Member of the week - Goodtimes

[Chris&Amelia]

If you could be a tree, what tree would you be....

...um. No. What I meant to ask was "You mentioned you were a recreational pilot. What's the best and worst parts of that job?"

[good times]

Originally Posted by LikeMinds321

How do you like being self-employed?

Tell us the good and the bad of it.

I really like it, it is what I am naturally suited for. When I am working for someone else I am constantly stressed out. On the other hand, I can be flat broke, have bill collectors pounded the door down, and I am totally at ease with my own business (because Mrs.GT stresses about that sort of thing, I try not to be broke to often).

The good part about being self-employed is that I am master of my own destiny. I also like the fact that I can work when I want. The bad part is, if I "want" to stay in business, I have to work all the time. On average, I put in about 10-12 hours a day 6 days a week in my shop. I would also like paid vacations and a raise in pay, but the asshole I work for won't give me that.

Originally Posted by LikeMinds321

What got you to take the step to being your own boss?

Everybody I tried working for kept firing me.

While their is some truth in that, as some people like myself just are not suited to work for others. I have to say that the main reason I work for myself is that it is the only thing I know, I never really learned how to be an employee. Everyone in my family growing up had their own businesses, no one that I knew or was close to worked for someone else, so that is what I learned. I started my first business when I was 13 years old, painting barns, shops, garages, and a few houses in my home town. In my late teens and early twenties I tried working for a few people, but except for a couple of times when they hired me to run their company, I wasn't very successful at that.

Originally Posted by prettylady

Now for my question.
How long after you both started to play did you find a real level of comfort? I am still struggling sometimes with fears and nerves. Frustrating when it is something you want to persue.

You know, this reminded me of the time one of my employees, a 20 year old guy who had lost his father when he was about 13 years old, asked me one day, "How old do you have to be before you no longer have "morning wood" every morning?" I told him, "I don't know as I am only 43 years old, but I will let you know when I find out."

For me, I still find I get nervous with new play partners. Granted it isn't as bad as when we first started, but I am still pretty nervous every time. Lucky for me, I thrive on things that make me nervous and excited, so it has never been a deterrent.

That being said, I think it took us about a year or two before we got to our present comfort level. What that basically means is that at some point, while we still get a bit nervous with someone new, it is significantly different than the nervousness we got when we were newbies. Also, at some point I quit fearing such things as, will I perform adequately, will my partner like me, will I get rejected, that type of thing. Now days I don't sweat those types of things because I have found that you either click with someone or you don't, and their is no way to know until you go for it. At some point I decided that I would rather go for it and have it occasionally turn out not so hot, than to never go for it at all. Because when it is good, it is really good.

Originally Posted by rpu3

Favorite hobbies or other forms of recreation, not swinging-related?

The three F's of course (flying, fishing, fucking), I also like to shoot, but I am not into hunting, and we like to play pool, even though neither one of us are very good at it.

Originally Posted by Tybee Swing

How did the subject of swinging first come up with you two? Who brought it up, and was it well received, at first?

It all started when one of my wifes friends gave me a big french kiss at a party, I immediately went into the kitchen to tell Mrs. and to my surprise she was busy with the husband of another one of our friends with a serious lip lock of their own. This kissing and touching continued at several get togethers and camping trips until on one camping trip the friend that had kissed me proceeded to take it to the next level with one of our other friends, giving him a blow job while we all watched. Shortly after this we were discussing these events and we decided that it was kind of fun but we wanted to do more. We approached these same friends about taking it further, Unfortunately, our friends liked to do these things when they were drunk, but regretted it the next day, and after we made this suggestion to them when we were all sober, they decided they didn't want to be our friends any more. So, we decided not to go there with them any more and seek out people that were interested in full swap.

While Mrs. GT is the one who actually suggested pursuing this first, we were both thinking about it. So, yes, it was well received.

Originally Posted by Tybee Swing

Was your first swing experience what you expected, more or less? Better? Worse?

No, not really, it was worse, but in retrospect, it was a great learning experience. I think if we were starting from scratch again we would still have to go through a few of these, not so hot, experiences to learn the ropes.

[good times]

Originally Posted by Chris&Amelia

If you could be a tree, what tree would you be....

...um. No. What I meant to ask was "You mentioned you were a recreational pilot. What's the best and worst parts of that job?"

Well, it is not really a job as I only do it for fun. While I like to travel by plane, mainly because after you have done much of that in your own private plane, travel by car or airline just takes to long, I really enjoy sportsman aerobatics, which is the most fun one can have with their clothes on.

[Chris&Amelia]

Okay, as a follow up to that... what sort of plane do you fly?

I wanted to earn my pilot's license as well, but I ran into some insurmountable difficulties*. I even joined the Civil Air Patrol when I was a tyke.

(* - I suck at it. Like "danger to air traffic" bad.)

[mrs good times]

Originally Posted by JustAskJulie

Ok, i have a question, when are you moving to the SouthEast?

We really enjoyed have you and pet here for your wedding. We consider it an honor that you included us.

I keep trying to get Mr. GT to move but all of my efforts haven't worked so far. I think I need some help from you and others like TNT and Spoomonkey's to convince him.

Originally Posted by Chris&Amelia

How'd you guys end up in Reno?

I grew up in a small town about 300 miles from Reno. Most of the people in our town either moved to Reno or Salt Lake City so it was a pretty easy choice for me. Reno, the city of sin or Salt Lake the city of religion.

Originally Posted by sweet_tna

What's the cheesiest pickup line you've ever heard, and did it work?=)

"What do I have to do to get a date with you?" Yes, it worked, I married him.

Originally Posted by prettylady

How long after you both started to play did you find a real level of comfort?

I would say it took about a year to get over the nervousness of accepting offers to play with others but it took us several years to get to the courage to start asking others to play with us. I think learning to ask others to play was the most difficult part of the lifestyle for us, and unfortunately we missed out on playing with some potentially good partners. Mr. is still better at it than I am though.

Originally Posted by rpu3

Favorite hobbies or other forms of recreation, not swinging-related?

I enjoy both relaxing things like, cross-stitch and needlepoint, and exciting things like, roller coasters and flying. Lately we have taken up billiards and it has been fun but frustrating.

Originally Posted by Tybee Swing

Was your first swing experience what you expected, more or less? Better? Worse?

I would say it was less than expected because we were with an experienced couple and they didn't know we were newbies. They figured it out during play because we were very unsure of what to do, but rather than work with us they tried to take charge, so it felt sort of like we were play toys rather than sex partners. Boy, have we learned a lot since then and that first experience taught us how to treat newbies in a gentle fashion rather than the way we were treated so that hopefully their first experience is a positive one.

[cplnuswing]

Hi to a great couple

Mrs. Cplnuswing question - What was the most awkward swinging situation you have faced and how did you handle it?


Mr. Cplnuswing question - Did you find that you both progressed at the same rate in the Lifestyle, or did one reach their comfort level quicker than the other?

[good times]

Originally Posted by Chris&Amelia

Okay, as a follow up to that... what sort of plane do you fly?

While I have owned a quite a few airplanes and flown a quite a few more, I am currently short on flyable ones. I am currently building a small aerobatic biplane. It is a very small two place airplane with a huge engine (for better vertical penetration, thats not a new sex move, in layman's terms that means it has enough power to go straight up a long ways), it is designed to twist around the sky with total abandon, and should actually fly upside down better than it does right side up.

Originally Posted by cplnuswing

Mrs. Cplnuswing question - What was the most awkward swinging situation you have faced and how did you handle it?

We met a couple at the club that pursued us to play for months. One night we decided to go to a room and play. I decided to hit the bathroom on the way to the room while Mrs. GT and the other couple proceeded to the room. I arrived in the room just in time to see Mrs. GT telling the other guy that, "their is no way we are doing that". She turned to me and said, "come on honey, we are getting out of here". At this point I am totally confused and mutter something profound like, "uh, ok". Turns out when they got to the room, the guy told Mrs. GT that I could do anything I wanted with the woman, but she could only soft swing with him. Now had they told us this before we got to the room, we may, or may not have went ahead. But the reason it was so awkward was that with the way they had acted before this, we just assumed they wanted to full swap, and when he told Mrs. Gt that wasn't to be, it took her totally off guard, and she kind of reacted in a more negative way than she would have had we discussed this before hand, and we kind of left them standing there with their clothes half off. This is why, now days, we always tell people to be clear with folks what their expectations and boundaries are before the clothes start coming off.

By the way, as it turned out we later became good friends with this couple and have even played with them since, after we made sure that everyone was on the same page, of course.

Originally Posted by cplnuswing

Mr. Cplnuswing question - Did you find that you both progressed at the same rate in the Lifestyle, or did one reach their comfort level quicker than the other?

Mrs. GT definitely reached her comfort level sooner than I did. Early on I played with a woman that kind of messed me up for a bit. After the experience with her, I had a period of having performance anxiety issues. It took about 3 or 4 months for me to work that out, and it hasn't been a problem since. I even played with that woman again, after having a long discussion with her on what she could expect from me, just to prove to myself that I could overcome my fears.

We have had our share of, less than optimal experiences. What this has taught us is that we need to communicate better with potential playmates than we had been. Since we started doing that, our ratio of good experiences to not so hot has improved dramatically. We are still learning though.

[des1re06]

We love your area of the country, and took a ski trip there a few years ago.

Do you enjoy winter sports?

Mrs. D

[mrs good times]

Originally Posted by des1re06

We love your area of the country, and took a ski trip there a few years ago.

Do you enjoy winter sports?

Mrs. D

Neither one of us like winter sports which is one of the reasons I have been wanting to move to the south east. I don't even like to drive in the snow let alone play in it, fortunately for me Mr. GT doesn't mind it as much as I do.

We both enjoy the outdoors very much but not until the temperature is at least 70 degrees. Kind of strange for people that live in one of the winter sport capitals in the U.S.

[LikeMinds321]

Goodtimes ~

Your business history is very interesting! Thanks for the detail.

M/M Goodtimes ~

Do you two always eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

Who is the cook in the house?

What foods/meals couldn't you live without, and have at least once a month?

LM

[mrs good times]

Originally Posted by LikeMinds321

Do you two always eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

Who is the cook in the house?

What foods/meals couldn't you live without, and have at least once a month?

LM

The only meal we always eat together is lunch. Our offices are only a few miles apart so I go to Mr. GT's office so we can eat together. I leave for work earlier so we only have breakfast together on the weekends and dinner I would say is about 50% of the time because Mr. GT is a night owl and likes to work late.

I do most of the cooking but as most of you have heard before Mr. GT make the best waffles ever.

My favorite meal is sushi and I get a craving if I don't get it at least once a month. My favorite meal at home is fried chicken with all the fixin's.

[good times]

Originally Posted by LikeMinds321

Do you two always eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner?

What she said.

Originally Posted by LikeMinds321

Who is the cook in the house?

I am if it is barbecued or waffles, she is for everything else.

Originally Posted by LikeMinds321

What foods/meals couldn't you live without, and have at least once a month?

Sushi, Spaghetti, Tia food.

[LFM2]

Favorite movies?

Favorite books?

[olycouple]

Shoot? Clays, or...?

Mr. Oly

[good times]

Originally Posted by LFM2

Favorite movies?

Not really into movies much, but action movies and sci-fi are what I prefer.

Originally Posted by LFM2

Favorite books?

I am an avid reader, 3-5 novels a week, and I like most anything except fantasy and horror. My favorite is probably science fiction, but when I run out of reading materials an instruction manual will do.

Originally Posted by olycouple

Shoot? Clays, or...?

While we love the clay sports and have actually shot them quite a bit in the past, we primarily are rifle shooters.