Special today...

So. 

I was detailing my day on the phone to a friend this afternoon. I had been in my sewing room completing wind socks. I had done the usual chores associated with the bunnies, chickens, and duck. I had collected the body of an entirely unknown, yet not wild, bunny from the street in front of my house and taken it to the cemetery. I had tended to the sick, and possibly dropped-off bunny that I have held captive and caged on the front porch for three weeks now. (I have administered Ivermectin and penicillin and topical anti-robotics, and yet a new wound cropped up yesterday from seemingly no where, and there were disgustingly huge amounts of pus expressed.) 

(I fear that I will nurse him back to health, only to have him squished beneath car tires when I release him.)

I collected two such squished bunnies from in from of Good Neighbor Nancy's house on Monday. I am not sure that I recognized them, either. 

My point is, if there is one, that I had not spoken to another person since Sweetie left this morning at 5:30 until the phone call at 2:00. 

My day had mostly been devoted to taking care of others and other things. That is my life. Probably just like 95% of other women in the world. Taking care of everyone else but me.

I did brush my teeth today. 

I also seem to have lost my camera. Damn it.

This Old House

So, Valerie asked me if I am still moving. 

The short answer is no.

The long answer is fuck no.

1. I love my house too much, and the mortgage is so almost paid off. 

II. Try to sell in this market? I'm not insane. 

C. I'd have to manage it all myself, and I am not up to the challenge. 

#. I am not as angry as I was nine months ago. 

It still takes 20 minutes to get anywhere, and 45 minutes to get somewhere, but…I can cope with that. Right now, I can have my chickens free range over a couple acres and nobody complains about them or the numerous rabbits that populate the town because of me.

I really do love this house and if I could transport it somewhere else, I would. The house is a mess and needs paint and repair and more attention and money than we have on hand, but she is a well-built structure on a solid foundation and we will eventually find the time and/or money to fix her up. And if we don't, the next owners will after we die. She is worth a over ten times more than the mortgage, so things could be a lot worse. 

Let's Be Cool

So I told him that I wanted a top hat. 

Oh! Get me one, too, he said.

Damned copy cat.

John Mayall - It hurts me too

that revolutionary thing that guy said

see more Hacked IRL - Truth in Sarcasm

Machine Wash and Tumble Dry

Hey, chitlin's!

Not much going on here lately. My allergies still beset me, and I wake up tired and stay sleepy until midday, when I lay down again.

There are various annoying things happening with neighbors, but in general, life is plodding on uneventfully, but with a sub-layer of unease. 

Knitting, still, on the shawl; am up to 453 stitches, and increasing 6 every other row. Wondering if I will have enough of the Misti Alpaca to finish as I have used about 2/3s of the weight so far and still have just over 50 more rows. I can always get more, or something similar and then dye it. Once this is done, I intend to begin the green tweedy sweater. Intend being the operative word. I may, in addition to or instead of, begin a pair of socks. 

Socks are so comforting - to knit and to wear.

Haven't sat at my new and expensive sewing machine all week. Not sure what is going on with that. Must be because I don't feel well. J Dragon, it isn't like the bad old days after all, although I never thought I'd sew this much ever again. 

Kite Man has a friend who has an idea for clothing called InActive Wear, Slouching to Armageddon or something like that. Don't know if anything will ever come of it, but it is fun to speculate.

Sweetie has been at his job for a year, and there has just been a new manager installed who is making everyone miserable. I know it is against the law to not allow lunch breaks, but who wants to raise a stink and lose a job in this economy? It's not just him, but the warehouse crew as well, and maybe others, that gets no time to eat. Sweetie is putting out feelers and sending resumes to 4 or 5 companies a week all while he is under terrific stress, being the Maintenance Mechanic/Manager/Safety Trainer/Whipping Boy, and getting way more work to do than there is time in a day. 

My job has been, as it always has, to create a safe haven for him here at home that is free from stress and worry. As much as I can, anyway. 

So it goes. At least he still has a job, albeit one where he is treated like shit. Hope this changes soon. 

I am hating this new blogger interface.

My new baby!

As I write this, 4 o'clock on the second day of autumn, it is 98º outside. There are farmers in their fields, harvesting their corn and soybeans and kicking up dust and plant particles into the atmosphere, and these tiny bits of crap are finding their way into my house and onto my skin. (I don't fault the farmers. Please, no hate mail.) My skin is in flat out rebellion, I tell ya. Every year, my allergic dermatitis gets worse. This year, it's my knuckles that are red and flaky and itchy, in addition to all of the old red, flaky and itchy places: wrists, ankles, top of foot, odd places on my fingers, and elbows. The non-permanent irritations have been on my hips, front thighs, and shins. Least my face is still purty.

So far.

We are lucky here in Lovely LAconia, in that we have had almost an inch of rain in the last two weeks. My friend in the next county to my west said they have not had rain for six weeks. Lucky, too, in that there is a front moving through this weekend which may bring rain, but will assuredly bring us our normal seasonal temperatures of 78º daytime and 50-something at night by Saturday.

One more day.

Also? My new sewing machine arrived late Monday, the last delivery from a huge FedEx truck. Thank goodness I am married to a mechanic, because the thing needed to be assembled and fine-tuned and I couldn't even loosen a bolt myself. (Couldn't even find where he hides his ratchets and sockets and pliers.) (Because, of course, all of my tools have migrated to better pastures.) And thank goodness I had another machine, set in an industrial table, to use as a go-by. I pity the poor homesewer that gets one of these and doesn't have the hand strength or a handyman handy, as there were no assembly instructions. At all. My one complaint.

What can I say? I love this machine! I read as many reviews as I could find before and after I ordered this one, and one of the complaints was the noise of the one horsepower clutch motor. Noise? To me, that sound is as sweet as any Beethoven symphony! Ooooh, the power! She is mine! Bwahaha!

And the table is too big. Well, yeah. It's a big powerful machine in an industrial table.

And it goes too fast! Excuse me? Then why did you buy this one in the first place?

I hate having to stop and wind bobbins in the middle of my project! You can wind a bobbin as you sew, knucklehead!

The stitches are perfect, and at 2000 stitches a minute, just fine for my needs. Straight stitch and zigzag, with 5! needle positions. I love that I can backstitch at speed and not break a needle. This machine is manufactured in Thailand with Swiss-made parts. It is labeled as a TacSew. I saw Bernina Tacsews, the exact same machine, for sale online for $3400. I paid about $1700 less than that. (You do the math.) Yet mine still came with the Bernina guarantee and the Bernina brochure.) I am looking forward to working on this baby for many, many years to come.

Of course, I wish I could have bought this machine 20 years ago and know that it was made in Switzerland, but times change and this is the world I live in now.