Whine and Cheese

Since this summer, there have been several missing gay men in the Toronto area. With several Canadian friends online, I've been following the story closely without even trying, reading posts and requests to share information to get the word out.

One of them is a fellow called Andrew Kinsman, a very handsome bear who worked with the HIV/AIDS network in Toronto. I didn't know him, but he seems like the kind of guy I'd enjoy knowing, based on his fun posts on his Facebook page.

When he first vanished, I kept up with the story closely, hoping that he would be found. My mind ran though various scenarios, some good like an impromptu trip somewhere and some less than good, but with good resolution, like he had gotten hurt and was in a hospital. As the days stretched into weeks and then months, the hopes of finding him alive grew exponentially slimmer.

Today, I saw a news report that someone had been arrested for his and another man's murder.

Reality is hard. I'm not sure what evidence they have on the suspect, but they have noted that the bodies have yet to be found.

I looked at Andrew Kinsman's Facebook page again tonight. It's been turned into a memorial page. He seemed like a good soul. Looking though his goofy photos, some of which were there right before he vanished, made me sad because he was it appeared that he was clearly enjoying his life.

It's been a fairly active weekend, so here's a summary of everything that went on:

• Friday I called the cable company and set up a repair visit. They could have done it over the weekend, but I have to take Wednesday off, so I scheduled it for then. And the repair will be free believe it or not. I still plan on giving the installer company a good chewing out. While it isn't costing me anything, the annoyance of being without cable in my bedroom for nearly two weeks has sucked



• Saturday was a Cincinnati MovieBears outing to see "IT." It was a beautiful night and it was good see the guys. Everyone seemed to enjoy the movie, which I've now seen twice. I imagine that clowns will be a popular this Halloween.



• Brian (cincycub) brought me a wonderful gift. While he was at Market Days this year, he bought me three issues of "How to Kill A Superhero," by Pablo Greene, autographed to me. According to the author's website, www.howtokillasuperhero.net, the novels tell the story of Roland, a young man who is changed forever by an occult book that grants its reader dangerous but seductive superpowers. It involves some superheroic bondage, which is very enticing. I was so thrilled with them, I hugged Brian twice. I look forward to reading them. The author is very much into superheroes, spandex, and singlets. I can relate :)



• Sunday was mostly home stuff. I mowed the yard (by removing the boot and wearing the ankle guard), did laundry, and finished a retirement cartoon for a co-worker. It did wear me out a bit.



• Tonight is the series finale of "The Strain." I'm curious to see how our heroes defeat the Strigoi (the vampires). It's been a very interesting show, with some cute leads. After the last season where Zach set off a nuke and gave the vampires reign over the world, I'm kind hoping he gets offed. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to watch it.



• My next doctor's appointment is Wednesday. I sincerely hope I'm done with the boot. I need to get back into working out, as my lower body and mid-section are seriously out of shape.

So yesterday, I was in the middle of my chest and back workout. I had started a load of laundry, which is in the washroom next to my family room where the workouts occur. Between reps, I stepped in there to check on the load and heard the sound of trickling water.

I looked behind the machine to find water pooling. I lifted the lid to the washer and heard the sound of a stream on metal. Honestly, it sounded like my washing machine was taking a whiz. I let the machine finish the rinse cycle then turned off the water to the washing machine.

Back in 1996, I bought the Hotpoint washer and dryer from Best Buy. That was over 20 years ago and this is literally the first problem I've had with either one. While I'm elated at the longevity I've had with these units, I'm irritated that I have a new problem to deal with, especially with having just dealt with the flooding issue in the lower level. I checked on some Kenmore units at Kroger after dinner last night just in case and then posted on FB about my quandry, which pulled mixed responses from the peanut gallery.

Some encouraged me to get the unit fixed because they feel that new washing machines are not as reliable or work as well, while others commented that newer models are more efficient, saving electricity and water, and remarked that 20 years is an impressive amount of work to get out of my machines.

After much consideration, I decided to have it repaired if possible. I hate buying new things in desperation mode, so this will buy me some time. And a trip or two to a coin laundry won't kill me if I can't.

My driveway slopes toward my house. At the bottom of the slope is a large drain to keep the rain from coming into the house. In the last 16 years of living here, it's clogged only a handful of times, letting the rain come into the garage, but never into the house. I've always been able to clear the drain before anything awful happened.

Today, I couldn't get it to happen and the rain actually came into the downstairs room. Ugh!

With a five-gallon bucket, I managed to scoop an untold number of buckets of water to out of the garage. My back will not be happy with me tomorrow morning, if the way it feels right now is any indication.

After the water level was down, I started dealing with the downstairs, moving a bookcase, a TV and stand, and a full video-rack out of the way so I could pull up the carpet. I pulled at least 25 gallons of water out of the carpet and padding with my shampooer. Now I'm just waiting for the padding to dry before I can put the carpet back down.

I've called Roto-Rooter to come and check the drain for clearing. It's something I should have done a long time ago. I dread to see the cost, but this sort of headache I can do without.

I've been in Seattle for the past week for a work meeting. There wasn't any time for sightseeing or meeting local friends, as we worked long days. When Friday rolled around, I was looking forward to getting home, but not the long trip as had my first flight at noon and with a layover and connection, I wasn't slated to get home until 11 PM.

I wish I had gotten home so easily.

Just after I had boarded my flight to Houston, United Airlines canceled my connection from there to Cincinnati due to weather, notifying me by email. I literally got the email as I was shutting down my phone as they were closing the plane door. So, I was stuck. If I had gotten it 20 minutes earlier, I could have switched the flights.

Four hours later, the flight landed in Houston, and I trudged my way to the United information desk for help, which they weren't. There were no other flights to get me home, supposedly even on other airlines, so I was stuck there for the night. I was on standby for a 10 AM flight, guaranteed to a flight at 7 PM. Really, that was the "best" they could do, which sucked. United gave me a number for a discounted hotel rate, but made no offer to pay for it. She told me that my bags were on the baggage claim carousel, so I could pick them up at least.

I walked over to the baggage claim only to find that I would have to wait 2-4 hours for them to get my bag, as the bags from the flight were warehoused. F**k! So I got a bag of cheap toiletries from the baggage claim lady, spoke with a lady with a horribly thick accent on the phone to get a hotel, then waited for the hotel shuttle.

First thing I did at the hotel was wash my shirt, socks, and underwear at the hotel. I just can't handle doing without clean clothes. I called my sister to complain, got my clean clothes from the dryer, showered, and went to bed.

The next morning, I went to the airport and to the gate for my standby flight. The flight was oversold. Seriously, they put me on STANDBY for an OVERBOOKED flight. I was so frustrated and angry, I was shaking. I went to the information desk, my voice quivering as I was nearly exploding. The agent was pushing me through Chicago to Cincinnati. She played the same game as the agent from the night before, put me on standby for one flight, but guaranteed me for another.

I ran like a madman through the airport, running from Terminal B to C, to try to catch this flight. In my sweaty clothes with no deodorant, I puffed my way to the gate to find they had booked me STANDBY on another OVERSOLD flight. It was like a cruel game, to get my hopes up on something that was near impossible.

I made the next flight to Chicago, sitting next to a "sleeping" older man who farted four times during the two hour ride, and made the flight home to Cincinnati. After landing, I got to baggage claim, realizing my bags were there way ahead of me. To put the cherry on top of this very bitter cake, I had to deal with this lazy queen at United's baggage service. When I told him that I was looking for my bag, he pointed me over to the baggage carousel. I told him that my bag had been sent ahead because of a canceled flight, described the bag, and offered my baggage claim ticket. The guy didn't even look at it, put the orange he'd been eating down, and reluctantly went to the next room to get my bag. Bitch...

It took 32.5 hours to get home. The time above includes:

- Four airports in four states
- Three time zones
- Two connections
- One canceled flight
- Two stand-by tickets that failed
- One fruitless long-distance run through the Houston airport
- Six mocha frappacinos
- One pair of underwear
- No deodorant

In almost 23 years of air travel, both domestic and international, I have never experienced anything close to this. I pray I never do again.

I was skimming through Facebook this weekend and came across an entry made by one of my online friends about a handsome bear who had apparently passed away.

I never met Randall in person. I think he was on LJ years ago, but I don't recall his handle on here. We would chat on Bear411 on occasion, but I get the impression that he wasn't interested in chatting with me. We had a lot of friends in common, so I would see his photo pop up on my LJ and FB feeds every so often.

I remember seeing him on other sites too. He was always happy and smiling, usually surrounded by friends. He was a young guy, so I am not sure what happened. I'm not even sure why that is important, but there is always some innate curiosity when someone dies so young. I saw several comments from friends of his on this post talking about his "internal struggle" and the words "prevention" and "awareness" were used, which paints a particular picture in my mind.

When I was drawing the first issue of my comic, I was looking for various bears to put in for background characters. I used Randall as one of them. Being a friend of Miguel's in real life, I thought they would find it funny.



I have no idea if he ever saw it. He never commented on it, and neither did Miguel.

I don't know how to close this entry other than to say I feel for his friends and family.

Just a few odds and ends from the weekend and this morning:

• I saw “It Follows” on Friday night. The movie tells the story of a young woman who finds herself stalked by an unknown entity after having sex with the entity’s previous stalkee. The entity follows the person at a walking pace and changes its appearance each time. The movie is original and the low-budget feel definitely gives it a creepy edge. I enjoyed the movie and the theater was packed the night I went, so word of mouth is selling it.



• Saturday night, I went to see the “Girl Power” concert of the Cincinnati Mens Chorus. Earlier that day, I got saw an SOS on Facebook from the volunteer coordinator, asking for help manning the sales and ticket tables. I volunteered as I was going to the go there that night anyway. While the show was great and the guys sounded fantastic, I only got to see about half the concert with the volunteer duties, but I enjoyed the experience.



• Facebook exploded over the weekend with Indiana Governor Mike Pence signing that nasty “religious freedom” discrimination bill late last week. The social and political backlash has been wonderfully quick and devastating to him and his supporters. Pence went on a morning news show to “clarify” the “misconceptions” about the bill, but floundered horribly and predictably when asked repeatedly if the bill could be used to refuse service and goods to GLBT people. A simple yes or no question that he dodged as gracefully as a drunk on a skateboard with three wheels. He is a piece of crap, that one. Indiana folks need to get him out of office to save their state and repeal that piece of trash bill.



• The season finale of “The Walking Dead” was last night. LOVED it. No spoilers though.



• I did managed to get a few pages of Issue #17 of “Grizzly and the Bear Patrol” done. I had to insert a new page last night to put a bit more action into the comic. I particular loved how this panel of Polar Bear, the last I drew for the evening, turned out. I’ll hopefully start inking this week.

Polar Bear Powering Up

Happy Monday, if that’s possible….

More odds and ends of the week.

• Sadly, Leonard Nimoy passed away. While I know he did way more than just be "Mr. Spock," it was always what he was remembered for. From what I've read of him, he was a very nice man in person and was very appreciative of his fans.



• Thursday night, I went to see the new scary movie "The Lazarus Effect." It's the story of a group of researchers who determine how to bring back the dead. When their research is stolen, they attempt to perform the experiment again to document their discover only to have to use it on one of their own after she dies in an accident. When she comes back, she comes back different and goes on a killing spree. It's not the most original movie, but the cast is good. The movie moves pretty quick, I'd almost say too quickly. It wasn't a terrible movie, but it could have been better.



• I've continued my run though old 1970s movie on YouTube. I saw "Dominique" last night, with Jean Simmons, Cliff Robertson, and Jenny Augutter. When a woman hangs herself after seeing so many unusual sights in her mansion, she appears to return and haunt her husband. It's a old fashioned ghost story/mystery, which some pretty cool twists.



• I've also been doing quite a bit of drawing this week between working on various comic book projects. Here's a couple of the odds and ends.

Better to Be Weird


The Villainous Bear Collector

Happy Weekend!

I admit that I wondered about her condition for the last few days. At the age of 81, I figured that her health was good, but fragile. Still, I was a bit surprised to hear on the radio on my car drive home that Joan Rivers had passed away. She just seemed like she'd be around forever.


I've been a fan of Joan's since I was little and first saw her do a monologue on "The Tonight Show." Her delivery was so rapid, her wit was so sharp, and her humor was biting. I was enthralled. My mom didn't want me watching it and sent me to bed. Instead, I turned on my small TV in my room and covered my mouth to muffle my laughing.

Later, at a "book sale" for some school thing, I found a paperback of her book, "The Life and (Hard) Times of Heidi Abromowitz." It was 50 cents and missing it's cover. It was bawdy, even "dirty," and had these fantastic cartoons drawn by James Sherman, all describing the life of a slut named Heidi. I loved that book and read it many times. At some point, that book vanished. I'm guessing that Mom might have snatched it from my room and disposed of it.

A few years ago, I bought a used hardcopy of the book online. I laughed just as much as I did the first time and I'm happy I still have it.

I've followed Joan's career for decades and enjoyed it. I loved her stand-up specials, the documentaries, and recently her "In Bed with Joan" web series. She recently had drag queen comedian Bianca Del Rio in bed with her and you can tell they were kindred spirits (the language is very NSFW!).



Thanks for the laughs, Joan, you'll be missed ...

I'd meant to post about this some time back, but thanks to my office blocking LJ posting, I'd set it aside and had forgotten.



A fire broke out at the Glasgow School of Art earlier this month. While it's a school, the building itself was very cool in itself as it was designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The news article has a few interior photos of the building.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-27541883

When I was in Glasgow, Scotland in December 2012, I was lucky enough to have time to go on a tour of the school. The building has multiple floors and several pieces of work in progress by the student body. Sadly, because of the artwork in progress, no interior photography was allowed, so the picture above is one of the few photos of the school I could take.

I'm glad I had a chance to see the school. I know they are trying to salvage as much of the school as they can, but I'm sure a lot of important Mackintosh pieces were lost.