have we seen the post-holiday COVID-19 peak? and the all-time peak?

It's looking like the Christmas/New Year surge-on-top-of-surge may have peaked at 25% above the Thanksgiving surge, but I don't know whether we're going to have an additional back-to-work/school surge during the next two weeks -- of course for many people there is no workplace or classroom to go back to right now.

We're still at a very high level of new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, but it looks like cases peaked January 8, hospitalizations & deaths January 12.  Yeah, that's just a few days ago, so this "peak" may be premature, but I can hope.

We've also given 11 million people their first shots in the US with more on the way, that's going to start pushing the ceiling down on case numbers and especially deaths.  There's also an ongoing increase in natural immunity -- after so many people have caught this damn thing, they are unlikely to catch it again for a few years at least.

We're still waiting on the J&J vaccine Trial III stats, we should get those later this month.  The J&J vaccine is the most likely candidate for a third emergency approval in the US (after Pfizer and Moderna).  It's also a more traditional vaccine model, requiring only one shot and normal refrigeration.

Meanwhile, we're seeing layoffs on the rise again, outpacing hiring in December for the first time since April.  We're probably in the double-dip stage of this pandemic recession now, though this second dip is not nearly so panicked as the first.  Those April job losses were the worst in history, with 13% of employed people laid off in one month -- there's never been anything like that in the US.  The previous one-month record was September 1945, after the end of WW2, when 5% were laid off in one month, because they weren't needed at the weapons factories anymore.

I'd like to bet that we saw our all-time peak for cases last week, and our all-time peak for deaths this week.  I'd like to say that as we were distracted by the end of the first Trump term that we turned the corner on COVID-19 and are heading back toward normal life later this year.  But we may still lose another 150,000 lives on our way back.  Turning the corner doesn't mean it's over.

Day 5 in the Black Box 2.0

I'm not usually THIS horny until about two weeks into a new lockup.  Which means I'm probably going to keep this damnable device on my cock for a while :o)

As this device is both cheap and easily destructible there's no need to keep an emergency key with me, I could leave the key at home when I go to the condo, or leave the key at the condo when I go to the house ... or I could throw away the key!  Huh, I've never done that before ... if I want out I have to destroy the device?

Long ago I tested another copy of the Black Box 2.0 -- could I destroy it with everyday garden shears?  Yup.  So I didn't need an emergency key.  I've assumed that the Ghost and the Leopard are similarly destructible, although they're made of much tougher plastic via 3D printing.  I haven't tested whether garden shears could destroy them.  If I ever order another 3D printed nylon cage I could add an extra ring to the order and then test it against the garden shears.

With my custom metal cages, the so-called security screw always eventually came loose on its own, so I was never that worried about being LOCKED FOREVER if something went wrong.  Now I use a cheap padlock on it that I figure could be easily destroyed with a bolt cutter, though I haven't tested that proposition either.  I do have a bolt cutter.

I've seen some fellas online use superglue or rivets to go permanent.  I've seen a fella online who lost the keys to his metal cage, oops.  One fella complained on an Amazon review that his lock broke and the key wouldn't unlock it anymore, oops.

This could be a way to play the game differently -- throw away the key.  When I want to get out of this cage, then cut my way out.  No asking permission from the Oracle or another guy.  I'd be permanently locked until I decide to destroy the cage.

Right now this intrigues me.  But I'm not impulsive enough to throw away the key right now.  Or am I?

...

If I'm going to do this,

If I'm going to throw away the key, first I want to unlock and trim my pubes.  So I'm charging up my trimmer.

Haven't decided my weekend plans yet, but I'm leaning toward quitting early and heading to the condo.  We'll see.

Black Box Protocols

Here we go, I'm going to throw away the keys to my Black Box.  I will only be able to escape by destroying the device.  It's OK, I can buy a new one for $20, it's a mass production item.

First, tomorrow I'm going to unlock and trim my pubes, as I won't be able to trim them as effectively again until I destroy the Black Box.

Second, tomorrow while unlocked I'm going to sand down one of the edges of the Black Box, it's not quite a sharp edge but I want to make it a little blunter where the tube opening meets my pelvic skin, it's causing a red mark.  It's intended to be an "anti-escape" feature but it's causing a red mark.

Third, I might want to play with my electricity toys before locking back up.  Might, we'll see.  I'm not going to have an orgasm while unlocked either way.

Then, I will lock back up and throw away the keys.  I'll have to head outside and toss them into the alley dumpster, LOL.

-----

As it is possible to have an orgasm while locked, if I do have an orgasm while locked without the permission of an in-person Sir, I will donate 1d6 x $50 to charity (up to $300).  Someday when I cut open the device to get free, I will donate 1d6 x $150 to charity (up to $900).  I will roll the dice after the triggering event, so that I won't know the exact penalty until afterward.

If I cum from nipple play or ass play without touching my cock ... should that be allowed or penalized?  I've never cum from ass play, so that's a freebie, that's a goal.  If I cum from nipple play without permission that's still 1d6 x $25 to charity (up to $150) -- half price, LOL, because I have to be pretty darn horny to cum from nipple play and having an orgasm that way doesn't give me any relief from feeling horny afterward.

It's got to be additional money to charity, not part of the money I'm already giving each month.

If there's some health-related or other nonsexual reason I have to remove the cage, too bad, I still have to pay.  There's no free escape.  The only free orgasm is if I have an ass play orgasm, something I've never had.  If I can train myself to cum from getting fucked, then my transformation into an ass play chastity sub is complete, heh.

Tomorrow!  Meanwhile, tonight I'm locked and playing with toys at the condo :-)

it's weird, but,

I'm probably doing a better job weight lifting from our basement gym than I've done in over a decade, probably in better overall shape (relative to age) right now than since I had that personal trainer back in 2005.

Part of what's stressing my back in new and unusual ways is that I'm doing squats and lunges like never before in my life.  The combo of bringing up the Christmas Tree on my own, with my various back exercises, pushed my body beyond its lifetime norms, I think.

But this combo of yoga, running, hiking, weight lifting, stretching, foam rolling, -- this is a lot of cross training.  I'm challenging my body, pulling it in several directions over the course of a week.  How many 53-year-olds are challenging their bodies like this?

One of the weird things about socializing last night, I felt fat, LOL.  I was definitely the lightest and tightest of the three people at the dinner table, but I felt like I was on display in a way that I haven't felt in so long, because it is just me and T or just me.  Before he moved, just me and K and he's never really cared whether I was in top shape or not.  Felt on display in front of a gay man, and I felt like -- I CAN DO BETTER.  Which is strange, because I am doing better.  I had that tantrum back in June, when I felt like I wasn't exercising enough, but now I'm doing ALL THESE THINGS.  Full-time telework allows me much more time for exercise than I've had ... since I was in graduate school.

But my OCD self wants to do even better.  Wants to run more miles, show more abs, build bigger biceps, etc.  Occasionally over the years K has expressed a kind of astonishment that I don't realize how attractive I am.  That's a very old story, going back to my teenage years, when I felt the dark, tan, and skinny boys were hotter than me --> redhead, freckles, big frame.

Yet, K always said, when I'd ask, that I'm masculine, attractive.  He never threw me out of bed, LOL.  I've been living with body dysphoria and dysmorphia for decades, feeling like I'm not ... enough ... even when, like last night, I'm the most enough in the room.

I've had some terribly hot boyfriends, some of them model quality, although I do not require this of my partners.  Yet, I work so hard.  It's not just the gay shit, though.  It's also that my parents were obese and died relatively young, they had so many health problems.  I DO NOT WANT THAT TO BE ME.  And, it isn't me.  I'm not my parents.  But this "not my parents" haunts me.  And it combines with the gay boy dysphoria/dysmorphia.  And the OCD.  And that I actually enjoy exercise!

So, as Steve noted recently, I'm doing a lot of different kinds of exercise.  This is the best way in which I'm taking advantage of the pandemic.  Yet, it's not enough.  Never enough.

Bug is having a lot of fun

Yeah, the Republic is melting around me, I'm socially isolated, and I may have caught COVID from the chatty beer/wine clerk this afternoon, but I'm having a lot of fun.  Best combo of butt toys, intoxicons, porn, and headspace, ever.  I've got many hours to go before I sleep, and then another night here probably.  Heh, how many days until I cut this thing off?  It isn't even my favorite cage, or the most utilitarian, I'm just FUCK YOU, BUG, THIS IS IT.  Gotta be my own fucking Sir until After the Vaccine.  Gotta forgive myself for my previous failures, and then ... here's your next situation, Bug.  You get a bit of time tomorrow to trim pubes and touch/electrify? your cock, but then, this Black Box, which, we describe it that way because it is the ...

your cock is locked up, man, you can't see it, you can't touch it, it's gone, you don't have a cock anymore, except that you want to cum so bad from that cock you can't see, will never see, it's a black hole where your cock was,

and will never see,

because you threw away the keys,

yeah, that's Bug 2021, lock him up and throw away the keys,