Fifteen Minutes and Then Some

The owner of our local quilt store does a Facebook Live every Wednesday where she talks about new products and upcoming classes. I was out running around yesterday morning—more on that in a moment—so I didn’t see the video until later, but she mentioned my upcoming classes (Nathalie and Laundry Day Tee) and also gave a shoutout to the podcast.

And yesterday afternoon, I hopped on to Nicole Sauce’s Living Free in Tennessee livestream. Her scheduled guest cancelled 15 minutes before airtime, so she put out a call for participation from the community. I make an appearance about 18 minutes into the video. The livestream ended up being a discussion between me, Nicole, and Kerry Brown, who was my interview guest on my podcast just before Christmas. His grandmother taught him how to sew. Nicole showed off a hat made from the yarn I spun during Self-Reliance Festival in October. Her mother—Mama Sauce—knit the yarn into a hat and they are going to use it as a raffle prize or fundraiser at the spring SRF in a few weeks. So cool!

The husband just shakes his head at my gadding about.

I spent most of yesterday morning test-driving cars. Ugh. The husband knows one of the salesmen at the Dodge dealer in Whitefish. He happened to be talking to him the other day when this salesman mentioned that they had gotten in a 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The husband thought I should try it out, so I drove up yesterday morning to take a look. Someone got there before me and scooped it up (the price was really good), but I drove a 2024 model because I had gone all that way to look at one.

If I were only going to be driving around here, I’d consider the Grand Cherokee. It is nice and solid, but it drives like a truck. I know I would have trouble maneuvering it around Seattle. I wanted to compare it to the VW Atlas, which I tested at Thanksgiving, to see if I still liked the Atlas as much as I remembered. I stopped at the VW dealer and went out for a drive in the 2024 model. The Atlas is still at the top of my list. It has the same size wheelbase as the Grand Cherokee, but it drives like a car. The one thing I didn’t like was that everything in the Atlas—and I mean everything—is controlled from the touchscreen. The Grand Cherokee had regular knobs as well as touchscreen controls. I just wonder what happens if the whole touchscreen system breaks down? My Jetta’s sound system went out completely about a year before VW bought back the car, so the husband questions the quality of their electronics.

It’s all so stupid. The husband keeps telling me I don’t have to buy a new vehicle, but I said that even he, miracle worker that he is, cannot keep The Diva running forever.

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After the livestream, I finished quilting the baby quilt. I’ll bind it this morning and hopefully have it on its way by early next week. I need to make some lists and prioritize my projects. The last couple of weeks of March are going to be very busy and I also need to get the greenhouse ready for starting plants. This is the “all hell breaks loose” time of year for both the husband and me. I picked up a copy of the chick schedule at the farm store a few days ago. I’m hoping to get chicks the week of April 8, probably Buff Orpingtons or Rhode Island Reds.

I was sorry to miss the comforter tying party at our church, which happened the day I was driving to Seattle. A group of about 16 people tied six comforters, which were blessed during the service last Sunday. (Thank you, Valeri, for the photos):

These will be donated to Mennonite Central Committee.

I’m going to sewing today at the community center up the road. I haven’t been since the first of the year and they are going to forget who I am.