Who would have thought it would take this long to get back chatting with you? Whew! Feast or famine, huh (smile)? I tried to write a couple of days but--one day the blog hosting site was down, the other day the library was busy and I couldn't hang around and wait for a computer to free up.

I don't know how much attention you pay to news about Michigan, or if they even talk about this state on your news programs, but have I got a web site for you so you can read about all sorts of things Michigan from the point of view of bloggers!

www.bloggingformichigan.com/ShowDiary.do?diaryld=38

There are a number of sites/blogs and some of it is pretty interesting to read even if you don't give a hoot as to what's going on here. Me, I enjoy reading about the scandals in Detroit involving their mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. It's like a regularly occuring train wreck that his mama, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, who is an elected representative in Washington, DC, keeps running interference and bailing him out of.

Another thing that may have missed your radar, although I'm reasonably sure it'll be discussed somewhere on the above site, is the potential shut down of the Michigan state government. Budget woes. The state government officials have been doing sleep over meetings (cots in the state capitol building)to try and resolve it but so far it's still unresolved.

People have been jamming their local secretary of state offices (that's where we renew drivers liscenses, liscense plates, etc.) because of the uncertainty of whether they'll be open for business come next week. People have also been buying up liquor (the hard stuff, not beer + wine) for fear that the government will shut down for however long and the stores, once their stock is depleted, won't be able to refill.

If the state government shuts down, the three casinos in Detroit will have to shut down the gambling part of their operations because the gaming control (or whatever their title is) folks will be shut down too. The mayor of Detroit has said in so many words 'damn that! the casinos will stay open! nobody is shutting down the gambling!' He said the state can sue him, he doesn't care, he's certain the courts will uphold his decison (?). Did you know (and I didn't until all this became a daily part of the news) that the three casinos in Detroit kick back to the city of Detroit nearly a half a million dollars a day! The state gets almost a half a million a day from those three casinos too!

I'm not getting caught up in all of the state shut down hoopla. The way they bombard us on the news with it (and I'm not saying it isn't important, it is)it's like they're trying to whip us into a state of hysteria. Personally, I'm sick to death of the media trying to scare me. Granted, there are some things that should scare us. But not nearly the number of things they push at us daily.

Like with Iran. I don't care how often your president (yes, I'm an American citizen but he's not my president) goes on tv and says Iran is our enemy. Bush wants to invade Iran so badly I'll betcha he can taste it. I don't see Iran as my enemy. I don't think they as a government are arming the 'insurgents' in Iraq. I don't think Iran had a doggone thing to do with 9-11.

I think, and I know this is going to rankle somebody reading this, that some day we're going to find out that we, the USA, were behind 9-11. Why do I say this? Well gee whiz---think of all the crap that's happened since that day. We started a war (for personal gain of Bush's cronies), we lost inumerable civil liberties and rights, and that's just two reasons right off the top of my head.

How can we the people accept that Iran is our enemy when it has been proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bush and his crew lied their stinking nasty heads off as to why we 'had' to invade Iraq??!!! How can we ever believe anything that ever rolls off their lips?

Yeah, yeah, I know. 'But Tawny, it's supposed to be fun to read your blog!' Whinewhinewhine.

On a brighter note, the weather here is still wonderful! Sunny skies, warmer than average temps. It's the best of summer without all of that icky humidity.

Before I forget. Vacuum cleaners. You have one, right? What kind? I need a new one. I have a Hoover and it broke down again. I'm thinking about a Dyson. Everywhere I read (newsgroups) people talk them up. The only thing that's holding me up is the price. They're expensive. Really expensive. But if they're good and they do the job and they last for a bunch of years, well, then it's worth it. What do you think?

Okay, that's it for today. Have to get home so I can talk to you when you call.

You take care, stay strong, be careful.


hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

So what are the odds of this, 3 days in a row! Can't believe it myself. I hadn't planned to write to you today, it wasn't on my list of to-do's, not that I didn't want to, I always want to, just I had a gazillion and one errands to run this morning.

There's this one website that I have always been able to access from my webtv, a money card thingie, and so last night when I went to check and see if there'd been any recent deposits on it, like was the balance still just $3.23?, I discoverred that the site is no longer compatable with my home unit. Something about pop-ups (?). So that meant a trip to the library and, since the place is almost deserted (I think the fog is keeping folks homebound), an opportunity to chat with you. And yes, the doggone balance is still $3.23, someone sure has dropped the proverbial money ball.

But yes, fog, that's what's happening this morning around metro Detroit. It's not so bad here in Farmington/Farmington Hills, visibility something like .003. I could see the house across the street this morning and that's my barometer on how fog and travelling (smile). If his house is disappeared then I stay home, if I can see it then I'm good to go (smile).

Do you crochet? Don't you dare laugh! Men crochet and knit, too. Real men, I might add, not susie sissy boys. I ask because I am looking for a new crochet hook. Size 5.50. Should be easy, I know, but it isn't. I have a fondness for plastic hooks. Not the cheap, chintzy, weak ones from the discount store, but the sturdier ones. Love them. Unfortunately, I'm finding, at least so far, that it's either the weak plastic or the metal ones (hate them with a passion) or the new gel ones that are readily available. So anyway, I'm on a quest. If they sell the nice ones I'm talking about near you, send me one and I will be eternally grateful!

Well, I'd best be getting. The morning is getting away from me and I still have about a dozen places to be before the fog lifts (smile). And I want to get back home by noon so I can talk with you.

Take care, stay strong, be good and be careful.

hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

By now you must have figured out that what appears to be the beginning of yesterday's blog entry is actually the end, right? Thank goodness! Whatever I clicked on wrong yesterday that messed me up, may I never do it again in this life.

Someone told me that the free international calls info I posted was a repeat, that I'd already put it in the blog before. Hmmmm, well if that's so then I guess I was having a senior moment and I'm not even a senior (smile).

The other thing, about teachers packing guns in the classroom? What I forgot to mention was in the schools in the prisons the teachers don't have weapons. That's right, in a roomful of hardened felons the teacher doesn't carry anything mightier than a pen or a pencil. Or, at least here in Michigan (and I know this to be so because for years I was a volunteer 'behind the prison walls' so I was face-to-face with the goings on), the only other thing they have is a personal protection device. Yeah, sounds powerful, huh? You know what it is? It sort of looks like a garage door opener, the ones you push the button and the door flies open so you don't have to get out of your car. How it's supposed to work is if the teacher feels threatened, they're to push the button on the device. That is supposed to summon all of the guards in the area to come save the teacher.

My point here is, if teachers feel threatened by violence in their classrooms, don't arm them for goodness sakes. Do like the prisons do and disarm the students. That way no one has a weapon. Simple!

I've been meaning to tell you why the library here in town has this new sign-in system I was telling you about for their computers, unless of course I've already told you and I'm senior momenting again (smile).

Okay, the way it used to work if you wanted to use a computer was you gave your library card to one of the clerks assigned to computer duty that day. They placed your card on a 'map' showing what computer you were using. Simple enough.

So back in August some guy wanderred in off the street to use the computers. He didn't give his library card to the clerk, he just got on a computer in the big computer room. He logged in to an adult site and then, right there in front of anyone who was sitting near him, proceeded to fondle himself. He was still fondling himself when the police showed up to arrest him.

So that's why I (and everybody else) have to log in my library card number whenever I go to use one of these machines.

Speaking of which, there's this super long agreement you have to click acceptance on before you can use the computer. Among other things, it says you may not go to adult sites or chatrooms. Fine by me, I'm not going to any of those places anyway and, because there is no privacy here when you surf, it alleviates the chance that anyone will be offended by anything they see on anyone elses screen.

Yesterday when I was in the fifth ring of blog hell I had to go to tawnyford.com twice to make sure the daily blog entry was showing up like it was supposed to. Obviously, tawnyford.com is the business site for information regarding my adult conversation service. The gentleman who built the site for me, he and I went to great lengths to make certain that no one who ran across the site could ever be offended by anything they saw on my site, nor could the folks I link to as favorites of mine ever be embarassed by the content of my site. I think we did an outstanding job at keeping it clean.

I'm saying all that to say this--I don't know how often they inspect the hard drives (or if they even do unless they get complaints)of these computers, nor by what criteris they regard adult as adult. I know how I define it but I'm not them. I am assuming that if anyone goes behind me they won't have a problem with me going to tawnyford.com. But if they do, well, it'll probably make CNN because I am going to throw the hissy fit of a lifetime (smile).

Okay, that's it for today. Gotta go.

I am hoping to get to the park for a little while today, the weather is still amazing and all too soon it's going to be cold and rainy come October, and then the snow........

Take care, stay strong, be good.


hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

Sorry about leaving you midsentence but I hit something, I don't have a clue as to what, and next thing I knew I was in the fifth ring of hell on the blogger site!

To continue what I was saying, oh heck, now the doggone timer at the top of the machine tells me it's time to say goodbye. Drats.

Oh well, such is life.

You take care, stay strong and be good. I shall return another day!


hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

Good morning! I hope the weather is as beautiful where you are as it is here. It's summer-like here in the metro Detroit area. Summer-like but without the horrible high humidity so that makes it wonderful!

More than likely you have your own long distance plan, right? Especially those of you who make international calls. BUT I saw this in a magazine and who knows, maybe it'll be a help to you:

Call Futurephone's Iowa number (712-858-8883). At the prompt, press 1 for English (if that's the language you want. Then punch in 011, then the country code, then the number you want to call.

All this international long distance call is going to cost you is the price of an access call to Iowa. Use your cell phone and that'll be free too. Your international call will be 100% free! Such a deal!


I rented a movie last night from Blockbuster. You Kill Me. That's the title. It's a Blockbuster exclusive (whatever that means). Ben Kingsley (Ghandi) is in it, plus a whole lot of other people whose names I don't remember but I recognized their faces. This movie is a comedy. Not a silly-stupid-slapstick kind of funny, but a witty, sarcastic kind of funny. I laughed and laughed. You might enjoy it too.

Another thing, have you been listening to that stuff on the news about permitting teachers to pack handguns in the classroom? What do you think about that? On the way to the library this morning I heard an interview (on the local country radio station) with the lawyer out in Oregon who is fixing to represent a high school teacher someplace in Oregon who (if I understood this correctly) is challenging in court her right to carry a gun while she is at work teaching school. The lawyer said he thought the more guns the better.

Now me, I don't have any children so what do I know, right? Wrong (smile). While I think it may not be a bad idea for the citizenry to have the right to own a firearm, as well as the right to carry one concealed (as long as they've taken gun safety classes, etc.), having the teacher packing, well, has everybody lost their frigging minds?

Some folks scoff at people who homeschool. Okay, lots of folks ridicule parents who homeschool. But (1)with the lousy educations available at some/many/most schools, (2) the level of student-on-student violence at some/many/most schools, (3) the metal (weapon) detectors and the mini-police stations in some schools, (4) and now the discussion and very real possibility that teachers will be armed, well, if I had children I would be homeschooling them.

And before I get a load of emails about how only wacko religous right wingers homeschhol. or how homeschooled kids never fit into society, or how they miss the socialization when they're not enrolled in regular schhols, please, give me a break.

I have a good friend who has homeschooled her children, all four of them, boys, ages now 9 through 17, for years and I have to tell you (and not just because she's my friend) her kids have been blessed to be the recipients of one of the best educations available on this planet. They're well mannered, intelligent, socialized and if I had children I'd want them to be just like them.

With the mess that the schools are in these days, the only thing that makes sense to me is homeschooling.

The only big urban school system I have any real knowledge of is the one in Detroit. If you read the newspapers, then you know the

Okay, I know I told you it might be awhile until I could get back on the blog, right? My reasoning (excuse) was that the library was jam packed lately with other folks wanting to use the computers. And that's true, at least partly. Thing is, I knew I was going on vacation, I just didn't know exactly when I was leaving. Sure, I could have been up front about the whole thing, but what I've learned over the years, at least with regard to the phone business, is to make things just as simple as I possibly can. The simplest thing to do was to say what I said. And now I'm coming clean!

I went on vacation! Oh my gosh, vacations are wonderful, aren't they? It's like getting a new lease on life. Everything looks bright and clean and wonderful when you get home and back to your routine.

Where did I go? Ludington, Michigan. Yes, you're right, I pretty much go there every summer. I love that town. It sits right on the shores of Lake Michigan. Maybe 3 hours west of here. The town has one of the largest free city beaches in the state of Michigan, right there at the end of their main street.

Me, I'm perfectly happy to go to the beach every day. Get an ice cream cone from the House of Flavors (www.houseofflavors.com---the ice cream factory is right there in Ludington and they truly have some of the most wonderful ice cream you will ever slurp up. Eat my meals at one of the many restaurants. Do a little shopping. That's my idea of a vacation.

But if you're the type who likes to do stuff as opposed to lolly gagging like I do (smile), there are so many things to keep you busy I know I'm not going to remember them all here.

First, there's the car ferry (www.ssbadger.com) that runs between Ludington and Manitowoc, Wisconsin. There's the sand dunes out near Ludington State Park. There's charter fishing. Bike pathes. Art galleries. Antique stores. An elk ranch. A casino less than an hour's drive north. U-pick farms. Fresh veggies and fruits straight from the farms. An Amish settlement where you can purchase wonderful baked goods and really fine crafted furniture. Dune buggy rides. Miniature golf at the beach. Many golf courses. White Pine Village. A marina. Whew, there's still more!

Best thing though is for you to check out these web sites and see for yourself all the area has to offer:

www.ludington.org
www.michigan.org

And run a google search on Ludington, Mi. You'll be amazed at what you find out.

Personally, for as much as I like hanging out at the beach in town, and the private-like beaches along the sand dunes, my favorite spot is over at Buttersville Park. Why? Because nobody goes there! I'm guessing the reason it's almost always deserted is because you have to get in your car and drive around to the other side of Lakeshore Drive. I don't know how far it is from town, maybe 7 or 8 miles. But it's worth the drive. I spent a whole lot of time soaking up the sun over there.

I also, because I went at an off time of the year (after all of the tourists cleared out), had an opportunity to chat with some of the locals. There's been an awful lot of development in the town in the last few years. Humongous high rise condos going up along the water over by the marina. Huge houses being built along the other side of Lakeshore Drive (near Buttersville Park). Lots of new and big money. The new money trying to squeeze the townspeople out.

Okay, I'm not going to tell you where I stayed, but the place was great. What I will tell you is I rented a car to get there. No, there's nothing wrong with my truck, relax. I just wanted something different. I rented a Buick Teraza, sort of a small SUV. I liked it. I've never driven anything but a Ford in about a gazillion years and I was surprised how nice the Teraza was. Not saying I'd buy one, but I enjoyed renting it.

You know how it is with vacations, they're never long enough. I was gone from the 6th to the 10th. But as good as it is to get away, it's just that good to get back home.

I have to tell you, I missed Kathleen (my cat of 11 years) something fierce!

Even though I have scads more to talk about, my time is running out on that blasted 'clock' at the top of the page.

So till we meet again (smile), take care, stay strong. be good, you know the drill (smile).

hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

It's good to be back talking with you again. I missed you! Hope your Labor Day weekend was pleasant and safe.

There's something I want to share with you. Get comfy (smile).

Saturday evening I went out to get some dinner. As I may have said before, after the power went out a few weekends ago and I lost everything in the freezer/refrigerator, I never bothered re-stocking them. Okay, some cold cuts--sliced turkey and beef salami--but that's it. So anyway, needing some nourishment, I headed off to one of my favorite little neighborhood restaurants here in town. The food is good, the prices are not-out-of-this-world and, for the most part, the wait staff is excellent.

Before you ask, I orderred the fish and chips, with a side order of french onion soup. I love french onion soup!

So I'm sitting there eating (yes, alone) and I notice an elderly woman at the booth across from me. She's alone too. She was eating kind of slow, almost like she was trying to extend her time at the restaurant. At one point, when the waitress was getting her a styrofoam container to box up what she hadn't finished so she could take it home with her for later, she asked her if she wanted dessert. The woman said yes, she was trying to decide what, it was her birthday and so she wanted a treat.

I'm eavesdropping, right? And I'm thinking damn, she's old, it's her birthday and she's alone. The whole thing sucked.

I asked the waitress (who was waiting on my table too) to please bring me the bill for the birthday girl and please don't tell her I picked it up.

It struck me hard that someday that could be any or all of us.

Who's to say that we won't outlive our spouses and our best friends? Or that our children may either live out of state, or just not give a damn about us.

I'm not looking for a pat on the back here, or a 'gee Tawny, that was a nice thing to do', but rather I'm saying that we need to look around when we're out in the world. And if we've been blessed to have a few extra dollars in our pocket at the moment, and we see someone who looks like they could use a boost, well, maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to give them a bump up.

Just a thought because one day, sooner for some of us than for others, we're going to be old, too.


hugs + kisses--
Tawny
www.tawnyford.com


ps The library is jam packed today, and has been getting progressively busier as the weeks have passed, and that's a good thing, libraries should be busy. BUT if I'm not able to get back with you here for a few days, do not panic! I shall return sooner or later. And anyway, you still have my phone number, right (wink!)?