SMART MACHINES

Rain came down with a vengeance, off and on all day yesterday. And, mighty welcome, too. I have a yen to sew when it rains and my Elna, ten years old but hardly used, is, like a cell phone, smarter than me. Read: frustrating. When I used to sew all the time, I had trouble with it. Now, I have to re-read and re-read the directions that are of questionable help, as in- to do this, you do this, and refer to page 21?  GAK!  I hate that. Thread kept breaking. I couldn’t get the tension right, nor the stitch size right given you have to change it for zigzag. From the pictures, I couldn’t tell what dial they were talking about. I brought the machine to my dining room table where the light is excellent and gave up after 3 or 4 tries. It sat there for a month. Yesterday, I got the tension and stitch right. A small ephiphany.

But, I’m not abandoning my reliable straight stitcher Singer that I hauled out of storage to use while the fancy machine took up space in the dining room. I’m going to keep it on my sewing table, JUST IN CASE.  It yanks your arm out of its socket when you lift it, but it isn’t smarter than me. Read: simple.  (That probably describes me, too.)

I had new gutter guards professionally installed so I don’t have to climb on the roof and clean gutters anymore. The company has returned five times because there is a leak in front of my door. I called the owner and he came to fix it. Well, the rain is gone for now, the whole deck is dry this morning except for that spot in front of my front door. I’m about ready to diss this company. There wasn’t a leak before they cleaned my gutters and installed their system. If Jim were here, he’d be down to their office in a heartbeat. I might do the same come Monday since I have to go to Sonora for new tires.

I’m working on my book a bit each morning as I try and limit my on-line time to two hours a day.

I hope we get the rest of the rain we’ve been promised.

 

 

 

WINTER IS COMING

Before the rain came, I hired an indispensable neighbor,  Joe, to help me get ready for winter. He cleaned my gutters, wrapped my swamp coolers and washed outside windows. All in half a day.  I took out one particularly long cord that I use for the leaf blower and untangled it, apologizing for the mess the cord was in. My son always manages to fold a cord easily and neatly so that it never tangles, I told him, but once I undo it, it never goes back in a neat circle. Before Joe left for the day, he called me outside to look at my cord.

Joe undid some of the cord and showed me how it is done.  I took this picture as a reminder.

Yesterday, Jim scanned about 130 photos for me from my youngest daughter’s memory book and I spent a greater portion of the day putting them through Piccasa editing for captions and damage repair. Old color photos fade miserably.  Digitized, they retain their best qualities.