tedwords

“If your world doesn’t allow you to dream, move to one where you can.” -Billy Idol

Corb's started his second week of business at his new space, and happy to say, sales were even better than last week. He is constantly on the hunt now to find new lamps he can restore, as those seem to be huge sellers, along with his dream catchers and candles. Chandeliers have not moved as much, but those are big ticket items and will naturally take a lot longer to find a home. Still, he has some beautiful ones there.

Also, following up on my list of goals I posted back in January, I am happy to say that I have been diving heavy into intermittent fasting and also exercising every day and I have now lost ten pounds since the start of the new year. Still want to lose at least another 10, but happy with the progress made so far. One of the things I love is to use apps while I am exercising that are located in places I have plans to travel to this year, so St. Kitts (April!) and Florence, Italy (July!) have been favorites.

Now, I have to talk a bit more about the incident with Jim last week, because it has been on my mind. There was one...I don't know...weird aspect? I wanted to touch upon.

You see, one thing I didn't mention was that when he fell and I caught him, and I was holding him frantically looking around for help, I did something instinctively that I've thought about a few times. You see, as he stood there, helplessly, I of course said soothing things, assured him we were going to get him some help, tried to reassure him...and then I bent my head down and kissed his arm lightly.

I am not sure why I did it. It was anything romantic, of course. It was just an...I love you, man...you are going to get through this, kind of thing. It wasn't even anything I gave any thought to.

But my concern was, would Jim see it that way? Was he even aware? Would he think it was inappropriate and be freaked out by it? Would it make things awkward? He's a gruff 82-year-old guy, after all. He doesn't get kissed by devastatingly handsome gay men all the time, I am sure.

Well, last night, we took Corb's mom out to dinner before my Friday night shitty musical with Corb (last night's martini was key lime, the shitty musical was "Strike Up the Band.") and after the not-so-hot dinner (frozen cheesecake...ye gods!) we dropped her off and Jim was in the kitchen. And sure enough, I had mentioned it to Corb, who had mentioned it to mom, who had mentioned it to...

"Ted," Jim said, sitting next to his walker and getting his liquid food ready to pour in intravenously. It looks almost like a milk shake. "You know how you say something to someone and all of a sudden it's out there in the universe? Well, a certain someone said something to a certain someone and let's just say, they can't really keep a secret. And I don't think it needs to be. Because you need to know, I was really touched by your...gesture...last Saturday. The fact you cared so much and were so concerned and so moved to express yourself in that way is probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever done in my life, and I want to say thank you and let you know how grateful I am you were there to help at that time."

I don't know, it really got me a bit choked up. "Well, Jim, you know how much we love you," I said, but had to stop.

"Jim, you mean the world to us," Corb said, sensing how I was feeling. "And both Ted and I would do anything we could to help."

"Good, can you fix the lamp that broke in the kitchen?" said Jim, gruffly. Great way to lighten the mood, frankly. And Corb, lighting genius that he is, had that overhead fixed in five minutes flat. It had been broken since December and both of his brothers had been clueless what to do.

Jim also had a gift for us: he and Corb's mom had been planning to go on our Greece cruise back before the start of the pandemic and he had a $500 credit he wasn't going to be able to use. So, he wanted to transfer the credit to us, to use on our global adventures this year.

"On one condition," he said. "In return, I want you to take your mom out for $500 worth of dinners when I am gone and don't let her pay. You'll know when you've made it up to me."

And then, Jim launched into some of his stories. He is one of the best story tellers I know, and I love that about him.

You have to like a person who can keep telling stories while staring into the heart of darkness. That's a rare talent that shines bright and casts its beam beyond the present and for years into the future. It's the stories one tells that are a sign of a life well lived. Jim, I'm not sure there's enough time in the world for me to pay you back for THAT.