My Old Friend
5:36 p.m. - 2010-05-28


My two sewing machines are still at the shop in Nut Creek, where they said it takes about 3-4 weeks for the guy to work through the backlog to get to your machine. I was driving around the other day, doing errands for my dad, when I suddenly remembered the time his vacuum broke about five years ago and he took it to the Sewing and Vacuum repair store in the 4 corners area. Hey, I thought to myself, it does say 'sewing' and not just 'vac'. I also recall that the service charge was amazingly reasonable. I decided to try something new since what I need is not so much a store that sells machines and does repairs on the side, but a real, old-fashioned fixer guy. I went over there and met the guy, and he seems really good, and the shop was just stuffed full of machines he had fixed. I sneakily looked at the tickets on the machines which were waiting for their owners to come and pick them up, and the charges were amazingly low (for someone used to Nut Creek prices). As a test case, I took him my old Kenmore, a really good (though cheap at the time) machine that was a favorite of mine until I lost the foot pedal and another fixer guy goofed up the tension device. I didn't hold it against that old fixer guy because he was nice, and I found out later that unbeknownst to any of us or him and his wife, he was going through a series of mini strokes that culminated a a later stroke that caused his retirement. So that's why he goofed up the tension device - his mind was not what it had been. He retired and got better though, since I ran into his wife in Michaels a few years ago and she said he is fine and plays golf. ANYWAY, the thought of having that favorite machine back in action is a real mood elevator - it is an all metal, gear-driven machine (my favorite kind) that could sew like the wind, and it made easy buttonholes, too. Plus, I found a cool old buttonholer attachment that works on this machine at the thrift store and want to try it out. It uses cams, also a favorite of mine. Since the charges at this shop are only half of what the other shop charged, I could afford to get my other old machines serviced and put into action.

I am making dinner tonight for the spouse and daughter to 'celebrate' or rather, commiserate, the end of her job. The company closed down so she is back looking for another job. But at least we can be happy tonight and eat steak.