Widow Wars
4:38 p.m. - 2010-06-04


Gosh, this week was stressful and busy. I think I took the Great J out on errands for three days in a row. I got one of my sewing machines back from the shop and it was wonderful to sew on again, until the stitch regulator knob fell off. Back it went this morning, but the guy at the new-to-me shop had the absolutely correct response and vowed to fix it up again. I like him, he seems very nice and honorable. I have a 90 day warranty, too. The other shop called and said the Elna 9000 is ready to come home, and Dan said that its problem was a broken bobbin case housing (plastic, of course, so why does it cost $42?). Luckily, he had one in stock. All this plastic failure in a machine (!!) makes me not want to buy any new machines, but to spend the money on upkeep for the old metal machines. I loved working on the Kenmore right after it came home again, finishing up Abby's blouse, before the stitch regulator died of old age. That's just my machine being cute - I am sure the thing worked perfectly while it was in the shop, then croaked as soon as it came home.

I finished planting out the onions and still have two bins full left. These are multiplier onions that make more green onions than you can use, but are polite and don't spread themselves around the yard. Joel wants some, and Melissa wants to have a tub of them, so I just have to divide them up and deliver them. I also started summer squash seeds, more beets, and sorted out the seed packets. We use an organic fertilizer, so you have to wait a week or two after applying it before you can stick the seeds in the ground, since the breakdown of the fertilizer inhibits seed sprouting, or so I read somewhere. I still need to start the Thai basil, the sugar snap peas, and other stuff.

The night before last I was coming across the back porch after closing the garage door, and I saw a spider web and a big black widow spider. The next morning I went back to get it, and managed to move some stuff and scare it out, and luckily there was a fly swatter at hand, and let's just say there is a new largish smear on the back house wall. I don't like the idea of there being black widows near where I keep my garden clogs, though I do peer into them before I put them on. I remember my boss in Virginia who was telling me about the time she spent in Panama when her spouse was in the Navy. Every time you put on your shoes or slippers there, you had to shake them to make sure scorpions were not in them. Not my idea of a peaceful life.

There is a library booksale coming up soon. I missed the last one, so I will be glad to make this one. I am always on the lookout for sewing and cooking books, and Georgette Heyer books, of course.