The List - Part Two

Technology is conspiring against me as I attempt to do more of my List with a capital L.
I tried shortening my Frenchy's jeans, and the iron stopped working. This is not a new development, about 15 months ago the iron stopped working but I liked it so much I decided to have it fixed rather than buy one new. After waiting weeks for a diagnosis from the repair shop in the city that is only open M-F, 9 -5 therefore making it very difficult to get to, I was told by the useless repair guy that it worked perfectly and to come pick it up. To be fair, it does work perfectly for the first 7 minutes, and then it shuts off and will not turn back on until it sits there for at least a few hours. As long as you can iron something in 7 minutes there is no problem, and usually I can manage to speed iron anything I need, but not today. Happily, the iron I bought to go to University 24 years ago still works, so I did get the legs of my jeans hemmed. One more item checked off.
I tried making a new work belt to replace the one stolen last year. After cleaning the sewing machine, and locating the proper thread and needle, and changing the tension to work with the heavy duty nylon I began reverse engineering from memory the Caribiner holder only to find that it was a little more complicated than I expected. The sweetie informed me that there is a portfolio of patterns somewhere for all of those things he used to make, but after searching every box in the basement for an hour I gave up. I did find the 1960's warming tray that I could have used for his birthday party last month.
Having lost interest in the work belt, I tried using a CD to write my own Legal Will (because really, this has been on the list for several years now) only to find that the desk top computer will not read a CD any more. The desktop is 8, which in computer years is like 80, and the Sweetie has been wanting a new one for about a year or maybe two. It is slow. It does have memory issues (like most Octogenarians) and let's face it, the CD drive could have been broken for months, or even years because when was the last time I wanted to use a CD anyway? Perhaps the occasional dusting could have helped. I am still holding out on buying a new one because I know there is a property tax bill coming soon to my mailbox, and I spent my income tax refund on new tires for the truck. The simplest thing to do is buy a downloadable version of this and bypass the CD thing completely. But I am too cheap to buy a second version of a thing I already bought but can't use and so I am in limbo. Perhaps the dear Sweetie will let me use his laptop. If I die before I write my will, I will spare a thought for all of you left behind suffering under probate while I'm sipping my mead in Valhalla.
A few pictures of new pots. I'm in a texture stage these days. Last week I was rejected from a juried craft fair in the city. The rejection was a form letter, which stated several criteria which I may have failed to meet. I prefer to think that I was rejected because I was not a local resident rather than my pots are not good enough. The rejection was a relief as I was worried I wouldn't have enough wares stocked up, but that had the detrimental effect of slowing my production even further and now I find I'm back to the experimental stage instead of doing more of the same to get a good selection of similar things. I am a pottery flibbertigibbet.
Also last week I was accepted to a three day Christmas show at the end of October. Unfortunately the end of October is too far away to panic me into action. I fear I might need to start setting weekly goals for production or it is all going to go badly.
Here is a gratuitous cute dog photo.

Sunny and Freezing, I tackle the LIST

Almost the end of March. The spring equinox came and went without much fanfare. It has been colder this week and the mucky drive is drier and more solid, mostly because it is frozen again. Fooled by the sunshine I set out to prune the overgrown honeysuckles (Lonicera tartarica) and some other shrubs yesterday morning. The thermometer said Zero but I figured it would warm up with the sunshine. At noon I admitted defeat, half frozen from the north wind that made the day feel more like -14 'C. The rest of the garden work will have to wait for a milder day.
This is day two of fierce wind, and we are burning our way through the wood we bought last fall for next winter. This winter we easily burned 3 1/2 cords, almost double what we burned last year. This winter though it was cold in early October and it is still cold now. Where as last winter it was still warm in November and spring in February. Having said that, we burned 100 L less of oil in the furnace. A result of both of us being home much of the time and the wood stove being lit more than last year.
Last night we remembered to turn off the lights for Earth Hour. It was really dark and all we could to was sit by the fire and talk about the Federal Election. The sweetie is a political junky and is very excited about the election. I am already bored with the idea, especially knowing that for the next 36 days, I will have to endure him yelling sarcastic comments at the TV whenever Stephen Harper appears. We cancelled cable two weeks ago, and he is really missing the all news channels. We still have internet though, so he can watch much of what is going on that way. I have a friend who, when she gets exasperated at her DH for one of his many quirks, his response is to say "How can you complain? I could be an alcoholic, gambling wife beater?" With this in mind I try to remind myself that my situation could be worse, the Sweetie could watch sports.
The thought of being called back to work soon has spurred me to do some of those things on my List with a capital L, only to be thwarted by technology at every turn. You know the List, those things that take a back seat when you are busy, and when you have time you are so used to them that you forget they need attention.
Like the pepper grinder that probably hasn't worked well for two or three years now. Last week in an effort to get something out of it I tightened the top knob too much and cracked the top completely into two pieces. It went on the grocery list for two weeks before I remembered to pick one up.
Snazzy yes? It is a ceramic grinder and so far we are still over peppering as one small twist equals about 15 twists from the old grinder. Small victories.
The alarm clock was another victory. Shortly after we bought it 10 years ago I dropped it and the face plate came off and the radio didn't tune quite right so that when the radio alarm went off you could hear the beeping alarm in the back ground. Annoying yes, but only until you get up and then you promptly forgot about it (for a decade) Last week I dropped it again (it was a clumsy week last week) and the digital numbers stopped displaying properly. At one point the dear sweetie asked what time it was and I replied, "L 1 L." In my defence of this decade long apathy I will say that I tried to replace it last Christmas time, but when I got to the store I was overwhelmed at the choices and left after 15 minutes without purchasing anything. Did I want one alarm or two? Did I want it to project the time? Automatically update? Have a choice of noises? Have an ipod charger? What colour? This time I took the DS with me and he helped me through it, crisis averted.
And the thermometer. We have one outside the kitchen window to tell us what to wear in the morning. Except it is on the east side of the house and while it is very accurate after 10am, in the early morning while the sun is rising and while we are getting dressed, it lies. It increases the real temperature by several degrees. Note the jaunty angle from having fallen off the bracket every time there is an east wind. How can you trust such a thing? There have been many days I set out with only a t shirt when I should have been wearing a sweater and hat. So I purchased a new one, with the proper numbers larger than the others, and the DS put it outside the living room window on the north side for more accurate morning temperatures. The picture tells the the flaw in this plan. Take only 1 minute after the last picture, the temperature is 5 degrees higher on the north side of the house at supper time when the sun is setting and hits this spot! It amazes me that the sun comes that far around the house only a few days after the vernal equinox.
While not exactly on the List, last week I picked a dear friend up at the airport and as a thank you (or perhaps as a late birthday pressie) she gave me this beautifully quilted tea cosy. What a hoot!
And finally, gratuitous cute cat photo.

We Have Water - Finally

On Monday, we hooked the water from the municipal curb stop into our house plumbing and disconnected the well. It took a mere two hours, and at the end, two men from the county inspected the job and turned on the valve at the end of the driveway.It was all so painless, one wonders why we take so long to do these things.
We immediately noticed chlorine when we ran the tap in the kitchen. The dog and cat both looked askance at their water bowls before trying the new supply. I did two loads of laundry and maybe it is just my imagination but I think it smells cleaner. We did have high iron content in the well and the fabric felt softer straight out of the washer. Washing dishes (not that I do that often) also feels better on the hands and the dishwasher dishes seem cleaner too. It makes sense because laundry and dish detergent is formulated for a standard type of chlorinated water, so if they are working better I can understand why.
We noticed that tea tasted different, for me it was flat and burnt tasting. We always meant to keep the well for the greenhouse and garden, so we plumbed a bar tap in the kitchen sink from the well, and we use that for tea.Now that spring is here, the driveway we dug up for the water line is mucky and deeply rutted. We have spent some days adding field stone and levelling off the drive, but it will be a long process to repair the damage.Our only remaining question is what will this cost? We have a meter on the water now, so we will have a good idea of our consumption and will have to pay accordingly. Every three months a truck will come by and electronically read the meter which has a little wire that transmits signals to a little device they carry for that purpose.
So far, so good.