{"id":14444,"date":"2018-12-17T06:36:48","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T11:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=14444"},"modified":"2018-12-17T06:40:18","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T11:40:18","slug":"flattering-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=14444","title":{"rendered":"Flattering Messages"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"For some unknown reason, lately I have had three contacts via messaging on websites where I have “BHD” placeholder profiles — BLUF, Recon, and even good ol’ hotboots. I have not participated on these sites actively for quite a while (last post on hotboots was a eulogy for my friend Mike McNamee<\/a>, former owner of Stompers Boots). <\/p>\n

However, lately I received suggestive…
\n
\n…”invitations” to “meet up” with guys who were interested in and attracted to my boots and leather.<\/p>\n

I make it very clear on all these profiles that I am married to my one and only man and I do not meet other men. I appreciate the offers to host me if I visit somewhere, but it ain’t gonna happen. <\/p>\n

\"\"Two reasons: 1) more than anything, I am faithful to my husband and the foundation of our relationship: trust. I am a true believer in our marriage vows. 2) while I am generally an outgoing person, I do not enjoy socializing much any more, especially at night. I have never ever been a night owl. Bedtime comes earlier and earlier as I get older.<\/p>\n

I will not repeat the actual wording of the messages that I have received out of consideration that this blog remains “G-rated,” and also to respect my pledge that I do not reveal information about anyone who contacts me due to respect and trust. I am a man of my word that I do not share any information shared with me in private on a public platform.<\/p>\n

When I first established my website<\/a> and was active on external websites that were oriented to men who shared interests in boots and leather, I received a number of messages suggesting “hook ups.” I learned quickly that while maintaining my own BHD identity on these sites was important (to prevent cyber-identity theft or misrepresentation), that I had to make it abundantly clear that I am NOT interested in meeting other men — for sex, or for “boot swapping,” or for that matter, anything else. I shut it down.<\/p>\n

For many years now, these suggestive contacts diminished. It was only recently that I received three of them in the same number of days.<\/p>\n

I could choose to be offended, like “can’t you read? How could you think of suggesting such a thing?” … but realized that it really isn’t their fault. They like what they see and said so.<\/p>\n

Thus, I took these messages as flattery. Who would be interested in an old married fart like me? As I age, such messages are much more flattering to me now than they were a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Giggle… thanks for reaching out. I am indeed flattered.<\/p>\n

As I concentrate, however, on: caring for my spouse, family, and cadre of life-long and close friends; as I continue to work full-time in a demanding job; take lovely LOLITS grocery shopping and do handyman chores for them; continue to be the “old-sage civic leader emeritus”; maintain rental properties to provide affordable housing for community heroes; and squeeze in a little time to ride my Harley and maintain this website — I just do not have time to “meet up” and socialize.<\/p>\n

Thanks for the flattery. I do appreciate it. But you’ll see me only on this-here interwebby thingie.<\/p>\n

Life is short: be consistent between personal interactions and public profiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For some unknown reason, lately I have had three contacts via messaging on websites where I have “BHD” placeholder profiles — BLUF, Recon, and even good ol’ hotboots. I have not participated on these sites actively for quite a while … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leather-lifestyle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}