| leatherman's log |
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March 2010 |
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| Week One: |
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Continuing with the birthday celebrations
of last month (Jonathan, Lisa, TJ, Donny and Ann), this month has even more
celebrations.
Happy Birthday!!
Ritchie, Angie, Celia, Linda, Mike P,
Austin,
mIkIE, Jon, Kayla, and Mary |
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| Living in
the Woods |
| Stepping out onto the
porch the other morning, I noticed something that looked out of
place. I tried to decided if perhaps a branch had fallen and that
was the difference I could see. Can't you see what I saw in these
pictures? |
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| How about now, if I
enlarge it? |
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| Yeppers! Just like in Ohio
and elsewhere in the America, the deer are rampant down here. But
I'm no hunter, so I had hollered at the deer to stay right where he
was while I ran inside to grab my camera to take a shot. The deer
obligingly stayed where it was so that not only did I snap a picture
from the porch; but I walked out of the dogz fenced-in area and down
towards the top of the drop-off leading to the gulley and got an
even closer picture. That's when I noticed that ... |
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... not only was there a deer
on this side of my camera's view; ... |
...but there was another deer
on this
side of the picture! |
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| As soon as I spoke and
informed the second deer that I could see it too, they both turned
around on a dime, and high-tailed it back the way they had come. Can
you see both of the deer scampering away? MouseOver each one for
a CloseUp! |
| re: the new med |
I've been on the new med (Truvada) for
about a week now, and I had some side effects that I've gotten over
and some that are still hanging around. Days Two-Five weren't happy
days ,
as my body adjusted to the new stuff. (Of course, that whole
sentence is "code" for "of course, it's a new med so it had to make
me barf some!"
  )
But I've been fine and no puking for 4-5 days afterwards now, so I'm
hoping I'm passed that phase. |
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The lingering effects seem to be
mainly a little "brain-related" ;
but with some extra joint and muscle achiness thrown in on the side . |
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Dreams!?! Why do all these newer meds
seem to make your subconscious dreaming go wonky?!?
It's okay though.
I'm not having the wake-up-screaming nightmares of Sustiva,
nor the wacky wake-up-talking vivid dream of Chantix ;
but I am having intense dreaming since I started up Truvada. |
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| I'm also having some periods of, for
want of a better word, "fuzziness".
I find if I focus on my monitor too long, or the road, a song, or
even an idea, I feel sorta like I have a valium buzz rather than an
alcohol or pot buzz. It's not very intense nor of long duration.
It's not really a problem. I just seemed to be extra "relaxed"
lately.
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| All-in-all, I'm happy with the results
so far - even if the dreamy-fuzzy part doesn't wear off. However,
the real test will come about in another month or so.
Then it'll be time to check some blood work and see if my numbers
have changed. |
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I think I'm about to type the most
optimistic thing I ever have:
I'm gonna bet my numbers STAY stable |
You know, I'm still shocked by the
notion of stable numbers. It took 12 years to get the virus
suppressed to undetectable and onto a med regimen that wasn't puking
my life away. Just in time to have 2 years of the most stable GOOD
numbers during the time in which we I
found out my partner Jim was deadly ill, and he passed away;
and in which I moved through three homes in three years. So now I've
had good numbers long enough that for once I'm going to expect that
they'll come back good numbers again. |
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Cyber-Volunteering |
| As March began, I got a
phone call about volunteering some more time to help out my clinic
(the Catawba Care Coalition ASO and Christopher Clinic) here in Rock
Hill, South Carolina. I'm going to go help stuff-n-stamp envelopes for
a while tomorrow. I also confirmed that I'll work a few hours
next week
in the pantry (passing out taxables). |
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| Because of how helpful and
comforting the people at AidsMeds.com were when Jim was ill and
passed away, I've always tried to cyber-volunteer my time and knowledge back
to that group by making sure to welcome and help new members
when they join the site. Having lived with HIV/AIDS for over 18 years, I not
only know a bunch about about the disease itself, but also the meds
and treatments. Plus living through those 18 years just goes to show
someone newly diagnosed that HIV isn't killing people like it use
too and that with the better meds, these "newbies" aren't quite at
death's door like they might have been 15 or 20 years ago. |
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| Don't misunderstand me
though. Even though the meds are better and we know more of the
science about this virus, it's still scary to get diagnosed with a
terminal disease that's only kept in check by staying adherent to
taking the meds daily. Chemo treatments every day of the rest of
your life is a tough way to live - but it's only as tough as you let
it be. |
Every time I tell someone
about the troubles I've had (the car wrecks, burglaries, fire, the
deaths of pets and the deaths of two partners, losing 2 houses and 2
cars, etc) is not to diss their problems or anyone else's. I can
only tell you that if little bitty ol' mIkIE can still keep
struggling through what's he gone through and made it out the other
side, then you TOO can get through your problems. It just takes hard
work and time. (I'm volunteering to try to up my karma a bit more
for the next big problem that comes along.) |
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This month, I'm
getting a chance to add some more cyber-volunteer to my resume
thanks to Catawba Care Coalition. This
month the ASO (Aids Service Organization) will be putting out one of
their quarterly newsletter - and there will be a little ol' blurb
about little ol' me and my little ol' website here.
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So,
welcome to all my fellow South Carolinians who have found me
through the Catawba Care Coalition newsletter. If
everyone will bear with me just a minute, I'll tell the CCC visitors
a brief history of how my site even got here, and then I'll
finish up the update with pictures of ME ,
picture of the boyz, and OMIGOSH-not-again-!
sn@w pictures!! |
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| After I survived being in
the hospital with
PCP on my 34th birthday, I optimistically looked towards having a
future and bought my domain "reigningpages.com". This
domain is
named after the pet shop "It's Reigning Pets" that my first
partner (Randy) and I owned in Canton Ohio; which is named after my first
cocker spaniel "Appollonia's Purple Reign" whose name
comes from the Prince movie "Purple Rain". |
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| To prove to my family
that AIDS hadn't killed me yet, I began to post pictures the
following Christmas about all my holiday celebrations throughout
town. After that I began to post pictures and stories about my
activities each month. My site quickly became my diary of daily
living, and living with HIV. Some days things went well, and other days things
went badly. |
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| Because I felt obligated to keep my
visitors/readers entertained,
having to update this site has actually pushed me into having a better life. I've gone
out more, done more, and documented more so I'd have something to
talk about in my 2-3 updates each month. This objective has only
been made stronger by my loss of both Randy and I. Being gone
doesn't allow you to enjoy the things and events of this world, so I
feel that I have to live enough to experience life for myself and
also for Randy and Jim who no longer can. I've seen the brevity of
life upclose-n-personal and know I need to grab as much as I can of
what's offered before it's all gone from my reach too. |
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Using the calendar on the left side of the site, you can visit
through the last 12 years of my life. My newer visitors from CCC
especially
might want to check out some of these "HIV highlights" of my life:
back in the hospital with
pneumonia in 1999 |
A regimen of 15 pills a day |
Changing to a New Doctor |
Another Mystery Fever |
Losing my 2nd long-term partner (Jim) |
Stable numbers after a decade: UD but still under 300 |
| The Sunny South |
Last month, I said a few
disparaging comments about the Yankee weather that I've left up there
in Ohio, when it turned around and dumped some more snow here on us
in SC. Although my friends have had even more sn@w, I'm NOT
gloating. (I'm really not! I mean it. ) These pictures are not to rub anyone's face in it; these
pictures are just to show how it was in the low 60s and sunny the
other day. |
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I've had a new fetish lately. (Don't worry, it's G-rated, so
now one has to close their eyes or look away ) Ever since
Christmas, when I helped out building the gingerbread house
with my nieces, I've been on a Twizzler kick. This
cherry-red cherry-flavored pull-apart candy is chewy and
tasty. |
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| The Sn@wy South |
| Oh no! I guess I was showing off when
my sunny pix, because it's sn@wing again in South Carolina! This
makes a third bout of sn@w so far this winter in an area and doesn't
always even have one sn@w day incidence. |
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| MouseOver Sn@wflake CloseUp |
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| I guess if I was given my choice of
how it would sn@w, today wasn't too bad a way to go. It would sn@w
just long enough to cover up the yard, then it would stop sn@wing
long enough for the temp to melt it all away; before going through
the cycle again. |
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| Here's proof that Spring really is
just around the corner! |
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Throughout the day we had 4 or 5 waves
of sn@w before it finally ended -
and totally melted away! |
| the Boyz |
| Recently the aidsmeds.com
website was requesting people's stories about living better by
having a pet. Of course, you all know it's the love of my puppies
that has kept me going this long, so I wrote up a nice couple of
paragraphs about how much I love my puppies. I had to consult the
puppies' website (http://reigningpages.com/puppies) to get some dates, and realized that it's been a
long time since I had updated their website (it's just another thing
I have to do for them since they don't have thumbs.).
Since I had fallen down on my duties, their site hadn't been updated
since 2007 (about the time we all moved into Jim's house). Needless
to say, I took some time and updated the site. Not only did I add
more pictures; but I also added cute pix icons in the menu. If you
get a chance, surf over and visit to read about my cockers, and see
plenty of pictures. |
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http://reigningpages.com/puppies |
| Here are some bonus pictures, of some
of my boyz, that haven't been posted to their site yet. |
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| Joxer and Zeus enjoying an mild
afternoon on the porch |
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| Outside
Fighting Off Cabin Fever |
| With cabin fever building
up after one day of snow, when it got nicer, and while the dogs were
outside enjoying the nicer weather, I got outside too. Though Spring
isn't here quite yet, it is time to start thinking about some
outdoor projects. |
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| Since I'm going to be
adding some railing to one end of the deck, I started a flower bed
in front of the deck with some iris bulbs. Until the plants grow up
and the dogs can see them, I've put some branches around to
hopefully keep all the dogs from tromping through the mud. |
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| Soon, it'll be time to
turn over these garden areas and plant some veggies (tomatoes, bell
peppers, broccoli) |
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Two days later when the weather took
another balmy turn,
I scratched that chore off my list. |
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Unfortunately, this evergreen shrub hasn't done well in the backyard
and didn't stay so green after Mom's dogs peed on it. So I dug it
up. |
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Mom had already gotten a replacement plant, so I pulled some shovels
out of the shed, dug up the planter and planted another bush. Adding
some fencing around the planter should help this burning bush do
better than that other poor peed-upon bush. |
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| Aries and Zeus |
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The first flowers of Spring are officially here now!
These crocus are blooming in the backyard. |
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Click either picture for a larger desktop wallpaper size |
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More Flowers |
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| A New
Project Idea |
| I know I talked about
building a yard water feature last year; but by the time summer came
around and it was time to do something like that, things were
already falling apart with John and with Joyce, and I was already
seeing that things were going to be changing for me. However, now
that I'm somewhere where I should be staying for a while, it's
almost time to consider a new fountain/pool |
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Part One of my project is to dig out
and make an arc-shaped pool for the fountain in the area right off
the porch. Then I would place a fountain in the far end.
MouseOver these pictures to "see" the concept |
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Week Two: |
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| Flugtag
Returns |
| I saw a commercial on TV
last night that brought back some memories. The Redbull company
(that makes the drink) is bringing their Flugtag competition back to
America. Flugtag is a crazy contest in which groups make a "flying
machine" that gets pushed off a pier. Although the winning team is
the one that gets their contraption to go the farthest, everybody
wins in this crazy contest. |
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Jim and I attended the event when it was held in Cleveland in Sept.
2006 |
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I went to the Flugtag site and found some more pictures of the
event. Somewhere in that crowd were Jim and I. |
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If you look closely at the
right hand side of this picture,
(MouseOver for a CloseUp)
I think that's Jim wearing that
pink cap that he got from one of the Flugtag teams (Team Origami) |
| After that event, Jim and I were home
and invented "Pooltag", the wacky contest where teams constructed
pool floats out of 2-liter pop bottles and tried to float across the
pool without sinking. |
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Week Three: |
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| I'm Hoping
Spring has Sprung |
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I have been finding crocuses (or is it
croci?)
scattered about the property, blooming away. |
I brought some seed down
from Ohio with me,
so I've been looking around for some places to start some new flower
beds. |
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| Recycling an old folding
door, I removed the slats (I'm hoping to recycle those into short
flower bed fencing.), and set it up in a new flower bed that I dug
up. I'm going to be planting morning glories here. Because of where
my desk sits, the flowers won't block my view of outside; but
hopefully when the trellis/door is filled with morning glories, it'll
help shade this side of the house just a bit this summer. |
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(there are some more pictures of this flower bed later in this
update) |
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Back I arrived in September, these two pear trees were beginning to
change colors as the Fall approached, making them the most arresting
visual image from both the driveway and the living room. I'm going
to work up a flower bed on the backside of trees (that's just on the
other side of the hedge from my side porch and the dog run. I think
this pretty sunny spot will be a good place to plant some cosmos. I
think this area will look very nice with the smaller plants out
front of the tree, and the trees against the tall cosmos behind
them. |
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| With I was out working up
all these flower beds, I worked on the rosebush at the trellis that
leads to the gate into the boyz' yard. Since the rose has already
been putting out a ton of new growth, it was time to start weaving
those branches into the wooden trellis. I pulled out the ladder and
worked carefully so I didn't get to pricked up by the thorns. I can
walk under the trellis now without having little branches poke me in
the head or eyes. I think in another two weeks, it'll probably be
time to work on this again with even more of the rose plant has
grown out. |
Click for a larger picture
and then
download for your desktop wallpaper |
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| Happy Birthday,
Leatherman! |
| I had a nice birthday - I ate BBQ. The
weather that day wasn't half bad, so it wasn't too terrible turning
48.
This birthday was world's between than in the hospital with Jim on
my 46th, or in the hospital on my 36th with pneumonia, or in the
hospital on my 34th with PCP.
Or the 8 years in Ohio when the whole state was closed down for
blizzards on my birthday. |
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Did you know that my
birthday has become a holiday?!?
Yeppers, it's PI Day.
Not like apple, cherry, or pecan pie; but the ratio of a circle's
circumference to its diameter or 3.1415926535 |
| Digging in
the Dirt |
| Seeming like Spring was in
the air, I took to the outdoors some for a few sunny days. But i
wasn't outside just sitting on the porch and reading; I was also
spending time getting the garden ready. I'm going to hold off
planting any seeds for just a little bit longer; but that doesn't
mean that I shouldn't go ahead and get the beds weeded, dug up,
turned, and add new dirt and fertilizer, so they'll be ready to
plant whenever. |
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| With my headphones on,
jamming away, I kept digging up shovelfuls of red clay, breaking up
the clods, pulling out roots, and mixing in good dirt. I moved the
wood logs to the side to get the whole area. Afterwards I put the
logs back, leveled out the soil, propped up the rose bush, and have
an old rack ready as a trellis for some cucumber plants. |
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Not too shabby looking to
be 48 years old (and one day)
(and not a bad picture using the timer. I'm still learning how to
take pictures of myself. |
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| Leatherman
Goes to the State Capitol |
| There is a terrible thing
happening in the state of South Carolina. Deciding to phase out the
state's corporate income tax, the state legislature has decided to
cut various state medical services because of the reduced revenues.
These spending cuts will end programs for nearly 26,000 people
getting help from the Dept of Disabilities and Special Needs, will
slash $35 million from the Dept of Mental Health's $161 million
budget, will impose a 3-drug prescription cap in a program that has
been covering up to 10 meds, and will totally cut all HIV/AIDS state
funds to a program called ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) and
for all prevention programs. (see this link to "The
State" for more information) |
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| So far these cuts have
passed through the State House Ways and Means committee which means
this isn't the final budget yet and there's still time to try to
make a change. A contingency from my local ASO, the Catawba
Care Coalition based in York County and also serving Lancaster and
Chester counties, has an appointment scheduled Tues. 3/16 to meet
with Representative J. Gary Simrill (District 46 - York Co.) a
member of the Ways and Means Committee. A state-wide organization (the SC HIV/AIDS Care Crisis Task Force)
scheduled a protest rally to be held in the State Capitol Building's
rotunda on Wednesday. |
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| I went to a couple Act-Up
Cleveland rallies back in the early 90s. Unfortunately many of the
activists back then (who got programs like ADAP in effect) passed
away from AIDS. Many of the people who were left afterwards were
like me and too busy trying to stay alive than to continue the
protesting. Since then the meds have gotten progressively better,
and many people don't understand the struggle HIV positive people
went through to get care, treatment and drugs. ADAP budgets
are being cut now because people have become too complacent about
HIV and the damage it does to lives. |
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| Since I've been trying to volunteer
more now that I'm feeling better, I figured what better way to volunteer
for than a little activism. Though I contacted my ASO
several times, they didn't ask me to go along on Tues, nor did they
make any arrangements for anyone to attend the rally on the
following day - so I went on my own.
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| It was a nice hour and a
half drive down to the state capital. The day warmed up with some
milky sunshine and the traffic was light on the highway. I did have to
stop twice though on the way down; both times for odd reasons. First, my meds and last
night's dinner didn't seem to be happy with one another and I was
having some issues. Pulling over into a rest area, I was able to
laugh at bit at my situation. Here I was going to attend a rally, so
people could get access to meds, meds like the ones I took, that make
you barf or have diarrhea. Then I had to stop again
before getting into Columbia because I was having a bit of a mild
panic attack. Normally, if I was going on a trip like this, I would
have been going with Jim. Sometimes when I have thoughts about Jim,
they show up without warning and can be pretty overwhelming. After a
short stop with another quick trip to a restroom (to walk around a
bit and to slash some water on my face), I felt better and was back
on my way. |
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| I was pretty surprised pulling into
the state capital. Though I keep accidentally calling "Columbia"
"Columbus" (the state capital of Ohio) there wasn't any mistaking
the actual cities. While Columbia is pretty with it's palm trees and
Southern charm, it's only 1/7th the size of Columbus OH. Why it's so
small that it's only half the size Akron! |
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| Outside the South Carolina
State Capitol Building in Columbia, SC |
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Wow! The place sure looks
different than after General Sherman visited during the Civil War.
(or as we Southerners call it "the war of Northern Aggression") |
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| The Capitol is surrounded
on all sides by various monuments. This one with a bas relief is
dedicated to the African-American struggle in SC. |
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| Inside the Capitol
Building underneath the Rotunda, people gathered to protest the ADAP
budget cuts. |
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| The reason ADAP is so
important is because the drugs used against HIV are so important.
Without treatment, HIV is still the same terminal disease that it
has always been. Only the medications stop HIV from turning into
AIDS before it causes death. There's another catch to the meds
though. Unlike other meds, once you start antiretrovirals, you must
continue to take them without any breaks, or the HIV can mutate
against the medication and make it ineffective. Since there are only
a few meds that can be used, if they become ineffective, then death
can surely follow. |
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| In 2006, SC ran out of
money to cover with ADAP program and health clinics were forced to
start a state waiting list. That meant that newly diagnosed people
without insurance, no matter how sick they were, received no
medications at all but were added to this list. Though this sounds
like it could be money-saving technique for the state, we also know
that if people aren't treated with the meds, which granted are
pretty expensive each month, treatment, the cost of caring for them
in a hospital while they die from an OI (opportunistic infection) is
much greater, so there is no cost savings in reality. While waiting
on their turn on the list to hopefully receive meds in 2006, four
people actually died. |
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| ADAP has paid for my meds
in the past (up in Ohio), so I understand how important this program
can be. Although I'm not using ADAP now, I have to wonder if my
doctor's decision recently to change my meds (dropping me from four
to three meds) wasn't just altruistic but to conform to the Medicaid
cap of only covering 3 medications. |
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| The Rotunda quickly filled up as the
time for the rally approached. A quick head count easily tallied up
to 300+ people filling the center area and down each of the four
wings of the capitol building. As the rally proper began, many
people moved into the area behind the podium giving better access to
the media crews and their cameras, while keeping the crowd within
the camera frame. |
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| After opening remarks by
Rep. Joseph H. Neal, there were several speakers touching on
subjects like the medical impact of HIV, a focus on women with HIV,
the impact of the cuts in SC, and how the youth of SC are increasing
becoming positive. There were even several church pastors who spoke
about the Christian charity aspect (well, I am living deep in the
Bible Belt now, so what do you expect) of providing life-saving meds
and health care to our fellow citizens living in South Carolina. |
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There's another good
article and video about the situation and the rally at
http://www.thestate.com/2010/03/18/1205355/hundreds-protest-hiv-funding-cuts.html |
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The day before the rally some of the legislators had proposed
restoring about half the money to the ADAP program but that still
won't remove the waiting list nor provide funds for any prevention
programs. With the state of South Carolina now #8 on the list of
states with the most cases of HIV (and increasing!), I hope the
rally, the letters, and the calls make the legislators change their
mind about cutting the funds against such an important state
problem. |
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Since this budget has not been passed yet, there is still time to
contact the legislators about changing their decision.
Click info for
more information along with phone numbers and email links of those
who should be contacted.
Thank You for your assistance in this matter. |
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leatherman aka mIkIe
at the rally |
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| I'm going to have to learn
to smile for the camera but I was too busy trying to hold out the
camera and push the button. As I mentioned earlier, I'm still
learning how to take pictures of myself. It wasn't all that long ago
that Jim was the one taking pictures of me. |
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| I'm a little maudlin about
all that right now. Losing two men whom I loved so dearly has really
destroyed a big part of my heart and soul, that even on my best days
is hard to cover or not acknowledge. I usually keep most of my grief
to myself. Not that I'm all psycho about it; but really, who wants
to hear such sad talk, and there's nothing anyone can do to "make it
better". Being a "widower" is just a burden that I have to bear. |
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| I have just been thinking
about Jim a lot because of this trip. At any other time in my life
over the last 16 years, Jim would have been in the car with me going
on a trip like that. Then I had to take pictures of myself instead
of Jim taking the pictures. |
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| When I got home, I did
something I haven't done yet. I went back and read my blog from
Mar 08. I've been avoiding doing that
this year; but after thinking about him all day at the rally, I
broke down and read some of my entries. These were some of the days,
2-3 weeks into his hospital stay, when there was still hope. Jim had
gotten better enough to get out of the Critical Care Unit, and he
had one round of chemo and seemed to be doing ok. There was even
talk of him returning home soon. How naive I was. Little did I know
how little of what the doctors told us was ever going to come about. |
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| I think I'll hold off
another week or two before I read any more of those entries. Because
really, I don't even need to read those blog entries to be sad about
losing Jim. With such radical changes in my life (a new home every
year for the last three years - after nearly 2 decades of stability)
just being in SC reminds me that Jim is gone. Every time I work out
in my yard and gardens I'm reminded that it's not Jim's or my old
yard or garden. Really everything I do reminds me that Jim is gone
and that's really a rather sad feeling for me, than the
"adventurous" feeling I'm trying to give to it all. |
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| Ah, and there's the rub.
Just doing these things, without Jim, is part of moving on, part of
rebuilding my life and part of dealing with the grief. |
| Bivens
Birthday
Bash! |
| Many years, when I was
living in Ohio, if I didn't come home for Christmas, I came down
sometime in the middle of March for the Bivens Birthday Bash. We
held this big birthday party because between Feb. 27 and Mar. 23, my
immediate family (my mom, myself and my two brothers) all have our
birthdays. Extending this time frame earlier into Feb (around the
11th), we can add in the birthdays for a nephew, a niece and a
sister-in-law. Just because I don't live in Ohio anymore, didn't
mean that we couldn't still have this party.(I
tell you driving about 20 minutes across town was a lot easier that
getting a plane ticket or driving that 550 miles.
) |
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All the adults getting the
dinner ready
Lisa, Angie, Donny, Jon, Celia (Mom), and Dennis |
My two brothers
Jon and Donny
Our middle brother, Donny (in the blue shirt) just turned 43 on Feb
27th; my youngest brother, Jon (in the brown shirt) turns 41 on Mar
23rd, while I just turned 48 back on Mar 14th. |
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Brats, burgers, chips,
dip, pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, chili
strawberry cake, éclairs and Whoppers cake
and a specialty from Ohio - Three-Cheese Grilled Potatoes! |
| Even More
Flowers |
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There's one poor little forsythia
on the front hill out by the yard. |
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| As promised, here are a
few more pictures of the new cosmos bed I prepared. It didn't take
me too long to dig up the area as you can see on the right. After
turning the soil a few times and adding a bag of top soil, I
actually planted the cosmos to finish off my work in that flower
bed. |
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| The magnolia in the front
yard has been in the last few days |
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| I've been doing yard work
out in the big back yard too. After getting these pots ready to be
planted with some tomato plants, I weeded along the walkway and the
through the flower beds and then started mulching these flower beds. |
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Week Four: |
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| Around the
Yard |
| It's Spring in a NEW yard,
so leatherman has been hard at work digging, planting, weeding, and
soaking up the sunshine down here in the sunny, warm South. |
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| That's lemon balm in the end
section, and right next to it I planted dill. The plan is to grow
other herbs in the other 4 sections of this garden planter. |
In this smaller garden
planter, I planted cucumbers underneath that old shelf unit, so
they'll have something to climb up. I also planted radishes and
lettuce in this section, along with a row of sunflowers just behind
that rose bush at the end of the panter. |
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| The magnolia tree is just
beautiful blooming these beautiful purple flowers. |
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| Within just two days, the
pear trees went from having just a few starter leaves to white
blooms beginning to cover the trees |
| Just underneath and behind the pear
trees is the flower bed I started for the cosmos just a short time
ago. Less than two weeks have gone by now, and here's the first
cosmos shoot poking it's head out of the ground. |
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All across the yard, signs of Spring
are showing. Tiny leaves on the trees, the magnolia and pear trees
blooming, the grass shrubs and rose bush all busily growing. |
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| Growing amongst the clover in the yard
are these tiny delicate little blue flowers |
The daffodils are still blooming nicely |
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| Haircuts
and Baths |
Of course, now that the
Winter is behind us, it was time for the dogz to lose the shaggy
look
and to get cleaned up and smelling pretty. |
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Zeus |
Joxer |
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| the twins - Aries and Zeus |
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Though everyone looked
better after the haircuts
- and smelled better after the baths -
the boys didn't seem happy to have been put through the wringer. |
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Often while I'm working outside,
Mom
and Dennis' dogs watch me ... |
... and sometimes they "sing" (ie howl)
to me too |
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| As you can see I'm still
having a hard time taking pictures of myself.
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| Birthday
Thoughts |
"Today is the greatest day I have ever known
Can't wait for tomorrow, I might not have that long
I'll tear my heart out, before I get out"
--Today by the Smashing Pumpkins |
today I turn 48. WooHoo!
today has been 1 year and 47 days
that I have not smoked a cigarette. WooHoo!
today is 6 months
that I've lived in my new home. WooHoo!
today is 13 yrs
since I was in a hospital dying with PCP. WooHoo!
today is 11 yrs
since I was in a hospital dying with pneumonia. WooHoo!
(and I haven't been back since!)
Two years ago today my partner Jim received a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma,
to go along with the AIDS diagnosis he received just a few days before.
it's been 367 days since Jim passed away.
it feels like forever. it
feels like last month. |
This cartoon was on the bday called my friend Emma (over in England)
sent me. Having had 7 spaniels at one time and living through some
very cold Ohio winters, this card was spot on! |
| A Few More
Pix from Around the Yard |
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| The Front
Yard |
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The front yard is becoming
more colorful by the day! |
| Pear Tree Blossoms |
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Wow!
In just two days, there are tons more cosmos popping up out of the
soil. Within the next 30 days, we should see the pear tress grow
their leaves, and a bed of cosmos growing up behind them. |
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| The Back
Yard |
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| I spent some time helping
out Mom in her back yard. While getting her barrel fountain flowing
again, she got the new table, chairs and umbrella set up. Mom also
planted begonias in the multitude of flower pots scattered around
the deck; but planted tomatoes in those two large green pots. When I
was busy ripping out the honeysuckle from the fence, I sprinkled
grass seed in the bare spots, and got this deck flower bed planted
up with hostas and some green grass stuff. |
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The red bud I planted isn't blooming
yet; but this one in Mom's back yard sure is! |
| Getting pricked enough to be very mad,
I fussed around with this climbing rose spreading out it's branches
and tying it up to the fence. |
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| The Side
Yard |
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I've been working over in the yard that the boyz play in too. As
soon as I get the rest of the posts pounded into the ground, we're
going to get another roll of fencing and expand the boyz' area,
doubling it's size! |
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I do need to spend a bit
more time putting this iris bed into shape.
It was my first project this Spring and needs some fixin' up. |
| If you look closely, at this blurry
pix, you can see a tiny red bud starting to come out on the red bud
tree I planted this past Fall. It's a different variety from the
other one in Mom's backyard, so I think that may explain why it
hasn't really bloomed yet. |
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| Going out this morning to
take a couple more pictures to post, I saw that the first morning
glory and popped up. |
| So later in the day (after tying up the
rose), I strung some yarn to give the morning glories something to
grab hold of to climb up the trellis. I was very, very surprised to
find easily two to three dozen plants had appeared since just this
morning! |
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This week, Mom and Dennis got us a
chipper for us to use around the property. Because the lot is nearly
all woods, there are a lot of branches to chip up to make our own
mulch. |
| I still haven't planted my hollyhocks
yet, nor have I started working on my fountain; but it's only been
Spring for a few days so there is still plenty of time. |
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| The Garden |
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Well, I have high hopes for my biggest
project in the yard - the vegetable garden.
The last time I put in this much work on a garden was back in Ohio
for Joyce. Unfortunately, because our relationship was basically
over right after the 4th of July, the only produce I saw out of all
my work last year was a couple heads of broccoli and a couple
handfuls of radishes that Joyce left out to rot.
I plant to be eating the produce that comes out of the work I put
into this garden. |
In the Large Planter:
Across the back are broccoli
Down the left side are 2 squash plants,
a red pepper, and a sweet pepper plant
the rest of the are contains 8 tomato plants |
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| Later in the day, I set up some
lattice, rather than tomato cages, to support the plants when they
grow up. |
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In the Small Planter:
Across the back is a row of sunflowers
just behind a trellis and a small rose bush
Then a row of spinach,
3 rows of lettuce, and 3 rows of radishes
cucumbers are planted to run up the 4 posts of the recycled green
shelving unit. |
In the Sectional Planter:
lemon balm,
dill,
parsley and tarragon,
chives and cilantro.
the last two sections haven't been planted yet, though I am
considering a section of onions, and then a few cantaloupe plants
for the last section.
Off to the right side is a small bed of spearmint |
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| Some of the garden items I
planted as seeds last week, while others (the ones you can see) were
container plants that Mom and Dennis bought for me to plant. Just
about 8 days after the initial seeding, there are plants coming up
now! |
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| dill |
radish |
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