Where In The World Is Tallulah????

Not to worry, she's alive and well! Thank you everyone for your emails when she was on the miss tip. As I'd said, I was concerned when I hadn't heard from her because, well, it was just so out of character for her.


Turned out she was at her 'brother's' house. Okay, he's not really and truly her brother. They're not biologically related. But you know, just because people aren't blood that doesn't mean they're not family. Right?


Her brother has cancer. I forget where exactly, maybe his liver, I'm not sure. I just know it's cancer and he appears to be in the final stages of his life.


Tallulah, whenever she comes downstate, makes time to visit him and his family. He has a wife and a small child. His wife is Chinese born and all of her family lives in China. Her mother spends as much time in the USA as her visa will allow, helping to care for her son-in-law.


Tallulah spent her first three days in town at their house helping out, primarily with childcare. She said she was so tired that she was in bed at 8pm each night. Too tired she said to call and there is no Internet access at their house so no emailing either. When you're not used to small children, she said, they will run you ragged (smile).


Her niece woke her up on her last morning there, crawling into bed with her, prying her eyelids open and asking 'are you in their Aunt Tallulah???' (Smile).


So yesterday Tallulah came by my house and we went shopping. To Costco. Goods, particularly food, are more expensive in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Farther to ship them, I guess. Anyway, Tallulah stocked up on non-perishable goods. We had a nice time and a good visit. I am blessed to have her as a friend.


Last night we got snow. Maybe 3 or 4 inches of the white stuff. Because they no longer plow and salt the roads as they once did…they tell us the budget won't allow for it this year, cutbacks…the roads are a mess. Okay, the freeways have been plowed and salted by now, but the surface streets, well; you're on your own.


I have no plans to leave the house today. I am in total disagreement with the city, county and state plans to cut back on road plowing and salting. Yes, I understand when there isn't enough money in the budget and you have to make cuts. But. But since when is potential loss of life acceptable? Need to cutback? Don't cut the damn grass in the medians as often in the summer, that'll save money and nobody will die from it.


Tomorrow, when the roads straighten themselves out, I'm going to Sam's Club. They have turkeys that aren't frozen! Yes, I have some frozen turkeys in my big freezer. But in order to cook one you have to plan a week ahead in order to defrost it totally. I love the idea of just being able to spur of the moment roast a turkey! And that's what I'm going to do tomorrow.


Okay, this photo is one of Tallulah's. See right up there at the top of the building? I know it's kind of hard to see, you have to look hard. But see who that is? Do you recognize him? It's Santa Claus! Tallulah titled the photo, NO Santa! DON'T JUMP! She says even though times are tough, don't give up, it'll get better.


And that's something we all have to remember, whether we still believe in Santa Claus or even if we don't recognize and celebrate xmas. Things will get better. Don't lose your faith.


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


Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

Today Is The Busiest Day Of The Year At The Post Office

And because it's the busiest day of the year at the post office, it is super slow and empty here at the library! Such a deal! Thankfully, I didn't have to mail any packages at the post office this morning. I spent longer trying to find a parking space than I did once I got inside to check my pobox. And there was nobody hardly at the bank, another one of the finer aspects of the post office being so busy (smile).


How's the weather where you are? All of our snow is gone. It's not like we had ten tons or anything, but now there's nothing. It's windy, veryveryvery windy, and chilly. I had big plans as to where I was headed this morning, my errand list has about ten different stops on it, but it's so doggone windy, who wants to get blown all over the place? Not me.


Remember me saying that my friend Tallulah was headed downstate? Well, in response to an email I sent her Friday, I received an auto responder one from her saying she'd be away until the 19th of December. She does that alot, that way everyone knows she's gone and don't fill up her inbox.


Thing is, whenever Tallulah is on the interstate headed this way, she always calls me. At least once, sometimes two or three times. Why? I think because it gets lonely and boring logging so many miles by yourself and with the cell phone, well, it's almost like having someone in the car with you. At least while you're in areas that have reception. But Tallulah never called. Now it's not like she has to or anything. She's grown, I'm not her mama and she doesn't have to check in with me. It's just something she always does. And she always lugs her laptop with her when she's on the highway. And whenever she gets where she's going she drops me an email. She hasn't done that yet.


So here it is Monday and to say I'm worried and concerned about her is an understatement. I've decided that if I still haven't heard anything from her by the time I get home this afternoon I'm going to ring her cell phone. Maybe her home phone too. Why haven't I done so already? Well, true it would have saved some worrying on my part. But I just hated to play 'track you down', you know? I'm sure everything is just fine and dandy with her and I'm just a major worry wart.


The new puppy dog that HSM and her brood got last week is doing fine. They named her Alista. I know, I'm not familiar with that name either, but HSM says it's Celtic/Gaelic and it means something really nice and noble, I just can't remember what, sorry. HSM says Alista was messing with ABM Saturday. He was ignoring her, reading a book or something, and the dog silently crept over to him and snagged his pack of cigarettes and lighter. Gently, without crushing or hurting them in any way, she took them back to her bed. When he realized they were on the miss tip, he had to go to Alista to get them back and she got her attention (smile). Smart puppy dog (smile)!


When I was a child I had a cat, a chocolate Siamese, that was a kleptomaniac. She used to 'steal' anything you left laying around that she could move. Thankfully, she always took her 'stolen goods' behind the television/stereo in the living room so you knew where to find your stuff. It used to drive my mother crazy (smile).


So I guess that's it for today. Think I'll head on home after I peruse the books here. I'm looking for the new(er) one by Letts. Billie or Bobbie Letts, something like that. The woman who wrote Where The Heart Is. I heard her new(er) book is pretty good.


So you be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

Snowy Friday At The Library

This is kind of fun! What am I talking about? Being back at the library on the computer! It's been a long time since I've been able to get here. Either it's snowing to beat the band, the roads are icy or it's just too cold to even think about leaving the house, even with four layers of clothes on (smile). But today, even though it's snowing it's not 'real' snow, not accumulating snow. More for looks snow than anything else. And it does look pretty coming down.


My friend Tallulah, now in her second winter of full time living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, does not find snow of any kind pretty. Once upon a time she did, back when she lived down here, but there's been way too much of a good thing snow wise for her to even remotely appreciate it any more. She has been tuned to every single weather service available for the past two weeks, all in an effort to find a window of snow-less opportunity so she can drive down to the metro Detroit area. So far the way it goes is if it's snowing up there, it's clear down in the lower peninsula. And if it's snowing down here then it's clear up there.


I saw on the news the other night a story about a 25 foot snowman in Harvey, Michigan. Harvey is a little town that butts up to Marquette, Tallulah's new hometown. Why, I asked her, didn't you tell me about this snowman???? Why didn't you send me a photo of it??? Her answer: She hasn't seen it yet. And she doesn't have any plans to see it until she can see it out of her rear view mirrow as she's leaving town (smile).


Tallulah says the snowman really isn't any big deal. She says things are so pathetic up there in the winter--the never ending snow, the icy roads, the below zero temperatures--that all the creation of the snow man was was a bunch of drunks with nothing to do. Oh my!


My friend HSM has a new addition to her family! No, she didn't have a baby. Her husband, ABM (Auto Body Man--that's what he does for a living) brought home a stray dog that was running the streets of Detroit over by where he works and which almost got hit twice by a car on the main road. The puppy, a girl, seems to be about a year old and undernourished. So far she's had a bath, a good meal, a warm place to sleep and more love from HSM's brood than she's probably had in her whole short little life. Next week the pup goes to the vets for her shots.


That's how they got their last dog, too--ABM rescued it over by where he works. For a week or two he'd seen a female Boxer roaming the streets, severely undernourished, darting in and out of traffic. He brought her home and, much to their chagrin, discoverred she was pregnant! She was a lovely dog both lookswise and temperment. Only thing was, as soon as she had her litter, she ran away, leaving them with a bunch of puppies. They managed to give all of them to good homes except for two, both males, which they kept and raised. The puppies were full boxers, just paperless. They passed away a couple of years ago.


I bet you're just dying to hear how my crochet project is going, right (smile)? Well, it's going good. I have just about half of the bag finished. I wanted to work on it some yesterday but got caught up cleaning house instead. Oh well. This afternoon, with any luck, I'll have a few hours to put in on it. Despite the fact that the Lion Brand suede-like yarn is challenging to work with, it sure does work up pretty. So soft to the touch.


And speaking of crocheting, Tallulah sent me a book, it arrived in yesterday's mail, 300 different crochet stitches and how to do them! And some socks! Black ones, Gold Toe I think the brand name is. They're soft, don't have that 'knob' feeling at the toe and, she says, last forever.


Well, I think that's just about it for today. There are people milling about waiting to snag a computer so there's no sense me being selfish. You be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

Rainy Tuesdays Make Me Want To Nap

Okay, first things first. Remember me saying a few weeks ago that my answering machine is suffering from dementia? Well, it hasn't gotten any better. In fact, it's taken a turn for the worse. Because I still haven't found a new stand alone 2-line answering machine (and it's not because I haven't tried because I'm looking every single day) please bare with me with the crazy way I'm using the old one.

If you call and you get a constant busy signal--NO, my phone has not been disconnected! I've taken it off the hook because I'm either out of the house for a few hours, or it's late and I've gone to bed.

Why do I take it off the hook instead of just putting in a new message? Well, it's like this. Sometimes, very rarely but once in a blue moon, the machine will take a new message on the first try. Sometimes it takes a good twenty minutes of fooling with it to complete the task, and
sometimes it just won't do anything no matter how long you try. You cannot imagine the level of frustration this causes.

So until I score the new answering machine, well, things are going to be weird around here.

On a good note, here is a new Tallulah photo! She took this in downtown Marquette after one of the first snows this season.


See down at the end of the street, that blue stuff? That's Lake Superior! I think that is one of the coolest things about downtown Marquette. You walk out of a shop and there the lake is. So pretty. The old storefronts are pretty cool, too. Each building is different, not cookie cutter like the strip malls.

I rented another good movie from Blockbuster. Have you seen Stepbrothers with Will Farrell? It is such a hoot! Silly, stupid, funny.

For those of you who knit or crochet---yes, real men do so to knit and crochet! I'm working with Lion Brand suede-like yarn for the first time. Have you ever used it? Tallulah, a knitter, said it was hard to work with. I'm a crotcheter and it's challenging, to say the least. I've learned that if I make a mistake I'm just living with it because the yarn gets all crazy when you tear stitches out. On the plus side, the suede-like yarn works up really soft and nice. I'm making a tote bag out of it and, because it is so soft, I'm going to line it with fabric.

Hey, wouldn't you think with all those Doppler systems the weather forecasters have that they'd get the forecast correct more often? They've been threatening us with doom and gloom winter snowfalls for weeks, none of which, thankfully, have materialized. Yesterday they said snow, ice storm, then rain for today into Wednesday. Right now it's raining, sometimes even pouring, and it feels more like late March than mid-December. Yes, rain is better than an ice storm. Rain is better than snow too, although not nearly as picturesque.

Well, that's it for today. Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong. Don't let all of the scare tactics the media is using get you down.

Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

Wednesday Ramblings

So here it is Wednesday, almost a week since the last time we 'spoke'. Did you miss me? I missed you! This is the first opportunity I've had to get my grubby little fingers on a computer. With the wintery cold weather, replete with snow and some ice, it's just been too crappy to get to the library. But tonight, well, tonight I'm at HSM's house. Why? Because today is my Uncle David's birthday and HSM was kind enough to make a little party for his big day. There aren't necessarily a whole lot of folks here, but you'd never know it by the huge stack of presents he has. Sunday I finally finished that winter neck scarf for him. It came out really nice if I do say so myself. It's black and white and soft and warm. HSM fixed dinner, too. Stuffed peppers--red and yellow ones, salad and yeasty dinner rolls. Yummo! And we haven't even gotten to dessert yet (smile)!


Tallulah, still in the icy wilds of the UP, sent me lots of new photos of winter Marquette style. I'm hoping to get them inserted in the blog within the next few days so you can see them. I swear, she takes some of the best pics I've ever seen. These latest ones show the snow and they make me almost shiver, that's how good they are. Tallulah has been talking about coming downstate soon. Her initial plan was to head this way on Monday of next week, but then she found out she has to work that day. Bummer, huh? Now I'm not sure when she's coming, but I know she'll be here sometime before the end of December, weather permitting. She's been jonesing for some serious shopping expeditions (smile).


Have you rented any movies lately? Last night I watched Hancock with Will Smith. I liked it alot. Will Smith is not only a good actor, but he's real easy on the eyes, too (smile). I like watching movies any time but somehow they just seem so perfect in the winter, don't they? It's on a par with curling up with a good book on a cold, blustery night. With a cup of hot chocolate and some home baked cookies. Especially chocolate chip cookies. Now that beats going out clubbing!


Guess what I bought me? A brand new Bose radio/cd player! It arrived yesterday by way of the UPS truck. Okay, I had a Bose already, an older model, and it sounded good, but.......compared to the new one? Wow! The new one blows the old one away! I have tons of cds, maybe not tons, but lots and lots of them, and I love listening to them. And with the new Bose, wow. They sound incredible!. Now I'm looking forward to Saturday night at 7pm when Jay's Place comes on 101.9 FM, the local Detroit public radio station. Why? Because Jay Butler, the host, plays incredible R+B, it's like you're in a Mississippi juke joint and his music is going to sound phenominal on the new Bose.


If you're a music afficiando, get thee to Bose! It's around $500 for the unit. A hefty price, I know BUT you can pay it by monthly installments on your credit card, with no interest from Bose. When it shows up all you have to do is plug it in. That's it. And you're good to go. And it sounds like you have an enormous, expensive stereo system. I think you'll like it.


Well, that's it for me for tonight. It's almost time to cut the birthday cake and sing to Uncle David. I hope all is well at your end of the world. Stay warm and take good care of yourself.


Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com