Cheerful: The 2001 Focus is repaired. Crappy: It cost $969 bucks.
Cheerful: I had two aprons cut out and pinned. All systems were go — I actually had thread that matched and a new supply of Velcro. Plus: I’d received a package from fabrics.com this morning that included witty new “guy’ yardage for my reversible yin/yang aprons. I admired my good taste in the material I’d picked for elegant reversible “Holiday” aprons. I was so high on sewing I considered asking my son-in-law to make me an e-commerce site.
Because a blog needs pix I’ll plug in Lou modelling my aprons. If you’ve seen them before, sorry!
So there I was, a regular Dorcas chomping at the bit. And God said “Hah!:
The three-year-old Kenmore that worked a week ago was a no-go. Kaput. Useless in the most basic way: the needle doesn’t go up and down, not even with the handwheel. I used all the sewing machine troubleshooting skills I’ve learned the hard way over thirty years. I spent an hour on on-line research and found that, yes, I’d already troubleshot all the suspect symptoms of the damned needle not going up and down.
Forgive me, friends, for abandoning the C&C mission statement today and raving on about the maddening idiosyncrasies of inanimate objects. And how stuff isn’t cheap. And how I’m not cheerful. And how a decent replacement for my f****ing Kenmore is gonna cost about $179 bucks, and how a sewing machine repairman costs $40 bucks an hour.About Woman proposing and She disposing.
And how little this matters in a real world of want and terror and trouble.
I think I’m going to buy a new sewing machine tomorrow. If I weren’t so pissed I’d be cheerful.
Cheap and Cheerful 
AWWWWW, Hon!!! Stuff and things oughta work like they were meant to, and behave themselves!!
I’m so sorry about your Kenmore!! I have nothing but commisseration—no sewing know-how, no talents in that direction, no mechanical skills whatsoever (except maybe getting the Cuisinart back together after washing).
I hope you get a super-wonderful, lifetime Guaran-damn-teed machine that will run like the Wonderful One Horse Shay—and may you live to see it fall apart in a hundred years.
Grumping in empathy,
r
PS—I KNEW you were a Firefly/Serenity Fan!!
You spelled FRELLING!!
PS—Have you SEEN our Kudos from Kim on What Fresh Hell? Wow.
I have, and I’m humbled. Check out my comment: I AM DEAD SERIOUS.
That’s MY apron!!! Oh, sorry, I got distracted. I’m sorry about your machine, Miss Maggie. It’s a bitch, but will be cool to have a new toy.
Somehow we anticipate that our trustworthy machine will last forever, so when it doesn’t… in a few days you will be so excited about the gift you hadn’t expected to receive…and a small investment in your future endeavors (?) and future fun. (Still a bummer, but enjoy picking out one, and enjoy getting to know it.)
I do apologize—I have mixed my space-cusses, due to the similarities amongst Stargate, Farscape and Firefly. FRELL is a term used amongst the Farscape population; so sorry. There DO seem to be bunches of euphemisms rattling about space, don’t there?
See also FRAK, a la Galactica.
Carry on.
Rachel, love, I don’t understand a word. I know nothing about euphemisms rattling about space — it’s not my scene. But thanks for splaining!