I’m still sick with the flu. Now I can hear my chest gurgling when I exhale. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. Duncan doesn’t like the sound, but I’m kind of intrigued by it. Maybe I have pleurisy or something.
I’ve got another job interview! Tuesday morning, ten o’clock. Hopefully I’ll have shaken the plague by then.
We had blueberry pancakes last night, to celebrate Pancake Tuesday. The dinner table keeps getting fuller. There’s me and GC, who sit in chairs, Duncan who lies on the floor between us, Logan the Dog, who lies on the other side of GC, Kazoo, who perches on his playstand on the other side of Logan, and Genvieve, the mannequin, who stands in the corner beside Kazoo. I’m not sure where Simon’s playstand will go. I guess it will depend on how well he and Kazoo get along. (Oboe would love to join us for dinner too, but he’s got terrible table manners. Not only that, but certain other members of the family would like to eat him.)
I haven’t gotten very much done since being felled by the plague. Today’s goal is to try to figure out the automatic needle-threader on the sewing machine. I’m half-way through making a hanging sleeping tent for Kazoo, but I ran into problems which resulted in the needle becoming unthreaded.
Speaking of sewing machine problems, GC and I are mystified by his vast knowledge of how sewing machines work. He doesn’t know how he knows what he knows, but he knows stuff. For instance, the other evening he walked into the house and I was busy taking apart the sewing machine. I’d taken off the foot and was in the process of removing the plate under the needle with a screwdriver. (I was consulting the user guide to do all this.)
“What are you doing?” he asked from the door.
“Taking apart the sewing machine,” I said.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said. “I think I know what’s wrong and you just have to turn the dial thingy a bit.”
I didn’t know how he could possibly know what was wrong, even, let alone how to fix it, since the problem had just happened and he couldn’t even see the problem from where he was standing.
Then he came over and turned the dial thingy a bit and everything was fixed. Just like that. We stared at each other, amazed. It was like we’d just found out that he could play the piano flawlessly even though he’d never touched one before.
I never did figure the automatic needle threader out, just did it manually. Are you having fun learning?
I am. Because I started out knowing nothing, every little thing I learn makes me so much more knowledgeable. So even though I’m learning slowly, it feels really satisfying.
Maybe GC was a sewing machine repair man in a previous life. Or a seamstress! Or maybe it’s an ancestral memory. Whatever the explanation, I’d use his expertise – much easier to turn a dial than to take the machine apart.
Hope you’re feeling better soon.
Apparently his grandfather used to own a menswear shop, and he used to hang out there sometimes as a kid, and keep the tailor company. Maybe he picked it up by osmosis there.
WOW can he use this super power remotely – how do I get my bobbin to turn and move ythe thread up through the presser plate?
Every time I use my sewing machine, I have to learn how to use it from scratch. This is so not intuitive for me!
I hope your feeling better soon – and good luck with the job interview!
My dinner table is much the same, minus the dogs and the birds, but throw in two extra (and occasionally poorly mannered) cats.
Thanks for the sewing nudge. I’m almost done A’s quilt. She wanted it quilted with buttons and that is taking forever but it means I get to spend a lot of time thinking about her.
Fingers crossed for getting you better and getting you a job and getting you through Ottawa’s sodden streets!