Wore Out Another One

June 15, 2019Leave a comment

Pretty much, since starting this blog, the photos that you’ve seen came from this little beauty. This year we’ve been starting a downward spiral of our friendship. It began in May when I discovered the fungus forming under the lens. Somewhere around here I have a photo of that and, maybe in a minute, I’ll look for it and share it with you.

This past few days Elph has been really persnickety and has been sassy. He will take one photo and be fine but only if that photo is taken with the default distance when the camera is turned on. Zooming just makes him mad and he turns off and gives me some sort of cranky message about a Lens Error and must shut down followed by a please restart camera.

Been there before. This little guy was cheap enough so, off to eBay I go. Actually, I had already surfed eBay a couple weeks ago to see what was out there. Maybe Elph was too close to the laptop screen and saw that.

In a few days Elph’s replacement will be arriving. We’re going back to the red side, although the seller calls it pink. Canon’s pink is usually closer to red. I’ve had a red PowerShot before and still have another refurbished PowerShot SX400 IS that is not pocket-friendly. My previous red PowerShot met up with my hind end when I sat on it in my red Jeep TJ one afternoon.

So that the uncooperative cameras don’t end up sitting around here just looking cute but not pulling their photographic weight, I list them on eBay as is. They sell. Quickly, too, I might add.

Maybe one of you out there has my previous red PowerShot and it’s treating you well. I don’t have the patience or the knowledge to take these apart, fix their issues, put them back together successfully so that they can live on.

Now, a sewing machine on the other hand – if it’s an old one, though.

Note: The fungus photo is not to be found. It’s here somewhere but probably still on my phone.

A Sunny Day in June

June 11, 2019Leave a comment

Here’s proof of the claim that it’s a sunny day. Note the date in the lower right hand corner? Although, I have had cameras with their dates all messed up before which I noticed the other day. My other Canon was off by a year and I’m hoping I fixed that.

What else? The baby shower went well – sorta. There were games but not the traditional baby-shower games. We played Mario Cart then had a raffle using the coins that we won just by meeting certain requirements such as RSVPs, bringing diapers, gifts, playing the game and catching other party attendees saying one of four words “baby, babies, twin, twins.” I caught my mom saying ‘babies’ then she tricked me into saying it. She got her coin back.

Playing Mario Cart didn’t go as well for me as I would have thought it did. You see, back in the day I was pretty darn good with those video games. My first competitor was my sister Cyndi who I beat out. My second competitor was Chad’s friend Craig who was messing with me telling me he wasn’t good at games. I saw through that since he’s of a certain age that grew up playing these games – the same age as my kids. Yep, he won.

The best part was that Craig’s daughter Madison was one of the two finalists. Revenge time Craig. My daughter Laura was Madison’s competition. Madison had a smug look on her face like a teenager can surely knock out a 30-something. Not so fast there Madison. Laura is one awesome game player and she kicked butt. Go our team!

That’s a whole ‘nother topic. Laura. Somewhere along the way in our post-divorce from her father relationship she has developed some sort of hatred towards me so when we’re in the same room it’s like playing with two magnets. Did you ever do that? Put two magnets on a table and move them towards each other with the opposite ends so they run away instead of stick? That’s Laura. She has totally attached herself to her dad and his wife which is odd to me since he was always her least favorite parent growing up since he was always so hard on her when, at the same time, not hard at all on her younger sister.

Mother’s Day comes around each year with no acknowledgement from her. It’s only been the last two years that a happy birthday text comes through.

As all the photos from the other shower attendees are being shared and posted online I don’t show up anywhere but their dad and his wife are all over the place. It seems that invisibility is my best talent at these gatherings. The same happened at my niece’s wedding last August. The one who takes the most photos, Laura, is a former professional photographer and has an excellent skill at keeping me out of photos.

Yes, the whole situation makes me sad and makes me wonder what it was that I did or said. Karen said she knows but she doesn’t want to get into any drama. Any time I try to find out anything I’m told not to start drama. When there’s a gathering, even those not related to me tell me to not start any drama. I am not one to start drama. Why do they all think I would start drama? Where does that come from? Is it because I’m hurting inside all the time over the past ten years or so? They think it would be starting drama if I try to find out what it is?

You know how something just gnaws at your insides? I lose sleep over this. This is the first time that I have put any of this in print. Laura doesn’t follow me anywhere any longer and has unfollowed me on social media other than Facebook where she rarely goes anyway. She unfollowed me on Instagram while I was standing right next to her while we were at my niece’s (her cousin’s) wedding last August. Not like you’re not being obvious there, right? I was doing nothing with her posts since I am not an internet troll.

Got me totally confused.

Sadly, I’ve got friends who also have one child who treats them the same way.

June!

June 5, 2019Leave a comment

2019 Temperature Table Runner

I pulled this out on Sunday and managed to add four days worth of stripes. That brought me up to February 24th. Yes, it’s a little bit behind in progress but, we can’t finish these until after December 31st anyway. No worries. It will be done in a timely manner, promise.

Other actions going on around here are varied. I’m working on my vegetable garden and am thinking of expanding the size for next year. When I mentioned that to my husband he said “go for it”.

We finally found someone to work on our house so yesterday the porch on the east side was almost done with the ceiling painting. After the tongue & groove is done then the beams are next. All of us failed to put the work request/quote together properly to include the porch on the west side which is identical to the porch on the east side. No worries. It’s just more time and money and we’ll get it done. After the porches are done then it’s time to move to the trim boards up on the second floor dormer windows. All eight of them rotted where they come in contact with the roof. The house is 14 years old now so some things need to be done.

I’m knitting. The baby shower was Sunday so all those baby things have now moved to my daughter’s house. There are more in progress for colder weather wear that they will get after the boys are born and going forward as they grow. I’m updating all the photos of the finished sweaters on my Flickr and in Ravelry.

Right now I’m working on Same But Different by Anketstrick (Fallmasche) which is a variation of Walnus (spelling?) It’s a top-down project which requires more concentration if you ask me. If you miss something it makes a really big difference. I’m below the armholes now so there’s shaping and design elements going on at the same time. The yarn that I’m using is a recycled 100% alpaca that I purchased from a seller on eBay that buys sweaters and unravels them. This yarn is so soft and would have cost me a whole lot more than the $20 something that I paid for it.

I’ve also got a Shakerag top in progress for those times when I don’t want to concentrate so much. I’m using two cones of laceweight yarns that I’ve had for close to 30 years. One is silk and the other is linen – both in the same shade of sage green. They were purchased from Robin & Russ Handweavers for probably around $5 each. The yardage is non-stop.

We’ve got rain coming again and could be here any time now. They say by 7:44 it’s going to be in the town that southwest of here. Since I didn’t go buy the stain for the porch beams I’m hoping for a day of reprieve between the paint and stain.

Have a great Wednesday!