Tuesday, September 14, 2010

See note below.

The printer, she works! She scans! She copies! She connects with my computer! She makes acres of coleslaw! And she's lovely.

I discovered that my Bernina 117 sewing machine is likely 70 years old, having first been manufactured in Switzerland in 1939. It is amazing, especially in today's throwaway world, to have a piece of equipment that still works after so many years, and most likely could still be working in 70 years hence. I have had a bit of trouble recently (in the past week,) with the tension. I have narrowed it down to the spring in the upper tension disk, but I have cleaned and oiled the assembly and had Sweetie blow it out with the air compressor and it is behaving a little better. But not perfectly, as it always has in the past. I'm not sure where I can get her worked on, around here. I found an original manual online, but there was not an expanded parts diagram included. Ah, well, I shall find a way. The shame is that I need her for kites and wind socks and such. The tension is passable, as I said, and I will cope. I always have the little Brother as backup.

Word of the Day, with thanks to Wikipedia
Nerd — A colloquial term for a computer person, especially an obsessive, singularly focusedone.
Earlier spelling of the term is "Nurd" and the original spelling is "Knurd", but the pronunciation has remained the same. The term originated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the late 1940s. Students who partied, and rarely studied were called "Drunks", while the opposite — students who never partied and always studied were "Knurd" ("Drunk" spelled backwards). The term was also (independently) used in a Dr. Seuss book, and on the TV show Happy Days, giving it international popularity.