There's No Place Lke Home!

Getting away from the grind and stress of daily life is great. Going to new places, seeing new things, it's all good. But coming home, even after you've been away having the time of your life, well, it's the best.


Vacation is over and I'm back to my regular life. It ws great fun while it lasted but it's good to be home.


I spent my vacation time in the great state of Michigan, in a little beach town named Ludington which sits on on the shores of Lake Michigan. It's where I almost always go when I have an opportunity to get away.


The first time I went to Ludington was when I was sixteen years old. Prior to my father's first (in a series of) heart attack we went on vacation every single summer. My father enjoyed Canada, the Bruce Peninsula of Ontario to be exact, maybe a dozen or so miles outside of the town of Wiarton. We would rent a cabin/cottage at either Stokes Bay or Old Womans River and spend a week. My father had a boat we would tow behind our car and he loved to go fishing. My mother would lather up with some sort of wild and crazy guaranteed to tan but not burn you homemade suntan goop (baby oil,iodine and who knows what else) and spend hours laying on the beach. Me, I'd wander around, play in the water, make friends with any other kids staying in the vicinity. That happened every single summer until the year I was a freshman in high school. After my father's heart attack(s) we never went on vacation again.


That's when my best friend, Linda, and her family took me under their wing one summer and brought me along to Ludington with them. I immediately fell in love with the town and every chance I had I'd try to get back there.


Ludington is maybe three and a half hours from here. You go west on I96 until it runs out at Muskegon, then head north to Ludington on 31.


This summer, for the first time in years, I stayed at a place other than my usual motel. I was at Naders Lakeshore Lodge www.nadersmotel.com which sits on North Lakeshore Drive, just a few blocks from Lake Michigan. All of the rooms and suites have sliding glass doorwalls that open onto either a private balcony (if you're upstairs) or a paved patio. There are chairs on each rooms patio, rocking chairs on each balcony. There's a swimming pool, shuffleboard court, basketball hoop, as well as grills and picnic tables. It's a pretty nice place, clean, very wholesome and family oriented.


I ate my meals out at local restaurants. When I had leftovers, which was rare, I kept them in the small fridge in my room, then heated them in my rooms microwave.


Because Ludington is a tourist town there are restaurants up the gazoo. Most of them are great, at least one of them is horrendous.


Handsdown, Mancinos is the best place for pizza, grinders, salads, etc. The portions are huge. In all the years I've been going there I have never, never ever had a bad meal at Mancinos. Kuntry Kitchen Kupboard is also an outstanding place to eat. The food is moderately priced and wonderful, and the waitresses are the best I've seen anywhere. Lots of locals eat there.


The worst place to eat is Luciano's Ristoranti. www.lucianosristoranti.com I think it's the only Italian restaurant in town and maybe that's why it's so bad--no one has anything else to compare their food to. I had chicken piccata and it was awful. A couple sitting near to me had veal parmesan and needed a sharp steak knife to cut the veal. The salads were warm (?), the bread basket was paltry and service was pitiful.


I spent most of my time at the beach. There is a large free public beach at the end of the main street. The sand is clean, the water is clear and I came home brown as a nut! I've always loved laying in the sun, particularly at a beach. The sun bakes whatever is ailing you right up on out of you



I had an opprtunity to do some reading on the beach---The Warden Wore Pink by Tekla Miller (she was a warden here in Michigan), Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King, and I'll Fly Away: Further Testimonials From The Women Of York Prison, edited and introduced by Wally Lamb.


My friend Tallulah gave me the Warden Wore Pink. She ran in to it at a library book sale in Marquette and knew I'd enjoy it. Same Sweet Girls, an oversized paperback, I bought at DollarTree for $1. Same way with the Wally Lamb book, brand new and $1 at DollarTree. I enjoyed all three of the books immensely.


The vacation did just what I'd hoped it would---it made me feel like the old me again, not that fragile post heart attack woman.


If you have the opportunity, get away from home for awhile. A couple days away is enough to give you a whole new perspective on everything.


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

hugs, Tawny
248-615-1300

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It's That Time Of The Year

And what time is that? Vacation time!


I know, you'd think that after being away from the phones for close to two monthes the last thing in the world I'd be doing is taking a vacation. And under normal circumstances that would be the case. Thing is, those darn heart attacks so utterly changed my life that going on vacation seems totally reasonable to me.


I may have mentioned this to you already, but I learned a lot, a whole lot, from the ordeal. I learned that life isn't all about working. Yes, we have to work in order to provide a house and food and clothing for ourselves. But we don't have to work to excess. (Or at least I hope you don't.) For years I worked the phones seven days a week, eighteen hours a day. Sure, I occasionally took a day off here and there, once or twice I even a whole week off. But mostly I worked.


I've always been the kind of person that works a lot of hours. When I tended bar I worked six day weeks, thirteen hour days. It seemed normal to me to bust my butt like that. Working long hours enabled me to purchase a home, new vehicles, nice furniture and clothes, etc.


Since the heart attacks, well, I've decided to take life easier. I'm going to stop and smell the flowers.


So that's why I am out of touch until Tuesday, July 13th at 9AM EST.


Where am I? Basking in the radiant sunshine on a beautiful beach somewhere in the state of Michigan. I am eating fresh fruit and broiled fish. And I am having the time of my life!


Until the 13th be good and be careful, take care and stay strong


hugs, Tawny
tawny_ford@webtv.net

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It's Been Awhile

I've missed talking with you the last few days.


I haven't been feeling good. Not sick, just not 'right'. I've been tired. Dragging ass tired. The kind of tired where you just can't do anything. Even watching tv or reading a book was too much.


I think it's the high heat and humidity. Coupled with those darn precription meds I take. The meds pretty much keep me from feeling hot. But just because I'm not feeling the heat, that doesnt mean I'm not overheating. I stay in frot of a fan and I try to remember to drink plenty of water but I guess I wasn't diligent enough.


Today seems better. I've already got one hour of pedalling in and I've worked out on the weight machine.


I look forward to speaking with you.


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

hugs, Tawny
248-615-1300

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Good For Me, Good For You

I've always tried to eat healthily and since my recent medical troubles I'm trying even harder. Fast food and pizza are no longer my friends, and fried anything is my enemy. Even ice cream, with all of it's fat, is on my try to stay away from list.


The other day when I was at Costco I purchased a tub of Sunshine Energy Bars. I've never been a big fan of bars. Generally speaking, they're kind of pricey and pretty tasteless (at least the ones I've sampled). But when I saw how loaded up these were with all sorts of good for you ingredients, well, I caved.


Talk about having the kitchen sink in them! Oats, dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, apples, apricots), nuts (cashews, walnuts, almonds), sesame seeds, flax seeds, coconut, etc.


Okay, they're kind of dry. You need a glass of something wet to easily get them down. Or at least I do. And they're not as sweet as I'd like. I like things for-real-sweet. But I solved that by mixing together a bit of powdered sugar and a few drops of orange juice and then drizzling the glaze over the bar.


Since I'm really trying to make each morsel of food that passes my lips count nutritionally, these bars are working for me for breakfast and also as a snack. And they help keep me 'regular' (smile).


Perhaps you would like them, too.


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


Hugs, Tawny
248-615-1300

Get Thee To A Costco!

Here in town, well, in downtown Farmington, there are a good many elderly and disabled people out and about. I think it's because the neighborhood around the downtown area is still inhabited, for the most part, by the men and women who purchased their homes in the 1950's during the boomer years of child bearing. While the neighborhoods have turned over some, it's still predominately populated by folks in their late 70's on up. Also, there is a high rise of sorts that rents only to the elderly and the infirm and disabled.


On nice weather days you see lots of these folks out walking. While a goodly number of them are able to walk unassisted, there is an equally good number of them using canes, those motorized 'carts' and---I don't know the name for it--a sort of push walker that also has a seat on it.


That push walker thingie, whenever I see folks using it they're always hunched up over it. No one stands straight as they walkwith it. And it's always a lame shade of dark blue, and flimsy looking.


I was at Costco yesterday after the doctor visit and, lo and behold!, there was a large endcap over in the drugstore section of the store filled with these walker thingies. I think it must be a sooper dooper version because they weren't flimsy looking, they were black, they could support folks up to 300 pounds, and the handlebars rased up high enough for people over 6 feet to use without having to stoop!


And they were right around $95! I don't know what those flimsy looking ones sell for, but this was the Cadillac Escalade version and I think worth the price.


So if you could use one of those, or have a family member, friend or loved one who could--get thee to a Costco!


hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com




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