’t time to fall for the angel who rescued him and, in any case, he knows that once Charlie realises the truth about him, there will be no future for them. Harry’s warmth makes Charles face up to the demons in his past and shows him that he can have a family. All he has to do is persuade Harry to stay. But Charlie knows that, despite whatever Harry says, he’s the wrong kind of angel for happy endings.

The Christmas Curse by Ruby Moone (A dose of cheer and magic for a lonely man at Christmas.)

- It’s almost Christmas 1806, and government agent Jared Templeton finds himself adopted by a beautiful stray dog as he walks his customary route each night to his Mayfair home. Having never owned a dog before, Jared is surprised to find himself talking to the beast. It’s wonderfully easy and lifts some of the heavy burdens he carries. Eventually Jared confides in the dog, not only secrets about his work as an agent, but also the biggest secret about himself. About his innermost desires and needs, safe in the knowledge his companion will never betray him. But at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, Jared discovers things are not quite what they seem …

The Lion Lies Waiting by Glenn Quigley (Sequel to The Moth and Moon)

- Winter, 1780, and the solstice is fast approaching. Four months after the events of The Moth and Moon, burly fisherman Robin Shipp is preparing for his first Midwinter festival with his lover, the handsome baker Edwin Farriner. But when a letter arrives begging for help, they must travel with their friend, Duncan, to Port Knot on sinister Blackrabbit Island for a final confrontation with Edwin’s mother. Also visiting the island are Lady Eva and her wife Iris, with a stunning proposition that could change Robin and Edwin’s lives forever.The snow-covered harbour town of Port Knot is a dangerous place. While there, Robin, Edwin, and Duncan explore the menacing rooftop settlement known as the Roost, mingle with high society in the magnificent splendour of Chase Manor, and uncover a violent conspiracy threatening the island’s entire way of life.Old rivalries will flare, shocking secrets will be revealed, and as Duncan’s scandalous past finally catches up with him, will it ultimately destroy them all?The men will be tested to their limits as they discover that on Blackrabbit Island, the lion lies waiting.

A Gentleman’s Agreement by J Roman (This had one of the best endings I’ve read, very sweet, and the whole story is one of low-dose period-typical homophobia.)

- Thomas Derrik is about to have the worst Christmas of his life. Three days before the holiday, he finds out the father he doesn’t get along with is arriving on Christmas Eve, his ex-lover and new brother-in-law will be staying at his estate until the New Year, and his beloved brother, Edmund, has died. Luckily, Edmund’s last holiday scheme may well save Thomas’s Christmas: Henry Appleby, a young lord fresh from the Continent, has arranged to court Thomas. But the family tragedy and jealous exes may put an end to the romance before it begins. A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2012 Advent Calendar package "Evergreen"

Yuletide Truce by Sandra Schwab

- London, 1845 It's December, Alan "Aigee" Garmond's favorite time of the year, when the window display of the small bookshop where he works fills up with crimson Christmas books and sprays of holly. Everything could be perfect — if it weren't for handsome Christopher Foreman, the brilliant writer for the fashionable magazine About Town, who has taken an inexplicable and public dislike to Aigee's book reviews. But why would a man such as Foreman choose to target reviews published in a small bookshop's magazine? Aigee is determined to find out. And not, he tells himself, just because he finds Foreman so intriguing. Aigee’s quest leads him from smoke-filled ale-houses into the dark, dingy alleys of one of London's most notorious rookeries. And then, finally, to Foreman. Will Aigee be able to wrangle a Yuletide truce from his nemesis?

The Return of the Earl by Sandra Schwab

- On the Continent they call him the Ice Prince, icy of manner, icy of heart. Now, after thirteen years of exile, Con returns home to England and to Harrowcot Hall, a place haunted by memories of a long-lost friendship and past betrayals, a place where all of his dreams shattered and died. But the past is over and done with, and can no longer touch him -- or so Con thinks. He certainly does not expect to come face to face with Bryn Ellison again, the man whom he once loved beyond everything and who repudiated their bond in the cruelest way imaginable. As snow and frost close in on Harrowcot Hall, Con's icy demeanour starts to melt while he grapples with old hurts and newly awakened passions. Will he give in to the lure of the past against his better judgement?

Ansel of Pryor House by Hayden Thorne (Magical romance in a YA format, with a twist of gothic, and a warming message.)

- Fifteen-year-old Ansel Tunnicliffe has lived a harsh life. Abandoned by his mother and his siblings to a drunk and abusive father, Ansel knows nothing more than hunger, fear, pain, and loneliness in his short life. One evening, a wealthy stranger appears, challenges Mr. Tunnicliffe to a game of cards, and easily wins. The prize? Ansel. The terrified boy is whisked away to a remote and mysterious house, whose stern and aristocratic mistress takes Ansel in for a purpose that remains elusive to him. Little by little, however, Ansel discovers additional secrets in every magical room of Pryor House -- secrets that are somehow linked to him and Miss Peveler’s strange interest in his welfare. One of those secrets also turns out to be a young boy who haunts Ansel’s lonely hours and who may very well hold the key to Ansel’s future and the shadowy history of Pryor House.

Christmas Homecoming by LA Witt (*Book Three of The Christmas Angel series)

- August 1939. Roger Miller and Jack O’Brien have been close since childhood. By the time they realize there’s more between them than friendship, Jack is leaving their sleepy Iowa town for college. But they console themselves knowing he’ll be home for Christmas. Right? It is Christmas before they see each other again, but that Christmas comes six years and a world war later. Aged, beaten, and shaken by combat, they’re not the boys they were back then, but their feelings for each other are stronger than ever. Neither know the words to say everything they’ve carried since that peacetime summer kiss, though. Even as they stand in the same room, there’s a thousand miles between them. But maybe that’s some distance the little angel in Roger’s rucksack can cross.

A Christmas Carol by Em Woods (Dickens’ classic retelling)

-The Classics Exposed…Love at first sight is a beautiful thing, but sometimes, true love waits a lifetime to shine…and then needs a little help from the Three Ghosts of Christmas.As a young man, Ebenezer Scrooge felt the sharp pain of loss and resolved to protect his heart from all others, taking solace in his gold and silver. Years of discarding his own emotions, and those of anyone around him, has turned Scrooge cold.When deceased lover and partner Jacob Marley pays miserly Scrooge a late night visit, pride and disbelief buoy Scrooge's courage. As the fabled Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet-to-Come arrive to show Scrooge the error of his ways, they also give him brief glimpses of a love so strong it has stood the test of time.In an inspiring tale of change, a deep-seated need flares to life, leaving Scrooge without a doubt that love and family are what really matter at Christmas.Reader Advisory: This book contains gay erotic content with a leaning toward domination/submission and one scene of dubious consent.

A Calm Before The Storm (Dark Is The Night series 2.8) by Kelley York and Rowan Altwood

- James and William’s first Christmas together in their own home ought to be a cause for celebration. But when money is tight, and William is going through withdrawals in an attempt to get off of his laudanum completely, the level of holiday cheer is dismally low. James won’t give up so easily. Especially when he finds the perfect Christmas gift for William, and he’ll do whatever he must in order to get it. A Calm Before the Storm is a sweet, short story companion to the Dark is the Night series.

A Land So Wild by Alyssa Warkentin

- In 1845, the HMS Vanguard, under the command of Captain William Caulderson, departed England on a voyage of discovery to find a Northwest Passage through the perilous arctic waters separating the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It was never heard from again.

Five years later, Captain David Maxwell of the Serapis sets sail to attempt to recover the Vanguard and determine the fate of his former commander.

Naturalist Embleton Hall is running from demons of his own. He doesn’t expect to find himself drawn to Captain Maxwell--but the two men form a bond that will become essential to their survival.

Together, they'll brave the elements on a long and harrowing voyage to discover the fate of the lost ship Vanguard. But they'll also learn that some secrets are best left frozen in ice.

*The Christmas Angel Series (info below the cut)

In 1750, a master woodcarver poured all his unrequited love, passion, and longing into his masterpiece—a gorgeous Christmas angel for his beloved’s tree. When the man he loved tossed the angel away without a second thought, a miracle happened. The angel was found by another who brought the woodcarver True Love. Since then, the angel has been passed down, sold, lost and found, but its magic remains. Read the romances inspired by (and perhaps nudged along by) the Christmas angel through the years. Whether it’s the 1880’s New York (Kim Fielding’s Summerfield’s Angel), the turn-of-the-century (Jordan L. Hawk’s Magician’s Angel), World War II (L.A. Witt’s Christmas Homecoming), Vietnam-era (N.R. Walker’s Soldier’s Wish), the 1990’s (Anyta Sunday’s Shrewd Angel), or 2018 (RJ Scott’s Christmas Prince), the Christmas angel has a way of landing on the trees of lonely men who need its blessing for a very Merry Christmas and forever HEA.

#lgbt romance #historical romance #mm romance #f/f romance #m/m romance #two men in love #two women in love #wlw #christmas romance #jordan l hawk #ruby moone #lj langley #bonnie dee #summer devon #hayden thorne #ya romance

[parkrailings-blog]

Park Railings And Their Common Myths

When it comes to fences, there are benefits that every homeowner knows about. A good fencing is going to keep the dog in the yard, separate your lawn out of the neighbor's, and allow for privacy. You will find, but a number of other benefits of proper fencing which you can not think about daily. Fences and gates do more than just enclose your property. They perform a number of tasks that go along way towards maintaining your property for the long run. Five things that you could not think about in regards to fences would be. Though you know that fences keep dogs in lawns, have you ever thought of it the other way round? For those who have a garden or a garbage bin, the risk of raccoons and other harmful creatures is quite elevated. Fences go a ways toward keeping those pests out of your yard. Go to the below mentioned site, if you are searching for more information regarding fencing wrought iron.

You know that fences are great for keeping people from walking during your lawn, however in addition they keep away a worse section than incidental trespassers. Burglars go for the simplest intentions, and great security enclosures make obstacles many burglars just will not need to cope with. One of the greatest resources to a yard is actually a great fence. Fences cut down on winds, snowdrifts, and also other weather-driven facets that could harm the yard you've worked so hard to retain. In the current modern world of accelerated development and real estate expansion, your property may always be under threat. A fence will secure that line and ensure that every inch of your property is maintained. This is why temporary structures are always installed on job websites. They provide an ideal definition of the outline of a property. You may not think about fences as being decorative, however a well made fence not only serves many goals however, complements your home as well.

Fences are available in a number of diverse styles and designs that turn them to cosmetic features for property owners. Every household item includes its own many applications, and fences aren't any different. A fantastic fence will look fantastic and function several services for the property. This will protect your yard out of the weather and secure your property and property. If you'd like your house and yard, then take them into the fencing they deserve. A fencing serves many vital purposes when it involves your own dwelling. This is the reason installing a fence is just one of those initial things that most homeowners do after purchasing their residence. A well-built fence may add to the beauty and charm of a home and serve as an initial line of defense to keep off unwanted persons your property. It can increase the worth of your house when promoting just a little more privacy at the exact same moment.

[burksohlsen9-blog]

Long Beach Island Real Estate - Your Peers Have Collected This Selection Of Concepts About Real-estate Committing Just For You

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Should you maintain mindful records now, you can stay away from headaches in the foreseeable future. Long Island Real Estate - Your Friends Have Collected This Listing Of Suggestions About Real Estate Property Shelling out Just For You Clean on your local legal guidelines for any region you want to spend money on. The lawful stipulations differ from region to region so make sure to stay along with them. Before you execute any company, you need to speak to the individuals in charge so you're completely conscious of all of the regulations before heading through together with the offer. Find out what type of developing is best for you to definitely preserve. Buying the property is just a tiny element of real estate investing. Look at the way you will handle the property prior to deciding to sell it off. One-tale houses are simpler to work with than two-tale properties. Be careful not to handle lots of commitments. Purchase homes based in extremely foreclosed areas if you are able to keep them awhile prior to deciding to re-sell them. These areas will come again, and people who buy if the marketplace is reduced will make a ton of money. Only do this if you possess the power to delay until the industry is way better to obtain the come back on your expense. Be careful not to shed emphasis during the putting in a bid warfare. Putting in a bid battles get people on an emotional level incurred up. That can cause bad mistakes like paying out excessive for a home or bidding from your self. Bear in mind, the amounts never ever lie. Adhere to your initial phone numbers and bow out if the selling price moves above them. As you now have look at this write-up, you should have a much better knowledge of the real estate online game. Take advantage of the information and facts that you have just go through to make sure that you are able to prevent slipping into popular property traps. Using this type of advice, it is possible to understand a big come back in your purchase.

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How to Get Payday Loans Online - Get a Loan Right Now!

The capacity to obtain immediate payday loans online has come to be quite preferred. It is rather easy to fill out the on the internet form. Usually, it takes much less than an hour for authorization and approval is acquired without a credit scores check. It is important to check each payday advance business for confirmation with the Bbb in one's town. If the firm one has actually picked is not signed up, it is an excellent idea to proceed his/her search till she or he has actually discovered a signed up firm in excellent standing.

Trustworthy companies comprehend that there is a demand for monetary services for those who can not obtain conventional lendings. Nonetheless, lots of people seek payday advance online in Ontario without very first inspecting the background of the lending company. It is very important to do a detailed search before settling on the firm with which to do company.

The principle of payday advance loan is that a person can get much-needed cash transferred promptly right into his or her checking account that will certainly go into payment on his or her following payday. The rates of interest will certainly climb as the length of time till repayment is extended, that is why it is essential to pay back these temporary loans as soon as possible. The application procedure is extremely straightforward and streamlined and mentions all terms and conditions in plain English.

For those people that do not know what a cash loan financing is, it is a temporary finance that is likewise known as a cash loan lending. These are terrific methods to obtain for those that can not or do not wish to obtain with a traditional lending institution, such as a bank or cooperative credit union. There are higher interest rates as a result of the convenience of this kind of funding and a much shorter settlement period. The regard to the loan is usually 7 to twenty-one days after receiving the funds.

If a person has actually had credit score problems in the past, there is additionally a payday advance just for them. For those who simply need aid organizing their funds, credit history therapy services can be simply what they require.

Looking for payday loans online has actually never been less complex, with shorter forms and also even more online lending institutions to pick from. If one thinks that this might be the best roadway for him or her to take, merely research study the company before handing out any individual info.

The globe is experiencing economic hardship today. No work, real estate market static as well as no end in view makes it challenging to hold out hope for the future. North America appears to be worse off for those that live there, also is feeling the strain. With no end in sight to the economic circumstances, where does one choose additional funds when they are needed? For residents, added money for unanticipated expenses is available in the type of payday advance loan online.

When a person's income is weeks away, however auto repair services or emergency medical treatment is required, having money available actually helps. If a person does not have added cash for such items, after that it can be devastating. That is when a cash advance can pull an individual through a bumpy ride.

All an individual needs to do is browse the web as well as offer information like, citizenship, work, examining account with bank, drivers' permit, as well as get in touch with numbers. When the details is confirmed, a person can have a car loan in a matter of hours.

There are no covert costs to fret about when an individual approves the funding. That can be frustrating to assume that every little thing is all taken care of and after that are banged with an additional fee. Cash advance online is in advance concerning charges when an individual applies so there are no surprises later.

Some facilities might charge handling fees, not so with a cash loan lending. Applying is free and takes just a couple of mins of an individual's time in the convenience of his or her home.

An individual does not have to worry that dishonest individuals may obtain his/her individual info either. Payday advance loan online maintains a person's info strictly confidential. They understand an individual's nervousness about providing personal info as well as ensure it is much secured.

One of the best components regarding applying online is exactly how straightforward and also quickly the authorization procedure works. As soon as authorized, the cash is wired directly to a person's account and prepared to be utilized. Payment functions the same way, it is digitally deducted from an individual's account; no muss, no hassle. Payday advance online makes getting required additional cash hassle-free. When an individual requires money, he or she need to apply online with a payday loan center in your community.

It utilized to be rather challenging to acquire a payday advance, today, with the arrival of the internet as well as payday loans, this is something that an increasing number of individuals are checking out. This is not to say that more are experiencing financial problems, even with the international economic crisis; it just means that now that these car loans are much easier to acquire, more individuals are certified to receive them.

Specialists are stating that even more individuals than in the past are choosing Payday Loans Online No Job Verification for the simplicity of the application process. This was not so also simply a few years ago due to the length of time it took for approval, and lot of times, correctly qualified people were still denied. Also, at that time, your credit scores had a whole lot to do with your acceptance, as well; however, all that has changed, and also no more do payday advance facilities require a history or credit scores check.

Likewise, thanks to the internet's capability to place people in instantaneous call with numerous businesses, it is much easier than ever before to obtain payday advances. Actually, the whole application procedure has been reduced to just a number of hrs. Think of, in a little over 2 hrs, you might have the money you need in hand. This is why acquiring payday loans online has actually come to be the brand-new means to acquire the funding needed for your emergency.

Of course, there are still the skeptics available that believe that payday advance may not be for them. Rightly so, as it does sound as if the loaning companies are simply distributing free cash; nevertheless, there are credentials that one still needs to possess as well as it is certainly not free money. Not only needs to it be repaid in a much shorter amount of time than a typical financing, but it additionally has actually funding costs attached to it for the right to borrow the money. These car loans are fairly reliable for those locating themselves in a monetary fiasco, yet they do feature a certain rate.

The greatest thing about payday advance is the truth that you do not have to endure with a monetary obstacle any type of longer. You do not have to take a look at life as though you need to fret what will happen with your next monetary emergency. Payday advance can help you remove your financial troubles successfully.

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Measures to Retirement Planning to a Safe as well as Secure Future

Retirement is actually a complicated trait, one day, and you really feel great concerning it as you will certainly be actually resting; lastly, as well as a few days ago, you really feel concerned regarding your funds. Folks that intend for their retirement in advance might possess a little bit of or even absolutely nothing to panic about.

Retirement planning is actually a continual procedure, as well as you would certainly need to attempt to predict points. No one can easily anticipate whatever as well, as it will definitely be actually far better to attempt to be actually close sufficient may carry out some advantage.

We are considering that they are actually fretted regarding just how traits will definitely go when they reduced that earnings off; several folks are actually extremely frightened to resign. Retirement planning is certainly not challenging scientific research, and also, observing these four measures might permit you to have a protected and secure future.

Be sure to to check www.seniorstrong.org for more retirement planning updates.

1. Retirement Planning - Assess your economic scenario

Of all, form a stock of all your existing possessions, revenues, expenditures as well as responsibilities. You may rest along with your retirement coordinator and create an estimation of what your costs and accountabilities would certainly be actually. When you’ve resigned, some costs might keep the same, like grocery stores and insurance coverage and others.

Some expenditures might boost like trip price, trip expenses, as well as investing much less on growing-up youngsters. Some expenditures will additionally be actually cared for through pension account as well as social security. Highlight your stress and concerns that spook you in the evening and review all of them along with your coordinator.

2. Work out the worth of your responsibilities and also possessions

Right here are actually a handful of pointers on just how to compute the worth of your existing possessions.

Write down the present quantity in each of your profiles where you always keep the money as well as liquefied discounts. These consist of inspection, cost savings as well as money market accounts as well as deposit slips.

If you possess sparing guarantees after that, determine as well as find out the present worth or even phone the financial institution to figure out the present worth.

Call your representative and also discover the price of your entire lifestyle plan.

Invested in stocks, connections, or even investment funds, at that point examine the market value on monetary sites or even coming from your final claim.

Use the existing market value of your property as well as various other genuine conditions.

List the existing worth of your pension plan, IRAs, or even various other retirements you want. If you make a decision to acquire all of them paid today, attempt to recognize the worth.

Keep various other possessions like organization and also rental residential or commercial property in thoughts as well.

The equilibrium of the home loan on your property is actually a regular monthly responsibility.

Keep all various other home mortgages or even property equity financings in your thoughts.

Record the debt on the charge card, payments, financing, and also assets profiles.

List all the over-due as well as present costs you are obligated to repay. These consist of energy expenses, physicians, dental practitioners, telephone, water, fuel, real estate tax, and so on.

3. Capital Planning

Found market value is actually considerable for your retirement planning. It is actually the volume of loan you need to have in your profile today to program and also barring your Future. Many people collaborate with their monetary specialists or even their retirement organizers and create a retirement plan to plan for their retirement. You may do this while planning previously as well as after retirement.

Planning Before Retirement

- Budgeting.

It is actually just about inconceivable to begin any type of retirement planning without budgeting. Your budget plan is actually a vital part of your capital planning for each prior to as well as during the course of retirement. It is actually a vital evaluation that people ought to essentially perform to find out just how much cash money is actually needed to sustain the way of life you and your household are actually utilized to staying.

The moment your finances remain in location, it ought to be examined yearly to figure out if the enhancement and decreases are actually altering the scheduled finances or even if some other changes are actually needed to have. A budget plan will surely additionally assist in safeguarding your long-lasting and also retirement financial savings.

- Emergency Fund.

Allow’s face it, unforeseen economic concerns can easily emerge anytime, and also it is actually hard to prevent all of them extremely. It is actually consistently a great concept if our experts possess some discounts to assist you in your inescapable necessities.

Considering that you never ever understand what opportunity or even scenario you may require, your urgent fund needs to be actually prepared apart in a fluid method. The overall quantity requires to become determined through you and your household, and it also needs to go to your convenience amount. Some individuals may settle on possessing $10,000 or even $20,000, whereas some folks will like to place a much higher quantity for their reserve.

- Risk Management.

One location that is actually frequently ignored in retirement planning is actually danger control. Individuals generally concentrate on conserving cash for retirement. They neglect to maintain threat monitoring in their thoughts. Danger monitoring consists of cars and truck insurance coverage, property insurance policy, long-lasting and temporary handicap, and medical insurance. You need to have to create plans relating to these and need to be actually observed, evaluated, and improved as required.

Planning During Retirement.

- Budgeting.

Throughout retirement, your strategy ought to once more begin along with budgeting. Your earnings will certainly be actually altering after retirement, so it is necessary to observe your capital through retirement.

Budgeting after retirement performs certainly does not just imply maintaining and examine the circulation of cash money. It additionally entails assessing all your expenditures throughout the year. It allows you to determine spots where you may make use of various other or even more economical replacements or even exactly how to intend a notable expense.

- Taxes.

Income tax planning is actually a huge challenge for some retired folks. It uses up a bunch of planning relating to studying the resources of funds. It permits you to sustain your way of life, and also consequently, you need to have to maintain your tax obligation effects in thoughts.

When cashed or even acquire removed, various kinds of profiles possess various styles of tax obligation effects. Retirement financial savings or even certified profiles are actually taxed as usual earnings degree. Non-qualified profiles are actually taxed along with resource increases amounts.

- Estate Planning.

While essential property planning is actually a crucial element just before retirement, yet post-retirement planning possesses a more crucial function in dealing with reality. It is actually important for you to establish what you, as well as your household, want to opt for.

What is actually important is actually that the method of real estate planning needs to resemble your perspective in the direction of threat control. Your property strategy must be actually assessed as well as upgraded frequently.

4. Save or even commit.

It is actually completely alright if you begin behind time. The secret to counting on results possesses a favorable expectation as well as understanding that straggling is actually far better than certainly never beginning!

If you end 55 years old, the federal government gives discounts on the catch-up payments so you can easily obtain assist to spare a bit extra. Occasionally, the possibilities are actually that interest-bearing accounts, as well as staff member pension accounts, are actually not nearly enough to meet your objectives. When you look into expenditure items, that is actually.

If you are actually planning to update your staying conventional as well as living monetarily appear for long, it is actually constantly excellent to possess an expenditure on your edge. There are actually various techniques to conserve your loan; however, IRA profiles have actually verified to become the greatest. Look at the enormous net for support if you perform certainly not recognize concerning it, however.

Develop a varied collection of interest-bearing accounts, assets, assets connections, homes, and an insurance policy that can easily all add to profit.

Current market value is actually substantial for your retirement planning. Many individuals function along with their monetary specialists or even their retirement organizers and create specific retirement profiles to prepare for their retirement. It is actually practically difficult to begin any kind of retirement planning without budgeting. Your finances are actually a crucial component of your cash money circulation planning for each just before and during the course of retirement. One place that is actually frequently forgotten in retirement planning is actually danger control.

🎧 Listen to our podcast: https://pod.co/podcastlive/4-things-to-look-for-in-bath-chairs-for-elderly-family-members source https://seniorstrong.blogspot.com/2021/05/measures-to-retirement-planning-to-safe.html source https://seniorstrong1.tumblr.com/post/650459580745334784

[johnclohman40]

Measures to Retirement Planning to a Safe as well as Secure Future

Retirement is actually a complicated trait, one day, and you really feel great concerning it as you will certainly be actually resting; lastly, as well as a few days ago, you really feel concerned regarding your funds. Folks that intend for their retirement in advance might possess a little bit of or even absolutely nothing to panic about.

Retirement planning is actually a continual procedure, as well as you would certainly need to attempt to predict points. No one can easily anticipate whatever as well, as it will definitely be actually far better to attempt to be actually close sufficient may carry out some advantage.

We are considering that they are actually fretted regarding just how traits will definitely go when they reduced that earnings off; several folks are actually extremely frightened to resign. Retirement planning is certainly not challenging scientific research, and also, observing these four measures might permit you to have a protected and secure future.

Be sure to to check www.seniorstrong.org for more retirement planning updates.

1. Retirement Planning - Assess your economic scenario

Of all, form a stock of all your existing possessions, revenues, expenditures as well as responsibilities. You may rest along with your retirement coordinator and create an estimation of what your costs and accountabilities would certainly be actually. When you've resigned, some costs might keep the same, like grocery stores and insurance coverage and others.

Some expenditures might boost like trip price, trip expenses, as well as investing much less on growing-up youngsters. Some expenditures will additionally be actually cared for through pension account as well as social security. Highlight your stress and concerns that spook you in the evening and review all of them along with your coordinator.

2. Work out the worth of your responsibilities and also possessions

Right here are actually a handful of pointers on just how to compute the worth of your existing possessions.

Write down the present quantity in each of your profiles where you always keep the money as well as liquefied discounts. These consist of inspection, cost savings as well as money market accounts as well as deposit slips.

If you possess sparing guarantees after that, determine as well as find out the present worth or even phone the financial institution to figure out the present worth.

Call your representative and also discover the price of your entire lifestyle plan.

Invested in stocks, connections, or even investment funds, at that point examine the market value on monetary sites or even coming from your final claim.

Use the existing market value of your property as well as various other genuine conditions.

List the existing worth of your pension plan, IRAs, or even various other retirements you want. If you make a decision to acquire all of them paid today, attempt to recognize the worth.

Keep various other possessions like organization and also rental residential or commercial property in thoughts as well.

The equilibrium of the home loan on your property is actually a regular monthly responsibility.

Keep all various other home mortgages or even property equity financings in your thoughts.

Record the debt on the charge card, payments, financing, and also assets profiles.

List all the over-due as well as present costs you are obligated to repay. These consist of energy expenses, physicians, dental practitioners, telephone, water, fuel, real estate tax, and so on.

3. Capital Planning

Found market value is actually considerable for your retirement planning. It is actually the volume of loan you need to have in your profile today to program and also barring your Future. Many people collaborate with their monetary specialists or even their retirement organizers and create a retirement plan to plan for their retirement. You may do this while planning previously as well as after retirement.

Planning Before Retirement

- Budgeting.

It is actually just about inconceivable to begin any type of retirement planning without budgeting. Your budget plan is actually a vital part of your capital planning for each prior to as well as during the course of retirement. It is actually a vital evaluation that people ought to essentially perform to find out just how much cash money is actually needed to sustain the way of life you and your household are actually utilized to staying.

The moment your finances remain in location, it ought to be examined yearly to figure out if the enhancement and decreases are actually altering the scheduled finances or even if some other changes are actually needed to have. A budget plan will surely additionally assist in safeguarding your long-lasting and also retirement financial savings.

- Emergency Fund.

Allow's face it, unforeseen economic concerns can easily emerge anytime, and also it is actually hard to prevent all of them extremely. It is actually consistently a great concept if our experts possess some discounts to assist you in your inescapable necessities.

Considering that you never ever understand what opportunity or even scenario you may require, your urgent fund needs to be actually prepared apart in a fluid method. The overall quantity requires to become determined through you and your household, and it also needs to go to your convenience amount. Some individuals may settle on possessing $10,000 or even $20,000, whereas some folks will like to place a much higher quantity for their reserve.

- Risk Management.

One location that is actually frequently ignored in retirement planning is actually danger control. Individuals generally concentrate on conserving cash for retirement. They neglect to maintain threat monitoring in their thoughts. Danger monitoring consists of cars and truck insurance coverage, property insurance policy, long-lasting and temporary handicap, and medical insurance. You need to have to create plans relating to these and need to be actually observed, evaluated, and improved as required.

Planning During Retirement.

- Budgeting.

Throughout retirement, your strategy ought to once more begin along with budgeting. Your earnings will certainly be actually altering after retirement, so it is necessary to observe your capital through retirement.

Budgeting after retirement performs certainly does not just imply maintaining and examine the circulation of cash money. It additionally entails assessing all your expenditures throughout the year. It allows you to determine spots where you may make use of various other or even more economical replacements or even exactly how to intend a notable expense.

- Taxes.

Income tax planning is actually a huge challenge for some retired folks. It uses up a bunch of planning relating to studying the resources of funds. It permits you to sustain your way of life, and also consequently, you need to have to maintain your tax obligation effects in thoughts.

When cashed or even acquire removed, various kinds of profiles possess various styles of tax obligation effects. Retirement financial savings or even certified profiles are actually taxed as usual earnings degree. Non-qualified profiles are actually taxed along with resource increases amounts.

- Estate Planning.

While essential property planning is actually a crucial element just before retirement, yet post-retirement planning possesses a more crucial function in dealing with reality. It is actually important for you to establish what you, as well as your household, want to opt for.

What is actually important is actually that the method of real estate planning needs to resemble your perspective in the direction of threat control. Your property strategy must be actually assessed as well as upgraded frequently.

4. Save or even commit.

It is actually completely alright if you begin behind time. The secret to counting on results possesses a favorable expectation as well as understanding that straggling is actually far better than certainly never beginning!

If you end 55 years old, the federal government gives discounts on the catch-up payments so you can easily obtain assist to spare a bit extra. Occasionally, the possibilities are actually that interest-bearing accounts, as well as staff member pension accounts, are actually not nearly enough to meet your objectives. When you look into expenditure items, that is actually.

If you are actually planning to update your staying conventional as well as living monetarily appear for long, it is actually constantly excellent to possess an expenditure on your edge. There are actually various techniques to conserve your loan; however, IRA profiles have actually verified to become the greatest. Look at the enormous net for support if you perform certainly not recognize concerning it, however.

Develop a varied collection of interest-bearing accounts, assets, assets connections, homes, and an insurance policy that can easily all add to profit.

Current market value is actually substantial for your retirement planning. Many individuals function along with their monetary specialists or even their retirement organizers and create specific retirement profiles to prepare for their retirement. It is actually practically difficult to begin any kind of retirement planning without budgeting. Your finances are actually a crucial component of your cash money circulation planning for each just before and during the course of retirement. One place that is actually frequently forgotten in retirement planning is actually danger control.

? Listen to our podcast: https://pod.co/podcastlive/4-things-to-look-for-in-bath-chairs-for-elderly-family-members Via https://seniorstrong.blogspot.com/2021/05/measures-to-retirement-planning-to-safe.html

source https://seniorstrong.weebly.com/blog/measures-to-retirement-planning-to-a-safe-as-well-as-secure-future

[jaysontaylor7619]

Why should you save?

Let us begin by understanding the need to save. Saving money is nothing but building up a corpus that you can use for various purposes. From attending to an emergency such as a medical emergency to paying for a planned expense such as buying a house, your corpus can help you achieve life goals with greater ease.

There are multiple reasons for goal-based savings. Here is a list of the most common goals for which you should save:

1. For emergencies

Life often throws many surprising challenges in front of you and most of the time, you may find yourself unprepared for them. From your vehicle getting involved in an accident to your mobile phone getting stolen, from your parents requiring urgent hospitalization to your investments suffering due to slow market trends, you can never know what financial challenge lies at the next end. You, therefore, need to save some money and keep it ready for such unforeseen expenses. This is the most important reason why you should get into the habit of saving money each and every month to ensure you have enough with you when you need to address an emergency.

There are multiple factors that determine your emergency corpus amount like:

Average monthly expenses

Nature of your job, whether the government sector or private, whether temporary or permanent, etc.

Your monthly outstanding liabilities like home-loan EMI, etc.

Pro Tip: Your emergency corpus can be any amount from 3 to 18 months of your family’s average monthly expenses. A quick calculation of Emergency Corpus = Average monthly expenses X 6. Must-have products for emergencies, other than your emergency corpus, is a credit card and a health insurance plan for your family.

2. To buy a house

The day you begin working and earning for yourself, you achieve the independence you always wished. The next step is buying a house and for that, you need to save periodically from your salary. Since a home is one of the three greatest requirements of life (along with food and clothing), you need to buy a home at some point in life. Start saving money early on in your career so that you will have a corpus to pay the down payment of your house and be financially capable of getting a home loan as well. This requires a lot of focus and so you should begin working on it without any delays or distractions.

3. To pay for your child’s education

It is every parent’s responsibility to pay for their children’s education. You have to save money for this purpose. Even if you are young and single, you need to think ahead and start saving for years to come when you will be a family person with a spouse and children. Rather than burdening yourself later, start planning and saving right away so that your children get the best education and you can pay for all the expenses without the situation getting too economically burdensome for you.

Read our tips to Financial planning tips for parents

Pro Tip: Education inflation is more than 10% in India and is ever-rising, especially for higher and professional education.

4. To pay for your child’s marriage

Another massive responsibility that you have to fulfill in life is to see your children settle down in life. Apart from their education, you also need to save for their marriage. If your children are young now, begin planning and saving so that you have enough time to build up the necessary corpus. There are some very handy investment schemes such as the money-back child insurance plans, post office saving schemes such as the Sukanya Samriddhi Account, etc. that help you to save for your children’s future needs such as their marriage. Look for such investments and save in a smart manner.

5. To plan for your retirement

You need to save sufficiently for your post-retirement years. Remember, as soon as you turn 60, your income will stop overnight. The pension you receive may hardly be good enough to support your lifestyle. Rather than having to depend on your kids, you can stay financially independent and secure only if you plan ahead. Start saving for your retirement immediately. No matter whether you are in your 20s, 30s or 40s, it is never too early to start saving for this purpose. The earlier you begin, the easier it will be for you to have more money for the twilight years of your life. You can use the money in your retirement years to pay for your daily expenses, for your medical bills or simply to achieve your life goals such as travel.

6. Miscellaneous

There could be various other reasons for which you might have to plan and save ahead of time. The reasons would vary from person to person and can range from sister’s wedding to a foreign trip to parent’s health issues to almost anything. All you need to do is, identify the goal and then save systematically towards the same in a disciplined manner.

These are some of the main reasons you need to save your money. As you can see, some of these require a longer saving-period and some shorter. You need to understand your life goals and then start building the various funds accordingly.

Read: How to manage your debt wisely

Types of financial goals

As mentioned above, people save for various reasons. While some of these are to achieve a dream related to their leisure, others are for practical and sustainable purposes. So while you need to save for a lavish vacation, you also have to save for your retirement years. Financial goals are nothing but targets you set yourself and the monetary arrangements you make to achieve them. Financial goals are usually divided into three groups:

A. Short-term goals

Short-term financial goals are those goals that you need to take care of in the immediate future. Ideally, you need to have a corpus ready for these goals. But you can be disciplined with your expenses and savings and provision for these goals as and when needed. Most of the short-term financial goals are repetitive in nature and you need to address them at regular intervals. The only way to be prepared for these goals is to make a budget and strictly stick to you. You need to have control over your expenses in order to save enough money to fund the short term financial goals and also to save for the mid and long term goals. The most common short-term financial goals are:

a. Paying EMI’s for the various loans you have b. Clearing the monthly credit card bills c. Arranging for annual family vacations d. Getting the best health insurance cover for your entire family e. Indulging in self-care

Tenure for short-term goals:

are usually from 0-2 years.

Top investment products for short-term goals:

can be a savings bank accounts (with 4-7% ROI), Bank Fixed Deposits, Liquid and Debt Mutual Funds, etc.

B. Mid-term goals

Next, we have the mid-term financial goals. These are some of the most crucial goals that you need to provide for. Unfortunately, and rather dangerously, many people tend to deprioritize these goals while they focus on the short term and long term financial goals. Mid-term goals are those goals which you need to meet just a few years down the line. You don’t have to wait until your retirement nor take care of them at the end of the month. The mid-term financial goals are in fact some of the most common life goals we all encounter. You need to build up sufficient funds for these goals to ensure you do not stumble along the way. Some of the common mid-term financial goals include:

a. Getting married b. Having a baby c. Clearing your student loan d. Buying a house e. Starting a business f. Taking care of your parents

Tenure for mid-term goals:

are usually from 2-5 years.

Top investment products for mid-term goals:

can be Bank Fixed Deposits, Debt Mutual Funds, Gold, etc.

C. Long-term goals

A lot has been said and discussed the long-term financial goals of a person. You must have heard many people tell you that you need to save for your twilight years. While retirement is definitely one of the most crucial long-term financial goals, there are other goals that require planning and saving over a long period of time. It is a good idea to start saving early on in life for the long term goals so that you can save in small amounts and still end up with a large corpus. Some of the common long-term financial goals include:

a. Saving for your retirement b. Sending your children to the best foreign university for higher studies c. Buying a lavish villa at a good location d. Owning multiple properties e. Travelling the world f. Buying an expensive car such as a Lamborghini

Tenure for long-term goals:

are usually more than 5 years or so.

Top investment products for long-term goals:

can be Equity Mutual Funds, Real Estate, Direct Equity, etc.

Do read: Complete guide to financial planning

How to save towards your financial goals?

Now that you know more about financial goals and their importance, you need to start saving towards them. Here are some handy tips to help you along the way:

Step #1 –  Set S.M.A.R.T. goals

S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound.

Always remember that the life goals you set for yourself will be different from those that your friend has. Life situations vary and no two families are the same. You have your own set of responsibilities. For instance, your friend may be a single person who lost his parents as well. He does not intend to get married and so he is saving extensively for a world tour. On the other hand, you are a father-of-two and have dependent parents as well. Your financial goals would then primarily revolve around the well-being of your family members. Thus, setting specific and relevant financial goals is the first step in the process.

So, you need to identify your goal and then make it S.M.A.R.T. For example, your financial goal could be “Child Education”.

But you need to make it Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound by making it “Child Education Expenses of INR 1 CR after 15 years”.

Step #2 – Segregate your goals and pen it down

As discussed, financial goals are classified into three groups – the short, mid and long term goals. You also need to identify your goals and sort them accordingly. You need to have a fair idea of your goals and by when you need to achieve them. This is a vital step as you need to have different savings mechanisms for each type of goal. For instance, you may depend on a fixed deposit to pay for your annual family vacation and a mutual fund to pay for your daughter’s wedding. It is thus crucial for you to know the timeline and segregate your financial goals to plan better.

Actually penning your financial goals down is one-step towards the same, as it is etched in your mind forever.

Step #3 – Make a monthly budget – Expense Planning

It is extremely helpful to make a monthly budget as that is the point from where you can begin your financial contributions. After all, the savings need to come out of your monthly salary. So you need to make three divisions, one each for your income, expenses and savings. Calculate your monthly household expenses and other payments that you cannot avoid. This would include outstanding EMI’s etc.

Once that is done, calculate the amount of money left. Then, decide the amount of money you want to leave in your savings bank account as an emergency fund and the amount you want to invest. Once you have a plan ready, it will become easier for you to save for your financial goals.

Read: Top personal financial management apps in India

Step #4 – Keep the saved money away from your wallet

Store the money you save away from yourself, in a savings bank account or lock it up in investments. If you have money lying around, you will be very tempted to spend it. Since discipline is important, you need to keep all distractions away and save with complete diligence.

It is also important to note that you need to be responsible with your credit card usage. When you do not have the cash with you, do not simply keep using your credit card to pay for unnecessary expenses. This will defeat the purpose and you will fail to save appropriately for your financial goals.

Step #5 – Invest properly – Choose the products carefully

And finally, you need to invest properly. There are several investment options available to you. While some like fixed deposits are low risk, others such as equities carry some risk. The yields from each type of investment are different. It is extremely important for you to understand the type of investment, its mechanism and return offered. You also need to correlate the investment with your savings needs and see if the returns would be of use to you. If you are not sure, speak to a financial advisor and then choose the correct investment option. Making an error here can prove to be very damaging and can hamper all your future financial targets.

Step #6 – Annual Review of your Investment Portfolio, Goals and re-aligning the same

This is a super important step in your Financial Planning called Review. This needs to be in line with your asset allocation and risk profile.

Only when you Re-view your portfolio, you would be able to analyse the same and check if your portfolio is following the desired path. If not, then a re-alignment of the portfolio might be necessary. Also, goals keep changing and evolving with time. Annual review and analysis of the investment portfolio can be a healthy check on the progress of the same so that there is no shortfall when the goal is near.

What to keep in mind while planning for your financial goals?

To be able to save properly and build up the highest corpus, you need to keep the following factors in mind when saving towards your financial goals:

1. Factor in inflation

Inflation is a factor that you must keep in mind when you save for your future financial goals. Remember, an item that costs Rs 1000 today may cost Rs 5000 in the next decade. If your dream villa costs Rs 2 crore today, it will probably cost Rs 4 crores* in 10 years’ time and so you need to save more. Unless you factor in the inflation, you will not be able to achieve your financial goals in a manner you wish to do so. *In average inflation in India is 7.66% in 2019. (Source: https://www.inflation.eu/inflation-rates/india/historic-inflation/cpi-inflation-india-2019.aspx)

2. Invest according to your asset allocation and risk appetite

As stated, some investments carry a low risk and others carry a higher risk. When you invest, keep an eye out for the risk factor. If you are a conservative investor, choose investment options that are suitable for you. If you are more of a risk-taker, invest in higher-risk instruments. Be comfortable with your investments as only then can you invest properly and achieve your financial goals in time.

Asset Allocation is an allocation of your investment portfolio for portions of debt, equity and other products like real estate, gold, etc. based on an individual’s risk-taking capacity (i.e. risk appetite).

3. Be realistic when setting your goals

And finally, you need to be very realistic about your life goals. Everyone wants the very best of things in life, but the hard reality is that not everyone can afford everything. If you are a mid-level salaried executive, you possibly cannot have the things a movie star has! So be realistic about your financial goals and set achievable targets for yourself. This will help you to save properly and fetch you the goals in a hassle-free manner.

Basically, make your financial goals S.M.A.R.T. and then work towards the same in a systematic and planned manner.

Discipline is the key here. You need to be disciplined and stay focused at all times. If you lose the eye on your goal, you will shift from the path and achieving your financial goals will become a real challenge thereafter. To avoid this, be as disciplined with your money as you possibly can. Keep your eyes on the targets you have set for yourself and achieve your financial goals with ease.

To wrap it up

Goal-based savings are essential and allow you to manage your money properly. As we saw, there are different categories of financial goals. You have the short-term goals, mid-term goals and the long-term goals. The different goals cater to different life situations and needs and must be addressed accordingly. Keep all the points mentioned above in mind and begin saving for your financial goals. Once you are disciplined and focused, you will be able to achieve all your financial goals with ease.

#Financial Wellness Platform #Employees Financial Wellness #Financial Stress #Employee Retention Guide #Financial Planning Guide #Financial Wellness Guide

[voidpsyche]

Study of VoidUniverse’s Character: HarHys (Part 1)

Characters: Christopher Moldovan and Harley Jean King-Moldovan 

Read the full characters study under the cut

1. The Destiny － winter 1998

    Their very first time meet when 8 years old Harley accidentally bumped to Rhys when she ran to toy shop at Via Camillo Cavour, Florence, Italy. She didn’t see his face at all because she looked down when Rhys asked about her being alone. Later, Rhys leave her once he noticed Maria is her grandmother she talked about approaching. At that moment Rhys and Maria knew each other, in fact Rhys was a candidate of Maria’s new coven member.

2. The Visit

    Around 5 years after their first met after Rhys officially became a Romanoff coven member, Rhys often assigned by Maria to visit her brother’s coven － Bloodworth Coven－ at Louisiana, United State. The purpose are various. sometimes to exchange the new spells or new potions, observe Tmima Magikis, and report about the state of the coven after the previous feud with the Nair Coven. But whenever he back from his trip she always asked about Harley. Like he must know what she’s doing and report it to his coven leader everytime he paid for visit. But the girl never knew she been watched by him for almost 9 years.

3. Secret Promise

    The main reason Maria sent Rhys to visit Bloodworth Coven is to set him with her grand daughter. At 9, she babbled to Maria about her perfect future life. She asked Maria to promise and help her looking for the right man for her. Even everyone in that room know that’s a joke or just little Harley being herself. At that moment she take that seriously. and knew someone who might give everything Harley wanted. Which is Rhys.

4. The Second Meet

    Winter 2011, The King siblings sent to Italy for their first task. This is the time where Harley and Rhys officially know each other. The urge of talking to her directly he had all these time finally fulfilled. She surprisingly can get along with him easily. The two spent pretty much time together within a week during the task.

5. The Hero

    The siblings’ first task didn’t end well as they planned. Glenn (Harley’s twin brother) almost get attacked by werewolf and Rhys had to saved him. The injury isn’t that bad, but without him Glenn probably could die considering he is not immortal yet. Harley was incredibly worried and couldn’t stop think about him during her stay in Alaska with her siblings. She later felt relieved once she saw him again along with her parents a couple days later to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve together as a thank you for saving Glenn.

6. The Real Face

     Harley’s second task bring her relationship closer to Rhys. Asked by Harley’s grandfather (Santiago Romanoff) and approved by Maria as his current coven leader, he helped Harley to finish the task that took 2 weeks to be solved. But one biggest secret revealed during the task about his true self, his identity. He was known by her as Rhys Murillo. In this case, Harley later discovered his real name is Christopher Moldovan. A vampire from Moldovan family which known over the world as nomaden witches hunter.

7. Trust Worthy?

    Rhys convinced her that he is nothing like the entire family. He had no intention to murder innocent witch just for revenge of his father’s death. His confession made Harley unconditionally believed him, trying so hard to fight every bad thoughts about him such as keep this thing discreet even after her effort to opened up to him. She decided to not tell anyone from her family about this until the right time come.

8. Bottled Up Feelings

    The incident makes Harley and Rhys apart for a week. They don’t see and talk to each other after that night. Harley tried to call him several times but always ended up with voicemail, her texts are completely ignored. Upset, she decided to not give a damn about him and start ‘moving on’. Meanwhile, Rhys who lives temporary near the Bloodworth Estate doing a lot of research about The Skull society he believes related to his family since their goals are similar. He sometimes regret to not answer Harley’s call, he wasn’t mean to avoid her specially with her thoughts after his confession. but now The Skull problem is a bigger fish to fry sooner.

9. The Storm in Our Heart

    When Harley finally release the rope and Rhys finished the research, ready to catch up with the girl he let into his life, uninvited guests suddenly showing up in front of his place. The first guest is Dimitri Nair. A member of Nair Coven who also showed up at New Year’s Eve dinner in Alaska as a Peace Offer from Nair Coven for what they done earlier. Dimitri and Rhys didn’t like each other. Despite both of them are nature enemy, these two have a bad history. What makes him surprised about his visit was who came with him. He brought Rhys’ biological Mother. The one he hated so much and believes died for centuries suddenly showing up and later kidnapped him.

      Dimitri sent a warning for Harley to not looking for him because that would be the most stupid thing ever. Knowing that, Harley escorted by Glenn immediately fly to Washington DC asking for a help from World’s greatest tracker.

10. Bleeding For You

      First time Harley saw him in a while, he was chained on the wall, shirtless, bleeding, dying. She also meet Rhys’ mother who look pretty impressed about her brave. After a short argue with the woman who gave birth to Rhys, Bianca (Rhys mother) disappeared. Harley help his recover by insist him to feed on her until she fainted.

      They returned to Louisiana along with the traitor, Bianca’s henchman Dimitri Nair.

Next

#voidcharacterstudy #harhys

[oliveratlanta]

The 12 most Atlanta things that happened in Atlanta in 2019

Curbed Atlanta

From an interstate “cash storm” and Super Bowl-related controversies (again), to (another) rejection of mass transit

What a year it’s been for residential real estate, transportation, commercial development, and generally wild happenings in Atlanta. In terms of transition, 2019 felt like the year when momentum reached a tipping point, and many things residents knew would soon come finally began to materialize, or move in a direction that allows no turning back.

Then again, these worries and aspirations have come before. So before any major declarations are made about our long-awaited arrival as America’s greatest city ever, let’s take a minute and look back at the biggest things—or most Atlanta things—that happened in ATL since New Year’s Day 2019, and think about where we’re going from here.

An armored truck makes it rain on Interstate 285

YouTube

For Atlantans, it was a dream come true—and extreme test of willpower. On the evening of July 9, a Garda armored truck’s doors swung open and released more than $175,000 near Ashford-Dunwoody Road, in the Perimeter area. One man, Randrell Lewis, returned to authorities all $2,000 he says he picked up, even posing for a photo op with proud Dunwoody police afterward (and becoming a subject of some intense social media debate). Though it’s obviously illegal to take money that belongs to someone else, it left all of us who were unfortunately not there to “witness” the cash storm, wondering what our individual consciences would guide us to do. One guess: pull over.

“Beltline Kroger” debuts

Curbed Atlanta

The social Kroger patio, upon opening in October.

Some nostalgists will never call it anything but “Murder Kroger.” Others look at the brave new world signaled by the long-awaited opening of the 60,000-square-foot Atlanta Beltline location of America’s biggest grocery chain, situated between Ponce de Leon and North avenues, and see vibrant new life. It’s sleek and modern, with a glassy exterior to match the mixed-use development at 725 Ponce, a Starbucks inside,a “pub” offering tapped craft beer and flights of wine, an outdoor seating/sipping area with Eastside Trail pedestrian views, and a satellite of the beloved B’s Cracklin’ Barbecue, whose original Atlanta location burned down in March. It’s a new beginning for the questionably nicknamed store for sure, but it does leave one question: What good are all those Kroger Plus Card fuel points now?

The rise of Tyler Perry Studios

You’re entitled to your own opinion of Tyler Perry movies and the critical importance of Madea to the filmmaking craft. But you can’t deny that Perry finessed one of the greatest Ws in history by purchasing 330 acres of the former Fort McPherson U.S. Army base for $30 million in 2015.

Tyler Perry Studios

Soundstages at the studios, with downtown and Midtown Atlanta beyond.

With seemingly endless rolling hills, 12 giant sound stages, and plenty of historic buildings at his disposal, Perry went from successful filmmaker to legitimate Hollywood mogul, hosting a star-powered dedication gala attended by Oprah, Denzel Washington, Jay-Z and Beyonce, and many other elite figures in black cinema. And while it isn’t currently open for public tours (although that’s in the plans), we did get a retouched exit sign on SR 166 letting commuters know where to turn if they’re looking for one of the largest film production studios in America. Not to mention, a couple billboards from an enterprising young actress who clearly understood the power of location in advertising.

A ballyhooed Evander Holyfield statue goes missing

Hanlon Sculpture Studio

The chiseled likeness in question.

After almost two years of promises, it turns out the real deal on that Evander Holyfield statue intended to be erected downtown is TBD. The bronze version of the real-life-chiseled, Bowen Homes-raised boxer, universally beloved by Atlanta and proudly name-dropped in rap songs by André 3000, Snoop Dogg, and others, never made it to its intended place of permanence in front of the Flatiron Building, even though it cost nearly $100,000 to create. Who knows if the MIA effigy will end up there or anywhere other than where it’s currently being stored (if you see something, say something), but a representative from Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s office recently predicted it’ll be installed somewhere by year’s end.

ATL sports gonna ATL sport

Getty Images

The Bravos on October 9, in the process of losing Game Five of the National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals in historic fashion at SunTrust Park.

We’re used to it by now. Fans of Atlanta’s football, basketball, and baseball teams get hyped up listening to overly confident sports journalists, then watch as we get somewhere near the first round of elimination. Of course Atlanta United changed this narrative significantly with their MLS Cup victory (and decidedly Atlanta-centric choice of afterparty venue), which did a lot to justify the construction of Mercedes-Benz Stadium for residents who aren’t named Arthur Blank.

But this year we’re back to falling behind, and maybe it wouldn’t feel so bad if each team didn’t recently get a brand new facility in which to lose so predictably. That’s not to minimize the teams or question their willingness to play with winning in mind, but still. A new house is a new house, and the more we let folks come in our home before wiping their feet on the rug, so to speak, the less we’ll enjoy being in these places. Just ask any of the thousands of people not sitting in those stands on game days. That said, hometeam forever! Go ATL UTD! Go Hawks! Go Braves! Go Falcons! No really… go.

No Gwinnett MARTA

Back in March, it was hard for anyone hoping to see MARTA expand into Gwinnett County to not feel a little disheartened at the result of a consequential referendum. But 54 percent of voters rejected the addition of more transit, including heavy rail, in the northeast metro Atlanta county. While some voters claimed in news stories to be in favor of increasing public transportation options, the “no” votes ranged in reasoning from tax increase aversion to lack of comfort over total cost versus benefit. Whatever the case, the result is that a new MARTA station that would have been located just north of Doraville’s near Jimmy Carter Boulevard will not come to pass, at least in the immediate future. Is that a good or bad thing? Depends perhaps on your daily commute, but either way, it’s democracy, folks!

South Downtown announcements

CIM Group

The tentative, overarching vision for Gulch redevelopment Centennial Yards.

Once Atlantans collectively sobered up and realized Amazon wasn’t interested in our offer to move HQ2 to town (and perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing), the lower downtown area began to show true signs of widespread investment. It’s possible that so much hype around the possibility of Bezos and co. bringing the online retailer to Atlanta made folks realize they’d better come up with something. And now, with Underground Atlanta, the Gulch, and South Downtown ostensibly getting ready to undergo big changes, it appears that if Amazon’s decision did nothing else, it broke the inertia and analysis-paralysis that continued to keep Atlanta in the bottom tier of American cities whose downtown districts were living up to potential. Should even half the plans come to fruition, a wave of restaurants, retail, residential, and office spaces will result, lending an entire new experience in terms of walkability in the long-overlooked area. When it comes to big ideas, Atlanta excels, , Atlanand this is the epicenter of them right now.

A (very brief) pop-up bike lane

If you weren’t on your bicycle on 10th Street near Piedmont Park from October 21 to the 26th, you may have missed the chance to ride in a temporary, one-way, pop-up bike lane heading toward Peachtree Street. Not that no one noticed the bulky white and red plastic dividers usually signalling construction, or the increase in traffic resulting from making the lane inaccessible to automobiles, but in traditional Atlanta fashion, it certainly seemed to be over and done pretty quickly. There hasn’t been much said about the results of the test since it ended, although one might assume that some choice words were expressed by those whose passenger vehicle commute involved the already jammed corridor for those six days. At least we can assume it made e-scooter fans feel safer, while showing that the city is thinking about solutions to Atlanta’s infamous traffic problems and non-motorist protections. Maybe it’s more of a “see you later” than a goodbye to the idea, but either way, perhaps it’s another case of a good thing gone too soon.

Paris on Ponce fire

Those out of town during the Thanksgiving holiday had to learn from a distance that one of Atlanta’s most irreplaceable places, the exactly 100-year-old building that houses vintage furniture and decor shop Paris on Ponce, was badly burned in a two-alarm fire.

GoFundMe

While the damage was major—the roof and interior were most significantly affected, destroying a number of shops inside the warehouse space—the owners hope to rebuild and are asking for support from the community via a GoFundMe campaign. And with Atlanta’s history of being figuratively and literally lit, the good news is that no one was hurt and that there’s likely a future for the funky Ponce de Leon antique store.

Brian Littrell couldn’t have it that way (lol)

Freemanville Estate/FB

Scene of the alleged shenanigans.

It may not have shocked many people to learn that Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell (a.k.a. the nice one that parents probably would’ve trusted with their daughters the most) was living in a town like Milton. But it certainly shocked local authorities to learn that the Kentucky-born crooner was actually renting out the property—although it’s not even clear he owns it—to others looking to throw shindigs and soirees, which the huge mansion is not allowed to host due to Milton zoning laws. The drama has calmed down a bit since the initial crescendo of voices from the city, who denied Littrell’s request to receive a permit to host such events going forward, and then realized that when he wants something a certain way, he’s gonna go for it, or at least demand to be told why not.

A West End house asks $650K

If there was ever an example of how far the Beltline has strayed from any plan to be inclusive of all Atlantans, regardless of net worth or income, it’s been the arrival of housing prices in the historic area crossing the half-million-dollar mark. (Or in at least one case this past summer, WAY over that mark.) And these houses, while renovated to look very nice and located in close proximity to the Westside Trail, weren’t exactly so pricey until a couple years ago, when asks began creeping into $400,000 territory—and selling even higher—as more Atlantans began to realize that West End was a thing.

Curbed Atlanta

The Beltline’s Westside Trail.

Obviously opinions vary on what the true value should be for such a beautiful and convenient part of town, but what’s absolutely clear, at least to anyone who’s lived in the (currently) predominantly African-American community the past several decades, is that it certainly means change is coming. But with many of the homes staying on the market for several months, maybe things are on course for a correction? Only time, and public real estate listings, will tell.

Atlanta (the city) wins Super Bowl LIII

Curbed Atlanta

Centennial Olympic Park’s climbable, oversized Vince Lombardi Trophy and platform, where Welcome to Atlanta basically played on loop for a week.

Well, unlike a certain local sports team that won’t be named (again) in this story, Atlanta delivered a big victory in the Super Bowl. Looking back, it was a tremendous lift, and everything seemed to go exceptionally (if uncharacteristically) well, considering this is a city where less than two inches of snow can break civilization. VIPs were entertained, traffic did not melt down, MARTA operated as well as could be expected (pretty efficiently, actually), and security from downtown to the Vine City area kept everyone safe and in reasonably good spirits, depending on how your team performed.

There was, however, a pretty big story involving a West End building whose strangely timed demolition occurred on the Friday of Super Bowl Weekend, and it was not lost on Atlanta’s community of street artists that this building happened to feature a mural of Colin Kaepernick. In response, a team of creatives, led by the first mural’s creator, Fabian “Occasional Superstar” Williams, painted eight new ones in time for the “big game,” which made national news. All in all, it was a great showing of what Atlanta can do with big hosting responsibilities, and it bodes well as we look to the Final Four, World Cup, and other major sporting events to come.

source https://atlanta.curbed.com/2019/12/18/21026781/atlanta-2019-year-review-things-that-happened

#OliverAtlanta

[nigeiadigitalmarketingcompany]

2:00PM Water Cooler 8/1/2019

Digital Elixir 2:00PM Water Cooler 8/1/2019

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Patient readers, I’ll have more on politics after I throw in a laundry! –lambert

“Trump’s Bid to Dismantle Global Trading System Poised for a Win” [Industry Week]. “Thanks to a U.S. veto on new appeals judges, the WTO’s dispute arm is expected to start slipping into the institutional equivalent of a coma at the end of this year. That has set off a scramble by the European Union, Canada and other countries to set up a temporary alternative allowing the use of arbitrators rather than three-judge panels to hear appeals. But by creating that system, WTO members may be giving Trump and aidesーwho, like him, have deep-rooted skepticism of multilateral institutionsーthe very thing they want. Arbitration would above all provide the flexibility the U.S. is after, Vaughn said. It would see disputes treated as individual cases, avoiding the precedent-dependent system the WTO appellate body has become.”

“Inside the lose-lose trade fight between Japan and South Korea” [Nikkei Asian Review]. “[There is a] growing ‘Boycott Japan’ movement spreading across South Korea. South Koreans have also stopped buying cars, beer, cosmetics and just about anything else bearing the label ‘Made in Japan.’ Some are even canceling their summer holidays…. Well-organized protests are not uncommon in South Korea, and they tend to pass relatively quickly. But these boycotts — which in South Koreans’ minds are tied with the emotionally-charged issue of wartime labor and a sense that their most successful companies are under attack — may be different. The movement kicked off shortly after the decision by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration on July 4 to tighten controls on exports of three chemicals essential for making semiconductors and flat panel screens used in smartphones and TVs. By choking off supplies of the chemicals — Japan’s market share for two of them stands at more than 90% — the Abe administration was essentially taking aim at the engine that powers South Korea’s high-tech economy.”

“USDA gave almost 100 percent of Trump’s trade war bailout to white farmers” [New Food Economy]. • Deceptive headline erases class: “The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has documented that the program has disproportionately helped wealthy landowners and a recent analysis by Donald Carr, a senior advisor for EWG, argues that the MFP has deepened the disadvantages of black and minority farmers.”

Politics

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

“They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune

“2020 Democratic Presidential Nomination” [RealClearPolitics] (average of five polls). As of July 30: Biden continues rise at 32.2% (32.0), Sanders flat at 16.2% (16.2%), Warren up at 14.3% (14.0%), Buttigieg flat at 5.6% (5.5%), Harris up at 10.8% (10.5%), others Brownian motion. Sanders opens a little daylight between him and Warren, for the first time in two weeks.

* * *

2020

Sanders (D)(1): “Sanders Calls Out CNN for Airing Pharma Commercials During 2020 Debate” [Truthout]. “Pointing to the PAHCF commercial — which is part of a six-figure ad campaign against Medicare for All — Warren Gunnels, Sanders’s staff director, tweeted, ‘If Medicare for All was on trial, the entire corporate media would have to recuse itself for a y-u-g-e conflict of interest.’”

Williamson (D)(1): “Marianne Williamson isn’t funny. She’s scary.” [Vox]. “In her book A Return to Love, Williamson wrote that “sickness is an illusion and does not exist,” and that “cancer and AIDS and other physical illnesses are physical manifestations of a psychic scream.’”

The Debates

“Only 7 Candidates Have Qualified for the Next Democratic Debate” [New York Times]. “The Democratic National Committee has set stricter criteria for the third set of debates, which will be held on Sept. 12 and Sept. 13 in Houston. If 10 or fewer candidates qualify, the debate will take place on only one night. Candidates will need to have 130,000 unique donors and register at least 2 percent support in four polls. They have until Aug. 28 to reach those benchmarks. These criteria could easily halve the field.” • The seven are: Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Harris, O’Rourke, Sanders, and Warren. Castro, Klobuchar, and Yang are close.

“Can Someone Please Vote CNN Off the Stage?” [Bloomberg]. “Ten of the Democrats debated on Tuesday night. But the debate was dominated by Jake Tapper, Dana Bash and Don Lemon – CNN’s moderators…. ˛After Tuesday night’s event, I have to believe that there are plenty of people at the Democratic National Committee – and plenty of candidates and their staff – who are fed up with debates that put the TV stars first. I wouldn’t be surprised, especially if things go badly over the rest of the cycle, if both parties start thinking seriously about running their own shows in 2024.” • Yes, it’s always possible to make things worse. Why not go back to the League of Women Voters? The very last thing I want is the DNC exerting even more control over the process, and I would bet there are plenty of voters who think just the same about the RNC.

Obama Legacy

“Obama Presidential Center would have ‘adverse impact’ on historic Jackson Park, federal review concludes” [Chicago Sun-Times (DG)]. “The project would diminish the ‘the historic property’s overall integrity by altering historic, internal spatial divisions that were designed as a single entity’ by renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the [Federal Highway Administration] concluded. It also concludes the ‘size and scale of new buildings’ would ‘diminish the intended prominence of the Museum of Science and Industry building and alter the overall composition and design intent of balancing park scenery with specific built areas.’ … The finding puts pressure on the Obama Foundation to find a way to ‘resolve adverse effects’ and turns up the heat on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to order the foundation to make those changes. ‘The Obama Foundation has yet to show any interest in compromising on any of this. It may take [Lightfoot] to bring them to the table,’ said Margaret Schmid, co-president of Jackson Park Watch. ‘It means there are lots of new obstacles facing this proposal. A big question is, does Chicago want to go on record as having allowed a project that has major adverse impacts on this important historic park or can the project be redesigned to be compatible with this historic landscape?’” • A classic permitting battle. Go forth and do likewise with your local fossil fuel infrastruture project!

Stats Watch

Jobless Claims, week of July 27, 2019: “New claims are steady and low and consistent with strong demand for labor” [Econoday]. “This report together with this morning’s Challenger report point to decreasing layoffs and increasing strength for jobs.”

Challenger Job-Cut Report, July 2019: “Increasing strength in the labor market is the indication from Challenger’s job-cut count” [Econoday]. “Yet weakness in manufacturing and related equipment investment, not questions in the labor market, is what the Federal Reserve cited as central to yesterday’s rate cut and here the news is not upbeat.”

Institute For Supply Management Manufacturing Index, July 2019: “Extending a straight slope down, ISM’s index fell” [Econoday]. “This report, together with very similar results from the manufacturing PMI sample released earlier this morning, do support the Federal Reserve’s concerns over manufacturing and specifically confirm Jerome Powell’s remarks at yesterday’s press conference that business contacts in the manufacturing sector, citing global slowing and tariff effects, are reporting trouble.”

Purchasing Managers Manufacturing Index, July 2019: “Markit’s US manufacturing sample has been moving steadily from slowing conditions to nearly stagnant conditions” [Econoday]. “The lack of confidence is affecting staffing levels which for this sample posted their first reduction in six years. Production moved forward last month but at the expense of backlogs which edged lower.”

Construction Spending, June 2018: “The construction sector has been a stubborn disappointment all year, failing to show much life despite strong conditions in the domestic economy and favorable financing rates” [Econoday]. “This report brings up questions of possible contraction in foreign investment in US real estate and whether construction, like manufacturing, is being pulled down by global slowing and related tariff effects.”

Banking: “AI is a road to customer success—but banks need to create guardrails too” [American Banker]. “Customers today yearn for a personalized human experience tailored to their needs, wants, and expectations – whether they are in your branch, dialing into your call center, or contacting you over social media. Advanced technologies can help banks create such experiences.” • Yeah, I’m yearning for a personalized human experience delivered by a human.

Banking: “Digital banks are racking up users, but will they ever make money?” [Quartz]. “The UK has become something of a laboratory for newfangled digital banks, which are attracting thousands of new customers each day. But there are some big questions: Will bigger legacy banks eventually learn the fintech firms’ tricks? And will the so-called neobanks ever become profitable?… ‘I’ve heard of situations where core banking platforms are written in COBOL and the coders are starting to die out,’ said Michael Kent, CEO of money transfer startup Azimo and a founder of Tandem, a neobank. ‘They’re spending billions and billion and billions to try to fix that huge technical debt.’” • I’m sure writing everything from the ground up in Node.js will solve everything.

Credit: “Sorry, you’re not getting $125 from the Equifax settlement, FTC says” [MarketWatch]. “The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that, due to an overwhelming response, cash payments aren’t going to be anywhere near $125 each, and urged consumers to sign up for the free credit monitoring offered as an alternative.” • So, if I have this right, I now have to give Equifax even more of my data, as compensation for the data they lost? More: “‘A large number of claims for cash instead of credit monitoring means only one thing: each person who takes the money option will wind up only getting a small amount of money,’ the FTC said in a blog post Wednesday.” • What kind of settlement is that? What was the FTC thinking when it drafted it? Wikipedia notes: “Most people get little benefit from paying for regular credit reporting.” Who on earth wouldn’t want the [family blogging] cash?

Housing: “LGBTQ-centric neighborhoods offer home price premiums, studies suggest” [Los Angeles Times]. “[G]ayborhood residents can cash in big — up to 294% more value for their homes compared with those in surrounding metro areas, as shown in the [Zillow] analysis of 36 housing markets, released in May.”

Shipping: “The world’s biggest shipyards are forging a new landscape for buying and building ocean vessels. The impending mergers of the shipbuilders in South Korea and in China will create two behemoths that will control around 46% of the global market among the world’s top 10 yards” [Wall Street Journal]. “That will give the combined Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. and the merged China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. and China State Shipbuilding Corp. weightier control of the global market for ships over smaller competitors.”

Manufacturing: “Airbus SE is trying to speed up its supply chain while rival Boeing Co. is just hoping to get part of its production line moving at all. Airbus increased its quarterly profit more than fivefold despite bottlenecks that have hobbled the company’s ability to step up the delivery pace… Airbus has been struggling to produce more of the largest version of its A321 single-aisle aircraft, and delays in deliveries have aggravated airlines’ capacity issues caused by the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX” [Wall Street Journal]. “Airbus increased its deliveries by 28% in the first half of the year to 389 planes but still must deliver about 500 jets the rest of the year to meet its financial targets. Airbus may face pushback from parts suppliers. Slower traffic growth has suppliers to both Airbus and Boeing getting cautious about supporting higher aircraft production.”

Fodder for the Bulls: “The Next Bailout May Come From Consumers” [Conor Sen, Bloomberg (FluffytheObeseCat)]. “Now that we know the saving rate is at 8.1%, rather than 6.1% as believed a month ago, we can see how different this environment is for households versus the past two cycles. In December 2000, on the brink of the 2001 recession, the saving rate was 4.2%. In December 2007, as the great recession was beginning, the saving rate was 3.7%. The saving rate would have to fall by around 4% — equivalent to around $750 billion i.. n annual consumption — before households would find themselves as tapped out as they were then…. With the saving rate high relative to the last 25 years, households aren’t in the position where they need to save more. So if an economic shock originated elsewhere — if corporations or the government found themselves needing to save more — households could spend more.” • The comments are interesing: “Too bad all that saving is only in the top 10% of incomes,” “The problem with the suggestion that savings rate is up… up for who? We have auto loan defaults higher than ever. There is a disconnect between who is saving and who is not… my guess is the savers are not spenders and will not spend us out of an economic slowdown.” What do readers think?

The Biosphere

“Life is tough” [Aeon]. “Extremophiles tell us that everything we think we know about the fragility of life is wrong. Life is indeed extraordinary, not to mention precious and deserving of reverence ��� but not in any sense miraculous. The word extremophile didn’t exist until the 1970s. It entered wide circulation only after 1979 when the US Navy’s submersible Alvin revealed ecosystems prospering in deep-ocean hydrothermal vents. The Alvin scientists discovered organisms living in superheated water and largely metabolising hydrogen sulphide, which until then had been thought toxic and incompatible with life…. Extremophiles are in a sense antitheological and a cure for life-worshipping mysticism, another nail in the coffin that proclaims living things to be divinely created because they couldn’t possibly derive from natural processes. They also expand the possible playing field within which life initially evolved.”

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First Philly, now these. Summer heats up the pipes, or something?

“Kentucky gas explosion: One person killed, 5 injured” [CNN]. “A gas explosion rocked a Kentucky community Thursday morning, leaving one person dead and lighting at least six homes on fire, according to local authorities…. Gilliam said authorities believe the explosion was the result of a rupture of a 30-inch gas transmission pipeline, but it will take time to definitively determine the cause.”

“Explosion, fire at Exxon Mobil Baytown plant injures 37” [Houston Chronicle]. “A fire at an Exxon Mobil plant in Baytown Wednesday morning injured 37 people and sent a plume of smoke over a Houston-area chemical facility for the fourth time since April. It was the second fire this year at an Exxon Mobil facility in Baytown. The company’s operations in the east Harris County city have a history of environmental violations stretching back to 2013. The cause of Wednesday’s fire was not immediately known, although the company said the blaze began with an explosion.”

“Boom Goes the Plastics Industry” [Sierra Club]. “Facing intensifying global efforts to curtail the use of oil and gas for transportation and energy—and at the same time seeking markets for the torrent of oil and gas from the US fracking boom—the fossil fuel industry is looking to plastics as a lifeline. Today, 14 percent of oil and 8 percent of gas is used for the manufacture of petrochemicals, the essential feedstock of plastic production. The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2050, 50 percent of the growth in oil demand will be related to petrochemicals… ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco, among the world’s largest fossil fuel companies, are betting big on plastics. … The American Chemistry Council reports that since 2010, plans for 333 new chemical-manufacturing projects have been announced in the United States, representing more than $200 billion in capital investments; the industry association notes that “much of the investment is geared toward export markets for chemistry and plastics products.’”

Guillotine Watch

“Backlash at barefoot Prince Harry and ‘hypocrite Greenerati’: Eco-warrior elite who turned up at secret climate change Google camp in 114 private jets, helicopters and mega yachts are mocked for leaving their own carbon footprint” [Daily Mail]. • As usual, the Daily Mail headline tells the entire story, but for more detail: “A host of A-list celebrities faced an angry backlash today after they travelled to a climate change conference in Italy in a fleet of supercars, expensive yachts and more than 100 private jets…. h The event, created by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, sees some of the world’s wealthiest business leaders and tech gurus discussing various issues in morning sessions before relaxing in the Italian sunshine in the afternoon.” • Poor optics! The guest list is amusing, too.

“Where the Wealthy Go in Private Jets, From Bahamas to Barbados” [Bloomberg]. “Private jet flights climbed almost 10% last year, according to an analysis of 30 island destinations by real estate broker Knight Frank and aviation adviser WingX. Private jets flew to islands in the Americas almost 30,000 times, making them the world’s top hub for non-commercial aviation, led by the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and the Cayman Islands… The Philippines, Maldives and Bali were the top destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, which saw private-jet arrivals increase more than 80%, reflecting a wealth boom in which China minted a new billionaire roughly every other day.”

“Harvard has the highest number of ultra-rich alumni — by an insane margin” [MarketWatch]. “Harvard is in an Ivy League of its own, with more than 13,650 estimated [Ultra-High Net Worth (UHNW)] alumni worth $4.769 trillion — more than double the figure for Stanford…. Wealth-X reports that almost 80% of this group made their own fortunes, rather than inheriting it. In fact, most of the UHNW alumni (84%) were self-made…. [J]ust 244 of the 2,153 billionaires in the world are women, and women account for just 6.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs.”

“Jeffrey Epstein Hoped to Seed Human Race With His DNA” [New York Times]. “On multiple occasions starting in the early 2000s, Mr. Epstein told scientists and businessmen about his ambitions to use his New Mexico ranch as a base where women would be inseminated with his sperm and would give birth to his babies, according to two award-winning scientists and an adviser to large companies and wealthy individuals, all of whom Mr. Epstein told about it. It was not a secret. The adviser, for example, said he was told about the plans not only by Mr. Epstein, at a gathering at his Manhattan townhouse, but also by at least one prominent member of the business community.” • Lifting the lid on elite networking and money-grubbing. Epstein’s Harvard sweatshirt is prominently displayed in the photographs that accompany the article…

Class Warfare

“As Alaska’s budget uproar rolls on, a top Dunleavy adviser has seen it before” [Anchorage Daily News]. “But say the name “Donna Arduin” to an Alaskan these days and they’re likely to know exactly who you’re talking about. Arduin has been in the spotlight since Gov. Mike Dunleavy hired her as his top state budget executive shortly after his election in November, at a salary of $195,000. Her reputation preceded her: Arduin, 56, has an almost 30-year career as an itinerant ‘budget fixer’ of sorts, working for a series of Republican governors to balance state budgets, often by instituting drastic spending cuts…. “I joined government to shrink it,” Arduin said in a profile published in her Duke University alumni magazine in 2006. (The profile ends with Arduin whispering under her breath “get a job” to a panhandling man.)” • She sounds nice. The same alert reader who submitted this link also sent this note about the Alaska ferries:

I am one of the ferry passengers who has been stranded due to the shutdown of the ferries. I am currently on an island which is only accessible by boat and plane, and since the government-operated ferry is out of service, and there is no private ferry which can get me closer to my destination, plane is the only option. I have booked a flight ticket out, which will be my first time on an airplane since 2014. I am in a better position than many of my fellow passengers. Many other passengers have vehicles, which cannot be moved by airplane. Some of them were also riding the ferries to get medical care not available in their home communities, and are concerned about being able to make their doctor’s appointments. Some of them are also going to take a much bigger financial hit than I will. Of course, those of us who are not Alaska residents (or who are leaving Alaska) will not need to deal with this situation anymore once we manage to leave Alaska. The coastal communities of Alaska will continue to feel the repercussions as long as there is a loss of ferry service, especially if the severe budget cuts make the loss of ferry service permanent.

“Labor of Love”‘ [The Baffler]. “”Full Surrogacy Now,” the rallying cry, is a radical demand for the dissolution of notions like ‘biological parents’ and their opposites, (underpaid) (hired) (invisible) gestational surrogates. ‘We are the makers of one another,’ [Sophie] Lewis writes. ‘And we could learn collectively to act like it. It is those truths that I wish to call real surrogacy, full surrogacy.’ …. The problem, in Lewis’s view, isn’t that women are risking their lives and paid shockingly low wages to bear the offspring of others, efforts which are considered ‘generous’ instead of ‘a job,’ before being erased from family histories entirely. The problem is that we haven’t spent any time considering what the fact and endurance of surrogacy from at least the transatlantic slave-trade days to the present might say about unwaged pregnancy. After all, pregnancy is—well, labor.” • Hmm.

No aristocracy here:

Blue Ivy Carter, daughter of Beyoncé, just scored her first Billboard Hot 100 hit with "Brown Skin Girl."

She's 7. pic.twitter.com/nAnZLeXi2r

— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 1, 2019

News of the Wired

The historical record:

O thank goodness, someone has finally made a documentary about ANSI arthttps://t.co/CSBJGEZP5j

— Jason Scott (@textfiles) July 31, 2019

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Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (Eric W):

Eric W writes: “The pitcher plant is from early April in Maine. Wow.” Indeed!

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Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So do feel free to make a contribution today or any day. Here is why: Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of small donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals. So if you see something you especially appreciate, do feel free to click this donate button:

Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated.

Readers, I have redesigned the image above because the composition of your Water Cooler donations has changed. For the last few months, donations have shifted to monthly donations in smaller amounts, with very few one-time donations in larger amounts. While I’m very happy to have enabled small contributions (Luke 21:1-4), the lack of larger contributions has cut into the trickle of funding from Water Cooler that I really do depend on. In other words, your contributions are way down. (Readership and comment counts have not fallen, so I don’t think Water Cooler editorial content as such is the issue, though do feel free to drop me a line if you have thoughts.)

So, I redesigned the image to emphasize one-time donations, while still enabling smaller monthly donations. And if you’ve been waiting for a good excuse to contribute, perhaps last night’s debate coverage will provide an excuse!

If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!

2:00PM Water Cooler 8/1/2019

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