Like many of you here who - along with your wives or SO's - are both retired and in the same house pretty much 24/7, the Covid pandemic lockdowns have doubled down on all that "togetherness" and in my case, wreaked havoc with my ability to crossdress to any appreciable extent given my DADT status with regard to my wife. I think the last time I was out in public as "Leslie" was in the fall of 2019, and my brief moments to crossdress since then have amounted to the equivalent of catnaps..an hour here, an hour there, maybe three hours tops when my wife was out of the house to either to buy groceries, run important errands, or go for medical appointments. Very frustrating, to say the least.

I had a glimmer of hope last summer when the lockdowns here opened up a bit, some travel was again possible, and she was invited to go to her brother's lakeside house for a family get-together. I was invited as well, but demurred, giving all kinds of reasons not to go when the real reason was that I wanted some meaningful "Leslie" time with no one else around to interfere with that. As it happens, our daughter and her family live 5 minutes away from us, and she is prone to often drop by unexpectedly, which puts a further damper on any potential "Leslie" time. The good new here (while it lasted) was that they were also going, and my wife would have been able to tag along with them. Win!...so I thought, but then a family crisis (read: unexpected tiff) erupted just before the planned departure, so my wife backed out while the others still went. Murphy's law...so what could I say, except "grumble, grumble, grumble" under my breath through clenched teeth? And so, the drought continued...

Fast forward to this summer, and a similar event was planned with the same cast of characters, this time involving a 4-day trip over the long Canada Day holiday weekend currently in progress here. The plan was for them to leave Thursday afternoon to get a head start on the traffic, and I had all my ducks in a row to finally enjoy THIS opportunity for some extended "Leslie" time. Well, not so fast, Sport...there it was...deja vu all over again. I was out doing some late night shopping on Wednesday evening (groceries, and yes...some new makeup), got home around 11:00 P.M., and was hit square between the eyes with the news that again, some unexpected complication had occurred, and my wife wasn't going to go the next day after all.

I won't bore you with the corresponding details, but miracle of miracles, my wife had anticipated how devastating this news was going to be for me yet again, and the guilt had prompted her to arrange with our daughter that she would house-sit their house while they were away to make up for it, even before hitting me with this bombshell. So yes, even though my wife would be only 5 minutes away, she promised to stay away for the full 4 days to let me do my thing as originally planned, and without any interference on her part. In other words, keeping it as if she would be 500 miles away as per the original plan.

So here I am tapping away at my keyboard fully dressed and made up after already having had a day out in public in "Leslie" mode, with more to come tomorrow. And yet, I am wary, as the title to my post suggests. As they say, if something looks to be too good to be true, it usually is. I can only hope that we have reached some sort of breakthrough where my crossdressing needs are finally fully acknowledged, and that I will not eventually get to pay for this unexpected good fortune by having it throw in my face at some future date when my wife again blows "cold" with regard to my crossdressing.

Time will tell, but for now I am making the best of this unexpected opportunity and am living in the moment.