Accessible Gardening: #19 Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners , 1 by Agavegirl1

Agavegirl1 wrote:
Hi guys.
You know, you meet more people at 3:00a.m. walking the dog than you do in 3 months. But that's another story.
As for the news I mentioned to you. This "story" gets better and better in terms of it's cast of characters and from a TV drama and/or literary sense. In real life it gets weirder and more pathetic. I mean I'm just so disgusted with AZ more than I am these people that there's simply no reason this had to happen. Here's why according to the latest I read today.
Our victim, Ms Trina Heisch age 49, unfortunately was a bigger whackadoo than her murderer. Oh, did I mention he was her husband? (Forgot to mention DH age 43, was also nude in addition to missing one eye and his fore arm when he answered the door 2 days later for the neighbor. Now I REALLY understand why he asked the neighbor to bum a smoke rather than driving to the Circle-K!)
Anyway it was love at first sight for these 2 nuts in.... you guessed it...the nut house! The loving husband in 2003 stabbed a family member( who lived) and was serving 10 years in a state mental hospital. Wasn't charged because he was just plain nuts. He was a schizophrenic. Can't fix nuts. Put him on meds; did fine.
Our blushing bride Trina, age 49 was also nuts. She was nuttier. She was also serving 15 years in the institute because in 2000, she thought it would be a great idea to stab her sleeping 15 year old son. (Boy lived) Not guilty. She's nuts, bipolar plus, "self medicating meth user because it clears my head" to quote her. Put her on meds. Helped the bipolar issue. She was sure continuing to self medicate though.
Gee, do you think anyone got these two a set of steak knives as a wedding gift?
In 2013 DH (name not released yet) was told to hit the bricks from the mental institute. The records from the AZ Psychiatric Security Review Board believed his mental illness was in remission. (HUH? Mental illness does not go into 'remission'. It gets managed and suppressed with meds. You are always nuts if there's some biological factor. If it is psychological-behavioral-cognitive then you get therapy/intensive counseling for 9 million years until you're cured. IT NEVER GOES INTO REMISSION...IDIOTS!) Anyway these geniuses at the AZ Psych Security Board says, "He's fine. Not a danger to the community or his self as long as he is in residential treatment."
DW is waiting for DH to get out of nut house. So in the interim she's out having a little affair with some heroin addict named Poncho. Poncho, since DW is a functioning meth head, decides to sell her into prostitution to some people who he owes money to. Story does not get elaborated in details in this regards. DW at this time becomes religious nut as well as just being a nut and starts locking herself in closets to pray. Something about a verse in the Bible she takes literally about going into a closet to pray. (Explanation as to why her body was found in the closet when she was murdered.) Also DW tries to check her self back into nut house in their psych ward. They won't take her.
Now a note here. This is the only mental hospital in AZ left that is funded with tax payer dollars. All of the other state and government run ones are shut down so that some money can trickle down into my pocket. (Still waiting by the way. You?) Thus the reason all the nuts like DH and DW are on the streets and can't get back into the nut house, along with the homeless, the poor, the sick, the hungry, the Vets, the animals, the environment, (all of them are making commercials just begging me for .60 cents a day). Ahem...I digress
They won't take DW back into the nut house. Sad. So sad. She knew she needed help and shouldn't have been out and about. If she's crazy and knows this what's the AZ Psychiatric Security Review Board's excuse? The story and the problems could have stopped right here if they had only taken her back. But they don't.
So DH is home now and DW is with him (Poncho got kicked to the curb and picked up by the police for a 2 year old drug crime). Not too clear in paper/articles on computer if DH is doing drugs but on June 7th he said he was on drugs and he was going to harm people. So the hospital sends out a "Crisis Intervention" service. AZ Psych Security Board claims they have no idea what services were given due to patient confidentiality and that they did everything by law to help ensure safety of community. The crisis intervention people claim they suggested the AZ psych people file papers to have DH civilly committed.
In the meantime domestic bliss reigned. Constant calls from the neighbors to 911 about fights, physical altercations in the yard and street, etc. Nice young guy (the neighbor that found DH and discovered the murder) came and checked on them every couple days because he knew they were both nuts and wanted to see that they were o.k. even said this went on constantly. He knew eventually something was going to happen.
Best part of the calls to 911 stopped. One neighbor told the police she stopped calling due to the discouragement and comments she got from the dispatcher about tax payer dollars. So every time an incident occurred the calls tapered off to the point of all most none. There was the one DH made himself on the 7th of June. Then we have this.
Oh...NOW the AZ Psych Security Review Board that wouldn't readmit DW to the hospital and the hospital that couldn't throw DH out fast enough because he was "in remission" claims there was no order to have DH civilly committed as the hospital claims it was going to do per the crisis intervention people.
So that's the story so far in a nutshell :D What a senseless, stupid, waste of human life. All because they wanted to save a few bucks. Hope they feel it's worth it. Now look what it's going to cost them in tax payer money to have their records plowed through and to sit in front of a review board while they point fingers at each other over this matter. I'm just so disgusted by the whole thing.
Those 2 people may have been really sad characters but they were "functional" when in a mental hospital AND on their meds. Had they just been left there as they should have been one would be alive and the other not mutilated and partially blind for no good reason. Both would have been "manage-ably" sane. If not they would be in a place where they could be "managed" for life.
So no, Kay,I am so sorry. I wish I could tell you he was a drugged up psychopath with no conscience who went out on a binge and decided this was just a good thing to do at the moment because he didn't like the reruns on TV. It would make it so much easier to accept.
He's just a nut with a fractured mind who was not getting the help he needed and was shoved out on the street before he should have been if at all. He has a conscience. That's not to say he wasn't using drugs or didn't do drugs but at the time there was no mention of it specifically as being "the reason" for the behavior. Insanity was the reason. DW was a definite drug user. Her being nuts didn't help either.
The fact he said, "God will forgive me" shows he has a moral compass (whichever direction it may point.) To ask for forgiveness means you "know" you did something wrong and show remorse. He didn't say "God told me to act this way." He took responsibility for his own actions. He's just nuts. Defies logic or our need to find a reason to justify his actions but... he's just nuts.
I think perhaps this was his idea of a "final solution", the only one borne out of frustration that he could see that would put an end to their problems. He'll be locked up in a place where he will get help. DW won't have to be denied being locked up and forced into "self-medication" to manage herself and her problems because the one place that could turned her away. She doesn't have anymore problems now. She's dead and with the/her God she loved very much. (I think I mentioned she was religious and prayed a lot in her 'prayer closet').
I can't even be mad at him. He's nuts. Period. I'm mad at this state and these "sane" people here. I just I think it is a sad reflection on AZ, the mental health community, the law enforcement, and on every person here in this state with the attitude that people who are unwell, ill, or unfortunate in life think they're "entitled" to have their care paid for by tax payers. I never knew living with a shred of dignity was an entitlement. I thought it was a fundamental human right.
What irritates me more is when I read the news or watch TV. Everyone talks about how awful it was for themselves or the neighborhood. As if somehow their life is going to be adversely affected by this tragedy. They'll forget about it. They always do when they vote and decide where they want their tax payer dollars go. Ever notice though it is always though same people that say, "It's so awful. I don't know how something like this could of happened." Really? Think about it.
Oh well on the more positive side.....
Carrie,
so happy you're eating or that it sounds like you're eating. Shrimp Lo Mein. Yum! Even better yet no more yucky chest tubes and such and Summer can go back to normal! YIPPEE!!! :D Maine and Virginia. Wow. Can't think of 2 lovelier places to enjoy food, history, gardening, sight seeing, culture, art, shopping, or beaches! Lucky you. Hopefully they were happy childhood experiences and now happy adult ones when you go back to visit. Fall...ohhhh...leaves, pretty colors. I miss Fall. Always was my favorite season. But what are you planning now that Summer seems back in order for you?

Kay,
As for elegance all the credit goes to Zoe. If you saw me in the morning well....let's just say there's work to be done. I get up every morning and get excited. I go "Look! There's someone older than me in the room. Oh. Wait. That's a mirror." LOL! I envy Zoe's ability to roll off of bed, shake, stretch, yawn and look like a million bucks. I'll take the admirable or splendid compliment though. :D Thanks.
Did know a lot of those true and fun facts about our Agave and Aloes. Awesome plants. Most of them are natives of Africa! Go figure how they wound up here. If you have a chance and want to see something neat read up on the Century Plant (A. americanas specifically since there's so many types). Quite amazing. One grows on the other side of the loop from me. I can see it from my back yard. I'll post pic.
Not sure but think Mexicans introduced the Tequila from the Blue Agave and they and the Native American Indians, only 2 indigenous persons in U.S. at time, drank Pulque also. I know Pulque can be made from the Century Plant. Friend on other forum who is in Baja CA (Mexico) told me it is quite an acquired taste and not all that common. Neither of them sound quite tasty as food but I can't help but marvel at all of the uses they had in the other ways you mentioned. Some of those I didn't know. Amazing what one can do with what you have when forced to. Especially in a desert. The more I live in one the more awed I am by what exactly DOES live and thrive here.
As for eating cactus pads I'm not sure what they'd be tasty with. I'll have to ask around or reference some Mexican cook books. Want a recipe if I find one? You and Carrie try it first then let me know. :D (LOL)
Also bummer Jim doesn't like his spinal stimulator. :[ Sounds like it would be uncomfortable to lug around all day. I'm sure it's not huge but just big enough to be uncomfortable if on and especially with the back brace. YUCK.
As for know it all I think you are. In a good way. I couldn't agree with you more about patients knowing more about their experiences, treatments and knowledge of diseases than the doctors. Individually I think I've solved about 70% of my problems through my own research and experimentation on me. Hate to tell you guys but cut my one med Zonisamide by 100mg again. So far it's improved my neuropathy some more as I suspected it would. :D I'm just hoping it doesn't acerbate or increase my seizures. Like I can tell the difference (eye roll). I'm doing good so far. Like I said, I think it's over medication like the excessive use of antibiotics that's making us sick-er.
Try it Kay. It's your health. You do know best! Just don't tell the doctor unless you're right! :D
O.K. I've yammered on sufficiently. Gotta go.
Hope everyone has a wonderful day. Have to clean kitchen and such today.
Hugs to all.
Agavegirl