Tweaking the Blog

Bare with me as I tweak the look and feel of this blog a bit.  The avatar I've been using since my Geocities days (you can still find the old posts if you Google "rick407") was too low res in the way it's presented in G+ and here.  I was attached to it because it reminds me of myself when I got started with naturism.  Thin, fit, brown hair, stubble, just hanging out at the beach. Today, I have less hair and aren't as young, but I'm still sporting a closely cropped beard that I haven't shaved since before I visited my first nude beach in my early 20's.

The new profile photo is that of the warning sign at Haulover Beach, near Miami.  That may change.  If you haven't guessed, the last name isn't mine, but rather the name of a person who a nearby town is named after.  And for trivia's sake, 407 is the area code there.  Yeah, not very original.  The "b" at the end of my yahoo username came from somehow locking myself out from the original rick407 account about the time Geocities collapsed.  So much for history.

I intended this blog to be not about my thoughts in general, but just about my thoughts about nudism, naturism, nudity, or whatever you prefer calling what humans look like.  I'm likewise juggling around another blog that isn't linked with this username.  That one is purely technical and is likely completely lost in the noise.  I have personal Facebook and Google accounts, but those I just use between family and personal friends.  Really boring stuff which you'd have no interest in.

I keep them separate because they have different audiences, not because I'd be all that devastated if people put two and two together and they linked them to me.  There aren't that many people who don't know the opinions I express under any of those usernames.

Drones

As an active pilot, I have my own opinion on those noisy privacy robbing little hazards to navigation.  Except while landing or taking off, manned aircraft have to stay at least 500 feet away from any person, vehicle, or structure.  And unless the area is sparsely populated, we have to stay at above 1000 feet.

I'm often vectored over Haulover Beach (clothing optional beach northeast of Miami) at 1000 to 1500 feet.  Trust me, unless you're a passenger who knows what you're looking for and has a very steady hand with binoculars, you're not going to be able to tell whether people are clothed or not from that altitude.  OK, you can tell that for some reason there's a lot of dots in one area (the CO section) and hardly any, anywhere else. And you can make out the "snow fence" that separates the areas, but that's it.  Being down at 500 feet isn't much better.  Besides, most pilots don't like being that low and we're way too busy watching out for cell phone and radio towers down there to be spending time looking down trying to make out what people are, or aren't, wearing.  I know where almost all the clubs are in Florida because I've been to them, and for various reasons, I've flown over most of them.  Never once, in decades of flying and knowing where to look, have I ever been able to tell whether someone on the ground was naked or not from the air.  The same is true while landing and taking off.  The ground is whizzing by too quickly and we're way too busy to be noticing if you're sunbathing naked in your back yard.

Drones are another story.  Johnny's new toy is typically fitted with an HD camera and can be flow beyond line of sight using a live video feed or a preassigned GPS driven flight path.  They're supposed to be below 400 feet (to stay out of our way) and most of them can stay in a stabilized hover for a long period of time, taking very detailed pictures and videos.  The law hasn't caught up, and for now you can't do much if your neighbor, or your neighbor's kids, decide to spy on you.

Here in the US, all but the smallest drones are now supposed to be registered.  Whatever good that will do.  Manned aircraft have registration (tail) numbers, usually at least a foot high, painted across them.  Is Johnny supposed to drag a banner behind his drone with big enough registration numbers on it that people call in with it when they complain?  Good luck.

And good luck expecting the law to do anything.  The airspace above your property really isn't yours, and other than trying to make a general "disturbing the peace" complaint stick, there's not much they'll do about it.  Even in rural areas where discharge from a firearm isn't a problem, expect it will be a problem if you try to shoot one of them down.  You've destroyed  their property and they can often argue that they had a right to be there.

Until all that gets sorted out, we have two choices:  Stay indoors, or ignore them.  While I might be perfectly OK ignoring my neighbor's new toy, not caring if they see me naked or not, other people do mind.  Do we clear our beaches and run for cover when one shows up overhead at our clubs?  I hope not.  But we do need to press for laws that at least discourage people from doing that.  I'm fine with allowing people to fire at them with birdshot when they're over our properties.  But until that's allowed, expect the middle finger salute from this naked guy below.  I'm not going anywhere.

This was one very hot Christmas

Here in Central Florida, there's usually only a dozen or so days a year one wouldn't be perfectly comfortable being outside nude in the middle of the day.  And maybe there's a couple of dozen nights a year when one dare not dash out to get the paper in the morning wearing less than long pants and a jacket.  But no.  Not this year.  We've had a few cool days last month when wearing long pants was more comfortable than wearing shorts in the evening.  But this year.  This... is something else.

It's been muggy and in the mid 80's during the day and mid 70's and humid at night for weeks now.  Day or night, being nude outside has been more comfortable than even wearing the traditional shorts and tee shirts we spend most of our winters here wearing in public.  Will it cool off by New Years Day?  Maybe into the low 80's, we're told.

Contrast that with a few Christmases of my youth (elsewhere in Florida at the same latitude) where it at least sometimes got below freezing for a few hours in the morning on or around Christmas Day.  Heck, once, we got up early in the morning not to see what Santa brought us, but because they said we might see a light flurry.  No such luck.

On another post, I mentioned a time when I was dating a member of Paradise Lakes near Tampa and she invited me to an outdoor New Years Eve party there.  Darned if that wasn't one of the freaky cold nights.  They had outdoor heaters set up and one could spend the hours huddled in one of their many heated pools and tubs.  But wow, it was cold that night (low 40's).  The club was clothing optional (I prefer nude only) and the party certainly was CO, so I grudgingly went wearing jeans, a sweat shirt and a jacket.

My date was more daring and was committed to going and staying nude.  It didn't stay that way and within an hour or so, she was wearing my clothes, and I was trying to make the best of it, buck naked.  It turns out that my clothes fit her perfectly.  We didn't stay long and well before the bell dropped, we were huddled in our room, warming each other up.

So here we are.  I'm off until after New Years and my wife, always thinking ahead, had the fence torn down Christmas Eve day to be replaced next week with a new (and much better) one.  The pool's now in the 80's (solar heated) and it would really be nice to be able to spend some time out in the sun back there.  But no...  We're exposed to the neighbors and they've suddenly found themselves without warning  being exposed to us for a good part of a week.  :(  At least my neighbors will soon be enjoying the improved privacy my new fence gives them.  And it fills in some gaps that made our privacy a little less than I liked.

Warm or cold.  Merry Christmas.  Whether you're celebrating the birth of Christ, or not.

More Working Naked

Another nasty weekend job with my wife away for the weekend.  Power-washing the patio and bleaching it afterwards.  Yeah, I know, it's getting chilly in most of the country, but here in Florida, it was sunny and 80 today.  That's actually a break from 87 degrees and humid as it's been most of the week.

Since I have good privacy in the back yard, it's yet another job that's easily done naked.  I was alternately wet and dry all day, and blasting the deck throws back a lot of dirt.  Working all day in wet shorts or a swim suit wasn't a desirable option, especially with all the grit that accumulates as I'm blasting away.  I took quick dips in the pool to clean up and air dry while I continued to work whenever I wanted to.  It's nice that the water's still a warm 85 degrees :)

Splash-back from spreading chlorine on the deck afterwards is a sure way to destroy anything you're wearing and contrary to what you might think, you feel and can quickly rinse off any chlorine that splashes back, verses having it get soaked into your clothes and rubbing against you for a while before you notice.  Then what?  Into the pool to wash it off your clothes and be miserably soaking wet afterwards while probably still retaining some chlorine?  Yuck!

I took a break mid day and got dressed to run some errands.  Just as I was heading out, my sister-in-law knocked on the door to drop some stuff off.  If she was earlier or later, she probably would have hear me blasting away in the back yard and would have come back and seen me working that way.  I probably wouldn't have heard her.  It's not that she doesn't know that I enjoy spending time free from my clothes.  Oh well.  Awkward for her maybe, but it wouldn't have phased me a bit.

I'll rinse the patio off tomorrow and put all the furniture back in order.  Not as messy, but there's no reason to get dressed to do it.  Plenty of other chores, tomorrow.  Half inside, half in the front yard.  Half done comfortably.  Half done dressed to keep the neighbors happy.  Oh well, half a day is better than having to stay clothed all day.

Naked in the Attic

I just got back from crawling through the attic checking on a long wire antenna that I have strung up there years ago.  Yeah, I'm also one of THOSE people (a ham radio operator).  We've had a lot of roofing, air conditioning, and remodeling work done in the last few years and I was curious to see if the antenna was still intact.  After a lot of crawling around to get from one end to the other, I found the antenna to be in good condition.

Even in the early morning, it's still hot up there from all the heat trapped from the day before.  Plus the attic is now even more crowded than before with ducts, cables, wires, nails, and staples that like to catch and rip into clothing, and into me.  Thinking that clothing was more of a liability than an asset, I decided to do without it this time.  OK, I wore shoes.  It seemed that every time I got snagged, poked, scratched, or badly cut going up there, my clothes provided me no protection and instead they just got ruined in the process.  Plus, I sweat buckets up there and my clothes would usually get so soaked, unwearable, and smelly that they just got thrown in the laundry room right away afterwards, anyway.

I'm happy to report that crawling around up there nude was the way to go.  Without clothing to snag, I was able slither through the tangle of ducts, rafters, and wires is if I was almost not there.  I also seemed to be more careful about keeping myself further away from where nails or staples might be lurking out to get me and I managed to come out scratch free.  I was a lot cooler and more comfortable with the sweat just sheet flowing off me and not accumulating and chafing in my clothes, like would happen otherwise.

As noted in my Practically Naked posts, wearing clothes is often a lot more of a liability than an asset when one is doing physical work.

Naked At Lunch

I few months ago, I ran into a couple of short interviews with an author, Mark Haskell Smith, about his latest book "Naked at Lunch, A Reluctant Nudist's Adventures in the Clothing-Optional World".  After reading the reviews, it didn't seem like it was a stupid fluff piece, so I bought the electronic version and made my way through it.  The premise of the book is that he wanted to investigate what all this nudist/clothing-optional stuff was about, and with the air of detachment of a pseudo-journalist or armchair sociologist, he went about having a wide range of nudist experiences to find out what he could about "those" people.

It was a good read and he certainly had a lot of high end experiences that most of us will never be able to have or afford.  I've had some of his basic experiences and found his reporting of them to be insightful and genuine.  Black's Beach (near San Diego) was my first experience with social nudity and a clothing optional beach.  His description of the place, the people, and hiking down there and back was spot on.  And I like his description of Haulover Beach near Miami, Florida as being a drop dead gorgeous beach right off the main highway, right in the middle of everything.  It is a shining example of what a modern urban beach should be.

He likewise found it odd, as I did, that the staff of Desert Sun Resort in Palm Springs were all dressed up appropriate to their jobs, while everyone else went naked.  Stephane Deschenens, owner of Bare Oaks Family Naturist Park, has a wonderful podcast called the Naturist living Show.  His latest talk was on the subject of working in a nudist club and why, in his resort, the staff is nude.  I have to agree with him.

Mark did a nude cruise, which I've never done.  But then, I don't like themed cruises.  They're expensive and I like the diversity of everyone not trying fit the same mold.  Likewise, I enjoyed his description of Vera Playa in Spain and of course Cap d'Agde in France.  Two places I'll probably never get to.  He highlighted people dressing up erotically at night and some of the swinging at those places.  Sorry, but that stuff turns me off.  Which is why I'll probably never go either place.

The one experience he had that I would have really loved was "The Naked European Walking Tour".  A group that gets together annually and day hikes in the Alps, base camping for a week together.  Being a long time back-country hiker and lover of mountains, I would LOVE that!

He interviewed some interesting people, including Scott Wiener, the city supervisor in San Francisco who put into place the nudity ban there, nudist historian and academic Mark Storey, Felicity Jones (co-founder of Young Naturists America and my favorite young nudist blogger), and many others.  And he covered a lot of history about nudism that I didn't know.  And yes, not all of it was pretty.

It wasn't a light fun read (and free Kindle book) like "Going Bare" by John Harding, a brit who needled his wife into going to a nice low key French resort (La Jenny) with the family, and loved it.   La Jenny sounds a lot more appealing to me than the fancy resorts do.  Nor was it a throughout sociological study, like the book "Nudist Society", which I enjoyed and if Mark Smith had looked for it when he visited the "American Nudist Research Library" on the grounds of Cypress Cove Nudist Resort, he would have seen the copy of "Nudist Society" I donated there several years ago.

Either way, buy Mark's book.  Maybe you'll learn something.  He claims that he was simply acting as a "reluctant nudist" and that he still isn't one, even though he thinks society misunderstands it and that simple nudity shouldn't be criminalized the way it is.  Maybe he still doesn't get it.  All a nudist or naturist is, is someone who actually likes being human and doesn't mind actually looking like one.  Perhaps, he fits that description and still doesn't know that, in fact, he is one (simply human = natural nudist).

Naked on the Net

In an earlier post, I discussed an article about how common it is now to see photos of nude people on the Internet to the point that it isn't, and shouldn't be, a big deal if someone sees your nude photos there. Be that as it may, most people still feel vulnerable when they're naked, even though that feeling quickly goes away when people get used to being seen that way.

I've often felt that singers and actors reveal more about themselves through their emotions and actions and are thus more naked (as in exposed and thus more vulnerable) than I can possibly be just being seen as me.

What's strange is how exposed and vulnerable people let themselves be on the Internet to the point that being seen naked should be the least of their worries.  I know a lot of people who expose their opinions, their religion, their politics, their preferences, their bad habits, their whatever freely on Facebook.  These same people would never allow themselves to be seen as their body simply is.  I guess I don't get it.

Seeing me naked doesn't make it easier for you to steal my identity.  You can't use it to get money from me.  Trying to blackmail me by threatening to reveal what I look like to my friends and family will only be doing me a favor by then having an excuse not to have to hide my preference to be nude from them any more.  Seeing me nude doesn't reveal my politics or my opinions (though reading those posts will).  You won't get my social security number, the dirty little secrets I told the government to get my clearance, usernames or passwords, my account numbers, my net worth, what I do for a living, my sexual preferences, or anything else naughty or nice about me.  Instead, all you'll see is skin and the shape and form of my body.

People leave themselves vulnerable on the Internet in so many more ways.  Ashley Madison cheaters and cheater wanna bees are learning that lesson the hard way now.  It used to be if you didn't just leave your information out in the open, you were OK.  Or rather, you thought you were.  You trusted your bank, your broker, your Email provider, your cloud backup server, your dating website, and your favorite forums, blogs, or other chat space with your real identity and your innermost secrets.

Between the NSA playing peeping Tom (because who knows what you're into), the Chinese and other foreign agencies looking for what secrets you might have that they can use to get you to do things for them, to hackers breaking in to your services to get your stuff, to just malcontents who want to embarrass the owners of the services that you use.   Look who's naked now, chump!

What people should have learned is NOT to trust important sensitive information to plaintext communications and storage.   Your service providers promises of privacy and security mean nothing when THEY get hacked and they've left your information lying around unencrypted on their server.

Listen up peeps.  If you say something to someone on the Net that you don't want anyone and everyone to hear, use end-to-end encryption.  Learn to use Textsecure, Redphone, TOR, PGP and other tools and force those who you communicate with to use them.  In many cases, using those tools is transparent, or nearly so.

Before you give your personal information, opinions, or other sensitive information to others, ask yourself how do they store it, how do they use it, and how they are going to protect it.  The answers often are, sloppily, too widely, and not hardly, if at all.

Does that mean you shouldn't do banking over the Internet?  Banks and brokerages are rich targets for hackers.  But they know that and they know they have a lot to lose themselves if they're too sloppy, so they often limit what they store and use.   Even so, balance how paranoid you are (or should be) against the convenience.

Do you let others store your backup files and passwords on-line?  If so, is that information encrypted before they get it and do they have any keys to decrypt it?   If so, think long and hard before you do it.  Remember that even if others have the key, if you don't give them physical access to the information, they can't get at it unless they break into your house.  And if someone breaks into your house and steals your laptop or PC, you did encrypt it.  Right?

To keep yourself covered on the Internet and on computers in general:

1)  Limit physical access to sensitive information as much as possible (don't let it be on other people's computers and servers).
2)  Use trusted strong open source file encryption on your computer.  Better yet, make it easy and use an OS that supports it by default (MS Bitlocker, Linux home folder encryption, and newer Android and iOS operating systems on phones).
3)   Use strong passwords (something only you know) and a trusted password manager.  Consider not using anything that isn't open source and proven, and think twice about leaving passwords, even encrypted ones, on other people's servers.
4)  Consider requiring "something that you have" and can't simply know.  Use second factor authentication or a security dongle (Google Authenticator, a Yubikey, or RSA dongle).

But most of all, stop being naked on the Internet.  Be that way physically and post images of yourself that way if you like.  But stop revealing more about yourself than others have a need to know.

Nudity and Forgiveness

Most people don't like the way they look naked.  They're too tall or too skinny.  Their butt, their boobs, their dick, their nose, their belly, or their whatever is either too big, too small, to light, too dark, too prominent, too distracting, or too whatever.

A lot of nudists talk about the benefits of accepting each other's bodies.  "Acceptance" has a ring of resignation to it.  As if we should just learn to put up with other people's nudity in trade for being able to enjoy being nude ourselves.  The problem is that most people are more willing to put up with other people being nude, than they are being comfortable about being nude themselves.  We are, by far, our own worst critics.

The Christian concept of forgiveness isn't unique, but it's central to how we view our relationship to God and with each other.  Forgiveness is more than acceptance.  It's about putting behind us those things that we'd otherwise only accept, and move on from there.

We need to stop just putting up with being human.  We should forgive ourselves for being human, and move on, enjoying it.

De Blasio's Problem and Our Problem - Nudity in Times Square

It seems to be a pattern.  We make gains trying to get nudity accepted in more places, and other people come in and ruin it.  YNA does some body painting events in Times Square and the world doesn't come to an end.  People seem to be OK with it if it's not all the time, it isn't in their face, and they're not being hustled for money over it.  A World Naked Bike Ride through town, a Bay to Breakers run, or people getting their bodies painted in public once or twice a year, and people begin to accept it.  But do it every day in a high rent district where you're scaring away customers.  That won't last and someone's going get hurt.  Namely us.

But no, there's a buck to be made.  Women can go topless in NY, panhandling is protected, and YNA and others have shown that you can push the boundaries and get away with it.  People don't mind having to walk around street performers with a tip jar, but they don't like topless ladies approaching and offering a photo with people for a tip.  That doesn't make the wife happy and it confuses the kids.  Once again, think of the children!

Giuliani supposedly cleaned up Times Square by being heavy handed and people liked the result.  I suspect that the citizens of Gotham will be happy if de Blasio comes up with some way to put and end to the "naked women" problem, even if he skirts the law to do it.  Enough, I'm afraid, that if YNA or others do in the future what they've done in the past which was tolerated, they'll get hauled away.

Go back a couple of years and nudity was tolerated in the Castro district in San Fransisco.  But no, some guys had to be obnoxious about it to the point that the once tolerant city felt they had to have an ordinance against it.

Go back about 8 years and some teenagers started going naked around town in Brattleboro VT.  A few of them probably got the idea hanging out at The Ledges, finding that being naked is cool and that people can be cool about it.  Then it probably grew as an edgy thing to do until enough kids were hanging around naked that was beginning to freak out too many of the locals.  Wham...  another ordinance.

Nude beaches are often tolerated until they become popular enough that they draw in the crazies, the sexually desperate, and the religious gadflys.   Too many of our beaches have been closed down because of lewd behavior, real or imagined, regardless of how rare or easily discouraged it often is.

So what's the solution?  Don't back down.  Don't let the crazies, the hustlers, and the religious fanatics steal the platform.  Insist that what you're doing isn't wrong, don't tolerate others who are ruining it for us, and stand your ground.  That's easy to say when most of us can't afford to have our pictures in the paper supporting causes our families, coworkers, and bosses don't understand.  But we can at least do a better job of supporting those who do.

Nudism and Concealed Carry

Huh?  What the heck do would the two of them have to do with each other?  Hear me out.  It makes for an interesting contrast.

A lot of people, including a lot of naturists, assume we're all tree hugging atheist liberals.  Instead what you find is that we're all over the map.  Some of us, like myself, are politically conservative Christians.  And others are in fact tree hugging atheist liberals.  Most people fall somewhere in between.

Politically and socially I have more of a libertarian point of view than that of a fire breathing Bible thumper.   I work in a very culturally, religiously, and racially diverse company, and I love it that way.  I have gay friends who are now legally married and I'm happy for them (just don't expect Church and God to be OK with it).  Even so, I part ways with many on the issue of guns, and of course, on the issue of naturism.

After several weeks of being without power and civil protection during the hurricane year from hell here in Florida (2004), my wife and I decided we should have a gun in the house after the kids are grown and out.  A few years later, we bought a 9 mm pistol from a neighbor who was selling it.  Understanding the responsibilities that go with it, we joined a club and got some training.  Along the way, we were convinced that we should get permits to carry.  We live close to a school and there's some strict federal laws regarding the movement of firearms anywhere nearby, which includes where we live.  That and many other laws are eased or eliminated here if you have a permit to carry.

I continued to take classes to the point that I've been taking advanced courses with state law enforcement instructors alongside officers who were trying to get training beyond that which available to them in their jobs.  They and our sheriff convinced me that trained people should routinely carry and not just have a permit.  As the sheriff put it, they'll be to the scene in around 7 minutes.  But by then, you might bleed out and be dead.  When stuff hits the fan, it's up to individuals to stop that from happening to themselves and to their loved ones, and not just to law enforcement, who often just document what happened, after the fact.

Because I wouldn't be able to carry concealed otherwise in this land of endless summer wearing shorts and tee shirts, I bought a small .380 pistol that I carry loaded in a pocket holster.   If you see me out and about town, I'm probably carrying.  You might not like that, but too bad.  I will protect myself and my family if I have to, and I will lawfully carry the tools to do it.  I personally believe that having a significant portion of the population silently armed is a deterrent.   Violent crime here in Florida has dropped for maybe a number of reasons.  But having more than 5 percent of the entire population of my state actively permitted to carry concealed firearms, is probably one of those reasons.

So what does that have to do with nudism?  In both cases when I'm out and about town, I'm hiding something.  I'm hiding both what I am (human), and what my capabilities to defend myself are.  One can assume what I look like without clothing and probably be pretty close.  But one also must assume here that I, or that person over there, or that one over there, might be armed.  So maybe its not a good idea to rob us, rape us, or shoot at us in our movie theaters or in our malls.  One thing you learn from hanging around LEOs is that criminals, even the crazy ones, are cowards when it comes to the possibility of getting themselves killed if they think they're at risk doing those sorts of crimes.

So, you might ask (and I have been asked), where does a nudist conceal a firearm?  The answer is in the small backpack that I carry my clothes, sunscreen, wallet, and hat when I'm at the beach.  Clubs, being private,  are free to welcome or ban firearms from their properties.  For what it's worth, I either leave the firearm locked in the car, or don't bring it at all when I'm visiting a club.  They are probably the safest place on Earth.

How they see us, Part II

It's easy to just go about one's business reading stuff off the web, watching your preferred news sources, and talking to friends who probably believe in the same things you do or you probably wouldn't be associating with them.   The problem with that walled garden is that you begin to think that your beliefs are "middle of the road" and that others will  soon see things your way, if they'd just open their eyes.

It doesn't work that way.  It's easy for those of us who have crossed over to the other side to lose sight of how the public perceives who we are and what we're doing.  If you go searching for material on the web about naturism or only consume news that has a socially liberal or has libertarian bent, you'll think the world is coming around to our way of thinking.  Instead we become frustrated when it doesn't.

I have strong opinions on a lot of things.  Even so, I take the time to read all sides of issues from various sources, US and foreign, conservative to liberal, business point of view to environmentalist.  But most of all, I keep my eyes and ears open to what the general media and public, and friends say about naturism, or nudism, or whatever else they call it.  I try to take it in as if I'm an unbiased observer, to see how others might be seeing it.

What I notice is that nudism and nudists (as they prefer to call us here in the US), is, and always has been, a curiosity that they just can't seem to completely ignore.  The public doesn't understand it and for the most part, they really don't care to.   Even so, recently both CNN (liberal) and Fox News (conservative) have featured short articles on nude beaches and nudist resorts in a matter of fact to completely positive way. As if it might be something the reader might find interesting, without exploring or explaining why they should.

Last weekend I was at an outdoor bar on the water and overheard a guy at the next table saying something about seeing a "Beyond this point you may encounter nude bathers" sign.  I assume he visited Haulover Beach in South Florida, being the only designated and so posted beach here in the Sunshine State.

We had a family gathering in Kissimmee a few months ago and along the way we stopped at the intersection at the entrance to Cypress Cove.  It's directly across from Lowes on a four lane road in what's becoming a main suburb of the town, instead of being way out in the boonies like it used to be.  The fancy sign facing the intersection says only "Cypress Cove".  But some family members in the car who don't know I'm a nudist and that I've been there many times pointed out the fact that there's the local nudist place!  Humm...  But then, most people in that and nearby communities know it's there.

The public knows we exist and that there's a lot of us out there.  We can't expect them to understand or someday try it if we don't explain ourselves to them.  The media's opened the door.  The rest is up to us.

I do a small part by answering questions on Yahoo answers targeting the keywords "nudist", "naturist", "nudism", "naturism", "nudity", "nude", and "naked".  I sometimes answer stupid or demeaning questions, not for the sake of the person who posted, but for the sake of readers who might stumble onto the question out of curiosity.  By answering, they might come away learning something new that they didn't seek.

I also write a bit here for the few people who might find it.  Other than a few that follow a link that I might sometimes add to an answer, most people who find this probably are already of the same mindset.  If so, do your part.  If not, keep asking questions :)

Swimming Naked

I've written about how wonderful it is to be at clothing optional beaches naked, but unfortunately, most people we never experience that for themselves.  Or they won't let themselves experience it.  Swimming naked is another matter.  Many, if not most people, have "skinny-dipped".  Either briefly in a lake, the ocean, or someone's pool.  Maybe in remote places.  Perhaps with their spouse.  Maybe even with friends.  The  problem is that most people never get to experience it worry and guilt free like I do every day.  It's not the same if you're worried about other people stumbling onto you, or that it's such a over the top dare that you'd never do it casually.

A few years after my wife and I married, I pushed for putting a pool in the back yard.   I had a few bonuses coming and we had already added a privacy fence to the back yard.  She didn't think the kids would use it much, but I knew that I would.

When I was young, my parents put in a small pool.  I learned to swim at a very early age and grew up just miles from the warm Gulf of Mexico here in Florida.  I took to the pool as if it were my second home.  I was a certified scuba diving and lifeguard at 16 and could hold my breath long enough to scare any adult.  Even now, I find myself darting back and forth underwater like a caged dolphin, loving it.  My mother used to refer to me as her "fish", an expression my wife also uses to describe me.

My parent's pool wasn't at all private.  They had a small lot, no fence, and neighbors on every side.  Even so, they made a point of going in together after dark, skinny-dipping.  We were invited, but we foolishly didn't join in.

In the meantime, our pool has always been completely private and neither my wife or I wear anything in either the hot tub or in the pool unless we have guests.  Even then, we don't make a secret of our preference, which anyone can guess reading the sign on the subject we have on the patio.  Some have taken up our invitation to try it, and sometimes we've joined them.

Our kids have always known that if my wife and I are in the water, that we're naked.  Our daughter (clothed) would join us (mother naked, me clothed), but they only swam naked themselves when we were out of sight.  Sometimes alone, sometimes with friends.  They're both adults now and  as with other guests that use the house while we're gone, they're encouraged to take advantage of the privacy and to continue the tradition.

There is not starker difference between clothed and nude than in the water.  I swim laps every day most of the year and I so hate wearing a swimsuit, that I avoid swimming when I have to wear a suit.  I hate the drag and the rubbing of the suit in the water, and I hate that heavy wet hanging on me afterwards that takes FOREVER to dry.  Swimming naked without a care in the world, any time I want to, is a luxury most people will never know.  I feel completely one with the water as it glides effortlessly over my skin and supports every part of me evenly.   When I get out, I air dry quickly and I'm ready to lay again in the sun, work on the patio, or go inside the house without having to wait to find some place to peel off that soppy nasty heavy thing around me, and to find some place to put the thing to dry, which it often doesn't before I need it again.  Oh, and the horror of putting on a still wet suit when you're dry and maybe even have to walk around with it on for a long time before being able to get in the water.

If you haven't skinny-dipped, find a way to do it.  It's much better if you can find a place to do it guilt and worry free, such as in a really remote location, at an accepted nude beach, or at a nudist club or resort.  If you have access to a pool, go in at night with the lights out.  Take off your suit once you're in and put it back on before you get out.  Unless you're at a hotel with people looking down from above, no one will see you.  That's what my parents always did.  Either way, give it a try and think about how wonderful it would be to not have to ever wear a swimsuit again.

How "they" see "us"

Nudity.  I don't understand why that's even a word.  Regardless of how we hide from each other, it's nothing more than what we simply are.  We're born preferring to be naked, not caring if other people are naked around us.  We had to be taught to be ashamed and intolerant of what we are.  Conditioning ourselves to feel that way about ourselves is cruel, and teaching that to our kids is a not so subtle form of child abuse.

I like being naked because it's more comfortable to be naked.  I like that being naked encourages others to do the same, and that their being naked with others makes them feel better about themselves.

We like to talk about nudism, naturism, or whatever label you prefer as if it were a secret technique, an alternative lifestyle, or a learned behavior in itself.  It isn't.  It's our natural behavior.  It's cooked into our DNA to like being human and to like what our own species looks like.  It's also our natural social behavior to accept each other's flaws as part of what binds us together as people.  That's why it takes so many years to condition children not to be naked, and why, as adults, that conditioning is so easily shaken.

People who have never allowed themselves to experience that freedom view us as curiosities.  A little perverted, driven by an exhibitionist streak that we're in denial about.  But mostly harmless, as long as they don't have to see it.  But with the Internet and the need to fill the 24 hour news cycle, people can't resist the fact that we do exist, and they're puzzled by it.

The trick is o get people to try it.  Until they immerse themselves in it for at least several hours, they can't and they won't understand.  They'll continue to criminalize what their own species looks like and they'll continue to believe that being naked is something sinister and sexual, when it's not.

We can continue to feel smugly enlightened in the privacy of our homes, at the beaches our friends would never be caught dead at, or in our walled in clubs and resorts they don't know we go to.  Or we could reach out.  If each of us convinced one other person to try it.  Not to go to nude beach and keep their swimming suits on, but to immerse themselves in it for a day, it would make a big difference.  They'd start to "get it" and we wouldn't have to be so secretive.

Your Pix All Over the Net

Source:  http://www.wired.com/2015/02/dick-pics/

The author appears to be speaking from a non-nudist perspective about simple nudity becoming so common on the Internet and that people are so much more likely to take and have nude pictures of themselves and others, that running into naked pictures of people that you know is becoming no big deal.  I'm not sure we're to that point yet, but I like how he winds up the story saying that we shouldn't be ashamed and embarrassed to be what we simply are.

Compulsively Clothed. Compulsively Naked.

Every workday I come home and immediately remove things that haven't bothered me all day.  The minute I step into the house, they have to go.  First to go are my shoes and socks.  I wear comfortable footwear, but my feet scream to be free the minute I get inside the door.  I'm barefoot every minute of every day I can get away with it to the point that I'm usually barefoot when we have guests over, even if we're throwing a party.  It's not that I'm not aware that other people might not want to see my bare feet or that it's unfair to them to be wearing shoes when I'm not wearing shoes.  It just doesn't dawn on me that anyone should care.  It never bothers me when other people are barefoot, even inappropriately so.  I'm happy for them.

The next thing that has to go are my contact lenses.  Those too, I never notice until I get in the door, then they too, have to go as soon as possible.  Next the watch has to go.  I don't know why, but all of a sudden, I don't like things strapped around me like that.

As compulsive as I am about those items, I'm not a compulsive nudist.  If I'm going to be in and out of the house for a while, I put on shorts and a tee shirt (the default casual attire here in Florida).  If it's hot out and I'm working outside, the tee shirt comes off.  The heat and humidity most of the year here make keeping a shirt on at times miserably uncomfortable.  That's perfectly acceptable here.  For a male, anyway.  Yes, it's unfair to women and yes, I'd be happy for them and for society if we'd get over it.  That's a lot of area to keep covered when it's hot out and what remains (shorts) is small enough to get most of the benefit of being naked, without offending others.

I'm naked at home the way most people wear comfy things they wouldn't walk out on the street wearing.  It's my right to be as comfortable as I can be in the privacy of my house and out in my private back yard, where a patio, pool, and hot tub await my wife and I to use naked whenever we want to be there.  When I'm naked, I prefer to be completely naked.  I'll wear shoes if I have to walk on hot or unfriendly surfaces.  A hat, if I must because the sun is beating down on the top of my head.  Sunglasses, if the sun is too bright.  But nothing, whenever I can get away with it.   The only concession I make, is that I never take off my wedding band.  That reminds me of the commitment we made to each other and I don't want to take it off.

I don't think I'd be compulsive about being naked even if I lived in a nudist community.  Being naked is my default natural state.  I don't feel compelled by external conditioning to be nude, it's just the most comfortable natural and easy choice most of the time.

The Boundary between Clothed and Naked

My wife's a good sport and last year while on vacation driving around the North West, she let me schedule a down day for us at a small rural nudist club.  Like many of the smaller family run clubs, everyone was nude there to the extent the weather allowed them to be, including the owners as they went about the business of running the place.

This year, while driving around southern California, we had an extra day and I suggested that we enjoy another down day relaxing at another resort.  This time, she wanted something more upscale, complaining that the last place was like hanging out in someone's back yard.  Wanting to make her happy, I researched the possibilities.   Though SoCal was experiencing a terrible drought, it was our luck to be there when widespread rain hit.  To minimize the impact to our trip, we headed for Palm Springs.  Bracketed by two rainy weekends, the Desert Sun Resort there was virtually empty and they dropped their price enough that I booked a night there.  The weather while we were there during the week was perfect!

While it doesn't bother me in the least to interact with clothed people when I'm nude, my wife was fascinated with the employees not only being dressed, but impeccably so, appropriate to their duties.   The receptionist was dressed as one would expect a receptionist to be.  That's not unusual, given that they're the interface to the outside world.  But the landscapers and the maintenance people were dressed like landscapers and maintenance people.  Worse yet, the housekeeper were impeccably dressed as (gasp!) housekeepers.  The place was first class.  Beautifully landscaped with top notch rooms and facilities.  But my wife couldn't get over the difference between "us" and "them" to the point that she wondered what "they" thought of "us".  She even asked a few of them what they thought (as one should expect when asked by a stranger, they said they were happy to be working there).

I've been to several "clothing optional" places where a good percent of people there are clothed.  I understand that some people find that easier to deal with at first, but people being the social animals that they are, are most comfortable when everyone's on the same level.  One of the upscale places I often go to isn't CO, but the employees at their fancy restaurant are dressed as they would be in fancy restaurants elsewhere, even if everyone being served is comfortably nude.  As odd and hypocritical as that seems to me, it doesn't bother me.  But it would bother my wife who would see those clothed as being "them", separated and different, from "us".

That blows my mind.  I think of clothed people as being naked people covered up.  Clothed people think of us as being somehow "different" than they are.  We aren't.  We're just not hung up as much as they are about having to hide ourselves from each other.

OK... I'm weird.

I admit that I'm weird.  I was born with "the knack".  Or as some would say, "the curse".  This video explains it:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xto41p_dilbert-the-knack_fun

The video hits a bit too close to home.  My parents weren't technical people.  None of my family was.  Yet even as a young boy I was insatiably curious about how things work.  When it came to anything having to do with science, math, or later engineering, I couldn't stop myself.  Yes, I took things apart. Yes, I asked millions of questions.  And yes (hanging my head in shame), like Dilbert, I tore apart TVs and radios and made ham radios out of them before I was 12.  Even as an adult working as an RF (radio frequency) engineer, I kept taking PhD level courses in advanced mathematics, quantum mechanics, and various different sciences and engineering disciplines.

My curiosity wasn't limited to just "things".  I needed to understand what makes people tick.  To that end, I minored in sociology and psychology.  I was the top student in those classes, and my professors were extremely disappointed when they found out that I was an engineering major.

I learned early on that rationalizing human behavior was, and is, a waste of time.  The question of why people can't just be naked around each other nagged me as a kid.  But I knew my mother would tell me "because that's the way it is", which would have driven me crazy.  I eventually realized that people are conditioned by their environment, their culture, their beliefs, and their families to be what they are and to feel what they feel about things.  Most people aren't interested in objectively understanding their behaviors.  And most people aren't interested in what their natural unconditioned behaviors are, or would be.

I believe that accepting what we are and what we look like is, in fact, natural social behavior that we've forsaken to our own peril.   That being ashamed or embarrassed to what we are, is stupid.  And that to be offended by what other people simply are, is mean.   We evolved (or were designed to be) not only compatible with our environment, but to thrive in that environment, without the need, or the desire, to be clothed.  Clothing was an adaptation to our foolishly leaving the climate range our bodies were intended for.  And we've since become a prisoner of that adaptation.

Naked Ramblings

Yes, it's been a long time since I've posted anything, mostly because I don't have much new to say that I haven't said before.  I still answer questions related to nudity and nudism on yahoo answers, figuring it's a better outreach than just having a blog sitting around waiting for someone to visit.  I don't have a whole lot to say today.  So if you don't mind, I'll just ramble a bit.

I'm still bothered by the "-ist" thing.  Why is my accepting my own form and accepting others simply as they are, an "-ist" thing, when the culture instead has developed a perverted self-loathing of what we are and what we look like?  As if compulsively hiding ourselves in shame from each other is a good thing.  It isn't.  Sorry.  No thank you.  I'm tired of playing that game.

Moving on to "Dating Naked" and "Naked and Afraid", both of which I find too contrived and awkward.  I dated a nudist girl for a while.  Being naked with her either at home or at her club wasn't any different than when we were out clothed.  We shared a few common interests, of which that was one, but it didn't work out and we parted friends.  I understand that the taboo of nudity (annoyingly blurred out as it may be) draws people to watch those programs.  But I think for most people the novelty quickly wears off and there's not enough left to keep them (or me) watching.  Dating is painful enough to do, much less watch.  Especially when they're being so weird about it.

"Naked and Afraid" is supposed to prey on the audience's conditioned feelings of vulnerability with regard to being naked.  I'm sorry, but I spent many decades hiking and camping in the wilderness and I don't see how putting people who don't know how to survive in the wild out there without any training or equipment is all that entertaining.  It's painful to watch them being so miserable at night when it invariably gets too chilly for them to be able to sleep without sufficient shelter and warmth (clothed or not).

In real life, even in the most primitive tribes people band together, sharing chores and building on what people have done before them.  I've done a lot of long distance solo wilderness backpacking in my day, but it takes a lot of equipment (modern or otherwise) to pull that off comfortably.  On hot days, it was nice to get out of my clothes, sometimes while hiking, but mostly at camp.  Skinny dipping at a stream or lake was much appreciated, and it was nice to be able to rinse my clothes off (all of them) and let them dry on a rock while I stayed naked and aired out late into the day until it got too chilly to stay that way.  The few people that ran into me undressed, didn't mind.  Nor did I mind when I stumbled onto them.  Being naked in the wild is a luxury that's frankly too nice to pass up on when it's warm out.  BTW, one quickly learns that you sleep a lot more comfortably naked in a warmer bag, than clothed in a colder bag.  Clothing traps one's moisture against you, leaving you feeling cold and wet.  Modern sleeping bags are designed to let the moisture escape, keeping you warm and dry if you don't sabotage it wearing nasty smelly, and invariably damp, clothing inside.

Enough for now.  Happy New (Nude) year!