Y Gath Ddu

Y Gath Ddu (The Black Cat)

I adopted an injured cat after a neighbor tugged my heart strings by asking me to post something on Facebook to help find her a new home.  The poor kitty lived in a rental up the street until her human moved away last Spring. Poor kitty was left to fend for herself on the streets. My neighbor was feeding it and giving it flea treatments, but couldn’t take it inside because her dogs hate cats. When the weather turned cold, she set up a little heated shelter on the porch. Unfortunately, a mean yellow tom started coming around in the wee hours and kicking this kitty’s ass every night. To make matters worse, this cat has been trying to go back home, but the new tenants won’t let it in their house. When she tried to sneak in their door, one of them kicked the cat right in the face.

Photo is a bit blurry because she kept moving her head, wanting me to pet her while I was trying to snap a photo of what’s going on with her mouth.

It looks like there is a chunk of flesh missing. Seems to be healing okay. She’s got a vet appointment set up for the whole nine yards… full check-up, all the shots, and to get fixed if she’s not already.

After ignoring every other name suggestion, she said “merr” and came right to me when I said “KiKi” out loud. She didn’t even respond like that to “Kitty” so, who knows? Maybe her original name was KiKi.

The cat walked over to meet my granddaughter when she called her by name.

Well, she didn’t just say KiKi… she dropped to her knees and said “Kiki Do You Love Me” which just happens to be the title of my grand-niece’s favorite song. My granddaughter often plays it for her so they can sing along. It’s good to have a cat in the house again.

Thanks for reading!

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Gerrymandering 101

Results of the State Senator race between John Boccieri and Micheal Rulli proves that Mahoning and Columbiana counties should NOT be lumped together in the same Ohio district.

It was NOT a close race. Rulli won Columbiana by a higher percentage than Boccieri won Mahoning, so Rulli will represent both counties here in Ohio.

That reveals something noticed years ago… the majority of people in these two counties do NOT think alike. They have their own ways of looking at things, their own ways of doing things, how they interact with other people, etc. It’s a strange phenomenon that I didn’t know about until I moved from Columbiana county to Trumbull county (which aligns more with Mahoning) before moving to Youngstown.

I’m NOT saying that one is better than the other, just saying that how people view things is so different that we would all be BETTER REPRESENTED if our state senate districts lines were redrawn.

Welcome to Gerrymandering 101.
How would you redraw the lines?

I would combine Mahoning with Trumbull County, then slide Columbiana County down to join with two house districts (with more like minded people) to the south.

RULE: one Ohio Senate district is a combo of 3 Ohio House districts, so you can’t just draw random lines.

NOTE: map created by cut & paste from gov maps.

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All that (above) is a cut & paste of what I posted on Facebook yesterday. No one wanted to play. Perhaps some were thrown a bit back? I have friends and family in both counties, but no one even weighed in with a thought about the differences. Maybe some were offended.

I was going to take it down, but an anonymous someone had shared it so I didn’t want to be rude.

If you happen to live in one of those counties and question the idea of people being so different that all would be better represented in the Ohio Senate if the lines were redrawn, I invite you to observe for yourself. It’s easy to do… just go shopping at stores in both counties. Pay attention to who speaks to you. Then talk to strangers in crowded stores, pay attention to facial expressions and body languages.

People in Columbiana county generally only speak to other locals… familiar faces, those they know, and those assumed to be other local people. If an outsider speaks to them in a crowded store, they might reply, but a momentary flicker of uneasiness might cross their face. You can almost see them thinking, “Who are you? What do you want? Why are you speaking to me?” It’s an Appalachian influence. There are a lot of “hill people” in Columbiana county. They will give the shirt off their back to one of their own, but they tend to be leery of outsiders.

Go north to the diversely populated urban areas in Mahoning or Trumbull county where it is “normal” to be open and friendly with everyone. Most people talk to strangers, strike up conversations in store aisles and checkout lines, they talk to people everywhere they go.

That’s one of the first things I noticed when I moved to Warren. I had strangers walking up to me grocery stores, striking up conversations over produce. “Look at the price on these tomatoes!” I’ve even been serenaded by strangers, old men bursting into song when I’ve pulled into a gas station with the top down on my convertible (miss that car). I also noticed that people are more accepting of human imperfections. Put it this way, I have NEVER heard anyone yell “hey fat ass” or other profanity laced insults out their car windows at me while I was just walking down a street in Trumbull or Mahoning county.

The difference became even more clearer after moving back to Salem in Columbiana county after I became disabled. The ONLY people who talked to me in stores or other public places were the people who remembered me from years before. Others treated me like an outsider. Even the neighbors in my apartment building were not too friendly. They rarely spoke to me. Even when I fell in the yard, they sat on their balconies watching a taxi driver retrieve the wallet I accidentally tossed when my legs wobbled out from under me as if it were a free show, get the popcorn, don’t say a word.  The one woman who became my only friend there was also an outsider who had moved there from New Jersey.  After a couple years, I was so glad to move to Youngstown, where I could talk to people without getting snubbed by odd looks. And, I could walk into a store without overhearing whispered insults about me, my body, my clothes, how I walk, or whatever.

That’s just ONE aspect of differences… politically, people who are open and friendly and more accepting of diversity also tend to be more open minded, more liberal, and more likely to vote for Democrats.

If you look at any political map after any election, this phenomenon could be the reason urban areas in red states are blue. It also might explain why some voters in red areas respond well to fear based tactics.

Thanks for reading!

Daylight Savings

Should I participate in Daylight Savings Time?

Years ago, when rolling back time was a manual process, opting out was easier. You didn’t have to do anything to stay on Summer Time year round. Just leave those clocks alone, adjust time in your head if you had be at work or make an appointment per someone else’s schedule. Time is relative.

There are advantages. Winter guests tend to leave a little earlier. They glance at the clock on your wall and say something like, “Oh my, it’s getting late… we should go.”

It’s like a psychological experiment. Some people actually yawn, feel more tired if they think it is an hour later than it is at their own house. I’ve been experimenting with the concept of time ever since I was a teenage babysitter watching young ones not old enough to read clocks with hands. They knew bedtime by what was on television, so I would turn off the TV and play with them, keep them busy with games or other activities. Then I’d tell them that it is bedtime an hour or so early, but I’d let them stay up awhile for being so good… I could tuck them into bed early with no fuss. That’s bad, but hey… kids were happy.

It’s the men in my life who have had issues with my clocks. I know the vet will take the clock down off my kitchen wall and adjust the hands on his next visit. He will think I didn’t change it because I couldn’t reach it. He’s been changing my clocks without asking for years now. He doesn’t know that I used to leave my clocks on Summer Time, that it used to drive other men nuts, because I never told him. The first year he did it, I just grit my teeth and let it go… doesn’t matter. Since all the other clocks auto-update, the only hands that don’t get changed now are on the watch of my key fob necklace. That’s mine, like one little piece of me holding out in a quiet defiance for the relativity of time, a silent protest to Daylight Savings.

Sigh. Thanks for reading!