Even though it's much colder outside this morning than it was yesterday I am going to try my hardest not to whine about it (smile). The fact that there is brilliant sunshine goes a long way towards making the morning more pleasant. There's (almost) nothing worse than a grey and gloomy day.
You're not going to believe this but I kid you not, the hummer is back! and she's sitting right across from me again. Apparently I'm going to have to learn her winter coat and gloves because they were at that computer desk when I sat down. If I wasn't already logged in I'd move to another machine. Oh well, guess she likes this spot too. As far as I'm concerned it's the best spot because you're out of the main flow of traffic, but close enough to the librarians desk to holler for help if you need it. But next time I come I'm moving over by the windows, that should keep her away from me.
On the ride to the library this morning the country radio station I was listening to, 99.5FM, was jabbering away about the Hannah Montana concert last night in metro Detroit. From all the media coverage of it for the past few weeks--tv and radio stations doing giveaways of free tickets--you'd have thought the Beatles had been resurrected (smile). I don't have children or friends with daughters, but apparently Hannah Montana is a hot ticket. I'm not familiar with her at all except to know it's a hugely popular tv show and Billy Ray Cyrrus's (the country singer) daughter plays Hannah Montana. Me, I don't know if I had a child if I'd have taken her to the concert. I saw little girls on the news that appeared to be 7-8 years old screaming their heads off about the concert. That seems kind of young, to me, to have your child all agog about something like that. She should still be playing with dolls and having tea parties, not badgering her parents for concert tickets. But what do I know.
I'm guessing it's cold where you are too, right? So what are you doing to stay warm? and occupied when it's just too cold to be outside?
I'm reading. I'd tell you the name of the book but, and I know this is going to sound pathetic, I can't remember the title. My friend, the homeschool mom, loaned me a series of three books she had greatly enjoyed reading. Not mainstream, nothing you'd probably be familiar with, written by a foreign author and translated to english. Next time I'll write the author's name and the titles of the books down so I can tell you.
I'm also crocheting. I have so much yarn it's almost unbelievable. All sorts of different types, from cotton to wool and all the synthetics, and in a range of beautiful colors. I'm working on a scarf now, a really long one that'll wrap three times around your neck, in black and white. I have a gorgeous blend of purples and pinks that I'm planning on using for another scarf and I'm kind of eager to get started on it because the yarn is so pretty. And then there's the bag I want to crochet. I saw a woman on tv, I think a DIY show, who did something she called free form crocheting, and I'm eager to try it on a bag pattern I found in a magazine.
Well, that's it for this morning. The hummer is on my last nerve and I told you I wasn't going to whine so in order to keep my promise I have to sign off (smile).
Take care, be good, be careful, stay strong. And stay warm!
Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Well, it's another interesting day here at the library. I'm not sure if that's a good thing.
It snowed last night, not a whole lot, just enough to mess up the roads and to make parking lots a bit slippery if they weren't shovelled and salted too. The library parking lot, well, every winter some knucklehead decides to pile the snow up between the cement parking blocks. You know, those 3 or 4 foot long cement thingies that define parking spaces, that keep cars from physically touching nose to nose. It may not seem like a big thing to you either, but that's only because you're a rugged man. If you're a senior or a woman with children or just a clumsy, not so sure on her feet person (that's me!) they pose problems and are logistical nightmares as you try to get from your parked vehicle to the entrance of the building.
And then I get in here and don't you know the woman who sits across from me at one of the other computers is a hummer! No, nothing sexual (smile). I mean she is literally humming as she does whatever she's doing at 'her' computer. So what's the big deal, you ask? I wish you were here with me so you could hear the big deal.
Part of all this crabbing I'm doing, I think, is because I've had better days. You too?
The house was cold this morning when I got up. Yes, I keep the thermostat turned down, 58 degrees all of the winter unless it gets frightful out there, and I'm okay with it except for today. It took awhile for the shower to warm up, I was cold while I combed out, dried and then braided my hair. My clothes were cold when I put them on. And then I had to go out and scrape the windows on my truck. The darn thing never fully warmed up until I got about 2 blocks from the library.......whine whine whine, sorry (smile).
I had plans to go to the outlet mall in Howell, maybe 50-60 miles away, but I have a thing about driving in crappy snowy weather. I don't do it. At least I don't venture any farther than town and I'm there now (smile). No, I didn't need anything at the outlet mall, not really, I was just going to look, to walk around a bit.
And speaking of walking around. You know those things you clip to the waistband of your slacks, those little battery operated gizmos that measure how far you've walked? Have you ever used one? I bought one last week at KMart for grins and giggles and chuckles and laughs. I thought it would be fun to know how many miles I log in a day. Well talk about demoralizing, doggoneit. Do you know last night when I finally crawled in to bed, so tired I couldn't hardly even see straight, my gizmo said I'd walked a whopping 3 miles! Three miles!!!! For the whole day!
Okay, I'm done whining to you (smile). Thanks for putting up with me (smile).
Be good, be careful, take care, stay strong.
Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
It snowed last night, not a whole lot, just enough to mess up the roads and to make parking lots a bit slippery if they weren't shovelled and salted too. The library parking lot, well, every winter some knucklehead decides to pile the snow up between the cement parking blocks. You know, those 3 or 4 foot long cement thingies that define parking spaces, that keep cars from physically touching nose to nose. It may not seem like a big thing to you either, but that's only because you're a rugged man. If you're a senior or a woman with children or just a clumsy, not so sure on her feet person (that's me!) they pose problems and are logistical nightmares as you try to get from your parked vehicle to the entrance of the building.
And then I get in here and don't you know the woman who sits across from me at one of the other computers is a hummer! No, nothing sexual (smile). I mean she is literally humming as she does whatever she's doing at 'her' computer. So what's the big deal, you ask? I wish you were here with me so you could hear the big deal.
Part of all this crabbing I'm doing, I think, is because I've had better days. You too?
The house was cold this morning when I got up. Yes, I keep the thermostat turned down, 58 degrees all of the winter unless it gets frightful out there, and I'm okay with it except for today. It took awhile for the shower to warm up, I was cold while I combed out, dried and then braided my hair. My clothes were cold when I put them on. And then I had to go out and scrape the windows on my truck. The darn thing never fully warmed up until I got about 2 blocks from the library.......whine whine whine, sorry (smile).
I had plans to go to the outlet mall in Howell, maybe 50-60 miles away, but I have a thing about driving in crappy snowy weather. I don't do it. At least I don't venture any farther than town and I'm there now (smile). No, I didn't need anything at the outlet mall, not really, I was just going to look, to walk around a bit.
And speaking of walking around. You know those things you clip to the waistband of your slacks, those little battery operated gizmos that measure how far you've walked? Have you ever used one? I bought one last week at KMart for grins and giggles and chuckles and laughs. I thought it would be fun to know how many miles I log in a day. Well talk about demoralizing, doggoneit. Do you know last night when I finally crawled in to bed, so tired I couldn't hardly even see straight, my gizmo said I'd walked a whopping 3 miles! Three miles!!!! For the whole day!
Okay, I'm done whining to you (smile). Thanks for putting up with me (smile).
Be good, be careful, take care, stay strong.
Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
Sunday, December 02, 2007
We finally did a count on all of the stuff we have stock piled for our next give out to the homeless. This was not a minor undertaking by anymeans. You never quite realize what all you have put away until you dragit all out and start counting.
At this point we have enough items to assemle 180 hygiene kits. That's a plastic ziploc baggie with a full size bar of soap, a full size washcloth, a full size toothbrush with a plastic end cap to keep it clean, a small tube of toothpaste, a small personal size deodorant and for some (as only have a small number)--a disposable razor.
We have enough socks, 208 pair, to be able to give 104 people two pairs of brand new socks so they can layer them on for extra warmth.
We have 100 pairs of gloves, 85 hats and 23 headbands (you know, like the skiers wear to keep their ears warm). The goal is to grind up on 15 more hats, 77 more headbands and 100 more pairs of gloves. We want to be able to provide at least 100 people with 2 brand new pairs of gloves so they can layer them on for extra warmth, 1 new hat, and 1 new headband to wear under the hat for extra warmth.
We have ziploc baggies on hand for the sandwiches and brown paper bags to put the lunches in. Come January we'll get the loaves of bread, turkey lunch meat, cheese slices, candy and whatever else we have money for to add to the lunch bags. The goal is to assemble 200 bagged lunches so we can give folks 2 each.
We still have to buy a case of those plastic shopping bags like you get your groceries packed in at the grocery store. They are an essential component as the recipients need some way to easily carry all of the things we hand out to them.
Things are coming together nicely. The way we all see it, there but for the Grace of God it could be us, or even you, needing help.
Take care, be good, be careful, stay strong.
Tawny
http://www.tawnyford.com/
At this point we have enough items to assemle 180 hygiene kits. That's a plastic ziploc baggie with a full size bar of soap, a full size washcloth, a full size toothbrush with a plastic end cap to keep it clean, a small tube of toothpaste, a small personal size deodorant and for some (as only have a small number)--a disposable razor.
We have enough socks, 208 pair, to be able to give 104 people two pairs of brand new socks so they can layer them on for extra warmth.
We have 100 pairs of gloves, 85 hats and 23 headbands (you know, like the skiers wear to keep their ears warm). The goal is to grind up on 15 more hats, 77 more headbands and 100 more pairs of gloves. We want to be able to provide at least 100 people with 2 brand new pairs of gloves so they can layer them on for extra warmth, 1 new hat, and 1 new headband to wear under the hat for extra warmth.
We have ziploc baggies on hand for the sandwiches and brown paper bags to put the lunches in. Come January we'll get the loaves of bread, turkey lunch meat, cheese slices, candy and whatever else we have money for to add to the lunch bags. The goal is to assemble 200 bagged lunches so we can give folks 2 each.
We still have to buy a case of those plastic shopping bags like you get your groceries packed in at the grocery store. They are an essential component as the recipients need some way to easily carry all of the things we hand out to them.
Things are coming together nicely. The way we all see it, there but for the Grace of God it could be us, or even you, needing help.
Take care, be good, be careful, stay strong.
Tawny
http://www.tawnyford.com/
Thursday, November 29, 2007
It's funny, isn't it, how everything can be going peachy keen and then all of a sudden--pow! It's like that this morning. I sat down at "my" computer here at the library, did all the little things you have to do in order to use a computer at the luibrary, got to the blog site and google lost it's mind and didn't recognize me! And it took a prescious four minutes to jog their memory.
Do you shop at dollar stores? I never used to, I always turned my nose up at them like I'd gotten a whif of stinky something (smile). And then I discovered Dollar Castle, a local store, and they had all sorts of good merchandise, not that crappy chintzy stuff some/many/most dollar stores are noted for. You could get 24 oz. bottles of 100% juice for a dollar! Then, don't you know, just when I was a Dollar Castle junkie, they sold to someone else and before you could say boo the store not only was loaded up with junky junk, but everything that had been cool to buy there was now upwards of $2.00! That ended my love affair with them.
Then I discovered Dollar Tree (www.dollartree.com), the best dollar store around. Sure, there's a bit of that junky junk, but the bulk of the merchandise is good stuff like you'd find in 'regular' stores.
I was there yesterday and found cds, music cds, for $1.00. And the selection wasn't bad. Plus, for only a dollar, you can venture out there and try artists that you normally wouldn't because who wants to drop $10+ on someone they may have never heard of?
I also bought 50 pairs of mens insulated socks and 14 winter headbands. Why so many? Well, have I ever told you about the homeless project we have going? A group of us save our little dollars, then use them to purchase socks, gloves, hats, headbands, hygiene kits that we assemble ourselves (toothbrush, toothpaste, wash cloth, bar of soap, deodorant, sometimes a razor), food (bread, lunchmeat, cheese, candy, etc.) that gets made into a care package, etc. We collect previously worn winter coats and sweaters, anything that'll keep a person warm from anyone who'll give them to us, plus whatever we have ourselves at home that we aren't wearing anymore. Then we take all of these goods into the city of Detroit, set up near one of the shelters, and pass out until it's all gone.
We don't pass out goods in November and December. Why? Because that seems to be when the homeless are popular. When they have almost a celebrity status about them and everybody wants to do something for them. Like donate to a food bank, or go down and serve meals at the shelter. Thing is, come January and February and March it's cold out and there's still homeless people out there trying to survive and all of a sudden the world forgets they're even there. And that's when we step in to try and fill the void for the remaining monthes of the year.
We have lots of goods stored at several of our people's homes and we're always trying to stock pile more. Dollar Tree has been one of our best sources for purchasing what we need. Those insulated socks for $1.00 are a good buy, as are the rest of the things we get there.
I'm sure you're already giving money and goods to charitable organizations in your area. But if you have a couple extra dollars we sure could put it to good use. Don't want to send money? That's okay. You can either go to your local Dollar Tree (or any dollar store in your area) or go online to www.dollartree.com and have them ship to us what you picked out.
We'll definitely see that it gets in to the hands of those who need it most.
And yes, I'm sure it seems a little wierd to you to have the phone sex lady talking to you about helping the homeless, but hey! we are all much more than we what we do for a living.
Take care, be good, be careful, stay strong.
Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
ps The address to send donations or shipped goods is on my website. TMC, POBox 191, Farmington, MI 48332
Do you shop at dollar stores? I never used to, I always turned my nose up at them like I'd gotten a whif of stinky something (smile). And then I discovered Dollar Castle, a local store, and they had all sorts of good merchandise, not that crappy chintzy stuff some/many/most dollar stores are noted for. You could get 24 oz. bottles of 100% juice for a dollar! Then, don't you know, just when I was a Dollar Castle junkie, they sold to someone else and before you could say boo the store not only was loaded up with junky junk, but everything that had been cool to buy there was now upwards of $2.00! That ended my love affair with them.
Then I discovered Dollar Tree (www.dollartree.com), the best dollar store around. Sure, there's a bit of that junky junk, but the bulk of the merchandise is good stuff like you'd find in 'regular' stores.
I was there yesterday and found cds, music cds, for $1.00. And the selection wasn't bad. Plus, for only a dollar, you can venture out there and try artists that you normally wouldn't because who wants to drop $10+ on someone they may have never heard of?
I also bought 50 pairs of mens insulated socks and 14 winter headbands. Why so many? Well, have I ever told you about the homeless project we have going? A group of us save our little dollars, then use them to purchase socks, gloves, hats, headbands, hygiene kits that we assemble ourselves (toothbrush, toothpaste, wash cloth, bar of soap, deodorant, sometimes a razor), food (bread, lunchmeat, cheese, candy, etc.) that gets made into a care package, etc. We collect previously worn winter coats and sweaters, anything that'll keep a person warm from anyone who'll give them to us, plus whatever we have ourselves at home that we aren't wearing anymore. Then we take all of these goods into the city of Detroit, set up near one of the shelters, and pass out until it's all gone.
We don't pass out goods in November and December. Why? Because that seems to be when the homeless are popular. When they have almost a celebrity status about them and everybody wants to do something for them. Like donate to a food bank, or go down and serve meals at the shelter. Thing is, come January and February and March it's cold out and there's still homeless people out there trying to survive and all of a sudden the world forgets they're even there. And that's when we step in to try and fill the void for the remaining monthes of the year.
We have lots of goods stored at several of our people's homes and we're always trying to stock pile more. Dollar Tree has been one of our best sources for purchasing what we need. Those insulated socks for $1.00 are a good buy, as are the rest of the things we get there.
I'm sure you're already giving money and goods to charitable organizations in your area. But if you have a couple extra dollars we sure could put it to good use. Don't want to send money? That's okay. You can either go to your local Dollar Tree (or any dollar store in your area) or go online to www.dollartree.com and have them ship to us what you picked out.
We'll definitely see that it gets in to the hands of those who need it most.
And yes, I'm sure it seems a little wierd to you to have the phone sex lady talking to you about helping the homeless, but hey! we are all much more than we what we do for a living.
Take care, be good, be careful, stay strong.
Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
ps The address to send donations or shipped goods is on my website. TMC, POBox 191, Farmington, MI 48332
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
It's kind of funny, not in a hahaha way, more in an ironic way, how some folks feel about the wars the USA is fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
From talking to people on the phone, those who are the most rabid and gung ho about these wars, and who cop attitudes and get pissy, nasty and irrational when I say anything at all about how wrong those two wars are, much less if I post anything in this blog disagreeing with Bush's policies, those are the folks who--almost 100%--have never been in the military and who have never gone off to war.
Folks on the phone who have served in the military and fought in wars (from WW2 to Vietnam), they are the ones, almost every single last one of them, who fervently wish and hope and pray that Bush and his cronies would end the war and bring the troops home now, this minute.
When I was with my family members on Thanksgiving I got to thinking about all of them who have either fought in Iraq or Afghanistan or who are waiting for deployment to one of those places. And the list was a long one.
My cousin, Prescious (her mother was very young and very thankful when she gave birth to her), was in Iraq. Now her husband is over there. More than two dozen other cousins have been or are waiting to go back again.
My aunt, Uncle Robert's wife, was telling me about her three sons, all in the service, who have been in Iraq more than twice each and are awaiting orders to return again.
And the thing is, all of my aunts and uncles and cousins, every single one of them say the wars are bull shit. Every single one of them who has been in Iraq and Afghanistan say that. And every single one of them who has ever been in the US military, during war time or peace time, say that.
I've got a bunch of links to share with you:
www.HollyNear.com (Yes, she's my favorite singer, you remembered! Check out the link on her page to Oppose the war(s)! It's interesting and informative.)
www.forusa.org (This is the oldest and largest interfaith peace group in the USA.)
www.donnellycolt.com
www.northernsun.com
www.syracuseculturalworkers.com
(These are places to purchase bumper stickers, buttons, tshirts, etc.)
I think it says something real profound about people who have never been to war and are blood thirsty for it. And it's not a profoundly good or complimentary thing either.
Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
From talking to people on the phone, those who are the most rabid and gung ho about these wars, and who cop attitudes and get pissy, nasty and irrational when I say anything at all about how wrong those two wars are, much less if I post anything in this blog disagreeing with Bush's policies, those are the folks who--almost 100%--have never been in the military and who have never gone off to war.
Folks on the phone who have served in the military and fought in wars (from WW2 to Vietnam), they are the ones, almost every single last one of them, who fervently wish and hope and pray that Bush and his cronies would end the war and bring the troops home now, this minute.
When I was with my family members on Thanksgiving I got to thinking about all of them who have either fought in Iraq or Afghanistan or who are waiting for deployment to one of those places. And the list was a long one.
My cousin, Prescious (her mother was very young and very thankful when she gave birth to her), was in Iraq. Now her husband is over there. More than two dozen other cousins have been or are waiting to go back again.
My aunt, Uncle Robert's wife, was telling me about her three sons, all in the service, who have been in Iraq more than twice each and are awaiting orders to return again.
And the thing is, all of my aunts and uncles and cousins, every single one of them say the wars are bull shit. Every single one of them who has been in Iraq and Afghanistan say that. And every single one of them who has ever been in the US military, during war time or peace time, say that.
I've got a bunch of links to share with you:
www.HollyNear.com (Yes, she's my favorite singer, you remembered! Check out the link on her page to Oppose the war(s)! It's interesting and informative.)
www.forusa.org (This is the oldest and largest interfaith peace group in the USA.)
www.donnellycolt.com
www.northernsun.com
www.syracuseculturalworkers.com
(These are places to purchase bumper stickers, buttons, tshirts, etc.)
I think it says something real profound about people who have never been to war and are blood thirsty for it. And it's not a profoundly good or complimentary thing either.
Tawny
www.tawnyford.com
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