What in the world did we do before the internet?

Today I discovered that my tricycle had a loose chain.  Oh, Dear!  How much will this cost to get fixed?  Then I remembered that I have a nearly unlimited source of useful info at my fingertips.  Googled Bicycle Repair, and like magic -- great instructions, with videos.  All I needed was a pair of pliers, which I had, and the willingness to try, which I also had.  Success was had in about 10 minutes.  I rode the tricycle in this beautiful Memorial Day weather after all.

 

Now, I need to get up the gumption to try it on the road.  It's about 1 mile to the town center, but the road is a busy one.  I'm leery of riding on it. So what if I got tall orange flags and wore a brightly colored shirt?  Uh........

Yarny

Well, as you can see, I haven't become an avid bloger, yet. However, I'm thinking maybe I'll give it another try.   It's getting on towards the end of May, which means my birthday is almost here.  I'll be 61 this year, which seems an impossibility, since I'm the same person I've always been ... not an "old" person.  My siblings have all gotten older, which is somewhat scary, because I haven't.  And I don't even have a Ring of Power ... I don't think I do, anyway.  Maybe I should check!

I've gotten a spinning wheel!  It's a double treadle Lendrum,  bought used from a woman in Hibbing, Minnesota, of all places.  She had it for about 10 months, but has become a Majacraft dealer, and didn't want  a Lendrum "hanging around the house".  So, I now have it, along with a fast flier, and a plying head, and 8 regular bobbins, and one plying bobbin, all for the price of the basic wheel alone.  Pretty good deal!

Of course this means that spinning has become my primary activity ... as least for now.  I love it.  I've spun a bunch of stuff that wasn't very good on a drop spindle, but I have knitted a beautiful golden scarf from some merino, and am in process of knitting a pair of grey tweedy socks from a merino-silk blend.  Both of those yarns were spun with my trusty Kundert spindle.  

It's such a pleasure for me to see yarn I've spun turn into a useful, and beautiful article.  My mind has already jumped to thinking I'll sell all my stashed yarns (or most of them, anyway)  and knit only (or mostly) with yarn I've spun.  Some people I know spin beautiful yarns, and then put them out someplace to be admired.  This is one way of enjoying your creativity, but I want to take it to the next step of creating something useful with it.  That way, I get to have the spinning, without excluding the knitting.  

Went to the Massachusetts Sheep and Wool Fair yesterday in Cummington, MA, and picked up some roving ... surprise.  Got some Autumn-colors merino-mohair, some grey merino-alpaca blend, and some purple(s) blend.  The Autumn-colors ply beautifully with the brown merino-mohair I got in VA from Kid Hollow a few weeks ago.  And the Purple(s) will ply with the grey.  The things I can do with color and spinning are endless.  Am just loving it!  

The Beginning

   This is a picture of my first dog, Jack.  His full name was Jumpin' Jack Flash, but Jack is what I called him.  Ever since I was a child reading the Little House on the Prairie books, I wanted to have a dog named Jack, like theirs.  He was a Bichon Frise, although he didn't look much like one. He was a lot larger than they're supposed to be, which made grooming somewhat of a challenge since grooming is what Bichons are all about.  He hated being combed, and therefore wasn't combed a lot.  Here you see him in his summer "do".  

   Jack was a very head-strong dog.  His primary interests were food, getting free to run around the neighborhood looking for food, figuring out how to get me to give him food, waiting for table scraps while sighing loudly to remind me that he wanted food, and ........ food.  I imagine you're getting the picture.  

   Jack liked other dogs well enough, but he preferred his own company when given the choice.  He hung out on the perimeter of groups, as far away as he could get.  Actually, Jack did like attention, but only on his terms.  First thing in the morning. if I would sit on the floor, he would come and ask for attention, but any time after that, he would tolerate attention, but just barely.  He would escape as soon as he could from those who would pet him.  I always felt extremely honored when he would come and sit with me ... but usually it was because I was eating something that he thought he might get some of.  He would put his chin on my leg at these times and look up at me pitifully.  He was a champion "pitiful dog".  

   Bichons generally live to be quite old ... 18 isn't unusual.  However, Jack got sick when he was 12, and when the tumor growing on the left side of his chest began to really bother him, I didn't have the heart to make him go through any kind of treatment.  He didn't like to be "messed with" and vet visits, injections, pills, etc., would have made him more miserable.  So, one evening last Autumn I took him to Valley Animal Hospital where they euthanized him.   On the way there, I apologized to him for not being a better owner, and told him I would miss him so much ... and I do.  Although I was able to be with him as the drugs did their work,  the thing that stands out as the most difficult was when I handed him over to the Vet Tech who took him into the back of the hospital to insert the IV.  But, he got to eat as many cookies as he wanted while we waited for the Tech to come ... and he managed to eat quite a few!  I think he was feeing pretty happy then.

   For a few weeks after that, I caught sight of Jack out of the corner of my eye several times.  I know that it was only my brain, out of habit,  thinking that what I was seeing was him, but it was nice none-the-less.  Jack and I were kindred spirits.  I don't know if he knew it, but I did.  I am like him in several ways, including some of those those listed above.