News From The Homefront

I received two parking violations...taped to the driver's side window of my truck; found them posted today - in the rain.

Toronto Police might as well have TP'd my vehicle because the papers - with the bright neon orange label that screams to all passers by that I have been a naughty girl - were so saturated from the rain that they couldn't be peeled from the glass without falling apart (see picture).

The truck needs a transmission. That has been purchased from a salvage yard but I am short $150 to install it plus, because along with that I couldn't afford the registration renewal in January. I didn't think this would be a problem since the truck is parked on my property; not on the street.

Unfortunately, the guys who removed the old trany left the truck jacked up on ramps. Hell, I might as well post a sign beside it that says " A Redneck Lives Here!" And while I'm at it, I'm trying to get my gardening done so if anyone has any spare tires they want to get rid of, I could paint them white and plant geraniums in them. If they are tractor tires, that's even better. I like that scalloped look.

So why isn't this a problem?
This building on the corner behind my house has an exterior wall that is buckling away from the upstairs window frames.

When I was a kid, it had a small market run by the family that lived here. It was a nice building with two spacious apartments that each had two bedrooms and the property was beautifully maintained.

The last owner of it died and rumor has it that he owed back taxes of the five-figure variety, yet he was still charging rent.

I reported the condition of this building to the city months ago. Orange cones were set up along the parameters to no avail.

The residents of the upstairs apartments vacated the building but there are still occupants downstairs who are still paying rent and don't seem concerned that they may be ordered to move.

Several weeks ago I told one of the residents about Ohio House Bill 9, introduced by my friend Mike Foley of Cleveland's 14th District. This bill offers protection for renters living in buildings that are subject to foreclosure.

Well, ignorance certainly must be bliss because this tenant was not at all concerned or worried about losing her home. She even said that her landlord was very good to her (imagine that!).

She and her husband have made absolutely no attempt to apply for other housing and the property has been turned over t0 the heirs of the deceased owner.

It's going to be grab and go! I am keeping my battery charged and my memory card open on my camera so that when I hear the creaking sound of the wall starting to collapse I will be ready to run out in time to video the roof coming down. Keep checking in to my YouTube Channel - thiznat. You can link to it on the right side of this page.

I'll get to it soon...
That's all I can tell my friend Sarah who posted on Facebook, "I'm impatiently waiting for your blog post on life at CWS. Were you there when it was called "Guantanamo Cleveland"? "

Yes, I was and when telling my story of being a resident at Cleveland's most notorious women's shelter, I promise I will open up more than I did when I wrote about what I witnessed while there. I now have no fear of retaliation from the staff as I did when I wrote my A Fly on the Wall series for "The Homeless Grapevine" newspaper.

Sarah blogged about her return to the shelter. We have plenty of notes to compare. Mine from the stand point of being a homeless shelter resident and hers as an activist; trying to help empower the residents.

Status on Jet and Bandit
Both of the girls are doing great although they are not growing as well as their brother Topper and sisters Tipper and Miss 'V'. Our wonderful neighbor Kristy bought two large baby medicine droppers which has been easier to use when feeding the kittens.

Jet and Bandit have had problems eating; neither one knows to suck on a bottle or tip of a syringe but they are finally coming around.

Jet was very near death and Bandit began to have problems with lethargy possibly due to malnourishment. You can read more about what happened at "Paws for a Moment" by clicking here.

Homelessness: Clip from Obama news conference

Glad it was brought up...

I was listening from another room when I heard a reporter ask President Obama about addressing homelessness. I grabbed my camera, focused it on the TV screen and this is what I got on video.

The president talked about programs for the unemployed; to get people back to work. He mentions the homeless veterans too.

From my own personal experience, I met more disabled homeless than unemployed homeless people in Cleveland and until the Social Security Administration starts paying attention, carefully reading the medical files of those who apply, there will still be people losing their homes waiting for 2 years before an administrative law judge hears their cases.

The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless offers a take on distribution of funding for the homeless.

President Obama is taking a stand; we must too by writing letters to our representatives and pressing them on the issues of Social Security denials for disability.

TEETOWNVISION: 500 plus views and counting

Mark Miller's story about my YouTube channel..."The Herald Star" hit the stands Saturday afternoon making me an instant celebrity in this town (or at the very least, a reconstituted celebrity) - I was gone for 30 years so I have to reclaim my previous stature in my hometown. Toronto goes YouTube with a photo of me spanning 3 columns was plastered on the front page of the newspaper - in color no less.

As I was returning to Special Way to buy more copies of the newspaper, I ran into my new buddy Fred leaving the store. I told him I was going to buy more papers because of the story so he said he wanted a copy too. We walked in together and as he was paying for his newspaper, he said to the cashier, "There's a story about her in today's paper".

Without missing a beat she pulled out a pen and said, "Since she's (me) here, maybe you'd want to get her autograph".

Ignore the date above - I started and saved this post on Sunday...
So Monday afternoon I stopped in at Tucker's Tavern for Pepsi and to talk to Scott about when we are going to do his vid thing for TEETOWNVISION. So I asked him if he saw the article on the front page of Saturday's paper.

"Cindy, EVERYBODY saw that article; EVERYBODY'S talking about that article! EVERYBODY I talked to today asked me if I saw THAT ARTICLE! Yes, I SAW THE ARTICLE!"

"I have over 300 viewers, 4 subscribers and an invitation to the Chamber Luncheon on Thursday, Scott."

Then Scott showed me his new website. Check it out and the next time you are in town make it a point to stop in for a steak dinner that is unsurpassed. The only time the in-laws come down from Youngstown to visit is when they are hungry for steak. They have been down three times in the past four months.

By the way, the article will appear again in Friday's "Toronto Scene".

When, I actually posted, the view count was 557.

Seems like every time you pick up a newspaper, well, there I am!

"Herald Star" & "Toronto Scene" writer, reporter, photographer extrordanaire Mark Miller stopped by Thursday.

At the end of his columns in the "Toronto Scene" he always adds a blurb requesting the readers to contact him with any news and story ideas pertaining to Toronto.

Brilliant! Cast the line, dangle the bait; ask for referrals. It works.

Well, I bit.

In the below freezing bitterly cold still dark early morning hours of last Saturday morning I awoke at 5 a.m. to a cold house with no power. Prior to midnight, someone crashed into the power pole in front of my house snapping the pole three quarters of the way up. American Electric Power workers arrived at 3:45 a.m. to shut off my power and disconnect my lines.

So, fumbling around in the dark, I managed to find my torch lighter, light a few candles, slip sweat pants on over my PJs, find my shoes, grab Gary's and my cameras and head out the front door to shoot some video.

So once the power came on (at 7:20 a.m.), I powered up the computer, started uploading the vids and proceeded to shoot the following e-mail off to Mark.

Someone ran into the light pole in front of my house and AEP came out Satuday morning around 4 a.m. to replace it. I took loads of pix. Are you interested? I don't know if they caught the guy who ran into the pole. I called po-po around 8 this morning. Larry Fogle hasn't called me back.
Give me a buzz....(phone number).

I'm uploading vids onto my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/thiznat Check it out!
I'm starting a Toronto channel featuring people in the community. I'd love to vid you since you are our reporter.

Well, Mark called Monday afternoon but he wasn't interested in the photos I took of the pole replacement. He was interested in my YouTube channels and wanted to interview me for a human interest story about those channels.

I asked Mark if he was sure if he really wanted to write a story about me since one written by Janice Kiaski appeared in the "Herald Star" and "Toronto Scene" in November.

Didn't matter.

So Thursday morning, along comes Mark armed with Portage Reporter's Notebook in hand and camera bag slung over his shoulder. We compared cool cameras. His and mine were Lumix digitals.

So check out the interview in the Saturday, February 28th edition of the "Herald Star" and be sure to check out my YouTube channel soon to learn more about Mark Miller the musician, singer, songwriter.