Happy Birthday to Kenny.

Kenny with the Polly dog.  Kenny sharing breakfast with Rowdy bird.  Jimmy modeling for Kenny!

Just a few of the things I miss.  Today he would be 80 years old.  Lots of people are living way past that, but I think that is not good always.  He spent his last birthday in ICU.  That was definitely not good.  And he spent his last Christmas on a respirator.  New Years too.

All I have to say today is that I am very glad I have my memories and if I ever lose them, just shoot me.

Weaver Guild Christmas Party!!

Now if you will click on that slide show it will get very big.  then you will be able to read what they are also.  I did not put names on them because that would take way to much of my valuable time.  Suffice it to say a good time was had by all!  A better time was had by these two!

Joanne Caldwell brought some wedding punch which contains a quart of Tequila.  She omitted the Tequila since we were all driving, but these two did not know that!  This is Donna Graham and Cathy Coatney who normally are very quiet and sedate, you know respectable members of the guild, but for some reason it was laugh at Lou day and I did not say anything to get them started.  I was my usual quiet sedate self.  They were discussing Mistletoe and I may have made an off handed remark, but I can not be sure.

So, any way, there was lots of very good food there and if you ever get a chance pop in on a pot luck hosted by a bunch of gabby women trying to out do each other.  I am thinking of joining a lot of these womens groups so I can get big and fat.  Or not.

Just want to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to my Handweavers Guild of Pueblo.  Probably not going to see most of you until the next meeting, so this is for all of you:

May your joys be many,

Your heartaches be few.

And may the dear Baby Jesus

Sprinkle Star Dust on You!

Smiles, Lou



Both ends of the rainbow at my house this morning.

See this?  It was very cold and wind chill was -16.  This is when I went out to take care of the geese.  When I poked the hole in the surface with the wrecking bar water squirted straight in the air.  That tells me I need to pick up a tank heater to keep my tank from rupturing.

Ok, I got  a dentist appointment this morning so I got to get around.  Just wanted to show you my rainbow.

Milton Hershey School and my boycott on Hershey Products.

In case you missed it, this statement was released on December 1, which was World AIDS Day.  I can not let this one slide by and was on facebook until late last night with defenders of MHS. I must say these people are very biased and uneducated.

Here is the entire statement from the Hershey School:Today, Milton Hershey School had planned to file a request in federal court asking the court to review our decision to deny enrollment to a child who is HIV positive because of concerns for the health and safety of our current students.
We had been in discussions with the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, which is representing this 13-year-old boy. Recognizing the complex legal issues, the School was preparing to ask the court to weigh in on this matter. Unfortunately, attorneys for the young man took the adversarial action of filing a lawsuit against the School.
The decision to deny enrollment was a challenging one for us to make. Like all our enrollment decisions, we need to balance our desire to serve the needs of an individual child seeking admission with our obligation to protect the health and safety of all 1,850 children already in our care.
Attorneys for this young man and his mother have suggested that this case is comparable to the Ryan White case. But this case is actually nothing like the Ryan White case. Milton Hershey School is not a day school, where students go home to their family at the end of the day. Instead, this is a unique home-like environment, a pre-K to 12 residential school where children live in homes with 10 to 12 other students on our campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others.The reason is simple. We are serving children, and no child can be assumed to always make responsible decisions which protect the well-being of others.
That is why, after careful review and analysis, we determined we could not put our children at risk.

By Dan Stamm for NBC News (Philadelphia)

Now, my take on this.  I am sure the MHS is a privately owned and privately funded school and I am sure they do not have to let this boy in.  That is neither here nor there.  What upsets me is the reasoning and ignorance behind the statements "our decision to deny enrollment to a child who is HIV positive because of concerns for the health and safety of our current students." and "In order to protect our children in this unique environment, we cannot accommodate the needs of students with chronic communicable diseases that pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others."
We work very hard teaching people that HIV/AIDS is a chronic disease and must be managed as such, and then we encounter educated people like this that runs screaming from a 13 year old boy who carries the infection, just breaks my heart.
I volunteer with a group that is funded by Ryan White.  The Clinic is funded by Ryan White.  Education is one of the main goals of Ryan White.  The White family did not ever want another child to go through what their son went through, hence the goal of education.  We deal with AIDS clients on a daily basis.  I feed them, hug them, kiss them good bye.  I have set by bedsides as life ebbed from the frail body and held them so they were not alone.  I remain negative.
One of the defenders last night told me they have a trust fund and do not need my piddly amount of money that I spend on Hershey products.  That came as a shock to me because I use a can or two of cocoa every month and sometimes I grab a candy bar.  I will not go into all the conversations on facebook last night, but I must post this one.  Well, never mind.  They have suspended all posts on their site and  it is gone, but I remember it and it went like this "I AM A FIREFIGHTER AND GO TO THIS SCHOOL AND I DO NOT WANT HIM HERE!"  There was more, but it is all a moot point.
So I say this to you;  I will no longer buy any Hershey product. I can not in any way bring myself to put another cent into the coffers of a  member of this world community that refuses to be educated in a disease that strikes the innocent as well as the not so innocent.  We are all God's creatures and Hershey makes no mention of compassion, understanding and they are sending 1,850 students into the world every year to carry on thier message of intolerance.  If the people I encountered on thier site last night are any representation of these self same students I do not want to meet any of them on the street.  They have become mean intolerant big people.  I will stay here in my little world and do my humble service to the clients who need me and I will send a donation to this kid as soon as I get a site for him.  Not for his legal fund, but because it is kids like this who become the Ryan White's of tomorrow.


 
now:\r\nhttp://gan.doubleclick.net/gan_click?lid=41000000005217789&pubid=21000000000389168\r\n\r\nOr,

World AIDS Day and the bliss of ignorance in youth.

Today being December 1 is of course, World AIDS Day.  I went to the Library at 10 this morning and hung my Memorial Quilt display with the help of John Mark, Linda, Julie and another lady who I forget her name.  Then I went to lunch, Bought goose food, stopped and visited my banker lady, came home, fell asleep in the chair and woke up to a whole new world.
The grand daughter came after school so she could go to the Observance this evening with me.  I forgot the cookies.  I forgot the camera. I forgot my water.  So I was pretty sure I was on a losing streak.  The program was fairly simple and went well.  Linda was the emcee. Joanne Grove presented the statistics which amazed me even now.  I must verify them before I report them, just cause that is what I do. Eddie Three Eagles told how AIDS affects the Native Americans.  And he remembered me from last year. I presented my two new panels and then they were blessed by Rev. Lamb. John Mark then gave his story putting a face on AIDS.  He has been positive for 27 years; over half of his life.  Then we all gave names to people who have passed and wrote their names on a red ribbon and hung them on the tree.  the ice cream cake donated by Dairy Queen was by that time starting to melt.  They should have opened a window and it would have frozen right back up.
The plan was to then go down to the first floor foyer and pick up a candle and have it lit and proceed outside.  Deven and I were inside and I was in no hurry to go out in the 1 degree weather.  Two young teenagers came in past the candle lighters and stopped near us.  The following conversation ensued.
Girl: I wonder why they are lighting those candles.
Me: It is in observance of World AIDS Day.
Girl: What is AIDS Day?
Boy:  That is that disease you hear about.  AIDS!
Girl: Oh, wow!  They are celebrating STD's?
Boy:  No, I don't think so.  I think they are not happy about it.
Me:  We do it in rememberance of all the people who have died.  But listen, we were up on the fourth floor and there is a lot of literature about it up there.  Also an ice cream cake that needs eaten.
Boy:  Gee, thanks. 
And they got in the elevator for the fourth floor. Deven and I looked at each other in amazement.  She is 14 and very wise for her years.  I was amazed that the two on their way up knew what STD's were.  I never figured that out until I was 40 years old.
But World AIDS Day is over for another year and my camera is hanging on the newel behind me where I hung it this morning so I would not forget it.  My quilts will be hanging on the fourth floor for a week and then I will go pick them up.  Guess they are on loan to the Library.  I am rather happy that they will be there so people can see and wonder what they are for.  So I put up a short paper on what they were and why they were there.
Now I am tired.  And it is very cold.  So I am going to nuke my rice bag and my corn bag and call it a night.  And I am going to throw another blanket on the bed.  I love to crawl in a cold bed and pull the covers way up, but I have the hot thing down there on my feet and off to sleep I go.  Life is good.

I am just as serious as a heart attack!

Here I am having a visit with my geese.  There are 13 of those feathery fowl now.  This summer I did away with the pond and bought a really big stock tank.  My thoughts along that line were that it would be much easier to keep clean.  It is definitely easier.  And they love the thing.  Course I had to build them a dirt berm into it and a platform to give them footing to get out.  And in the digging process I screwed up my foot and neglected to go to the doctor so when I do get around to that I will probably have to have it amputated.  That is alright.  Easy come easy go.
So I had reason to be on the Southside a  week or so ago and happened upon a house which is currently being put on the market.  Full basement, 2 bedrooms up and 2 down.  Laundry down.  Patio. Storage shed with electric and cement floor in the back yard.  2 Car attached garage.  And neighbors.  Located on a cul de sac, so low traffic.  3 blocks from my friends Kay and Frank.  And the price is right.  I could sell this place and buy that one and put enough in the bank to live on for probably the rest of my life.
Now, I am thinking about this very seriously.  Yard work would be minimal.  Kitchen is a bit dated, but so am I.  The appliances are all new.  So is the furnace.  Only draw back is no outside fowl are allowed in the city.  Imagine the neighbors when I pull up with my stock tank and 13 honking geese!   If I could get lucky and find someone to buy this place that would take the geese and promise to never sell them, or eat them, or let the fox eat them, I would be headed for town in a New York minute. (That means really fast!)
Winter is coming on and I am sure at some point it is going to snow.  The pond will freeze.  The geese will run out of feed and all kinds of problems happen out doors.  I do not like winter.  Pueblo is not as bad as Hutchinson used to be.  We are kind of in a hole here and severe anything is just not the norm.  But if I was in town, I could just stay in the house.  Well, I still have to shovel the walk.  Except there I would have to shovel the driveway, my sidewalk and the one in front of the house. Here I just mash it down.  Cities have rules.  I forgot that.
So maybe I will just wait a little longer until I am really old and I can go into the Assisted living.  Hmmm.  Wonder if they will let me bring the 2 dogs, cat, 2 looms, machine quilter, embroidery machine, ebay crap.....
Guess I am going to be cursed with living forever!

Hey, I may be on schedule with WAD!

There is my little slide show.  I went down last night and actually started the AIDS Ribbons.  See on World AIDS Day, which will be December 1 at the Hoag Library, I have much to do.  First I had to make 2 new panels for friends who have passed this last year.  I got that done on Saturday.  They will be dedicated at our program by Rev Jeannine Lamb and Rev. Mark Hild.  That is always a very solemn occasion.
I also need to make cookies for the reception and gathering time.  I have a freezer full of those already.  See PFLAG gives out goodie bags to all the clients at the SCAP Christmas party.  So since we need 36 bags this year and have very few bakers, I will do my share.
The last thing on the agenda is our candlelight service.  This is when we dedicate a ribbon to someone who has died from AIDS.  I have 50 made and will probably do another 25 or so.  Already bought the sharpee to write the names with .  We then take them out side to a tree and hang them on as we call out thier name.  Some times we tell a  little about them.
Eddie Three Eagles and his group will sanctify the tree and grounds as per native traditions.  Now this year is special, or at least to me it is.  The Pueblo AIDS Memorial Quilt, which is my personal project, will hang on the 4th floor of the Library for one full week.  I need to write up a thing on what this is and how it came into fruition.
This will once more be an all day event.  Not at the Library, per se, but both colleges will be doing testing.  That is always a busy time.  Last year we only did the PCC campus and we had no positive results.  In this case, positive is not good.  We are testing for the HIV and positive means you have it.  So we want negative.  We are hoping for the same thing this year.
So this is what I been up to.  Hope to see some of you at the Library.  We are shooting for a 5:45 P M start.  See you there!