Imagining the Potential

Everything but the corn has been started in the greenhouse. Now we wait. I feel like we are weeks behind, but I think we will catch up by the time we need to put plants in the ground.

The garden is going to require some work:

The strawberry bed looks great. Everything else is a mess. I’ve got to move plastic around and rake up dead vegetation. The husband will plant potatoes for me as soon as the ground is workable, so we have been talking about what is going to go where. I try to shift things around from year to year to confuse the bugs.

I am moving the baby velociraptors to the chicken coop today. This is an aggressive bunch of chicks and I am worried they are going to start pecking at each other. The coop has a small, enclosed room. The chicks can see the big chickens and vice versa, but they are physically separated. The chicks will have plenty of room to run around.

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I let my inner magpie loose in the sewing room yesterday to play with shiny serger thread:

This is such a departure for me. I am not into bling, but I’m teaching a serger class called Christmas in July (in July) and I need class samples. Class samples might be made from a commercial pattern or they might come out of my head. Even if I am using a commercial pattern, I have to make it up at least once to identify potential student pitfalls. And if the class sample has to come out of my head, it almost always requires several iterations before I have something I can use. The process can be tedious.

I am working on three projects for this class. One project has a prototype—out of my head—that needs refinement. A second project is almost done; I need to get a few supplies to finish it. The third project has been through the testing phase and looks great.

The goal of this class is to make the projects, yes, but it’s also for students to learn some new techniques using glitzy threads. I used the Bernina L860 yesterday. I will also try some of these techniques on my Juki serger in case I have students who don’t have the fancy Bernina sergers. Fancy is nice, but I want these projects to be accessible to everyone.

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I’ve been having trouble getting a live person on the phone at BMW of Spokane. The husband wanted me to call and find out if the current fault code is related to the work they did back in September. I called again yesterday afternoon and someone finally answered. I gave my name and asked for Kevin, as I usually do, and the guy on the other end said," “He’s no longer here. He went to work at another dealership. My name is Josh. Can I help you with something?”

[Bummer. Kevin did not treat me like an idiot woman who knows nothing about cars, and now I have to break in a new tech. I might not be an expert, but I am conversant in the basics.]

I said, “Hi, Josh. You and I are about to become good friends.” I explained what was going on and of course, he wants me to bring the car in so they can hook it up and run a thorough diagnostic panel. Fortunately, the husband does not think this is a critical fix as it involves the heater in the diesel exhaust fluid tank and we’re heading into warm weather. He’s going to check the car again this weekend to make sure it’s not throwing any other codes (the check engine light is still on). I will figure out when I can get the car over there—Robin and I still need to take a trip to Spokane—and let the dealer take a look at it.

Someone consigned a 1999 BMW 328 sedan to the auction last week. I looked up the Kelly Blue Book value just in case I decided to bid on it. It had a gas engine, not diesel, but it had fewer miles on it than my station wagon and I thought it might be a nice beater car to keep around. (I did clear this plan with the resident BMW mechanic, although he wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about the idea as I was.) The car went for more than I would have paid so it was a moot point.