By Anna Daniels
I’m taking a month off from writing my weekly column and will return July 10, so I want to tie up some loose ends. Next week I will start working on projects that have piled up inside and outside our aged house–more on that below–and nothing will get done once the weather turns hot.
City Heights News–the very good, the good and too soon to tell… City Heights will be getting its first skate park plaza! The Central Avenue Mini-Park and Skate Plaza in City will include a tot lot, a playground for older children, small open turf area for passive recreation, a plaza with games, landscaping, and relocation of trees.
This is the very good news-construction will begin in October 2014 and the park will be open to the public in November 2015. Congratulations and thanks to the amazing skateboard community, Mid-City CAN, Council members Marti Emerald, Todd Gloria and Mayor Filner.
Now for the good news about Centerline. The rapid bus transit north and south on SR-15 is now fully funded! Citizens have been advocating for the Centerline for two decades. Finally!
The City Heights Community Development Corporation invites everyone to a celebration Wednesday June 5, from 12:30-1:00 pm at the City Heights Transit Plaza on University Ave over the SR-15 on the south side of the Transit Plaza deck.
Now let’s make sure that we get some artwork on the plaza that includes that names of everyone over the past thirty years who dreamed big and fought so long and hard to make Teralta Park on the freeway deck, the transit plazas and the Centerline a reality!
It is too soon to tell whether the City Council will sign off on the free bus passes for City Heights High School Students. The community has advocated for these passes for years and Mayor Filner put this item in his budget. If you haven’t emailed or called the council yet, please do before June 10.
AjA Project Mural 4089 Fairmount City Heights
Memory Box AjA Project
Check out the new mural at AjA Project 4089 Fairmount. AjA Project recently held an open house and artist workshop. Stop by on a Tuesday or Thursday to appreciate the 70 memory boxes inside. These memory boxes are a haunting and thought provoking glimpse into the world of young children in the community. Older students listened to their stories and designed visual memory boxes that convey the spoken sentiments. Seriously, don’t miss the opportunity to experience these memory boxes.
Jacaranda Weather It is impossible to miss the immense bouquets of lavender that the jacaranda trees are holding up against the blue skies and the purple snow on the ground beneath them. As my compadre Belisario says–“Vivimos en gloria.” Yes, we live in glory.
Jacaranda
Kittens become cats…. For the first time in a number of years, there has been a troubling increase in the number of unspayed/unneutered cats on the street. That means there is a lot of cat fighting. And there are kittens. Three Five terrified beautiful kittens and one hissing catling found their way into our yard last night. This is discouraging. I need to have The Talk with a few of my neighbors who think it is unnatural to deny animals the joy of sex, but perfectly natural to abandon the results to the streets.
From Within These Whispering Walls to the house of creaking joints… My Beloved and I have lived for 27 years in a house built in 1924. We know to lift the front door just a little to lock it and not to pull the door knob too hard because it will fall off in our hand. We automatically jiggle the handle on the toilet after flushing and listen for that certain sound that lets us know that the water will stop running. We know just where to put the buckets in the garage before a rain storm. Our house has shaped us in its own image, which is to say, made us eccentric too.
Someone said that maintenance is love. I think maintenance is boring and often costly. It is also necessary. Over the years we have replaced fences and roofs and have painted and landscaped. It turns out that 27 years is a long time in fence, roof and paint years and all of those things need to be done again. Who knew? My Beloved and I moved eleven times in our first ten years together. I now totally understand why most of us move every seven years and never look back.
I’m taking a month off, which is not to be confused with a staycation. You may run into me in the hardware section of a store, with pumpkin colored paint splattered clothes. Oh- and let me know if you want a kitten.
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Anna Daniels
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Have fun fixing stuff.
We’ll miss your wonderful column in July, and look forward to reading you in August. Thanks for the heads up on the memory boxes. Will make it over to see them.
Judy and I adopted an abandoned kitten about two months ago. We heard her crying just across the fence bordering our condo’s property and pretty close to our bedroom window. Actually, our cat Tessa who likes to sit and gaze out that window noticed her first. To get to that side of the fence I had to go out our front gate, go up the block, turn left and go down half a block. I had no trouble locating her. I walked right in because there was a series of apartment buildings, not quite private property, and she was right by the fence. She was friendly and let me pick her up. She was little more than skin and bones and didn’t seem to have the strength to hunt any more. I was going to walk home with her except it was quite a long way to get to the other side of the fence, and she was afraid of cars so I put her back by the fence.
The next day Judy called me crying and wondered if we could go in the car and pick up the cat who was obviously abandoned. I had just picked up my grandson, Isaiah, so the three of us went over there this time with the cat carrier, and I picked her up and put her in the cat carrier. Isaiah named her Lilly. When we got her home she was very friendly to us. Judy always wanted a loving cat and this one surely was. She used to sleep with Judy. Tessa was a good cat but somewhat aloof like a lot of cats are. She kept her distance. Not this one.
There was only one problem. She would attack Tessa. We had to keep them in separate rooms. She wouldn’t let Tessa eat or drink or even go to the bathroom. As she regained her strength and put on more muscle, the attacks got more ferocious. Such a loving cat to humans but couldn’t stand sharing us with another cat. Finally, after one especially horrendous attack Judy and I looked at each other and knew she had to go. It wasn’t fair to Tessa. So we took her to the El Cajon Animal Shelter and explained the problem. We do hope another catless family adopted her. She was very pretty with blue eyes.
After that our lives returned to normal for a few weeks. Then Judy had to go to the hospital. Thank you, Anna, for the kindness you have shown towards Judy. She really appreciated the card you sent because she goes to card making classes and is always sending cards to everyone. She really apprciates it when she gets one in return.
Introducing new cats into the household can be difficult, John. We have to separate out one of our male cats when leave the house or go to sleep. The natural compromise that has occurred in past years is that we feed an assortment of outside cats who have been neutered/spayed by the Friends of Cats and returned to their neighborhood. They stay in the yard, happily. But we still introduce new cats from time to time to the household. One abandoned cat really wanted to be inside, and after a year, we finally opened the door to her. She rushed past the other cats, found the bedroom and our bed. No drama. I hope your kitty found a good home and Tessa has resumed her prior position as queen and that Judy has a quick and complete recovery.