24/7 startups, and unexpected pitfalls?

[oznl]

18 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

I'd clearly pooped my diaper while I was sleeping. Not a lot, but even a little poop is a lot. Either you did, or you did not, crap yourself.

Yep, I think filling ones nappy must be like being shot.  Even if you’ve only been shot “a little bit”, it’s still a lot…

I can’t say I’ve had the uncertain pleasure of a sleep experience but I’ve certainly “lost it” after some kind of digestive provocation (for me it's been the chicken and not the sauce).  During these episodes however I've been all-too-acutely awake and all-too-acutely aware about what was going on.  Generally speaking however, once the brown Rubicon has been crossed, I care little for how far up the bank on the other side I go so I’ll just finish and deal with the change later.  Might as well be comfortable I guess.

There’s no doubt that #2 control is to some extent, collateral damage in this venture: more grist for the Club "Careful what you wish more" mill...

[Little Sherri]

2 hours ago, oznl said:

There’s no doubt that #2 control is to some extent, collateral damage in this venture:

Indeed. I had zero history of crapping my pants coming into this adventure. I can't remember ever doing it as a kid - the last time it happened was before I was making notes on such things. And throughout my bedwetting childhood, THAT never happened. And I never took the liberty of deliberately using my diapers for that, either. It was taboo. SO it's interesting that, this time 'round, there seems to be some intermingling of the circuits. Strange times. 

This morning was interesting in a different manner; we are attending a wedding in the fall, and I went up to my bedroom after breakfast, to find my wife trying on a couple of dresses for it. I've lost a bit of weight since I last had to wear a suit somewhere; I wear a suit for work probably once a year or less - it's mostly dress pants and golf shirts or dress shirts with no tie if I'm leaving the house. Mostly, I'm dressed as I am now, in a golf shirt and a diaper, but that wouldn't do for this wedding. So, she said, "Hey, why don't you try on your suit - it would be better to know now if it needs altering." 

I knew for sure it wouldn't need altering - the suit she was referring to was purchased in the "AD" epoch (After Diapers...), so I had a diaper on when it was selected. There's no way in hell I'm having some of that bulk removed for an event where I'll be drinking enthusiastically, and mingling with relatives all night. 

I shrugged, and decided to play along. I was in shorts and a t-shirt, as I'd taken the dog out, so I dropped the shorts, leaving me in a Rearz Essential, a white, medium-weight diaper - I have to go out at noon and run an errand so I didn't want to be taped into a Critter Caboose or other relatively enormous diaper this morning. The suit went over the diaper rather well, I thought. The light material maybe allowed a bit of crinkling to be heard, but in a room full of people and music, I foresaw no issues. 

Intriguingly, my wife then proceeded to lightly molest me, basically. She patted my butt and tugged at my pants and asked me to walk back and forth, before rendering her opinion:

"You should wear one of your onesies," she suggested. "Are you going to wear plastic underwear or one of the cloth ones?"

I decided to have her on for a second... "You want me to wear a cloth diaper?"

"Christ, no, not a cloth diaper. One of the quiet Pampers ones, ideally."

This was interesting... she'd used "underwear" and "Pampers" in the same conversation. I could see what she meant, though. I guess my breathable diapers are somewhat like Pampers... one can dream. But then, this occurred to me: IF she's talking about my ABU Little Kings or Alphagatorz, those ARE a lot like Pampers - they were designed to look like Pampers Cruisers from the 90's and early 2000's. I still have some of those size 7 Cruisers in inventory and the resemblance is inarguable. They're not a small diaper, but not gargantuan, they're stone quiet, and, they're decently reliable - I've driven a number of them. I'm familiar with the equipment. 

Hmmmm. Going to a wedding with one of those on... WITH my wife's permission? So, today's assignment is to pull one out from my basement trove of "special diapers" (they're too dear to be in my regular rotation), and then to put it on tonight, put a onesie on, and model my suit for her again. I'll let you know what she thinks.

I have one other point to mention, being that the Mega Inspire+ that I put on yesterday morning after "the incident" lasted me right up until bedtime last night. It was gloriously comfortable, if a bit pendulous, and part of me wanted to just go to bed in it, but I didn't want to court diaper rash, and, it was rather heavy looking so I'm sure my wife expected that I'd change it before lights-out. But they do hold a lot. 

[Little Sherri]

I had a somewhat humorous, and slightly embarrassing conversation with my wife last night before we went to bed... our dog (a puppy) is not the sharpest knife in the drawer at this stage in his development, so he ate something, probably tissue from a garbage can, that disagreed with his stomach, so he kept intermittently throwing up small amounts, but then he'd be fine, happy to run and play... and then he'd barf again. Perfect. 

So, she had decided she didn't want to put him to bed in the crate where he sleeps right now (to prevent him eating tissues from the garbage, for example...), because if he pukes in the crate, he has a bed in there that then needs to be cleaned - it becomes more of a chore then if he pukes out in the open on the floor, where it can be wiped up easily. But, she didn't want him to be able to wander the room and chew things or puke in corners at will, so she planned to use the crate to block off her side of the bed, so that, with the bathroom door closed, he'd essentially be penned into one area of the room overnight. 

SO, she informed me of this, and then... she asked me not to use our bathroom overnight, more or less.

"Listen, I'm going to block off my side of the bed [and by extension, access to our bathroom] with the crate and let him sleep on the floor tonight in case he starts throwing up again. So, are you done in the bathroom?"

I was lying on the bed in a diaper and a t-shirt, had already brushed my teeth, and my pacifier was on my bedside dresser, next to a bottle of water. 

"Yup, I'm good."

"Okay, remember, this side of the bed is blocked off - don't trip over the crate in the dark. Because if you wake him up in the middle of the night, you can deal with him. I take it I can assume...," and here, she looked pointedly at my diaper, "that you're NOT going to need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night? You're all set in your Pampers?" 

Despite the ubiquity of being "diaper guy" for more than four years now, my cheeks still reddened lightly, because while my diapers sometimes get mentioned, when I use them, or what I use them for, rarely does. I nodded. 

"Okay, good, sleep well." She turned out the light. 

[Little Sherri]

Further conversation has ensued, this morning - I posed this elsewhere, but I'll repost it here:

I went down to the basement with my wife to collect some stuff for disposal, and some of it was on a shelf in my diaper room down there. I always dread walking in there with her, because she tends to comment on how much space they take up, or she'll say "I see they've spread to yet another shelf...", or, "What's the difference between this case of diapers, and that case of diapers - why have both?" Meanwhile, 3/4's of the basement is dedicated to storing her stuff, but, I digress. 

This time, when we got into the room, she looked at the ten or so cardboard boxes and the two large totes that comprise my baby pants inventory, and she said, "I've been meaning to talk to you about something..."

I rolled my eyes internally and prepared for what I thought was coming, which would be along the lines of, "This is getting ridiculous, how many diapers do you need?!?" Instead, she said, "I know these are expensive...", which caused me to brace for impact on that topic, but then, she continued, "And if we ever have a leak in one of the pipes down here, they're going to get ruined. The next time there's a sale, do I have permission to buy you more totes, and we can get these out of cardboard boxes?" 

I still suspect that consigning everything to a certain number of totes might be her way of attempting to set a ceiling on how many cases can occupy our basement at one time, but, at least she went about it pleasantly!

[Little Sherri]

Well, my cheeky disregard for deep-seated concerns relating to if my diaper might be visible does not apply to my in-laws, even despite the fact that my mother-in-law walked past our open bedroom door a couple of months ago while I was sitting on the bed in a diaper, gave us a wave, and carried on. She's not the most observant person - part of me suspects that she saw nothing. I was wearing pants. Jedi mind trick. 

Case in point - I was fixing the dishwasher, which somehow ingested a lunch of broken flat plastic that suggests maybe someone mysteriously tried to wash a takeout container, and it succumbed to the temperature and/or PH in there. I was taking apart the insides of the machine, knowing and not caring that the back of my diaper had to be fluttering gloriously above the waistband of my shorts, when, apropos of nothing, my in-laws burst into the room. Apparently, they had an appointment in the area. At least I had shorts on at all. My wife could have warned me. 

Though loath to pull away from the puzzle pieces before me, and the plethora of small screws that needed to return to specific holes, and which, if dropped down the drain, would necessitate uninstalling the machine and inverting it and possibly taking it apart, I never-the-less backed out of there like I'd been confronted by a skunk coming up through the drain, and pulled my shorts up to roughly my chest, and stretched my shirt down past my hips, before I reentered the stainless steel confines of the device. 

Rearz has a new diaper out, the Daydreamer, which falls under their "Mega" lineup (sorry, NorthShore), and its alleged 11000 ml capacity. I've tested the Mega Barnyard and Inspire+, and while they do hold a LOT, 11 KG of fluid... that is Daydreaming. But the diaper looks cute and interestingly has a clear cover. I may find a reason to buy a bag at some point and test drive them, just for science. I'm sure they will hold a lot, the (tape) tabs will be undefeatable, and, the graphics will perplex my wife. 

[Little Sherri]

Diapers are ideally suited, as I'm sure most of you would agree, to a number of circumstances and situations, however, I have discovered one more: there is no outfit that lends itself better to painting a room, than a disposable diaper. Background: my wife wanted some painting down around the windows in my daughter's room (the one who is away at school) before hanging new drapery in there. I fail to see how putting up new drapes in an unoccupied room would be a priority, but, her and I see a lot of things from different perspectives - I guess this is another one. 

I searched my room for an old painting shirt but couldn't come up with any, although in truth, I have some old shirts that could easily be assigned as painting shirts - I just haven't done a lot of painting lately. My eldest, most chlorine-and-paint marked shorts were in the wash from when I last cut the grass. Then, it occurred to me that I was wearing a diaper that I intended to throw out in a few hours, and that paint washes readily off of skin... I went and collected the painting equipment, then stripped down to my slightly soggy Rearz Essential, put on some music, and got started. My wife came in to check on my progress midway through, and seemed only slightly surprised to find a husband clad (or unclad) thusly... I'm guessing she quickly came to the same conclusion I had. IF they made plastic disposable t-shirts, I would have been completely set. 

I'm pretty much always in a t-shirt, even when I only have a diaper on, so I have to admit to feeling slightly exposed, chatting with her about what colour would work in the upstairs hallway, etc, while padding around in just a plastic diaper that I knew was sagging a bit at the back, but apparently it didn't bother her, because she chatted with me for probably an hour. I then walked down to the basement and cleaned the roller, tray and brushes, before coming back up and taking a shower. I put on an Inspire+ (still in it... Mega, don't you know...) and walked out of the bathroom, but in the end, decided it felt unnatural not to have some kind of shirt on. While slinging tinted liquids at the walls, going shirtless kind of made sense. In my room with the A/C set to "preserve meat", it was gratuitous. I pulled a sweatshirt on, picked up my book and got into bed. 

[Little Sherri]

This has been a busy week... I'm essentially "driving" my own life, plus that of my parents. I'm moving my stepdad into a retirement home, and my mom, well, I think she's probably living in the last place she's ever going to live, unfortunately. If you can call it "living." I'm not sure she's lamenting it, or aware of anything, really. Small blessing. 

I have a group of onlookers - my siblings - who have opinions but aren't very involved. That part has actually gone better than I thought it would have; they're an opinionated lot, but they seem to realize that "doing" is harder than armchair quarterbacking, so they've been pretty good, for the most part. They have verbally acknowledged that I'm doing all the heavy lifting on this file, and have stepped up where they can. I still feel swamped, though - I also have work, my own household, cars and pool equipment and appliances and pets that seem to know that I've got a lot of irons in the fire, so they come up with small but irritating cries for attention, a blocked drain here, a leaking fitting there, some weird sound coming from a tire, chronic diarrhea. Sigh. 

Behind it all, I have my two reliable friends who silently give, without asking anything in return. One, my wingman, is my diaper, literally behind me all the way (are diapers masculine, or are they feminine, like a ship? Or neutral? "She's quite the diaper...",  "he's", "they're"...?). The other, of course, is Lady Ethanol. She's always there for me when I call. I try not to call too often, preferring less frequent, long conversations, to calling her every day. The two also pair so well - diapers and alcohol. They're like wine and cheese, pie and ice cream, sun and sand. 

[Little Sherri]

Here is yet another question that I think I'm going to post in the survey section... do any of you folks use baby oil?

This stems from a text conversation with my wife on Sunday; I was golfing with a couple of buddies and had just sat down for some post-game analysis (which boiled down to, we all suck), and a beer (as required by law), when she texted me that she was at the pharmacy, and, saw that they had baby oil on sale, and did I need any?

She said "I don't think you use this but I saw it on sale in the baby aisle so I thought I'd ask", and accompanied that with a picture of a ~400 ml bottle of store-brand baby oil for $2.99, down from $4.99. 

I said "I don't really use it but for $3, sure, grab me a bottle, maybe someday I'll need it."

She texted "Okay I'll grab one then we'll have it if you get diaper rash or whatever" 

I don't think that's what it's for - I think it acts more like diaper cream, IE, as a barrier to moisture, and as a moisturizer, and it strikes me as possibly being a bit messy to use. I had a bottle of it years ago because I liked the smell, but I couldn't really figure out what to do with it and it went missing at some point, possibly taken by one of my kids, when it was still 90% full. 

So, now I have a bottle of baby oil in stock, and, also, apparently, my wife now peruses the baby aisle while she's waiting for her prescriptions. I also know she keeps tabs on my diaper cream and baby powder inventory when she's surveying if we need toothpaste or shampoo or whatever. 

In other "news", I'm in a deliciously comfortable Rearz Critter Caboose today. I ran into a rare "I wish I'd changed my diaper" moment yesterday afternoon, when a buddy called me in for a consultation on an electrical problem he was having with a GFCI. Impromptu urgent handyman requests that include beer seem to be my undoing more often than not. I'd just gotten back from golfing, had washed the sunblock off, and put on a new diaper. I went light duty - a Tranquility ATN in medium, worn as a single-tab diaper, because it only needed to see me through the latter part of the afternoon, and then I was going to put on this Caboose I'm still in, and settle in to watch a movie with my wife after dinner. 

My buddy texted me, however, so I went over to his place. That diaper in medium is a low-rise product on me, so I didn't wear a onesie, just shorts and a sweatshirt. Both his panel and his kitchen outlets were at standing elevations - there wouldn't be a bunch of time spent hunched over or kneeling. We solved the electrical issue fast - there was another GFI involved, in another room, that was wired into the circuit because I guess it saved the builder $40, 10 years ago. But my friend was also smoking ribs, and he asked if I wanted to have some... and we had beers going, lighter ones, but good, and then we started playing catch with his kids in the yard, enjoying probably one of the final "it's warm out here" afternoons that Canada has left. I took the sweatshirt off and was in just a t-shirt. 

The smoker took a lot longer to come up to temperature than he expected, and I was using my diaper more or less automatically, and then at one point, I became aware that it was doing that thing where it choses one side or the other of the middle seam of one's shorts or pants on which to expand, and I felt like I had a wet lump in the seat of my pants - ATN's are apparently not designed for prolonged physical activity. I was worried that with the running around his large yard and bending over to get the ball out of bushes, etc, there might be a detectible lumpiness to the seat of my shorts, but I had no way to check and I did not want to run to the car, come back with a bag, then go use the bathroom, then go back to my car... 

Finally, the ribs were done, we sat down (me on a damp ball of stuffing...), ate, then I left, and when I got home, I took my shorts off and stood in front of a full-length mirror. Sure enough, my diaper was quite pendulous at the back. 

[Stroller]

18 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Here is yet another question that I think I'm going to post in the survey section... do any of you folks use baby oil?

No.  Is it just a solution in search of a problem?  My cynical adult side suspects so.  Same with powder.  Anyway, I use neither (& we didn't while we were raising our real kids either).  Sudocrem to avoid & treat rashes and friction sores and that's about it.  I still use Bodyglide sometimes, but only when preparing for a long walk.  My baby side doesn't worry about any of that, as long as I don't get sore.

[Little Sherri]

I've stated before that one of the concerns of people who are new to being back in diapers, specifically, the noises they make, is largely exaggerated. My diaper used to sound like it echoed to me, under certain circumstances, such as walking down the quiet hallway of my parents' apartment building, or being out on my driveway with the dog at 11 PM. However, nobody seems to notice, basically ever - I think that we become attuned to the crinkling noises, because most of us here have "diaper radar" - we compile clues and add two plus two together to get four, whereas the unsuspecting, innocent public for the most part does not. 

However, apparently they are audible, under certain circumstances. Specifically, last night, when I was trying to sneak up on and startle my daughter. She had filled a water bottle in the kitchen, but then forgotten about it, and was now watching TV in the living room, sitting on a couch that kind of floats in the middle of the room, creating a divide between the TV area and an area that is more of a sitting room, with chairs and bookshelves. I used to play a game on her where I would try to sneak up and startle her, and she'd do it to me as well, when sitting on that couch - there is an entrance to the room behind the couch, and if the lights are low, and you move slowly, it is possible to enter the room unnoticed. 

So, when my wife asked me if I'd bring the water bottle to my daughter, I decided to take the long way around, just to see if that old game could be revived once more. Sure enough, she was sitting in the living room, in the middle of the floating couch, watching something, with most of the lights off. Ergo, I went into ultimate stealth mode, attempting to become an F35 as I crept in with the water bottle, to try and time a "BOO!" to a tense moment in the narrative, if I could. It worked all the time back when she was 11. 

I slipped my slippers off, going with socked feet for absolute silence. I took about 6 minutes to cross 12 feet of flooring, muting even my breath. I think you can see where this is going. 

I was almost within striking distance of the back of the couch, when she said "Dad, I can hear your diaper." 

I was wearing a Critter Caboose. The Caboose is neither the quietest nor the loudest plastic diaper on the market - it sounds like most other plastic diapers. I thought my snail's pace would keep its noises to a minimum, but apparently, even operating at a crawl, the crinkling was sufficient to be heard over the volume of her show. I guess I've learned to tune it out. Duly noted. 

[Little Sherri]

In my household, I'm the one known for the one-liners, but I have to give my wife credit for coming up with this one:

We were in bed, her watching TV, I watching something on my iPad, when the dog decided that he needed to go outside one more time. I was in an Inspire+ and a t-shirt, already dressed for bed. She looked at me and asked if I'd do the honours. I pulled a sweatshirt on and some shorts, and took the dog downstairs, walking past an open window as I went. I noticed that the air coming in was fresh, so I pulled on a hat - a beanie, specifically - before going out the door. Fall is coming in hard and fast here, at least at night. 

The dog did his thing, and I headed upstairs, dropping my shorts once I got into the bedroom. My wife looked at my outfit - now consisting of the big white Rearz diaper, a sweatshirt, and, a beanie. Her comment:

"Nice outfit... a diaper and a beanie... you should wear that for Halloween, and go as a.... Beanie Baby!"

Touché. 

[Moochie]

My first order or Trest diapers is scheduled for delivery tomorrow, I wanted blue but they were out of stock, so I ordered pink. Even though I love my diapers, I am secure in my masculinity and a pink diaper will not bother me at all. I am looking forward to my first Trest experience.

[Little Sherri]

8 hours ago, Moochie said:

Even though I love my diapers, I am secure in my masculinity and a pink diaper will not bother me at all. I am looking forward to my first Trest experience.

I want to try Trest, but first I have to burn through some diapers. When Rearz has a sale on, I tend to stock up, and that has created a situation where they have pushed out room for other discretionary brands... which is by design, I guess, but when a case of MegaMax's now costs more than $180 CAD, and I can score a case of "Mega" Inspire+'s for $109... that's noticeable.

I once ordered a case of MegaMax's and got one of the three bags they sent me, in pink. I have to confess to two things... first of all, not really minding pink diapers, or at least diapers with pink in them - if the print is cute, I'm open to all colours. I have some pink pacifiers; most are blue or purple or green or they have a bit of pink in them, but a few are just pink. Masculinity exists on a spectrum, I guess. I have days where I like pink.

However, I also have to confess to being self-conscious about wearing blatantly pink things around my wife. I'm surrounded by women, and some of their stuff is inevitably pink, and you could generally tell which laundry basket was mine by the absence of pink swatches of material within it. So one of the last vestiges of dignity that I have failed to burn away while wearing baby clothes in the white-hot sun of her gaze is... feeling slightly bashful about pink underthings. 

Speaking of wearing baby clothes in her gaze, she wants me to try on my suit this afternoon at some point, in preparation for a family wedding this weekend. It makes no sense to try the suit on over what I'm currently wearing - a cloth diaper and plastic pants - because I won't be wearing THIS under my suit at the wedding, unless I have a profound stroke between now and then, and somehow still decide to go. SO, I'm sure there will be some back-and-forth about what diaper she thinks suits the occasion, versus what I want to have on while I'm at an open bar event... I'll let you know. 

I did manage to make it through eating eggs at the table with her this morning, in just my cloth diaper ensemble and a golf shirt. The plastic pants aren't printed, just clear, but still. I have a weird hang-up about wearing cloth diapers in front of people that does not apply to disposables, for some reason. 

[Little Sherri]

SO I did a diaper fashion show for my wife. Having lost a bit of weight over this past year, I actually think I could probably wear a legitimate diaper under my suit, but my wife was having none of that. Pointing out to her that it would be much louder and less directly lit in the banquet facility, than it was in our bedroom under pot lights, did little to sway her on the idea of my wearing a perfectly serviceable middle-weight plastic diaper like a white plastic Rearz Essential (and I didn't even go with with a print!). She felt that she could hear it as I shuffled around, and that the lightweight fabric of my suit pants could betray an errant fold, if I bent over the wrong way, although I have no plans to be doing knee-bends and I won't be stooping to tend to any children, as the event is adults only. My gym diaper of choice for the moment, the Tena (I'm going to butcher this) ProSkin Stretch Ultra (ProStretch Skin Ultra? ProUltra Stretch Skin?), which fits like a Pampers Cruiser if they came in size 12, was her pick, with its nondescript purple markings, slim fit and monk-like vow of silence. They're comfortable enough, they're just not rated for trans-oceanic flights. I told her that there will be a diaper bag in the car and I will be changing myself in the men's room at least once, and, I might switch to a big plastic diaper for the ride back to the hotel. She was fine with that. She also prescribed a onesie, in white, saying that my black one showed through the shirt I'm proposing to wear.

Her anxieties about my outfit allayed, she then spent two hours going through her clothing, despite having bought an outfit specifically for the event. I did not quiz her on this. 

I'd looked forward to checking into a nice downtown hotel with some time to spare, and getting dressed down there, but now, my in-laws have decided to come to the city early, so they may be coming up to our room to not have a drink, and to watch either CNN or the Weather Network for a couple of hours, while paying $35 for parking, presumably, instead of, you know, not drinking while watching news back at our house, where it's free to park. 

So, there goes my plans for comfortably getting dressed at my leisure for the event - I'll have to confine myself to the bathroom, there will be no diaper lounging on high thread-count sheets with a Scotch at my right hand. Sigh. 

[Little Sherri]

Well, I got to have my cake and eat it too, metaphorically, at the event. First of all, my in-laws did not end up coming up to our room, due to traffic, not that it made any difference to me, because that same traffic had me rushing to get ready, so there was no time for daytime diaper lounging in the hotel room, anyway. I went with the slim-fit Tena product for my arrival at the event, in deference to my wife. I had some MC duties to attend to - there was a period of time when I was up on stage, and she did not have to worry about anyone noting that I had anything bulky on under my suit. 

I brought a Rearz Active Air with me in my diaper bag, however, and later, between courses during dinner, I was able to find a washroom that was down the hall and around the corner from the main washroom, thus reducing the likelihood that someone from our gathering would walk in while I had my pants around my ankles and was balling up a diaper. For those of you not from North America, for some reason, the bathroom stall walls here all stop 18 inches from the floor and 24 inches from the ceiling, so, you can almost see the knees of the people occupying them, and, the gaps between the panels are sufficient to reasonably accommodate sign language, should you need to use it. In Europe and the UK, the stalls in men's washrooms are more like tiny condos, enclosures of solitude and privacy where one can let one's colourful ABDL diaper rest between one's ankles while using the loo, without everyone in the bathroom being able to see it. 

So, in that further-away bathroom, I swapped the Tena for the Active Air, which is a quiet diaper of reasonable bulk and capacity, with vice-like hook/loop tabs and a tendency not to leak unpredictably if not pushed to the limits. Thus was I able to then enjoy wine, mixed drinks and beer without having to perform another change. I even danced, sort of - I was invited up by one of my wife's cousins to kind of step back and forth while she undertook what could more accurately be referred to as dancing. 

Back at the hotel at night's end, my Active Air was doing that thing breathable diapers do, where it kind of felt cool to the touch, and maybe slightly humid, but, it hadn't leaked. I nearly fell asleep in it, my wife took so long to undo her makeup and such. I swapped it for what I thought would be a great diaper for overnight and the next morning drive home - a Rearz Inspire+. I wanted good protection because I often wet at night in hotel rooms, although this time, that did not happen - I woke up in a mostly-dry diaper. 

It turned out that I'd over-diapered for the morning, however, because my wife then arranged for us to leave the car at the hotel and go meet some of her family for breakfast, an idea that had been abandoned the day before. But now it was back on.

I pulled cargo shorts on over my big diaper and looked at myself in the mirror... and kind of wished I'd thought to pack something of medium weight, rather than just a moped, and a 5-ton truck. However, she said nothing about my silhouette. We went for about a 20 minute walk downtown, to find the cafe everyone was eating at, and I realized once again that, for the most part, nobody pays attention to the figures of slightly-rotund, middle-aged men in anonymous garb, and that even a fairly bulky diaper could be worn discretely with the right clothes. 

[Little Sherri]

A collection of random thoughts:

- I've been contemplating trying out going for a probably-short period of time using only my diapers, no potty privileges. I'm quite sure the experiment won't go the way of my testing the 24/7 waters (here I am, 4.5 years later...), because I have both accidentally and deliberately used my diaper for #2 on rare occasions, and I'm quite sure my lifestyle would find THAT hard to perpetually accommodate. However, to use a flying metaphor, I sort of feel like I'm a private pilot, and I want to go see what it would be like to fly commercially, for a bit. I'm pontificating here like some sort of diaper expert, and in some ways, I guess I have become somewhat of an expert, BUT, there are a bunch of people who, either by choice, or by circumstance, are flying a more complicated route than I do every day. I'm flying VFR and they fly IFR. At night. Sometimes in storms. SO, just so I can somewhat understand their world, I might decide to try it, for a week or something. I'm quite sure I'm in no danger if it becoming a permanent condition - I wouldn't take laxatives or overdose on bananas or whatever the protocol is - I'd choose my moments carefully, I'm sure. And cleaning up will require being secretive again, and it will take up a bunch of time. I don't know when I'd do it... there's no stretch of alone time on the horizon, and anyway, that would make it more like sunny day flying again - to get the real experience, I need to manage it in real life. I have not set a deadline for, or a length of time on, this experiment. I may never do it. But, I want to be able comment knowledgably on all things diaper-related, and not doing that is, to me, sort of like being a travel writer who has never been to Europe. 

- Pull-ups suck. I got my hands on a sample of an Abena Abri-From M3, and decided to test fly it last night for a short mission. It failed miserably. First of all, I don't think it holds much more than a Goodnite's pull-up, and, it had about the same failure mode - it sent pee cascading down my right thigh on the third wetting. These things are off the list. 

- They did, however, precipitate another slightly interesting conversation with my wife, because I came walking into our room, threw my damp-right-legged shorts into the laundry, and then sauntered over to my diaper drawer, wearing the sopping pull-up. She was sitting on our bed reading, and she said, "You're wearing pull-ups now?", perhaps even in a hopeful tone, as though I was going through the stages of potty training again, and might next reach for training pants. 

I shut that down. "Nope - I had a sample and I wanted to use it, but they're awful. First of all, they leak, and second, I'd need to wear about a half-dozen of them a day, and I could not sleep in one. A good diaper can last me 10 hours or more. I typically use 2-3 a day."

Ever practical from a financial perspective, she said, "What do they cost?"

Me: "Not much less than diapers, really." 

Her: "Well wear diapers, then."

Me: "As you wish." 

Her: (eyes roll...) 

[oznl]

16 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

- I've been contemplating trying out going for a probably-short period of time using only my diapers, no potty privileges. I'm quite sure the experiment won't go the way of my testing the 24/7 waters (here I am, 4.5 years later...), because I have both accidentally and deliberately used my diaper for #2 on rare occasions, and I'm quite sure my lifestyle would find THAT hard to perpetually accommodate. However, to use a flying metaphor, I sort of feel like I'm a private pilot, and I want to go see what it would be like to fly commercially, for a bit. I'm pontificating here like some sort of diaper expert, and in some ways, I guess I have become somewhat of an expert, BUT, there are a bunch of people who, either by choice, or by circumstance, are flying a more complicated route than I do every day. I'm flying VFR and they fly IFR. At night. Sometimes in storms. SO, just so I can somewhat understand their world, I might decide to try it, for a week or something. I'm quite sure I'm in no danger if it becoming a permanent condition - I wouldn't take laxatives or overdose on bananas or whatever the protocol is - I'd choose my moments carefully, I'm sure. And cleaning up will require being secretive again, and it will take up a bunch of time. I don't know when I'd do it...

It’s an interesting thought experiment and I suppose in some sense, is a purer pursuit of that which comforts us.

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t done it but it’s not an everyday occurrence.  I contracted with my beloved to keep things "wet only" (in her presence at least) and my wider social contract is such that I’d have to hide myself away near-constantly in that state.  Within reason, nobody notices a wet nappy under clothing but I firmly believe a full one is even more obvious than we think it is (google “olfactory habituation”).

Stories about how people can’t be smelled through use of well-fitting plastic pants etc are kind of self-signed certificates.  I need peer-reviewed evidence.

The clean-up is usually barnyard stuff and realistically, requires a shower (hand-held helps more).  The resultant used products need to be treated as though they were nuclear waste.  I’m sure your dog would be fascinated.

It’s also a shortcut to nappy rash.

It’s ironic then that the only honest-to-goodness “accidents” I’ve had in my nappies during the daytime have been #2 ones.  My control is solid until something doesn’t agree with me at which point all bets are off.  I had another very close shave this week.

Still, if the opportunity for prolonged solitude and suitable ablution/disposal facilities arises, you can see what you make of it and get away with it.

16 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

- Pull-ups suck.

I completely concur.  I haven't found one yet that isn't vastly more expensive and vastly less functional than it's diaper-based alternative.  I'm not sure why they exist.

[Stroller]

6 minutes ago, oznl said:

I'm not sure why they exist.

They exist so I can go on ridiculously long walks without chafing.  No other reason as far as I can see, so I'm surprised they're economically viable.  I don't go on those walks that often, after all.

[Little Sherri]

7 hours ago, Stroller said:

They exist so I can go on ridiculously long walks without chafing. 

I've had fairly good success wearing diapers on hikes, but I do have some preferred models - they are not all created equal in this regard. I've never done an extended hike in a cloth diaper, which I know you prefer to wear, @Stroller - I'd imagine the chaffing could get significant, what with damp cloth swaying and sawing and sanding at the nether-bits for a prolonged period. 

I had a thought last night, apropos of nothing: I spend a lot of time in just a diaper. Probably more time than I ever have in my life, including my infancy and childhood. As a baby, I don't think I spent a lot of time without clothing on. I have no specific recollection of this, but, I'm making an educated guess, based on how my mom used to be quite conscientious about if my kids and my nieces and nephews had enough clothing on when they were little. This is Canada, it gets cold here. Moms worry that drafts are stalking their babies. Maybe in the summer sometimes, I'd have had some skin exposed, but the summer is short here. 

As an older kid, I was acutely aware that most of my peers did not wear diapers, and that my siblings didn't either, so I don't remember sitting around in a just a diaper very often - I would have been too self-conscious. I used to sleep like that in the summer, though - we didn't have A/C until I was about 10. Usually, when I got up, I'd pull shorts or pajamas on before heading downstairs. There was one fateful incident that reinforced this behaviour, that I've touched on before, when I got up and for some reason decided to go down and turn on cartoons wearing just a diaper, not realizing that my aunt and my cousin had arrived from Montreal late in the evening, after I went to bed. So, a little while later, I heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and thought it was my brother... and it was instead my cousin. She was about a year younger than me, so she'd have been around 6 or 7, I think. I ended up bolting and locking myself in the bathroom. 

All of which is to say that I didn't spend THAT much time hanging around in just a diaper. Whereas now, I do it all the time. There are definitely days where I spend more time not wearing clothes below the waist, than I spend with clothes on. Case in point: usually around 10 PM, I get dressed for bed, which pretty much always means a diaper and a t-shirt. I sit on the bed and read or watch TV until lights out. In the morning, I usually pull something on, in case one of the kids is in the kitchen, and also, to take the dog out. However, if the kids aren't home, or if the dog has already been out, I might go make coffee and toast in an exposed diaper. I put something on for the walk over to my office, which involves crossing my driveway, but once I'm in my office, the shorts or pants come off, generally, because why create laundry if I happen to have a press-out leak while I'm working? 

So, on an average day, I could spend 8 - 10 waking hours with just a diaper and a shirt on, plus another 7-8 hours sleeping that way. It's only in the late afternoon and early to middle evening that I must submit to the tyranny of pants. 

[Little Sherri]

I wanted to take a moment to comment on the quality of the onesies (snap-T's, diaper shirts) that I've bough from Rearz over the years. The very first one I ever bought, a white one, in medium, is finally starting to show its age, with one of the snaps developing a hole behind it. This probably has much to do with the fact that it's my only medium onesie, and I still wear it occasionally, although it's snug, and I'm a large, these days. The white ones aren't crisp white anymore, but I've long since moved to buying them in black or dark grey, because a white onesie will betray the ghost of a printed or coloured diaper, whereas the darker material remain opaque. The aforementioned white onesie has been in my inventory for probably 6 years or more - I bought it in person in the Rearz store, way before I imagined I'd ever go 24/7. It's been washed hundreds of times. 

Well done, Rearz!

[Stroller]

17 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

I wanted to take a moment to comment on the quality of the onesies (snap-T's, diaper shirts) that I've bough from Rearz over the years.

I've never had a Rearz onesie, so perhaps I ought to get one to road test.  I'm very impressed with ABU onesies though.  Once I found which ones were the right size (medium long for me) I haven't looked back.  Great heavy duty material, good cut to cover my cloth nappies completely.  One's had a couple of popper failures, probably due to a bad batch of poppers, but other than that, they're perfect for me.

[Little Sherri]

Had another "Universe tapping me on the shoulder" experience; my wife was streaming a show, a comedy from a few years ago, wherein at one point, the main characters, who have a kid in their teens, get asked to look after a baby, and hilarity ensues. "We can do this... how hard can it be?" kind of stuff. 

So of course, the "baby", who looked about 3, was running all over the place getting into stuff, wearing diapers, and covered himself in diaper cream at one point, etc. There were lots of references to him needing a diaper change, and people passing him around like a hot potato when that was the case.

Of course, I'm watching this with half an eye, sitting on our bed in essentially a big toddler diaper, a Rearz Mermaid's Tale. My wife said nothing to me, but I felt like the elephant in the room... 

This week, I have some unanticipated business travel on my docket. Something blew up (not literally) at a plant we had nothing to do with building, and now they want us, meaning, me, to come and figure out why things aren't working. I used to do this stuff all the time, but recently have been largely conducting these types of consultations via Zoom and Teams, from home. However, the EPC who has been made to look bad by the issues that have arisen, would really like it if someone physically went to the location and offered that personal touch. Even though they don't have any of the telemetry I've requested installed yet, so, I'm not going to have the information I need to actually troubleshoot the issue. So, this is more of a political visit than a technical one. Kabuki theatre. 

Next step: pull out dress pants, brush dust off of them, see how they look over various diaper options... I think I've lost weight since I bought them? 

Passing through security with a stack of diapers in my carryon luggage, while travelling with colleagues, also introduces an element of stress. Presumably, it won't be an issue - never has been - but I'd hate for them to have to open it up and have a look after something looks odd in the Xray machine... always make sure all the liquids are in small bottles in the clear back in the tray.... wish me luck.

[Little Sherri]

My week on the road was fairly routine, for the most part. First of all, my dress pants were slightly looser, so they draped well over a diaper. I went slim and quiet for the actual meetings, but I wore a big plastic diaper under my jeans for sitting at the bar in the evenings, and for sleeping. 

Passing through security on the way down was entirely uneventful, but coming back was... interesting. First of all, they had some kind of malfunction with the x-ray machine where about 7 out of 10 bags were being flagged for inspection, but, there was no image available when they called you over to examine the bag... so they had to send it back, whereupon, it happened again. My carryon bag actually made it through, so the few diapers that remained in there after the week did not need to be examined in front of my colleagues, thankfully. My backpack did get inspected... twice... it turns out, because my mouse looked suspicious? Surely they must see them with some frequency? I had two diapers in a pocket in the backpack, both plain medical-looking ones, and I was bracing myself for having the pocket at least opened, if not eviscerated, but, they found the pocket with the mouse in it before any Tena products hit the open air. 

However, while I was putting my backpack back together, I saw that one of the abandoned plastic trays sitting on the "reassemble yourself" table had a half-dozen white adult pull-ups in it, strewn about, and I thought, there, but for the grace of God, go I. I'm imagining that they probably spilled from a bag that was disemboweled, and then the hapless owner wanted to get their stuff and get out, and not spend any time collecting and packing up their absorbent underpants while standing shoulder to shoulder with a dozen strangers, in the unforgiving shadowless illumination those areas always employ. 

The delays at the TSA queue did, however, serve to separate me from my travel companions for a few minutes, which proved welcome, because while I managed to only go through the metal detector on the way down, on the way back, I had to go into the Box of Truth - the body scanner. Predictably, it highlighted that I had some bulk in my nether regions, which of course, I did, because I was wearing a diaper. The TSA guy asked me if I wanted to be examined in private, which I declined, because I had no idea how much time it would add to an already beleaguered process. So, he said, "I'm going to run the back of my gloved hands across your front and rear." 

In my previous experience, when they do this, it's pretty cursory, so while I wasn't thrilled, neither was I particularly concerned. However, this guy spent about five minutes panning back and forth across my backside like a dot matrix printer with the back of his hand. In the end, he said, "You're all good, sir," but I knew that he knew that my underpants came neatly folded in cases of 36. Sigh. 

[oznl]

16 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

The delays at the TSA queue did, however, serve to separate me from my travel companions for a few minutes, which proved welcome, because while I managed to only go through the metal detector on the way down, on the way back, I had to go into the Box of Truth - the body scanner. Predictably, it highlighted that I had some bulk in my nether regions, which of course, I did, because I was wearing a diaper. The TSA guy asked me if I wanted to be examined in private, which I declined, because I had no idea how much time it would add to an already beleaguered process. So, he said, "I'm going to run the back of my gloved hands across your front and rear."

Those body scanners really do annoy me.  In addition to our own “vulnerability” here, I’m acutely aware of the issue whereby trans folk that I know are routinely hauled out for a grope because their in-pants hardware doesn’t align with their apparent gender.  Seriously?  In 2023?  On top of that, you have the medically incontinent who are similarly and indiscriminately pulled out for what must be an excruciating ordeal in order to maintain a kind of Kabuki theatre of security for which the massive toll on personal privacy appears to count for naught in the quest for general, metaphorical, bureaucratic arse covering.

There MUST be a better way.  We just need leadership with the will to find it.

With respect to my own personal circumstance, the Great Plague and its triggering of my early semi-retirement saw me swiftly relegated to Platinum status in the Australian “Infrequent Flyer” program.  I simply don’t fly anymore but I WAS clearly on a collision course with those infernal nude-O-scopes.

I’ve been repeatedly told by North American folk on this place and others that going through dry should be enough to pass unscathed however my experience here in Australia (these things were JUST starting to be rolled out down here) suggested otherwise.  I got pulled for a perfectly dry pullup: repeatedly.

I accept that as much as I love Australia, it is a frightful Nanny State and would almost certainly have the sensitivity control on any body scanner it deployed cranked up to “ludicrous” so my experience may not map to US airports.

Of course now, I know that my capacity to STAY dry can be less than the line-up times in US security anyway.

So, were you wet or dry at the time?  Can you recall?

[FretaBWet]

@oznlI can tell you my experience is wet or dry doesn't matter. We went on a cruise in June and I was subjected to the infernal body scan both ways and was singled out for a "secondary screening". The process seems to hold with @Little Sherrithat they play Patta cake front and back with the back of their hands. it seems to be standard procedure to offer a private space which I declined. I would love to hear the experience of someone singled out that accepted the private screening. In my mind they might use the privacy not to pat you down but make to disrobe to some extent. I thought it might be less invasive with a long line of witnesses.

Hugs,

Freta