July 23, 2012

  • OH NOES -- running water

    I had my first sit-down with the folks who are working to take my home away from me for the new highway we don't need.

    It seems that I have no choice in what kind of place I relocate to-federal regs say I HAVE to move into a place with a full kitchen, bath, and of course running water.  I hate the idea of this, having done without running water for 20 years. 

     

    Obviously, I cannot afford a place like this---not for the $200/month I am paying now for my squalid hovel.

June 4, 2012

  • a little medical update

    For the few who care if I live or die. . . .Last week, the dressing came off my left foot--the one that had four toes whacked off last month--so I decided to leave it off.  The stitches have been taken out, which was excruciatingly painful, since some scabs and stuff had become ingrown.  Seriously, I was ouching and yipping at fisrt, and by the time the doc was done, I was screaming like a woman.  I imagine the folks in the waiting room were appalled.

    Anyway, now I can see what's going on, and I was surprised to see how much healing of thr frostbite on my sole  is still needed.  What new flesh there is has that shiny, Barbie-doll look, kind  of like you see on burn victims, and this is what hurts more than the actual amputation site.

    The left hand is almost all healed up as is the right foot.  My right hand is still a bit messed up--the pads on my thumb and index finger pain me when I button clothing.

    I must be getting better, though--there were no crip carts available at Safeway today, so I used a regular cart as a walker, which worked out okay.

    Next--home, then off to the UPS store for mail, the laundromat for drinking water, and Three Bears for some free coffee.  Then home, lunch,  and getting flat with a cat and a book.

    Life is good.

May 7, 2012

  • ""Poor sick crippled old man needs cheap lodging"

    The headline says it all.  After over ten years of being a model tenant at the Land and Cabins strip at  parks Highway Mile 48.5, I am being evicted--actually we all are, as the owner plans to shut the strip down.

    I don't need much room--I share my 10x12 foot cabin with five cats, although I do need storage space for my merchandise--I run a small retail business, mostly selling out of the back of my car.

    I AM poor--in a good year, I clear maybe $15,000, with which I support three adults.  I have several chronic ailments--glaucoma and arthritis and ME/CFIS, that I know of--and am partly disabled because of  having lost four toes to frostbite.  I will be  old enough for Social Security in October, but I need to be relocated before then.

    I hope to find a place I can afford in the /Houston/Wasilla/Big Lake area.

    Anyone local reading this who may know of a lead, please call me at 232-1663.  Thanks.

March 30, 2012

  • Surgery is set for next week

    Finally got the surgery to have the frostbit toes amputated--next week, April 4.  I am looking forward to finally healing up, after months of disability and pain.

    No idea how I'll pay for any of it, being pretty much broke.   I am getting groceries via food stamps, clothing free from the Community Closet in Big Lake. Heck, in a good year, my income is below the poverty level, and it has been three years since I had a "good' year.  But really, there is nothing good or bad, but thinking made it so--Shakespeare said it first.

    I keep thinking about Matthew 5:30, which says  (more or less) that is preferable to lose a few body parts than to go to Hell altogether.  When I was rich, had a corrupt political job, and spent enough on alcohol to put a kid through college, I was living in Hell.

    Now--despite the pain, poverty, and disability--there is no one on the planet with whom I would trade places.

    Not that I am in any way special--I was just lucky enough to have some really good teachers, and smart enough to pay attention to them.

February 14, 2012

  • thanks, facebook

    Just when I was beginning to get the bloody thing figured out, they changed it all.

     

    Phooey on this, too much hassle.

     

    I may just stick with zoklet.

January 23, 2012

  • "Turn off the hate"

    Are you disgusted by the hateful, lying poltical ads we are being subjected to?  I surely am.  Therefore, I vow to turn off the TV or radio every time I hear an attack ad, particularly those anonymous smear jobs the Supreme Court allowed  recently--those Super-pac ads, which conveniently allow the candidates themselves to repudiate them.

    I bet if everyone would do this--and inform the radio and TV stations that we are doing so--we might just see some results.

     

    Who is with me?  Anyone wanting to spread this idea , go for it.  I don't want any credit, I just want to be able to watch some TV without  feeling like I need to take a shower.

December 19, 2011

  • Back to the drawing board. . .

    In a manner of speaking.  Seems the  persistant blur in my right eye  following the cataract operation was not inflammation, but scar tissue.  So some time next year I will have to return to Anchorage for some laser surgery.  I am not real happy about this.

    For one thing, we can't afford it.  I am in the midst of a five-week spell of unemployment, and we are already about $5,000 farther in debt than we were this time last year, partly  because of my health issues. 

    For another, I dunno how to get there--I do not do well in city traffic, and if Kathy drives me, she will most likely relapse.  This is assuming she will be healthy enough to drive me at all. PAying someone to drive me isn't an option. 

    I am hoping another angel shows up with some financial aid. . . . .

    Heck, I really did not intend for this to sound like a bummer, but I figured someone would maybe like to know that I am by no means out of the woods with this eye stuff.  My glaucoma seems to be getting worse--I'll know more next month--my eye doctor will be at a free clinic in Talkeetna, and I have an appointment to see him then.

October 31, 2011

  • Happy anniversary to us!

     

    Kathy and me, that is.  Just 21 years ago, we drove down  from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Winchester, Virginia, with her seven-year old to get hitched by a federal judge.

    Afterwards, we took the kid trick or treating.

    What a long, strange trip it has been.  But hey--thanks for the new life, sweety.

October 25, 2011

  • kittens (yay!)

    This morning I was  putzing around the cabin, doing some cleaning and getting some new stock inventoried and priced for this weekend's gun show, when all of sudden I hear this caterwalling coming from Camille, my ginger momcat, who is up on my bed.

    Next thing I know, she is having kittens. This is really unusual--cats usually go through a phase known as nesting behavior before they give birth. Not Camille.

    Anyway, I got out the next box, lined it with some of my clothes so the kittens will know my scent, and got Camille and her two newborns settled in, and pushed the box under the bed.

    Mother and kits were doing fine when I left.

October 17, 2011

  • Happy birthday. . . .


    I turned 64 last week, and it was one of my happiest--and busiest--b-days ever. (and have been too busy to post about it till now)

    First I zoom thirty miles or so to Palmer DMV to get my drivers license renewed.  I had to take an eye exam, and  was so happy and excited, becuse for the first time in my life, I can drive unrestricted--that is, I don't have to wear glasses to be legal--another cool effect of this summers cataract surgery.

    I ACED the eye test, and the examiner guy was all smiles by the time we got done, happiness being contagious and all.

    Then back to Wasilla, to shop for my sweety at Safeway and Target and AIH (for Red Devil--that is stuff you put in your wood stove to keep down the creosite, for non-Alaskans). At every stop, I was chatting and joking with other customers and staff--this is something I never used to do, but I have opened up emotionally a lot lately, largely due to the eye surgery and serious transformational psychology work with A Course in Miracles.

    Then back to my place for the stuff in the fridge, then up to Three Bears for more shopping, then I headed north.

    Quick stop at the Willow library for a potty break and some comp time. Then up to my sweety's to unload her groceries and all, then up to the Sunshine Clinic to get a broken incisor repaired. They gave me a break on the billing--didn't charge me for all the work, as they know I am on a low budget, God bless'em.

    Finally--back to my place. Took care of the cats, and settled down with a video and some pistachios and a bottle of Martinelli's sparkling cran-apple juice. Yum!

    Said it before, I'll say it again--life is good.

    (Thanks again, Kathy!--I owe everything good about me to you--okay, and God.)