| leatherman's log |
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May 2010 |
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| Week One: |
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| Though I'm starting off
this month by probably having the pool ready to go on the first and
on that same day volunteering to man the health fair booth for several
hours for my ASO, the
Catawba Care Clinic,
at the annual Fort Mill "Strawberry Festival", but those updates will
have to wait. Instead, much weightier issues lie on mind as the month
of May starts and continue until it ends. |
Many of you know (especially if
you received the last update notice), that as May starts
much of my mind is occupied by thoughts of
Jim, who passed away just two
short years ago on May 1st.
So much of my life has changed in those two years, and
though I appreciate all the help I received from my friends,
my GrandMother, my Mom and her husband in getting me and the
boyz to SC, I would still trade it all to have been able to
stay in Ohio with Jim for another 20, 30. 50 yrs. or more. |
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| As I go to work in the CCC
booth, all I can think about is how foolish we were (Jim, my doctor,
and myself) for all those years to have not gotten Jim tested. "If
only" I had truly been the "perfect", the "responsible" person I so
try to be, then Jim would have been tested, and would have been
treated, and perhaps never even developed the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
that led to his death. Now all I can hope is that I learned from
that foolishness and pass along the right information to the right
person, so that they go get tested for HIV, and treated in time to
avoid the same fate as Jim. |
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Though I would like us all to focus on
the things we knew and loved about Jim, I would be remiss if I
didn't mention that on May 25th, I will be remembering the 16th
anniversary of the passing of my beloved
Randy. |
CCC and
leatherman
@ the Strawberry Festival |
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Reminding me of the Football Hall of
Fame Festival that Canton, OH holds at the end of July year, Fort
Mill, SC holds the South Carolina Strawberry Festival every year
filled with pageants, parades, fireworks, food events, and vendors
in the parks.
Instead of football inductees and a game though, this festival has
strawberry daiquiris and strawberry shortcake. |
| The event in the park on
Saturday also featured a section called "Healthy Hometown", where my
ASO Catawba Care Coalition set up a display booth to promote
the agency, the work they do in a tri-county area, and to encourage
people to get tested and to practice safe sex. |
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Piedmont Medical Center the hospital in Rock Hill (where I had my
endoscopy done earlier in the year) sponsored part of the festival
where the CCC health fair booth was set up. |
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| Piedmont set up a venue
entitled "Healthy Hometown". With blue and gold tents over tables
with blue or gold tablecloths lining both sides of the lane,
Piedmont enlisted all sorts of health care agencies to join. There
were tables for various doctors, cancer agencies, and for the
Catawba Care Coalition. |
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Located just a few booths from the
beginning, the Catawba Care Coalition booth was in an excellent
location. |
| Inside the tent, we set up the
tri-board display which has information and pictures regarding the
agency and the work they do. We also have several pamphlets,
brochures and cards laid out on the table to give our visitors more
information that they can take home - information about the agency
and how to volunteer. Other pamphlets have information about
HIV - information about testing, about medications, about the
agency's health care services. |
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mIkIe
leatherman
ComputerTutor
Farmer
Gardener
Landscaper
Pool Installer
and now,
HIV Prevention/Detection Counselor |
When I took over the booth in the afternoon, they told me that only
about a half a dozen people had stopped by the booth. Well, of
course not! Our candy dish was empty and we had no "freebies" to
offer.
 
But not to worry, Leatherman had a fix for that with the Life Savers
and Smarties that he had brought to nosh on for a snack.
Within a few minutes of filling up the candy dish, I began to have
visitors to the tent. Of course, no one wanted to look like they're
just scamming me for my free candy, so the visitors began to
look at the display and pamphlets and ask questions about the agency.
All I needed was the opportunity and I was able to get out Jim and
Randy's message to get tested and get treated. By the end of the
day, (brought on about half an hour early with a small rain shower)
over 30 people had come into the tent on my 3-hr shift, of which 7 had taken literature with
them and 2 had taken the packs of free condoms. |
| More Sad
News for a Sad Month |
| Not long after I arrived
at the Strawberry Festival, I received a phone call from a friend in
Ohio - the kind of phone call no one likes to receive. My friend,
Mike P. called me with the sad news that earlier in the morning of
May 1st, his mother Pam had passed away from a massive heart attack.
Pam had been sickish a few years ago with heart issues and
was dealing with diabetes; but suddenly passing away like that was very unexpected
for all of us. |
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| Looking through my
pictures, I came across these pool pictures when Pam was over to a
pool party that Jim and I held on July 17, 2006. I'm very happy to
have these picture and a mini-video of Pam having such a good time. |
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What a poignant picture
this is of Jim and Pam
both who would pass away on May 1st. just two years
apart. |
| The Fruits
of my Labor |
The whole object of
growing a garden is to end up with vegetables to eat. Up till now,
I've been happy just to show you pictures of tiny plants and
sometimes nothing more than leaves.
But just this week, I've begun to actually see the fruits of my
labors - well, I guess that should actually be the "vegetables of my
labors". |
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| Just a flower yesterday,
today it's a baby Yellow Longneck Squash |
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A handful of Roma Tomatoes are plumping
up |
| A baby Bell Pepper |
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Both Broccoli plants have started
forming heads in the center of each plant. |
Radishes,
tiny but growing |
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What a hodge-podge of
cantaloupes that are hopefully growing in my garden.
On the left is one started from seed, and one planted as a seedling
and nearly killed off by a cold night,
while the two on the right side are store bought seedling, one
growing well, and one rather sickly. |
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Some seeds that I grew in
one of my Coke Bottle Greenhouses were ready to plant.
In the
section of the garden where the lettuce failed to sprout, I now have
zucchini and okra planted and growing. |
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Some of these seeds I planted never
germinated and one of my greenhouses got knocked over. To rectify
this situation, since it's still early in the season, I
replanted several things into new "greenhouses", which I am keeping safe
and protected this time in this orange crate. Hopefully, these seeds will grow better
this time and I'll have a few more things to finish planting in the
garden this year. |
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There are even a few
edible things planted over by my fountain.
I have several pots of white radishes, and a few pots of an assorted
lettuce mix. |
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| Though there are also some
real fruits on the property too. |
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| The apple tree, blueberry
bushes and the pear trees all have fruit growing on them. |
| Non-Edible Plants |
Many of the flowers around the
property have finished blooming for the time being - but not all of
them!
About half of the irises are in bloom and they are quite beautiful! |
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Several wild rose bushes
on the property are also blooming. |
Several plants have yet to bloom though.
The peonies in the front and back yards will be opening within the
next week or so. |
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However, the morning glories and hollyhocks have a loooong way to go
before they bloom. |
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| Pool Time! |
I can't believe it's the
beginning of May and the pool is open!
I've never had the pool open so soon, much less being in the water;
but then again this is South Carolina and definitely NOT Ohio.
Of course, I do have to be totally honest and say that the water is
still slightly chilly (70 degrees) and they have been telling me
that this has been an usually warm Spring down here. But I'm not
complaining!! While the last of the
water was filling the pool up to the brim, it was time to test the
waters. I mean someone just had to get in to start skimming
with the net and cleaning the floating debris. |
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| MouseOver CloseUp
Specials |
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But it's not technically "swimming in the pool" until your head goes under the
water.
All of these are MouseOver CloseUp Specials too! |
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| Damn! That was cold! |
| Pool Time - Day Two |
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There's nothing like
lounging around in the pool with a can of Coke on a hot Spring
afternoon.
It's the pause that refreshes.
(LOL I have drunk so much Coke in my life that I have become one
of their commercials. LOL) |
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Since it was a much warmer day and the second one in a row,
taking a dip in the water wasn't nearly so chilly this time. |
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| A new pool needs a new
swimsuit. I haven't gotten a chance to get to a sporting goods for
new speedos (and you know I'm not going to find those at a K-Mart or
Walmart in South Carolina. LOL But I get these nifty board shorts
that are color coordinated with the pool. |
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Week Two: |
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| A Touch of
History |
| Going through my old photo books (you
know, how you had to look at pictures before digital cameras and
blogs entered our lives.
)
for some old pictures of me and my Mom, I came across some pictures
I took of the Charlotte skyline in 1980 before I went off to
college. I moved up to Ohio 4 short years later. After scanning in
those pictures, I went online and found some pictures of the skyline
in 2010. Wow! It's amazing how much the city grew and changed over
the years when I was in Ohio. |
| "The Queen City" |
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| circa 1980 |
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| circa 2010 |
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| Mom and mIkIe |
With Mothers Day approaching, and everyone on FaceBook posting
pictures of them and their moms, I figured I'd join in the
festivities.
So here are some pictures of
leatherman and his Mom |
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Celia and baby leatherman
1962 |
mIkIe, Mom,
and the first dog named "Belle"
1965 |
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Mom hugs mIkIe
on his return from the first semester away at college.
1981
This is the infamous moment in which my mom greeted me with "Oh,
you're so thin, and your hair is going gray!" That's how I found
out, at 18, that my hair was turning white! |
| Mother's
Day |
| For Mother's Day, we made
arrangements once again to take lunch over to Nana's house. |
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| Lunch was smoked turkey,
cornbread stuffing with cranberries, cranberry sauce, crescent
rolls, asparagus covered in melted cheddar, potato salad, and ranch
pasta salad. Bringing over plates, serving bowls, tea, butter and
even a fresh peony took only minutes to put out onto the table. |
| We did use Nana's silverware though,
and this gravy boat my Aunt Beth gave Nana. Mom and I both would
love to steal this ceramic chicken gravy boat because it's just too
damned cute - and it works well too. |
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Of course, I wished my own
Mom
a Happy Mother's Day, and I send special Mother's Day wishes out to
my Mom-in-Law Carolynn
(Randy's mom) back in Ohio. Although I lost my OhioMom, I still feel
pretty special knowing two moms are looking out for me. |
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| Nana was very pleased with
the lunch, her cards, and a stack of crossword puzzle books. |
| Around the
Yard |
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| Although the cactus that I
planted doesn't seem to be doing much (but at least it isn't dying
LOL); the cactus that was originally in the garden has all been
growing quite a bit. |
Out front and in the backyard,
the "lamb's ears" are breaking
out into tiny purple flowers. |
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| The peonies flowers are
such huge blooms that they are weighting the branches down to the
ground |
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The ring is caused by
sunlight or moonlight being diffracted as it passes through
cirrostratus clouds that are usually at altitudes above 20,000 feet.
Cirrostratus clouds are composed mostly of small ice crystals that
spread out into a thin layer. They are sheet-like, and the sun and
moon can be seen through them easily. |
| All spring butterflies have been
flittering all over the property. I haven't seen the big black and
blue butterflies lately; but I have been seeing a batch of these
black and orange butterflies flying all over the yards. |
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An Early Harvest!
The garden has produced some food now! I harvested a big
handful of radishes and parsley. |
| Family Pool
Days |
| With the pool up and
ready, and the weather very hot, it was time to get the rest of the
family into the water. |
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| Mom obviously doesn't
realize that cameras record their snapshot for all posterity; but
after I explained that I needed a good picture of her for this
website, I got her to smile with the pool toys. Oh and I had the
funny picture of her sticking out her tongue for the website update
too.
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Dennis tries the same face
that Mom did for his first picture. I'm going to have to teach these
people how to have their picture taken - you SMILE
at the camera, you don't stick out your
tongue. |
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| Wow! Although I might
still have to teach them about having their pix taken, I've already
got Mom and Dennis trained on pool maintenance. Within minutes of
being in the pool, they had the net out, scooping bugs and leaves
out of the water. |
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| The following day was
another warm one again, and Mom decided to enjoy the pool. |
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| Though she thought the water was a bit
cold when she was getting in.... |
... she quickly warmed up to the luxury
of having a pool and how to use it. |
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Week Three: |
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I spent 10 hours this week going
through Peer Counseling Training sponsored by my ASO. The clinic
would like to be able to pair up new clients with older clients
(their peers) to help guide the new people through the processes of
getting blood work, the initial paperwork and just dealing with the
consequences of being HIV positive.
I feel like I've already been doing quite a bit of this with online
people at AidsMeds.com, so it should be interesting helping out real
live people living in our area. |
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An old
Friend Poke His Head in to Say "Hi" |
Did you ever have one of
those weeks? Well, my old friend, The Curse"
showed up this week to pay us a visit. You know him. He can never
leave well enough alone and sure doesn't want to be forgotten. |
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First the washer broke
down. Of course, it was after a wash cycle and then it wouldn't spin or
drain. Luckily, a repairman was able to come out the next morning
and install a new timer unit. WooHoo! We'll have clean clothes
still! |
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| Then Mom's printer/scanner
started to make a terrible grinding noise. Of course, it wouldn't
print either. So the next day we went shopping and got another house
printer to replace that one. |
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| Then, horror of horrors,
my camera died!
Having read through my blog for the nearly 12 years that it's been
online, you can surely understand how terrible it is for me to be
without a camera. Think about that. No pictures means all you'd have
to see here would be words - lots and lots of words as I wrote even
more trying to keep you entertained without images. |
| Thankfully, Mom loaned me her camera
for a new days, while I waited for the new one I ordered to arrive.
I actually got the updated version of the one that I had. It was
very nice for the upgrade camera to cost less than half the price of
my dead one and with double the pixel quality. |
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| Testing out the new camera
- on myself! |
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Learning all the ins and outs of the
camera, got me the crazy flash picture in the mirror, showing the
dust on the glass. |
| New Camera
= Pet Pictures |
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With a new camera in hand, it was time
to try it out and see what the differences were to my last camera. I
took off around the yards taking pictures of the plants -
and the pets!
Mr. Kitty was enjoying a nice warm sunny afternoon on the front
porch. |
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| Sunny stopped on the ramp
down the stairs from the back down and posed for several photos. |
Later in the evening when Mom tried to
use my camera, Sunny wasn't as willing to pose as she had been
earlier in the day.
I guess this is a "Gratuitous Crotch Shot" rather than the usual
"Gratuitous Butt Shot". |
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| The Garden |
| Everything in the garden
has been happily growing with days of sun and days of rain moving
the area the last few weeks. |
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| The back view of the Herb Garden.... |
....and the front view. |
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| The cantaloupe plants are
about to start spreading out of their area any day. |
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| The back view, with sunflowers and a
rose bush, of the small raised bed.... |
....and the front view of the cucumbers
beginning to crawl up the trellis. |
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| the back side of the large bed showing
the broccoli.... |
....and the front side with the
tomatoes growing on the trellis. |
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| mmm, heads of broccoli |
the first red bell pepper |
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| Yellow-neck Squash |
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But it isn't just the garden growing.
There's plenty growing in the pots by the fountain, near my back
porch. |
A pot of mixed lettuce will make a good salad |
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The Hens-n-Chicks are going crazy
growing tall and putting forth small flowers. |
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The morning glories are quickly
climbing the trellis each day by several inches. Sometime this week
the vines should reach the top, and after that, it won't be long
until morning glory flowers from back on 12th St Canton, OH begin to
bloom in sunny South Carolina. |
| The Hollyhocks continue to grow too. |
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MouseOver Special |
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| Mom and Dennis picked up a
few more plants for me to put in around the yards. Since the cosmos
aren't doing so well behind the pear trees, further up in the front
yard, I've started another flower bed of cosmos. Behind the pet
cemetery, I dug out a bed that wrapped around the back corner. To
give the seeds some encouragement to grow, Mom picked up a container
with several blooming cosmos that I planted in this area. |
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Replacing a dead azalea out in the
front woods, I planted this toad lily. |
| While over by the lattice wall hiding
the well pump and garbage cans, I planted a Carolina Jasmine. I
can't wait till this grows up and blooms next year (we missed the
blooming season this year). A local library had them and the yellow
cup blooms smell wonderful!. |
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| MouseOver Special! |
Obviously Mom's ploy
worked. By bringing in cosmos that were already blooming,
the other bed of cosmos by the pear trees have started putting out a
few blossoms. |
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| These beautiful lilies are
blooming in the front yard, near to where I planted the new toad
lilies. |
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| Thank goodness, this is
the only bunny that I've seen around my garden. |
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Week Four: |
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| The Hard Life of Being a
Celebrity |
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| Some of you might remember a few years
ago when I had my picture on the front of the Canton newspaper,
The Repository. The picture showed me filling up Darth (Jim's
Hydunai) and the article quoted me complaining about the rising gas
prices during the middle of the winter. I vaguely remember talking
to that reporter as I was on my way back to be with Jim in the
hospital. |
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| This article was published
two days before I turned 46, and came out the day of the blizzard
causing me to be snowed into the hospital with most of the staff. As
there weren't many people around and as I had already been around
quite a few for nearly two weeks, many of the staff recognized me in
personal and from this picture, and stopped me in the hallways to
chat. |
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| A few years later, my picture and my
quotes have been published again. Not long ago, the editor of
Poz magazine,
which hosts the
aidsmeds.com site and the forums (poz.forums.com)
requested stories about HIV+ people and their pets. I'm pleased to
let you know that my story was one of a few to be selected for
publications. |
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| By now you should all know
how much my pets mean to me and how I credit them with being why I'm
alive today. If you don't know, or want to hear the story again,
please use this link to open up the Poz site and the
article with my story. My story is about the 6th one down in the
article. |
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| Another
Rally at the Capital |
Twenty yrs. ago I attended
a rally in Cleveland OH to protest FOR the very HIV meds themselves.
Twenty yrs. later I attended a rally in Columbia SC to protest for
adequate ACCESS to those HIV meds that we know save lives.
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(can you
believe two decades ago I was actually protesting to take AZT
mono-therapy?!?
But I have to give it credit for helping to keep me alive until
something better came on the market, so I can't complain about it
too too much.
) |
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When I went to the SC ADAP
Funding Cut protest rally in the middle of March, SC didn't even
have a waiting list. Though we were able to get some funding put
back into the budget, we weren't able to stop the list from
beginning. Now, just two short months later and there are 112 people
on the list for this state.
Back on March 9, NC's ADAP waiting list had 168 people, but that has
increased by 315% in two months to 530! The drastic jump to the
position of largest waiting list in the nation was partially due to
even more people testing positive, needing meds, and needing
assistance to get access to the meds; but the foremost reason for
the increase was a change in NC ADAP requirements. The changes have
now literally forced people using the program last month to be
ineligible for help in getting access to meds that cost around $2200
a month.
Unfortunately that same change in requirements is coming to SC this
next month. |
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| SC ADAP has grown
significantly over the past few years. The program served an average
of 2100 patients a month last year, representing an increase of
nearly 15% from the previous year. However, funding of the current
year has decreased drastically from last year. HRSA ADAP Base
funding was cut by 3%, HRSA ADAP Supplemental funding was cut by
21%. In the absence of additional funding, the program will be
forced by September 1, 2010 to remove an estimated 900 active
patients. People currently receiving meds will find their access
gone and be forced to find others ways to fund their prescription
needs. |
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| But the news just
continues to worsen. |
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| The legislature is once
again debating not just cutting some of the funding as they had told
us after the last rally; but all of the funding. The newly-passed
House budget doesn't just cut the monies by 51%, as we were told in
March; now the budget has ALL funding removed. Unless convinced to
stop, SC will stop funding ADAP ($2.4 million), and all HIV
prevention ($1 million), and much, much more. Other cuts include:
Vaccine Purchases for Underinsured Children, EMS Statewide Data
System, Environmental/Restaurant/Septic Inspections, Water Quality
Monitoring, Health Regulation - Nursing Home Inspections, Chronic
Disease Prevention - Diabetes, Youth Smoking Prevention & Cessation,
Colorectal Cancer Screenings, Hemophilia Services, HIV Prevention,
Rural Hospital Equipment and Facilities, USC Rural Health Clinics |
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| It was warm, overcast, and
muggy outside of South Carolina's State House in Columbia where
approx. 200 protestors gathered to rally against the proposed
budgetary health care cuts (ADAP, HIV prevention, nursing home
inspections, statewide EMS system, rural health clinic, uninsured
children's vaccinations, etc). |
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| For over three hours, the
protestors displayed signs on the streets surrounding the capital
and the front steps to the building. Some of the many speakers
included the state ADAP director, several pastors, the director of
the FAITH outreach program, and various case managers, advocates and
clients. |
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| The previous rally had
been held inside the State House and my quick head count totaled
300+. This time the rally was outside the front of the State House
steps. Unfortunately, the crowd was smaller this time, consisting of
200+. The smaller group could be attributed to the fact, that the
ADAP cut had come so fast and the rally arranged so quickly. |
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Several Democrat House
Representatives,
who have been busy trying to get the health care funding back into
the budget,
spoke to the crowd also. |
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Representative
Joseph H. "Joe" Neal
Richland & Sumter Cos. |
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Representative
Bakari T. Sellers
Bamberg, Barnwell &
Orangeburg Cos. |
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| The final budget should be
approved by Thurs as the House and Senate are still battling out the
final details. The Republican controlled House was able to keep a
$10 million loan for a private golf tournament in the budget.
However, the Democrats in the Senate are fighting to get the health
services put back into the budget before passage. A short time ago,
the Republicans had removed the money for the health services (which
had already been compromised to half the original amount) after the
Democrats refused to approve a large budgetary increase to keep the
court system funded. |
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| Though I went alone as a rep for the
Catawba Care Coalition (my local ASO and clinic), I didn't go
totally alone. Randy and Jim went with me in spirit. |
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| For me, this rally was all
the more poignant, as May 25th marks the 16 year anniversary of my
first partner's (Randy) death, who attended that rally in 1990 in
Cleveland with me. Unfortunately, meds didn't come soon enough to
save his life. Let's hope the legislators heard our appeal now and
provide adequate funding for the ADAP program so people won't have
to die now, when we have meds that are life-saving and
life-sustaining. |
News and Video
Reporting of the Rally
WLTX reports "State
House Protestors Rally Against Cuts to AIDS Drug Funding"
ABC reports "Dozens
Rally in Support of HIV/AIDS Medication Funds"
NBC WIS reports "Hundreds
rally to protest AIDS funding cuts in state budget" |
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Previous News Articles
"S.C.
budget cuts target health care programs for poor"
"Cash
crunch could cripple court system"
"Big
Government Golf Stays In SC Budget" |
brought to you by your local
SC Protest Reporter
leatherman |
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| Late
Breaking Update! |
| According to the Columbia
SC newspaper,
The State, in a small article ("Senate rejects health
cuts") that was just published late the day after the rally,
there seems to be good news after the rally. |
The S.C. Senate refused Tuesday on a
29-14 vote to accept House changes to the state budget that
would end free cancer screenings for poor South Carolinians
and would take away AIDS treatments from indigent patients.
The legislation now goes to a House-Senate conference
committee, where the differences in the two versions of the
spending plans will be worked out. |
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| I haven't heard back from
anyone from the rally; but as I read it, the Senate rejected the
health care cuts and has authorized a committee to work on including
the health care costs back into the budget. While this still may not
be the perfect solution (have to wait and see), at least it's a step
back in the right direction of caring for our citizens' health
issues before golf tournaments. |
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| In emailing back and forth
with the director of Catawba Care Coalition, I was put in touch with
the local newspaper, The Fort Mill Times. The very small paper
(usually 2 section with 15-20 pages) is delivered free and usually
has very little news; but it is all news pertinent to our small
local area. They are looking to write up an article about the ADAP
rally and I offered to give them an interview. Little by little, I
am building my celebrity status.
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| Public
Indecency |
| As the weather has gotten
nicer and nicer, more and more bugs have been out. I've also seen
more of the little anole lizards running about too. This little guy
stayed perched on the front window screen, treating it like some
"red light district" by puffing out his red throat to signal to the
girlie lizards that he was horny and ready. |
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| Around the
Yards - Again |
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This is the week from up
near the pet cemetery in the front yard,
looking back towards my deck, and the garden |
After I took the previous picture,
I realized the hedges needed a haircut. |
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| Looking from the woods
past the garden to the dogz' yard |
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The garden is looking good. |
| I've made a few more
changes in the garden this past week. Some zucchini that I was
growing in pop-bottle greenhouses were finally ready to plant. I
planted them in a row behind the cucumber trellis and gave them a
fence to climb up as they grow. |
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One of the cantaloupe plants is really
taking off, so I gave it a piece of trellis to run on as it moves
out of the raised bed and down onto the ground. |
| I've got a few more things to plant
yet, that I'm babying along. I'm hoping this one butternut squash
and two pumpkins. I'm not exactly certain where I'm going to
eventually to put these plants; but I'll find somewhere. |
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| An
Unexpected Harvest |
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| One day I check on the
broccoli and everything looked fine (see the pix on the left). While
the heads were shaping up nicely, I estimated they were about
half-grown. However when I went out the next day, the heads were
already beginning to flower and I had to harvest them. I'm wondering
if the bug problem (see the chewed up leaves?) stressed out
the plants and caused them to bolt early. Thankfully both broccoli
plants I have are growing a few amount of secondary heads so there
is still more broccoli to come in the season. |
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Week Five: |
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| Have a pleasant, safe Memorial Day, and
take a moment to remember those who have died to protect the
freedoms we cherish in America. |
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