This time, a little assorted news and some (ir)relevant pictures. Try to keep things fresh, like this guy after his dip in the river:

He’s obviously been ‘dipping in’ to the weight room too – good for him.

OK. The circus tour which I had to miss (grrrr), but which my son Leo and Dave’s daughter Jaymee were able to ‘dip into’ for four weeks at the start of the long school break, is kind of ‘orbiting’ the states of Tennessee and Kentucky like an eccentric comet, and makes another reasonably close approach this coming weekend (‘Labor Day Weekend’ – how I hate that spelling, being a Brit). Our extended group has provided two ‘acts’ throughout, but we have rung the changes on exactly what they contain as various participants have exchanged places. This time, Zach and Gary (acrobatics and martial arts theme) are coming back to base, whilst the girls Karen and Clare (the kid’s mums) re-join with their fire and fakir-style contribution. Ethan and Jack (adagio acrobatics and tumbling) seem to have fallen in love with extended life on the road, and will remain for at least another eight weeks.

Everyone must, of course, keep up a rigorous training schedule – how’s about this by the way…?

…flexibility, and strength training are needed…

Labor Day is the one weekend when the wrestle club in Lexington KY closes down, which means that our dear friends Leon and Dane will be joining us. They’re part of our closed gay group, which mean’s that they’re ‘cleared for action’, and everyone is looking forward to their arrival (they’ll share our king-size bed as usual):

… and also looking forward to the reunion with Zach and Gary. There’ll be plenty of sweaty training and wrestling as well as the ‘fun’, since we all maintain the same fitness goals…

(He’s been at the baby oil, ready for some oil wrestling…)

…and our new Czech friends, newly initiated into Chad’s gym, and definitely up for some of that!

30C and some cloud, but mainly sunny, remains the prospect for the weekend weather, so I guess we’ll be swimming too

…along with continuing to enjoy each other’s company on the river bank (but more discretely since we’ll have the kids along as well)…

Leo and Jaymee are furious about having to attend school rather than “join the circus”, but they’ve had their ‘taster’ and there will be plenty more chances so long as they, too, keep training (which they will).

Curiously, the mild ‘bullying‘ that Leo was previously enduring has come back. You would think that, as one of the most sport-mad kids on the block, he would be free of that. He’s a member of the wrestle team, but expresses a strong preference to engage in acrobatics rather than for example football, baseball or basketball. That lowers him in the estimation of many boys and some girls, along with his close buddy Chris. Their ‘undoing’ came in the locker room where their lack of any tan lines (the result of running around pretty much naked during on our vacation in the remote Welsh hills) surprisingly led to taunts of being a pervert and the subject of his gay parentage came up again… even though Chris is the product of a normal ‘American Dream’ family and both of them obsessively fancy the girls…

Sigh. Can’t win, really. Certain kids now have Leo and Chris down as a wanna-be gay couple. I feel more counselling coming on. Actually, I heard Leo took a swing at one boy (Chris let it slip out), and was rather successful. He’ll survive. He talks about it, which is the main thing, and his school work, though not outstanding, doesn’t seem to suffer. And he and Chris support each other.

Of course, I have to contend that there’s actually nothing wrong with being a gay couple (although declaring it at age 12 would probably be a bit OTT!), since Dave and I are one, and we have any number of gay couples as friends and four such couples as very special friends (that aforementioned ‘closed group’).

It’s all in here:

Loving the Boy: ISBN 978-1-907732-30-0

The Power of Love: ISBN 978-1-907732-41-6

Against All Odds: ISBN 978-1-908645-35-7

OK, the fun stuff now! Another kind of balancing (?) act…

…add the strength moves…

…hang in there…

…and a few more excellent results from the weight room to finish!

…and another great ‘oily’ boi as a finale (for now)!